My Austin Peeps

After a 4 hour flight (but full day's journey) to Dallas, what else would one want to take on with a baby but a 3 hour drive to Austin?!? What a trooper our little guy is. He really traveled well on the trip (except for not sleeping great while we were there) and enjoyed all the activities we threw at him.

First stop in Austin was at my dear friend Amy's work. She happily took her lunch break with us and we made it easy and just ate at the cafeteria at her office. We arrived around 1 so we missed the lunch rush and had the place to ourselves. After the long trip in the car, Dylan had a great time getting some energy out by crawling all around while we visited and had a bite to early.

Amy, Dylan (Live Long and Prosper) and I

Next stop on the Austin tour was a play date in the park with Shaunna and her son Luke. Luke's just a few weeks younger then Dylan so Shaunna and I have been in touch more than ever commiserating about pregnancy symptoms, experiencing the ups and downs of having an infant and even discussing the many aspects of transitioning back into work after maternity leave. I felt honored that she took the afternoon off to meet up with us.

Luke was just waking from a nap and Dylan, loving all the other kids he's around (sometimes too much), might have been a little too aggressive for Luke's taste, but they did seem to enjoy each other most of the time. The highlight of the play date for the both of them was the swing!

Playdate! Dylan and Luke

Next stop on the tour was the Malones. I was the after school nanny for Mary and Pete's kids for several of my college years. Though I don't talk to them nearly enough, I do keep in touch with the family and always make a point to see them when I'm in Austin. Mary's a nurse midwife and was very interested not only in meeting Dylan, but in hearing about his birth story. While I filled her in on all the nitty gritty details (hey, she wanted them) I'll spare you that story!

Not only was she kind enough to invite us to stay with them for the night, she opened up her home to all of my friends so that we could have a central spot to visit. I was thrilled to be able see so many great friends. Though catching up with everyone was far too brief, I'm so glad I got to see all the friends I did that night. People came and went as their schedules dictated and it worked out perfectly.

One of my friends, Lisa, dabbles in photography and grabbed our camera for some candids. This is my favorite from the night:

As the night went on, Dylan had to go to sleep so we took Mary and Pete up on their offer to babysit and the gals still left at the party (and Mike) moved on to a bowling alley\karaoke\live music\restaurant\bar down the street. We hung out there for a while but after a long day, Mike and I called it a night pretty early.

Mike, Amy, Lisa, Lindsay, Colleen and Me - Group Self Portrait

To wrap up our less than 24 hour stay in the capital of Texas, we met up with Amy and Shaunna at Mike's favorite Texas spot, Taco Cabana, and enjoyed a Tex-Mex breakfast. Then, it was back to Dallas. A quick trip but well worth the travel!

Tub, Bluebonnet, Hoky

What do all of these items have in common? They make really cute baby accessories!

One of the fun things we did while in Dallas was have a little photo shoot to get Dylan's picture in the old tin tub. My parents have pictures of all the older grandkids in it so it's become a family tradition. It was Dylan's turn. In just a few minutes, we got a lot of ridiculously cute pictures. Here are a few

The Winner! This will be the one to hang beside the others.

His Hogan's Heros Look

Sans Hat. Pure Dylan Cuteness.

For some reason, Dylan was obsessed with my Mom's Hoky (a carpet sweeper). He had a great time watching her sweep up with it and a great time playing with it when it wasn't in use.

Hoky Boy

Last Thursday morning, we borrowed my Dad's car and left Dallas for a quick overnight trip to Austin to visit some friends. I picked bluebonnet season, purposefully, as the time to go to Texas. Bluebonnets are the state flower of Texas and grow wild all over the state. I love them! It's an Easter tradition for Texas families to plop their kids down in a patch of it and get some great shots. So, on our way down to Austin, we got to enjoy the sight of bluebonnets growing on the side of the highway and, at one point, even stopped to get some pictures of Dylan in them. He was super grateful for the break from the car and loved playing with the flowers. I couldn't pick just one shot to share, so here are some of my favorites....

Again, Dylan did great on the trip and we arrived in Austin for a short period of time but we packed a lot in. Enough that it will have to make it's own post.

Dallas World Aquarium

The Monday after Easter, we headed to the airport and flew to Dallas. The first flight we took there last November was extremely stressful to me. Packing and figuring out what\how to take\check all the baby stuff was pretty overwhelming. This time, it was nice to have that experience under our belts and I was pretty relaxed about that aspect. Though, I did worry just a little bit about having an active crawler in my arms for 4 hours.

Having been a parent for just 9 months, I've learned the "go with the flow" lesson and tried not to think about the flight too much until in the moment. While Dylan was extremely wiggly (gave my arms a good workout) and cried for a few minutes before being able to fall asleep, he did really well and we got through the trip with no major meltdowns. After traveling for that long, he was ready to play when we got to Mimaw and Pipaw's house!

I've also learned that baby proofing, for the most part, is not something you can do too much in advance. You do it as you see what your little monster is going to go straight for. At Mimaw's and Pipaw's, that was the cat food and the plants....oh, and of course, the cat! After figuring out how to move\block off most of that, we just had to keep an eye on him and Cleopatra, the 19 year old cat. She's clawed some other grandbabies in the past. We kept a vigilant eye and our time there passed without incident between the two of them.

We passed Monday and Tuesday just playing, going for walks, and enjoying our time with my parents. It goes without saying that Mimaw and Pipaw absolutely love having Dylan around.

Wednesday, we decided to have an outing to the Dallas World Aquarium. Though you generally expect to only see fish at an aquarium, this one has morphed into a kind of zoo. In addition to all the aquatic life, the have lots of birds, monkeys and other critters to see.

Towards the beginning of our journey through the exhibits, we saw these river otters. They were very active, jumping in and out of the water and swimming around. Lots of fun to watch!

River Otters

Shortly after that, I was looking down into the water at a manatee when my mom started trying to say something while laughing hysterically. At first, all I made out was "poop" and "head." I looked closer at the manatee to see the poop on his head when my Mom said, "Dylan! Dylan has poop on his head!" I looked down (he was in his carrier) and sure enough, there was a glob of purple bird poop on his head!

As you can see, he didn't seem to mind. All I could think was "better him than me." If it had happened a split second later, it easily could have been me! Does that make me a bad mother??

After that incident, we just had a great time looking at all the critters. As always, family favorites of ours are big cats. The aquarium had this beautiful jaguar that we admired for a while.

Jaguar

One of the major highlights\attractions of the Dallas World Aquarium is the shark tunnel. You literally walk into the middle of the exhibit and have sharks swimming beside and above you. We had fun sitting in the tunnel and looking around.

Dylan and I at the Glass

Shark Above Us

I have no idea what we were all looking at, but the expressions on all of our faces are hilarious!

Nice Smiles

Even though Dylan was pretty tired and hungry towards the end of the museum, he was so into looking at everything that he stayed calm. We all had a really fun time.

Easter Excitement

As we traditionally have done for the last few years, we headed to Mike's aunt and uncle's house just outside of Gloucester, Ma for Easter. Mike's parents made the drive up with us and we met up with all of the Lee cousins there.

It was a relaxing day with good weather, good food and good company. Dylan got to try something for the first time - crawling in the grass! He loved it and had a great time exploring their front yard. We snapped some shots on the day and I just wanted to share a few.

Dressed to the Nines!

Dylan loves "walking"!

Fun Times Crawling in the Grass

My Happy (And CUTE!) Boys!

9 Months

3/4 of a year...that's how old my baby is today! We had to cheat and take this picture a couple of days early, in his Easter outfit, since we're now in Texas visiting my family. What's good is that Dylan now knows that his crib is where he goes to sleep. The bad part of that is that he got upset when we put him in the crib for the picture since he was not ready for a nap! So, this is the best shot we could get before he started crying.

Dylan at 9 Months

We've had a really eventful month of developments with our cute little guy. He's keeping us (and the kitties) on our toes with his crawling. He's fast and seems to have an unending supply of energy. Every day he continues to explore something new inside and outside the house. On Easter Day, we even let him loose on the ground outside for the first time. He really enjoyed pulling the grass and getting his hands and knees dirty.

At One With Nature

Less than two weeks after he started to crawl, he pulled up to standing. He's perfected that and has even "cruised" (moved a couple of steps while holding onto furniture) just a little bit. That's opened up another level of exploration in the house to him (and is leaving less places for the cats to sleep peacefully).

He is a really great eater and has happily taken just about everything we've given to him. During this last month, we have given him a lot more actual solid foods that he can feed himself (as opposed to the baby food mush). Among his favorites are scrambled eggs, grapes and broccoli. On March 26th, the tooth we've been waiting for finally broke through the gums. 3 more will be coming soon....at least that's the way it looks. So, he'll have help shortly in eating all of these new foods.

His other big new tricks are clapping and waving. He's mostly been doing them randomly (and often) but it seems that he's finally starting to understand that when his hand waves, people tend to wave back.

We will definitely have to start finding more social outlets for him. Lately, every time he sees another kid, he giggles. I guess he's started to tire of only seeing our old faces everyday and finds a lot of amusement in people more his size. It's really cute.

That little personality is getting more and more pronounced daily. It's fun to watch!

March Showers

Rivers are still at their highest levels in years, folks are still trying to dry out their basements so what do we need? More rain of course! While March continues to be a seriously rainy month, all the way to the end, I got to host a different kind of shower over the weekend...an informal, day with the girls, baby shower for my friend Tamara. Her "formal" baby shower is next weekend but we took advantage of our good friend Ana Maria being in town to gather the ladies and have a fun time together.

After Mike, Dylan and I took a long morning walk to take advantage of the break in the rain, Ana Maria and Tamara came over to use our shower (Tamara's bathroom is still under renovation...running weeks late of schedule) then Ana Maria and I headed to the grocery store to get some grub. Later, 4 more ladies and 1 little girl showed up.

We didn't do anything too noteworthy. Mostly, we sat around the kitchen and talked. The group consisted of gals that all used to hand out on the stoop on Commonwealth Ave in Brighton and talk. It was reminiscent of those days, well, except for the fact that were all in very different places in our lives mentally and physically. Instead of being single city dwellers in Boston, newly establishing ourselves in the professional world, we're career women, mothers, wives, etc. As life continues for all of us, taking us further away from the "stoop days," it's really great when we can join together for special occasions and catch up with one another.

Jessica,Tamara,Sue,Me & Dylan,Karen, Madeline, Sarah and Ana Maria

So, with all the rain that we've been having and the time change, it is truly officially spring. With the extra light in the evenings and the warmer weather, I've been happy to get to commute via two wheels again. I dusted off my bike that hasn't been used since the Fall of 2008 and have been riding to work, when there's been an occasional break in the rain. Granted, that's only been a couple of days over the last several weeks, but I'm looking forward to doing that much more. I've really missed it.

The tricky part is that my usual bike route, off the roads, runs on a path that goes through wooded lowlands. As that was just a couple of days after our first bout of flooding, it was a bit of an adventure. I spun through a lot of mud and carried my bike while wading shin deep on normally raised rocks for more of the trip then I would have liked. Needless to say, I took to the streets for my other trips. Riding on the streets is not nearly as relaxing as an event, so I hope that the heavy rains stop soon and the water gets a chance to recede so that I can get back on my bike. Yay for spring!

Back to the Mountains

Last weekend we FINALLY got back to NH! Winter was packed with traveling for the holidays, returning to work (for me), back surgery for Mike and then recovery. Now that Mike's able to be a bit more active, it was time for us to get "away" for the weekend to our vacation home and take a nice mountain hike as a family.

Long before I was even entertaining the thought of getting pregnant, Mike found a hiking baby backpack at Marshall's. He has a bit of a discount store addiction and loves finding a bargain. Even though it seriously freaked me out (and made me embarrassed to admit it), I let him buy the backpack for us to have when baby did come along. So, last weekend, we gave it it's first big use.

Friday night, after I got off work, we drove up to our place in NH. Over breakfast Saturday morning, I picked out two good potential hikes for us, one about an hours drive away and the other only about 20 minutes away....both in the same direction. Since having a baby makes you plan your whole life "by ear," we would decide which one to take en route. On the road, it became apparent that Dylan was not going to fall asleep in the car (even though it was around the time he usually goes for his morning nap) and was not going to be happy in the car awake for a long period of time, so we decided on the closer destination, Mt. Pemigewasset in Franconia Notch.

The weather was absolutely perfect hiking weather, low 60s and partially sunny. We worked hard hiking up the mountain, especially me. Dylan's growing bigger by the day and it was no easy feat carrying him up that mountain. But, the backpack worked awesome so it was at least comfortable to carry him. At the base, there were a few patches of snow left in shaded areas off the path, but as we raised in altitude, there was a good base of slushy snow still working on melting away. It made for a slow ascent to the top.

About 20 minutes from the top, Dylan finally drifted off to sleep in the backpack. Once we hit the open ledge at the peak, the wind was whipping so hard that it startled him awake. So much for a good nap! We found a spot at the top blocked from the wind and sat down to eat lunch. Dylan was a little dazed from the rude awakening, but, as always, was a good sport. He had some lunch and was kept very entertained by a travel tissue pack and our hiking poles.

Lunch Time Entertainment

After lunch, a few pictures were taken at the top, we started our trek back down the mountain.

Mike and Dylan - Open Ledge, Peaks in the Background and Snow Remnants

Me, Dylan, The Tissue Pack and the View

Another Hiker Took a Family Shot (with tissue pack)

But We Still Had to Have the Self Portrait (tissue pack is in other hand)

Obviously, I'm more careful then careful when I've got my baby with me. I was worried about the snow on the trail on the way down, but it was somehow easier on the descent then the ascent. However, I apparently didn't clear one tree branch. Even though there wasn't a mark on Dylan, that branch irritated the over tired baby into a mini meltdown. Sometime during this meltdown is when he finally let go of the tissue pack (and we accidentally littered on the mountain....oops!). We tried comforting him while in the pack...that didn't work. Then we kept moving (he normally calms down when we're on the go)...that didn't work. So, it was out of the pack and into Daddy's arms. We kept moving and finally he calmed down enough to sit down and nurse. Then, he fell into a nice deep sleep. Sometimes, we have the prepared parent thing down pretty well. Saturday was one of those days. We had a back up carrying plan in hand in case he tired of the backpack. It was better suited for him napping, so we put him in that and continued on our way.

Mike and Napping Dylan

Stream with Patches of Snow

After about a half hour nap, Dylan woke to enjoy the last part of our trip and was a happy camper again. Sleep does a kid wonders!

He Loved Watching the Water (In This Picture, From a Bridge)

This trip to NH came with some great animal sightings. When driving up the road to our condo complex Friday night, we saw a small grey fox run across the road. And, after turning into our drive, we got a good view (stopped and put our headlights on him) of another grey fox. On the way up the mountain on Saturday, we saw some Moose scat and hoof prints. Then, right at the very end of our hike, we got to watch a red squirrel stripping a pine cone to get at the seeds. I'd never seen one of these little guys before. He was very cute!

Red Squirrel

After our 4 hour hike, we headed back to the condo for some dinner, rest and a little cleaning. Dylan was eager to help with the cleaning...he was seriously obsessed with the vacuum. It entertained him for a while.

Sunday, we headed back mid morning and stopped for some shopping at the outlet malls. We made it home early enough to have a relaxing evening at home. Great weekend with the family!