Our Little Toddler

Last Monday, since I'd taken the day off and we were no longer in NH, we just had to find something fun to do to fill the day. Mike's great about taking Dylan to the museums in town (we've bought annual passes to some of them) and they really enjoy doing that. Of course, I'm working and often miss out on the fun. So, we thought we'd try out a museum while I could be there to see Dylan experience it. Off to the Boston Children's Museum we went!

We had an awesome time! Dylan loved watching the other kids, of course, but he also had a great time exploring parts of the museum. We went to the bubble room, Peep's World and the Play Space. We spent a couple of hours there and barely scratched the surface of all that the museum has to offer.

Dylan doesn't watch much tv. Not that we prohibit it really, he just has little to no interest in it. However, there are the occasions that he has a hard time waking up from a nap (he gets that from me) and he will sit and enjoy a show for a few minutes. For these times, we tivo Peep and the Big Wide World. Even though he has never (I think) sat through an entire 10 minute story, he definitely knows the characters. So, it was cute to see him excited about seeing the familiar pictures of them about the room.

Sitting in Chirp's Tree

It's Chirp!

We spent the most time there in the Playspace, which was created specifically for kids 0-3 years. Dylan was so cute to watch because he was just so excited about everything - the fun toys, the cool things to crawl\walk on and all the other kids around. One of the things he spent the most time on is the car below. He went back to it several times so he could push the buttons and listen to the songs.

After a couple of hours, he was obviously exhausted but still determined to push on at any cost to play. So, we took him out of the stimulating environment and returned to the car so that he could catch a nap. That evening, we all just spent a relaxing night at home playing and hanging out. Pretty much a perfect end to a long weekend.

On Tuesday, Dylan ramped up his walking practice into high gear. He's doing so well and, has for the most part, abandoned crawling....which officially makes him a toddler! Last week his arms were straight up in the air when he was walking about but they are slowly lowering as he gets more confident in it. On Sunday, he started practicing walking while carrying things which is keeping him very busy. Walking with the watering can, his drum stick, Mommy's shoes...everything needs to be carried around! I have a feeling things in our house are going to get increasingly difficult to find.

So, last Friday after Mike and Dylan went to the aquarium (see they're always going to museums together), they went out to the park that sits above the highway downtown (aka the big dig) to get some walking practice on the grass. Mike snapped some really cute pictures of him walking about that I wanted to share.

Isn't my little toddler just the cutest little walker?!?!?

Arethusa Falls With Guests

Mike's sister, Kristina, and her family came up to NH late Saturday afternoon (just over a week ago now) to have a long weekend with us there.

Once they arrived, we spent some time in the pool, had a great dinner and then, after Dylan went to bed, we started watching Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. The next morning, we started off at the Sugar Shack for a big breakfast. We were going to need it.

Since Kristina's boys, Corwin and Jacob, are now old enough to enjoy some real hiking, I picked out a family friendly hike I thought we would all enjoy. So, we piled everyone up in our car (that optional 3rd row seat came in very handy), and made the hour drive to Crawford Notch State Park to hike our way into see Arethusa Falls, the tallest waterfall in NH!

Our group consisted of 4 adults, 3 kids and a dog. It took us all about an hour and a half to make the hike to the falls. Everyone was in great spirits and had fun hiking together. And, man, was that hike worth it! The falls were absolutely beautiful!

Can You See Us At the Bottom?

Kara (Dylan on back), Corwin, Jacob and Kristina

Admiring the Waterfall

After the long hike in, we were ready to refuel. So, we had a lovely picnic lunch in view of the falls. Dylan got out of the backpack had a great time playing in the dirt and with a log nearby. Corwin and Jacob dipped their feet in the water to cool off.

Wow! Check Out That Waterfall. Cool!

After our break, we were ready to make the trek back. Jacob did have one little fall and skinned his knee, but he was a trooper and bounced back quickly. Other than that and taking Stella, the dog, off the trail away from any other dogs coming our way (she has some little anger issues with other pups), we pretty much booked it back to the car. On the hour drive back to our place, all the kiddos had a good nap. I guess we pooped them out!

Of course, the absolute best thing to do after a long hike is get some ice cream. There's a new ice cream shop close to our place up there that we'd tried once when my parents were with us in July. It passed the trial and was good enough for a trip back. Everyone conveniently woke up the minute we pulled into the parking lot. It's like kids have a 6th sense for ice cream shops or something.

Ice Cream!

Jim, Stella, Kristina, Mike, Dylan, Corwin and Jacob

Chocolate Mustache

After ice cream, we all took a dip in the hot tub (and some in the pool too), had a great dinner and finished watching Harry Potter. We had plans to do another hike on Monday but we woke to rain. So, we called it a weekend, packed up the troops and all headed home. This trip has become an annual tradition (3rd year in a row). I'm really glad too since we always have a great time together.

Basin Bike Ride

Last weekend we headed to our place in NH. Mike's sister's family had plans to join us so I took a day off work for a long weekend of fun.

We headed up Friday night and the rest of the gang was to come up Saturday afternoon. While we were waiting for our company to arrive on Saturday, we decided to have a family bike ride. There's an 8 mile path that runs through Franconia Notch that we've wanted to try out for a while. So, we loaded up bikes and baby and made the 20 minute drive there.

Unfortunately, this ride was doomed from the get go. Mike tried to fill up his tire with the (unknowingly) wrong pump attachment, ended up letting all the air out of his tires and we didn't have a way to refill it. We weren't too far from town, so he headed back there to find a place to fill it while Dylan and I got in a warm up. Off we went in different directions with an approximate time set to meet back up.

This was my first time with Dylan on my bike. Given that the trail was mostly uphill, it was challenging to figure out the balance while also very slowly moving uphill. No worries, I would just drop down into the spinning gear to get started. When I tried to do so, my bike chain jumped off. Pretty quickly thereafter, a group of bicyclers passed by and helped me get it back on with Dylan still on. Problem number 2 solved so we carried on.

The path leveled off, and I went back up in gears. When the climb started again, I ignorantly believed my chain would behave and tried to go back to spinning gear. Yep, the chain jumped off again. Luckily, it's a well traveled bike path so another nice gentleman stopped to help. Problem number 3 fixed. With the chain back on, I decided this time we would just head back and wait for Mike to get back. Most of what we traversed had been uphill so I stayed in my climbing gear, turned the bike around and mostly coasted back.

Mike and I met up pretty easily (thank goodness since cell phone coverage is spotty at best there). I guess we were feeling a little crazy because we decided to ride anyway. Since my bike was behaving staying in one gear and I knew we would be climbing, I stayed in spinning gear and we were off.

After only a couple of miles, we passed the Basin (a cool rock\water formation in the notch). Soon thereafter my legs, which had been telling me for a while that the previous days weight workout had pooped them out a lot, started screaming at me to stop. Problem number 4. So, it was time to head back. We stopped at the Basin when passing it again for a few pictures.

Watching the Water Flow into the Basin Pool

Group Photo

Smiley, Cute Boy

It's a good thing we headed back. Problem number 5 became evident shortly after getting back on our bikes. My back tire was loosing air....and fast. With some wobbly, downhill curves on the path back, I was a little unsteady but still able to make it back to the car without damaging my rim. Whew!

When you list all the trouble, it sounds like a pretty disastrous trip, doesn't it. Oddly enough, we left having felt like we had a fun time. It's difficult to feel unhappy when you've got a smiling, cute kid around!

Family Zoo Day

As always, I'm a few weeks behind in posts and trying to catch up to present. My plan is to get several posts up in the next few days....we'll see if that actually happens!

So, 3 weekends ago, we went on a family zoo day at the Roger Williams Zoo in Providence, RI. Mike's sister lives down there so the rest of the family made the hour drive to our neighboring state to the south. That's not something you can really do in Texas...drive an hour over to the next state. I think I'm used to the concept now, but it was a mind blowing thing to try and accept when I first moved to this part of the world. In the amount of time it took me to get over the border into Oklahoma from Dallas (which are pretty close together for that part of the world), I could drive from RI, through MA, through a small part of NH and get into ME. Crazy. But, I digress. Back to the zoo!

Dylan always enjoys hanging out with his cousins and all of us, adults and children, enjoy looking at the animals. Add good weather and good family time and it was a wonderful day!

Highlights of our animal viewing including seeing the baby giraffe and watching the elephants get a bath.

Mamma Giraffe Nuzzling With Baby

Rub A Dub Dub

Cousins - Jacob, Emily, Dylan and Corwin

Dylan Always Enjoys a Ride on Dad's Shoulders

We were all a little shocked and surprised when Dylan's cousin, Patrick, agreed to hold him for a minute. Patrick's not really a baby guy, as he'll probably tell you. Perhaps Dylan is softening his shell a little. Of course, the fact that Dylan tried to poke Patrick in the eye likely didn't help the "liking babies" cause. He's a little obsessed with eyes and will happily put his finger in yours if you ask "where's my eye?"

Patrick, You Didn't Need That Eye, Did You?

This event was the weekend after Dylan took his first solo steps. So, he wasn't ready to walk solo through the zoo just yet, but he enjoyed some assisted walking practice with his cousins.

Cousins Walking Together

The day was a lot of fun! Then again, how could it not have been with wild animals, fun kids and family time.

Feed The Birds, Tuppence A Bag

As a gift to Lucienne, one of our cats, we put a bird feeder in the back yard post renovation. Since she already loved to sit by the window watching for the ones that would happen upon our fence, we figured it would be hours of enjoyment for her. And, we were right! She loves it. Actually, so does Dylan. One of his favorite activities to do with his Dad is to go out into the yard and fill it up. But, I don't think we realized how much we would need to do that.

Once word got out to the bird population on the street, they flocked to our yard! Once we filled the up the feeder, it would get emptied in just a few hours. I was truly amazed and baffled by how quickly we were running out of bird seed! Those poor birds must have been starving before we came around since no one else in the neighborhood must have been feeding them. I was just about ready to start a "feed the birds" fund to keep our feeder full and our birds fed. As an example of the mass amounts of birds we've been responsible for, here's a picture Mike took a few weeks ago. At first glance, it doesn't look like much but start counting the birds. There are A LOT in this frame. We estimate it to be around a 100.

Birds, Birds, Birds! (On the patio, ledge, feeder and on the grass)

We skipped filling the feeder last Thursday and then were away for a long weekend. After 4 days of not providing seed, we haven't seen birds in our yard since Mike and Dylan provided more food for them on Tuesday morning. I seriously hope we didn't starve all the sparrows! More likely they moved on to the next feeding hot spot but I don't think I'll be able to shake the worry and guilt until I see them return. At that point, I'll have to start passing the hat so that we can stay stocked with bird seed.

13 Months (And Some Change)

While I had no plans to continue my monthly updates after Dylan turned 1 year, I've realized that he's had lots of developments I haven't posted so wanted to share them with you!

After taking his first steps a couple of weeks ago, Dylan's had some "practice" daily but is far from being a regular walker. His preferred method of transportation is still crawling. Since he's really great and fast at that, I can't blame him. Why fix it if it ain't broken??

His vocabulary is also developing and in the last couple of weeks, he's definitely had his "first words." While eating, he'll tell us "Mo" (I think I even heard an "R" at the end yesterday) for more food. He points at one of his favorite toys, a ball, and say "Ba" and will say "Do" when the neighbors dog is outside. To be fair, pretty much everything he points at is "Do" or "Da" so we're not confident that it actually means dog. Mike tells me he's also working on saying book but I haven't heard that one yet (which means it's still unofficial). And even though he says da and ma all the time, it never seems in reference to us. So, I'm still looking forward to the day that he'll look at me and say mama.

Also, as of last week, Dylan is officially weaned.While I'm thrilled in many ways to have finally reclaimed my body after pregnancy and nursing, I'm also (very unexpectedly) sad about it. I've heard that there can be a hormonal shift afterwards that I can only presume is partly to blame. However, what I'm already missing is my snuggle time with Dylan. He's such the little man on the move that it's rare that he sits still long enough for a hug let alone extended close time.

I am so proud of the fact that I was able to nurse him for the recommended year, especially because we had a lot of problems from the very beginning that lasted a long time. Then, of course, there was the not so fun experience of pumping while at work. I did that up until about 11 months. The week after I stopped pumping, Dylan stopped taking a bottle during the day. Lucky coincidence! After that point, we tried to introduce more (cow's) milk to his diet but he was completely uninterested in it. So, before I could drop the last 2 nursing sessions (morning and night), we waited until his 1 year check up to talk to the doctor.

After a discussion about how to make sure he was getting enough calcium in his diet, we got the thumbs up to go forward with our plans. He very easily dropped the night time feeding a week later. Then, last week, we dropped his morning feeding without any drama. So, that's it...we're done with that phase of his life.

With the huge changes that have happened in the month since we celebrated his birthday, I can't help but notice that my little baby is not a baby anymore...he's a toddler. I am so excited to get to know my little boy and his personality better through his continued mobility and communication. However, I can't help but be a little bit sad that my little squeaking baby bundle is now only a distant memory. I guess this is why they say time passes too quickly....

Yard Renovation Before and After

Even though our yard was 90% done for Dylan's party, I didn't want to do a "Before and After" until it was 100% done. Since those very small last remaining details are either 1) Not obvious in pictures or 2) Not going to be done immediately, I decided it was time for this. So, here goes.

When finding pictures for this post, I was floored. Even though I haven't forgotten what a hot mess our yard was before, seeing it in stark contrast to the beautiful landscape we have now is a bit of a shock! I often feel as though I should have had this documented on an HGTV show since the transformation is as extreme as any of theirs. It's still surreal to us how beautiful the yard is and we are really trying to enjoy it every moment we can.

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for, Before and After pictures..........

View From Back Deck Before

View From Back Deck After

Our Welcoming, Picket Fence

Before, a Hill Pretty Much Only Good for Rolling Down

Along with an Ugly, Decrepit Wall and LOTS of Weeds

After - Paved, Terraced Space with Lovely Plantings

Before - From the Top of the Ledge

Before - View from Top of the Ledge to the Side Yard

After, from the Top of the Ledge

Future Site of a Fire Pit

Behind it, Boulders Uncovered From the Yard and the Ledge

From the Top of the Ledge - Side Yard

Side Yard Before - Sloped and Unused

Side Yard After

Leveled, Fenced, Ready for Play

Front Yard Before - All Weeds

Front Yard After, Sod, Perennials and a Birch Tree

Front of the House

Potted Annuals

So, there you have it. Even though I played some part in the planning, I'm still amazed at how it turned out. I will admit, this is the very first house project that I relinquished some control of and left to the professionals. Admittedly, I know little about plants and landscaping so worked to find a quality company whose opinion and work I trusted. For a control freak like myself, it was scary and freeing, all at the same time, to let go of the reins a bit. In the end, I feel like the vision and execution of the yard was a beautiful collaboration and had a wonderful result.

Now, Mike and I are ramping up quickly to learn how to take care of (ie preserve) this gorgeous yard. If any of you want to volunteer your time to come over and weed on the weekends, our casa es su casa!