Prayers

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Dylan has grown up around prayer. When he was really little, we encouraged him to fold his arms for prayers. As soon as he started talking, he would follow with a little "amen" of his own (which at church was quite loud and usually caused some chuckles around us). Then he discovered he could close his eyes...

Nowadays, when you say it's prayer time he clasps his little hands and closes his eyes. If you don't start right away he'll move his head like he's looking around for you, but he won't open his eyes. Seriously, it's the cutest thing ever. Maybe I'll have to get it on video.

Lately we've been encouraging him to say the dinner prayer. It started with him repeating simple things we told him to say, but he quickly picked up the general format and would sometimes say things before we prompted him to.

Last night, he took it to a new level... We asked him to say the prayer. He started it all by himself. Then Shane said, "Thank you..." and Dylan finished, "for this day." (Yeah, yeah, we should probably mix it up a bit since he already says this by default every time he prays). Then he went on...

"Thank you for Meg, Henry, and Richard..."

[Meg is his babysitter (he had just arrived home from her house) and Henry and Richard are her boys (in junior/high school) that play with him when they get home from school. Obviously he LOVES them.]

We both melted. It was so sweet hearing it in his little voice.



Completely unrelated to prayers, but related to the cuteness of Dylan at dinner last night... I had cut my finger while making dinner, so I was wearing a band-aid at the table. Dylan knows band-aids mean "owies." He noticed on my finger, pointed to it, then said, "Mommy owie?"

After I told him yes, I had an owie, his face got all sad and he said, "Oh... Mommy owie... Me so sad..." in his saddest little voice.

We love this boy.

Dinosaur bath

Dylan is currently in LOVE with dinosaurs. I'm not sure how it started, but once he started talking about them a lot, I bought him a little set of dinosaurs to play with. He loves these guys. They all have names (some are their real dinosaur name, others are nickname) and he can tell you which one is missing if he doesn't have all of them in front of him. I generally carry two of these with me at all times because he likes to ask for them...

Last weekend Dylan went to play with cousin Jack, and they got to play with bubbles in the sink...something I never would've thought of to entertain Dylan.


A few nights later, Dylan said "Dinosaurs bath." Feeling inspired by Ashlee, I grabbed my biggest bowl, made some nice soapy water, and let Dylan have fun with his dinos. (They probably needed a good washing anyway...) He loved it!

I'm hoping I can eventually channel this love of bubbles toward helping clean the house someday...

[P.S. Go here to see Ashlee's blog of Dylan and Jack at the splash pad... At least someone's blogging about my summer.]

A day in the life...

Yikes! Do you know how old Dylan is?? Well, if you don't, I'll let him remind you:

I can't believe how fast he's growing up. I try to be good and make note of the things he can do and what he likes as things change, but I'm feeling a bit behind. So hopefully this post will at least capture what life is like for "almost two" Dylan.

On days Dylan and I are home together, I try to mix in something fun, something productive (for me), and plenty of playing. Today we started with a game of baseball in the yard. Dylan loves his "red bat" and for some reason really wanted to play baseball (at 7:30 AM)... {Yes, I realize he's holding the bat upside down, but I pick my battles... Maybe someday I'll post a video of him banging it on the ground saying "Hey batter batter..." It's worth it.}


The we played animals and cars while I got ready. Dylan's animal box is the current favorite of all his toys. He usually packs them all onto his stool, but lately he's been "hiding" the animals in the trees...


Once we were both ready to go, we headed out for some "baby donuts" (aka donut holes). {Don't worry, Mom, we don't eat donuts often at all.} Dylan entertained everyone in the shop... He walked along the donut case going, "Not baby donut, not baby donut, not baby donut...BABY DONUT!!" as he looked for the donut holes. I snapped a quick picture to share the baby donut joy with Shane...


Then we headed to the grocery store. Dylan currently feels the need to select two toys to take with us wherever we go. Usually they stay in the car, but the cow and sheep accompanied us inside. Dylan requested blackberries, but I couldn't bring myself to pay $3+ for a six ounce pack...

Then we came home and Dylan helped me cook. He loves watching what we're doing on the kitchen counters. He stands on a chair and watches, asking questions along the way. Today he helped me put green onions in the food processor, and then learned that the food processor is not scary (especially when he gets to push the button).

Once dinner was prepped, we went out back for some water fun. Now that it's kind of cooling off here (i.e. not quite 100 degrees), I'm excited to get him back outside as much as possible. We played in the sprinklers and "painted" the sidewalk with water.


Then we headed inside for some lunch... Refried black beans, cheese, and some fruit. Dylan was nice enough to share with Triceratops :)


After lunch we looked at pictures and video of our family on the computer for a while. Then we got ready for nap time. This week we got How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? and The Grumpy Dump Truck from the library. Dylan thinks the dump truck book is hilarious and he loves dinosaurs, so he won't go to bed until both are read...

And now, he's sleeping... Once he's up, we'll take a walk to the mailbox and then blow bubbles out front until Shane gets home.

I love my days at home...

Conversation in Target

Ever since we bought Dylan a talking T.Rex at the dollar spot in Target (talking = horrible screeching sound we didn't know it made until we bought it), Dylan regularly requests a trip there when asked what he wants to do. On Monday, we stopped there for a few things, and had the following conversation:

Dylan (pointing to a fruit smoothie pouch): I want eat it.

Me: We have to buy it first.

Dylan: Pay for it.

Me: Yes, we need to pay for it.

Dylan: I pay for it. Dilly pay for it.

Me: Oh, you're going to pay for it? Do you have money?

Dylan: Yep.

Me: Where's your money?

Dylan: Pig.

Me: Where's your pig?

Dylan: (Pauses to think)...Home...money pig home...


It was fun to watch his little mind put the pieces together. Hopefully he'll keep offering to pay for his toys and food...this could work out nicely for us.

True love

Dylan absolutely loves our iPad. In fact, he thinks it's his and asks to play it at least once a day. In all truth, it is great for him. He's learned animal names/sounds, shapes, colors, names of fruits, how to put together puzzles, and how to play memory match all through iPad apps. It's quite impressive really...

Last week Shane had to visit Dallas, New York, and Chicago in a 6-day period, so he took the iPad with him for entertainment on his flights. Dylan was okay with Shane being gone for six days, but he was not a fan of the iPad going on the same adventure. Here's what happened by day three:

(In reality, he doesn't act like this when he can't have the iPad. This was just a bad day for him. His nap was bad and it was almost time for dinner, so he was at his worst point of the day... In fact, he fell asleep in the car five minutes after this video was taken, but we thought it was too funny not to share.)

Fearless

Dylan's earned this nickname this summer... He likes playing in the water, but he LOVES playing in pools. He loves putting his face in the water, thinks it's funny when he goes under, and is not afraid to jump in:

What didn't get caught on camera was Dylan jumping off the attached spa, which was at least three feet out of the water. He didn't even flinch when Shane put him on top of it and told him to jump...

I love that he's so excited to swim and happy that he's not afraid, but it puts me on edge. So far he's been pretty good to only jump in where there's a parent and in our last swimming adventure he actually kicked his feet and moved his arms when he accidentally walked off the step and into deeper water (I was right there with him, I just wanted to see what he'd do).

Thank goodness for pools, sprinklers, and splash pads... I'm not sure how else we'd survive the summer!

Adventures in finger painting

Today was a bad nap day for Dylan...which meant we had a lot of afternoon to fill. I decided to try out some homemade finger paints that I found here yesterday**. I stripped Dylan down, covered him in sunscreen (anticipating some water play after the painting) and let him loose.

BEFORE:

(After mixing up the paint base, I realized I only had red, green, and a little bit of yellow food coloring left...that's why my colors all look similar.)

DURING:

I wondered if Dylan would have issues with the paint on his hands. He'd only paint with his thumbs at first and was staying on the paper. After he seemed to be getting bored with the paper, I told him to paint his knee. Once he discovered he could paint himself, he didn't care so much about the texture.

AFTER:

Eventually he discovered that painting my legs was WAY more fun than painting himself. He thought it was so funny...


When he was done, I hosed him down and then let him play in the sprinklers for a while. It would've been more fun if it wasn't so hot here, but I'm glad we found something new to do to break up the day.

(**NOTE: I skipped on the dish soap that the recipe recommends because I was worried Dylan would try to eat the paint. However, if you are going to paint anything other than paper with this, I would recommend it as well. After spraying down my legs, I still had faint colors all over them. It all came off with soap, but I think the soap would help it all wash off the first time...)

Happy Face

Ever since Dylan learned that he could look at pictures and video of himself on our camera and Flip, we haven't been able to get good pictures of him. Once he sees the camera, he starts running toward it saying his name over and over again. Case in point (in case you couldn't tell, Dylan calls himself "Ninin"):

{As I put together this video, Dylan sat on my lap saying "More ninin? More ninin?" over and over again.... He loves himself.}

Lately, if I tell him I want to take a picture he'll nod his head in agreement. Then I ask him for his happy face, which leads to this:


I've resorted to telling him to say cheese when I want to take pictures, which actually yielded one decent picture at the park yesterday:


He may not be good at his toothy, dimple-filled smiles anymore, but he's sure getting good at silly faces:


In other news, my goal is to add a few more updates to the blog...including dance parties, our little fish, and the mailbox...so stay tuned.

Water lover

I know...it's been a while. Instead of writing a super long post trying to catch up on life the last few months, I thought I'd share the highlight. Dylan turned 18 months old over a week ago. He's developing a good vocabulary and a funny little sense of humor. He's a clingy mama's boy, but he knows his dad is WAY more fun (as I type this they're wrestling on the bed...). I wrote down all the words he says before his 18-month appointment, but once I got to 50 I stopped. His current favorites are Yeah, No, More, Mommy, "my Daddy", and buckle. In case you care, here are his 18-month stats:

Weight: 28 lb 2 oz (80th percentile)
Height: 31 3/4 inches (30th percentile)
Head: 48 1/2 cm (77 percentile)

In other news, this boy loves water. It doesn't matter how cold it is, whether it's pouring over his head or spraying in his eyes. If he can play in it, he's in heaven. These videos were all taken in the last five days...

This splash pad is just down the street from us. I have a feeling we'll be spending many summer days there. These rings are Dylan's favorite. In case you can't tell, he closes his eyes as he runs through, which leads to at least a few of these each time:

Our little cowboy

Dylan got a little rocking horse for his birthday. His three older cousins all played with it before passing it on to him. Dylan really enjoyed it when he first got it and was surprisingly good at rocking on it, but then he kind of forgot about it.

Now that he can walk and likes wandering and playing on his own, he has discovered the horse again. Yesterday morning, I found him riding it with his cowboy hat on (courtesy of Shane) but didn't have my camera nearby. This morning he was in a great mood. I took advantage and was trying to get things done around the house. I went to check on him and found him riding the horse. He was all smiles because he had gotten on by himself and made him sing by himself.



I'm loving this stage with him. Yes, the independence also brings lots of "no's" and lots of back arching protests, but it's so fun watching him figure out how to do things by himself. It makes him so happy.

Dear Daddy, part II

Hi Daddy, Today we went to the aquarium. I LOVED looking at everything. It was a little too dark for pictures, but here's one that turned out from the bullfrog room. I wanted to climb on this frog all day long. Then we went to McDonald's for my first time ever! I had some chicken nuggets and Grammie even shared part of her McFlurry with me. Most of the play place was too big for me, but they had a basketball area that Reuben and I went and played in for a while. Good thing I practiced at home with your basketball so I could show off my skills :)

Yesterday it was snowy and cold all morning, so I stayed inside and practiced climbing up and down on all the chairs using my stool. Every time I got up, I was so proud of myself!

After it stopped snowing, we went outside to play with bubbles and then we went for a little walk. I really liked the bubble machine and made sure that I popped every bubble that landed on the ground.

That's all we've been up to. I hope you're having fun where you are. I can't wait to see you on Friday!

Love,

Dylan

Dear Daddy...

Dear Daddy,

I'm sorry all I said was "No, No!" when you tried to talk to me on the phone tonight. It was late, I'd had a busy day, and all I wanted was for Mom to give me a bath and put me to bed. Because I didn't tell you what's been going on up here, I thought I'd share. I watched snow fall yesterday out Grammie's back door. Even though I saw it at Christmas I was still confused about what it was..and I'm not sure how I feel about this cold weather. Anyway, here's what I've been up to lately...

I've been eating LOTS of yummy food. Every morning Grammie makes me oatmeal from real oats (not that instant stuff you and Mom make me) and gives me fruit to go with it.

Grammie's house is full of all sorts of fun toys...like the foot massager...

the humidifier... the big chair (Grammie taught me how to climb into this chair using a stool. I thought I was so big!)... the foosball table... all kinds of balls...

puzzles... and all sorts of other toys! She also has books and cars and animal magnets and STAIRS! Plus I get to hang out with my cool cousins. We tried to take more pictures of us--as you can see I was the problem this time...

I miss you and wish you could be here with us...and I hope that some pictures of me will make you happy. Don't get too lonely without me...

Love, Dylan

15 (really almost 16) months

I realize Dylan's much closer to 16 months than he is to 15, but I'm just getting around to posting his stats:

• Height: 29.5 inches (10-20%)
• Weight: 26 lbs. 3 oz. (75%)
• Head: 70% (I don't remember the measurement)

This time the doctor didn't ask if I was feeding him high fat foods (that was a different doctor) and he said he had no concerns about his weight. Besides, I like him the way he is. He was able to point out his eyes, nose, hair, and ears for the doctor and he reminded him that he was one year old.

Now that he can walk, Dylan is his own man, and he's done a lot in the last three months, including:

Learning to wear (and leave on) hats and sunglasses. I don't have a picture of the sunglasses, but we call them his "cool dudes" and used to sing him a song to convince him that they were cool enough to wear.

Dressing up for special occasions, including Cousin Jack's cowboy birthday and a Diamondbacks spring training game (he did wear pants to the game...).

Learning to take pictures all by himself....

Learning to protest when he doesn't get his way. (Side note: I didn't realize that these pictures show him in the EXACT same position. Obviously in all of them he wants the camera-which he thinks is his.) Generally this face is followed by severe back-arching and possibly ground-flopping.

Exploring new and different things, like the empty space under the table, glasses, sitting in "big boy" chairs, and playing in the mall splash pad with the big kids. Not pictured are climbing and sitting on anything "high up" (like our scale and a small step at church) and any set of stairs.

Current favorite toys include:

- Buckles of any kind...on his highchair, in shopping carts, in his car seat. He tries so hard to buckle but has yet to be successful.
- Phones...our home phone, cell phones. If you say "Say hello," he'll hold it up to his ear. (In fact, he does this with anything in his hand if you tell him to "Say hello.")
- The frog magnet. You can't see it very well but clutched in his left hand is the frog magnet. This baby gets carried around the house all day long.
- Remote controls. These were first used similarly to phones, but he now knows that they control things (generally the TV) so he pushes buttons while aiming them at the TV...and sometimes he makes things happen.
- Animal magnets. These were the best purchase ever. He can identify all of the animals and definitely has his favorites (see frog magnet above). If we need to distract him, we just point toward the kitchen and say "Where's the elephant?" He'll disappear for a bit and come back with the magnet we asked for.
- Rocks...and leaves...and sticks...and dirt. Generally anything that can be found outside.
- The iPad...or maybe I should say his iPad, at least he thinks it's his. He loves two apps--I Close My Eyes and Peekaboo Barn. When you turn either on, pure joy spreads across his face. As he watches he looks up at you and grins just to make sure you're having fun too.
- Books. He loves looking through books himself and having them read to him. He wants one before every nap and before bed. In the morning when we walk in to get him, he's standing at the edge of his crib pointing at a pile of books, asking for one.
- The Big Stick. We use the pole to lock our sliding doors...but Dylan has recently decided it's a toy (or possibly a weapon). Since it's so large, he's not very coordinated with it and it often leads to falling and crying, but he keeps going back to it.

- Not pictured: cars, my hair and make-up brushes, picture flash cards, his Noah's Ark magnet book, and anything with buttons he can push.

Other than that's he's just a funny little boy who explores his world every day. He loves being outside and he loves water. He loves watching cars drive by and finding planes, helicopters, and the moon in the sky.

We love our boy and can't wait to see what new adventures are coming our way...

Just in case...

Just in case you've been checking our blog every day for the last three months in hopes of a Christmas recap, today's your lucky day! I have so many fun pictures from Christmas and I want to share...even if it's been almost 3 months.

We headed up to Utah this year to spend Christmas with my family. We were able to work out our schedules so we could spend a whole week in town. We packed up the truck and made the drive in about 12.5 hours, which is pretty impressive when you consider the fact that we had a one-year-old with us and we hit bad weather and traffic that lasted from Nephi to Salt Lake. I'm not saying it was the best 12.5 hours of my life, but Dylan was a little angel considering we were asking his little crazy one-year-old self to sit strapped in his car seat all day long. He read a lot of books and played with his toy cell phone (thank goodness for that toy).

We got into down on the 23rd, so we gathered with my family to hang out and catch up. As is tradition, we attempted to get a picture of the three grandkids together... It's much easier to show what happened than to describe it:

{Click to enlarge}

On Christmas Eve, we had our traditional Chinese take-out, then a nativity re-enactment, and then our Christmas carol sing-along/piano concert. Dylan didn't get to be Baby Jesus this year because a smaller, more content baby was in attendance. He was, however, more than willing to give pointers to him...

{Click to enlarge}

After our Christmas Eve celebration, we came home and put Dylan in his Christmas Eve pajamas from Grandma Hatch. As you can see, he was VERY excited to take part in this photo session...



Then came Christmas morning! Dylan still didn't seem to really understand what was going on, but he had fun pulling things out of his stocking one by one and pulling the paper out of gifts in bags...and playing with the toys, of course. He made out like a bandit! Later J&J and the kids came over to finish up the present opening. My favorite moment was when Vera opened her Lavina Lasagna superhero cape...I included a picture below:


We ended Christmas day with a self-timed family picture. We only took a few and they all turned out surprisingly well.


We spent the rest of the week skiing, snow mobiling, relaxing, and spending time with friends and family. One highlight for Dylan was the snow and the cold. He would sit by the back door and watch it fall all day and finally got to feel it fall on his face with Shane. It was so fun watching him explore something so new and foreign to him.



Other than that, Dylan just spent his time exploring and playing. I'm sure he thinks Grammie and Grampie's house is WAY more exciting than ours--it's bigger, has lots of toys, and it has STAIRS!


Then it was time to head home... We hit yucky roads and light snow all the way to the Utah/Arizona border so our drive home took over 13 hours, but Dylan was a trooper. Now he'll just have to wait until Thanksgiving to see more snow.

A bittersweet farewell...

On Monday, we said farewell to our little Civic... We watched it drive away with someone else inside. It's off to live in Tucson.



We loved the car, but since Dylan joined the family, we've realized just how small it is (especially the back seat). For example, if his forward facing car seat is in the middle, you really can't fit anyone comfortably in either of the other back seats! So, we decided it was time to upgrade. After much deliberation (and a lot of battling used car dealers), we bought this Ford Flex on Tuesday:


And so far, we love it! It's a little bigger than I'm used to, but I think I've got it all figured out. The selling point for me: there's a button that folds down the back seat automatically so people can climb in the way back. (Yes, I'm that easy to impress...)

On Monday, as the time for handing over the Civic got closer, I realized I was going to miss that car. It holds a lot of memories for us:

• We bought before our wedding, in preparation for our life together.
  
• We drove away from our wedding reception in it, amidst flying rose petals and crying parents.
  
• Somehow the keys to the car left the temple with my parents, leaving me and Shane to hang out for an extra 45 minutes after our wedding.
• We shared the car at BYU.
• We drove the car all the way to Baltimore in 2006, with side trips to Philadelphia and D.C., and all the way back.
• It followed the moving van to Phoenix after graduation.
• It made many trips between Phoenix and Salt Lake, and even to San Diego once.
  
• It brought tiny baby Dylan home from the hospital.
  

Part of me thought we'd have the car forever...that it'd be the car Dylan would drive when he turned 16. But we're excited for our new car...even Dylan will enjoy the tinted windows and rear air conditioning in the coming months.