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:

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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.