Shane & Jessica

Alive and kicking...

2012-01-30T12:19:00.000-08:00

Our poor little blog has been neglected...we have some good excuses (which I'll share below and hopefully have some follow-up posts on), but I hope we (which really means I because I'm pretty sure Shane has never posted--ever.) can be better at keeping up with this because I love looking back on it.

Without further ado, here's what we've been up to (a.k.a. why I haven't blogged in over three months):

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1. I got sent to Salt Lake for two work trips just two weeks apart. Dylan was still free to fly then and I don't work Mondays or Fridays so we got two long weekend with Grammie and Grampie!

2. We bought a new house! I realize we already had one house...and there will be a separate post about our new house, so I won't go into it here, but we LOVE our new house and are excited to transform it into exactly what we want.

3. During my long weekends in Salt Lake, Shane and his dad spent his weekends working on our new house...moving walls, pouring cement, painting...

4. We spent a whole week in Salt Lake for Thanksgiving, including a couple days at the family cabin.

5. Dylan turned 2!! We celebrated his birthday while we were in Salt Lake...

6. ...and again in Phoenix.

7. Dylan quickly figured out who Santa was (not so much the part about him giving presents, but that he was somehow connected to Christmas) and asked him for decorations when he met him at our ward Christmas party.

8. We celebrated Christmas in our new house, complete with a fire in the fireplace.

9. Dylan discovered superheros (namely, Spiderman, Superman and Batman) and refused to change out of his Superman jammies one day.

10. Grammie came to visit us for a week. She broke in our guest room and helped us organize and re-stock our new house, amid lots of playing time with Dylan.

11. We've had beautiful weather here lately, so we've spent a lot of time outdoors, especially at the park.

12. We've been busy building a rocket ship to send Dylan to outer space, thanks to a box from our new dishwasher. It's hard work building a rocket ship...more to come on that later.

13. We discovered that Baby #2 will be joining our family around the 4th of July!

Hopefully most of these will turn into their own post over the next week or so, so stick with us. I hate playing catch-up, but I'd like to remember these things later.

Prayers

2011-10-20T10:14:00.001-07:00

{Source}

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

2011-09-30T15:49:00.000-07:00

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...

2011-09-30T15:19:00.001-07:00

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

2011-09-14T21:49:00.000-07:00

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

2011-08-01T16:30:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-25T15:58:00.001-07:00

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

2011-07-20T21:00:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-15T08:50:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-13T19:55:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-04T14:26:00.000-07:00

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

2011-03-29T13:41:00.001-07:00

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...

2011-03-26T21:14:00.001-07:00

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

2011-03-23T20:24:00.001-07:00

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...

2011-03-19T11:36:00.000-07:00

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...

2011-02-25T14:55:00.000-08:00

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.

On the move...

2011-02-14T10:15:00.000-08:00

I know it's been over 2 months since I blogged last and really I should catch up on Christmas and our trip to Utah...but I'd rather let Dylan show you what he's been up to as of late...

Dylan is walking!
[Actually, he hasn't decided that walking is his getting-around mode of choice yet, but he's realized that he can do it...]

Here's proof:

and more:

Plus, he's exploring more and more...

Dylan is more and more fun every day! I'm working on keeping the cameras close by to capture it all since he's changing so fast. I promise to catch up on Christmas soon...lots of pictures to share!

How old is Dylan?

2010-12-02T10:06:00.000-08:00

Thanks to much coaching and practice, if you asked Dylan this question today he'd wave his little hand around and eventually hold up one finger. I'm trying to get it on video, but haven't been successful so far.

My baby is officially one year old!

I can't believe it's been a year...but another part of me can't remember life without our little man.

Dylan's 12-month appointment isn't until next week, so I don't have stats, but here are some other fun facts about the boy:

Getting around: Dylan finally realized how exhausting (and painful, I'm sure) it was to crawl around like a walrus and decided one day he preferred the standard hands-and-knees method...and when motivated he can move pretty fast. He generally prefers the wait and see approach to things--he waits to see if what he wants will come to him (e.g. Mom, food, ball, toys). He loves to pull up on anything and everything he can find, so we've had our fair share of head bonks, but he's getting better. I don't think walking is in our near future...

Teeth: After teething for what felt like months, two tiny little teeth are barely poking through on the bottom. Based on the length of what we thought was his teething, we expected him to get 8 at once!

Eating: This may be a surprise, but Dylan LOVES food! I have only ever seen him turn away food once and after sampling it myself I understand why (side note: Gerber pick-ups raviolis are disgusting... I'll post a video as proof later).

"Talking": Dylan calls pretty much everything he sees "dada" but he uses different tones and inflection to help us know what he means... For example, "a-Da" means all done (which he only ever uses to tell us his bottle is empty and he'd like more). He uses "ma" and "mama" only when he's tired or whiny. He knows how to say baby, but it takes a little coaching to remind him he knows how. And I swear he knows duck and dog, but they sound very similar to everything else, so who knows...

Other randomness:

He LOVES cars, but he especially loves real cars...moving ones. If he could, he'd spend all day out on the busy street near our neighborhood pointing and squealing as the cars went by.
He's an open mouth kisser, and once he hears the word "kiss" he opens wide and dive bombs your face...
He plays with his hair when he's sleepy. Since he has so little hair, he pretty much just pinches little pieces.
He still uses a pacifier for sleeping. I know this has to end someday...
He knows what a fish says. However, he learned this from the stuffed blowfish hanging in our garage (that's a story for another time). So if you ask him what a fishy says, he'll tell you and then point up at the ceiling because to him fish live in the sky...
He knows what a cow says...except he says boo instead of moo. At least we've got the "oo" part down.
He loves other people's hair, especially long hair. He likes to grab sections of my hair and let it run through his hands.
He does not dance to music. I think we've trained him that it's our job to dance for him whenever music comes on. So whenever he hears music, he looks at the nearest person as if waiting for you to dance...
He knows how to wave hi and bye to everyone now, so he's quite a hit when we go out.
He's starting to dislike car rides... I'm hoping a new car seat and a new view will help him get over this before we drive to my parents' for Christmas...

I think I'll stop there... I can record the rest in his baby book.

At Dylan's birthday party (which was last weekend while my parents were in town), we had a Wall of Dylan, which included a picture collage for every month of his life thus far, which I'm going to share with the blogging world. Enjoy!

Birth Day

December

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

We're so happy we have Dylan as part of our family, and we can't wait to see what this next year brings.

Exactly one year ago...

2010-12-01T19:09:00.001-08:00

I was 39 weeks pregnant.

I went to my weekly OB appointment. For some reason I decided to pack my car with my hospital bag and computer (I think it was the non-stop Braxton-Hicks contractions).

My appointment went as usual: no baby progress (1 cm, 0% effaced); high blood pressure; a spike in my glucose (admitting I had chocolate milk for breakfast)...

Then the doctor came in and said, "I don't feel comfortable letting you go another week... looks like we're going to have this baby today."

The rest of the day was a blur... driving (.2 miles) to the hospital, checking in, hours of Law & Order reruns in triage while "ripening" (oh what fun), lots of text messages and phone calls, notifying work I was officially gone for the next 4 months, my last meal...

And finally, 24 hours later, our lives changed forever.

But more on that tomorrow...

San Diego

2010-11-14T20:04:00.000-08:00

For Halloween weekend, we escaped to San Diego to meet up with my mom, three of her sisters, and five of my cousins for a weekend adventure. We were scattered around the city (we were downtown, some were on Coronado, other were in Chula Vista) but we were still able to get in a lot of quality time with them.

We started with lunch on Coronado...

Then headed to the Del to wander along the beach...

{Dylan was amazed by the Del...}

Then headed to old town San Diego to visit the Mormon Battalion museum and dinner...

{Panning for gold...}

{Making bricks}

{Meeting cousin Tera}

The next day we spent some time at Balboa Park. Then Shane, Dylan, and I had dinner together in Little Italy, with a nice lesson in baby signs at Yogurtland (Dylan learned the meaning of "more" very quickly when chocolate yogurt was the incentive).

Sunday we headed back over to my aunt's house to hang out before we had to leave.

{Dylan LOVED cousin Heidi}

{Just in case you missed my Halloween post below...}

{Dylan enjoying a special treat from grandma--an organic lollipop}

Finally, it was time to say goodbye...

{I promise my head isn't 10 times the size of my mom's....but I liked this picture so I still posted it}

The trip was short, but we had a great time!

Halloween

2010-11-14T19:35:00.000-08:00

Yes, I do realize that Halloween was two weeks ago, but I didn't want to forget how cute our little paper bag was...

Yes, Dylan was a paper bag...more specifically a Ladmo bag, but if you didn't grow up in Arizona and watch the Wallace and Ladmo show, you won't understand (I didn't until I went here and here). For his birthday, Shane got a Ladmo t-shirt so the family costume was set in motion...and we figured this was the year because we didn't think Dylan would want to be a paper bag once he was old enough to have a say in his costume. I dressed up as a very minor character named Jodie...everyone just thought I was a girl scout.

Here we are before a neighborhood Halloween party. Sadly, it was an adults-only party so Dylan just put on his costume for the picture.

The actual weekend of Halloween (when our church and family parties were), we were in San Diego... so we brought Dylan's costume along with it and let him wear it to my cousin's house on Sunday.

Did I mention I made this costume by hand?? Yeah, I know...a lot of you are super crafty and could whip this baby out in a couple hours, but this was a big accomplishment for me. And my mom was oh-so-impressed.

More on San Diego later...

Coming Soon...

2010-10-22T10:04:00.001-07:00

I've been waiting for life to slow down so I could write a new post... Between the upcoming Primary program (did I mention I'm the second counselor and I'm in charge of it?), way too much work, and a very active little Dylan I'm not sure when that will be. For now, enjoy a photo update on our month so far:

{Click for larger}

And even a video of the little man and his version of crawling... I can't imagine it's the most comfortable way, but he can't seem to keep his knees under him so he prefers this method.

I promise I'll post more later...

Abandoned...

2010-09-27T09:50:00.000-07:00

...at least that's how I worried Dylan would feel when Shane and I ran away on a parents-only getaway to San Francisco last weekend. I did know that he was going to be taken care of and loved by pretty much all of Shane's family so I knew it was silly to worry.

Shane was in San Francisco for a conference for work. I decided to join him on Friday afternoon and take a quick weekend vacation. Shane did a lot of research so we could use our vacation time to the fullest.

On Friday night, we headed over to Fisherman's Wharf to head out on a night tour of Alcatraz. As soon as we got out on the water, it was cold and windy (which was a nice change from the Phoenix weather)... I love old buildings--I love walking through them, hearing about the history of them, and trying to picture what life was like for the people that lived in/used them so this was right up my alley. For the night tour, they close off some of the sections open during the day, but open other sections and have special programs before you head back to shore. It was definitely creepier at night time, as you can see from some of the pictures.

{There were just a few hundred people with us on the tour...}

{Creepy Shane in a high-security cell}

{I wouldn't go farther than the opening of the isolation cell...I was afraid it'd close behind me...}

{The hospital wing was opened for the night tour... Conveniently, they only lighted each room with a single lantern. This is Shane in the operating room. Can we say creepy?}

We ended the night at Ghirardelli Square. Shane got a Coke float and I got a hot fudge sundae. I meant to take a picture before I ate my sundae, but I got a little excited and devoured it... I didn't remember the picture until it was all gone :)

The next day we set out on a whirlwind tour of San Francisco. We started over at the Golden Gate Bridge. At first I thought I was sad that it was so foggy, but in the end it produced some beautiful views.

Then we headed to Chinatown and were able to wander through the Moon Festival celebration, see lots and lots of meat for sale, and visit a fortune cookie 'factory.'

Then we waited an hour to ride a cable car... We had to get on at the start of the line because they would fill up there so there wasn't any room to jump on later. Luckily we rode it almost to the end of the line (and up many steep hills) to Lombard Street.

Then we stopped in Fisherman's Wharf for some clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl. Very San Francisco... (In truth, Shane at clam chowder. I took one bite to be a good sport, but it's really not my thing. I had pizza made on sourdough crust.) Then we visited an arcade full of old games.

Then we headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner at The Stinking Rose. I got the braised short rib... It was oh-so-delicious! (Although I still tasted garlic while brushing my teeth in the morning...)

On Sunday, we headed over to Golden Gate State Park to pass the morning. We stopped at the beach, the Dutch windmill, and the Japanese tea garden. It was misting all morning, but it was actually quite refreshing. The Japanese tea garden was beautiful, and Shane was in bamboo heaven! I think we could've spent a lot more time there just taking in the views...

Then we hopped off the bus at Haight Ashbury... We loved looking at the old Victorian houses, but other than that, we felt very out of place there...so we just walked the length of Haight and headed back go our hotel and then to the airport.

It was short, but it was an awesome getaway!

********

Oh, you want to know what happened to Dylan?

Dylan spent most of the weekend with the Mikos family. He quickly determined that Aunt Amy was the chief caregiving in the household and wanted her attention at all times. All three kids pitched in to help feed and play with him, and Uncle Chance took it upon himself to introduce new foods to Dylan's world (including cheetos).

{An old pic of the awesome cousins holding a tiny baby... Who is that baby??}

Amy blacked out the windows in the room Dylan was sleeping in, and he slept better for her than he does at home: until 8 AM (he wakes up around 6:30 at home) and 2.5 hour naps!

He was in bed at our house when we got home on Sunday night. Shane went to get him Monday morning and he was so excited... Then I peeked my head over the edge of the crib and he went CRAZY trying to get to me. He was very clingy the whole day, but I didn't mind one bit...

S L C

2010-09-23T20:46:00.000-07:00

I was asked to head up to SLC for a recruiting event at BYU for my work that just happened to coincide with Labor Day weekend, which meant a free trip home!! Shane was busy with things at home, so Dylan and I headed up together.

Our first day there, we met up with cousins at Wheeler Farm. Before we ate our picnic lunch, we visited the animals, including...

cows (Dylan didn't really notice them)

horses

goats

chickens

and ducks.

All the while, Dylan got in some quality cousin time, especially during our yummy picnic (where Dylan also got his first taste of chicken nuggets... He devoured a whole nugget because his cousins didn't want them!)

{Dylan felt left out of the sunglasses party... I remembered to bring them to SLC with me, but I forgot to put them in the diaper bag for this adventure...}

The next day I left Dylan behind for some quality Grammie time while I headed to Springville with my friends to visit Carly in her new abode. It was strange realizing that we've all grown up--on our trip we had one law school student, one med school student, one child life specialist, and one auditor/mom (and not with us was our friend the master's student).... Yikes! When did we get old? Sadly, I don't have any pictures of this event...unless I can track down the picture Carly posted on Twitter of Lahdan taking my vital signs... We ate at Art City Trolley and talked and talked and talked, until we realized it was time to leave so Carly and Lahdan could study some more.

On Sunday, we spent a low-key day at church and at home. My brother and family came back over for more cousin time...we have to relish in it when we're only in town for days at a time. We had scones, played with bubbles, and enjoyed each others' company.

Vera loved giving Dylan hugs and kisses, giving him toys, and helping him with books. She was so cute with him!

Somehow Dylan and Reuben ended up playing back to back...how cute!

They also learned some sharing lessons... Dylan's not old enough to really notice or fight back so there weren't really any problems.

We love Grampie!!

Oh, and the adults had fun too...

On our last day there, we went to a neighborhood pancake breakfast. It was actually cold outside, so Dylan got to wear long pants for the first time in a long time... Then he discovered the microphone...and that it works MUCH better if you just put the whole thing in your mouth...

Then Grampie donated his hat to the cause to create a bona fide rap-master...

...and then it was time to say goodbye...

9 (and a half) months!!

2010-09-20T14:56:00.001-07:00

I can't believe Dylan is already 9 months old!! Because we were traveling the day he actually turned 9 months (more on that later), I didn't get a picture of him. Instead, here are some pictures of him at 9.5 months and almost 9 months:

...apparently we don't like to put clothes on him. But who can blame us in this heat? Anyway, onto Dylan updates...

First, from the doctor, his 9 month stats:

Height: 28 inches (50%)
Weight: 22 lbs (75%)
Head: Exact measurement is in Shane's car (50%)

That's right, our little boy is thinning out!! He's dropped from off the charts in weight at 2 months, to 98% at 4 months, 95% at 6 months, and 75% at 9 months...just as the doctor predicted he would. I guess he just wanted to gain it all at once.

Other Dylan updates since we last reported on him:

He got a new babysitter. He loved his old one, but she had to shut down due to landlord issues... We found a great replacement. Dylan even reaches for her when we drop him off. She's that good.
He learned to move around. I wouldn't call what he does "crawling" just yet, but he can get where he needs to. It's almost like a lopsided army crawl...or a lizard who can only move one half of his body. He's still figuring out the coordination of both arms and legs.
He discovered his reflection. He's always liked looking in mirrors, but now he LOVES it. I can sit him in front of my closet door (which is all mirror) and he'll sit there and press his hands up against the mirror for a good 15 minutes just exploring what he sees.
He still loves water. This is exciting and somewhat terrifying... He doesn't mind if we dump water over his head sometimes finds it funny. But he also isn't afraid to stick his face down in the bath water (all 1 inch of it). Most of the time he's fine but sometimes he comes up sputtering. I'm worried for what next year's pool visits will bring...probably lots of stress for me.
His favorite sound to make is "dadada." I'm not sure if he really means Shane when he says it, but if I say "Where's Dada?" he looks all over the place to find Shane.
He loves to push the garage door button. It is now his official job every time we leave or come home. As soon as we walk out, he looks for the button and sticks out his little finger. I still have to help him actually push it sometimes, but it's so fun to see his little face light up when he realizes he made the door move.
He loves to people watch. He'll be super whiny at home, but if we take him out (to Costco, a church function, whatever) where there are other people to look at, he's a happy camper. Also, at day care he has to be near the other three children or the babysitter to be happy. If the kids leave the room, he wants to follow.
He loves food. I actually think he's slowly self-weaning to food because he loves it so much. He'll eat pretty much anything we give him, but I can see preferences slowly developing. He's very interested in whatever we're eating, so we often give him tastes. The most surprising thing he's liked to date was a pickle... He kept reaching for it and whining so I finally gave him a taste, thinking he'd instantly dislike it, but he just kept sucking on it and trying to bite off a piece.
Speaking of biting...he still has no teeth. I thought this was strange but both his doctor and my dentist say it's actually better because his risk for cavities is lower the longer his teeth stay under his gums...
He's turned into an awesome sleeper and napper!! He goes to bed around 7 and sleeps until 6:30 or so and he takes two naps that are between 1.5 and 2 hours long. And we lay him down awake for all of these!! I honestly don't know how we got into such a good routine with him...but I'm so glad we have.

Okay, I think I'll stop. There's plenty more, but not things you want to hear. To end, here's a nice little collage of Dylan's life as of late:

{Click for larger}

More updates to come soon...

Shane's 30th

2010-09-01T20:19:00.001-07:00

Last month Shane turned 30 years old!! To make sure we celebrated properly, my parents came into town, and thanks to them the party was awesome!

Thanks to my mom, Shane had a poster full of memories and plenty of 80's-themed decorations:

My "just snacks" idea for food turned into a whole counter full, but it was delicious!

My mom also found all kinds of candy from when Shane was young (bazooka gum, pixie sticks, fun dip, fruit stripe gum, bottlecaps...) and mailed it all to me in Phoenix so guests could enjoy it during and after the party.

Once everyone gathered, we played Minute to Win It games around the house. I was worried that people would be embarrassed to play, but once things got going everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves! (Seriously, if you're looking for good party games, go here...)

Amy playing "Bite Me"

Me playing "Movin' on Up"

Dylan even got to stay up almost an hour and a half past his bed time to enjoy the party. Luckily Grampie was around to keep him company, which he did throughout their visit...

{I realize these pictures aren't from the party, but aren't they so cute??}

Shane got his customary angel food cake with simple icing...complete with 30 candles. They took a while to light...but Shane blew them all out at once!

From me, Shane got a walk down memory lane with a Ladmo Bag and a Ladmo shirt.

From the rest of the family, Shane got the following...

Toilet paper...

Toilet brush...

A Reader's Digest...

Air freshener and a gas mask...

They told him these things were because after 30 your life goes down the toilet, and everyone looked like this (except Shane who was quite confused):

But the real reason for all of the toilet-themed presents was my parents gave him one of these:

A teeny tiny toilet!!

Just kidding! But they really did give him a brand new toilet for our house. Both of ours have been known to clog even when you flush clean water down...so this was a very thoughtful gift...

All in all, it was a great party and Shane got all the love and attention he deserves...especially to celebrate his 30th birthday.

Upside Down

2010-08-25T10:48:00.001-07:00

I know I'm not totally caught up yet, but I couldn't resist posting these pictures of Dylan... He has recently discovered the upside down world. He'll arch back and hang off my lap to get this view, and he REALLY loves it when we flip him over and let him hang for a while. Just look at this face:

I think he could spend all day upside down if we let him...

San Diego!

2010-08-23T15:45:00.000-07:00

We have some wonderful friends who own an awesome condo in downtown San Diego. Seriously, it's awesome. They're within walking distance of the pier and lots of great restaurants and just a short drive from anywhere else you'd want to go. They pretty much live there all summer (it's really a no-brainer when you're choosing between Phoenix and San Diego in the summer) and they gave us an open invitation to visit pretty much anytime we want. Sadly, we were unable to take them up on this offer at all last summer, so we made sure to make at least one trip this year.

We drove out on a Thursday evening and back on Sunday evening, so we were able to get in two and a half days of fun and relaxation.

The first day we pretty much spent relaxing and eating. What more can you ask for on a vacation? Dylan discovered early on the beauty of stroller naps... If he fell asleep while we were walking somewhere, we'd just leave him in the stroller on the porch to finish out his nap. He seemed to enjoy them because he made sure to take one every day we were there.

Saturday we had a relaxing morhning and then headed to the downtown farmer's market (which was only a block away) for yummy food. This was our third visit to this farmer's market so we opted for Thai coconut pancakes and panang curry. Normally we probably would've swapped out a crepe or panini for the curry, but we were ready for something new.

That afternoon, we took Dylan with us to the Maritime Museum. It's a collection of boats and submarines from different eras. It includes the Star of India (built around 1860), HMS Surprise (used to film Master and Commander), a Soviet submarine from the Cold War, and quite a few others. I didn't think Dylan would get much out of it, but he had a great time! I love this age because you can see him taking in everything around him...he wants to touch, grab, and examine every little thing he sees. I'm pretty sure his favorites were the two submarines because they had so many fun knobs and levers. Prepare yourself for a lot of pictures...

Future captain?

I'm not sure why, but I love this picture...

I realize this picture doesn't show anything related to the museum, but I love his face. I feel like he's saying, "Hey Mom! Let's go down inside this big ship!"

They had this mini ship inside the big ship for kids to play on.... All Dylan wanted to do was eat the mini steering wheel. You can see the one of the spokes right next to his face.

I'm loving this new straight-mouth smile Dylan's discovered...

Proof that I was on this adventure (and the Master and Commander ship in the background)

"But I don't wanna be a pirate!"

Before our descent into the US submarine.

Dylan LOVED being able to play with everything on the sub

Too small for the periscope

Dining in luxury on an old steam boat.

Straight smile again... he's too cute!

This picture and the next might be my favorite two from the whole day...

The Soviet sub had little tubes you had to crawl through... They even had a sample one before you entered so you could be sure you'd fit through the whole thing!

Sliding Dylan through the hole...

Exploring...

The whole family! A nice lady offered to take this picture for us. She must have been following us throughout the museum because when Shane handed her the camera she said, "His name is Dylan, right?" She must have heard us calling out his name all day to get him to look at the camera! :)

On Sunday, we relaxed in the morning to try and prolong our vacation. Then we headed to Chula Vista so Dylan could meet his great-aunt and uncle and his first cousins once removed (the kids had researched their relationship with Dylan before we got there). We were able to spend the afternoon with them, eat dinner, and even partake in their family home evening before we headed home. Sadly, all of the pictures we took are on Kristi's camera so I'll have to add one when I get a copy from her...

Hopefully next year we'll make it to San Diego more than once...

Up next: Shane turns 30!!!

Bear Lake

2010-08-22T21:15:00.000-07:00

Shane's extended family decided to have a reunion at Bear Lake over the 24th of July weekend...which worked out quite nicely for us as my family was also going to be at Bear Lake, just a few miles down the road, at the same time!! So we bought our plane tickets (round trip for me, one-way for Shane who rode home with the men on Sunday night) and worked out the plan: we'd stay with my family but spend the days at Shane's family reunion. It worked out quite nicely... Here's a brief (actually not-so-brief) review of our vacation:

We rode up to Bear Lake with my parents. Dylan slept pretty much the whole way from Salt Lake to Evanston, then he ate some lunch and spent the rest of the drive like this. It started with the tag (who knows why kids love tags so much) and then ended up being as much of the blanket as he could fit into his mouth:

We got to Bear Lake a day and a half before the reunion started, so we spent a lot of time out boating with my family. Dylan LOVED the boat. During his first excursion, he was so relaxed I kept checking to make sure he was still breathing! He wasn't as much a fan of his life vest since it made him sit up very tall.

Shane learned and I remembered how to wakeboard. It was a nice reminder of how out of shape I am!! (And, of course, we were both overshadowed by the skills of my dad and brother)

Sadly, we took very few pictures at the actual family reunion... Below are the only ones we took (the only others I have are varied angles/shots of the same situations)...along with one I stole from Amy's post about the weekend. I guess we were too busy having fun. Everyone made it to the reunion except for 2 cousins. We had lots of good food, games, and an entertaining variety show.

{Dylan with this great-grandma and great-grandpa Hatch}

{On the beach--Dylan LOVED playing in the water even though it was cold!}

{The youngest grandkid and all of the great-grankids got matching pajamas in honor of the Red Moose Lodge}

The night of the 24th, we set off some fireworks with my family and Jared and Jessie's neighbors who came up to visit. The kids had a great time with the sparklers! (A special thanks goes out to Jessie who willingly stayed in the condo with the babies so I could go enjoy the fireworks with Shane.)

After the reunion, I rode back to Salt Lake with my parents to spend an extra day with them. We stopped in Evanston for some lunch and entertained Dylan with a straw and a spork while we were there. He didn't want to give them up when we put him in the car, so...

In Salt Lake, Dylan relished in the fact that he could play outside, during the day time, and not be dripping with sweat!! He loved playing in the grass (something he hasn't really had a chance to do) and with the fun new toys at Grammie's house.

And now, I've saved the best for last... Dylan loved playing with his cousins. This is the first time he's been with them where he could really interact (smile, reach/grab, etc.) so it was fun seeing him with them. Vera was so good with him. She'd give him toys, read to him, talk to him, and try and make him laugh. Reuben was good too, but seemed to be more concerned about keeping the toys he wanted.

Throughout the trip, we tried to get a good picture of the three of them together... You'd think it would be easy to get a good picture of a 4-year-old, a 15-month-old, and an 8-month-old, right? Let's just say it was quite comical... Here's a few of the better ones:

{Click for larger}

Up next: our San Diego weekend adventure!

Fourth of July and a visit from Grammie!

2010-08-21T19:54:00.000-07:00

Fourth of July weekend brought a visit from Grammie Jen....

And a pool party at Uncle Tom's house. Dylan absolutely LOVED the pool! He played for 30 minutes before lunch and then for over an hour after his nap. It was a nice and refreshing break from the July heat.

Thanks to Aunt Amy, Dylan was very patriotic for church on the Fourth...

And we even let him stay up to see the fireworks! He was quite mesmerized by them. (I can't remember why he has no clothes on...)

On Monday, Shane decided we'd take a tour of two old Spanish missions in southern Arizona: San Xavier del Bac and Tumacacori. I really like old, authentic buildings, so this was a fun adventure...if only the weather had cooperated! Poor Dylan was a trooper and didn't complain despite the heat and his too-small sun hat.

{Click for larger}

Because Dylan loved swimming so much, Grammie Jen bought Dylan a new pool and toys for the backyard. For his inaugural swim, Shane filled the pool all the way up to the max fill line, which caused Dylan's buoyant legs and bum to float...so he spent a lot of his time lounging against the side.

Grammie and I also went on a few shopping trips. Naturally, Dylan had to try on a few things during these excursions:

Other than that, Dylan was just his cute little self for the first half of July:

Up next...the Bear Lake family reunion!

The Hatchery...and Happy Anniversary!

2010-08-14T11:30:00.000-07:00

As you can see, I got a little sidetracked during my blog catch-up. I wanted to experiment with the new Template Designer (which is awesome by the way), and ended up changing our whole blog...and renaming it to 'The Hatchery,' which is quite fitting considering Thursday was our 5-year anniversary...

I'll try to keep this short... Shane and I met at Liberty Square at BYU (I know...so cliche), and no matter what Shane says, he completely ignored me when we first met. Granted, he had a girlfriend at the time, but I tried my hardest just to get him to talk to me. After a couple months of Sunday game nights, Mario Kart tournaments, a break-up (for Shane), and lots of hanging out in the apartment across the hall so Shane would notice me, we ended up playing a game of mud football one rainy night in October:

After a quick team huddle, Shane wanted to make a deal: if we won I had to take him out to ice cream; if we lost he had to take us out to ice cream... I didn't see a problem either way and quickly agreed. I don't remember who won or lost actually, but after the game we set a day to meet in the Wilk for ice cream.

That week, my wonderful roommate Joleen was in Shane's apartment talking with him and Brandon, his roommate. They seemed to be beating around the bush of me and Shane (or at least the possibility of a 'Jessica and Shane'), but I was just getting out of a semi-relationship with Shane's neighbor. Somehow they all decided talking in code would be much better than just discussing everything outright, so Joleen and Brandon started a theoretical discussion about investments: Joleen had a client who was deciding between two potential investments--Thomas Water Co. (the semi-relationship was with someone whose last name was Thomas) or the Hatchery (if you don't understand how this relates to Shane, you don't know us at all...). Brandon wanted to know how much Joleen's "client" was interested in investing into each company. In the end, Joleen and Brandon communicated to each other that both Shane and I were interested in dating each other, but it took a long time...

Meanwhile, I was in class... Joleen had texted me and told me she had told Brandon how I felt about Shane. As soon as I received the text, I got a call from Shane. He told me that he couldn't meet for ice cream and he didn't think we should reschedule...and then just sat there on the phone. My heart dropped--apparently he knew how I felt and wanted nothing to do with me. After what felt like an hour on the phone (but probably only 10 seconds), he said he thought dinner and a movie that weekend was a much better option!

After that phone call, we were together pretty much nonstop... Our first date was to see The Grudge (it was Halloween weekend), our second date was to a BYU volleyball game the next night, and the rest is history...

{Picture from our second date. The sunglasses are part of Shane's costume}

I know this isn't your typical, cheesy, wedding-picture-filled anniversary post... At dinner last night, we were talking about the first day we met, which led us down memory lane for a while. It got me thinking about those times, when everything was new, exciting, and stressful (yes, stressful). It's interesting to see how far we've come from that and know that even though things have changed, we've grown closer and love each other more than ever! Here's to the next 5 years!

(Side note: When I first set up this blog I wanted to name it The Hatchery due to this story, but I thought that a name like that suggested one of the following: (1) we had lots and lots of kids or (2) we were trying to announce we were going to have a baby. Since neither was true, I decided to stick with 'Shane and Jessica'. Now that we have Dylan with us, I decided it was time for a change...)

Catching Up: June

2010-08-14T09:27:00.000-07:00

We have lots to catch up on, so here's an overview of the month of June:

First, Shane went on a 50-mile hike with his Scouts. They went to Paria Canyon, a slot canyon in Utah/Arizona. They had a great time and wouldn't stop talking about it when they came back.

Then, Megan came into town to visit. Dylan was so excited to see her, he even posed for all of her pictures. Sadly, we had to leave for our family campout so we didn't get to see too much of her, but we're glad she came to stay with us. She took lots of pictures, which was good because I don't think I took any during this time.

Then we had the annual Hatch Family Campout, where we celebrated by 25th birthday! I had to go to Dallas for training for a week, but I got to meet up with my aunts and cousin for dinner one night and I spent a whole night with Emma and her new little Bennett.

Then, to make room for more of this:

We did this...

...and it was gone within 10 minutes!!

The rest of the month, Dylan was just a cute boy....

To my father...

2010-08-12T20:15:00.001-07:00

{Image from http://www.thedadproject.com/}

Enough said.

For those of you who aren't my father, here's a little background... For as long as I can remember, my dad would serenade me with "Hippo birdie two ewe" in place of the standard birthday song. Even when I was away from home, I'd get the full birthday song spelled out in animals (complete with "Hippo birdie deer ewe"). So Dad, since I didn't text you a hippo birdie song, I hope this picture will suffice.

Happy birthday Daddy-o!

(Side note: I had to go all the way back to 2007 for a decent picture of us together...)

Blog slacker

2010-08-03T14:15:00.000-07:00

Sorry folks... I've been quite a blog slacker lately. Life's been kind of crazy with lots of work travel for me and Shane in June, lots of visitors and fun travel in July, and lots of work for me. But I do have lots of posts planned. Sadly, we left our camera in San Diego this weekend (during one of our fun travels) and are waiting for it to be mailed to us...so most of the posts will have to wait as most of the related pictures are on the camera (and, really, who wants a blog post without pictures??).

So for now, just be content to know that I haven't forgotten about the blog...and here's a little sneak preview of things to come:

Funny faces

A growing boy (he's alreayd 8 months old!)
Fun at Bear Lake Family reunion Exploring new toys (a.k.a. awesome parenting) Exploring outdoors (where it's not 100+ degrees) Fun at Grammie's house

So stay tuned and don't give up on me yet...

Hatch Family Campout

2010-06-14T12:33:00.001-07:00

This weekend marked the second annual Hatch family campout in Payson. Actually, the majority of the family is still up there camping, but our trip ended early because Shane had to work today. I didn't want to put off posting because I know myself and if I don't do it now, it won't ever get done, so here we go.

This year's campout was a month earlier than last. We weren't quite expecting the dramatic difference in weather and weren't completely prepared for the freezing cold sleeping conditions! We only brought short sleeve outfits for Dylan, with a sweatshirt and beanie just in case it was cold...which he ended up wearing the entire trip. He also had to have a blanket wrapped around his legs all day since we didn't bring him any long pants... He didn't seem to mind.

Cousin Jack came too...and it seemed between him and Dylan there was always a baby sleeping, eating, or needing to be changed, but we had plenty of willing, helping hands.

We celebrated my birthday a little early since everyone was already together. We had peach cobbler for my cake, and Shane and my parents gave me a new bike!! You can't see it very well in the picture, but it's a cream-colored beach cruiser with flowers and a very large basked on the front. Shane's parents brought their cruisers (from Christmas) up and all the kids brought their bikes too, so bike riding was how we spent a lot of our time. (Note: Dylan did NOT ride in the bike like this. We just thought he looked cute in my basket.)

Shane's dad left up the zipline from girls' camp (which was at the same campsite the week before), so we all went an took rides. Sadly, I don't have any pictures since there was only one camera present. Maybe I'll remember to add one later once I get them from Roy...

Thanks to Shane's parents, we ate some awesome meals in the 36 hours we were there: dutch oven turkey with mashed potatoes and green beans, dutch oven german pancakes, and ribs with potato salad and cantaloupe. Chance and Shane had a difference of opinions regarding the best way to organize food on a plate... (If you've never seen Shane eat mashed potatoes and gravy, it's worth inviting us over to dinner just to witness):

All in all, Dylan really seemed to enjoy camping...probably because he got to be outside all day long, which doesn't happen much at home these days thanks to the 100+ degree weather. The only problem he had was napping in the tent. I think he was a little overwhelmed by how red it was and how it moved in the wind... He wouldn't fall asleep on his own at all and would only sleep 40 minutes if he was by himself. If we slept with him, he slept better. It was difficult (yeah, right), but we managed to take some naps with him to get him the rest he needed:

I apologize for this next section, but it was a major part of our trip. Dylan had a bit of a cold when we left our house Saturday morning. I think the cold probably made it worse... By Sunday morning, every time Dylan coughed he'd finish the coughing fit with a nice big sneeze, leaving his face looking like this... It's a great way to clear out his nose!

Sadly, those are pretty much all the pictures I have from the trip. Last year, I took quite a few and got some of everyone. This year, I was a bit preoccupied with keeping Dylan clean, fed, rested, and happy. Shane summed it up best while we were cleaning up our tent: "Camping with babies is a lot of work!" We had a great time, though, and can't wait until next year...when we'll be chasing Dylan everywhere instead of carrying him!

Dylan's Favorite Toy

2010-06-14T12:25:00.001-07:00

Every morning, Dylan gets very excited when he sees this:

Can't tell what it is? Let me help you out a bit...

I'm not sure why, but this is currently his favorite "toy" in the whole house (aside from the remote controls and cell phones that he only gets to play with on rare occasions). Every time I take a drink, he starts flapping his arms and reaching for the cup. Even though he can only see the bottom, he knows that if he grabs it and keeps rotating it, he'll end up at his favorite part: the straw cap...

He doesn't seem to get bored of the cup. I eventually end up taking it away so that we can play together! I used to work on getting the right amount of fluid each day by drinking while he was eating, but I can't do that anymore...as soon as he sees the cup, he's not interested in eating until it disappears!

6 months!

2010-06-04T16:50:00.001-07:00

Can you believe our little Dylan is 6 months old?? Well he is...as of Wednesday. I meant to post on his actual 6-month birthday, but his doctor's appointment wasn't until Thursday and Shane's been out of town so life's been a bit hectic. Enough with the excuses, here's a picture of our 6-month-old man:

He had his 6-month check-up and we got new growth stats:

Height: 26.5 inches (50th percentile)
Weight: 20 lbs 2 oz (90th percentile)
Head: 44 cm (50th percentile)

It's crazy to think our boy has grown 6 inches (and gained almost 13 pounds) since he was born. Here are a few other updates on Dylan's life:

- He learned to roll over! He can roll from his stomach to his back...and does so quite frequently. Let's just say tummy time is very short lived these days (I've included a video below if you'd like to watch the magic).

- He's working on sitting up. He recognizes when he's falling off balance and tries to fix it, but most times he still ends up falling over, but that's an improvement from the days where he'd just fold in half rather than hold himself up.

- He's back on solid foods. We waited a few weeks to get all the rice cereal out of his system and started him back on just fruits and veggies for now. So far he's loved everything we've given him...and he always acts like he wants more.

- He sleeps through the night (for real this time). In the past he's given us spurts of all-night sleep, but he's now very consistent. He goes to bed around 7 or 7:30 and sleeps until at least 5:30.

- He's learned to fall asleep on his own at bedtime and for naps, and he takes three longer naps (1-3 hours) instead of six 40-minute catnaps (thank goodness).

- He knows how to control his hands, which means he grabs at anything and everything he sees. This includes the pigtails of a little girl at day care, the lip of Shane's parents' dog (luckily she just sat there nicely until Shane's mom rescued her), and anything electronic. One of his favorite things to grab are his feet.

- We think he's working on some teeth. He has four little marks showing on the his bottom gums but nothing has broken through yet. Instead we've been graced with low-grade fevers, lots of drool, and an occasionally fussy baby.

- He's so much more alert now. I can see him studying things...the way I eat my cereal, a fan on low speed, his own hand and fingers. It's amazing to see his little brain processing what he's seeing.

- Dylan LOVES water...well, warm water. He gets excited whenever he hears water running, and especially if he can see the water is running into the bathtub. He loves to try and grab the water as I pour it onto him in the bath. He didn't love his first swimming experience, however... The water was a little too cold still so he only lasted about 30 seconds. He did enjoy watching his cousins swim though. We'll try again when the pool is a little warmer.

- He loves his stuffed alligator. He really likes to chew on it's mouth (which makes it nice and crusty) and he squeals with delight when we make the alligator fly and dance over his head.

- He LOVES to dance, especially if he's up on Shane's shoulders. Once you get him moving he grins, laughs, and squeals.

Well, I think that's enough about the boy for now... But first, here are some updated pictures and a video:

{Click for larger}

Reunited...

2010-05-17T09:46:00.000-07:00

As mentioned in my Mother's Day post below, I was able to catch an earlier flight on Friday that got me in 4 hours earlier than planned, which meant I was able to see Dylan before he went to bed!! I even got to go with Shane to pick him up from day care. When we got there, he was playing on the floor in a little play gym. I put my face over his, and immediately got a huge smile...kind of like this one:

I picked him up and squished him and he was all smiles. It was so nice to know that he remembered who I was. We took him home and hugged and kissed him all night long. It was wonderful!

I also learned from Shane and the babysitter that maybe my absence was a good thing. In the five days I was gone, Dylan learned to: (1) sleep through the night, (2) fall asleep on his own for naps, (3) STAY asleep for 1.5-2 hour naps at a time, and (4) reach for and grab everything in sight! I'm pretty sure the last one was just his normal development, but the other three point to one major factor: I was the source of a lot of Dylan's sleep problems.

Anyway, my posts have been lacking pictures lately, so here are some picture-filled updates:

First, I know I mentioned it in passing, but my work paid for nightly milk shipments from Chicago to Phoenix. It was quite amazing, and quite a process... My hotel room was full of little bottles, styrofoam coolers, and ice packs but it was definitely worth it. I came home to a counter and dishwasher full of bottles as well. To be kind to my work's budget, we're saving them for my next week-long training in June. And luckily, my sweet boy had no problem transitioning back to nursing after five days of bottles!

Part of the reason Dylan has been taking longer naps is that we discovered how to help him sleep comfortably... The babysitter lets him sleep in a beanbag-ish thing and now, so do we, but even being propped up by a pillow works. If he's comfy, he falls asleep on his own, stays asleep, and sleeps through almost any noise!

When I left, Dylan would grab things if we put them right on his chest near his hands...but I came home to the grabbiest baby ever! He'll reach his arms out/up as far as they go to try and grab anything and everything he sees. For example, my camera:

Shane was good and kept up with the Daily Dylan pictures while I was gone...that will be another post of it's own, but here's a sneak peek:

That's all for now. Hopefully I'll post a Daily Dylan catch-up soon...

Mother's Day

2010-05-17T09:39:00.001-07:00

Due to my all-day travel session on Sunday, we chose to celebrate Mother's Day when I got home from Chicago on Friday. Shane was expecting me home late that evening, but I got an earlier flight so he and Dylan had to do a bit of scrambling to get everything ready...

First, Dylan made me a bouquet of flowers in day care. At first I thought they were just paper flowers, but then realized they were his little handprints. I need to post about the wonderful person Dylan's babysitter is another time, so for now I'll just say it was very cute.

Then, Dylan and Shane bought me some REAL flowers and gave me some cute new shirts (no pictures of the shirts...):

And to top it all off, Dylan wrote me a card and signed it with his footprints. I bet very few 5-month-olds can do that! ;)

All in all, it was a great mother's day!

Single Parenthood

2010-05-11T07:50:00.000-07:00

Shane and I have each gotten a brief glance into the lives of single parents...

Last week, Shane spent 3 days in New York City, leaving me and Dylan to fend for ourselves (dramatic, I know). We did fine, but Dylan wasn't feeling well and he and I would spend about 2 hours at a time awake each night. It was hard not having Shane to take turns with, but we survived.

This week, I'm in Chicago, leaving Shane and Dylan for a fun adventure together. They've had two nights together... Sunday night, Dylan woke up once and cried himself back to sleep, then woke up again, ate, and went back to sleep. Last night, Dylan slept all night long! Of course he'd save his all night sleeps for when Dad is watching him...

Now, I'm not claiming to have any idea what real single parents go through. But it was definitely hard knowing that Shane wasn't coming home from work each night...even just for moral support. We have plenty of family and friends around to help, but it was still a different feeling. I'm so glad to have Shane...I can't imagine life without him.

[End of cheesy, ridiculous post]

Another wonderful Mother's Day...

2010-05-09T18:07:00.001-07:00

They say history repeats itself, and for me today it definitely did... If you're an avid reader, you may remember this post and this post from last Mother's Day. Due to work travel last year, we had to accelerate our Mother's Day plans--which included announcing the imminent arrival of our dear baby Dylan to our families. We had dinner with Shane's parents the night before and a quick Skype call with my parents on Sunday morning before I had to head to the airport, where my flight was delayed, I missed my connection, and ended up getting to my final destination (Lubbock, TX of all places) in the middle of the night.

This Mother's Day (my first Mother's Day as a real mother), I travelled all day and will still be travelling tonight. The first half of my travel wasn't so bad... I spent all morning and afternoon in the car with Shane and Dylan driving home from a weekend in San Diego. Dylan slept most of the drive (he's an awesome road-tripper) and Shane and I ate a chocolate croissant and watched a movie on Shane's new stereo (I guess I should clarify... I watched, Shane listened).

But now I find myself sitting in the airport blogging because (1) I'm not with my family on Mother's Day and (2) my flight is delayed... As of now, I'm scheduled to arrive in Chicago at 1:00 AM local time...awesome. That's right, I'm off to Chicago for work training. And I'm going to be gone until FRIDAY! That's five whole days away from Dylan...the longest I've ever been away from him so far is 10 hours so I'm not sure how I'm going to deal with this. Isn't that a nice mother's day present from my work? Mandatory training and travel on mother's day??

To be fair, my work has been very accommodating with everything thus far. They're letting me work part time, giving me flexibility as to where I work (some work can be from home), and they're even paying for daily overnight deliveries of milk to Dylan... But still, who sends a mom one week off maternity leave on a 5-day trip??

Alright, I'm done venting. I really do hope you all had a wonderful mother's day!

5 months!

2010-05-01T16:38:00.001-07:00

Tomorrow our little boy turns 5 months old!!! Where has the time gone??

An unofficial weigh-in (performed minutes ago on my bathroom scale) puts our boy at 20 pounds... To see what 20-pound Dylan looks like, here's an updated bath picture:

{Click for larger version}

[I realize the pictures aren't in order, but the only way I knew how to move them around was to click "Shuffle Pictures" over and over again in Picasa. If anyone knows a better way to get pictures where you want them...let me know.]

While finding the old bath-time pictures, I looked through a lot of old Dylan pictures. It's hard to believe he was ever as little as he was in his newborn pictures, but it's definitely been fun watching him grow and learn new things. Although our little boy isn't very mobile (still no rolling...), he's becoming quite good at grabbing things (and putting them in his mouth, of course) and he's discovering the different ranges in his voice (including his loud one). Now, if only he could remember how to sleep through the night (which he did for two weeks straight around 3 months and then just somehow forgot)...

In other news, Dylan has been to day care twice and he seems to love it! He is doted on by 4 little 2-year-old girls who all apparently want to hold him, feed him, burp him, and give him his binky anytime it falls out of his mouth. He and I had our first day home together today and I think he was bored :) I'm just happy we found a place where he can get the attention he needs! But more on that later....

Happy 5 months baby!!

Catching Up... by Dylan

2010-04-27T15:58:00.000-07:00

Hi folks, this is Dylan...you know, the baby that's featured in almost every post since the day he was born. Since my mom has been such a slacker, I decided to catch her up.

A couple weeks ago, Mom took me on my first plane ride to Salt Lake to visit my Grammie and Grampie. I was so good on the plane ride! Mom fed me during take-off, then I slept for a little bit, woke up and smiled for the people around me, and then fell back asleep for landing! Woohoo! Here I am on the plane... Mom had a hard time holding me and taking the picture:

When we got there I was a little grumpy because I didn't get much sleep the night before and my naps were all off, but Grampie was so nice and still played with me even though I would fuss. He even sat outside with me for long periods of time to calm me down:

My first night there, we celebrated Aunt Jessie's birthday and got to watch her and cousin Vera dance around for us. We had yummy fruit pizza instead of birthday cake (well, everyone else had fruit pizza...):

The next night, lots and lots of people stopped by to visit me and Mom. They started rolling in around 4:30 and kept coming even after I was in bed! It was nice having so many people willing to hold me since I was still a little fussy... Look at all these people (and these are only the ones who were in the pictures...there were more!):

The rest of the week, I spent time with my cousins. Cousin Vera loved helping to take care of me and holding my hands. She also would remind me not to suck my fingers. Cousin Reuben would get so excited when I was down on the floor with him. He really liked to touch my face and I'd let him, but our Moms kept stopping him...

I got to see snow... Mom even made me hold some, which I really didn't like:

I went for walks in the cool air and got to use my super-cool sweatshirt:

I got my picture taken...a lot! Mom loved Grammie's awesome camera so she would snap pictures of me all day long. These are from a shoot that lasted all morning (yes, all in one morning). There were a total of 47 pictures by the time she was done:

I also spent lots of time with my Grammie. She makes me so happy! We have lots of videos of her making me laugh and laugh and laugh. I just think she's the funniest person I know!

I also got to try peas for the first time...and I loved them! Eventually I couldn't get enough of them. I'd lean forward for each bite and get antsy in between. Needless to say, I made a bit of a mess:

The last day we were there, Mom went out with her friends so I could have some alone time with Grammie. She went to a yummy dinner and then decorated some Tax Day cookies with her friend Natalie. If you ask me, I think they're all a bit crazy...

For the flight home I was just as good. I ate on take-off, slept for a while, smiled and cooed at the man next to me, then sucked my binky nicely for landing. No problems!!

The day after we got back, I got to play with my cousin Jack all day long! He tried to beat up on me, but since I'm so big and tough his punches didn't bother me one bit...

I'm also learning how to grab things (and put them in my mouth, of course). I especially like my stuffed animals because they're so big and easy to grab:

We've also discovered that I must be allergic to rice cereal. The last two times I've eaten it, I've done this to Mom two hours later. We're going to experiment once more in a little while just to be sure it's the rice cereal, but we'll be better prepared for the possible result:

Other than that, I've just been working on being a cute little boy:

Thanks for reading. If you made it this far, you must really be my friend!!

P.S. I start day care this week... Wish me luck!

Frame of Reference

2010-04-23T10:02:00.000-07:00

I know, I know...I haven't posted in a while and I have quite a bit to post (like almost a month's worth of Daily Dylans, which I'm debating, and all about our trip to Salt Lake), but today I got a very clear picture of just how much our little boy has grown since he was born.

In our birthing class, the nurse suggested that we take a picture of our baby next to the same stuffed animal throughout his life as a frame of reference. I thought this was a great idea but for some reason I never really thought about doing it. (I know, with all the pictures I take of him each day you'd think I'd remember to take one with a stuffed animal once a month).

Anyway, today I was taking pictures of Dylan with his monkey because he was squishing him and eating him. Then I remembered that my mom took a picture of Dylan at 2 weeks old with the same monkey:

I realize he's grown in the last 5 months (yes, he really is almost 5 months old!), but it was shocking to see how much he's actually grown...and I'm not sure how I should feel about this. Excited that he's growing up and learning new things? Yes! In awe at how amazingly fast our bodies develop? Yes! Sad that my little boy isn't so little anymore? Yes...

The Little Things

2010-04-07T20:25:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been trying to focus on little things that make me happy...and to be grateful for them. Today while I was on a walk with Dylan, I thought of a few things that seemed little but meant a lot to me. Whether or not you're interested, here they are:

-- Last Thursday, Shane's dad watched Dylan while his mom and I went on a bike ride for an hour. It was a beautiful day...and because of all the rain we've had the ride was beautiful and green. We returned from the ride to learn that Roy had taught Dylan about hammers and screwdrivers. I'll have to get the pictures because they're so so cute!

-- Last Friday Shane didn't have work...they had a "Spring holiday" (whatever that means) so we basically got two whole Saturdays with him! It was so much fun having him home with us for an extra day.

-- Yesterday after our walk, Dylan and I encountered our next door neighbor out front pulling weeds...in our part of the yard! She immediately said, "Tell Shane I love pulling weeds. I get so much satisfaction from pulling up their roots!" I said something about having plenty to pull from all the rain we got and told her I wasn't offended. We talked a bit more about the weather and such and then Dylan and I went inside. I thought this was the end of our conversation, but a few minutes later the doorbell rang. There she was again, but this time offering me a freshly clipped rosebud from one of her many bushes. I dropped it in a bud vase in our kitchen. This was a very small act on her part, probably just an afterthought while she was out pruning, but I really appreciate it. For some reason it made me feel good to know that she thought I'd enjoy the rose.

-- This morning I walked into the kitchen to find that same rose had opened and looked like this, which brought a smile to my face. I was sure to thank my neighbor when I saw her outside this afternoon. She then offered to replace the rose with a new bud when this one wilts...

-- Today I stopped by Shane's parents' house to drop something off. I ended up staying for an hour and then leaving Dylan there for almost two more hours so I could run and errand and get some cleaning done around the house [for some reason Dylan won't sleep through vacuuming :)]. I was hesitant when Shane's mom first offered...because I don't like to be a burden, but in the end I was very grateful because I was able to get so much done! Thanks Connie (and Tom and Roy)!!

-- On Monday Dylan took a nap that lasted an hour and twenty minutes, without any motherly intervention (i.e. binky replacement, rocking, etc.), and he woke up happy!! If you haven't read any of my earlier rants, Dylan can't seem to sleep longer than 40 minutes at a time and most of the time wakes up very grumpy and still tired (most times he'll quiet down and try to go back to sleep as soon as I pick him up). Sadly, he hasn't slept longer than 40 minutes since, but at least I can see that he is capable of sleeping longer...someday.

-- Dylan loves going on walks, which we do pretty much every day in the afternoon when he gets too fussy to handle (because by 4:00 PM he's quite grumpy from all his 40-minute naps). As soon as he's in his stroller, he's content and by the end the heat and the sun wear him out and he's so cute!

-- Because Dylan loves being outside so much and because we live in Arizona, I invested in the hat shown in the picture above...but I still felt bad for his little eyes. Today I bought him some sunglasses that have an elastic band that connects in back to help them stay on better. When I first put them on, he wouldn't open his eyes...it was funny. He looked so cute all decked out for his walk today!

-- As you can see in the picture above, Dylan finally figured out how to keep Nuk binkies in his mouth. As sad as I am to see his little soothie with the dog attached be retired, I feel like these are more convenient and will be better for his mouth in the long run (Before you tell me not to let him get attached, let me tell you that he is an accomplished finger sucker. I think I'd prefer a binky I can later throw away to fingers that I can't so I'm trying to get him to like it better than his fingers...so far I don't think I'm winning). Anyway, I think he looks so cute with them in his mouth!

-- As of Tuesday, Dylan is a solid-foods eater! His first encounter wasn't so successful, but on his second try today he figured out how to keep the food in his mouth and eventually I couldn't shovel it in fast enough!

-- Dylan has found his voice...actually many different voices...and he loves to hear and explore the noises he can make. His current favorite is a whisper/growl that is adorable. It almost sounds like he's trying to make an 'h' sound, but in the back of his throat...so I can usually get him to make it if I just say "Hi" to him. We've been trying to get it on video, but once the camera is out, he always stops performing. Instead, I'll just have to show a picture of the face he makes when he makes the sound:

-- Dylan also has learned to stand. Often times when I really intend for him to sit on my lap, he ends up standing. When he first stands he stiffens his whole body and makes the funniest face...but I don't have any pictures to share. Instead, enjoy a repeat of the post-bath picture from the last post:

-- Finally, one not so little thing that makes me happy is knowing that I'll be in Salt Lake on Saturday!! Dylan and I are going to brave an adventure to the airport and on an airplane together so we can visit family and friends. Wish us luck!

Well...the list ended up being much longer than I originally anticipated, and the things on there aren't as 'little' as originally intended (starting solid foods is kind of a big thing), but I guess it's good I have so many things to be happy about right now...and that's probably what I should be focusing on.

Guess who's 4 months old!

2010-04-05T15:41:00.000-07:00

Really?? Four months old??

That's right, our little boy is already four months old! Today we had his doctor's appointment. Along with all his yucky shots, we learned the following:

Head: 42 1/2 cm (50th percentile)
Height: 25 in (50th percentile)

Weight: 18 lbs 12 oz (95-100th percentile)

We're back on the charts in weight! I think Dylan realized that he could avoid the discomfort and spit-up associated with overfilling himself if he deflected some of his sucking to his fingers and binky. Yes, this boy likes to suck on anything and everything he finds.

We've had so much fun these last couple weeks and I have a few posts planned, but here are just a few sneak peeks:

{Yes, I have awesome photo editing skills...}

Check back for more updates soon!

Daily Dylan Catch-up

2010-03-30T09:32:00.000-07:00

After going through our pictures, there's quite a bit of Daily Dylan catch-up to do, so here we go:

March 14

March 16

March 17 {This face pretty much sums up his attitude the whole day...}

March 18

March 20

March 21

March 22 {Grammie came bearing many new outfits for Dylan so the next few photo shoots were so much fun!}

March 23 {Shane bought this hat as soon as we found out we were having a boy and has been trying it on Dylan's head almost weekly since he was born. It finally fits just enough for it to stay on. Shane was so excited!}

March 23 {Dylan took 3rd place in the open division of the pinewood derby...which is pretty good considering he slept through quite a few of the races.}

March 25

March 26 {My mother affectionately called him her little Easter egg when he was in this outfit. I can see it...especially in the round, striped belly area}

March 26 {Dylan messed up his Easter egg outfit, so we then took a naked photo shoot...}

March 26 {...and then another clothed photo shoot}

March 27 {Sleeping during our picnic in the mountains}

March 27 {Dylan's first hike!}

March 28 {Since conference is on Easter, we decided to dress up a week early}

March 28 {Wearing boat shoes like Daddy}

March 28 {Dressed down for the trip to the airport with Grammie}

March 29 {Pooped after an afternoon walk}

March 30 {Today we decided to stay in our jammies all day...}

March 30 {...and lounge around reading books...}

Well, I think we're all caught up. More posts to come...

Temporary Absence

2010-03-23T10:22:00.001-07:00

I know you were all devastated that there was no Daily Dylan last week...but it looks like there might have to be a double post this weekend. I'll most likely be taking a break from blogging this week because...

Grammie is in town!

Dylan may not look very excited in this picture but he LOVES his Grammie. When she first got here, he'd look at her but always turn back to me unless I left the room. Now, he definitely prefers her over me since she so much fun. How much fun, you ask? Just watch this video to see:

He seriously lights up when she plays with him. I've never seen him smile so big or laugh so hard! Hopefully I can find the energy to be as fun as she is once she's gone or Dylan will be quite bored...

Little Swashbuckler

2010-03-18T10:28:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday, we had Dylan over at our friends' house for lunch as usual. He was in his backup outfit from his diaper bag, which had apparently been in the bag for a while because we hadn't needed it. Well, apparently it was a little too small for him...

Our friend commented on how his feet were being squished and he couldn't straighten her legs and said her mom would cut the feet off her kids' clothes if she sent them to her house in ones that were too small. So, she found her scissors and snipped off just the feet of his jammies. We didn't realize how short they were until the feet were gone and more than half of his little legs poked out the bottom!

With the ocean theme of his outfit and the tattered legs of his pants, we thought he looked like a little pirate... Needless to say, all 0-3 month pajamas have since been retired in our house.

Like father like son...

2010-03-15T12:19:00.000-07:00

Saturday afternoon Shane came home from his hike with the scouts and collapsed on the couch. We only had about an hour before we were heading out to the Mikos house for dinner and cousin time, so he was trying to recover a bit. I was trying to get things ready for dessert that night, so I sat Dylan on the couch next to Shane and told him that he'd probably only be happy there for a few minutes and asked if he'd play with him once he got bored. Thirty minutes later, I looked back in the room and saw this:

College basketball was on TV and both were intently watching... I love the close-up even better:

...remote tucked between them, binky at his feet...he's even got the slouch down!

Mind you, Dylan has been quite clingy to me lately and he didn't even notice that I was in front of him taking pictures. Shane was quite pleased with his son!

Daily Dylan

2010-03-13T11:14:00.000-08:00

Here are this week's Daily Dylan pictures. Shane forwards his daily pictures to a few coworkers and this week they got a special treat: a real-life Dylan visit on Friday. He was the center of attention in the lunch room!

March 7 {You can't see it, but his shirt is collared...his cheeks just cover it all}

March 8

March 9

March 10

March 11

March 12

Today Dylan is wearing a very cute outfit, but Shane has the camera with him on his hike so it'll have to be included in next week's post. Instead, here's a video of Dylan's attempt at laughter. Sadly, he usually only laughs when he's close to nap/bed-time, so he probably only does it because he's delirious and it eventually leads to crying, but it's so cute!

{I apologize for the angle and movement of the camera. I was holding it off to the side because he usually gets so distracted by it}

P.S. Thanks for all the responses to my last post. We still haven't had any luck with him taking a bottle... On Wednesday night he chose to cry from 6:00 to 8:30 instead of taking his bottle (he hadn't eaten since 3:15!). We've tried a faster nipple, different times of day, and even Grandma!! Hopefully this is just a phase, so we'll keep trying.

We think the evening crying is due to him being overtired because his naps are so short (40 minutes max if he's in his crib). So the last few days I've held him for at least 15 minutes when he first falls asleep and then I put him in his boppy pillow and he usually ends up taking a 2 hour nap. The first evening after at least on 2-hour nap he was quite pleasant, although yesterday he had two 2-hour naps and he was still fussy. I think he has a hard time deciding if he wants to be awake or asleep so he just cries...and then stops for a while and is quite pleasant...and then cries some more. Oh, and I realize I'm going to eventually have to deal with the napping situation since no day care is going to hold him for 20 minutes while he falls into a deep sleep and then set him gently on his boppy pillow, but I decided to start with a well-rested baby instead of a sleep-deprived one.

H-E-L-P

2010-03-10T17:42:00.000-08:00

Hello friends, we need a little parenting advice in our house... We've encountered two new problems and are willing to try anything:

Problem 1: Dylan will no longer take a bottle. He used to be a rockstar when it came to bottles...he'd take them no problem and drain them. Then, all of a sudden, this Sunday he absolutely refused his bottle. He screamed and screamed until Shane pulled me out of Primary to nurse him. He took it later that day from a friend of ours, but since then we've been trying a bottle every evening and it's a battle to get him to drink it (Shane's battle...I have to leave the room because I'm pretty sure my presence only makes it worse). I partially think the reason it's so hard is related to problem 2, though, so I'd like to figure that one out first...

Problem 2: Dylan has become an evening screamer. I understand that children are "fussier" in the evenings, but this isn't fussy, this is screaming. You see, Dylan will get a little sleepy around 4:30 or so, so I put him down for a nap. Before he goes down, he's a happy little boy, but starts fussing a little because he's tired. It's usually a short nap (30-40 minutes) like all his naps. After he wakes up, he's a raging screamer. He just cries and cries and cries no matter how you jiggle him, whether he has his pacifier, or whether or not I'm holding him. The only way to calm him down is for me to nurse him (even when he just ate) until he falls asleep (which is sometimes over an hour). Seriously?? I don't think this is normal...

Part of me thinks his stomach is hurting him because his diapers have been quite runny and mucus-y lately (sorry for the nasty details). Plus, even if we get him a little calm, it only lasts for a few minutes and then he's back at it. The only change in my diet (I'm quite a creature of habit) was my new Vitamin D is in a gel capsule instead of a dry pill, and it contains soybean oil. So I'm going to hold off on the Vitamin D for a week or so and see if anything improves.

Unfortunately for Shane, I've had two evening things for church this week so he's been left to feed Dylan (slowly by quickly switching out the bottle for his binky until he realizes he's eating and starts screaming) and rock the little screamer. Hopefully we figure this out soon since I'm supposedly going back to work part time in 3 weeks and he needs to be able to take a bottle (and not scream all day for whoever is watching him).

Any suggestions?? All will be greatly appreciated...

{*UPDATE: 2 comments already...thanks girls! I am planning to go buy a faster flow nipple tomorrow because I watched the "eating" (i.e. 3 ounces sipped over a 1.5 hour period) when I got home tonight and noticed that Dylan will suck once or twice and then start crying so maybe he's not getting the food as fast as he wants it. A good first step... Also, I do think he's still tired when he wakes up, as he is with all of his naps, but usually he'll go back to sleep if I rock him, which doesn't work at night. We're still trying to figure out why he wakes up at 40 minutes like clockwork. Oh, and I'm going to have Grandma try and give him a bottle at an earlier feeding tomorrow when he's normally happy to see if the problems exist independently. Any other thoughts?? Keep them coming!}

Daily Dylan Extreme

2010-03-05T14:29:00.000-08:00

This week's daily Dylan feels quite large to me... I think it's because (1) some days we went through multiple outfits, (2) we actually took pictures on the weekend, and (3) we received a package of new clothes this week from my mom, which means pictures of ALL the outfits (including jammies). So here we go:

February 24 {True to the shirt, Dylan pooped out of his diaper shortly after these pictures were taken...}

February 24 {Horizontal-striped bodysuits just aren't very flattering to a 17-pound almost 3-month-old}

February 25

February 26 {Dylan loves his monster outfits...especially because the monsters on his belly are bigger than the monsters on his shoulders...}

February 26

February 27 {Thank goodness for the boppy pillow...the only way to take an afternoon nap!}

February 28 {My boys...}

February 28 {Getting ready for Spring Training}

March 1

March 2 {All day jammie day!}

March 3

March 3 {New jammies from Grammie!}

March 4 {More new clothes from Grammie!}

March 4

March 5 {Even more new clothes! Excuse the non-matching socks...his feet were cold}

March 5

And in the tradition of taking a new bath picture every 4 weeks, here's what 18-pound Dylan looks like in comparison to his 8-pound version:

{Click the picture for a larger version}

We might have to graduate to the bathtub soon...

Paparazzi

2010-03-02T10:39:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I sent about seven pictures as part of Shane's daily Dylan email...mostly because I knew he wanted copies of certain pictures from the weekend (like our Sunday pictures) on his work computer. Shane then sends those pictures to quite a few people: coworkers, family members, friends (my version is posted on the blog weekly so if you don't receive Shane's emails, don't feel left out).

Yesterday, Shane sent the seven pictures to his mom, who looked through them with our 4-year-old nephew, Brody. The very last picture of the bunch was this one:

When they reached this picture, Brody explained that Dylan was sad because he didn't want his picture taken anymore.

Brody might have it right... Today during our daily photo shoot, I captured this shot, which made me think of pictures of celebrities trying to get the paparazzi out of their face:

Poor Dylan... Someday when he can talk, he can tell me how much he hates having his picture taken. Until then, I'll just pretend he loves it!

{P.S. Dylan is 3 months old today!! Where did the time go? An unofficial weigh-in (i.e. on the scale with me) puts him at 18.2 pounds. Yikes!}

Sunday Best

2010-03-01T10:29:00.000-08:00

Dylan took a 3-week hiatus from church when he got sick. We wanted to be sure he was all better before we took him back and exposed him to all the sick children again... This week we decided he was good to go, so we dressed him in his new Sunday clothes. Then, we decided it'd be fun to take pictures with the boy since we have hundreds of pictures of just him and not very many of us with him...so we dressed to match:

{Dylan was ready for a nap by the time we got around to taking pictures, so we couldn't get any smiles out of him...}

Let's just say we were the cutest family at Stake Conference :)

This is completely unrelated, but not enough for it's own post. Today while playing a variation on peek-a-boo, Dylan decided he was done playing. Instead of responding with his huge grin (like he had been for the last 10 minutes) his mouth turned down slowly and his little lip poked out. Because I thought it was so adorable, I played a few more time so I could try and capture the face with my camera...

This one isn't quite as dramatic as the first face he made, but it's pretty close...

{If you click the picture and make it bigger, it's much more adorable :)}

Learning to Sleep

2010-02-27T15:49:00.000-08:00

If you told me the most frustrating part of raising Dylan would be getting him to take naps, I would've said you were crazy...

Sleeping at night? Not a problem for our little guy. Actually, I'm happy to report (although I'm sure I'm jinxing myself by publishing this on the blog) that our little boy has slept through the night (as in 9 PM to at least 6:30 AM) for 7 of the last 8 nights! Woohoo!! But aside from that, he's never had a problem sleeping at night. Sure, he'd wake up to eat but he'd always go right back to sleep (thank goodness).

Napping, however, is a bit of a struggle in our house. Actually, I should qualify that statement...napping anywhere but in someone's arms has been a bit of a struggle, and really only since he got sick.

Anyway, this week was hard on both of us, but I feel like we're making progress. Because we had reached the point where Dylan would cry if I put him down to sleep anywhere but in my arms, the only solution was to let him cry a little (I know, I know, curse me if you want to). I would rock him for one song, where he would gladly close his eyes and begin relaxing...but as soon as he was in his crib those eyes were WIDE OPEN and as soon as I was out of his view, the crying began. Interestingly enough, if I picked him up, he would close his eyes and start drifting off to sleep...so obviously this wasn't a matter of not being tired.

Anyway, I digress. The first day it only took about 20 minutes for him to fall asleep (yes, he cried for 20 minutes...). In the end the falling asleep part was actually really easy for him to grasp. It was the staying asleep part that's been so hard. You see, after a week of our learning process, Dylan is still only taking 40 minute naps (at most) in his crib, which leaves me with a very tired, grumpy baby which makes me very sad.

He has, however, taken two 2+ hour naps like this:

I'm realizing that the picture is no good...the key factor is his boppy pillow. In this pillow, he will sleep for hours...unswaddled even (which doesn't happen in his crib because he startles a lot when he's first falling asleep). Today he was even bothered by sounds of Shane coming in and out of the house, the Olympics on TV, and construction next door and he was able to get himself back to sleep each time.

The only problem with this picture is the pillow is on the couch... After his first 2+ hour nap in the pillow, I decided to see what would happen if I put him in the pillow, in his crib. The result: a 20 minute nap!

Oh well, at least he's getting the sleep he needs. We'll deal with his attachment to the pillow someday...

Cousin Jack!!

2010-02-26T07:31:00.000-08:00

Dylan's cousin Jack was born to Bart and Ashlee last Friday (2/19), and they finally were able to meet each other last night. Jack was 7 lbs 10 oz and 19.5 inches, so he was just a tiny bit smaller than Dylan was, but it's crazy to believe Dylan was ever that size...let alone less than 3 months ago!!

During our visit, I caught Dylan whispering to Jack about how to become as big and tough as he is. Hopefully Jack picked up some of those pointers. We can't wait to watch these little boys grow up together and become friends!

A New Perspective

2010-02-25T09:19:00.000-08:00

Dylan has become a lot more interested in things around him (i.e., he'll look away from me a lot more to look at other things like the ceiling fan or trees outside) and he's getting a lot steadier with his head so I decided to try our other stroller for our walk yesterday.

Luckily it reclines enough to keep him from having to hold his head up the whole time. The upper-body straps were a little loose (even at their tightest), so I put a rolled up blanket on either side of him to help keep him upright. I think he enjoyed the view a lot more than the sky view he got in our snap'n'go...except when the sun shined in his eyes.

He wasn't too interested in everything this time, though, because I'm currently only letting him nap in his crib (which is his last choice of napping locations), so he isn't getting much daytime sleep. By afternoon he's kind of a zombie... I feel bad, but my efforts so far are showing some progress (he's back to taking a few 30-40 minute naps in there...woohoo), so we'll deal with the grumpiness for now.

Look-a-like

2010-02-23T15:49:00.000-08:00

When Dylan was born, he looked like a lot like Shane and our nephew Brody. Even Shane's mom said he looked like a Hatch baby. The only part of him that I could claim was his earlobes...how nice. As he's grown, however, more and more people say he looks like me (or my dad). During our Skype call with my parents on Sunday, my mom pulled some pictures from my baby book, which I later had her scan for this post... You be the judge--who does he look like? (To avoid seeming biased, I won't post any one picture of Dylan here. Just scroll down to the other posts and you'll find plenty.)

First some pictures of Shane:

Were you just thinking to yourself that this outfit looks familiar? If so, click here to see why...

Now some pictures of me:

He definitely got my arm rolls :)

I'm the smaller one in pink ;)

Interestingly enough, when I imported these pictures into Picasa, the facial recognition "suggested" that my pictures were Dylan and Shane's picture was Reuben (our nephew). Granted, those are the only two baby faces I have in there, so there wasn't much to choose from.

I personally think he's a perfect mixture of us both...and I like it that way.

Bumbo Test Drive

2010-02-23T13:36:00.000-08:00

{Note: Today may be full of blog posts... There's a new daily Dylan below too.}

Dylan is getting really good at holding his head up (which we appreciate since we'd much rather carry him around outside of his car seat since he's so heavy), so a friend mentioned that I should start trying his Bumbo in addition to tummy time to help him get even stronger.

Today was the first Bumbo experience. Surprisingly (or maybe I should say not surprisingly), Dylan's legs are almost too chunky for the leg holes!! Hopefully as he continues to grow he'll get longer rather than wider :)

He looks so big!! All in all, he liked the new experience. He really likes to be up and looking around a lot more than laying down. He only lasted a couple minutes before his head started falling back, but I think he'll get better in time.