9 (and a half) months!!

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:

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More updates to come soon...

Shane's 30th

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

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!

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

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:

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Up next: our San Diego weekend adventure!