Dear Daddy, part II

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

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

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

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

Love,

Dylan

Dear Daddy...

Dear Daddy,

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love, Dylan

15 (really almost 16) months

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

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

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

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

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

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

Learning to take pictures all by himself....

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

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

Current favorite toys include:

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

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

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

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

Just in case...

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

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

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

{Click to enlarge}

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

{Click to enlarge}

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



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


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


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



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


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

A bittersweet farewell...

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



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


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

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

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

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

On the move...

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?

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.