True love

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

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

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

Fearless

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

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

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

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

Adventures in finger painting

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

BEFORE:

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

DURING:

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

AFTER:

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


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

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

Happy Face

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

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

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


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


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


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

Water lover

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

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

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

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

Our little cowboy

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

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



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

Dear Daddy, part II

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

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

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

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

Love,

Dylan