Johnny Jumper Pony

"Mommy, what sort of contraption did you put me in this time??"

"Well, whatever it is, I think it's kind of fun!"

"But what am I supposed to do in here?"

"Am I supposed to play with these thingys?"

"OH! I bet I'm supposed to chew on them!"

"Drat. If only I were a little taller. Get in my mouth, spinny things!"

A big thanks to Dylan's best friend, Greta Dickerson, for letting her borrow this! She hasn't quite figured out the jumping part yet, but she thought it was fun to sit in. It will be adorable once she figures out the bouncing about apart!

Big Girl!

Washcloths are Dyl's second favorite snack these days, after toes. (Well, and after nursing, sweet potatoes, and applesauce. So really more like fifth favorite snack, but it still ranks above cereal, carrots, pears, and peas.) But REALLY this picture is here to show off Dyl's big girl skill of sitting up in her bath tub all by herself! It does have a little green ledge in the bottom, to help keep them from sliding down when they're tiny, but still. I thought it was quite impressive - go Dyl! :)

More sitting up, and holding onto the side of the tub. Trying to make the tough decision of whether she should let go of the side of the tub or the washcloth, in order to snag pink ducky.

Dylan can sit up for a second or two on dry land, but not for a prolonged period like she did in the tub last night. I can't wait till she can do that easily all the time though, because I think she would really love to be able to - that way she could play with her toys more easily, and just have a better vantage point. Every little milestone is so exciting! I really do feel that often my heart just wants to explode with loving her so much...

A Beautiful Day

Dylan (6 months) & Greta (8 months old) - enjoying the beautiful weather together, in the Dickerson's backyard today. Where can I move to that the weather will be like this, year round??

"Ouch, Mom, that sun is bright in my eyes!"

"Come on Dylan, you've gotta learn how to crawl so we can get into to trouble together!" says Greta Jane.

I hope Dylan & Greta grow up to be best friends so that they can literally be best friends forever!

Happy 6 month birthday, Dylan!

Dylan's birthday snack - toes! She did actually have a new food today, Grandma fed her applesauce and it was a big success! But toes still make an excellent birthday dessert. :)

"Hee hee, Daddy, you are so silly! I love it when you make buzzy, buzzy, bug noises at me!"

Dylan gets so excited and shy at the same time - when she smiles she tends to turn away and tuck her face into my neck to hide. Chad managed to catch a picture of her mid smile-turn - it's a little blurry, but I think it's adorable anyway. She's been very snuggly and actually wrapping her arms around my neck in the past few days - she is so sweet - we love you SO much, Dylly!

Toes, the snack of champions

Dyl has known her feet were her feet for awhile now, but she's just recently discovered what a wonderful snack her toes make and how much fun her feet are to hang on to. She is rarely lying down when not in this position these days, and I must say, it makes wiping her bottom a breeze! ;) I find her foot fascination adorable - I swear she just gets cuter & cuter every day!

We had a fun evening today. Dylan and I went down to Athens and joined Chadmo and a couple of people from his MBA class for dinner at Leghorn's (a wing place, major Rooster's knockoff.) Dinner was tasty & the company was excellent. Dylan was really very good for the car ride down & back, and the whole time we were in Athens. She just loves to be out & about, I think! She's very serious around strangers, but loves to be out in new places and meet new people. Just don't expect her to smile at you the first time (or two) around. It's like you can see her brain just soaking it all in and concentrating on everything. I can't wait till she can talk, I'd love to know what she has to say.

Sippy Cup Success

"Mommy keeps trying to get me to drink out of this silly contraption."

"She's tried apple juice, watered down apple juice, and orange juice before today. Today she tried some warm formula - GROSS! I am a breastmilk only baby. Friends don't let friends drink formula."

"But then I had to rinse that nasty formula taste out of my mouth - so I actually drank 1.5 ounces of watered down apple juice in a hurry, and with excellent form. Mommy was so excited, I think she was impressed! It is fun to play with, I'll give it that."

Today I had a major case of ants in my pants. I just needed to do something different, and I was drawing a big blank. Fortunately, I called my mom to whine, and she suggested that we go bowling because Dyl might think it was fun to watch. Boy was she right - best suggestion ever! Chad and I bowled two games while Dyl sat in her stroller and took it all in. There was a bowling league there, and she loved watching all the people and watching the people next to us bowl. Chad is a much better bowler than I realized, he bowled a 138 in the second game, I improved from the first and bowled a 74 (one frame I actually got a strike, which was very exciting.) The loud noises didn't bother Dylan at all, and in fact she fell asleep just before we left. Then we decided we'd just take her for a walk outside, rather than risk transferring her to the car and waking her up. All in all it was a fun day, and we'll have to keep bowling on our list of baby-friendly activities! Thanks for the suggestion, Mom!

Super Saturday

We've had a super fun Saturday - our friends, Kamil, Loretta, & Olivia Cak, came to visit us for the day. They got here at about 2:30 pm, hung out while Dyl took the longest nap she's ever taken in her life, then when she woke up we all went out to the cemetery to visit Haley's grave. Afterwards, we came home, made pasta primavera, and had a tasty & leisurely dinner. Olivia is 3 years old and is so incredibly adorable - and Dylan thought she was the best thing EVER. Here's a video of them playing peekaboo after dinner - this is just the tail end of the adorableness. They'd probably been playing for 5 minutes before we started video taping, and Dylan was laughing much more heartily during that time! The whole thing was just beyond cute. The ending to the video is extra hilarious too - don't worry, Dyl recovered and started laughing again after the surprise!

I do have to say though, that while it was adorable, it was also a little sad too. I just kept thinking about how much Dylan would LOVE to have a big sister. She thought Olivia was so great - she would fuss if we tried to distract her, but if Olivia brought her toys, played with her toys with her, or played peekaboo with her, she would just laugh and smile the whole time. What I wouldn't give to have Haley-Bug here to play with her little sister. (I must say that the adorableness was totally worth the sadness - please come back soon Olivia!)

Friends, Abaci, Puppies, and March Madness

Dylly loves her new abacus that I picked up for her at Tickleberry Moon in Granville (my second favorite baby store) - she loves to spin the tiles! And when she's laying down, she loves to spin them with her feet too, she's too cute.

A picture of the ABC abacus. It claims a child has to be 3 years+ to play with it, so Dyl must be very advanced. ;)

Dylan LOVES all the pets. She gets so excited when they come close by, and she wants to pet them all the time. Daddy was nice enough to lure Tucker in close so she could pet him. I think the only pet that really goes in willingly for Dylan petting is Farrah, she's such a good cat.

"Come here Tucker! I love you! And I love to pull your long ear fur!"

I think the best thing about Dyl's bedtime routine is that most nights it gets us to all sit down and spend a few minutes together, doing something other than chores. I love our family!

We had a fun evening this Friday night - our friends Lindsey, Andy, Drew, & Brooke Perry came over for dinner. Everyone was very excited about the OU Bobcats being in the Sweet 16 - Chad has the game on now and is on the edge of his seat! Go Bobcats! So between baby bedtime and the game coming on, we couldn't hang out too late, but it was fun to have a sociable dinner and of course Dylan always loves to have other little kids around to watch. :) Yay for the weekend!

Summertime, and the livin's easy

I know it's not actually summer yet - it was just the first day of spring - but between the 90 degree weather, everything being in bloom, people mowing their lawns, and the sun shining, it sure feels like summer.

Dylan and I went for an hour and a half walk in town today - boy did we work up a sweat! For the first half of the walk, Dyl was awake and we did lots of chatting and she even laughed up a storm! Then she got a little sleepy, and by the time Grandma joined us for the last 1/3 of the walk, she fell asleep. It was a gorgeous day - I was glad we managed to sneak in such a long walk before work this afternoon.

My pretty, pretty princess and her handsome papa!

Chestnut hair and dark blue eyes? Yes, please! It will be interesting to see if her hair and eyes stay these colors...

Look to the left of the hair band: That, my friends, is a tan line! Yay for spending lots of time in the sunshine today!

Standing

Look at my big girl, standing up in her exersaucer! She's been able to do that for a little while, but this lovely weather has resulted in bare feet that are much better for traction and allow her to stand up way longer than she could before.

I can't believe how big you're getting, Dylan! Don't grow up too fast!

"Hey now, I hear that camera clicking away behind my head.... Who's spying on me??"

"Mommy! You're always spying on me - you're worse than the paparazzi!"

"But I love you anyways! (And I know you love me, because you tell me so all the time.)"

Dylan really loves her exersaucer (at least in short, frequent bouts) - we call in the ADD-maker. Ha.

Kristy's Kandy Shoppe

The chocolate bunny & duck that I made with Grandma's chocolate molds, for Dylan's Easter basket.

That bunny took too much time to make for anyone to eat him! ;)

Some more of the candy we made. In the words of my Great Great Aunt Lou, "Ain't we got fun!" :)

Mimi & Dylan, playing with the poppers. We had a wonderful time, and we miss having Mimi around all day long.

Another picture of playing with poppers, but this time with the gorgeous Easter basket Mimi helped me make for Dylan, in the background. Mimi is the master Easter basket maker - I'm sure mine will never be as beautiful as hers always were!

A trip to Mimi's

Dylan & I had a lovely, busy, long weekend at Mimi's - and Chadmo came up and joined us for the regular weekend days!

We finally got a chance to meet my cousin Jenny's little boy Liam, and he is truly adorable! Here are a few pictures from Liam & Dyl's first time hanging out together. :)

Liam was very bold and decided to hold Dylan's hand right off the bat! You can tell he's going to be a ladies man already. Dylan didn't seem to mind holding hands with him at all - even though they'd just met. ;) He is awfully cute...

"Don't worry Dylan, we're only 3rd cousins or something like that, so it's okay if we hold hands."

"Now, now..." Dyl says "I think you're a little young for me - I'm almost 2 months older than you and I'm not ready to resign myself to being a cougar just yet!"

Dylan smiling with Great Aunt Eva.

Dylan just LOVES glasses these days - she thinks they are so much fun to just snatch right off people's faces.

We had a busy weekend filled with family, candy making, shopping, movies, and attempting to get some sleep here and there. It was very fun and went entirely too fast! We are glad to be home, but we miss Mimi already. I'll post some more pictures from our trip tomorrow.

A brief hiatus

"Guess who now eats bananas, oatmeal made with apple juice, and pears? (Oh, and who secretly LOVES to suck on orange segments.) That's right - this girl! I am getting SO grown up. Soon it will be time for my driver's license..."

"Hey Daddy, what do you think you're doing with that sprinkley whale???"

"My life is so hard. Always getting my hair washed and stuff." *le sigh*

"Mommy told me I have to wave bye-bye for the moment, and to let you all know that blog posts will resume on Monday. I'll miss you all, and might try to sneak a post in anyway before then, but no promises."

Kelty Fabulousness

Daddy all 'saddled up' for our walk on this gorgeous Sunday afternoon. I think Dyl likes her 'pony', though she probably thinks he should be wearing pink! ;)

"Hahaha - isn't this hat that Mommy put on me just TOO silly??"

This was our first time walking with the Kelty backpack, and Dylan seemed to really like it. I've worn it around the house a bit, and Chadmo wore it today (obviously), and it is so much more comfortable to have her on your back than on your front like with the Baby Bjorn.

I love my cutie pies!

Our littlest puppy, I love her to bits. She is too cute for words!

Packing in some last minute things - this pack makes it look like we could be hiking for days.

And we're off! Much more convenient than a stroller for these country roads. Dylan really seemed to like it, though she did struggle with falling asleep in there. She was close though, and I think she could get the hang of it eventually.

Chadmo must've been a good boy this year, because we had lots of beautiful weather, family fun, and delicious food this birthday weekend. I wish it could just go on forever. Monday always comes too quickly.

Dylan continues to enjoy bananas - she ate 2/3 of one this evening and that was her most impressive feeding yet. It's been 3 days, so now I have to think up what to try her out on next... It's fun getting to feed her solid foods!