Excitement

"Do you need help taking my picture, Mommy?"

Our little Mountain Goat. She climbs over and up anything these days.

"I have to enjoy looking out this window at the clinic while I can, because soon we're moving to our new house in town!"

Double trouble.

I love our crawling, climbing, smiling, giggling, and babbling Dylan! She is so much fun! (And SO busy these days - we're going to need at least 15 baby gates in the new house...)

We got the keys to our new house this past Sunday - woo hoo! We love it and have no buyer's remorse, thank goodness. Though I will be sad to leave our house here by the clinic, it's been good to us and we have lots of wonderful memories here. I'm a dairy cow and always a little resistant to change, so I just try to take it as much in stride as I can.

The new house has a pretty big advantage for winning me over to its side though - with 3 bathrooms, big bedrooms, big closets, and space galore. I'm going to have to get used to going up and down stairs a million times a day though, and it's going to be a lot of house to clean! We are having some work done to it at the moment (removing old, non-functioning baseboard heaters, putting in new trim in place of said heaters, and painting) - and it's fun to go and see the progress. Matt Glenn is who's doing the work for us, and he's working on Dyl's room first so hopefully it will be ready to go for us to move all the way in this Saturday. Anyone want to join us for a moving party??? :)

We're excited for Sunday the 2nd of September as well - Chad and I will be celebrating our 6th anniversary in a new house with a lovely Dylly-roo to celebrate with us! Life just keeps getting better.

Big beautiful brain

Dyl playing in her bed after nap time a few days ago. I love how proud she is of herself for being able to stand up like a big girl!

Dyl & Daddy at Northstar Cafe at Easton, where we had lunch today. :)

Dylan had her MRI at Children's Hospital bright and early this morning. She was a really good girl and didn't cry at all for all the strapping down, ear plug application, padding, taping, and even being moved into the machine. She didn't approve of the very loud noise the MRI made when it was running though, so she did cry for the 2 minutes the machine was running. But I got to stand there with my hands and arms on her and holding her hands, and then I got to scoop her up right away when it was done and she was quickly consoled. She's our very good, big girl! Most importantly and thankfully, the results of the MRI confirmed that she is indeed just a big headed baby from a family of big headed people. They measured Chad's & my heads, and they are both off the charts - so Dyl fits right in. They'll continue to measure her head and monitor her growth till she's 3, just to be safe. The nurse practitioner repeatedly complimented Dyl on her "big, beautiful brain" - which is exactly what we wanted to hear! A big thank you to Kamil for arranging all of this, getting us in so quickly, and for hanging out with us the whole time we were at Children's today. It meant a lot to us. :)

Out to lunch

Yesterday Dyl & I rode along to Columbus with grandma & grandpoppy. While they were busy, Dyl & I went and strolled around in the Short North. Here's a pic from when we stopped at Northstar Cafe for a tasty lunch of simple salad and fresh ginger ale. I love my little lunch partner!

Basking in the sunlight

"Hey, look! It's the outside!"

"I wonder if I can get there by climbing through this window..."

"Well, it was worth a shot! This low window is super cool, Mommy."

"I like the screen too - it makes fun noises when I scratch it, and it has cool flippy things on the side to play with."

I call this the deer-in-the-headlights look. She likes to use it when she's trying to act all innocent if she thinks she might be up to something slightly naughty. :)

And this is the ornery face that immediately follows the above innocent expression! (It makes me think of a certain Emrie Ann Dickerson!) It's impossible to keep those bangs out of her face, now that she loves to pull her hair clip out. 

I think she should wear frilly popped collars every day.

Pretty, Pretty Uncle Greg

Uncle Greg, modeling the pretty, pretty princess necklace I made from some buttons I found at Walmart. Belle just happens to be his favorite princess too!

Introducing Dylan to the princesses. She looks a little hesitant here, but that necklace rapidly became the highlight of the evening. 

I think Dyl has finally forgiven Greg for his frightening peekaboo encounter, and his horse race outburst. They were good friends again tonight. We all had a fun evening of driving by the new house, making & eating chicken pot pie and pineapple upside down cake, and hanging out. Dyl always loves hanging out with Katy & Greg (and so do we!)

1st time going up a step!

"Oooh, Mommy, what are these? They look like fun!"

"Hey!" the kitties say, "Who said you could go up to our lair??"

"I'll share," says Forrest, "can you do it, Dyl?"

"Watch me, Mommy. You're in trouble now!"

"One leg..."

"Two! And I'm up!" - Go Dyl! You're such a big girl! :)

We love our little mountain goat! She's a cautious mountain goat, she did one step and then came back down (all by herself) and crawled over to me to tell me how proud she was of herself. It was adorable, I love her to bits. :)

Uh-oh

Chadmo went to fetch a babbling baby out of her bed Sunday morning, and this is what he found:

Dyl had managed to wiggle out of her swaddle and pull herself to standing in her crib for the first time - trouble! (Oh, we've go trouble! Right here in Logan city. With a capital T, and that rhymes with D, and that stands for Dyl!) She's a regular pro at pulling herself up on everything and anything since then. And she's also starting to get the hang of sitting down from the standing position, instead of just falling down. I swear she just keeps learning new things faster and faster! It's so amazing to watch her do something new every day. <3 p="p">

Dyl's first taste of ice cream!

We went to Columbus yesterday to hang out with Katy & Greg (& Dax.) While we were there, we had to eat at Northstar Cafe of course. The Jeni's ice cream next door was too much to resist, so we had to stop there too. Dyl had her first taste of ice cream while we were there (talk about setting a high standard - Jenni's White House Cherry - yum!) Needless to say, she LOVED it. (And I'm proud to add that she ate her pureed baby food like a happy little clam, immediately after her excursion into the world of ice cream. Thank you, Dyl, for making me feel enormously less guilty about allowing you such a sugary indulgence so early in life!)

"Good stuff, huh, Dylly?"

"Indeed, Mommy. In fact I think I'll take WAY bigger tastes from now on."

"Mmmm, what is this stuff?"

"What do you mean I have something on my face?"

"Oh. My. Goodness."

"Just how wide can I open my mouth, I wonder..."

"Don't be judge-y, Daddy. I see the way you eat your ice cream cone." ;)

I have to admit, it was really fun to give her her first taste of ice cream. I think she enjoyed her 4-adult-audience, oohing and aahing over what Katy proclaimed "the best moment of her life." :)

"I'll help you hold that ice cream cone, Mommy!"

Triumph.

"Why have they been keeping this from me for the last 10 months??"

"I may not like the cone, but I can suck the lovely ice cream flavor out of it!"

Pulling herself up!

Alright, I know she's not even looking at the camera. But, by the time she pulled herself up, I clapped for her, then ran to get the camera - this is the only picture I managed to snap before she sat back down.  She's such a big girl! She was pulling herself up to standing at Mom & Dad's house a week and a half ago, but hasn't done much of it since. Now today she pulled herself up in her pack n' play a few times. Go Dyl! She's so proud of herself when she accomplishes this, it's adorable. :)