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!