MLK Weekend

We've had a fun weekend so far. Last night Katy, Greg, & Dax came for dinner, bezzerwizzer, and to spend the night - we had a wonderful time! It had been too long since we'd gotten to have a game night with them, even if it was only one quick game (that's what babies do to game night I guess! ;)) Ruby & Dax also had a WONDERFUL time playing in the snow. That was good for Ruby to get out some of her pent up energy, now that she's a poor neglected dog of people with a 3.5 month old...

Tonight we went to my Grandma Stevelt's house for my Uncle Tom's birthday dinner. My parents, Kelly, Jesse, my Aunt Linda & Uncle Dick, my cousin Libby & her boyfriend Will, and of course Grandma and Tom were all there. It was really a fun evening, dinner was delicious (as always) and it was so fun to see everyone! I took my camera, along with good intentions to take some pictures while we were there, but you know where they say good intentions lead to... In any case, we had to snap a few pictures of the outfit Dylan wore to the party, after we got home tonight. Shame on me for not taking some pictures while we were actually out!

Babies in tights are just ridiculously adorable! And I'm a little envious of Dyl's oh-so-snugly pink & white zebra striped fleece dress! :)

Tomorrow afternoon is Aunt Kelly's delayed birthday lunch, due to everyone being sick or contagious last weekend. I hear from Chadmo that the Packers are playing tomorrow at 4, so I imagine I know what he'll be doing after her birthday dinner! ;) Then he has Monday off, and it will be nice to have a day to just relax and maybe get a few things done around the house before he has to head back to work. Hope everyone's having as fun of a weekend as we have been!

Our big helper

Dylan and me, snuggling after my 2nd afternoon back to work. We missed each other!

I asked Chadmo & Dylly to hand me the camera & camera cord so I could post this blog, so Chadmo brought the camera and he had Dyl bring the cord - sooooo cute! :) Isn't she such a helpful baby??

We're all so glad tomorrow is Friday! And a 3 day weekend to boot, woo hoo!! It looks like it's going to be a snowy one and hopefully it will also be a baked-goods filled one. :) Hope everyone is snuggled in for a wintry weekend.

Our Newest Centerpiece

Doesn't Dylan make an adorable table decoration?? This is one of her new spots to hang out while we eat dinner, as you can see, she is hypnotized by the ceiling fan directly above the table! She'll even stare at it from the living room on occasion. Luckily with my new parenting mantra of "do whatever works until it stops working", there is nothing wrong with having your baby be an adorable centerpiece during dinner time. :) Now if only we can convince everyone we ever visit to install a ceiling fan above their tables...

(P.S. Did you notice the blog's name change?? I decided it was only fair, and I don't think Haley-Bug will mind sharing. I've been feeling very guilty that I don't post about Haley more. Even in this picture, I'm thinking about the fact that this outfit is the outfit Haley-Bug wore for Christmas Eve and dancing around the tree. But I don't want to be constantly comparing Dylan to Haley, or always making sad reflections. Of course it's impossible not to compare them, but I like to compare them in a happy way, like anyone does when they have more than one child. Still, I want Dylan to have her own stories that are just about her and no one else. So though I may think about those things, I rarely write them, and that tends to make me feel guilty. Feeling guilty towards Haley about feeling happy about Dylan, and feeling guilty towards Dylan about feeling sad about Haley. Dr. Samuels talked about this conundrum the first time we met him when we were pregnant with Dylan, and it has stayed true through pregnancy and to date. I imagine it will always be this way to some degree, and it was incredibly comforting to have him take the time to point this out and say it was normal and expected. Somehow there's nothing more comforting than having someone assure you that your emotions and reactions are reasonable and legitimate.)

Hi ho, hi ho

Today was my first afternoon back to work, and Dyl's first afternoon having Grandma babysit her (well, without me in the house). Grandma said Dylan was an incredibly happy baby, and my afternoon went well too - so we'll call it a success! Yay! :)

Here's a picture of Miss Dylan from this morning, playing with her butterflies.

"Hi Mommy! Are you going to miss me today while you're at work?" "Yes I will, Dylly, 100%!"

"Hmm...I'm pretty sure crinkly dog would taste delicious if I could just get him into my mouth..." (Humorous side note: I didn't even notice the cat laying on her head until I was picking out pictures for the blog. Can you tell we're a pet filled household?? And that Dylan's not particularly phased by cat hats?)

"Success!!"

Anything crinkly is fabulous is Miss Dylan's mind these days, and pretty much everything goes straight into her mouth!

"Oh no, I can't decide which toy I want to play with! I'll just try to play with the butterflies, crinkly dog, & the kitty all at once!"

I was SO happy to see Dylan after 2.5 hours of work, and I think she was pretty happy to see me too because she truly laughed for the first time ever! She's chuckled before, but this was a real laugh! And it was accompanied by a million smiles! It was oh so wonderful, the best reward for working I've ever had! (Though I guess really it was a reward for being done working. :))

Alright, my little girl is in bed, so I better be in bed too. Good night, all!

But I don't want to go back to work...

Dylan helping me make my lunch by being a good girl and playing in her highchair. She and Pony like to have serious conversations about the fabulousness of the colors pink & purple. :)

Waking up from a nap in her bouncy seat, checking out the hedgehog & the raccoon.

"Pbbbt. Quit taking my picture, Mom." (She's actually started to ignore me when I get the camera out and tries not to look at the camera - I think she's learned that it often flashes in her eyes! Can you see how blue those eyes are in this picture?? A gorgeous dark blue! I wonder if they'll last...)

We went to visit Great-Grandma Stevelt for a couple of hours this afternoon and had a lovely little visit. This picture is from after we got home, while Dyl was still hanging out in her car seat up on the dining room table watching me get the potatoes on for dinner. Once again, I couldn't get her to smile at the camera, so I have to make silly faces off to the side and then take the picture blind & hope it turns out! I think we did pretty well! :) I just love my little girl so much, we had a fun day together today. She is so much happier when she sleeps well at night! (11 pm - 11 am, only waking up at 3:50 am & 8:00 am to eat and go right back to sleep. Heavenly!)

I'm feeling pretty sad at the idea of starting back to work tomorrow. I know it's only from 3:30 - 6:00 pm, Tuesdays & Thursdays, and that my Mom will be the one watching her, but I'm still sad to leave my sweet Dyl. I love being a Mommy, even if it is often challenging & exhausting. But I do love being a veterinarian too, so I guess I just have to try to focus on that. Wish me luck that we both do well with the transition!

Lazy Sunday

Daddy trying to brainwash Dylly into liking football early in life...

Football is serious business apparently!

Dylan is officially enjoying peek-a-boo, splashing in her bathtub, and playing the stand-up-sit-down game these days! She's even had a few chuckles this week, and they are so cute and I can't wait till they turn into full laughs! She didn't sleep as well last night, but she did want to sleep in her crib instead of her swing, and she slept 5.5 hours there. (She just didn't really sleep after that though.) Her less-than-ideal night's sleep made her a bit of a sleepy crab today, so we only had brief periods of happy with lots of fuss-pickle-ing and napping mixed in. Lets hope she sleeps well tonight (in spite of all her naps) and that we are back to our cheerful selves tomorrow!

The weekends go too fast - it is so lovely to have Daddy home and get to spend so much time with all 3 of us together. We are sad to have him go back to work!

A good Saturday

Wow, am I terrible at picking a favorite picture from a photo shoot or what?? In any case, here's a slew of similar looking pictures, yet again! I just think Dylan's every facial expression is so adorable that I can never just pick one! The hazards of being a Mommy I guess... ;)

Daddy & Dyl at dinner tonight - Chadmo made steaks and fried rice, YUM! Dyl started out in her highchair, but she's been awfully snuggle-y the past few days and decided she'd like to continue that pattern and be held instead of just observing. They're keeping me company while I finish up my dinner here, and yes, we do stop in the middle of dinner for cute photo-ops! :)

The only part of bathtime that Dylan's not overly fond of - lotioning. But she's starting to resign herself to it. She's a pretty good girl, and if you subject her to something often enough, she tends to decide to suck it up and cooperate. (Unless that something would be riding in the car, baby bjorn, ergo, or stroller. :/)

Adorable naked pigger-gogs, post-bath. They're so cute that sometimes it's hard to not nibble them off! (Once again, I don't have any idea why this is underlined.)

Telling her just how cute she is in an attempt to elicit some of those big smiles...

There's one! Those are the most gratifying smiles in the world!

Anticipating Mommy smooches!

Pretty in Pink! I keep trying to warn her that life is difficult when you're so adorable, because everyone just wants to smooch you all the time and it's hard to get anything else done.

Last night was amazing! Dyl slept from 12:45 am - 9:20 am! I'm trying hard not to get my hopes up too high that this is going to last, but it's hard not to. I'll just enjoy it to the max when it does happen! We had a productive & fun day today: we took down our Christmas tree, hauled 3 loads of firewood to the house, went for a long walk in town, made a tasty dinner, made chocolate chip walnut oatmeal cookies (dairy free of course!), and grocery shopped. Now Dylan is just asleep (or seems to be, she can be sneaky about that sometimes), so I better head to bed myself. Sweet dreams.