A Play Day with Friends

Yesterday, Dylan & I made a day trip to St. Thomas to visit with a few of our friends. Dylan and I got ready, packed up the car, and were off. Unfortunately, when I decided to carry Dylan's stuff to the car, I took quite a spill on the snowy/icy pavement. Fortunately though, it was just me and Dylan actually was standing in the doorway watching. I forgot how it feels to fall when you are older. Wow! It really hurts, haha! I've got quite a few large bruises on the left side of my body. Oh what it would be like to be small and resilient again, haha.

Lauren, Sam & I. Lauren and I went to visit the the proud Momma, little Madalyn, and little man, Colby for the afternoon!

This cutie pie is Colby James, one of Dylan's buddies. It is so nice that these two boys are so close in age. Colby James & Dylan James, partners in crime, haha.

This precious little girl is Madalyn Reese. She is a little over 2 weeks old. This little girl is so sweet. The entire time that I was holding her, she was looking up at me. I heard maybe one or two squeals out of her all day, haha. She is just so sweet and content all the time.

Every time Dylan & Colby get together, they both are very shy for a bit. It takes them a few minutes to warm up to each other. They actually play together very well. They haven't fought over anything yet, haha.

Dylan, Colby & Lauren. Lauren is going to babysit the boys some time, haha. I've never seen two little boys sit so still and look at pictures on the camera. They were both very fascinated by this.

This is Lauren cuddling with baby Madalyn Reese.  Madalyn is so tiny but they are all so tiny at first, haha. I know that Dylan was that tiny at one point but it is already hard to remember him being so little when he is such a little man now.

Dylan being a silly boy. He loves to throw, roll, and bounce any ball, haha. Watch out Grandpa Gray! Dylan has been practicing his dribbling and he's getting better and better. He'll be able to play you in basketball soon. Maybe someone will finally beat you!

Dylan and Colby playing with the baby's stuff.  Both of these boys attempted to climb in the baby's bouncy chair.  Two little blue-eyed monkeys!

Colby being a silly boy.  Lauren brought a present over for baby Madalyn.  Colby decided that the bag was way cooler than any baby presents and decided to climb in, haha.

Dylan & Colby were both standing here tapping their fingers on the shelves. They both keep peaking back to look at the adults to see if any of us weren't paying attention. I'm not exactly sure what they were up to but they were definitely scheming up a plot, haha.

A look back...

The other night while Jeff was playing some game on his PS3, I was on his computer looking through the videos that we have taken since we have had our cameras. I went back to look at the first few videos and was blown away to say the least. I couldn't believe how little Dylan was in these videos. The even more scary part about that is the fact that he was 9 months old when we got our Flip cameras. That was only 6 to 7 months ago. I couldn't believe at how wobbly he looked....and chunky too, haha. So I figured I would put a couple compare and contrast videos, haha.


(June '08) In this video, Dylan is 9 months old. He was crawling, pulling himself up, and cruising along anything he could touch but was still a bit wobbly. It was just a few short week after this video that he took his first steps on his own without holding on to anything.


(January '09) In this video, Dylan is 15 months old. In these very quick and short 6 months, he not only mastered the walking thing but moved way beyond to pretty much being a wild little monkey, haha! This is right before Daddy gets home from work. Dylan is always very full of energy around this time of day and is always so excited to see Daddy walk in the door. But until Daddy actually gets home, this is what Dylan does to pass the time and expel some energy.

Everyone says it and everyone knows it, but the first few years go by so fast with little ones. They learn SO many new things every single day. So for those of you who have the little one's at home who are not walking yet (Lyss), enjoy every single second of her non-mobility now because soon the word "Still" will be non-existent, haha.

Splashing is FUN!

Dylan has always enjoyed getting a bath ever since we moved past the sponge bath days into the kiddie tub. He didn't last in the little tub long though, or so it seemed. Soon enough he wanted to be able to crawl and unfortunately walk around the bathtub. Although he loves getting in the tub and playing, he has never been a big fan of water. He is ok to sit and play in it but the minute a drop of water hits his face he is gasping, haha. He has definitely started to get used to the water in that aspect though. He just seems less and less bothered/scared when he splashes himself and soaks his own face, lol. It definitely doesn't seem like he is scared of water but just doesn't like to get water on his face, haha.

Like I said before, Dylan absolutely loves to jump in the bathtub and play. He will play in the tub until he is practically a raisen and I decide that it's time to wash up and get out. I think he would stay in all day if I let him, haha. When I ask Dylan if he wants to go get in the bathtub he nods his head and says "yes," or in his version which in "jyes." If we are downstairs when I ask, he runs over to the gate at the bottom of the stairs, points up, and waits for me to come take the gate down so we can climb the stairs to the bathroom. In these pictures, we were getting the bathtub ready and filling it up with water. Dylan was running between his bathroom and bedroom squealing and talking up a storm. He gets pretty excited about bath time. Sometimes he doesn't even want to wait until I get his diaper off before he is swinging his leg over the side of the tub and trying to climb in. Goofy monkey...this is why I can never leave him out of my sight, haha. He climbs EVERYTHING!

Dylan has recently started to care less about getting splashed in the face like I said earlier. Therefore, he is starting to get a little wild with his splashing. The other day during bath time, Dylan smacked both open palms on the surface of the water at the same time and splashed a huge amount of water up into his face. For some reason, that day seemed to be different. He looked up at me with water dripping from his nose and a big grin spread across his face. Today splashing was fun. Not to mention, he was getting a pretty big kick out of the huge waves he was also making. And that's how it all started. Long story short, I didn't want to discourage him splashing since he started to become more comfortable with the water hitting his head & face, therefore I just laid some extra towels on the floor to catch some of the stray splashing water. By the time he was done splashing and laughing like crazy, he was completely soaked from head to toe and so was I.

Congrats Sam & Richard!

I just received a picture via text message of Sam & Richard's beautiful baby girl who was born on Wednesday and weighing 6 lbs 10 oz.  I am crazy excited to meet her and visit with the family.  

Welcome Madalyn Reese!!!

This is a picture of Dylan James and his buddy Colby James, haha.  Colby now has a new sister to play with!  I bet he is excited!


These two blue-eyed cuties are adorable to watch together. The last time we went to visit Sam & Colby, we went out to eat at Applebee's with the boys. The entire ride there, the two boys jibbered in the back with a few clear words coming through. Then they had a "Da Da" contest to see who could say "Da Da" to longest and loudest, haha. On the ride home, it suddenly became very quiet in the back seat. I looked back and both of them were out cold. It was a fun day! These two boys are exactly 6 months apart and have a lot of fun playing and talking together.

Video Update

(December '08) Dylan riding his 4 wheeler. He can at least cause it to move in one direction now, haha. He can go backward with little hops. So Dad or Mom usually give him a good push across the room and he will back up to you to do it all again, haha.



(January '09) In this video, Dylan was helping me with the laundry and playing with random surrounding toys.  He eventually flipped the dumptruck on its side and started pushing a button as soon as it stopped making noise.  Although after hitting the button that plays music, he danced with the music and then went right back to the same button.  It was pretty cute!  He really gets into his dancing at time, haha. 

(December '08) Christmas morning '08. Dylan opening one of his presents. He was very excited! Sorry for my shrill voice, haha. I need to try not talk when I am holding the camera, haha. Dylan had a blast opening his presents and playing with his toys.


(December  '08) After fighting with all of the packaging for a few minutes, Daddy finally freed a car for Dylan to play with. He was very excited!

(December '08) Dancing Dylan again! This video also has some of his crazy Dylan jibberish on here as well, lol.



(November '08) Dylan making several great attempts at jumping, haha.



(November '08) Dylan "showing & telling" about the Nose.

I'm going to try to post some more videos soon.  Until then...Enjoy!

Helping with Laundry

I heard a funny story a couple of times about a little boy trying to "help" his Mom with the laundry and she ended up with a broken finger, lol.

Dylan also tries to "help" his Mom with the laundry which now makes the story even funnier. Although I am fully aware of what I am getting myself into, I still attempt to fold laundry while Dylan plays. He, of course, is instantly distracted from anything and everything he was previous doing, to run to the basket and throw out just enough clothes so that he can climb in  and on top of the remaining clothes. Most of the time he just wants to sit in there for some reason. Other times, he climbs in and "hands" me pieces of clothing to fold. He works at a very fast pace, haha. My only secret of sanity among this laundry adventure is that I pile the folded clothing on the back of the couch of the the little man's reach. So eventually he has very little to "help" with, haha. Of course it would always be easiest to just wait and do it when he's napping or in bed, but oh well, haha.

Photoshop/Christmas '08

Little Man

So this week Dylan had an appointment with his Dr. for a quick check-up and his MMR shot. He is always so good when we go to the Dr.'s office. When we first got there, he stood on the scale all by himself to get weighed and measured. The boy now weighs a little over 26 lbs and is officially 2'7". He is getting SO tall. I knew that he had gained some serious height because he can now reach things that he wasn't even close to before. Anyways, the Doc came in and checked him out and asked some questions. She told me that he is going to be a tall one, lol. His previous check-up she called him a "bruiser," haha. He even cracked her up by pointing to the thing they use to check blood pressure and said "Ball" in his super cute way. So now it was time for the dreaded shot. Dylan always had to get several during his previous visits but today it was just one. I held him on my lap and the nurses and I prepared for an upset baby. However, when they gave him the shot, he just puckered up a little. He never cried!!! Seriously a 15 month old baby that didn't cry when he got a shot. I was so proud! He is such a big boy or as Daddy always says "a little man." The nurse then gave him his first lollypop and we were on our way! The rest of the day he was happy, playful, and goofy as could be.


This is Dylan when he wakes up in the morning. The first priority is a cup of milk, lol. I just love this picture because he has that sweet, innocent look on his face with his lips sucked in.

The boy is starting to get A LOT of hair or at least compared to the baldie that he used to be. I was looking back at some pictures yesterday from a few months ago. Yes, just a few months ago, not even a long time ago. Even at his first birthday party, he had very little hair. That was actually about the time that it finally started to grow.

To show you what I mean, I have posted this picture which was only 4 months ago when he was 11 months old. See how bald he was. I mean, there was a tiny bit of hair there but it was more like peach fuzz. Now he actually has some hair and it's starting to get much longer too.

Once again, the snow escapes us and we are left with a "wintery mix" or ice coated everything, haha. The roads were never bad because the tempetures were too warm. However, everything else was coated with a thick layer of ice. Everything is still covered in ice today. However, when the wind blows, the ice starts breaking off the trees and glass-like pieces of ice come crashing down in our backyard, porch, and a few have even hit the house hard enough to make me go investigate the sound. We are still waiting for a good snow but I would not be upset if we do not get any, lol. Although my birthday is right around the corner and mother nature likes to give me it's own little birthday present almost every year. I swear that it might not snow at all until my birthday is here and then we'll get a big storm, haha. It must know how much I "love" snow, lol.