blatant random silliness

bits and pieces

I realize I have yet again let a whole month slip away without blogging.  Can you tell I've been busy with other things lately?  Here's a catch up on all the fun things we've been up to since our camping trip (and my last blog post).

Dylan watching the elephants.

•At the end of June, we made two trips to the Columbus Zoo within a week.  They had a military family special deal....FREE!  And we do love free.  The first time we went (on a Monday), Denny was able to go with us and we managed to not bring a camera.  Dylan loved the zoo...even though he was pretty zonked that day.  So, he asked to go again.  And so, on Thursday when it looked like a cooler day and we had no other plans, I spontaneously loaded up the snack bag and off we went.  This time, I was sure to have a camera with me.  Dylan was better rested, and since it was over cast, the heat didn't get to either of us like it had the previous trip.  Dylan was especially enamored with the baby elephant (or as he says "edephant").  We had to wait in line to see him, but Dylan did a great job of being patient and it was worth it for his reaction–"That's an edephant!"  We were able to see a lot more of the zoo and I was so happy I took the wagon instead of a stroller.  It made it much easier for him to get in and out on his own.  Click here for more photos.

• We've been playing in the water a lot this summer.  Denny and Dylan have spent many an afternoon splashing in the pool while I get dinner ready to throw on the grill.  We also joined the local Y that has an awesome toddler sized pool.  Dylan is tall, so he can walk the whole length of the toddler pool with the water up to his chin.  He loves it!

• We painted birdhouses for Denny and Grandpa for Father's Day.  Dylan really enjoyed doing that project and we painted some on them everyday for awhile.

•  We've been to The Greene several times to play in the fountain.  Dylan got sidetracked on one of those trips and found the water fountain.  Boy was that exciting!  He loved drinking from it and pushing the button to make the water go.  I love how the world is so new to young children!

•Dylan's gotten really good at taking off his shoes when we come inside.  His method is pretty amusing.  He doesn't sit down to do it, he does it bent over in downward dog position.  He bends over and undoes the velcro, then donkey kicks his shoe off.  Repeat for the other foot.  To help him put his shoes in the right place, I made a template for him out of construction paper and contact paper.  It works great and satisfies his tendency for putting things away. 

• Dylan has really developed his climbing ability.  He is very careful and deliberate about climbing, which means on busy playgrounds, I kind of have to make sure he doesn't get run over.  On a trip to Wegerzyn Gardens (one of our favorite places), he decided that he needed to climb up on the big rock wall next to the waterfall.  Which was a bit worrisome.  I did manage to take a couple of photos while standing nearby to make sure he didn't fall:

• Dylan's conversation skills keep getting better and better.  I haven't been writing down the cute, funny things he says, and of course can't remember any now that I'm typing.  But, I will hopefully have some more to report on that later.

•  We got back last week from a two week trip to Idaho.  That will be my next post, and hopefully it won't take another month for me to get it written.

More to come!

Camping and The Wilds

Yep, I've managed to go another whole month without posting on my blog.  It's a vicious cycle for me, I know I have stuff to post, but it's too much to sort through, so I just shrug and do something else, like some real work, or watching a food reality show on TV (we are loving Top Chef Masters and Next Food Network Star!).  Or I Facebook.  Anything but what I should be doing which is blogging (okay, so I should be doing real work first anyway...right?).

So, I originally decided to do a list post and catch ya'll up on what we've been doing the past two months.  But then I started writing and realized that this would indeed be a post about out camping trip.  So, here goes.

Here's a link to ALL the photos from our trip.

See, I told you we packed.

We headed out the day before Memorial Day for a three day trip.  We packed our Forester with everything we thought we'd need and then some (which meant we had a FULL packed car).   The theme song for our ride there was "Rosanna" that Denny thoughtfully burned on a CD with some other songs he thought we'd get to here.  Boy was he wrong.  Our little dictator in the backseat wanted to hear "Rosanna" again and again and again.  Dylan enjoyed the music and telling us all about the signs we passed by:  "it's a blue sign", "it's a green sign", "it's a yellow sign".  

We reached the campground and it was pretty crowded (until the second night when everyone had gone home after their three day holiday...we were off til Tuesday :).  Luckily the cabin we rented was across a little creek from the main area.  Oh, and did I mention that same little creek ran right by our cabin.  You know what comes next right....creek stomping!  Dylan and I walked all the way to the little waterfall and back a couple of times (and Denny did some creek stomping as well).  

What else is there to do after getting wet in the creek but roll around in the dirt??

Dylan loved this little perch right next to our cabin.  

That afternoon we lit a fire and cooked some burgers, corn on the cob, and potatoes in foil for dinner.  Yum!  Dylan was a bit resistant to bedtime, so we ended up throwing our tired non-napping boy and hopping into our nice air-conditioned car (did I mention it was kinda hot?).  We decided we'd drive towards The Wilds so we'd know where to go the next day.  Blue Rock State Park is nestled right in the heart of nowhere.  It is seriously backwoods on the roads from the park to The Wilds.  The roads were mostly gravel, but the scenery was lovely.  Dylan fell asleep, but we decided to keep going and see what we could see.  We found The Wilds birdwatching area that was free and open to the public.  Beautiful view in the evening.  We began to get excited for our safari the next day.  

"I HAVE MADE FIRE!"

One of the gravelly roads between the camp and The Wilds

The next morning we made campfire biscuits (self-rising flour + cream soda=yum), eggs and bacon, then we loaded up to go see the animals. Going to The Wilds is like going on a safari in the middle of Ohio.  They have all sorts of animals there (including two of Dylan's favorites:  Rhinoceroses and Giraffes) wandering around.  We rode on a small bus through several large gates and entered into the natural habitats of the animals.  The first animals we saw were camels, just milling about beside the road.  Dylan wasn't too excited, he was much more interested in his cupful of strawberries, but once we got him looking in the right direction that helped.  He was much more excited when we got around to the rhinoceroses.  (and did you know that rhinoceroses use their poop as a messaging system?  They can tell who is pregnant, who is sick and which direction the herd is heading by smelling the poop. ) The giraffes were pretty far away from us unfortunately.  Dylan also enjoyed seeing the cheetah, until we had to drag him away because evidently the cheetah was eyeing him a little too tastily (according to the ranger).  Anyway, we have lots of animal photos on Flickr, so you can see the other animals on our safari.  

"Hey Dylan, look over there....camels!"

And Indian Rhinoceros.  We saw the two-horned white rhinoceros and her baby later on.

You can tell he was smiling by the hint of a dimple on his cheek.

Dylan and the giraffe.  The giraffe stayed at the gift shop but we brought the much smaller (and cheaper) stuffed rhinoceros home with us.  

Dylan was quite enamored with the big tall stuffed giraffe in the gift shop, and was not too happy when we told him it was time to go.  But, he took a good nap in the car (and we had a tasty treat at Dairy Queen).  After his nap he asked to go on the bus to see the animals again.  Sweet little guy.  Instead, we went creek stomping and jumped in the lake.  We finished off our camping food with an easy dinner of hot dogs, more corn and chips.  

Dylan and his rhinoceros smooching.

Trekking through the creek.

In the lake.

Our attempt at a remote family photo.  Dylan didn't want to turn around and it was getting dark so when we moved we'd be blurry.  But, you can see our tiny cabin, picnic pavilion and the smoke from our campfire.

Our best meal though was breakfast the next day, when we whipped up our first batch of sourdough pancakes cooked on the cast iron skillet.  Talk about delicious...they were so tasty....a little crispy on the edges, perfectly chewy on the inside.  Mmmmm.  

Breakfast on our last morning camping.  Notice that the pancakes are almost all gone.  In the next photo in this series Dylan is attempting to feed his rhinoceros some cereal.

Before we could pack up and leave, Denny had do change our flat tire.  He noticed it looked low the day before and while Dylan was napping he filled it up with air and bought some Fix-A-Flat just in case.  Good thing he did.  The spare tire did great all the way home.  Our them song on the way back was "Another Postcard" by Barenaked Ladies.  Otherwise known in our car as "Monkeys".  We had the little requester in the back saying "Monkeys again" quite a bit, and making us laugh at his very funny faces while asking.  He napped early on, and was happy the rest of the way home.

"Monkeys again!"

Funny faces.

Long Overdue

Yes, I am long overdue on my blog posts.  We went on a camping trip at the end of May that I need to post about and of course Dylan says new cute things everyday for me to document.

Time is short these days. Dylan has been fighting naptime up until this week (*knockonwood*, he's napped for four days straight!).  I've had a slight influx of work projects (yay!) and we've been working out in the evenings.  Plus, Dylan likes to watch videos of himself (and mommy and daddy) on my computer, which used to not be so much of a problem, but now he commandeers the whole thing (complete with puppet-master tendencies to control my hands and make me type or move the mouse).  So, I sit in another chair and read my book.  Hence, the lack of blogging going on around here.  Tonight, I'm staying up way too late to write this.  Just thought I'd point out the new links to May and June videos and photos and some new (and actually recent) "Recently Seen" links.  I've also posted a link there that goes directly to my photos from our camping trip and visit to The Wilds.  Hopefully I'll get around to doing an actual post on our trip really soon.

And, I'll leave you with this video of my silly boys together:

mother's day

For Mother's Day, my sweet husband created a mug for me with all of Dylan's cute sayings on it. There was chocolate too, but the mug was the star of the day. I was so touched to get a present with so much meaning to me. It makes me smile every time I use it for a cup of tea. And I will treasure it for years to come...it captures my little person the way he is right now.

After drinking some chai and eating breakfast (and chocolate) we loaded up the backpack and went for a hike at The Narrows Nature Reserve. It was such a beautiful day and I just wanted to get outside and do something. I use the word "hike" very loosely. When you go hiking with a 2 and 1/2 year old like mine, it's much more of a meander through the forest. Dylan likes to stop and watch the ants crawling on a log. And if there is a stick, it has to be stuck into the ground or mud or water. And if there's water it must be splashed in. And if there is a tree we have to "climb" it. I love my little explorer!


My sweetie boy meandering among the trees.


Dylan and I at The Narrows.


Dylan's second favorite thing, a stick and some mud.(I think water comes in at first on his favorite things list).


"Climbing" a tree with Daddy's help.


Oh yeah, water and a stick, doesn't get much better than this.

It's all fun and games until mommy and daddy say it's time to tell the water bye bye. But, after getting away from the water and distracting him with a snack, things got better quickly.


Dylan loves strawberries. And isn't he the cutest sitting on a log in the forest?

After our hike, we headed to Noodles for lunch and home for a nap. But, alas, Dylan decided he was NOT going to take a nap, which was surprising after all of that activity. So, we spent the rest of the day quietly at home and had an early bedtime. It was a lovely day (for the most part) and I enjoyed spending time with both of my guys.

okaaaay, mother's day and our beautiful backyard

Dylan just gets cuter and cuter each day.  And he's been such a sweetie pie lately too (not that he isn't always, but he's been showing his two-year tendencies a lot...part of the not napping thing).  One of his funniest things these days his is saying something like "watch tigger and pooh" and we respond with "you want to watch tigger and pooh?" and he'll say "okaaaay".  This works in any situation really and is pretty funny.

Dylan playing with his sand and water table in our backyard.

Dylan makes "marshmallows" in the sand. For those of you who read my blog back in the winter, we started making marshmallows with snow. He made the leap to sand when I filled a cup with sand and turned it over.

We've been working hard on our backyard the past couple of weeks.  Denny found some really cool planters at Sam's Club that let you plant tomato plants upside down and then whatever you want on top.  We have a nice mix of herbs and salad greens growing currently.  This is the first year I actually started some of my herbs from seed.  It is so satisfying to watch something you started from a seed grow up through the soil and form a sprout and then start looking like an herb.  I'm loving it.  I also planted carrots from seed and I hope some survive (probably the ones I still have inside will).  The outside ones have been dug through by some critters.  Denny did a lovely job of transforming our mud and weed "grassy" area into a nice play area for Dylan.  He pulled all the weeds and leveled the ground before covering it with a weed cover and recycled tire bits.  We topped that with our two planters right in front of my kitchen windows and Dylan has a sand and water table in that area as well.  

Here are some shots right after we planted our planters (taken on April 28th) followed by photos taken just a couple of days ago (on May 18th):

In the back is salad mix, right corner is cilantro from seed, in the front is a transplanted cilantro plant and a thyme plant and behind the thyme is my thyme from seed.  Before....

And after.....(I need to take some new photos again.....that salad mix grows fast!).

Basil, rosemary, oregano (transplanted) and parsley and basil from seed. Before...

And here they are after.


My salad mix sprouts.


Parsley and Basil from seed.


A side view of the planter with the upside-down tomato plants.

I quite happily took a $1 yard sale table and did a mosaic on it recently as well. I have a bunch of broken pottery I found a couple of years ago next to a store in Fussa, Japan. I guess they had a couple of shipments that came in broken. A very nice find. I'm so happy I finally did something with the broken dishes. Here's the finished table with Dylan "helping' me sand the edges.

Dylan also had great fun helping us put our composter together.

I hosted a Mother's Day brunch last Saturday.  In preparation for that, we found a lovely hydrangea and a hibiscus tree to add to our backyard. I invited my mommy friends over for tea and delicious treats. For recipes from brunch, click here.

None of my group shots came out very well...too much sunlight. So, here's a shot of my empty tables and Wendy bringing her food in.

We did a lot on actual Mother's Day and I'll make that my next post (and I promise it won't take me weeks and weeks to post about it ).

"oh! look at this"

Dylan has many favorite books, but on this particular day (as it can be most days) it was all about the dragons. He loves his book called "Hide and Seek Dragons."  I attempted to distract him by pulling out the play doh, but he just continued to want to read his book for the umpteenth time. So, I made dragons out of play doh. Which he loved. He kept saying "Hey Mister Dragon!" and "that's a green dragon, that's a pink dragon". 

So, yet again, Dylan is not napping today.  I'm hoping it's just a phase he is going through.  This makes the fourth time in a week and a half that he hasn't napped.  I'm lucky that he will sit in his room and have "quiet time" for an hour or so on days he doesn't nap.  Little turkey.  Let me rephrase that.  Little sleep-deprived turkey.  Because he doesn't recoop the naptime sleep he misses.  We get him to bed an hour earlier than usual, but he doesn't tend to sleep any later.  Which results in meltdowns the next day (like we experience yesterday after him not napping the two previous days).  *sigh*

One of the cutest things he does these days is put a very emphatic "oh" in front of some of his sentences.  Like "oh! look at this" when I wear a necklace or he finds something appropriately cool.  He also says "oh! that's a good smooch" after giving a kiss.  Or, "oh thats a good hug".  Such a cutie boy.

Spring is upon us here and we have been enjoying every moment that it's not raining.  Dylan loves to go to the water creek (Is it wrong that I'm a little sad that it's no longer the "wa wa ceek" that it used to be?).  He especially loves that I'll bring his boots along and let him actually walk into the creek and splash a little.  This, of course, means that I have to go into the creek too.  The first time we did this (when we took these photos) it was a colder day, which meant cold, cold water to my feet (I was wearing my holy crocs).  Yesterday it was a lot warmer so it wasn't so bad.  

Give a boy a stick and some mud and he's a happy boy. Oh, and then let him slosh into the water. Then he's really happy. Until it's time to go home that is.

Dylan and I traverse the water creek.

We also did a lot of kite flying in the early days of spring.  Our first attempt was using a stunt kite, and it did okay, but tended towards nose dives more than staying in the air.  So, we bought some cheap kites from Wal-Mart and had much better success.  We may do that again this afternoon.  And since a picture tells a thousand words, here is what happened before we got into the water creek.

As you can see, on this trip to the outdoors Dylan insisted on bringing his dragon book. And he just sat in the wagon "reading" it while Denny and I flew kites. This next little progression of photos shows you what happened next.


"Mommy read it!"




And finally he notices that there's a big Tigger and Pooh kite in the sky. Funny boy.

wow, has it really been that long?

Dylan and Denny sing Rosanna to each other.

So, yeah, it's been quite awhile since I've written a post for ye olde blog.  Over a month actually.  I haven't been that delayed in awhile.  Oh well, I'll try and see what I can remember from the past month and move forward.  The first big piece of news came in early March when Denny came home from his two month deployment.  I'll have to give him a guest spot on the blog so he can share some of his adventures  and photos with you all.

We've loved having Daddy home.  The first couple of days, Dylan didn't want to let either one of us out of his site.  He kept saying and pointing "this mommy, this daddy, this Dylan". We've had lots of fun as a family. We like to go for walks, fly kites, splash in puddles (or through the water creek). Springtime is making us very, very happy.  

On our first afternoon together, Dylan had fun "planting trees" with Daddy.


Dylan plants a tree on Denny's head.

We started swim class at the beginning of April. I unfortunately have also fallen behind in uploading my videos. I have a really cute video of our first swim class that I'll try and get on Flickr soon. We'll just have to make do with a picture.


Dylan loves kicking in the water.

The first class he was ready to get in the water, but once we did he said "go home" for the first few minutes until he settled in and had fun. The second class, he cried because he didn't want to go in, but once we did he was just fine. And ever since then, we tell him we are going swimming and he gets very excited and is ready to go. He does really well in the water and is very good at kicking and moving his arms in the water. He's getting close to blowing bubbles....maybe in the next week or two he'll be able to.

Our other really big news is our new kitty cat Sunshine. We've had her for almost two weeks now. She is a very sweet kitty, and Dylan looooves her very much.


Sunshine, in full on kitty stretch.

We found her at Petsmart, and she was a Humane Society adoption. Dylan and I went to scout out the kitty situation the week before and I saw her and she was so sweet. So, we took Denny back and decided she needed to come home. My friend Tina watched Dylan for me on Monday morning so I could go and pick her up. I brought her home first and got her food and litter all set up, and then went to get Dylan. He came in the door and spotted her. I had to strip off his boots and pants because he'd been splashing in puddles on the way home form the garage. And he could barely contain himself long enough for me to get the wet clothes off. He crawled around behind her and kept saying "that's a kitty cat!" For the first couple of days he'd also ask to pet her by saying "want touch her" and waiting for us to say it was okay before he did. He's been very good about being gentle with his petting.

 I think the funniest Sunshine/Dylan adventure came a couple of days after she came home with us. Dylan had decided he was not napping that way ("no do it! wanna play"), so it was after his "quiet time" in his room. I'd let him out and he spotted sunshine and started following her around. I let them be and would check on them every few minutes. The first time I checked, They were in Dylan's closet and Sunshine was under the dresser. Dylan was trying to get to her. So, I pulled him out and she followed. And I left them alone again. I came back to check and this time they were in my bedroom. Sunshine was in the wardrobe, and Dylan was leaned over trying to get in with her. So silly. I left them alone one last time, and this time when I came back in the bedroom I couldn't find them until I looked a second time. This time, Dylan was sitting in our closet on top of Denny's shoes and the shoe rack. He looked so zonked (poor tired no nap guy). Sunshine was in the back of the closet. I so wish I'd had my camera upstairs because this little scene was priceless. Sunshine has been so good with Dylan, she hasn't once tried to claw or bite him.  She's very tolerant and loves people.

Dylan's first look at Sunshine.


Dylan, after unsuccessfully trying to get under the bed with Sunshine, instead walked his feet up the side of our bed. Ta da!


Dylan inspects Sunshine's eating methods.


Dylan and Sunshine reading in the playroom.

I think I will end this post here. I'll continue with more tales of kite flying and creek splashing soon (and I mean it this time).

after A comes B!

Dylan and I have added a new part to "the A says Ahhhh" song. I asked him what came next and after a few letters he started doing saying "after F comes G" and so on. Now it's a must...and typically the letter that's next is extra loud. Funny boy.

somersaults (or as they call them nowadays...forward rolls)

Dylan's somersault at Gymtikes.

At Gymtikes last week, Dylan did a somersault all by himself.  He actually pushed me away and said "Dylan do it".  And he did.  I was very excited and managed to get a video of it before class ended.  The next day, he tried one at home and was successful without the padded ramp thingy.  Yay for Dylan!

Dylan's somersault at home.

planting trees

One of Dylan's favorite things to do is to "plant trees" outside.  There's this episode of Tigger and Pooh where Pooh and Darby plant a chocolate chip in hopes of growing a cookie tree. Dylan has started reenacting this scene in our back yard, which, unfortunately is mostly concrete. As you can see in the video, he "covers with dirt" and then says something to the effect of "trees need water grow". Then, he tries to stick his shovel in the ground (on the show they put a little stake with a photo of the cookie on it to show what kind of tree they are growing). Then he says "lay down, wait grow."