We made these puppets on Tuesday. Unfortunately, Dylan got sick today so we couldn't celebrate Thanksgiving the way we had planned. We were going over to Tina's house to eat. Instead, Denny took our part of dinner over, and brought back plates for us to eat at home. Our poor little guy is sleeping soundly. Here's hoping for a good night's sleep and a well boy tomorrow.
Dylan enjoys going to the library. There are two nearby libraries that we frequent. The one above has the big alphabet rug and magnets that Dylan likes to play with. I took the video above after Dylan had already made one circuit of the rug. He'd go from letter to letter and say every one. By the time I got a video though he was going a little faster and skipping a couple.
He still loves to read and our new favorite book is "Bear Stays Up for Christmas" by Karma Wilson. The whole "Bear" series is just great. He does really well with the big books and has a good attention span for longer stories. And it's so cute when he sits on his couch and says "now we read books." Sometimes he gets stuck on one book for a few times but we try and distract him to read something different. He also has such a good memory. After hearing a book a couple of times he'll be able to fill in the blanks at the end of sentences.
Dylan take a walk with his book. It was cold that day..can you tell?
So, wow, I haven't blogged since Denny got back from his soldier-boy training a week and half ago. Where to start? Well, Dylan (and I ) were both very excited that Daddy was home. Dylan proceeded to take Denny around and show him new things, which was way cute. He's also done a lot of leading us both around by the hands so that we are all together (like this morning when he wanted to hold onto both of us while going downstairs.....heh.....our stairs are just now wide enough for that).
Cutie boy has also started singing more and more. We can usually hear him in the back of the car singing "doo dooo dooooo" to the music. Or saying the words to go with the music. And he's got this high falsetto thing he does as well.
The other day I decided that we should make cookies. I had some bananas that were nice and ripe, so we made some banana-pumpkin-chocolate chip cookies. Dylan got up on his chair and before we even started he asked for chocolate chips. I told him we'd have to wait until later to add those in. So, he'd ask intermittently as we added other ingredients, and then finally I told him it was time. He looked at me and said "now we add chocolate chips", took a big handful and shoved them in his mouth. The only chocolate chips that made it into the cookie dough were the ones I added. Like father like son. *grin*.
Dylan has started using his imagination more and more. One of his new favorite games is pretending to go nite nite. He'll lay on his little couch (or the big couch or the floor) and say nite nite and lay still. Then he'll wake up (or I'll wake him up with a tickle). He likes when I pretend to go night night to because it gives him an opportunity to climb all over mommy...one of his favorite past times.
Dylan pretending to go nite nite on his little couch.
The leaves are off the trees and it has been really cold here. Cold with a touch of snow flurries here and there. Today it's actually warm comparatively.....in the upper 40s. When I raked leaves last I left a huge pile outside (I think I mentioned that in my previous post). Here is some more leafy fun:
Dylan tries to show me the letter Y (to match his Y stick in the other hand).
Be sure to listen for the grunting sounds Dylan is making as he gets whooshed through the leaves.
On Monday we found this trail beside the C.I. Beaver park.
The past week we've had beautiful weather. The kind of weather that starts off cool in the morning, but by 10am you are in short sleeves. We've made the most of this nice weather resurgence by heading outside as much as possible.
On Sunday, I had to work hard to get Dylan out of the house. Once I got him out, though, he had a good time "helping" me rake and sweep up the leaves. I pushed all of the leaves outside and made a big pile behind our shed. Dylan had a great time playing in the leaves. He'd crunch through them, he'd lift up handfuls and toss them in the air, and he'd just check them out.
Dylan looks at all the leaves in our backyard.
Here's Dylan "helping" with the raking. Which translates into spreading the pile out.
Dylan, mid-toss.
Dylan in action with the shaking and the crunching.
On Monday, we headed out to the C.I. Beaver park (which is right near the library where we had books due). The park is lovely this time of year, although the playground can be wet and dirty in the morning (thank goodness for that extra set of pants I keep in the car). After playing on the playground a bit, I was able to entice Dylan to check out a trail I had spotted (that's the first photo in this post). We didn't get too far before he remembered the playground and headed back that way.
Dylan, crossing the bridge to the playground.
Dylan turns around to see if I'm coming as he heads back to the playground from the trail.
Just as I was getting ready to take him to the car, I spotted an earthworm on the ground. I showed Dylan the worm, and he got down on all fours to check it out. He poked at it a bit (and heard me say "gentle, nice touch" quite a lot). Then, he wanted to pick it up. Which was fine, except he wanted to pull it and shake it like he would a spaghetti noodle. He actually did really well, he'd hold it, then hand it back to me, and I'd put it on the ground then he'd want to hold it again. About the third time he held it, he pulled its tail off. Poor worm. Luckily, earthworms regenerate. After that, we headed back to the car with Dylan saying "more worms....please more worms".
Dylan gets down to check out the worm.
The earthworm before Dylan held him.
Poke.
Dylan holding the earthworm...or is that pulling? Wow, you can really tell I trimmed his bangs in this photo.
And on Tuesday, we went back to The Narrows Nature Reserve with Tina and Jax. It was supposed to be a playgroup excursion (inspired by the pretty leaves I'd seen at the park on Monday). Unfortunately, nobody else could make it...so we went anyway. We took the wagon, and Jax rode a lot of the way while Dylan walked. The woods were pretty, but the leaves were past their prime..which was too bad. I think the highlight of the hike for the boys was finding sticks and digging in the dirt. Once the boys were pooped out and ready for a snack we made our way back to the cars (with me pulling both boys in the wagon mostly uphill...Tina helped by pushing from behind). We headed to nearby bookstore so the boys could play with the train table and had lunch before heading home.
Dylan at The Narrows.
I have more leaf fun from the week, but I need to get some of the photos from my phone (and from Tina), so I'll post more tomorrow. And who knows if we'll get warmer weather again or not. Today the high is supposed to be 49º (and two days ago it was 75º). Tina says if you don't like the weather in Ohio, just wait 10 minutes. *grin*
Oh yes, we do have a silly boy. Here are a few of the funny things he's been up to the past few weeks.
Dylan is very into Thomas and Friends these days. Way back when we went to the Day Out With Thomas, I got him a little spoon and fork set that has Thomas on the spoon and Percy on the fork. And over the past month, Dylan has stopped calling the trains "blue thomas", "red thomas" and "green thomas" and has started using their names. And when he says "Percy", it sounds like a female body part (just drop the "r"). Denny and I thought this to be way funny. I have yet to capture Percy on video, I keep trying but he stops saying it when I put the camera on. It was pretty funny the other day when we were in public and he was pointing at Percy and saying "hi percy" and one of the other moms looked over at him like "what did he just say?"
To add some more unintentional grown-up words to the mix, when Dylan was looking at the peanut butter jar the other day, he pointed at the peanuts. And said "peanus". At which I burst out laughing (it had been a rough day and I needed a good laugh). When he saw how much it made me laugh, he kept pointing at it and say it over and over again. And adding modifiers, like "hi peanus!" and "big peanus" (the peanuts on the front of the jar are bigger than the ones on the back). He also added his own very loud fake laugh after saying it. It was very close to bedtime at this point, so I had to hold my laughter in and get him upstairs for his bath. He insisted on bringing the peanut butter jar upstairs to have a bath too. Silly boy. The next morning, I was able to catch it on video (and unfortunately, it sounds more like its' supposed to on the video–peanuts).
One more funny word before I move on. We borrowed his friend Jax's Gordon train and Bertie the bus a couple of days ago. Gordon is Dylan's favorite (more on that later). When Dylan says "Bertie" bus it comes out sounding like "booty bus". (Can you tell we are easily amused?)
So, before Denny left for his trip we had a funny little incident. It was after bathtime and Dylan was running around doing the naked towel dance instead of laying down to get his diaper on. Denny was laying on the floor next to the diaper pad reading a book to entice him over. Well, Dylan came over and stood behind Denny's head...not super close...but close enough for me to think..."man, it would be bad if he peed right now". And sure enough he did. None got on Denny, but it was still pretty hilarious.
Since Denny's been gone, we've had to take the trash out on our own. Last week, I ended up putting Dylan's jacket and boots on over his pajamas in order to get him out of the door. He insisted on "helping" me push the trash can to the curb. Which would have been fine if I was short. But, I had to bend over to keep the trash can from falling over or being too heavy. It was cute that he wanted to help, but I was happier this week when he decided to just walk without pushing.
Dylan and Jax like to "climb" trees. Luckily, at this park we were able to find a perfect tree to put them in.
Dylan's vocabulary just keeps growing and growing. And he's putting sentences together so well. When we read books, he wants to count things that are in the books. He's been into books with sheep lately, and when he counts the sheep, he'll look over at me and say "We're counting sheep!" When we are going downstairs, he'll count and say "We're counting stairs!". It's too cute. He loves to count, but doesn't quite know when to stop.
Last night he was holding on to his favorite train Gordon and was telling me "Gordon color is blue!" He also wants to "read book about fireflys". He's been using "about" a lot. He'll point at a picture and say "this about cows". We were playing with some beanbags I made for him the other day, and they each have a letter from his name. I laid them out in order and he read the letters in order and said "that spells Dylan". He picks up on soooo much. I was talking with my friend Tina the other day and mentioned the mall in a sentence. When I hung up he started telling me "go mall" and ran to the door.
Now, back to the trains. I said earlier that we borrowed Gordon from Jax the other day. Since then, Gordon has had to do everything with us (I went and bought Dylan his own Gordon today so we could return Jax's). Gordon has been quite helpful too. He tried some of Dylan's dinner, and then Dylan wanted to try it too. We took Gordon outside for a walk after dinner so Dylan could show him the lights (it was the only way to get him away from his train tracks). I'm glad I got Dylan outside. It's getting dark so much earlier, so he was able to see the moon and was quite happy about that. Gordon's had a bath with Dylan and if I'd let him, I bet Dylan would bring him to bed too (he's a little too small and not nearly soft enough for that).
Unfortunately, Dylan is going through a strange phase the past couple of weeks. I don't know if it's related to Denny being out of town or what...but he's gotten to be freaked out by going inside strange places and being around people. Heck, he even doesn't like going inside places we normally go to...like Gymbabies. We went today and he went back to the door and was ready to go saying "no gymbabies". But when I carried him over he was way happy to be there. We tried going to a music class last weekend that I knew he would enjoy. He stood at the door and cried and asked for a car ride. He'd calm down when the music started (the lady who leads the class plays guitar), but then he'd start crying again. We stayed for a little while, but he just wasn't into it at all. We'll try again next week. And, yet again, he did the exact same thing at a baby shower I tried to go to. I hope he gets through this phase quickly, it's getting old fast.
One evening last week, I painted part of a wall in our kitchen with chalkboard paint. We've been having lots of fun with the chalkboard and the chalk. Dylan is obsessed with having "big chalk". If it breaks, he doesn't want to use it. He likes to draw lines and we've been working on drawing circles together. He also likes for mommy to "draw letters". I draw the letters, he tells me what they are and then we sing the song about sounds (from the Letter Factory DVD....."the A says aaaaaaahhhh, the A says ahhhhh, every letter makes a sound the a says aaahhh".) He loves to do this and will generally stay interested until the end of the alphabet. Sometimes he gets impatient and wants to request a certain letter (he does this a lot when we are just singing). His favorites are A, E, I, H, S and P. He also likes for me to draw Elmo and Pooh on the chalkboard.
Wow, that was a nice long post. I've got some lovely fall photos for next time.
Yet again, I have a lot of catching up to do. I skipped over some things for the Halloween posting (so that Denny could see the Halloween photos while in New Jersey). So, I'm going to backtrack just a little bit so I can share some photos with you.
Last year for Christmas, my friend Meg sent us some great hand knitted hats. This year, Dylan loved his hat quite a bit. We wore it during the cold snap before his birthday, and unfortunately, on his birthday it acquired a big hole in the top. I need to send it back to Meg to see if it's fixable. Luckily, before it bit the dust I got lots of adorable photos of my boy and his hat.
I should mention that one of the funniest things about his hat is how he has to wear it. If you push it forward he immediately pushes it back into position....it doesn't matter how many times you do it...he always pushes it back. The first photo shows the positioning he likes.
So, I suppose if I'd had some other pirate accoutrements, Dylan could have been a Pirate for halloween. He loves the pirate hat I bought at the dollar store and has been practicing his "arrrrrrrr". He even says "arrrrrr matey" now. After he wears the hat he puts it on my head to hear my arrrrrrrrr!. Funny boy.
I'm long overdue for a post all about Dylan. Maybe tomorrow. In the meantime, here is a video of him and a lemon. Anytime I leave one on the cutting board, he asks for it. And this time he kept putting his mouth on the lemon, making a face and saying "SOUR!". And right after the video was taken he started eating the rind. That's my silly boy.
Dylan, right before we went out trick-or-treating.
Halloween this year was a bit of a challenge. Dylan being two means being very contrary. Leading up to the big day, he wasn't interested in trying on any of the costumes I've procured. Nope to trying on his dinosaur costume from last year (which was probably too small anyway). Big No to trying on the cookie monster costume I got for really cheap at a yard sale. And no no no to trying on the $2 superman costume I got a recycle shop.
I did know that he would wear the big khaki explorer type hat I picked up for 50¢ at yet another yard sale. I added the khaki pants and a flannel shirt (because I couldn't find a khaki button-up anywhere). I took some advice from my friend Brandi and added some name badges to the costume, we carried around his dinosaur and....Wallllla! A paleontologist was born.
We planned on meeting up with one of Denny's co-workers, her husband and their sweet little boy Owen. I had to drag Dylan out of the door, but once we got going things were good. He rode in the wagon all the way to Mary's house and once there was ready to get out and walk (he saw a kitty in their doorway). He was shy at first (as he is tending to be these days around new people and especially new indoor places), but by the time we'd walked a block or two he stopped to turn around and tell them hi. He also thought Owen's monkey costume was way cute. (Once they email me photos, I'll post them here...they got one or two with their camera of the boys together).
Because of his new stranger anxiety, I was a little worried about how trick-or-treating would actually go. The first house or two, I had to pull him along with me. After that, he went more willingly and even started digging in candy bowls. He walked right beside me and held my hand the entire evening and started saying "trick-or-treat". I think next year we need a bigger bucket...he kept wanting Owen's nice big bucket and at one of Denny's coworker's houses he tried to make off with their big pumpkin full of tootsie rolls. We saw lots of kids out and about in different costumes...I think Dylan's favorite was Elmo. After we saw the kid dressed as Elmo, he kept asking to see Elmo again.
After making some good rounds, Mary, Ryan and Owen headed towards their house, and we headed to ours. I decided to cut through the courtyard next to ours before heading in, as Dylan wanted to trick-or-treat some more. The courtyard next to ours was the happening place to be...they had cider and hot chocolate and hot dogs and cookies...it was fabulous. We each had a cookie and I put Dylan back in the wagon and we headed back home for a late bedtime.
Now, we trick-or-treated on Thursday night. For some reason that was "Beggar's Night" in Dayton. I've never heard of Beggar's Night, but that's what they call the trick-or-treating and I have no idea why it wasn't on Halloween. So, on Halloween morning, Tina and I took the boys to the mall for their Halloween Party event.
Dylan and Jax onstage at the fashion show. Note that Dylan's shirt labels didn't make it onstage too...he kept pulling them off.
Jax actually wore his Batman costume and Dylan was a paleontologist again. We signed them up for the costume fashion show and they enjoyed walking down the stage (and didn't want to get down). And Dylan got a shout out for having a "creative" costume (I didn't see too many homemade costumes there). We had a fun Halloween time and maybe we can be more elaborate with our costumes next year.
After the party, we went up and ate lunch in the food court. When we were all done, Jax climbed into my stroller and Dylan started pushing. Funny boys.
Dylan and Jax like to "climb" trees. Luckily, at this park we were able to find a perfect tree to put them in.
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