Pumpkins & Monkeys!

Ok, I know it's been awhile since I posted anything. The holiday season is always busy, as you all know, and when you have a new little person that you want to share EVERYTHING with, even if they don't understand it or care, it seems to be even more busy. So we've been doing things like going to the pumpkin patch, riding ponies at the Fall Festival, trick-or-treating, going to Halloween parties and much more. Oh yeah, and somewhere in there I turned 30. Ugh. Anywho! We're now gearing up for visits from Uncle Shea & soon-to-be Aunt Ashley and Grandma Yvonne, a HUGE birthday party for you-know-who, a trip to Houston and a trip to San Antonio (which MIGHT include a trip to the zoo for the 1st time! You better cooperate weather) and seeing LOTS of family! All by the end of November. Our little man is going to be exhausted (and you can probably add us to that list as well). But we love seeing family and we can't wait!

I wanted to share the pictures from the recent month since I know there will be many more coming up. I know a lot of you have seen the few pictures that Fritz takes with his phone and these are of the same events, just better quality and more of them. Enjoy them! And if anyone ever wants any of them printed out and you'd like me to do it, just let one of us know, we're more than happy to do it. :) We'll be seeing most of you soon!

Pumpkin Patch pictures

Fall Festival pictures

Halloween pictures

Fritz's Birthday Weekend!

As most of you know, Saturday was Fritz's birthday. So, of course, I had something planned. Something so awesome that it had to be kept a secret. Something that made his friends say "WHAT are we doing??". The clues that I so generously provided Fritz included, 1. It has to do with Jewish people, 2. It will be hot, 3. All your friends think I'm crazy. Somehow he still couldn't figure it out. And when we drove up to the Jewish Community Center in Maitland, he was even more confused. I can't imagine why. I explained to him that now that he's getting older he needs to start appreciating and living life. And what better way to appreciate life than to study and appreciate death. While I actually think that is true, it was merely just to confuse him even more.

The wait was soon over as his friend, Jimmy, spilled the beans over the phone while getting directions. We (I'm sorry, THEY) were doing an obstacle course!! Punishment...for a birthday present, you ask. No. Ok, well maybe. But I knew my little Fritz would be super excited. Or really disappointed, but I had to take the chance. He's always admonishing the guys on TV for going so slow on obstacle courses so I thought he should see what it's really like. And I was right, he was excited! His friends were all still very unsure. But the male ego took over and they all had to prove that they could do it...and surprisingly they all did. It was rough and exhausting but I think it was a success. They all got to try something new and feel good about their accomplishment. I think that's a great birthday present, if I do say so myself.

Click here for obstacle course pictures

On Sunday I planned an outing with some friends so that Fritz could enjoy some baby-free football. We took Dylan to a place called Monkey Joe's. It's filled with all sorts of inflatables, mostly for older kids, but there are 3 or 4 that are geared towards toddlers. It was our first time and boy was it crowded! Dylan seemed a little overwhelmed and it didn't help that the inflatables marked "3 years and under only" were overrun by kids that were at least 5 or 6. He did his best and enjoyed some of the slides but ultimately I decided that maybe he was a little young for this adventure. Not to mention it was a lot of work for me to get him through some of those things!

So we got out of there and went to lunch at BJ's Brewhouse. It was yummy and just what we needed. Andrea took lots of pictures with my camera, so I'm actually in some of them. :)

Click here for Monkey Joe pictures

It was a great weekend! Happy Birthday Fritz!

A Day That Makes You Go Awww

Today was one of the first days that I really noticed how much Dylan is starting to understand things. After his bath, while getting him ready for bed, he took the towel and pulled it over his face. He then proceeded to play peek-a-boo with us by lifting the towel up and then putting it back over his face. Every time he lifted the towel he would smile as we yelled "peek-a-boo!" I can't believe he's getting so big and so smart. Just makes me smile. :)

Minnesota!

Dylan and I made a trip up to Minnesota on September 5th. It was a great trip, our first trip without Daddy....oh, but that's not why it was great. We lucked out on the plane rides and scored ourselves the whole row, both ways. Good thing too because Dylan is not a sittin' around type of guy. He was ALL over the place. I'm glad "in lap infant" seems to be more of a suggestion than a requirement. So we arrived safely in Minnesota, and more importantly, we arrived without any enemies. Yay!

Mandy, Nanie and Ellie came to the airport to get us and we were off! We made a pit stop at Arby's and guess what? Somebody likes roast beef sandwiches. Not as much as Sammy liked them, but Dylan's still a fan.

On Sunday they had a BBQ and Aunt Spike & her boys came and other friends & neighbors were also there. It was fun to see everyone. Oh and guess what? Somebody also likes sloppy joes. Thank you Bapa. Mandy made me play volleyball. I protested because I stink at volleyball. And I think that's especially sad since Fritz is so good at it. Well, what do you know....I was right. I stink at volleyball. But it was good fun and I'm glad I went.

On Monday Nanie and Bapa had to leave, so we said goodbye to them and took it easy for the rest of the day. Tuesday was THE day. The Mall of America day! Wow, it is big. And we walked around pretty much the whole thing. Ellie & Sammy rode some rides while Dylan slept. The most amazing part of that day was that somehow we made it out having only bought 2 pairs of shoes. Actually, it was buy 1 get 1 free, so technically I only bought 1 pair of shoes. I think that deserves some sort of award. Oddly enough, there was no awards stand on the way out. Weird.

Wednesday was the day we had to go home and Chad was nice enough to drive us to the airport. We had a great time, they fed us well and kept us entertained. Dylan didn't sleep well at all, which means that neither did I, but I guess I can't blame him, new place, new bed, no Dad. Ellie and Sammy are FULL of energy and were a glimpse into our future. A very hectic, crazy, fun future. We can't wait for our next trip!

I've attached a link to the pictures we took. I say "we" because a lot of the pictures were taken by Ellie. She's pretty good. :)

Click here for pictures

Gymboree!!

Today we attended our first Gymboree class. Never really thought I'd be in a Gymboree class, but it was fun! Dylan had a great time so we decided to sign up. Here are some pictures and videos so you can see for yourself how much he loved it...

Dancing Dylan

Just a cute little video I shot this morning. It's better with sound.
Also, don't miss the post about yesterday's doctor visit below. :)

Cockroach Poop?

So yesterday Dylan had his 9 month check-up/allergy follow-up/very sick check-up. First things first. Dylan weighs in at 21.8lbs and I'm just now realizing that I have no idea how tall he measured. Hmm, I'll have to call and check on that. Anyway, since he's sick I can't really say everything looks good, but nothing looks abnormal so that's good. He does have a cold and the fever he's been running is from an ear infection in the left ear. We're getting him some antibiotics and we'll have him fixed up in a jiffy. Yay for no swine flu!

Now, on to the disturbing part. The results of the allergy panel say that he's allergic to dust mites and COCKROACH POOP! Gross! I'm sure just reading those words made you shudder, didn't it? Now apparently those are 2 very common allergens BUT it's still GROSS! I assured the doctor that we don't have roaches, we have Middleton, they make sure we don't. I'm not a bad mom! I don't let my son play in cockroach poop! (Although Dylan did find an old roach motel under the couch...dang it). After assuring me that she didn't think I was an unfit mother or that there were piles of poop around my house, she suggested that it was probably the dust mites giving him the problems. Now I can't deny the dust. It's impossible to get rid of, especially when you have dogs. So I do my best but it's a losing battle. I'm to vacuum every week and keep with the Allegra and that's about it. So just to recap, I don't have an infestation of cockroach poop, I do have an infestation of dust and of the 2 I think that's the winner. And just so you know, many of you reading this are actually allergic to cockroach poop too. :)

We've got a climber!

Just a short post today to let you know that I see many bumps and bruises in the near future. The other day I had left Dylan to play in his room and the adjoining hallway, which is lined with foam mats. I apparently forgot to close the bathroom door (or didn't close it all the way). When I went to check on him the above picture is what I found. I have no idea how he got in the tub without hurting himself. He must have really wanted to play with those boats!

Allergies...we are not friends

So I've suspected that Dylan has had allergies for a couple weeks now, so we made an appointment to see what was up. The appointment started out normal enough, check weight, check ears, check nose, check heart. Twenty-one lbs and all systems functioning properly. But it does look to the doctor that he has allergies, dark circles under the eyes, breathing through the mouth, rubbing the eyes and nose...so what do we do? Dr. Neilson suggests trying some Allegra to see if that will alleviate the symptoms. Sounds good so we're all done, right? Wrong. Dr. Neilson, in her infinite wisdom (that's not sarcasm, I really do think she's very smart) thinks maybe we should draw blood to see what he's allergic to. Ugh, drawing blood, my favorite. My son screaming in pain, my other favorite. This is going to be fun.

I'm not sure how many of you know this about me, but I'm one of those that has to lie down to get my blood drawn cause otherwise I'd end up on the floor. It's mostly the needle I have the problem with but the whole experience is rather unpleasant. Having a baby has helped since you get poked all the time when you're pregnant, but still the only times I cried during labor were when they had to put in my IV and when they had to do the epidural. So yeah, not my cup of tea.

My job was to hold him down. Really? I have to hold my poor baby down? Ok, I can do this, just don't cry and don't look at the needle. In goes the needle and the screaming starts. Then I hear from the nurse the words that I dread when I'm getting my blood drawn..."Oh, come on!" This usually means the vein has rolled or otherwise refused to give up the goods. So she proceeds to dig around his arm with the needle to find the vein, which is when I decided it would be a good time to look. Smart. Now I'm very light-headed trying to hold down my screaming child and there's still no blood. Time to try the other arm. His screaming has brought in another nurse to help. Thank goodness. After about 2-3 more minutes (ok, it was probably more like 1 min) we finally got results. Yay! And our trooper only cries long enough to get out of the office and then he's ok. Good thing cause I was starting to think having untreated allergies wouldn't have been THAT bad.

So in less than 2 weeks we'll know what is making him unable to breath through his nose. We're going to see if the Allegra helps and maybe we'll start to get more pictures of him without his tongue sticking out. Fingers-crossed.

Welcome!

Hello everyone! Welcome to my new blog. I thought it was about time to start one of these fancy things so that everyone can check up on Dylan whenever they feel like it. I'll do my best to keep it updated in my free time (hahahahahaha! Oh that was a good one!) and I'm pretty sure I can post pictures. I say pretty sure cause I haven't even looked yet. But what would a blog be without pictures, right?

Hmm, I just found a button that says "add image" I suppose I'll try that. Waiting...waiting...waiting....Hey! Well would you look at that! There's our little man. This is easy peasy.

Hopefully everyone will enjoy these posts & I think you can even leave comments if you'd like. Provided they are comments on how awesome I am or how awesome (or cute) Dylan is, or even how awesome & cute (wink, wink) Fritz is. But I can't promise I will pass them on to him, we don't need anyone getting a big head around here. You're laughing cause you know it's true.

Ta-ta for now.

P.S. I little explanation about the "q" as my signature. My friend used to call me Q (as in Susie Q) and it just seemed easier. :)