"I got me a dragon!"

got a dragon for being good at the library!
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Dylan doesn't always sit still at story time, but this past week, he was pretty good! I think he was a little on the sleepy side, so he spent a lot of time cozying up on my lap and listening....Of course, he still browsed the shelves, but he was so much mellower than he was last week (though, the librarian said he was "sooo much fun"! Yes, she's very nice!).

After Dylan received his dragon cut-out from her at the end of the session, he came running back to me to show me (yes, he's very sweet!)!

my chai date with Dylan

having chai and a shortbread cookie with mommy
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Tom left his car in San Jose all Tgiving weekend and we all slept through the morning alarm on Monday, so Dylan and I had to drive Tom to the downtown bus station so he could take the 17 Express over the hill. I still forget how long it can take to get Dylan ready and gather up his things! We got there just as the bus was supposed to leave and Tom had to make a run for it! Luckily, the bus driver saw him running just as he was pulling away, so Tom just made it on the bus....

Since we were already in the car and out and about, I decided it would be nice to grab a snack and much needed caffeine (for me!) before taking Dylan to Together in the Park.

After not much deliberation, we ended up at Black China Bakery. I had chai and Dylan had warm soymilk and we split the cranberry scone and the shortbread cookie.

He was quite the charmer, saying hi and bye to the other customers and, of course, posing for the camera....

Moments like these, I wish I had a higher quality cameraphone....!

a day with daddy

DSC04687
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Dylan clearly had a good day with daddy...! And, he's mastered his camera smile...!

Tom and Dylan went to the Children's Discovery Museum while I went shopping with Heather!

He didn't sack out beforehand, as planned (apparently, he threw a fit when I left the car), so he was out cold at 3pm, around the time H. and I stopped for a bite to eat. So, Tom brought the sleeping Dylan to CPK and joined us for lunch, and we ended up finishing up the shopping trip all together.

a cold day at the park

we love it when he's happy
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Thanksgiving Day weekend was a welcome reprieve from the workweek, but we had plenty to keep us busy at home, too (chores, chores, chores!). But, since the weather was pleasant and Dylan was his usual antsy-pantsy self, we headed outdoors for some Jamba Juice and a little park time on Saturday.

He got into a little possessive battle with another little tot over the digger (he's definitely doing the "miiiine" thing now...), but it was an otherwise uneventful excursion! More photos are here.

gobble gobble

It was a busy, busy, deadline-oriented work week for both Tom and me, but we miraculously managed to get all of our cooking done in time! This year, we divvied up the cooking responsibilities and Tom and I were responsible for bringing the sweet potatoes, cornbread and the vegan tofurkey. We also made a couple of different vegan cupcakes -- apple cider with vegan buttercream frosting and pumpkin chocolate chip with cinnamon icing -- and a vegan pumpkin pie.

Cindy and mom contributed the brussel sprouts, cranberry sauce and the other non-vegan foods (you know, turkey, stuffing, etc. etc.).

It was a nice, relaxing Thanksgiving with all-day noshing and a little bit of game playing (Last Word and Mad Gab).

As usual, Dylan was supercute in his red plaid shirt and white overalls, and as usual, he had an absolute blast. Unfortunately, he also wanted to play with light sabers!!

We realize that we're going to have to keep a much closer eye on Dylan at family parties, now that he has become such a climber. Stairs, tables, chairs -- there are no heights he won't attempt to scale, no peaks he won't attempt to reach. And the main problem isn't getting up -- it's getting down. He doesn't really know how to get down (climbing, not dancing). I remember a scene from an old Steven Bochco cop show from the '80s (NYPD Blue?) in which a prankster led a cow up to the top story of a tenement building and the police couldn't make the cow go back down. After much pushing and pulling of the cow to no effect, a homeless man who lived in the stairwell informed the police that cows "ain't got no 'down' genes. They got 'up' genes, but no 'down' genes." I think of that scene every time Dylan gets stuck on the stairs (or on a chair or table). He's got "up" genes, but he ain't got no "down" genes yet. (Sometimes, when he is being watched, he can be induced to go down on stomach or butt, but mostly he hurtles himself face-first into the void.)

The problem is that Dylan wanted to spend most of the day in the upstairs playroom, and if either of his mostly attentive parents turned away for a nanosecond to frost a cupcake or pop a tofurkey in the oven, Dylan would disappear in a puff of smoke, toddle rapidly toward the stairs, and begin his unsupervised ascent. And now he's beginning to imitate Jason and Tyler more, so he begun to climbing up the stairs on the OUTSIDE of the banister. Luckily, he didn't get too far up. He also wants to climb on top of Jason and Tyler's playhouse and jump off (he gets no help on doing this).

In any case, we hope everyone down south had an equally enjoyable Thanksgiving. You were all in our thoughts...!

shades

shades
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Dylan's too cool for his own shades, but his cousin's are ok by him!

itty bitty fred-like?

3-D specs
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

I don't know. To me, Dylan looks a lot like like Fred here. Is it the shirt? The glasses? The smile?? Tom says, "Yeah. He's got a Fred-ly facial expression" so I guess I'm not waaaay off...! Cute pic, huh? The glasses really become him....

celebrations galore

awake and happy to see daddy
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

It's been another fun, but very exhausting week. We celebrated Taliana's Adoption Day, Tom's birthday and Mike's 70th!

On Wednesday, we celebrated Taliana's actual Adoption Day with a brunch at Zachary's and a little side trip to a nearby park. Poor Dylan fell asleep on the way to daycare, but woke up after only about an hour of napping!

Truncated naptimes are usually ok if we have some time to make up the shortfall the following day, but of course, this week, we were also celebrating Tom's actual bday.

So, on Thursday evening, we did a joint Adoption Day/Birthday dinner at P.F. Chang's in San Jose which meant another late night for little Dylan. He played alllllll day -- first at Hanalee's house in the morning with Paris and then (he skipped naptime) at daycare. He sacked out before HAT even arrived to carpool over to San Jose! He slept a little on the drive over (and didn't know we were having yet another celebration, so when he woke up, he was sooo very happy to see Taliana and daddy -- see picture), but that was not enough!

neeeed cokkee
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Dinner was leisurely. The night went late, Dylan slept late, and the next morning, we were up early again for another trip to the Children's Discovery Museum. He was so TIRED, but still gamely enjoyed the visit!!

Saturday offered no rest catch-up. We were up early to make goodies -- hummus, a pasta dish with tahini lemon sauce, sweet pea guacamole, and mexican hot chocolate cupcakes with chocolate ganache -- for Grandpa Mike's big 70th birthday bash.

The birthday bash was soo much fun, but it was also another late night! Luckily, Dylan fell asleep in the car immediately, but by then, it was already close to 10:30pm.

To wrap things up for the week, we awoke late this morning (8:30am) and hurried our way to readiness for a nice day trip to Gilroy Gardens with Cindy and the boys, and an old friend of mine from AOL and her 6-year old son.

Dylan is asleep as I type, but we're about to wake him up so he doesn't end up sleeping at 11pm tonight!

Hopefully, he'll be able to recupe some sleep tonight and tomorrow morning.

As to new words this week, he's got "juice" and "vacuum" down a bit clearer, "thanks," "spoon" (sounds like "boon"), "cookie," "cupcake," "book," and the cutest thing (in our eyes), are the nods accompanying the "yeah's," done whole-upper-body style....

morning with the monarchs

DSC04202
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

These kids are royalty, for sure. Music Together class was canceled today due to Veteran's Day, but Dylan and I still got together with Heather and Taliana for a little Monday, pre-work fun! It was such a beautiful day!! Unfortunately, we couldn't stay at Natural Bridges for too long since we were off to a late-ish start (10:30am) and I still had to go into work.

More pictures of these cuties are here.

...when Tom and Dylan play together...

wooow
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Overheard from the dining room where Dylan and Tom are coloring: "Yes, that's right. She drinks coffee and smokes. That's why she has yellow teeth."

Ai yai yai....

Children's Discovery Museum

bday cupcakes
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

November is an exceedingly busy month for us! Not only do we celebrate Tom's bday, but there's also my step-dad's bday, Taliana's bday, Taliana's Adoption Day, Thanksgiving (of course), and Heather's bday (not necessarily occurring in that order!)!!

So, last week, I mentioned we'd gone to the Children's Discovery Museum in San Jose for the second time in one week! Well, the first time we went, it was in celebration of Heather's bday! Since I normally work from home on Friday evenings, we decided to take the kidlets on a little excursion and, boy, did they have fun! During this first trip, we didn't even make it to the second floor!

the Secret of Circles
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

They loved the Secret of Circles exhibit, holding hands on the swing, driving the firetruck and the ambulance, and watching tennis balls get sucked up a tube!

Maybe we'll have a chance to take Eli and Rocky here during one of their trips to the Bay Area!

More pictures on flickr....

Tom's soup-er bday party

dylan
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

This week was all about four new choppers pushing their way into Dylan's little world and all the pain that the process entails! We're not over with the teething yet as only two teeth so far seem to have just, just, just barely broken through the gums! Dylan is doing relatively well, I think, but he has been pretty clingy with me which has made it a little more difficult to feel good about leaving him at daycare or the nanny while I go about my work responsibilities.

Dylan also participated in another child development study up at the University. This one was more interesting than the others simply because he got to play and not just passively observe things.

We also ended the week with a nice bday celebration for Tom! Tom and I both had busy weeks at work but, miraculously, we managed to pull the soup prep off.

In the end, we served seven soups: squash, apple and fennel; butternut lemongrass; Asian noodle soup; lentil-bean stew; chestnut soup; wild-rice and cranberry; and a brandied pumpkin dessert soup. We also served the ever-popular vegan Mexican hot chocolate cupcakes with chocolate ganache and some lychee cupcakes with coconut glaze.

As usual, Dylan had a blast. In fact, when I told him we were having a party, he broke out in a big, wide grin!

The new things this week include saying all three syllables of "banana," as well as "baby," "bath," "bird," "book," "down," "dat dough" (for "vacuum"), "ju" (for "juice"), "baa" (upon seeing pictures of sheep), "mine," "me," and signing "drink." We also discovered he knows (as we just started asking) what his knees, mouth, teeth, cheeks, ears, hair, toes, feet, and nose are. Now he points to pictures and tells us "daddy", "mommy", and for him, "me" (he loves the "me" song we learned from Music Together, too)! And, finally, he has been imitating the Elmo in Chicken Suit chicken dance since last night when Cindy gave it to him....It's very cute.

Back Log: Holy smokes! At this time last year, Dylan didn't have any teeth! What's more he wasn't even crawling! (Read more...)

the first haircut and the last run

BEFORE
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

AFTER
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Dylan got his hair cut! We also visited the Children's Discovery Museum -- two days in a row (!!) -- because now we're members. And, Tom and I ran the last half-marathon of the season while Dylan camped out at his Lola's.....

in sum...

this is his camera smile
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Really! This is what I get when I point a camera at Dylan and say, "ok. smile!" The Little Man is turning into quite the ham!

So, to the cute things he did today.....As testament to all of the fun he had last night, this morning, he came into the kitchen with his basket saying, "tick teet," and just before heading up to bed tonight, he got out some Halloween stickers and stuck 'em to his hand.

Today, he also said, "poo poo" when he'd finished the deed and promptly laid down on the mat to get his diaper changed! He also said "cookie" and we discovered he knows where his ears are (tonight was the first time we'd ever asked him). Tonight, he also tapped on the side of the coffee grinder (to tap down more ground coffee) just like his dad does! I also think he said "thank you."

The other day, I also discovered he says "melmo" when he sees Elmo anywhere even though we've never explicitly taught him "Elmo" -- in the toy store, on his box of cookies, in his little Elmo book from Grandma Sharon, and on his Elmo toy from lola.

Isn't it strange what these little ones will pick up?

take 2 pieces of candy and call me in the morning

Dr. Dylan
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Well, of course, Halloween was fun, but what was surprising was just how much fun Dylan had!

We started with trick-or-treating with Taliana the Big Bad Wolf and Heather Little Red Riding Hood (note that Heather made Taliana's costume. She did an incredible job!!) and ended with trick-or-treating with Jason Woody and Tyler a vampire (make no mistake, this wasn't Dracula. If you erred on this front, little vamp would set you straight!)

Oh, we also dressed up for library lap time where Dr. Dylan and the Big Bad Wolf were subjects of a librarian digital photo fest.

Anyway, I luckily got Dylan down for a nap right after lap time, so he was refreshed and ready for downtown trick-or-treating by 2pm. The downtown thing was really nice! We didn't just pick up candy (we redistributed Dylan's haul down at Cindy's house), but he also got some stickers, crayons and some other little goodies.

Dylan had been practicing saying "tick teet" with Taliana and having little this's and that's dropped into a basket in weeks previous, so he was primed for the occasion. He didn't say "tick teet" on-demand, but at times, he did select his own candy and drop it into his own basket...and he certainly wanted to carry his basket all by himself. He was at his happiest when he was down on the ground with the rest of the kids (or, probably, more accurately, like Taliana!).

I successfully kept him from eating any candy while we were in Santa Cruz, but once in Morgan Hill, he managed to break through a Tootsie pop wrapper and we just gave up on trying to wrest it from him.

Seeing Dylan be so into the festivities was so much fun! I'm glad he wasn't scared at all...in fact, he loved all of the cackling tombstones and skeletons and sang itsy bitsy spider when he saw Cindy's big fake spider in the kitchen.....

As usual, more photo highlights are on flickr. Christina was a bellydancer, Dre was Tiger Woods, mom was a devil, and we were all doctors (Tom had to be a mad doctor for SJSU, so we decided to make that this year's costume theme for all of us!).