the space between

Dylan surprised us a couple of days ago by climbing on a dining room and chair and singing patty cake to himself, complete with his versions of "rolling" and "patting" and marking with a "D"!

He is very interested in his potty -- sits on it every morning (has pee peed in it 4/5 days so far) and, throughout the day, he wants to sit on it and read books, cut food, play games, etc.

His manual dexterity continues to improve! He got some threading beads from Auntie Cindy yesterday and he was pretty easily threading them on a red string today!

He also knows so much more about plugs now, too. He loved the train set at Auntie Cindy's house and knew we needed to plug it in to make it go. So, he'd pick up the plug and say, "plug" to me or Tom to have us plug it in.

The train was obsession for Dylan this holiday. When it stopped working, he went to his Lola and said, "daddy. Fix it!!!"

Which brings us to Dylan's ever-growing vocabulary and his ability to more clearly enunciate his words -- broccoli, Rocky, game, jackeeeeeet, abre, backpack, etc...and he surprised us by saying and pointing out Santa on a tree!! It's now difficult to recall just all of the words Dylan is saying these days; he is repeating so much of what we say!

As to the holidays themselves, he just loved playing with his cousins (and by himself!)

We spent Christmas Eve at Jeff's aunt's house here in Santa Cruz. He loved his sweater from Janice so much (he got many compliments on it), he didn't even want to take it off!!!

On Christmas Day, we headed to Cindy's house. Dylan missed his nap (even though when I asked him if he wanted to nap, he would nod yes and put his head down, but too many distractions abounded and he'd eventually succumb to his curiousity) but he remained good-natured and jolly until 9pm, when he fell off the bottom step and finally sacked out on my shoulder while I was comforting him!

Overall, we had a really nice celebration, made all the merrier by the existence of this little man who brings fresh perspective to all that we do!

Many more pictures are on flickr.

Chanukah pictures

At long last, here are the pictures for Chanukah, including pictures from our trip to LA!

Rocky made such an impression on Dylan that he now says "Rocky" whenever he sees her picture!!

are we there yet??

Since our return from our wonderful trip to LA, it's been sheer madness, getting out holiday cards, meeting work deadlines, and cooking and baking and holiday-preppin'! The major highlight of the week, though, is Dylan peeing in the potty THREE times in the past two days, once yesterday morning and twice today (once in the AM and once before bedtime)! Of course, he got lots of kudos from both of us, but he was especially pleased when Taliana just hurrayed like crazy upon hearing the news!

We're not really pushing the potty training hard, but since we've introduced it, we're now trying to stick to the new routine of at least sitting on the potty first thing in the morning.

I'm terribly behind in posts and pics, but I'll update with both as soon as I can....

best latkes ever!

Tom's best latkes ever
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

No latke party this year, owing to a severe lack of time, but we did have Taliana and Heather over for a mini-celebration!

We did a little present-opening, made some sugar cookies, sampled them (!), lit the menorah, and had latkes.

We just did classic latkes and this year's batch was the best EVER!

We thought they looked pretty good, too....

Third Night

lighting his menorah for Day 3
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Dylan cooks up some latkes

Dylan lights his menorah

Dylan lights his menorah
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

I have to admit, Chanukkah caught me by surprise, but luckily, Dylan's first Chanukkah present -- a wooden Chanukkah set, complete with nine candles, a menorah, 6 gelts, a dreidel, a frying pan, spatula and two latkes -- arrived in time and he clearly loves it

It's the cutest thing. He now knows how to "light" the candles and blow them out and he says the word "latke!"

it's potty time

taking an interest in the potty
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Dylan has been saying "pee pee" and "poo poo" and patting the front of his diaper for a few weeks now. The few times that he's done this, I've attempted to get him to the toilet ASAP but, of course, by the time we get there, the deed's already been done.

I think a big factor in his interest in the potty is seeing Taliana use her's (and the big potty) when she needs to Go!

Heather has been encouraging Taliana to encourage Dylan and at Taliana's birthday party last night, when she needed to potty, she said, "Ok Dylan. I'll show you..." and he followed her to the bathroom! Once she was finished (all the while she was explaining that you go potty in here and then, see, it goes in there and then you flush it, etc. etc.), Dylan came over and sat down on it for a while!

We see this as a promising sign -- though who knows how long it will actually take for any real progress to be made -- so he's getting a potty package (book, potty and potty DVD) for Chanukah this year.

Ok. Potty talk aside, we did celebrate Taliana's 3rd bday yesterday with a trip to the museum and a nice dinner at HAT's house....Plenty o' pictures on flickr....