gourd-eus

Here are some pictures from this year's trip to the Pumpkin Patch. Dylan was far more eager to crawl through the tunnels and jump on the hay bales than he was last year! We were on our way to play games at Steve's house, though, so we couldn't stay for as long as we would have liked. Still, Dylan had a great time (and he had fun at Steve's, too, where he watched more t.v. in one sitting than he's ever had in his life so far!).

one for the road!!

matching chins =D
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

On our last day in LA, we visited Eli and Rocky one last time.

Dylan is now very familiar with Spongebob Squarepants and completely associates him with Eli. Whenever he sees anything Spongebob now (which, admittedly isn't very often), he says, "that's for Eli."

Also, thanks to Rocky (and her superrific dance), "The Monster Mash" is a current favorite!

At first, the song made him nervous (I think because it had the word "monster" in it), but now he tries to dance to it and he wants it repeated over and over (we've since heard it played at gymnastics and at Music Together). He's even tried singing it!

In any case, we're all looking forward to the next trip. Dylan still hasn't stopped talking about LA!

Sunday in LA

gramma and dylan
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

During the rest of our stay in LA, we celebrated our anniversary with a dinner at Madeleine Bistro -- such a wonderful place with wonderful owners! I had butternut squash gnocchi and Tom had a beautiful and delicious tempeh dish served with brussels sprouts (a favorite veggie for all 3 of us!).

Thanks to Grandma Sharon, who kept Dylan happily entertained while we were away, we were able to enjoy a leisurely dinner with full use of both of our hands (admittedly, it felt a little odd!)!

kyler!
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

We enjoyed our meal at Madeleine Bistro so much, we came back the next day for brunch with Kyler, Jennifer and Mark. Well, Kyler is just as cute and as mellow and happy as a baby can be...he's 5 months old and he actually wears the same size diaper as Dylan!

By Sunday, Dylan's lack of sleep finally began to catch up with him. He was restless in the restaurant (unfortunate because the owners's son who is the same age as Dylan seemed eager to show him his puzzle!).

We'd begun to think that all hope of a relaxing visit with Jennifer, Mark and Kyler was totally out of the question. But, we ended up having a fantastic time at Balboa Park.

Dylan loved running around with the squirrels!

back at gramma's house
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Back at Grandma's house, We got to see Aunt Marilyn and Uncle Donald, Eli and Rocky and Auntie Julie.

The day was jam-packed, but Dylan doesn't seem phased by days like this at all!

Dylan's first trip to Disneyland!

Day 222: "is that really him??!"
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Our second day in LA was Disneyland Day! Since Rocky and Eli were going to be in school anyway and we figured crowds might be smaller on a weekday, we ventured over to Anaheim (traffic was surprisingly bearable).

Dylan had woken up at 7am (after a late bed time), but he was in LA and grandma was around, so life was jolly and good.

We got to Disneyland just in time for one of their parades where he saw "Hankey" Mouse LIVE and in 3-D for the first time ever!

oh, it was so exciting.
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

After the parade, we hit ToonTown where we saw Hankey's house and his garden as well as Pinky Hankey's (aka Minnie) house and her blender. Then we hit the rides.

They were all a hit, save for Pirates of the Caribben and the Roger Rabbit ride in ToonTown. We thought everything would be tot-friendly in ToonTown, but the Roger Rabbit ride was way too jarring and loud. And, Pirates was also loud. The dark didn't help! During both of these rides, Dylan ended up clinging to me, saying he wanted to get out!

But, he enjoyed the Winnie the Pooh ride, Alice in Wonderland, Storybook Land, the Circus Train, the carousel, and especially the Jungle Cruise....

Amazingly, Dylan didn't nap at all. I kept thinking he'd sack out in his stroller like so many other kids we passed, but he just didn't want to miss a thing!

the last picture!
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

We stayed until 8pm!! I think if Dylan had napped, we may have made it to the fireworks show, but he was pretty obviously tired (though still going along without complaint), so we made the last parade and this final picture our last couple of things before heading out.

Looking forward to bringing him back!

LA

snacking at the airport
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Tom had a conference down in southern California, so we decided it would be a good idea to couple that with a visit with family. Tom was already going to be down there, and we'd missed an opportunity to visit in September because neither of us ran the Disneyland Half this year.... Dylan was so excited about going to LA, he could barely function -- I mean, really! On the Wednesday night before we left, he didn't want to take his shoes off, thinking if he didn't (I guess), we'd be off for LA momentarily. And, the only things he wanted to tell me that night were 1) I want to go to LA; and 2) I don't want to sleep. Needless to say, it was a very rough night.

Fortunately, Thursday passed quickly. In the morning, there were more demands to go to LA, coupled with lots and lots of protests over just about everything. But eventually, we made it to school where he then accompanied a group of kids to the pumpkin patch. After he'd napped for about an hour and a half at daycare, I came to pick him up. After that, all I had to say to gain compliance was, "we need to do (fill in the blank) so we can leave for LA." He was just fantastic....

He was great even in the airport. Our flight was delayed 30 minutes and that extra time seemed like it would be an eternity. But, snacks, a Tech Museum display, and a poopy diaper made the time pass relatively quickly. By the time 5:30pm rolled around, Dylan was chanting, "Oh, my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh" (while discovering things in his backpack), and so was I (thanking goodness we'd be boarding soon!)!

He was thrilled to see the tops of the mountains and the clouds and pleasantly surprised when we got our peanuts and orange juice -- he even did "cheers" with me. Then, when we landed, he stood up on his seat and introduced himself to the people behind us, "my first name is Dylan!" Of course, he was very, very excited to see daddy-o waiting for us at the airport...and even more excited to see everyone! It was like no time had passed at all. He immediately made himself at home and was so clearly happy to chat with Grandma and Papa Willard until the "wee" hours of the night (ok, 10pm).

Oh, what a long, but rewarding day!

running around

I love the expressions on everyone's faces
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

By Sunday, Dylan's fever had gone down sufficiently that we felt pretty comfortable with taking him to my run (the San Jose Rock 'n' Roll) and, of course, we weren't going to miss Jason's 7th bday party!

Dylan woke up at 5:45am and napped 30 minutes (Tom had a very challenging 2-3 hours with him while Christina and I were running! Incidentally, this was Christina's first half-marathon!), but he perked up at Auntie Cindy's house, our immediate post-race (and post-shower) destination.

a new electric guitar!
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

This obviously isn't Dylan, but I can't resist sharing this picture of Jason practicing his chords for us on his new electric guitar (Jeff's teaching him)!

new underwear

Day 214: Elmo buns
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Tom picked Dylan up from school early on Friday afternoon because Dylan was clearly having a tough time being there. It was the worst I've seen him react in a really long time! He was so upset when I dropped him off, he wouldn't even eat his lunch! I would have stayed at home with him, but I'd already missed 2 days of work. So, Tom took him shopping and they picked out new undies.

I was very excited by this, thinking, yay! maybe the Potty Project can be revived (it has been largely abandoned for quite some time now)! So, we yanked on some undies to test-drive them. We thought telling him that Elmo didn't want to be peed on would be pretty good incentive to keep them dry, but nope. We tried last night and tonight and both nights resulted in accidents!

That's ok. We'll get there eventually. I do think the undies are totally adorable, though! And, hopefully, Dylan realizes they're not at all like pull-ups and will start asking to use the potty soon....

hot stuff

sick tot with poor little tired eyes
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Daycare called us up late Wednesday afternoon to tell us Dylan had a high fever and needed to be picked up ASAP. I thought it was just a little teething fever and it would go away in one day. Turns out, it stuck around through the weekend!

Oh, and that nice, "it get better soon" comment regarding his sore gums...well, that sentiment went out the window! Dylan has had his fussiest few days E.V.E.R!

He's barking things like, "go away" and he's constantly saying "noooo!"; he doesn't want Tom to do anything at all for him and he doesn't want me to do anything else but pick him up or hang out with him....He hasn't wanted to go to school either, so everyday has been a struggle getting him changed into regular clothes. One day, after parking in the school lot, he even scrambled to the other side of the car and cried, "noo! Noo! Not today!" It's been a challenging week for all of us!

Still, he's as cute as can be. Just this morning, he told me he dreamed about riding camels...in Egypt...and he saw Olivia there (of course, this is a total rehash of Olivia's dream in the story, Olivia and the Missing Toy), but still, it was very sweet.

Once more, we're looking forward to this whole teething phase ending. Sad thing is, it seems he's still working on the bottom teeth (when we thought he had already fully cleared them!), so we will have the tops to worry about next....!

Dylan the sheepdog gets sheared

Day 204
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Here's Dylan the day before he got another haircut! What a sheepdog, huh?

Before
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Here he is in the chair at the salon...

the new look
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Finally, here's the new look! We had Taliana for most of the day while Heather and Assaf attended a class. Since the kids do much better when they're away from their own toys, we took the them to the Children's Discovery Museum.

It turns out it was a great day to come. A business called My Gym (toddler gymnastics class) were there and they did puppet shows, songs, dances, relays and games which both Taliana and Dylan just thoroughly enjoyed. As you can see, we also did a little face painting...Both kids loved pretending to be cats. They mewed that they were hungry and mewed that they wanted to see this and that. It was all very funny, especially to them!

Anyway, the new 'do makes Dylan's head look larger, but I guess he's just growin' every which way these days...