The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

The Good - Dylan slept through the night 5 times last week.
The Bad - He screamed for 2-3 hours straight starting at 11 pm the other two nights.
The Ugly - His new obsession is pulling himself up on everything, including the side of his crib, the bathtub, mom's leg, etc.
Yes its been quite an interesting week and a half. Not only with Dylan's new tricks but also lots of fun activities for mom and dad. Friday Chad got his first round of the summer in at DCC. By the looks of this week's forecast there could be more in his future. Saturday my grandmother Nancy turned 90 so lots of my cousins came home to celebrate. Unfortunately I had a bachelorette party in Chicago so I missed out on that party. But as you could imagine, I had a great time as well. It was my first real night out on the town since Ellie's bachelorette party in July 2008. How lame, I know! And I was so proud of myself, I made it out past midnight and after six hours of drinking somehow survived without a hangover!

Monday night the family bonding continued with the Weigle family annual sedar for passover. I think my mom may have been a little confused because this is how she dressed Dylan for the occasion...

Madeline got a matching outfit in pink. Unfortunately neither one of them enjoyed the photo shoot so this is the best picture I could come up with of the two of them. Oh well.They both cheered up a bit once they changed from bunny costumes to their 'My First Passover' bibs. Below, they get their first look at Manischewitz wine. Dont worry kids, your time will come (note: please focus on the babies in the picture, not the mommies)

Finally, an action photo below of Dylan playing tonight. He somehow manages to pull himself to a stand on his plastic toy box which is less than a foot off the ground...

Happy early April Fools Day, Good Friday and of course Easter. More next weekend (unless I get lazy).

8 Months

Dylan turned 8 months on Friday. Time flies when you are having fun. And Dylan is definitely having lots of fun these days! He amuses himself by crawling all around our living room and getting himself into trouble. His new words this week are 'mom mom' and 'na na'. Below is a photo of Dylan with his new toy 'car' that his daddy bought him. Uncle Bob will be excited that he is starting his driving lessons so early.

Wednesday Dylan celebrated his first St Paddys Day! He had green peas for dinner while mom and dad drank some green beer. Delicious.

Thursday Dylan got a visit from his cousin Jon. The two boys played hide and seek from grandma...

and fought over Aunt Jen Jen!

Friday Dylan and Madeline visited great grandma Nancy

We had a play date Friday night with lots of friends but forgot to get out the camera! Bummer... Saturday we went to our favorite place DCC and met up with Dylan's friend Evyn. And today we are cheering on the Badgers. Doesn't look good so far but its early. Time for Dylan's nap!

Yay for Daylight Savings!

'Spring Forward' is usually one of the worst days of the year. Giving up an extra hour of sleep! But yesterday we had something to celebrate. Dylan's bed time and wake up time just got pushed back one hour :) He can now stay up until 9 and sleep until 8:30 or 9 am. Hooray! Unfortunately our weekend got off to a rough start, as you can see from the picture below...
We had one sick little dude! Poor guy could barely sleep Friday night (which coincidently happened to be a night I decided to have several glasses of wine and a shot - I think I was being punished). He had his first little fever Saturday but was such a trooper and still managed to play and crawl around like nothing was bothering him. I tried to get a better picture below but someday I will figure out the video camera...

Dylan's new favorite thing is feeding himself. He loves to have his own sippy cup, bottle, and munchin mesh self feeder with fruit (aka Dylan's popsicle). Weaning him has been a piece of cake. Here is a pic of Dylan sipping his apple juice watching Baby Einstein. Hey, its a rough life when you don't feel well!

Even though he likes taking his own bottle, Daddy still gets the pleasure of rocking Dyl to sleep at night.

What's on tap for us this week? Drinking some green beer Wednesday, playing with cousin Jon Thursday, celebrating Dylan turning 8 months on Friday and of course watching basketball all weekend. Maybe Dylan will get to meet his new friend Evyn now that he is feeling better. Congrats Traci and Jeff!!!

Remembering 1 year ago...

Life was so easy. Dylan was about 20 weeks and I was just starting to show. I could sleep in until 10 am. And best of all, it was Shamrock shake season. Chad would come home from work with two large shakes from the McDonalds drive through and I had an excuse to eat them. Ahh, those were the days.

Yes things have changed. Dylan has to be supervised 24-7. I cannot leave him alone to go to the bathroom. He is army crawling and rolling all over the room and his favorite places to explore are the fireplace, the coffee table, the vents, the outlets, and under the exersaucer. I can't even count how many times a day he has red marks and tears from banging his head. The worst part is I know its just the beginning. He is learning something new every day. His recent hobbies include taking off his diaper, sitting up in his crib, and playing with cell phones. He says 'Ba Ba' and 'Da Da' but doesn't know what they mean. He loves Pat the Bunny. So much in fact that he found the book on his own and started playing peek-a-boo with Paul earlier this week.

Well thats all the time I have for today. Time for Dylan's lunch. But one last thing, Happy Birthday shout outs this past week to Uncle Jon, brother Henry, Grandma Pete, my mother in law Shirley (today) and my buddy Shelley tomorrow!!! Happy March.

7 Months

Dylan celebrated 7 months yesterday. And what a great month it has been. About two weeks ago we finally turned a corner and Dyl decided he liked to sleep! He is now zzzzing 11-12 hours each night with one feeding (we'll work on that later), taking two good naps, and enjoying putting himself back to sleep when he wakes up. Ahhh, finally! Still no teeth and now a runny nose this morning so I'm sure we'll have a few setbacks now and then. He is as crazy and mobile as always, rolling, kicking, and running around in his walker all day. Thanks to Jenny we also put him in his first Johnny Jump Up this week. That was a hit. He is starting to scoot on his belly but not crawling yet (whew). His new obsession is babbling 'Ba Ba Ba Ba Ba' all day, which he thinks is hilarious. That's our baby D!

Nothing else new to report other than we have become Olympic junkies. Last night we watched our first 'curling' match. Can anyone watch the sport with a straight face? It is so funny!

Since I forgot to post last week, here is a picture of Dylan and cousin Madeline at a play date last week with great grandma Nancy!

Valentine's Celebration... One Week Early

What an amazing weekend it has been. Chad surprised me Saturday for an overnight at a bed and breakfast in East Dubuque. We stayed at the 'Egyptian Suite' at the Captain Merry Inn. The room was 800 square feet, equipped with heated floors and even a heated toilet seat. We had the place to ourselves and we enjoyed some R&R and a little quiet time away from Dylan (who overnighted with grandma Kathy). For evening entertainment we went to dinner at a place called Champagne in the Mystic Casino and then stayed for a little gambling. Fortunately neither of us lost much money so that was a bonus. Here is a picture of our room but I'm not sure it does it justice... I love my husband!!!




Sunday the honeymoon was over and it was time to come back to reality and baby D! I hardly have any pictures of him these past few weeks so I tried to take a couple yesterday. His latest hobby is watching Baby Bach, a baby einstein DVD he got for Christmas. It is a lifesaver! I can keep him entertained watching it for at least 20 minutes most days (which is what I am doing now to finish this post)! And if I give him a teething ring, life is really good!



Finally, yesterday we had a quiet night at home with Chad's family watching the Super Bowl and celebrating Aunt Jen Jen's birthday. So many friends with birthdays this week. Happy Birthday to Rebecca, Sara, Jen, Jenny, Kari, and cousin Jon next week!

Hooray!

Dylan must have felt really guilty after my last post because he decided to totally surprise me last night and sleep through the night! Yep, that's right. Went to bed at 9 pm and slept until 7:30am (of course I looked at the clock every two hours all night but didn't go check on him until 6:30). It may not happen again for a while so I am cherishing every minute of feeling rested today.

One possible explanation could be that he had his 6 month check up yesterday with immunizations. He is 15 lbs 11 oz and 26". 50th percentile for head growth, under 50th for height and 10th for weight. I'm thinking that he is thin because he is constantly in motion. It seems like he is eating a lot but who knows. Also he was 'diagnosed' with baby eczema, aka dry skin... I doubt that this is the explanation for his sleep issues but to be on the safe side we are greasing him up twice a day. Anyway, that's all to report. My fingers are crossed for tonight!