M&M's

Dylan and I have done quite well this week without Brian. Of course we miss him, and are looking forward to his return tomorrow.

Tonight while I was making dinner, Dylan got to watch part of his favorite movie Cars. I thought his tv watching position was picture-worthy. It doesn't look very comfortable to me, but I guess when you love a movie that much, all you need is your thumb to suck and a place to lay down.

After dinner we enjoyed a few M&M's. He calls them treats and shakes with anticipation whenever he sees them. He especially seemed to enjoy the blue ones tonight.

Tomorrow after lunch we are going to the Halloween party at daycare. I'm hoping he'll wear his lion costume for longer than two minutes. We'll see what happens.

Finally...fall!

It finally feels like fall here. We've been enjoying wearing pants and long sleeves during the last week.

This weekend started off our fall frenzy of weekend activities. Yesterday I drove to Hudson, Iowa (near Waterloo) for my friend Angie's baby shower. I was glad to be able to join in the special day. Angie received many great gifts - seeing them all made me feel even more anxious (in a now, now, now kind of way) than I already was about getting our baby stuff out, washing it, getting the baby's room ready, etc. As I said before, we've got quite a few weekends this fall with planned activities, so those tasks will have to wait until early December. With the Metro Center re-opening from renovations in a few short weeks, Brian has been working long hours and the things I need his help with around the house have to wait. The stress...I swear, this nesting thing is stressful.

Today has been a cloudy, rainy day. It's a cozy day to stay inside and color. Dylan spent some time this morning coloring in his giant Sponge Bob coloring book. He colored a few other things too, like the tile floors, the kitchen chair, the living room window, etc but the crayons are washable and I'm not too worried about those things coming clean.

Brian left early this morning for Nashville. He'll be home sometime on Friday. Looking ahead to a whole week without him seems like a long time, although I'm sure the week will go fast. I'll be so busy with everything around here that I'm hoping Friday will be here before I know it.

Halloween Books

Dylan is such a lucky boy! My friend Jean mailed us a package this week, and included in it were two Halloween books for Dylan. He immediately wanted to read them. Nice work Jean!

We are looking forward to Halloween. Dylan is going to dress up as a lion and we'll take him out trick-or-treating (for a brief while I'm sure) with the neighbors. Brian and I are also going to dress up this year, for the neighborhood adults only party on the Saturday before Halloween. Brian wants to be Hugh Hefner, and I am thinking about being a cat. It's hard to come up with a costume for a pregnant belly. My brother, sister and mom are all coming down that weekend too. Oma is going to watch Dylan while the rest of us head off to the party. It should present some fun photo opportunities!

This weekend will be a busy one for us. Tomorrow I am driving over to Cedar Falls, IA for my good friend Angie's baby shower. Brian and Dylan will have a father/son day. Then on Sunday Brian leaves for Nashville for a week. We'll be glad when he's back!

Fall Festival

This afternoon we went to Midway Village, a turn of the century Victorian Village in Rockford. They were having a Fall Festival. It felt strange to be out there admiring the scarecrows and other fall crafts when it was 92 degrees and humid!

Dylan was very interested in feeling the texture of the straw bale he was sitting on. I couldn't get him to look at me for the picture.

Brian and Dylan on the church steps

Brian and Dylan enjoying Sunday afternoon football. Don't be fooled into thinking Dylan actually sits and watches anything but the Disney channel. While this picture was relaxing looking, the moment lasted only a minute and he was off to another activity!

Day Trip to Milwaukee

Today Dylan and I drove up to Port Washington, Wisconsin. It is about 30 miles north of Milwaukee, only about 30 miles south of Sturgeon Bay, WI. My college roommate Jen lives there with her husband Vinnie and their daughter Ellie. Today was Ellie's 2-year birthday party.

It took us about two hours to get there, so we were about 20 minutes late, but the party hadn't fully started yet, so it was okay. Jen had ordered a bouncy-house for the kids, and it was a hit! Dylan loved jumping around in it.

The theme of the party was Finding Nemo and Jen went all out. She had Nemo sippy cups for the kids, little to-go Nemo bowls to fill with goldfish, and, Dylan's first-ever party favor bag! In the bag was a small carton of goldfish, some Nemo stickers, a Nemo straw and a Nemo toothbrush. All very cool things in Dylan's opinion. We had lunch then played for awhile. I thought we had reached meltdown stage with Dylan, but he was fussy for awhile then got over it. We opened presents and had cake and ice cream and then played for a few hours more.

It was fun to hang out with Jen, Sarah (my other college roommate) and Jeni (a friend from college) while our kids played in the bouncy house. The weather was beautiful, as their house is just blocks for Lake Michigan and they usually have a great breeze. We stayed until 4, and headed home (West) into the setting sun. Dylan fell asleep within 3 minutes of being buckled in, but slept only 1 1/2 hours, and woke up crabby with the full setting sun blazing in his face. He asked for a 'snacky', so I passed him his goldfish. He proceeded to yell 'no' and dump the goldfish all over the car. I wasn't impressed. He continued to ask for a 'snacky' but I had nothing left to give him. So he ended up crying the rest of the way home. As annoyed as I was about him dumping the snacks, I felt badly for him that the sun was shining in his face. It's hard going for long drives without another adult in the car. One of us might have been able to convince Dylan to wear his hat or sunglasses. From the drivers seat there wasn't much I could do.

I forgot my camera, but am hoping Jen will e-mail some pictures soon, so I'll post them if/when she does that.

Winter Boots

Dylan was recently the recipient of a big bag of clothes. My cousin Kevin/Jen's son Griffin has grown out of a lot of clothes that are still in great condition. Along with the clothes was a great winter coat and some cool winter boots. Dylan saw the boots by the door last night and wanted to try them on.

He thought the boots were pretty cool and wore them around the house for the evening. Thanks Griffin!

It's been a rather quiet week for us, aside from the fact that I'm experience some pregnancy onset migraines. I've had four in the last seven days. This is not fun, and I have so much empathy for people who are lifelong migraine sufferers. My OB thinks the headaches are hormonal, and I'm seeing my regular doctor tomorrow as a follow-up. It's pretty scary to experience the visual effects for the first time. I was at work and suddenly I couldn't read. The words were all smooshed together without spaces, and then I developed black spots in my vision. I wondered if I was having a stroke, but then realized I was having classic migraine symptoms. So far I've been in safe places that didn't require driving when the headaches have happened, and I hope my luck continues. It's a little worrisome to imagine being out on the road and away from home, with Dylan in the car, etc.

Dylan's Halloween costume arrived yesterday. He is going to be a lion. We tried the costume on him, but he didn't like it at all. Not sure if he was scared or just doesn't like dress-up. Either way, we're going to have to keep introducing him to the costume, but he was simply too adorable to not get a good video of him wearing the costume and roaring.

Mr. Grump

Dylan was a bit of a grump this evening. He had fun playing and giggling with Daddy for awhile, but when I tried to capture it on video, he wasn't happy. Once he realized we were watching him on a video screen, he wanted to be behind the camera instead of in front of it. I just love the way he puts an end to this filming session, it's so funny!

Now that we have the video thing all figured out, we'll post a good one as soon as we get it!