Who dressed Dylan?

Today when I left for work, Dylan was wearing a very cute outfit. When I picked him up at daycare, he was wearing this circus get-up. What happened??

As you may know, Dylan has a fondness for coffee. Noelle left her coffee on a low table, cooled off thankfully, and Dylan decided to help himself. Thus, the end of the cute outfit for the day.

I'm definitely washing this one and sending it back to daycare with him no Monday. These pieces are not going to be allowed to return to regular rotation... I think the dark blue socks are an added bonus!! Not to mention the fact that he's watching tv and sticking his hands down his pants. Too funny!

The Tank has arrived

Grandpa Wennerstrom ordered a double stroller for us and it arrived today!! It is the Graco Quattro Tour Duo in Metropolitan. *Folds up 20% smaller than Graco's DuoGlider (their older model). That's code for "folds up a tiny bit smaller than their previous tank but still weights 40 pounds." Despite it's heft, it has gotten great reviews as far as double strollers go, and I think it's going to work out for us. Each child has cup holders, sun visor, foot rest, etc. It's very posh.

As soon as I pulled it out of the box Dylan was all over it.

Here is Dylan, along with his Cabbage Patch Kid Barry, modeling how it works with a baby car seat attached.

And here is Dylan, checking up on Barry, making sure he is enjoying the ride.

Thanks Grandpa!

It's a...

Healthy Baby Boy!

No surprise, given my first ultrasound, but it's nice to have it confirmed. The waiting has been torture. Even harder then the entire pregnancy with Dylan. I suppose that's because I knew with Dylan that we weren't going to find out. With this one, we knew we were going to find out and the last 10 weeks have been slow torture!

While I'm not disappointed we're having another boy, I'm a tad disappointed there's not also a girl hiding in there, but the docs have assured me there is only one baby. How can you be disappointed about having a healthy baby?! Maybe someday we'll have a girl. For now we're just going to enjoy expecting another little boy.

The great disappointment of the day was the quality of the ultrasound. To give you some background info, my midwife left the practice I was going to, and I didn't care for the docs in that group, so I decided to seek medical care elsewhere. I got a referral, and this was my first appointment with the new guy. At my former clinic they did 3D/4D ultrasounds routinely. To my great disappointment, they do not do them as a matter of routine at my new clinic. So, here we had our mom's with us at the ultrasound and it was nothing they hadn't seen before. While it was still special to have them here for the ultrasound, there was no "wow" in the technology department. It was like stepping back in time. Where are we, the Wild West?!

Here are the best images they were able to get today.

One cute little foot

A facial image - the baby is facing us, head is on the right, his right arm (or is that a leg?) is stretched up by his ear

And the money shot. What, you can't tell that's his junk? Me either. Pathetic. I guess we just have to trust the ultrasound tech. It looks more like a push-pin to me...

Now that we know he's a boy it's time to move forward with the nursery, names, etc. As for names, we have no idea. We had a difficult time settling on Dylan, so I don't imagine we'll have a new for this little guy for awhile.

The nursery is the easy part. I've decided on this bedding. We're just getting the valance, skirt, sheet, bumper and quilt. None of this silly shi-shi accessories. So now with Dylan's surfer themed bedroom, we'll have a surfer and a sailor!

Chilly Weather

We've had some great chilly weather the last few days. It's been in the high 50's and low 60's. Yesterday when Dylan and I went outside to play he had to get bundled up in his North Pole fleece jacket from Grandpa Wennerstrom, and his car hat. Nobody can call Dylan a fair weather golfer!

This morning we headed out to the Winnebago County Fairgrounds. Each year they hold a giant craft fair/flea market. My mom and I went last year, and it wasn't so much the shopping that was interesting, but the people watching. We didn't have anything planned for today so we thought it might be fun to go out there again. Here is a picture of Mr. Cool in the car.

While we were out there Dylan ate a hot dog and one of his favorite foods - corn on the cob!

This afternoon Brian took Dylan to buy his very first set of legos. We had dinner club last night and Dylan's little friend Mia had tons of these blocks. He loved playing with them. In hopes of getting him to focus on something other than TV, we thought this would be a fun afternoon distraction. I looked around his play room this morning and realized most of his toys are getting a big babyish for him. I guess this means we're moving into the world of big boy toys.

Boy or Girl? Let's take a poll!

With our upcoming ultrasound, I thought it might be fun to take a poll. You can place your guess until Monday morning at 8a.m. Look to the right of the screen to vote.

Also, we're so excited our friends Jeff and Beth Burnett have started a blog. Check them out, enjoying Casa de Burnett in Phoenix. http://azburnett.blogspot.com or follow their link under My Friends.

20 Weeks

For those of you who have been asking, here I am at 20 weeks. We're halfway there!
It's fun to look back at my pregnancy pictures from Dylan, and see the difference, and think about how the second time around is different too.


Here I am at 21 weeks with Dylan: (ugh, do I really want to post this picture?)


With Dylan it seemed the time couldn't go fast enough. I remember thinking "I'm halfway to the end of this thing and no one even notices I am pregnant." I'd say it's different this time around, but it's funny how people react. I catch a lot of people looking at my belly. They are probably wondering if they should say anything, or if they are about to have one of those 'insert foot into mouth' moments.

I've been feeling really well the last month or so. The entire first trimester was a challenge this time around. I was nauseated for about 13 weeks, including the week before I knew I was pregnant, whereas with Dylan it was about 1 hour each day for 2 weeks! These days I can even make it through most of the night without having to get up for the bathroom. I know that blissful sleeping through the night will come to an end shortly, so for now I am enjoying it.

A week from today we go to my new doctor for our ultrasound. Both Brian's and my mom are going with us, so it will be an exciting event. It will be interesting to meet my new doctor. My midwife, who also was my practitioner during pregnancy with Dylan, is leaving the practice. She is returning to Omaha to be with her children and grandchildren. I am very happy for her, but sad to not have her throughout this pregnancy.

Vilas Zoo

Today we went to the Vilas Zoo in Madison. It was a beautiful day, the temperature was in the mid-70's with a nice breeze. Yesterday was a big day at the zoo, with several fundraising events, as a result today's crowds were pretty small. The zoo is free, and it's a very good zoo.

Dylan had so much fun. It was his first trip to the zoo, and he loved it. He repeated every animal name we told him, and knew almost all the animal sounds. He charmed quite a few ladies at the zoo too.

Here is my favorite picture from today

This picture is from the first animal we saw - monkeys. He couldn't tear his eyes away. He was a little worried at first, and said 'all done' pretty quickly, but when he saw everyone else was enjoying it he gave it another chance.

Two of his favorite displays were in the Herpetarium. The first was a tank of turtles. The water level was just below eye-level, so he could crouch down and see the turtles swimming below the water line.

The other exhibit he enjoyed in the same building was the tank of fresh water fish. He loved watching the fish swim right in front of him.

He didn't care much for the giraffes. They were boring and he was ready to move on pretty quickly. He wanted to go back to the monkey's!

Dylan LOVED the lion exhibit. You can see why! Mama Lion was putting on quite a show for us. He made all the adults laugh by roaring very loudly. We told him it was a big cat so he tried meowing for effect.

Here he is leaning forward to see the Black Bear.

This zoo is great as is, but the great news is that they are adding a Children's Zoo to the park. They will have a petting zoo, a Treehouse playground area and a few other things. So far they have a carousel, and rides cost only $1. The carousel is unique in that all the animals are on the endangered species list. So instead of your typical horses, Dylan and the other kids rode on Tapir's and other animals.

Before the ride started he thought it was great...

But true to Dylan's dislike of moving rides, once the carousel started he got nervous and wanted off. He had a death grip on the bar in front of him.

And finally, this display, while adorable, told us that our donations will help the zoo construct their "Arctic Zone" area. The Polar Bears have a pathetic rock playground now. Nothing like a polar bear needs.

We had a great day at the zoo. Dylan enjoyed it so much, we will definitely be going a few times per year. The zoo is open year round, so it will definitely be a favorite place of ours to visit.

Give me my coffee!

And that's not mom or dad talking...that's Dylan.

This morning I had a mild blend of cocoa with a splash of coffee in it, but Dylan does enjoy tasting coffee. I think he had half of my drink this morning.

Chalk Art

This afternoon Dylan and I spent some time outside coloring with chalk on the driveway, garage floor, sidewalk, bumper of my car and anything else we could find. Dylan seemed to sit everywhere I had just colored, thus the dirty butt.

This is Elmo.

Yes, really

In other news, it's confirmed, I was officially sleep deprived when Dylan was a baby. I was going through his clothes, putting some of the tight 18 month clothes away, and discovered that I had 12 month clothes mixed with 9 month clothes, mixed with 6 month clothes. It was a total organization disaster! If you know me at all, you know that's not like me. I spent an hour tonight going through all of his clothes, size 0 months through 18, just to see what else I could find. I started to question if perhaps that 12 month sleeper was smaller than the others, and that's why I had put it in the 9 month bin. Hmmm...if so, wasn't that clever of me? But I just put it back with the 12 month clothes, so we may never know.

Well don't worry, you can rest easy tonight knowing the clothes are sorted and in the correct bins, which are labeled and stacked by size. Whew, glad that's taken care of. Questioning your own sanity is a very strange feeling.

Labor Day at the Apple Orchard

Who's idea was it to visit the apple orchard in 90 degree weather? Oh wait, it was my brilliant idea...

This morning, for a brief moment, we discussed going to the Vilas Zoo in Madison. My dear husband let me sleep in, so I didn't get out of bed until 8:20, and ultimately we decided that 10:00 was too late of a start for a day at the zoo that is an hour away. We have dinner plans with friends in Roscoe, so it didn't make sense to rush, rush, rush all day long.

Instead of the zoo, we decided to go to the apple orchard. They have a petting zoo, and this is their opening weekend, so we thought that would be fun. The crowds were lighter than a typical fall weekend, but hmmm, maybe that's because it is still BLAZING HOT outside.

We spent some time inside the animal barn, but Dylan was afraid to get too close. Finally he stepped forward to get a look at this tiny little goat.


And here he is imitating the goose, meowing at it for good measure.

What a turkey...

One of the benefits of an early season trip to the apple orchard is getting to ride the toys and equipment without eighteen million other children clamoring for their turn. Dylan really enjoyed sitting atop this tractor.

We went into the apple barn (without having to wait in line!!) and bought apples, apple cider donuts (who can resist those??!!) and some apple cider. Riding out to the orchard to pick our own apples will have to wait a year or two. I gave Dylan my cup of cold cider, intending to share with him. The joke was on me, as he refused to share! He was a thirsty (and sweaty) little chap.

Last Friday during our weekly outing to Target, I bought a Diego sprinkler on clearance. Knowing Dylan was warm and sweaty, and would probably enjoy a cool-down, we set up the sprinkler when we got home. While I was changing Dylan into his swim diaper I told him he was going to swim with Diego. Boy, was he excited.

As you can see from the picture below, he was so completely disappointed by what actually took place. He wanted Diego off the hose, so we disconnected it, and let him play with Diego while I misted him with the hose. That was much better.

1 down, 2 to go

On Friday morning Brian and I were discussing our lack of weekend plans. Brian made a funny face and said "I suppose I could paint the kitchen." Right then I offered to go buy the paint.

But what to do with Dylan while we were working on the house? Grandparents to the rescue. Diane and Richard came over Saturday morning and kept the little man busy while Brian painted (Richard helped!), and I worked on taking apart my craft room.

Here are a few before pictures (taken in the early morning sunlight):

Brian was glad to get this project checked off his list. After all the detail work in the kitchen, the bedrooms will be easy.

The finished product. Does it ever really look like the paint chip? Not for me. It's a lot more yellow looking than I had hoped. I was going for a mellowy-gold color. In certain light it is the color I thought it would be, but overall I'm pleased with it. It's very warm and it matches one of the colors going through our curtains.

Rice Bin

Thanks to my friend Tracey, Dylan has a great new activity. Tracey is soon to have her fourth baby, so I thought she'd be a good resource for children's activities. She suggested making a rice bin for Dylan to play with.

I bought 15 pounds of rice, and dumped it all into a plastic bin. He loved playing with it...but it was a MESS! As it turns out, our vacuum cleaner doesn't like to pick up dry rice. This may become an outdoor activity. I'm still on the hunt for other fun indoor activities, so if anyone out there has a suggestion, bring it on!