Dylan turns 3

Posted on May 21, 2009 by cvc

We did a lot of celebrating over the weekend, but we couldn’t just let Dylan’s actual birthday just sail on by! This morning (errrr, yesterday morning), he woke up a bit early and Tom stayed a little later so that we could sing happy birthday to him and let him open the presents from us (some Gears and a Thomas the Train game).

As you can see, he woke up in a great mood! But, he was tired and he didn’t want to go to school (this happens often when something special is happening and he thinks the day will be different from all others!)…he actually cried and ran to the other side of the car as soon as we arrived at preschool!


birthday crown from school
birthday crown from school
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

I was feeling a bit blue about having to leave him in such a state on his birthday (of all days!), but as soon as we walked in, all of the teachers regaled him with “happy birthday” greetings and he immediately perked up! When I came to pick him up in the afternoon, he was wearing a crown that he’d decorated during the day. He was all smiles and ready to head out to dinner at the Train Deli (where Eaen celebrated his third birthday!)!


DSC_2100
DSC_2100
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Assaf and Taliana (Heather was teaching) met us at the deli for dinner, and Dylan and Taliana had fun watching the trains go by and just romping around together!


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Justin and Dylan celebrate

Posted on May 21, 2009 by cvc

It was another blazing hot weekend, but fun nonetheless! First, we celebrated Justin’s third birthday on Saturday. As you can see, Dylan was pleased as punch to see stuff tumble out of the pinata and to get some! But, he was actually a little reluctant to swat at it himself! When it was his turn, he asked if I could do it instead and when I tried encouraging him, he said it was for “big kids” (as his pinata was at his birthday party last year!) and said he didn’t want to do it! Still, there was much fun to be had just hanging out, playing on the playground, etc…!


makin' a wish
makin’ a wish
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

The next day (Justin’s actual birthday), we celebrated Dylan’s 3rd at a park in Los Gatos (about 30 minutes from Santa Cruz). It was H-O-T (car thermometer read 100F when we were leaving)! We’d hoped for good weather, but this was a bit much! Nevertheless, Dylan clearly had a great time. Auntie Christina brought shade (thank goodness!), Tom picked up vegan tamales, rice and beans from a local taqueria, and I tried baking a cake (Heather helped decorate) and some s’mores and root beer float cupcakes. It was so hot, the candles actually melted a little and were bent!

Dylan had to wake up early so we could be there to set up…and it was sooo hot…but he loved the train and the train ride and, this time, he did participate in swattin’ at the pinata. His expression and the fact that he’s holding the pinata stick (Tom’s escrima stick, really) with only one hand show he’s really a “lover,” not a “fighter!”

It was at least 10F hotter than it was in Santa Cruz, and given the drive, it was especially nice that our Santa Cruz friends Hailey and Finley (and their sibs Molly and Cleo), Cora and Anela, and Amirah (and Elyas), and fellow train enthusiast Eaen all came to help make the day super festive.

And, of course, it wouldn’t be quite the same without our long-time friends and family: Ellie, Luke, his big sibs Dean and Monica, Jason and Tyler and, of course, Taliana! Even Sarah and Anthony and Jamilah and Brian came! We are so very lucky to have such wonderful friends and family!

It was an incredibly active and long day, but Dylan was so happy and excited, he actually didn’t nap at all and, once we got home, he just wanted to enjoy his presents!


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dylan’s new train whistle

Posted on May 15, 2009 by cvc

Here’s that new train whistle we picked up for Dylan while we were visiting the Sonoma Depot Museum a couple of weeks ago. It took a while for Dylan to master it — blowing enough air through it was an initial challenge (!) — but, as you can see, he honed his skills pretty quickly! In this video, he’s singing a Music Together song (pretty well, I might add!)….

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Special Mother’s Day surprise

Posted on May 13, 2009 by cvc
3526972589_d8115472cb_o
starry-eyed
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Well, I was spoiled again this year! Tom and Dylan sent beautiful flowers and made me a most delicious breakfast of apple cinnamon, mango crepe with homemade strawberry syrup — Dylan even got his own glass of bubbly juice — and then we headed over the hill for lunch with the family over at Sweet Tomatoes (this particular picture was taken by Auntie Christina who rode with us in our car)!


the boys
the boys
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Before we left, we took a few pictures. Here is one of all of the boys (and we’re all very much looking forward to having a little girl join these fellas soon!).

Jason is already one of the big boys, but Tyler and Dylan still love each other to absolute bits and it’s really sweet to see them play together….


DSC_1870
the moms
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

And, here are the moms!

I didn’t want to forget to mention one of the best surprises I got this year! Dylan’s school has a sign-out book that the kids get to use — they can practice writing their names or, in Dylan’s case, they can scribble a little on their page. Well, when I went to pick up Dylan from school on Friday, he wanted to sign himself out so I told him to go ahead and look for his name in the binder while I signed him out from the grown-up sign-out sheet and, what do you know?? He found it! He’s been spelling his name for a while now and he is beginning to recognize some letters (D, R, M) with 100% accuracy, but this is the first time that he really picked his name out from a bunch of others (and it was written in mixed case!)!

I thought it may have been a fluke, but when I picked him up today, he once again found his name. He also has a name tag and a picture of himself inside a star (some old stuff from the 2-year old daycare group) which is clipped to his whiteboard, so maybe the patterns have just been getting more familiar to him because he sees these everyday!

Aside from that, he is also very sweet when we read books, using his finger to move along the words as if he’s reading all by himself. He is really working on reading the title of one of his current favorite books FLOTSAM. He reads it as: “this one and this one and O and this one and this one and this one and M!”

Back Log: Here’s a post from Mother’s Day 2008, and in 2007, Dylan’s special Mother’s Day surprise was taking 11 steps all on his own…!


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scootin’ and caterpillars

Posted on May 9, 2009 by cvc
practicing
practicing
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

This past Friday morning, Tom stayed home while I went to take an early morning glucose tolerance test. I was back by 8:15, expecting that Dylan would just be waking up, but nooooo! Apparently, he woke up shortly after I left (around 7am!). That’s an early morning for him, for sure! Despite that, he was bright and cheery, happily playing with Tom until poor Tom had to leave for work.

It was absolutely beautiful out, so Dylan and I headed to the park where we eventually met up with Amy and Hailey for an impromptu sort of play date (and Hailey was soo nice and insisted Dylan have half of her PB&J sandwich!)!


Day 69: we found a caterpillar near the slide. Dylan carried it over to the grass and trees
found a caterpillar
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

While we were at the park, we saw a caterpillar over by the slide, looking and looking and looking for something to eat (?), so we pulled a few leaves from a nearby tree and got it to crawl on so we could at least transport it to where there was more greenery. Dylan was very helpful….!

Oh, by the way, those shades…Dylan spied another little guy wearing sunglasses which prompted him to declare: “ohhhh, maan…I forgot my sunglasses!” I told him they were actually in the car, so we had to make a special trip back to the car just to get them! He is such a little character…!


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new heirloom tomato plants

Posted on May 7, 2009 by cvc
Day 67: looking for a ripe strawberry that wasn't already eaten by a bird! tough task!
looking for a ripe strawberry
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Yesterday and today were pretty warm evenings, giving us an opportunity to pay a little attention to our backyard again! While we waited for Tom to get home, Dylan and I went out back on both days to do a little weeding in preparation for putting some plants into the ground.

Today, Tom planted five new heirloom tomatoes: Black Krim, stupice, super sweet cherry, san marzano, and an orange flamme. We have yet to plant another “black” heirloom plant (the name escapes me right now).

In the meantime, Dylan was in search of new strawberries. Our plants don’t bear much, but what we do get is usually yummy and sweet and Dylan’s taste of one last night inspired him to look for more tonight! Unfortunately, the birds usually know when they’re ripe before we do! It was nice of him to pause to give me a smile….!

Back Log: Around this time last year, we had just gotten back from Dylan’s first trip to Yosemite. Two years ago today, Dylan had only four teeth and he enjoyed using his little pool!


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a short trip to Sonoma

Posted on May 4, 2009 by cvc

This past weekend, Tom had a consultation to do in Sonoma on ALEKS, an online math instructional tool. Tom and I imagined it would be a fun little family getaway — we even found a park called Howarth’s that has a little train in it and everything — but the weather was just hideous!

It rained the entire time we were there, so the train wasn’t operating and we couldn’t do any of the other outdoor stuff we’d hoped to do (possible hike in Annadel SP or Sugarloaf Ridge)!


Dylan had fun just being in the hotel room, but we’d been talking up all sorts of train activities, so we were feeling a bit bummed out by the weather! Luckily, all was not lost. After a disappointing trip to the Santa Rosa Railroad Museum (which turned out to be a “Railroad Room” in the Visitor’s Center), we found the Sonoma Depot Museum, about 30 minutes away.

Dylan fell asleep in the car on the way over, but as soon as we got there and saw trains (!!!!), his eyes sprang wide open and he immediately started chattering and identifying the cars (“that one is a caboose”, “that’s a boxcar”)! Not one minute out of the car, he was already “tooting” his train whistle with Daddy-o!!!


Once inside, he charmed the socks off the two ladies staffing the place. One woman took us into the railroad room to show us the little exhibit they had there and she could barely squeeze a word in edge-wise. Dylan was barking out all of the train info he knew! The lady was very impressed with his breadth of train knowledge; she didn’t even know that the big wheels on the engine were called “drivers!” Dylan also identified an old-style oil can used to grease up the train gears — the lady brought in the other staffer and asked Dylan to tell her what the can was for as well!

They were so tickled by him, they gave him a bandana and engineer hat to wear so we could take a picture of him on the caboose out back. He was sooo happy to be on an actual caboose! But, sweet boy that he is, after several minutes, he said, “I’m all done. Someone else can take a turn” and he climbed right off!

Once we returned the hat and bandana, we bought him a souvenir train whistle for $3.50. He just loved it…and blew it all the way home!


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about those April bdays…

Posted on May 4, 2009 by cvc
Dylan and Eaen
Dylan and Eaen
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

There was a flurry of birthday celebrations a few weeks ago and, luckily, all occurred before the bad weather arrived! Eaen’s 3rd birthday was a train-themed party. When Dylan received his invitation in the mail, he got really possessive of the theme — “that’s my train birthday…” — so we had to do a little ‘splainin’ that it is, in fact, possible for more than just one person to have a train party!

Luckily, he got over the whole “train party is mine” thing and we had a grrrreat time at Eaen’s celebration. Eaen had his party at the Train Place Deli, a cute little family-owned deli over in Capitola. The deli had a fantastic model train layout that Dylan just loved! He knew the names of all of the trains that were running (and loudly declared them all as soon as he saw them) — the Santa Fe, the Amtrak and, of course, Thomas. He and Eaen got along really well…not surprising since Eaen is as sweet as can be and Dylan likes nice kids!


DSC_1575
Dylan and Auntie
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Immediately after leaving Eaen’s party, we went to Auntie Christina’s big bday bash (it’s always a big bday bash with Auntie!) over in San Jose, where it was blazing hot!!

Dylan is always up for seeing his cousins and aunties, but he was also completely overjoyed to see a train play structure on the playground! He pretty much camped out in it; we even had to bring food to him and Tyler so they could eat “dinner on the Zinner.”


The next day was Ben’s party. It was another extremely hot day (maybe high 80s??)! After attempting to ride the swing (it was too hot!), we spent the rest of the party under the shade of a tree…! He got to swat a pinata and then collected some treats once it busted open. Incredibly, there was still a giant pile of candy after all the kids picked up what they wanted, and all of the kids were remarkably disciplined and polite while gathering goodies! Dylan’s favorite items were the kazoo and the magnifying glass he picked up….


Day 57: dylan with mom
Day 57: dylan with mom
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Last, but not least, was Lola’s bday celebration the next day! We had a delicious lunch at Krung Thai in San Jose — absolutely awesome because Dylan loves panang curry over rice (he also liked the spring rolls).

After lunch, we went back to Lola’s house for some Filipino treats (Dylan loves halo-halo which my mom made with coconut milk) and some Wii play (Auntie Christina’s bday present from Uncle Dre). Dylan liked the running game the best (it’s also the one he was coordinated enough to do!).

We’ve had so much birthday fun, Dylan has not stopped talking about his own party!! He’s very excited…and we’re glad the little guy won’t have to wait too much longer…!


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dylan goes to the doc with mom

Posted on May 1, 2009 by cvc

I had my 24-week check-up at the doc on Wednesday and, since it was in the morning, Dylan got to go with me. Being the (mostly) friendly li’l fella that he is, he started chatting up the receptionist after she said a friendly hello:

Dylan: My mommy. is bringing the baby. to the doccccctor…

Receptionist: Yeah! Your mommy has to take the baby to the doctor, doesn’t she? Are you going to be a big brother?

Dylan: Yeh…My mommy…There’s a baby in her belly…she’s a baby sithterrrrrr….

He could have gone on and on, but we had to move along to give a “specimen.” Well, that part just gave Dylan the giggles. What am I doing with that cup? “Are all those cups (in the bathroom) for peein’ in?” “We don’t go pee pee in a cup! That’s silly…!” I was at a loss for words, really, but I explained as best as I could!

And then it was finally time to move into the exam room. As I weighed in, he held our car keys and my cell phone in the little basket he dragged along with us, and he sat on my lap and very patiently watched me get my vitals taken. Then, when the doctor came in, he skooched right off and stood by the chairs, continuing to watch with great interest. The exam was short, but Dylan got to hear the baby’s heartbeat with me…and, for being so cute, he got a sticker for his shirt…!


He is getting to be such a big boy now, but when we look at him, it’s hard not to still see him as our little guy….


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dylan feels the baby kick

Posted on April 29, 2009 by cvc

Three days ago, Dylan woke up at the ungodly hour of 5am (he’d fallen asleep at 6:30pm, on the way home from celebrating Lola’s bday) and, of course, it was the little baby’s kicking time, so I put Dylan’s hand on my belly so he could feel her kick. He was so sweet and so excited, I wanted to note the moment down so I could remind him how eagerly he was awaiting her arrival in this world!

He often talks to the baby, or “shows” her things — all via my belly button(!!) — and that morning was no exception. After feeling a lot of little thumps, he started asking her if she wanted to look out the window (“do you want to look out the window, baby?” “do you see the school, baby?” etc. etc.). He always follows up with a question to me: “can she hear me, mommy?” It’s all so super sweet. Right now, he’s eager to play with her and share his food with her…We’re hoping that trend will continue but, of course, we know it won’t possibly be that smooth…!

By the way, the picture, taken on the day we celebrated my mom’s bday, is just cute and really has nothing to do with him feeling the baby kicks! I have much catch-up to do in posting about the many April birthdays we’ve celebrated this month!


Posted in firsts, fortherecord, pregnancy | 1 Comment