Dylan had a big birthday on Sunday! It's hard to believe that a year has passed already.
We had a fun weekend celebrating. On Sunday, we had a little BBQ in the backyard. Dylan had a good time playing with his friends and had his first taste of cake. He was a little wary at first, but then dug in!
His big birthday gift was a blue push car. He loves it. Each morning this week, he's gone straight over to it and climbed inside as soon as he wakes up.
We can't remember why he was crying, but these last two pics were too funny to leave out.
Dylan is now a full-fledged walker! He took his first steps a couple months ago, but then he took a break for a little while. Then he half-crawled/half-walked for a couple weeks, during which both Jason's and my backs nearly gave out from holding his hands as he practiced walking. And then when we were in Fiji, he devoted himself to walking full-time!
There were about two weeks in there where he had the most priceless way of walking. He would slap both hands against his tummy with each step. I don't know if it was for balance or just to alert us to his new skill, but it was adorable. I only caught a video of him doing this clothed...it was even cuter in just a diaper :)
He's also "talking" up a storm. No real words yet, but he'll repeat certain sounds over and over all day long for a few days at a time. A couple months ago, he used simple sounds -- "da da da," "ba ba ba." These days it's a little more complex. Last week he alternated between "dis" and "dat." I'm not sure if it's just random that it sounded like he was saying "this" and "that" or if he had heard those two words together at some point. For the past couple days, he's been repeating "die" all day long, which is kind of unfortunate!
His sense of humor is definitely starting to develop as well. He'll use pretty much anything to play peek-a-boo with you -- open and close a door, lift and lower his shirt as you're changing his diaper, he'll stand just outside a room and pop back in. And he erupts into fits of laughter when you do something he thinks is funny -- which prompts me to act like an idiot much of the day in hopes that it will make him laugh.
Peek...
...-a-....
...boo!!
He has now started to displace many of the objects in our house. I'll find magnets mixed in with strawberries in the refrigerator, remote controls in one of my pots, my camera in the sock drawer. And recently, I've noticed him deliberately trying to hide things -- he'll be flat-out on his tummy, methodically putting magnets under the fridge or toys under the couch. Speaking of toys, his favorite two objects in the house these days are my colanders. Out of all of his wonderful toys, he's obsessed with my colanders. I've been thinking about giving them out as 1st birthday gifts at all of the parties we've been invited to recently.
He's also getting very good at seeking out his favorite snacks and digging in himself. He'll run over to the refrigerator as I quickly open it to grab something, and lunge at the strawberries, take one, and proceed to eat it/drag it all over the kitchen walls. Or, he finds his diaper bag and digs through it, tossing aside the diapers, extra clothes and sunblock, to find the Cheerios or Mum Mums that I keep in there for emergencies. And he has no internal gauge to tell him he's full on Cheerios. He would eat an entire box if we left it out. If he finds a box or bag of snacks that needs opening, then he'll take it over to me, shake it, and then crawl into my lap. It's hard to say no!
Who me??
We've been having a lot of fun at our little gym classes and at the park. Dylan's shy around adults, but really comes alive when surrounded by other little kids. And now that he's walking, he seems to be enjoying that stuff on a whole new level.
Fun with beach balls
The strongest man alive
Bird chasing
I'll end with this little habit of his that Jason and I love so much. He often sleeps on his tummy, with his hands tucked underneath his legs. And when he's tired and you're holding him, he rests his head on your shoulder and burrows his hands between his body and yours, while wiggling his bum around, trying to find the most comfortable position. It almost makes you want to not put him down in the crib and hold him all night....almost.
We've had an exciting few weeks since I last updated. The three of us took a trip to Fiji -- we wanted to take Dylan to the place that we enjoyed so much during our honeymoon. It was definitely a different experience with a baby, but we had a wonderful time.
Fijians LOVE babies. Dylan was fawned over, his cheeks were pinched, we were constantly stopped on the street so people could ask how old he was, waitresses would swoop him up as we entered a restaurant...it was very sweet. He had a great time in the pools and in the ocean. It was his first time really playing in the water (besides bathtime) and he took to it immediately. If he accidentally dunked his face in a little bit, he would just pop right back up, wipe the water out of his eyes, and keep on playing. And each time he got in either the pool or the ocean, he would spend the first few minutes tasting the water by repeatedly sticking his index finger into it and then licking. It was hysterical.
Playing with the tribal drum
Eating the tribal drum
We also spent some time at the park, we went to a traditional Fijian lovo, went several times to a little playpark near our hotel that had lots of toy cars and a carousel, and just spent a lot of quality time together.
This was his favorite thing to do in the hotel room -- take all the coffee and tea from one drawer, put in another, return to previous drawer....
It was a wonderful trip, but it's good to be home!
