Best Pumpkin in the Patch!

We went again to Schaeffer & Collins Pumpkin Patch in Mayflower. It has become a tradition to go on Sunday afternoon each year with our Small group from church. We had a blast, even though it was incredibly hot!!

We were missing one family from our group. Our total is 14 adults and 11 kids! It is a great, BUSY group!I think we found our pick!I think that blonde hair blowing in the breeze is so cute! His face was so red. He played SO very hard! He also loved the hay ride to the patch! He watched the tractors and has picked up that word too! "Tac-too" It is pretty cute! Oh won't his grandpa's be proud!!!Dylan has found his pumpkin!On Satuday, Jonathan had the company golf tournament. Mom and I took Dylan out to the golf course to see everyone and eat lunch. He has become VERY attached to his golf club. He was pitching fits on the course if he thought we were taking the club away from him. Yikes! That afternoon, our friends Matt and Lana came over to watch the Hogs. He now can say "Maa" for Matt and "Ana" for Lana. He was pretty confident about it too! Fun times!!

What's Happenin' with Our Talkin' Boy!

It is absolutely crazy what Dylan has picked up over the last month! There are so many things, I am just going to have to list them all! Dylan, here is what you are doing as a 13 month old:

-Walking is your ONLY way to move!
-You also are quite the little dancer. You dance to Mickey Mouse and whatever sounds good at the moment.
-You love to be outside and sweep the deck with your broom!
-You love spaghetti, ravioli, homemade chicken and dumplings and homemade chicken noodle soup!
-One of our favorite things is when you go pick out a book, bring it to us, and then turn your little bum around and sit down in our lap. It melts my heart, and your daddy's too!
-You have stared crying big when we have to come back inside from playing. You love to play outside, walk throughout the grass, pick up leaves, rocks, and sticks, and BE A BOY!!!

-Here are ALL the words in your vocabulary right now!

Yum-yum: You say this when you see food, when we ask you if you want to eat, when we walk to the fridge and pantry. It is so cute!
Uh-oh
Shew: This is said to your diaper, rocks, leaves, anything that is stinky and that we don't want in your mouth!
Dog (daw)

Ball (baw)
Diaper (di-poo)
Cracker (ka-kr)
Bible
Banana (nana)
Cookie
Shoe

Light (yigh)
Pumpkin (pu-kin)
Turtle (tu-tl)

-Here are all the family names you can say!
Mama, Dada, and Ne-ne were first!
Dustin: You looked at a picture of all the boys and pointed to Dustin and said his name!!
Bob: You see Uncle Bob at church or in pictures and say his name!
Pop
Mawmaw: and it actually sounds different than Mama!
Tanner (ta-tu) You also love to say Hi Ta-tu. It is cute!
Carole (ca-cul) for Aunt Carole
Nathan (na-nan) for your cousin Nathan Blevins

We are working on Grandpa and Grandma. Grandpa comes out a little like Pa-poo so that may be the new name!!

I think I say this every time I post, but Dylan may be the MOST fun right now! He is like a little sponge soaking everything up! I love watching him learn so many new things!

I will leave you with my favorite pictures from the beginning of Fall. We went to the Park last Saturday because it was a gorgeous day to be outside, and Dylan loves to be outside, Remember?!Look at that sweet expression as he watches his Daddy!

"Oh I Just Can't WAIT To Be King!"

Doesn't this face just look like a little one-year old King?!

Walking in his new Nike tennis shoes. We went and bought him his very 1st pair! It really adds to the big boy look! He carries his blankie everywhere, usually just like this, in his mouth!

Getting the hang of things!

Dylan's 1st Birthday party was Jungle themed. My sister made him the precious outfit and safari hat. He really seemed to be quite overwhelmed during the present opening section of the party. I ended up opening the majority of them. He enjoyed digging into the cake but did NOT want to eat any! He invited one buddy, Brady, to the party! :) We had fun with a small group of family and friends celebrating Dylan's first year of life!

First Steps

As I watched you take your first steps
I cheered and smiled for you.
I can't believe how much you've grown
Your life shines through and through.

As I watched you take your first steps
My heart skipped a little beat.
You are changing into our little boy
And that is bittersweet.

As I watched you take your first steps
My mind quickly began to spin
A whole new world awaits you now
Oh the mischief you will be in!

As I watched you take your first steps
A new adventure has begun
Our sweet little Dylan Thomas
Is steppin' on to being ONE!

Love, Mommy

Dylan took his first steps on Wednesday, August 11th. He is becoming so brave about it! The most steps we have counted in a row are 12. I have a feeling it won't be long before his main mode of transportation is walking! He's cutting more molars so we hope that resolves itself before the birthday. It's causing some trouble sleeping at night! He also has started mimicking a bunch lately. If we say "shhh", so does Dylan! He "vroom-vrooms" his boats, cars, trucks, etc. He is so much fun right now!

Everything Changin' at Eleven Months!

Ok, so you hear everyone tell you over and over and over that "your baby will change so quickly", "time flies", or "don't blink or they will be grown" and for many years I half-heartedly listened and agreed. But, you can classify that with all the other "You don't get it till you experience it" things because IT IS TRUE! I can't believe that Dylan Thomas is 11 months old! Everything is changing in our world. We are seeing signs of a 'BIG BOY' at our house instead of a baby. He will ALWAYS be our baby, but he is becoming so much more independent. Examples below:
His new favorite place to play is inside this basket in our den. He can climb in and climb out all by himself. Oh, did I mention CLIMB??!!!!!!!!!!! He apparently has inherited his long legs and need for scaling things from me! He climbs onto the fireplace hearth, into the recliner, and my sister and I stared in amazement last week as he pulled out the bottom drawer of our chest to get a foot rest and began to CLIMB the chest of drawers. Really?! I can't leave this blue-eyed beauty alone for 2 seconds!We have graduated to ALL table foods! Once he got a taste of the "real" stuff, he was hooked. The only thing I can feed him from a spoon these days is yogurt. He likes hamburger, pickles, rice and veggies, grilled chicken, pot roast (yes, I said pot roast!), cheese ravioli, and FRUIT! The only fruit I have found so far that he won't eat is cantaloupe. He prefers toast for breakfast with butter and cinnamon. Yummy, right?! I have to admit I love the table food age. Now, when he eats I can eat too! I just have to make sure he doesn't have too much in front of him or it will all end up in his mouth!

On a side note, he puts anything and everything in his mouth. The smallest piece of string not even visible to my eyes, he finds and crams it in there! I have been bit on several occasions while trying to pry that mouth open to retrieve something! I did catch the orange crayon before it was too late :-(
Not sure about the pickle:

This was so much fun to watch. Instead of spoon-feeding him rice and veggies, I just poured it out on his tray and let him have at it. He had the best time! More definitely ended up on the floor than inside his tummy!You can't beat little messy baby hands! Enjoying our baby pool outside. Dylan played in the shade and I tried to catch a few rays. He has 1000's of facial expressions. I believe he gets those from.....oh yeah, ME!!!We now have locks on all the cabinets and drawers. This picture was pre-locks. One morning, I just let him have at it in our bathroom. He played for probably 30 minutes with my "travel" accessories. A kid in a candy store!

Other exciting changes:

We are working on our 1st molar. It is partially through.

He points at what he wants. It's a 3 finger point: his thumb, pointer, and middle fingers. :-)

The jibber-jabber is NON-STOP! He repeats after us, most of which in his own little language, but it is so much fun!

He can repeat these words after we say them:

Da-da, Ma-ma, and Bye-bye :-) but he also thinks it is really funny to repeat da-da even if you are trying to get him to say one of the other words. Such a pistol! ;)

When Jonathan gets home from work, he starts saying "Ne-ne" which is Nelli. He knows that Jonathan is going to take him outside to play with Nelli and feed her. :)

We are working on saying bible and dog right now.

He is still taking 2 naps a day. He has gotten into a pretty good routine with them and will sleep for at least an hour at a time, but he has cut the nighttime sleep down a little bit. He sleeps 10 to 10 1/2 hours instead of 11.

He is getting so brave at standing up by himself. He will stand there and look at me like "What's next, Mom?" I have to believe those first steps are around the corner.

He has a little bit of "stinker" in him already: telling us no-no, trying to bite when he doesn't get his way, but that's all apart of learning and growing up, I guess! He is such a joy.

Thanks for making in through this long post! I probably could write even more, but I need to go get a few more things done while Dylan naps!

Heat Wave!

There is definitley a HEAT WAVE rushing through Arkansas this summer. That means we either a) stay indoors or b) find water fast!!!!!!! Andrea and I took Brady and Dylan to Splash Zone for the first time. We stayed for 2 hours! You gotta love zero-entry pools. They are the absolute best for little movin' boys! We had a great day!One of my best girl friends since 7th grade, Amy, was in town for her sister's wedding. We got to spend some quality time catching up. She has 2 little munchkins now! Miss Emory is the sweetest little thing ever! I had the priveledge to hold her through Amy's sisters' wedding, so she could be the Matron of Honor. Eli, who is 2, didn't come over. He had a play date with his grandparents. I love and miss you Amy! I wasn't sure how Dylan would do with the tiny baby, but he was SO sweet! He just looked at her and patted her little arms. :-) I guess it's the summer for catching up with dear friends. Kelly was in town for a visit and spent one night with us. She got lots of "Dylan" time and he, of course, loved it! It was great to see her! Love you Kelly!!!

Our plan is to either be in the pool or in the house while these temps reach into the 100's. We are ready for fall!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Baby's First 4th!

Here is what we did over the Fourth of July weekend. The picture above was at the lake. Dylan was overjoyed to be in the baby pool! I entered it in Bedfords Cutest Kids Contest, and while I think he is the cutest kid :-) he did not win. Still doesn't change my vote!!!!!!

We had an awesome Fourth of July weekend. One of my dearest friends, Janell Stewart, came to visit us! She flew in from Atlanta on Saturday morning and stayed with us until Tuesday night. Dylan absolutely loves his Aunt Janell!

We spent Saturday at the lake house with my dad's side of the family. It was a smaller crowd than normal, but still loads of fun. It was Janell's first time to drive a jet ski. She has decided she has "got to get her one of those".

Sunday was spent at church, then lunch with Jonathan's parents, and a 2 hour nap for Dylan! That meant EVERYONE in our house had afternoon naps. What a blessing! We ate supper at Five Guys. It was yummy!
Monday was pool day for me, Dylan, and Janell. Jonathan played golf and then we just had family time after that. Daddy went back to work on Tuesday, and Janell went home.

We didn't do firecrackers this year (not quite age appropriate) but we heard them all weekend long! We hope to let Dylan experience them next year with ear plugs!

We hope you all enjoyed your weekend celebrating our country and our freedom. Oh what a blessing it is to be free and to be able to raise your child in a free place. I know I take that freedom for granted all to often. Happy First Independence Day to Dylan. May he experience all the joys this country has to offer him as he grows!