Dylan's 1st B-day!!

Dylan's birthday was an eventful one. We started out going to the doctor where we found out that Haley has Pink Eye. ug. They give us some antibiotics and we go home. Great. Now she can't go to school for the rest of the week and we can't go over to our friend's house who invited us for dinner tonight. So we go home and I give Haley her first dose of the eye cream and this is the conversation:

Haley: Oh Mommy, I don't like this stuff one bit! Not at all! I just can't stand it! Oh please, it is HORRIBLE!!! (She's our drama queen, so picture some tears and a face of agony.)
Me: Well Haley, the doctor said that you needed to use this stuff every day so your eyes can feel better.
Haley: Until I'm a grandma?!!!! Oh mom. (sniff) This is so unfair!

So we get home from our trip to the Embassy medical unit and I tell the girls they can watch a movie (since I don't want Haley moving about infecting stuff PLUS she doesn't feel well.) I leave to get a snack for them and when I return, I find Maleia squatted down in front of Dylan staring at him with her head moving from side to side.

Mom: Hi Maleia. What are you doing?
Maleia: I'm watching him grow.
Mom: Oh?
Maleia: But he's not growing. (stands up and puts hands on hips.) So I don't think he's bigger. He's can't be one yet, Mommy.
Mom: But it's his birthday today, honey.
Maleia: Yeah, but he's still a baby!! (talking to Dylan in a high pitched baby talk and back to the squatting position.) Hi Dewin! Do you want to play with me? (He shows her a block Lego that he's playing with, throws it, and laughs while watching it bounce). . . . see mom. He can't even talk yet.
Mom: He can say some words.
Maleia: Not English! And he can't even walk yet. Mommy, we can't have his birthday today. I think you should save his birthday cake for my birthday. It's in some weeks!

Whatever gets you more cake dearie! :)

Okay, so on to Dylan... Let's start at the beginning... I remember having contractions for two weeks and nothing happening. I went in for a routine check up and the nurse noticed that in the last two weeks I was getting smaller, but the baby was getting bigger. hmmm sounds familiar. (I had this with Haley, too.) I went in for an ultrasound to check things out and it said that I had a little less than normal amniotic fluid, but not bad, but that the baby was already 8 lbs. So my midwife said that if I didn't have the baby within the next week and a half, she would induce on my due date, just to be on the safe side. I had another appointment two days before I was due and I was even smaller, so she made the induction appointment for 7am two days later on Sept. 4th, 2007. Crazy it's already been a year!

Yada yada yada, then the baby was born. Yes I did yada-yada over the best part! I had an epidural, easy labor, no tearing, few pushes, lots of rest, and I even got to pull him out myself. (I know you are all cringing right now, and even I kinda get the willies writing that, but it seemed okay in the moment.) Actually it was pretty cool, but weird at the same time. I guess I can say I delivered my own baby.. but only technically. Oficially I had once again an amazing midwife, the same one that delivered Maleia actually. I love midwives and am planning to always use one. They are just Pro-YOU! Whatever you want, within safety guidelines, is great with them. She was there from when I stepped foot into the hospital and I knew her my whole pregnancy. Dylan was such a great baby! A little colicky at first, we found out what worked for him, and he eventually grew out of it. This year has flown by and he has done so much being only one. He has flown to Georgia, South Carolina, Chicago, Denver, Salt Lake, New York, and now Budapest.

What Dylan can do:

• waves hi and bye and says "haaaa" or "baaa" like a southern belle would say 'hi' or 'bye'
  
• walks using furniture. He likes to use a chair on our hardwood floor as a walker.
• knows 'more' and 'please' in sign language
• throws his hands in the air above his head when we yell "Touchdown!!" (just in time for football season... :)
• says: Mama, dad, up, you, that, hello, no, and this
• says: "num-num" for anything edible
• says: "nana" for "banana"
  
• says: "bubble" for "bottle" (my favorite thing he says)
  
• says: "nu-nu-nu-nu-no!" while shaking his head
• says: "dut" for "duck"
  
• when there is something we don't want him to put in his mouth, I tell him its yucky and he looks at me and responds with eyes furrowed, "ccckkkk!"
  
• every time he hears something remotely sounding like an airplane, he stops what he is doing, points his little pointer finger in the air, cocks his head back, and says "up?" then looks for an airplane even though it could be the lawn mower,vacuum, or a truck ... and even if we are inside
• when we ask him for a kiss, he bends forward for an open mouthed slobber, but then makes the real kissing sound after. "kiss, kiss, kiss"
  
• crawls everywhere, can pull himself up on anything (including stairs, yikes!), and walks around the furniture
• LOVES dogs!! says: ""wuf wuf wuf!" when he sees one and goes absolutely ballistic! He chases them around when he's near one giggling, shaking his fists, and jumping on his bum. When the dog walks away he complains, then the chase continues.
  
• LOVES his little furry blanket and pacifier. Yes! I changed him from a thumb sucker to a binkie sucker. I'll find out soon which one I prefer, since both of my girls are thumb suckers.
  
• he's still bald. I was thinking of giving him a haircut, so I cut a few of the long hairs with scissors. A whole whopping 3 hairs.
  
• drinks from a bottle now. He was weaned from nursing at 10 1/2 months because I didn't have enough for him. I have three more Costco tubs of formula and so I'm just going to give him the rest and be done with formula in a few more months.
• eats pretty much anything we give him and just eats non-stop. What can I say? He's a tank. He's 23 lbs and is in a forward facing car seat now and just laughs out the window when we go anywhere. It's a whole new world to him now.
  
• loves to play catch with himself. He LOVES balls. He will throw anything to see if it bounces and if it's a ball, he will laugh hysterically after finding that it bounces, crawl quickly after the ball, and throw it again. I guess it's more like fetch, but still, he has a blast.
• When we ask, "How old are you?" He puts up his index finger and yells, "Wah!" :)
  

All in all, he is a sweet, loving baby who smiles at EVERYONE and is really pretty easy. He likes to flirt. I can totally tell the difference between boys and girls now that he is older. We love having this sweet little man in our lives and can't wait to find out what this next year will bring. . . we also say that he needs a brother. . . but not for a couple of years. :)