Happy Halloween/Travels/Sleeping Issues

We celebrated out first Halloween with Dylan.  He dressed up as Pooh Bear and was quite cute-if I do say so myself!  Since Halloween fell on a Sunday our church family went to a school parking lot and we had "Trunk or Treat".  We all decorated the trunks of our cars in the parking lot and all the kiddos came by for candy.  Dylan loved handing out candy and looking at all the costumes.  He kept looking at the kids and then looking at me with a "are you seeing this" look on his face.  Overall we had a great time and can't wait for next year when he actually understands what's happening around him.

Trey, Dylan and I are flying to Dallas this Thursday.  My mom and aunts are participating in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day Walk, and we are going to be cheerleaders.  They even made Dylan a hot pink shirt that he will wear while we are there.  I made a sign that says, "real men where pink" :)

We have been having some sleep issues lately.   In the past, Dylan slept really well.  I would nurse (I know this is a no-no) him to sleep around 8, he would wake up around 2 for another feeding and then go back to sleep until 8 in the morning.  For the past few months we have slowly gotten off this schedule.  Now he will fight going to sleep and usually doesn't lay down until 10:30pm, wakes up all through the night and is up at 6am.  Last night we had a rough night and I decided this morning to change our routine.

Tonight we didn't get home until 8:30pm and he fell asleep in the car.  As I was getting him out he woke up, so I quickly incorporated a new bedtime routine.  I changed him into PJ's, read Goodnight Moon, said our prayers and put him in bed and told him I loved him.  I read online to wait 5 minutes and go check on him if he's still awake.  When I checked on him I patted his back and told him I loved him and then left.  I waited 10 more minutes the next time and did the same thing.  As I am writing this we are now on 20 minutes and he is still going strong.  I refuse to give in.  It has taken us 9 months, but we really feel like Dylan is old enough to go to sleep on his own-tough love baby :)  I will let you guys know how it is going next time.  Dylan very well could win this battle!

Besides his sleeping issues, Dylan is great.  He is crawling and pulling up on everything.  Loves to "walk" as long as he is holding onto something.  I just started incorporating more food into his diet.  He has never been a huge fan of mashed up baby food, so we have started giving him food that he can gum.  He likes fruit, carrots, green beans, black beans, avocado, chicken, corn, gluten free bagels, butter and yogurt.   He loves to feed himself.

I would gladly love feedback on the whole sleep thing.  I never was a fan of letting him "cry it out", but am growing tired of the struggle we have every night.  I am afraid if we don't get a handle on this now I will be rocking him to sleep when he is 5.  I have read a couple books and both contradict the other one, so I don't know what to believe.  Help!
(Side note: for the last 5 minutes there has been no crying, so I am hoping he is asleep and it only took 35 minutes)

Weiner Rice Festival

For the last 34 years, Weiner, Arkansas has hosted the annual Rice festival.  The festival includes an antique car parade, rice tasting contest, carnival rides, wiener dog races (that's right folks), live music and much more.

Ray (my father-in-law) collects antique cars, so we had 4 in the parade.  Dylan, Trey and I drove the 1955 Chevy truck with all the children in the back. Dylan had a fun time helping daddy drive, but didn't quite understand why we wouldn't let him eat the gear shifter.  It was funny watching Trey try to drive the not automatic steering wheel, shift the gears and hold Dylan all at the same time.

We had a good time hanging out with the Keller family.  The whole gang was there, so Dylan spent the weekend being entertained by all the kids and being loved on by his aunts and uncles.


Our nephew Rex is 4 years old and loves being around Dylan.  I was putting Dylan in his carseat and he was getting fussy.  Rex climbed up in the car and said, "Hey Dylan, if you quit crying and are good all the way there I will give you a surprise".  I asked what the surprise would be and he said, "that is between me and Dylan" :)
We came home on Monday afternoon and my dad came up for a few days.  He hadn't seen Dylan since Labor Day and he had a few days off work.  We spent those few days eating out, going to antique stores and driving around Franklin.  We had a good time with him.

About Dylan:

-He started really crawling right at 8 months.  He's been army crawling since 7 months, but decided to kick it up a notch about two weeks ago.
-As of 10/8/10 he weighed 22.5 lbs.  He wears 18 to 24 month clothes.
-His hair is getting curly.  I gave him his first haircut about two months ago and it started to grow back with some curl to it-love it.
-Still not a huge fan of baby food.  He would rather eat little pieces of table food instead of pureed food.  The consistency gets him-Dylan has yet to finish a whole jar of baby food.
-He loves to pull up on things, but when he starts to fall he will not bend his legs and he usually face plants in the floor.  He received his first booboo on his nose and upper lip yesterday :(
-Likes to "sing" along with Trey.  Trey will sing a song with his guitar and Dylan sings with him.  Everytime I get the video camera out to film it he stops, but I will get one!
-Loves bible class now.  The first two times were rough, but now I walk him to class and he immediately reaches for his teacher.
Okay, I can't think of anything else.  My brother and I have our race this weekend...so ready for that to be over with.  Dylan, Trey and my mom are going to be our cheerleaders-can't wait.  Hope everyone is doing well.  Thanks for reading!

I LOVE Fall!

This is my favorite time of year.  I love everything about this season.  These past few days the weather has been awesome, so we have been trying to spend more time outside.  Dylan really enjoys his stroller, so we definitely take advantage of that as much as we can.  We have officially busted out the winter clothes.  It is perfect during the day at 65 degrees, but at night it gets quite chilly. 

 My brother and I are running a half marathon on October 16th.  We have been training for the last 10 weeks and Trey will push Dylan in the jogging stroller while JD and I run our required miles.  Last night JD and I had to run 9 miles and Trey pushed Dylan for 1 hour and 45 minutes and Dylan didn't make a peep...and it was like 40 degrees.  Dylan was bundled and quite warm snuggled in his blanket.

Trey plays on a flag football team and Dylan and I have been going out and watching his games.  The games don't start until 8:30, so it's good and cold by game time.  Tonight (picture above) Dylan did not want to keep his gloves on, so I zipped him up in my jacket and he was happy to snuggle momma for the whole game. 

 

We decided to dress Dylan all snazzy for church last Sunday.   He looked so cute in his vest...definitely looked older than 8 months.  I tried to put a tie on him, but the kid nearly choked himself trying to pull it off.   I was hoping he would be able to wear this outfit at Christmas, but the pants are already too snug...guess I will have to go shopping :)

Dylan outgrew his infant carrier a while ago, but I was afraid he wouldn't like the bigger car seat and held off as long as I could.  On Monday we made the switch and he loves it.  We ended up getting the Graco-My Ride 65.  This picture was taken on our way home from the football game.  It was 9:30 and he was so tired. 

 

I found these leggings at Target in the dollar bins...I thought they were adorable.  Dylan is not a huge fan of pants in general, so it's nice to have something that will keep his legs warm.  We are traveling a lot this next month, so I will have tons of pics to upload on my next blog.