Cute Kids

I stood Dylan up at his music player, and these pictures show what happened... I love watching them play!

Dylan had his 9-month well-check with Dr. Dickerson today.  He weighs 20 lbs 13 oz, which is the 60th percentile.  He is 28.5 inches long, which is 50-60th percentile, and his head circumference is 18 cm, which is also in the 60th percentile.  He's growing like a weed, and he's meeting all of his developmental milestones right on time.  Next check-up at 12 months!

Swim Lessons Come to a Close

Lily's lessons at Houston Swim Club are over for the season. She had fun and learned a lot!

Twelve Dancing Princesses

We attended an outdoor performance by Fort Bend Theatre, called "Twelve Dancing Princesses." Obviously with a title like that, we HAD to take our own princess to the show! It was a fun, relaxing evening in Town Square.

Lily Dancing

Lily enjoyed dancing to the music in Town Square during part of the "Twelve Dancing Princesses" production...

Dylan Standing dUp

Dylan is starting to pull himself up to things that are low, such as the bottom step. Once he gets there he usually just stands still, unsure of what to do with his feet to try to move.  In this picture, Daddy stood him up to tthe coffee table, and Dylan had lots of fun patting it with his hands.  We still have to be careful to help him get back down, though - he will easily lose his balance and topple over.

Happy Boy

Dylan is such a happy baby!
Here's a picture from tonight after he started crawling.

Dylan Crawling 2

A slightly longer video of Dylan crawling tonight... He has definitely figured out that crawling is more efficient than army crawling if he needs to go further than just a couple of feet. Dylan learned to crawl so much differently from Lily. She never army crawled with alternating elbows; she would scoot herself forward by pushing with her feet, but never army crawling. When she was ready to crawl, she was very, very slow and methodical. Literally, one limb would move at a time, but she would do it so precisely. I don't remember her ever face-planting in the carpet like Dylan does in this video! He is obviously a little less methodical and a little more trial-and-error. hahaha!

Dylan Crawling

Dylan started crawling tonight! He was initially motivated by some taco meat that Lily had dropped on the kitchen floor, but I brought him into the living room for a couple of videos. So he army-crawled for exactly a week, and the very next day he started crawling. Look out world, this boy is going to be trouble!

Miller Outdoor Theatre

I took the kids to Miller Outdoor Theatre today to see "My Son Pinocchio Jr." It was basically the usual Pinocchio story, but with a different spin. Gepetto was trying to get the blue fairy to take Pinocchio back because he wasn't good in the beginning, but he grows to love him by the end of the play. I don't think Lily followed the play well enough to realize it wasn't exactly the same story that she is used to hearing, but she still recognized the main characters and enjoyed the show. It was ridiculously hot out there in the sun, but she really was having a good time so we stuck it out. Good thing I keep sunscreen in the diaper bag! I had thought we would be sitting in the covered seating area, but the place was packed so we were up on the hill in the sun. You can still see just fine from up there though, and they use microphones so you can easily hear the dialogue too. Dylan was sweaty but a good sport as always. I'm glad we went.

Dylan Army Crawling

This video is from June 4th, one week ago today. This is the day Dylan started army crawling, and as you can see from the video he started out with a sort of slow, scooting army crawl. One week later, he has really picked up the pace and gotten his legs in on the action, so he practically looks like he's crawling with alternating arms and legs, but his belly is still on the floor. He can army crawl all over the house, and we've been reintroduced to babyproofing! His favorite things to get into are the blinds in the front windows and the cabinet in the living room with the dvds in it. I'm surprised it's only been a week - Dylan has gotten so good at army crawling that it seems like he's been doing it much longer. He's a very busy baby!

Lily Feeding Dylan Baby Food

Lily basically thinks she can do anything that Mommy does to take care of Dylan. So of course she decided she would feed Dylan his baby food. And she did a really good job! I would say she made less mess feeding her brother than she usually makes when feeding herself. But I didn't let it go on too long, because Dylan was getting a little too excited. I had visions of baby spoons and pureed green beans flying all over the kitchen.

Astros Baseball

We watched the Astros beat the Cubs! Cheap seats above home plate are hard to beat, especially when the kids get in free. What a fun afternoon. And thank goodness for air conditioning at Minute Maid Park!

Gideon's Birthday Party

Gideon had a Backhoe Party for his birthday!  He is really into construction and heavy machinery, so all the activities at his party were construction-themed.  Here are some pictures of Lily and the birthday boy.  Check out Lily's wild eyebrow in the picture where she's holding up the candy!

Dylan Sleeping

Aww, just look at my sweet baby boy! He sleeps so hard during his naptimes. I often find him conked out like this with an arm trapped beneath him. At nighttime he usually falls asleep on his back and looks a little more relaxed. In any case, I'm glad he naps fairly well. He's such a busy little man, he needs his rest!

Babies in a Basket

Just being silly! (In these pictures Lily's eye has actually gotten a lot better because the swelling has gone down, but the bruising / black eye looks worse as it's healing. Poor kid! But she really doesn't even seem to notice it.)

Twins!?!

Sometimes Lily gets to go places with our good friends the Swans, and inevitably, someone will comment to Katie that her twins are very well behaved, or that the twins are adorable, or some other twin-related statement. Maybe this isn't the best picture to illustrate the resemblance (Gideon's already getting a tan this summer), but it's definitely there! Lily and Gideon are basically the same height. Gideon weighs more, but you can't necessarily tell that at first glance if you don't know the kids or they're sitting in a shopping cart. They both have blonde hair and big beautiful blue eyes. And they often bicker like siblings. So we can totally see why strangers think they're twins!