Dylan's 18-Month Well Check

Dylan saw Dr. D yesterday for his 18-month checkup.  He weighs 25 lb 4 oz and is 33 inches tall.  His head is 19 inches around.  About 75th percentile for height, only about 40th percentile for weight.  Development is right on track, and the only thing we're following up with is his heart murmur.  The doctor has been hearing it consistently for the last six months or so; she says it sounds like it's just a noise and isn't worried, but as a precaution she does want to have it checked out.  So Dylan will have an EKG and chest x-ray sometime next week and we'll follow up with a cardiologist a little later.  No cause for alarm.

Overall a great checkup with our happy, healthy boy!

Baby Giraffe at the Zoo

We made a trip to the zoo to see the new baby giraffe, and we were surprised by ANOTHER new giraffe - but this one wasn't real, it was a statue!  A nice field trip chaperone offered to take this picture of all three of us with the new giraffe statue.

 I had a hard time getting a very good picture of the new baby because Lily wanted to keep moving around the outside of the exhibit, seeing the giraffes from all different angles.

After the giraffes, we headed over to the Children's Zoo for awhile, where we were greeted by this friendly turtle character.  Lily said he looked like Franklin the turtle, from the popular children's book series.

 This is the first time Dylan played in the play area near the otters, and he had SO much fun climbing up the cargo net to go down the slide!  He's getting so big.

 Eventually he did notice the otters sliding next to him when he was going down the green slide, so he went over to take a look.

 Lily thought this circle was the perfect size for her to rest.

 Usually when we look at the spectacled bears they're sitting back on the rocks, kind of hidden away and difficult for the kids to see.  But on this day they were right out front, and one of them was sitting straight up in the water!  I swear this bear was posing for all the people taking its picture, turning its head back and forth, just sitting there as happy as could be.

 I can't tell in this picture which adult elephant is standing here with the babies, but I like the picture because we can see the different sizes of Tupelo and Baylor.

 Dylan and Lily both REALLY enjoyed watching the backhoe working on the expansion to the elephant exhibit.  Look at Dylan's face - he's so happy!  I can't wait to see the new pool for the elephants.

Rodeo 2011

We spent the whole day at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, arriving early in the morning even before the parking lots got crowded!  Since we were there bright and early, there was no line for the petting zoo and it wasn't crowded, AND we got a great view of the brand new baby animals that had been born during the rodeo.  The kids loved the petting zoo - Dylan tried to pick up the little goats, and one of the bigger goats licked his arm - you can see him holding his arm, he was surprised!

 Lily was excited to see Miss Moo.

 Lily really enjoyed seeing the baby chicks hatching.

 I would have felt so claustrophobic on this ride, the way Dusty and Lily were caged in with bars above them, but they didn't seem to mind at all.

Baby Sally joined Lily for a carousel ride.

 Lily was not scared of any of the rides this year, and in fact, we learned that the really simple ones like this bumblebee ride where they just go up and then "fly" around in a circle a few times, were too boring for her.  She needed a little more excitement, like the rollercoaster she rode with Daddy.

 Dylan rode one ride with us and hated it.  He was getting sleepy anyway, so he stayed in the stroller looking grumpy while Lily rode the rides and played a few games.  He did go to sleep for 45 minutes or so, which was just enough to perk him back up for the rest of the day.

 Here Daddy and Lily are playing the ring toss game.

 And THIS is the game where they won a prize!

 This slide is dangerous.  I stopped taking pictures because I was too busy watching Lily skid out of control and come down the slide sideways! Meanwhile, Dusty and Dylan were bouncing so high that Daddy had to hold Dylan really tight so he wouldn't fly right off of his lap.  It was REALLY fast!  I know that sounds kinda fun, but the kids didn't really even seem to enjoy it that much.

 By the time we had visited the animals inside Reliant Center, ridden rides and played games in the Midway, had lunch, and gone through Little Farmerville, it was time to head over to the Stadium for the Rodeo.  Lily was completely tired out and fell asleep sitting on her bench in the stroller.  It was hilarious!

 Dylan was a happy camper after he woke up from his nap.

 Once we got into the Stadium, Lily was still sound asleep so we moved her to this couch to keep resting for awhile.

 Our friends Marc and Amy joined us for the rodeo and Brad Paisley concert.  The kids had a great time watching the animals in the rodeo, and by the end of the night everyone was thoroughly exhausted - as you can see by Mommy and Daddy's tired expressions in these pictures! 

Paper Doll Princesses

Lily has been playing with this princess paper doll set quite a bit lately. The dolls are sturdy, and some of the outfits are plastic cling-on material, so they're easy for her to change them. For the paper outfits, she uses tacky glue dots that work really well for removing and reapplying. She also had fun cutting out the storybook pages to make the little paper books that go with each princess.

Lily has "grown up" and changed a lot in the last few months, and her interests are starting to shift. She's still very interested in the Disney princesses, of course, but I've been noticing a renewed interest in art activities like cutting, gluing, coloring, painting, drawing, tracing, all of the above. She LOVES to pick flowers. No landscaped flowerbed is safe from Lily's picking, but it's awfully difficult to discourage when she hands me the flowers saying, "This is for you, Mama." She only calls me "Mama" when she's in that sweet, lovey, giving mood these days; otherwise it's Mommy or sometimes even the very grown-up sounding "Mom." Another new interest of Lily's is rainbows, which is what prompted me to write this paragraph about her changing interests in the first place - I noticed her rainbow-colored outfit, which is a new favorite. She likes to look at rainbows shining through windows or in the sky, and she likes to draw, color, and paint them. And she'll tell you why the rainbow is there - to remind you of God's promise that he'll never leave us.

Tigger in the Kitchen