New Playroom

As Dillan's toys keep getting bigger and more plentiful due to his generous friends and family, we knew he needed a more dedicated playspace.  We decided to re-arrange our house a bit and made our Den into Dillan's playroom, and converted the 'formal' living room into our tv/family room (what were we thinking with a 'formal' living room anyways?!)  After a few trips to IKEA, and an evening or two of assembly and moving, our house has evolved a bit to fit the needs of our growing family better.

Playing in our new playroom!

Dillan calling Mommy





New Family Room

Hook'em!

Dillan can finally show his allegiance to mom and dad's alma mater!  I think he was feeling extra school spirit in his UT pajamas and matching Daddy at the same time :)

Cousin Ethan turns TWO

We traveled up to Tulsa to celebrate Cousin Ethan's 2nd birthday and had a blast at his Painting Party!  Dillan and Ethan are definitely playing more 'with' each other these days, although they still get in a few scuffles over sharing toys now and then.  Hopefully this phase will pass and they will be BFFs in no time :)

Let the Painting begin!

Creative Juices are Flowing

Paint-sharing

Whoops!

Nice and Messy

Cleanup

who knew?  toddlers are naturals

the kiddos and their Masterpiece

Happy Birthday Ethan!

Cupcake Monster

Family Pic

Awww...they do love each other

Eighteen Months!

Dillan has grown so much since his last checkup - he is now a very busy, very active, very verbal eighteen month-old!  The last few months have been by far the most accelerated in terms of growth and development. Someone told me that this period is called 'Language explosion' and boy, is that right!  A few months ago, Dillan could say a few words here and there, but when we tried to teach him new words, he would mainly stare blankly back.  Now, he is learning at least one or two new words or sounds every day!  We are totally enjoying this really fun age, as he learns to communicate so much more effectively with us now.  As expected, he is also becoming Mr. Independent, and wants to do everything 'his' way, resulting in some pretty interesting battle of wills at the Mah household.  We are learning more about the disciplining and boundary-enforcing part of parenting these days!  At eighteen months, Dillan is:

- 25 lbs 7 oz and 33" tall
- saying a TON of new words:  moon, football, star, teacher, turtle, juice, josh, yellow, no, bible, and many others
- loves making animal sounds - funny how many versions of 'rar' he can make for different animals
- nods head yes and no
- starting to learn his alphabet - his favorites:  A, Y and B
- learning his colors - thinks everything is lell-o (yellow) at the moment
- loves playing with balls - kicking, throwing, hitting with a play golf club, etc
- starting to get picky with food, but still eating lots
- getting introduced to potty training (still a long ways away, but it's a start!)
- enjoys dancing and bopping head to music
- started Mother's Day Out 2 days a week
- LOVES watching football with Daddy
- self-feeding with a spoon
- enjoys scribbling and decorating papers (and people) with stickers
- favorite toys: trains, blocks, gears, stackable cups
- favorite books:  anything with elmo, Goodnight Bible, Noah's Ark, Monkey pop-up book

'Doctor' Dillan at his checkup


Cuddling with Grandpa



Getting into trouble in Grandma's kitchen


Balloons!




Clowning around

First Day of School

We decided to enroll Dillan in a Mother's Day Out program so that he could get some more social interaction with other kiddos and to give Grandma a bit of a break.  Although we had been planning it for a while, I still could not believe our baby was going off to "school"! 

 

He was a little shell-shocked at all the things going on at school at first...

Not a terribly exciting video, but definitely a memory I won't forget!

He did great on his first day - his teachers said he was pretty cooperative and happy, ate all his lunch and took a nap.  He's all grown up now!

Independent play

Thank goodness that Dillan is getting pretty independent and is content playing by himself for a little while.  Today, we found him happily enjoying a book....underneath his laundry hamper :) 

And...we're back! Dillan 15 months

Chillin at his 15 month Appt

So sorry about not posting for the past three months!  As you may have noticed, the second Dillan started walking, life got a LOT busier.  I'll be slowly posting (and back-dating) some entries about our summer, but I thought I'd fill you in on some of the things Dillan has been up to at FIFTEEN months:

- 23 lbs 9 oz (50%), 31.5" tall (60%)
- ALL over the place - walking, running, climbing
- saying a handful of words:  mama, dada, what's that?  duck, bao bao ('hug' in chinese)
- has 15 teeth - they started sprouting like crazy after his birthday!
- favorite foods: bananas, cheese (still), yogurt, broccoli - eats pretty much anything that he can chew
- starting to use utensils
- new baby signs:  dog, hat, thank you, please, milk, eat, pray
- can point to body parts when asked: nose, ears, eyes, tongue, teeth, feet, belly (my favorite)
- is becoming attached to his blankie (or any blankie actually)
- loves making sounds for monkey, cookie monster
- obsessed with hats
- favorite toys:  cars, balls, shape sorter, books
- slowly transitioning from two naps to one
- started getting time outs for throwing food, touching electronics :(