Dyer at 10 months!!!

So my little baby isn't much of a baby anymore.  He has so many teeth it almost creeps me out!  Blair didn't have any teeth at this age and Dyer already has EIGHT and is working on TWO more (both molars)!!!

Dyer still loves to eat!  He is definitely not a picky eater and could eat all day if I would let him.  It's pretty funny grocery shopping with him.  The last couple times we have gone if he sees something he really wants he reaches for it and grunts in hopes that I will give it to him.  I usually have to distract him with some other snack in the diaper bag because otherwise he will start crying.  He usually does this with fruit (berries or bananas).

If Dyer sees food, he generally wants it and will do just about anything to get to it.  He can be pretty sneaky with his approach.  This usually does not go over very well with Blair because she generally does not like to share her food.  It's not uncommon to hear Blair screaming, "NO DYER!  THAT'S MINE!" several times a day.

Dyer LOVES his blanket!  The second he spots it he gets a huge grin on his face.  If he sees it on the floor he races towards it and dives his head right into it.  If you hand it to him he will without a doubt hug it and snuggle with it.  If I want some extra cuddles all I have to do is put his blanket on my shoulder and I know I'll get some.  I like to pretend that it's me that he loves not his blanket.

Dyer's getting pretty fast with his crawling and he loves getting into everything.  His current favorites are the bathrooms (the toilet, toilet paper, and garbage are his top picks), the dishwasher (I'm definitely working on my speed and approach while loading and unloading.  It can get tricky at times.), and the cupboard/drawers in the kitchen that don't have child locks on them (they definitely keep him occupied but it does get a little old picking up those things several times a day).

Easton and Blair don't seem to like the fact that Dyer is very mobile.  Dyer just wants to "play" with them but instead ends up ruining things or taking things he shouldn't.  Dyer has taken a lot of hits, kicks, pushes, pulling/dragging, etc. in the last month.  Poor kid!  We are definitely working on it with Easton and mainly Blair but I'm convinced that Dyer is going to be one tough cookie.

Dyer loves pulling himself up to the standing position.  He cruises a little bit (just a couple steps here and there-not much) but most of the time he prefers crawling to get from point A to point B.

Dyer just recently has started making growling sounds.  He does it at random times during the day.  I'm not sure it means anything for him but I think it is just something new and he just has to practice it.

Diaper changes and getting him dressed has become a nightmare.  It is a huge challenge because he doesn't want to be held down for any amount of time.  He definitely throws a fit and boy is he strong!

He is sleeping a lot better now.  I think a combination of him teething (a million teeth) and being sick made it difficult for him to sleep but recently (knock on wood) he has been sleeping from about 7-7:30pm to 6:30-7am.  It's awesome!  He still takes two pretty good naps during the day which is good because that's about the only time I can really get anything done around the house.  He can be a little demanding of attention when he's awake.

Dyer had his 9 month check up (he was actually 10 months at the time) and was 19lbs (11%) and 28 in (40%).  I'm not sure how big his head was but I do know he is in the 90%.  He's starting to grow into his head : ).

I sure love my little Bubba!

I've updated a lot of posts in the last couple days so make sure and check them out!

Swimming at Valerie's

Valerie invited the kids over to go swimming.  Easton ran ahead of Blair and myself which isn't uncommon and apparently jumped right in the water!  Both Valerie and I were a little shocked because last year at swimming lessons he was timid to jump into the water to his instructor.  At first I was a little skeptical that he did it all by himself but sure enough he kept on doing it.   

Video of Easton jumping in the pool:

Valerie with the kids.

Valerie trying to convince Blair to go into the water.

Blair didn't want to go in without Valerie so Valerie of course went in with her.  She didn't even change out of her clothes she just went right in.  Haha!  You can tell by the look on Valerie's face that the water was freezing!

Video of the kids swimming:

Easton with William (Valerie's son)

Valerie and Blair

Oakland Zoo

We had a great day at the zoo.  It was a little on the hot side but overall it was really fun.  I think what I liked best about the Oakland Zoo is that there are lots of fun things for the kids to do throughout the zoo.    They have play areas all over, a little stream the kids can wade through, a train ride, and even some amusement rides.

Petting zoo

Cute little Dyer

Easton as a tortoise.

One of the real tortoises.

Blair as a tortoise.

This river otter kept posing for us so of course I had to take a picture.

Blair wading through the play stream.

Video of the kids playing in the stream:

Easton and Blair

Another one of Dyer.  He did get out of the stroller every once in a while but most of the time he just chilled in there.

Tiger

Giraffes.  If you look in the background you can see the gondola ride.  Easton really wanted to go on it.  Now I'm wishing that I would have taken him on it.  I guess if we ever go back we can do it.

Camels

Elephant

Blair and Daddy

Look I was there too!  Easton and I.

Checking out the meerkats from the tunnel

Blair

Dyer

Blair copying Daddy

Just outside the zoo they had a little fun play area.  Blair on top of the turtle.

Easton going down the elephant slide

Inside the hippos mouth.

Guess what???

Nathan's officially a PILOT!!!  He took most of last week off from work so that he could fly in the mornings to get ready for his test on Friday and he passed!!!  Blair's pretty excited to go flying with Daddy!  She has waited a long time so hopefully Nathan can make it happen this Saturday.  If I remember correctly I think he will get his wings pinned on him this Saturday as well so I'm pretty sure we will all be going to the airport this weekend to see that.  I'll probably be getting some pictures of that.  Good work Handsome!  We're proud of you!

Crazy Weather

A couple weeks ago we had pouring down rain and then randomly out of no where we started getting a hail storm followed by a thunder and lightning storm.  I only got a little bit of it on video before this camera died  .  I did get some videos and pictures of my other camera but I'm too lazy to download those right now.  It's hard to see in this video but it looked like a river running through our street.  It was crazy!

Easter

I can't believe it has taken me this long to post about Easter.  We've been sick off and on for what seems like forever so I'll use that as my excuse.

 I took the kids to a local park for an egg hunt and it definitely wasn't what I was expecting.  We walked around to all the booths (vendors) and got our picture taken with the Easter bunny while we were waiting for the egg hunt.  It said the egg hunt started at 10 but as far as I could tell there was no signs of an egg hunt in the grass area.  I thought I would take the kids up to the playground to play until I either saw or heard something resembling an egg hunt.  It turned out that the egg hunt was at the playground!  There was a line to get in and the people at the front of the line would only let so many kids in at a time and each kid could only get 5 eggs!  I guess it makes it fair for everyone but to be honest it was kind of lame.

Waiting to get in for the egg hunt.  Easton was pretty upset right before this picture because not one but both of his balloons flew away. 

Easton finding his first egg.

Easton helping Blair find her eggs since he already had his 5.

Video of the kids after the egg hunt:

I decided to take the kids to the outlets afterwards since they were passing out eggs at different stores.  It was basically like trick or treating but obviously getting eggs filled with stuff instead of candy.  We only went to about 1/3 of the stores before our baskets were full and the kids were ready to go.  The kids had fun but were a little tired out with all the walking they had to do.  I know they also do trick or treating at the outlets so maybe this year we will do that instead of going downtown.

We dyed eggs but we started really late the night before Easter so everyone was really tired and worn out.  Also the kids were all coming down with something (coughs, fevers, infections, etc.) so they weren't feeling too well.

 Dyer was there briefly before I put him to bed.

 Nathan helping the kids dye the eggs.  Yes, I made the kids strip down to only their underwear because I didn't want their clothes to get ruined if they got dye on themselves.  Looking back I'm not quite sure why I did that since I think Nathan was the only one who really dyed any eggs.  The kids weren't really all that in to it probably because they were tired and not feeling very well.

 Poor little sick boy!

Blair Bear.  Those flowers were amazing.  Nathan bought them for me when we came home from Washington and they seriously lasted for a good month.  In this picture they were 3 weeks old and they still looked like they were just bought.

We did a egg hunt inside on Easter morning and Easton was pretty excited.  He collected all the eggs upstairs before Blair was awake.  It's a good thing that I hid most of them downstairs so that Blair was able to have some fun too.  I think she was more excited about her basket than the eggs though.

 All the eggs Easton collected from upstairs.

 Blair finding some of the eggs.

 Dyer not feeling very well.

 Easton showing off all his eggs.  Not sure what is wrong with Blair...

 Cutie 

Dyer even got in on the fun and found maybe two.

Nathan stayed home from church with the kids.  I went by myself since I had to teach.  It was definitely really strange to be by myself.  I honestly felt naked.  I didn't have time to finish the kids' Easter church clothes so it gave me an extra week to get them made (I ended up only getting around to making the boys' ties but luckily Blair already had a dress that matched perfectly with the ties so it all worked out).  What didn't work out was the fact that I never got around to taking pictures of the kids so I guess that will have to wait until I actually get around to sewing Blair's dress.  Of course I didn't start getting sick until right after I got home from church.  Luckily for me Valerie came over the next day with soup and washed my dishes for me.  She also took Easton and Blair for a couple hours so that I could take a nap.  It was wonderful!

Dyer crawling

Dyer eating big boy spaghetti for the first time! He definitely loved it!

The next three videos are me playing around to see if the video's come out lighter. They definitely are lighter! The video's are kind of long but the little guy in them is pretty cute!


This one was supposed to be of Dyer crawling since all his other ones are pretty dark but of course he really didn't crawl much in this one. He does clap which is cute.


I have two other movies that I want to download but they must be too big because blogger won't let me download them.

So I did this post back when I did Blair's post (on the 9th but never got around to posting it because I couldn't get the darn videos to upload so I think it is really weird that it is posting it as if I did it today on the 22nd).

Soccer and hanging outside

Easton is still enjoying soccer.

They have started to scrimmage a little and I know Easton has fun with that. He also enjoys all the games his soccer teacher (as Easton calls him) comes up with.

Video of Easton playing superheroes:

Easton's practice is right in the middle of Dyer's first nap so this is usually how Dyer is at beginning of practice.

I can tell that Blair really wants to get out there and play with Easton. Last practice she told me she wanted a ball to play with and the next thing I see she is kicking the ball out on the field towards Easton. Good thing for snacks to distract her!

Dyer with Valerie. I'm pretty sure Valerie is Dyer's favorite person. He wants nothing to do with me when she is around and yes, it breaks my heart.