Autumn in Virginia

Just before sunset today, Dylan and I went for a walk around the neighborhood. We took some pictures along the way:

Aiden and Dylan

Dylan is now 6.5 months, and Aiden will be 2 years old next month. They are now interacting with one another, and it is such fun to watch their relationship develop. What follows is a photo chronology of the two little brothers, culminating with some video I shot just the other day.

FEBRUARY 2010:

MARCH 2010:


APRIL 2010:

MAY 2010:


JUNE 2010:


JULY 2010:


AUGUST 2010:

A Good Dose of Vitamin D

Here's a little video of D getting ready to crawl:



Here's a little video of D at the park this morning:

Toddlers Are Hilarious

Footage of Aiden in the baby jumperoo at an age-appropriate 4.5 months can be found HERE. Footage of Aiden in the baby jumperoo at an age-inappropriate 22.5 months can be found here:



For good measure, here's a little clip of baby Dylan in the jumperoo:

Sunny D

I took Dylan to the pediatrician yesterday, because I suspected he had an ear infection. (Suspicion: confirmed.) The staff wanted to know what symptoms led me to believe he had an ear infection. He's such a cheerful lil guy, I had a hard time coming up with anything beyond "mama intuition." Here's footage of Dylan with an ear infection:

Catching Up...

Wow, has it really been more than two months since we've posted anything? Yikes. So much has happened in the last two months, it's time to catch up. This is going to be epic. Here are the broad strokes, with pictures:

My dear pal Ambika, with whom I've been friends for more than 20 years, visited us for a few days. I don't have words for how happy I was to hang out with an old friend. Plus, Ambika was immensely helpful, and Aiden loooooooooved her.



Immediately following Ambika's visit was a lengthy visit from Eric's parents. I'm not sure how we could have navigated that time period without them. Their visit encompassed my return to work, Aiden's return to daycare, and Dylan's introduction to daycare. Crossing all three of those hurdles without Grandma and Grandpa really would have been a nightmare, and I'm so thankful that they could take the time to be here.



Now I'm re-settled at work, and the boys are doing great at daycare (if I've never mentioned it before, we have an outstanding daycare). Last weekend, we took our very first family trip. We attended a wedding in New Jersey, and we turned it into a mini family vacation. We took the train from Quantico, VA, to Morristown, NJ, by way of our old stomping grounds, NYC. Aiden was terrified of the trains at first, but now he demands that we have "Thomas the Train" DVDs practically on repeat at home. At the hotel, I took Aiden to the pool. It was his very first pool experience and he LOVED it, he had so much fun. Also, the wedding was absolutely gorgeous, and the boys handled it like champs, they were real troopers (if you're on Facebook, check out my page for some fabulous pictures of the wedding).



Finally, I must mention that Dylan is a totally different baby than he was three months ago. He is now 5 months old, and he is an absolute delight to be around. Anyone meeting him for the first time would never guess that he was so extremely colicky as a newborn. He is now so easygoing, and he has such a sunny disposition. He's so incredibly charming! Below is a little video of Dylan that I took this morning. He figured out yesterday afternoon that he can do barrel-rolls.... which means he is now mobile, uh-oh....

New Family Photos

We've had a few house guests recently who have yet to see photos of their visit posted here. I dropped the ball! My dad and his wife, Suzanne, visited at the beginning of April. My sister visited last week. All in all, both visits were great. However, Aiden seems to have entered a new "stranger anxiety" phase these days. He was mostly okay with my dad and Suzanne, although he did exhibit some apprehension around them. He was really weird around my sister, though. According to this book, toddlers may feel the most threatened by "almost familiar" strangers, such as mom's sister. My sister and I are only 15 months apart, and I guess we closely resemble each other in appearance, so Aiden was rather unsettled by Aunt Laura's presence.

Aiden's First Real Haircut

Until this morning, I had been cutting Aiden's hair every couple months or so, just a little at a time. Of course, he hated it, and I never accomplished a full haircut in one sitting. We decided this weekend was the time to get Aiden a real haircut. I took him to a salon that caters to kids, and is thus well accustomed to handling a young toddler's first haircut. I was prepared for Aiden to freak out, and freak out he did. What follows is a chronological sequence of pictures, starting with a little playtime in the waiting area, following with the main event, and concluding with a sippy cup of juice as we got ready to leave. Rest assured that Aiden was more mad than anything (despite how sad he looks in the photos), and he was back to his cheerful self the minute the haircut was over, as if it never happened.

Yeah, this about sums it up

Its funny 'cuz its true. Aiden does this to Colleen, except he says 'mama' with an upwards inflection.

Dylan and the Grandmas

My mom, a.k.a. Bunny, was here when Dylan was born, and helped us get through a grueling number of weeks thereafter. Subsequently, Eric's mom came and helped us through a very challenging couple of weeks. Below are some pictures from the grandmas' visits. I'm posting the pictures in chronological order; you can see how Dylan has grown over the past two months. He turned two-months-old yesterday, and he's already bigger than Aiden was at the same age, even though Dylan's birth weight was half a pound less than Aiden's birth weight. Beefcake!