pumpkin giraffe

disclaimer: yes, I know it isn't even October yet. But this is my blog and therefore I get to post early Halloween pictures... And anyhow, it isn't like pictures of my wedding dress a month before the big day. It's halloween people.

Halloween, in my opinion, can be either lame or really cute. Depends on where you go and what you do. But this year, with Dylan, it is bound to be cute-filled times. We've made plans with some friends to go trick-0-treating with the babies at the mall, which should be fun.
My mom sent us a costume that is actually a coat. But since the weather is still pretty warm here in 'ol Pasadena, and we came across probably the cutest pumpkin costume EVER, we are going to go with the pumpkin for the actual day of Halloween. Plus, the giraffe costume might be big enough for next year anyhow. Here are some pictures of both costumes from this week as we played with both outfits before bedtime...

The Pumpkin.

The Giraffe.






















Pumpkin boy with his black (and white) kitty-cat.

(I) Love (my camera) Thursday

Ryan has a love of photography that was born along with Dylan about a year ago. It started when we hung out with our friends Dave and Laura, who have a similar love for photography and rubbed it all over Ryan until he got a nasty itch for a SLR camera of his very own. A camera-loving monster was born. I happen to love this monster.

Reading

Dylan's favorite books just happen to be Goodnight Moon, The Very Hungry Catepillar, and Thomas the Tank Engine. And about two weeks ago he started bringing them to us, climbing up on our laps, and sitting for longer and longer periods of time (more to look at the pictures with us than to hear the story, I'm convinced, but whatever it takes at this point). Both Ryan and I are not big readers ourselves. But I'm excited to see Dylan showing an interest in books himself. And I just can't refuse to read to him whenever he decides he wants me to. I'm addicted to those books as much as he is, it seems. Either that or I'm addicted to him.

Dylan knows the sign for book and uses it fairly often around bedtime where the routine has recently included about a handful of various little board-books each night. The cute thing is that he has his own morphed version of the sign for book, which is a combo of book and again. I don't know where he got that from. But it is pretty darned cute if you ask me.

pulling my hair out

Why does work stress follow us all home? I wish I knew how to detach and not care about things. But being the worrywart that I am, it makes that task nearly impossible. Sigh.
Tonight after work, I picked up the D-man from daycare, brought him home, bathed both he and myself, made dinner.... then Ryan came home. I was frustrated and we were all tired. Work, daycare, lab. Only one of us had a nap (good guess. yes, it was dylan.) And as Ryan walked into the kitchen, I practically tossed my frustration all over him. If it were made of liquid, he'd have been standing there soaked in it. It has been another hour since the tri-fold family meltdown... and we are ALL doing much better.
But I still think I'm going to go to bed early tonight. It has been a long day.

Love Thursday

Love is waking up early with your baby (then dragging out the minutes you get to stay in bed and snuggle with him while he drinks his bottle).
Every. Single. Day.







Happy Love Thursday (big yawn).

Ryan's current desktop wallpaper

reunion amongst cougars

Briana here. I went to a little DG reunion the other night in Corona Del Mar (Orange County for those of you not in California) for a nice dinner and later dancing. It was great to see a bunch of my old sorority sisters and catch up. The girls looked great. Seriously, none have aged a bit since college! We had a few drinks, had a wonderful steak dinner, and then danced the night away. I rode down and back with Ya-Lei, which was great. We had a couple hours extra to catch up, which was a nice treat. I don't have any pictures of my own to post here. (If I did, there would be one here of 9 hot ladies dancing it up at midnight!)

One thought I had after seeing all the cougars that came out when the restaurant turned into a club after 10pm, that I'm so glad that I got to come home to my husband and baby instead of going home with some skeezy guy that was there. The place was crawling (minus a few) with overly made-up women with obvious plastic surgery, too-short skirts and lowcut tops. The guys were similarly gross. The great thing that I didn't realize until we left the club, was that I didn't smell of smoke. It didn't occur to me until later that there wasn't any smoking because we were in California. People still had a good time, but it wasn't with the remnants of second-hand smoke in my hair at the end of the night. Despite the traffic and fairly skeezy crowd, I'm glad about the non-smoking deal.

Little Kuts

Yesterday we took Dylan to get his first haircut at Little Kuts in Pasadena on Lake Avenue. It was a cute little place.

BEFORE...

and AFTER

Doesn't he look all grown up? Or is that me feeling like he's growing up too fast?
And here he is riding on the horsey that they have there for the kids to ride during their cuts. I decided to hold Dylan on my lap this time around, being that it was his first haircut and I was nervous for him. I asked the lady to not cut too much off, because I knew I'd miss those curls if she lopped them off. It took only about 5 minutes from start to finish. Ryan and I calculated that those ladies make a bundle off of those cuts. But for his first cut, it was worth going all out. We took pictures (obviously), got some of his curls saved for his baby book, and Dylan got a balloon and a certificate. He seemed to enjoy it and we have some fun memories from the day out together.

p.s. can you tell that Dylan needed a nap? (hint: look at those tired eyes)

growing like a weed

Here is a "then and now" composition for y'all. He sure has grown up in the past few months here (4 months, then 14 months). Each new stage is bitter-sweet. And it feels like he gets taller everyday!

Veggie update: Thursday night I was very proud of myself for getting Dylan to put a green bean in his mouth on his own accord (instead of the usual battle that ends in him spitting them out in disgust and massive protest). So here is what I did: I steamed them, added balsamic vinegarette and some fresh parmesean cheese on top. Then... I slyly ate one like it was the best treat I've ever had, in a "french-fry" fashion with my hands. I got Ryan to play along, eating his yummy green beans like french fries. And he totally fell for it. He wanted one of his own. Then asked for more. I'm a genius!

survivor

"Episode 1 Title: "I Can Forgive Her, but I Don't Have to Because She Screwed with My Chickens." And that, my friends, sums it up.

I originally vowed to not watch this season's Survivor show, because of the hype about the division along racial lines, but then my coworkers started a pool to see who'd win. I bought it hook, line, and sinker. And $5 later, and pulling two names from a bowl, I have Jessica and Jenny as my girls to route for. So last night was the first episode and one of my girls totally flubbed up with letting the chickens out of their cage. BIG MISTAKE, Jessica.
But at least we flew under the radar last night and neither of them got voted off. I'm relieved. I know it is silly to get so wrapped up in a silly inter-office pool, but come on, I don't get out much here people.

Love Thursday

Happy Love Thursday everyone!

"make me crazy"

Ok, so this post is about my current song on my myspace profile...

Everytime the song Crazy (by Gnarls Barkley) comes on the radio in our car, Dylan dances with me as we drive down the road. Looking back in the rearview mirror and seeing his head bob back and forth with that huge smile as we both rock out - melts my heart. Regardless of what mood I'm currently in, it always makes me smile and laugh.

So that is why I have this song on my profile. I can't help but love this song even more now. Would you?

Words and Waving

New word: Ball.
But Dylan doesn't say "ball," he says it more like "bu-uh" and it is so precious.

He says a few words now, but does not consistently use them. He definitely knows daddy ("dada"), mommy ("maaa"), kitty ("itty"), more ("neh neh"), and now ball ("buuh"). He can do the sign language signs for more and please (which he did for the first time tonight actually). And the tantrums are getting less and less. He's so much more fun to be around now that he can express what he wants and he responds to us asking him to be helpful during diaper changes, bathtime, dressing, mealtime, and getting into the car. Now if I could only figure out how to get him to eat his veggies... my latest bewilderment.

Latest bedtime routine: Mommy carries Dylan to his room down the hall and they wave goodnight to daddy together. The cutest part is that Dylan keeps waving to daddy even long after he is out of sight.

Love (my family) Thursday

Happy Love Thursday everyone!
This was taken a couple weekends ago when we were driving back to LA from Lompoc after my reunion weekend. We stopped in Santa Barbara for a few hours because traffic was so awful. We had traveled only 1 mile after 20 minutes of crawling along the parking lot (uh, I mean freeway). Anyhow, this was the silver lining in that VERY long drive home.
We otherwise would never have stopped to enjoy the sunset and beach. Nothing like this to know you are blessed and that things happen for a reason.
And Ryan took some great pictures of Dylan running around in the grass as the sun set, playing together as a family...

And I (Ryan) have to say that his is one of my favorite pictures out of the the thousands we've taken. I was so upset about the horrific traffic, cursing all the Los Angelians that were on the road and bemoaning the fact that we live there. But if the road was clear we would have sailed by and never made these memories. Briana and Dylan, I love you so much!

he's a punk

Dylan loves his baths. He always has...


And now that he has some hair, I'm having some fun while he plays with his toys!

toilet paper anyone?

This morning while getting ready for church, I was checking my email, chatting with Julie on IM, and keeping an eye on Dylan as he played next to me. Now, I'll preface this story with the fact that the toilet lid was already shut, so I felt confident that Dylan wasn't going to dunk or drown his teddy bears in the toilet this morning... but I didn't expect him to terrorize the toilet paper roll like he did. It only takes a second, ladies and gentlemen. One. Second.

He got hold of the end of the roll, and went running. He was quite proud of himself, I must add. And what else was I to do, but grab the camera and get some pictures. After all, I'm sure to be more careful with keeping the bathroom door closed from now on and hopefully this was just a one time deal.
And thankfully I was able to salvage about half the roll of toilet paper for future use. (remember, we are on a budget here folks.)

a kiss for you

Dylan has been giving me kisses at night just before I put him down to bed for the past week or so, but tonight it was daddy's turn to get his first kiss. And what do you know? I just happened to have the camera and got a picture of the event. Both Dylan and Ryan were excited and giggled. It was cute.

And tonight after Dylan and I met daddy for dinner at Baja Fresh, we all went for a nice walk down Lake Avenue, then got some ice cream and walked around Caltech to let Dylan burn off some energy before coming home. It had been a VERY hot day (let's say around 95 or 100, which is not my idea of a nice day) and finally was cooling off a bit to about 90, so we stayed out a bit and enjoyed the cool-er weather.

On the drive home, Dylan did something that I have to admit was probably the second cutest thing I've seen (close second to the kiss between he and his daddy). I was rocking out to some music and turned my head to look in the rearview mirror back at Dylan...
He was totally copying me: tapping his hands on his legs, bopping his head up and down, and moving his mouth like he was singing to the music! Seriously. He was.
I couldn't help it but laugh outloud. And then he giggled too.