Discovering autumn

Dylan had his first real opportunities to play with the leaves this year.

The county fair

Dylan enjoyed the county fair, beginning in the parking lot(!) -- where he saw a school bus! He grabbed my hand and pulled: he wanted to go see that bus! The driver was very nice to let him get inside, where he sat right down in the front row.

Once inside, he may have enjoyed the petting zoo the most. I got video of him looking at pigs and quacking at ducks:

More see-saw!

A friend has been installing a dog obstacle course in her yard to practice with her dog. What fun!! Notice Dylan is starting to repeat (and say) phrases! He started doing that in the last few weeks.

Animals at the OKC Zoo

I took several other videos at the Oklahoma City Zoo, but these are the only two with Dylan in them.

Bats inside the Oklahoma Trails exhibit:

And as we were leaving the giraffes:

2009 Sept 12 Dylan plays in our reservoir

It's not lake Thunderbird, rather a home made reservoir in our driveway. Dylan loved playing in the water. Afterall, it's a novelty around our yard where the water drains so fast we don't even get puddles after a flood.

freak Daddy out, why don't you?

anything you do, he'll do... or do better

We were pretty shocked and astounded at how this little girl imprinted on Dylan. He watched her carefully and copied a lot of her behaviors. Yikes! She doesn't like bugs. Too bad. We tried to teach her otherwise during our interactions. In this video, she picked up a small bit of rock (charcoal, actually), and he immediately went to pick up a BIG ROCK and copy her. Daddy stepped in to intervene. We also stopped her so that only one rock went into our friend's pool.

truck month on our street, take II

Dylan had a blast with the ramp after the guy unloaded the few things sent from Grandma's house. That is one BIG TRUCK, by the way. Our driveway is a generous 16' wide!

visit to the Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge

Museum buttons are designed tough because they have to withstand things like this:

The visitor's center also had a lot of hands-on displays with steps Dylan loved. We'd just seen a tortoise by our front door that day or the day before which was probably just a hair larger than the shell he points out in the next video.

We took a short hike that involved some trail mix:

While driving through the refuge we ran into a large herd of bison on the move.

chicken interactions

This is a rooster, actually. Dylan had a blast screaming at it, and luckily it didn't attack.

swim lessons

They sing Ring Around the Rosies for one of the activities. The climax is the hard part: parent is supposed to blow hard in the kid's face so they naturally close their eyes and mouth, and then dunk 'em!

Jim and Dylan also had fun playing with the squirting turtle.

can I see your rocks?

Dylan loves rocks. Just loves 'em! But not more than watching video of himself. :-)

fire truck!

A severe storm knocked a tree limb into a powerline but the line stayed alive. So Norman FD came to sit by the line and make sure no one got hurt before OG&E turned the line off. Took many hours. In the mean time, Dylan got to play in the truck and we enjoyed talking to the firemen. Every time Dylan watches this video he does the same tongue thing at the end.

'Nite 'nite, moo!

We sometimes catch Dylan reading to himself.

getting in the car seat all by himself!

Big boy won't always do this, of course, but he's clearly capable!

New sandbox!

The new sandbox is an instant hit!

And it doesn't take long before he's properly inside, covering himself with sand.

Do you wan to see your video? Uh, huh!

Playing with rocks at Clear Bay, he's suddenly distracted by the camera.

Outdoor music by The Coolers

Our next door neighbor just retired, so set up his band for an afternoon party. Once again, Dylan was transfixed! Eventually he wandered around a bit, but remained focused on the music. At one point a band member said they try not to pay more than $250 to play anywhere. Ha ha ha! 

Dump 'em out, put 'em back

Dylan will entertain himself like this occasionally, whether it's coins in a box, chalk in a box, etc.

Lemme see the camera!!!

It's getting really difficult to take pictures or videos of Dylan nowadays because all he wants to do is watch himself! He'll sit on my lap for 10s of minutes, having me play and replay and replay videos of him. I think he's starting to realize that it's him!

Big box!!

Big boxes are the BEST. I remember how playing with these  as a kid was sooooo much fun, I got inspired to cut holes in a large ~enough~ box that had Dylan's new chairs inside.

Here's the new table and chairs, and a fussy toddler who suddenly wants to see the camera, whereas he'd been happily looking at the whales (one of his favorite pages) and other animals just moments before. 

Where is King Charlie?

Where is King Charlie? Mom says he's playing the guitar, but all I see is a speaker.

(And then I see the camera and all I want to do is watch videos of myself!!!)

Football!

How cool is this?!  The grad students let Dylan intrude on their football tosses several times. He ended up interacting with all 5-6 of them, I think, but I only captured one on video. They were great! And Dylan clearly enjoyed his interceptions, passes, and touchdown runs. :-)

Rocking in Bob's chair

Dylan has rocked before, in the Laz-E-Mom chair in his bedroom, but nonetheless looked initially confused when I called this rocking. He looked over to his right and said "rock," pointing at a rock Bob has on his end table. Not sure what the "ya ya" is supposed to mean. He's clearly pointing at the arm, so was that a very bad imitation of "rocking?" He does echo "chair" soon after.

Jump!

Larissa shows Dylan how to *really* jump! She asked me why he couldn't jump yet. :-)

Growling rasberries

Why toddlers blow raspberries I don't know. But they do.

Cheerios and bubbles

Look how he shoves that fistful of Cheerios! And he's sitting on a real chair... we may have to get more stable chairs, maybe a booster seat for him. He's not as happy in his high chair any more. 

Notice the "mmm" and that he's also saying "please" more often now (always prompted, tho; and as a sign; it's supposed to be a one-handed sign - this one was especially enthusiastic). I've got to capture "thank you" one of these days, too. It's sooooo cute!  

Ride 'em cowboy!

Another great hand-me-down, the zebra, 'er "ra," is one of his favorite toys. And yea, mom is quite the paparazzi. 

Saying the names of his food

We didn't try for "green beans" in this video, but "cheese" has been one of his words for a while now. One of his favorite foods, so before he'd try to say it, he'd at least point to the fridge when he wanted some.

New tricycle!

This was another fantastic hand-me-down from friends/colleagues at the NWC. As you can see, Dylan can't reach the pedals, but he really loves riding around on this and has figured out he can steer! He also forgets that he can steer, which makes for interesting moments. Keeps me on my toes. [The adult can steer, too.]

Ah, ah, ah! Little toddler brain processes that info.

When watching this the first time he also put his hand up by his face. Me thinks he was continuing to process that rule vs. his urges. Those big rocks make such spectacular splashes!

Such style!

Oh, my! Such style and grace! Listen carefully for when the rock is actually thrown. There is quite a ramp-up to the actual throw.

He loves watching this video of himself

I've played this video for Dylan several times. He usually laughs at himself, particularly at the "where's the baby" part.

Stick!

Another of his frequent words is "stick," or "ti."  Little does he know these are actually a 5-yr old friend's light sabers. Um, hmm!

Bus!

One of his current favorite words is "bus." 'Er, well, there's no "s" sound yet, so it's "bu." He's got a toy bus at home. He found one at a friend's house (video). And we see them pass the daycare every day. 

The ones passing the daycare are shuttles from the free parking at Lloyd Noble up to campus. All they do is run back and forth, so I'm thinking we might take a ride on the bus for fun one of these days.

Not quite ready for a bigger kid swing

He fell off twice, including just as this video is ending. But we still had to tear him away to a bucket swing in another part of the park! 

Such a cute run!

He's running now! It's pretty cute and even better when he's running up for a hug.

What is he saying?!?!?!?!

Dylan is starting to talk (or babble?) in sentences and I SOOOOO WISH I KNEW WHAT HE WAS SAYING!  Can you decipher this?

The crab crawl

He spontaneously started doing the crab crawl one day. 

More and more...

If one "more" sign doesn't work, try another! [Come on, mom, you know what I want!] 

Dylan, happily chewing on a Dietsch's dark chocolate non pariels candy while I try to get him to say "chocolate" for the camera.