dylan masters : eighteen months

e i g h t e e n   m o n t h s

Even though my blog has been long forgotten, I couldn't miss writing about my sweet Dylan at eighteen months old.  I'm in disbelief that he's no longer a baby.  We still give him a bottle (he never took one while nursing but we started giving him one when I weaned him a few months ago), rock him to sleep, call him the baby, I even found an old binky of Clark's and gave it to him the other day!  It took him awhile but he got the hang of it and he looked so adorable sucking it!  I just can't bear the thought of him growing up.  I really haven't been making much of an effort to get him to talk, learn letters/colors/numbers, etc. because I honestly haven't felt like he's old enough for those things!  I still think of him as a baby.  He's started saying more words the past few weeks and it's SO weird to hear him talking!  He has the sweetest little voice!

Even though we like to think Dylan's still a baby, he surely does not think so.  Always trying to keep up with his big brother, Dylan picks up on things so quickly.  Since he turned one, Dylan has learned to walk, run, feed himself, climb onto just about anything, use my phone  (he's obsessed with coloring games and the PBS kids app), can match shapes with the shape sorter bucket, understands pretty much everything we say, and loves copying everything Clark does!

Clark and Dylan may be brothers but they are different in so many ways!  I never have and still do not think they look a thing alike.  I think Dylan looks like a combination of my mom and Mark and Clark looks like my dad and me.  Dylan is fearless, wild, messy and carefree.  Clark is safe, careful, clean and likes things to be just so.  One thing they have in common: their love for cars!

eighteen month stats:

weight: 23 lbs. (43rd percentile)

length: 34.5 in. (98th percentile)

head circ: 19.25 in. (48th percentile)

He's just like Clark at this age, tall and skinny!

♥                ♥                ♥

f i r s t s

♥ 3.19.19 Cotton candy

♥ 3.20.19 Dentist appt. - Dyl was so brave!  He let them clean his teeth, floss, and was so cooperative.  Can't say the same about Clark's last appt.....

♥ 4.4.19 Surgery - Dylan had a small tear duct procedure done on his left eye, which has been dripping since the day he was born.  When he was born, he breathed in lots of amniotic fluid and those first few months he had lots of trouble breathing.  Normally, the tear duct clears on its own by the baby's 1st birthday but Dylan's eye showed no signs of improvement so we had the surgery done and I'm sad to say his eye still drips, though maybe not as much?  Not sure if we are going to try again because now he's too old to do it in the office so we'd have to take him to the hospital and put him under.

♥ 4.23.19 Started walking - Dylan has been taking steps since he turned one but didn't officially start walking as his main method of getting around until one random day when he just suddenly stopped crawling!  We had gone outside to eat lunch and I set up the playpen for him and he was practicing walking from one side to the other and later that day he started walking more.  The next day he was done crawling!

♥ 5.1.19 - Started giving kisses!  Dyl is the most loving boy, he will give kisses to anyone who asks for one and I get kisses all day long!  Whenever I'm working or distracted, he will randomly come sit in my lap, grab my cheeks and move my face to his and kiss me on the lips for 5-10 seconds!!  He is going to make some girl very happy someday but right now that girl is me ;)

♥ 5.24.19 Tricycle ride - He absolutely loved it!!

♥ 5.24.19 Meeting Poppy

♥ 5.31.19 Playing @ Urban Air - Technically, we took him when he was about 10 months old but he couldn't do very much.  He had so much fun but was also a little overwhelmed!

♥ 6.26.19 Zoo trip!

♥ 7.4.19 4th of July Parade

♥ 7.9.19 Meeting the cow at Chick-Fil-A

f a v o r i t e s

At eighteen months, here are a few of Dylan's favorite things:

eating, GoGo Squeeze pouches, fruit snacks, sleeping in, playing outside, pretending to drive, climbing, water play, my phone, Word Party, Elmo, dancing, being loud, Let it Go, Ariel, making messes, being chased, being read to, his bunny, cars, Clark, ME!

e a t

He's still our wonderful eater but the hard thing is getting him to sit still to eat.  This child has SO much energy!  The only time we really put him in his high-chair is for breakfast and he only lasts 5-10 minutes before begging to get out.  The rest of the day I don't even bother.  I either try to get him to eat at the little kids' table (he usually ends up climbing all over it while I feed him) or he will just eat in between running in circles around the house.  It's honestly just easier for me that way, except for the trail of crumbs he leaves behind.  He also has this obsession with carrying a piece of food in his hand (as if to save it) while running around the house.  He never actually eats it and finally I have to just take it from him, resulting in a meltdown.

This boy loves his juice like no other!  He really loves drinks in general.  He always has his sippy cup in hand and is sneaking Clark's whenever he can.  We still give him a bottle of milk at morning and night (even though he never took one as a baby) but we are trying to quit that, especially since Clark always wants one too.

Both of these boys LOVE sugar.  Wonder who they got that from???  They can spot candy a mile away and all of their favorite foods are full of sugar (cereal, oatmeal, granola bars, yogurt, fruit, juice).  Dylan will eat a variety of foods though and likes pretty much everything!

Dylan's palate at 18 months:

♥ fruits - apples (loves carrying them around with him), bananas, grapes, cuties, peaches, pineapple, pears...I don't know a fruit he doesn't like!

♥ veggies - loves salad and carrots! He will even eat raw veggies and likes them!

♥ breakfast - cereal and milk, yogurt, smoothies, oatmeal, waffles

♥ lunch - turkey/ham sandwiches, PBJ's, Lunchables, Pizza, Mac 'n Cheese, Chicken nuggets, anything!

♥ dinner - whatever we're eating!

♥ snacks - GoGo Squeezes (he's obsessed!), teddy grahams, vanilla yogurt raisins, goldfish, granola bars, crackers, ritz pb sandwiches, Fruit pouches

s l e e p

Our angel sleeper!!  Dylan takes the best naps (2-3 hours) and sleeps from about 8/8:30 pm until 8:30/9 am every morning.  Sometimes he sleeps later (if he goes to bed later).  He did have a minor sleep regression a few weeks ago that lasted about 10 days where he would cry minutes after being put down and want me to come back and rock him.  So I would and after 5 minutes or so, I'd put him back down and half the time he would go to sleep.  The other half he would get up and cry again.  It was pretty bad for a few nights (he would wake up around 11 and cry until 2 am if we left) so Mark slept in there one night and the other night we let him cry himself to sleep.  But now he's back to normal!

p l a y / d e v e l o p m e n t

Dylan's really lucky because Clark didn't have anyone to play with when he was his age but Dylan has a built-in best friend.  Sometimes it's easier with the two of them because they play together but they also fight like crazy!  Dylan is a little instigator, he loves pushing Clark's buttons and it's like he gets a thrill from upsetting him.  He will storm in and knock over Clark's carefully built lego tower, climb up on his Cars table and throw all the tracks off, mess up his perfectly lined up cars, and crash down his magna tile buildings in an instant!  This of course sends Clark into tears and Dylan will come running out with a wicked grin!  The little devil!

Most of the time Dylan drives me and Clark absolutely crazy!  He is just nonstop, a walking disaster and is always getting into trouble!  Clark has always been really good about playing by himself.  He loves doing puzzles, playing with his cars, doing lego's, playing grocery store, etc.  But Dylan is always finding a way to make Clark miserable.  I joke with Clark that we're going to sell him to the circus and so then sometimes when Clark gets mad at him after he's messed something up he cries, "I want to sell Dylan to the circus!" in between tears!  But just when I think I can't possibly take it anymore, Dylan will come up to me, crawl in my lap and give me a couple of long kisses.  Then he'll grin at me with that sparkly smile and those scrunchy, twinkling eyes and I fall in love with him all over again!

Even though they bring so much chaos into my life and some days I feel like locking myself in the bathroom and eating cookies all day, these two boys bring me SO much joy and happiness.  They give my life purpose and meaning, they are the sweetest little souls and they love me with all their heart.  I am the luckiest mama to have them and while I'm not sure we'll be having any more (at least not anytime soon), I wish I could keep them this way forever.  

Clark Wilde : Three Years

t h r e e

My sweet boy is THREE years old!!!  We celebrated Clark's third birthday in Utah this year at a Masters Family Reunion.  He loved being at the reunion with all of his "friends" and got so many new cars!  Sweet Marci baked brownies and we all sang to him and he felt so special! :)

Clark has the biggest sweet tooth ever (def. got that from me) so he was in Heaven!  We had so much fun at the reunion!  We basically just hung out with our awesome family, ate delicious food and played games all day and night!!  My favorite things to do!  Clark's cousin Phillip brought a bunch of his Disney Cars collection for Clark to play with all week...happy birthday to Clark!!!

♥                ♥                ♥

We also had a little family party the weekend we got back to celebrate with Sean & Kara.  Yes, two parties, lucky little boy!!  Grandma made Clark's favorite dinner, spaghetti (which he spit out and said he didn't like the texture, no surprise there!) and spent all day making Lightning & Mater cupcakes for Clark!  She is seriously the best grandma ever!!!  He was SO excited!!

She may have been more excited than him!

He got some awesome presents - Magna Tiles from Grandma & Grandad, a cool construction truck set from Uncle Sean & Aunt Kara, Miss Fritter and Sarge from dad and a big Mac truck to put all his cars in from me! :)

Clark has changed and grown so much this past year.  He is continually amazing me at how smart he is.  He can count from 1-15, sing his ABC's and recognize some letters, knows all his colors, colors in the lines, can do 49 piece puzzles for ages 5+, knows all his shapes, knows all his animal sounds (but we're currently reviewing animal names because we realized he just calls them by their sounds!), gets himself dressed, is potty trained for day and night, knows how to pray, can unlock / open the front door and is so good at entertaining himself!

m o r n i n g   r o u t i n e

Every morning Clark wakes up between 6:30 and 7:30, goes to the bathroom, puts all his cars into his lunchbox and comes downstairs.  Then he sits at his little table in the kitchen and works on puzzles for an hour or more before coming to wake me up!  If Mark is still here when he wakes up, he gives him cereal too.  Otherwise he eats with me and Dylan.

After Dylan and I are up (Dyl sleeps until 9 or later), we all get dressed, which is our first struggle of the day.  Clark HATES getting dressed and has to be distracted with a story from me in order to cooperate.  We try to get out of the house for one outing every day and leave the house by 10 am but sometimes we don't make it out until 11.  Places we go include the library, Target, to a playdate, Grandma's house or sometimes we do something that takes all day like the zoo.  But it is SO hot in Texas right now so I never feel like going anywhere.  I'm a bit of a homebody and if I didn't have kids I'd probably never leave the house so I guess it's good I have them!

o u t  &  a b o u t

on a hike with friends

dinosaurs at the zoo

at his friend Melanie's house

his favorite place - the dentist!

can you find Clark?

Urban Air

meeting Paw Patrol

space camp @ the library

n a p   r o u t i n e

Nap is the real struggle these days!  It's pretty much hit or miss.  Clark has never been one to just go down for a nap.  When he was a baby, he would only nap after nursing in my arms or take very short naps in the crib and then finish them on me.  When he got older, he would go down with a story or movie but lately he has to be really tired (we have to have done something / gone somewhere) in order to fall asleep during a story.  Then, if he does nap, it's SUCH a struggle to get him to go to bed at night!  So we're kind of phasing his nap out, unless he's had a busy day, and in that case he falls asleep in the car and we transfer him.  And then bedtime is just a struggle.

Clark sleeps in a Lightning McQueen bed, surprise, surprise!!

Since he's potty trained at night, Clark would wake up in the middle of the night yelling that he needed to go pee and since Mark was always the one to go up and help him out of his crib, he had the idea to move him to a big kid bed.  At first we had a bunk bed but it didn't fit in the room very well and we thought it might be more fun for him to have a Lightning bed!  He agreed!

before

after

But ever since moving him to his big kid bed, Clark just does NOT go to sleep at night!  If he hasn't napped, he will fall asleep during the bedtime story.  But if has napped and isn't exhausted, he will fight sleep like the plague!  He hates the whole bedtime routine - bath, pajamas, brushing teeth, because it means bedtime is coming soon.  He will pretty much run around bouncing off the walls during the whole routine and if he does end up letting us put him in bed for a story, as soon as we try to leave (sometimes before we're out the door) he's up out of bed and coming out after us.  We've been trying to come up with solutions and some ideas we've had / gotten from people are - 

-pretend to sleep in his bed next to him until he goes to sleep

-shut his door after the second time he comes out of the room

-get a childproof door knob handle so he can't come out

So far we've tried the first one and it totally worked but Mark actually fell asleep and didn't come out for hours,  HA!  Typical Mark.

m e a l   t i m e

Clark is one of the pickiest kids in the world!!!  Even things that every kid likes (chicken nuggets, mac 'n cheese, pizza) Clark won't eat some days!  Here is a list of everything Clark eats regularly (though some days he refuses to eat anything on this list!)  He will ALWAYS eat cereal.  Clark would eat cereal every meal of every day if he could.  His favorites are Lucky Charms, Fruit Loops, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and Cap 'n Crunch Berries but those are only on special occasions.  Daily ones he loves are Cheerios, Special K Fruit & Yogurt, Life and Rice Chex.  He also has never been known to say no to cookies, cake, ice-cream or lollipops :)

Clark's approved food list:

breakfast -

Cereal

Waffles

Pancakes

Yogurt smoothies

Homemade smoothies

Scrambled eggs w/ ham & cheese

lunch -

Chicken nuggets

Grilled ham & cheese sandwiches (not all the time)

Turkey sandwiches (not all the time)

Ham & crackers (not all the time)

Pizza lunchables

Mac 'n cheese (not all the time)

Cheese pizza (most of the time)

dinner - 

Stir fry (not all the time)

Spaghetti (not all the time)

Cheeseburgers (not all the time)

anything on the lunch list

Clark would live on snacks if he could!  He loves pretty much all snacks - goldfish, chips, crackers, pretzels, cheez-its, etc.  He lives for fruit snacks!  Some healthy snacks he loves are apples, grapes and carrots w/ ranch.  Sometimes he likes strawberries, watermelon, and cuties.  He also LOVES Naked juice, which is pretty much the only way we get veggies into him (besides carrots).  So, having listed out all of these foods, I guess he's not totally picky.  It's just some days he won't eat anything we offer and it's also hard because we like to make new things for dinner but we always have to make him something else because he won't touch anything new with a three foot pole.  I always used to say that my kids would eat what I made for dinner or they wouldn't eat at all!  But if he doesn't eat, he's really cranky and doesn't sleep well.  So that went out the window, ha!

n i g h t   r o u t i n e

Our night routine hasn't been as consistent since Dylan joined the family.  It feels like every night is chaos getting them to bed.  Clark used to love bath time and stories but now every night is a constant battle.  I'm pretty much the only one who can get him into the bath without a fight because I'm an expert distracter.  I make up fun, new games on the spot that keep his attention or tell a wild story starring Lightning McQueen and his pet dog Sparky (made him up one day) and Clark will listen to me and let me undress him, bathe him, and wash his hair.  Sometimes I'm able to distract him through the entire bath and have him come out too but other times, once he's in the bath, he starts playing and then screams when it's time to come out!  We never know which it's going to be.

After bath we put them in pajamas, brush their teeth and I take Dylan to the nursery for stories and Mark takes Clark to his room.  Since Clark stopped caring about stories at bedtime (he still enjoys being read to, just not when he knows it means bedtime) we've started letting him watch a short video or music video on our phone before bed because that will get him into bed.  But then when it's over and we try to leave, he pops right back up!

If it were up to me, I'd just let him play until he fell asleep and then transfer him.  Mark, on the other hand, always feels the need to go up and check on him and try to put him back to bed.  So usually what happens is Mark spends hours trying to get Clark to go to sleep while I shower, eat, and work until finally I want to spend time with Mark and go give it a try.  By that time Clark is pretty tired so usually I can get him to go to sleep within 10-15 min.  But it's definitely time for a change after months of this struggle and I have to say, our current method of skipping nap and/or Mark falling asleep up there with him is going pretty great! hahaha

a l l   a b o u t   c l a r k

favorite color: red

favorite toy: Lightning McQueen

favorite fruit: orange

favorite TV show: Lightning McQueen

favorite food: cereal

favorite song: Real Gone by Sheryl Crow

favorite snack: fruit snacks

favorite drink: juice

favorite animal: giraffe

favorite book: Lightning McQueen

best friend: "Dee-yeh...I love Xela too...and Grandma too!"

favorite thing to do: wouldn't answer but it's play with his cars or play outside!

favorite holiday: wouldn't answer but prob. his birthday or Christmas!

favorite thing to take to bed: my toys

when you grow up you want to be: a big boy

♥                ♥                ♥

Clark's favorite thing in the world is his "dars".  He has an insane collection of Disney Cars and carries them around in a Cars lunchbox wherever he goes.  His favorite thing to do is line them up in different spots around the house.  At night, when he should be sleeping, he lines them all up and categorizes them by size and/or color and then shines a flashlight on them and falls asleep talking to them.  His cars are his best friends!

his big birthday present!

Clark's favorite presents to get are anything with Lightning McQueen on them!  His collection includes a Lightning McQueen backpack with his name on it, sleeping bag, pajamas, shirt, jackets, shoes, puzzles (8), books, coloring books, stickers, bed, sheets, pillows, toy chest, lunchbox, water bottles, plates, fork, spoon, cup, blanket, ride on car, and of course every style, size, and type of Lightning McQueen car ever made!!  He has talking Lightning, remote control Lightning, and like 15 different car styles (one from each movie, Blue Lightning, Lego Lightning, Shovel Lightning, Tumbleweed Lightning, etc.)

His all-time favorite thing to do is listen to Real Gone by Sheryl Crow on repeat really loud and race his cars around the house!!!  Dylan loves to join him!  Lately, he's also started requesting Thunder by Imagine Dragons because it's the main song in Cars Three!

I never thought I'd know so much about cars but being a boy mom is actually really fun!  I get to do princess parties and play with little girls all the time for my job so it's refreshing to get to do something different with my boys.  I wish I had more time to just play with Clark because playing cars with him is so fun!!  We take them on all kinds of adventures, have races, catch bad guys and put them in jail, and Clark catches on super quick and whatever new game or plot line I introduce with the cars, he starts adding to it and will play that way for days after!  For now, Dylan is still too young to play with Clark because he really just enjoys coming in and messing up Clark's lined up cars, which results in a meltdown from Clark.  So Clark usually will go in my room and shut the door and play in there while I do chores and watch Dylan.  He is the best self entertainer!!

When Clark's not playing with his cars inside, he LOVES being outside and going places!  Have I mentioned it's unbearably hot these days??  I hate being outside but I will let them play for like an hour in the morning and sometimes we'll go on a short walk.  Usually we just go run an errand or go swimming at my mom's, which is another favorite of Clark's.  He could swim all day if we let him and afterwards, he's always starving and will eat almost anything so it's a win win!!

Clark also loves loves LOVES playing with other kids and going to people's houses, mostly for the new toys, HA!  But he really is so friendly and social and just fascinated by other kids.  I always try to do more playdates and such but I don't think he gets as much social interaction as he would like.  I'll be excited for him to go to school and come Fall, we will start going to SPARK too, which is like a free pre-school type program here that parents attend with the kids.

So I used to be Clark's favorite parent, but after Dyl came along (who is even more of a mama's boy than Clark if that's possible!) Clark and Mark became pretty inseperable.  They have such a special bond and understand each other so perfectly.  I love the way Mark is with Clark and Clark just adores him!!  He is always requesting daddy to do things with him and prefers dad to put him to bed every night (probably because dad is a pushover, HA!)

Clark is also obsessed with his brother.  He's loved him from day one and they have the sweetest, most special relationship.  Dylan wants to be just like Clark and thinks he's the coolest person ever and Clark is always looking out for Dilly and cheering him up when he's sad.  He can't wait for Dylan to wake up every morning and when he first sees him, he gets so excited and gives him a big hug!

♥                ♥                ♥

l e t t e r s   t o   c l a r k

My dear Clark Wilde,

At three years old, you are a little ball of energy and full of questions!  You love to talk, talk, talk all day and are oh so curious!  You are constantly doing and saying the funniest things and never fail to amaze me.  My favorite thing about you is how much you love and care for everyone.  You have the sweetest, purest spirit and are a little peace of Heaven in our home.  Yes, you try my patience on a daily basis and sometimes I want to sell you to the zoo (and let you know it) but even after I lose my temper, you are so quick to forgive me and come cuddle with me.  I can never stay mad at you for long.  You have us all wrapped around your little finger and it's so hard not to spoil you because seeing the look on your face and the "oh my dosh!" when you open anything Cars, melts my heart.  When you're happy, the whole world is smiling!

One of my favorite things to do with you is go places just the two of us, like the zoo, playdates, or the store because I love taking you out into the world and watch you experience things.  Your imagination, creativity, and sense of wonder is amazing to watch.  You are the little boy I've always dreamed of and I can't wait to watch you grow up and do extraordinary things.  I truly believe you can do anything you want!  You are so smart and love figuring things out.  You're going to be just like your daddy and he's the best person I know.

I hope you know how wonderful you are and how much joy and love you bring to my life.  Every day is an adventure with you and I wish we could just play, laugh, sing and dance all day long.  I'm going to miss these days so much.  Every night when I go up to your room to make sure you're covered and safe, I feel a pang in my heart that it's one day closer to you growing up, moving out, and no longer being my sweet little baby.  I have already forgotten the days when I used to rock you to sleep, carry you to your crib and lay you down.  I miss nursing you and letting you fall asleep at my boob and suck to your little heart's content.  I don't regret a single second of any of it.  I would go back and do it all over again in a heartbeat.  You are the greatest blessing in my life, along with your brother.  You are everything to me.  I love you forever.

your mama

Dear Clark,

Honestly I have a hard time remembering how life was before you were here with us.  I'm always excited to see how you have learned and grown each day.  My favorite thing to do is to physically watch you learn and grow.  This is happening a lot lately as you learn new things.  You started drawing this year and you've been fascinated watching me draw.  When you first started to draw you'd sit down sometimes for an hour just coloring away.   I quickly found out how talented you were.  You naturally would stay relatively close to inside the lines and you do a wonderful job at choosing colors.  More recently you have come to enjoy doing puzzles and sports.  I have been truly amazed at how quickly you are able to put together a puzzle.  And the way in which you do it.  You always pick up a piece and put it in the right spot one after the other.  And these aren't the little baby puzzles that you're doing, these are 48 piece puzzles for 5 and up.  This means that you are doing the puzzle the right way.  You are finding a combination of colors in a piece that you've already put down and matching it with one of the free pieces.  You're going to be able to do much larger puzzles quickly and I can see how this is going to lead to a love for learning as I teach you that all learning is just solving puzzles.

So sports... I haven't been the best coach that I could be to you but you have always wanted to be outside so sports have naturally been an interest of yours.  I have taught you to hit a softball off a tee, how to throw a football, and of course how to kick a soccer ball.  I can't wait for this next year to start playing more sports with you.  You're already fast and careful with your kicks, so I know that you're going to be a great, disciplined player.

I love you Clark and I love seeing you grow.  Keep being patient with me as I learn how to be the best father I can be.

love dad

♥                ♥                ♥