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.  

dylan masters : twelve months

t w e l v e   m o n t h s

This little mouse turned ONE last month!!  Instead of a party, we celebrated by taking him and his brother to the happiest place on Earth!!!  That may have been one of the most exhausting vacations of my life!!  Of course, it rained most of the days we were there, the castle was under construction, Lightning McQueen never came out and poor Dylan was SO sick the entire time but I still think they had fun?

On Dylan's real birthday we had his favorite dinner (pizza!), let him eat a cupcake (he gagged because he ate too much frosting), sang happy birthday to him and gave him just a few gifts, a toy microphone and my parents got him a Mickey Mouse blanket from Disneyland.  I felt a little guilty because Clark's first birthday was such a big production but honestly, I don't think Dylan would have liked a big party any more than our little family celebration.

Here are pictures of both boys on their first birthday!  Do you think they look like brothers??  To me, they look about as related as my sister and me...night and day!

twelve month stats:

weight: 19.7 lbs. (20th percentile)

length: 32 in. (99th percentile)

head circ: 18 in. (47th percentile)

♥                ♥                ♥

f i r s t s

♥ Tantrums - So I don't remember Clark throwing tantrums this early but maybe Dylan has caught on faster by watching his older brother!  He started throwing himself on the floor and crying in the mornings after nursing (I think it's when my milk stops letting down) and he will also throw himself onto his back and flail around when someone takes something from him (either Clark taking a toy or when I take something he can't play with).  Also, when he's done eating he will throw his food and drink on the floor one by one while making eye contact, it's hilarious!

♥ Splashing in the toilet!  This is something Clark has NEVER done but Dylan is a bit more adventurous than Clark, in my opinion!  He's only actually done it once (toilet was freshly cleaned!) but has tried to do it several times!!

♥ Digging in the trash - Again, Clark has never done this to this day!  When Dylan learned that I throw leftover food in the trash, suddenly that trash can was his new favorite thing, haha!  We have to keep a case of water bottles on the trash can lid to keep him from getting in there.

♥ Bowl of cereal - Just like his big bro, Dylan is a big fan of cereal!  He doesn't like certain textures (Shredded Wheat, Life) and will stick his tongue out and try to wipe them off but he loves Honey Nut cheerios!  Also Trix HA!

♥ Fruit snacks - After Clark shared his fruit snacks with Dylan one day, I decided he's old enough to have them (cut in half) and they are Dylan's new favorite food!!  He goes CRAZY when you take out the fruit snacks!

♥ First steps - Dylan took his first steps shortly after turning one!  He's still very unsure about it and will only walk 2-3 steps from one person to another, esp. if you have something he wants!  He definitely still prefers crawling and is a bit unbalanced but I love seeing the look of pride on his face when he walks to me!

f a v o r i t e s

At twelve months Dylan loves cars, books, being outside, swinging, baths, pushing things, making messes, stealing Clark's sippy cups, raiding the pantry, making smacking sounds with his tongue, playing with Jeeves, dancing, sleeping in, doing whatever Clark is doing, snuggling with mama, being read to, opening & closing doors, throwing the dvd's everywhere, independently exploring and is a total mama's boy!

e a t

This month we had a little scare when we discovered Dylan is allergic to cashews!!  Well, we're pretty sure it's cashews...I made crockpot cashew chicken and shortly afterwards, Dylan got hives!!  They started small and then started to get bigger and formed one huge hive on his butt.  A few hours later, they had spread to his face!!

We called the emergency on-call doctor since it was late at night and they said to give him Children's Benadryl and see if that helped and if he got worse or couldn't breathe to bring him in.  We gave him some prescription allergy medicine we got from the doctor this week (also found out he has Spring allergies!) and that did the trick.  The hives didn't come back except when he pooped the next day and then they were only in the spots where the poop touched his butt!!  So it was definitely something he ate!  The cashew chicken was the most suspicious thing he had that day and if it wasn't the cashews it could have been the chili sauce or a number of other ingredients in it.  Weird, because he's had both peanut and almond butter just fine!

I'm sad to say the weaning process has begun...Dyl is now nursing only two times a day and the sessions are getting shorter and shorter.  He gets impatient when it takes forever for my milk to come and then there's never very much of it so he loses interest fast, which in turn has lowered my milk supply so pretty soon there won't be any more milk!  I plan to continue to nurse as long as he wants to but I don't think that will be very much longer.  This kid has his own agenda and waiting for mom's milk just doesn't make the cut most of the time!

Dylan is still a great eater but he has started to refuse certain things or now when he's full he will stick out his tongue after we give him a bite and wipe off the food, haha!  At least he self-regulates...unless it's fruit snacks.  He would eat those forever.  Also, he INHALES Go-Go Squeezes like there's no tomorrow!

s l e e p

This month we hit a HUGE sleep regression that felt like it lasted an eternity!!  It all started when he got sick...and then we took him on vacation!  So Dylan is a wonderful sleeper at home in his crib.  Whenever we're at my mom's though or on vacation and he has to sleep in a pack 'n play, just forget about it!  He wakes up constantly and if you're sleeping in the same room as him, no one gets much sleep.  I think he's just picky about how uncomfortable the pack 'n play is compared to his majestic crib and so he just doesn't sleep very well.

So, before our vacation, he wasn't sleeping well at home (waking up once or twice during the night and having a hard time going back down) but then in California, his sleep took a turn for the worst!  Our first night at Birk and Al's, I was exhausted from the plane ride and went to bed shortly after Dylan.  I was awakened about 30 minutes later.  I shushed him and patted him but he kept crying like every 30 minutes or hourly it felt like, so finally I did what we've never done before......I brought him into our bed!!

I was the only one in the bed because Mark was in a trundle bed with Clark at the opposite end of the house (Clark doesn't like to sleep alone when we're not at home and also he probably would've fallen out of the bed).  As soon as I brought Dylan into the bed and covered him up, snuggling up next to him, he slept like a dream!  I think it was around 1 or 2 am and then he slept until about 6 am.  I was too tired to get up so I just stayed laying down and eventually he laid back down next to me and we slept until 7:30.

I think Dylan may not have been sleeping well because he was cold in the pack 'n play.  The room we were in had big windows along one wall, which had been open until we went to sleep.  Also, the temperature was a lot lower than we keep it at our house (our upstairs gets really warm) so I have a feeling he may just have been waking up cold!  The next night Mark and I switched so I could get a better night's sleep.  I slept so good with Clark and Mark said Dylan was waking up a few times so he brought him into the bed and then they slept the whole night.

For the rest of our vacation we continued to bring Dylan into bed with us, although I think he made it the whole night in the pack 'n play a few times, simply because he was so exhausted!  I really didn't mind sleeping with Dylan but I was worried about what going home would be like.  When we got home, both Clark and Dylan had sleep troubles (usually they would alternate waking up) for a few weeks.  We tried cry it out with Dylan but it didn't work as well as it had with Clark.  Also, he was still sick (he was sick with a bad cough and cold for 5 weeks!)  But somehow we got through it and now he's back to sleeping from 7:30 pm - 8:30/9 am.  Hallelujah!!

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

Dylan is one adventurous little cub!  I used to think Clark was wild but compared to Dylan, Clark is pretty reserved!  Clark was much more dependent on me than Dylan and wanted to be held more.  Dyl loves exploring on his own and unless he's hungry or tired, he will pretty much play happily by himself or with Clark.  I love how they entertain each other but Clark still doesn't like to share.  He will have 15 cars to himself and give Dylan a broken tractor with 3 wheels!!  And Dylan's no dummy, he's always after the coveted Lightning McQueen.  Good thing Clark has 4 of them!

We all still treat Dylan like a baby (because he is the baby) but it's amazing how much he understands now.  I think he understands most of what we say...I'll ask him if he wants to nurse and he tries to lift up my shirt, ask him if he's poopy and he points to his bum, tell him to give me something or tell him no when he's trying to do something and he obeys (most of the time!).  He definitely has a mind of his own.

Some new things he's doing this month are pointing, handing us things over and over (a pouch, a book he wants us to read, toys), smacking his lips when he likes something, playing with toys, more babbling (he says boo, mama, and bye), and he's also got a new favorite book, Who Wears What.  It's a textured book and he loooves it so much.  We read it every night!

At Disneyland this lady said to me, "He looks just like you!"  That was a first!  I told her no one's ever said that and she said, "Well, the coloring's different but that face is all you!"  Do you see it??

♥    l e t t e r s   t o   d y l a n   ♥ 

My sweet Dylan,

You've been with us for one year now and we all can't imagine how we ever lived without you!  Your brother just adores you, you have your daddy wrapped around your little finger, Grandma can't get enough of you, and you are my precious little angel!  You have the sweetest spirit and just light up the room.  Everyone comments on how adorable you are and I can't help but kiss you all day long!  I'm kind of obsessed with you and the feeling is mutual.  Every time you see me, you cry and reach out for me like you haven't seen me in years!  Sometimes when you're eating, you start to get desperate to get out of your high-chair to be closer to me.  I'll lean my head in and you grab it with both hands and put your forehead to mine, suck your fingers and close your eyes.  Half the time I take you out of your high-chair and finish feeding you in my lap, which is your favorite!  I know by now that this phase won't last forever (even though I have to admit, Clark still loves eating in my lap!)

My favorite thing about you is how easily excited you are!  When I get down on the floor and start crawling after you, you shriek with delight!  You love chasing your brother and will grab his cars any chance you get.  When you hear the tub running, you come racing in to climb into the bath (even though I'm usually just rinsing out Clark's potty!)  You love forts, playing peek-a-boo, Jeeves, and wrestling on the floor.  You're always exploring and figuring things out, just like your daddy.  You would sleep in every day if you could, just like your mama!  I think you look just like your Aunt Stephy and you're already a little musician like your Uncle Sean!

You have brought so much joy into our family Dylan.  We couldn't have asked for a more perfect addition.  We love you so much!!!

Love,

your mama