More space...for Dylan and Grace

Yes, it has been awhile since we've written, but for good reason. We decided to move down the road (2 miles) to a place with a little more space for the kids, so the past few months have been filled with realtors and house cleaning and closing oh my..

It was a somewhat sentimental event for us...the house we left is the one we brought the kids home to when they were born, the first house we bought together after getting married, and Truman's stomping grounds for 8 years. But it was time for a change, and we're really enjoying the new place.

The kids were very well-adjusted to the whole moving process. In fact, here's a video of Dylan "helping" us move out of our former residence.

By the way, if any of you are interested in buying a BEAUTIFUL 4 bedroom in Pearland, TX (gorgeous master bedroom with sitting area, huge backyard with no backside neighbors), I've heard of a great deal. Plus, if you act in the next 15 minutes, you'll get this set of genuine ginsu knives...not sold in stores!

Fun at Discovery Green

A group of us headed to Discovery Green -- a fairly new park complex in downtown Houston -- this morning to take our kids to the water park. Dylan and Grace had a great time in the water fountains and the jungle gym area. Enjoy the video of them frolicking in the water!

Word World

The kids are now 19 months old and their vocabulary is increasing daily. Here is a list of the most commonly heard words from the kids.

Grace- Mama, Dada, Mimi, hi, milk, water, shoes, socks, crackers, cookies, elephant, monkey, horse, apples, applesauce, doggie, ball, bubbles, book, bath, hot, not nice!, backpack, sticker, eat, no, wow, weee!, eyes, nose, hat, paci (pacifier), all clean!, Elmo, Roar!(like a lion), kisses. Grace's favorites are: milk, cookies, not nice and nose.

Dylan- Mama, Dada, hi, milk, ball, dog, socks, shoes, bubbles, nose, bath, duck, quack, cookie, cracker, no, wow, backpack, car, bird, Elmo, soft, more, good. Dylan's favorites include: more, cracker and bubbles.

Happy 4th of July!

This post is a bit late! We had a great 4th of July! Bama and Ajja (Ryan's parents) came to visit us for the holiday weekend. Dylan and Grace showed them around Houston and took them to all of the cool toddler hot spots! First, Hermann Park for a nice train ride.

Then we went to Houston's children museum, and spent some quality time in the Tot Spot. They have play cars, gas station, slides, books, puzzles, tunnels, plinko...you name it.

For the 4th of July, we attended a big neighborhood party, complete with music, hot dogs, snow cones, mini choo-choos, bounce houses, cake walks. Even though it was ~100 degrees outside a good time was had by all. That afternoon, we opened up The D&G Sand and Splash Park in our backyard! Grace and Dylan (still very full from lunch-see their tummies) had fun splashing in the water. Grace shared her excitement by hopping out of her pool and giving her Ajja a big, soaking WET hug!




Sunday morning before Bama and Ajja had to return home, we went to the park near our home to play. It was already so hot at 9AM! Mom and Dad felt the heat more than the kids did.

We hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday!

Photo shoot

We just had a family photo shoot recently. Click here to check out the pictures!

The kids are growing quite nicely, and we are experiencing the "ear infections, and peanut allergies, and stuffy noses oh my!" stage. Fortunately the kids are generally happy and seem to be handling it fairly well.

Rumor has it that spreadsheet man may return to plot up the kids growth, but only if there is sufficient demand from his fan base...so it is now up to you (yes, I can see you on your laptop wearing those ridiculous flip-flops) to decide.

A few gems from Seattle

We recently went to Seattle to see Denise's brother Michael and his family. Also joining the fray were Denise's brother David and his family. And Denise's parents. Oh, and my sister in law's parents. Did I mention that there were 10 kids? In any case, it was a great time to be had by all.

The festivities included a trip to Pike's place market (famous home of fish throwing), the Pacific Science Museum, the Seattle Zoo, some playtime in one of Seattle's parks, and a day-long barbecue. Attached are a few videos capturing Dylan manning controls of a spaceship at the Pacific science museum and Grace cranking out a drum solo at the barbecue. Enjoy!

Straw-ber-ry Fie-lds For min-utes

This morning our journeys took us to Froberg's Farms, a quaint family farm and store just up the road from us in Alvin, TX. On Saturdays they allow customers to pick fresh strawberries in the fields behind the general store. It's a brilliant business model (come to our place to do manual labor in 90 degree heat and then pay us.)


After running a few errands this morning, we were in the neighborhood and Denise suggested we drop by the farm. Although we were only out there for about 15 minutes (it was rather toasty out), the kids made the most of their inaugural fruit picking adventure. Each of us was given a plastic bucket in which to put the strawberries we picked, after which we would pay by weight. Grace was a very industrious helper with putting strawberries in the basket. Dylan was diligent in his fruit gathering as well, but not exactly placing them where he was supposed to.

Swingers

We had a fun-filled memorial day. We went to the grandparents house and enjoyed a great bbq roast lunch, after which the grandparents graciously babysat while Denise and I went on a date to see Angels and Demons. After getting back from the movie, we all took the kids to the park. They very much enjoyed the swings, going down the slides, and seeing the geese by the lake. Here is a video of fun on the swings.

Look out Picasso....

...here comes Dylan. Attached is his first masterpiece, skillfully crafted at the international festival at their school a few weeks ago. Note the subtle influences of impressionism and sharp -(yet painstakingly cautious) edges, indicative of a dynamic yet controlled artist.

Elmo loses his head...details at 10

In a surprising display of bravado, Elmo decided to go on a rampage of brash and unruly behavior. Being a man of action, Dylan decided to nip this in the bud and set the record straight with the fuzzy little red guy. Elmooooooooooooooooooooooh...no!

Not to worry, sesame street fans. As shown below, no Elmos were harmed in our quaint little home. So fortunately, we'll get to listen to the elmo song for many days to come.

High chairs? We don't need no stinkin' high chairs!

Denise found a nice 2 ft by 2 ft kids table and chairs online, so we went ahead and got it. Daddy's Saturday morning project was to handle the "some assembly required" portion of our new family furniture. Early this afternoon, we decided to give it a whirl for mealtime with a mixed vegetable medley of peas, carrots, corn, and green beans.

Here's a glimpse of their first meal as "grown ups". As a completely impartial 3rd party observer, I'd say they did quite well...vote in our blog poll at let us know your conclusions!

The Chase, Part Deux

Truman has become accustomed to spotting cats on occasion in our front yard. As a vigilant watch dog, he has made an art form of the "chase the cat back and forth between the windows" maneuver. Yesterday was one of those episodes, which is fairly typical. However, now there is an added twist...the outdoor cat is not the only one being chased. Truman is such a good sport.



You will notice that Grace takes a tumble toward the end of the video (and Dylan at the very end). Not to worry...no children were harmed in the filming of this video.

A very good Friday

Denise took the kids to see their grandparents in Spring on Friday. Grace and Dylan enjoyed playing in the backyard, and then took a trek out to the park. Here are a few photos (of course, it wouldn't be complete without showing the human garbage disposal showing off one of his many skills!). Here are a few pictures they took at mimi and grandfather's place.

Stroll through the park

Late this morning we took the kids to our neighborhood park. They watched a few folks play frisbee for a while and enjoyed the swings, but spend most of the time exploring and running around in the grass. Here's a short clip of this morning's trek.

The chase is on

The kids find endless amusement in chasing Truman when he has "their" ball. Below is an exciting chase scene from earlier this evening. This is pretty impressive considering this episode was only 30 minutes after Dylan stuffed himself with peas, lima beans, canteloupe, peaches, and bread at Golden Corral.

Bluebonnets in bloom

The recent rains have been helpful for allowing Texas bluebonnets to come into full bloom. We took advantage of the beautiful weather yesterday to trek a patch about 20 minutes from home.

You can probably notice the difference over the past few months photos --they're 15 months old now. Grace loves saying "thhhocks" when we point to her socks and "dog" when we point to Truman. Dylan loves making noises, but so far his "adult" vocabulary focuses on saying "dada!".

Dylan cam

If you're wondering what it's like to live a minute in the life of a little dynamo, here's a brief snapshot on the Dylan-cam.

Playing house

Dylan and Grace seemed to enjoy their first foray into playing "house". As you can see below, Dylan was particularly enthused about opening and closing the window shutters (fortunately made out of plastic). This video was taken in the main hallway of the Montessorri school that they will be attending starting in April. In order to get them acclimated to the environment, we have been taking them there on Saturday mornings. From 10am to noon each Saturday, the school has "open playtime" in the main hallway between the classrooms , as well as the outdoor playground.

Needless to say, will be a significant adjustment for all of us when the kids start going to school. Hopefully they will enjoy the classroom activities and interaction with other kids as much as they enjoy the hallway toys. Stay tuned!

Sliding time

While we've taken and sent several pictures lately, we've been a bit remiss on the blog front...so here's an overdue installment.

Grace and Dylan have gotten some new skills -- and sharpened some existing ones -- over the past month or so. Some notable items:
(1) Their proficiency in eating finger foods has increased. Dylan will eat practically anything, while Grace is a bit more discriminating in her tastes and sometimes gets rather vocal in her discontent!
(2) Both of them have gotten fairly good at drinking from sippy cups. They love running around with them, and often deposit them in random places.
(3) We've reduced them from 2 naps per day to 1 nap (early afternoon).
(4) They've recently learned how to climb stairs and go down their slide! They picked up the stairclimbing fairly readily, but needed a bit of assistance for some time with getting into sliding position and pushing off. Now it looks like they've reached independence in this regard. Look out below!

Captain Chaos

Gasp!
Today Dylan learned how to open and close doors.

Happy birthdays!

Grace and Dylan celebrated their first birthday recently! December 20th landed on a Saturday, so we were able to have the party on their actual birthdays. We invited a dozen or so folks over for the party, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Both sets of grandparents were able to come and spoil the kids shamelessly! One of the items that was a hit was the combination ball pit / slide that Denise bought them (naturally, assembled the night before the party.) It turned out that a few of the bigger kids (2 years old) enjoyed flopping around in the pit, and Dylan really enjoyed playing with the bigger kids.

Here are a few photos of the event.