The beauty of language

Dylan is getting bigger and smarter by the second. Every day I'm amazed at the new concepts she grasps and how much she understands of what I say. In the grocery store the other day she was walking with me and she stopped to pull down some of those cylindrical salt containers. She pulled two of the containers down and I asked her to put them back. She tried to pick one of them up with one hand and I suggested that she might need to use two hands. She immediately picked each container up with both hands and replaced them on the shelf. What I'm really waiting for though, is for her to learn how to talk to me. She's been teething, sick and who knows what else over the last few weeks and it's incredibly frustrating for her not to be able to tell us what's wrong. She was waking up in the middle of the night and screaming for 2 hours unless we would go get her. When we would go get her she would immediately either want to get up and play, or just rest her head on our shoulder and basically fall back asleep (until we put her back down). I tried getting her, feeding her, changing her diaper and then putting her back down while rubbing her back and singing to her; however, she still screams at us for another 30 minutes after I leave the room. I must admit that part of the reason I want to be able to communicate with her better is so that I can say: "if you keep wining at me for no reason I'm gonna spank that little booty of yours", but mostly it's so that I can know what it is that is bothering her. Is she hurting or just mad that she's in her room; one makes me sad and the other a bit annoyed, but not knowing what the crying is for is worse than both.
I'm down to the last couple weeks of classes and I'm both panicking and excited. The nice thing is that it will be over no matter what in a few weeks, the bad is that I have an ass-ton (pardon my french) of work to do before then. On top of all the school work, I'm desperately trying to find a job in a market that just does not seem interested. Just to make the pressure a bit more real, Sarah is pregnant again which makes her more anxious about my lack of employment. For all of you Engineering employers reading this, give me a buzz.
Well, that's about it, I'm posting a couple movies that you should find entertaining. The first is Dylan performing all her best tricks, the other is of her doing self induced manual labor.

~Charlie

On the Go

Well - Dylan isn't actually walking everywhere on her own yet, but we're almost there. She can take about 10-12 steps all on her own, but she seems to prefer walking while holding one of my fingers. It's so fun to see her pound out a few steps with those tiny little feet. Dylan is getting another top tooth right now and isn't too pleased about the whole thing. She's been a little testy the last few days. She is waking up at 5:30am lately - which doesn't have me too pleased either. I'm hoping that we will soon revert back to our old schedule of 6:30am or 7am. I think everyone will be much more amiable at that hour.

well - we best be off. looks like nap time is coming to a close. Here's what you came for anyway. We love you all. Come visit in Tennessee if you get a chance! --sarah

Week of new discoveries

This week Dylan has just been doing more and more new things. From the last post you can see how much she liked the tutu on her head. Well take a look at the pictures below, she LOVES having stuff on her head. She'll try to put shirts over her head (and succeed), then she'll hand me pants to put on her head.
The other day, Dylan was holding on to the couch when Sarah clapped her hands; Dylan likes to clap her hands, so she did. She stood up all on her own for at least 20 seconds.
And then tonight at dinner Sarah introduced me to the fact that Dylan plays peek-a-boo. I'm posting tons of pics and a couple vids as proof.
Oh yeah, I just started my FINAL semester. Please keep me in your prayers as I look for a job this spring. If anyone knows about a well paying mechanical Engineering job, please let me know :)
-charlie

Tutu Tresses

Well, it's been a while since I've written anything here. As Mary pointed out to me, I can't use the school excuse anymore since I've been out of school for a couple weeks already. We've had a whirl wind of family gatherings over the last week or two. It was a lot of fun, and we were sad to see everyone go, but sometimes it is nice to get back to normal life.
We had a fun Christmas with my folks, it is fun to have a new generation of kids running around for a change. It's funny how much less I've cared about what I get for Christmas since Dylan was born. There is a huge switch that gets turned, and it's all about the kids.
At the Bouchers (Sarah's family) we had an incredibly sweet time. A bunch of the daughters, grandkids and great-grandkids wrote notes to Jim about memories of him that they cherished. Jim read all the notes out loud and we all listened. It was a very Christmasy morning, full of joy and tears and all that.
Amongst the many things that Dylan received this year was a tutu from my mom. Last night Sarah put it on her head to entertain Dylan. Dylan thought it was hyllarious and then wanted it on her head. For the next 15 minutes or so Dylan wore the tutu on her head and laughed and played. Every time it fell off, Dylan would hand it to Sarah so she could put it
back on. Here are a bunch of pictures for your parusing pleasure.

-charlie

Happy Birthday!

Today is Dylan's 1st birthday. I cannot believe that a year has already passed. Everyone always said it would go fast - and to tell you the truth, I thought it was just a silly cliche myth. But, I have definitely been proven wrong. She is so much fun and so sweet. I know that parenting will have its challenges, but I love spending time with her and seeing her discover new things. She is teaching me so much about faith, love and patience. It is such a blessing to have her in our lives. Here are a few pics - Merry Christmas to everyone! We love you all.

Thanksgiving with Attitude

So, I knew it would start to happen more often as Dylan grew older, but I didn't realize how soon. Now that the world has opened up to Dylan from a mobility standpoint (she sprint crawls and pulls up on most everything), she seems to think that she can do whatever she wants now. A few times this holiday weekend she had decided she does not want help with certain things. And when she is doing something she enjoys and I go to pick her up, she throws herself backwards and straightens her body in defiance. Yes - the attitude is coming out. A firm "no" and sometimes a smack to the thigh have been necessary to let her know that it's not going to go down like that!

Don't get me wrong, Dylan is a very sweet, fun little girl. But, I guess I just wasn't looking forward to the not so fun, but oh so necessary, part of parenting - discipline.

Charlie is almost done with this semester. Only one more to go. Work is going well for me - not very much overtime at all, which is really a blessing. I'm looking forward to taking the entire week of Christmas off. I will get to hang with Dylan 24/7 and see lots of family. I have to be gone from her for about 4 days at the end of January for work. I'm not looking forward to that - but we have been very blessed that I have not had to travel overnight at all since I went back to work.

Well - here are some fairly recent pics. Her eczema was much better this last week - which was such a relief. Not sure what changed - maybe the rain has helped. Here's hoping that she is just outgrowing it!

Cruisin'

So, lately Dylan is starting to give up the army crawl. Every once in awhile she reverts back to it, but lately she is a pro at using her knees. I just can't believe how old she is now. Almost a year old. This Christmas should be tons of fun. Dylan will celebrate her first birthday and it sounds like we will have quite a crew for the holidays...20 people maybe.

Charlie's school is going well. I know that he is ready to be done, but by the way he talks, I think that he is enjoying what he is learning. He is in a course today - but it is not engineering. For those of you that don't know yet, Charlie has a motorcycle. Yes, I know what you are thinking - did Charlie finally master Jedi mind tricks and has employed them on his wife. No - I know that he has always wanted one (as most men do) and we are planning on only having one car once he is done with school. So, he is taking a safety training course this weekend. I know he is really glad he is taking it.

Autumn is in full swing. Well, actually I think it is on the verge of winding down here. But, it is still very beautiful today. One of those great November days where the sky is dark grey, but the trees are amazing hues of red, orange and yellow. The colors have been quite incredible this year. Dylan loves picking leaves off of trees and bushes. She studies them for a moment, attempts to eat them, having been thwarted by mommy from ingesting the leaf, she then proceeds to tear it to pieces and toss it to the ground. It's so fun to see her learn to do new things. She truly is a joy.

Well, here are some fairly recent pics. We are still dealing with eczema and it is now getting worse as the weather gets progressively colder and dryer. But, hey, there are worse things to have.