More visitors!

Today Mimi, Aunt Lisa, Katie, and Grace came up to visit us for the day. I just can't believe how big the girls are getting. They love their new cousin! Katie took a turn holding Baby Dylan! Look how seriously she takes on this task - she is such a natural mini-mama:)

Katie may look all business, but she knows silly too!
The girls brought their suits and played in the sprinkler. They LOVE climbing on the rocks in our backyard!

Family Reunion!

Last weekend we took another trip upstate for Tim's family reunion! Every year the families of Tim's grandmother (Dylan's GGMum) and her four sisters get together to reconnect and spend some time together. This year's reunion was held at GGMum's home. She has a huge, beautiful piece of property with a pool in Cayuga, NY. The picture above is just GGMum's branch of the family tree (and there are a few people missing!). The reunion was a 2-day event with lots of kids, food, and fun!!

Here's GGMum (on the right, in blue) with 3 of her sisters. One of the 5 sisters, Marion, is deceased.

Of course everyone was excited to meet our sweet baby Dylan!






Here we are hangin' out in the shade...





Tim's cousin, Michael, with his wife, Jennifer, and the adorable baby Noah!







Uncle Andrew relaxin' with a beer.









Tim's cousins Mihali and Niko (they are brothers). Niko is the family DJ and photographer. Many of these photos are courtesy of him (thanks Niko!).





Mihali is a collegiate diver. Here he is showin' off his skills.







This is Zoe, their beautiful sister:)





Cousin Greg, with his wife Jamie, and their daughter, Grace. They have four other children (all boys) and are adopting two more boys this month!

Uncle Ben and Aunt Em on the swing - just one more month till we get to meet Dylan's new cousin!



Cousin Aaron, his wife Janel, and their daughter, Chaeli.










Aaron with his daughter, Chaeli, and his son, Gideon.





There was a "group cannonball" in honor of GGPop's birthday (which was 7/26, the first day of the reunion). GGPop passed away 3 years ago. I was told that he used to complain when the kids would do cannonballs, joking that all the water would splash out of the pool!













On Sunday night, Tim's cousin Greg set off the "Illegal as Hell" fireworks he picked up at one of the stops on his family's drive from Texas to NY. They were amazing, and yes, illegal as hell!

Poor Nonna didn't want to say goodbye on Monday morning!

A visit from Poppa Scott and Nana Wendy!

Last weekend, Tim's dad and step-mom came to visit us! Well, they told us they came to visit us, but we know they really just came to visit Dylan:) They just couldn't get enough of him!!

Two Month Vaccines...

Poor Dylan had some vaccines today:( If you look closely at this picture you can see the two band-aids on his upper thighs that mark the offending injection sites. He was a trooper. He cried during each shot (the nurse who administered them was kind and let him recover in between) and nearly broke my heart. However, he recovered well and spent much of the next 24 hours sleeping. He did spike his first fever (100.6 F) which was quickly remedied with some Tylenol drops.

Some of you may know Tim and I were concerned about the vaccine issue for various reasons (feel free to ask us about them). After some research we decided to stray slightly from the standard schedule and to spread out the shots a bit. Dylan will be getting 2 vaccines every month (instead of getting 3-5 vaccines every other month). We declined the Rotavirus since it is not mandatory and we are delaying Hep B since, well, it's just not necessary in newborns. He will be getting everything else on the recommended list, just spread out a bit. We are also avoiding combo shots like the Pediarix, giving each vaccine individually whenever possible. We feel these precautions will allow Dylan's little body to better process both the vaccine as well as the additives in each shot. It also allows us to better pinpoint the problematic vaccine in case he has a reaction to one of them. Our pediatrician has been very flexible and willing to work with us on this.

A book we found very, very helpful in working out our schedule is The Vaccine Book, by Dr. Robert Sears (http://www.askdrsears.com/thevaccinebook/). I highly recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about pediatric vaccines. I found it to be very unbiased (not the hippy-dippy, anti-establishment viewpoint many vaccine books are often pegged as presenting) and informative, presenting thorough, easy to understand information about each of the recommended vaccines. I was shocked to find out how little research is actually required before marketing and administering each of these vaccines.

Anyway, that is probably more than you ever wanted to know about our feelings on vaccines. We will return to our lighter, fun updates in the next post:)

Dylan is two months old!!

Can you believe it's been two months since Dylan arrived? His second month has brought with it a slightly fussier streak which I thought might be related to gas and/or my diet (since Dylan is breast fed). I have tried cutting out dairy which seems to have little effect (though I have to admit I have not been very diligent in giving up dairy completely - I mean what is dessert without ice cream??).

We also tried giving Dylan cooled chamomile tea, a home remedy suggested by one of the mothers in my "earthy mamas" meet-up group. Dylan did not care for it, either by spoon or bottle, and it too seemed to have little effect on his crying spells. I haven't yet tried the dill seed infusion I read about on the internet (though I did go out and buy dill seed!), or the Mylecon drops suggested by our pediatrician. We did bring Dylan to the pedi to make sure nothing was seriously wrong with him and he was, of course, an angel in her office! Based on our vague descriptions, she said it was typical newborn fussiness and that he'd grow out of it. We felt like neurotic, first time parents. Which of course we are.

But, it seems the pedi is right, over the past few days Dylan seems less fussy (or maybe Tim and I are just learning to deal with it better). As if to assure us himself that, yes, this is just a phase and yes, I do love you, in the past week or two Dylan has begun gracing us with social smiles!! It is the greatest thing in the world to have him respond to us with a smile! They mostly occur when he is on his changing table, buck naked, and happy as a clam.

Which brings me back to our list of developments over the last month. Dylan has shown us that being naked is one of his favorite things. When he was a brand new baby, he would SCREAM while having his diaper changed or being bathed. Now these things make him smile and wiggle with glee!

Other new developments include:

• a hatred for his car seat and car rides, although this too seems to be getting better


• the ability to entertain himself for 15-30 min on the playmat or in one of his infant seats (one glides and the other vibrates) by staring contentedly or batting with fervor at the brightly colored "guys" who hang in his line of vision
  
• less "rocket poop" incidents, which is nice because we often prolong diaper changes, letting him hang out naked on his changing table (with us supervising of course) since it makes him so happy and smiley

Oh and one last thing - Dylan still hates pacifiers. Which doesn't mean I've stopped trying to get him to like them (see bottom right corner of first picture in this post). At first I was against pacifier use. I thought it would just be a crutch for him and me, cause nipple confusion, and possibly lead to the need for braces as a pre-teen. Since that time I have learned that my little boy, like all babies, has the drive to suck, strange as may seem. Even when not hungry he will gladly take someone's knuckle or, of course, my boob. These items obviously can't go in the cradle or crib with him and so I think it would be convenient to have a tool to help Dylan self-soothe. We have tried almost every type of paci on the market including a giant one marked 18 months + (I was thinking maybe he would like pacificers if they we just a little bigger but again I was wrong). One by one, they have been repeatedly refused by Dylan. They are all in a drawer I think of as the reject paci pile. Just to humor me and keep me thinking there is a glimmer of hope, he will occasionally suck on one for a few seconds before spitting it out as if to say, "Really Mom, you must be kidding me."

On Dylan's two month "birthday" Mimi and Papa came up for a visit. Here is a pic of Mimi enjoying her time with her grandson. Incidentally, Mimi is also obsessed with getting Dylan to take a paci and has only been marginally more successful than I.

Another Playdate With Cy!

On Sunday, Tim and I took Dylan down to Brooklyn to visit his pal, Cy. Despite some protesting in the car on the way there, we all had a great time visiting the Norens in Brooklyn Heights. Their condo is so nice, with amazing views of the city from their rooftop terrace (or so I hear - Adam showed Tim the terrace while Maya and I hung out with les bebes). They are close to lots of playgrounds and a promenade from which you can see the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge, and probably lots of other landmarks I didn't recognize, suburbanite that I am. Minds on our precious baby, we didn't take pictures of any of this. We did take advantage of being in "the city" and ate yummy middle eastern/greek (?) food for lunch (hard to find here in the 'Chester). We compared baby notes, discussed cloth diapers (they use cloth too!) and went for a walk on the promenade.

Here's Cy with his Dad, Adam...

Here's a picture of Adam and Maya playing with Dylan - they said seeing him is like a time machine that takes them back to 6 weeks ago when Cy was Dylan's age. And seeing Cy gets Tim and I excited for the things to come. Amazing what a difference 6 weeks makes when you are a newborn!

Dylan tried out Cy's swing (the one baby item we don't have in our house). At first he hated it, but as you can see, he quickly decided it wasn't so bad as long as Mr. Froggy and Mr. Giraffe were there to keep him company.
Adam, Maya, Tim, and I decided that Cy and Dylan will be best friends despite their being on opposite sides of the Yankees/Red Sox rivalry. Here is our attempt at getting a picture of them in their repsective teams' hats. Yes, it is really necessary to post this many pics, so you get an idea of how funny it was trying to get a good shot.

We can't wait for the next playdate!

4th of July Weekend

For the 4th of July weekend we took Dylan upstate for his first trip to visit Tim's family. Our first stop was GGMum's house for a 4th of July Barbeque.

She couldn't wait to get her hands on him!









Nonna waited patiently for her turn.

The next day we all went to a Jack and Jill shower for Uncle Ben (Tim's brother) and Aunt Emily. Of course we forgot to take pictures of the expectant couple at the shower! So here's a picture of them at GGMum's on the 4th, opening a pre-shower gift.


We are so excited for the arrival of Dylan's cousin!

A visit from the Korns

Last Monday my friend Lauren, her husband Jerald, and their son Seth visited Dylan and me on their way from Long Island to Boston. Seth cautiously checked out our cats and had fun playing with some of Tim's old toys. I am sad we didn't get more pictures of him - he's such a cutie!!

Lauren and Jerald are expecting their second son this November - so Lauren got a refresher course in cuddling a newborn.
Dylan, dressed in the adorable outfit Lauren's mom sent him, was a very entertaining host:)