The Rest of July...

July was a busy month for us! And that's not just an excuse for infrequent blogging. Here are some highlights...

Dylan checking out the scene at Uncle Dave and Aunt Michelle's block partyMy adorable niece, Scarlett. I love this kid.

Daddy disapproves of the pink car

Visiting the animals (and the farmers' market) at Muscoot

Cows

A visit from Nonna and Uncle Andrew

No diaper

Peek-a-boo!

Bowl hatBig smiles

Mimi and Papa crashed Nonna and Uncle Andrew's visit to celebrate Mimi's birthday with us and to Christen the BBQ. Terrible picture of everyone - no wonder Tim wanted to take it! Happy Birthday, Mimi!

The Fouth of July with our Friend, Cy

We spent our Fourth of July at Cy's grandparents' lakehouse in Connecticut and had so much fun with Adam, Maya, the boys, and Adam's family. Cy is the son of our friends, Adam and Maya, for those of you who are out of the loop. And Cy's is Dylan's best bud, or so Dylan thinks...Cy's not so sure. The boys in their Tufts sweatshirts (Tim and Adam both went to Tufts University)

"Yeah Dylan, the ladies will be over in a few minutes with the keg."

Daddy & Dylan

While Cy napped and the grown-ups ate lunch, Dylan hung out with his other best friend. I promise the bottle was empty!

When Cy woke up, he showed Dylan where they hide the really fun toys.

Inspecting the watermelon "Please, sir, can I have some more?"

A four-legged furry friend that doesn't run away when Dylan appears!

Hugs for Quincy the dog

First encounter with a sparkler

Thanks for inviting us, Adam and Maya! We had a great time!!

Recent Milestones

Since about the beginning of June, Dylan had been taking one or two steps on his own. Just over the past two weeks or so however, Dylan has been straight up walking! All by himself! Check it out.

Even since this video was taken Dylan has improved to the point where he's walking all over the house by himself, and even getting himself to stand without the use of furniture (or mommy's leg).

Other recent achievements include his first real word! For awhile now, he's been making a "meow" sound, used to identify just about anything with four legs and fur. But a few weeks ago, he said the word wheel (pronounced "wheeeeeeeee"), both appropriately and repeatedly, while playing with the wheels of a play car. Since then, we've decided that Dylan is multilingual. Often, for the word "yes", he likes to say "oui" (French), "si" (Spanish), "da" (a close approximation of German), and "ish" (a possible attempt at the English version?).

Dylan loves to gives hugs to the things he likes a lot. This includes mommy, daddy, any (stuffed or real) fuzzy animal, trucks, you get the picture. When he makes his toy cars and trucks roll around the ground, he makes a "vrroooooom" sound. He knows that when we go outside, he needs to wear a hat, and tells us this by pointing to his head. He can point to his hair and his toes. Less consistently, he can point to mommy's eyes and nose. He is still a big fan of peek-a-boo, which almost always elicits huge Dylan belly laughs. Which, of course, are the very best things in our world!

Upstate

We spent the last weekend of June doing some visiting upstate. Our first stop was GGMum's with Uncle Andrew, Nonna, and an old toy truck. Dylan had a blast pushing this truck around GGMum's big yard. After 12 grandsons, GG sure knows how to keep little boys busy! The next day, we headed to the zoo with Nonna, Uncle Ben, Aunt Em, and Sophia. The little penguins were my favorite part;)

Dylan liked the lions!

After the zoo, we headed to Sophia's house for dinner, playtime, and storytime.Then back to Nonna's for punk rock baby bathtime.

The next day, before heading home, we made a stop at Tim's great aunt Ginny and great uncle Bob's house with Uncle Ben, Aunt Em, and Sophia. Aunt Ginny had met Dylan when he was 7 weeks old but hadn't seen him since. She and Bob really seemed to enjoy watching Dylan and Sophia interact. It was so nice to see three generations of Youngs together.