Dylan's 1st Word

Sunday morning we were all hanging out in the family room after our fabulous family dinner the night before. I go to pick up Dylan out of his exersaucer and he says.... "mama". It was clear as day!! I look at Dustin, then I look at mom. I'm thinking "I'm I hearing things?? Did anyone else hear that???"

Yes! He just said MAMA!! Everyone heard it. I have witnesses!!!

For the next several days every other sound is "mama"! He's saying it so much I don't even think to grab the video camera (which was on the charger). Of course the minute I try to catch it on video Dylan gives me a blank stare like "what's wrong with you mom??"

He's not saying it as much as he was when he first learned "oh- that's how you make that sound" but he still says it almost daily. I WILL get it on video- this is my new mission in life. It's sooooo cute and melts my heart everytime I hear it.

Chef Daddy

Dustin has taken a major interest in cooking lately, which is fiiiiine by me because cooking dinner is about the last thing I want to do when I get home from work.

Like all things, Dustin doesn't just "dabble" a little... he goes all out! The Food Network is now one of his new favorite channels (second only to ESPN) and he's become obsessed with shows like Top Chef, Iron Chef America, etc.

So a few years ago, while visiting Napa, Dustin and I had the pleasure of eating at The French Laundry restaurant. This restaurant is pretty much impossible to get a reservation (thank you Fred) and the 9+ course meal is out of this world, literally. I won't even tell you how much this meal cost us... let's just say it was back when the real estate market was MUCH better. At any rate, one of our favorite courses was a dish called "Peas and Carrots". Sounds simple right- maybe even a little gross?? Well well well, don't let the name of the dish deceive you. Thomas Keller's idea of peas and carrots is a lobster crepe served above a ginger-carrot emulsion with a pea shoot salad on top. Fancy fancy. (No, we don't eat like this every day, not even every year.)

When Dustin told me he bought the French Laundry cookbook so he could try to make Peas and Carrots, I said "Oh honey, that's a great idea" but in my head I was thinking "Has he gone mad????". So we decided to have a big family dinner so Dustin could put his newly acquired cooking skills to the test. Gathering up all of the ingredients took almost a week- you can't just run to the neighborhood grocery store to get all the fancy-pants things you need. Cooking the dinner took almost 2 full days- the recipe was three pages long... single-spaced, in paragraph form!! Needless to say there were a lot of steps. The most dramatic of which was dropping the three LIVE lobsters into a mixture of boiling butter water. Anyone that knows Dustin knows that he's a huge animal lover... He's the guy that catches a fly and then releases it outside. So the "killing the lobsters" step was hard. If only we didn't love the taste of lobster so much...

So after all the hard work and planning, I'm proud to say... dinner was AMAZING!!! It was fabulous, "melt in your mouth", "better than I remember", "omg I can't believe my husband made that" DELICIOUS!!! In addition to the Peas and Carrots, Dustin also made two more courses- mussels and sea bass (another recipe from Thomas Keller). Dylan and I were so proud. Because Dustin did such a great job, I've officially named him "Top Chef" of the Bradley house.

6 Month Pictures

As you can see from the pictures Dylan is a very very happy baby! All smiles, pretty much all the time :-)

First Bites

6 Months

When I was little it used to drive me crazy when my parents would say "you're growing like a weed"... but now I know what they were talking about! Kids grow fast!!! I can't believe our little D-Man is already 6 months old! He is changing every day and just when you think there is no possible way he could get any cuter... he does!!

It's been a while since I updated the blog (sorry!!) so there is a lot to catch everyone up on. I'll start with the baby basics- sleep, eat, poop. Dylan has been sleeping through the night since about 4 months. YEA!!! (Now I need to knock on wood real fast.) He started rolling over around the same time and now he prefers to sleep on his tummy. He can manage going from his back to his tummy really well, but we're still working on tummy to back. He goes down every night around 7-8pm and sleeps until 6-7am in the morning. When he wakes up he doesn't really cry- just makes enough noise to let you know "hey I'm ready now". The minute he sees you're coming to get him he gives you the biggest, brightest smile you've ever seen. It's the best alarm clock ever!

Now eating... We waited to start solids until he was 6 months. We started with rice cereal, which proved to be the worst mistake ever!! (I'll cover more on this in the "poop" section of this blog entry.) All that "practice eating" Dylan did with Ana paid off because he took to the spoon no problem. Sometimes he forgets to swallow, but hey we can't all be perfect right?? Anyway, so after a few days of rice cereal we switched to green beans. Now is my time to brag about myself- I've been making all of Dylan's baby food! Yep that's right. I'm pretty proud of myself. We'll see how long it lasts, but for now I'm really enjoying it. Dylan seems to like the green beans ok. His favorite food so far is avacado. He's not really a fan of plums... but we're going to keep trying. Today I bought him some pears- I'll try to whip those up tomorrow. I'm thinking he's going to dig pears- who doesnt like pears?? Plus pears start with a "P" which is in the food group we are supposed to stick to right now according to the doctor. This brings me to my next subject- poop.

Oh wow- where to begin?!? If you've never seen a constipated baby consider yourself lucky. Thanks to stupid rice cereal we've had poop drama all week. Not just a little constipation... we're talking about some MAJOR constipation. We tried everything- prune juice, baking soda baths, all breastmilk, bicycle exercises, babylax, etc. Nothing worked. Poor baby was turning purple and screaming crying every hour trying to "get it out". After talking to the pediatricians office everyday last week and being told everyday "don't worry- today is the day" they finally told us to bring him in on Friday. After an exam the doctor confirmed "it's as hard as a rock in there". DUH! So we had to move onto the next phase of the evacuation plan- an enema. Oh it broke my heart. Dylan screamed like I have never heard him scream. Ana and I cried the whole time. Thank goodness it worked- in a few hours we got a ping-pong ball. The next day we got 2 marbles and then another ping-pong ball on Sunday. Finally yesterday we got the mother load. Mom is visiting from NC while Ana is in Europe and got the pleasure of changing that diaper! So it looks like Dylan is on the road to recovery now. Thank goodness!!! For the next few weeks our adventures with solid food are going to be focused on "P" foods (prunes, plums, peaches, pears, etc) that keep things moving until his little digestive system has time to adjust.

Other updates- Dylan is almost crawling, but shows a lot more interest in walking. He always wants to be on his feet! He loves his new exersaucer and playing with all the toys- he even dances when he pushes the music buttons! So I know every mom thinks their kid is advanced... but get this- Dylan has started to stand on his own when holding onto the coffee table! That's pretty impressive right?? I think so!! He's also sitting unassisted, laughing and talking up a storm, loves reading, and is putting EVERYTHING in his mouth. He's such a BIG BOY now! Here is an update on just how big he's getting- tall & skinny just like mom and dad:

Height: 27.5 in (82%)
Weight: 17 lbs (41%)
Head Circumference: 45 cm (76%)

I'll post more pictures soon. Grandma is here so the camera is getting lots of use! :-)