The Safari Park

Today we went to the San Diego Safari Park, which used to be called "The Wild Animal Park". We had a great day! The weather was perfect and Dylan loved watching all the animals, especially the elephants (of course). We even got to hand-feed a few birds this time!

Dylan's 2nd Birthday Party

We had Dylan's second birthday party at the house this weekend and what a blast! The weather could not have been better (72 and sunny) and everyone had a great time. The kids loved jumping in the bouncy house and playing on the swingset, while the adults enjoyed catching up and socializing with some adult beverages. The food was great and the company was even better! I love that Dylan has such good playmates now (we had about a dozen kids) and all of their parents are awesome.

Dustin was the grillmaster and served up some delicious hotdogs, hamburgers and chicken kabobs! Fred and Diane were the sous chefs and helped us get all of the food together and blow up balloons before the party. I seriously don't know what we would do without them! Chris and Kimberley also came early and stayed late. We are so lucky to have such great friends- They helped us get everything together and then clean everything up. Now that is a true friends!

Dan and Amanda came back over after nap time so Brody, Addy & Dylan could bounce some more! We had the bouncy house all day and I think Dylan was it most of the day! Even the Mommies and Daddies... and Grandma Diane were bouncing! So much fun!

Dylan got some great gifts including a giant elephant from Grandpa Fred & Diane, a bubble lawn mower, lots of airplanes, lots of trains, a really cool wheely car, some books, puzzles, art easel, legos, trucks, clothes, games... This kid is so spoiled!! :)

Dylan 2 Year Check-Up

Dylan had his 2-year check-up today with Dr. Block. Everything is looking good- he's gaining weight, hitting all the milestones, and being a classic 2-year old! He'll even tell you how old he is now... 2! He only holds up one finger when he says it, but hey who's counting!

The only bad news- ear infection! That explains the runny nose. Dr. Block put him on a prescription and we have a follow-up in 10 days so hopefully it clears up quickly. He's been acting fine all week so I'm hoping this won't interfer with his b-day party. He's got a lot of playmates coming over this Saturday for a jungle-themed party! It's going to be wild!!

Here's how he's measuring up:

Height: 35 1/2in (81%)
Weight: 27lb (37%)
Body Mass: 49 1/2 (75%)

Trip to NC

I had to head to NC for some work meetings at Lenovo, so of course I had to bring along my little assistant! We were home for a week and had a great trip. Dylan did great on the cross-country trip. He was a total wiggle worm on the plane, but we never had any melt-downs. Thank goodness!! He also LOVED being at the airport and watching all of the planes. Even when we were mid-air he'd look out the window and see the wing of the plane and get all excited "Air Pane! Air Pane!". He's so darn cute!!

Mom, of course, did her normal parade route in Burlington. She had to show off her #1 grandson to everyone, I mean EVERYONE, in Burlington! Dylan was such a charmer- he totally "hammed it up" for everyone. Dylan loved playing ball with Bentley and chasing Lexi all over the house. Grammy also took Dylan to the park several days and he even got to go to swim practice with her! He even got a new "big boy" hair cut (I think Grammy was tired of his hair being in his eyes)!

Doug, Teri and Erin drove down for the weekend from DC so they could spend some time with Dylan. We had a really nice visit- played with bubbles, sandbox, went swinging, fed the chickens, bounced in the bouncy house, playing with the pigs/bunnies (ginny pigs- Dylan kept changing what he would call them), played with trains... I feel like I'm missing some stuff. Basically, any toy or animal you can thing of, Dad and Barb had out for Dylan. He had a blast! They even threw him and Caitlin and joint birthday party with a fabulous ice-cream cake from the local dairy! Dylan got a new helicopter (hel-cop-ta), balloons, and lots of zoo animals including Dylan's all-time favorite... elephants!

Swing Set

For Dylan's birthday we got him a new swing set! We thought it would be fun to put together ourselves (by "ourselves" I mean Dustin). Little did we know it would come in about 1 million pieces and take a full week to put together! I think I owe Dustin a case of beer for the rest of his life for this one! But it's up now and Dylan LOVES it :) He took his first swing right before bedtime on the day Daddy installed the swings (see pic below). And for the record, Dustin did say that the look on Dylan's face when he went swinging for the first time made it 100% worth it!

Finger Sucking No More!

Ever since Dylan figured our how to get his fingers in his mouth he's been sucking his middle and ring finger with one hand and twirling his ear with the other hand! In fact, we have very few pictures where you can actually see his entire face (like the one below)! I talked to the doctor about it several times and she always said not to worry about it- he'll grow out of it or we will work on getting him to stop when he's older (around 3-4). He was so attached to those fingers I thought he'd never "grow out of it". And then he did! One day he just stopped out of the blue! No more finger sucking! Yea!! Big boy!

Yard

For Valentines Day Dustin surprised me with this beautiful magnolia tree! I've always wanted a magnolia- they remind me of home!

The magnolia tree needed some "friends" so we also bought a new olive tree and several fruit trees and plants for the backyard.

The backyard is starting to look like a "Bradley Yard"- lush and fabulous! I feel so lucky that Dylan has such a great yard to play in! It's pretty nice for Mommy and Daddy too :)