Our Sunday

Today was Dylan's second day in nursery at church. I have kind of cheated because they're typically not supposed to go in until they are 18 months. But last Sunday, I decided that I was fed up with chasing Dylan in the halls during second and third hour, so I kindly asked the nursery leader if there was anyway that she would be willing to let him come in a little early as he doesn't reach the age limit until the beginning of November. Lucky for me, she doesn't have a problem with it at all. I've been helping out in there the past two Sunday's
and I have actually enjoyed it. What's more, I don't dread fighting with him another Sunday because he's miserable because he can't do the things that he would like to do. He does so good in there! There's no attachment issues with me in there at all, he goes off to do his own thing, and I end up playing with the little girls. They are all so cute! He loves snack time and eats all of his snack and tries to eat everyone else's! Music time is also a favorite as well as when they do bubbles at the end. Hooray for nursery!



Today, we also went to the open house for the new Woodstock building. It was nice, it was the same floor plan as my parent's building. We aren't meeting at that building yet, but there is quite a bit of gossip going around that there will be quite a few boundary changes coming up. I can't wait! I miss my old ward and the new building is only a mile and a half away from where we live!

Some new tricks

Dylan is the stair expert now. He has a weird obsession with stairs, and he can go up and down all by himself now. Although, I don't allow him to do it at his leisure, only when I am with him. The funny thing is, he doesn't go slide down on his belly, he steps down like a big kid.




Dylan has also recently learned how to open doors. It was a sad day when I had to put up the doorknob covers. They are such a pain. They aren't on all of the doors so Dylan can still enjoy practicing his new skill.




Most recently, Dylan has figured out how to jump! He thinks it is so funny to watch others jump, and he loves to do it on his own. These pictures did not turn out too great because it was hard to catch him in the action.



One of my favorite games to play with Dylan is peek-a-boo. It never gets old! When Dylan shows himself after he hides he says ahhh! It is pretty cute, and he thinks that he is being so funny. Here are some pictures of the ahhh!



Just for laughs, here is Dylan's blue steel face. How do you think he did?

So BEARY cute, and SPOOKTACKULAR!

It's such a cheesy title, I know, but I couldn't resist! Anyhow I have been feeling quite crafty lately. Below are pictures of my niece, Katelyn's Christmas present. (Don't let Katelyn see this, Kimberly.) While at Joann's I saw the cutest fleece Care Bears fabric. I matched it up with a hot pink fleece, and put together this blanket in no time at all. It required no sewing and turned out so cute! I think I am going to have to go back to Joann's and get some more fabric to make miniature blankets for her Care Bears (she loves to make little beds for them and tuck them in).



My next project that I have been working on is Dylan's Halloween costume. He's going to be a lion, and I've already put together his suit. All I have to do now is make his little shoes, and his hood to go with it. It looks so cute on him with the little tail, but, so I don't give everything away, you'll have to wait until Halloween to see the pictures of him in it!


I have really been enjoying making things lately. The since of accomplishment is the best! I am always on the lookout for something new I can do.

My Celebrity Look-alikes

MyHeritage: Celebrity Collage - Vintage photos - Old photographs

Growing up so fast!

I can't believe I actually did it. I cut Dylan's hair, and I am not talking about a little trim, I am talking CUT! Immediately I was so mad at myself, Isaac was out of town and when he got home, he was like, what did you do? Why didn't you talk to me before you did it! He wasn't really mad, just shocked. Needless to say I think we both miss his curls. Although my Mom disagrees, I don't think that you can really cut a babies curl off for good. Either you have curly hair or you don't. If it is truly curly it will grow back curly. I can tell that his is still curly (he has kinks in it), it is just too short for the curls to be seen. Anyhow, although the 'fro gives me grief sometimes, we are definitely growing it back!


The front...


...and the back (no more baby mullet)

Dylan is being so cute with his rocking horse. Whenever we mention it, he'll go over and pet it. He does get bored after riding it for a couple of minutes, so I guess it's a good thing that I didn't spend a lot of money on one. He is so tall that he has no issues getting on and off by himself, but I think that if he were the size of a normal 15 month old he may have issues.



Cowboy in training!

Dylan is advancing verbally on his own time. Slowly yet surely he is starting to say new and different words. One of my favorites is diaper, or di-pur. He is also figuring out that he has an opinion and is not afraid to use it! If you offer him something and he doesn't want it, he responds with an unh, and with quite a bit of enthusiasm he swats the item away. He also does this in public with a little temper tantrum when I take him out of the shopping cart with the car attached for him to ride in or any other occasion that seems worthy of such a fit. Church can be especially hard because 1-4 is exactly when he normally naps, and he won't sleep before then. So, we get to deal with "Crank-enstein" out in the halls for most of the day. Yesterday he did not take a nap until 4:30 when we got home and he could sleep in his crib! Whoever decided the 18 month rule for putting kids in nursery either must not have had kids or none that were quite on the level of Dylan, or maybe they did and they didn't want to inflict the nursery workers with such a child! Where is the justice?

Anyhow, it is fun to watch him grow. His favorite books right now are Goodnight Moon, and Brown Bear, Brown Bear. We read them usually at least once a day. One thing that Dylan will do is open up a book and in his own little language pretend that he is reading it, then he'll turn another page and do the same thing. I've found that one of the only ways he will let me hold him is if we're reading a book together. A lot of times he'll bring one over to me wanting me to read it to him.

Dylan's weird mouth issue has been resolved by the tooth coming through, just as I had suspected. Thank goodness for the internet on clearing up that issue! I knew at one o'clock in the morning when he was crying and wouldn't stop that the tooth must be coming through! Lucky for us a dose of Motrin was all it took to get him comfortable again and to go back to sleep.

Dylan is quite the artist. He loves to color! I expect great things from him because he has it in his genes on both sides! Check out what he is up to.

George Garcia

George Garcia, renowned Redken color expert. With his wife in the top picture (who also happens to be a hairstylist), and below doing his stuff.

Recently I had the opportunity to attend a color class for work. A Redken platform artist came down from California to teach us the "newest" techniques. I pretty much didn't want to go, especially because it was on Sunday. What made it worse, the following week I had to give a talk on keeping the Sabbath day holy, ouch, but it was mandatory so I pretty much didn't have a choice. Although I didn't wish to be there the only thing that made it better was to see some old friends that work out in Snellville. It was kind of like a reunion.

Anyhow, the thing that he was teaching us was asymmetrical color. Basically, what that means is blocks of color that are put on the head in different shapes that are somewhat off balance. He also taught us a new highlighting technique where you basically alternate from highlighting midway through the hair to the ends and then soft from the roots to midway through the hair. It gives the hair a softer highlight, and I think that it isn't supposed to be as noticeable when the highlights grow out.

Now for what I think about this. In my opinion most people probably would not be interested in doing this. Although it is a cool technique I don't see a 40 something year old lady wanting something that was not symmetrical. I think that stylists, and people who are a bit more contemporary would appreciate something like this, but for the general population, most people would not be interested. Let me know what you think; do you think my observation is wrong? Would you ever do something like this on your hair?

Here is the front view of my completed mannequin head (whom Dylan is extremely scared of).

Here is the side profile. I should have probably taken pictures each direction, but my card was full on the camera I was using :). But to give you a better idea of what I'm talking about, the black you see around her face is hardly there at all beyond her fringe on the other side, and a thin piece of the black follows underneath to her hairline. In the back middle, there are two different shades of red, one on each side of the head, with one continuing around her face on the other side by her face. On top are the highlights I was mentioning. Whew, I hope that is not too confusing!