Dylan at Two

When you wake up in the morning, I never know what to expect. Some mornings you wake me up by standing in your crib and shouting "mooooommmmay" "daaaaaaaddday", and then other mornings you wake up and play quietly in your crib with your stuffies and your blankies. You line up whichever stuffies are currently in your crib, and you carefully tuck them all in under your favorite cozy blankies. Sometimes I can hear you singing them songs over the monitor or giving them lots of loving. Then there are the mornings when I go into retrieve you and you have thrown out all of your dear stuffies and blankies onto the floor, and you are just standing there waiting to be retrieved. I just never know what kind of morning it's gonna be!



You are incredibly sweet when it comes to looking out for your big sister. If you get a snack, you insist that Holly gets one, too. If you get a drink, you insist that Holly gets one, too. When you and Holland are rough housing with daddy and playing "one for the money", climbing up his legs, or being swung all around to high heaven, you make sure that Holland gets equal amounts of turns. You tell daddy, "Holly's turn, daddy. Holly's turn." And when you both are in the bathtub, you insist that Holland gets a bucket of water dumped over her lathered up hair, just like you!



When Daddy or I return home from work, you insist that we take our coat ("toat") off immediately and stay awhile! You say, "toat off, mommy. toat over dare, mommy!"



One of your favorite things to say right now is "No Funny!". If daddy or I laugh at you at what you think is not an appropriate time to laugh then you point your little finger at us, and yell, "no funny, mommy. no funny". Then we just laugh louder and we get more finger shaking and more yelling!



You are really developing a love for music and you have been for a few months now. The only problem is that you acquire love for songs, one song at a time, and then you only want to hear that song - over, and over, and over, and over again. Seriously, you would listen to the same song 30 or more times if I let you, and the reason I know this is because Grandpa did let you!! Your first favorite song was the "hello song" from your music together CDs, and other favorites include: "Zoom Zoom Driving in the Car", "My Friends Tigger and Pooh Theme Song", "Song in My heart", and the most worn out of all (the grandpa song) is "Baby Beluga".



Your favorite TV shows right now are Dora the Explorer, My Friends Tigger and Pooh, and the Little Einsteins.



You love school, and every morning (m,w,f) when we are getting ready, I will say (in a sing songy way), "who wants to go to schooo-ul?" And she shouts, "I do, I do!" while doing a tippy toe balerina dance in a circular motion and chanting "too-ul, too- ul".



You also love water. You always have and I'm afraid you always will. You could stand and play at the sink for hours. You especially love it when I give you a cup or two of water to play with in your kitchen area. When I turn the water on for you to brush your teeth, you like for it to come out of the faucet with a pretty strong force. I tend to have just a little bit of water flowing out, but you immediately tell me, "Louder, mommy. Want water louder!".

On school day mornings when we are driving to school, you eagerly await driving through the tunnels (the freeway and train underpasses). You have a little routine to say, "Mommy, tunnel tumming (coming), tunnel tumming!" Then when we pass through it you shout "TUNNEL!" "TUNNEL!". And then once we are a block away, you say, "all done tunnel, mommy. want other tunnel".

You are in a phase right now in which reverse psychology works wonders on you! I think we have gotten you to eat whole meals by saying, "Don't you take another bite. No, no, no Dylan! No more bites! Noooooo! Don't do it!". And then you laugh hysterically, slyly open up your rmouth with a little sneaky grin, and hastily eat more bites and insist that we say it again. "uh-den Mommy, uh-den!". or insist that we go around the table. "Don't you eat that salad, Daddy". "No, no, no Daddy". "Holland Olivia, no more bites for you either! No, no, no......" And the cycle continues. We also use this reverse psychology for getting you to say "Ahhhh" while brushing your teeth. I do remember this phase wearing off with Holland so I'm sure our days are numbered on this one!

At night time when I am putting you down, we have a routine of rocking in the rocking chair and singing songs. I use to have a set playlist that I would sing - the same songs every time. You have outgrown those songs though. I think you started to lose interest a few months ago when you caught on that they were actually aiding in the process of you falling to sleep. There were a couple of months of you fighting the sleep process, but now you have fallen back into a nice, little routine. The basic rocking and singing is the same, I just never know what songs I will be singing. You like to tell me which songs you like to hear. Some of your favorites right now are: "the ABC song", "Five Green and Speckled Frogs", "Old Macdonald", "Goodnight Song that we adapted from the Hello Song", "You are My Sunshine", and the "Rockin' Up and Down in the Rockin' Chair Song". I usually sing a variety of songs or variations of the same song, adding characters like Pooh, Dora, Mickey, etc and then I give you a warning. I say, "Okay, Dylan, just one more song and then crib". You do an exceptionally good job with this. Usually immediately following the stipulation (one more song, three more characters, etc), you sit up, point to crib, give kisses, say, "I love you, Mommy", and then get all nestled into your bed with stuffies tucked under each arm, bottom in the air, and blankie covering your head!

Such a delightful, girl! Thank you Dylan Grace for putting a smile on our face! : ) (taken from a line of daddy's birthday song for you)

All Done with One!

happy birthday, sweet, wonderful, amazing, dylan grace!

(more birthday blogging to come, but first we must celebrate the day!)

"ten reasons holland loves CBCC"

Holland had her last day of Preschool at the Community Building Children's Center (CBCC)last Friday, and needless to say, I was a mess. She started going to CBCC when she was about 2 1/2 years old, so she has been there for 3 years. We have adored every minute that she has spent there, and we can't say enough good things about it. The school is based on a school in Reggio, Italy, and it is just like no other! The philosophy of the school is that it is one part school, one part home, and one part museum. And the set up of the school is just that - there are parts that feel like a school, parts that feel like home, and parts that feel like a museum.

Anyway,the main reason for this post is to share a little book that Holland and I put together for her teachers as a "i'm going away" gift! The name of the book is
"10 things I love about CBCC". I asked Holland to name all the reasons she loved her school, and then draw a picture to accompany each one. It was pretty priceless to hear her responses. Here are some pictures of the finished project:

"I love CBCC because my teachers let me make

butterflies with paint and stuff."

"I love CBCC because we go on nature walks"

"I love CBCC because I have good friends and they share!"

"I love CBCC because we get to roll down hills on our nature walks!"

"I love CBCC because we have a good community."

(sidenote: "what does that mean, holland?"

"I forgot what it means, you will have to ask my teachers".

"Oh yeah, it means teamwork and friends!")

"I love CBCC because we get to recycle, and that helps us save paper."

"I love CBCC because we get to dance!"

"I love CBCC because we get to make arts and crafts,

and we get to put moon sparkles on them!"

"I love CBCC because we get to play freeze tag outside!"

"I love CBCC because Theo & I play polar bear,

and we pretend the climber is an igloo!"

Public Announcement

I interrupt this blog to make the following public announcement:

Holland has officially declared she is NOT into princess dress up anymore!

She and I spent the day, yesterday, cleaning out her room and rearranging her furniture. As we were deciding what to leave upstairs and what to shuffle downstairs, she made the big announcement.

It went something like this:

"Mommy, I want to tell you something".

"Okay, what is it darling?"

"I'm not really into my princess dress-up anymore. I think we should donate some of my dresses for other little girls".

"That's a great idea Holland. I was thinking though that we might save them for Dylan because I bet that when she turns three, she is going to go nuts about dressing up- just like you did, and most of these dresses are from Grandma and that makes them special. So why don't we save them and then when Dylan isn't into them anymore, we can donate them."

"Okay, mommy". "Let's just move them to the basement and save them for my sister."

A few minutes later, she was telling me that we could move "this" and we could move "that" to the basement because she wasn't really "that into them either".

And then she stopped dead in her tracks and got a puzzled and very concerned look on her face.

"I was *just* into them at Christmas, Mommy." And she paused....

"What is happening to me?"

(this made my heart sink a bit because my baby is growing up and this was her first realization that she was changing. she had such a worried look on her face as she was trying to process that she didn't really like something much anymore after it had been such a huge part of her life)

I told her that this was normal and that she was growing up and her tastes were changing and also that she was going to have lots of different interests over the years. I also pointed out to her that all of her friends that had gone onto Kindergarten weren't really into dress-up anymore either.

"Like, Lindsey?"

"Yep, like Lindsey. And probably Sylvia, and Elise, and Annika....."

I then followed it up the discussion with this question:

"So, Holland, what are you into these days?"

In which she replied,

"I am into littlest pet shop, webkinz and beanie babies. That's about it."

Mother's Day 2009

Another year, another photo shoot

Lilac Garden at Manito Park

Click here to see more about our tradtion

There was only one lilac tree that was partially blooming this year so we didn't get all the color that we usually get. They weren't in bloom last year either on Mother's Day, and I made the mistake of trying to wait for them to bloom before we had out photo shoot. Well, what ended up happening is that we were waiting and waiting and then we forgot all about it so as a result, we don't have what would have been Dylan's first year of joining our tradition. So I decided that from here on out, we will have the photo shoot no matter what, and it will be fun to look back and see just how differnent each Spring can be. Hopefully, we won't have too many without the blooms because this means we have had a long, drawn out dreadful winter!

Happy Belated Mother's Day to you all!

Snail "Ho-tail"

We have a new pet at our house, and Holland has designed quite a snazzy place of residence for it.

It's a snail, and it's living in a "ho-tail".

have any of you ever heard Holland pronounce the word "hotel"? for some reason she has the most southern draw on that word that you can possibly imagine, and that's the way it comes out "ho - tail").

Anyway, she was quite delighted to fill the little fairy swing up with dirt so the snail could play, then she filled the fairy bathtub up with water so it could bathe, and of course a "ho-tail" just wouldn't be complete without a cozy bed to sleep in after a long, hard day of playing!

So here you have it....

THE SNAIL HO-TAIL

New Summer Doo

One of my least favorite every day activities is brushing and fixing Holland's hair. It is always on ordeal - she screams, she whimpers, she protests with every stroke of the brush. Somedays she screams, whimpers, and protests louder than other days, but no matter what, she screams, whimpers, and protests - making it an unpleasant experience for both of us. There are so many mornings that we are in such a hurry that I can barely get it brushed before I am rushing her out the door, so I decided I wanted to try a cute cut with little maintenance. A cut that has layers and body and will for the most part not require much attention. We both want her to grow her hair back out again, but it has been requiring too much daily pain --so for now, we have settled on a cute summer doo, and we'll re-visit growing it out in a few months! I must say, it is pretty stinkin' cute and the best part is that so far we have had less screaming, whimpering, and protesting. We aren't quite
scream-whimper-protest free, but there is definitely less, and that's all that matters for now! : )

A Few New Masterpieces

Check out some of Holland's latest art here.

Playing Catch Up

Hello out there!

Anyone there?

It has been entirely too, too long since I have posted on this here blog, so I am attempting to play catch up over the course of the next couple of days.

Wish me luck! And, thanks for continuing to check in from time to time....

Ashley

Double No-No!

The other morning, I was giving Dylan some directions to do something, and she looked straight at me, pointed her little finger directly towards me (in its cute, little upside down position), and said,

"No, No Mommy"

"Double No-No"

As opposed to Holland at that age who would get told something was a "no-no", and she would reply, "That's not a no-no, Mommy - it's a yes-yes!"

Teigan's Baptism

What a special day this was! My grand niece, Teigan (yes, I'm a great aunt) and her father, Dustin (my nephew-in-law) were baptized on the same day. They were baptized by my brother-in-law who is Teigan's grandpa and Dustin's father-in-law. Teigan looked absolutely gorgeous in the dress that her grandma (my sister-in-law) made. (Got all those in-laws straight?)

It was such a wonderful day to be a part of, and here are some of my favorite shots of the event.... (I especially love the one where Teigan looked up at her Grandpa as soon as she heard his voice as he was blessing her and sprinkling her with water).

Give me a "G".....

Opposite Day (or opposite year as the case may be)

Just trying to get a cute picture of Dylan today... I should have known better than to ask her to look at me! It's time to pull out all the reverse psychology tricks that I learned when Holland was this age. Works like a charm - until they figure it out, of course!

Grandpa's Irish Girls

HAPPY ST. PATTY'S DAY!
(thanks for the shirts, grandma and grandpa - they were a BIG hit!)

Puttin' Her Style On

I haven't posted an ensemble post in a while or written about my struggle with letting Holland express herself with fashion and such, but this conversation brought it all flooding back, and was just too good to ignore.....

"Holland, go get your socks and shoes on, please"

"Mom, I don't want those socks and shoes, I want to put MY style on".

"Your style?" What's your style?"

"It's silver shoes and pink socks"

"And, um...."

"shiny necklaces" she quickly adds, as she's reaching into her top drawer to pull out some accessories to add to her ensemble".

"And blow dried hair" she says, as she does a little hair flip while catching her reflection in her mirror.

"Oh yeah, and polka dotted sunglasses" (the ones that caught her eye as she was closing the jewerly drawer!)

"And barretted hair"

"And...."

"Okay, Holland I get the idea!" "Go get your silver shoes!"

And now you can get the idea.....

New Tutu

(thanks, mary!)

Daily Dancing 3

HA!

(he should know that my camera is always within reach!)

Ten.

1. Dylan is 21 months old today. If I do the math correctly, that means she is just 3 months away from being 2. How does that happen? I mean, seriously at this rate she will be starting kindergarten next week.

2. Dylan absolutely adores her big sister. She calls her "Holly", and she is always looking out for her. If she gets a snack, she gets one for "Holly". If she gets paper to "doll" on(Draw), she gets some for "Holly". If she gets "apuhdoo" (apple juice), she gets some for "Holly". If she gets her hair washed in the bathtub, she wants "Holly" to get her hair wet, too, and if Daddy is swinging her around or throwing her on the bed, she stops each turn and makes sure "Holly" gets a turn, too!

3. The other day, Grandma came to visit and she said something along the lines of, "I can tell you have been teaching Dylan more words, Holland. Every time I come to see you, she has more words". I chimed in and said, "Yeah, she's been teaching her words like P - O - O - P ", and Dylan got a big grin on her face and shouted "POOP!". She's a genius, I tell ya! Already spelling!

4. Dylan loves Pooh and Mickuh (Mickey).

5. Dylan enjoys drawing, just like Holland. If there is a paper and pen out, she is demanding to draw. Her favorite thing to draw is a snake. She scribbles a big, swirly line on the paper, and yells, "Mommy! nake! nake!"

6. She is starting to get very opinionated in the car about what music she wants to listen to. She will immediately protest each song with a loud, screeching squeal and full blown tantrum if it isn't too her liking. It just so happens that this is every single song, except one. She only wants to hear the "hello" song that they sing at her Music Together class in the toddler room. That's it. One song. Over and over and over again. I'm surprised Jonathan hasn't burned a CD with 15 tracks of "Hello" - that's something he would totally do! (and I wonder why I continue to be chopped liver when he's around!)

7. Dylan is just tall enough that her little head is at the same level of all of our tables. You know what that means - lots of head bonks.

8. Dylan's favorite things to do are: go to school, read books, dance with Holland, play with babies, stand at the sink and play with water, swing in daddy's arms, cuddle with grandpa, read books with grandma, talk on the phone with mimi, tease mommy when she's trying to steal kisses, refuse to say "carmen", eat snacks, play with bodie, put piggy tails in her hair and then pull them right back out, climb the stairs, splash in the bathtub, eat scooby doo push ups, try on every one's shoes, sneak into holland's room when she's not here, make art in the art studio, play with "maya" (jeremiah), and "rocky" (roxie), look out the window for ava and teagan, help mommy clean with "wipeys", turn the lights on and off, make us smile, keep us laughing, and steal our hearts. She especially lasts that last one!

9. Zucchini is one of her favorite foods.

10. Some of her nicknames are dilly mcgilly, dylan mcgillan, punkin poo, sweet pea, baby girl.....

Faces of Hope Exhibit

I have been letting the 'ole blog slip by the wayside these last few weeks, but I think it has been for good reasons. I have had a ton going on, but one of the main things I've been doing is preparing for my first ever photography exhibit.(gasp)

I had all of the photographs from the "faces of hope" calendar made into 20 x 24 gallery wrapped canvases so that we could intersperse them with facts about autism and make them into an exhibit. The Isaac Foundation is sponsoring the exhibit to help get their name out there more, but mainly to help increase public awareness about autism and it's ever increasing prevalence. Our hope is to have them on display through out all of Spokane for the remainder of the year. So far, we have them booked through July and are just waiting to hear back from a few other places for confirmation.

Today was the day that I put them on display. They are making their debut exhibition at the Community Building downtown, which is a building that hosts all non-profit organizations, and it is also the building that houses Holland's preschool. It is a gorgeous old building that has been restored and it gets quite a bit of foot traffic. While I was setting up today, at least 5 people stopped and commented on the photos, and then inquired about autism. I was kinda shocked at some of the questions that were asked, but it was neat to be able to answer them and know that this is going to reach a lot of people who seriously have no idea about the facts about autism and just how many people are affected by it.

I left there feeling good. It makes me very happy to know that my photographs can be such an integral part of increasing awareness to our community.

We are going to host an open house in April for Autism Awareness month so I will keep you local blog readers posted of all the details so maybe you can join me in this journey of spreading the word!

Until then, here are a few "sneak peeks":

Belated Valentine Message

Ten for Daddy.

Today is Jonathan's birthday so I asked Holland to come up with things she wanted to say about her daddy, and this is what she came up with....

1. I like it when he lets me have chocolate chip cookies.
2. Daddy is letting me go to the "hotel dogs" with him today for his birthday.
3. He took me to Dutch Brothers yesterday after school.
4. I love to play hide and seek with Daddy.
5. I like it when me and Daddy go out into the flower patch in the summer time and sometimes pick flowers. (I mean the one at Manito Park).
6. I like it when me and Daddy watch TV together.
7. I think he is the greatest Dad in the whole wide world.
8. I want to tell people that my Daddy is greater than a flying eagle.
9. I want to remember that Daddy bought me a pet shop toy one day.
10. My Daddy is really great and he never kills anyone!

And she followed it up with this verbal message:

" XOXOXOXOX "
"I *heart* u".

Project Runway

Holland found this hat earlier this year, and I couldn't pass up buying it. I have a love/hate relationship with it though. Part of me thinks it is ridiculously cute, in a New York/Los Angeles-runway-sort-of-way, and the other part of me thinks its absurdly obnoxious, in a London/Paris-runway-sort-of-way! What do you think? You can be honest! (I do know one thing for sure - her ears and her head have never been so warm!)

Feb 4, 1960

Ted and Ursula went across the state line

for a wedding and a Valentine!

Happy 49th Anniversary!

Ten.

1. Dylan is 20 months old today, and fast approaching the terrible twos! She is definitely trying it on for size, and unfortunately it fits! Basically, this means she is at the instant gratification - i-want-it-and-i-want-it right-now-and-one-second-is-too-long-to-wait phase! This is especially fun at mass on Sundays.

2. We've had temperatures in the high 30's over the last week with lots of doses of sun, and it is amazing how much if feels like Spring! I keep going out without my jacket or coat on because the sun is so deceiving, and then I am quickly jolted back into reality. The high 30's are just a few degrees above freezing. Duh.

3. Jonathan and I have been going to ALL of the home Gonzaga games, and I have been loving it. I totally missed out on that sort of experience with college, and I just love to watch the students. My favorite student fan wears a bright red spiked wig with his face painted royal blue. This would have been soooo up my alley had I been a college student at a place like Gonzaga. We are going to a charity auction next week, and know there are tickets being auctioned off for seats that are two rows behind the Gonzaga team. I am DYING to get those tickets!! (and I secretly wish I had the courage to be all crazy and decked out, but the reality is only the students do that). Bummer.

4. Jonathan and I are starting to look at kindergarten programs for Holland. I'm not sure how we got here so quickly, but we're here. I got teary-eyed when we walked up the sidewalk to our first prospective school, and I had a lump in my throat the whole time we were taking the tour. Silly, I know, but that's just the sap in me. Can you imagine what sort of mess I will be in on her actual first day?

5. I am really eager for Spring to come so I can get outside and do some fun photo shoots. I am not really enjoying the inside the house/black backdrop shots. I want brick walls, peely paint, wheat fields, flower gardens, princess dresses, and radio flyer wagons! Now, I just need some clients who want the same things!

6. Jonathan's birthday is next week on Tuesday. Yikes. I better get planning! (I do have a babysitter arranged, but that's about it).

7. I subscribed to the kids Highlights magazine for Holland, and we got our first issue in the mail this week. I have such fond memories of running across these magazines when I was a kid - at the library, and my doctors dentist's offices. I thought they were the coolest thing! We sat down the other night and went through about 1/2 of our first issue, and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. She was really good at the hidden pictures pages, and I showed her the art/poetry publication pages, and she is very excited to send in some of her art work to try and get it published! Speaking of her art work, have you checked out Stacks, lately?

8. We bought tickets to go to Chattanooga in April. We will be gone for 8-9 days the week of Easter. I am looking forward to visiting as a couple of my close girlfriends from high school who are there haven't even met Dylan, yet. That's so crazy to me! We will also go to Franklin, NC and Rabun Gap, Georgia deep in Appalachia to visit some relatives. We are looking forward to the porch time. Front porch, back porch, screened in porch, side porch - we don't care - we'll take them all! There is nothing quite like porch time, especially in Appalachia!


9. I sat down with my sister last weekend and had a 12 hour tutorial on quickbooks and miscellaneous tax stuff with her. I learned so much and realized just how much I don't know about running a business! After we crunched all the numbers, it didn't look too bad - which was very encouraging. I was only "in" business for 3 months and I was totally surprised at how many clients I had in that time. I am looking forward to drumming up more and more business, and making a bigger go of it! So, for all of you Spokanites..... send me your friends, your co-workers, your neighbors, yourselves.....

10. I started going to the YMCA last week for the first time in months and months and months. I was kinda embarrassed to check in because it has been *that* long. I only have about 10 weeks before the trip to Chattanooga and I am really wanting to loose some weight before then. I am hoping that I can start my Bloomsday training with my Moms in Motion team in a few weeks, but I still haven't managed to get my heal thing under control. It is just so infuriating. ARRRRGGGGG. If anyone knows of any end-all-cure-all remedies, please pass them on!

Happy Tuesday!

25 Random Things About Me

I was tagged twice on facebook to write 25 random things about myself, so I thought I might as well share it here, too!

1. I was born in Key West, Florida (the Conch Republic), and that means I'm a "conch".

2. I wanted to be a garbage man when I was little! I use to sit and watch the garbage man out the window! I also wanted to be a piano (so I've been told).

3. I jumped out of an airplane at 15,000 feet!

4. I was accepted into the Peace Corps in 1998, but got engaged a few months later.

5. I love to cook and entertain, and I throw a kick-ass Mardi Gras Party.

6. I don't know how to use saran wrap. (It never sticks for me).

7. I recently started my own photography business.

8. I like to tuck my socks between my toes.

9. My spices are alphabetized.

10. My husband and I fell out of a canoe at our wedding reception in Lake Union in Seattle, WA.

11. Mustard makes me dry heave.

12. I got married in Italy by Father Don Giovanni!

13. I miss Cracker Barrel.

4. I had a dog named "super dog" when I was little.

15. My husband re-wrote the words to "Brown-Eyed Girl" for my 30th birthday.

16. On a volunteer trip to Mexico, I drank tequila with some nuns who ran an orphanage.

17. I realized not too long ago that I don't have enough "beach" in my life, and I hope to change that.

18. I have driven across the country, coast to coast, three times. Once with my girlfriend, Michele, and we flipped a coin each time we came to an intersection to decide which way to go. Once with my girlfriend, Heather, and we started out in Chattanooga and decided to take a little detour to Boston, before heading to Seattle! And lastly, I drove 12,000 miles with my husband on a 4 month road trip in a Subaru Loyale, shorty after we were married. I would like to do it again sometime - either on the back of a harley or in an RV! (probably an RV, now that I'm a mom!)

19. I collect two dollar bills.

20. I can't dance.

21. I ran my first 1/2 marathon last year, and I am going to be training for another one this spring. (assuming my heal injury of 6 months goes away).

22. My favorite city is New Orleans.

23. Jonathan serenaded me on the beach in Italy while were on our honeymoon with a guitar borrowed from a beach bum!

24. I am extremely competitive and have a hard time with "family fun game night". : )

25. I have a tatoo.