Social Networking

I have mixed feelings about social networking. Basically, I LOVE reading about and following other people, but I'm awful with keeping up with my own. Pat's even worse... for some crazy reason, he hates Facebook. Which is completely opposite to me, because I love everything about Facebook. He doesn't seem to understand the whole social networking revolution, which is exactly what this is. He's going to wake up one day and have no idea. I don't think he's ever read this blog even though it's focused on Dylan. I think my problem is that I don't think I really have anything interesting to say, haha. We hang out at home, go to a ton of sporting events, and try new restaurants... that's how I'd summarize our little life.

Kimmy seems to have a new found love for twitter, and I'm going to follow her and Mary, and the bandwagon and attempt to do the same. Maybe this will force me to do more interesting things (and you'll know because I'll "check in" on facebook... and actually write about them!

That's all for now, hopefully there will be more to come, for real this time.

Caps games and pumpkin patches

After a ton of debate and stressful worrying that I was going to forever destroy Dylan's hearing, we decided to take him to a Caps game with us. He loved all of the National's games, so we figured it was worth a shot. Armed with some giant noise eliminating headphones that we assumed there was no chance Dylan would keep on his head, we headed to the game. He ended up LOVING it! He wore the headphones for most of the game, we made sure they were on when it looked like there was any chance of the Caps scoring (I didn't want the horn to scare him).





Dylan's second hockey game was even more fun! Mary invited us to the game and we sat in box seats that she got for the evening. After a delicious dinner at Elephant and Castle, we headed to our amazing seats! Dylan definitely had more fun at this game being able to see everything MUCH closer up.

Yay Caps! Trying to clap because everyone else is

Is it wrong to put tattoos on a baby? haha

So much red!!


Dylan's already got his game face down

Daddy's distracting him, but a great view of the tattoos
... If only he knew what was on his face!

Wide eyed and loving life.



With Halloween coming up, we had to take advantage of the great photo op that pumpkin's create! We happened to have a pumpkin costume lying around, and since he is going to be a dinosaur for Halloween, we had to put it to good use!! We took Dylan to the Burke Center Nursery to play with pumpkins and buy some yummy treats. Dylan loved the pumpkins, and all the dirt and grass on the ground. He plays in the pumpkins touching and banging on them all, trying to get the attention of everyone around him. I think he already knows he's cute and wants to make sure everyone else acknowledges! haha, here's a few of the tons of pics we took!


Angry face... he was not pleased that he was picked up!
and he's not letting go of the pumpkin he chose!!

Moving.

Over this past weekend we packed up a baby, a puppy, and an overfilled two bedroom apartment in Arlington and moved it to a townhouse in Springfield. Moving has to be one of the most annoying and frustrating, not to mention exhausting, activities ever. Luckily we had help from family and some friends, there's no way we could have done it on our own. The townhouse is really cute, though it definitely has its flaws. The carpets are kinda old and the basement is tiled. The owner is STILL doing work on it even though he made us start the lease on 10/1, which is annoying, but the rent is way less expensive then a lot of comparable places, so I'm trying not to complain too much. I've also realized that the only thing worse than packing and moving is unpacking and reorganizing all of our stuff. I feel like this is a never ending project. I really want everything put away so I can start decorating. Anyway, we don't have internet until the 12th (stupid fios) so that's probably when I will post some pictures!!

Dylan's first Road Trip

So for some crazy reason we decided that it was a good idea to drive to New Hampshire with an infant. We got even crazier and decided to leave at 10 pm on a Wednesday night! Pat drove until about the Maryland House (rest stop) and then I had to take over. Luckily Lauren was a trooper and stayed up with me because I drove until we got there, at 7:30 am. I guess I'm getting used to those long nights up with Dylan! Anyway, we had a blast visiting Jenny (Pat's other sister), Brian, and meeting their little one Jordan!! We took day trips to the beach, Boston, and Brian's mom's lake house. Here are some pictures of the trip.

In other news, Dylan had his first haircut!! We took him to cartoon cuts, they did an amazing job!!

The Before Picture

Seriously, Time Flies

I can't get over how fast time has been going by. I'm starting to make my photobook for Dylan's first 6 months, and I can't believe how much he's grown... and how much hair he has!! I thought he had a a head full when he was born, but now Pat's trying to get me to give him a hair cut (which obviously I will not do)!

Check it out for yourself!


A few hours old: 3/3/2010



4/2/2010



4/18/2010



5/15/2010


6/18/2010


7/18/2010

It blows me away when I look back at all of the pictures and can just see how much he grows and changes everyday. You can just see how much stronger and aware of his surroundings he's becoming!!

Where's Charlie?

Too funny not to post... Pat in the gorilla suit holding the puppy!

Four months... wow

So I knew coming into this that I would be awful at updating this, and I promise I'll post more in the next few days.

Dylan is almost four and a half months old and I can't believe it! Time is going by sooo quickly. Everyday something new is happening and he's discovering something new. These last few days his new obsession is Charlie. He hysterically laughs when he watches Charlie play, and Charlie sits very quietly and patiently while Dylan pulls his hair/ears with all his might. I think Charlie is starting to understand that Dylan is his "human".

On another note, Dylan is CRAZY strong. At four months he can already hold himself up and balance for a little while without any help! At Pat's last softball game I was able to catch it on camera.

Cherry Blossoms and Easter

This year we were so lucky that Easter weekend was BEAUTIFUL. On Saturday my parents came down to spend some time with Dylan and we dragged them out to the overly crowded Cherry Blossom Festival. We packed everyone into Pat's car (including Charlie) and headed downtown. Of course we choose the busiest day, it looked like Obama's inauguration all over again. It was hard to drive because people were pouring into all of the intersections! We finally found a garage to park in and walked over to the blossoms. They were so pretty, it was an incredible site to see a sea of pink in full bloom. Charlie loved running through the grass and saying hello to all of the other dogs and people.

We spent Easter Sunday at Pat's parents' house eating a delicious Easter dinner and just relaxing. Dylan happily put up with the cutest outfit!

My first baseball Game(s)

Baby Dylan has already been to three Major League Baseball Games. He's been to two National's games and an Orioles v. Red Sox game. He has been absolutely amazing at all three. We were so worried that the noise and excitement would be too overwhelming for him, but we couldn't have been more wrong. At the first National's game we took him to he excitedly tried to look at everything all at once. He loved looking at all of the red shirts. We had amazing seats thanks to Mary's amazing job! At the second National's game we ran into one of the "Presidents" and were able to snap a quick family picture! A few weeks later we watched the Orioles beat the Red Sox with a ton of home runs on both sides! Camden Yards was a lot louder, but my attempts to cover Dylan's ears were pointless. He got mad and shook his head preventing me from covering them, he wanted to take the whole experience in.

Here are some highlights :)

Dylan Joseph Soper

On March 3rd at 7:46 am Dylan was born!! He was 6 pounds 5 ounces and 20 inches long. We spent 4 days in the hospital then all went home on March 6th happy and healthy. The first night home was basically awful. Dylan refused to sleep, hated the pack and play, and screamed all night. We were really worried about what we were in for. The next day we figured out that we needed to keep our room a lot warmer and let him sleep on a blanket and things became really easy. He now sleeps for 4 or 5 hours at a time; yesterday at his two week appointment he was 6 pounds 13 ounces and healthy as can be.

Here's some highlights of our hospital stay...

Finally!

It took a couple months, but here goes... if you didn't know already I'm due March 1st (March birthdays are obviously the best!) and it's a boy!! I'm 32 weeks and very ready for this to be over. I'll post some long awaited pics of the baby bump soooon, but for now, enjoy some pictures of Charlie, the best puppy ever :)