Mr. Independence

It’s been awhile since I posted any progress on the kids so I did a post on Megan’s blog today and I’m doing one here.

I guess the biggest thing for Dylan recently is his move to the potty. We’ve been potty training him for quite awhile now and I would say that generally, it’s going pretty good. He does fight it from time to time and says he doesn’t want to go but then after a bit, we manage to get him to go to the bathroom and he’s “relieved” to be on the potty.

But one thing he is not is a boy who wants help. He wants to do EVERYTHING himself. From putting his clothes on, to pouring the pee out of his potty into the toilet, to getting into his carseat. Anything and everything that needs to be done, he wants to do it himself.

His language skills continue to improve as most of the time he can be understood very well. I’d say the only thing that probably needs a little work is his attachment to his “dooden” (soother). Me and Tamara have talked about weening him off of it but we know it is going to be a struggle, not only for him, but for us as well. There are times where we are just tired and don’t want to hear the whining (usually in the car after a long day) and it’s just easier to give him his soother and him be happy and quiet. If we take that away from him, it makes it harder for us as well. But alas, it will come eventually. We’re thinking that turning 3 is going to be a good time to do it. That’s only a few months away (wow).

Posted on June 14th, 2010 by Matt
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My son told me he loves me for the first time

Yesterday afternoon I worked from home for the last hour and a half. In doing so, I had my office door closed and did not emerge into the kitchen until 5pm. I closed the door behind me and Dylan was talking to Tamara. He turned his head, saw me, and then the most incredible, tear-inducing thing happened.

A huge smile came across his face, he came running towards me saying “DADDY”. Gave me a huge hug and then said “I wuv you”. In a flash of a second, my life changed forever.

I tell Dylan that I love him every single day and he’s told Tamara that he loves her several times. I tried not to take it personally but he hadn’t said it to me before and so when he’d say it to Tamara, I’d feel a little bummed but realize that he’ll say it sometime.

He hugged my leg and told me he loved me and Tamara looked at me and smiled. Tears rolled my face and I now know what it truly means to be a dad.

Dylan, I love you too little buddy.

Posted on May 20th, 2010 by Matt
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Dylan reading

Dylan loves to read. Here’s a video I shot of him reading one of his favorite books. He’s been able to read this book like you see in the video for about 6 months. VERY cool.

Posted on April 28th, 2010 by Matt
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Super D’s latest

Before I go any further, I’d like to point out that this is post #100. I came on today to post an update about Dylan and saw that there are 99 other posts. Cool that today is #100. Now, on to the updates…

Let’s see. For quite a long time, me and Tamara have occasionally called Dylan “Goober” or “Goober Nugget”. Well that era has officially ended. Within the last few months, every time one of us call his him that he stops and says “don’t call me goober nugget”. I’d been testing the waters the last few days and every time I called him that, he told me not to. So, it would seem that at least one nickname has now been retired.

He’s started the “what’s that” and “why” stage. We’re getting a lot of questions about why we do something or why we ask him to do something. What is that? Why? Lots of those. The curiosity in him is really coming out now.

Dinner time has become a battle. We have an awful time trying to get him to eat much of anything at suppertime but it’s not like he’s unhealthy. He just doesn’t eat. It irritates me because he should be eating something but I keep having to remind myself that if he is hungry, he’ll eat. I don’t want to stress him out.

He’s gotten better at counting. He can count to 12 or 13 now and he pretty much can nail down the ABC song without any help. Aside from that, he’s “reading” his own books. We’ve shown this to the moms and they get blown away pretty quickly. Basically we can sit him down with a book, open the pages, and he’ll start reading each page. He’s not “reading” like we do, but he knows what each page says because he’s had it read to him enough times. Cooly enough though, it doesn’t take him long to learn a book now. VERY impressed with him.

He’s also in a puzzle mood lately. He has this cookie monster puzzle that he wants to put together, tear apart, and put back  together. Every day for the last week he wants to play with his puzzle. For a kid who’s two and a half, he does a hell of a job putting the puzzle together himself.

Finally, he’s doing a bit better with his sister. He’s not hitting as much and he’s more apt to play with his own stuff and leave her alone but we still have to watch him as he sometimes takes stuff from her or taps her on the head. I know it’s just the inability for him to express himself so we don’t get too upset unless he really crosses the line. He does however seem to have a lot of fun playing with her when they are both in a good mood. We’ve been told by his daytime babysitter that he is VERY protective of her when they are there. I’m glad the two are going to be close.

Posted on March 26th, 2010 by Matt
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A bundle of emotion

I came home from Indianapolis last Friday but I came home right to the house. Dylan was over at his grandmothers so I had the afternoon at the house by myself.

Tamara picked me up when she was done work and we made our way over to mom’s to pick up Dylan. Now he knew I had been gone all week so I was kind of wondering how he would react when he saw me. Well, the most sad and beautiful thing at the same time happened.

We got to the house and Tamara went in first and Dylan saw her and then she said something like “Who’s that” and I came in behind her. A great big smile and a “DADDY” came out of him and then he just started balling. Tamara had said she thought it might happen. So much emotion in seeing dad after a week that he didn’t know how to handle it.

Both sad, and beautiful all together.

Posted on February 25th, 2010 by Matt
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Sledding at Centennial

This past Saturday me and Tamara took Dylan & Megan up to Centennial Park to go sliding down the hills there. Tamara had bought one of those surf board style sleds and we figured the hills at the park were the best place to try it out.

Well, we got there and tried the first hill and realistically, the sled sucked on that hill. Dylan was less than enthused about it but once we hit the side hill (near the skating rink downward), he really seemed to enjoy it. Funny thing was, he was more interested in playing in the snow, and going on the “slide” in the playground, then sliding down the hill.

No worries though. We still got out and enjoyed the afternoon in the snow and he had a blast. More days to come I am sure.

Posted on January 25th, 2010 by Matt
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He got a new bed

Today marked a huge change for Dylan. Last night he went over to Tamara’s mom’s for the night and when he got home today, he found a surprise in his bedroom.

See, since he was born, he’s been in his crib. Quite a few months ago, we took the front rail off his crib and put a small rail on it but he was able to climb in and out of it on his own. Ultimately though, it was still a crib.

Me and Tamara saw the Spiderman bed set at Walmart and we knew Dylan would love it. Tamara got this twin bed for $20 off Kijiji and when Dylan went to his nanny’s for the night, we put it together and rearranged his room.

When he got home today, he was a bit upset but that was just because he was tired but once he settled down, I told him we had a big surprise for him and if he came with daddy, he could see it.

He walked into his room and never even saw the bed at first. He was more captivated by a very large poster of this on his wall. I had asked him about it quite awhile ago and he really liked it so we put it up on his wall. He kept saying “Mushrooms!!!”. But then  when he turned around and saw his bed, he was just overjoyed.

He got up on it and he kept jumping and smiling and talking about his new “Spiderman bed!!!!”. I don’t think I ever saw him THAT excited over anything. He had a huge smile on his face for the rest of the night and when it came time to go to bed, he was so excited to be sleeping in his new bed. He definitely is growing up fast.

Posted on January 10th, 2010 by Matt
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Some interesting things

Here’s a few noteworthy things that have happened with Dylan lately:

  • At our birthday supper, Tamara told Dylan to “blow” when it was time for us to blow the candles out and he proceeded to “blow” but with his nose.
  • Sat down beside one of the Santa’s under the tree and proceeded to tell him that he wanted a Spiderman present for Christmas
  • Learned how to say “fucken” by hearing his father swear a few too many times. I have since curved my language.
  • Has decided that at least for this month, his name is not Dylan, but Dylananananananan.
  • Has started giving his sisters hugs when she’s upset

I never knew how cute kids could be til I had my own.

Posted on December 12th, 2009 by Matt
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Someone isn’t liking the whole “share” experience

Ahhhh the fun that is growing up for almost two years by yourself.

Dylan is now a little over 2 years old. He’s become quite attached to his toys and pretty much anything that he plays with he tends to claim as his own. However, with Megan getting a little older now, she’s able to move and latch onto things that Dylan typically plays with. This is a concern for him as I think he thinks she’s trying to take his stuff away from him.

Pretty much anything she grabs that he thinks is his causes him to have a little bit of a fit. Nothing major, just a bit of whining and crying and pointing to whatever Megan has. If he’s playing with a truck and she grabs his blocks, he gets mad because she’s playing with HIS blocks. Me and Tamara have done our best to let him know that he needs to share and that if he’s not playing with something, other people are allowed to play with his toys.

We’ve seen the same thing with him and his cousin Lucas. Lucas goes to play with one of Dylan’s toys and D gets upset. Funny thing is that he doesn’t get upset over everything, just some toys and it’s not necessarily the same toys all the time. Regardless, Dylan is learning all about sharing and I don’t think he’s happy about it.

The bright side is that before you know it, he’ll be used to sharing and it won’t be that big a deal. We have told him that there are some toys he doesn’t have to share if he doesn’t want to. it only seems right that he should be able to set a few boundaries of his own so that he can have some things just to himself.

Speaking of “self”, this is one of D’s favorite words of late. He wants to do everything himself. Brushing his teeth, washing his hair, climbing into his carseat or table chair. You name it, he just keeps saying “self self”. It’s very interesting to see how independent a 2 year old can really be.

Posted on November 17th, 2009 by Matt
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The perils of a new sitter

For the last year, Dylan has been going to the same daytime babysitter. We chose not to enroll in regular daycare as Tamara was going to be home part time and we wanted them to not spend all of their days in daycare.We had one sitter bail on us several months in but then we found a new sitter that came highly recommended. Her kids and Dylan worked out very well and we were happy with her for the last year.

However, times change and she decided to go work full time and had to stop taking Dylan. This of course was a big disappointment to us, me moreso than Tamara, but there was nothing we could do about it so the search for a new sitter began.

Tamara dug around and we found a new one who has a little girl about 2 1/2 and they seem very nice. Dylan started going there yesterday and today is day two. I have to say that I am feeling a little uneasy about the situation. I tend to pay close attention to how Dyaln is and he’s been a little extra “sooky” lately and I’m not sure if it has to do with the sitter change, or if he’s getting a little sick (since it is in the house right now). It’s hard to know whether or not his need for extra attention stems from the change in sitter situation or from something else.

I find it very hard to deal with the idea of leaving my kids with someone I barely even know. I mean how do I know she’s not a closet axe-murderer or something? I don’t. I just have to trust my gut and hope that all is well. Right now, something feels a bit off but I can’t say for certain that it’s the sitter. I know that I need to wait a little while, watch Dylan and make sure he’s ok, and that if he seems fine after a little while, it’s just parent paranoia. If his behavior still seems a bit off, then maybe we need to look at the sitter situation.

It sucks. I don’t like seeing him upset at all but I know that kids like routine and changes to it can be hard. Hell, changes to MY routine are hard.

Posted on October 27th, 2009 by Matt
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