Family Fun Day!

We have been having such a great time these past few Sunday's! We have been able to get out of the house and spend time together as a family doing different activities. Today Daddy & Dylan started our 6 week session of Aqua Tots...

We kept telling Dylan that he was going to go swimming with daddy, but not quite knowing if he really understood what we meant. At home when he got his swim trunks on he loved them! He kept pulling up the legs of his warm up pants because he wanted to look at his swim trunks. We didn't quite know what Dylan would do. He LOVES bath time but this is a little different. And it was a HIT!

There were many other mommy's and babies there and daddy's and babies too. 6 months up to 3 yrs old. Dylan of course loved the water right away, he was splashing around like crazy and just laughing and smiling from ear to ear. It just brought tears to my eyes watching him have a blast with daddy. Such an adorable sight! The 2 male instructors were great, they had the parents do different things such as blow bubbles and have the kids try and copy them, then they formed a circle and sang songs and the kids did different things corresponding to the words of the song. So they sang the 'hokey pokey' and the 'wheels on the bus' and 'i'm a little tea pot'. Each time Dylan just laughed and went along with the flow. A friend of mine from HS, her husband is also doing it with their daughter, Dylan loved watching Charlie today, it was precious, he was already checking out the girls!

Then after about half way thru Dylan spotted all of the water toys. 'Oh no', I thought, he immediately wanted to play with them, so Brad grabbed him a few then other parents did the same thing. Then of course Dylan wanted the other toys that other kids were playing with. He had a few fits......but the instructors were so good about distracting them and trying to get him to focus on something else. Floating on his back, floating on his tummy, jumping off the side, putting his ears in the water, reaching out for toys in front of him while laying on his belly, these were just a few things that he did today for the very first time. And then, they wanted the kids to be quickly dunked under water, my eyes got wide because I had no idea how he would do with this! Daddy was a champ, everyone got in a big circle and on the count of 3 during the song most of the parents dunked the babies! Some wern't so brave but our daddy was and Dylan just smiled and tried to open his eyes after. But silly Dylan goes under water with his mouth open......they told daddy to blow into his face first to get him to close it, but nope, it wasn't working for this kid. All Dylan would do was say, 'ahhhhh'. He is quite the little pistol. The class was 45 minutes long and that was the perfect length of time, some of the little babies were already sleepy. But Dylan we think, had a blast. Outside from the few fits because of toys he couldn't have he was a trooper. Here are a few pics and we can't wait to see what next week's session will bring! We have some fun vacations planned in a few weeks and in a few months so these sessions are great for him.

Yesterday Dylan decided to try and stand on a book and he triped and fell onto a new toy that Grandma had gotten him. It pierced and cut his head pretty good, and blood everywhere. It was boarderline stitches, after some cold compressions right away by mommy and a bandaid the bleeding stopped. So we waited, daddy wasn't home so mommy had to make the executive decision. Then later in the day Dylan got mad in the car and started scratching his head, like he always does now when he is mad, and it broke open again and blood all over. Finally it stopped and today it has a bump and is pierced still but should be okay. Poor little guy has had some gashes on his head in the past few weeks, we pray that this has now ended! As you can see, he is into his climbing stage and loves to climb onto anything he can! That includes getting in and out of his bed as many times as he pleases, just for fun!

Dylan is doing great. He is very busy, talking up a storm, and keeping us on our toes! We are working on potty training and doing a decent job. Every night it seems that Brad and I find ourselves looking at each other and smiling and giggling about something new that Dylan has done. These kids sure are the light of our life, we are SO blessed to have them with us today.~

*** We remember on 3.30, our little man, our first born, Dalton James Holub. It is crazy to think that he would be 4 years old this year. He sure changed our lives, for the better, and made us the people and parents that we are today. We love and miss him dearly, we often look at Dylan and wonder how alike or different they would be. We look at each of the boys' new born pictures and although they were both very premature, they look an awful lot alike in the pics. We love you Dalton James, Happy Birthday little buddy! We miss you every single day, and we know that you watch down on your little brother and sister daily to guide and protect them. We love you Dalton.~

New Pics....

WOW, Dylan sure is a busy little man. Here are a few pics before our update next week. He starts Aqua Tots with daddy next weekend and everyone is SO excited. Until then......

The puppy is STILL his very favorite. He still cries for the puppy and LOVES to be outside when she is out there. They are life long pals, he is definetly a dog lover and for sure he loves his Skylar!!

And books, oh books, we love books. He is so smart he knows the names of his books and he will hide them in his bed at night to sleep with his favorite ones! He is a stinker, tonight daddy pulled 3 books out of his bed, then ended up letting him keep 1 to sleep with, LOL!

Moving right along....

Daddy play time and Dylan showing off his building skills with legos!

Visiting Great Grandma!

Dylan is just crusin' these days and at a fast pace! Daily now versus weekly it seems as he is saying new words and even more occasionally trying to mock us too. Mommy sings, 'la la la la' and then Dylan sings, 'la la la', it is SO cute. Daddy sings the a-b-c's and then Dylan sings 'b-o-y-z', he is really trying, and doing a great job at that!

Last week Dylan had his final High Risk Follow-up Study Evaluation at the University. Both kids had appts together and it was a little crazy. The room was filled with people taking their pick at each kid, thank goodness Grammie was visiting and could come with or mommy would have been a little frazzled I think! The study evaluates Dylan on tons of different things, the ARNP would draw a straight line on a piece of paper and she would watch to see if Dylan copied her, and he did! She had him do all sorts of things, feed a baby, stack blocks, identify body parts on a doll baby, drink from a cup without a lid, throw a ball, kick a ball, jump, put blocks in a small cup, dump cheerios out of a tiny glass jar, many different 'skills' that she evaluated him on and he did great, he passed and he was showing them all about who Dylan was.

According to their scale he was just over 24 pounds and was 35 inches long, I think, I wrote it down in their planner and this is going off memory. They would like us to add extra calories to his milk, they had us do this before. So we are adding Carnation Instant Breakfast back to his milk. He is on the growth chart and doing fine but with him being so active and starting to become somewhat of a picky eater these extra calories will just give him a little boost. They also are having us see Pediatric Surgery soon to talk to them about repairing his hernia on the side of his belly. It's been there since he was 10 days old and got the life saving penrose drains put in, when they took out the penrose drains a small hernia formed. It hasn't gone down or gone away and age 3-4 they look at repairing that, unfortunately another surgery which doesn't excite any of us but better to get it taken care of now I guess. So that's about the extent of the Adventure back to the University. The Neonatologist that sees Danielle had taken care of Dylan when he was there and had not seen Dylan since right before he was discharged from the NICU. He was quite happy with the little guy and very encouraged for him!!

So every day with Dylan continues to be a new adventure. We are patiently awaiting Spring, Dylan has been able to be outside when we have had these warms spurts and boy does he love, outside! He will run to the sliding glass door and say 'bye mama or bye daddy'. He is quite the little man with his own personality. He is getting very good at shooting hoops, we may have a basketball player on our hands! He will even run across the living room and throw the ball up as his own version of a lay-up!

We were quite impressed today though, mommy was eating broccoli and cauliflower and of course he wanted a 'bite'. So I gave him a piece and he ate it like it was nothing, and again and again, it was great. Those are veggies I wasn't sure he would like, especially raw, but he did!

The little stinker does continue to need his 12 hours of sleep at night. Anything much less and he tends to be on the quite crabby side. That's okay with us, whatever he needs, plus then that gives us some time too ;)

We love you little man and look forward to all of the new adventures each day brings!~