The dust is settling...

We've been sucked into a whirlwind the past few weeks and have finally been spit out 7 miles away in our new home. We moved over the weekend. The summer has been perfect... except for this weekend where we had record breaking heat. Luckily, we hired movers, so we just had the unfortunate task of watching large, strong men sweat like they were in Hell as they dragged our stuff out of our house and up to our new 2nd floor apartment. That's not to say it was not chaos and stressful. We're renting the house, so we've been primping and prepping the past few weeks to make hospitable. One of our last preps was to call an exterminator to spray the yellow jacket nest our poor dachshunds found under the deck; some stinger extractions, benadryl and aspirin later, the dogs are just fine but a bit more wary of where they step.

Luckily for us, my parents jumped at the chance of taking the baby and dogs for the actual move, which saved our sanity. Dillon has never, and will never be, a sit on the side lines kind of girl. I can picture her flying around the house tripping movers at every turn. Thanks, mom and dad!

Our other big news is... Dillon is 1! It was really a great day. We went to a farm with my brother, then we went to the Cheesecake Factory with the rest of the family, where Dillon ate her body weight in bread, bananas, chicken, veggies, pork, fries, and of course, banana cheesecake.

And... she taking some steps. It takes some conjuring, but she'll take about a half dozen before squatting to the floor. Crawling is still the preferred mode of transportation, but we're getting there.

-Ros

With Mama and Mommy at the Cheesecake Factory

With the my family

Dillon loves her Grammy and Puppa!

Walking with Grammy

Dillon with her banana Cheesecake!

We have to make sure everyone knows where the goats are.

Walking with Mama!

Sidewalk surfing

Dillon and Uncle Mark

One of my favorites from her birthday shoot

She was so excited to be leaning against the tree! I love that it doesn't take much to humor her still.

She's 1!

On the move!

What happened to our little baby? It feels as if overnight Dillon has grown into this rambunctious, inquisitive, little girl. I can't believe we'll be celebrating her 1st birthday in 1 month.

Month 10 was an amazing one. Dillon is now crawling, cruising, standing unassisted (for a second or 2 at a time), babbling, eating big people food, and getting into EVERYTHING. I know she could walk without the aid of her wagon or baby stroller if she'd just give it a try. She practically runs when she has got 2 fingers to grab onto.

We have a little daredevil on our hands. I know this kid's going to love roller coasters once she can make the height requirement. She loves to hang upside down when someone holds onto her ankles. She squeals with delight when you pretend to drop her. She's crazy, and I love it.

Dillon also loves food. Give her anything, she'll eat it. She loves feeding herself, we just have to pace the amount we give her at a time because she likes to squirrel it away in her little cheeks. She even did great when Ros gave her something spicy by accident when we were out for indian buffet the other day. Her face was priceless, and a bite of naan and a sip of water later, all was right with the world.

We are also the proud mothers of our very own chatterbox. Dillon talks up a storm, all day, everyday. Her favorite things to say are, "whass dat?, dada, who's dat?, yesh, shoes, socks" and to my delight finally, "mama". Although she doesn't really say mama in reference to me or Ros, it's nice to here some M sounds instead of the incessant dada.

Lastly, my most favorite part of month 10 has been Dillon learning how to give hugs. She started doing this a week ago with her dollies, now I can ask for a hug and she puts her little arms around my neck, her face squished against mine, and she squeezes. It is the most heartwarming feeling I think I have ever experienced in my life. I'm so glad she's ours!

-Nickie



In addition to food, Dillon loves trying to eat mulch.



She loves pushing Simba around in her wagon.

Contemplating the world at 10 months.



She loves her Ikea tunnel.

Spring has Sprung!

Spring is here and with is comes change: lots of it for us!

We're moving! After living in our house for 3 years, we've decided to move. I've always had the option of becoming a dorm parent at the arts high school I work at (wanna see it? http://www.walnuthillarts.org/). It entails being responsible for a handful of students 1-2 nights a week in exchange for free room and board. I've fought it for a long time because I worried about becoming a nurse 24/7. But, since I have been working there for 4 years, Ifeel that I'm more comfortable with setting boundaries and ensuring that my time is mine.
As much as we love our house, it just doesn't make sense to stay in it. It's nauseating to think of the money we'll save. On top of that, the food is good, the people are great, we'll have more baby sitters and dog walkers than we can count, and Dillon will be one of 12 kids on campus under 5 years old. It's been hard not having a lot of people close to us with kids. Now, there will be 4 in our building alone! We'll rent the house and try it for a year. I'm really hoping we like and can do it for a few years (or more). The campus is in a beautiful area and Dillon would be in a school district we wouldn't be able to afford otherwise. Am I getting ahead of myself? Maybe a little...

Dillon's on the move! She's everywhere. She's crawling. She's cruising. She can push her wagon around the house. No place within 3 feet of the floor is safe. Every morning, the house starts out clean. By 6:30am, it's destroyed. Everything that was on the coffee table is on the floor within seconds of her pulling up on it. I can't believe how fast she is!

And she's just getting more and more amazing. She waves at everyone who walks by. Once she gets going, she's waving with both hands, chatting and blowing kisses; we call it "The Dillon Show". Her stranger anxiety is minimal. The only time she cries is if someone holds her before she's had a minute to scope them out. Within about 2 minutes, she'll go to anyone. She even reaches out for people she doesn't know. Again, I might be getting ahead of myself, but social issues are not something I worry about when I think about her growing up.

And she's tall! 30.5 inches (98th percentile) at her 9 month appointment! Her weight was 19lbs 6oz, which is only 60th percentile. She's shaped like a 3 year old- some belly but not a ton of meat. She eats a lot, but all that movement must be burning it away. I wish I had that problem!

Nickie's still working 24 hours a week: 3pm to 3am twice a week. It's really getting to her. There are some nights she goes to bed at 4am, and others, she gets up at 5:30am with Dill. I give her credit for doing it this long, because it just seems awful. She's always slept like crap, but is ridiculous. Her body doesn't know what the hell's going on. Although she likes her job, she's been looking for something different. Luckily, having no living expenses will give her more options if she finds a job that doesn't pay as well or doesn't have as many hours. We'll see what happens. The option of just not working is there, but I think we both know she might go nuts! I hope she can find something with reasonable hours that will make her happy.

There's the updates for the month. Happy Spring! -Ros
Easter with family
She LOVES the tub!!!
Showing off her dirty hands

This is from her 9 month shoot. I had to put her month sticker on her butt; it's the only place she can't pull it off!
We went on a sushi picnic this week!

March Recap

It's really unbelievable how fast time flies once you become a parent. People say this all the time but until you start to experience it for yourself, you cannot truly understand it. As we start approaching 9 months since Dillon graced us with her presence, I start to think about how that tiny little newborn has blossomed into this awesome big baby. It's true that a picture says a thousand words, it's just sad that they can't also convey a personality. We have 18.5lbs of it in little Dillon May.

She is quite the performer, always clapping and waving to get every body's attention. I read that at this age they start displaying stranger anxiety, should I be worried that we haven't yet? Dillon loves strangers. Usually after a quick glance at us to make sure the situation is ok, she will pretty much go to anyone and let them hold her. She seeks out the attention of strangers in stores, and has made the day of many nana's and papa's while we've been out and about.

We found many new skills in the past month. The one that has changed our lives the most is your ability to crawl "the right way". She's been rolling and scooting for months but now Dillon looks like a real baby crawling EVERYWHERE. She's in the living room, in the kitchen, then into the bathroom. She loves exploring anything she can. She also has mastered pulling up on everything, thus thrusting us into cruiser ville. Nothing stays on the coffee table for long these days.

Dillon is an eating machine. We have yet to find a food that she doesn't agree with, except stage 3 baby food which causes her to gag and almost puke. Just something about puree with chunks that doesn't sit right with her, can't say that I blame her. She loves everything from miso soup, to kiwi, to cheeseburgers. I want to record her chowing down her veggies so I can play it back in a year when she's going through her white foods only phase. She's awesome.

Another skill we've started to develop is her ability to sign. Dillon knows how to sign "more", "milk", "hi", and "bye". Not too bad for an 8 month old. Ros took her to a 4 week free course at the library and the teacher was impressed that she signed duck and phone back to her after she had just taught her. She hasn't repeated either of those to us, but at least she did it for her.

Lastly, I'd like to report that Nugget 2.0's genetic material is now in our possession. After a complaint to the Better Business Bureau, our cryotank arrived on Tuesday. Now we have them safely stored 20 minutes away, phew. Hopefully we won't need more than four because even if the bank reopens, I'm sure we burned our bridge with that complaint.

She loves swings.

and pretending she's playing Wii.

Vote for Dillon!

Dillon is a finalist in the Discovery Health Cutest Baby Face-off. There's 3 weeks of voting online. She wins nothing and the fact that people can vote as many times as they want is ridiculous, but we're into it anyways!

If you have nothing else to do, please vote for her!
http://health.discovery.com/tv/baby-week/cutest-baby-face-off/

Kick Cass's ass!

7 month updates!

There is a light at the end of this miserable snow tunnel. It's supposed to hit 50 degrees at the end of the week! It's inspired me to write!

1) NE Winters Suck:
The snow's been awful here. The ceilings in our kitchen, dining room and 2 bedrooms leaked due to ice dams. The bedroom ceilings are destroyed. It didn't matter what we did, there was no way to get through the 6+ inches of ice on the roof without putting a chainsaw to it. Hopefully, with the help of our homeowners' insurance, it will be a distant memory soon.
2) A questionable number 2:
Nickie and I are on a message board for the sperm bank we used. We got wind that they were shutting down for "reorganization". Some said it was bankruptcy, some think it's an FDA investigation. We do know that orders abruptly stopped. We called and emailed to have our 4 stored vials of Dillon's donor shipped here to store locally, but never heard back. Our next child (who we aren't planning on bringing to fruition for a while) is in genetic limbo. We're not sure what to do next. I guess we'll see how the story evolves for a few more weeks.
3) Coming to a catalog near you?
I brought Dillon to an open call for a modeling agency last month. I brought her to the call on Saturday and they accepted her on Monday morning. We went back and forth about whether she should really do it for a while. We worried the pressure to get her ready- the call alone was a bit stressful to get her up and out by 8am. We worried about the distance we'd have to go- the agency represents publications from Maine to NJ. We worried about the cost- There's an upfront investment of $175. We have to pay this once to have her photos edited every 2 months until she's 3.
In the end, we did it. We figure if a job works for us and our schedules, great. If not, we'll just turn it down. It would be kind of cool to see her in a catalog or ad and I think she'll actually enjoy it. She loves attention and new people. Obviously, if we have a bad experience, we'll just stop.
4) Defattening:
We're getting there. Nickie and I have been dieting since new years. It's been slow, but we're both losing and feeling a lot better. Hooray for not being fat moms!

Here's some photos we took this week.

Dillon came to visit me at work!

Tutu pics!

We hope everyone's staying warm!

-Ros

Rolling along

I can't believe it's been almost 7 months that we've had Dillon in our lives, minus the time she made my uterus her residence. It's amazing that in 7 short months our lives would be changed in so many ways. How do you love something so much in such a short amount of time? I guess it's just one of those mysteries of motherhood.

Dillon is doing great. Eating, babbling (favorite word being da da), and almost crawling, oh my. Currently she has her own way of getting places which is army rolling all over the place. It's really cute and she gets really far. She always looks so proud of herself when she gets somewhere out of sight and then we find her, her face lights up. She can get on her hands and knees and lift her belly off the floor then rock (hump) back and forth. Sometimes she gets up on her tippy toes and hands, then falls back to the ground. I'm nervous that full-on crawling is right around the corner because mommies have some serious baby-proofing to do. Another one of her current obsessions is her jumperoo. She sees it and starts making jumping motions, she loves it. A bonus is that it can usually hold her attention for about 15-20 minutes, just long enough for me to pump.

As far as our breastfeeding goes, not so good lately. Dillon is just not that interested (patient) in the boob anymore. We nurse once a day in the morning but that's usually it. Other times of the day, she is just too distracted and prefers the mobility of the bottle. I'm not that sad about it, as we've had our problems from the beginning. I pump as much as I can so she can still get some breast milk, but we also have been supplementing with formula. We found a formula that Dillon loves, Baby's Only. I feel good about supplementing with it as I did a lot of research beforehand and think it's the best we can give her besides my milk. I have to say I can see why people throw in the towel early on the breastfeeding, formula is WAY easier. But I still believe that breast milk is best.

Dillon is doing great on her solids. She loves oatmeal, apples, bananas, pears, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, and prunes. She is not a fan of meat (but if you saw what I made you'd probably not be a fan either) or avocados. I can't wait til she starts putting pieces in her mouth. It will be too cute.




Sitting pretty during her 6 month photo shoot. It's proving to be very difficult to get a good shot now that she is so mobile.


I just like this one. Looking like a cave baby in the morning.
-Nickie

Kids make you fat.

It's true. I'm blaming the baby for me getting fat. Even though I'm a non-bio mom, I gained about 15lb since she was born. And Nickie hadn't lost anything since walking out of the hospital in July. Is it the lack of sleep? Stress? Lack of energy? The fact the we eat anything that can go in a microwave or pick up in a drive though? Probably a combo. Regardless, Nickie and I put an end to it on New Years.

Nickie and I decided we didn't want to be fat moms. We don't want to be on the sidelines when we could be playing too. Deep down I worry that Dillon will be stigmatized for having 2 moms already. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if we were fit, attractive moms instead of lumpy, dumpy moms. We were definitely going down the lumpy, dumpy path; I wore the same fat jeans for most of the holidays and we had both transitioned to sweats by Dec 30.

We went carb-free. I've always been a Weight Watchers girl, but my mom has had great results with South Beach, so we're giving it a shot. So far, it hasn't been too bad. All the protein is filling. Meat and cheese is still allowed. There's no counting points or calories. There's a lot of sugar-free alternatives to things we like, like popsicles, fudgicles and even chocolate milk. Instead of having a carb with meals, we're just doubling up on veggies.

Don't get me wrong; Bread, pasta, rice, sweets, cereal, potatoes and fruit have been sorely missed. The cravings were bad for a few days and seeing McD's commercials are plain painful. There have been some moments that have required restraint, for sure.

I'm down 5lbs since last Saturday, so it's definitely working. Nickie's down too, but she's more patient than me and hasn't weighed herself to get a number. The first 2 weeks, South Beachers are expected to lose 8-13lbs, then a few unrefined carbs can be introduced (yay!).

Dillon has been fighting our diet. She's had some wretched nights. 2 of the 3 mornings I planned to go to the gym were squashed from Dill only letting us sleep 3-5 hours a night. We're going to read the Ferber book and we'll hopefully "Ferberize" her in the next few weeks to get her to sleep through the night. Nickie and I were warned that we'll be up for a few nights until Dillon gets in the groove, so we're working on scheduling a few marathon nights where we won't have to function during the day.

Here are a few photos from the last week. Dillon and I are doing a swimming class together. She LOVES water. She did a great job!

Nickie tried out our new (used) backpack after it snowed. Dillon seemed to like it (much more than her face portrays). We found another enjoyable activity! And, I just like the last photo. =)

-Ros

Happy New Year!

We just wanted to say Happy Holiday and Happy New Year! From, Ros, Nickie and Dillon