Welcome to The Dyer Domain

Matchy, Matchy

2008-07-16T10:59:00.002-06:00

A neighbor of ours bought the girls matching onesies and made them matching skirts. The idea of putting them in matching clothes hadn't even occured to me!

Rebecca the Restless

2008-07-16T10:50:00.003-06:00

Becca was so still in the womb. She hardly ever moved. I thought I was going to have a docile, sleepy, lazy baby. WRONG. While she is fairly docile when awake (well, of course she is docile -. she's not even 3 weeks old - what's she gonna do? - handstands), once she gets tired she begins to get cranky, and like all babies, she wants to be put to bed. Only thing is, she doesn't know to shut her eyes. At least once a day she says up from the start of one feeding to the beginning of another feeding. I think Bella was nine months old before she did that. Maybe we were too spoiled with Bella. That girl is still a good sleeper. But something tells me that Becca will not be following in her sister's footsteps. Too bad for mom and dad.

You Had a Bad Day

2008-07-05T20:35:00.004-06:00

You think you had a bad day? Poor Bella not only had to welcome a new sister this week, but she caught a nasty summer cold and mommy won't even pick her up! What does a girl have to do to get some comforting. DADDY!!!

Sweet Miracles

2008-07-05T20:04:00.005-06:00

We give thanks to God for our newest miracle and for all the joy that she has already brought us. How thankful we were to be able to spend that first hour of her life with her, holding her. And how lucky we felt to be taking her home with us. I think my first impressions of her were right - she seems to be fairly docile and easy going. Although, the last few days have been a bit challenging as Rebecca began to get fussier and fussier. But being the old pro's that we are, we were able to figure out the problem rather quickly. It seems she probably has a milk issue as well, but rather than wait for her 2 week appointment, Todd and I made the executive decision to switch her over to soy right away. And today, she seemed much more at ease.

Bella & Becca

2008-07-02T12:25:00.004-06:00

I am sure this is the first of many postings of Bella and Becca. Bella likes to give the baby hugs and kisses and seems to be interested in her when she is awake. She hasn't seemed too upset that the baby is here, although the baby is not really awake that much. But today while Todd was holding her, Bella began to fake falling down, and we have seem more "acting out" from Bella. Of course the "acting out" is typical toddler behavior so it might be a little unfair to blame this behavior on the new baby. Becca is still turned around on her days and nights, but she isn't even a week old, so we won't hold this against her.

Rebecca Nicole Dyer is here!

2008-06-26T17:05:00.005-06:00

Becca was born today at 12:27PM. She weighed in at 7lb 9oz. She was 20.25in long. And if they took a decible measurement of her screams, it would have been off the chart. This girl can scream. It was a refreshing sound actually. With Bella, all we heard was gasping, grunting, and wimpering when she was born. Becca came out fighting. The nurses gave her the loudest baby of the day award and one even came into our temp room and told us the staff was glad she is going home with us :) We are too! No NICU for this one.

After she calmed down from the trauma of being extracted from her comfortable home, she spent some time snuggling with us and getting to know us. It was a precious 90min before they took her to the receiving nursery.

We are sitting here now in the comfort of our hospital room. Becca is sleeping softly in her little rollaway basket. We will get to feed her shortly when she wakes up.

At this point, it's tough to say who she looks more like. I would guess Cat, but you all can decide for yourselves :)

Sunny Day

2008-06-26T05:42:00.004-06:00

Yesterday Bella and I spent the day together since I will be in the hospital for the next few days, and when I come home I'll be bringing a baby with me that Bella won't be able to throw in the toy box when it starts to cry. So, Bella and I went to the park, to storytime at the bookstore, to Build a Bear to buy "Bear" some clothes, and to Chick-Fil-A (one of her favorites). We had fun, although by the time we got to Build A Bear, Bella was already tired and hungry, so poor Bear just got sunglasses, which I'm sure he'll need now that it's summer. Since the time that we've announced that we are expecting another child, everyone has been commenting about what an adjustment for Bella, and poor Bella she won't be the center of attention anymore, and I have been apprehensive about how young she is. So last night when I was telling my brother that I was beginning to get nostalgic for the times when it was just Bella and me and Todd, he said - "But it will be better." And I know this is true because how much fun was it growing up with a big brother! And he should know - after all he has 3 boys. And of course it will be better. Isn't that why we said we wanted another one. We know that the next few months are, well, not the highlight of the child rearing years, but it lasts such a short time. And this time, we will have Bella to keep our spirits bright. In the future Bella may be sharing center stage with her sister, but she will always be in the lime light. That's just who she is. And in no time at all Bella will be glad for the playmate. So here's to sunnier days at the Dyer household.

The Little Gym

2008-06-26T05:28:00.004-06:00

Earlier this month, Bella graduated from the little "birdies" class to the "beast" class at The Little Gym. It was a fun day in which, as Todd put it, the teacher pulled out all the stops. There was the parachute, the air track, bubbles and balls. And at the end of class, there was a medal ceremony. Bella was so proud of her metal. She still enjoys putting it on. The following Saturday Todd and I debated on whether to move her up to the beast class for the summer since technically she wouldn't be old enough for it until after the summer secession. So Todd went to the birdies class, and all the mommas made fun of him and said they expected to see him and Bella at the beast class next week. Todd and Bella are very popular. Apparently there is one little girl that asks about Bella all the time, and she gets excited when her mother tells her that they are coming to see Bella. That's our Bella. She makes friends wherever she goes.

Tee Time

2008-05-26T06:07:00.004-06:00

I snapped this one of Todd and Bella before they took off to "hit golf balls". Todd actually had a putter cut down to Bella's size, and he practices with her. He says she gets excited when she hits the ball, but she hasn't figured out how to do it on her own. So, she gets bored and begins to pick up the golf balls and behead flowers (a favorite past time at Popo and Grammy's). She also likes to take the tops off of things and put them back, like my contact lens case, or take everything out of something and put it back, like her board books that come in their own carrying case. So she enjoyed taking Todd's golf balls out of their sleeve and putting them back. We've thought about buying her some new toys that work on fine motor skills, but then we figured why should we when she'd rather play with the lotion flip top.

Oh, and she is a real ham now. If you say "Say Cheese" or even point the camera in her direction she will turn on the smile, even if she isn't feeling well.

Don't they look smug!

2008-05-13T06:29:00.002-06:00

Go Wings!!!

2008-05-10T11:56:00.003-06:00

In the spirit of the NHL Playoffs, Bella sported her new jersey today to show everyone who she is pulling for. Cat gave me an early Father's Day gift and bought tickets to Monday's game 3! So look for us on TV. I haven't decided if I will wear my Lidstrom jersey or just be a secret Wings fan at the game. At any rate, Bella and I have been cheering on our team! :)

Show me the SHAMU

2008-04-17T19:11:00.011-06:00

Or just "MOO" as Bella says. We took our first road trip with Bella this past weekend. Since Bella enjoyed her visits to the Dallas and Atlanta aquariums so much, we decided to take her to Sea World so that she could see the animals perform. Now I have to say, all my life I have been a planner, and all my life I've seen my plans either come off beautifully, deteriorate, or die a miserable death (usually it has been the later two). The car ride down to San Antonio was no exception. Since Bella was going to miss her Sat. morning gym class, I looked into when the make-up classes were held, and it just so happened that they had a class on Thu morning (the day we were planning on leaving). I thought, PERFECT! Todd can take her to class, get her all tired out, and then she'll fall asleep in the car, and we can be on our way, and when she would wake up, we'd get down, fed her and be back in the car. If we were lucky, we'd only have an hour to two hours left to go at that point, which would get us into San Antonio in time for a quick dip in the pool and then dinner and bed. Well... Bella didn't fall asleep, but that was ok because then we had the chance to feed her and with a full stomach she was bound to sleep longer. BUT... Todd had to stop for one of his ritual car ride milk shakes, which of course woke Bella up. YIKES! We still had at least 4 hours to go. Let me just say that by the time we got to Austin, we were all cranky and getting on each others nerves. So we got out, let Bella walk around and explore a pet store. She loves animals. Once we got to our hotel we were all a bit spent, but we found the pool and found out that Bella was not too fond of it. After consulting the weather report, we decided to go to Sea World on Sat since it was going to be 10 degrees cooler. Friday morning we headed down to the Mercado and ate breakfast at Mi Tierra. YUMMY! Bella danced around to the Mariachi music and pretty much hammed it up for anyone who would watch.

Then we headed over to the riverwalk to buy some water shoes since Bella fell and hit her head on the cement the day before. Then we headed back to the hotel where Bella took a 3 hour nap. A 3 hour nap. Todd and I read on the patio while we waited for Sleeping Beauty to wake up.

Once Bella woke up, we took her down to the pool. She still wasn't really fond of it, but with her Daddy by her side she was able to remain calm and enjoy it, a little.Then the real fun began. She discovered, with a little help from mom and dad, the playground. It was a big hit, and she was even able to show off some of her hanging skills. Finally on Sat., we made it to Sea World. Bella loved the shows. She was mesmerized, and never really squirmed or seemed bored. But the poor girl did completely tucker out by 2:00.

And no, that is not Shamu in the picture. That is me. And yes, I still have 2 1/2 months TO GO! All in all, it was an excellent trip, and I can't wait to go back with Baby #2. (She still doesn't have a name. What? It's not like she is even here yet!) . Oh, and the ride back you ask. Great. Bella slept most of the way home, and was really quite good for the remaining two hours we had to go.

Easter Weekend

2008-04-05T07:54:00.008-06:00

Easter weekend we had really nice weather so we took advantage of the nice weather and went to the zoo. We rode the DART rail most of the way down, and while I was reluctant to do that because I was afraid Bella would get too restless, it actually went rather smoothly, if not a little too long. On the way down Bella made friends with two little boys who may have been 5 or 6. One of the boys gave Bella a string of his Mardi Grass beads and they had fun laughing at her as she took the necklace on an off. We didn't know how close the animals were and whether Bella would be able to see them. But the few animals we did see were close enough to the viewing area that Bella made sure she kept an eye on them in case they pulled some funny business.

And she loved the children's zoo where she was able to pet the animals. This area is a little disappointing at the Dallas Zoo since there weren't many animals to touch.

Then on the way home we Todd entertained Bella by keeping the snacks flowing. And talking to some lady about all the things Bella can do..."and she can point to all the parts of her face in English and Spanish, and she can give high five, and sings "happy happy..."

And then on Easter we had the cousins over after church for lunch. Everyone enjoyed it, and Bella had another Easter egg hunt. With this second egg hunt, she perfected her search and recovery skills. Next year, we will work on speed.

Group photos with the cousins is still a great challenge. Maybe in a few more years...

Hippity Hoppity Easter's on its Way

2008-03-15T19:18:00.005-06:00

Bella had a fun packed day today. On Saturday mornings Bella has gym class. She started shorty after she turned one and has always enjoyed them. But here lately it's just been a daddy/daughter outing since my growing belly has been putting a strain on my back without the extra effort of tumbling with Bella. So when I accompanied them today, I was really surprised to see how much progress Bella has made. She gives Jeff, the instructor, several high fives during the greeting time, and jingles her wrist bells, and walks on the balance beam, and even hangs from the uneven bars. Once she sees we are pulling into the little gym parking lot, she starts kicking her feet and waving her arms in excitement. It's a lot of fun to watch her.

And then after class, we had an Easter egg hunt with a Sunday school class that some friends of ours attend. Bella was really able to participate this year. She found several eggs on her own including one in the tree and one on the swing. She even put the eggs in her basket and yelled at us when we tried to carry her basket for her. And after the hunt, she played with her friend and slid down the slide about a hundred times. We hadn't even pulled out of the parking lot when this poor girl feel asleep. But like all divas, her day wasn't complete without a shopping trip.

Peek-a-boo

2008-02-19T21:00:00.003-06:00

Bella likes to pull all the DVD's out from underneath the TV, and we have always let her do this because we figure it gives her something to do and she can't hurt anything. But lately she has started opening the DVD's and playing with them. So, we have had to find another spot for them. Meanwhile, Bella found a new spot to climb into. She also has been known to get into the kitchen cabinets as well.

Happy Valentine's Day

2008-02-15T08:25:00.004-06:00

Bella went to Mother's Day Out today in her Valentine best, but she wasn't on her Valentine's best behavior. Apparently she was hitting and pulling hair unprovoked. I guess even sweethearts have a sour day. Perhaps Bella was feeling poorly and decided to take it out on her fellow classmates because by the time Grammy picked her up, she was running a fever and had a runny nose. So, I came home and took her to the doctor. Upper respiratory infection. In other words, she has a virus. But I did take the opportunity to discuss with the doctor whether whole milk was agreeing with Bella. Turns out, it probably isn't. Turns out my sugar plum probably can't tolerate the sugar in milk. So, after working so hard to get her to drink whole milk, we are switching back to the toddler soy formula. Just when we thought we were out, Similac pulls us back in.

Walk in the Park

2008-02-03T15:36:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was a beautiful day, so we loaded Bella into the car and headed for the neighborhood park. Of course it was crowded, but we knew of a smaller park that was out of the way. And sure enough, there were only two little boys at the park when we got there. Bella seems to suffer from the opposite of stranger danger. She has approached several women and asked them to pick her up. If fact at her gym class yesterday, she was practically adopted by someone else's mother. So it was no different when we got to the park. She wanted the little boys' mom to pick her mom. And she did, but shortly thereafter, they left. And Bella had the playground all to herself to climb on, slide on, and run around on. Then another little boy showed up more about Bella's size but about twice her age, and I didn't feel so bad when the mother busted out the camera and started taking pictures. Maybe they have a blog, too. Todd said Bella looked ridculous with her hat on, but I was just glad she was keeping it on for once. I did wish it had matched, though, but I figured that was no reason to take it off. All and all, we had a fun day yesterday.

Happy Birthday Bella!

2008-01-17T12:03:00.000-06:00

Bella got an a taste of birthday cake in the morning when Grammy came in singing Happy Birthday and holding out a cupcake for Bella. Bella really liked the icing! And by the end of the day, Bella was saying, "cake, cake, cake!" What a wonderful year it has been. Thanks Bella!

Bella can stick her tongue out

2008-01-15T21:11:00.000-06:00

Can you?

Mother's Day Out

2008-01-15T20:56:00.000-06:00

Bella began Mother's Day Out last week. On her first day, Grammy was a little upset that Bella began crying once she saw her. Thinking that maybe she didn't want to leave and that is why she cried, I asked my mom, was it an, "oh thank goodness you are here" cry or was it a "oh goodness you are already here" cry. Grammy said she thought it was the former. So, when Grammy dropped her off the next time, she was glad to see that Bella got really excited when Bella realized where she was, and she went running down the hall to her classroom once they were in the building. Bella walked into the room and never looked back. So after I relayed this story to Todd, he said, "oh, I want to take her next week." So, he took her this morning. Todd said that as they lifted her over the gate and into the classroom, she screamed and cried. I can just picture Todd walking down the hall with his head down and his heart broken as he hears his little girl crying out to him. I'm sure she had a good day, although maybe not as much fun as she would have had if her and daddy would have played hooky all day. Oh, well. We'll try it again on Thu.

Blanket Ride

2008-01-05T19:50:00.000-06:00

From very early on we have said this Bella is a dare devil baby. She has never appeared to be afraid to be thrown up in the air, to be swung by her legs upside down, or to go fast via some other locomotion other than of her own accord. She likes fast walks, fast stroller rides, fast rides in her little car, fast rides in the laundry basket, fast rides on the blanket, and as of today, fast rides on the moving dolly. I had to sanction this one. Todd was using the dolly to move some furniture out of our bedroom, and as I was sitting in the living room I hear Todd tell Bella to hold on tight. I think to myself what could he be telling her to hold on tight to, his head? Then he comes wheeling her into the living room - on the dolly - standing up, holding on tight, and riding the lip of the dolly. I frowned as they went by. Then they came by for a second pass, and I said, "How about you entertain her some other way." So, after he took her off, and she cried for a while, they went back to their old fun of riding the blanket. Observe...

Look Mommy, No Hands!

2008-01-03T20:00:00.000-06:00

Bella has been doing new tricks left and right here lately. Her aunt Launa seems to have some special ability to help Bella achieve some of her developmental milestones. She was present when Bella first flipped over. She was there the week Bella first started to crawl. And now, guess who was around when she started walking? You guessed it. Aunt Launa.

About 2 weeks ago, Bella and I embarked on a monumentus journey together across the country, just the 2 of us. We started at 4AM on a Wed morning as Mommy drove us to the airport and dropped us off. From there, I packed myself up like a mule (car seat, work lap top, diaper back pack, and Bella in the Bjorn) and waddled the 2 of us through to check our bags and get a boarding pass. We braved the security line only to find out my boarding pass needs to have "infant" typed on it. Back to the line to get a new boarding pass. Back through security. Bella is taking all this like a champ. Smiling at everyone and playing hide and seek pretending to be bashful. Squaking at the funny guy over there with the ear piece in his ear. Yelling at the lady with the McDonalds bag who is not sharing her coffee.

So we make it to the gate, and I turn her lose as I buy 2 water bottles from the vending machine. She crawls around pleased with her freedom. Until she tries to eat a sun flower seed she finds on the carpet. She cries. No problem, Daddy has his keys, and we know those are good for at least 15min of attention capture. Crap! Left them in the ignition so Mommy can drive home. No problem, Sebastian to the rescue! She played with Sebastian for about 20min until we started boarding.

The flight to Atlanta (ok, so it wasn't really all the way across the country) was a good one. The airline left a seat open next to me so I could put her in her car seat. I only bumped her head a little bit as I got the seat installed and her safely into it. The guy next to me has 3 little girls, and he said I made the whole process look easy. He has never flown with his little girls. He didn't know we had done this about 2 months ago for our trip to Michigan. Bella is practically a frequent flier! :)

At about 7AM, as the plane takes off, I pour her bottle and mix it up so she can drink as the plane goes up to help her ears equalize the pressure. After she is finished, she munches on Lovie for about 2 minutes, and she is out for the rest of the flight. Whew! The only hard part of the trip was going to the wrong baggage claim after we landed. I carried her and the car seat and our 2 bags for about 2 miles farther than I had to as we proceeded to the wrong baggage claim and back again. Luckily, Grampa was waiting there with our bags for us.

The trip was a great one. Grampa and Gramdma Dyer got to spend some quality time with Bella, and my sister Launa and her boyfriend Scott also got to visit for the weekend, so it was nice having us all together. We got to go to the Aquarium in Atlanta, and that was a nice experience. Bella was fascinated with all of the fish and all of the people as well. She liked the sea otters the best and cried because she couldn't go in there with them. She also cried when we had to leave that exhibit. Life is clearly not fair.

She really started taking more than just 1-2 steps on this trip. Prior to this trip, Bella would pull herself up on some furnature and sometimes from the middle of the floor, and she would take a step or two to bridge the gap between 2 pieces of furnature or to walk to one of us. But on this trip, she started taking 4,5,6, and more steps to try to get from one place to another. One stretch, she took 14 steps before plopping down to crawl.

Now as of yesterday, she is finally walking as a preferrence. She pretty much walks everywhere when she wants to follow us or go into another room to find some trouble.

The movie clip below is Aunt Launa's baiting technique to get her to walk :)

The trip back was much more challenging than the trip there. There were no open seats as there were 40-50 Army folks trying to get back to families for a short leave before they finished their training. Bella was very cranky that she had not eaten breakfast yet. She actually fell asleep in my arms on the plane before it took off. I fed her once she woke up about 1hr into the flight. She played hide and seek with the person in front of us. He was asleep, but Bella enjoyed hiding from him even though he was oblivious to the game. I told the lady next to us, "You didn't know you would be entertaining a baby on this flight did you?" She told me "no" in a flat voice and then said that there was a first time for everything. She turned out to be real nice, and enjoyed playing with Bella.

Alas, we made it home safely, and Mommy and Bella were reunited once again. This was the longest they had been apart since Bella was in the nicu.

Thanks Guys for the great trip we had. We really enjoyed ourselves!

New Hair Cut

2007-12-23T13:50:00.000-06:00

Once I found out that I was going to have a girl, I thought, "Man, I really hope she has hair". It didn't have to be a lot of hair. I just didn't want to have a bald baby and have to tell strangers the sex of my baby. So when Bella was born with so much hair it seemed like a blessing. What I didn't realize was how difficult it would be to take care of baby fine hair that keeps growing while more baby fine hair keeps growing in. So, I started putting Bella's hair in barrettes, and oh didn't she look cute, and then when her hair got longer, I put it in ponytails, and that was really cute. And then Bella decided to have an opinion about what was put in her hair, and she started pulling everything I'd put in her hair out. Barrettes would come out of her hair and into her mouth. She was left looking wild and free (see above). Cute, yes. Conducive to seeing - no. And after all, she has so many new things to see. So, then I began agonizing about whether to cut her hair, and if I cut her hair do I cut bangs. Yesterday, I finally threw in the proverbial towel, and got her hair cut. Below is an after shot.

Oh, yea and did I mention, she has started walking, climbing up and down the stairs, and climbing into laundry baskets. I'll post about that once we get the video downloaded.

Home alone

2007-12-08T06:43:00.000-06:00

Todd and I reached a historic and important first last night - we left Bella at home with a babysitter. Not a relative, but a babysitter. But not just any babysitter. We've known Lee and his family for several years and know Lee to be a responsible and caring young man. What we didn't know was how Bella would behave. Apparently, she behaved beautifully. She played well all night. Had her diaper changed with minumal fuss, and went to bed without saying a peep.

I've heard people say that their favorite stage is between 9 and 18 mos. I don't know what the future holds, but we are having a blast with Bella right now. She just smiles at everyone, and it really makes their day. Store cashiers, strangers at restaurants, fellow shoppers - it doesn't matter; she smiles at them all. My mom says several woman have stopped her while they were shopping at said they thought Bella was a little doll. Literally a doll because she was so quite and cute. Bella is a great shopper so long as there is a shopping cart - there is plenty for her to see and it gives her an opportunity to make eye contact with people. And she loves seeing other children. She is fascinated by older children and wants to talk and touch babies her own age and younger. When I was working in the church nursery last week, Bella wanted to kiss one of the babies in there. Although, the word on the street today was she nearly clawed a little boy to death for trying to kiss her. Hum. I guess she prefers to be the aggressor. Bella enjoys kissing her stuffed animals, her "little people", and of course mommy and daddy (she kisses mommy the most). But she can still be very unsteady in landing those kissing, so in the evenings when she is tired and acting silly those kisses can be dangerous. You can see her trying to give George a kiss.

Giving Thanks

2007-11-30T05:54:00.000-06:00

We started this year off receiving the biggest and best gift we'd ever received - a baby, and for every day she has been here, she has been a blessing. So this year we give thanks for Bella. She brings joy to everyone - whether it is to her family or grumpy old men at restaurants - everyone enjoys her smile.

She didn't wind up eating much turkey or much of anything for that matter, but she did love the crescent rolls, and well, who doesn't? We had a fun time watching her try the different foods. And then on Black Friday, her father took her out in the cold at 7:00 a.m. without a hat, jacket or shoes. Her hair wasn't combed, her clothes didn't match and her socks didn't fit. The nightmare! Anyway, that was our Thanksgiving weekend - hope yours was great, too.