It's Been A Long Time Comin'

Jeez, I can't believe it's been nearly a month since I posted. That will give you some idea as to just how crazy things have been these last few weeks. Vacation, rush back to Sac to set up the exhibition, do this and that, get ready for the return to school (less than 10 hours from now!)... So much has happened, and then due to the exhibition, we've not had a computer for the last two weeks.

OK, so enough of the explanations. Here is what you come to this site to see: photos of The Boy (and others, though that is of minor interest). Enjoy, and please note that the exhibition runs 2 more weeks, so it may be a bit of a drought before things return to normal.



It was early in the morning when we had to 'break' camp. We had found the perfect head warmer for Dylan - and good thing! It was chilly and foggy every morning when we were in Morro Bay. What a delight! Anyway, as we took a break from breaking camp, I snapped some photos of The Boy in his headgear. He is so much fun to photograph! (BTW, Jennifer was standing behind me, making The Boy laugh and grin - Mommy can be so funny!)

Dylan, Morro Bay State Park.                       July 2008

The next few photos are of The Boy with various support crew near him, all standing in front of the famous Morro Rock. We all enjoyed the camping trip, and Jennifer declared the little oceanside town her "newest favorite place!" Me, I've always had a lot of affection for the place and I think Dylan will fall right in line with his parents. My mother of course was delighted to have us in town for a few days. That's why everyone is smiling.

The photo below of Dylan and Jennifer is in nearby San Luis Obispo. This particular local attraction is both repulsive and compelling - all the stuff you see on the wall next to Dylan and Jennifer is chewing gum, arranged and stuck on the wall in perpetuity forever. It is a very narrow alley way, and Jennifer had no desire to stand any closer than she had to - as you can see, there is not enough room to get away from it. Bubble Gum Alley is the name of the place, in case you were wondering. Oh, and note Dylan's look - "Please get me out of this disgusting place!"






And this last photo is one of the three of us, in front of our most humble abode (thanks to Pat and Lou for lending it to us!) at Morro Bay State Park. As people from Sacramento, we enjoy the fact that in July we get to wear sweatshirts and warm clothing. We had a really good time, and I know we'll be doing more camping with Dylan (though maybe we'll get an air mattress for the next trip). Ah, camping photos - everyone always looks their best when they've been sleeping in a sleeping bag all night!

'Nuff Said...

Dylan, Sacramento. June, 2008

Dylan Reads!

So The Boy and I were sitting on the floor, when he decides he wants to read the children's classic, Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? We certainly want him to be a literate child, one who loves to read, so we read to him daily and he always has books around him. He really seems to like being read to - he pays attention, interacts with the book (turning pages and the like), and really seems to enjoy the illustrations. And when he likes something, or wants to get a good look at it - why he just sticks his face right into it!

What's next? War and Peace? More likely Brown Bear, Brown Bear, Who Do You See?

Dylan Feeds Self - After a Fashion!

Certainly one of the biggest accomplishments for a baby is learning to feed him or herself. Once learned, the baby moves into toddler land and becomes more independent. That is great for baby and parent. Of course, there is a very steep learning curve involved here. And that means messy. Fun, and messy, too! Here's Dylan on one recent adventure in learning to feed himself. Note: He loves to talk while he eats too, and notice those two pearly whites in his mouth! More on the way!

Dylan Joseph Zárate, June 14, 2008, Sacramento, CA

Dylan and his beautiful Mommy, June 14, 2008, Sacramento, CA

Dylan and Mommy

Dylan and Jennifer, Sacramento, June 14, 2008

Here are Dylan and Mommy, together one recent afternoon.

Dylan had his nine month check up on Tuesday, the 17th. All is moving along nicely for the little guy. His latest stats are as follows:

Height:
30.5 inches (97th percentile)

Weight:
21 lbs. 7 0z. (64th percentile)

Head Circumference:
18.5 inches (90th percentile)

Of course, it's that last one that determines GENIUS, so we are pleased he's maintaining that high percentile on circumference!!! But the really important news is that he is healthy and happy.

Next visit (late Sept/early Oct), Dylan gets a whole slew of shots. It's a bit nerve wracking on a few levels: just having a little baby endure all that is tough, especially when it's your little baby and he looks to you to protect him from injury; all the concern regarding injections and autism; possible reactions to the vaccines... Sigh.

Let's see... The Boy is starting to cut two new teeth, up on top, for a complete set of choppers (two on top, two on the bottom)! Very cool! We are working on him feeding himself, and that is going messily! He has not figured out how to crawl yet, but he has gotten rolling over and over, and pushing himself backwards down to an art. No more ear infections (knock on wood!), though he did have a bit of a face rash; the doctor told us a bit of hydrocortisone twice a day to the affected area would help - and it has. His daycare provider, Yolanda, told us that Dylan is best friends with a toddler she cares for, Mitchell. Ah... best friends and he's just nine months old! Dylan is wearing 12-18 month clothes now. And, darn, he's the cutest boy around!

We have just a week and a half left of the school year. A couple weeks off and they are jammed. I have been invited to be in a group show in a local gallery in July, so I'll be prepping for that. Jennifer is going to take a week-long class for work, plus we have a Police concert to attend on the 14th, and a camping trip to go on down on the Central Coast (Morro Bay). All in two weeks. Crazy. Just trying to work out logistics is a bit maddening. Fortunately we have a lot of people who are happy to tend to The Boy, so we've got the concert thing taken care of (thank you so much, Aunt Patti!). It'll be fun, just a tad insane.

I'll post some more photos soon.

Monkey-ing Around

Jennifer snapped some photos of The Boy after he had his bath and I was drying him off... Ain't he just the cutest thing!!!

The Last Day of Vacation...

Well, all good things must end, or so I've been told. I'm not sure WHY that is so, but it certainly is in the case of our May vacation. Dylan being sick the first half of it, and then money woes (don't get us started!) put a dent in what we were thinking of doing in May, but we had a good break and are sorry to see it end. One last fling, a day trip to The City today (5.29.08), was the exclamation point; we had a great time visiting the beach, the Mission area (yummy burritos!), Twin Peaks and Fisherman's Wharf. The weather was terrific, sunny if a bit windy, the parking easy (wow!) and it was a wonderful, stress-free way to finish the month. Dylan enjoyed all the sights and sounds (birds, sea lions, people people people!) and was one tuckered out baby boy by day's end...he slept all the way home, and then went right to sleep when we got him in his crib.

Now we have one month more in the 2007-2008 school year, a mini-break (two weeks, with Jennifer taking a week-long class for work) and then mid-July we start again with new classes for the 2008-2009 year. This is the weird and wacky world of the year-round schedule!

Mommy Takes Some Photos

Well, we still haven't gotten around to getting Jennifer a decent still camera, so she is making do with the video camera's 'still photo' setting. It's OK, if everything (lighting, etc...) is perfect. But then again, when you're taking photos of The Boy, you can get away with less than perfect and his cuteness still shines through!

Anyway, here are some recent photos taken of her favorite boy. And if you click on that last photo (right above this), you will be able to see Dylan's two bottom teeth, front and center! He loves getting his teeth brushed. Wotta kid!

Dylan and Mommy at Sac State - Art Ball!

Here is a photo of Dylan and Jennifer, along with one of my fellow Art grad students, Lan Liu, and her daughter, Lotus. We were all at the annual CSUS Art Department end-of-the-year shindig, the Art Ball, and ran into each other at the Library Quad. So Lan's mother (visiting her grandchild all the way from China!) was kind enough to grab a couple of photos of the babies and their mothers. Dylan was born on September 12, and Lan was born just a couple weeks later, September 29! Very busy baby time in the ol' Art Department!

Turns out Dylan likes art. Well, he really likes being out - a lot!! He loves seeing people and all the attention he gets, and really is very observant of every thing and every one he sees. It's those big blue eyes - nothing escapes them! Even though this particular day was very hot (can you tell?) and we were nearing the end of our two hour visit, he was so delighted by seeing Lotus and Lan and everyone, he was very into it. We were wilting, but it was fun and we got to see a lot of art and many people. Good times, good times...

By the way, for those interested, my son Jack and his girlfriend announced the findings of the sonogram: They are going to have a girl!!! You can see some of the images from the sonogram at his blog:  http://jackzira.blogspot.com  if you'd like. We are all very excited at this news and look forward to the baby girl's arrival in early October.

Family Photo

Just a photo of the three of us taken this week. I've been meaning to do this as a Mother's Day gift (sorry it took so long, Jennifer!), and also just because we need a few photos of the three of us. Of course, it is a bit of a challenge to take photos of Dylan this way, with the 10-second delay between pushing the button and the photo snapping. He needs someone behind the camera getting and holding his attention and making him smile when the button get pushed... Still, we liked this photo and will get some more taken in the next few days.

I like this one because it shows Dylan in a profile, and he has such a cute one!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms out there, especially to Dylan's mom, Jennifer!

It was an interesting First Mother's Day for  us. Dylan woke up with a very fine rash over his face, neck, and torso front and back. A bit of a fever too, but other than that, he was in a good mood. But we called the advice nurse, as "Does he have a rash?" is always one of the question they ask us when we call in. Long story short, Dylan ended up having an allergic reaction to the Amoxicillin (sp?) antibiotic he was taking for his ear infection. So he got a new antibiotic, but by the afternoon his rash had gotten worse (at least worse-looking) and so another call. The advice nurse, after listening to my description and asking some questions, she reassured us he was doing OK and we ought to give the new meds 48 hours... Well, poor kid looks miserable with the rash, but he (mostly) acts fine.

The Mother's Day wall hanging was something Dylan did at his daycare. His daycare provider, Yolanda, is a very sweet, loving woman and she somehow got Dylan's hands in paint and made the hand impressions plus took the photo (and a bunch of others I'll scan and post too) of him to add to it. It is so wonderful and Jennifer just adores it and the thought behind it.

Hope you all had a great Mother's Day and one less 'exciting' than ours!

Dylan Wears Dylan

This is the other onesie Dylan's brother Jack and his girlfriend Teresa got for the little guy. Bob Dylan is of course the inspiration for Dylan's name, so it is only fitting that he have his own Bob t-shirt (or onesie). Some of the lyrics of Dylan's song, Chimes of Freedom, are emblazoned on the shirt. Today he wore his new threads to the local Peet's Coffee shop for our Friday night cup o' Joe! With a pair of jeans, no less!

A New Game in Town!

Dylan: "Hey, Poppy, look what I can do!"

Poppy: "Where did Dylan go?"

Poppy: "Dylan? Where are you?"

Poppy: "Dylan was here just a minute ago..."

Dylan: "Here I am, Poppy!"
Poppy: "Oh, my! Peek-a-boo!"

Dylan: "Ha ha! Fooled you, huh?"

Poppy: "You sure did, Kiddo! Fooled me good!"

Poppy: "Wha...? Where did that kid go now? Dylan, where are you?!?"

Dylan: "Ha ha ha! Got you again! I fooled Poppy!"

Poppy: "You are really good at hiding, little guy! I like this game."

Dylan: "Yeah, me too, Poppy! Peek-a-boo is a great game! Why, I can play it or not play it for HOURS!!!"

Dylan Sleeps Like a Baby

Anyone who has been around a baby knows that one of the sweetest of moments is when they are asleep. There is something so satisfying and renewing about watching a baby, your own baby, sleep. They sleep so soundly, so well, and with such abandon. Dylan is, of course, no exception, and we think he is actually the best at it - a parent's bias. Since we don't use the swaddler any more, Dylan is free to move around and make himself comfortable on his own terms. His favorite position is on his side, mostly, and his arm draped just so across his eyes, pacifier well in place - at least to start with.

A picture is worth a thousand words, so I'll stop trying to describe it and let you take a gander for yourself. I will try to resist saying one more time just how cute he is...

Dylan Sleeping, May 8, 2008

Dylan Sleeping, May 8, 2008

On Vacation and Under the Weather

We (Jennifer and I) have been on vacation for a week now. It is most certainly a more sane schedule, not having to dash out the door by 7AM, assorted bags, travel mugs, and baby in hand, trying to get Dylan to daycare and us to our respective campuses by 7:30. Poor little Dylan, though, started his off-track time with a runny nose, and that has developed into ear infections again. So he is on antibiotics, again, but this time the infection seems to have a stronger hold on him, especially the fever... Still, he does his best to be his usual happy, flexible, easy-going self!

Here he is today. Poor kid has a slight scratch on his forehead (a la Harry Potter), self-inflicted. And a bit of crusty nose juice as well. The onesie he has on is courtesy of his big brother, Jack, and Teresa. Ain't it kool? Hope you like the Garry Winogrand tilted-frame shots!

Dylan, May 8, 2008

Dylan, May 8, 2008

Dylan, May 8, 2008

Dylan, May 8, 2008