Tee hee hee.

Yes, we've utterly failed as modern blogging parents. It's been several months since we posted last, and they've been a busy few months for a certain little monkey. There was, of course Halloween:

Dean was a scarecrow. Mommy put his costume together because everything made for kids his size, is made for kids aren't walking. It was widely acknowledged that he was the most adorable scarecrow ever.

Then, over Thanksgiving Weekend we went to visit Grandpa John and Grandma Yvonne. Dean also went to visit Hank for his first very first haircut. Hank was the barber who gave daddy his last professional haircut in 2002.

We went to Matt & Jackie's housewarming pajama party where Dean rocked out on the drums. Yeah!

Then there was Christmas and the snow!

And now, our little man is 19 months old. Holy cow how time flies. He knows several of his colors. Orange is a favorite right now. Does his puzzles. He feeds the kitties every night and brushes his teeth before bedtime. He helps mommy and daddy with their exercises and loves to read his books. Anything with doggies or dinosaurs is a favorite. He's good at cleaning up (although he's better at making the messes to start with, but aren't we all?) He loves coloring and never gets tired of having mommy and daddy draw kitties. So far the only food he doesn't like is grapefruit, but we think that's mostly because he doesn't understand why those oranges taste funny.

As always, there's more photos and videos on flickr.

Seriously, where did the last few months go? Dean is no longer a baby by any stretch. As proof of this he's begun to identify other tiny people as "Beebee!". He runs. A lot. There's nothing quite like being in the kitchen when he gets home with momma, and he comes running into the kitchen shouting "Dada!". It makes any day better. So what's happened since our last update in June? (June? and now it's October?)

Well, for his 13 month pictures, we went formal.

And at 14 months, we had a picnic at the beach, organized by one of Nicole's friends. This group of friends seemed to be at about a 3-to-1 baby-to-grownup ratio. Don't ask me how this is possible, but the babies were everywhere. Dean got a kick out of all the "goggies" on the lakefront trail and though sand was great fun to play with (and not a bad snack at that.)

Also in August, we took a trip downtown to check out the new Modern Wing at the Art Institute of Chicago. After we were done at the museum we wandered down the lakefront, and to Millenium park. Dean played in the grass in front of the new bandshell and generously invited several others to join him. After that, he had his first encounter with "The Bean" (officially, it's "Cloud Gate", but that's only slightly more likely to catch on than "Willis Tower").

In September we went to Ohio for Habari Party 2009, where we had a lot of fun. Dean got to meet the people who are indirectly responsible for him. (An inside joke related to him being the Best Habari Swag Ever™). There was ice cream, a new ball, and "Pees-ah!". The bear didn't make the trip so we missed getting the comparison picture, but all in all a good time was had despite a bit of illness at the end of the trip.

At the end of September, Dean spent the night with Grandma and Grandpa Thomas. His first night away from momma and daddy. I think he took it better than we did. Although we had a fun night off, we were definitely ready to spend time with our boy when we got back together. We went to a petting zoo/pumpkin patch place called Johansen Farm and saw lots of animals,. Even petted some baby chicks. He sampled the pie... all of it and had some apple cider too. Dean went in the bouncy castle, rode the hayrack ride and the train, and led the way through the corn maze.

And now, here we are. Dean is 16 months old, and becoming quite the independent young man. He climbs on everything, and has a vocabulary well beyond his age, in both Spanish and English. His current favorite toys are a yardstick and any kind of ball (or bola) he can get his hands on. He knows where his belly is (just ask him) and he's as outgoing as ever. He's a great kid 95% of the time, which is a heck of a lot better than either of his parents.

Sunday, we took Dean to his first Cubs game. It's not his first baseball game, as we took him to a White Sox game last year (gasp!). But that hardly counts as he couldn't even hold his own head up well yet, and it was in a sky-box, and he couldn't even eat a hot dog. So, although that was a good time, and a heck of a party, I think we can safely say that this was Dean's first baseball game. (With apologies to the Olsons.)

We had fantastic seats, thanks to Alicia, and we saw a good game. Dean was tired, and being in the bright sun wasn't high on his list of awesome things, so he napped for the first part of the game. He ate grapes and drank his water while watching the people around him and making friends. It being a baseball game, hot dogs were required. Dean, having never had hot dogs before, seemed quite impressed with them and at almost half of one, with bun. Then he shared some of his hotdog with mom. He also got ice cream in a mini-helmet.

As the game went on, Dean got more and more into the crowd and the cheering. Towards the end of the game, when the crowd cheered, he would yell and clap along with them. When the game ended, he was greatly amused by the singing of "Go Cubs Go". Although we weren't able to arrive early or stay late to try to get autographs, there was an event at Nicole's work the next day where she was able to get Dean a hat signed by Milton Bradley, Jake Fox and Doug Glanville. So he's got quite the souvenir of his big day. Oh, and most importantly, the Cubbies Won!

Today, at a picnic, Dean slipped and fell. He landed on his face and bit his lip pretty hard. There was quite a bit of blood, but he recovered quickly. He's got quite the fat lip to show for it though.

Dean is a year old now. He's full of energy and has a heck of a vocabulary. His parents, on the other hand, are lazy slackers who need an extra nap or two. We didn't get the 11 month photos up. So here's that:

He says daddy (actually he usually bellows "Da-Deee"), calls several people (and a dog) at day care by name, says mommy (but usually only when he's mad) and says kitty. He occasionally will even make an attempt at "thank you". He's also starting to imitate us more and more.

At his last checkup he was still under 20lbs. His height and weight are both still about 3rd percentile, but his height-to-weight ratio is almost dead center. So, he's a still a little guy, but growing quite well. He points at things and is starting to interact more directly with people.

He loves music and frequently dances when he hears stuff he likes. Current favorites include the Jeopardy theme and the King of the Hill theme. Almost anything with a Latin beat works too. He also got to try out his swimming pool last weekend and had a blast.

He had a fun birthday party at day care, a trip to see the extended family down in Bloomington and then a birthday party up here too. It's been a busy few weeks, but a lot of fun.

So, there are lots of new pictures on Flickr and videos on Viddler which are linked in the sidebar. Feel free to spend some time checking those out. And without further ado: Dean at age 1.

Wednesday night, Dean had a bottle about 8pm and then went to bed. At about 12:30 he woke up crying and wouldn't take a bottle, but continued to be very fussy. As he's got teeth coming in, we didn't think much of it. We gave him some tylenol and let him sleep in our bed. All night he was restless and very fussy. He'd wake up every hour or so and cry for a while. We'd get him to go back down to sleep, and then the cycle would repeat.

So, we decided to keep him home from day-care on Thursday. He ate a few Cheerios and some dried fruit, but not much and still wouldn't take a bottle. All day he was sleepy and lethargic. When I finally did get him to take some formula, a short while later he threw up. The rest of the day, he didn't want formula or juice, and the few times he took a few sips, they came back up in a few minutes. In the early afternoon I called his doctor's office and they said to keep pushing fluids and call back if he didn't improve. Around 7, since it had now been nearly 24 hours since he'd held down any fluids, we called the doctor again, and he said we should take Dean into the ER and they would see what was required to get him rehydrated.

The doctor that because Dean was dehydrated, he was nauseous and because he was nauseous, he wouldn't take fluids, and we needed to break that cycle before his dehydration became harmful. The said that they likely would do IV fluids to get his levels back up, and then once he was feeling better would try oral fluids again. Luckily this wasn't necessary. They said they would try anti-nausea medication first, because his dehydration level wasn't at a point of being dangerous, and they'd rather not stick needles in a baby (or anyone one else) if they didn't have to. Sure enough, within 5-10 minutes of getting the medication, Dean's normal personality was back. He wanted to play and interact with the people around him. They gave us some apple juice mixed with Pedialyte and he all but grabbed the bottle out of our hands. They had us start by letting him only eat for about a minute and then wait 10 minutes before giving him more. This annoyed him greatly. After about 20 minutes, they said to go ahead and let him eat what he wanted. He shortly finished almost all of the 6 ounces in the bottle, and they sent us on our way.

So, all in all, a little bit scary, but in terms of a visit to the ER, we couldn't have hoped for a better result. We'll have a follow up with is doctor in the next few days just to be sure everything is okay. But so far, so good.