Dylan in snowman outfit pushing Mu Mu.


Dylan put Daddy's hat on himself.

Dylan led Mummy by the hand toward the stairs. Then he let go of Mummy's hand, turned around, and dragged Daddy also to the stairs. 'He wants both of us to go upstairs with him', said Mummy. But, instead, Dylan closed and locked the stair gate on his unsuspecting parents, with them on one side, and himself on the other. Free of those two and unmolested, he proceeded back to the dining room, alone, and began to play.

Dylan walked all the way home from nursery.

Dylan's sock routine

Mu Mu.

Dylan has a baby named Mu Mu. He feeds her, waters her, straps her into her pram, walks her around, kisses her, and pats and strokes her head. Mu Mu is a good girl.


Mu Mu.

A month or so ago, Mummy concluded that she and Daddy should improve the way in which they communicate with Dylan. Today, as a result, they frequently say to Dylan, 'We want you to XYZ'. (For XYZ, read 'Go upstairs', 'Move away from the rubbish bin', 'Stay on your back while your nappy is changed', etc.) Often, Dylan performs XYZ straight away. If not, then Mummy and Daddy explain to him, 'You have a choice about how you can XYZ. You can either XYZ on your own, voluntarily, or we can help you to XYZ'. At this point, Dylan often decides to perform XYZ on his own. If not, then Mummy and Daddy say, 'On the count of three, we will help you to XYZ... One... two... three'. They rarely count past 'one' before Dylan decides to XYZ on his own. If, however, they do reach 'three', then Mummy and Daddy begin to 'help' Dylan (i.e., they hold, carry, or guide Dylan), while saying, 'Now you have another choice. You can be happy about our helping you to XYZ, or you can be unhappy about it'. Usually Dylan decides to be happy, because he likes being helped. If he is unhappy, then Mummy and Daddy say, 'We can see that you're upset by this, and that's OK'. They think it is OK to be unhappy about some things. While the practice of giving choices to Dylan has its origin in Mummy's decision to communicate better, Daddy gave the practice its formulaic and methodical character.

Dylan enjoyed Guy Fawkes night and said, 'Bang! Bang! Bang!'

Dylan says 'One Two Three' (but we are not sure he is counting). Daddy always says 'One Two Three' after bath time. Today Dylan preempted Daddy, unprompted, by saying it first.

Dylan can say light ('light-on') and sock ('sock-on').

Dylan is like R2D2. He wobbles about unsteadily, makes beeping noises that are hard to understand, and is eager to do the right thing. When Daddy says, 'Dylan, I want you to walk into the next room, close the door, and lie down on your back, so that we can change your nappy', Dylan walks into the next room, closes the door, and lies down on his back so that his nappy can be changed. When Mummy says, 'Dylan, please pick the spaghetti off the floor and put it in the bin', Dylan picks the spaghetti off the floor and puts it in the bin.

Since August, Dylan has been calling Mummy by the name 'Meena'. He does this consistently, never 'Mama', always 'Meena'.

Dylan looks at photo albums

Dylan can say Christoper ('Critter'), Brian ('Rain'), Karen ('Rain'), Grandpa ('Bampa'), and Grandma ('Bonger', or sometimes 'Bong Bong'). He also says morning ('morang'), computer ('peter'), and coconut ('noco nut').

Dylan understands the basic rules of bowling, that you knock the pins down with a ball. He has improved on Daddy's strategy by walking directly up to the pins and pushing them over with ball in hand.

Day Out at Willows Farm.

Dylan can say Grandma and Grandpa ('Bampa').

Even though Dylan can see the effects of a light bulb after flipping a switch, as the whole room is illuminated, still he must look directly into the bulb itself, in order to confirm that the bulb is the source of the light. And he must do so not once but each time the switch is flipped. Dylan takes nothing for granted.

Jake and Dylan after a fight.

Last week Dylan approached the box of tissues on Clare’s night stand, carefully removed a single tissue (yes, just one), blew his nose perfectly, and then threw the used tissue into a rubbish bin. He did this as though it were his ordinary behaviour every day. We were astonished.

Dylan says 'spider' ("bider") when he sees a spider and 'strawberry' ("trawby") when he wants a strawberry.

August 2009

Dylan appears to have an in-born tendency to dance when music is playing. He sways from side to side and bounces on his bum while grinning, whenever his favourite song plays.

He also points to the computer screen (where Nana usually appears through the webcam) and says, 'Nana, Nana'.

Dylan can say 'Mama', 'Dada', 'Nana', 'Papa', 'Buhbuh' (Brian), and 'Nibnab' (Karen).

When we say 'Nana and Papa', Dylan often repeats the word 'Papa'. (We're not sure why he says 'Papa' instead of 'Nana'. Maybe it's just easier to say.) He is definitely using the letter 'P' instead of 'B', most of the time. Sometimes he says 'Baba' by mistake.

The word 'papa' doesn't seem to be used in British English quite like it is in America; to Britons the word appears to be European. Mummy (when she read the word in email) pronounced it 'pah-PAH' (as the French might, Daddy thinks) not POP-uh (as Americans do). Dylan, however, is using the American and not the French pronunciation.

Dylan's first haircut
After

During - Dylan didn't like having his hair cut!

Before

Dylan trying on Daddy's shoes

Dylan climbing

Dylan is walking. He likes to put Mommy and Daddy's shoes on his feet. He hugely enjoys brushing his own teeth as often as possible, using toothbrush and toothpaste. Recently he had his first haircut, at the barbers. His new words include 'bee', which he says enthusiastically whenever he sees a bee, and for the first time he spoke two words together: 'Bye bye Daddy'.

Bubble Beard.

Everything is a telephone.

Dylan has German measles.

Where's Dylan?

Matt and Dylan near the pirate ship in central London.

Yesterday Dylan took his first steps in Victoria Park. Since then he has shown no sign of wanting to repeat the feat but he is standing unassisted for a few seconds.

Dylan is one year old!

On Saturday we had his birthday party. Here are some photos:
Above: The back garden

Above: Dylan gets ready to blow out his candle

Above: Everyone sings Happy Birthday

Above: Libby and Isabella

Above: Lisa, Rob, Polly and Jo

Above: Dylan in his new tent

Above: Catherine and Martin with Miles, Grandma and Libby in the foreground

Above: Lisa and Isabella, Mummy and Dylan

Above: Archie, Dina and Jake with Alice, Lucinda and Rich

Above: Enjoying the sunshine

Above: Dylan and Thomas


Above: Dylan's duck cake, made by Grandma. When Dylan saw his cake he said duck, duck.

Dylan builds towers of up to five wooden blocks.

Leap frog in the garden.

Dylan on the mobile phone.

Dylan has a new climbing frame as an early first birthday present from Nana and Papa. He also has new shoes. Here he is enjoying his present.

Dylan eating his pasta


Dylan eating a breadstick

Dylan at the park

Dylan is walking (sort of).

Dylan says 'hi' on the phone.

Dylan says 'duck'.

Dylan has his first tooth.

Dylan took his first steps while holding Grandpa's hands.

Dylan has learned to say a few new words, including 'ball' (while playing ball) and 'hi' (while pressing the cell phone against his ear). Dylan loves to speak into and listen to the telephone. In fact, he knows how to turn on his parents’ mobile phones and regularly does so. (He also enjoys turning the clothes dryer on and off, though discretely, without speaking.) Dylan still regularly says 'mama', 'dada', 'bye bye', and ‘duck’. He waves ‘bye bye’ when people grab their jackets near a doorway, and he uses the word ‘duck’ to refer to all non-human animals.

Dylan is now climbing sofas and stairs. Applying the lesson of the stairs, he also believes that he can climb flat vertical surfaces, like walls, by lifting one leg onto an imaginary step. Or he believes that he can raise his foot above his own head, onto a ledge that he holds with his hands. Dylan is illustrated below.

Sometimes Dylan will grip the ledge with his hands, keeping one leg raised, bent at the knee, for quite some time, patiently, convinced that eventually his leg will rest upon something solid and helpful, as it does on the steps.

In another sign of his imperfect spatial awareness, Dylan experiences difficulty in attempting to open doors, because his own body gets in the way of the door. The small arrow below shows the path of the door as it strikes Dylan’s body, while the large arrow shows the direction in which Dylan would like to travel. He ends up frustrated, crying.

The astronaut sleeps in his Moon Unit, in preparation for a rendezvous with the Mothership.

Dylan wrote a new song:

"Walking in the garden
Our day has ended as it started
Walking in the garden
Ended as it started"

Dylan in the kitchen

This weekend we put doors on the shelves containing the CDs. This is why:

Dylan has already worked out how to open the doors. Now we need to buy a child lock.

Dylan can operate light switches.

When Daddy ‘burps’ Dylan (i.e., puts Dylan over his shoulder and pats Dylan’s back), Dylan ‘burps’ Daddy back (i.e., pats Daddy’s back in imitation).

Mummy and Daddy think that Dylan can say 'muh muh' (when he wants milk at night), 'dah dah' (when he is about to play with Daddy in the morning), and 'buh buh' (when he is waving goodbye). He no longer says 'Egbo', which used to be his favourite word. We don't know what 'Egbo' means.

Preparing for bathtime

Dylan is crawling properly (as opposed to creeping).

Dylan frog horn.

Dylan has learned how to use the bath plug.

Today Dylan had Kitty, Thomas and Libby over to play.

Dylan is nine months old!

Here are some photos of him on his nine month birthday.

Dylan on the underground

Dylan in the bath

Dylan is nearly nine months old. He was weighed last week and he weighs 19.9 pounds or 8.9kg. He is now starting to pull himself up on furniture. Here is a video of him with Sam and Kat.