"Picture" Day

Hello All,

Here are the many faces of Dylan. The first two are when Dylan lost his 2 front teeth. The one with his "Flame" pajamas was taken on January 2, 2013 and the other was taken just 10 days later.






Then there is one of my favorites. It was taken at Frank Raines park in Patterson. the Picture has Dylan, hanging off the back, his best friend, Daniel, Sofia (left) and Alina (right), Daniel's sisters.



The picture below is of Dylan and my first fishing trip together. We didn't catch any fish but we both had a blast!










This next picture was in October of 2012. They had "Nerd Day" at Dylan's school. His mom and sister, Samantha, dressed him. He loved it!







And the next one is Dylan and his beautiful mom, Lisa. This was taken April 2012 when we were visiting my sister, Delia, and her husband Randy. We were there for Easter and to see my family.



I will be adding more photos as I try to catch you up on the many years that have passed between blogs.
This was mostly pictures but the next ones will be filled with more stories.

Be Blessed,

Richard

Fish Tank Saga

Hello everyone,
Today we talk about fish. Dylan had won a goldfish at the Almond Blossom Festival in Ripon, CA  February of 2012 and had it in a bag when he got home. I have a 220 gallon fish tank with Cichlids (which are an aggressive breed). I also had an extra small tank so I put the goldfish in that one.

I finally got tired of feeding the goldfish separately from the others so I explained to Dylan that I will be putting the fish into the big tank and he might not be there tomorrow.

 The fish survived!...Until a week ago.

I was looking at the tank and noticed that the goldfish wasn't there so I took a good long look. I had also got him a friend since he was lasting so long. I didn't see either one of them swimming anywhere. I didn't say anything to Dylan because he gets pretty emotional about these things.

He noticed a week ago...

Yes, he got upset and didn't understand why his friends would eat him. He kept saying " ...but it was a prize! I won it!" I couldn't stop the crying so I did what any father whose son was non-stop crying would do. I promised him his own fish tank.

Now we skip forward to this last weekend (May 11-12, 2013). We were helping My Mother and Father-in-law with their garage sale. Our nephew, Joey Perkins, brought some of his jun...stuff to sell. One of his items was, you guessed it, a 10 gallon fish tank!

I bought it and brought it home. Having such a big tank I had extra things like rocks and fake plants to fill it.

Now for the fish. when you think of the best tropical fish money can buy , of course, you think of Wal-Mart. This is where we purchased our fish mainly because it was the closest store and it was open late (we got into the store at 9:00pm). We got a goldfish, a striped Tiger Barb and a plecostamus (sucker fish). I told Dylan that we would get some more fish later. He was fine with that. Here is the tank:

Today I went with Dylan and we purchased 2 more fish. They were similar to the Barb but one was orange and one was green. When we went to pay for them I noticed that the green one had gone belly up! I told Dylan that we should go back and return it, just then, the fish started swimming again. Dylan said, "He was just tricking us" and said that he wanted to keep it. I of course said "okay" and proceeded to purchase and take home the two new additions.

I placed the bag in the water, waited until the bag water acclimated to the tank water and dropped the fish in. It wasn't long before Dylan noticed the fish swimming "funny". He said "The fish is on its back and its talking!". I tried not to laugh out loud. The visual was very familiar to someone who has had fish tanks for a long time but for a 6-year-old it was devastating! So...off to Wal-mart with almost dead "Lloyd" in hand ( Yes, he had already name it). I was able to exchange him for another fish which took way longer than expected and brought the new member of the household home.

We will see if the fish are still there in the morning. As for me, I must get some sleep. I don't know what I got myself into but only time will tell. I will definitely keep you informed of the "fish saga".

Good Night All,

Richard

This is an older draft that never got posted because it was not complete.
Christmas 2009

Merry Christmas !!!

I hope all of you had a great Christmas this year. as for us, we had a great time with family and friends.


Catching up... Dylan got a birthday haircut( his birthday is November 17th) and was pretty good this time. Of course I had to bribe him with gifts and balloons. At the end, he still wasn't too happy as you can see. He had a great birthday and was very happy with all his friends coming over. We had a jumping house, a pinata and of course all things Veggie Talestm.

It's been awhile

Hello all,
Due to some technical difficulties I was unable to write on this blog. but that is for another time. Suffice it to say that I have some catching up to do.

So much to say. Dylan is now 6 and is in first grade at Walnut Grove Elementary school which is a dual-immersion school. He is learning both Spanish and English and right now the ratio is 80% Spanish and 20% English. He is doing well now but when he first started kindergarten the ratio was 90%/10% so very little English was spoken in class. I was a wreck thinking that he would not understand the teacher (who, by the way, spoke only Spanish). He did and is doing great.

He has done so many wonderful thing in the time that has passed I am sad that I will not be able to recount all of them because of the first sentence in this blog. 

So starting today this is what I have for you. My not-so-little boy was in the shower this evening and was singing at the top of his lungs. I was able to run downstairs and grab my phone and took this video (It is "G" rated). I know it is sideways but you only have to listen. He is singing a song called "I am Redeemed".

I have to tell you that if you are even a little impressed that I was able to put this video in this blog I have to give full credit to my beautiful and talented wife, Lisa. This blog will be short but it will have been 3 hours of trying to add, edit, install, uninstall and re-install this one video. My wife takes over and in minutes she has it uploaded and running. I really love her!

This blog will continue at least weekly or if Dylan does some note-worthy event that deems attention. For now I will say goodnight.

Be Blessed,
Richard

Wonderful thing about kids

Hey All,

Little boys have a way of making the easiest situations more exciting. Whether it's pretending to fall off a bed screaming "Help me, I'm falling!" or tripping and saying "I can't walk, my legs are broke!". All this just to grab a little attention from their parents, siblings and friends.

But then there are times when the attention is well warranted. Take today, It is Saturday morning and my son woke up early (he got that from his mother), jumped up on my bed and continued to poke me until I acknowledged him (Lisa had been up and gone for quite a while). We got up, had a little breakfast which consisted of his favorite food, sausage, cleaned up and then I set out to relax (what everyone should do on Saturday). Dylan went up to play in his room which is where this story now takes place.

Dylan comes downstairs and repeatedly says "Daddy, come look. Daddy, come look".

Wait, I guess I should back up and tell you that Dylan's room was inhabited the night before by him, his best friend Danielito and his sisters Sofia and Alina. His bedroom floor was covered with blocks, trains, planes, etc...

So for him to call me to his room was a scary proposition. What more could he do to his room to "enhance" it?

I finally and reluctantly got up and followed him up the stairs to see what he had done.

He opened his door pointed at the floor and announced"TA-DAH". On the floor was a beautiful arrangement of blocks. His face was beaming and you could tell that he was very proud of what he had done. We both "high-fived" each other and I immediately went to look for my phone (21st century camera).

Okay, so it's not Picasso but I was proud of my boy none the less. We took this picture and now I am posting it on my online refrigerator.

I hope you appreciate it as much as I do (if you have children you will).

Talk later,

Richard

Hello All,

I am sending a quick and overdue picture of Dylan @halloween. This is a character from a Christian cartoon called "Veggie Tales". He is Larry Boy and yes, those are real plungers for his ears. The costume was designed by a team of artists (Lisa and Kristi) with help from their crew. This costume won 2nd Place in the Patterson city costume competition. He still wears it around the house crying "I am that HERO!!!

Sometimes we will find him suctioned to the fish tank! He will also try and suction himself to whatever or whoever is around.

Speaking of Larry Boy, we are in search of a "Larry Mobile" toy. Dylan has been asking, okay pleading for this toy. If anyone sees it in any store (they are mostly in Christian bookstores) please call us so we can pick it up.

Cute thing,this morning he jumped into our bed and was wiggling his fingers over us. We asked what he was doing. He said that it was raining on us and we needed an umbrella. Very funny :) Okay, enough writing, time to put up Christmas stuff.

God Bless

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you all had a great and filling Holiday. Dylan and I were, what Dylan calls "Pampered Cheffing". We started with the turkey's. We opened the plastic bags that the turkeys were in and Dylan helped take out the turkey neck and gizzards. Dylan promptly said "Eeeewwww". He helped me rub the butter all over it ( I told him it was lotion for the turkey) and put the seasonings on top. He even helped me put it in the oven

He worked very hard all morning so when it was time to take a break he put his head down and crashed! He woke up when Sophia and Daniel came over and that is when I lost my little helper to the jumpy house.

He is growing by leaps and bounds. He is speaking clear enough to understand most everything he says. He has a tendency to say "What?" after everything we ask him. Kinda getting annoying but I am sure he'll grow out of it ;)

He does, however, say "Please" and "Thank You" when appropriate and is generally a well behaved child. He is now wearing 3T/4T clothing and size 9/10 shoes (Oh, is it Christmas time already?)

Funny story, when he says his prayers he lists all of his friends and family. Some nights he is too tired to recite all the names so I ablige. After I finish he then wants to recite all of them by himself (do you think he's playing me? Nah!).

One night Lisa had the opportunity to recite the list of names. When she was done Dylan blurted out "No! No! My peoples, My peoples!". Quite gangsta if you ask me.

As I am writing this ( It is about 11:00pm) Dylan has been getting up for things like needing to brush his teeth, wanting some milk (He calls it "juice"), and just recently he came in and proclaimed that his big toenail needed cutting. Got to admit, the boy is creative. He will eventually go to sleep, so no worries.

These are some pictures with his sisters. I thought you might like them. I have a busy day tomorrow. It is time to dress up the house for Christmas. I actually like doing this. Have a wonderful day and...

Talk to you soon

It's been a while

Hello All,
It has been over two years since I have written anything about my beautiful boy. He is now three and is very tall. He is blessed with his Moms lovely genes and he has my love for cooking. What can I say, I will just tell you what he is up to now and try and fill you in on previous details later.
Dylan is now able to go potty. This is a big thing in our house. He is so proud of it that he pulls us into the bathroom to admire his craftsmanship. Of course we say it is wonderful and we get a "high five" out of it. This has been just a month ago. Prior to that he was not a happy camper when it came to potty training.
What really set us back was his bout of incontinence (no poop). he wasn't able to go for three days so we took him to the doctor. After literally yanking out all the stuff (sorry for the graphic detail), he finally could sleep, but he did not want to go potty for another three days. He finally went and said "It didn't hurt", and continued from then on.
Okay, on to happier topics. It is his birthday party today. Many friends and family showed up. Right now Dylan is into " Larry Boy" a Veggie Tales cartoon character. he was even Larry Boy for Halloween (I will try and add that picture next time). We had a jumpy house and "pin the tooth on Larry". We also had a pinata that weighed 2 tons. I couldn't even pull it high enough to get 3' off the ground. David ended up doing a fantastic job.
Dylan's best friends right now are Danielito who is Dan and Esme Sinclairs boy and Diego who is the son of Patty Gallardo. Dylan loves trucks and cars but mostly he loves trains and airplanes. I can't wait to see the career he chooses. Either way we get a great discount on travel (always thinking of the perks).
His favorite food has got to be chocolate (he gets that from Sammie). He will ask for it every day and eat it every day if we give it to him. I remember one time I was putting him to bed and he waved for me to come closer and said "Daddy, Daddy". I got close to him and said "Yes?". he said just one word "Cake" with a smile on his face. I said that we needed to start praying so he could go to sleep and he waved me close again and said with a long drawn out tone"Ice cream". As I was chuckling to myself he grabbed my face, pulled it close and with sincere longing he said "Chocolate". We prayed, I gave him a big hug, kissed him good night and left thinking of the wonderful dreams he will be having that night.
As I said in the beginning, Dylan is tall. People think he is at least 4 if not 5 years old. He is definitely going to be a towering figure when he is older. Although he looks older, He still loves his blanky (which he calls "lanky")and Puppy. They go with him wherever he goes. Whenever he gets scared or is being reprimanded he asks for his blanket. We should call him Linus.
He also sucks on his lower lip. He never took a pacifier or sucked his thumb or finger but, when he is tired or just relaxing, his lower lip gets sucked in.
I am writing all of this down for when Dylan is old enough to read and can see what his habits were when he was little. I hope you don't mind. I will be adding more stories as he does things. For now I will have to say goodnight. I am in the middle of working doubles at CCA and need to get up early. My hope is that this blog will continue daily if not weekly to provide a great memory trail for Dylan to go down. I am happy all of you are taking the trip with him and me.
Talk soon,
Richard