11 Months Old

Declan is eleven months old.  Sigh.  As I tell everyone...he is eleven months old.  Please do not say he is "almost one year" - that will not do.  He is eleven months until he is twelve months and that is all there is to it.  So, my baby turned eleven months old today.  He is adorable, and cute, and wonderful, and happy, and, courageous, and stubborn, and fun, and mischievous, and difficult, and crazy, and mine.

Declan's favorite antics include (but are not limited to): taking all the tupperware out of the cabinet, dropping food on the floor with a very purposeful look on his face, climbing the outside of the stairs (oh yes, he can climb the actual stairs as well, but since the gate normally stops him from doing this, he has devised the fun tactic of climbing the outside of the stairs by holding onto the bars), flushing the toilet (he has a goal to touch the water as well, but has yet to attain that one), climbing up the slide in the playroom (yes, up the actual slide portion of the slide), taking all of the laundry out of the baskets, reaching up and slamming his hand down onto the computer keys (he can reach both Matt and my laptops on their tv trays in the family room), watching the washing machine go 'round and 'round, standing in the middle of the teetor-totter to make it go up and down, open any cabinet that has a cleaning supply in it and go straight for said supply, pull every dish out of the playroom kitchen everyday, take every piece of furniture out of the dollhouse everyday, and push anything he can from one place to another on his two feet.

We have discovered that one way to get Declan to sit still for more than a few minutes is to give him a couple of plastic cups and then let him go to town on inserting one into the other - over and over and over again.  He is really very good at it.  He also will pause whenever he hears music to sway his head back and forth or to flap his hands a few times to the beat.  He definitely enjoys a good tune.

He has taken a couple of steps, but perishes all thought of proceeding in favor of lowering himself slowly down to the ground to continue on in a crawl.  His favorite words are, "Lari, Mommy, all done, and Nana  " and he has become a pro at the sign language for "please" - usually this is accompanied by a loud scream if not seen and/or attended to immediately.  Declan greatly enjoys eating and will consume just about anything with zeal.  Unfortunately, we think he has a milk allergy - we are waiting to see the ped. at the end of this month, but his face gets red wherever dairy products touch it and if he eats enough of something with milk in it has pretty runny diapers.  No fun.

We love this "little" baby and while he is giving us a huge run for our money, keeping us on our toes, and all those other great cliches, we wouldn't have him any other way.  Eleven months.  Sigh.

Wild West Day

Today was wild west day. It is fun for me to see Lari wearing this getup now - Kyrie has worn it for the last two years at preschool and now it has been passed down to Lariska. She is quite the cutie cowgirl.

 

Playdate

We love it when we get to have a playdate with the McDowell's (and their cousin, Liam)!  It is always a ton of fun!

Piano

We are now the proud owners of a piano!  My grandmother had given her piano (the one my mother learned to play on) to Harry's son's family and they have had it for maybe a decade now, but decided it was time for it to move on.  Since we had room for it in our dining room, it has become ours!  It is very cool to have a piano - the kids have all been enjoying experimenting with it - even Declan.  Thanks so much for thinking of us, Grandma and Harry!

Poison Control

For the first time ever, I called Poison Control tonight.  I give you one guess as to the perpetrator - Mmmhmmmm - Declan!  Lariska, Kyrie, and the little imp were all pounding away on the piano and since I had spent much time in the dining room earlier in the day and cleared the floor off of any non-baby items I felt it safe to leave him alone with them for a few moments.  Matt went to check maybe within two minutes of my walking out (and I was only in the next room, by the way) to discover that he had a marker in his mouth.  When we got the marker away from him, not only was his mouth completely green, but we also discovered the marker was missing its tip.  We took him quickly to the sink and washed his mouth out.  Matt gave him some water to drink and I decided it would be best to call Poison Control just to be safe.  They were more concerned about the babe choking than being poisoned and since I was fairly certain there was no asphyxiation going on we relaxed a little.  All is well.

Here is what is incredible to me:

1) Declan is tall enough not only to hold onto the table, but also to reach some distance onto the surface of it.
2) Once he had the marker in his hand (from atop the dining room table), he was also able to uncap it.
3) He bit off the tip of the marker?!  What kind of nonsense is that?
4) He had the audacity to be quite angry with us when we took the marker away from, like it was some sort of prized possesion that he could not do without.

What a little monster meance.  I am sure that this (wonderful) child is going to cause me to faint dead away at some point with his antics.  God help us.

More Nana Bday Photos

My dad just sent me photos he took at Nana's birthday picnic last Friday.  They are, of course, pretty cute - my dad is a great photographer - so here they are:

Playdate

We had an awesome time at the park today with the McDowells.  The weather was fairly warm, so we had a little picnic and the kids had tons of fun going down the slide and playing on the tire swing.  Even Declan got in on the action, with some time in the swing.  We always have fun with the McDowells!

Megan is so cute with Declan.  She loves to hold him and hug him and is just real lovey-dovey towards him.  Declan, I would be fine with you marrying an older woman...if it was Megan, that is!

Tooth Number Seven

Declan's seventh tooth must have come in sometime over the weekend, because when he was smiling today I noticed that his next lower left front tooth was poking through.  My gosh!  Seven teeth (so far) before his first birthday - that is incredible, to me!  (Kyrie had one lousy tooth by the time she was one-year old...or maybe it was two...and Lari had four, if I remember correctly!)

She's a Girl

"Mommy, I have too many dreams about rearranging furniture."

Me too, Kyrie.  Me too.

Easter 2010

We were lucky to enjoy two Easter celebrations - one with the Kons family on Saturday, and one with the Berrall family on Sunday.  Unfortunately, I was once again too busy watching/participating that I forgot to take pictures.  Darn.  And, the girls and boy were so cute.  I did remember to take a couple of photos during the egg hunt at Grandma's house.  Here they are:

Birthday Week

Kyrie's birthday week consisted of an incredible amount of love and spoiled-ness.  It began with a balloon and flowers, a family bowling dinner (photos to be added soon), a McDonald's dinner, followed by donuts for breakfast and tacos for dinner, then on her actual birthday she had the breakfast of her choice (white eggs, bacon, and oranges), two snack-times at school (cinnamon rolls, tea sandwiches, chocolate-covered strawberries, and lemonade), and bagels for dinner (with the Schambow family), bagels for breakfast the next morning and Mommy picked her up from school on her half-day and on to Uno's for a lunch with Nana, Auntie Cathy, Amelia and Elizabeth, finally...the culmination of birthday week on Friday - a horseback riding lesson!  What a lucky girl.

Lunch at Uno's on Thursday:

After the horse Kyrie was going to ride whinnied to his brother out in the corral, Kyrie chose to have a quieter pony as her companion for the lesson.  Mommy was sad, since Mommy wanted to see more of the horse, but Kyrie did awesome with the pony - Bo.

Leading Bo out of her stall and over to the cross-ties to be groomed.

"Picking" Bo's shoes.

Kyrie carries her own saddle over to Bo...it's heavy!

Lariska did remarkably well with watching her sister receive such a treat.  There were many sighs of "I want to ride a horse" but overall I was very proud of her patience and understanding.

Actually riding the pony!

Leading Bo back in to be groomed and put back in his stall.

Lari got to give Bo some treats after Kyrie and was very happy to get to pet him.

Happy Birthday, Nana!

Mom, you ought to be acknowledged more often for everything that you do.  I am the worst at showing my appreciation - I often forget to even say a simple, "Thank you."  But, I really hope you know how much you are loved, how much we truly appreciate not only all that you do for us, but also everything that you just simply are by the way that you shine.  Thank you for not only being a role model to me, but also to my children, and countless other children on this earth.  You are loved deeply.

Happy Birthday, Nana.

Kelly and family

We had a little gathering in the park to celebrate Nana's birthday since the weather was so nice:

This is what Declan's feet looked like after playing barefoot in the park.  Mmmmm...yummy.