Declan's BooBoo

I knew that eventually the day would come when Declan would get his first real ouchie....

I was up stairs and Declan was downstairs with Doug. I heard Declan start crying but it took me a minute to realize that it was more that just normal cry. Sure enough Declan was crying hysterically as Doug was outside trying to console him. 

Declan had been on the couch with Doug when he crawled over to the other end of the couch. He is pretty fast, and he started to hang off the edge of the couch. Sure enough he slide right off before Doug could catch him. He went straight down onto a set of weights that we keep on side of the couch. 

He got a nice little bump and bruise to show for it. 

Nothing that some ice, a baby einstein movie and a cookie can"t fix :)

Memories

I have been working on organizing all of stuff that is in my parents house. My dad is getting remarried, in Oct so I figure I could start going through all of holiday decorations my mom had and distributing it out to the family. It has been a very therapuetic process that I didn't think I would enjoy as much as I do. It has been truly wonderful for me to slowly take each item out of the box and take a picture of it so my sisters can see it. I think of all the special memories that go along with each item. 

In 1 box i found Halloween bags for each of my sisters and i that she never got around to giving us, but oh how we will treasure that gift now. She was always so thoughtful and each holiday she would try to get us a few things that we could decorate our house with. 

I miss my mother in these moments and so wish I could just have her back for just a few moments. But in my heart I know she knows and is watching. I know she is happy that her stuff is being used and carefully distributed out to those she loves, to be cherished and loved. 

The Daily Grind

When I was a little girl, I loved to play house and teacher. I am sure lots of little girls do this. When I played I never put much thought about me actually being a mom. I always knew that I wanted to be one, but I thought I would be nervous and get scared. The moment Declan was born all those fears washed away. 

I can honestly say that I have been very calm and not at all nervous. Things have come very naturally to be, and I was easily able to figure Declan out and get the hang of things. We naturally fell into a routine and slowly my life became a nice schedule and routine. I am not obsessed with keeping this routine, but I have found that this routine has made my life much easier. I know what to expect and how my day is going to go.

I feel incredibly lucky to be able to stay home and take care of Declan. He is such a joy and I throughly enjoy playing with him and chasing him around the house. I realize that I wont have all these little moments with all of our children so I am soaking as much as this as I can. 

9 Months

I took Declan for his 9 months check up. Although he is closer to 10 months that was the soonest the doctors could get him in. He did great at this appt. And even better that there are no shots at this appt. 

He was in the 90th percentile for his height, and 50th for his weight. 

At this point Declan is full of energy and just wants to explore.

 He is standing and walking along furniture. 

He walks with his little walker all around. 

He prefers crawling everywhere because it's much faster. 

He babbles a lot. 

He says "Da" when he sees daddy come in the door from work. 

He laughs lots!

Smiles and everyone that says hi to him. 

He gets shy and is attached to mommy, but once he warms up he likes to play with anyone. 

Loves to play with dogs. 

Is the center of attention whenever we go out and shopping. 

Eats anything I give him. 

Drinks out of a straw sippy cup. 

We love having this bundle of joy and love watching him grow and learn. 

Declan (almost) Walking

Tonight Doug's Co-worker, Mollie, came over to get her hair cut.  We were excited to show her all of the new "tricks" that Declan has learned since the last time she got her hair done a few months ago.  Among those were: he can climb up the stairs (while hysterically laughing), he can now crawl, he can pull himself up onto the coffee table and walk around it.  He laughs a lot when someone else gets on all fours and pretends to "chase" him.  His balance has improved to the point where he can "walk" using a baby walker.  As we were showing this last trick to Mollie, he let go of the "walker" and pretty much stood on his own for about 5 seconds; we can tell it won't be long now!

Snuggle Time

So Declan has been going through a phase where he has been waking up at night at standing at his crib and crying/screaming. It is somewhat alarming because he has never done this before. It is one of those cries where it is hard to know whether or not there is something wrong or not. Anyways, sometimes there is no way to calm him down. After he drinks his bottles he continues to rage or sometimes he rages and refuses his bottles, and that is the most frustrating. 

The only thing that helps keep me sane when he does is, is the fact that often times the only way to calm him down is to snuggle and cradle him. And although I am tired and frustrated, I cherish those few quiet moments where I get to snuggle him I just smell him and stare and him. At those moments I feel so in love with this little baby and feel very blessed that he is apart of our lives. 

Jet Hawks

We found a deal on the website called Local Living were we could get 4 tickets to a baseball game in Lancaster and Doug has loved going. Sometimes the deal will include free hotdogs and drinks as well.
Declan, Doug, Matthew and I all headed down one Friday night and it was a blast!

There are fireworks at the end of the show and Declan is not a big fan of fireworks yet. But he will love them one Day!