BIG 16 month old!!!

declan had his 16 month checkup today, WOW where does the time go?!!!
first the amazing stats and then the photos! i've really never been one to get all caught up in the stats each time and i usually don't even remember a week later, but today i am very amazed how much this boy has grown in the past 4 months.
height: 35 inches WOW!!! he was 32 1/4 at his 1 yr appt so he grew almost 3 inches in 4 months, holy cow! well ABOVE the 95th percentile... that means he's basically the tallest boy in his class. :)
weight: 28 lbs 11 oz, he is one heavy boy and the scale confirmed it! up 2 1/2 pounds from last time. 90th percentile

having lunch before the appt

he's been enjoying holding a whole piece of food and taking bites with his teeth instead of having food cut up into tiny pieces. i think it makes him feel older and more independent, like in the picture above where he wants the whole cheese stick. this is a big milestone for me too because my biggest fear is him choking on food. so i watch him very carefully these days but so far so good, he's doing really well and seems to like his newfound food freedom.

getting undressed for his checkup, daddy surprised us at the office between his meetings.


chilling out, just waiting for the doctor. we were laughing so hard at how LONG he is on this table! it seems like yesterday he was a tiny little peanut who fit neatly in the square of paper and couldn't even roll.



climbing on anything he can find as usual. he climbed on these steps, ran around the room and loudly screeched "da da da da da da" while we talked with the doctor. normal toddler boy behavior!



another first! we hit the grocery store after the doctor and something made me think he might be ready to ride in the giant cart-car thing. after wiping it down with about 12 lysol wipes i threw him in. somehow he knew exactly what to do - he moved the steering wheel back and forth and even beeped the horn! he lasted about 10 aisles before i put him up in the child seat, about 8 more than i thought!

classy

i have no words. it is true what they say, he is nothing without his teleprompter.

no shirt, no shoes, great service

meals have become more labor intensive these days. mr. messy wears his bib for a few minutes but then proudly rips it off with a smile, throwing it on the floor and saying "uh oh" - such a stinker!

i can already tell that summer is going to work out in our favor b/c we can just strip him for dinner if its going to be messy... then straight to the tub! (i know, i never thought i'd be one of those parents but if it saves clean up time and preserves some of his clothes from being stained, i'm already over any stigma)


on one of our 70 degree days this week i tested this method b/c he had a cute new shirt on that i didn't want ruined. his belly provides a built-in shelf! he only bothers to pick two foods off his shelf and/or lap for anyone wondering: strawberries and cookies, never leaves a crumb of either! both food groups also come in handy during high-chair-meltdowns and work every single time.

a marshmallow egg funny

i'm not a huge candy person but if you twist my arm my most favorite candy treat ever is hersheys marshmallow eggs. i love marshmallow and chocolate together,and the eggs are chewy and not overly sweet. i recently picked up a 6 pack of eggs from target and tim told me if i wanted to enjoy them that i better hide them from him. hey, at least he warned me! so i furtively hid my egg stash in our lower corner cabinet which we do not use often.

well one night i wasn't very secret as i went for an egg and he heard me unwrapping something and peered over the couch, noticing my hiding place. so i shared the rest of the pack with him over the next few days.

after the gym on monday night, he was so thoughtful and told me that he picked up a new 6 pack of eggs for me as well as a pack of cadbury carmel eggs for himself (carmel is HIS thing). i thanked him for the marshmallow egg replenishment since they only come along once a year, and since i couldn't see them in the pantry asked him where they were. he replied "they're in the hiding place." i had a good laugh as i wondered who we were hiding our "his and hers" egg stash from now?!



maybe tucked away in their corner cabinet it somehow makes them feel more like a novelty than if they were next to chicken broth, triscuits and declan's graham crackers in the pantry. the calories don't count if nobody is watching right? :)

quick chicago trip

we did a quick trip to chicago this weekend so tim could attend a farewell party for his friend ryan who is moving to germany. i was supposed to go to the party downtown as well, but stayed back with declan at the last minute since he started running a fever. despite congestion and a low-grade fever, he was a very good and happy boy all weekend.

we were going to meet our newlywed friends tina and andy for breakfast on sunday morning without the baby but had a last minute change of plans and they came up to the 'burbs for breakfast at the house. we had a lot to catch up on and hadn't seen them since their october wedding (which you can read all about on her fun blog http://with-this-ring-i-thee-obsess.blogspot.com). since i had to stay in saturday night i was so happy to see friends, my weekend wasn't a bust after all!


always entertained by andy!



declan did so well in the car both ways, barely letting out a peep except his usual babbling e-i-e-i, da da, uh-oh, ba ba
he was quite the bookworm on the trip home today! he turns all the pages and studies each book for several minutes until i hand him a new one. i kept cracking up from the front seat and realized i better capture on film.

"nanny"

we had a wonderful nanny for declan the first year of his life. jane came over for lunch this week to visit since she's been missing him this last month, we recently enrolled him in school. she still watches him on occasional evenings and weekends and we are so lucky to have her! she is like family, declan loves her and was so happy to see her.


she always sat on the floor with him for his afternoon snack so she wanted to do the same on her visit. they are having jello with peaches.

spirit week at school

i thought it was too funny that declan got to celebrate spirit week at his school (daycare) last week. the school goes up to kindergarten but even the babies get to participate! we skipped "funny hat day" (on purpose) b/c he does not enjoy wearing hats, they are ripped off in minutes.

PAJAMA DAY (my favorite) i figure the kids must have been very comfy all day and probably took good naps in their pjs!
he might kill me when he's older and realized i sent him to school in fitted leggings!




FUNNY HAIR & SOCK DAY
i was kind of at a loss with what to do with his hair so i didn't do anything, wasn't sure it would stay gelled up if i put it in a mohawk or something... the teacher ended up doing everyone's hair in the class anyway so i laughed when i came home to this (!)
don't worry, he did wear pants to school we were just getting ready for a bath to shampoo out all the hair spray!

BFF, declan + lambie

we received this lamb "lovey" as a gift and it has slowly become a bedtime staple. i can't put my finger on when it happened exactly b/c lambie has been in or around his crib since he was too young to pick him up. he immediately looks for him in the crib, grabs him and turns him right side up, then he sucks on his nose like a little madman. when he's sleepy he tucks lambie's head under his own tummy, tucks his arms in and curls his body on top of the stuffed animal. i had to wake him up from his nap for a doctor's appointment the other day so i snapped a few pictures.


where did our baby go, there is a BIG BOY in his crib?!

more haircut fun

shaggy boy, BEFORE





we only let michelle at cookie cutters near his hair after a disaster in august when someone else did a terrible hack job and it took 6 months to grow back in properly! i always request "not too short," i like it natural looking around the ears and in the back. i will remember these days and laugh when he challenges us in high school and goes through the standard long hair phase that every boy goes through.

AFTER

first fish fry

sorry it has been so long!

friday both declan and i experienced a "first." in all my 32 years i have never eaten at a "lenten fish fry" and only eaten fried fish on probably 2 occasions. i just never ate that growing up due to my mother's aversion to all seafood! thankfully i do love seafood now, but fried fish never really made the cut unless it was really special!

the catholic church in our neighborhood puts on a few lenten fish frys leading up to easter. they are very well attended from the jammed parking lot!!! we opted to do the drive through since i wasn't up for eating my first fish fry surrounded by strangers. we literally drove to the back of the church, waited somewhat patiently for 20 minutes and drove home to enjoy our hot meal. the best thing, babies eat free!


tim is catholic and grew up eating fish on fridays for lent. thus we needed to document the occasion on film!

post-fry, stripped down and doing his rounds around the house

p.s. the meal was SO good, i don't know what i've been missing!!! fried fish, fries, cole slaw, mac & cheese and applesauce, yum (and unhealthy)