summer bbq

we had some friends the mercers over last weekend and it was such a fun night! baby patrick went to bed early at 6:30 in our pack n play upstairs which worked out very well for joe and katie so they could relax. mollie is 3 and declan really loved playing with her. they swam a little, played in the pool, colored and ate at the new kiddie table.



not to discriminate but, here's another "messy boy" "clean girl" photo

miss mollie is 3 and weighs 26 pounds,she feels like a little bird when you pick her up. our little declan is 20 months and weighs in at almost 32 pounds! he is just one solid boy! not surprising then that one thing that kept me busy this night was running interference when he finished his food and kept reaching over to eat hers...stinker!

declan showing her how he plays with the sharp, hot, metal grill

he is showing mollie his absolute #1 most favored toy in his collection, a musical chicco animal thing that plays old mcdonald when you push the cow, over and over and over and over and over

the lamb shop

i had to wake him a little early from his nap for a doctor's appointment last friday, just too cute all cuddled up... what you can't see is how he lays on top of his lambie. we are SO in trouble if we ever forget that lambie at bedtime, it is his sleep staple! and i also think why he never puts up a fight at naptime or bedtime b/c he loves that lambie. since this one was a baby gift when he was born, we had to go to the exact shop in lake forest, IL and buy a "stunt double" lambie for him to keep at school for naptime. also we needed a second one in case lamb needs a bath which is at least once a week and often during naptime. it has worked out perfectly!

so down the street from the lambie shop is the cutest children's boutique, Pennies from Heaven. they have tons of fancy, expensive, beautiful and personalized clothing. they said they try to put out sample outfits with fashion-forward names, soooooooo i was thrilled to see this!!!


the saleswoman said young moms and pregnant moms are always asking what names are most popular for personalized clothing. they are getting ideas, i know the feeling, i got a kick out of checking out all the other names on the beautiful clothes! i can't wait to get him a personalized norwegian snow hat with ear flaps but i want to wait until fall to make sure it fits his big noggin!


and how cute are these goldens who were parked outside??!!!!

stinker

declan really has always been a happy, joyful baby so i don't want to dwell on the negative, but WOW, what a strong-willed boy he is becoming! the smallest things (or sometimes nothing at all) set him off into screaming, crying, intense tantrums where he clenches his fists and falls to his knees in full drama. these episodes can last up to ten minutes depending on how long i feel like listening.

our pediatrician who is fabulous and i implicitly trust, advises to stay nearby but just let him work out his emotions on his own, interfering to distract him typically has the opposite effect. it is amazing, sometimes he will eventually just pick himself up and move on to a new activity like he didn't just let hell break loose on me.

it is worth mentioning, my dad said that my parents had a copy of the book "Raising the Strong-Willed Child" (and it wasn't for my brother). so the apple is not falling far from this tree. i wonder if the book is still laying around in the attic somewhere...

here are some common scenarios which instigate fits:
keeping him away from the hot grill
keeping him away from things cooking on the hot stove
limiting his play on the stairs as he hangs on the spindles like a monkey (he could do this for hours)
not reloading his toothbrush with toothpaste after a second or third time
not letting him play (or get crushed) in the automatic door at Trader Joe's
not letting him hold the glass jar of tomato sauce at Trader Joe's
limiting his hand washing sessions to 5 minutes (as he sprays water everywhere in our powder room)
telling him not to lick the diaper champ
i know - we are so mean!

just a couple of pictures from our lovely, fun-filled weekend! it really was fun which is why i don't understand the tears! tim and i have gone from trying to curb the tantrums to rolling our eyes, the old pros that we are!


because i took him out of his stroller for a picture with mama

rough life, dinner and coloring out on his new picnic table on a beautiful day

more summer fun

we had such a fun night last weekend with the stewarts, a pizza/pool party. jenna surprised us with delicious banana pudding for dessert, you know the retro kind with nilla wafers? all served in individual glass trifle cups, too cute! the little boys devoured theirs as well. those two are in the clean plate club!
we just realized how much easier/fun it is to eat outside now that the little guys can sit at a miniature table. it can just be hosed down after the meal reducing cleanup and not having to haul high chairs outside is nice too!



we are having lots of company over in upcoming weekends so i had to get on the kiddie picnic table thing. i fell in love with this one, it holds 6 toddlers and has the cutest umbrella (which is removable). we do have a very sunny backyard so i think this will be a feature we use!


THIS past weekend we saw billy joel and elton john at wrigley field with tim's parents. they took us as an anniversary gift, how lucky we are! we had a difficult time seeing the stage from our rooftop and the sound was sub-par (but it is a ballpark not a concert venue so i kind of knew that going in), however it was a beautiful night in the city. i enjoyed the people watching, wrigleyville was abuzz with activity. uptown girl was one of the encore songs and totally my fave!

saturday while the rest of the family was golfing in a charity tournament, i took declan to my old college roommate's house. she was having a bunch of families over for her son's 5th birthday party so we were happy to join in. here is seth, her youngest. he kept sneaking over to eat declan's lunch. d didn't care b/c he was very interested in the cheetos, his first...
a great time was had by all! lots of kiddies to play with, a huge playset, swimming pool, slide, his first trampoline, etc. and mama got to catch up with some girlfriends!


i love seth's expression in this one, looks like he hasn't seen food in days!

G.I. Declan

it is with mostly excitement (and just a tinge of regret) that i present to you declan's new summer cut!

BEFORE (i mean come on... )

AFTER

THE MANDATORY POST-HAIRCUT PLAY ON THE SLIDE


though his hair has won him more attention and praise since the day he was born than any other aspect of his little self, it started to reach new heights. heights i could not tame, nor did i have the desire to take him to cookie cutters every 4 weeks. that is more than tim goes! his hair was getting really fluffy and high and every day when i'd pick him up from school i'd think how funny his hair looked all ruffled after a long day of playing and neglect. it felt like what once was one of his coolest features was starting to get the best of him and take over!

the thought of a dramatic cut only occurred to me a week ago when i was flipping through a people mag and saw a really cute picture of jerry seinfeld's boys' hair. i forgot the picture the day of the haircut b/c i had a case of the flu and was otherwise detained but i think our michelle did a pretty nice job. below is the picture that started the whole thing (courtesy of people.com).


and a flashback for fun showing his glorious hair, here is declan's debut, just a few minutes into the world in Nov 07... such a beautiful boy!

our funny boy

we have a very funny little boy on our hands. although he is starting to really test us with daily tantrums, he is also pretty entertaining and happy most of the time!



the other day i was putting clothes away in declan's room and he disappeared into our room and was a little too quiet... i found him in his birthday suit reading books in my white (gasp!) chair. after i cracked up and took pictures i removed his little buns from my white chair!


he likes to wear our glasses and will put them on all by himself. he says "mama" when he's wearing mine and "dada" when he wears tim's. funny and smart!



you kind of had to be there to appreciate how funny this was. he was in his pool leaning over to drink from the nearby sprinkler.

lately he's been trying to ride the little people bus like it is a large ride-on vehicle. i figure that he'll soon learn the hard way when he falls off, doesn't look very comfortable either!

he has learned that it is much more efficient to drink the applesauce than use the spoon. he reminds me of his dad, rumor has it he licked a plate after a meal (i'm sure he was very young) and was sent to manners class.

watching his favorite "jack's big music show"

independence day weekend

wow, long overdue for updates! i will do some backposting this week, have some cute pictures to add, but thought it would be timely to post the recent 4th of July weekend. my mom and lynn came down for a visit. saturday the 4th, everyone in the neighborhood decorated their bikes/wagons/strollers and rode behind firetrucks in our own merrimac parade. it was a lot of fun! it started at 8:45 with donuts and coffee in the clubhouse and concluded after the long lap around the neighborhood by 10:30 just as it started to rain.


he was kind of mad there was sparkly garland on his car, oops sorry buddy

he quickly forgot about the garland once we started moving. he colored a patriotic picture at school last week so we afixed his artwork to the hood.

my little poser

the parade lead by two firetrucks with sirens on


i wasn't sure how he'd react to sparky, the giant mascot dog for the fire department. they were fast friends as you can see declan greeted him with a grab of the nose.



big trip to lowe's with a shopping list for our new basement. it is under construction now and will be finished in about 2 weeks. grandpa lynn is teaching declan about power tools in the photo above. good thing, lynn is our only hope in the family for teaching declan some handy skills.

nothing sweeter than a sleeping baby

i couldn't resist turning around and snapping a few pictures while declan napped on a road trip. this was last saturday, we drove up to NW indiana to visit the nietering side of the family and celebrate my cousin danny's wedding to tamiko which took place in japan last summer. i'm disappointed i don't have any pictures of the happy couple, they live in seattle.


love him, he's such a good little traveler! when he gets really tired and on his last nerve in the car he hugs lambie and elmo really tight and blocks us out. next thing i know he's snoring!