little picasso

this boy loves to paint! on his daily report from school, on most days it lists his favorite activity as art, paint or coloring.

i got a few art supplies so we could "create" at home.




pointing out his buddy cookie!

mmm donuts

what a morning! declan slept in until 9:06 which meant ALL of us slept in until 9:06! it was great that he decided to do this on a saturday, and also a morning where we were out late the night before! tim and i had a fun night out at the pacers game and out to dinner and drinks with friends.

tim took declan out for some morning errands which involved a donut run!

i think this might be his first whole donut to himself. he was pretty much hooked at the first bite!



death grip on donut!

a house full of chatter

declan recently received a plush grover doll in the mail from ceci and papa, tim's parents. he loves him! well, he really loves most sesame characters and identifies them all by name loudly throughout the day! his other favorite, a bus, is on his high chair.

i had a proud moment this week when his teacher wrote on his daily report, "do you do flashcards with him at home, because he knows quite a bit!" they think he is definitely ready to "graduate" to the 2 year old classroom. and it's a good thing because he will be moving from Brown to Vanderbilt starting on November 2nd! all the rooms are named after preppy colleges! i'm nervous for the transition and b/c he's had the best two teachers in the entire school this year, but his new room will offer a lot more toys, space, learning activities and his very first and close friend parker will be in his room too! so jenna and i are happy for that :)

here is a synopsis of the words we hear regularly each and every day around here:

hi yeah no-no bus truck car choo-choo bike light ball uh-oh elmo grover ernie oscar abby zoe emily cookie pumpkin outside agua eat waffle banana yo-yo (yogurt) shoes hat pee-pee go-go-go cow donkey doggie moon kitty house turtle

the family member name game: mommy, dada, you (that means him) mmm-a (grandma), mmm-pa (grandpa), mimi, papa, ceci, papa, nanny, bebby (great grandma betty)
he demands everyone's pictures be taken down from the mantle a few times a day to run through all the people in our family pictures. it is a cute game and he's always so proud of himself, even if it gets old for me to wipe the fingerprints off the pictures every day!

phrases: mommy... dada, i love you (over and over) love it!!!
airplane in the sky
cow moo moo
doggie oooh oooh (i'm working to turn this into woof woof)
sheep baa baa
bye bye car
not nice
and another favorite, he wakes up in the morning and from naps yelling "all done all done all done all done all done" until we come in! it sure beats crying!

a little grandma time

declan was really sick two weeks ago. after 6 days of a high fever, 2 days of puking, an ear infection diagnosis, 2 antibiotics, and 2 trips to the doctor, the doctor finally said it was most likely the H1N1. thanks a lot, a little after the fact! however, unfortunately there is no course of treatment for these nasty flu bugs going around so it wouldn't have made much of a difference if we knew earlier anyway. that week was so sad, i cringe writing about it even now. and i almost took a picture of declan laying his head on tim's shoulder but decided not to document that time and that sad face so i didn't take pictures.

on a good note, my mom was super busy helping care for her mother in law the week he was sick but offered to come down for a quick two days at the end of the weekend. declan was spoiled and got to stay home from school the following monday after his virus to spend time with grandma and get extra rest. it was a really nice treat to see her after a long, sleep-deprived week.