happy 2nd birthday to our little man!

i'm 2!

what a busy week! declan turned 2 the day before thanksgiving this year. we headed up to chicago to be with tim's family in the evening but we got to spend a fun day together before our road trip and the beginning of the mini-celebrations. he got to open some presents at breakfast from tim and i and then he wore his special personalized 2 shirt all day and got lots of attention. we went to gymboree class and all his friends sang to him while we were under the parachute which made him smile from ear to ear. i think he was a little embarassed because he ran into my arms at 60 mph when the song was over!
then daddy met us for lunch which was a treat to do during the week and we even got ice cream. he was on his best car behavior yet for our drive up to chicago and didn't fall asleep until 10pm when we were driving through the south side of chicago, he was so excited to go to ceci and papa's house.

declan, you bring us so much joy and fill our house with laughter and happiness. you are growing up too fast for this mommy but thankfully every day brings something new to look forward to!
a quick look back...

just a couple of weeks old

1st birthday

2nd birthday

an obsession with stop signs

a few times a week we visit the stop sign on the other side of the street. declan has a thing for stop signs right now, not sure how or why this started, seems a funny thing to be into! "stop sign" is frequently the first word heard on the monitor in the morning, he knows that it is right outside his window.

once a week we go to gymboree class for his play & music, well we are late each week because he always needs to visit and talk with the stop sign out in the parking lot. he tells it hello, waves to it, touches it, runs around it and says "wow" "stop" "yeay" i love the reactions and laughter of people passing by, he kind of sounds like rain man! he gets pretty mad when we have to say bye-bye to head into class. part of the fun of keeping a blog is i will be able to look back at this and laugh about the stop signs!


asking me to pick him up so he can touch the stop sign

camped out at his post



popping into daddy's office to say hello

bouncertown fun

we discovered this great new place bouncertown at our little nearby outdoor mall. kids under 2 bounce for free so we've been doing that for a few months now when we are in the area! and last time we were there, declan bounced for 10 minutes and played this car racing game for about 30 minutes! had a blast without any quarters, he really thought he was driving!


very serious business

fall family photos

long time no blog update!!! i've been lagging in my updates lately but hopefully this post will hold everyone over until some fun turkey day and birthday updates next week!

i've always wanted to have a professional photographer take some family photographs of us outdoors, preferably in the fall. we almost did it last year but right when i settled on a photographer, it got freezing and i didn't want to take our then 10 month old baby out in the cold wet woods!

my goal was to get one or two great family shots and the same for declan by himself. also one to make into a big black/white stretch canvas for the top of the stairs and one for our christmas card this year. mission accomplished.

ENJOY!!!

yes i am biased, but could he be any cuter?

andy's hat

declan loved having his uncle andy here last weekend and especially took a special liking to his hat. he normally doesn't wear hats for long periods of time, say more than 20 seconds. however, he got this hat on and would not take it off! he even did a few laps around the kitchen as if he were on a runway. too cute!

santa will be bringing him a new hat of his very own for christmas :)

trick or treat

this year trick or treating was a lot of fun! my mom and brother visited for the weekend and were such a big help halloween night... they handed out candy at our house so we could take declan around to a few houses. i wasn't sure what to expect this year and i would not have been disappointed if declan hated it, i'm not a big halloween person myself. well, it was a success and we all enjoyed ourselves!

we probably hit 12-15 houses this year and our little elmo had such a great time. i think he loved all the attention, and he was very aware and proud of his elmo costume. he walked really slowly around the last few houses so we just carried him or we would have been out until morning!

he really warmed up to his costume and wanted to wear it saturday morning, before trick or treating.

getting suited up

model elmo, he was a crowd pleaser!

i was so impressed how he held on to his pumpkin all night!

on the home stretch with uncle andy and daddy

school halloween parade

declan's school had a little halloween parade. i was under instruction from my friend jenna to also take pictures of her little payne stewart, parker. parker lead the parade like he owned the school!

declan wasn't in his best mood since we had to quickly put his elmo costume on in his class right before the parade, he just wasn't sure. understandably he was also confused as to why grandma and i were at his school with him and why he was wearing a furry red costume.

when i look away for a split second

declan was creating some art with green paint and markers the other day after lunch. as you can see, i am standing right in front of him. my attention diverted from him briefly while i responded to a text message.

next thing you know...




why am i not surprised? he is into absolutely everything he shouldn't be and tests limits all day long! such a little monkey! while he is an active little rascal, he is also very happy, loving and gregarious and we wouldn't trade him for anything! i also know this is trademark 2 year old stuff.