lazy summer weekend

we have had a lot of weekends on the road this summer and have many coming up so we enjoy the lazy weekends around home like this one.
saturday we hit the carmel farmers market. considering our 8 month human alarm clock now goes off at 6:30 regardless of weekday or weekend, we were up with PLENTY of time to spare before the opening of the farmers market at 8AM. for those of you who know me well, not a morning person. and having a baby didn't change my internal wiring to like my sleep in the mornings. on my days off i've found creative ways to get in a nap while declan takes his morning nap at 9AM, and tim helps a ton on the weekends (because he TOO appreciates that i am happier with a little extra sleep in the morning)... even rising at 6:10 this morning hurt, but that smiling little face just waiting for me to come in and get him makes it so worth it. he is so full of joy and exploration in the morning and he is so happy to see us. it is a fun two hours to spend time with him before he crashes for his morning nap. perhaps he'll stretch back out to sleeping until 7 or 8AM for us one of these months, but for now it is wrong to complain because i am lucky that he is mine.

the carmel farmers market. there are many markets across town but this one is the best and i love it. we used to be close enough to walk from our old apartment (which is also ashley's new one)! things we love to get: a few pints of blueberries, super fresh local sweet corn, fresh cut flowers, something for breakfast like a homemade cinnamon roll or waffle, gourmet cupcakes, a real strawberry slush, brown cage-free eggs sold by little amish ladies with cell phones in their aprons(!)

notice the new "green" canvas tote for toting my market merchandise and small trips to the grocery store. in many ways we are consciously trying to be more green, but don't worry, we're not quite to the oxymoronic sticker on our gas-guzzling Pathfinder.



prune-face. i just thought it was cute.


showing off his new sippy-cup skillz. such a big boy.


took a long walk to a park this afternoon to ride the baby swing. of course, he loves it!

bathtub graduation

so we just started using a new tub, this cute $11.99 noah's ark inflatable tub for infants. it is working really well so far. it fits snugly in our big tub so it doesn't slide around and since d can sit up now, he sits and splashes and bangs his arms around but it doesn't hurt since the tub itself is inflatable. the only minor problem is after a few minutes of playing and splashing he grabs the sides and tries to pull himself out and whines when i don't let him. overall it is a great transitional tub since we were WAY too long for the baby tub and not big enough for the real tub.

isn't he so handsome??!! the best is when i wrap him up in his duck towel and he snuggles into me smelling all clean.

crawling, clapping, sitting and "da-da"

so i keep trying to get the following milestones on video, but we don't have a camcorder so i am left with 38 seconds of available space on my camera... it is enough time for a great video clip but declan doesn't quite respect the fact that i need him to crawl or talk or clap hands at exactly that moment for 30 seconds or i'll miss it. so i'll keep trying every day until i get it on film.

in the past couple of weeks the little guy has mastered sitting up on his own. i thought it would never happen since he did this kind of late, but he's sitting very independently now and playing with his toys which is nice.

he also does a great army crawl. he crawls all around on the room using his hands and legs and feet but his tummy isn't really off the ground so i guess that is called an army crawl. he makes enthusiastic wheezing sounds when he crawls too like he has emphysema, it is so funny, i hope to post a clip soon!

he also claps his hands very well. i have heard that this is a big deal not just because it is cute but b/c they have to use both sides of their brain to do this so it is pulling together cognitive and physical development. he does it totally on his own and doesn't have to mimic us so it is funny when you look over at him and he's just clapping away.

and as far as talking, we are currently in "da-da" land. his baby babbling, cooing and screeching have turned into real consonant sounds. i guess carrying him for 10 months in my belly and feeding him around the clock for his first 6 months of life one would assume ma-ma would be on the tip of his tongue the minute he starts to speak. not a chance! he didn't think to give me props first, but that's ok, he's a big daddy fan too! he grins from ear to ear and smiles so big whenever tim comes in the room. so for now it is da da da da da da da all day long. here's to hoping ma-ma will be somewhere in his top 10 new words.

saturday at the lake

i didn't have the chance to post about our fun day last saturday. to celebrate my grandpa gord's 86th birthday, many relatives congregated in warsaw, indiana at my uncle dan's house. they live on big chapman lake and it was such a perfect day! we took a boat ride, grilled out and relaxed and caught up with one another. my uncle dave and aunt sue came all the way from florida so they win the travel award! i hadn't seen everyone together since our wedding in 06 so it was an awesome day, also it was their first time meeting declan.



this is my youngest cousin delaney, she is 13. she was in baby heaven and got to take care of declan much of the afternoon. he loved playing on the blanket with her and she gave him his bottle too.

future blogger of america

he loves the computer, cell phones, remote controls and the camera - a real 2008 baby!

a beautiful july day

it was a gorgeous day, low 80s and low humidity, so we got our suits on after declan's nap for our first family outing to our neighborhood pool. he absolutely loved the water and it only took a few minutes before he started splashing just like he does in his baths! he splashes really hard and doesn't mind if his face gets all wet. i think that is a great sign that he'll love the water and trips to the pool just like me! i lived at the neighborhood pool all summer long growing up and was on the swim team too.





our neighbor had this little ladybug floaty baby raft... he loved it so we'll have to get one soon (perhaps in blue). it would work better in the big pool where his feet don't touch the bottom.

it was a wonderful day all around. we started by going out to breakfast and a walk at 9AM, then morning nap. then the pool trip and another long nap after we got home from the pool, i'm sure he was extra tired from the sun and splashing. tim and i worked in the garden and yard while he was sleeping. then we played on a blanket in the backyard in the shade for a bit.




for dinner we made a seasonal meal of bbq chicken on the grill, corn on the cob, potato salad and watermelon. it wasn't all idyllic as declan yelled and squirmed throughout the entire dinner and nothing could console him making it impossible to relax and eat but that is par for the course with a 7 month old. he was just worn out from his long, fun day and that's ok. :)

a very special gift

shelly, my dad's new wife, is an interior designer and she also creates custom handpainted items for some of her customers,typically in childrens' rooms. we had no idea she was working on a special toy chest for declan for several months, she started it even before he was born!!!

it matches his room so well which is red, navy and white. i will be adding nursery photos to the blog soon as i realized i haven't posted any yet!
these pictures came out pretty good showing all the beautiful bright colors. there is a lot of additional detail that can only be seen in person such as woodburning outlines of all the drawings adding texture and sweet little phrases burned into the red trim such as: his full name, "mimi and grandpa love you" "always listen to your daddy" and "giggle with your mommy"
top
note his name being "hauled" in the red truck on the left and the cute yellow michigan bus

front

side
note the Bears truck here and her signature spider web on the bottom which goes on all her work, cute!

side
note the Colts signature horseshoe on this side. good thing we got both football allegiances on here so declan can choose! we like both teams. a funny thing was that as shelly was painting this side, she kept wondering what school the blue "U" stood for...


thank you again shelly, it is very special and we know declan will treasure it always. i only wish i have a picture of you and declan with the toy chest, you'll have to visit soon!