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.

the 847

we were in chicago last weekend for cousin colleen's wedding and also enjoyed seeing tim's brother dan and his wife, melissa who made the trip in from boston. it was an awesome weekend!

a tired declan, uncle dan, aunt melissa

so fun watching these two grow up together!

mom paparazzi taking pictures!

looks like we'll have to teach declan that his cousin can not be his girlfriend!

what do YOU think about the healthcare bill?

yeah, we're screwed.


mary kate turns 2! making sure declan doesn't put his hand through the $47 dora cake!

on saturday morning in between brooke's baby shower and colleen's wedding, declan and i fit in a little visit to downtown lake forest. trying to soak up every last day of summer!

i'm certain this child has a built in magnet toward fountains and water features!

mesmerized (and later mad i wouldn't let him in)

we were having a fun time at the toy store and then watching the nearby metra train. then a really nice lady came by with her dog and she offered to take our picture. she must have been a mom too, knowing we don't make it in photographs much in the early years! too bad declan was more interested in the dog, could have been a cute one!

log cabin living

a few weeks back we scored a vintage little tykes log cabin for declan from a nice family selling theirs on craig's list. i had been wanting to buy him a playhouse for quite sometime having a feeling he would be into a house his own size with a door and shutters to open & close and his own telephone.

here are a few photos from the first days of having the cabin. it was hard for me to get the perfect shot as he doesn't stop moving! he definitely likes it!

marching back to his new house

about to tackle mama and the camera!


it is very large as playhouses go, still plenty of room for this big boy to grow into.

playing in the dirt! we tucked the cabin in our back treeline which is a large mulched bed with 10 pine trees. while it looks really cool back there, he tends to come out a lot dirtier than he went in. i'm considering moving it onto the grass for the remainder of the season and we can put it back in the "forest" for winter.

labor day weekend

we spent labor day weekend in michigan visting family and relaxing. it was great except i was sick almost the whole time with a sore throat,achiness and eventually a terrible cough and general tiredness.
so needless to say, i wasn't good about taking pictures over the weekend.

great grandma betty, doesn't she look fabulous for 80-something? not that anyone is counting :)

spent a day in grand haven with grandpa and mimi. the classic dairy treat. thanks to mimi for feeding declan his ice cream so the rest of us could concentrate on our cones! poor kid, looks like he might be pushing the weight limit on that umbrella stroller!

it was a gorgeous day by the lake. we walked around downtown and along the boardwalk.

enjoyed a wonderful summer dinner al fresco. mimi has a very beautiful garden!


my rocking chair from when i when i was his age. he loved it and sat in it the whole time as soon as it was brought out of storage. my mom would like to paint it white for a future granddaughter someday, but i kind of like it in its original 70s form!