Last Saturday Declan hit the 18 month mark. Most often as a mom, I find myself wanting time to slow down and I'm not wishing for my kids to grow up faster. But man I have been waiting for this day for the last 6 or 7 months. :) At our church 18 months is when the kids start going to nursery during the second two hours. Let me tell you, trying to keep this kid relatively quiet and still for THREE hours is totally impossible and exhausting. He has become increasingly attached to me so I was a little worried that transitioning to nursery was going to be a chore. He did awesome though! With any luck that will continue. I peeked in through the window after Sunday School and he was sitting up to the table for snack time and he just looked so grown up! After looking forward to this day for so long, I was suddenly so sad! It didn't last long of course, but man watching your kids grow up is so fun and exciting and so sad too.
Here are some recent pictures of the little mister.
- Still obsessed with dogs. The whole world stops if we see a dog from our apartment, or on a walk, or at the park, etc.
-He loves balls. The people on the first floor have a whole basket of tennis balls outside their apartment. We pass their place every time we go swimming or for a walk and every time he has to stop and point it out until you say "oh yeah, balls." Sometimes he will get past them before he remembers and he has to turn around and go back.
-He is most ticklish on his back.
-He can usually be found with his finger in his belly button. What a weirdo.
-For the last couple of weeks there has been some papa/dada confusion. They are two words on his fairly short list but when he sees Brennan coming home from the balcony he will start saying "papa! papa!" until I correct him. And then when we see my dad on facetime he will point and say "dada!" He already seems to be figuring this one out though.
-At nap time and bedtime, we hold him and sing a couple of songs by his crib before laying him down. The way that I just naturally lay him down then is with his head on my left side. At some point he decided he has a preference on which way he lays so he will scramble around after we lay him down so his head is on the other end. I don't know why, but it totally cracks me up. Probably because of the way he just looks up and smiles like he is so proud of himself. Then you have to cover him with one of his thin muslin blankets. One time they were both out of his room so I tried to just use the thicker blanket that was right there and he was not having it.
-He has learned to tattle. It's amazing how quickly they learn things like that. When Tatum does something he doesn't like he comes running real fast and REAL loud to make sure I know he has been wronged. :)
-He loves babies and kids but always runs right up to them and immediately tries to touch their face. I'm pretty sure that isn't always appreciated.
-He has started voluntarily holding my hand while we walk occasionally. It's basically my favorite thing.
-Whenever it's time for a blessing on the food or family prayers he immediately folds his arms and then in his little voice goes "blbadkfndfadfad;jfadkja" really quickly, mumbly and high pitched. It makes me laugh every darn time.
-He loves to read. He insists on being on your lap while you read, he can't sit next to you. But he really could be read to all day.
-Seems to be going on a bit of a hunger strike lately. He basically never eats dinner and it's not rare for him to skip one of his other meals too.
-Every time Brennan puts him to bed he sings the same two songs. They have become some magical sleeping songs for Declan. He can sing them to him in the pool, in the stroller, on the train, on the bus, anywhere it will make him fall asleep. It's kind of awesome. :)
-When he sees an Anna or Elsa toy he will sing "let it go, let it go". It's obviously not enunciated perfectly but the tune is right. I'm not sure how he picked up on that since we have only seen the movie once in the last 6 months. Kids are so absorbent.
-Words: animal sounds, ball, dada, papa, all gone, booo (book), dooo (Duke), bay (bear), baby, go, mi (milk)
-He likes to share with Tatum and then get praise for it. We must always raise the pitch of our voices when we tell him good job. Now he will do something nice to Tatum and then come over to us and in this really high voice say "awwww......akldfjaldkjfadkjf". He will keep doing it until we recognize him for his efforts. And sometimes one of us just isn't enough. I will say something to him and then he goes to find Brennan and does the same thing. It's adorable.
Declan is a joy! (not always, of course, but overall we like having him around ;))
He is looking so grown up and tan! We can't wait to see you him soon!
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