Hammy

Declan is such a little ham sometimes.  Today he was enjoying chewing on Teagan's toothbrush in between me snapping his 9m "monthly" photos.  I got a good shot of his teeth even though it's a little blurry up close.  Love this little ball of smiles!

Toofers!

Nine Month Stats

Declan had his 9m well visit on Tuesday.  He was 18lb 12 oz (16%) and 28.5" (50%).  He had one shot and he didn't make a peep.  He did have an ear infection which I had diagnosed earlier that morning so it was one-stop shopping for the afternoon and we got the well and sick visit taken care of at the same time. Here are some updated month photos, I am not sure of the last time I even updated these on the blog!

Cuteness Overload

I can't even handle these photos - my little man looks SO big and handsome.  And my sweet Teagan was such a helper getting Declan to smile.  Props to Matt, my little apprentice, for taking these photos and doing a great job!  We needed an official nine month photo for Declan (update to his monthly photo series still to come).  But we got lots of different shots of our little guy in the mean time, and a few of our awesome little girl too!  Also - take note that the first photo shows off the little toofers on the bottom.

Prepare yourself....

I die.  Seriously, this photo makes my heart beat faster

Its a tough call for his official 9m photo - this one or the next one...

If we go with this one I'll clone out the orange on his socks

Big girl

fun with B&W

Happy 9 Months

Man how time flies.  Today Declan is nine months old.  Three quarters of a year.  Hard to believe.  

Declan has changed so much in the last month, every day he amazes me at how fast he is growing and changing.  I know I've been saying this for a while but he is getting closer every day to crawling.  Tonight he was doing about a half length of crawling, moving his legs and hands a little but not quite a full body's length.  He is trying to pull up on everything and will move his legs to "walk" if you hold his hands although of course he is still quite wobbly.  He can scoot all around, roll whenever he wants, and last weekend he even made it from laying to sitting while in his crib.  ***see update below***

On Sunday 1/8 Declan's first tooth broke through the surface and we could feel it with our finger.  He hasn't given much indication that it is bothering him though.  Such a contrast with Teagan whose bottom two teeth broke through at 6 months.  

Declan has made big advances in the food department in the last few weeks.  He is now very interested in finger foods and has no interest in purees.  If you give him one, he'll let you know his feelings about it by blowing raspberries and spitting it everywhere.  But he does great with picking up pieces of food and feeding himself.  He really likes pears, peaches, banana, cheerios, pancakes, broccoli, cauliflower, squash, sweet potatoes, scrambled egg yolk, peas, and Aunt Melissa's butternut squash bread.  A new food this week was Great Grandma N's double mac n cheese which was a big hit.  Dec also does great with a sippy cup.  He has learned how to drink from it and now even picks it up and drinks by himself.  He only drinks water from it for now.  Declan still nurses every few hours on the weekends and has 3 bottles at daycare.  He still eats 1-2 times a night but we have been working on stretching out these snuggle times with the hope of eliminating them completely in the near future (so Declan can be well rested and Mommy can get her 9+months-sleep-deprived brain back).  Declan usually takes 3 naps a day - one in the morning, one in the afternoon, and one in the late afternoon or early evening.  He sleeps about 12 hours total at night from 7 or 730pm until 7 or 730 am.  

Declan says Dada and Mama frequently, although I am not sure they are purely associated with Mom and Dad at this point.  Most of the time it does seem like the "Mama's" are directed at me though (like at 3am when I get him from his crib and am about to feed him, it's hard to imagine the mamamama's are directed at anyone or anything else).  Either way, the mamama's are music to my ears.

Declan is in LOVE with his big sister Teagan.  Watching him watch her is one of my favorite things to do.  She makes him laugh, squeal and clap with excitement.  She is really sweet to him (most of the time) and you can tell she is so proud that she makes him so happy.

Declan is such a sweetheart - full of snuggles and smiles and is generally a very happy boy.  We love his personality and the happiness he brings to our family.  I particularly love all of the sweet snuggles we share and it's a little bittersweet to see him growing up so fast.  We are trying to both embrace every moment of his baby-hood along with looking forward to seeing what each new day brings for him.  I can't believe my next big update will be when Declan turns ONE.  Wow.  Happy nine months Declan - we love you so much!


***Update***
Turns out the little stinker WAS close to crawling.  I wrote this post on Monday night and Tuesday I set my little babe on the ground and he crawled!  On the eve if his 9 month "birthday".  I have video proof!!!  We are in trouble - he is fast!

Party Time

Every year we try to make it to the extended family holiday party for Matt's mom's family.  Grandparents, Great Aunts and Uncles, aunts and uncles, and all sorts of cousins gather for the day, eat a LOT of food, and do a grab bag gift exchange and we enjoy ourselves every year.  This year was no exception.  We travelled to Connecticut for the party.  The kids were well behaved (as they usually are) and Teagan had a blast running around and playing with new friends.  

Being good in the car

Nom nom nom cheerios - looks like such a little man here

Daddy, Auntie, and Dec

Sleepy boy with spiky hair

Dec and Josh

M&J

Happy boy with Great Grandpa - his first Great Grandson

Sooo happy that he finally kicked his shoe off

Great Grandma and Grandpa

The clan - I got some good use out of my new wide angle lens here

Teagan at Grandma and Grandpa's watching the Grinch for the 4,327,562nd time

Four Christmases

We are lucky to get a lot of different Christmas celebrations with all of our family.  We had two celebrations Christmas day - one with Mame and later in the day with Jenna and Chris.  The following week we celebrated with Grandpa C, and then with Grandma & Grandpa G and Melissa & Josh.  Teagan is a pro at opening gifts after so many Christmases.  Here are some random photos from the week off, and various Christmas celebrations.

Silly face Declan makes sometimes

Silly face Mommy makes sometimes

Celebrating Grandpa's Birthday

Dec with Melissa & Josh

Playtime for my tiger baby

Lots of new toys (and cute new jammies too!)

Mame snuggles

Drinking his sippy and eating big boy finger foods