Michelle in Texas

My favorite pictures

2012-01-10T23:29:00.002-06:00

Getting ready for a trip and wanted to have some pictures posted to show some friends.

Jelly Face!

Visiting with Grandmommy and Grandaddy

Pumpkin Can Hat.

The pumpkin he decorated all by himself in preschool. (Well, I think the teacher helped him glue on the ice cream cone hat.)

Having fun with Daddy.

Feeding ice cream to the cat.

Having dinner at Sesame Street before the pre-school christmas program.

Riding a tractor with Grandad in Illinois at Christmastime

I think he was more interested in the numbers than the tractor ride.

Christmas morning. He has a "little cookie man" sugar cookie.

Opening presents was a lot more fun this year than last. He got it this year.

This year's Christmas sponsored by Thomas the Tank Engine and Hot Wheels.

Playing cars with his cousins, Garrett and Devon. They were sweet and generous and gave Declan their entire collection of Hot Wheels cars to take home.

Sitting in the backhoe with Grandad.

Checking out the combine.

Declan and Devon both wanted Devon's new hat.

Trying to convince Garrett to give him a horsie ride.

Snow is cold!!!! Especially when it gets in your eyes!

He loved playing in the leaf piles I raked up when I got home after Christmas.

Spear fishing in the leaf pile!

Milestones

2011-09-06T15:41:00.001-05:00

We've had a lot of milestones in the last week or so.

Sleeping. We decided to pull his mattress out of the crib and try to get him to sleep on the floor at night. He doesn't like going to bed, and I half expected him to spend a couple hours playing with his toys and finally conking out around 11 pm or so. Surprisingly, he did pretty well. He cried for a bit, cried for a little longer, and was actually asleep about an hour after we put him down. He has kept waking up in the middle of the night, some nights several times. One night I just slept next to him, and every so often, he'd reach over and pat my face. To make sure I was still there, I suppose. The next night, Daniel took his turn. He's waking less often, so it's encouraging. I think in the next week or so, we'll get a twin mattress for him and dismantle the crib. Guess we can rearrange his rooms, too.

Potty. Maybe not the most interesting of topics, but we actually had a success with the potty this weekend! Yay! But only once.

Speaking. He's really taking off. He wants me to read a book to him, and he'll repeat my words a couple of seconds after I say them. He did the same thing to a couple of Thomas movies this weekend. He'd repeat about every 5th word. It's amazing how much he's talking now.

Property. He's recently gained an understanding of the concept of "mine." He wants his trucks or his blankets.

I do it. Just the other day, when I was putting on his shoes, he said that he wanted to put his shoes on himself. He couldn't manage it, but I helped him and and had him do as many things as he could. We've also recently started letting him watch us cook and help as much as possible. Like stirring or putting the ingredients in a recipe.

Chores. It's now his job (although he doesn't realize it yet) to fill the cats' food dish. He just thinks it's fun to scoop food out of the bin and put it in their dish.

Social. He's a little social butterfly. He charms everyone, everywhere he goes. The farmers' market, the grocery, the garden store. He's never shy or scared of strangers. If he wants company, he has no problem going up to a stranger, grabbing their hand and pulling them along to show them something he finds fascinating. One of the things we've worked hard with him is saying please and thank you, and it's worked wonders. It's part of his charm. There's something about a tiny tot saying "please" while asking for a balloon or sucker, and then saying "thank you" that makes everyone smile. He'll hug folks too, if you give him some encouragement. He'll even deign to give mommy and daddy a hug and kiss now.

Dressing. He will pick out his own shirt a lot of days. Of course, just as many days, he'd prefer to wear no shirt, and he'll announce it loudly and frequently. "No shirt! No shirt!!!" Sometimes, we have battles over wearing a shirt, and mommy always wins, but it's not easy.

Of course, he's also testing the waters of independence. When he's put into time out on the couch, he'll see if he can put a foot on the floor, or hang an arm over the edge. Testing to see how far he can get away with not staying on the couch before we make him go back to the couch. Sometimes, it's annoying, and sometimes it's so funny and obvious that it's really hard not to laugh when you're disciplining him.

Lots of fun.

Cute pictures

2011-09-06T14:10:00.000-05:00

I had my canning pot outdoors to cool off, and we had a brief, rare shower, which filled it up. Declan saw it and insisted on taking his bath in it. I figured..."why not?". Take a look and laugh.At the farmer's market.

Vacation Pictures

2011-09-06T14:05:00.002-05:00

Finally got my pictures uploaded. (Of course, now my kitchen is in disarray due to a remodeling project and I've misplaced my camera. Thankfully, I got most of my pictures off of it before now.)Grandmommy's (Meme's) shoes are a little big, still.This is cute. Declan was crawling around and under his cousin, Devon.Chillin' on the front porch.Awww. So sweet of Devon.We encouraged Declan to run up and down the sidewalk, yelling at the top of his lung, as much as possible all week long.Boating. He did not really enjoy his time on the boat. Maybe that will change over time.Declan and MemeDo you think he looks like me?Last day. He still wanted to run around, not go get in the car.

Vacation - Back to my Roots

2011-08-01T08:31:00.000-05:00

I took Declan with me and we visited my parents in Illinois last week. I had to visit to do some legal/business stuff anyway, and my parents wanted to see their grandson. So I left hubby at home, where he could stay up late, sleep in, play video games and eat bachelor food.

Declan did really well on the plane flights. I really think that once he's strapped into his car seat, he knows he's traveling and he calms down. It makes carrying that car seat through the air port totally worth it!

It's been miserably hot and dry here in Houston. We're in an exceptional drought, the highest category, and it's routinely in the upper 90s. So what happens when I travel 1,000 miles north? They have their hottest day in 21 years! And they're in the middle of a 3 week drought. Maybe not as serious as the 7 month drought we have in Texas, but it's hurting the corn and keeping it hot.

We all went in to the band concert Friday night and partook of the ice cream social. Devon, my 10 year old nephew wanted to come with us. He, his brother Garrett, and their parents all adore babies and children. So I was asking my parents if he could come, too. It was great! He spent the whole evening watching Declan, helping he go run around the bandstand and play with the other little kids. All I had to do was buy him some cake and ice cream, then I could sit back and relax for the evening. Wonderful!

The Aflak duck:
My mom has a stuffed Aflak duck, and when you push a button in its belly, it squawks "Aflak, Aflak...AFLAK!" My brother's family came over one night and started playing with it with Declan, and Declan would just giggle hysterically on the last AFLAK. And of course people would laugh at his reaction. So he'd laugh harder, to get a bigger reaction. Before long, the entire room was in stitches. After about 10 minutes, I asked Declan what a duck said. His reply: "Ack-ack, ack-ack...ACK-ACK!" Which of course made everyone just collapse in laughter.

I took my nephews to see Captain America, which was a really good movies. Then the next day, Garrett volunteered to watch Declan while everyone else went to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2. I thought it was a great ending to the series.

The last day I was there, we took the boat out to the lake. It took a couple tries to get it running. We had a couple problems with the lifting mechanism on the lower unit. But eventually we got it running. There was almost no one on the lake on a Tuesday afternoon. It was hot and sunny; a good day to be on the water. Declan was none too pleased with it at the beginning. Maybe it had to do with the baby life jacket I shoved him into. It probably made him hotter, and the boat was all new and scary. He really cried when I was driving the boat and we wouldn't let him sit on my lap. He refused to sit on Granddad's lap, and settled for standing next to me and holding onto my leg. Finally, he gave up and laid down on the bottom of the boat and just waited. I think he was sort of enjoying it by the end.

It was a nice trip, even if it was super-hot most of the week. There was one night where it cooled off enough to open the windows and listen to the night insects. I miss that so much. I hope my parents appreciate the beauty of where they live.

Engineer by Day, Domestic Goddess by Night

2011-06-14T21:07:00.000-05:00

I've been busy lately.

On Saturday, we made a family outing to a local pick-your-own orchard. I got 45 pounds of wonderful tomatoes, 8 pounds of blackberries, a bunch of onions and some other vegetables. Plus some guinea fowl eggs.

So Saturday, I spent the day making seasoned tomato sauce and canning it. I made 9 quarts of sauce, and had enough left over for parmesean chicken the next night.

I also made two kinds of blackberry jam: blackberry, black pepper, and rum; and blackberry, white chocolate and Kahlua. Then we made a blackberry crumble for dessert. Too bad for Declan, we made it after he went to bed and we ate it all.

Next night, I made yogurt, which I used to sneak in some veggies to Declan's morning smoothie. Who knew strawberries, pineapple and spinach worked so well together? Plus I made bread. One was a regular loaf, and for the second, I experimented. I made a cheddar cheese, pepperoni and black pepper loaf, and it tasted awesome! Also managed to make some chocolate sauce from scratch, because I don't want us to eat high fructose corn syrup. It only takes about 10 minutes to do.

Finally, tonight I'm making coconut chocolate ice cream and some no-bake granola bars for Declan's and Daniel's snacks.

Can you tell I've been interested in wholesome cooking and such? I'm trying to avoid processed food, including things like wheat and high fructose corn syrup. My next goal is to learn to make fermented foods, like a sprouted wheat berry bread, and kefir and pickles. I feel like a frustrated pioneer homesteader sometimes.

Movie Night

2011-06-09T23:04:00.000-05:00

Yes, it's movie night! We we trying to get the baby sitter to come by, but she never returned my calls. I tried for a week. Did I do something wrong? I have no idea. But I ended up talking to my neighbor, who happens to be Christian's grandma. She offered to watch Declan for us one night so we could go see X-Men.

So we saw X-Men tonight! I really liked it. I thought they put a lot of work and love into the story line. It's compatible with the original trilogy, with only minor modifications. The plot was solid, the characters were real and the dialog with believable. I really liked the relationship between Erik and Charles; you could really feel they wanted the same thing, but ended up on totally different sides in how they wanted it to happen.

We even had time to go to dinner before the movie, so double score! One thing I do like about Texas is the number of excellent Tex-Mex restaurants around. We went to Chuy's and the food was great, although it was so loud it was hard to talk.

We got home around 10:00 and went to our neighbor's house to pick up Declan. I was a bit nervous about him going to sleep, because he's only ever gone to sleep in his crib at night, and we've only recently gotten him to sleep on his crib mattress on the floor for his naps. I thought he'd definitely be asleep by 10, though.

I was wrong. He was still awake. Turns out he was upstairs sitting in Naomi's lap and watching Thomas the Tank Engine. Apparently, he just couldn't fall asleep and stay asleep. He'd nod off, then wake up and whimper. I'm not sure who I felt most sorry for.

We took him home and tucked him into his crib and he went out like a light. Maybe tomorrow I'll try and sneak out of the house quietly and let him sleep himself out. Or maybe he'll be up at 6 am just like usual. Who knows.

New Words

2011-06-05T19:00:00.000-05:00

This morning, we went to the park to play with Christian, the 2 year old who lives down the street from us. When we got there and he spotted Christian, he called him by name, first time he's said Christian's name. And when we left, he said "bye bye Christian."

Today at lunch time, he sat on my lap and wanted some of the cheese souffle I had. I cut a bite off and put it on the fork, and he shook his head and said, "no. Too big." Color me surprised. So I cut it in half and offered it again, and he ate it.

This morning when he got up, he said "Big bug" and when Daniel went to check, yep, there was a huge palmetto bug on its back in the hallway. Daniel said, "Yes, that is a big bug," then he proceeded to threw it outside. Ugh. I glad he found it this morning instead of me.

Anyway, that's a lot of words for one day.

Success in Napping!

2011-06-05T17:10:00.000-05:00

This afternoon, I pulled his crib mattress out of his crib so he could romp and play on it. So at naptime, I decided to try and get him to sleep on his mattress on the floor. I put a child-proof lock on the inside door knob in one room, and a baby gate up on the door in the playroom. (He has 2 connecting rooms: a bedroom and playroom, and a door in each)

Then I went shopping! :)

Daniel said it took him about an hour and 15 minutes before he finally settled down and went to sleep, but he did sleep on his mattress for 2 hours! I guess when you've got two whole rooms with toys to play in, it takes longer than normal to settle down. But I'm very happy. He's getting big enough that I'm not sure how much longer his crib will hold him.

Sleeping in the big bed

2011-06-01T22:33:00.000-05:00

I've often said I'm going to keep him in his crib as long as I possibly can. He's way too energetic to go to sleep voluntarily, and I've never seen him lay his head down and fall asleep on his own. Not since he was about 5 months old. He has to be confined in his crib before he'll settle down and go to sleep for either his nap or bedtime.

Well, the other night, he keep wanting to lay down in our bed after he had his jammies on. He'd keep saying "sleep" and pull the blanket over him. So I told him okay, he could go to sleep in our bed, if he would actually stay there. I even brought in his blankies, his sea horse, and his bottle of water. I went back to the kitchen and about 10 seconds later, I heard the pitter patter of little feet.

I told him to go back to bed, and he ran back into the bedroom and climbed into our bed. I walked out again, and another 10 seconds later, he's in the hallway. So I sent him back to bed, and this time, I waited just outside our bedroom door, looking through a crack in it. As soon as he put his feet on the ground, I opened the door and said "back to bed." We did this about 10 more times, until I finally gave up and told him he had to go to sleep in his crib.

Honestly, that's exactly how I expected it would go, and I didn't mind at all. I thought it was cute. I wondered if he was amazed that I could always figure out exactly when he had gotten out of bed, but he may not be that sophisticated yet.

We haven't attempted a repeat experiment, but I'm thinking about his big boy bed and how to rearrange his bedroom now.

More Random Pictures

2011-06-01T22:28:00.000-05:00

I just think he looks cute and funny here.

From our recent trip to the beach.

High winds the day before had thrown tons of seaweed onto the beach.

Chillin' on the diaper boxes. They make a great temporary bed.

This is the night he decided he'd rather play with stickers than get his jammies on after his bath. Then he had to run and show Daddy all his "buttons."

Pool Fun

2011-06-01T22:26:00.000-05:00

This is when we went to Christian's house to play in the pool and with his choo-choos. I think this is where most of Declan's choo-choo fascination came from. It's also the site of the great strawberry theft mentioned in an earlier post.

We convinced Declan to go down the slide a couple of times, then he didn't want to anymore. I'm not sure if he got scared, or just stubborn.

They both had a blast sending the cars and trains down the slide, though.

I found some humongous strawberries for them to snack on. Christian didn't like strawberries, but he'd only had sliced ones before. When he had a great big strawberry in his hands and saw Declan nom-nomming on his, Christian decided strawberries might not be so bad after all.

Here's the site of the choo-choo wars.

Finally, here's the great strawberry theft, once again.

Zoo Visit

2011-06-01T22:20:00.000-05:00

A couple of weeks ago (before it got hot), we took Declan to the Houston Zoo, thinking he might be old enough to enjoy looking at the animals. I'll skip to the end...he wasn't. He was as interested in the leaf on the ground as the lemur in the tree. So Daniel and I went to where we wanted to go. But I got some good pictures, and he had fun too.

Brushing the goats.

Trying to get the fish.

Okay, not the best quality picture, but this was in the piranha tank. They had a tube that the kids could climb through, and this was right before they fed the piranhas.

He did love watching the little ground squirrels dig and dig.

Toddler Games and Choo Choo Madness

2011-06-01T21:53:00.000-05:00

Who knew that you could spend 30 minutes running in circles around a dining chair in the middle of the kitchen, and it'd be the best game of the week? It got even better when I put a discarded tension rod on the floor and we had to step over it on each lap.

I don't know how Declan did it. I got dizzy after 5 laps, but fortunately, we were going nice and slow.

Another game we discovered was Flying. I'd lay on my back, and Declan would flop on top of me. Then I'd lift him up toward the ceiling and tell him to put his arms out wide. That makes him giggle non-stop. I get in a little workout by doing baby presses, too.

Then there's the pig game. We only play that when he's in his crib for bedtime. I do the Five Little Piggies on his toes, and he screams with laughter on the 5th little piggy going Whee, whee, whee all the way home. Then he sticks his other foot up in the air and says in a demanding, toddler way, "Pigs!" So we play pigs about 6-8 times every night.

His all-time favorite thing right now, however, is trains. Or choo-choos. He got a Thomas the Tank Engine book for his birthday in March. The first day, he made us read it to him 12 times. Then he wanted to read it multiple times every day, and it's all he wants to read at night.

Then we went to Christian's house a few weeks ago to play in the pool. Christian had a bunch of Thomas the Tank Engine toy trains with magnets in them, so they'd snap together. He and Christian were fighting over them most of the day. One would pick them up and run off with them, then he'd drop some, and the other would run in and scoop them up. Neither of them has the concept of sharing down yet, but that's okay. They're both just two.

Oh, you have to take a look at the video of them eating strawberries. Actually, Declan loves his strawberries, and devoured his right away. Christian wasn't used to eating whole strawberries and was taking his time. Well, he took too much time, and Declan decided to take the strawberry right out of his hand and run off with it. Christian, in a bit of a delayed response, decided he wanted his strawberry after all, and took off after Declan. So cute!

Anyway, now Declan has his own Thomas the Tank Engine playset, with three little trains to play with. His new favorite word is "snap", because the trains snap together. And we frequently have to take them away during dinner time in order to get him to eat his lunch or dinner. Sometimes, he demands that we sit and play with him, and while I love spending time with him, as an adult, I admit that I get quite bored running trains around a circle track after about 10 minutes. But it's still loads of fun. I like it when Christian can come over and they can play together. Or at least side-by-side and steal the trains and cars from each other.

We're supposed to meet them at the park this Sunday morning so they can play together outside before it gets beastly hot. Of course, it depends on whether or not we get any of that tropical system that formed overnight around Florida. I'll take the rain over anything else right now. They're more than welcome to come play in our house!

Easter Egg Hunts

2011-04-24T22:54:00.001-05:00

Declan had his first Easter egg hunt(s) this year.

Friday, we went to the HEB grocery store near our house. They had an Easter egg hunt for the kiddos. They had donuts, muffins and orange juice for the parents, and for the kids, they had roped off three aisles and littered them with tons of plastic easter eggs. The 1-, 2-, and 3-year olds had one aisle to themselves and they got to go first. They were also allowed to bring their parents with them, since most of them were so little they didn't know what to do, and some couldn't even hold their own Easter basket.

We took Declan in, and it took him a couple minutes, but then he figured out that we wanted him to pick the eggs up off the floor. Then it took a little while longer to convince him to put them in his bag (we forgot to bring a basket).

Then he was determined to put all his eggs in the basket of a 1-year old who looked very confused about the whole event.

But a good time was had by all. Declan quickly figured out that he could open the plastic eggs and there was candy inside! He had some jelly beans and started running all around the store. That's was the point I left him with his daddy and went to work! Mwa ha ha.

Sunday morning we had a neighbor egg hunt for 3 houses and 3 little kids. We littered one neighbor's yard with ..sheesh, there must have been almost a hundred plastic eggs there, plus bubble wands, sidewalk chalk, coloring posters. These kids are gonna be so spoiled. :) It was Declan, Christian (who's the exact same age), and Celeste, who's 3.

Christian was sort of tired, so he spent a lot of time picking up eggs and throwing them at the cat. Declan ran around opening up each egg looking to see if it had chocolate or jelly beans in them. Celeste was on a mission. She was picking up every egg she could find and putting it in her basket. Maybe it's a good thing we had a hundred eggs.

I took a lot of pictures, but they were all moving so fast, most of them were blurry. I could really see what a jelly bean rush does to a 2 and 3 year old this morning!

We started off good, getting Declan to pick up a couple eggs and put them in his basket (sand bucket).

But then he remembered that these things opened and there might be candy inside.

And a second one.

And the third and fourth and ...

And the tenth...

Mmmm, jelly beans.

Occasionally he found other things he liked. Like sidewalk chalk, and some weird thing that makes strange noises when you shake it.

Here's Declan and Christian, chasing each other down the sidewalk.

Hope you had a hoppy Easter!

Hair cut before and after

2011-04-24T22:39:00.002-05:00

Hurray! I didn't butcher his hair or give him another bowl cut.

Before:

After:

Declan Turns Two

2011-04-08T22:06:00.000-05:00

My parents came to visit, and I was really looking forward to their visit. We managed to get to the beach at Galveston on Tuesday, before everyone got sick. Unfortunately, my dad, Declan and myself got horrible colds. Mom had a sinus infection, and Daniel had a bad reaction to a new drug. I said we should just put a quarantine sign around our house. It was terrible.

But in spite of all the sickness, we still had a fun time, and I'm glad my parents came to visit. They helped me build a sand box for Declan, rearrange my patio so it looks nicer to sit on, helped me build a new mini patio to hold some of my container plants, and my dad rebuilt some shelves in my garage, so now I have space to buy an upright freezer and install it! We may not have gotten to the zoo, but we had a good time.

We actually postponed Declan's birthday party by a day. He didn't know any better, and it gave everyone else a chance to get better. By then, everyone except myself was doing much better. I'm also glad I didn't put a lot of effort into making fancy decorated cupcakes. He got cupcakes from a mix, and I made frosting for them. And we got ice cream. It was a good enough birthday for a 2-year old. thank goodness we didn't have a big party with lots of people planned!

Declan raked in the loot, at least for a 2-year old. His Virginia grandparents sent him a Mr. Potato Head and a recycling truck that counted tags as you put them in. He's all about counting to 10 now, so he loved that. I got up the next morning, and Mr. Potato Head had had a horrible accident, with pieces scattered all along the hallway. It was a terrible crime scene. I think we've only located a hand, a set of lips and the main potato. Who knows where the rest of the pieces are.

He got more Duplos and a couple puzzles from Daddy and me. His Uncle Poppy and Nana Shannon and cousins got him an awesome, 2-foot tall Little Person car ramp, and he spent many happy (and quiet) moments experimenting with what would go do the ramps. Mom's friend Anita got him a Thomas the Tank Engine beginning reader book, and he loved it! He demanded that we read him that book about 10 times in a row the first day. Since then, we've bought a second book like that one, and we read both of them several times each day. He frequently asks for his choo-choo book.

His Illinois grandparents got him toys for his new sandbox, some t-shirts and an Easter present still waiting to be opened.

Here he is with his favorite bubble mower, mowing the hallway and modeling a new hat.

Opening presents.

Blowing out the candle.

(Daddy had to help a bit)

Declan, Meme and Papaw.

Random pictures

2011-04-08T21:54:00.000-05:00

Because I'm going through my pictures in a big old batch. These are from last winter (if you can call it winter in southeast Texas).

I think I did this one already, but it has to be one of my favorites. I managed to squash a piece of aluminum foil on top of his head. He thought it was hilarious. Camera phone quality, but still a great picture.

Daddy rides.

Bathtime. With a washcloth on his head.

One of my friends gave us a train set, and now he adores all things trains.

Sacked out. A rarity in this house.

A really good apple.

The joys of finger painting.

Beach Pictures!

2011-04-08T21:50:00.000-05:00

I finally made time to do pictures!

We went to the beach a few weeks ago. I got burned red as a lobster. Declan only got a bit of sun. I took a lot of pictures, and some of them actually came out nice.

"Hi, mom"

Walking on the beach.

Laughing. Why? Who knows. The wind felt good?

This was funny. Declan wanted to eat part of Daniel's sandwich, but Declan's hands were covered in sand. So Daniel insisted that Declan just take bites of his sandwich. Before long, Declan was running a circle around us sitting on the blanket, stopping each lap to take another bite of his daddy's sandwich.

Walking on the beach.

Investigating the surf.

Shoes.

The Beach

2011-03-23T08:17:00.000-05:00

I owe pictures. I'll get them up tonight(?). If there's time. We promised to do legal paperwork tonight. Fun.

We went to the beach at Galveston on Sunday. It was a blast, although I got way too much sun. I'm burned red as a lobster. Declan got a bit of sun on his cheeks, and Daniel fared just fine. We were only there for 30 minutes, too.

We went to Sea Isle on the west end of the island. The east end was packed with spring breakers. So much nicer to be on the west end, even if we did have to drive another 20 minutes. The only people on the beach were a group of surf fishers, so Declan was able to run around to his heart's content.

We even packed a picnic lunch, but that turned out to be an exercise in logistics and baby handling. Declan was soon covered in sand, and we had to feed him without letting his hands touch the food. At one point, he was literally running in a circle around Daniel and me, and stopping on each lap to take a bite out of Daniel's ham sandwich. Hilarious!

The beach was littered with blue button "jellies." Technically they are distantly related to the man o' war, meaning they are colonial creatures, instead of jellies, but they look the same. I'm glad Declan had water shoes, although he needs a new pair. The one he had rubbed a raw spot on his ankle.

It took Declan a moment to warm up to the beach. When we got out of the car and started walking on the soft sand, he started crying. He sat down and it took a lot of persuading before he would walk on the soft sand. I think it upset him that the ground wasn't firm, like he was used to.

Then he was playing in the very edge of the surf. At one point, he had gone out a fair way, and when the surf came back in, he ran back to shore, but he tripped and the wave came up and smacked him in the butt, getting him fairly wet. He cried at that, but only for a few seconds. Then he decided it wasn't so bad and went back to playing and running around.

It was lots of fun, although we definitely have to find the sunblock before we go again.

Declan's Tot Spot

2011-01-26T21:39:00.000-06:00

We had a video chat with Declan's grandparents today. It worked out great. I had my new netbook, downloaded the video chat program from Google, and within 3 minutes, we were talking to each other complete with video.

Declan's favorite part was seeing himself in tiny inset picture. He started hamming it up, waving his arms around, doing spit takes, and generally having a great time amusing himself.

I loved that we could follow him around, show my in-laws the new furniture and paint job in the bedroom. We had a couple of technical glitches where Declan smacked the keyboard and muted our mic. Took a bit to get that reversed.

That was kind of the bright spot in his day. He spent most of the day whining, getting into trouble, or sleeping. He got into trouble for climbing up where we keep the cats' food and water, and throwing he food all around. Then it was climbing on top of Daddy's computer desk and fiddling with his big, heavy monitor. Later, it was pushing his toddle chair next to the lamp, so he could swing the lamp back and forth. It's been a tiring day!

I did a lot of cooking for him this weekend too. Not that he ate much of it. Made a black bean and sweet potato stuffing for tortillas. Then I made croquettes from a toddler recipe book. I'm not use to frying in oil, so they're a little greasy, and now the whole house smells like oil.

I finally managed to get most of the public part of the house cleaned up today. Cleaned the pantry yesterday, then picked up papers, tossed stuff and cleaned the kitchen counters and floors today. Took the throw rugs outside and beat them, then put them in the dryer for extra fluffing and decontamination. Finally swept everything. Still have to mop. Later.

Declan's been learning new things, besides just climbing places to get into trouble. He can identify S, B, and A. We're working on D and O. He says Happy and sometimes even Happy Baby. Plus Pizza. He loves erasing his chalk drawings now. He can work the shape puzzles really easily.

He's also learned to say Da-da and Ma-ma. However, his way of saying Ma-ma is by tapping his chest twice. He invented that sign all on his own.

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T10:55:00.001-06:00

Here's our trip to visit Daniel's parents. We flew, since it's a 1500 mile trip one way. Can you believe the pilots let a toddler into the cockpit? He loved it. All those buttons!!!!

Here we are at their house for a late Thanksgiving - early Christmas.

Uncle Justin got Declan a Tickle-Me Elmo, which was a big hit.

Here he is with Grandad.

Grandmommy kisses:

One big hit was being pushed around the house in a big box. Who doesn't love that?

Then there was being dragged around in the laundry basket. See how much fun you can have with regular old household things?

Saying goodbye at the airport.

Christmas morning.
Flashlight as present. Can be used for peering into the tree and seeing what's hidden in the middle.

Train o' blocks.

Elmo makes a surprise return!

Daniel's been wanting to get Declan Legos since before Declan was born. So he got his first set of Duplos today.

And tractors

More of the block train. We love blocks. And these roll.

Our Christmas pictures. Daniel says Declan has a Buster Keaton look here, kicking his leg back.

Jazz hands!

We went to see Santa at Bass Pro, but Declan wasn't too keen on sitting on someone else's lap.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!

Movies

2010-11-29T10:31:00.000-06:00

Since I finished Fallout: New Vegas (video game), I suddenly have lots more free time in the evenings, and I've decided to go through all my Netflix and DVR movies.

So far, I've seen...

Legion - crap. Boring movie with stereotypes for characters. Plot line is the same as The Seventh Sign from 20 years ago.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - Finally. I saw it after having it on DVR for 6 months. Yeah, I see why it's the quintessential buddy flick, but what a bummer of an ending. Lots of great lines and scenes.

The Tudors, Season 4 - Yummy. I love the richness of this period piece. I think the actors are really good, and in this season, I just feel sorry for poor Catherine Howard. She's so clueless in how to survive at court. It's no wonder she's not long for it.

Men Who Stare at Goats - Hilarious. I'm not a George Clooney fan, but he really put in a great performance. I was mesmerized at the sheer lunacy and craziness throughout the whole movie. Daniel even watched it with me, and he's not normally a movie guy.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 - Yay! I actually took off one evening after the little guy went to bed to see this. It was good, it was dark, it was just like the books and it was just what I wanted to see. Can't wait for Part 2 next summer.

Ran - Missing in translation. I saw the Criterion Collection version of this Kurasowa samurai film a few years ago, and I tried to watch it again when I had it on my DVR. But without the commentary of the film critic, I think I'm missing a lot of the meaning and subtext of the movie. So I deleted it and will try to get the Criterion version to watch.

Resident Evil: Extinction - Boring. Honestly, I was working on some project while it was on, and if my hands hadn't been so busy, I would have deleted it long before the ending.

The Walking Dead - Scary. I know, it's not a movie. But I watched the first 3 episodes all at once. Great imagery, and the point of the show is that the real monsters aren't the zombies; they're the evil that's still in human form. Racists, wife-beaters, power grabbers. All the worst of humanity. Will the sheriff have enough good in him to counter all that?

Julie and Julia - Happy. Saw this last night and it was just a fun flick to watch. I thought Meryl Streep did a fabulous job as Julia Child and I loved watching the story about her life.

Upcoming that I really want to see: Red, Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Green Lantern, and probably some more I can't remember right now.

Pictures!

2010-11-25T22:31:00.000-06:00

I have too much other stuff to do to regularly sit down and do pictures. So instead, I do them all at once.

Declan loves to play in the pantry. His favorite thing is to take everything out of the wire racks on the door and stack them on the window ledge or the table nearby. He's amazed me sometimes with the complex condiment towers he builds. One day, he found an open sleeve of crackers within reach. Yummm!

Such a cute smile!

Halloween! He was a fighter pilot, courtesy of his Uncle Justin who's in the Air Force.

We went trick or treating with a friend of mine. Annie was a dragon.

We also went to the Children's Museum Halloween Party.

He triumphed over the giant spider! Poor spider. All it ever wanted to do was scare kids.

One day, we headed outside to play. A bucket filled with water, some rocks and some leaves afforded endless playtime opportunities. Rocks and leaves could be thrown in the water and they did different things. His hands got wet, he could splash the water around. All sorts of fun stuff.

He has a new habit of hiding in cabinets. We left one cabinet un-child-proofed, so that he could pull out the sauce pots and other random things we put in there. Lately, he's decided it's fun to crawl inside and close the doors behind him. Cute! Fortunately, he doesn't stay in there too long, or I'd wonder where he could have disappeared to.

And then he discovered the entertainment center had the same nifty feature.

The coffee table makes a much better platform for playing with toys than the floor does. Apparently, floors are for babies, not for 20-month olds who adore climbing heights that turn his mother's hair gray.

Fun at the park.

"Higher, Daddy! Higher!"

After he swung in the baby swing for half an hour (not kidding!), Declan decided he wanted to try out the big kids' swing. So I put him on there and very gently pushed him back and forth. I guess after all the swinging on the baby swing, and the porch swing earlier with us, then this, he fell asleep on the swing. One minute, he's going along just fine. Then next, he's flat on his back staring up at the sky and blinking in confusion. It was so fast I didn't even see it happen. I picked him up, dusted him off, and he didn't cry once. I guess he wasn't hurt. But it was time to go home.

Thanksgiving Day. We headed to the beach in Galveston because it was windy and hot and humid, and walking on the beach sounded like a good idea. Declan loved it, although he wasn't dressed for going in the water, which is, of course, all he wanted to do. We placated him by finding him a stick and showing him how to draw in the sand. It was a like discovering he could draw in a huge piece of paper. He could draw anywhere! He also got sad when he waved his first stick around so much it broke. Then he had to experiment and wave it around and pull at it to see if he could make it break again. He did. We found him an actual stick, instead of a piece of green seaweed stalk. He also loved chasing the seagulls.

Oh, if you're wondering if we're the sort of parents who keep our child on a leash, the answer is yes. Why? Because otherwise, today he would have walked headlong off the 17 foot high seawall at least 5 times, or run into traffic 6 times. He's way too fast and way too adventurous (fearless?) for his own good.

Just for fun, I compared his hands and feet to mine.

And here's how tiny his fingers were when he was 1 week old.

And here he is posing with his new hair cut. I got brave and decided to cut it myself! I gave him a lollipop after dinner and pulled out my little sewing scissors. Daniel tried his clippers, but they just made him cry. Declan, not Daniel. So I told Daniel to let me do it. I kept cutting until it looked good, and there was a huge pile of hair on the floor. About that time, Declan decided to get mad about the whole thing and throw his lollipop on the ground. Well, it was now covered in hair, so I wasn't about to give it back to him. I opened up the trash, and told him, "there are consequences to your actions. When you throw something on the ground, Mommy is going to finish the job and throw it away." Oh, he got mad about that. But a couple minutes later, he was mad about me washing the hair off his arms and face, then he got down and went to play with something and forgot all about it. Short memories are a blessing sometimes.

The vaccuum cleaner

2010-11-25T21:30:00.000-06:00

I just had to laugh and laugh today. I got the vacuum cleaner out, and Declan immediately ran in front of it to stare at it. When I started it up, he jumped and backed away, keeping a wary eye on it.

As I advanced the vacuum cleaner, he kept walking backwards. Then he started yelling at it in baby talk, yelling at the top of his voice, and even screeching like an old fishwife. I imagine he was telling that noisy old vacuum cleaner to shut up and go back to the closet and stop making such a racket. (like he's one to complain)

Then he grabbed a wooden puzzle piece and threw it at the vacuum cleaner, like it offended him. Next he had to go grab the sheepskin and throw that at the vacuum cleaner. Repeatedly.

I couldn't help it. I just laughed and laughed for two minutes. Kept on vacuuming, and eventually, the noisy contraption got put back in the closet. Declan had triumphed over the vacuum cleaner and now he was the only one making noise in the house.

Video Games

2010-11-13T23:08:00.001-06:00

Hey, I finally finished "Fallout: New Vegas"! I think I've been playing it non-stop for a couple weeks now. Well, non-stop being whenever the baby is asleep and I don't have anything else more pressing to do. Very good game!

Catching Up

2010-11-01T20:10:00.000-05:00

Should I quit apologizing for not posting very frequently? I started playing "Fallout: New Vegas", the latest in the Fallout franchise and it's eating my brain. I forgot to send my nephew his birthday present and have been procrastinating on some other legal issues that I really need to look at. *sigh* At least I cleaned my kitchen, but that was only because I had someone coming over.

Declan has learned kisses! :) It's so cute. He'll put a hand on each side of your face and lean in and give you a big kiss. Okay, it's mainly just pressing his mouth against some part of your face, but it counts. He's got "bye-bye" down pat, and he uses it for everything, especially for saying hi to people. He can say "uh-oh" and sometimes he'll say "hi." I think he's trying to say Ball and Book, but all that comes out is Bu. He also does a pretty good job on "up."

He constantly amazes me at his powers of memory. We have a lot of board books, and recently I've been going through the ones that have a repeating motif through all the pages, like a ladybug, or a duck on each page, or the mouse in "Goodnight, Moon." I showed him the ladybugs once, and ever since then he can point them out on each and every page. He loves pointing to the duck. The mouse is hard because it's so small on most pages, but he remembers where they are. Sometimes he does better than me in finding it.

He's discovered knee-walking as a new mode of transportation, and he's still managing to fall from chairs and couches and his own two feet several times a day. But he loves to climb. The best I can do is try to baby-proof the house so he can't get on anything really high.

We did Halloween last night. He was a fighter pilot, courtesy of his Uncle Justin who sent him a toddler costume. Justin's in the Air Force. Everyone adored him in his outfit, even though the hat never stayed on his head more than 2 seconds. We went out with a friend of mine and her 3-year old daughter, dressed as a dragon. The little red wagon came in handy to pull them both.

It took Declan a little bit to figure out that if he carried his bucket to the door, people would hand him things. Annie, the dragon, took care of the "trick-or-treat" part. When she roared, Declan thought that was neat and he had to roar too. Of course, that generated a lot of attention and fun, so he had to keep doing it. It was very, very cute.

They both came back with quite a lot of candy for only being out 30 minutes or so. We went early, so they could make their bedtime. But then I let Declan stay up an hour past his bedtime, since the doorbell kept ringing. I was hoping that he would sleep an extra hour this morning, but no such luck. At least he took a 3-hour nap for Daniel today.

On other news, I finally got all my new herbs and salad greens in the ground in my new raised bed this weekend. Next purchase will be some sort of fishbowl or aquarium to act as mini-greenhouses for the salad greens through the winter. I still need to harvest my basil and the basil seeds, but I bet I still have another month of growing for them. We finally are going to get some rain, at least tomorrow. I've been watering all my new plants by hand every day for over a month. We got zero rain in the month of October. It was so dry that when I dug my new plants in, the soil just crumbled. No moisture at all.

I'd post some pictures, but mysteriously, all my USB cables have disappeared this month. We have a rule in this house that we blame everything on the cats. Now we have a new scapegoat. I told Daniel to buy me a new USB cable tomorrow so I can get the pictures off my camera. I have stuff on there from the Halloween party at the Children's Museum last week, random cute pictures and Halloween night pictures. My smart phone doesn't take great pictures, so I'm not even going to post those here.

Well, back to Fallout. :)

My Staycation

2010-10-19T10:46:00.000-05:00

I took a week off work around Columbus Day. I told my boss in September that as soon as the weather cooled off and it wasn't going to be rainy that I was going to take a week off so I could do stuff around the house. And actually enjoy my time being outside, unlike all summer long.

It's not that it's so hot here in Houston, and it does get very hot and humid. It's that it stays hot and humid for so very, very long. I put up with it in May and was still taking Declan out to the playground in the evenings in May, and even in June. By July, our outings were limited to the park on the weekend mornings, early, and we were still both sweating like crazy after 30 minutes. By August, we were mainly outside just to go to the car, or for a few minutes after dinner. By September, I had given up. Declan brought me his shoes and I just said no. Six months of super hot, super humid is just too much for this transplanted Yankee.

Anyway, the first week in October the weather finally changed. The humidity went away and the temps cooled down. Hallelujah!

Saturday, I went to the Galveston County Master Gardener sale to get some native plants to put in my yard. It was fun, and a bit of a madhouse. Apparently, the fruit tree sale in February is ten times as crazy. Anyway, I got some pretty ginger plants for all my shady areas and some spider lilies for the front flower bed. Once I got them all in, my front yard looks a lot nicer suddenly. I think I need to put some more flowers in, but not right away. I spent a lot of money that week, between the flowers and all my numerous trips to Lowes/Home Depot.

I also ended up building a raised bed and putting in tomato plants and my one cone flower plant from the master gardener plant sale. Then Daniel suggested that I build a second raised bed that was half the height and twice the area and put it around the first raised bed. I thought that was a capitol suggestion and made one that afternoon. I put it out, but I still don't have any dirt in there, and the herbs I bought for it are still in their little store pots. On the plus side, my lettuce seeds I scattered around the tomatoes are growing. I've started thinning them out. Hopefully I'll have lots of greens through the winter.

I bought some more wood to make a raised planter, but I haven't had a chance to put that together yet.

I also finished constructing the first cubby drawer for Declan's new bedroom furniture, and I built the second cubby. Still need to build the second drawer and paint the drawer front. After that's done, I can move them in and move the baker's rack out. And then...I can build the hutches to go on top of the cubby drawers. It's taking me a while, especially since I can only work on it a few hours a week at most.

As for the decorating front...I finally (!) finished painting our bedroom. The old wallpaper is gone!!! I have yet to put up anything on the walls, even curtains. We have some temporary paper blinds on the windows while I figure out how to cheaply hang the Ikea curtains I got. I'm going for a romantic, dreamy, white bedroom with hints of pink and green. Hopefully Daniel won't think it's too girly. I'm going to hang an old lap-size quilt on the wall, and I've been collecting picture frames and old pictures of roses to hang up. The picture frames need repainting, so I'm playing around with that. I don't mind playing with a $2-5 picture frame. If I screw it up, it's only a couple of dollars, and it lets me experiment with paint and color and techniques. Eventually, I plan to make a new quilt for the bed in the colors of the bedroom, but for now, I've got a pretty white duvet cover (also from Ikea). Hrm, maybe I should check out their curtain rods and shelves next.

I also got some naps in, and I started rereading the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and I watched a lot of movies. Oh yeah, I got to spend a lot of time playing with my son and we got to take lots of walks outdoors, now that the weather is tolerable. I have to say, it was one of the most relaxing and fun vacations I've ever had.

18 Month Update

2010-10-08T09:01:00.000-05:00

Took him to the pedi this week. The doctor was pleased with his progress. He's in the 60th percentile for height and weight. The doctor said he'd be about 5'10" tall when he's grown. I thought you couldn't tell until they were 3. My nephews are going to by 6'7" for Garrett and 6'5" for Devon, so maybe a little bit of height runs in my family. In my nephews' case, I think it's pretty clear it comes from their mom.

Declan can say "bye-bye" pretty well, and he may be saying book and ball; it's kind of hard to tell. He can point to his nose, ear, chin and hair, and he knows at least 8 signs (milk, juice, water, cracker, dog, sleep, diaper, book). He's a climber, too. Loves to climb the couch, the stepladder (we're painting the bedroom), the coffee table, the chairs, anything he can.

He's also starting to throw temper tantrums and hit me when he's mad. So I asked the pedi for suggestions about discipline, because unfortunately, my first instinct was to smack his hand for hitting me. Not a very productive thing to do, I admit. So I didn't, but I was lost for options. She suggested a few things to try, like starting time-outs in a playpen.

He loves to play games. Like peek-a-boo, scary monster (where one of us hides behind a door and grrrs at him when he opens it), chasing and being chased. He charms all sorts of people when we go out and he says "bye-bye" and waves to them over and over. It's very cute.

Has it really been 2 months?

2010-10-01T10:18:00.001-05:00

Okay, I knew it had been a while since I posted anything. We went on vacation to my parents' house in August, and I was trying to catch up from that. Then...well, it's been a few weeks and I forget. But then I started ripping the wallpaper off the bedroom and prepping that room to paint, and that project took 3 weeks. I'm still in the middle of priming. Yeah, I could have finished it this week, but the paint is not the no-odor kind, and I wanted to be able to paint in the morning and have the room open all day to air out. It's low VOC, but still pretty smelly.

Anyway, what I'm saying is that I'm finally getting around to posting pictures from our trip to Illinois. Mainly toddler pictures. I took a lot of landscape pictures, but that's for another day.

He sort of enjoyed his airplane ride. This is the second time he's flown, but the first time, he was 6 months old and slept the whole time. This time, he was squirmy and we spent a long time walking up and down the aisle of this tiny jet.

He got the chance to climb around on my dad's antique farm equipment.

Actually, it was really nice to be able to let him run around without having to worry about him running into the street, or into someone else's yard. I didn't have to watch and make sure he didn't step into a fire ant nest, and there were no mosquitoes. The only thing I had to watch is that he didn't get too far away or too close to the hill or pond.

Here he is with his Mimi and the antique bell they've got.

He's playing one of his favorite games here. We call it "blue ghost." He puts his blue blankie over his head and runs around yelling. Maybe it's more of a blue poltergeist. That's his cousin Devon with him.

Here they are having fun with magnetic letters and the dishwasher.

We went into downtown Marshall so I could take my watches to the jeweler there. Yes, I took them 1000 miles to a guy I trusted, and he fixed all three of my broken watches in 15 minutes. Afterward, we walked around the courthouse square. Declan thought it was awesome to walk on the curbs, and Daniel and my mom helped him jump off the posts.

So many things to explore at my parents' house.
Flowers:

The back door:

Practicing yoga on the porch:

Helping Mimi weed the flower bed:

My mom had a rolling garden seat, and Declan had the best time rolling that thing all over the yard, the side walk and the driveway.

We went to a newly constructed covered bridge.

Bubbles!

One day we went to St. Louis to the Gateway Arch. It was very hot that day.

View from the top of the Arch. Here's the Mississippi River.

Declan looking out the Arch window.

This fancy building is the Historic County Courthouse where the Dred Scott case was tried. Thanks to Scott for correcting my assumption about the building.

We may not be the most photogenic family around, but we love each other and have lots of fun. Oh, and you can see that we are 630 feet off the ground at the top of the Arch.

At my brother's house, Declan discovered a new game. He could pull out the kitchen drawers and push them back again. Wow, was that ever fun! He giggled and laughed and did it over and over again. Don't know why my brother's house's drawers are better than mine, but they are.

Just a cute picture of the little guy.

Here he is with his other cousin, Garrett. They all love little babies and kids, and they had a blast.

Devon loves the Transformers, so he had to show Declan his costume.

Back home, it's still hot as blazes, so he gets lots of fruit popsicles.

Here he is on his Elmo toy plane. He loves to chase us around the house on his plane.

New Toddler Pictures

2010-08-06T22:10:00.000-05:00

Yes, my baby is officially a toddler. He's running pretty well actually. No real words yet, but his babbling is sounding very much like language. He's speaking; we just can't understand each other.

From his grandmother's visit last month (yes, it's been a month since I've posted pics. Heck, I haven't even turned my computer on in a month; been checking from an old laptop.)

It's been hot out so....Popsicles!!

Happy 4th of July

Toy of the day: Wooden ruler sliding through paper towel tube.

New toy: the clacking alligator

He's very good at eating with his spoon and fork now. And he needs a haircut. He just got one this week.

At the Children's Museum - going down the slide with Dad.

Hanging out on Dad's computer.

Oatmeal Mistake

2010-08-06T21:57:00.002-05:00

Poor guy. Instead of the ground ginger I intended to put in his oatmeal this morning, I accidentally grabbed the powdered onion. Eww. And he still ate it.

Poor Kiddo

2010-07-19T08:24:00.000-05:00

Poor little guy has been sick lately. And beyond that, he's had some rough moments.

Last week, he was running a fever. Took him to the doctor, who said he had a "non-specific viral illness." I took that to be doctor speak for "he's sick." Anyway, the doctor said the leading candidate was West Nile Virus, because of all the mosquito bites he had. They've just been horrendous here the last couple weeks, even after we've sprayed, and the county has sprayed. He had a fever, vomiting, diarrhea, and a rash all over his torso. But unless he got so sick he needed to go to the hospital, there's nothing you can do. He can't even tell us how he's feeling. We have to guess.

Then I had a bad mommy moment. We were out late Saturday, and I rushed through his bedtime routine. I accidently stuck both his legs into one leg of his shorts for bedtime. Poor little guy spent all night with his legs stuck together, then in the morning, he had a terrible rash on them, and he wouldn't walk for a couple hours. I felt awful. :( Sunday morning, we just sat on the couch and watched Sesame Street and Food Network for 2-3 hours until he started to feel a little better. The ibuprofen probably helped too.

I do have some more pictures to post sometime, but I haven't turned my computer on in 2 weeks. I've been using the laptop in the evening, but I can't do pictures on it. I'm thinking of buying a new computer, but I don't think I need one yet. I've just been so busy with my new exercise routine, and trying to watch the Tour de France that I don't have any spare time to deal with my computer.

The Idle Parent Manifesto

2010-07-07T08:11:00.000-05:00

Check out this essay by Tom Hodgkinson in the UK Telegraph.

Great piece on letting kids be kids and giving parents back their time. okay, I'm not going to jump into this right away; after all, my tot is only 15 months old and still lacks the common sense of a goose. He sits in puddles and will happily put mud in his mouth if I let him.

But last night, I let him wander around the house unsupervised while I read a book. I kept an ear out for him, and every 10-15 minutes, I'd go peek in on him. He found a toy box in his playroom with a shape puzzle that I'd thought was too hard for him. I'd shown him how it works numerous times, but he never got it. Maybe I was just too impatient with him and never let him really play with it. He sat and played with that shape puzzle for 20 minutes or more. I never let him see me, never made a sound to let him know I was watching. When he was done, he came and toddled back to the couch and made clear he wanted some attention. And I was happy to give it to him.

Declan Updates

2010-07-05T23:47:00.000-05:00

I'm trying to think of all the new things Declan has been doing lately.

He knows how to brush his hair, put on his sandals, put his shirt on (sort of, he puts his arms through). He knows the signs for "milk", "water", and "more", and we're working on the signs for "kisses" and "kitty". He can climb everything in the house now, and does. Unfortunately, he doesn't always know how to get down, so he cries until someone comes to help him. He also fell off the bed this afternoon, but no serious harm.

Daniel swears that he said "three" the other day, mimicking one of the puppets on Sesame Street, but I'm not convinced. I didn't hear it. He certainly does say a lot of syllables, though, like ma-ma-ma, and da-da-da. He's a regular chatterbox sometimes.

He also understands words. When I ask if he wants to read a book, he'll run to his books and pull one out. When I say it's bathtime, he runs to the bathroom. When it's time for a walk, he finds his shoes and gets all excited about going out. He also knows the word for naptime, and he starts crying. Poor thing.

He loves stacking blocks, and he can stack them as high as he can reach on the coffee table. His favorite things to do are to experiment with what fits inside other things. I put a whole box of toys away this weekend, and he rediscovered a couple of older toys and spent several hours playing with them over the weekend. He definitely doesn't need any more toys right now.

It's good to remember how far he's come every once in a while.

A little dirt never hurt anybody

2010-07-04T22:15:00.000-05:00

It's been raining all week. I'm guessing somewhere around 5 inches, maybe more. My yard is a lake. I'm glad we have the rain, because we had a drought for the past 8 weeks, but I'd rather it was a little more spread out instead of drought / drench.

Yesterday, I took Declan out for a walk and to play in puddles. We found a nice big puddle in a street nearby without any traffic on it. So he spent 20 minutes or more just splashing through it, then he had to pick up twigs and throw them in the puddle for another 10 minutes. Then he decided to just sit down in the water and play some there. Oh well, we were going to take a bath anyway. But it was so much fun to watch him play in the water. I think he would have stayed out there for hours, but I finally got tired of watching him.

He even managed to eat some mud before I noticed and could stop him. Meh. Maybe now he'll realize that mud isn't good to eat and won't try it anymore. Maybe. I firmly believe that kids need to get dirty and exercise their immune systems. At any rate, he's only been sick once, and that was a 2 day cold. Probably the fact that he doesn't go to daycare has a lot to do with it too.

P90X - Bring It

2010-06-30T22:48:00.000-05:00

Holy cow! I just finished my second day of the P90X program. I lost track of the number of times I said "oh good lord" when he showed what we were supposed to do, or that we had to do the whole routine a second time. I think I managed to stay at about 90% of my ability through the whole routine, and I stuck it out for the whole 48 minutes off plyometrics. By the way, plyometrics means lots of jumping. Urk.

Only 88 more days to go.

I think I'm going to bed now.

My Baby Is Growing Up

2010-06-30T22:45:00.000-05:00

I know, he's only 15 months old. But tonight he decided that he wasn't going to sit in Mama's lap tonight and eat his bedtime cracker and have his cup of water. And don't even think about reading books tonight. It made me sad. I was just thinking the other night about how comfy he was tucked into my lap and arm at bedtime, how small he was and how he fit in there just right. Hopefully it's just a short phase and he'll be back to sitting in my lap soon.

Accidents and Colds

2010-06-12T10:26:00.000-05:00

Monday we had an accident at the house. I had a big glass pitcher of sun tea on a towel on the countertop. I didn't think the towel was in reach of little hands. I was wrong.

Daniel called me to say that Declan had pulled the towel down, dropped the pitcher on our tile floor, and when he went running in there, he slipped on the wet tile, fell and wrenched his back, and barely kept from kicking Declan into the cabinets. Urk.

So I took off from work to come home and clean up. I don't know how they avoided getting cut on the glass, but happily, no one was seriously hurt. Except the pitcher.

Then on Wednesday, Daniel came down with a nasty cold, and by Thursday, it was bad enough I had to stay home from work. Now on Saturday, it seems he's passed his cold to both Declan and myself. Tomorrow, I have to get on a plane to Denver, and he's going to be home with a sick baby all week by himself. ugh. Pity us both.

Beat the Heat in Houston

2010-06-12T10:22:00.000-05:00

Summer is here. It's in the 90s, both temps and humidity. Ugh. When I step outside in the morning, it's so still, hot and oppressive. It actually feels better to me at noon, when the breeze is moving a bit. We've had a few thunderstorms, enough to save my lawn for a few more weeks. But otherwise, we're looking for fun things to do indoors.

Like the new toy I gave to Declan? I was doing some woodworking in the garage, and he's been enjoying toting our old broom around behind him. Well, the broom was too big for him, and he was knocking things over. So I put in on my miter saw and chopped it down, then I cut the icky bottom part of the bristles off, and voila! A new toy broom for Declan. Now I just have to teach him to use it. :) (Ignore the whole pantless thing. He was indoors and it's hot, so tshirt and diaper may be the uniform of the day during summer.)

If it's not too hot after dinner, and there's a good breeze going, we'll take him to the little (and I mean pathetically little) playground near the pool. It's falling apart and would fit inside my living room, but he doesn't know any better. First, there's the cool wagon ride down there.

Then he gets to play in the sand.

The slide is fun. No matter which way you go down it.

He really likes the swing.

Last Sunday, we decided to beat the heat by going to the Children's Museum. Unfortunately, it was a free day at the museum, so everyone was there.

But it gave Declan a chance to play with, or around, other toddlers. It was fun watching him interact. When he wanted to play with the doors, and someone else was in the way, well, he'd just push them out of the way. Because it's all about him. So we'd make him take turns, even though I know he didn't understand why we let some other kid play with HIS toy.

Driving down the road.

His favorite thing this trip were the miniature scenes behind various doors and screens.

Putting pegs in holes. He's much better at it now.

And of course, the sink is still a big hit.

It's very hard to get a good picture of a sleeping baby. Declan is such a light sleeper, he wakes up at the first picture.

Thursday, we went to a local park in the morning, and the first thing was saw was a turtle.

All this grass to run and play on, and he wants to sit in the parking lot playing with a drink lid.

It may look like he's enjoying running on the grass.

Don't be fooled.

In actuality, he's running toward the pond as fast as he can trundle. Until I redirect him to the bleachers, when he has fun running along them and exploring the tall grass.

Declan Doings

2010-06-02T11:50:00.000-05:00

Why haven't I been posting lately? Let's see...I've been making furniture, watching "Lost", making baby toys and clothes, sleeping, cooking, and even playing some games. It's absolutely impossible for me to get on my computer when the little guy is awake, because he insists on crawling under the computer, turning it off, grabbing the mouse, or insisting on getting on my lap and playing with the keyboard. Then in the evening when he goes to bed, I have so many other things to do. I can do a blog post from the laptop, but I need to sit at my desktop to actually upload and play with pictures. Well, mostly. I sneaked in some picture editing time today. Shhhhh.

So I thought I'd do a big ol' post with all the pictures and things we've been doing lately.

We went to the Greek festival a few weeks ago. Wasn't that interesting, unfortunately, and not much place for a little guy to run around. They had some kiddie rides, but he's not big enough for them yet. He wanted so badly to do the inflatable slide, but it was way too big for him. So instead, he settled for getting underfoot of the bigger kids and playing with their shoes whenever he could get away from us. He did find one little playmate for a while though.

I was getting tired of pushing Declan around in his stroller. He had to be fastened in, couldn't move much, and we couldn't ever see him. Plus it didn't hold much and was hard to maneuver over rough terrain. So we ended up buying a little red wagon, and we went fancy. We got the all-terrain rubber tires, on the recommendation of a friend, and I'm glad we did. It handles great and is nice and quiet. We put Declan in it, with a couple of blankets, and he absolutely loves riding in it. The first time we put him in it, he leaned back and draped one arm over the side and was all "look at me, I'm so cool. Oh yeah, the ladies love a guy with a smooth ride."

One night we had corn on the cob, which was delicious by the way. Just for fun, I gave an ear to Declan.
"What a cool toy!"

"What, me? I didn't give it to the cat. Nope."

This is one of his favorite daytime activities: Pull all the DVDs out of the rack and scatter them around. Then he likes to carry one to Daniel or me, so we can "read" the DVD to him. I guess they look like his baby books. The other day, he brought me "Team America" to read. Yeah, I gave him a very edited version. :)

Declan wants YOU to eat your dinner!

What do you do when it's hot out and lots of mosquitos, and you don't want to go to the pool? You make your own baby pool with shredded paper.

It was a big hit. I still have paper bits scattered around though.

Testing out his drumming skills:

On Memorial Day Sunday we went to Galveston Beach. Figured we should go at least once before the beach gets oiled and Declan never gets to play there again. Bleah.

Anyway, he loved the beach. At first, he just sat in the surf, or held onto Daniel's leg. Then after a while, he would run into the surf up to knees, turn around and run back, then repeat over and over. I wouldn't have minded so much except that there were a ton of little jellies washing up on the beach, and it was hard to try and steer him around them all. I didn't want him to get a sting.

Oh, if you're wondering why his face looks funky, you try putting sunscreen on a squirmy toddler.

A Seashell Picture

2010-06-02T11:27:00.000-05:00

I was inspired by a picture on another blog. Give me a moment and I might be able to tell you exactly who.

I found this old, beat up frame at my local thrift shop for $0.25. Awesome! Just what I was looking for - something that was weathered and beat up. The fact that it didn't have any glass was actually a plus for this project.

I decided I wanted to white wash it, to give it that beachy, weathered look. When I first painted it, I thought the paint was still too thick, and I kept watering it down. After it dried, it was actually a little too watered for what I was originally going for, but it was good enough and I didn't want to redo it. I thought I might end up with too much paint, and for this, less is more.

I cut a piece of heavy cardboard from a discarded diaper box and wrapped it in some burlap. Glued it to the back of the wooden frame.

Then I pulled out my sea shells. I had some from a couple trips to the beach, some from a $0.75 cent bag of shells from the same thrift shop, and I actually shelled out (ha ha) $2 for the star fish from a craft store. I played around with the placement until I was happy, then used my trusty glue gun to stick them down.

I used a 3M command strip to hang it to my wall, since I was worried about hitting wires in this particular location.

All in all, I'm quite pleased with how it came out. It's my favorite sort of project. Easy, cheap, entirely hand-made, and looks good. What's not to love?

(BTW, Thanks to Funky Junk Interiors for giving me some tips on resizing photos in Blogger. Very nice.)

Declan Gets A Haircut

2010-05-07T21:56:00.000-05:00

Daniel finally talked me into getting the little guy's hair cut. I think the fact that someone mistook him for a girl last weekend might have helped, too. So I took him to Allison, who does my hair. She's got 2 little boys of her own, so I figure she must know how to cut little boys' hair.

I was really impressed with Declan. I had to hold him the whole time and my arms got tired, but he never cried or fussed. He kept moving and turning his head, but that's not so bad. Allison managed to distract him for a bit by giving him 2 lollipops, one for each hand. For a while, he couldn't grab at the comb or her hands. For a while. :)

Want to see the before and after?

During

After. Thanks, Allison!

Then we came home and he got to play with a new birthday present, from the grandparents of a little boy Declan's age who lives nearby.

Declan's Standing Up and A Pool Trip

2010-05-03T14:13:00.000-05:00

So now my little guy can stand up all on his own. He doesn't need to crawl to a wall or a convenient pant leg to steady himself and stand up. He just gets into a squat or on his hands and feet, then pushes himself upright. Hurray! Before long, I think he'll actually be running.

Sunday we went to the pool for the first time since we've lived here. I was pleasantly surprised at how nice it was. It was COLD, though. Brrrr! At first, Declan wasn't sure if he'd like it or not. I don't think he was happy with it being so cold either, until he got used to it. At first, he was content to stand on the first step in the water and splash, or lean up against Daniel or me. After 10-15 minutes, he was comfortable enough that I could walk backward and drag him through the water, still upright. We didn't try and tackle floating. I figured it was enough to get him used to being in the water for the first day.

Checking In

2010-04-28T21:50:00.001-05:00

Yes, I know I haven't posted in a long time. Honestly, I've been busy doing ...well, life. After I get Declan to bed, I've been working on my garden, the landscaping, cooking, cleaning the house, catching up on Lost and Survivor, and playing Mass Effect 2. Awesome game, by the way. I can't even get close to my computer when Declan's awake because he's in my lap, under my feet, or trying to pull the keyboard and mouse onto the floor. Oh yeah, he's also pretty good at turning my computer off. So if I get online, it's usually on the laptop which is parked on top of the kitchen counter. It works, but I can't download my pictures to it, edit them and write a decent blog post. Hence, the long delays between posts.

Anyway...I've been taking Declan out with me when I run errands on the weekend or after work. He's tired of being inside, and I'm tired of hearing him screech at the top of his voice. So we went to the park a couple weeks ago. They have a nice playground set for kids (1?-) 2-3, and he's just getting to the age where he can toddle up the short steps and try out the itty bitty slide. However, as soon as he started exploring the playset, it was taken over by kids about 5-7 years old, and they were running roughshod over him. And I had to keep an eagle eye on him to keep him from trying to eat rocks.

I like his little hat. Okay, so maybe it's a little early for the 4th of July, but I don't have a ton of hats for him to wear, and I've misplaced the baby sunscreen.

Next we moved to the baby swings. He really loves the swings. We have one at the playset in our subdivision, and Daniel takes him there fairly frequently. This one's nice because it's under a sunshade, which accounts for the blue tone of the pictures.

Isn't he adorable in this one?

After he got tired of swinging, we went to run around in the field. Except that the only place he wanted to run to was another kid's birthday party. I guess he's practicing learning to crash parties at a young age. But I did get one good shot of him.

Last Saturday, we went to the Children's Museum of Houston again, and this time we got the family membership. After we go 3 times, it'll pay for itself, so why not? It'll be good when it gets too hot in the summer to go outside.

He absolutely loves playing with light switches, and they have little dioramas they can interact with.

And he got up close and personal with it.

There's things on the wall that are bright and spin around.

There's a track with cars that race downhill.

There's a whole corner that's filled with padded steps and holes, and lots of toys to play with.

They have a sled, and he loves to ride around on it.

However, his absolute favorite this trip was the water faucet.

One year checkup

2010-04-16T16:33:00.000-05:00

Not much to report, actually. He weighed 24 pounds, 14 oz, and was 30 inches long. He's almost tripled his birth weight, and on the growth curves, he's gone from 95th percentile on weight down to 70th. On height, he's gone from 60th to 75th, so he's really starting to stretch out. Still can't fit pants over his baby bootie unless they're nice and loose though. :)

Otherwise, the pedi said he was developing just fine. He's still never had any illness (because he stays home with dad). She said not to worry about his speech yet. Just make him work for what he wants a little more. A little more pointing and trying to say the word and encourage him to imitate the word.

Poor guy got 4 shots, and he looked so betrayed when he got the first one. He stopped crying fairly soon; although I think it must have tuckered him out. He slept 2 hours in the morning and 3 in the afternoon. Hurray for long naps!

Toothbrush Giggles

2010-04-16T16:30:00.001-05:00

We had our one year appointment yesterday, and one thing the pedi mentioned was to make sure we brushed his teeth at night after his bedtime bottle. I'd made some halfhearted attempts, but he really hates it when I try to force the issue. If he thinks it's his idea, he's fine brushing and chewing on the brush. Otherwise...Yeah, not so much with the brush and more with the screaming and squirming.

So last night, I was prepared to lock him down and brush those 8 little teeth. But he discovered he could flick the brushes with his thumb and make a noise. Then I laughed and he laughed. He kept doing it to make me laugh, and that sent him into paroxysms of laughter. We must have sat on the rocking chair for 10 minutes with him just lying on my lap, alternating chewing on his brush and flicking the bristles, and both of us giggling up a storm.

That's one of the memories I want to cherish forever.

The Value of a Couple of Hours

2010-04-07T08:38:00.000-05:00

Since having the baby, my life is composed of short segments of activity. Play with the baby, keep him from whining, read to him, feed him, change him...he's down for a nap! It's my time! :) Oh the wonderful things you can do when the baby is sleeping, either for a nap or at night time. I love those few hours I get each day. The only problem is trying to decide which of a multitude of projects to do.

In the past 7-10 days, I've napped, cleaned and reorganized one cabinet, made 8 grow bags, gone shopping a couple of times, planted veggies in aforementioned grow bags, made a shirt for Declan, watched Lost and Survivor, gone to bed early, and started playing Mass Effect 2. That's about half to a third of what I have on my list of stuff to do. Sometimes it's frustrating, but I keep telling myself that it's no big deal if the house is messy, and my tv shows are recorded on the DVR, so I can watch them anytime. The sewing machine has migrated into my bedroom on my work table, so I can leave it up. When I had it on the kitchen table, I was forever taking it down and putting it back.

It's just another way of looking at life. There's a new guy in my life and he takes up a lot of time. I don't begrudge him that. He's a lot of fun, even if he's whining or pulling things over on his head and crying about it. (I really hope the lesson about not pulling things down on your head sinks in soon.)

Declan's First Birthday, Part Two

2010-04-01T20:00:00.000-05:00

My mom was visiting, but she had to fly home the morning of the 31st, Declan's actual birthday. So we had cake and ice cream the night before. He was all decked out in his "Birthday Boy" bib that Grandma Page got him.

We tried a birthday hat, but it barely stayed on long enough to get the one picture.

Then we lit his cake, and Daddy helped him blow it out.

Then it was time for his first taste of birthday cake. Yum.

Next it was time for presents. Meme Burkybile got him a cool truck carrier with cars and animals and even a CB radio with a button to push.

Here's a family picture with one of the cats. You may notice my hair color changed. Not sure I like it yet. Jury's still out.

More presents. He likes the 5 silly monkeys book.

And more books, from his Grandma Page

After we dropped Meme off at the airport, it was time to go on an adventure! we went to the Children's Museum of Houston.

I think he still has a ways to go before he can really work at my computer.

We spent the afternoon playing in the Tot Room. It's a great place. It's set up for kids from birth to 35 months, and it has all sorts of play areas, different textures and toys, things to push and pull and make noise, things to climb. It's just a lot of fun. He played there for over 2 hours. He didn't even cry or fuss when another baby took his toy away. He just crawled over and picked up a new one.

The door with the light switch and door bell was probably his favorite thing.

The sand table with magnets to move the cars inside around was a big hit.

It's actually hard to tell if the door or the water faucet was his favorite, but I'm leaning toward the door.

Later he decided that everything must go back into the ball pit.

Afterward, we ate at a nearby taco shop, and it was three times as much food and probably 10 times better than the what we would have paid at the museum cafe.

Little guy had a blast on his birthday, and we had a good time too. There's tons more to see at the Children's Museum as he gets older. I have a feeling we'll be getting a family membership to it really soon.

Declan's First Birthday!

2010-03-30T08:00:00.000-05:00

It's been a year! Maybe time for reminences later, but right now, I'm trying to upload pictures, answer email, organize files, get dressed and get ready for a hair appointment, so I'm doing good to get pictures up here this morning.

We took his 12 month pictures on Saturday, and then let him into the backyard to explore and play. He got dirty, of course. He's a boy. He had to taste a couple of rocks, but I think everyone survived that experience.

I will say, he's getting squirmier every month I try to take his pictures. Daniel had to help hold him still, and then we finally gave up and went into the backyard. I think I took 95 pictures, and kept about 12.

Going outside.

Exploring grass.

We gave him his birthday present a couple of days early, since my mom has to leave on his actual birthday. He got a Radio Flyer rocking bouncy pony.

At first, he wasn't too sure what this was.

And he had to have help to stay on.

"What the heck is this??"

"Do I sit like this?"

"Oh hey, this might be fun."

Next day...

"Yep, this is fun!"

"But riding horses is tiring."

Then it's time for a mommy ride.

He loves his Meme.

Story time with Meme

Watch Him Grow - ps

2010-03-21T16:09:00.003-05:00

I showed the post to Daniel, and he laughed and said the last 8 pictures are basically watching his hair grow.

Watch Him Grow

2010-03-21T15:55:00.005-05:00

Birth

1 Month Old

2 Months Old

3 Months Old

4 Months Old

5 Months Old

6 Months Old

7 Months Old

8 Months Old

9 Months Old

10 Months Old

11 Months Old

11.5 Months Old (My latest picture of him)

Some Stolen Time

2010-03-21T15:32:00.000-05:00

I'm taking Declan's precious nap time this afternoon and using it to catch up on email, pictures, blogs, etc, instead of painting the bathroom or doing some cooking. I'm way behind in my pictures and writing. I've been very productive on all other fronts though. :)

I initially gave myself 6 weeks to finish my bathroom, and I think I'll get there. The painting is coming along okay. As I said, I'm sacrificing a couple hours this afternoon, but I'll do it after the little guy goes to bed tonight, instead. I have to give everything 2 coats, and it seems that in this bathroom, there aren't any easy sections. It's either around the vanity, over the tub, behind the toilet. Actually, I'm saving the big flat walls for last. I should probably be changing the light fixtures right now, but no, I said I'd work on this stuff instead. It's light in the evenings now, so I can do it one night after work. I've got the areas around the new lights painted, so I can do it at any time and finish painting later.

Still to do in there: hang the towel bar, find and hang a new toilet paper holder, find or make a new shower curtain, and find a new bathroom rug. Oh yeah, either find or make some new shelves, or paint the old ones and put them back up. And of course, the final clean up. But it is taking shape.

As I'm writing this, the wind is going crazy outside. Another typical Texas wind storm. I don't remember the wind blowing this hard and this frequently in Virginia or Illinois.

So far this weekend, I've managed to bake a butter pound cake (it was an experiment, since my last one flopped), bake more blueberry oat bran mini muffins for the little guy's breakfasts, paint a couple walls in the guest bath, steam some veggies for the week, go to Sam's Club, run the vacuum cleaner, play with my son, cut out fabric to make a shirt for him, hem some of his pants and go to a farmer's market. We didn't get to pick our own strawberries though; the weather was too bad.

Besides learning his first sign, he's making great progress in learning to walk. He can probably walk on his own, but he doesn't have the courage to yet. He can toddle while holding on with just one hand.

Declan's also figured out how to use a spoon, flip a light switch and use a toothbrush. Sorta. Mainly he chews on it, but I figure that's gotta count, right?

Okay, pictures...

We went to a park last weekend and let him crawl around the grass. He thought it was great, although I think he got annoyed that we kept taking the grass out of his hand after he pulled it up. I think he only ate 1 leaf. ;)

"Hey, what happened to the green stuff I grabbed?"

I got him at breakfast one morning. He's like both his parents - he doesn't wake up very fast. He looks like he's thinking, "geez, mom, give it a rest. I haven't even had my bottle yet."

Here he is using a spoon. He got the concept over about a week. It went from him learning to hold onto it, to putting it in his mouth, and today, he got the idea of scooping stuff out of the bowl with his spoon and putting it in his mouth. He's not any good at it, but he getting the idea.

He loves music. This interactive music table was a great gift for him.

And here he is with his toothbrush. Granted, he does have to be in a decent mood, otherwise, he just cries and pushes it away. Very effectively

Declan's First Sign / Word

2010-03-21T15:14:00.001-05:00

He can't talk yet, aside from calling everything 'da da'. But on Thursday, he made the sign for "milk" at dinner and he did it very deliberately, looking at each of us and bouncing up and down in his high chair. So we gave him his milk and hoped we could get him to repeat it. We can't. But at least he did it once!

A Relaxing View

2010-03-15T23:25:00.002-05:00

Sometimes I just have to take a moment and realize that I'm lucky and I can get out of my fluorescent-lit, ugly cubicle and take a walk on a pretty day and see something like this.

At least there's a few patches of pretty nature nearby when I'm working.

Bed Head and Chill Time with Daddy

2010-03-14T10:22:00.001-05:00

Major bed head. He just woke up and isn't too sure he's ready to be awake yet. Just like me in the morning.

Chilling out with Dad on the couch. I think they were watching The Colbert Report.

My Parents' Visit

2010-03-14T10:21:00.002-05:00

So I'm finally getting around to the pictures and everything a couple weeks late. It's been a busy time. Little guy is getting more active, and I had a good book to read (The Name of the Wind) plus a bathroom to work on. Finished the book, got the bathroom walls sanded and started priming, so I decided to take some time and work on my pictures this weekend while the little guy is napping.

We tried shoes for the very first time. A pair of sandals.

They didn't go over very well.

Here's Declan with his granddad.

We went to Ikea one day to get shelves for my garage. So of course, we had to put him in the egg chair, shades of The Prisoner.

Then he got to try on Granddad's hat. Looking a little gansta there.

He absolutely adored the sheepskin rugs and buried his face in them for 5 minutes.

Daddy attacked him with the sheepskin dusters and that was funny.

A couple days later, we went to see the endangered Attwater's Prairie Chicken breeding facility at NASA.

Daddy ride on the way to the breeding pens.

Declan loved watching the chickens walk around and hoot. They do this neat little dance where they stomp their feet really fast, then puff up their feathers and hoot at all the lady birds. I'm sure if you're a lady prairie chicken, it's very exciting.

Learning to walk with Meme. You'll notice we gave up on the sandals and stuck with socks. They can be washed.

One last hug from Granddad before they head back home.

It was great to see my parents. I wish we lived closer together. Plus my mom helped me organize my garage and my dad helped me tear out some awkward shelves and put in something better. Now I can actually use my garage to do work in, not just to shove crap in.

Busy Weekend

2010-03-14T10:02:00.000-05:00

Declan is really getting the walking thing down. He's even standing by himself for a few seconds now, and he can walk down the hallway holding onto just one of my fingers, and his other hand is free to wave around. Any day now, and then Daniel and I will really be running around trying to keep him out of stuff.

Yesterday, we checked out a new (to us) local farm - Froberg's Farm. I'd heard about it, but could never find the place. Finally did, and it's very cool. Lots of fresh veggies, although I'm not sure how much is local or organic. They have a great smokehouse right next door, and 9 acres of strawberry fields for pick-your-own. We've decided we're going back next Saturday to do some strawberry picking. Would have yesterday, but little guy decided that it was finally time for his morning nap when we drove down there and he slept the whole time I was in the market. Daniel stayed in the car and kept him company and listened to his pod casts.

We had an impromptu lunch of venison sausage and home-made individual cream pies / empanadas. They were okay, but no where NEAR as yummy as the Amish fruit pies I had at the Covered Bridge Festival in Indiana last fall.

Got my raised veggie bed 80% planted and did some yard work.

Made a butter cake from the Cake Bible. I thought I'd try and make Declan' birthday cake from there, and I ought to try it out first so it wasn't a flop on his birthday. Well, it was somewhat of a flop. I don't think it baked long enough. So we tossed it and I'll try another version today.

I also made the best fruit compote in the crock pot yesterday. You've got to try this. It made a ton, so I'm going to freeze small portions of it for later, but it was great on the cake last night and on yogurt this morning. Even Declan loved it.

Summer Fruit Compote (Family Circle, June 2009)
Makes 6 cups
Slow cook 3.75 hours on high or 5.75 hours on low.

3 cups fresh pineapple chunks
2 medium pears, peeled, cored and cut into chunks
2 cups frozen sliced peaches
1 cup frozen pitted cherries
3/4 cup dried apricots, quartered
2/3 cup frozen orange juice concentrate
1 T brown sugar
1 t vanilla extract
2 T cornstarch
1/2 cup sliced almonds, toasted

Combine pineapple, pears, peaches, cherries, apricots, orange juice, brown sugar and vanilla in crock pot. Cover and cook on high or low.

Uncover and remove 2 T liquid. In a small bowl, stir together liquid and cornstarch. Stir cornstarch mixture back into crock pot. Cook 15 minutes more or until thickened. Sprinkle with almonds.

Serve warm with ice cream if desired.

I forgot the apricots, but you can't tell.

Declan's Latest Cool Stuff

2010-03-10T08:21:00.000-06:00

He's been cruising the furniture for several weeks now, and even using his walker to go up and down the hallway and around the house. Last week, he managed to stand without holding onto anything for a couple of seconds, usually when he was grabbing a toy and waving it around.

He got his first real toothbrush last night, and he loved it. I brushed his teeth, and he let me because I guess it felt good. Then he grabbed the toothbrush and kept chewing on it for 15 minutes.

He still isn't talking, at least not putting any serious effort into it. Usually he just whines, occasionally he'll do some babbling and call lots of stuff 'da da', but that's about it. I think he's just putting all his effort into learning how to walk. I really think he'll be walking by the time of his 1st birthday.

Declan Turns 11 Months

2010-03-01T21:54:00.000-06:00

Almost a year. Wow.

Here's a couple of birthday pictures, and by birthday, I mean 11 month anniversary. Would that be a birthmonth?

So cute.

Kickin' back and relaxing.

His grandparents brought Christmas and early birthday presents from his Nana and Poppy (my brother and sister in law). He had to have some help before he got the idea of pulling paper off, but once he did, it was a lot of fun.

Hey, look. A toy caught his attention more than the paper.

This was the big winner in the toy department, though. He figured out he could push the buttons and make it play, and stick his hand in and make it sing. Not so much on figuring out putting the shapes in, but he sure did make in sing all night long.

Chilling with Granddad.

My parents brought up my dad's old rocking chair that his granddad made for him. It's been well loved, and looks to be loved by the next generation.

Finally, he slept tons today. I guess having grandparents around tuckers little guys out. I rarely can walk into his room when he's napping without waking him up, so pictures like this are rare.

Pretty picture

2010-02-26T08:39:00.002-06:00

Snapped this picture one morning as I drove into work. It's the field across from my office building. I thought it was pretty.

MIA Lately

2010-02-25T06:05:00.000-06:00

Between the Olympics and redoing the guest bathroom, I haven't had much of a chance to get on my computer lately. I've had pictures of Declan that needed sorted and edited and put on my blog for a couple weeks now, and I just got around to doing some of it last night.

Of course, it didn't help that my husband gave me a new computer (his old one) with Windows 7 on it, so I had to learn a whole new operating system, and reload a ton of programs. He helped my figure it out though, and supposedly Windows 7 is the best yet. I reserve judgment.

Anyway, here's some new pics of the little guy.

Declan is getting good at pulling up and cruising along the furniture. We even go for walks up and down the hallway holding on to his fingers

Naptime is still difficult. He likes standing up in his crib.

The other day, he discovered a big mirror I have tucked away in our bedroom.

He also found a mirror toy that's almost as good.

And he loves reading books.

And kitty cats. Fortunately, this kitty cat is pretty mellow around him and actually lets him pet her now and then.

Maybe soon he'll start walking with his toy.

A Change of Plans

2010-02-25T05:46:00.000-06:00

Remember in my last post when I talked about diving in to renovate my guest bath? I was taking it fairly slowly, but I was doing a little bit every night. I've got the primer up on the walls and ceiling and I've taking out the hardware and the lights. I had been working on putting up plaster patch on the walls to cover up all the texture, and I've only made it around the shower and the back of the toilet. (Wanted to start small and in unobtrusive places)

Last night, I found out m parents are coming to visit next week, not at the end of March. Okay. I told them they were welcome, as long as they don't mind a torn-apart bathroom. Hey, that even means I can get some extra help in redoing it!

I'm Diving In

2010-02-10T21:55:00.000-06:00

I was reading something on one of the decorating blogs I've been following. She talked about how you shouldn't wait until you're ready to move out of the house to spruce it up. Don't do all the work for the new owners. Rip out the carpet, paint the walls, put up a new mirror and enjoy the results NOW!

So I did it. I primed a small section of my ugly green bathroom two nights ago and then applied a tester paint over it: Antique Pearl by Behr. Looked pretty on the card and it seemed like it would match the floor tiles.

I'm glad we did a test patch. My and Daniel's first thought was 'hrm, that looks a lot like naked flesh, not pearl'. So it's back to the store for more paint samples to try out.

In the meantime, I took down the shelves, removed the hardware and switch plates, and started painting the walls and the ceiling with Killz primer. I'm not intending to cover the green 100% because I'm going to go back over everything with a skim coat and smooth out the textured walls. I've never liked the texture (I think it's called orange peel), and I figure I can start with a small room and see how difficult it is to smooth out.

I'm also painting the primer on with a brush, not a roller. Yes, I'm doing it all by hand and after the baby goes to bed. I think this might take a while, but that's okay. My goal is to have it done by the time my parents visit at the end of March. That gives me almost 6 weeks; 4 if I take some time off to watch the Olympics.

One project finished. Next?

2010-02-09T08:30:00.001-06:00

Finished my $1.50 thrift store quilt I found. I saw a package in the store labeled "unfinished child's quilt" for $1.50, so I picked it up. For that price, why not?

Turns out, it was a pieced top that was 80% finished, and the rest of the material, already cut, was in the bag. Took me all of 1-2 hours to finish piecing and sewing it together. Then I had a muslin that I used for the backing. I picked up some batting from Wal-Mart, and I got enough to use for the quilt and to increase the padding in an upholstered chair that I'm getting ready to redo. A stop at the fabric store, where I paid another $1.50 for some remnant for binding and I was set.

Over the course of a week, I finished quilting and binding the new quilt. It's not perfect, and there are some puckers on the back where it slid a bit, but you know, for less than $10, I have a new quilt that I can let Declan play with however he wants, and I won't get upset if anything happens to it.

Last night, I needed something new to work on. So I painted some primer on a section of my ugly olive-green bathroom in preparation of painting on some tester paint tonight. Then I started cutting out some pieces of fabric to attempt my first slipcover for a chair. Always working on something.

Go Colts!

2010-02-07T22:18:00.000-06:00

Declan's cousin, Garrett, gave Declan a Colts shirt a while ago. It's still way too big for him, but we went to a Superbowl party today, so I decided it was a perfect time to wear his Colt's shirt.

He looks good in blue.

I'd always heard about babies doing parallel play, where they will play next to each other but ignore each other. That's exactly what happened tonight, and it was cute.

Jackson was in the bouncer going to town, and Declan saw that there was a toy on the bouncer he wanted to play with. So Declan pulled himself up and spun the ball on the bouncer, while the whole time Jackson was bouncing and bouncing, and they totally ignored each other.

Guess Who's 10 (Months)?

2010-02-07T22:13:00.001-06:00

Here's some pictures of Declan turning 10 months old..

And some random pictures...

Now that little guy can pull himself up, nap time is a lot harder to initiate. He keeps standing up in his crib.

And he looks like he's trying to figure out how to get out.

He LOVES his music table.

More deep thoughts...

Daddy tickles!

More music table love.

Blueberry Chutney and Brie

2010-01-28T20:48:00.000-06:00

Made a blueberry chutney tonight. It's...weird. It's good, but it's also very strange.

Here's the recipe.

1.5 pints fresh blueberries
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup brown sugar
pinch salt
1 tbsp cornstarch

Cook over medium heat until it boils. Let boil one minute. Cool. Serve over warm brie.

Pretty simple. Can also serve with meats and crackers.

More Pictures. Just Because

2010-01-28T20:34:00.000-06:00

What color are his eyes now? Hazel? Brown?

Bedhead!

Gotta chase that ball!

Lost the ball. Still have the bedhead.

WHEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just because.

He Stood Up By Himself!!

2010-01-28T20:32:00.000-06:00

Daniel called me at work this morning and said that when he went to get Declan out of the crib from his morning nap, he found the little guy standing up and holding on to the edge of the crib. He stood up all by himself!

Here he is practicing holding on to the coffee table.

Pictures from his grandparents' visit

2010-01-28T20:30:00.001-06:00

We had a great time while they were here. I, for one, didn't work! And we went out to a movie and for lunch and did some shopping, and we had some one else to help take care of Declan! :)

Here's Mom mom and Pop pop (still haven't figured out how to spell that).

Pop pop helping Declan make his toys make noise. He's really good at it now.

Meanwhile, what did Mom mom do? Made funny faces.

And let him play on the table.

Later, Declan managed to de-sock himself. Again. Babies and socks...there's some sort of universal repelling force between the two.

Warning....

Incoming Grandma Kisses!!!

Here they are before they left in the morning. It was time for little guy's nap, so he was more interested in bed than in saying goodbye or practicing waving.

Heard from Mom mom this morning. She said she's already saving her pennies to fly back for another visit.

Declan's First Significant Boo Boo

2010-01-26T11:58:00.002-06:00

I'm not entirely sure how he did it, but last night, he managed to put a huge scratch down his chin. It's at least 2-3 inches long, but fortunately, it's shallow, and it didn't bleed much.

Poor kid. He'd never had a scratch in his life, and he acted like it. It was painful and scary, and he didn't like it one bit.

I think it must have still bothered him this morning at breakfast. Maybe he got some yogurt or something in it, because suddenly, he started crying and didn't want to eat any more. Hopefully it heals up quickly.

Here's his scratch.

Realy Cool Site - Shoebox kids

2010-01-25T10:55:00.002-06:00

Shoebox

Neat site in the UK. Gave kids a shoebox and asked them to recreate a room in their home.

In Laws Visit

2010-01-24T07:17:00.002-06:00

They came, they coo'ed, they had fun, and they left. I had a good time too, and I think Declan enjoyed all the extra attention. It was nice to have an extra set of eyes and hands to watch him and keep him occupied.

We even got a date night! We saw Avatar and went out to eat. Works for us.

Speaking of eating out...We wanted to go to La Tapa Tapa, a nice, quiet Spanish restaurant that we'd been to once, and it seemed very kid-unfriendly. So we wanted to go back after the movie. We walk in, and there's a guy playing 70s lounge songs on a synthesizer as loud as he can. And he's not very good.

We asked to be seated at the back of the restaurant to get as far away from him as possible, but it wasn't far enough. We had to shout at the top of our voices to be heard over him, and neither of us could concentrate on the menu to see what we wanted to order. We ended up walking out after about 3 minutes. Oh, it was terrible. And I'd wanted to go there so badly.

We didn't have a backup plan, so we just drove until we saw something else to try. Ended up at the South Shore GRill. It was okay, but honestly, the thing I'm going to remember about this date is the horrible lounge singer, not the crab cake. :)

Daniel's mother gave me some pictures of Daniel when he was a wee baby. I think I can see a lot of Daniel in Declan as he gets closer to 1 year old. What do you think?

Here's Daniel at 1 year and some months.

And Declan at 9 months.

For comparison, here's me at 1 year old.

Maybe I'll have to try it again when Declan's a few months older. But sometimes when I'm looking at him, I can see it.

Random Picture

2010-01-17T07:32:00.000-06:00

I took this picture the other day as I was driving home. It was a point and shoot, so don't give me grief about driving and taking pictures.

It had been raining for days, and as I came over the rise, the sun broke through in just one section and there was this almost eerie effect of a watery sunshine with the heavy gray clouds all around. It only lasted for a few seconds before the clouds swallowed up the sun again.

Cold Snap Update

2010-01-17T07:27:00.001-06:00

Looks worse than I thought.

In the back yard, in my fancy new landscaping, looks like I might have lost almost everything: the ginger (some of my favorites), the mini something-or-others, the ones with the blue flowers that were just starting to really go, and the asparagus fern. Oh, and the water plant, but it's still green, so maybe there's hope for it. I'll post a picture a bit later.

I hope these things come back. I'd hate to have to replace them all.

Of course, my native Texas roses look to have pulled through just fine. Maybe I should replace some of the dead plants (if they do die) with a rose or two.

My New Home Job Hazard: Baby Under Desk

2010-01-17T07:24:00.003-06:00

Our Cold Snap

2010-01-12T19:45:00.001-06:00

We had a frigid weekend here in south Texas. Our normal high is 62, but last weekend, our high was 34 and the low was 18. I actually had to run the faucets outside to keep the pipes from freezing. Our furnace was running constantly, and it was cold!

My landscaping took a pretty good hit. My hibiscuses were already looking a little bare from the earlier snow, and now they've pretty much lost all their leaves. We'll see how well they recover this spring. One of my palms was drooping badly. Don't know if it will recover. And it looks like my ginger plants are very sickly and sorta brown. I hope they recover. They're some of my favorite plants.

At the least, I hope this killed off the mosquito population, because it was horrible last year.

Daniel and Declan's Disastrous Day

2010-01-12T19:42:00.001-06:00

My poor husband. He had a terrible day with the baby today.

It started with a diaper explosion before lunch. Declan was in his bouncer, and Daniel didn't realize that the bouncer had basically pushed all the poop up the back of his shirt, all over his neck and arms. Ugh. Then Daniel picked him up and got poo all over his shirt, hands and neck.

It was bad enough that apparently the only way to get Declan clean was to put him under the faucet before even trying to take his clothes off. Of course, he didn't like that and cried the whole time.

Fast forward a couple hours. Declan managed to pull the torchiere over and it shattered into a million pieces all around Daniel and the baby. Of course, it scares Declan to death, so he's crying. Daniel's barefoot and trying to figure out how to get out from all the glass.

He finally gets the baby out to the family room, then comes back to assess the damage. He goes back to get the broom, and finds Declan chewing on a dead, desiccated lizard! That's when he called me and said, Come home now.

Poor, poor Daniel. I bought him ice cream to make up for all that.

Mmm. Blueberry Oat Bran Muffins

2010-01-08T09:04:00.001-06:00

I made the most amazing blueberry muffins last night. The recipe came from Chocolate and Zucchini. The recipe was super simple to make. I could even do it while working on dinner and feeding the baby.

I'd been avoiding doing stuff in the evening while the baby was still up, but by the time he goes to bed, I'm usually too tired to motivate myself to do anything. So I think I'm going to have to try and do more stuff when he's awake, and balance it against playing with him. He's happy playing by himself quite a bit. Last night, he played with his bead track and spent several minutes banging various objects together. I'm sure we'll balance things out as we go forward.

Little Guy is 9 Months Old

2010-01-07T21:05:00.000-06:00

To celebrate, here are his 9 month pictures.

Daddy Ride!!

I think this is a cute one.

But then there's this....

And the serious one...

And I tried an experiment in black and white.

Declan's Doctor Update

2010-01-07T09:25:00.000-06:00

He saw the doctor yesterday for his 9 month well-baby check up. She was well pleased with his progress and said he was right on track. His growth continues to be consistent along the same percentiles. He weighs a shade under 24 pounds and is 28.5 inches long. That keeps him on the same 90th percentile for weight and 50th percentile for height.

She was very happy with his ability to feed himself, babble, clap, imitate his parents, get on his hands and knees and stand by himself. She said he'd probably be crawling within 1-2 weeks. He can already crawl backwards, and frequently backs himself into a corner, then cries about it.

She also told us that he's starting to comprehend "no" and we need to start being firm with him about eating and bedtimes. We are already pretty firm about his bedtime ritual, and he only eats at the table. She said it was time to stop catering to his picky eating all the time, but he's not too terribly picky very often. I'm undecided about how strict I'll be about him eating his green beans or going hungry until the next mealtime. I guess I'm fortunate in that respect that it's Daniel who will make most of those decisions. :)

Declan's Progress

2010-01-05T20:02:00.000-06:00

Last week, he learned how to sit up! Daniel went in to get him from his nap, and he was sitting in his crib. Over the next few days, he did it over and over.

He can also stand on his own without any help. We just make sure he doesn't fall, or at least, has a soft landing. He's trying to pull himself up, usually using one of us.

I just put him down for the night, and he kept getting on his hands and knees and crawling backward into the corner of the crib. Then he'd sit on his knees and cry and cry. I guess he was stuck, or he didn't know how to lay down again. I tried putting him on his back, but he cried some more. Daniel came in and said he wanted his blankie. We gave him his crocheted blanket, and sure enough, within 5 minutes he was asleep.

Want some more pictures?

I didn't realize cottage cheese was a finger food, but he's very determined to feed himself.

This is when Daddy feeds him yogurt in a hurry.

Here's pictures of him getting presents from his Meme.
A laughing monkey ball. He really likes this. The laughing will get old before too long though.

A bead track. It's cool too. But not as cool as the cardboard box it came in!

This is from last week. You can see he's trying to figure out how to get on his hands and knees. He can't quite get that second leg figured out yet.

So Christmas Vacation Is Over

2010-01-05T19:49:00.000-06:00

I actually managed to get a fair bit done. I saw Avatar in 3D, installed a raised bed garden, sorted through Declan's old clothes and put out some new ones, got some stuff organized and disposed of in the garage, and cleaned out the pantry. Probably more stuff, but I forget. I can't even make a coherent sentence some days.

Now it's back to work and trying to get the house cleaned up enough for visitors in a couple of weeks. And trying to figure out how to do a garden this year. I'm inspired. I'm going to try the square foot garden method. Looks easy and like something I might be able to manage.

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-25T08:43:00.000-06:00

A good morning was had by all. We did our normal routine of getting up at 6 and feeding Declan breakfast. Then Daniel got up and started the cinnamon rolls and we all migrated into the living room for presents. It was mostly about Declan this year, but of course, he's too little to understand anything. Next year will be lots of fun, I think. But he still had fun playing with ours and his presents.

"Yay, it's morning and Mommy and Daddy are playing with me!"

"They tried to make me wear a Santa hat, but I think it's more fun to pull it off and eat it."

"Here, Daddy, open this one next."

"Well, if you won't open it, I'll just go ahead and eat it."

"Oooh, a present for me? You mean I can tear this paper all up, and you're happy about it? Okay."

"Yay! My very own keyboard to play with, since Mommy and Daddy don't let me pound on theirs. They say it's wireless, whatever that means. I heard Mommy say to Daddy last night to cut the cord off."

"Yes, I know I loved the elephant when I saw it in the store, but there's a KEYBOARD here, Mommy and Daddy. Priorities!"

"This is a great Christmas. What's Christmas again?"

Sleeping Like A Baby

2009-12-25T08:31:00.002-06:00

Is there anything more peaceful looking in the world?

Ah Christmas Vacation

2009-12-25T08:30:00.000-06:00

I'm a couple days late on this. Started my Christmas vacation on Wednesday by doing some shopping and seeing Avatar in 3D while Daniel watched the little guy for me.

I loved Avatar! It was visually stunning and had a good story, too. I'd want to go back and watch it in the theatre again if it weren't for the fact that we have the little guy to watch and I don't want to saddle Daniel with him too much while I'm on vacation. It's his vacation time too.

With those computer graphics, they have GOT to make the Dragonriders of Pern soon. I'd so love to see that.

Also did some yardwork to try and improve the mess that is our front yard. And did a little bit of last minute Christmas shopping, mainly for stocking stuffers.

I guess I'm in an organizational / cleaning up mood lately, too. I took one look at my pantry on Wed night and decided it must be cleaned up right then. Well, as soon as little guy went to bed. Took everything out, cleaned the shelves, put the stuff we wouldn't eat aside for the food bank, threw out all the expired food (and there was too much of that), then put stuff back. Even went out to Walmart 2 days before Christmas (shudder) for bins and containers for the pantry. But now it looks great!

I even decorated my house for Christmas, going beyond just putting up a tree! This is a big deal for me. Usually I have no decorations except for maybe a couple of stiped candles.

But this year, Lowe's was selling their live greenery for $1 each when I went to pick up some yard materials, so I got a bunch of garland to put in the window sill. I added lights and silk roses. Are the roses overkill? I could have done candles, but hate to with the little guy around. And the cats, but they pretty much avoided the garland.

I also got some greenery for the coffee table. I like how this turned out.

And here's what I was working on for several weeks, after little guy went to bed. I found the letters, decorated them, hung them up, and found lots of cute stuff in silver and red for the mantelpiece. I even have family pictures of us there.

Christmas Pictures

2009-12-18T09:28:00.000-06:00

So yesterday, we got professional pictures taken of the little guy, and we even included a family picture. I was afraid the outfit I'd gotten him would be too big, but it fit him just fine. The photographer suggested that we take his socks off, so he'd be barefoot and it makes it look much better. He just would not smile though. He acted like he was sitting for a formal portrait and Must Not Smile! We kept playing with him, and eventually a little smile peeked through.

See if you like the little guy's pictures as much as I do.

My funniest video of the little guy thus far

2009-12-17T09:21:00.002-06:00

We have a new game we've been playing with Declan for a couple weeks now. It started off with rubbing his tummy while he was making noise, and it evolved into what you see now. I laugh every single time we do it, and he seems happy enough to let us keep doing it to him, so I guess he likes it too.

He's Learning and Growing

2009-12-16T09:14:00.001-06:00

Last week, Declan learned to clap. He'd been able to bang two blocks together, but he didn't get the concept of clapping his empty hands together. We'd clap, and he'd wave his hands up and down, but not toward each other. Last week, he finally started clapping, and now he does it all the time. We encourage him a lot, too. :)

I think he's also starting to work on pulling up. Last night, I was practicing his standing up. He's really good at standing up on his own, as long as you provide the balance for him. Last night, I'd put out my hands and he'd sort of reach out to grab them, then he made a motion like he sort of wanted to stand up. So I'd lift him up a little bit, and as soon as he felt me start to lift him up, he'd work on standing up and getting his legs under him. I really think he could skip crawling, or at least, he's not going to be crawling for long if he does.

I have to brag on him a little bit, too. He's such a good sleeper now. I feed him his bedtime bottle around 7-7:30, then he immediately wants to go to his crib. No cuddling for him right now. I put him down, give him his bunny, turn on the lullabies and walk out the door. He usually doesn't even fuss, but immediately falls asleep. Then he sleeps through until 5:30 am.

I'll get up at 5:30, too, even though I'm not really thrilled about it. But I let him play in his crib until 6, while I'm getting his breakfast and my coffee ready. Right around 6, he starts fussing that he's ready to get up, so we go start his day.

More Pictures. Just Because

2009-12-06T22:08:00.000-06:00

I'm trying my best to organize my videos and pictures, while at the same time, making Christmas cookies, getting presents ready, teaching Declan to nap in his crib instead of his swing, and trying not to fall asleep.

So anyway, here are some of the latest pictures of my growing baby boy. Ignore the drool and the rash around the mouth. He's cutting his two front top teeth and the drool factor has turned up by 100.

I got him some new, footed pajamas for winter time (such as it is in Houston). Now he can't pull his socks off at night.

Standing in line at Bass Pro to see Santa.

Daniel snapped this one. Hopefully, next year he'll be happier about the prospect of seeing Santa. :)

His picture with Santa.

He's 8 months old now!

"Hey, want an orange? They're delicious."

New Video: Declan Rolling Around

2009-12-06T21:22:00.001-06:00

Rolling is his major (only) means of locomotion right now. Why bother learning to crawl when rolling gets you anywhere you want to be. Of course, there are some minor issues like rolling into the couch, but a quick 12-point turn can take care of that.

Before and After - A Picture Frame Reborn

2009-12-04T15:21:00.001-06:00

I've been inspired by crafty blogs lately, so when I spotted this hideous framed picture for $3, I decided to pick it up. I forgot to take a total before picture, showing the original painting, but it was black with some sort of gaudy, gold painting and words on it. Ugly. And the frame was an icky, ugly, chipped gold.

A few coats of Heirloom White, and a scrap of fabric taped around the original picture, and I have a new piece of art for the baby's room. It's over the changing table right now.

Baby Yoga Pants - A Tutorial With Pictures

2009-12-04T15:17:00.001-06:00

I like dressing Declan in sweat pants because they seem to be the most comfy and easy to get on and off. But considering he goes through about 2 pairs a day, he needs more. I'm also cheap and hate spending $7 at Target, and I couldn't find what I wanted at a thrift store. So I decided to make my own.

I found a nice sweats fabric in the remnant bin at Hancock Fabrics. I got a half yard, and it's enough to make a couple pairs, but so far, I've just done one.

Cut out the two pieces from a template that I made from an old pair of pants.

Sew a 5/8" seam along the inseam. I forgot to take a picture of that part. It's the long leg seam.

Press the seams open.

Invert one leg and slide it inside the other one so that the right sides are together.

Pin the front and back seams together, matching at the existing crotch seam. Sew a 5/8" seam.

Press that seam open.

Do a quick test fitting on your model. Mine was fairly willing to model at the time. The waist is a little small, but it'll do. Next pair, I'll add some to the waist measurement.

Cut a piece of 1/2" elastic that is a little bigger than the waistband.

Using a seam guide, turn the waistband down 1" to the inside. Pin.

Sew a seam about 1/4" from the bottom edge of the waistband casing. I went back over it with a zig zag seam and cut a couple of snips in the original straight seam, because it didn't seem to have enough give. Make sure to leave a 1" - 1.5" opening in the casing to thread your elastic.

Fold one end of the elastic over and thread onto a safety pin.

Using the safety pin, thread the elastic through the waistband casing.

Sew the elastic together, giving your waistband whatever stretchiness you need. Hand sew the casing closed.

Turn inside out. I added a row of decorative stitching, just for the heck of it.

Dress baby in new warm sweat pants. I purposely let the legs be a little long so they cover his feet. He's not crawling or walking yet, and if I need to, I can tack them up.

Not the most professional dressmaking job ever, but he's only going to wear them around the house, and they'll likely be covered in bananas, cereal, crackers, and all sorts of other stuff.

More Teeth!!

2009-11-30T19:07:00.000-06:00

Today Declan has been super super cranky and upset. Daniel said that the baby was crying and screaming the entire day unless he was asleep or eating his bottle.

Well, tonight I was feeling in his mouth, and I finally felt a little tiny point on his upper gum! I checked his baby book and he got his bottom teeth starting on August 27. It's been three months since then. I was beginning to think his upper teeth would never come in.

He's been drooling a lot and had a bit of a rash around his mouth, but he's always drooling, and we've been saying for 2 months that "maybe he's teething" every time he's cranky.

I'm just so happy that he finally has his upper two teeth coming in!

Scary and Depressing Story

2009-11-30T12:10:00.001-06:00

I just deleted this entire post. It was on something depressing and I felt the need to say something. But having said it once, I no longer felt the need to keep something this depressing on my blog. So...Delete.

Did you have fun shopping?

2009-11-30T08:38:00.000-06:00

I did all my shopping online, at Amazon. I love that store. You can find anything there. I decided that I needed a better camera, because I wanted to blow up a picture I had taken to poster size, and at the best resolution from my camera, the store still wouldn't print it. Okay, so time to upgrade my 5 MP camera. Found a nice one on Amazon; it's a 12.1 MP Canon. I was happy with my old Canon, so I just decided I stick with the same brand. Makes it much easier to shop when you eliminate 90% of the field right away. I should have my new camera soon! Of course, it won't help me be able to make a print of my pictures I've already taken, but I guess that just gives me a good excuse to go somewhere and take more pretty pictures.

I got a good deal on a cherry-wood, large picture frame (with the picture) last week on the Swap Shop. I don't care about the picture inside, but the frame is nice, and that's what I bought. Unfortunately, it's going to take longer than I anticipated to get a picture to put inside the frame. Not just waiting for the camera; I have to wait for my next vacation.

Yesterday, we made a foray to Ikea so that I could look at the storage/shelving units there and figure out what I needed to replace the old shelving in my garage. Of course, that's after fixing the front yard, on the priority list. That reminds me, I need to call and find out how much delivered mulch will run.

We played with the little guy near all the big stuffed animals and put each one up to him to see which was his favorite. Turned out to be the big elephant, so we came home with it. It'll sit under the Christmas tree for him. He might manage to roll his way over there this month, but if so, that's okay. Christmas isn't a big deal for him this year.

More Random Baby Pictures

2009-11-27T10:40:00.001-06:00

Because I love pictures of my baby. I don't need any other reasons.

Rubber Ducky. He outgrew his baby bathtub in the sink and was getting the kitchen soaked by splashing. so I found this. It smells all plastic-y, and I'm sure it's not good for the environment, but I fell prey to the awesome rubber-ducky cuteness.

Baby Football. Easy way to cart the baby around.

Block Contemplation. He's just starting to grasp the concept that he can knock down the tower of blocks that we build.

Bath Time is Happy Fun Time.

New Pajamas. I finally bought him a new set of matching pajamas.

Baby Toys. Why bother buying a baby presents when he's perfectly content for 30 minutes to chew on his sock and play with a can of evaporated milk?

Da Bears!

Fun With Blocks

2009-11-25T07:20:00.002-06:00

Last night, Declan finally got the hang of knocking down the block towers I was building. We'd been playing blocks for several days now, and he'd knock them down, but it was more of an accident. He would reach out for the tower and it would fall.

Last night, he actually swatted at the towers to make them fall. He didn't have emotions about it, like giggling. But he's figuring it out.

Memories of Summer

2009-11-23T08:40:00.001-06:00

Well, fall, technically. I don't think I posted these after I got back from my parents' house in Illinois in October. I went out one morning to take some pictures around their house. Wish I could still live around there. *sigh*

Hrm, think I might print one out and frame it to bring to work and have something pretty to look at. Which one would be best?

Morning dew:

Wildflowers:

Country Lane:

Fields in the river bottom:

A splash of red:

Sentinel tree: