Declan is 1!

I know, I know. I am a stranger on my own blog. I promise I do check in occasionally and I have about a million other blogs to catch up on but still. DECLAN IS 1. Technically on the 2nd, but I'm still very much in the "He just turned 1" phase. I'll say this til probably December, fyi.

He's just the best. Period. He's got this HUGE personality and the only thing he really says is Mama. Not complaining. He just started walking the day after his birthday, which was pretty freaking awesome considering I had a bet with his daddy that he WOULDN'T walk til after he turned 12mo. Way to help a sister out! There's just something so, so cute about a little newbie walker. How they hold their hands up. How they take little bitty steps with this huge LOOK AT ME grin. I just eat it up. I want him to be a newbie walker foreverrrrr.

He still wakes up at night, which what up with that? Doc says to ignore him, but Dec has a set of powerful lungs and it's much easier to just sleepwalk my way into the kitchen and make him a bottle. He's still has one like 4 times a day, which is not really a big thing for me. He's really starting to do well in the eating department, so once I feel confident that he's getting all his nutrients from real food, I'll start taking the bottle away. or at least replacing the formula with milk.

I have the brain of a woman with 3 kids under the age of 6, so I totally forgot about his well child check up last week. Oops. The earliest they could get him in was not until August 31st and he'll be approaching the ripe old age of 14mo by then.

5 teeth! 3 on top, 2 on bottom. He doesn't act like they bother him, but we'll see how that changes when those big mean molars start their journey to the top.

1-2 naps a day. He prefers one, I prefer 2. It's a nice battle we have going on.

Still backwards facing. I don't think he's much over 20lbs and everywhere you look someone is yelling at you to keep their rear facing til 2, so I'm just going with the masses and keeping him backwards for the time being. My goal is 18mo, I think. WHICH WILL BE AROUND CHRISTMAS TIME OH BOY.

He still likes to be carried more than he likes down and he'll still lay his head down on your shoulder if he's feeling lovable. Declan is just a great kid and I'm so happy he was picked to be mine.

I promise with cherries on top that I'll get a proper "summer yay" post going so that I won't forget everything that happened this year. Hopefully. Maybe.

2013 can suck it

2013 has NOT been a good year in terms of sickness. It's not even mid April and Declan has had the flu, an ear infection, and ANOTHER ear infection as of today. Technically, there's a good chance it's the same ear infection that never cleared up, but it has been two doctors visits and two different antibiotics so I'm calling it two. Emma, of all people, also has an ear infection. Connor has a cough. My house is trashed and there's a good chance Lowes will be showing up with a crap load of appliances we bought.*


Someone shoot me.

The saving grace is that I'm making Emma my beard and taking her to see Jurassic Park 3D because WHO DOESN'T WANT TO SEE JURASSIC PARK 3D?! I'm just trying to think about that as I listen to Declan AWAKE on the baby monitor at 11m at night. Good thing my husband is an awesome daddy and is totally going into work late tomorrow so that he can take Em to school - meaning I won't have to wake up a baby who is determined to stay awake all night.

* We have decided to remodel our house (kitchen, living room, and utility room as of right now). New washer/dryer, fridge, dish washer, stove, and pantry are supposed to be arriving next Friday. Came home from the doctors office to find a message on the answering machine, where a nice person informed me they'd be bringing it tomorrow. Hubby's going to try to get a hold of them tomorrow because there's no way I am going to have to house ready for that. I've been given permission to just grab the kids and hide in the bedroom if they show up, so there's always that. ;)

I really am bad at this, aren't I?

After all my big talk about updating this, it's been another couple months between posts. I'd apologize, but I'm afraid whatever readers I had have long since found some other sappy blog about their kids to read. ;)

I don't have time for a really long update, but I do hope to do that within the next week. Em has spring break next week (yes, her kindergarten year is almost over! Someone hold me) which means my mom also has that week off. I plan on properly taking advantage of that and shipping some kids over there for a couple of days - grandma approves - so maybe I'll get wild and crazy and write something out.

Declan is 8.5 months old. How this happened, I have no idea. He's the smiliest, happiest baby in the entire world. He's my little buddy and I can count on one hand the times we have been apart. If I had to pick a baby to be my last one, he would be it. Everything you love about a baby - how some will lay their head on your shoulder, how some raise their little arms to be picked up, how some will tilt their head and smile at you when you do something silly - he does them ALL. He's perfect and I love him so, so much. Month 7 was good to him as he sat up, said mama, AND crawled within that month. He can book it on all 4's now, but those first days of trying to crawl will always be some of the funniest moments of my life. He could just NOT wrap his head around how to move his legs and arms and some of the things he would do were hilarious.

Quick 8mo facts:

- 20lbs
-9-12mo clothes
-says mama
- sits and crawls
-eating regular solid food, but refuses to pick it up and put it in his mouth
- 2 naps a day
-still wakes usually 2 times a night to eat
-The most important one - A COMPLETE MAMA'S BOY.

Em and C will get their little updates here when I come back for my "what the hell have I been doing" post but check out this Valentine Day picture we had taken last month. Um, brochure anyone?? ;)