Fabulous Fall Fun

Declan is growing up so quickly! (How silly I feel saying that after hearing my mom say that to me for 20-something years...) He's 15 (count 'em!) weeks old now. I've officially decided I will not be a mom who continues to count in weeks or months when it is entirely unnecessary ("he's 17 months"... "so you mean like a year and a half, right??"). So, I'll re-phrase. He's 3 1/2 months old!! He's really coming in to his own little personality now, which is great. Top three words to describe him: smiley, talkative, and attention hog (it was either that or demanding, neither one is quite nice, but nonetheless true). He loves being the center of our attention (anyone's for that matter). He has his momma's looks with his daddy's beautiful every changing eyes. Blue-green-grey is spectacular with his dark little hairs (just like daddy!) He's still such a cute little chubby man! We go for our 4 month checkup at the end of this month and I'm excited to see how much he's grown! Not so excited about another round of vaccinations :/

While the weather was nice out this fall we made our best attempts to get out of the house and spend some time outdoors.......

(I'm assuming Declan summoned me at that point, it is now several weeks later, which makes the above info outdated. So I'll continue with newer stuff. Geez, where does all my time go?)

So, Declan is actually 4 months now. Our Dr. visit went well. He's doing all the right developmental things on track, and is in the 90th% for both height and weight. A whopping 17 lbs and a little over 26 inches long! What a chunky monkey :) He did much better with vaccinations this time around, and was all chatty and giggly during our appointment (so much so, that I had to pass him off to Dad so I could actually pay attention to what Dr. Andrews was saying and ask all my questions). Since my last update with pictures, we have had his 1st Halloween and Thanksgiving. I managed only one Halloween picture, and ZERO Thanksgiving photos! What is wrong with me?? Halloween we spent with our small group from church. I was determined to make Declan into an owl for Halloween, but I had no idea what Matt and I could be to go with him. Matt shot down nearly all my suggestions and finally said he's do whatever, so my official decision was Harry Potter. Matt went as Harry, I went as Hermione, and of course Mr. Declan went as Hedwig (Harry's trusty owl). My mom always made my Halloween costumes, so I followed suit and did the same for Declan. The owl costume was cute, but it turns out that 3 month old little boys don't' really like wearing costumes for very long. Here's the one picture we got...

 

I also really wanted that cute "baby in a pumpkin" photo, so here was my attempt... He actually gave his first string of real laughter during this photo shoot but I didn't move quickly enough to get it on video. And as an FYI- this was the pumpkin that we picked from the pumpkin patch/apple picking outing earlier in that week, it was 26 stinkin' pounds! Thanks to Matt for carrying it all the way back to the barn :)

Being cleaned/prepped in my kitchen sink

" Hahahaha," said Declan.

Kinda tasty

Squished up inside of it

Me, Mom, and the Pumpkin

Clean-up in the "big-man-tub"; note floating pumpkin bits...

This year for Thanksgiving, we hosted at our house because Declan was being dedicated at church the following weekend (our church does infant baptism, Matt and I are considering it a dedication). Note to self- holidays are much more stressful when you host even though cooking for 15 is actually kinda fun, like a strategy game or something. The turkey was an ordeal. Matt and I divide up the grocery list- he gets turkey- a FRESH turkey, about 1 week before we'll actually cook it- we freeze fresh turkey to keep it from going bad- we thaw turkey in refrigerator for 4 days- turkey still frozen- we quick thaw turkey in sink- my mom and I brine turkey overnight- then cook turkey- it comes out golden brown, moist, and picture perfect- whew- eat turkey and take nap (Thanks Mom for coming up the day before to help prep all the food!)

The church bulletin

I turned 4 months old on Black Friday!

Trying my best to roll out of the photo shoot!

Playing in my exersaucer for the first time :)

Some quick facts about Declan at 4 months-----

1. He rolls tummy to back and back to tummy now. Which makes him a Houdini at navigating all around his crib and getting arms and legs out the rails.

2. He usually sleeps on his side now, he doesn't like his back much anymore but isn't quite sure what to think about sleeping on his tummy (silly kid!).

3. Anything and everything goes straight into his mouth (your hand, his hand, toys, the carpet, you name it).

4. He's wearing size 6 month clothes, and is just about to grow out of them. His 6-12 month stuff fits better. We've been in size 3 diapers for a few weeks now.

5. He slept through an ENTIRE night exactly once (it was the eve of his 4 month birthday), and has yet to do it again. This milestone I am definitely excited about!! I'm talking from 9:30pm to 7:30 am folks :)

6. We are finally on a 3 hour eating schedule! Yipee! Another milestone this momma is thankful for after 2 weeks of eating every 2 hours, and 3 1/2 months of eating every 2.5 hours.

7. Naps finally improved beyond the chronic 45 minutes. On a good day, naps are now 1.5 hours :)

8. He's started doing that "I want down" thing where he makes himself stiff as a board so he's hard to hold onto. He'd rather be down exploring and playing.