Life, Love, and Rockets: Falling into Fall

Long time no post! We've had a busy September and October in the Nunnally household. Declan started going to daycare in the mornings at my work toward the very end of August (who am I kidding, it was August 26th okay? the first day of daycare is a big day!). I drop him off in the mornings on my way to work at 6:30am, and our nanny picks him up later in the day. He only got 2.5/10 stars on his first day. He cried himself to sleep in a corner that first morning; sad day for buddy! He slowly got used to it though, and started doing better day by day. In October he started going until the afternoon time. During this month he got his first "wonderful day!" comment. Yay! The little things they write on his sheet about his day such as "planted a sweet potato" or "got to smell, taste, touch, and feel pumpkin puree while painting with it" crack me up. I can only imagine eight 12-24 months old kiddos running around the classroom doing these projects. But it makes me happy to know that he's experiencing a lot of new things and he's getting better acquainted with his classmates who holler out "byeeee Dec!" when he leaves for the day :)

Speaking of nanny, Miss Julie is getting married November 17th and spent her last day with us October 29th. We'll miss her dearly. She was such a great buddy and teacher for D the last 9 months. We just hired a new nanny last week, Miss Savannah, so hopefully she won't disappoint. She seems like she's a great girl with a passion for kids (just like Miss Julie!). Her first day picking D up from daycare is this Wednesday, so we'll see how it goes.

Miss Julie and Declan taking selfies- June 4
(he has so much more hair now!!)

Okay, so more September stuff. Matt and I took Declan and my mom to San Francisco for 4 days. It was my mom's birthday present, but she sure was nice to have around so Matt and I could get out for a little date (thanks momma!!). In our 4 short days we managed to see Chinatown, downtown SF (where we stayed), Fisherman's Wharf (and the colony of sea lions that lives on Pier 39!), the Exploratorium (the coolest science museum ever), the Golden Gate Bridge (and drive over it twice), the Muir Woods (little redwood forest colony not too far from SF), and of course Alcatraz (cool to see, but maybe a bit overrated). Considering we were in a different time zone, D's naps were erratic, and everything was altogether foreign, D was a pretty good little traveler. SF was a good time and awesome to see, but it didn't take the place of my favorite city (which I expected it to). I still think that belongs to NYC.

Introducing the new mayor of SF!
(at least how he felt on the 32nd floor)

hanging out on the wharf

1st Carousel ride

drinking fountain at the Exploratorium

riding the cable cars

obligatory diaper change in the trunk
(Declan: "Are these people amateurs or what?")

gotta love the forest

These trees were just massive.

cable car!

the streets are RIDICULOUS!

One tired traveler

Alrighty, moving along into October. In October we went to go see Matt's brother and sister-in-law, Dan and Kelsie (aka Uncle Dan & Aunt KK, aka D-Nun & K-Dog, we're a nickname sorta people). They're in the Mississippi suburbs of Memphis (so when I say we're going to Memphis, we usually never actually go to Memphis). Last time we went in March, Declan was barely crawling. Now that he is a lot more mobile, we got to do a lot more stuff with him there. He loves his Aunt and Uncle, and I'm pretty sure they think he's just as great. They also have a dog (Digit) which he got a kick out of playing with, chasing, kissing, petting, and being licked. Not so sure if Digit was quite as thrilled as D though, except when it came time for Declan to eat. One afternoon while we were there, Declan kept getting the giggles while eating his snack. I couldn't figure out what he thought was so funny, so I walked over closer and discovered Digit under the table licking Declan's sticky fingers. Declan would take a bite (getting all those yummy crumbs stuck to his fingers) and then put his hand under the table for Digit. Way to go Declan, sharing dog slobber. Good sharing, but maybe not with dog slobber next time :)

A fun playground we went to that had all ramps so it could be
handicap accessible :)

Swings were also handicap friendly :)

Workin' it out for the ladies ;)

1st popsicle! He immediately asked for "mo"
(aka more)

Meet Rambo

He figured out the lever door handles; glad
we don't have these at home!

Mmmm.... Memphis style BBQ and rolls

Bike rides in the park

Another fun playground!

Swingin' away

Mowing the yard with Uncle Dan on his "tractor".

And finally, we closed out October with Halloween. Our church small group had a Halloween party the Sunday before Halloween. Everyone dresses up for it, adults included. At the beginning of September Declan loved bananas, could say "nana", and would say "ooooh ooooh ooooh" if you asked him what a monkey said. Bonus that at a consignment sale I found a cutie patootie monkey costume for a whopping $10. I couldn't make it for that cheap (my mom made ALL of my costumes so don't get me started on how I said I would always make all my kids costumes no matter what) so I bought it. So now Declan was a monkey, what would Matt and I be? Well deciding that he wasn't just any monkey but actually Curious George in turn made Matt "The Man in the Yellow Hat". I got stuck either being a banana or a banana tree, and I didn't think that both adults should be dressed in head-to-toe yellow, so banana tree it was. On the actual holiday Matt and I went to our friends' house and celebrated over there and took turns passing out candy to the tricker-treaters. D thought the best part of all that was saying "bye-bye" to them and promptly closing the door. He didn't seemed phased by their costumes, which I thought he would find interesting if not funny.

My favorite little monkey

Halloween lunch with Carson and Reece

Time to gut the pumpkin!

Hard to tell from the sunlight but we have... Peter Pan,
Tinkerbell, Man in the Yellow Hat, Curious George,
Baby Monkey, and Banana tree

And to start November, an adoption update. We moved from #60 to #50 this month!!!!!!!!! Wahoo!!!!!! I'm so stoked and hope this trend keeps up (not that I think it will, but I'm choosing to remain positive because my other option is neutral/negative and those don't seem nearly as fun). Matt and I are both fairly hopeful we'll get our referral by or during summer 2014 (and of course then another 6 months of waiting/traveling before he/she would be home with us). There are 18 families in front of us at this point that are waiting exclusively for a girl, so that technically scoots us up the list since we are fine with either gender (also meaning, we are nearly guaranteed a boy). We'll keep you posted :) Enjoy the final days of fall before it turns into a chilly winter!!!

More Pictures To Enjoy (and 1 to-die-for video!)