Happy belated 4 months Declan!

As I wrote in the previous post, months 3 and 4 of Dec's life zoomed by.  We did manage to write a 4 month letter, even though we didn't get any official pictures.  So here's our letter, with some pics of Dec at 4 months old:
Dear Declan,

Happy 4 months!  I’m sad to say that with you to keep us busy, we never got around to a 3 month letter or picture L  The good news is we’re just too busy having fun with you to sit down and write a letter, but we promise to keep up to date for the rest of your first year!  At your 4 month checkup, you were 16 lbs, 2 oz and 26 inches long.  You’re pretty “tall” for your age, but not quite as chunky as Gavin was at this age.  You did a great job at the doctor this month Dec.  You needed to get 4 vaccinations: 1 “drink” and 3 shots.  You took the drink down like a champ, and didn’t even cry for the first two shots!  You’re such a brave little guy!

We also got some wonderful news about you this month Declan.  When you were first born, you failed the newborn hearing test in the hospital not once, but twice.    This meant we had to take you to an audiologist at 1 week old to be tested again.  Daddy and I assumed you would pass and everything would be fine, but again you didn’t pass.  This meant we had to follow up with your pediatrician and an ear, nose and throat specialist.  We did follow up, but no one seemed to be able to tell us IF you were hearing, and if not, WHY?  At home, it was clear that you weren’t hearing everything, but it did seem that sometimes you could hear what was going on around you.  Eventually, we were told that we would have to wait until you were at least 3 months old to determine anything else.  You were just too little to figure things out yet.  So we waited (and waited some more when your hearing appointments kept being rescheduled), and earlier this month, you were re-screened at the audiologist.  And it turns out, you hear just fine!!  We may never know why you weren’t hearing in those first weeks, but we’re just happy that you’re as healthy as can be.

Dec, you’ve developed a lot in these last 2 months.  You can grab toys around you, and you really love to grab the monkey on the mobile in your crib and really shake him up!  You can pass a toy from one hand to the other, and you can roll from your belly to your back.  Tummy time isn’t as awful as it used to be, now that you have much better control of your neck and head.  And you’re starting to sit up!  Right now its basically sitting where it looks like you’re trying to touch your toes (which you can do, it must be nice to be so flexible!), and that only lasts for a little bit before you start tipping over, but you’re definitely on your way!  You do like to sit in your Bumbo chair as well, and Gavin thinks it’s so cool that you can sit like a big boy!

The one area you could work on Dec is sleep!  Much like you did even just after birth, you are ready to eat every 3 hours on the dot, even at night.  You’ve gotten a little better about sleeping during the day.  Sometimes you take a nap that last an hour or longer, rather than your 20 minute cat naps, and everyone is happier when that happens!  Since you’re not sleeping as long as we might like at night, your doctor suggested that you start “solid” foods, so today you had your first few bites of oatmeal.  You smiled at the first bite, but I don’t think you’ve really figured out how to swallow quite yet.  I think you had more fun making oatmeal bubbles than actually eating the oatmeal, but that’s ok!

Since we wrote you last, you’ve started going to Miss Jeanne’s because Mommy had to go back to school.  You seem to like Miss Jeanne’s, and Gavin likes having you there.  You’re the youngest one there Dec, and I think you like watching all the older kids crawl, run and play.  You’re a very observant guy Declan, and you’re happiest when you have lots of action to entertain you.

This month you went on your first long road trip Declan.  Our family of four packed up and drove down to St. Louis to watch your Uncle Kevin play in the NCAA tournament at Washington University.  You did a great job in the car and at the hotel, and we all had a really fun time!  You loved Uncle Kevin’s game (they won both of them that weekend!), and you had a good time at the Magic House with Gavin and Grandma and Grandpa.  Hopefully we have lots of fun trips ahead of us with you and your big brother!

Some of your likes have stayed the same since you were 2 months old Deckers.  You still love the song BINGO, and peek a boo is still hilarious (although you laugh so much more now, so it’s a lot more fun for Daddy and I!).  You’re a little more tolerant of car rides, and you still think Gavin is the coolest guy around.

One thing we forgot to mention in your last letter was one of your most popular nicknames: Mr. Poopers!  You got this nickname from Daddy, who is a pro at making up songs for you and your brother.  Somehow Daddy came up with the Mr. Poopers song, and now it’s a hit in our house.  You light up and giggle and smile every time we sing it.  Even Gavin knows the words, and will start singing the Mr. Poopers song when I walk in the room with you!  We promise not to keep calling you Mr. Poopers when you’re 16 and going on dates, but for now, it’s a cute nickname that you love!

We think your next milestone might be teeth Declan, because you are the king of drool right now!  Every outfit of yours ends up soaked, and Daddy and I find our sleeves, pants and feet covered in Declan drool as well!  You haven’t found a toy that you really like to chew on yet, but you’re also not very crabby about your potential teeth either. 

We’ve had a great third of a year Dec, and we’re looking forward to all the fun to come.  We love you buddy!

Love,
Mommy & Daddy

Practicing the art of sitting

 Brothers!  Gav was so excited that Declan was sitting up like a "big boy."

 Forget this sitting thing, lets skip straight to walking!

 Hugs

 Dec and his beloved blankie.

We're baaack

Well, I see its been quite a while since we've updated the blog.  As any parent knows, parenting means letting go of some things.  Our houses aren't as clean, our clothes aren't always ironed, and our dinners consist of pb&j's more often than we might like, but our kids are healthy and happy, and that's really what counts. 

So as a mom of two adorable boys, I've had to learn to let go of even more things than before, including blogging on a regular basis.  This saddens me because I enjoy sharing about our lives, and I like that the blog gives me a chance to sit down and really reflect on my boys.  I've gone back and read so many of our older blogs and been shocked at the things I've already forgotten about Gavin's "baby" years! 

But blogging takes a lot of time: uploading all of our pictures, deciding which of the hundreds are "blog worthy," captioning, writing the narrative, and all while trying to fight Gavin and Ryan for some time on the computer!  Many times, its easier and quicker to just dump a few pics on facebook, enjoy all the "oh, your boys are so cute" comments, and call it a day.  Facebook is little effort and lots of reward, whereas the blog is a labor of love.

I'm certainly not saying that we're giving up on the blog, I just want our readers (that sounds silly to say, but I'm not even sure who reads this, family? friends? random strangers who have stumbled on my blog on the web?!) to know that at this point in our lives, the blog has to take a back seat to enjoying our boys in real life, and keeping our sanity as parents.  I've got a few posts I hope to get up here today, and I hope to post more in the summer months when teaching isn't also demading my attention.

Thanks to those of you who do read this blog.  Gavin and Declan are lucky to have such involved family and friends who care so much about them!

Happy 2 months Declan!

A very late post for Declan's 2 month "birthday."  The letter was written close to Dec's 2 month mark, but the pictures were just taken the other day!  Oops!  Here's some pics of our cutie with Fred the penguin:

I'm sure its just the angle, but Declan looks like he could be on the O-Line of a toddler football team in this pic!

 New for this month:  smiling! (at least, smiling not caused by farts)

 So serious...mo months, mo problems.

 That's Rufus off to the side trying to sneak in on Declan's pictures.  Rufus is wearing Gavin's "robot" hat...we're still working on getting a picture of Gavin in his whole robot outfit!

 Like his Mommy and Daddy, Deckers already has lots of funny facial expressions!

 "I'm a cutie and I know it" (you should sing this in your head to the LMFAO song)

 That Fred is one hilarious penguin.

 Declan looks very mature to me in this pic.

 Putting those cute, beefy thighs to good use!

And here is our 2 months letter to Decker Joe:

Dear Declan,


Happy 2 months! You continue to grow by leaps and bounds Dec! You’re now 13 lbs 4 oz, and 24.25 inches long! You’re wearing 6 month outfits and are almost as big as your older “friends” Ethan, Jacob and Lilia.

This month seems to have gone by much more quickly than your first month of life. For most of this second month, Daddy and I didn’t notice many changes with you, but in the last week or so, you’ve turned into a new little guy Declan!

You’ve started smiling and cooing, and we’ve even caught an occasional laugh! Your likes and dislikes are becoming more clear to us as well Dec. You definitely don’t like car rides, but you’re happy as can be when we arrive at our destination and you’re taking a cart or stroller ride.

You love to be sung to, and your favorite songs are BINGO and The Wheels on the Bus. You also like to play peek a boo with Mommy and Daddy, and love it when we make silly faces at you. The ceiling fan and any bright lights are also interesting to look at. And you really like to be a spectator at Uncle Kevin’s college basketball games. You’ve already been to two of Kevin’s games, and you loved them both!

Squeezy blocks, caterpillar rattle and the giraffe rattle are some of your favorite toys. Sadly, the bears mobile broke and was beyond repair, but you’ve taken a liking to the jungle animal’s mobile in your crib. You’ve also started to like playing on your play mat, and you’ve started batting at some of your toys! You especially like the globe rattle, but you haven’t managed to grab anything just yet.

You still dislike tummy time, even though you’ve gotten pretty good at holding up your head when Mommy or Daddy holds you in a sitting position. The car seat isn’t your favorite place to be either (at least not at first, you tend to get over it). Thankfully, you seem to like the same Music Machine CD that Gavin likes to listen to in the car, so that helps calm you down when the car ride is making you angry!

We’ve also come up with more nicknames for you Declan. Any good Gillespie has at least a few nicknames, and you’re no exception. Some of your nicknames include Dec, Deckers, Decker Joe, Goober, Goobs, Piggy (because when you get really hungry, you start snorting!), and Mr. Poopers (you really love when Daddy sings the Mr. Poopers song).

It’s been a great month Dec, and we’re excited for you to grow into more of a little person every day! We love you so much little guy!

Love,
Mommy & Daddy

Washing the dishes and playing at the beach

I have to say, Gavin is at a super fun age right now.  He can say so many things, and convey his thoughts and feelings pretty well.  He's affectionate and expressive, and is developing a sense of humor.  And his play is much more fun too.  We read books, play with play dough, draw, paint, play "ready set go" with his many cars, the list goes on.  And Gavin now engages in a lot of imaginative play.  So we play "farmer" with his little people barn set, or he cooks dinner for Ryan and I in his play kitchen (which involves using the play phone to call and order a pizza!).  Two of Gavin's current favorite pretend activities are washing the dishes and playing at the beach.  Here are some pics from those activities:

Gavin's "washing the dishes" game isn't very pretend, except for the fact that Ryan and I pretend that Gavin is actually cleaning anything that gets put in the sink, but its still fun!

 A large quantity of soapy bubbles is key to playing wash the dishes.

 Taking some dish washing advice from Mommy.

 Don't forget to rinse!

 Fascinated by his quickly pruning hands.

 Gav loves looking at his hands under the water.  This usually requires an outfit change after washing the dishes.

 And now here we are playing at the beach.  To a non-2 year old, this might look like all of Mommy's tupperware strewn all over the kitchen floor, but you'd be very wrong.  This is a collection of sand castles on the beach, obviously.

 A game of beach would not be complete with a set of shades.

 Looking cool.

Playing at the park (in January!)

The ground is covered in snow now, and its a balmy 15 degrees outside, but just a few days ago, we were enjoying some wonderfully warm weather.  This winter in general has really been great.  The mild weather and lack of snow has made my life much easier.  Trying to go anywhere with an infant and a 2 year old in the snow adds hours of extra time and tons of extra stress, so I'm thankful that 2 of the 3 months of my maternity leave were snow free!

We took full advantage of the good weather by going to the park every chance we could.  Here are a few pics from one of our park outings:

Declan getting bundled up and ready to go.  Check out Gavin in the background, jumping on the couch and doing the double point.  That kid is a ham.

 Like always, we started our park visit with the swings.  Gavin starts with the pink swing and works his way down, testing every swing there.  A great arm workout for mommy.

 Gav likes to "read" the signs at the park for a  little intellectual break in between all the playing.

 Don't worry, Declan is here too!  (Enjoying a nap underneath a million layers of blankets and fleece coveralls :)

 Building some winter sandcastles, and ensuring that Mommy will have to sweep up sand off her floors every month of the year!

 I've taught Gavin to yell "ride em cowboy!" when he rides the horsies.  We really have to get video of that.

Christmas 2011

Our family had a great Christmas this year.  Most importantly, we were blessed with another family member to share the season with!  While Declan wasn't too into Christmas this year, Gavin definitely was, and that made the holiday so much more fun.  Gav marvelled at the Christmas decorations inside and out, and would request that I turn on all the lighted decorations every morning (I was happy to oblige since I love the magic of Christmas lights).  He listened to Christmas music with us, and learned to sing Jingle Bells and Silent Night (although he definitely sings some weird words to Silent Night!).  Gav understood who Santa is, and loved visiting him at the mall.

Gavin's newfound appreciation for Christmas made it so much more enjoyable to prepare for the holiday.  Having a toddler really does make it more fun to give than receive.  Watching Gavin's reactions Christmas morning were worth all the hard work that goes into those few minutes of pure 2 year old bliss.

This year we celebrated Christmas three times!  Our first celebration was here at our house, followed by celebrations at my parent's house and Ryan's parents house.  We are certainly lucky to live close enough to both of our families that we can manage to see everyone within a day or two of Christmas.  Below are some of my favorite pictures from the holiday:

Once we told Gavin that it was Christmas Eve and Santa was coming that night, he spent the next 10 minutes looking out the door asking "Where Santa?"

 We got Gavin to understand that Santa was going to come while he was sleeping, so we moved on to putting out cookies for Santa on the plate Gavin made at Miss Jeanne's.

 Gav decided to taste test the cookies to make sure they were good enough for Santa

 Realizing that he has eaten a lot of Santa's cookies, Gav makes his "I'm cute" face to convince Santa to still visit our house.

 More cuteness in between bites of cookie.  The temptation of the cookies turned out to be too much for Gavin, so all Santa got was so crumbs and some milk in a sippy cup!

 Christmas morning.  Gav was excited to open his presents, but not before his customary Yo Gabba Gabba episode to start the morning!

 Santa brought Gavin a play kitchen set, which was immediately put to use with his play tools.

 Hammering the kitchen cabinets.

 Christmas #2 at my parents house.  My dad loves model trains and has a few tracks that run underneath the Christmas tree.  Gavin loved the trains this year, and kept my dad busy as conductor!

 Enjoying the trains.

 Uncle Andy and his newest nephew, Declan, enjoying the Christmas tree.

 3 generations of good looking guys.

 Aunt Shari and Uncle Andy holding their godson Declan.

 Gavin was scared of Uncle Andy for about the first year and a half of his life, but Declan seems to think Uncle Andy is the coolest right off the bat!

 Dec snuggling up with Grandma and Grandpa.

 Declan meets Great Grandma Pettit for the first time.

 Gavin and Daddy in front of all Gavin's loot at Christmas #3 in Geneseo.

 Uncle CJ and Declan marvelling at the lights.

 Gav using part of his present from Uncle Bren and Katelyn to make a ball pit/fort out of an old stroller box.

 Gav loves to hold Declan, and he's really good at it!

 Cuties.

 Brothers holding hands, we'll see how long this lasts (my bet, until Declan can crawl and get to Gavin's toys!)