2014 Interview with Declan

I saw this on facebook and thought it would be cute to do every year!  This year was a lot more our answers based on Declan's likes and adapted from what Declan asks for and says the most, but it will be fun to see how he answers in future years!


I am this old: 1   (Almost 19 months)

The best show on TV is:  Baby Baby Baby Time     (Any and all Signing Time)

My favorite thing about school is:  Otto   (He says his name at least 5 times a day...)

The thing I'm best at is:  Getting Mommy to carry me  "Up peas"  "Uppy"

If I could change my name it would be:  Otto

My favorite color is: Orange   (probably just his favorite fruit but he says it the most)

My favorite toy is: Farm animals/farm animal sound pull and hear toy

When I grow up I want to be:  Up Peas  in the SKY

I like to take these to bed with me at night:  Two Blankies, Pillow, Elephant light at Grandma Connies and Pooh & Tiger at our house.

My favorite book is:  Knuffy Bunny or Hippo Excuse Me

My favorite movie is: Cars

My favorite season of the year is:  Summer-- Momma was home!

A food I really like is: Olives, Pizza, Hot Dogs, Carrots, all Fruit

My favorite animal is: Puppies and Horses

My favorite sport is: Balls

My best friend is:  Otto

My favorite holiday is: Christmas

My favorite thing I did this year: Go to Myrtle Beach with all my Grandpas and Grandmas and Uncles and Aunt!

Christmas Letter 2014

The month got away from me more than normal... and I could've made time for mailing cards and letters... but I just didn't and I have a few excuses, but the main one is:

Next Christmas, our stocking holders will be full with stockings. 

We'll need another string of lights.

Evictions will occur.

So hopefully Declan will still be kissing our new little Firecracker to arrive after the 4th of July!

 (July 8th if I get my first choice since Declan's is June 8th!)

We wanted to tell our families in person on Christmas Eve so I wanted this "letter" to reach you all as quickly as possible after! Declan opened up his "Big Brother" book two times to share our news with the families! Grandma Connie "knew it" she said! Click for the video here!  And Grandma Sue said, "Awesome"  (But I think she had a inkling too!) Click for Grandma Sue's reaction!

If you don't usually read the blog, the highlights of our year include seeing Declan turn one and grow into one smart, little boy! I entered my 30's with little fear and lots of fun.  Our travels are always enjoyable and started with a double family trip to Myrtle Beach.  During the summer, we enjoyed 4th of July at my cabin and then a cruise around Mexico (first trip without Declan!)  This fall, after some time in the airport, we made it to Chicago for a great wedding!  

We know how fast life has gone with one little man and it is only going to pick up in pace!  I have high hopes to keep up with this blog throughout the year, so if you want the long versions of our adventures you can enter your email to receive notifications when I actually blog.  We will get back to traditional mail cards next year as we love getting every one of yours the good ole' fashion way!  

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL FROM OUR FAMILY TO YOURS!!! 

Dear Declan, You're 18 months old today!!

 Dearest Declan,

18 whole months you have been on this earth!  18 whole months we have loved you with every ounce of our being.  18 months of smiles and laughs I will never get enough of!  

Winter may be here but you still beg to go outside daily!  The cold doesn't bother you anyways!  You hate your carseat right now and so it is easier to walk home from Jessica's.  Daddy and I are getting good at "Karate Chop/Tickle" move to get you into that seat!   But the great part about winters is it's holiday season and we had a nice Thanksgiving at Grandma Connie's and are looking forward to Christmas!  

You love helping us do everything.  You feed Croix and the "meows" dinner every night, load the dishwasher (though I have to move all your crooked plates) and we are starting to cook together!  You pour in water and ingredients and like to stir.  You really wanted to crack eggs yesterday morning and we made it work with my help! 

We started going to "school" with our special classes together at ECFE and all really are loving it!  More new friends to meet, lots of different art and toys to play with and you love circle time (and bubble time!)   Last week it was ooey, gooey, sand and toilet paper snowballs!  I love we can go there with all the fun messy stuff and it not destory our kitchen!

Between ABC Signing Time, daycare letters of the week and coloring/singing the Alphabet with you, you recognize letters as letters and you (most the time) know about 10 of them when we ask you... A B C D E  I O L M N... Numbers you just think everything is an 8, but whatev... I am biased and think you are a genuis!

You sometimes have a bit of whine happening but whenever I remind you to use your manners and ask nice, you stop pretty quickly and say  "Help pease"   "Up pease"  "Move pease."  It melts my heart!   We tried to fit Uppease in a crossword the other morning for the clue "Carried" but it didn't work.  You have solved a couple crossword clues for us too... Sheep and Cow sounds!  Baa and Moo! :) 

While not only is your brain growing... Your body still is too:

Age: 1 YEAR  6 MONTHS                 Dr. Appt. Tues, Dec 16th 

Weight:  Guessing..24 lbs            Actual:   23lb 7oz   38th%

Length: Guessing..34"  inches     Actual:   34"             92%
Head:  Guessing..19.5" inches    Actual:   19.25"        87%
Teeth: 7!!  Finally getting a few more! 

Love you through and through,

Momma

                      

After your appt, Dad and I had fun taking you to indoor playground and you practiced bowling a lot!

St. Nick's Day!

And the Christmas Season has begun!

Andy's family has always celebrated St. Nicholas day, and though it has always been fun, I never have really wondered much about the tradition until this year.  Beside knowing he was a Saint who gave to poor and helped children, I didn't know much else about how "Santa Clause" evolved.  I enjoyed this website giving me more history if you are curious too!

A part of me would rather stick with just celebrating St. Nicolas day and Christmas as Jesus's Birthday... leaving out the whole "Santa Clause".  But the other part of me still likes that fun and tradition from life, and it is a big part of our culture that I won't be doing anything rash and outlawing Santa and our new Elf that Declan already loves!  We'll just add saying "nigh-night" to Happy Glitter Balls after kissing Baby Jesus (and the sheep and donkey!) "nigh-night"!    Regardless, I love traditions so I am excited to continue it all with Declan and we can talk about all the real truths when he is older!

 We put our shoes under the tree instead of a windowsill!

Declan got BALLS!

And our Elf on the Shelf... named Happy Glitter Balls after the silly Elf chart going around on Facebook with his first letter and month he was born.  But we decided it was fitting because Declan started saying "Happy Happy Happy" right away, and he loves his ball pits!

Today was also the 3M Christmas Party for Kids!  It was a lot of fun spinning wheels and picking Lolly Trees for little gifts.  (Shocker... Declan picked balls 2 out of 3 times... Grabbed a Play-doh once!)  He made an ornament with stickers and scooped the Magic Reindeer Dust.   We'll have to sprinkle that in Grandpa & Grandma's Lawn on Christmas Eve!  

And he ate.. a cookie and popcorn.  He did great getting his Snowman face painted... but smeared it in the first 10 seconds off the chair... but still cute! 

However he felt the same way towards Mr. and Mrs. Clause as most 18 month olds, but I was still the evil person who had to snap the pictures!  

But some fun Throwbacks... last year at 6 months he liked Santa's! 

 

Thanksgiving 2014

Last year I apparently had more time to blog, be creative with things and decorations were up and ready when we got home from my mom's.  It was fun to reread my 30 days of thankfulness blog and I am still thankful for all that!

Thanksgiving this year had some moments of stress and tears (from me too..) with Declan being sick, but overall, I was thankful he was sick over break because Andy or I would have missed work last week and it was great for Grandma to help give us relief with her cuddles and playing with him when I just wanted to eat without my sick boy on our lap.

We did have fun playing games, sledding, clay pigeon "hunting"  (I suck... truly I suck and I hate to be bad at things but I only got worse the more I tried so I may just accept guns and aiming are something I suck at!!)

Click here for video of Britt & Declan Sledding!

 Sick sleeping boy!  

 MMMM! 

 This is how Lance shoots!  And he hit 4/5...   

I hit about 5/30... 

That one time I actually liked the Mall of America

Everything through Declan's eyes is so much more fun!

As a "I'm Sorry and I'll try better present" to Andy, I "gave" him two weekends where I would not plan anything on the social calendar without first asking him and I would do anything he wanted with no complaints.  He picked a trip to MOA as one of the days activities and I went willingly, with my lips locked and vowed to have fun!  And surprisingly, I truly had fun just playing in stores with Declan as it was a fun field trip for him!  He doesn't understand "consumerism" and happily just said "Bye Bye" to every toy or activity we did!

 Got a strolling nap in!

 FISHES!!  A favorite cute sounding word he says!! 

 Definitely would have been too scared to ride Merry Go Round but loved the "horses" as he signed it to me.. Over and over and over when we left because this is the one place he didn't want to leave!

Lego Land with Auntie B!  

Save $20 Dollars on Gas!

I love coupons and reward programs.   I cut the PawPoints off cat litter and Coke rewards off boxes and enter all those online for free coke/cat litter....    But my favorite has to be Super America's.  And many people just have the free rewards card to get 3 cents off per gallon each fill up, but  just don't know about the big perks you are acquiring when you use it!

Another tip for saving money at Super America is use their prepaid fuel card.  Load that, and you get another 3 cents off (or 7 cents for premium) per gallon.  Then Tuesday's are double coupon days and they'll accept all competitor coupons. 

But if you haven't, register your SA Rewards card online and then swipe it at a kiosk in the store and check your fuel reward coupons!  The first time we did this, we had enough points for four 50 cents off per gallon coupons.  Using that on Tuesdays, we DOUBLED it for a $1 off per gallon.. saving 15-20$ with our prepaid card and rewards card for another 6 cents off per gallon.

CSA fun!

This was the first year I decided to get a CSA.   (Community Supported Agriculture... You buy a share into the garden and get a box of veggies every week!)  It was awesome because I was able to get it through my school districts amazing FFA program!  Their garden is right on our high school campus (home of our new future middle school!!!)

I decided to just do the every other week option and still wanted to split it with our friends, Tom and Molly, to make sure we used everything.  I am so happy we did it this way!  I still had to find ways to get creative with all the veggies!  But I learned I love radishes, don't care for brussel sproats and fresh garlic really is better with everything. We were also spoiled with peach cobbler, strawberry jam, and farm fresh eggs!  This pic is just my half of a share!

I was tiring of ramen cabbage coleslaw recipe and just cabbage salads, I made a couple jars of sauerkraut.  It seemed a little salty at first still but tonight it was perfect and moved to the refrigerator!  I also couldn't handle any more green beans as a side dish so heard about Dilly Beans.  I made two jars and they are amazing.

 A one night frost came mid-September and put a halt to some of the deliciousness we would have gotten.  No melons and cantaloupe, and the squash may not be as good as hoped.  Though there are risks with anything in nature, this was worth it! Even with the work of cleaning and sorting all the veggies I really feel we have gotten our 65$ worth!   We'll see what else the next weeks bring!

Dear Declan, You're 15 Months!!

Dear Declan,


Runner, climber, talker/signer, bubble chaser and animal lover!  Your day is jam packed with movement and we are staying in shape just keeping up with you.  As long as we nap when you nap!

\

Youare sleeping just one nap a day now (most days at least... a car ride late morning will put you to sleep).  You still are a great night sleeper!  Thank you for that!!

It was really hard for Mommy to go back to school this fall with all the fun we had this summer.  We didn't go on as many long trips as your first summer but did lots around Hutch!

You still absolutely love signing time and sign or say a new word everyday.  You have also started signing right along with Rachel on the videos, even new signs!  It is amazing to me how much you can communicate and how you love talking.

Declan, you have an extreme obsession with animals... pet, zoo, bugs, SNAKES! ((ahhhh says Grandma Sue!) You will always have animals around you.  I say more animal sounds in a day and of course, all your favorite books the characters are animals.  Hippo, Excuse Me, Good Night Gorilla and Farm Friends are your obsessions!

B is your favorite/easiest letter to say... Bubbles, boat, bath, baba, book, etc... But you said "cracker" clear as day and I about cried!  We are going to get good understanding Toddler speech I think!  This week at daycare it was B week and you had fun in a ball pit.  At our fall church party you loved the ball pit so much too!

You won your first tantrum the other day vs. Mommy.  You were so mad I cut an apple so I caved and gave you a whole one and you chomped away on it with your four teeth! Pretty independent you are becoming!  You climbed the ladder to our slide all my yourself (and Adam's bunk bed ladder was no problem)

Age: 1 YEAR  3 MONTHS                 Dr. Appt. Wed, Sept 24th 

Weight:  Guessing..21.5 lb            Actual:   22 lbs!   37%

Length: Guessing..30.75 inches   Actual:    32.5"      87%  
Head:  Guessing..18.75 inches    Actual:    19"         86%
Teeth: Still just 4!! 

The days just keep getting better, our love keeps growing and your smiles continue to light up our lives!

Love you through and through,

Momma

Baby Signing Time- ASL with Declan

From the moment we started feeding Declan food thru baby led weaning, I started using American Sign Language with him.  I had taken two years in college and my sister had done a few years herself. I had seen friends use it with their babies at meals and they recommended it a bunch to help lessen the eating time tantrums.  And that is huge.  If all you do with your baby is some meal time signs, you will be grateful.  We had two weeks where screaming and screeching were commonplace at meals and then thankfully, they clicked and he started understanding and doing them back and the meal tantrums stopped!

I did further research  and I love that site too for the baby sign dictionary of descriptions and videos.  It doesn't prevent them from speaking earlier and actually helps expand their vocabulary.  They can sign way earlier than pronouncing lots of sounds, so it is so exciting to be able to communicate before they can walk.

We love watching Baby Signing Time and Signing Time videos with Rachel, Alex, Leah and Hopkins (Andy's personal favorite character).  Declan is a pro at turning on the DVD player and asks often to watch more than his allowed amount of Signing Time.  He doesn't care about much else on tv, but loves his Rachel.  And man, do they help!  In the last week he has started immediately doing signs (often his own versions of signs but pretty close!)

For awhile he has signed all done, more, milk, water, eat, bye bye, dog (Croix).

But in the last few weeks the list has grown a ton to hat, wash hands, clothes, ball, brush teeth, blanket, airplane, bath, shoes, please, thank you,  fish and lots of animals. Horse  and Chicken were two new ones I caught on video!  And Greg MacLeod, this one is for you!  TRAIN

He understands a lot more too: wait, no, doll, stop, music, baby signing time.

Top signs we are working on though are the being nice signs... Nice, share, friend, take turns, etc.  We'll get there!  Right now he doesn't like to share, likes to smack and box kids out... Just a stage I hope.. right?

Bubbles, Cloggers, and TRACTORS!!

So because my jury duty interrupted my first planned trip to Chisago this summer, I was excited to find out I could go over the Almelund Thrashing Days!  Though I grew up in Chisago, this was the first time I ever attended this.  My aunt and uncle had a farm, but I was always more into the animals then that tractors.  Well, Declan is now equally entranced with animals and tractors now.  

Where were weren't at the flea market, looking at animals, playing at the playground or watching tractor pulls, we had a great time seeing family and playing with BUBBLES!

Declan loves BUBBLES!!  

Declan enjoyed the cloggers!  I enjoyed remembering my few years of being a clogger!  Fun to see Rob again and my third grade teacher dancing!  

Though we stayed overnight in Chisago at my mom's house, Declan napped well in the tents!

Declan got to meet and play with his 2nd/3rd/maybe once removed... who knows... HIS COUSINS!  Mason and Grayson!

And his favorite part was the TRACTORS.   He could've watched them all day!

                                       

We ended the trip with a visit to Aunt Judy where my musical man played the piano! He loved it!