Dear Declan, You're Two YEARS old today!

Hello Mr. 2 Year Old,

                I can’t believe how fast the time has gone.  To think that it’s only been two years that you’ve been around and I can’t remember life without you.  You make every day a complete surprise as I never know what you’re going to do next or what the next phrase out of your mouth might be…I have found out that you’re good at repeating the phrases I shouldn’t say around you!!

A few things that you’ve taught me the last 12 months are:

1.         I definitely need to work with you on answering questions.  At this point, you have only one response that you use for everything.  “Declan, why are you chasing the cats?” CUZ “Why are you standing on the laptop?” CUZ “Why are you biting me?” CUZ
2.        Really need to enjoy the small goofy moments.  Almost every morning when we get to daycare and get you unstrapped,  you squirm away and scream “Hide Seek Daddy” and dash to the other side of the car.  Sometimes I can get you in one grab, sometimes we’re chasing back and forth.  It always help to start my day with that smile. 
3.        I am convinced that the best outfit for a toddler will always involve a hoodie.  Jeans/khakis/shorts/pants…there’s not one thing it doesn’t go with.  Plus when I forget your jacket…instant jacket!!!  When it gets warm, easy to take off!  Getting cold, yay jacket!!!  You’ll notice that most of the pictures we have involve you in one!
   
4.        The best times of the week are the lazy weekend mornings when we let you come play in our bed.  Mommy’s usually the nice one that gets you but I love having you crawl over to me, get about 4 inches away and yell “HI” or “G’mornin Daddy”.   Then I can usually get you riled up with a game of “Spiders in the bed” before we all go make breakfast.

You’ve taught me so much but we’ve got so much more to learn now with you gaining more independence and a personality (CUZ).  But I can’t wait to see what this next year will bring and how you and little Firecracker will be keeping me on my toes. 

                                                                        Love you always,

                                                                                        Daddy

Dearest Declan,

We had a super fun Sesame Street Birthday party with all your friends today at St. A's park!  The bouncy house was a hit, you loved the sandbox as always, and personally I think my character fruit/veggie trays were close enough to Google Images and were cute for 5 minutes before you and your friends ate them!  And of course everyone loved the Elmo cupcakes!

Last night we gave you your balance bike and you are your cautious self with it but practiced with me from the dining room to Croix's room today!  I'm sure you will love it by summer end so we can "bike" to parks!  To see all your birthday pics, click HERE!

You are getting ready to be a big brother to Firecracker and have practiced a lot with Baby Doll.  You  have mostly named it Baby Doll but sometimes you call it Baby Sister and lately have been insisting Firecracker is a girl so we'll find out soon and hope you aren't too disappointed if baby is a boy!

You are obsessed with parks and new parks especially.   We have almost finished our Hutch Park tour and summer has just begun, so we'll have to do all your favorites a few times!  You always want to walk to Rollie park but it is a bike ride or car ride away so we convince

One thing you didn't like this spring was ECFE school.  Or at least you didn't like knowing we were going to go into adult room without you and you had meltdowns at every transition.  Hoping next fall, you will be older and ok with us leaving for 20 minutes!  A few other times when you have gotten mad at Dad or me or didn't like something at home, you say "I want to go home to Jessica's house".  Hard not to giggle in front of you!

You know all your ABC's and are starting to learn the letter sounds too!  You haven't cared for much Signing Time DVD's lately but are obsessed with random "ABC computer" videos we find on Youtube... especially Max the Glow Train.   A couple weeks ago in the tub you found the letter P and then proceeded to point out your PeePee to me the whole bath... I seriously couldn't stop laughing so you definitely didn't stop pointing it out!   You can count to 20... sometimes skipping 15-17 but overall seem to get them!  You love the bus numbers by Park Elementary and spend half our park time counting them!

You love art, Playdoh, painting, singing, sidewalk chalk, etc.  You are trying to throw Frisbee and balls more, and you have fun golfing if your friends Eli, Joshua, Adam are golfing but we still revert to one handed a lot!  I can tell you are the oldest child and have some order/organizing/personality traits of "birth order psychology" in you (or you are like me...an oldest child) and you still like to clean up willing after one set of toys before playing more.  We'll see how that lasts in a month with Firecracker dividing my attention and reminders :)

Daddy and you made up a favorite song awhile back that makes me laugh every time!  Baby Pooping Time.  You also love doing "RockABye" and "Jesus" (Now I lay me down to sleep) every night before bed.

We have to be very careful with anything we say now because you repeat instantly and your memory doesn't let you forget if we are going somewhere in a while.  You want to go NOW... so now I only warn you about 5 minutes before doing anything else instead of a day game plan!!

I coached golf this spring so you got lots of Daddy time and nights but it went fast and wasn't too bad on momma with a few extra day meets, and not in the evening but I knew you missed me!  Summer is here now though!  But the favorite part of my day was getting home and seeing my boys waiting for me in the driveway!  And you came to our last fun practice night and rode "Momma's bus" to Subway and hung out with my golfers.  You lately are really not shy around new people and say "Hi" and repeat all their names and try and answer questions.

You have used the big boy potty a few times on your own will and have had #1 and #2 successes!  I wouldn't complain if you were out of diapers by end of summer but I'm letting you say when you want to try.

Age: 2 Years!                             

Weight:  Guessing..28 lbs            Actual:   26 lbs 3.8 oz   PEANUT!   28% 

Length: Guessing..36"  inches     Actual:   35 1/4 inch       80%
Head:  Guessing..20" inches        Actual:  19 3/4 inch
Teeth: 15!!  Finally a mouth full and I think all the molars are in!  You will come to the dentist with me next month!  

Love you through and through,

Momma