C and D

C and D

Monday, March 29, 2010

As of right now.....

.....Declan looks a little rough. We've got a sweet, smiley.......................................baby acne filled balding child. And the balding is coming in waves - it started with an awesome receding hairline, now the top of the head and the left side are gone, leaving the back of his head as well as the right side covered with the goods. Add that to a little rashy face and he is smokin'!!!!! Poor guy - none of it seems to bother him but I might press pause on the picture taking for a little while until the top half of my son begins to improve. Or maybe I'll up the picture taking so we have PLENTY of pics to tease him with later in life. We'll see......In the meantime here are a few of our bald beauty.


A little tummy time gives mommy an awesome view of my receding hairline!

Sleeping bald beauty

The many faces of Declan Brady

A few weeks ago after I fed the little stinker he was being so cute and of course I had to document. All I had available was my phone so the pics aren't spectacular but here ya go.........how many faces can Declan make in one minute........................GO:

Mommy why are you always putting the camera in my face?!?!?!?!

STREEEEEETCH

OOOO BOOBIES!!!! :)

THE THINKER

Gammy comes to Colorado

My grandmother, Gammy, made her way out to California by way of Colorado last week and we had such a wonderful time visiting and boyyyyy did Declan love her!!! It was so cute and she loved him to death for the few days she was able to visit with us. He's such a lucky little boy to not only have all 4 healthy wonderful grandparents but his GREAT grandparents as well. It was so fun seeing Gammy with our little boy...........so much history there and so much LOVE.


]


Carolina wins when mommy's dressing me!!!

This one's for my dad and my Aunt Kathy :)





Paul the Photographer

Cameras are nothing new in our house........whether its my little dinky one or Paul's bigtime Canon, one or both is always out, with the video on, ready to capture Declan doing something cute or funny or sweet.................or just sitting there - whatever :) We are forever taking pictures around here. We have a great friend who is an AWESOME photographer and lent this white backdrop to Paul so of course, Paul whipped it out as soon as possible, and that just happened to be last Sunday. I had just woken up and was in my PJ's so excuse my look but Declan is just the cutest little thing in these pictures...We put the backdrop up, put the awesome blanket that Steph Hempen made for Declan down and started snapping away! The last few pics are of DB in a beautiful Irish sweater and hat that Paul's aunt and uncle sent out. The sweater's a little big right now but I can't wait until next year when he can rock that out! Our little Irish baby............

In any case, here are a few of our favorites. It just amazes me what Paul is able to do with not a whole lot. Literally we plopped the backdrop up against our kitchen table, layed Declan down and Paul had to go out on the deck and take pictures thru the open screen glass door...........he's got talent, that fella! I just love him to death :) And clearly I'm not biased at all..............




















Sunday, March 14, 2010

Happy 1 month baby boy!!



Just like I used to say "Happy 1 month anniversary" to Paul (maybe I counted days too but that's neither here nor there......) I will do the same for Declan as I just can't even stand how much I love this kid :) Some fun things about our little boy and then some pics from his first month on this earth.....................SO many more to come and I know it will only get better every day.

-He sneezes twice every time he sneezes. I used to tease Paul when we worked together that at halftime he always had "two things" to say to the team. Declan now has his "two things".
-He must have been on his right side in the womb because for the first 2.5 weeks of his life EVERYTHING was on the right side - he slept like that, he turned his head that way, his eyes only looked to the right, everything. Slowly but surely evening out........
-He is an ANIMAL. He bops his head like he's doing the chicken dance at my boob when he gets hungry. He then kicks his legs and flails his arms like nothing I've ever seen. We almost have to subdue the kid in order to get him to eat....
                : side note on this, one of the nurses at the hospital who was helping me with the 3am feeding    
                said she had "never seen anything like it" - awesome, just what I was hoping to hear at that
                time......
-He's not exactly a calm child....not one of those "eat and sleep" children - but we love him!!!
-He will be crawling tomorrow - mark my words.
-He's a strong little stinker - I'm not being that mom I swear, he's legitimately very strong, I have to fight the kid to get his hands out of his face in order to eat, take his passy, anything.
-He LOVEEESSSS dancing with his daddy. I'll attach a video at the end of this post - maybe my favorite thing in the world, watching the two of them as Declan gets in a trance looking at his dad singing and dancing with him.
-He doesn't like to sleep during the day. Maybe that isn't so fun.............what is fun however is that he sleeps almost 7 hours at night! STRAIGHT!
-He's slept in his crib since about 2 weeks. Fun fact - for the first week or so he slept in bed with us in this awesome pad thing my mom got us and Paul didn't want to move him to his crib because all night long they slept holding hands............
-He has his mommy's mouth........miniscule.
-He has his daddy's eyes.............beautiful blue.
-Sometimes when I go in his room in the morning to feed him once he's woken up he smiles at me, and for this non-morning girl, it is the best way to start the day.
-He is a water boy! Baths are his favorite time of day - aside from eating - he smiles and giggles thru the whole process and then looooveeeessss a little lotion massage afterwards!
-He's got good hand-eye coordination - his hands ALWAYS go right to his mouth to hold his passy in. As you know, he had some tongue issues at first so I'm guessing he had to do this to keep it in because he couldn't do it with his tongue - now its just a habit.

There are inevitably a million more little fun nuances that Declan has and I'll think of them as soon as I hit "post" but for now this will have to do :) Its certainly been a month to remember, with every single day bringing a new challenge, a new mystery cry we have to figure out, or a new spot on his body that I find is ticklish and he smiles. This parenting thing is what everyone says it is and more - exciting, tiring, challenging, rewarding but most of all - full of love. I know there's always the capacity for more love but its hard to imagine loving two people more than I love my husband and son......every day it gets better and better though so I know a month from now, I'll be saying this once more.

Cherishing every moment we have together.......

Alli, Paul and Declan :)

NOW FOR SOME FUN PICS AND A VIDEO!

Our chunky monkey....he's got his badass face on. Don't mess -


Dancing with daddy! 


My popped collar polo baby. Don't think I won't do this every day I can....


Yes they do...


I LOVE bath time!


Especially when daddy gets in with me!


And I looooove my warm towels afterwards :)


And finally a video of Paul and Declan dancing.....I don't know how Paul does it but Declan can be in the worst stinky mood screaming but as soon as Paul gets him dancing and singing he's in heaven :) 

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Our little ducky......

........LOOOOVEEEESSS THE BATH :) Paul always warms up his towel in the dryer (spoil your child much, dear?!?! ;) ) so he's all sorts of toasty and the boy loves the water that we soak him in. It is too cute. I was expecting a screaming child but it is the opposite and it is one of my favorite times of the day with him.  He smells amazing after, he smiles and giggles thru the bath and it settles him for bedtime. Let's hope this continues.............

One of the CU girls, Kelly Ross, gave Declan this towel and it is AWESOME. Thanks, Kel :)
SUPERMAN


Wednesday, March 3, 2010

A little tongue-tied.........



Well I think we figured out the eating issue - our little man was tongue-tied! Who would have known with both Paul and I as parents, such talkers (Paul especially lets be real ;) ), that our little boy would have an issue with that ;) But alas, it is so and thanks to some amazing lactation nurses at our hospital who identified the problem after a couple failed attempts by the doctors, we went on Monday to see a specialist who clipped his frenulum (the piece of skin underneath the tongue that holds it down) so now his tongue is free and boyyyyyy does he like to use it!! :) We went back to the doctor again today and he gained 14oz in a week so we're back on track! He was 8lb 10.5oz today and growing!
     Here's a little video of our stinker after he got his tongue clipped...he's so cute I can't stand it. Not biased at all......

Declan's new tongue :)

In any case, I apologize for being so lax in posting, its just been a whirlwind the past few weeks..............I'll give you the quick run-down - which will probably be 7 paragraphs so bare with me ;)
     We went in for Declan's 2 week appt and while I was sure everything was going well, he actually had LOST weight. At this point, I was breastfeeding exclusively - he was pooping and peeing like a champ so I figured he was getting what he needed but apparently not. We went to breastfeeding and then feeding him a bottle with formula after in case he was still hungry - which go figure, he was ;) We then paid a couple visits to those aforementioned wonderful lactation specialists who gave me a pump to try for 2 weeks so we've now added that to the mix along with some medicine prescribed by my doc to hopefully boost my milk supply which went wayyyyyy down due to the fact that Declan wasn't sucking properly. Hopefully we are going to get this down...................I still desperately want him to get my breast milk for as long as possible so right now I'm breastfeeding, then pumping, then breastfeeding, then pumping....you get the jist. Paul has been a God-send at night as he'll get up and feed him while I pump so the night-time isn't SO bad :) Still not great but the kid isn't even 3 weeks old yet so I can't expect too much. I'd much prefer him sleep from 12-7 but he likes to get up around 4:30 and be up for awhile which is just loooooads of fun for Paul and I. I especially enjoy when he blows out his diapers at that time - my favorite!!!!!

On a lighter note - Big Paul and Carol (Pop and Nana) came into town on Saturday night and have been GREAT with the little man. They love him and spoil him to death and have been a huge help during the days - letting me take a nap or just calming a fussy little Declan. It is so nice to have help, and they have been big!!! Pop thinks its really funny when Declan poops - I think he eggs him on quite frankly - Declan and Pop are already in cahoots against mom and dad........we're gonna have to have a talk with him ;)

All in all - Declan will be 3 weeks tomorrow (3/4/10) and he is just getting bigger and cuter every single day. I'll post a video at the end of this of him kicking and playing on the mat that Nana and Pop got for him. DEFINITELY a soccer player ;) Paul and I are still adjusting to everything but I know that takes time....again, the patience thing. Daggomit!!! We went out to dinner by ourselves last night (date night heyyy) and I swear I missed Declan after an hour. I couldn't wait to get home and hug him. Its wild - there are times when it is so difficult (crying, late nights, poop all the way up his back....) but there is absolutely nothing I would trade. I look at him and he is Paul and I's little treasure..................he is our SON. Sometimes I still can't believe it.

Here's a video of Declan on his new fun mat! Give him a couple seconds to warm up - he gets to steppin!! ENJOY :)

Crazy Legs!

And finally some recent pics of the boy.....

The awesome hat my cousin Haley made for DB:

Asleep on mommy...

A liiiiitttle cross-eyed. Doc says this is normal up until about 3 months.........fingers crossed!



Our naked baby....I love his little body its too cute. His belly is filling out!!


DB LOVES to look at this burp cloth from Ryan & Julia. The things little kids are intrigued by...