Fun game - you should try it.
C and D
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Big boy highchair
We've finally made the switch. When we tried a couple months ago he was barely taller than the tray so that wasn't happenin', but now he's crawling out of the Bumbo every time we put him in it so time to switch it up, ready or not. Big boy here we come!!!
A little waffle to start out the meal
Love this face, trying to smile with a mouthful of food
Still gets soooooo excited about his baby food
See
Time to relax..........
Finishing off the meal with a little water in the sippy cup.
What's that you say?!?!?!?!
Going for a hike in the beautiful Rocky Mountains 15 minutes from your house, Alli?!??!!
uhhhh no...............I needed a workout after that Thanksgiving meal so we trucked ourselves down to Safeway, got some groceries, and walked back intermittently doing biceps curls with the grocery bags :) Don't judge. I have NO time to workout these days so this what you get. I was sweaty and am sore this morning so I think it was a pretty good workout. I'll take what I can get these days.......even the super weird looks we got at Safeway............ ;)
This is what our freezer looks like right now:
Mainly ALL food for Declan. Around the time I stopped breastfeeding, Declan was really starting to get into real people food and seeing as I live outside of Boulder, every person in the world was asking me, "oh, so you're definitely making your own baby food.......RIGHT?!?!" So I figured I'd look into it. Part of it was I was feeling guilty that I couldn't breastfeed anymore, part was that it was wayyyyy cheaper, and part was selfish - I like to cook so I figured this is just another excuse to cook more and clean less (Paul's the major dish washer in our house) :) I bought this book:
and started cooking. It has been AWESOME. I absolutely love it and I love knowing that Declan is getting fresh, healthy, mostly organic food. This summer and fall was especially great as I would go to the farmers market on Saturday, spend about $10-15 on fresh produce and he would eat for weeks. It has everything from basic sweet potatoes and butternut squash (something I had never made before and definitely wouldn't have thought to give Declan) to fun combos that he LOVES like peas, edamame and apples. The fruit recipes are great, Paul even eats the cinnamon apple one I make. It kind of breaks the rules about how everything thinks babies should eat bland food - we found out EARLY that Declan loves flavor (he was eating guac and salsa around 5 months) so there's tons of spices that the authors put in, totally safe, and yummy for the baby. Highly recommend this book if anyone is interested in making their own baby food! Plus there are some delicious recipes in the back for mommy and daddy ;) Can't go wrong there!
This is what it looks like before. This took about 30 mins from start to finish and Declan will eat it for weeks! Carrots and ginger, butternut squash and cinnamon apple raisins......YUM! All you have to do is freeze these, pop 'em out, put them in freezer bags and you have little individual portions to warm back up when your baby's hungry! Declan eats 4 of them at a time but who's counting.........
Saturday, November 27, 2010
STAIRS
A couple weeks ago little buddy mastered the staircase............UP - not down. Here's a video the morning that he figured it out :) He's gotten extremely quick now and if Paul or I say "Declan, no" or "I'm going to beat you" he turns into the fast and the furious and he is gone!!!!
Here is mama Yo Yo teaching Declan some baaaaaad habits ;) Thanks Yo!!!!
Daddy and his boy
I have pictures almost every single day of the two of them like this but it never gets old. Lucky for you I'm gonna post some more on here ;)
Wavin' buddy!
Declan up on the ladder helping daddy put up some Christmas lights. Safe, I'm sure....
Where's Declan?!?!
It has been SO cold recently here but mommy still needs to get some sort of exercise so we bundle up and head out for walks! By the time we get back poor Declan's nose is bright red and his cheeks are fuh-reezing. Hopefully it will warm back up soon and get back to normal CO winter weather cause this ain't cuttin' it!
This is what feeding yourself looks like:
For some reason the child doesn't like things that are cut up for his size.....he much prefers to just jam the whole monstrous piece of food in his mouth and call it good. Makes for a big hot mess!
THANKSGIVING!
On a lighter note ;) We had an AWESOME Thanksgiving this year! Paul got back around 9pm on Wednesday night and went right to work on the turkey! Thursday we had Danny, Hardy, Yolanda and Stephanie come over for what I dare say was our best Thanksgiving yet :) Super yummy food, awesome friends and definitely good times had by all. Declan, the social butterfly, didn't want to nap with all the commotion going on downstairs so we spent the afternoon feeding/entertaining him so he wouldn't realize how tired he was ;) It was a great day, thanks to our above mentioned friends for coming over and helping us celebrate such an awesome day. Love ya!!!!! :)
The menu:
Deep friend turkey, DUH
Sausage, mushroom and sage dressing, ummm delicious
Twice baked potato casserole (from Danny - biiiigtime)
Green bean casserole (Yolanda kills this every year and did again this year)
Corn casserole (a Hogan tradition that if you haven't had, you haven't lived)
Broccoli and asparagus thanks to Yolanda - we needed SOMETHING healthy!
Biscuits
Chocolate silk pie (homemade down to the crust ala Paul - my little baker man ;) )
Cupcakes from this little shop in Denver that is heavenly.
I'm not eating again for at least a week..................
RIIIIIGHT ;)
The Sched.
As stated about 89032 times before, I'm a freak about Declan's schedule and while we are certainly flexible WITHIN his schedule, he's got a good one and I try daily to stick to it.......this is what we have going right now: Wanted to write it out because I know it will change probably next week and I would like to look back someday and recall what my 9 month old was doing :) ALSO, it's looking more and more like an adult schedule so I wanted to record this milestone!!!
7-7:30am wake up
Eat bottle and play
8:15ish - breakfast
9 - 9:15 - morning nap for hour or hour and a half
11:00 - 2nd bottle of the day
11:30 -12:00 - lunch!
12:30 - 1:00 - afternoon nap
3 - 4pm - 3rd bottle
5:15 - 5:30pm - dinner
6:00pm - bath
6:15 - bottle before bed
6:45pm - out like a light!
4 bottles, three meals, 2 naps, 1 very happy baby!
***one noteworthy piece of info, Declan stopped sleeping on Paul or I probably when he was 6 weeks old or so. This was awesome in one way because when he was tired we would just take him upstairs, put him in his crib and he'd go to sleep but so unbelievably sad in another because we didn't need to rock him or have him fall asleep on us and then make the transfer. He was just too big of a boy way too early.
Fast forward 8 months and he's started falling asleep on me again :) When Paul is gone, in some ways (very few) it is nice because I don't have to worry about cooking dinner or cleaning or anything like that, I can do whatever I feel like, with Declan of course :) Recently, Paul was gone for 5 nights recruiting and every night I would take Declan upstairs for his bottle and rock him in the quiet dark peacefulness of his room. And every night, nearing the end of his bottle he would start to get really sleepy and put his head on my chest and sigh. When he was done, he would turn himself over and just lay his head on my chest and fall asleep. AH - I thought I could just die right there and be the happiest lady ever. There is absolutely nothing like a peaceful sleeping baby (you know what I'm talking about!) and even better, a peaceful sleeping baby laying heart to heart and knowing you don't have anywhere else to be but right there with your sweet child.
7-7:30am wake up
Eat bottle and play
8:15ish - breakfast
9 - 9:15 - morning nap for hour or hour and a half
11:00 - 2nd bottle of the day
11:30 -12:00 - lunch!
12:30 - 1:00 - afternoon nap
3 - 4pm - 3rd bottle
5:15 - 5:30pm - dinner
6:00pm - bath
6:15 - bottle before bed
6:45pm - out like a light!
4 bottles, three meals, 2 naps, 1 very happy baby!
***one noteworthy piece of info, Declan stopped sleeping on Paul or I probably when he was 6 weeks old or so. This was awesome in one way because when he was tired we would just take him upstairs, put him in his crib and he'd go to sleep but so unbelievably sad in another because we didn't need to rock him or have him fall asleep on us and then make the transfer. He was just too big of a boy way too early.
Fast forward 8 months and he's started falling asleep on me again :) When Paul is gone, in some ways (very few) it is nice because I don't have to worry about cooking dinner or cleaning or anything like that, I can do whatever I feel like, with Declan of course :) Recently, Paul was gone for 5 nights recruiting and every night I would take Declan upstairs for his bottle and rock him in the quiet dark peacefulness of his room. And every night, nearing the end of his bottle he would start to get really sleepy and put his head on my chest and sigh. When he was done, he would turn himself over and just lay his head on my chest and fall asleep. AH - I thought I could just die right there and be the happiest lady ever. There is absolutely nothing like a peaceful sleeping baby (you know what I'm talking about!) and even better, a peaceful sleeping baby laying heart to heart and knowing you don't have anywhere else to be but right there with your sweet child.
9 month old!!!
Stats:
Height: 27 3/4 inches - a little above 25%
Weight: 21lb 8oz - a little under 75%
Head: 18 1/4 inches - 75%
Hemoglobin count - 15.1 - he's getting enough iron - I know you were worried.
Height to weight ratio for his age group - 98% - YEA BABY!!!!
He is just as healthy as a horse. And large :) But we already knew that. He's a tank and as solid as could possibly be. If you look at him nakey, he doesn't really have rolls like you would expect a child who's short and heavy - he literally has muscles and its going to be funny to see how this plays out but right now he looks like a 9 month old body builder.
The two things that stood out from this visit for me were A) the doctor saying that "fat babies don't make fat adults" - haha PHEW. B) we were talking about whether to move him up to the next car seat or not and she said "well he is the size of a small 2 year old so I think he'll be alright" - LOVELY.
Developmentally, he's doing beautifully and just chugging along like a little boy! He can stand on his own for a little while but then when he realizes he isn't holding on to anything he gets scared and drops down! He "cruises" like its nobody's business so when his balance gets a little better I imagine our lives will REALLY change then. I assume he'll be walking by Christmas but we shall see. In other news, he's waving at everyone and everything, really starting to babble, getting better at feeding himself and just becoming so responsive that sometimes I have to remind myself he's only 9 months old. He definitely knows the word "No" but thinks its hilarious when we say it and literally that word just spurs him on to do things he shouldn't. We say "no" and he turns around, sticks his tongue out, smiles, and goes even harder after what we are trying to get him to stop. STINKER! Not sure what we're going to do about him............... ;)
One funny note that our doctor kept commenting on and now I can't help but notice every time I look at Declan is HOW BIG HIS HANDS ARE!!!! Proportionally, she said by far his hands are the biggest part of his body :) Hilarious. And they are - they're like catcher's mits. They're chubby enough to look like gloves and big enough to look like they could catch something huge. Paul has big hands and his Pop Heckelman apparently had really large hands so the trait has been passed down. Big hands, short stocky legs. That's my boy.
One semi-frustrating note is that the milk allergy continues to plague his little gut. We had tried to move him over the the normal formula about a month and half ago and after a week on solely the milk based junk he was full on projectile vomiting it up, completely undigested SO we went back to the super expensive hypoallergenic stuff. At his 9 month we asked about this and when we mentioned that he eats edamame like its going out of style she was surprised but told us that in that case, we should definitely try the soy based formula and see how it goes. We started it yesterday and so far so good............cross your fingers because I don't know what we'll do at 12 months if he can't have any type of milk product!
Some more pics of the big boy - isn't he just looking so OLD?!?! AHHH!!!!!
He's a runner - 87% of our days are spent chasing him around this table.....
LOVES him some Aunt Trace Face!
Loves to feed mommy his chewed up food.............mommy doesn't love to eat it however.
He is so stinkin' handsome
BIG BOY!
All dressed up and ready for school! Which, by the way, he is LOVING!!!! YAY :)
Constant surprises
I don't know why, maybe its my subconcious expecting the worse so that it can kind of "only go up from here" but Declan is just a constant source of surprise, in SUCH a good way! Admittatly, I have no real experience with babies so I guess I just don't know what to expect and thus short-change my son more often than not because you always hear the horror stories but he is such a little champ, always surprising me, always making me so proud :)
Our flight heading to Charlotte was a massive source of stress for me. I started packing/planning about 3 days in advance, packed every possible toy, 3 bottles plus snacks, downloaded videos on my Iphone (although that was a major fail) and didn't sleep a wink the night before because I was so nervous that he was gonna be a nightmare. Instead, he was unbelievable - slept on the way up and on the way down and then just played for the 2 hours in between, flirting with person in the seat next to me :)
Next source of stress was thinking about if he was going to sleep when we were in Charlotte - now this kid is a phenomenal sleeper, but that is in his CRIB. He had been boycotting his naps at our neighbors house because he didn't like the pack-n-play so I was full on expecting him to be a disaster sleep-wise. PSH - we got to Clt, he played for about 2 hours, took a 3 hour nap, woke up, ate dinner, took a bath and then slept 13 hours that night. I would say he averaged 13-14 hours at night as well as awesome naps while we were there. RIDICULOUS. Stressed for no reason.
Last Friday, little buddy all of a sudden popped out a tooth. Out of nowhere, slept all night, woke up, ate breakfast and then was gnawing on my knee when I felt somethign sharp, checked out his bottom gums and what do ya know - there was a tooth. No fussing, no up all night, no alternating Tylenol and teething tablets. Nope - just a strong little kid, this fella.
We started a new daycare two weeks ago, the day we got back from our trip to Charlotte (time change and daylight savings) so again, expecting to have a couple ROUGH weeks but I picked him up after the first day and she said it was one of the best "first days" she had had with a child in 8 years of running her own daycare. Atta baby!!!!
I know its ridiculous to say aloud but I'm kind of wondering if we chance having another kid. No baby is easy, but as far as infants go, this kid has been a dream and I just know the next one is going to be completely opposite - should we just call it good?!?!?!?!! :) Never! We're going for like 5. Just watch.
Our flight heading to Charlotte was a massive source of stress for me. I started packing/planning about 3 days in advance, packed every possible toy, 3 bottles plus snacks, downloaded videos on my Iphone (although that was a major fail) and didn't sleep a wink the night before because I was so nervous that he was gonna be a nightmare. Instead, he was unbelievable - slept on the way up and on the way down and then just played for the 2 hours in between, flirting with person in the seat next to me :)
Next source of stress was thinking about if he was going to sleep when we were in Charlotte - now this kid is a phenomenal sleeper, but that is in his CRIB. He had been boycotting his naps at our neighbors house because he didn't like the pack-n-play so I was full on expecting him to be a disaster sleep-wise. PSH - we got to Clt, he played for about 2 hours, took a 3 hour nap, woke up, ate dinner, took a bath and then slept 13 hours that night. I would say he averaged 13-14 hours at night as well as awesome naps while we were there. RIDICULOUS. Stressed for no reason.
Last Friday, little buddy all of a sudden popped out a tooth. Out of nowhere, slept all night, woke up, ate breakfast and then was gnawing on my knee when I felt somethign sharp, checked out his bottom gums and what do ya know - there was a tooth. No fussing, no up all night, no alternating Tylenol and teething tablets. Nope - just a strong little kid, this fella.
We started a new daycare two weeks ago, the day we got back from our trip to Charlotte (time change and daylight savings) so again, expecting to have a couple ROUGH weeks but I picked him up after the first day and she said it was one of the best "first days" she had had with a child in 8 years of running her own daycare. Atta baby!!!!
I know its ridiculous to say aloud but I'm kind of wondering if we chance having another kid. No baby is easy, but as far as infants go, this kid has been a dream and I just know the next one is going to be completely opposite - should we just call it good?!?!?!?!! :) Never! We're going for like 5. Just watch.
TRIP HOME!!!!
The first week of November Declan and I embarked on an adventure back East! I have been dying to get this kid back to Charlotte to meet the bulk of his family and some of my good friends that still live there so off we went, 430am on Monday morning.................it was an absolutely wonderful, fun-filled JAMMED week! Every minute that Declan was awake we had visitors and loved every second of it - he's certainly quite a ham and showed off for everyone that came to see him :) So proud of my "i love to be the center of attention" baby!
There were so many people I wanted to see personally and I wanted Declan to meet and while we got to see most of them, there are certainly people I'm bummed we missed (Whit!). Just not enough time!!!! However, Meg came over the first night to meet little buddy and then we played in a cold wet soccer game Wednesday night (where I was embarrassingly bad, thankful that it was 10:30 at night and not many people were there to witness the atrocity) but it was really fun and even better, Meg and I got to catch up until the early hours of the morning at a local little bar - I haven't done that in SOOOO long - thank you Meg for getting me out - much needed girl time - definitely one of my favorite parts of the week. Mrs L came over a number of different times, once with Mrs Clark, once with her hubby and once with her little grand babies who are sweeter than words. We FINALLY got little Hannah introduced to her future husband :) Got my hands on little Merrill, my cousin's sweet beautiful baby girl. Both sets of grandparents got to hang with DB as well as my amazing Aunt Kathy. Aunt Debbie and Uncle Doug came over as well and it was pretty hilarious because the first thing Doug did was bounce Declan on his knee and sing this little rhyme which is the EXACT same thing my dad did/does. Must be another Hunt thing :)
A huge huge huge massive monstrous thanks to my mom, dad, brothers and awesome friends who made the trip as easy as could possibly be. When we got there my mom had bottles, food, diapers, wipes, pack-n-play all jazzed up and ready to go, the little prince's special soap and lotion - I mean EVERYTHING that we could possibly have needed. Added to that, Mrs L brought over a van full (literally) of toys to occupy little buddy for the week. Kenan took off 2 days of work to spend with his nephew, Davis came home early from Chapel Hill to spend the weekend with us and Graham rushed home every day from school to pick up his nephew and play (something he's been wanting to do since he was 3 days old :) ) Watching my dad with Declan too is an image I hope I have burned in my brain forever. Pop Pop just oozes pride and love when he holds little DB. And my mom - my sweet mother - amazes me how NATURAL she is with Declan. She was born to be a mother and that has translated seemlessly into being a grandmother. We are so lucky to have them - thank you guys for a wonderful trip home and one that I know Declan will not remember but I certainly will.
Here's the link to some of the pics I took: PHOTOS FROM THE TRIP!
There were so many people I wanted to see personally and I wanted Declan to meet and while we got to see most of them, there are certainly people I'm bummed we missed (Whit!). Just not enough time!!!! However, Meg came over the first night to meet little buddy and then we played in a cold wet soccer game Wednesday night (where I was embarrassingly bad, thankful that it was 10:30 at night and not many people were there to witness the atrocity) but it was really fun and even better, Meg and I got to catch up until the early hours of the morning at a local little bar - I haven't done that in SOOOO long - thank you Meg for getting me out - much needed girl time - definitely one of my favorite parts of the week. Mrs L came over a number of different times, once with Mrs Clark, once with her hubby and once with her little grand babies who are sweeter than words. We FINALLY got little Hannah introduced to her future husband :) Got my hands on little Merrill, my cousin's sweet beautiful baby girl. Both sets of grandparents got to hang with DB as well as my amazing Aunt Kathy. Aunt Debbie and Uncle Doug came over as well and it was pretty hilarious because the first thing Doug did was bounce Declan on his knee and sing this little rhyme which is the EXACT same thing my dad did/does. Must be another Hunt thing :)
A huge huge huge massive monstrous thanks to my mom, dad, brothers and awesome friends who made the trip as easy as could possibly be. When we got there my mom had bottles, food, diapers, wipes, pack-n-play all jazzed up and ready to go, the little prince's special soap and lotion - I mean EVERYTHING that we could possibly have needed. Added to that, Mrs L brought over a van full (literally) of toys to occupy little buddy for the week. Kenan took off 2 days of work to spend with his nephew, Davis came home early from Chapel Hill to spend the weekend with us and Graham rushed home every day from school to pick up his nephew and play (something he's been wanting to do since he was 3 days old :) ) Watching my dad with Declan too is an image I hope I have burned in my brain forever. Pop Pop just oozes pride and love when he holds little DB. And my mom - my sweet mother - amazes me how NATURAL she is with Declan. She was born to be a mother and that has translated seemlessly into being a grandmother. We are so lucky to have them - thank you guys for a wonderful trip home and one that I know Declan will not remember but I certainly will.
Here's the link to some of the pics I took: PHOTOS FROM THE TRIP!
Friday, November 12, 2010
HALLOWEENY!!!!
Little bumblebee :) We had a few different ideas for little buddy but this was by far the easiest (and warmest) on a cool October night so we went with it. The Hempens, always the amazing hosts, had what seemed like their whole neighborhood over and invited us to come as well. Big pots of chili and jambalaya on the stove which means Paul and I were happy, tons of cute kids which means Declan was happy! It was a wonderful 1st Halloween for Declan - thanks for including us, Hempens!!!
Uncle Bill's awesome cemetary
No joke - Bill is missing his front tooth at the current moment. Good costume adaptation :)
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