Alexander, Declan, and Brendan: Declan

(May 16 - June 15)

Declan,

You are 10 months old now! We have continued to do so many fun things with you! Summer is finally in full swing and we have been taking advantage of it as much as possible. We started going to the playground after school/daycare. You love trying to crawl up the slide and you love going down the slide on mommy's lap as well as with mommy just holding your hands. You laugh so loud when you get to the bottom. You especially love to sit on the side by side slide with Alex:

Speaking of Alex, he still loves doting over you and he has been having so much fun pushing you on the swing when we are at the park:

We went up to St. Martin for the school picnic this year too. You had so much fun watching the parade go by. You were in awe of each passing vehicle and all the people walking in the street:

As the summer heat rolled in, we decided to break out the water table. You absolutely love the water table, splashing and laughing as you hit the water. You love having our friends, Braden and Cate over to play with you too!

The other summer fun thing we started doing this month is going to Sylvan Springs spray pool. You are not so sure of all the fountains just yet, but seemed to enjoy crawling around and watching brother run through the water.

We also celebrated Father's Day with Dad. You got him a Carnivore Cookbook and a potato slicer so he can make his homemade fries more easily. You also gave him a really awesome card with picture of you and Alex on it. It was a great Father's Day and you had a great day with dad.

You are such a happy baby. You laugh at everything! One night you were laughing at Alex and Poppy playing with a train. It is such a joy to hear your laughter. I can't help but smile every time I see this video:

You absolutely love to eat still and you are REALLY starting to just dig right in and make a huge mess of yourself. It's so much fun to see your appetite grow and grow. You are still eating puree's for the most part, but we have added in some puffs and arrowroot cookies a bit as well.

Since you have been making such a mess, we have also been doing bath time quite often lately! And luckily you LOVE it! Bath time has certainly changed in the past couple months. When we first started putting you in the big tub, you just layed there kicking. Then you started sitting up just long enough for us to wash you. But now you are crawling around, splashing and having so much fun in the bath!

You also started walking this month. You took your first steps by yourself and you love to push all the walking toys around the house. For now crawling still gets you places faster, but it won't be long till you are walking all the time!

You also still love to hang out with your brother in the morning. We love to put you two in the crib together!

And much to daddy's delight, you now fit into Alex's Old Scrapyard outfit:

As much fun as we've been having this month, we have also hit a couple rough patches. You got a stomach bug so you weren't feeling so well for a few days. We had to feed you clear liquids (i.e. Pedialyte) until you could keep something down. Since breastfeeding was such a comfort for you, this was a problem since I couldn't give you breast milk. I was searching for something to comfort you so I pulled out a pacifier. Well I didn't realize it, but you have never actually taken a pacifier at all. So when I tried to put it in your mouth, you didn't know what to do with it. It was kind of funny to see a baby who had no idea what to do with a pacifier! You thought it was just another toy to play with!

Another rough patch we hit was thrush. You and I both got it. It was a much bigger deal for me than for you as it didn't even seem to phase you. I, however, was in a lot of pain. That breast feeding pain I blamed on you getting teeth on last month's post turned out to not be your teeth at all. We were treated with Gentian Violet. You looked so funny and so cute with the purple all over your mouth!