Holding Hands

 

Declan, there are so many things I love about you, but one of my absolute favorite things about you is how much you LOVE holding hands. And, yes, you really love it!

I have tried counting the number of times you ask to hold hands throughout a single day and each time I quickly lose count because it happens pretty regularly. You want to hold hands while I try to get you ready in the morning, while I fix your milk, as we drive to daycare, when you are going to sleep, any time we sit next to you on the couch and in pretty much all other situations you have asked for a hand to hold.

I can't pinpoint exactly when this started, but ever since you were a baby you have always been a snuggler. Part of this is likely due to us holding you through nearly every nap and night when you first came home from the hospital, but that's ok because we like you snuggly. :) When you were just a few weeks old, we started putting you to sleep in  a bassinet next to my side of the bed and we learned very quickly that you did not like being laid down where you could not touch someone. I had trouble reaching you due to the nightstand so we decided to move the bassinet to the foot of the bed, which meant Daddy and I both had to sleep with our heads at the foot of the bed (I didn't want his feet in my face!). We did this until you were nearly seven months old so I could keep my hand next to you in the bassinet and somewhere along the way we started to hold hands each night as you fell asleep.

Every night has been the same for the last 2 years. When it is time to go to sleep you want to be right next to one of us and you immediately reach out for a hand. Now that you talk so much there is also a demand of "Hands, Mommy!" if I don't get situated fast enough and grab your hand right away. You always seem to get comfortable instantly, but I have to admit that I have fallen asleep in some of the most uncomfortable positions imaginable to continue holding onto your hand since you will immediately be wide awake if you are not fully asleep when I let go.

You will be the first to tell people that I am really mean at times and refuse to hold your hand. We have been working for a while on "patience" and "waiting until mommy's hands are free," which caused "peas hold hand" to be one of your first full sentences. That particular phrase came to exist because each time you have started to fuss or yelled "Hands!" at me in the car, grocery store or as I fix dinner, I have asked you to say, "Please hold my hand." At first you hated this and were simply angry at me for not immediately granting your request and grabbing a hand, but now you stay fairly calm (most of the time) and will say, "Please hold hand, Mommy."

I cannot put into words how much that simple phrase means to me each time you say it. I dread the day you quit wanting to hold hands, but I know one day you will decide you are too old to hold hands with your mom and, probably sooner than I'd like, you will realize you don't need me or Daddy to help you fall asleep each night. Too often I have to tell you I can't hold your hand at the moment because my hands are full or busy with another task. Just know I may not be able to hold your hand right then, but I am holding onto these moments forever in my heart.


Photo Credit: Ashley Sargent Photography

Declan Update- 2 Years!

You are 2 years old! I am terrible at keeping up with these posts for you because there are simply not enough hours in the day, but maybe I can do a better job this year. :)

 

You have learned and changed so much over the last year and it is absolutely incredible! You now weigh 35.6 pounds and are 37.5" tall. You are officially more than 3 feet tall! You now wear 3T clothes and size 6.5 in shoes. Speaking of shoes, you still really like them and always bring them to us to put on your feet when you decide it is time to go out. You love climbing anything and everything, running and you have begun squealing/screaming whenever you are excited. You hear the phrase “use your inside voice” a lot these days. J

 
Your vocabulary has grown so much since you first started talking and I am always impressed by how clearly you say things. You are able to ask for things, let us know your likes and dislikes (I should say clearly share your likes and dislikes since you have always given some nonverbal cues), and say simple phrases and 3-4 word sentences. You love telling people "bye bye" and have now begun saying "see ya later" to everyone when we leave daycare in the afternoon. You still yell for Wade and Fia constantly and make sure to say "hi" and "bye" to them each morning.

Favorite phrases: "Oh, no!" / "I did it!" / "I'll get it." / "Where's daddy?" / "Come here." / "Love you!"/ “See ya later!” / “Whew, that’s stinky!”

You love music more than ever and it makes me so happy to hear you sing songs like Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, The Itsy Bitsy Spider and your bedtime song (La La Loo from Lady and the Tramp) all the way through. You are already a much better singer than me! We have started to let you watch movies in the past few months, but you usually won’t sit through more than 15 minutes before you run off to play with something else. You love Cars and Frozen even though you only half pay attention to them. We normally stop movies once you start playing with something else, but you let us know right away that you really are watching if we try to do that with either or those movies. We love that you try to sing the songs from Frozen…it is so fun for me and daddy to sing along with you because you get so excited!

 

You are such a joy to be around and we are so blessed to have you in our lives. I cannot wait to see what the next year brings. :)

 

Circus Birthday Party

I always call Declan monkey because he loves to imitate them and he climbs on everything so it was only fitting to do a birthday theme that could somehow include his love of monkeys and animals in general, thus the circus/carnival theme. I have known since Halloween that we would be going with this theme after Declan got so excited about being able to dress up as a monkey for trick-or-treating so I had a bit of time to make plans and I am so pleased with how everything came together.

 

The logstics for the party were fairly simple since the plan would be to have them outside at our house I found super cute table skirts online that resemble circus tents so I went ahead and ordered those to be used for the food tables. We setup Declan's small bounce house, had our cornhole set in place to serve as the carnival games and put together a really simple photo booth. Since Declan is 2 and most of his guests were the same age or younger we decided to forego multiple games for the kids, but this would be great if this theme were to be used for an older child!

I am in love with the invite we had for his party this year! The invite was made to look like an admission ticket to the circus and was easily ordered using the one hour photo service at Walgreens. I ordered a party printable set from Dimple Prints that provided me with all of the food signs, game signs, cupcake toppers and the invitation. The iron-on image for his birthday shirt also came as part of the package and was super easy to do! There was a ton more included with the printable package, but I simply did not have the time to put it all to use. I highly recommend this shop though because they have adorable party sets!

 

  

For the rest of the party all I really had to do was put everything together from the printable package. The cupcake toppers were made using the printable package, a 2-inch circle paper punch and six inch lollipop sticks. The food signs we used were all included with the printable set. I also bought a cheap roll of carnival tickets and hot glued them around three small boxes to use as the cupcake stands.

 

We tried to keep all of the food within the circus/carnival theme by having hot dogs, chips,  popcorn and cotton candy. A family friend owns a cotton candy machine and they made all of the bags the day before. All we had to do the day of the party was string the baker's twine across our back porch like a clothesline and attach the bags with clothespins. I found the hot dog boats in Target's dollar section last summer and went ahead and bought them because they were adorable! The ketchup and mustard bottles came as a set at Dollar Tree so they were an easy and inexpensive addition. I ordered the popcorn boxes earlier in the year on Zulily and simply bought bags of Indiana Popcorn at the grocery store to fill them up.
*I had planned to get fresh popped popcorn from Target or Sam's Club, but this ended up not panning out with my schedule the week of the party.
 

 

Happy Birthday, Declan! We hope you had as much fun at your party as we did! Love you!