Declan's 1 Year Update

I already gave some insight into Declan's 1 year old personality but I realize I didn't do much in the way of a traditional update. And since twelve months is pretty much the end of these monthly updates I don't want to let this one slip by.

A whole year of firsts has pretty much flown by, and I'm not sure if it's because Declan is a sly little fox, or because he's the second child, but it really feels like I blink and suddenly he's mastered some new skill. With Ez there was a lot of prodding to get him to the "next level". We wanted him to crawl, and he didn't want to till he was ten months old. Then we immediately wanted him to walk and that took another two months, plus an additional month of using his lawn mower walker before he felt really confident. He didn't get teeth till he was one, he didn't say real words till he was one, and with all of those milestones I feel like we were waiting and watching with our cameras ready. 

Declan, on the other hand, did everything so much sooner than I was expecting that I've been caught of guard each time. Especially with the talking. It still amazes me that he's saying not only words, but phrases. He's my little chatterbox and he's always been a star at mimicking words and sounds. I'll never forget when we were hanging out with family and my brother sneezed. Declan immediately did the most perfect sounding sneeze, it was like he was mocking him. And he was only about six months old!

Here's a little rundown of some of my most favorite milestones:

• First tooth: 5 months - bottom two teeth. 7 months - top two teeth. 12 months - 2 more bottom teeth (current total: 6 teeth).
• Crawling: 7 months.
• Standing: 7 months.
• Walking: 9 months minus 1 day. He was the tiniest little walker, it was so funny thing to watch. And it only took about a week of stumbling around like a little drunken cowboy before he mastered it. 
• Talking: I feel bad admitting this, but I don't remember exactly when he said his first words. Mostly because I thought it was just babbling. It took me awhile to realize he was consistently using the same words for certain things. And he's also really good at understanding what we're saying and following directions. Like he'll go throw stuff away for us. He'll find his shoes if we ask him to. He'll hand us whatever's in his hand. He runs to the stairs if I say it's time to change his diaper. And he definitely knows what no means. He just chooses to ignore us ;) I'm going to guess it was right around 9 months when he started saying his first words: "go" "goo ja!/good job" (usually accompanied by clapping), and "baba" (bottle). Other words and phrases he currently says:

• Get down!
• Kah!! (Car)
• Put down
• Dada

Current stats: 29 inches tall, 22 lbs.

Sleep: Still waking up about twice a night. He usually drinks from a bottle for a few minutes then goes right back to sleep. I'm trying really hard to increase daytime food and get rid of nighttime feedings altogether, but he's only recently shown any interest in eating, and he still spits out a lot of his food. He spends about three to four hours a night in his crib, and then I bring him to bed with us when he wakes up the first or second time. Ez slept in bed with us till after Declan was born (a little over two years old), so I'm hoping to get Declan in his own bed a tad bit earlier than that. We've also recently dropped his morning nap and now he's doing a 2-3 hour afternoon nap.

Eats: Even though we tried baby led weaning, and we tried purees, in the end, Declan really only enjoyed tasting his food then spitting it out. In the past few weeks he has started to actually eat a select few foods, and he'll taste quite a bit of things, chew it to mush, and then spit it back out. This isn't something I remember Ez doing, and we always joke that Declan will put anything inedible in his mouth, but we try to feed him actual food and he acts like we're poisoning him. I try to give him a sampling of whatever we're eating, but that generally winds up right on the floor. I nursed Declan until he was 7 months, and then he started biting me. On purpose. And laughing about it. So I weaned him to formula real quick after that. I applaud all moms that have stuck with pumping, but the amount of milk I got for the effort I put in wasn't worth it. Now we're weaning him from formula to whole milk. His current favorite foods include:

• yogurt
• apples
• melon
• animal crackers
• tortillas with avocado, beans, or almond butter
• ice cream

Likes:

• climbing the furniture
• shaking the floor lamps
• messing with the TV remote
• and the cable box
• giving kisses
• kicking his ball around
• shooting hoops
• eating shoes
• baths
• throwing stuff in the trash
• taking stuff out of the trash
• climbing the stairs
• the playground
• scavenging for food
• swiping anything he can reach off the table
• sports
• Family Feud
• Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
• drinking water from a straw
• music and dancing.

Dislikes:

• staying still
• being strapped down
• when brother naps
• sleeping through the night
• when anyone eats in front of him

Overall I think Declan is a very good natured, happy baby, but that boy sure does love getting into trouble. He basically goes from one thing he knows he shouldn't be doing to the next and cycles through all of those and then starts the whole process over again. Testing boundaries, pushing boundaries, breaking boundaries. That's his life mission. I know that he's a little leader at heart, and he'll go far in life, but parenting him as a toddler is exhausting, to say the least. There's definitely never a dull moment here, and I really wouldn't have it any other way. It's impossible to stay mad at him when he looks at you with those big, smiling doe eyes or his exaggerated bull snorting face. His expressions are priceless. His need to figure things out and do everything himself makes me so proud and so anxious all at once. It's not enough that he started climbing the stairs at 8 months, but now he already thinks he needs to walk - not crawl, walk - up the stairs. Nevermind that each step is about half his height, he's gonna get his foot up there one way or another. I really do admire his determination though, and I have no doubt that he'll continue setting high goals for himself and then knocking them out of the park. We love you to the moon and back baby boy!

And, just because I apparently felt the need to make myself cry, I made a rather long compilation of my favorite Declan video clips. I don't really expect anyone else to sit through 11 minutes of Declan growing up, but I thought I should make one all the same. In case I feel the need to get nostalgic and weepy in the future. Like maybe after he pulls a carton of egg shells out of the trash and smashes them all on the kitchen floor. In other words, ten minutes ago ;)