Declan K. is 6 Months Today!

We've had half a year with this kid already, I can hardly believe it! 

I don't know why, but unlike with Evie where I was so devastated every time I realized she was growing up, I'm so excited for Declan to get bigger and bigger and do new and fun things (and so is he, lol)!

Since it's kinda like my thing now, let's just take a quick look back, shall we?

This is Declan six months ago! All 6 lbs 15 oz and 20 inches of my cute little string bean :)

And THIS is my handsome little man today:

Ahhh! He's so big, I love it :)

Declan now weighs a whopping 18 lbs 4 oz and is 27 inches long!

He's just getting his first teeth in, which means he's been SUPER cranky and unwilling to sleep at night, like at all... So mama is tired!

 Following almost EXACTLY in his big sister's footsteps, Declan decided at around five months that he NEEDS to walk. He's always grabbing our hands and trying to get us to stand him up, or climbing on things to get into a standing position. He's convinced that walking is the only way to go, which is incredibly sad because just before that he had started working on crawling! He was doing this cute little inchworm-army crawl-roll combo, and I was SO convinced he would go for it... but no, lol. He still rolls all over, which is something Evie never did. He now cries every time we put him in crawling position, but he's really close!

 At our 6 month appointment the doctor watched Declan walking around (holding our hands) and said he's very strong and his walking skills are advanced ;)

 Declan is really into his hands... Which sounds weird, but he just loves his hands! He'll sometimes just hold his hand in front of his face and open and close it and turn it back and forth. He likes to hold things and hand them back and forth between his hands (a trick he learned from Graeme). His fine motor skills are good, which I think I just notice because Evie had no interest in fine motor at all!

 

Speaking of Evie, he absolutely loves her. I love it when he looks at her and giggles, and she laughs so he laughs harder, and then they're both just looking at each other giggling hysterically.

He so wants to do what ever she's doing. He wants to run and play with her. He's not as driven, personality-wise as she was, but he is very determined to be able to do everything with her!

He also loves his uncle Graeme. He thinks he has really cool hair, lol. The first time Declan saw him after work in his subway clothes, visor/ponytail he looked at him like he was a stranger. As soon as Graeme put his hair down he got that huge grin on his face that he always gets when he sees Graeme.

Annnd speaking of strangers, he is starting to get stranger anxiety and is getting super clingy. Yay

He doesn't really babble yet, he just likes to make these yelling, squealing, and coughing noises. I know he can make other noises, he just doesn't want to I guess. 

Declan loves the "hushabye" song (our version of "All the Pretty Little Horses"), if he's fussing, resisting sleep, or waking from sleep and I sing it and he calms down. It's really amazing ;) I wonder if it's because we sang it so much while I was putting Evie to bed during those early months?

As far as personality goes, baby boy is happy and fairly calm. He's a silly little one, kind of shy, but loves to smile at people. He loves to stare at people with a huge grin on his face until they notice him and smile back, then he hides his face in mom's shoulder. It is pretty cute :)

Declan is a cutie, I am so grateful we have him in our family! These last 6 months have been extremely tough, exhausting, and difficult for me to figure out. I thought for sure that being an experienced mom now it would be easier this time around, but there are so many more challenges. I'm so happy that we have waded through the challenges though, because things just feel so much more complete with Declan in our lives. After Evie, I still felt like there was someone missing, and I'm pretty sure we've found him ;)

Love you, baby boy!