We just returned from a nine day trip to Seattle, Portland, and the surrounding areas. It's truly beautiful up there. I'd love to live there for a couple months at some point though St. Louis is definitely my home.

We had fabulous hosts in Dan and Kai (of Metropolis fame) in Seattle and Noel (one of my college roommates) and Stacia in Portland. It was particularly cool staying with Noel and Stacia as they have a son that's 4 weeks younger than Declan (and a fabulous 2 year old daughter too!).

We didn't get in as much outdoorsy stuff as usual due to the Declan factor but still managed to get in a bunch of day hikes and saw lots of beautiful scenery.

Declan did great overall. He had no problems on the plane rides (other than an inconvenient diaper blow out on the way home) and everyone commented on how good he was. He slept though chunks of the hikes but enjoyed them otherwise. The car rides were the most difficult (he's usually very content back there) and required several hundred rounds of 'Wheels on the Bus', lots of backseat riding, and several stops. But all in all, he was his usual cheerful self, though he's happy to be home.

Pics   

He's Just started giggling... it's awesome.   Read More...

It's fascinating to watch Declan figure out new things everyday. He's gotten so much better at using his hands, he now grabs everything in reach which definitely keeps us on our toes, but also lets him do things to soothe himself, like shoving the pacifier in his mouth, or a stuffed animal, or a burp cloth, or a ...

I think I'll win the award for wimpiest way to hurt yourself... driving home from Live at the Levee one night, Declan was fussing a bit so I reached back to put the binky in his mouth and tweaked my shoulder something good... I've been telling people it's an old war wound...

Jen and I finally got a 4 door car, a 2005 Camry. The two doors have been fine until Declan outgrew his pumpkin seat. With the new car seat in rear-facing position, we had to climb in and out of the small opening with Declan in our arms... a week and a half of that and we got a new car.

New Pics are up: July | August   

Our friend Tony was kind enough to invite us, and a bunch of other folks, out to his families ranch last weekend for barn dancing, gun shootin, hiking, horseback riding, and good ol' R&R. We had a blast. Declan was his usual good-natured, layed-back self and was a big hit with everyone.

Tony and his family were amazing hosts. They took care of pretty much everything, cooking, cleaning up, DJs, and playing tour guides to the whole crew. The crowd came from all over, Chicago, Crystal City, St. Louis, ...

Jen shot a gun for the first time (and liked it a little too much), we both shot skeet for the first time (I hit one on my first try), and Declan had more firsts than could possibly be listed...

Check out the pics   

I've changed the software I use for my Photo Gallery to a free, open-source, php based program called Gallery. It's a huge improvement over the old software. I've also add a bunch more pics of Declan and other stuff.   Read More...

It's amazing what a difference 8 solid hours (that's for Jen and I, Declan slept 12) of sleep makes. I feel like a new man!

Another first for today, Declan can no hold onto things for extending periods... he had his little plastic key set in his hands for at least an hour. Much of that time was spent trying to cram the keys into his mouth.

And he's finally begun Chinese lessons, I know I know, we're way behind... he took his 2nd trip to Noodle Cafe (in the Loop East of Skinker), his first trip we bonded with the owner as he cried most of the time (the only time he's ever cried at all while eating out) and they were more than happy to play with him as we ate... Today he was all smiles as he showed off all his new tricks. We learned Nai-Nai (spelling highly questionable) is Chinese for mother's milk.   

[FROM JEN]
Declan is doing good.  He slept his first 7 hour night Wednesday night!  Yay!  He did a 5 hour one last night, so we're not consistent yet, but it was still pretty nice. 

On Monday he also intentially grabbed the red dog upstairs and the blue elephant on his car seat.  Very cool!  He's giggling more now and grabbing at things more now.  He's so cute! 

He also had his biggest explosion yet today....soaked right through the diaper!  Usually it just leaks out the sides and/or top.  This time it did all that plus soaking through the actual diaper material...Talk about a big mess!  His whole back was covered in poo, as was his outfit, burp cloth, boppie cover, boppie pillow, couch, changing pad, and pack and play sheet.  Yuckie!  it was his smelliest batch yet also...

Anyhoo, that's the big stuff this week.  Otherwise he's just his usual cute little self...although Dave weighed him again and we think he's around 15 1/2 lbs now.    

So we went and had pictures taken of Declan at Sears Portrait Studio. It was Jen's idea. I argued endlessly that I could get just as good of pics for a lot cheaper and figured we wouldn't actually buy anything... I hate being wrong... they got some great pics, one was so good the photographer is putting it up a huge version of it on the wall of the store... so we had to buy a big version of that one, and then there were a bunch of other good ones that I just couldn't pass up. Perhaps it's just fatherly pride.

Declan took his first road trip last weekend. We went to a cousins wedding in Southwest Missouri. I'm continually impressed by how pretty Missouri is, particularly in Spring and Fall... Declan pretty much slept the whole time, uncharacteristic for him, but better than having him scream from his car seat. On the way home, we went by the place where my father spent many of his childhood weekends in the 40s, a cabin on the Bourbouis river and scouted for good barns to take pics of for my mom's new painting career.

On the homefront, we've started trying to get Declan into regular eating and napping routines to give Jen a little more downtime and to avoid, overtired Declan crankiness... not much luck yet but hopefully we'll have it mostly established in a week or two.

And of course, there are some new pics up at photos.oledave.com.   

Lots more pics of Declan up on my photo site: photos.oledave.com. (see Declan/Week 3).

Updates:

• Declan turned one month old on April 6th. They grow up so fast...
• Went to the Doc on Thursday for Declan's one month appointment. He's grown an inch (22 inches), gained some weight (10lbs, 3oz), and is looking all around healthy.
• Declan has slept all the way through all 6 times we've eaten out so if anyone wants to do dinner, we're usually up for it.
  
• Declan took his first trip to the zoo and the City Museum (we're showing friends from out of town around)... pretty much slept through most of both.
• He's continuing to get more and more alert and awake every day.
• We actually had two nights away from Declan last week, once for the Death Cab for Cutie concert and once for dinner. He was in the good hands of his extended family and seems okay with the whole thing.
• He's learned to interact with at least one of his toys and is better at entertaining himself while awake.
• He seems to be going through some growth spurts which don't give Jen a lot of time to do anything but feed, but I guess it's okay if he grows up a bit though I'll certainly miss his current way of being.
  

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I think we're finally beginning to get the hang of this thing called parenthood. There's no real routines yet or even regularlity but there's a lot less fumblimg, searching, wondering, and most importantly, challenges.

Declan's eating well now. For the first week and a half he was losing more weight than he should have but seems to be packing it on nicely now and 15 minute feedings now only take 20 minutes. Last night was probably the best sleeping night we've had yet. While he did wake up every three hours for a feeding and a few diaper changes, there were no extended crying sessions like there have been. Wake up, change, feed, change, go to sleep. That I can handle. It was the staying awake for 2 hours between 3am and 5am while he screamed for most of the time that was considerably more trying of my patience.

All the little tasks that used to require both Jen and I are now second nature and can be performed by just one of us and so we're better able to sub for each other better so we both get our downtime.

Now that things have settled down, we'd love to let people start meeting Declan. So let us know if you want to swing by and meet the little fellow. We're home most the time, just give us a call in advance so we can schedule feedings and whatnot accordingly.

Lots more pics are up...