Excuses, excuses

Ugh, I'm so far behind in blogging. I bums me out. I wish I could blame our computer having serious issues, which it is. I wish I could blame being really busy with clients, which I haven't. I'm just lazy. And SOOOOO far behind. I've got 10 and 11 month pictures, Easter, Ruby, utero Jack....and of course I want to get them all done before Declan's big One Year blog. Which I want to do on his birthday. Which is Wednesday! So, check back....you may see a lot of new blogs....or nothing. I'm hoping for the former.....wish me luck! Or send me money for a new computer. :)

Happy Mother's Day to me!

Wow, what a day! I got to sleep in (first because my baby slept in, but then because my hubby let me!) My mom gave me a VERY special gift, that I hope to share with you all someday. Trevor got me a MASSAGE!!! (I haven't gotten the massage yet, I get to choose when.) We took Declan swimming and he love, Love, LOVED it! We have a small "kiddie" pool at our complex, so we just took him there. I didn't get in with him, but I wish I had. And now.......one of the hardest things we've done yet......we put Declan to sleep in his crib. For the first time. In his own room. He went down pretty ok, but after a little bit, he started freaking out a bit more. And then he got really upset, so I went in a held him for a little while. Then, whenever I tried to put him down, he would cry so hard he almost couldn't breathe. Which of course freaked me out, and I would pick him up again. Finally I just had to let him cry....and of course he fell asleep. So I guess we'll see how the night goes, and if that goes ok, we'll see how the morning goes. I won't have my alarm clock there and.....yup, there it is, the tears are coming. We've really let it get too far, and this is going to be a lot harder than it should have been. But, it's something that needs to happen, he can't share our room and sleep in a play pen till he's 18.....right? :) All in all, a wonderful first Mother's Day. I hope all you mommas out there had a wonderful day, too!

A little tentative at first.....

But he soon learned he LOVED it!

A little splashy in the face!

D got a little owie on his nose from his sippy cup. Who knew sippy cups could give owies! :)

I love his lashes in these 3:

I love his face, here he is doing his Brando impression.

I'm really, really, really going to miss this.....

What Bump?

Two weeks later and you can barely tell a thing happened to him! I swear my kid is Wolverine. (Mutant....self healing....yes, I made an X-men reference.) Anyway......Really, his head looks great! Guess he'll be a model after all! I love this kid!!!

Posterchild for Thudguard

A friend told me about the Thudguard awhile back. I really had two feelings at once. 1.) That's crazy weird. 2.) How cute are those helmets with the ears and everything! I was also thinking that it wasn't a terrible idea. I really dreaded the day that Declan would get a HORRIBLE injury, especially on his head. That day was Saturday.

Actually, Declan has not had the best couple of weeks when it comes to getting hurt. First, a cousin (who will remain nameless as to protect his/her identity.....because when I posted his/her name on facebook, his/her dad gave me grief for ratting him/her out) hit Dec square on the head with a hard plastic toy. That same day, he pulled a kiddie gate down on to himself, catching his eyebrow in the process. Although he is really getting better at walking, and he walks ALL OVER the apartment, he still trips over his feet often. A few days after the toy and gate incidents, Dec tripped and hit his head on a wall corner. That was the worst one yet, and then a couple days later he did pretty much the same thing again. Then.....there was this last Saturday......

Trevor and I were visiting a park, to see about having Dec's birthday party there. We were letting Declan walk around, watching him the whole time. Then this happened (in Daddy's words): forehead meets concrete. Concrete wins. :( It was quite a thunk too! We could hear it from several feet away. He was in my arms in seconds and already bawling. By divine planning, we had a cold pack on us and we were able to get ice on it right away. He cried for about 10 minutes, while, despite the ice, his forehead swelled to about silver dollar size. And then, he was fine! We put him back down (FAR from the concrete) and he toddled around like he loves to do! He even went in the swing for a little bit. What a trooper! Needless to say, the park has been vetoed.

We went home soon after and fed him his afternoon snack.....and watched and worried that we should do more. After icing it a bit more, and talking to a Kaiser Advice Nurse, we decided to take him to urgent care. Everything seemed fine with him, but the bruise was just so large, and we were so unsure, we figured it would just be best to have it checked out. The Dr. felt the same way, it was probably ok, but might as well get an x-ray, to be safe. Of course, Trevor and I are thinking, "Awesome! An x-ray of our son's head! I hope they let us take pictures of it!" (Yes, I brought the camera. You need to be ready for anything, anytime. That's my motto......as much as it bugs my husband.) Declan didn't enjoy the x-ray process too much, but it was fast, and they were in the system before we even went back upstairs to the Dr.'s office. The doc said everything was fine, no fracture.....and we begged to see the x-rays. Ok, we didn't have to beg, but we did give a little puppy eyes. And of course, they wouldn't let us take pictures. A medical legality thing.....lame. Whatever.

We were sent home with the instructions to look for any abnormal behavior, or rather any behavior that is abnormal for Declan....babies have some pretty abnormal behavior in general! We were also told to wake him every 4 hours at night and check his pupils. It actually sounded worse than it was, we only had to check him twice. And apparently I wasn't really involved the second time. In fact, I don't even remember getting up, but Trevor said I did, and he said I also kept saying "his eyes are open, he's fine!" Dec went back to sleep just fine each time we woke him (he is SOOOOOOOOO wonderful!!) but he did wake up about a half hour early (he's still SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO wonderful!) Today he was great, a little cranky, but probably from the heat and perhaps his head ached a little. He'll be fine, just won't be getting any modeling gigs in the next month or so. :)

Here you go, what you've been waiting for, a thousand pictures of my son's injuries! I couldn't take a picture that really showed how bad it looked, so I took many.

A sad mommy with her little bump-head buddy.

Icing...

By the time we were at the doctor, it had gotten all red and bright.

Playing in the exam room. "What bump?"

And wouldn't you know it.....when we got home, we set Declan down to play and walk around, and within minutes, he had tripped again, hitting the exact same spot on our office chair mat (not so hard, but not so soft) and the bump just doubled in size! Seeing the bump from so many angles was just crazy. I did my best to get them all....

This was today, Sunday....a little better. :)

Lindley Visit

Back in January, Dawn and Fam came to visit. It was a REALLY fun week hanging out with them and having the whole family together. We had a few dinners and game nights, and a day (the WHOLE day) at Disneyland. It really is a bummer that we don't live closer to each other. :(

A picture of all the Gill grandchildren:

Luke, Jack, Avery, Declan, Ethan, and Bella

The Lindley Crew
So our original plan was to go to Disneyland on Thursday. Then the weatherman told us that there was a 90% chance of rain on Thursday. So we changed our plans to go Friday. Thursday was practically sunny the whole day. A perfect day to go to Disneyland. Friday was one of the rainiest days this year. We bought ponchos and used one to cover our stroller. Here's Declan in his little tent....he didn't mind at all! :) And we considered suing the weatherman.

On our last day with the Lindley's we joined them and the Espinoza's at Chuck E Cheese's.

Declan was excited to meet Auntie Dawn! :)

How sad that Declan has unsightly blemishes at such a young age....

All Dad

I've been showing this picture to people....

And they all say how cute Declan is. The thing is.......it's not Declan! It's Trevor!! We're not sure his exact age in this picture, but it must be close to D's current age. Seriously, check this out:

My first thought when D was born was how much he looked like his daddy as a baby. Can you see why?

And it just keeps on going.....

It will be fun to see how pictures compare as D gets older. I am starting to get people saying that he is looking more like me lately, and that's nice. He looks like me a lot just after he wakes up and his eyes are all squinty. You know what.....I'll take what I can get! :) I love my boys!!!

9 Months

Finally! The rest of D's 9 month shoot at the beach. Jake is SERIOUSLY talented with the camera, and I had A LOT of pictures to choose from....hence, there are many here to look at! Now my editing skills are no where near Jake's or Gina's, but I'm working on it!

Oh yeah, and D had his 9 month Dr. Visit last month too. On Feb 24th, he weighed 19lbs 9.9oz, and was....28 inches tall? Oh, I don't remember. I do remember that he is still just a little over the 25th percentile in height and weight, but over 50th in head size! "It's like Sputnik! Spherical, yet pointy at some parts!" :) That was a month ago...who knows where he sits now. He's amazing, that's for sure!

Look Colton, it's MUNO!

This pose made more sense in my head!

Jake's awesome-ness....

My lame attempt at recreation....

Trying out the collages.....

I couldn't decide which one I liked better: color or b&w?