Swoosh

I missed Mika's 37 month post. To sum: She's discovered Disney - Ariel to be precise. Loves making sound effects. Takes matters of anatomy and toileting very seriously. Potty humor is not her thing yet. She's proud to be a girl. She's doing well in the daycare preschool program. Still has her boyfriend Sammi - playdates to follow all summer, I'm sure. (We were outside a couple of weeks ago and Mika was sighing that she hoped someday Sammi would come to her house and swing with her. Oi yoi yoi.)
She and Declan are becoming co-conspirators. Daddy and I don't stand a chance.

Mika and Daddy are currently touring the neighborhood - we picked up bikes and a trailer. As soon as Declan is up from his nap and fed, I plan to ship the three of them to the library so I can try and clean my house. w00t!

We had looked forward to this 4-day Easter weekend - until things at work went a little sideways yesterday. Nana's going to watch the younglings for a few hours tomorrow so Daddy and I can go spank servers into submission. Bleh. Fun Saturday afternoon it will not be.

I asked Mika if she thought the Easter Bunny was going to come to her house. She said no. She painted an egg at school and brought home some jellybeans and apparently finds that to be enough. The kid just refuses to get excited about chocolate. She had a malted milk ball egg and found the thin layer of chocolate in that to be too much. Declan, on the other hand, will demolish his choco bunny in seconds, I'm sure. The kids like to play with their Fisher Price Little People sets quite a bit. I found eggs that had a single Little Person character in them, so the kids are getting those and their beloved Pocky in buckets. I am predicting that the buckets will be the prized Easter item. Nothing like a plastic bucket, I tell you.

Happy Belated 13-Month Birthday, Declan!

Ugh - the post is so late. I have many excuses - none of which I will bore you with.
Declan is a wildman. Mika was so mild in comparison. He's definitely a climber. He climbs up Mika's chair into the bay window. I keep a plastic tote in front of the drawers on the front of the island to keep him from opening the drawers. The childlocks still allow him to get his fingers in there. Of course he smashes them, hence the tote. Decky climbed up onto the tote, opened a drawer, and used it to climb up onto the island. The list goes on.
He's adjusted to daycare it seems (knock on wood). He hasn't cried when I left for two days in a row now. A record!
Declan has some serious love/hate issues going on. He's a total romeo with the kisses - he puckers up and either makes a pop of a kiss on the mouth or makes a MWAH! sound. The third type of kiss is more of a suckerfish thing - he comes at you with an open mouth and just softly latches to a cheek or mouth and stays there for a few seconds. Deke gets so into giving kisses that he works himself up into just headbutting you instead. He's also been hitting a lot. Deliberate hitting. He's caught me off guard a couple of times and the kid packs a slap, let me tell ya. The more I gently say "no hitting" and put his hand down, the more enraged and intent on hitting me again he becomes. He's been cut off nursing a few times this week due to incessant hitting as he eats. The tantrums that ensue when you deny him anything are insane. I think now that he spends more waking time at daycare than at home or with either parent period, he's having adjustment issues when he's with me again. Oi.
We're also having fun with the old I-Need-To-Have-Whatever-Is-In-My-Sister's-Hand phase. Battle Royale every night guaranteed.
Spring has sort of somewhat in a way sprung. At times. Between the snowfalls, anyway. Declan loves being outside - so does Mika. The couple of times that we've been out in the yard have been great. I can't wait for summer! Deke is going to keep us on our toes for sure.