Energy!

Declan has so much energy! Here are some of the things that have been going on this week. (With Quinny turning one, I want to make sure big brother gets his due before I plaster her pix all over the upcoming birthday blog entry!)

He had so much fun at buddy Joshua’s birthday party (4 yrs.) on Sunday. It was held at a local gymnastics studio and the kids got to play on all kinds of cool inflatable equipment, a foam cube pit, and a trampoline. Declan takes clay class with Joshua and we know the family through our parenting website. The gym hosts a parents’ night out event every month for his age group, where he gets dropped off for a few hours for a gymnastics playgroup while Mom and Dad go out for dinner or something (Quinny in tow…you have to be potty-trained to do the program). He can’t WAIT to go back!

We also got another dumping of snow, and *this* time it was perfect for building snowballs, snowmonsters/creatures, and igloos. As I showed Declan how to roll balls to make bigger ones for building, he said, “I’m going to make a terrifying dragon snow creature!” We also made a snowmonster, complete with parsnips (well, we were out of carrots and these parsnips were on their last legs…). It turns out Declan choreographs his snowball fights. “Try to get me, mommy!….No, throw it higher so you miss….You missed me!….Now I’ll try and get you!” and we run in circles and then if he keeps missing, I’m supposed to stand still so he can get me. Last night, after coming home from some errands, it was dark out, but Declan wanted to build an igloo. “You give me the blocks, mom, and I’ll make the igloo.” Um, ok, how do you know how to build and igloo? I wondered. He started out by making a circle with the blocks of snow I handed to him (really just large assorted chunks, “No, that’s too small mom, but it’s OK, you can try again…”) and then he said, “Hey, have you ever seen a triangle igloo? Or a heart igloo?” Too funny. We were out there for a long time (Quinny in the backpack) making a gigantic pile of snow for his igloo. He said that he wouldn’t be putting a door on this igloo since it was a “super duper LazyTown igloo” (a reference to a favorite TV show of his, and he sang the theme song as he was building).

On our way out yesterday, Declan insisted on making detailed maps to mark where we were going. I just kept yammering out various landmarks and directions (“Mom, are we turning this way (gesture) or this way (other way)?”) while he drew. When I had assembled our stuff to leave, I saw that he had drawn 3 pages of complicated maps, including roads, signs, stoplights, all kinds of stuff. Then he crossed out each feature as we passed it in the car. All of this was totally his idea.

We also enjoyed a nice visit with Grandpa and Gumpa this week, and Declan took in his traditional game of pool. He “chalks up” after almost every time he waits his turn (he examines his cue stick and says, “Hm, I’d better chalk up!”. He’s getting much better at hitting the white cue ball to hit the other ones, but he still moves all of the balls around the table to optimize his shots.

He was so excited to get a shot of himself in mid-air in this foam cube pit