Deklan Isaac Brenneman: Sweet boy with a sweet tooth...

Deklan is a sponge. He is soaking up new things every second of the day. He is learning colors (he seems to like green the best), letters, and words. He is reading more. His favorite is "Go dogs, go!" He asks for it by name and then he waits (sometimes patiently, sometimes not) until we get to the "Stop dogs, stop!" and he shouts STOP! Then he turns the page and shouts GO! He loves to point at the light and say green. He is a hoot.
Deklan loves going on walks. He looks so unstable as he toddles down the sidewalk, but he stays on his feet somehow. Ryker rides his tricycle while we walk, so Deklan will squat down and say, "Ready, set, go!" to start the race to try and catch up to his big brother. His giggles are awesome! One thing that gets him giggling is when he runs up someone's driveway (he only does this on the ones that have a slight incline from the sidewalk) and then does his ready, set, go and races down hill. What a speedy little guy!
Deklan has put his fine motor skills to use lately on light switches and doorbells. He realized that he was strong enough to move the chairs, in our kitchen, over to the light. So he does that, then climbs up and turns the lights on and off, all the while saying "On! Off!" Ryker taught him how to ring the doorbell, so now he likes to run to Robert and Kim's and do that, too. (If we'd let him, he would ring every doorbell that we pass on our walks through the neighborhood.)
Mr. Robert is one of Deklan's favorite people. He talks about him all the time. He started saying "Hay-hay" for Hayley and he says Kim and Brendan very clearly. It used to be tradition for Ryker and Robert to go through the "see you later, alligator" routine each time Ryker would leave. It has been lovingly passed on to Deklan, who now shouts "Baboon!" each time he leaves Robert's house. We love having such great friends for neighbors!
We went to a baby shower for Avery, my cousin, who will be arriving any day. The spread was impressive and Deklan skipped past anything that was remotely healthy or of substance and went straight for the dessert table. When it was all said and done, he ate maybe half a meatball, a bite of a carrot with ranch dip, and multiple sugar cookies, chocolate chip cookies, m&ms, cheesecake, and a brownie. As much as he likes cookies and cake his favorite is candy. Chocolate, suckers, sweets...you name it and he will devour it! It goes without saying that his Valentine's Day was pretty sweet!