Week what?

We are at the point now where I have to look at the calendar to know how many weeks old Devon is. It’s a strange transition. You go from knowing EXACTLY how long the baby has been in your life to ‘Oh, about 14 weeks I think’. Now I find myself saying he is 3 ½ months old instead of counting by weeks.

Since Devon’s first visit with Russ’s coworkers was less than a success, we decided to try again. Perhaps Devon didn’t enjoy the office environment, so we opted to try for a bar instead. He was MUCH happier. I hope this is not indicative of the future. His first smell of Guinness and fish and chips.

For date night this month Russ and I dropped Devon off with his friends Erica, Ben and Finn and went to Big Bowl for some big bowls of food. I am pretty much STARVING at every meal these days (I know, Mom, big surprise) so this was an excellent fit. We were at the Galleria (kind of like shopping in Mequon or Bayshore) and saw this ridiculous stroller. I had seen it in an ad somewhere priced at $999. Which is why I remembered it. $999? It’s a stroller, not a nanny! Well, someone was convinced it was a good investment and they had it rolling around the Galleria. It was all I could do to not stare with my mouth open. The night we babysat for Finn we had to put him down for the night for the first time. . We did his usual routine of washing teeth (sort of, I wasn’t about to lose a digit), books, jammies. It was hilarious watching him walk around in his sleepsack. Time to turn out the lights and said good night and he was having nothing to do with that. I went back in to comfort him and no luck. Russ went in and told him “Finn, your mom and dad are out having a nice time and will be back in about an hour. Why don’t you lay down and go to sleep and when you wake up they will be here. Good night.” And guess what. He did. Not a peep after that.

We are working on our daycare routine. There are little triumphs each day. Last week I had to ask the director to tell his teachers that yes, he does need a bottle at 445. Going from 200 until after 530 when we get home is a recipe for disaster. She did and we had a MUCH better Tuesday night. My challenge at work is how to schedule my days to be in 3 ½ hour blocks at the MOST so I can pump. I am so used to just going going going and only needing to take a break when my stomach or bladder starts yelling at me. It is a good lesson in patience.

Devon had his first lunch at the Woman’s Club and did ‘pretty’ well. Some yelps at the beginning and then fell asleep in my lap. This was a good test for me – how do I manage my baby in a public place where his crying outright isn’t the best choice (aka, fancy shmancy place). Luckily he didn’t get super mad so we called it a success.

My big accomplishment this week was the first bike ride of the season! Of course I chose a SUPER windy day, but I did 10 miles in about 45 minutes and was quite pleased. Now I just need one more rest day so I can sit on the bike again and we’ll return to the road!

Currently, there are 3 cabinets sitting in our backyard awaiting installation TONIGHT! Russ is finishing up the toe kick and then he and I will put them in place! Hopefully then this week we will schedule measurements for counters and get the dishwasher hooked up!!! Fancy party is on the horizon…

This week Devon has started to really enjoy the game ‘airplane’. He looks around, holds his arms and legs out and laughs.

I also put him in the exersaucer for the first time. About 2 minutes in he was DONE but the next day he tolerated it for about 10 minutes and actually started interacting which was really fun to watch.

We can also tell that Devon has Russ's proportions - long torso, short legs. Poor kid is tall enough overall for the exersaucer but has a few more inches to go before he can bounce up and down in it himself...


He has started to really gnaw on more things. Well, really anything that he can get into his mouth – burp rags, toys, fingers. He is getting a little more coordinated at bringing things to his mouth but there is still a lot of refinement to go!

This week when I put him down for a nap he has started to fuss more. I’m not sure if he is starting to realize I am leaving him alone or that he doesn’t know what to do or what is going on. I leave him alone for about 10 minutes (unless he is all out upset) and he usually calms down and falls asleep. Not sure what is going on in that little brain. But he is super quiet if he is falling asleep in his baby bjorn. If you haven't seen that video on facebook, let me know and I will send it to you (videos take a LONG time on this site).

Next weekend Devon gets to meet his Auntie Anna for the first time! Looking forward to some new adventures with her.

Into Month Three

Many people have told me that time simply flys by when our kids are very little. I had not felt that way until about three weeks ago – right about when I wrote the last blog post. Since then we have had so many new experiences and adventures with Devon the time has really felt like it soaring by.However I had two of the LONGEST days of my life this week. Monday and Tuesday = first days back at work and Devon’s first days at daycare. I am job-sharing now so I only work 2 days a week, 10 hours each day. It’s really odd to go back to a job after 3 months of being off. Really odd. You know what to do but lots of little changes have happened while you were gone that you discover. I’m learning how to communicate in amazing detail so that this job share works well and our folks get the best service they can. The real trick is getting used to pumping 4 times a day in between other tasks at work. I think that may be the trickiest thing to get adjusted to. I tend to like to just work on a project and focus until I am done with it and I really can’t do that anymore. But man, I will get a lot of reading done!

Russ and I divide and conquer in terms of picking up and dropping Devon off and so far that has worked pretty well. It was a lot harder to leave Devon on day one than I anticipated. When it was time to go I couldn’t really talk or I’d be in danger of breaking out into sobs. I held it together…until I got to my car. Cried the whole way to work and then composed myself until I stepped into the lobby and got asked if it was hard to leave my baby and started up again. Once I got distracted by the mountains of catch-up I needed to do I was ok.

Daycare appears to completely wipe Devon out. Both days we picked him up and he got home and told us put me in my bed and leave me the heck alone, I need to sleep. And he did. We had to wake up a very sleepy baby to get him to eat before ‘bedtime’. Looking at the daily report from the daycare I think next week I will ask them to try and put him down for more naps. If I am reading it correctly it looks like he only took one nap all day and for this kid that is about 4 naps too few.

Today (Wednesday) we are home together and he is right back to his usual schedule and heavy into naps. Must be catching up from Monday and Tuesday.Two weeks ago we made our first road trip with Devon to visit Grafton. Overall I think it was a big success. He did fairly well in the car for 7 hours and we stopped twice for him to eat. Of course there were points when he was DONE being in the car but we weren’t quite to our destination so that was tough. When we got home and Russ went to take the screaming baby out of the car as SOON as Devon saw him come to unhook the car seat he stopped crying and was ok. We are planning a trip to Chicago over Memorial Day weekend and are considering flying there. We’ll see…Devon got to meet a boatload of new folks on our trip. Four great-grandparents were thrilled to meet him as well as a slew of aunts, uncles and cousins, friends and most of Port Washington. Here are some photos of meeting the great grandparents Terlizzi and Egelhoff:

Grammy Jan joined us for the weekend as well
and we all celebrated Russ and my mom’s birthdays.
In other news we have 3 MORE CABINETS IN THE KITCHEN! Last weekend we had the wonderful Maggie, Nick, Mom and Dad help us get three really large pieces in the kitchen. We’re slowly finding out what we have (2 years in storage makes you forget what you have so it’s sort of like Christmas morning) and what we have that makes us go ‘Why do we have this?’ Hopefully in the next couple of weeks we will get to put the last pieces in and order the countertops and OMG install the DISHWASHER. We are having a party when it’s all in. Here is what was added to the old butler's pantry space on Saturday:

I haven’t noticed any huge milestones with Devon in the last couple days. He is still doing really well pushing up and looking around on his tummy and starting to grab and bring things to his mouth. So far his favorite is his burp rag. Yum.

Think of us next week as we try to settle down in our Daycare routine again. Have a lovely spring week! Here is a great picture of four generations we took on our visit to Grafton -