Happy Spring – finally! Devon was truly ready for warmer weather so he could get out and explore the world now that he is so mobile. So of course every time we try to go inside for things like, dinner, bedtime, diaper changes, get out of a downpour, it’s a meltdown.


Like he thinks he is a groundhog that’s just seen his shadow and has to wait 6 more weeks to come back out. Which I’m pretty sure was about the time of our last update so –

Winter was cold and winter was amazingly snowy for us this year. We found this monster snow suit for him that was pretty much like a down sleeping bag with appendages. He enjoyed bumbling about in that through the snow. Riding in the sled along the sidewalks and skiing behind mom in the tag along were fun ways to get outside.

Russ and I took our first vacation away in February when he was 13 months old. Devon got to hang out with his Grammy Jan and Auntie Anna for almost a full week! He did very well (and we did pretty good too) with them but he knew something was different. When we came home I was hoping for a ‘wow!’ or some recognition that we were back but he played it very cool…

In February he really jumped on the signing bandwagon. Milk, water, more, all done, eat, etc. He’s added a sign every other week or so since then. Overall it’s been very helpful because we know what he wants or is looking for. Now if he could just remember to use them when he’s cranky or over tired, we’d love that too…

As you may imagine he’s developed a number of new skills since turning one. Running with gusto, open and closing doors (only one broken window so far), climbing on things (thankfully he’s still too short to get onto the couch), going down the little elephant slide by himself (over and over and over and over), becoming fairly adept at using a spoon and fork to feed himself (granted there are times more food ends up on him than in him), and expanding his vocabulary of sounds. Now he clearly says only two real ‘words’ – mama and bye bye. He says ‘da’ for dad, buh for ‘bug’ or ‘bag’, kkkk for ‘keys’ or ‘kitty’ and gg for ‘dog’.

He’s totally a sleeper agent when it comes to this English thing though. He can’t yet speak it but he knows EXACTLY what we’re saying and how it might impact him. Simple directions are easily followed - when it suits him of course. One morning he spilled a little milk on the floor and Russ told him it was time to wipe it up. Devon of his own accord went into the bathroom, found a washcloth and proceeded to wipe up the milk. Wow.

In true Devon fashion, we’ve already had our first tornado warning of the year. Luckily we weren’t camping this time. I’m amazed at the level of trust kids this age still have. I scooped him up while he was sleeping (all 24 pounds of dead weight), carried him down two levels of stairs, sat upright for about 10 minutes, climbed the stairs again and he barely blinked his eyes open the entire time. One of the few times recently he has felt like my baby again.

Oh, and who knew how much fun your belly is? I sure didn’t. Where are your (fill in the blank) games can occupy a good 10 minutes at times. Russ wants to move on to things like uvula already but I’m advocating for mastering knees and elbows first.

Simple games are sticking in his brain now too. He ‘dances’ to his boombox (aka, the barn shaped thing that sticks on the fridge). And he kind of dances like my dad. Back to that memory of his – it is very clear he remembers the silly little songs that we sing in our baby and me class. While he doesn’t get the words to the song right, he will randomly spout off the melody with his own sounds.

We took two trips to Grafton to see my family recently. One for Easter weekend and we got to spend time with Grammy Jan as well. I was amazed at how quickly he took to the idea of an Easter Egg hunt. After he found the first one, he was all about finding those eggs and keeping them in the basket. The other trip was less happy. We lost my Grandpa Terlizzi at the end of March so we traveled down for his funeral. I am so thankful that Devon got to meet him a handful of times and that he was a part of Devon’s blessing last summer. It’s pretty special to be able to say that when you were born you had four great grandparents to celebrate with. We miss you, Grandpa.

In other news, there have been some major changes for Russ and I with regards to our work. In February I started working for Lutheran Social Services in the Senior Companion Program doing case management for seniors who are matched with a weekly volunteer. It’s still part time and is an excellent fit for our family and my interests. In April I also started up as Representative for Silpada Designs – think Tupperware parties with jewelry. It’s been a lot of fun so far and an excellent learning experience. Tell your friends! Visit my website! Just last week Russ started a new position with a marketing firm called Gage as a Technical Lead (still doing computer programming with more project management of sorts). So all three of us are trying to settle in to a new way of life again this spring, but these should all be positive changes.

For me the best new addition to our lives is that Devon has mastered giving hugs and kisses. There is nothing better than coming home after a difficult day and getting a wet kiss from a 16 month old. It really does put things in perspective.

Kisses to you!

Ann, Russ & Devon

Happy One Year!

The beginning of a new year often brings about inspirations of improving one’s self or making changes for the better. It’s been about three months since I updated this blog and no, my resolution for 2011 is not to update more frequently. It’s to spend more time on the floor playing with my baby who suddenly appears to be a toddler.

So far this winter has brought about a bevy of blessings and joys for us as we watch Devon grow and learn. Looking back over his first year I can now see just how difficult the first six months were. We were learning how on earth to care for this new life while still trying to care for ourselves and each other. Many people remark how fast the time goes when you have a little one. To that I say – it depends on the little one. Those first six months FELT like 6 months. While of course we did have fun exploring this new little person we were doing it by the seat of our pants and often times on fumes. When Devon started to sleep better in August and September only then did I start to understand how people could say the time flew by. And of course now with him spending a solid 12 hours a night in his room (mostly) quiet and waking up happy after 7am we both heartily say ‘wow, how fast the time is going.’

In light of that epiphany I have decided to make the most of this time in our lives and prioritize sitting on the floor, playing peek-a-boo and taking pictures with Devon that both he and his dad and I love to look at. (Remember when you couldn’t see the picture you just took for perhaps several days?? Now he wants to see right away.) So instead of my intended letter a month to Devon, I hope to be able to simply remember the highlights of the last few months maybe four times a year. If you’d like more frequent updates on his adventures that is easy – just come visit us!

Here are the milestones we’ve come across in the last few months:

Clapping – especially while singing and having a diaper change to the tune of Row Row Row Your Boat. This is HI-larious.

Walking – January 16^th, 2011. A few tentative steps and then across the room no problem. Soon Auntie Becca will have him training for his first marathon. We have a video of this on our facebook pages (takes too long on Blogger)

Devonisms – sticking himself through the open window in the french doors,

putting everything behind his head to see what it does (while still holding on to it),

handing his parents scraps of paper or fuzzies from the carpet, opening and closing cupboards with only mild interest as to what is inside, peeking around corners and laughing when he finds someone else there.

Eating – doing almost only finger foods or using a spoon or gooey things by himself is the only way to go these days. He also loves to stick pasta on his fingers. Wish we had a dog right now.

Play – he is a master stacker, sorter, builder and destroyer.

Imitation – he loves to eat what we’re eating and make the faces we’re making.

Holidays – we got to spend a quiet Thanksgiving at home with Grammy Jan and a louder Christmas with Nana and Pops in Grafton. He really enjoyed seeing people and making new friends. Oh, and ripping paper off of gifts.

We also had a very white Christmas and he appears to like the snow!

Birthday – One Year Old. And like any one year old he had a party, smashed some cake and promptly got an ear and sinus infection.

We love you to bits buddy and are so happy to have you in our lives. Now back to the floor!

Ten Months

Dear Devon –

You have officially been 'out' as long as you were 'in'! I’m terribly glad that you weren’t this active while you were ‘in’ as I would never have gotten any sleep.

Since your last letter you have really become a ‘little boy’. You move easily and quickly where you want to go and pulling yourself up is not a problem at all. Just this week you started to stand without holding on for a moment or two. We are sure running is next. I see you start to imitate people now – we flop down on a pillow and you follow suit for example. Only once did you forget to find the pillow first and went for the hardwood floor. Just once.

You’ve started eating finger foods almost exclusively. Sometimes it takes several tries for you to eat a new food but generally you do. Meat was NOT something you were interested at first.

The texture must have been weird because the taste was just fine – rosemary spiced turkey and I did in fact eat the rest of it, thank you very much. Since we’re on to finger foods at this point each meal is a bit of an experience in face masks. We’ve given you a few extra baths as you often rub everything all over your head and then it dries there. We’re thinking we should start selling some of this as expensive face masques (thanks, Anna) as your skin is radiant.

Looking back at the last two months, you have had some great adventures and some pretty big milestones. We continue to have great visitors who like to see how you change. Up until about two weeks ago you had zero stranger anxiety but now you have started to be a bit leery of new people. Not with your dad though. Whoa. Watch out world. If there is anything standing in the way between you and your dad I’m pretty sure you would destroy it in an effort to get to him. When he gets home for work it doesn’t matter if you’ve been crying the last half hour, suddenly the sun is shining and it’s a good day again. I wish he’d get home earlier some days!

You experienced your first chicken coop tour (doesn’t every kid?), your first romp in the leaves, first airplane trip and first double ear infection. Everything but the last one was fun. We discovered that you are allergic to amoxicillin at the moment so you only get the good stuff now. Hopefully we’ll be done with ear infections for awhile – you did not enjoy the experience.

The first airplane trip was one week after your ear infection so we were a bit nervous about everyone on the plane wanting to lock us in the bathroom if you decided you hated everything. Luckily you only cried on the up and down and did fairly well eating Skymall and bouncing about on our laps the rest of the time. This being our first real ‘family vacation’ we weren’t quite sure what to do to make things easy for everyone but I think overall it was a success. We used a sheet that smelled like home on your beds, made it dark wherever you were sleeping (hotel room, back bedroom at the wedding, closet at the Elwells), and ate at our usual times. It was fun to see our friends meet you for the first time and see you explore new situations. Like a canoe full of drinks.

You and your long distance buddy Alton had a great week. He had all SORTS of new toys to explore including a box you zoomed around the house with. You guys both LOVED the aquarium. Your dad and I have never seen you so entranced by anything.

We all had a blast with the Elwells and wish that they lived closer so Alton could be a good influence on you. Or is it the other way around?

You are going to start spending a few hours a week with a fun new friend named Kelly. She is going to give mama a few hours of a break to do mama things and be a bit refreshed for more playing time. We’ll start that next week and I think the first order of business might be a nap for me. Followed by doing the grocery shopping WITHOUT YOUR CURIOUS HANDS.

We struggled the last few months finding some structure to our days so it wasn’t just you and I at home all day with the same toys. Going out for walks helped but now that it’s getting cold out I was getting nervous that we (I) would go crazy. Many classes and playdates happen during your nap time. It is very hard to find something consistent, close by and interesting at any time other than 10am. I think we’ve cobbled together a good mix of things now. You and Mr. Nick hang out for a bit on Wednesdays, you and I go to swimming lessons on Thursdays and Fridays is our new neighborhood playdate with 4 other buddies. Plus your mama pushed and pushed (nicely) for a safer system at the YWCA for babysitting so now we can use that - you play with what I’m sure are germ filled toys, and I go work out.

Fall has provided some great opportunities for new experiences and pictures. We went hiking at a state park with you in the backpack looking at the colors; we flopped you down in a pile of leaves that you tried to move to a different location;

and of course dressed you up in a silly costume

and paraded you around the neighborhood in search of candy your dad and I can eat. Not that you couldn’t handle some of it with your FOUR BRAND NEW TOP TEETH. Yeah, those all showed up on Sunday. Nice that we got four out of the way at once, but hard that it makes you hurt and your nose run like Niagara Falls.

This month we plan continue to watch you grow and amaze us, teach you all about being thankful and of course - how to make gallons of Chex Mix.

Love,

Mama

8 Month Letter

Dear Devon -

Happy 8th month of life, my peanut! It’s like a switch got flipped this month. You are much more interactive, have a consistent schedule, are sleeping really well and generally make being your mama easy and a lot of fun.The big change in our house this month is that you went from Squid-o to Crawl-o. Yup, you are a rocket man. You started crawling at 8am on Wednesday, August 11th. It was kind of amazing because up until that point you were very much NOT able to do it and suddenly it clicked and off you went. Especially when we put things like pens and cell phones and glass objects just out of reach. You got to them no problem.



You know what is more fun than crawling though? Pulling up to look around. You haven’t quite figured out how to get to your feet but you are quite adept at navigating with your knees. It’s a load of fun to walk around the house with Dad supporting you under your arms as well. I’m not sure if we’re doing a good thing by teaching you this skill or will regret it when you are walking solo by 8 ½ months.In light of this new found mobility (and unsteadiness) we have temporarily moved the sharp coffee table to the condo to give you more room in the living room. And of course moved a lot of breakable, sharp or electric things 3 feet up off the floor. And whatever we’ve missed you’ll let us know, I’m sure.One of your current pastimes is to find a shelf of things and pull everything out. Of course all babies love to do this, so you are right on track. Books make a good mess as does the Tupperware cabinet.

However the glass and ceramic bowl cabinet does not. So this weekend your dad will be spending a good deal of time in the basement finishing up those cabinet doors. Yes. He will.Last month we took you to have some ‘professional’ portraits done. Why? I had a coupon so we thought we’d give it a whirl. While I love the idea of having a nice family picture, we won’t be doing it at JCPenny’s again. I think we can do so much better either ourselves or with someone we know helping us out. It was tough to get you to smile in the really bright setting and the 18 year old chirping ‘ah-BOOBOOBOOBOO, SQUEEEEEKY’ in your face... And it’s not like you don’t like to smile. Case in point:

The highlight of this month was the weekend of the 22nd when we had your Blessing. Instead of a traditional baptism in one religion we have decided to raise you with influences from many faiths to be the moral, ethical and caring person we know you will be. You can then choose as you get older what path feels right to you. However we still felt it was important to have a ceremony where we could welcome you to the family and celebrate your arrival with them. Working from a number of ideas and our own hearts we came up with a lovely ceremony that Benjamin’s mom performed for us. It was exactly what we were hoping for. The day itself was fantastic, the company was wonderful and we truly felt blessed to have the opportunity to welcome you into our lives and our hearts in front of our families. Thank you to everyone who made this day so special and memorable for us.

This month was really a joy for us. The weather was hot but nice to be outside in, we got to hang out with our neighbors at the Corn Feed, we played a lot with our best buddies Jody and Benji,

had our first trip to a beach (EAT THE BEACH) with Erin and Nana, a visit to an art fair (OOOO GRASS) and had a bunch of your buddies over for brunch on the patio. We are so glad you love people and don’t mind visiting with a variety of folks. Keep it up.

Of course it’s not always bliss. And to illustrate we have a nice collection of embarrassing photos of when you are just generally mad. Such as this:

This next month we are looking forward to more visit by friends and family and getting ready for our first big vacation – Knoxville and Atlanta in early October. We’ll start telling you how awesome air travel is very soon in hopes you agree by October 8th.

We’ll be spending Labor Day weekend relaxing at home and probably going through your clothing and finding some newer, bigger items since you are growing like a weed.

Love,
Mama

Seventh Month Letter

Dear Devon -
We are so enjoying summer with you. Being outside is far and away one of your favorite ways to spend time. Swimming at the pool in the park, eating grass, rolling around, biking or just walking in the Chariot. If you are fussy and we head outside this will usually cure whatever ails you. Usually.

This month consisted of a LOT of biking for your dad and me in preparation for the annual 150 bike ride. To accommodate our new lifestyle however we split it up this year and each only did half – which was PLENTY for your mama. You spend an enjoyable afternoon teaching Auntie Becca the proper way to sit up.

Last weekend we all headed to Nana and Pops’ house and had a good, if exhausting, weekend. Do you have any idea how much stuff you require? All 15 pounds of you? You got to meet and hang out with some friends and family (new and old) this visit. Plus? I think it’s you - you had your fourth tornado warning two hours after we arrived. However, this time you were prepared:

You did a good job during the hectic weekend of travel, all things considered. I know it must have been so confusing to go from your normal house and routine to a different house and routine to a different one (all outside) and another one yet. You had one amazing melt down a day from being hot, overtired, over stimulated etc. A cool nap appeared to be the cure. Mama also took a cool nap. With a beer.
This month we had a number of visitors to play with. Russ’s friend Matt came up from Chicago and Grammy Jan also spent a long weekend with us. Plus all the friends at the bike ride last weekend. It’s odd that this weekend there are no visitors to play with!

And today the tooth that has been threatening for a week came through – right next to your current tooth. Soon you will no longer be my one tooth wonder. You’ll be my toothy wonder. Let’s hope you get a break for a bit before the next one comes in. My vote is that the rest just come in after we’re done nursing. I bet I won’t win that one though. Teeth are funny – they pop up and recede a bit each day. So while I saw #2 this afternoon it was totally invisible again by bedtime.

While you aren’t crawling yet, you are definitely mobile. We call you our little squid because currently you only move backwards. Oh, and in circles. Occasionally you’ll discover you can be on your hands and knees but mostly it’s still the tummy.

Just in the past week I’ve begun to think that you no longer have newborn ‘hair’. It’s fluffier and just a little bit less fine than it was when you were born – and there is more of it, no question. It’s more like ‘little boy hair’ now than infant hair. I love the three pieces that are about 4” long – those must be originals and the rest new stuff.

And the BEST part about this past month has been the last three nights – not a peep from 730p until 6 or 630a. Not. A. Peep. If we can do it again tonight we are declaring it a pattern. You must understand that you haven’t given your dad and me this gift since one night in early March. If you have to pick a milestone to go for next, go for this continued trend. Crawling is WAY over rated. No matter what the other kids at daycare say.

Next month we hope to continue to enjoy the summer weather, perhaps with a trip to the beach, more biking and later in the month we’re throwing a party. And it’s all about you! Hopefully a large portion of your family will be able to join us as we officially welcome you to the clan. Whether you like it or not, you’re stuck with us, Squid-o.

Love you,
Mama

Six Month Letter

Dear Devon –

Today you turned 6 months old. While this may not feel like a big deal to you, it’s a huge deal to me and your dad. We did it. We brought you into this world and you are thriving and happy and we are (mostly) getting back to a new normal. Now if you could only learn to sleep better at night we’d be well on our way to that white picket fence American Dream thing.

June was a very busy month for us. We started out with the installation of Barb’s gardens and jumped right into a bunch of other events. Miss Theresa and Mr. Jon got married and you did a wonderful job hanging out with Nana that day. I’m really glad you were with us all day so that I continued to be able to wear my dress and breathe at the same time.

This month also brought about your first camping trip. You are all over being outside – like white on rice as Pearl would say. As soon as you get outside you get quiet and just look and look and look. We didn’t jump in 100% with this camping trip – we don’t have a tent big enough for a pack n play - so we rented a little camper cabin at a state park. This worked out well – you had a quiet and dark place to sleep and we could stay outside by the fire. Or, this would have worked out well if we hadn't been forced to take you to the bar in Faribault both nights because of the tornado warnings. As you will quickly learn, I HATE severe weather, so put me in a woods with my baby and sirens going off and I don’t hesitate. I scooped you up, swaddled and all and buckled you into the carseat and made everyone get in the truck and leave. At least it made for a good story. And you got your first au natural bath:

You had a couple of ‘firsts’ in June and in general I have started to notice some new things about you. On the day Theresa and Jon got married you popped through your First Tooth. This would explain a lot of the unhappiness of the week before. Sorry we didn’t get it. Now we know. And let me tell you, that tooth is SHARP. No more gnawing on mom’s fingers for fun. And when you are done eating, you are DONE.

We took the plunge and stopped swaddling you a week ago. The first two nights were awful but now you are doing fine. A trick for when you have your own kids – have daycare be the first ones to not swaddle for naps. They have more experience and then you the parent don’t have to pull your hair out as baby learns about sleeping with ARMS. EVERYWHERE.

You are still waking us up about 3-4 times a night, but you are sleeping from 7pm until 5am (or so). I’m not sure if you are lonely, scared, confused or what. If we could get you to sleep or put yourself back to sleep without the extra wake ups I think your dad and I would cry for joy. Ok, at least I would. I would probably also get a billion things done the next day since I’d have to much energy.

Being six months old that means you are about to explore the wonderful world of food. There are a few signs the experts say to look for to indicate when a baby is ready for solid foods:
1. Sitting up (check)2. Fascination with adults eating (give me back that cracker)
3. Being able to pull away when full (you start gnawing and we're done)
4. Seeming hungry even after a full feeding (must take after mama)

Well, you were hitting these so we decided to jump into solids. First on the menu – avocado. I think you liked the taste but this whole texture and chewing idea is far out there. We’ve since started rice cereal and peas and it’s not going great. We may hold off a week and try again to see if you are more into this. I highly recommend you get on the bandwagon so we can get some bacon into your repertoire. However, that may mean less for Dad and I…hmmm…

It’s swimming season of course so we took you to the Y for your first adventure in the pool with Maggie and Nick. As expected the pool is a huge hit. Kicking and splashing and eating the toy duck that floated past…soon we’ll start learning ‘yuck.’

You are becoming a cute little social butterfly. No stranger anxiety here – yet. You are happy to meet new people and easily share a smile. One of your favorite things right now is clapping. If you are crying and I start clapping you are instantly distracted and even start to laugh. However when I stop you remember what the problem was. I gotta find me a clapper toy I can wind up…

Speaking of toys, as any 6 month old is wont to do, you put everything in your mouth to explore it. We have a healthy number of toys around the house for you and I think that you are starting to get bored with them – as if you have already figured out what they are all about and are in need of some new stimulation. Let’s not make this a habit for the future ok?

My favorite new experience however was last night. I put you in your car seat (not buckled in) and we went out in the front yard to hang while I did a little weeding. You proceeded to turn yourself over in your car seat and then back out of it onto the grass. When all was said and done you were a good 12 inches from the car seat. That’s when the grass started to look tasty so I had to step in. The best part however is your friend Benjamin did this SAME thing to his parents the other day but they weren’t in the room at the

time and had no idea how he did it. You’ll have to work on keeping your secrets better, little man. Here you and Benji are trading ideas:


Happy 6 month birthday, munchkin.

Love,
Mama

5 months in

5 months in and he hasn’t disowned us yet! In fact, he often smiles when he sees us which is terribly gratifying after a long day at work. So thinking backwards over the last few weeks:
This past weekend was the Garden Party for my Aunt Barb’s gravesite. I approached the church where she is buried and asked if I could redesign and implement new gardens where there were some as they were looking really quite sad. They agreed and after a few months of planning and waiting we put in 136 new plants to make the gardens into a lovely and peaceful place. Thanks to our crew we were in and out in an hour and a half!


So many new developments really over just the last week or so. I feel like he his a growth spurt not physically but developmentally. He is now actively reaching for things (toys, shirts, earrings, cell phones, wine), rolling over onto his tummy (and then getting stuck there), talking with some consonants at time (ba, ga), and taking a bath in the big kid tub now! On June 1st, just about exactly 5 months old he consistently started rolling over from his back to his tummy. He had done his tummy to his back a few times before this but seems to have forgotten how to do this now. He gets on his tummy and gets mad because he’d rather be on his back but can’t get there. LEAN kiddo, just LEAN.

We spent Memorial Day weekend in Chicago with Grammy Jan. Devon did fairly well in the car – as Russ says he did very well for a 5 month old stuck in a car for 8 hours. So he only screamed about 2 hours total. I thought my face would freeze in a permanent Peek A Boo face during the last hour when that was all that would keep him from screaming his lungs out. Luckily he enjoyed rolling around in Grammy's house. Colbie and Devon are the same size now...Colbie is less than thrilled.

But the weekend was a success including our first wading pool experience!

About two months after meeting Devon, my parents started talking about buying a house or a condo up here to have for when they visit. I’ve been here 12 years but Devon shows up and 2 months later…. So in late May they closed on a condo just 2 ½ blocks south of us. It’s pretty much perfect – 2 bedrooms, nice big living room, redone kitchen and bath and big closets (for some of my stuff…). Now Mom and I get to go furniture shopping! Devon REALLY likes all the carpet because he can be rolled over and over and over and over...

Mothers Day this year fell on Monday May 17th – I took the day off of work, dropped Devon at Daycare and played in the garden and got a massage. If I had more vacation time I would do that once a month!The other really big news is that we finally got our countertops! May 18th will be a good day in memory. They are perfect, exactly what we wanted! Next step are some cabinet doors and then a tile backsplash and the room will be, dare I say it, almost done! Devon really enjoys standing on the countertops at the moment.

The not so fantastic development as of late is a little cough and runny nose which perhaps are connected to some teething going on. Hard to tell – he doesn’t have a fever or trouble breathing so it’s not a sickness we can pinpoint. It does however appear to make it harder for him to sleep through the night. We’re currently on the wake up every 2 hours to so coughing and wanting a nuk routine. It’s getting very old. We’re also trying to determine how we transition him out of being swaddled to sleep (currently he will only fall asleep in his bed if he is swaddled up) and how we help him learn to fall asleep in his bed without the nuk. I was so grateful for the Infant Feeding program at the local hospital and really really wish they had an Infant Sleeping program as well to give us some direction.

Until next time, think long sleep thoughts for us!


Arboretum in Chicago

April? May? What month is it?

I knew the month of May would get away from me and so far it has. Let’s see if we can catch up on all of Devon’s recent adventures.He had his 4 month doctor visit last week and did very well. 14 pounds, 25 inches and 2 shots later we were out of there. Last time we had a nurse who was super slow with the poking so I asked for someone else and ended up with two nurses who gave both shots at once – thus minimizing the painful time. After a little nursing all was well and I promised him we wouldn’t do that again for at least 2 months…

Over the last three weeks Devon has started to consistently pull items (EVERY and ANYTHING) towards his mouth and start gumming it. Like Pearl's fingers:

Rags, toys, fingers, his shirt. Whatever he can get his strong little fingers on.

He LOVES to stand up and look at the world around him. If he is fussing, pull him up by the armpits and let him stand and he goes silent and bobbles about. Unless of course it is time to

SCREEEEEECH

That’s also his new favorite trick. Your ears start ringing after a few good ones. Tiny little vocal cords. There's a good video on facebook of this if you haven't seen it yet.

We’ve thrown all schedules to the wind this week trying to figure out what his sleep schedule needs to be at the moment. We moved bedtime (bath, book routine) up to 730 and then about 1030 we wake him up for a quiet bottle before back to bed until 6am. He‘s still consistently sleeping (with only 1 wake up) until 6. Now if we can just figure out the optimal daytime nap schedule we’ll be back on track. At least for a week.


The big news is that he finally got to meet his Auntie Anna. She flew in from NY for a long weekend and he loved watching her play her drum and exploring the St. Paul Art Crawl – Devon didn’t crawl however, he hung out on Russ’s front in the Bjorn. We wish Auntie Anna was closer but the world of Skype is wonderful in the interim.

Auntie Becca then came up this last weekend for a quick visit. Luckily she made it through the ridiculous traffic coming up to see us for more than an hour before having to head home. We laughed, giggled, took some walks and stayed warm inside. She made me a delightful mother’s day breakfast – which we ate after Devon passed whatever gas he had that was causing a LOT of pain. Mothers Day didn’t start off well for us but breakfast was delish!

A milestone of sorts was passed this past week as well. One year ago on April 29th we lost our dear Aunt Barb. It still doesn’t really seem like I’ll never see her again and she won’t get to meet Devon. We miss you lots. I’m putting together a garden plan for the space near her grave that we’ll be installing on June 4th. She wanted to be near the rose garden so we’re going to give her a rose garden. If anyone is interested in helping us dig stuff into the ground that day, just let me know. We only have 136 plants to get in that day :)

In the last few weeks I have gone back to work, started my gardens, planned a few upcoming events for people, starting bike training and joined the Board of a nonprofit that works on raingarden education and advocating. I’m nuts. Everything else is a big N-O. Nope, can’t help you I’m booked through July. If I make it that long.
The one thing I will add on my plate is removing all of the items in the drawers and on top of our cabinets in the kitchen because we are getting COUNTERS NEXT WEEK. That’s right – no more plywood topped cabinets for us! Real counters! It will be ALMOST like a real kitchen! Someday we’ll add doors to those cabinets but having a real sink and a dishwasher is going to be pure heaven. A lot less boiling water to sterilize things! Woohoo!

So in general Devon is doing really well and continues to be quite photogenic – especially while sleeping. I’m struggling a bit these days finding energy and the bright side of things but I hope once I can get outside a bit more consistently and we get this bedtime business figured out that I will start feeling better.

Hope everyone had a lovely Mothers Day and bring on the real summer weather!