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!

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 -

Springtime baby

What a busy and relaxing week for us! Spring appears to really be coming as we were in the 60’s for a few days this week complete with sunshine. Devon got his first couple of outside walks in the stroller in as we explored what had changed in the neighborhood over the winter. As much as we love our stroller that the carseat clips into, it appears not to be the best choice for walking on the sidewalks in our neighborhood – very bumpy. So we hope to put him in the jogging stroller with its bigger wheels soon so he has a smoother ride. First however we have to dig it out of the garage…

We started off the week with a fantastic dinner with his godparents, Maggie and Nick. Devon was social for about 20 min and then needed to take a nap on a large floor pillow. We are so glad this kid can sleep anywhere.

As my maternity leave is winding down I’m trying to do as much visiting of friends as we can before our schedule gets a bit busier. This week Devon got to meet many new friends and made his first visit to the Guthrie. I had no idea I’d given birth to such a social butterfly.

Of course this week was St. Patrick’s Day and Devon insisted on celebrating:

The down side of the week was Wednesday’s doctor visit. Devon is very healthy and growing right on schedule but it was his first set of shots. We didn’t end up with a very good nurse (or MA, not sure) giving the shots so they took longer than I had hoped. It’s simply heartbreaking to watch his face go from calm, happy baby to a look of sheer terror. I wanted to cry right along with him. When she finally finished the 3 pokes and got the bandaids on, I fed him and that calmed him down pretty quickly. I think he felt kindy yucky after that so we took a nice long walk so he could sleep and a nice dose of Tylenol 

I hate to say it too loudly but remember last week when we told you all he slept through the night? (whisper) he is still doing it. Russ and I are amazed and thankful and nervous that it could end any day now. But 11pm till 7am makes for very happy parents.
You know what else makes for happy parents? KITCHEN CABINETS. The first two went in this weekend and two weekends from now the uppers are scheduled to go in!!!! I already put something on the shelf and in the drawer.

This week also marks my first real workout on a stationary bike. I’m back! Now all I need is a tuned up bike, some sun and a babysitter and I can hit the road.
This week we’re getting ready for our first road trip – to Grafton. Stay tuned for our adventures later next week.