23 weeks: Beautiful Bow

22 weeks, 4 days: It's all in your perspective

Subject: Holding hands
From: lacy
Date: Tue, 27 Sep 2011
To: wendy; emily; branurenner

With her new friend, Baylor, at mom group. Better keep an eye on him, Brandon! 

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From: Brandon Renner
Sent: Tuesday, September 27, 2011 4:27 PM
Subject: RE: Holding hands

Devyn is actually attempting to judu throw Baylor across the room and take his pacifier. hehe

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From: Wendy Boggs
Sent: Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Subject: RE: RE: Holding hands


A girl who ALREADY knows what she wants!    wab

22 weeks, 1 day: First Food

 Devyn had her very first "solid" food on Saturday morning: a little rice cereal.  I put solid in quotation marks because we made it REALLY soupy—it was more milk than cereal.  But this is really more for practice than anything else.

She actually did really well!  She wants to try to take the spoon and put it in her mouth herself a lot (with mixed results: see above) but we just have two and keep swapping them out.  She's also still a little small for her high chair, but I'm sure she will grow into it.

This is my favorite photo!  Her very first taste of solid food.  We've been having it once a day ever since, and she's doing very well with it.  I'd say she eats about two tablespoons a day so far.  Today I'm making up a big batch of pear sauce (like applesauce, but with pears) and we will try adding a little of that starting on Saturday.

Also, at our weigh-in this week, she was up to 12 pounds, 13.6 ounces—so she has officially doubled her birth weight!  Big milestones for my little girl.

22 weeks: Not as bad as it looks

What?  You've never read a book while lying in a laundry basket?  I don't get it.

Five Months Old

Dear Devyn,

Happy birthday, my angel!  You are five months old today.  As I write this, you are lying on a blanket on the floor next to me, happily watching the dog and playing with your toes—both new, grown-up things you do! 

A word about Bella, since I've mentioned her: she seems really fond of you.  She's always watching you and giving you kisses, and it's really fun that you've started to notice her.   I can't wait until you two can really start to play together.

Lately you have been really hungry and you’ve needed more food than I have to give, so we’ve been giving you one or two bottles a day to supplement, and you’re growing so well!  You weighed 12 pounds, 9 ounces this week, which is nearly double what you weighed when you were born!  So your dad and I have decided that we’re going to start you on some rice cereal this week.  And you’ve slept all the way through the night twice this week, without us doing anything different, so while I realize it’s not totally likely, I’m really hopeful that maybe you are teaching yourself to do it without us having to do any sleep training with you.

Speaking of sleep training, I gave up trying to cry it out with you at nap time after two tries.  I decided that I wasn’t ready.  Thankfully, you’re napping much better lately; while you’re still taking short naps, at least you are going to sleep more readily without waking up every time I put you down.  I thank you for that!

I am constantly impressed by the little person you’re becoming.  You enjoy playing by yourself almost as much as you enjoy playing with one of us, and you really need your “alone time” to have a good day.  People think you’re serious, because you don’t smile easily when they wave toys at you or make funny noises; I think you’re just contemplative and aren’t fooled by that kind of nonsense, because you smile easily a lot of the time.  You still love it when we sing songs and play games together, and you are learning to explore your world.  You reach out and try to touch everything you can. Anything I’m holding, you want to hold, too.  We went outside yesterday to pick tomatoes in the garden, and for the first time, you were interested in pulling the grass and grabbing the leaves of the trees when we walked around. I picked some herbs for you to smell and watched your little expression change as you marveled at your own senses.  And as I mentioned, you’ve finally noticed that the dog and the cat move around of their own volition and you want to reach out and touch them, too.

You seem to be just seconds away from crawling every time we put you on your tummy.  You still haven’t mastered rolling over from back to front, but I’m not concerned.  You can scoot and rotate yourself on your back or your front—so much so that I’m never sure what position I’ll find you in if I turn my back for even a second.  It won’t be long and I’ll be in SO much trouble, because you’ll be mobile and on the go.  We've also decided that we had better start weaning you off your "burrito" bundle, since you will be rolling over soon.

Last weekend, I went away for two days and an overnight to attend a writing conference, so you and Daddy were on your own—and you guys did great!  He told me you were a little fussy falling asleep, but I bet you did that just to make me feel better that maybe you missed me.  You are such an independent little lady, and I couldn't be more proud of you.

 In the wider world right now, the Palestinians are going to ask the UN to officially recognize them as a country in order to bypass the peace talks with Israel and "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" officially ended, allowing gay people to serve openly in the military.

I can't even find the words to tell you how much I love you.  I love spending each and every day with you.  I love watching you grow and change.  I can't believe it's already been five months that we've been together; time is flying by so fast, and I want to be sure to remember every single thing.

I love you and love you, Miss Baby.

~Mommy

21 weeks: Watermelon

Untitled, a photo by LacyLu42 on Flickr.

Believe it or not, that is a watermelon Devyn is holding. That's the only one we got this year, and it's about the size of a softball!

20 weeks and 6 days: Butterfly Pavilion

Untitled, a photo by LacyLu42 on Flickr.

We went to the Butterfly Pavilion with our stroller club this morning. I think Dev was interested in the movement, at least! In a few months, that place will be MUCH more interesting.

Playing with Lamb Chop

Playing with Lamb Chop a video by LacyLu42 on Flickr.

This little lamb was a gift from Devyn's great-grandmother—and it's a big hit!

September 11

Dear Devyn,

Today is the tenth anniversary of the attacks on September 11, 2001. I was 20 years old and a junior in college. My boyfriend back home at the time worked the night shift, so each morning he would call me as he was getting ready to go to bed and I was getting up for the day. I was sitting in bed chatting with him when his mother came over to his house and told him to turn on the TV and I turned on mine. We watched the tower two burning from where the first airplane had struck it and then, to our horror, we watched in real time as the next plane flew into tower one.

I was living in Santa Fe, many hundreds of miles away from the attacks, and yet everyone was scared. The Los Alamos National Lab, where your dad worked at the time, showed live news coverage of the event. After the second tower was hit, the news said there was a third plane, and that no one knew what the target was. The bosses at his work told people they could go home if they wanted to because people were afraid the lab might be a target.

Classes were canceled for school that day. We had the only all-school assembly of my entire college career. I remember the president of the college telling us that they were setting up a special phone bank for students from New York to call home.

I'm getting a little teary-eyed just typing this. I know it's going to be hard to explain to you when you get older how scary and horrible that day was, and by the time you're really old enough to start to understand, we may be remembering the 20th anniversary, so that's why I wanted to write my thoughts down today.

I think the worst part was not knowing whether or not it was over. The people on the news really didn't have any information beyond what we were seeing, live, through the cameras. There was a third plane, which crashed into the Pentagon, and then a fourth brought down by the passengers who didn't want their plane to be a weapon. We were all just so stunned, so shocked, and so suddenly afraid of what was lurking outside our country that we'd never considered before.

It's been a challenging decade for our country in the years that followed. Our entire perception of the rest of the world has shifted. While your dad and I were not directly affected, it has changed how everyone in this country thinks and acts.

It's easy to say that THEY are evil, that THEY are out to get us, that THEY are all bad and that we are all good. But I think the one main thing I personally took away from this terrible tragedy is something I hope you will learn early in your life: while there may be small amounts of terrible evil in this world, there is always also outstanding good.

There was no nation responsible for the attack on September 11. There was, nominally, an organization which claimed responsibility, but really, it was the evil act of just a few men. In response, some of the things our country did were (quite a bit) less than perfect.

But above it all, there were individuals doing amazing good things. There were the firefighters and police officers who ran into the disaster area to help, when everyone else was running out. There were the passengers who would not allow their plane to be a fourth weapon. There were the thousands of volunteers and workers who tried to rebuild New York. And there are the thousands more who have decided to mark each September 11th by volunteering in their own communities.

When you learn about this event of our history, when you read this as you get older, I don't want you to be afraid of what happened or afraid that it could happen again. We can't live our lives in fear of what might be. All we can do is do what we can to learn from it, and to work toward preventing it, and the biggest thing you and I can do to prevent anything like this from happening again is to learn to practice tolerance. Tolerance is the antidote to fear. Tolerance allows us to seek to understand people who are different from us. We don't have to agree with them; we don't even have to like them. But we do have to grant that they have as much human right as we do to think, act, and believe as they want.

If there is one lesson I hope to teach you as you grow up, my darling, it is that. Be as tolerant as you can and seek to understand those who are different from you. Those skills alone will make you one of the people doing outstanding good.

All my love,
~Mom

"There is no need for temples, no need for complicated philosophies. My brain and my heart are my temples; my philosophy is kindness. If you have a particular faith or religion, that is good. But you can survive without it. Whether one believes in a religion or not, and whether one believes in rebirth or not, there isn't anyone who doesn't appreciate kindness and compassion. Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible." ~Dalai Lama

Housekeeping: Backdated posts

I've done some backdated updating again! Scroll down for posts about our "sip and see" for Devyn and Grandma and Grandpa Renner's visit over Labor Day.

20 weeks: Devyn's Day in Pictures

In honor of Devyn's impending 5-month birthday, I thought I would document just a normal day we spend in photos. And here it is.

After breakfast, we start with a little play mat time.

And quickly end up slightly off the play mat.  Generally, she plays on her mat or sits in her buzzy chair while I eat breakfast.

Then we went for a walk. It was a little cool, so she got to wear her super cute hat.

This is a mom's eye view.

We took a new path and I found grapes to pick!  So delicious.  I'm going to make grape jelly.

Where the sidewalk ended.  You can see Standley Lake and the mountains in the distance.

But Devyn missed the view in favor of dreamland.

Changing pants (and clothes).  She loves the mobile Grandma bought her at IKEA.

Then she had some tummy time while I changed clothes.

More play mat time while I unloaded the dishwasher.

This is her new favorite form of communication.

Then it's burrito time!  Time for another nap.

More play mat time!  We do this a lot.  This time, she practiced rolling over.

No more photos, please!

After Daddy gets home and we have some dinner, it's bath time!

Then we put on our PJs and eat—I mean, READ—stories.

And that's pretty much what our days look like right now!  Very exciting stuff!

20 weeks: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

Little One and I have been having a challenging couple of weeks. Her naps have gone all wonky, in that she doesn't want to take them any more. She still sleeps really well at night, but every nap time is a fight; she'll fall asleep in my arms, but the second I set her down, she wakes again. And, if by some miracle she stays asleep when I set her down (or if she falls asleep in the stroller or the car) she only sleeps for 20–30 minutes.

I felt like I had tried everything, up to and including letting her "cry it out" for a couple of naps. That, by the way, is pure torture. I sat at the top of the stairs outside her room, sobbing while she fussed, and she really only cried for about 20 minutes (though she never did fall asleep).

In any case, after long conversations with my mom and my sister yesterday (brought on by more crying on my part), I think I have a plan and then, of course, she napped really well yesterday, so it may all be moot.

Both the hard part and the amazing part of this, is that yesterday I realized how much she is figuring out what is going on. She had been great most of the day, except for her first nap, which had me in tears, but she started to get fussy just as we were sitting down to dinner. We moved her to her buzzy chair, she didn't like it; I held her and she wiggled like she was trying to get away from me; I put her on the play mat again, she cried. Finally, I said, "If you're going to fuss regardless, you can sit in your buzzy chair until we finish eating," and strapped her in.

At that point, she started to really, REALLY cry. Not just the fussy yelling she does when she's displeased, but real crying, with real tears. But I had made an ultimatum. So Brandon and I scarfed down our food as fast as humanly possible.

Brandon finished first and went to pick her up, but rather than stop crying, she looked at me very pointedly, with big fat tears running down her face. And that was when I realized she was probably hungry.

Oh my god, I felt terrible! Here she was, just trying to communicate with me, and I totally missed it and "punished" her for it. I can't beat myself up too much about it, because it was an honest mistake, but in that moment, it really hit me how much she understands, how much she knows, how much of a little person she already is.

The Baby Whisperer book I read before she was born talked about slowing down and really trying to read your baby's cues. I was reminded of it last night, reminded that I need to really listen and try to learn her language as much as she is trying to learn mine. I was so focused on outside things, on my food getting cold, on other things, that I completely missed what she was trying to tell me—loud and clear.

19 weeks, 3 days: S'mores!

Grandma and Grandpa Renner came to visit us for Labor Day weekend, partly to celebrate Brandon's birthday, and partly to give us the opportunity to go out to dinner by ourselves to celebrate our sixth wedding anniversary (!).

On Monday night, we decided to cook out for probably the last time this summer. We made a steak, a bunch of grilled veggies and corn on the cob, grilled potatoes and, since we had the fire going, s'mores!







Devyn doesn't really get what all the fuss is about.