46 weeks, 3 days: Helping

Yesterday, Devyn helped me plant some seeds for our garden.  

Then, this morning, she was helping me fold the laundry. 

I think maybe you can see a trend here about how Devyn is my big helper.  ;) She really enjoyed playing in the dirt!  And, I let her crawl around in the grass, too, which she thought was pretty exciting.


Plus, who doesn't like throwing socks around?  I know I do.

It's the little things...

Bella is playing with a soda bottle and Devyn is playing with the label that Bella carefully removed.

It's a good day to be a kid (or dog-kid) in this house.

41 weeks, 1 day: Fingerpainting

Today, I made some finger paint using cornstarch, water, and food coloring.  And, while I think she enjoyed herself, Devyn really didn't understand that it was more for playing than eating.

40 weeks and 4 days: Updates

I really stink at remembering to get the photos and videos off my iPod, so here is a BIG little update with stuff we've been doing.

We have pretty much finished baby proofing the house: outlet covers, a gate at the top and bottom of the stairs, and locks on just two cabinets with dangerous stuff.  Everything else is not dangerous, and therefore we're just going to tell her no.  She listens pretty well now, too.

 This was just a snap I took while we were playing in her room.

This one is hard to see, but I took it to show how she's sleeping on her face a lot now.  The back of her head is to the left, if that helps.  ;)

We borrowed one of the baby gates from my friend Jennifer, and when we went to pick it up, her whole adorable family wanted to play with Devyn.  They even got out an old exersaucer for her to play with!

This is just a sweet little video of Devyn and Bella playing.

This is a funny thing Dev's been doing with the dining room chairs.

And THIS is the piece de la resistance: walking by herself! (with her push toy)

34 weeks and 3 days: These are the moments

A few quick thoughts for a Monday morning:

• All I wanted this weekend was to pick up some Christmas pajamas for Devyn.  I did not realize this would require visiting THREE stores on the busiest shopping weekend of the season!  TJMaxx only had a handful of Christmas outfits, not pajamas.  Target was sold out of all but the really hideous ones in her size. (And believe me, I wasn't being super picky; there's a reason they were left over.) Finally we went to Kohl's and battled the crowds and found the LAST pair of red and white striped 6 month size pajamas with a reindeer on the bottom.  Next year, I'm going to buy her Christmas PJs as soon as they show up in stores—in July.
• I think my never ending craving for guacamole while I was pregnant has rubbed off on Devyn; I mashed up a quarter of an avocado for her for lunch the other day and she cried when it was gone until I mashed up another quarter.  It's her favorite food right now, and she routinely eats half an avocado at a sitting.
• We swapped out her toy box this weekend (we have two that we switch around when she seems to be getting bored with the toys in one) and this morning she found the little soft dolly that was in the box.  She had a spoon in one hand and the dolly in the other, and for a moment, it looked like she was trying to feed the dolly with the spoon!  But then she stuck the doll in her mouth.  ;)
• She has learned how to not only hold her sippy cup by herself, but tilt it up so that she actually gets water out.

33 weeks, 2 days: It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Last weekend we got our Christmast tree and put up the decorations, and Devyn was excited to help.

That evening, we had a bath, and when Daddy gives the baths, he pays special attention to giving her cradle cap a good scrubbing.  This is the result: 

I think that might be one for the high school yearbook...

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! 

----------------------

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

----------------------

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


A girl who ALREADY knows what she wants!    wab

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.

15 weeks, 5 days: Frustration

I moved Devyn's play gym downstairs this week so she would have more to play with while I work at the computer, but today she is EXTREMELY frustrated that, while she can grab the elephant with the rings and swing it around with ease, she cannot get that darned elephant to her mouth.

6 weeks 6 days: Pro

If "burrito busting" were a sport, my daughter would be a pro.

6 weeks, 3 days: Gold Stars

We deserve a few gold stars for the past couple of days:

• On Friday night, we started putting Devyn to bed for the night in her crib and it has made a WORLD of difference in the quality and quantity of sleep we're all getting. Before, we were getting maybe two to three hours of sleep between feeds; now we're getting four to five hours. Hallelujah!
  
• Like bad scientists, we introduced a second variable on Friday night: Brandon has started giving Devyn a bottle of formula at around 11pm each night. It means that I can get more sleep (I can go to bed around 9 after her 8pm feed and then sleep straight through to 2 or 3am when she wants to eat again) and it seems to be helping her sleep as well. Who knows, then, if it's the sleeping in her own room or the formula that's helping her get longer sleep, but I'm getting a happier baby, so it's win/win as far as I'm concerned.
  
• Devyn pooped this morning! This is only worthy of a gold star because this time she went FIVE DAYS without a poop. That's just crazy to me, even though everyone tells me it's perfectly normal. It may be normal, but I think it makes her cranky, which makes all of us cranky.
  
• She is taking at least one nap per day in her crib now, usually the first nap of the morning. That is a great step. We'll build from there.
  
• I got my six-week checkup on Friday and was told that all is well. I have healed beautifully.

We went for a long walk this morning to the grocery store to buy milk, and on the way home, we encountered a crazy man walking his golden retriever. He made some comment about it being hot, but a dry heat (for real) and I made the mistake of saying that I'd grown up in Dallas, so dry heat was the best kind to me. Then he launched into telling me that he grew up in Chicago, that he was in the army, that he'd gladly go back but he couldn't move to well now, that he loved his country, that he thought the president was doing a pretty good job, especially since Bin Laden was killed, but that if he'd been there, he wouldn't have shot him, but rather would have killed him with karate.

All without taking a breath.

I realized that he was headed in the exact direction I wanted to go to get home, but the thought of following him, or being subjected to this ramble for another three or four blocks was daunting, so I actually walked half a block in the wrong direction after I managed to extricate myself. I saw him turn and go into the park, so I thought I was safe, but he DOUBLED BACK and met me again as I was walking past the park! This time, he told me to be careful because all the drivers were crazy around here, that he'd learned to drive in Germany, that it cost him $1500 and six hours on the Autobahn, but now he was an excellent driver, not like these kids who text and talk on the phone, because of course he has a phone, but if it rings, he pulls over and puts on his flashers if he's going to answer it, and in Germany, if you get one DUI, they take away your license.

I've got to say, it's a little wacky the people you meet in the middle of the day when you aren't going to work. I'm almost afraid to walk at that time of day ever again, in case I have to meet him again!

4 Weeks and 3 Days: Happy Monday

How to tell it's a Monday when you're a stay-at-home mom:

• Baby seems uninterested in breakfast for the first time in... ever. Which is not good when you and your husband are on a schedule so that he can spell you before he goes to work so you can take a shower.
• Decide maybe baby is sleepy and take her upstairs for a diaper change.
• Which is when you realize that her blanket is covered in poo.
• Upon further investigation, you discover that she has pooped up her back, so her onesie is also completely soaked in yellow baby poo.
• Realize that there is no way to get said onesie off the baby without spreading the poop from here to kingdom come.
• Yell for husband to turn on the hot water and get out the sponge for an emergency baby bath.
• Baby now has poop ALL over her back, even in her hair. She is, thankfully, cooing happily at you from the changing table, which is now also covered in poop.
• And so are you.
• Rush baby to the bathroom swaddled in burp cloths for an emergency poop-ectomy requiring multiple wash cloths. Thank your lucky stars that husband hadn't left for work yet.
• Finally get all the poop off the baby, pick her up, start to wrap her in a towel—and realize she is urinating. All over you and the towel and the floor.
• Have a good laugh, because really? What else are you going to do?

Happy Monday.

28 Days Old

I didn't get a ton of advice, or even many comments from strangers when I was pregnant, but now that I have an adorable little baby in tow wherever I go, the comments are flowing like a flood.

Most are totally harmless: "She's adorable," "How old is she?" "She's so little!" — that sort of thing. But I've had two that were just weird.

First, two ladies stopped me at The Container Store a week or so ago to oooh and ahhh over the baby. One of them told me how glad she was to see that Devyn was wearing a hat (it was cold and rainy outside) and how some young mothers just take their babies out willy nilly without proper attire. But then she proceeded to lecture me how I absolutely should NOT take Devyn into the main part of the mall, because she could get sick being exposed to all those people and their germs (apparently she didn't count herself among the germy masses, because she got right in the baby's face). She actually said, "Did you know that?" Like she was bestowing some priceless wisdom on me.

(We went to the mall anyway. And, shockingly, it wasn't wall-to-wall germy crowds on a Wednesday afternoon at 2pm. Thank god.) :P

Then, yesterday, Dev and I went to the grocery store, and she did NOT fall asleep in the car as I had hoped, so by the time we got to the produce section, she was screaming from her car seat in the cart. I stopped in front of the lettuce to give her some attention and try to calm her down, and an older woman came up to us. At first she was just making small talk, "She's so precious," etc. Then she started talking to Devyn, saying things like, "It's OK darling," which is all fine. But then she looked at me and said, "Are you going to pick her up, or what?"

I answered that I thought I would just keep moving because she likes the motion, and walked away. What a weirdo! I got the impression that if I said I wasn't going to pick her up, that lady would have done it for me.

And we all know I can't be exposing my child to lots of strangers. *SHEESH*

22 days old

I just added a book of poetry by Edward Lear to my Amazon baby registry, and after you add something, it always prompts you with things you "might like to add to your registry."

For Devyn and me? It suggested Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" album and the exercise program P90X.

Do you think Amazon is trying to tell me something? ;)

Three Weeks Old

When you're me, it's a great idea to give your child a two-syllable name, because it works with tons of songs. Like,

We love you Devyn, oh yes we do
We love you Devyn, and we'll be true
When you're not near us, we're blue
Oh Devyn, we love you!
(sung to the tune of "We Love You Conrad" from Bye Bye Birdie)

And

Who's tripping down the streets of the city
Smilin' at everybody she sees?
Who's reachin' out to capture a moment?
Everyone knows it's Devyn
(sung to the tune of "Windy" by The Association)

Those and "Good Morning" from Singin' in the Rain make up a lot of our repertoire at the moment.