Catching Up

It has been so long since the last posting that many things have
happened. Devin is walking up a storm. He is practically running.
Daycare insists that the only reason he didn't walk sooner was because
he wanted to learn to run not walk. This was a fun milestone to see,
it was the first physical one that Devin wanted to do verses being
coaxed through physical therapy.  Now he is a monkey climbing on
everything.

We have also reached the mimic phase both verbal and physical. His
favorites are:
- talking on the phone and anything can be a phone
- 'puh'ing, this is where something round is in your mouth and it gets
spit out projectile like. Favorite 'puh'ing items are small balls,
blueberries (I think he actually calls them puhs), and grapes.  This
is not something that is encouraged but is pretty funny.
- throwing balls, well we are trying hard to limit this to balls
anyway. He'll walk around the living room saying ball until we find
him one. We are practicing catch but the catching  part is hard.

Devin still refuses to say ma or da to our faces but seems to say them
when the said person is not around. He gets very frustrated when we
don't know what he is saying. We are getting better at it. Realizing
that ma-na was monkey (for monkey paci) was a huge break through.
Although we are trying to hide monkey now that he is older.

Jeff and I have started the process of looking for houses to buy. It
will take a while to find the perfect house but we have till the end
of the year so no real hurry.  I want a park nearby and Jeff wants an
awesome kitchen. I believe we can obtain this perfection if we are
patient.

The forth of July was fun going over to friends for a BBQ. Devin got
to play with his friend Julia and at the end of the day even got a
kiss. The best part was the smile that he had all the way to the car.
We'll have to watch this one he is a super flirt.

See picassa for pictures!

First Birthdays, Ear Tubes and Crawling

It has been a lot time since the last post so I'll try to go over all that has happened.

Devin turned the big ONE on Feb 15th.  We had a party for him that weekend and had lots of fun.  We got him a carrot cake from a local cupcake place.  He wanted nothing to do with it.  I ended up eating most of it and Hal had a big part in helping me.  We thought it was one of the best carrot cakes ever.  Devin was missing out!

Dev thought it was great to have so many people that did nothing but pay attention to him.  He was in heaven.  He loved the cards.  The one below sang a song.  See the intense concentration.  To see more pictures of the party click here and here.

Since we have moved to Seattle and Devin has been in day care he has been sick.  It was lucky that he was mostly healthy for his party.  A couple of days before it I was ready to cancel.  Every time he would get a cold he would get an ear infection. Then it would take heavy duty antibiotics to clear up and sometime it would even take two rounds.  So the pediatrician referred to an Ear, Nose and Throat doctor.  The ENT took a fraction of a second look and then said that he needed tubes by the end of the week his ears were so bad.  Last Friday the tubes went in.  It was super fast - Jeff and I didn't even have time to get nervous.  Coming out of the anesthetic was pretty bad but a long nap later everything was good again.  The constant fussiness was just about gone and little fights (going into the high chair or car seat) were easy tasks again.  We are very glad that we had this done.

The scariest thing was now that Devin was feeling better from the tubes he decided that it was time to get the crawling show on the road.  He took a day to figure out the movement pattern and away he went.  You can't take yours eyes off of him for a second before he'll get into something he shouldn't.  We are way behind on baby proofing....

Happy 2011 - In Seattle

Yes - if you haven't heard Jeff, Devin, the pre-children and I and all of our stuff have been packed and moved to Bothell, WA.  We are now surrounded by really tall trees, wet air, fluffy tail bunnies (ie squirrels) and lots of green.  Jeff is working at T-Mobile and I start work in a couple of weeks at a company called Aerojet.  We are so excited to be back in the PNW and are working are way around to see everyone.  I'll get our address out to everyone hopefully soon...

Everyone was a trooper during the move.  Devin and I flew to the Tri-Cities and stayed with the Downey's while Jeff, Hal and the pre-children drove.  We we managed to fit Christmas with the Rueckert clan in there some how between the boxes and the clutter.  Devin loved the ribbon - best gift ever.  :)  See Christmas pictures here.

Devin is getting big his is just over 19 lbs and it is getting hard for me to toss him up in the air or bounce him (all of the time).  He is insistant that he feed himself and pretty much refuses any kind of pureed food.  Lunch meat is his new favorite food.  Well and the Cheeto like corn puffs.  Should have known - meat and Cheetos.  Hal - you should be very proud of Devin's food choices.

His new talents since the last posting are sitting up, sticking out his tongue, making clicking noises with his tongue, babbling (lots of goo, boo, da's and ba's), eating finger food, and splashing.  We are working on crawling (still need more arm strength), pushing ourselves up to sitting, and saying Ma Ma.  Maybe we'll have one of those down by the next post.

Mmmm Squash

Devin started his first solid foods about 3 weeks ago now.  His first taste was rice cereal mixed with breastmilk.  He sucked it down diving for the spoon and complained if we didn't get more to him fast enough.  The occupational therapist wanted us to let him play with his food to feel the textures and be more part of the feeding.  As you can see he had no problem complying with that direction.

Dad is much better at feeding Devin than I am.  It is the large lack of hand eye coordination that makes it difficult.  Jeff is good at aiming and getting a spoon full of food into an unpredictable weaving target.

So far he has mastered butternut squash, sweet potato, sweet potato/broccoli mix and carrots.  He doesn't really like the rice cereal (mix with water) and oatmeal.  I think it is because they have no flavor.  We have to mix them with something else for him to eat them.  In the middle of our food adventure Devin came down with a cold and an ear infection.  That slowed down the food eating for a handful of days but we back up and running full speed now.  He got the "pink stuff" (amoxicillin) that I remember from when I was little.  It still tastes the same (yummy) and Devin takes it pretty easily.  

We are going to physical therapy every other week.  Devin likes the the new therapist; which makes me happy.  We are working hard on getting his arms and abs strong.  They need some encouragement.  Lot of creative tummy time during the day.  He can almost sit up by himself.  He is his own worst enemy by making himself fall over.  Just a couple weeks and I'll think that he'll have it.  But we have exercises for that too.  :)

Downey Family Gathering

About a month ago (I know I'm behind) the Downey's descended on Boulder for a gathering to celebrate Mark and Kelly's wedding and for many to meet Julian and Devin for the first time.  Lot of fun was had by all.  The cousins got to meet each other for the first time.  Devin got "patted" a lot by Julian.  I think that they hit it off.  Before we know it they'll be running around together at gatherings getting into trouble.


Devin got to meet his Uncle Mark and Aunt Kelly in Seattle earlier and took to them again.  Loves laughing at Mark and flirting with Kelly.  He got to meet Uncle Chris and Aunt Mel for the first time.  But thought that Cousin Julian was more interesting most of the time.  I just think that he was trying to figure out how J does that crawling thing.  Both Uncles were hilarious they almost just had to look at Devin and he was in giggles.  Dad has the same effect - so I'm saying it is the Downey hand waving that is so funny.

Devin got to meet both Great Grandmas.

And be part of four generations of Downey men picture.  So many boys - aren't they cute!  There were tons of other relatives to meet and be passed around to.  Devin currently loves anyone that will hold him and try to make him laugh.  Especially the ladies he loves flirting with the ladies.

We spent some days up in Estes Park in a condo/cabin.  It was a lot of fun just hanging out with the family and the boys.  Lots of baby passing and Downeys cooking good food.  Jeff and I even got a night out while Grandma and Grandpa babysat Devin.  It was really nice to eat in a good restaurant without having to entertain a baby.

Lots of pictures are out on Picasa: Cindy, Chris, Amy 1 and Amy 2.  (I hope the links work for everyone...)

Here We Go Rockies!

Devin went to his first Rockies game a couple weeks back.  We were surprised and pleased that he actually lasted the entire game.  He slept through the first 4 innings or so and was away for the very exciting walk off home run.  This was the second Rockies game that I have been to when they have actually won.  While they were in the play offs a couple of years ago I was banned from going I was such bad luck.  The first game I went to where they won they were actually playing the Mariners so we wanted them to loose.  Go figure.  Devin's good luck apparently out weighted my bad luck cause we won!  We bought him a Rockies hat and he was completely decked out in Rockies gear.  Granted he wanted to only chew on the hat...

We also went to the zoo again and saw the cutest baby tigers and giraffes.  We hung out by the Seamag monkeys and Devin got an up close and personal look at them.  I think he was slightly confused.  But watching the monkeys were neat.  One had only a finger on a hand and it didn't slow him down one bit.

Devin's six month well check up went well.  He is in the 85% for weight and 85th for height (adjusted).  We also did a physical therapy appointment to start working on getting him caught up to his chronological age.  The biggest different when comparing him to a term baby is the lack of flexibility that Devin has.  Bringing his toes to his nose is a work out where most babies can tuck their feet behind their head with ease.  We are just continuing to do the stretches and strengthening exercises that they give us and every time we go they are really pleased with is progress.  In two weeks we see the occupational therapist and they will help determine when Devin can start to have solid foods.  First step is making sure that he can sit up with help but not slumping.  He is not there yet, but soon hopefully!  He is so interested when anyone is eating that I can't help but think that he'll gulp up what ever we give him.

The Downey clan was here this last week...  That is going to be a whole other post so stay tuned.

Seattle Vacation Success

We got back from Seattle a couple days ago and the visit was an overall success.  Devin was mellow as ever.  Slept or nursed the entire plane ride both there and back hardly making a peep.  We stayed with friends Brian and Bridget (thanks guys!) and their almost 4 month son Owen.  Devin and Owen hit it off from the start.  They even held hands.  Owen let Devin borrow his stuff and how did Devin repay him?  By spitting up on it.  

We got to see a lot of people while out in Seattle.  Thanks for everyone who came out to Lynnwood to see us and Devin.  We miss you all and hope to go back before Devin gets too big.  On Monday while everyone went to work Jeff and I took Devin to Golden Gardens for a view of the sound.  As you see Devin was so excited that he fell asleep.  For more pictures of the weekend click HERE.    

In other news Devin, just this past couple of days since we got back, has honed his hand coordination skills.  I walked into the nursery yesterday to see Devin holding his own bottle sitting on Jeff's lap.  He also has been putting in his own pacifier; but this only works sometimes.  

In pre-children news Logan accomplished a life long goal today.  We were eating dinner in the back yard when he got up and was very very interested in something in the grass.   He sniffed and sniffed and suddenly started to pounce.  A couple of pounces later a black rodant like critter was thrown up into the air - Logan had caught a bunny-like-creature.  (Jeff's theory is that all prey animals are bunnies to Logan.  For example birds are flying bunnies and voles are tiny bunnies.) We think it was a vole but we don't know for sure.   Congratulations to Logan and his first catch.  Of course this means that there are voles in the yard - ewwww.