FOUR teeth, Easter, and more!

Whew, it's been a busy month for us. Looking back we didn't really DO all that much, it just seems like time has flown by! Devin now has a total of FOUR teeth--two on the top and two on the bottom. He's more than eager to sharpen those little suckers on anyone naive enough to stick their fingers in his mouth, too! :) He loves to use them to gnaw on whole grain bagels, wheat crackers, bananas, and the cat's tail (just kidding, although if Devin could catch Hunter I'm sure he'd stick his tail right in his mouth!). If you look closely in this picture you can see his bottom two teeth poking right up! The top two are through but not sticking out enough to see in pictures very well yet.

He also has been completely Zantac-free for almost two weeks now, and we are so excited! It doesn't seem like that big of a deal to most people, but we are just so thankful that his little body is healed from the pain of the reflux and he can now eat without having to take medication! It's a hard thing to put your newborn on prescription meds, but when his throat is literally raw from the acid refluxing into it you do what you have to for his sake.

Easter was more exciting this year than it's ever been for us because we got to be the Easter Bunny for Devin! He loved pulling all of his goodies (toys and books, not candy!) out of his Easter basket and examining them closely. Although as you can tell from this picture he had a hard time deciding which toy was the best...he wanted to hold them all! By the way, those balls are rubbery and the pokey things on them aren't at all sharp...they are rounded on the ends and Devin just loves touching them. They kind of look like some kind of Medival torture device but they really aren't!

This is Devin's first experience with bubbles (yes, in the house...it was too cold to go outside!). Daddy picked out a bubble machine for him that makes 4000 bubbles a minute...Devin wasn't quite sure what to do but seemed to enjoy them!

This is Devin's new play mat for his new "big boy bedroom". The theme in his new room is construction (of course) and this play mat works well with the theme AND as a rug/play area.

Devin's not taking nearly as much formula now as he used to but the pediatrician said that's normal since he's eating more solids and getting older. He used to take 6 6-oz. bottles a day (36 ounces of formula total each day!) and now he's taking 5 4-oz. bottles (20 ounces of formula total each day). BUT he's eating breakfast (oatmeal and fruit), lunch (cereal and a veggie) and dinner (veggie, meat, and fruit) AND eating small snacks and taking water from a sippy cup throughout the day and during meals. He doesn't take much water, just mostly sips here and there to get used to using the cup. He really prefers to just play with it but we're encouraging him to DRINK from it instead! He also doesn't eat a whole lot for his snacks, but again, he's practicing eating finger foods which is quite a task! He tries to shove the ENTIRE cracker or 1/4 of a bagel or wagon wheel (a Gerber finger food) into his mouth at once, so we really have to watch him and control how much he puts in at once! You can see him below really studying the chunk of bagel and then going for it!













Bless his little heart, he tries so hard to crawl across the room and does an excellent job...going backwards. He cannot figure out for the life of him how to propel himself FORWARDS! He'll get up on all fours and rock back and forth and lay on his belly and scoot but ends up farther away from the object he wanted than he was to begin with! He still gets around pretty well, though, between rolling over and over and scooting and turning in circles (laying on his belly and turning 360 degrees around!) and we can't leave him alone in a room for even a few minutes just to make a bottle or answer the phone. The little booger will hurry up over to something he's not supposed to be playing with before we know it!


Devin really prefers standing and walking (holding someone's hands) over crawling, though. He will stand and hold onto the furniture for a loooong time, and he TRIES to cruise around but can't get his legs to cooperate! He'll move one leg and both arms but can't get the other leg to follow so pretty soon he's doing the splits and NOT happy about it!





I'm in my 3rd trimester now (28 weeks along) and feel like I'm getting huge! Devin tries to sit on my belly when he's standing in my lap...I told him he can NOT sit on his brother! It's funny because the boys are already fighting over lap space...when I'm cuddling with Devin he wallers all over me which squishes Levi. So Levi kicks and pushes back at Devin and Devin doesn't really notice but continues to wiggle and squirm around. Um, I don't think they've noticed (nor do they care) that I am stuck in the middle of their squabbles for lap space and I do NOT enjoy being kicked and shoved around from the inside AND outside! :) Oh, my, they are already fighting and one of them is STILL IN UTERO!!! Lord, help us! :)

We're really excited to go visit Devin's birthparents in Georgia tomorrow. It will be Devin's first trip on an airplane, but not his first hotel stay. Ugh, we lived in one for the first 2 weeks of his life and NEVER want to do THAT again! It was so worth it, though! :) Anyway, we're only staying a few days since we aren't sure how Devin will do with being away from home and from everything he knows (except for us, of course) but we're confident it will go well. We're taking lots of familiar objects like his favorite toys, his white noise machine that we turn on when he goes to sleep, even the sheet from his crib so it smells like home and his normal bed! He's usually a real people person, though, and doesn't know a stranger, so at least that part should go well. We're excited for him to see his Georgia family again! There are lots of people there waiting to see him, and for most of them it's been over 7 months since they've held him or seen him in person! We should have lots of pictures to share when we get back.

Oh, two more random pictures before I go...

Devin has his own keyboard to "type on" while Mommy or Daddy use the computer. We checked all of the keys really well to make sure he can't pull them off!