im a bad, bad blogger :(

it's been almost 2 months since i last made a blog post and you have NO idea, the guilt i have been living with everyday because of it! i've literally felt bad every day that i haven't posted but just couldn't bring myself to do it! the thing is, is the computer is hooked up to our t.v. in the living room and its almost impossible to be on it while devin is awake because all he wants to do is pull on the keyboard and be a distraction in general. i just got out of the habit of blogging. i check things like facebook and babycenter on my phone and thats about it. i also haven't taken nearly as many pictures of devin this last month and a half as i usually do because he never sits still anymore. im always chasing him around! as soon as i pull out the camera he springs up and tries to take it from me. he is so much work right now but so much FUN at the same time!

he crawls so fast, pulls up on everything and cruises around. he climbs, pushes toys and walks behind them, he chases the cat and stuffs everything into his mouth. i find myself extracting bad things from his mouth several times a day and trust me there is NOTHING visible on the floor that he can get to. i sweep so many times a day but he still manages to find paper, tape, a staple once, old goldfish crackers, and so much more. he climbs on stuff and bumps his head alot. he LOVES sneaking into rooms that usually have closed doors and terrorizes the cat all day long. he is a HANDFUL to put it lightly.

our days start out around 9-9:30am. he's been sleeping great because we ended up "sleep training" him about a month ago. we had to do this because he was waking up about 4 times a night and we were all exhausted and insane! it took 3 nights of crying and guilt on my part but he now knows how to soothe himself to sleep. that makes bedtime much smoother and middle of the night wake ups are no longer a struggle because when he does wake up, hes not crying out for me to come rock him like i used to. he just goes back to sleep :) its nice. hes down to one 1.5 hour nap a day which he takes at 11 am. somehow he manages to stay awake and not show any signs of being overtired for the rest of the day. bedtime is 8pm and he sleeps 12 or 13 hours through the night. of course we still have an occasional off night where he gets up for unknown reasons and all he wants to do is play for 2 hours at 3am, but those are thankfully, few and far between.

he loves playing with his toys at home and no that hes older, its so fun to watch him doing different things and to see him learn how certain things work. he goes from toy to toy, activity to activity and quietly babbles and squeals to himself. he has a "book nook" that he loves! we filled the bottom 2 shelves of our big bookcase with all of his board books and he will just sit there pulling books down and looking through them like hes at his own little library. he spends up to a half hour there some days. of course i play with him alot too, but he really is great at using his imagination and playing alone which is pretty nice. in the afternoons i get him out of the house to one place or another. usually gymboree, the library, toys r us or some other store, grocery shopping, thrift shopping or just for a walk around the mall and a visit to the awesome baby play area there since it so hot!

hes eating great these days. i still give him 5 bottles a day (about 5 ounces each time and an 8 oz bedtime bottle.) he eats breakfast lunch dinner and a snack throughout the day too. he has decided hes not a highchair baby and eats all his meals in his walker. hes eating dairy now, cheese, eggs and yogurt. he also eats meat! chicken, beef, turkey, really whatever we have. he loves goldfish crackers, cheerios, cereal bars, yo baby yogurt, cottage cheese. he eats pretty much anything we give him! i plan to continue giving him bottles until hes past the one year adjusted mark (end of sept.). at that point i will probably end up giving him just a morning and bedtime bottle. we're working on the sippy cup right now. i mainly just give him water or juice in it. he still only sips out of it and likes to chew on the spout so hopefully he actually DRINKS from it soon so we can start him on organic cows milk in a few months.

sorry, this post is so long and all over the place, i figured id just do a huuuugggeeee catch up post with lots of pictures. i hope to post more often from now on, i know ive said it before but i really do love having this blog and i dont like the feeling i get when i dont update as often as i like. this whole almost toddler stage has really been kicking my ass lately! so here are a TON of pictures taken over the last month and a half...

first time on a ride on at toys r us! (look at the loving look hes giving bob the builder ;)

he got himself under there!

almost too big for this chair!

simply adorable...

trying to taste the rain :)

this is where he likes to eat. he eats on the go!

peeking out of his awesome cardboard house!

trying to poke daddy in the eye... or ear, which ever his finger fits better in!

pool time in the front yard!

big boy...

we went to the georgia aquarium today! it was very crowded and not too fun because of it. there were just too many people! it was annoying and devin didnt really care about anything because he was too distracted by the crowd. we saw some cool stuff but had to wait and shove past people to get a look at anything. not very enjoyable at all :( we'll try again when devin is a little older.

this is devin's favorite new expression. he makes it many times a day. i dont know why, but its very cute. hes never angry or upset or anything when he makes this face, i think hes giving a little attitude when he does it. who knows? scrunchy little munchkin!

devin and uncle luke! his middle name is luke after him- he LOVES him so much :)

i found this fisher price laugh and learn house at a thrift store the other day for $4.50. devin is OBSESSED! its the first thing he goes to in the morning and the last thing he plays with at night. he loves it! he played with it for 1 hour and 10 minutes straight without any breaks the other morning! what baby does that?! this could quite possibly be his all time favorite toy. the novelty hasnt worn off yet and its been around for a week or so. he loves every noise it makes, all the little things it does and im pretty sure he would cuddle with it if it could go in his crib ;) thats it for now, im sure i forgot to add a whole lot of tidbits but i really did try to catch up here! i hope to be back soon!