My little basket baby... and kitty

Quinn loves to be in containers... especially baskets - as you can clearly see! She has recently started emptying baskets and then jumping inside of them. She is so funny - it's like this job she has - she is very concentrated, and then once she has gotten inside, then she is perfectly pleased with herself! It is pretty hilarious to watch. I think she got the idea from Meow Meow - as you can see, he also loves to be in baskets - especially that one. Quinn likes to pull him around, so one day, she did just that, then got another basket - put it next to Meow, and got in that one and was happy as could be. The last photo is of Quinn in a little baby doll cradle - My grandma made that for me when I was little, so I thought it would be a good idea to introduce it to Quinn. I showed her how to kiss the baby good night, put her in the crib, cover her up, and rock her. Quinn did that with me for a little while and liked it, but then when she had enough - it was time to toss everything out and get in herself! Again, perfectly happy with what she'd accomplished.

You have probably noticed that Quinn is in all green and in a green basket, as well as the all white. Well, since I didn't go back to work, we have some play time again (and I am loving every minute of it!) so I decided to make Quinn a color book featuring herself. I'm making it on Snapfish and every page will be Quinn dressed up in a different color - so we can learn the colors together. Those are just two of the colors - we also have red (that's why she's in that red dress too), blue, orange, pink and a few others. It is coming along quite nicely and it's fun to play dress up too.

So for now, there is my little basket baby - we'll see what else she comes up with soon!

A little cool-off time up north... now it's back to sunny (and swealtering) Phoenix!

A day at the Indiana Dunes National Park to end our vacation on a very good note!

Riding the Gorilla with Daddy

Here we are at the Lincoln Park Zoo again. This time it was very different. Quinn wanted our ice cream cones, she was waving at all the animals, and totally interacting this time. Well, she was only four months old last time :)

Here's Quinn just hanging out

I tried very hard to get a good photo of the kids altogether... this is the best I could get - haha! The cute little girl in the Back is Myles' cousin, Elle - such a doll!

Here is Quinn meeting sweet baby Ainsley

Now, down to Chicago from Madison - a great visit with Kendall, Ben, Myles, and new baby Ainsley.

Whoa! She was just fine :)

Back with Cousin Madeleine, such sweet cousins!

That same day, we finally got to meet Erin! Those two girls were really cute together. I just wish we had had more time.

Finally Quinn and J. Gordon got to meet! Jessica Flesch-Buye, my cousin and I have been trying to coordinate this for awhile. So, we met at Aunt Sally's house for a fun luncheon. Look at that big boy! He is six months younger than Quinn!

...And then our vacation took us to Madison! We drove four hours to Madison and the first thing we did was meet Melanie, Jeff, and Madeleine for a great concert on the square.

This awesome Eagle perched right on our waterfront a couple of days before we left Minocqua

Bridget, Tommy and the kids came to Minocqua for a little family vacation and came over for dinner one night. Too bad it was freezing those few days!

Our visit with Irene - so good to see her!

With Grandpa Robb (and his silly hat)

Loving the warm summer days on the lake!

Being silly with Mama's sunglasses

On Tony's birthday, riding around Lake Minocqua

Quinn at the beach

Lounging at the cabin in Minocqua with Daddy

Quinn's first Min-aqua Bats show (and their first show of the season)

Quinn's first boat ride

At the Thirsty Whale for lunch

Quinn's first visit to Red Pine Camp

Quinn, learning to walk in St. Germain - she had been taking little steps by herself right before she turned one, but this is where she really took off!

Our first night in St. Germain, right outside of Minocqua

I know - I posted way too many photos, but we were gone a long time! We had such a blast on our northwoods vacation and spending time with family and friends all over WI and Chicago! There were a lot of firsts for Quinn (and parents to think about it) on this trip and we will cherish it forever. Quinn learned to walk, went to Red Pine for the first time, went on her first boat ride (and many more after that), learned what a loon says (now how many kids can do loon calls?), saw her first Min-aqua Bats show, went to her first concert on the square in Madison, and I'm sure there were a bunch more, but I can't think of them now ;)

We are happy to be home, but we do miss the amazing views and carefree summer days of Minocqua - now it's back to work for Tony next week, and for me... well, looking for a job. We did have a fun unexpected family evening out tonight though, we saw The Wiggles - our nice neighbors from across the street gave us three tickets to see the show this afternoon because they couldn't go. So we went, and it was great! It took Quinn a little while to get used to it, but then she was having a blast dancing and waving to the big dog on stage. We took some fun pictures, but I'll post those later since there are a lot of new ones right now anyway. Hopefully we can get a few good swimming days in this week, if there aren't any more heat advisories - isn't above 100 just hot anyway? Well, you would think, but apparently when it is 113, like today, there is a heat advisory. It was quite a hot day today, but Tony and I keep saying, at least we were able to get out of it for six weeks up north!

Quinn is one - my big girl!

There's a happy girl with Grandma on her birthday!

Quinn on her first birthday!

Again, my serious little girl digging into her cake

My serious Quinn waiting for the pinata - she actually had a lot of fun, but you know how babies are... Quinn didn't really feel like cooperating for the camera. That's alright, we know :)

Quinn's birthday party with all of her little friends, getting ready for the pinata!

Official 12 month photo - taken 6/6/09 - such a serious girl this morning!

Children's Museum - the artist

Children's Museum - this thing was blowing air up at her, it was so funny to see her try and stop it.

Quinn and Mama at the Children's Museum

Here are the photos of Quinn that I was going to post before our trip... but of course I ran out of time and here they are now - a month and a half later - ha! I PROMISE I will post photos of our trip so soon - like today or tomorrow :)

Getting ready to be one!

The photos are best viewed from the bottom up if you want to see them chronologically.

"Oh Mama and Dada - look what I discovered today!" Tony was doing a little replanting this afternoon, and this was the outcome.

Quinn's first masterpiece - definitely fridge worthy!

A new game - she was cracking up!

Playing with the fun fridge magnets

See, she learned how to "pat pat" the kitty now!

She loves Meow Meow sooo much!

Now she's on the phone with outout any hands on the wheel - boy, I just can't wait until driver's ed - haha!

Uh oh - what has Quinn learned to do? She is driving and dailing!

Gettting ready for a bath!

Our visit to CA to see Bridget at City of Hope

Quinn being silly in the window.

Quinn's first Easter - she was so pleased she found an egg on the Easter egg hunt!

So cute - Official 10 month photo take 4/6/2009

Not the official 10 month photo - but can you see the development? Haha! Dangerous! Of course I forgot to take the most recent 11 mo. photo - I promise I won't miss the 12 mo. one!

Naked baby on the loose!

Something new discovered - I think Quinn was about 9 1/2 months at the time... now it is part of our every day clean up routine along with all the cupboards she has fund out how to empty - it's all about exploring, right?

Madeleine is showing Quinn how to do it - but Quinn didn't quite have the hang of it yet as you can see from the big head tug! (She's much better at it now, by the way, she has learned what "pat pat" is.

Meow just loved Madeleine - she was "pat pating" the kitty

After the game - a little more outside time with the girls.

At the Brewer's/Cub's spring training game - Quinn and Madeleine didn't really care where they were.

Such a fun visit from the three M's!

Quinn and her cousin Madeleine (13 mo. at the time) eating handfulls of cheese together - haha!

This was Quinn's official 9 month photo - the silly little outfit didn't fit anymore :(

Learning how to be gentle with Meow Meow - she looks like she's doing an alright job there, but meow had to escape soon after that shot.

Our first week of spring break touring Carefree, AZ

Quinn just after she turned 9 months - first time in her new swing! Look at how much she has grown since then.

Ah - finally! Summer vacation and time at last! I know - it's been over two months since the last time I updated the blog - way too long. We have been so busy with winding down our school year and keeping up with Quinn that the blog just slipped away from us for a little while. We are back in action now! Quinn will be one in a week and a half. I can't believe it! It is so crazy to look back over all the pictures of her over the last year and seen how much she's grown, how much she's learned, and what she can do now. She is really something. After the last post in March, she started to crawl like a champ and then really start cruising around holding on to furniture. She loves to march around with her baby stroller, pushing various toys around in the seat. She just won't let go of our fingers now when she walks though - she isn't using them for balance, but she just won't let go - until this morning, that is! Quinn took her first two steps towards daddy and was just thrilled about it (and so were we!). She wouldn't do it again after that, but maybe soon - we'll see. Everyone keeps telling us that it just isn't the same after they start walking - I guess we'll see!

Quinn is gaining quite the vocabulary these days - I feel like it's almost a new word a day. She also pretends to talk by going "balah balah, balah..." Especially when she's "talking" on her cell phone. So funny! Some words she says: "hi" "hi da" (that's hi daddy), "hi ma" (hi mama), "woof woof" (not really a word, but when she sees dogs and pretty much any other animal she makes that sound), "ma-ma" (that one is actually meow meow - our cat, but it sounds a lot like mama - so now I don't know who she wants, me or the cat!), "hot" (she's pretty good at that one), "aga" (for agua - when she's thirsty for water), "ata" (after repeating me when looking at her birthday pinata today), and finally "Doda" (she loves Dora the Explorer so much we decided to have a Dora birthday party for her. Quinn loves to dance and clap along to music and has recently discovered coloring with crayons. She scribbles with one color then chooses another and keeps doing it all over the paper. I was amazed that she knew what to do - I think she may have learned a few things from her buddies at the babysitters :)

I must be forgetting a million things that have happened in the last couple of months, but you can get a general recap through the photos on this posting. We can't wait to celebrate Quinn's birthday with her, and then it's off to the Midwest for a cool summer in the North Woods!