Quinn is over six months old and we've been sooo busy!

We have hardly had any time to do anything, so we haven't posted in such a long time. Today was our last day with students, tomorrow we have a teacher inservice day, and then, ahhh... vacation! We are flying to Chicago on Sunday. We're really excited to spend the holidays where there is some snow, but we hope we can make it there! Anyway, we don't have a lot of time right now - so just a quick update...

We took Quinn in for her six month appointment the other day and she is still a big girl for her age. Her growing has slowed down a tiny bit but she is still in the top 75th - 90th percentile for weight and height.

Quinn has been eating rice cereal for a few weeks now, we also have introduced oatmeal, avocado (Quinn said yuck to that one!), and we're on zucchini now. She is having fun exploring the different tastes and textures and she seems eager to try more! Such a good eater.

We can't wait to see everyone in the midwest for the holidays! Merry Christmas!

Rice Cereal - yum!

Checking out her first bite...

Not so sure she likes it...

Hmmm... we think she likes her bib better!


Let's try it without the distraction...

Still not so sure... but maybe...

Alright! Quinn got the hang of it and ate every last drop!


This morning before the sun was up

She was having too much fun, and no... the sun was still not up!

Here is a sweet picture of Quinn and Tony the other night reading her favorite bedtime story, Good Night Moon, Buenas Noches Luna - the bilingual version.

Quinn has been eating rice cereal for dinner every night this week. She loves it so much! We had planned on trying it with her two weeks ago, but she wasn't feeling so well, so we put it off another week. She still had a little bit of a cold left over, but Sunday morning, she was in good spirits, so we tried it. Quinn wasn't so sure how she felt about it at first, but once she had a second to think it over, we couldn't get it in her mouth fast enough! So, every day when we get home, we have rice cereal for dinner. So much fun for everyone!

Quinn woke up awfully early this morning, so we decided to play. Well, it was more like Quinn said it was time to play :) She was a pro at "standing" over her activity gym. It's so weird, it feels like just a minute ago that she was just able to lay there and we were so excited when she started noticing her toys and smiling at them. Now she can grab them, sit up and play with them, stand over the whole thing... wow! It really is amazing to see how she has grown in just a few short months. She will be six months old pretty soon! Wow, what a milestone!

Quinn Time!

Quinn in her room, playing... but she looks like she got caught ;)


Quinn at Ramon and Michele's house - like she's getting her portrait taken.
It was just the perfect little spot!

Quinn is officially five months old - 11/6/08

Quinn is five months old! I decided it was time to stop counting the weeks (because it's confusing after twenty-some) and thought that it was better to stick to the date - much easier to figure out :) She is getting to be a big girl now. I'm sure I'll keep saying that. But she is fitting into her nine month clothes, and busting out of her six month clothes already. It just amazes me every day. So, I can't believe she can actually still fit into that monthly outfit - it's a 0-3. I was thinking to myself, there's no way, as I was putting it on her. But, walla - it is the magic outfit and will fit her forever, apparently. I'll be taking her monthly photo in that chair when she's 1,000 months old and telling her to get into that outfit - haha!

Babysitter update: Quinn has been so happy at Nana's house and she is actually getting on a regular schedule. Her own mom couldn't do it, but leave it to Nana and it's done! We are going on the second week with Quinn there, and she's been doing great. She has friends to play with, she's learning Spanish, and finally getting into her own routine.

Now we're going to mess it up by keeping her home tomorrow for Veteran's day - no, she'll be alright. We are her parents after all! Tony and I are really excited to spend the day with her tomorrow. Tony is having his arm looked at tomorrow, so we'll have an update on that soon as well. And next week, I think we are going to try food with Quinn - she's been looking pretty ready for a while. Ah, I can't believe we're already there!

Happy Halloween!

Quinn, waiting patiently for the trick-or-treaters

Naughty Mom, letting Quinn dig in - hehehe!

Quinn and Tony (with the cast - ugh!)

Quinn and Bailey - neighbors!

What crown?

Ta-da!

Just putting the finishing touch on - the crown!

Quinn in the tub (eating her foot - haha!) earlier this week

Quinn was a ballerina princess for Halloween. She loved the tutu! It was so funny to see her touching it and trying to eat it. We actually had a pretty eventful day and we're surprised that we even were able to dress Quinn up at all. Tony had an accident on Wednesday and broke his arm. While at a school assembly, he won teacher of the month (yay!), and then decided to do some sort of chest bump with another teacher, Mr. Portman, who is about twice the size of Tony, and to make a funny short story even shorter, he fell backwards in front of the entire school and broke his arm. So, he ended up having surgery on Halloween day (ugh!). Luckily my mom and Peter were still here, so they were able to give Tony a ride to the surgery center. Then he was finished right when I got done with work, so I picked him up and we drove home. It was out patient surgery, but he was pretty out of it for a little while. He ended up recovering really well and we were able to do a little bit of trick-or-treating with Quinn and pass out some candy. We only went to the next door neighbor's house and then walked around with their twin boys, Tucker and Chase, and their baby girl, Bailey, who is only one week younger than Quinn! Quinn and Bailey were twin ballerina princesses, actually. They were pretty darn cute together.

It has been a pretty eventful two weeks back at school, to say the least. Grandma Susie left today, so Quinn will be starting with the babysitter on Monday. The kids call her Nana. We are not nearly as nervous as we would have been if I was just starting back to work and dropping Quinn off with the babysitter. We were so thankful to my mom for being here for this transitional period. But now, we think Quinn is ready to get on with the schedule and everything. Our friend and colleague, Karen, has her little boy, Stenson there. She has told us that she feels so safe and couldn't imagine anyone better. We have actually seen Stenson in action at Nana's and he loves it so much! That makes us feel great about Quinn being with her for the day.

We posted some Halloween photos and one of Quinn in the bathtub from last week. She was just having so much fun in the tub and didn't want to get out! I think we have a water baby on our hands!

What happens at Grandma's... stays at Grandma's

At Grandma's house after some fun swimming

Having fun sitting up and playing at home

This week was my first week back to work. It was the hardest thing I have ever had to do. There were a few tears, but I ended up being alright. I was just so glad that Grandma Susie could be with Quinn for the transition. They have been having a great time together. Grandma has been coming over so early in the morning so Tony and I can get to work on time.

Quinn's four month check-up was about a week ago, and she is quite a chunk! She is still in the 90th percentile, at 26 inches and 15 and 1/2 pounds. We also decided that she is teething already. The drool and constant biting on anything she can get her tiny mouth on was a big hint. The doctor said we could get the rice cereal out and start feeding her if we wanted to, but I think we'll try to wait a little longer, even though she is totally eyeing our food. Maybe we can't wait too much longer...

It's late on a Sunday night, and I have to get to bed and do it all again this week... so not much to post. There are also a lot less photos than normal, but I guess that's to be expected when I'm not at home all day to play dress up with Quinn anymore. So we are really in to quality family time now. I just really look forward to getting home to Quinn every afternoon and spending all weekend with her.

Finally, photos from the trip! Has it really been this long?

Quinn's all set to go to Chicago with her sweater on!

Quinn and Myles went on their first date to the zoo (of course chaperoned). Looks like Myles is more interested in the animals than Quinn ;)

We had to make a few pit stops on our road trip

We finally made it to La Crosse to visit the Hanchette's

Quinn and Dad waking up, and getting ready to head out - for another drive

Quinn got to meet her great-grandpa in Minneapolis

We took a trip to an apple orchard while we were visiting Grandpa. It will be more fun when Quinn can walk and actually do stuff. But we pretended for now. She was one of the apples - I don't know, it was silly.

Here is Quinn sitting all on her own at the orchard- for just a second! Don't worry, we were right there to catch her if she fell, but she didn't.

There were raspberry bushes at the orchard too, and Quinn wanted to eat them. No, not really. But this is one of my favorite photos. I can't believe I got it on the first try. It was getting a little chilly, so we put the hat on Quinn - it was way too big!

Driving back to Chicago, we stopped in Madison to see cousin Madeleine. She is four and a half months older than Quinn and she is so adorable. We were so excited for the girls to meet finally! We didn't think they would really pay much attention to each other, but they were so cute. They kept trying to touch each other. I just wish we had had more time for them to get to know each other better.

See, Quinn can't get enough of her!

Back in AZ, Meow Meow Kitty missed us so much that he jumped in the suitcase as soon as we opened it to unpack Quinn's things.

Here we are back in AZ, swimming!

Today, at the park. Quinn loved it so much!

We tried to take a family photo, but Quinn didn't feel like looking at the camera that was set up on her stroller.

Here, Quinn is 16 weeks old (officially four months). This was taken the day before we left for Chicago 8/26. Can you believe the outfit still fits? Lucky us, it has two sets of buttons on the straps to make them longer. I just like to look back and see her skinny legs, and laugh at how fat they are now!

Wow, sorry - it's been quite a while since our last entry. I was actually planning on posting Quinn's four month photo the day before we left for our Midwest trip, but obviously that didn't really work out. I did take it though, which was pretty impressive considering the amount of packing I was doing. It is really amazing how much stuff such a tiny baby needs. I thought packing for just Tony and me was a big deal - not so anymore!

Isn't it crazy how much she has grown from month to month? I am pretty sure she has even grown since our vacation. This week since we got back, we tried to put several outfits on her that fit before we left, and they do not fit anymore. Time to go shopping! But, Quinn got so many cute outfits from so many family members while we were there that she will definitely not be without. That was so sweet of everyone - thank you! What a great time we had on our trip. The fall colors were wonderful, even though it was just the beginning. Fall is definitely my favorite season, and it was great to be back for that. Tony and I celebrated our second anniversary while we were there. We got to go out to dinner while Grandma Susie babysat. Grandma loved that so much. We had a great time. We loved seeing everyone and having Quinn meet so many people close to us. There was a lot of driving, but Quinn did a great job through it all. I think she is actually a better traveler because of it now. The plane ride back was ok, Quinn cried for a bit in the middle of the flight, but was great for the rest of it. The whole time difference was interesting to watch in an infant. She definitely slept in a little longer on the trip, but was going to bed at the same time - it was weird. When we got back, I made sure we stayed outside a little longer so she didn't think it was time for bed at 5:00 in the evening. I think it worked - she is back on schedule. I don't know how her little body knows, but there is definitely something biological going on there.

Today was such a beautiful day in Phoenix - it was about 78 degrees. This is why we live here ;) There were a couple of hot days right when we got back, but then today was amazing. It was perfect actually, we were able to take Quinn swimming for the first time on Thursday, because it was only a high of 95 (not 105 for a change!), the sun was going down, so we were in the shade, but the pool temp and outside temp were just right. She loved it so much! She didn't want to get out. Since today was so nice, but a little chilly for us Phoenicians to go swimming, we had a picnic in the park instead. That was great too. It was kind of a windy day and every time the wind blew on Quinn's face, she took a deep breath in and then smiled. So cute.

Well, it's back to work for Tony on Monday, and then the following week for me. I can't believe how fast this time has gone. I am getting pretty nervous. I know I am going to be a nervous wreck that first week back, but everyone keeps telling me it gets easier. We'll see, I suppose. We have been so busy the last couple of weeks, that this next week is going to seem really quite. I am going to have to keep Quinn and myself busy so I don't think about it too much. We have a Dr's appointment next week - her four month check up (ugh more shots!). I am going to ask if we should start feeding her rice cereal. I know we should probably wait another month or so, but Quinn is staring at us eating like crazy. And just the other day, we were at Panda, she was sitting on Tony's lap while he was eating, and she grabbed a handful of rice and noodles and tried to put it in her mouth. She didn't get any in, but I think she is definitely ready for some real food pretty soon!