Nine Months

You've officially been out, as long as you were in.  Time is flying by.  I know I say that every month, but it really is.  Where you were when we brought you home, to where you are now is an amazing leap.  You are a smart and very intelligent (and let’s not forget spoiled) little girl.  Every day I wake up, and the moment I think of you, hear you, or see your smiling face, I am so thankful to have been blessed with such a perfect little angel.

This past month has been full of many things for you.  We just celebrated your first Christmas, which was loads of fun.  I think it was probably more fun for Dad and me, than it was for you, but it was fun either way.  You liked to unwrap your presents, but you loved crinkling the paper more than anything, I am sure.  You got lots and lots of toys, and books to enjoy.  (Daddy also got some stuff to play with you with, but I think he's going to enjoy it more than you do at this point.)  

 

We also took you to see Santa at the mall.  You were OK with him at first, but after a few pictures, he wasn't so cool anymore.

Just a few days ago, you were chewing on my fingers and I felt a sharp little point.  You are finally getting your first tooth!  We've been thinking you were teething for months, but now I think it is finally coming.  You are chewing on everything.  So far, the only thing that seems to actually comfort you is raw carrots.  Sometimes we freeze them and you seem to love it and hate it at the same time.  You love how it feels on your gums, but hate how cold it is on your little hands.

You aren't walking on your own yet, but you love to walk with assistance.  You will walk all around the house, with whoever will take you for an adventure.  You still haven't mastered crawling, but you wiggle around to wherever you need to go, and you usually get there quickly.   You are curious about everything and everyone.  Daddy loves it more than you will ever know.  He is convinced you will be a tinkerer like he is.  You seem to want to discover how things work, already so early in your life.  He put a few toys in a lidded box, and you just wanted to take them out, you didn’t even care what the toy was, you wanted it out of the box, because you knew, they didn't belong in there.  You are also really good at discovering how to get things unstuck, when they get jammed in places that they don't belong.  You are one smart cookie!

Momma and daddy also made a big announcement at Christmas.  You’re going to be a big sister!  I know you are excited, even if you don’t know it yet, because no matter where we go, you love other children.  Bigger or smaller, you love to look at them, and try to play with them.  You will be a great big sister.

It’s about time for everyone to go to bed now, so I will wrap this up.  We’ve had a family-filled fun two weeks, and now that it’s all over, we’re all exhausted.  Grandma Lynn went back to Tucson today, and tomorrow is New Year’s Eve.  I am excited to see what 2013 will bring for you.  I am sure you will have no problem staying up until midnight tomorrow, but I probably will.

I love you more and more every day.

Love,

Momma

Eight Months.

My beautiful, amazing baby girl.  I cannot believe that 8 months has flown by.  You are currently in your bouncer, screaming with joy.  So many things make you happy.  When I look at you, screams of joy.  If the dogs run by you, screams of joy.  Everything is just so wonderful for you; you are so full of happiness and joy.

This last month has been full of firsts for you.  First, we had your first Halloween.  You were a little pink monster, and you were pretty stinkin’ cute!

We also had many new foods this month (bananas, pears, carrots, and avocado), as well as your first Thanksgiving, which, honestly, wasn’t that exciting for you.  It was super exciting for Momma and Daddy though because we got to spend four whole days with you, something we don’t get to do or enjoy often enough.  

You do not like avocado.

Bananas are good...

...and so are carrots!

You also got to witness Daddy’s goofiness on Thanksgiving.  You were not amused.  

Your personality is starting to shine through.  You crack me and dad up every day with your antics.  You love to make us smile, and we love to make you smile.  You’ve just started to wave at people, and you’re pretty good at it.  You started with the finger movement, and not really sure of yourself when you did it, kind of like you were afraid to wave.  Now you get the whole arm going and wave at people excitedly all the time.  Hello, goodbye, it doesn’t matter, you just love to wave!  You babble a lot.  You still only say “Dada” on a regular basis, and sometimes, “nana”.  No “mama” yet, but I’m thinking you’re just holding out until Christmas!

We no longer have a mirror to walk by in our hallway since we moved.  I think this makes you a little sad, and I think you may actually miss the baby in the mirror.  We are working on it though, don’t worry.  I think you are lonely a lot, which makes me really sad.  You have other kids to play with at daycare all day, and I think you tolerate me on weeknights, but on the weekend, if you see a baby on TV, out and about, or even the baby on the diaper box, you always reach for them.  You seem so loving and caring to all babies and children, no matter their size.  You just want someone to hang out with.  Lilly’s mom and I keep talking about play dates, but we still haven’t fully moved in, and our house still smells somewhat funny, so I haven’t really pushed the idea.

Monday you start in a new classroom at daycare.  I’m sad and happy about this.  I am sad because we really like your morning teachers.  We’ve even had one come babysit for us, and she cried when she found out you were leaving her room.  They spend most of your day with you, and you always seem happy to see your morning teachers.  I am happy because we are finally getting away from your afternoon teacher.  I don’t like her because she doesn’t listen to what you need or what I want to happen for you, you only seem to tolerate her too, you never seem overly ecstatic to see her like you do your morning teachers.  Luckily, they are moving Lilly with you, so you two will be together.  You will be with many “older” babies, but I think they are all still under a year, so they are not much older—just developmentally more where you are headed.

You have stopped sleeping through the night, and there is rarely a night where you stay in your crib the entire time.  It’s getting super exhausting, but you seem to be doing better sleeping in our bed, and you don’t need the constant attention that you used to, which kept us up all night long.  It seems like every few hours you are hungry, so hopefully it’s just a growth spurt, and it won’t last forever.  It may also be that you’re lonely, although it’s no different from your room at our other house.  Maybe we need to let the dogs sleep in your room, so you don’t feel so alone.

I took you out a few weekends ago to try to get some good fall pictures of you, but I think you were mad that Daddy wasn’t there, and you weren’t very cooperative.  You ate a bunch of leaves (I think because they were crunchy) and that made you sick, which made it even more difficult for you to want to be there.  Oh well, I tried.

I am super excited for next month because it will be your very first Christmas.  We got you a few presents, so I hope you like them.  This weekend we are supposed to take you to see Santa, so I hope he doesn’t scare you too bad.

I love you so much!

Love,

Momma

Seven Months

Today you are seven months old.  Seven.  Wow.  Over half a year old.  Where is the time going?

 It seems like so much has changed in the last month, but at the same time, not much has changed.  I think we can chalk that up to our super crazy month.  We were all sick off and on for a 3 ½ week period.  If one of us wasn’t sick, the other two were, and at one point we all were.  On top of me and daddy working, daddy going to school, trying to move, things going wrong at both houses putting everything on hold, and leaving us with an uncomfortable place to live, no matter which house we stayed at, the sickness was too much for everyone, and I’m pretty sure we all lost some (or all) of our marbles.  I won’t lie.

You have been difficult this month, but I attribute that to the above statements.  You have been extremely clingy, to the point where I cannot sleep a full night, because you refuse to sleep without being held very closely.  This only applies to nighttime, and you are fine at daycare and into the evenings, but once its bedtime, all bets are off.  You turn into a shrieking, crying, nightmare of a child.  The sad part is no one believes me because you are so good the rest of the time.  Like right now, for instance, you are happily playing on the floor, by yourself, while I write this, and while daddy is working at the other house to get all of our stuff packed.  Come tonight, if we even get you as far as sleeping in your swing (because there is no getting you in your crib right now) you will wake up in 2-3 hours screaming your head off until we take you out and bring you into bed with us.  You may be little, but you manage to take up 50% of the bed, leaving daddy and I hanging off the edges.

At your 6 month check up with the doctors, you weighed 15 ½ lbs.  You are getting to be so big.  It took 3 of us and about 5 minutes of you squirming on the scale to get that weight, and it’s a rough estimate.  That’s the number we all saw the most often, because you were squirming so much, and trying to communicate with everyone around you that the numbers were going crazy.  Everyone commented on how pleasant you were.  You had to get shots, which is always traumatic, but they also threw in a flu shot, which I know was a pain.  Daddy had one a few weeks earlier, and he complained for a week about how much it hurt after the shot.  Wouldn’t you know it, this was also around the time where we “lost” all your medications for a few days, and therefore couldn’t give you relief when you needed it.  You were not so pleasant then.

Your doctor says you need to be on your knees and working towards crawling more, but I haven’t really listened much to that.  You are pretty mobile at this point by army crawling or rolling around and that’s just fine with me.  You want to move your legs, not your arms, and she told me to not let you sit in your bouncy chair, and make you have more floor time.  I say, screw that!  You love your bouncy chair, you love bouncing, and turning around, and playing with all the toys.  I understand that you need to develop, but I was told to basically take away your favorite thing, and only use it in emergencies, like if I had to answer the door, or go to the bathroom, and that’s it.  I think you are developing just fine.  I am not a big fan of doctors right now, or their charts.  All I’ve read is that babies develop on their own, I’m fine with that, and I’m patient.  Hell, most things I’ve read say you should have your first tooth right now, and while you’ve acted like you’re going to have some soon… you’ve been doing it for months.  What are they going to tell me next, that I need to surgically make your teeth come out?  You just take your time, and do what you need to do, kiddo.

We started on solid foods this month.  Well, more solid than the cereal that you’ve been getting in your bottle.  The first thing we tried was some acorn squash.  I steamed it, and pureed it myself and you loved it.  You had it for a few days, and with no reaction.  Next we tried butternut squash.  The doctor said I needed to start to not puree it and mash it with a fork to get you used to chewing.  I took a potato masher, and left some chunks, and you were not thrilled with them, but ate it anyway.  I think you liked the flavor of the acorn squash better, but next time, we are moving on to another food, so let the adventuring begin!

You “talk” more now.  You say dada a lot, and daddy, of course loves it.  Sometimes you say, what sounds like “hi, dada!” and I think that is his favorite.  No momma yet, but we will get there.  We were discussing tonight how you kindly have something for each of us.  I get all the kisses, and no “momma”, and he gets all the “dada” but no kisses.  It’s nice of you to share the love for each of us individually.  Every now and then you will nibble on his nose, just like you used to, when you were hungry, and I think that melts his heart the most

You still love your puppies, and they love you.  You giggle at them whenever they do pretty much anything.  I don’t think Landon can wait until you can actually play with him; he gets so excited when you do, so I know you two will have a great friendship.  Bath time is still pretty much the best thing in your world.  I’m pretty sure that if you didn’t wrinkle up like a little raisin, we could leave you in your tub for hours, just splish-splashin’ away.  You also love to touch faces.  I think you like how each one feels different; you love to squeeze noses until they honk (some people need a little “reminder” that that’s what happens when a nose gets pinched) and squishing cheeks in your fingers.  You love to explore new things. 

Halloween is tomorrow, and I am so excited to dress you up for it.  It is my favorite holiday, so I hope you at least enjoy it a little bit.  You are going to be a pink monster.  I had picked out a frog costume for you last year, before we knew that you were going to be a girl, but I got a 6-9 month size, thinking it would fit you perfect, but you are still in some 0-3 month stuff, and just barely fitting into some 3-6 month stuff, so that was pretty much not going to happen.  You will be adorably cute no matter what though.   I just hope that the costume is comfortable so you can wear it most of the night, so we can show you off it in, and that it doesn’t irritate you too badly.

I love you so much!

 

Love,

Momma

Six Months

Today you turned 6 months old.  Half a year.  The time has flown by.  I can’t believe how old and big you are getting on me, and so fast too.  It makes me a little sad that you are growing up so seemingly fast, but it is all part of life.

No matter where we go people love you.  You are usually smiling.  You seem to like old men the best.  You always flirt with them, and giggle and coo, and of course, flash your gorgeous smile.  We went to Chili’s last Monday because it was their annual St. Jude’s night.  We were there for almost 3 hours.  It was crowded, and noisy, but you were so good.  Good enough for some of the staff to come over and tell us how good you were, as if we don’t know!  We were with some of daddy’s work friends, and so they all got to see you, and a few got to love on you.  Not once did you get fussy.

Most days you are an easy baby.  I think it’s only when you don’t feel too well is when you’re really fussy, and even then, it’s not too bad.  We are such lucky parents.  You are such a joy to have around.  So far, you are good-natured, happy, go to bed (for the most part) on time, and without much fight, you try not to wake us up in the middle of the night, and you are always ready for cuddles!  We really couldn’t ask for better.

At day care you have made a friend, her name is Lilly.  She is about 3 or 4 weeks younger than you are, but you would never guess it for her size.  You two like to hang out on the floor and play with toys.  Her mom told me how you guys were playing a few weeks ago, and I didn’t get to see it until this week, and I must say, it is pretty sweet how you two are to each other.  One morning, we came in, and your teacher was already there, holding her, and you reached out and gave her a big wet kiss.  It almost brought tears to my eyes; it was such a beautiful moment.  Another day she came in right about when we did, you looked at her, took a hold of her dress, as if to say, “I love your outfit,” and you smiled at her.  You are getting such a personality.  We saw pictures last Friday of you two playing together, and you both had such big smiles on your faces.  I’m glad you’re able to make friends easily.  I love the fact that you are so loving and so caring already.

One of the downsides to this month was that we thought that you had some sort of bladder / urinary tract infection.  I will say right now, I am so sorry we had to put you through that.  We still don’t know what the problem is, but the way they test is horrible.  They had to put a needle into your bladder, and of course, they have your parent (only I was there) hold you down while they do it.  It was awful.  You cried, before, during, and even after when I was holding you, I almost cried right along with you, but I tried my hardest to stay strong.  It’s been almost a week, and I still feel bad that we put you through it, although I am thankful that nothing was wrong.

Today we signed a lease on a new (to us) house.  This one is bigger, and we won’t be living in fear that we may have to move on a whim because something went wrong.  You are getting the bigger room because we want you to have all the space you need for all the toys that you have.  Don’t worry though; I am sure your stuff will still be all over the house so that no matter where we are, you are entertained.  My biggest fear at this point is that the place has stairs, steep ones, and although you aren’t walking yet, they make me a little uneasy.  I’m going to be a nervous wreck anytime I walk on them with you.  I’m a nervous wreck walking on stairs alone.  Another concern I have is that the cat, Jack, will be in the house with us.  Since you were born, he has been living in the garage.  He likes it, the dogs can’t get him or his food, and that’s just the way it’s been.  This new house has no garage, and the storage addition to the house has no ventilation.  You are not a huge fan of Jack by any means, and I don’t think he is a huge fan of you either, so it should be interesting.  I hope that we won’t be dealing with tear-filled nights like tonight, every night.  Maybe you two can just leave each other alone.  I am super excited about finally getting to decorate your room the way it deserves to be decorated.  We have had a ton of stuff to put on the walls for your room since before you were born, but knew that where we are now, was not the place to put them.  This new place feels like home, even though we aren't living in it.  I cannot wait to personalize your living space, and show you how much we love you!

At this point in your life, we are starting to explore food.  So far, we've just experimented with cereal.  Most of it ends up your nose, so we have to work on that, but you really just want to help, and get in there.  You love to do things with your hands, period.  You love sitting in the bathtub splashing water, you love grabbing toys, you enjoy just making grabbing motions with your hands on various surfaces, and you get a little irritated when we try to help you hold your bottle, because you can do it!  I love your chubby little hands, and all that they are exploring.  You never stay in the same place for long, not even when you’re sleeping.  You are never in the same area we left you in the next morning.  

I love waking up to your face, even at 3 am, because I know that these moments where you need me, and you want me and only me, won’t last forever.  I love being your comfort.  I love the fact that you smile every morning when I come to see you, and most of the time if you are upset, and I come to get you, that makes everything better.  I love everything about you.  I am your world, and you are mine.  Occasionally I share you with dad too… but not too much.  

Love,

Momma

Sweet, or sickening?

I don't know if I just witnessed the sweetest, or the most disgusting thing ever. I had just put Quinn into her swing, and she spit up (a fair amount) all over her shoulder, and it was starting to run down her front. No burp cloth in sight, I had to go to the other room to grab one, and as I leave I hear the noise of a dog licking her. I yell at Landon to stop, come back to the room with burp cloth in hand, and dog and baby have bigger smiles than I have ever seen on either one of them... and no puke for me to clean up.

Ugh.

First Trip to the Zoo

Yesterday, we took you on your first trip to the Tulsa Zoo.  Luckily, you will never remember this trip, and you slept through most of it, because long-story short, it sucked.

You looked really cute though:

We went to the zoo with Nana Tracey, and Grandpa.  They had 4 free passes to the zoo, it’s Labor Day weekend, the zoo’s hours were going to be cut down after today, and it was supposed to be nice, so we figured, well, why not?

We get there, and literally, a quarter of the main exhibits are closed, maybe more.  We all grumble before we walk in, but we didn’t pay, so it wasn’t that tragic.  We got there about 9 am, and it was hot.  We were going to do all the outside exhibits first, and then move to inside, but most of the inside ones were the closed ones, so that didn’t work out for us, so we just started following the path.  Our first exhibit was the monkeys!  We were super excited for you to see them because all week daddy had been acting like one, and making noise, and you loved it.  While the monkeys were quite entertaining, and a little bit of show-offs, you really weren’t interested, and within 2 minutes of you being lifted onto daddy’s shoulders you had spit-up on him, his hat, his back, and his front, so he was not a happy camper.  Moved on from the monkeys. 

You slept pretty much the remainder of the day, and when you were awake showed no real interest in anything much.  Can’t say I blame you for sleeping, the main exhibits that were open most of the smaller exhibits within them were either closed for cleaning, or closed for renovation.  Lame.  It was also hot.  Really hot.  It was only 94°, but because of the humidity, it was recorded as feeling like 111°.  We all felt like we were going to die, and ended up skipping the last 1/3 of the zoo.

I can just say I’m glad you slept through most of it, and even if you hadn’t I’m glad that you will probably never remember this trip, as it probably would have ruined your zoo experiences for life.

The end.

Love,

Momma

Five Months

Little Quinn.  Well, you are not so little anymore, you are 5 months old!  I can’t believe the time has flown by.  I was going through my emails this morning, looking for your birth announcement because one of my friends said that they never got it.  I never found it, but I was rereading all of our adventures of our first week together.  You really scared momma, and even reading about it put me in tears, even though now, you are as healthy and perfect as perfect can be.  Despite that first large bump in the road, you are growing more and more every day.  Every time I look at your pictures, I want to reach out and hold you.  You are my everything, and I don’t know how I ever survived in this world without you.

This past month, a lot has happened with everyone and everything around us.  It has been rough and fun, and full of adventure, both the good and the bad kind.  I don’t even know where to begin.  First, our housing situation was in jeopardy.  The air conditioning went out, and our landlord basically told us that we were lucky it wasn’t something major, and that it was an easy fix because he couldn’t afford to fix anything for us, and would give us a 30-days to vacate notice should anything else go wrong.  That really freaked me and dad out.  It’s one thing to put us on the street, we can be nomads if need be, but we have you now.  You to care for, you who needs a stable, and comfortable home; you, who needs so many things that moving from place to place, cannot be provided.  I was really scared for the first few days.  Scared and angry.  For once in our lives, daddy and I switched roles.  He was the one freaking out about what the plan was going to be, and telling us we had to move, move, move, and I was the one who wanted to ride it out, and see where life was going to take us.  Don’t expect that to ever happen again.  We are still in the same place, but still keeping our eyes open.  I want to find a good home that we can be in for a few years.  Something not too crowded something I won’t fear for you to walk around in, when the time comes, or even for you to crawl around.  I always told myself I didn’t want to have children while living in an apartment, because an apartment is so temporary, so not homey.  Unfortunately, thanks to our mistakes, we can’t provide you with a home to grow up in now, either.  I guess I should have clarified my future thoughts with “rentals” versus “apartments” because, we may be in a house right now, but it is not ours, and it is definitely not our “home.”  Someday we will have one for you, and hopefully, that will be the only home you remember, one filled with love, and laughter.  The middle of the month also brought about a LOT of changes.  In the same week your dad finally got back to a normal schedule at work, you got back to a normal sleep schedule (rather quickly, I might add), and you started day care.  Your dad learned of his new schedule on a Thursday morning, he went to work that night, stayed up as late as he could Friday, and then spent all weekend with you.  I pretty much only saw you when you were hungry.  It was the first time he actually got to enjoy you in all your glory and you got to enjoy him.  You were both so happy, and I am so excited that this opportunity fell in his lap.  That Monday, he started his new shift, Monday through Friday, 8 am to 5 pm, like a normal dad, he also started school that day, and that Wednesday, you started day care.  We are starting to shape up like the all-American family.  Day care was really rough on me.  I didn’t want to trust someone else, someone I didn’t even know to take care of you for any extended period of time, much less 10 hours a day, 5 days a week.  Although this is one of the best day cares in the city, we got off to a bit of a rocky start, but I think things are ok now.  You had no problems with them; it was just your crazy parents who did.  You love daycare.  They sent me pictures of your first day there, and you were smiling in both of them.  You are smiling when we drop you off, and smiling when we pick you up.  You get wagon rides, and lots of cuddles, they absolutely adore you, and I’m pretty sure you enjoy it there too.  I cried your first day, and then sat at home for 9 hours wondering what you were doing, and didn’t do much else.  It was my first day without you ever, and I was pretty lost.  It’s still hard to drop you off every day, but I’m doing better.  I come home now and look for jobs, cook, or clean.  I’m still not working, and I really want to have you by my side all the time, but I need to get used to not having you there, and I also need to get things done around the house.  About an hour before I get to pick you up, I get antsy, and can’t wait to see you.  It’s like that last hour before you get to go home from work or school.  It’s so close, but so far.  Someday you will know what I am talking about.

  

At your 4-month checkup (which was almost two weeks after you turned 4 months), you weighed 13 lbs. ½ an oz.  You just now fit perfectly into 3-month-old clothing.  I am slowly starting to have to pack away your 0-3 month clothes, which is not as traumatic as I thought it would be, because you have a LOT of clothes.  At your appointment, you got shots, and this time you didn’t crash out, and you were miserable for a few days.  I felt so bad, and you were so cranky.  The doctor said that we could start trying out solid foods starting with cereal if you showed any interest in it.  You already get cereal in your bottles to help you keep it down, but I made up a bowl of cereal for you to eat, and you had no real interest in it.  I will try again next month, but I won’t pressure you at all.  The more food you eat, the less bonding time you and I get, so I’m being selfish with it.  You don’t truly need to start exploring with solid foods anyway until you’re a year old.  The doctor also suggested that we let to start drinking from a cup.  She personally doesn’t like sippy cups, and recommended little bathroom cups.  She showed us how to give you about an ounce of water in one, and you drank it so fast, as if we were starving you.  We didn’t have any bathroom cups at home, so I gave you my old Tommee Tippee Cup to try and you loved it.  You got the hang of it right away, and you could tell how proud of yourself that you were when you first used it.  Daddy, going with doctors’ orders, didn’t want to use a sippee cup, so we went out and bought a bottle with handles and a bottle like nipple that had 3 stages (bottle nipple, a square-ish nipple to transition you to a sippee cup type drinking device, and eventually cup) but I think it was too big, and you weren’t really digging it.

 Developmentally, you can now roll from your tummy to your back, and your back to your tummy, but not back to your original starting position.  Not sure why you do it that way, but you will figure it out.  It turns out tummy time is not as traumatic as you originally thought, and for the last week, when I come in to get you in the morning, you are either fast asleep on your tummy (you sleep in almost the same exact position as your momma!) or you are on your tummy trying to crawl around, and usually making a ruckus.  On your first day of day care, dad saw another baby (who is a few months older than you are) on her back grabbing her feet and rolling back and forth.  He thought it was so cute, and talked to you about grabbing your feet, and doing it too.  In the next few days, you did it, and he was overjoyed.  He loves when you do it every time.  You are a smart little cookie, and I don’t think people give babies enough credit for what they know.  You are at the age that we can start teaching you sign language to communicate better, and while we are eager to do so, we can’t find out little book we got for you.  Chaos is our life, and maybe someday we will get our act together, but probably not.  I think, despite no real effort going into it, you are learning to wave as a greeting.  You often lift up your hand when people enter or leave a room, or when we come to pick you up from day care, and someone says “bye” to you.  You’re somewhat shy about it at first, and you hesitatingly put your hand up, but every now and then, you will shake it at them.

We recently got you a Taggie toy.  It’s simply a sewn triangular piece of fabric with various tags hanging off it.  Simple, but you love it.  We’ve attached it to your car seat, and pretty much, it’s our “go-to” toy of the moment.  You still really enjoy your swing, but I think you like it too much sometimes, and although you are nowhere near the 25-pound weight limit, you get so excited, and so carried away with kicking for joy, you shake it, and it scares me a little.  This weekend we are going to the zoo pending the weather.  I’m excited to see your reaction to all the animals, but I think you will like the monkeys the most, unless they have some underwater animals.  Daddy fully plans to parade you around on his shoulders the entire time.  I think he might have to fight grandpa for it, and I have a feeling that excitement will end the second time you spit up on his head.  I’m giving you a freebie because he will probably be wearing a hat, and won’t mind until you actually make it to his hair.

I love you!

Love,

Momma

Gerber Baby

If you have Facebook, and think my daughter is absolutely adorable (which she is, no lie) please vote for her daily, starting 9/4 - 9/24 so that she can win money for college (long way off, I know!) or be a Gerber Super Star!

You can vote here or click the picture below, again, once a day from 9/4 - 9/24.  Tell your friends, family, and strangers, and make my baby smart!

The way things are...

I haven't posted in a while... well, let me take that back, I tried to post, and I had a long post about freezer crock-pot meals, and how awesome it was... and then it didn't post, and it only saved half of what I had typed out and it was long.  Then... the rest of the month went to crap.  Today, I found this, and it was perfect.  I <3 you Hallmark.

Once things get a little better, and I'm feeling more up to it, and less like slamming my head into a wall, I will update the world on what all has been happening.

Promise.  :)

Four Months

Four months.  A third of a year.  My little growing Quinn.  You are starting to get SO BIG.  I notice it so much more now than I did in the first few months.  It makes me happy and sad at the same time.  Happy because I love watching you grow and develop into the fun little person that you are, but sad that you are starting to become more and more independent with every moment of every day.

I haven’t really been paying attention to the “milestones” you should be meeting.  I don’t want to be that crazy parent who is like, “YOU SHOULD BE COOKING FULL MEALS FOR YOURSELF RIGHT NOW, YOU’RE 4 MONTHS OLD!”  I just soak in what you do every day, and know that you are going forward and not backwards.  I’m not sure if that’s good or not.  You can’t detect it until you’re 14 months or later, but I worry about autism every day.  I don’t know why, you were born a perfect little baby, and we really haven’t had many issues thus far, I just worry that this good streak will end, and something will go wrong.  So just keep moving forward… and I think we will be good.

You love to grab things.  You may have loved it last month… but you really love it this month.  You always have things in your hands.  It doesn’t matter if you’re moving it around, or if it makes noise, you just want to hold on.  Sometimes, it’s to your disadvantage, like if you lose one thing in your hand, you go to your binky and you rip it out to hold you sometimes get upset, because you can’t quite figure out how to put it back in, but you’re getting there.  You have the motion right, just not the direction, so sometimes you just end up chewing on the handle.  One day last week, you were just sitting in my lap sucking on your binky and taking in the world around you.  I was topless since you had just spit up down my shirt, and into my bra (another thing you are awesome at) you took your binky out, looked over, and latched on and started eating.  This is something I will always remember and cherish, and will probably gross you out every time you hear the story, but I already know you are going to be a woman in charge someday.  You knew what you wanted, and you took it, all on your own.  No waiting for other people, just do it!  You also love to grab on to shirts, hair, and to thumbs.  You love to hold on to people’s thumbs and stand on their laps.  You love to use your little legs so much; I’m starting to think you may be running marathons before you ever learn to crawl.

Two weeks ago, we bought you an activity center where you sit in the middle, and the little seat turns around and there’s stuff to do all around you.  While you meet the age requirement, you are a petite one, and we’ve stuffed it with blankets, and put pillows underneath you, but I think it will be at least another month before you can even fit in it.  You are finally starting to chunk up to everyone’s relief.  You are a skinny little girl, and not in a sickly way, but somehow, everyone just expects babies to be chunky… and you are starting to get some rolls.

All in all, you are a pretty happy baby.  Only when you are really tired or your tummy hurts do you really cry.  Most of the times when you need something you just make noises (screams or just random shouts.)  It makes it easier to take care of you, and know when you are really hurting.  We had a tough few months in the beginning with all the crying, and not being able to figure out what’s going on, so I appreciate the break.

For whatever reason (and I am not complaining at all on this one) the car seat has become far less traumatic for you.  Instead of crying and throwing a fit 100% of the time, it’s only about 33% of the time, and it’s usually only when you are tightened in it.  I don’t know if you are realizing that you like the car, or you’ve just given up, because you realize that no matter if you’re crying or not, you’re not getting out of your car seat.  You still sleep on most of the car trips we take.  If you don’t, you rarely cry.  I don’t know if you get to see anything around you, but you seem to relax on car rides, and sometimes we can hear you chatting with yourself.  I hope you keep that, as you grow older.  Daddy has some vacation plans for you, and it would be awesome if you weren’t one of those bratty kids on car rides.  Haha.  You still insist on keeping your 2 am bedtime, but hey, at least it’s routine.  A few nights a week you will go to bed a little earlier at 1 am, and sometimes if I’m really lucky, you’ll even go to bed as early as midnight.  Baby steps though, you’re working on it.

Whenever we go out, everyone always compliments on what a beautiful baby you are.  I know, I see that precious little face every day.  Tell me something I don’t know people.  I may be a little biased though.  They also comment on how good you are.  You really are a pretty well behaved baby.  Your dad makes going out a little bit more dramatic than it needs to be sometimes, but overall you’ve never been a bad baby to have out and about.  You’ve had one melt down in Wal-Mart (who doesn’t want to when they walk into that store?) and it turned out you weren’t feeling well.  Only once has daddy had to take you out of a restaurant.  Even then, he didn’t need to, he just couldn’t get you out of your car seat fast enough to his liking, and so he literally ran out with you in the car seat, got you out, and came back in.  He’s silly like that.  All you wanted was to look around, and you were content once you were able to see over the table.

The highlight of this last month was a joy that I can’t even begin to describe accurately.  It was about 11:30 at night, and you and I were sitting on the bed while daddy was getting ready for work.  Landon and Lucy (our dogs) were running around the house being themselves.  Sometimes when he gets ready for work, your dad will play with the dogs, and this was one of those nights.  When your dad had stopped playing, Landon decided that he wasn’t done.  He picked up his toy, and began shaking it with his head ferociously, and throwing it up into the air.  You thought this was the funniest thing, and we heard you laugh for the very first time.  Landon caught it too, because he kept doing things to make you laugh, and it went on for about 5 minutes.  It was such a magical moment; you have such a sweet, precious little laugh.  Daddy loved hearing it so much, he was almost late for work that night, and bragged about your laughter to his co-workers.  Sadly, you’ve only laughed one more time since then, and it was caused by the same events.  Daddy and I have been trying in vain to get you to laugh at us, to no avail.  It will come someday I’m sure, and someday, we will forget to enjoy your laughter as much as we did on that day, because we will hear it so often, but I will never forget that moment that we all three got to share, and neither will daddy.

Today also marks the day, one year ago, that I found out I was pregnant with you.  I thought I was full of joy and love for you then, but little did I know what was to come.  I love you more and more every day.  Sometimes I feel like my heart may explode when I look at you.  You are so amazing, and I am so glad I had a part in creating you, and that I can call you my daughter.

I love you,

Momma

Interesting facts about breastmilk

I found this the other day, and while I knew some of it, like the ingredients, and the costs, some of it still blew my mind.

Taken from Lucie's List

Meet Pearl

We bought this car as a second vehicle almost a week ago. We've been a single vehicle family for a little over a year now, and it worked well with carpooling, and work schedules. Now that neither of those two are an option, and I need to find a job, a second car was a must. We know the car needs a little work, and we are taking her in Wednesday to get the look over from Honda. Hopefully, we wont need too much done, and she will last just like every other Honda out there.

The Diaper Challenge

Since we use Pampers for Quinn's spoiled little tush, I figured it was time to see if there was a more economical option out there.  I almost feel like I am doing an elementary school science project, but oh well. I made charts and stuff.  Yay!  Charts!

First, I ordered three different sample packs.  I'm including the Pamper's data as a baseline, since we know we like them, and we have no problems with them, besides cost of course.

Seeing my lovely chart now, we should have left off the Naty diapers, as they follow the same exact pricing as Pampers.  Oh well.  We are currently on size 1 diapers, which is why I listed all the way up until size 3.  Here's the cost comparison per diaper:

As you can see, the diapers.com diapers are priced significantly lower than any other. So they win hands down in the cost factor.

We also had "comfort" to look at.  If the diapers felt like sandpaper, or were stiff, I, personally, would not want to wear them; therefore, I couldn't expect my child to be comfortable in them either.  Pampers, diapers.com, and Seventh Generation diapers were all pretty soft, and almost cloth like.  The Naty diapers totally lost in this category, although they we're pretty much out as soon as I made my chart.  They were super stiff, and pretty rough.  Yuck.

Next we had convenience.  Only Pampers had stretchy tabs.  Seems dumb, but when you don't have them, you notice.  Seventh Generation made up for this by having a back stretchy thing.  It’s hard to explain, but it gave some give.  Naty was, again, stiff as a board, and Diapers had a little stretch to their tabs, but nothing to brag home about.  Where Naty lost again, and none of the other diapers did, was disposal.  With all the other diapers, even though the tabs are like a Velcro like material... Naty had NO WHERE to stick them when you are done with the diaper.  There was no wrapping up that mess, so that was a big no go to me.  God forbid the trash can roll over, or I miss when I toss it in, I am not cleaning up a poopy mess twice when I don't have to.  The rest of them had something to stick it too, all the way around.  Yay for them!

Lastly, we had the most important test of all:  the inside!  We have only (luckily) had to deal with diaper rash once, and that's when we switched to the sensitive Swadlers, versus the normal Swadlers, and we haven’t had any problems since.  We had stuck to brands that listed no extra chemicals, no bleach, chlorine, fragrances, etc. etc. as well as hypoallergenic.

Night 1, we tried Seventh Generation.  I had planned on putting the diapers on right when I put Quinn down for her actual bedtime (not attempted bedtime… try as I may) so that they would be put to the fullest test of overnight wetness, which is about 7-9 hours.  Well, silly me, I took a shower, and Jason took it upon himself to put her in the new diaper around 9 pm.  Lucky for him we had two… and she pooped.  Brilliant!  I highly doubted that we would ever get a poo test in because she’s so unpredictable, but we did.  And they passed.  It was a messy one too, but none got out, although it was reached to the max in every direction.  I kept her in regular diapers the rest of the night until she was ready for bed, and swapped out her last diaper for a Seventh Generation one.  Lasted through the night, and no leaks!  Jason’s only complaint is that they are a very light brown.  No design on them at all.  He just thought they looked “dirty”; I’d probably go with dingy more than dirty but to each their own.  Pretty much no one sees her without an outfit on anyway, so no big deal.  Pass pass pass!

The next night, our only other option was the diapers.com diapers, because the Naty diapers were shipped from a different location, and they hadn’t arrived yet.  Lots of people complained about how there were green and purple designs on the diapers, and if your baby wore white it showed right through.  Really?  Let’s call the fashion police on that one!  The designs were cute, with stripes and polka dots.  Many of the reviewers online said they got monkeys on their diapers, but I got a bunny on both of mine, standing next to a big “B”.  Maybe it had something to do with the size.  The diapers were easy to put on, and I did the first one a little bit before her bedtime because I was hoping for another poopy one, and I got it!  (Yes, it’s a sad day when you hope for poop!)  While the diaper held the poop very well, Quinn only had it on for an hour, two max, and she already had diaper rash developing.  I didn’t even both with the second diaper.  I am not putting either of us through that again.

I made my little chart before I even tried the Naty diapers.  Seeing that they really didn’t matter, I just used them in the middle of the day yesterday… and got another pooper!  They were very stiff to put on, and almost hard, as they had no give (hence the love of stretchy tabs.)  When she pooped, I could smell it.  Normally her poop doesn’t smell, and if it does, it’s minimal since she is exclusively breastfed.  I am convinced something “natural” (since that’s what these diapers bragged about) in the diaper made her poop stink.  I could tell she had a poopy diaper before I even picked her up.  While her rash has still not gone away completely, it got no worse with these diapers, but with all their cons, as well as not being any cheaper than Pampers, they were also a no go.

Yesterday, I ordered a pack of Seventh Generation diapers.  The price was nice, and size 1 diapers are 20% off until sometime in December (we will grow out of that size before then) so they are even cheaper than normal.  If we make it through the pack with no major incidents, than I think we will have a new diaper, and a few more bucks in our pockets even when buying by the case.  If not, back to Pampers we will go.