An autumn update.

This is Quinn enjoying one of our last dry autumn days on the swings! By way of update, here is where Quinn stands on the three things people always ask when they find out you have a fourteen-month-old:

- Walking? Yep! All over the place. In fact, I think her two favorite places to be are the church and the high school, where there are long wide stretches of hallways for her to cruise.
- Favorite foods? Wish I knew...she's going through a phase where she seems to dislike just about anything that is put in front of her, unless it is derived from a potato and comes from the golden arches (don't judge me). I guess she also likes scrambled eggs. I lie awake at night scheming up ways to feed her fruits and vegetables but it's pretty hit and miss.
- Words? Quinn says a lot of things and mimics a lot of the sounds we make, but I'm not too sure how discriminate she is with her vocabulary. For example, she will look right at Spenser and say "dada" but then toddle off to the cat and start calling it "dada" as well. There is one word she seems to understand: "uh-oh", which she pretty clearly associates with things falling. Usually food that she is throwing off her high chair tray. Unless it is a french fry.

It's a fun age! I think most people who read this blog already know this old, albeit big, news...but I haven't documented it here, so for the sake of posterity: Quinn will be a big sister on or around May 5th!

I have had the usual host of first trimester complaints, but overall I am feeling well! We are going in for the 20-week ultrasound (at which point we will know the gender) on December 18th. We can't wait to add another little one to our family!

Winco crisis.

Quinn and I experienced a minor crisis this morning at Winco. Here I was, so proud of myself for getting us going early...but after an hour or so of grocery shopping, I loaded the groceries into the car, went to take Quinn out of the cart and discovered that her foot was totally wedged between the tiny metal slats! Folks, it was stuck. I could see that it wasn't going to be good but I tried to jiggle it a little bit anyway - at which point she erupted into screams of pain and big crocodile tears started pouring down her cheeks :( Her little ankle was really inflamed and any time I tried to work with it she would start screaming. I'm not sure how she even got it in there! I hadn't noticed it until I went to get her out! At this point I was having visions of firetrucks and the jaws of life and getting progressively more worked up myself. I finally wheeled the cart back into Winco for some help. I probably looked like a crazy person because I was bawling my eyes out and moving at top speed (although Quinn was relatively calm, as long as I wasn't touching her leg). It took a few tries, but the lady at customer service was finally able to understand that my child's foot was stuck. She assured me that it happens sometimes and we would free her, then got on the intercom: "Would an associate please bring a tub of butter to the customer service desk, thank you." Unfortunately that took about five minutes because the associate wasn't sure if we needed butter, margarine, unsalted, salted, low sodium, or organic butter and what size. Finally the customer service lady helping us just said "Any kind of butter is fine! It's an EMERGENCY!" So up came the butter, which we massaged around Quinn's ankle and pop! her leg came right out! It was all rather traumatizing but thanks to the nice Winco employees for helping us out!

Quinn's summer.

Oh, what does Quinn do in the summertime?

Sooooooooo many fun things! Yes, I realize summer isn't technically over yet...but it always feels like it is to me when August ends and everyone goes back to school. Thanks, everyone, for a fun summer!

Exciting airplanes.

This video teaches us two things: First, that Quinn is now a willful acting agent and no longer an agent to be acted upon. What do I mean by that? Well, if you try to hold her down and smooch her face a billion times she may use her sharp little fingernails to resist you, as Spenser learned the hard way. Second, she finds airplanes very exciting.

Five things.

Taking a five month hiatus from maintaining this blog was not something I intended to do! I am sad that I failed to document all of the fun changes and developments that Quinn experienced in real time, but alas - that ship has sailed. So, I give you five things - one thing for each month of my journaling negligence - about our recent goings-on:

(1) In April, Quinn & I took the train to San Francisco to visit our dear friend Hanalei! It was THE BEST...because of Hanalei, and Chinese food (soooooo  much delicious Chinese food). We hung out at their awesome apartment, went for fun walks and chased ducks in Golden Gate Park, thrift shopped on Haight Ashbury, people watched in Berkeley and ate all manner of delicious food. It was Fun with a capital F.

(2) Spenser started a new job at the knife manufacturer Kershaw and it has been a great move. Things at his last company were not going very well so this was a very happy change. It is located in Tualitan, which is a bit of a daily commute but nothing unmanageable, and he works in their international shipping department. He gets great discounts so keep us posted if you need a gift for a special male in your life!

(3) Spenser's sister Madisen moved from Hermiston (approximately 3.5 hours east of here) to Portland to work and go to school, so we get to see WAY more of her, which is awesome. And she is a great babysitter who Quinn absolutely adores!

(4) Speaking of sisters: My sister Whitney married Samuel in the end of June and it was AWESOME! Sam loves Mad Men, reads the New York Times and makes delicious homemade bread so I had no problem welcoming him into the family. The wedding was beautiful and fun and we got to spend a lot of time with my brother Brad and his wife Stephanie to boot!

(5) Quinn is moving, moving, MOVING...crawling all over the place, pulling herself up into a standing position on any object that will stay still for two seconds and getting close to walking. She will be 1 in a month AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!! She is such a big girl now - as of about May she now sleeps through the night in her pack n' play (a huge change from her former routine of refusing to sleep anywhere but between us in our bed and waking two or three times every night) and takes two solid naps everyday. She's my big girl! I will try to post more Quinn photos & videos soon :)

That's all for now! Hope you all are well and enjoying the summer. 

Happy heart day.

Happy Valentine's Day! I'm just gonna say it: One of the best parts of having a baby is dressing them up in cute things for occasions that you didn't even really care about before you had a baby (i.e. Valentine's Day). Mom and Vince gave us their tickets for the Artist Repertory Theatre tonight for a date and Grandpa Vince is going to babysit this little munchkin. She is six months old now (!) and just started solids. Last night she downed half an avocado like it was candy! Here's a video of her first sweet potato:

An emerging personality.

I just sent these to the printer and thought I had better post them here, too. What happened to my floppy little newborn?! Quinn's little personality is more evident every day.

P.S. Shortly before Quinn was born, this talented local photographer had a SUPER cheap package offer on a daily deal site so I scooped it up, thinking we would have some newborn photos taken of Quinn. What I failed to account for is the fact that having a newborn and recovering from Cesarean was all-consuming and having photos taken was one of the last things on my mind. So, we had them taken when Quinn was three months old. Here is a link to the album of low-res photos :)