Skipping Thanksgiving...

...and moving right to Christmas! Last weekend was the annual Christmas Party for the kiddos at Marty's. The highlight of the evening was our special visitor:

He is the best Santa I've ever seen. And Quinn thought so, too. He actually sat on his lap (overcoming the notorious "man fear"), which is no mean feat...At my company's holiday party this weekend he wanted nothing to do with the imposter Santa. But THIS Santa...this Santa passed the Quinn test. It probably didn't hurt that he brought little trucks, either. (Thanks, Dad!)

Still to come: pics from this weekend's big adventure...the first haircut!!

(Un)Happy Halloween

So, Halloween was not so happy for our little Quinn. He was pretty miserable with a fever/runny nose/cough, and didn't get to do much proper trick-or-treating. So, here's a picture of Q from a happier day when we did a costume try-on. Now that I'm a parent, I see why parents dress up their little kids...it's pretty doggone cute.

The best part about it was that Quinn naturally holds his hands up when he walks (flexed at the elbow), which created an awesome T-Rex effect in the costume.

Here's a shot from outside on Halloween. We did make it over to see Marty, but Mr. Q was not a happy camper.

Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

We had a great time at the pumpkin patch...

Quinn loved seeing the baby animals, but he wasn't sure he actually wanted to touch the baby goats.














He did have lots of fun touching the bumpy pumpkins.














He REALLY loved peeling the "Don't pick me up by my stem - I break!" stickers off all the big pumpkins and sticking them other places...













...but he didn't seem to know what to do when we stuck one on him. :)



















He also had a really good time picking out his own little Quinn-sized pumpkin with Daddy













and carrying it around with him.













We brought Quinn's pumpkin home and gave it a special spot. Now, when we ask him where his pumpkin is, he says, "Kin," and runs to the kitchen for his pumpkin. Sadly, however, we have to keep Kin out of reach now, because Quinn loves to carry it around, but he also loves to drop it and bang it on the floor. We're going to have to work on "Gentle" before baby brother or sister arrives!

My two boys

So, I just have to say that there is probably nothing in the world that makes me happier than seeing Seth and Quinn together. I am so thankful that my boy has such a terrific dad who is crazy in love with him.


























































Get a load of those smiles. How great is to wake up to these two happy guys every morning?

Well, actually, since you asked...I've been sleeping in a lot more than usual. And Seth has been super-dad...getting Quinn up, taking him for a run, feeding him breakfast, all so that I can get a few more minutes of sleep. And why? Well, as Seth says when he's trying to make me feel better for laying on the couch all night, every night after Quinn goes down..."It's hard work growing a person."

Yup, it's official: Baby Dunham #2 is due to arrive sometime around March 22, 2009. Wahoo!

P.S. This hopefully excuses the recent lack of posting... not for lack of postable material, but for lack of energy. Mr. Quinn is walking and talking and learning something new every day. So, stay tuned...I may just do some legit posting yet!

Lack of Appropriate Parental Supervision

Flashback to last New Year's Eve:

Seth and I have one small Quinn, less than 6 months old, whom we have dropped off at the Granny-sitter's for the evening so that we can spend some time with some great couple-friends, most of whom have children 1 or more years older than our bitty boy. Conversation turns, as it invariably does, to the kids, and more specifically, in this case, to "poop accidents." Surprisingly, even the most "careful"-seeming of my friends seems to have a story about poop escaping and somehow getting ground into carpet.

On the ride home, in a moment of quiet reflection, Seth says to me, "Do you think they just don't watch their kids, or how does that happen???" And I turn to him and say, "I'm afraid it just happens...eventually they get away from you."

Fast forward to this week (And, no, my story does not actually involve poop.):
Quinn and I are playing in his room, and I'm practicing taking pictures of him with my new super-duper camera (that I have no clue how to optimize). He's happy for a while, rolling his cars up and down the ramp of his brand new Little People garage, but then he suddenly turns and books out of the room, sand-crab style, making a sharp right into the bathroom.

I hear nothing.
I call to him.
I hear nothing.
I see nothing.

I give it about 15 seconds before getting up to go check on the situation. And I find:













Happy, happy, happy!














"What?"



















"Fine. I'll go show Dad."

Fifteen seconds, folks. When the poop comes, and I'm sure it will, we are toast.

Humbling moment of the day

So maybe I should feel bad about this, but, as Seth points out, it is a blog about a baby. Maybe if I threw in some terms like "heteroscedasticity" or "leptokurtotic" I could get a better rating. (I do, in fact, know what those words mean. I have, though maybe I shouldn't admit it, used one of them in nerd-humor.) However, it's hard to work statistics-related terminology into a post about a very cute small boy.

Anyway, I'll post about Quinn later this evening if I can get some Mac time, but just couldn't resist this.

Happy Birthday, my boy!

Quinn, one year ago,

I had no idea how much joy

was in store for me.

I am so grateful that God

gave me the chance to be a mom -

to be your mom.

I love you!

Long time, no post!

Let's see...what have we been up to??

Seth graduated from MNU (but still has 3 classes to complete!?)



















Quinn enjoyed his first biter biscuit (courtesy of Grandma D) This was also the day that Quinn's mom decided that biter biscuits are a special occasion, bath-day treat.

















Quinn learned to ride this fun toy AND make a face like it!
(Thanks, Kepharts!)















We celebrated our first Mother's Day with Quinn on the OUTSIDE!













And, Quinn is on the move...crawling, cruising the furniture, pulling up, etc. What a difference! So, what do I have for you by way of documentation? One of the few non-blurry pictures from the last month!















Those are the big highlights...there are other milestones that only parents look for or care about much, I'm sure, so I won't bore you with those. Okay, I will bore you a little bit. He now has 4 teeth on the bottom, and one with a second peeking through on the top. And he's now officially weaned. It was less systematic and ceremonious (and faster!) than I had planned on, but he seems none the worse for it. So, that's what we've been up to. He's now 11 months old, and the countdown is on to the big birthday!

Gender Identity Confusion, parts 2 and 3

Monday afternoon we went to urgent care at our pediatrician's office because we suspected Quinn had pink eye (he did, and it's okay now). Enter the nurse practitioner, medical records in hand:

NP: And what are we seeing her for today?

Me: His eye has been oozy, and his daycare provider thinks he has pink eye.

NP: Well, let's take a look at her. She's such cutie!

Me: We think he's pretty special.

NP: Okay, let's look in his ear.

???

Next day, we go to Hen House, scene of the last gender confusion debacle. Quinn is wearing his blue polo shirt and khaki cargo pants, and looking, I think, very "little man." We're checking out, and the lady bagging our groceries comes rushing over.

Lady: I just have to come see your little girl. How old is she?

Me: He's almost 10 months old.

Lady: Well, she's just adorable. (Quinn shoots her a smile. He loves the ladies, and the ladies love him.) Ooooh, she has such a beautiful smile!

Me: Yes, he loves to flirt with the ladies....Have a good day!

As we're walking away, I hear her say: And I love her cute little shoes, too!

Now, I'm not upset, but it is funny to me. Mostly because, number one, I don't think that Quinn looks like a girl. I think he's a pretty cute little boy, but I don't think he makes that cute of a girl. Number two, I do recognize that there is some gender ambiguity when it comes to babies under a year. I've been in that situation myself. And I have evolved the following coping mechanism: "What a little cutie!! How old??" And then most obliging parents respond with "(personal pronoun) is (number) months old." Probably all the while they're wondering why I don't finish my sentences. But I've got my information, so I don't care. Of course, now my cover's blown, but it's worked well for me up to this point.

Anyway, just a slice of our life, mostly to cover up the fact that I haven't figured out how to get the pictures of our exciting weekend off the camera yet. So, stay tuned for that. Sneak peek: Graduation, Biter Biscuit, Umbrella. Now you're thinking, aren't you??

Original Hair

Quinn has always had this piece of hair at the back of his head that we call his Original Hair. It's been growing as long as he's been alive, and when all of the rest of his baby-baby hair fell out, it hung on.

I talked to Seth about his Original Hair. I twirled it around my finger while he nursed. I tried to decide whether to comb it forward, down, or around in a cowlick-y circle.

I even tried to photograph it...
















but it didn't photograph very well. And WHY did I try to photograph it? Because I knew that it would, eventually, fall out....or be cut...in short, be no more. Some even tried to suggest that this would be the perfect lock of hair to take for his baby book. But I resisted. This is his Original Hair. I could not willingly get rid of the Original Hair, the last of my itty-bitty Quinn, who is so quickly becoming bigger-baby Quinn.

So, I did know that this day would come. I discovered that his Original Hair is gone. Gone. Where did it go? Did I dry-dry-dry it out in our after-bath fluff-the-hair ritual? Did he pull it out himself? I had this fantasy moment where I envisioned Seth coming to me with a cute little envelope and telling me that he had cut off the Original Hair himself and stored it safely away for me. But he didn't. It's just gone. And I'm...sad. I'll get over it, but still, today, I'm a little sad for his Original Hair.

Do Quinn and Poppy get along?

If I were to write an FAQ about life at our house, this would probably be the number two most popular question. (Number one is, "Getting any sleep yet?" To which my answer is, "Yes! He's been sleeping through the night since week 2!" Then, if it is another new parent, I smile sheepishly, knowing that this sounds like bragging of some sort, but really it's just me reveling in my amazing blessing of a sweet boy.)

Back from tangent...When asked how Quinn and Poppy get along, I often try to describe pictures from this photo session, so I'm posting them now, even though they're almost 3 months old.
And honestly, why should they not get along? Neither monopolizes the conversation, they don't make each other feel self-conscious about the drool, and they're both happy being the center of attention. Oh, wait. That last one does create some trauma for Poppy, since she pretty much loses out on that, but overall she's been terrific. And now that she's often the center of Quinn's attention, things are starting to look up for our pup.

p.s. Any other questions you'd like answered? Be sure to post in the comments as fodder for future blogging!

9 month check-up!

And we're back on the growth curve at 17 lbs, 3 ounces, exceeding even my uncharacteristically optimistic guess! Yippee!

In honor of today's events, Quinn decided to skip all napping longer than 30 minutes. He also flirted shamelessly with all the ladies at Harper's Fabrics and Hen House. At the latter he was praised effusively for being "such a pretty little girl." Hmph. I ask you...is this a girl face?? I didn't think so.

Captured on film

Courtesy of Marty (daycare provider extraordinaire), we have two items of interest captured in the photo below.

1) Quinn is giving Marty the Seth-eyebrow. See it? Definitely daddy.
2) This is the first official photo of the twins. See the two pearly whites (nearly eclipsed by the hand he is chewing on)?

Stay tuned...tomorrow is the big 9-month weigh-in. Any guesses on how much he'll weigh? The only hints we have are that he weighed 15 lbs, 10 oz at his 8-month weigh in, and he grunts/growls for more food between each bite during his evening feedings. Piglet. Anyway, I'm hoping for 17 lbs. It's ambitious, but I can hope.

Chubba-wubba

So, one of our only real struggles with Quinn has been his eating/weight gain. He has been struggling to reach the 5th percentile in weight throughout his short little life. But it's starting to look like we may be rounding the corner on that battle.

Here's the little man and his new favorite pastime.

No, he doesn't really feed himself (I'm too mess-phobic for that), but I think this captures the passion he has for food.

As further evidence (and just because they're AWESOME), check out the pictures of his fluffy belly at our photo shoot with Jamie last Friday. Finally, a little chub on my boy!

Quinn's Lucky Socks!

So, Quinn wore his lucky KU socks today (courtesy of Aunt Laura and Uncle Tim), and guess what?? They worked!! In one of the cruel ironies of life, Quinn, the only one in the house with lucky apparel, was forced to sleep through the entire game. Which, considering the volume of yelling, cheering, and general woo-hooing is the second miracle of the night.

Now, I've got 2 days to teach Seth the waving of the wheat, Rock Chalk, and all other applicable KU craziness so that I'm not the only one in our living room looking silly on Monday night. Plus, we have to get out the matching paci, t-shirt, ball cap, and bottle for the championship game. I'd better get busy!

Gottcha!

So, we had our 8 month (actually, 8 1/2 month) session with our awesome photographer, Jamie Miller today . Quinn, who is usually SO smiley, and did great for his 4 month session, was not so happy for this one. He did great for a while, but then he was just not his happy self. Could be because he woke up from his afternoon nap way early, or just because he wanted to show us that we can't take his smiles for granted.

Anyway, Jamie is great...we'll see how they turn out! Stay tuned for a sneak peek!

Cute update

Yes, he's still cute. Here's proof. Actually, I just wanted to post a more recent picture, for all of you keeping track. I'm going to try to get some video of some of Q's most recent achievements (most of them involve mouth noises), but in lieu of that, I figure we can't lose with a plain ol' pic.

Sunshine and Shadow

When we found out we were pregnant with Quinn, the first person I wanted to tell was my mom. But, I also wanted to do it in some sneaky-wonderful way that would totally surprise her. So, we waited 8 long weeks to give her a very special Christmas present - a "Grandmother" figurine. It took her about 10 seconds after she opened the box to put it together, and then we saw this face. And heard the giggling, and the crying, and the toe-tapping-Mom-dancing. Just the reaction I had been hoping for.

She had been waiting patiently for so long to be a grandma, and she was absolutely so excited. She changed all her computer passwords to "babyface" and called me every day to find out how "our" baby was doing. We planned the nursery and went shopping and pored over sonogram pictures together.

One year ago today was my mom's last day here on this earth. And of the lifetime of memories I have with her, this is the picture I hold in my mind. I miss her so much. And I miss her for Quinn. I wish she could sing to him and hold him and watch him grow.

But I think that Quinn has a lot of my mom in him. I see her in his sparkly blue eyes and his big baby smile...so much like my mom. So I sing him the songs that she sang to me, and I wish that she were here to sing them herself, and I'm thankful that she was my mom.

New Resolve

Okay. So, we're the world's worst bloggers. We read our friends' blogs and think... "How cool. How clever. How unlike us." So, we're going to try again. Especially for all our family who live far away and can't see the Q-man often.

The first evidence of this resolve is that I've actually made the effort to find out what our password is, and now I've looked into how to add pictures. And I think I can do it. Let's give it a try, shall we?
Wahoo! Success. I won't even tell you how long that took me, but it will get better. And now...isn't it worth it? You've seen our ray of sunshine (old pic, though), and I'm sure it's made your day more sunny. I know he makes mine sunny every day.

Okay. I'm worn out now. More later....promise!