Utah baby

Go Utes! Quinn has thoroughly enjoyed watching and listening the Utah games this year. She sure has learned a lot about football from her dad. He hopes one day she'll be doing sideline interviews. Yesterday's day was so good! It was exciting to the last minute! Dalan and Uncle Cole went to the game, and I stayed home and watched the game/looked at old pictures with my mom and Quinn. My dad stayed at his house for two reasons. According to him, my mom and I talk too much during the game, and he was pretty sure he was going to be saying some words that would be inappropriate for Quinners to hear. Funny!

Baby Grinch

Quinn was lacking some Christmas spirit this afternoon when we were decorating the Christmas tree. She was not feeling it....at all...in the least!





Oh well, maybe next year!

A Carlson? Part 2

Here are the promised pictures of my mom and Cole for further Quinn comparisons.

(Cole and my dad have not changed in looks since they were babies.)

(Apparently, this photo of my mom is stolen, as it clearly states in the corner that it is property of the studio.)

For the record, I am horrible at identifying which family member a baby looks like with any baby. That being said, Quinn most often reminds me of Ali, however, Ali was a baby when I was 11 years old, and therefore, my most "familiar" blood-related baby. So, I could be skewed.




Here are pictures of Cole (and my family in 1982) at basically the same (chronological) age as Quinn at Halloween as they are both mid-May birthdays. Please note, I am awfully dressed up for pumpkin carving, but let's be honest, I have never gutted a pumpkin in my life.

Coming soon....A Sellers?

The First Thanksgiving

No, not that Thanksgiving, but our first Thanksgiving as the Sellers family of three. We decided to do Thanksgiving at home and avoid taking Quinn out in the cold, and to multiple locations. Dalan planned, shopped, and cooked the most wonderful meal. He used Alton Brown's turkey brine recipe, and it was delicious. Look it up next year if you are looking for a new way to cook the turkey. Yum! I just ate leftovers, and I am wanting more! It was that good. Quinn had some sweet potatoes. We had a lovely little family dinner, and although we missed our loved ones, it was special to be able to do something as our family for the first time.

The delicious bird

Foot on the table.

First time in my high chair!

Passed out after dinner

Right on, Dad! That was DELISH!

Later, I hit up some of the Black Friday sales with my mom and Ali. We went to Old Navy at midnight, and then ran over to Carter's and the Nike Factory store. We were very successful! Ali and my mom went on the Target at four am, but I went home, knowing I would be up with a wee babe very early, and naps are very limited these days.

Updated comparison

Date: Mid-June, Weight: not quite two pounds yet.

Date: end of July, Weight: around four and half pounds


Date: end of November Weight: closing in on ten pounds


And Quinn and a six pound turkey breast...

Full of thanks

We have so much to be thankful for this year. I don't know if I can properly put into words the overwhelming sense of gratitude I have for so many people and so many things.

To sum it up....


....I am thankful that this little girl....

....has grown into this little girl....

(12 hours on room air yesterday...Go Quinn!)


Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Nursery

Here are some much overdue pictures of Quinn's adorable yellow forest. I am totally obsessed with owls and other woodland creatures right now. They are so cute, just like Quinn! It also should be noted that I have spent many nights/mornings snoozing on the couch, it is not so good on the back, but better than not sleeping at all.






Quinn looked adorable in her new black and white polka dotted vest from Grandma today! As well as emotional! Or maybe a little Snow White and Seven Dwarfs-esque in it. She was happy in it. She was pouty in it. (Her pouty face is getting better and better/sadder and sadder by the day.) And she was sleepy in it.

Fun

Besides, singing/bouncing/smiling to "Trot, Trot" about a billion times a day, and besides blowing about a billion raspberries a day, we have been up to some fun things.

Like wearing sunglasses inside....


Sitting in the Bumbo, and trying to eat the Fisher Price keys. Actually, Quinn loves to do all things with these keys. They sing nursery rhymes, and the shake. She loves them....


Piper has even been enjoying the play mat....


Quinn also likes to eat her giraffe....

Cute little bug

Quinn is adorable. Apparently, the other day when she was wearing her gray and white striped, with a splash of purple outfit, she was being particularly adorable. I took a bunch of photos throughout the day. Here are a couple.





She is increasingly smiley and fun now. She loves being bounced on our knees to the song, Trot, trot to the Boston town. She loves when it is time to fall down. She smiles so big throughout the whole game.

She also can blow raspberries now, and if you stick out tongue at her, she'll do it back. If you blow a raspberry at her, she'll try to do it back. She doesn't always execute, but it is adorable all the same.

She is loving her sweet potatoes, so hopefully, she keeps up liking solid food. Let's hope, anyway.

I think she could sleep through the night, if we could let her. Hopefully, one day she'll consume enough calories during the day, so we can let her sleep at night.

I go back to work after Thanksgiving. Luckily, I have a great class, and awesome coworkers, but I think I would still prefer to stay home. Too bad my blog has not taken off, and become world famous with tons of "sponsors." Then I could stay home with Quinnie bug. In the meantime, I will suck it up, and be grateful that I have a great job that I really do love.

You know your baby is a preemie when....

....some of her favorite playthings are the cords from her monitor and the tubing from her oxygen cannula.

Solids

Yesterday, Quinn tried solids for the first time. It was a little (ok, a lot) earlier than I would have started them, but our occupational therapist suggested starting them now, for a couple of reasons. First of all, it will give her practice for future eating. And second of all, some kids just do better with solids than they do with a bottle, and it is worth a try. We started with sweet potatoes, and so far so good. I am going to make my own baby food, and thanks to Becca have an excellent method that will make it easy, totally affordable, and super healthy. I boiled and pureed a sweet potato, and then froze it in an ice cube tray, so now we have enough servings for about three weeks, all for about ten minutes worth of work, and a dollar in cost.

Yesterday, the OT fed her, in order to teach us some techniques. We will be using her binkie as part of the feeding to help her learn to transfer food from the front of her mouth to the back. I only took one photo since it was an occasion in which I was learning and observing, rather than snapping photos.

(hands (well, thumb...see below) in mouth, right after her first taste of "real" food.)

Today, Dalan fed her. She did great, and seems to like it ok. She ate well, and then just wanted to chomp on her binkie and go to sleep. Unfortunately for Quinn, it was then time to take her bottle. I obviously had to take the binkie out her mouth, so she started to instantly suck her thumb. Crazy girl! She has not done that forever. After her bottle, she just wanted to suck her thumb some more, so apparently, sweet potatoes turn Quinn into a thumb sucker. (You can also note that today was a bit of a crazy hair day for Quinn.)