Two Weeks

There is just two weeks until Quinn turns one, which means, just two weeks until the March for Babies walk for the March of Dimes.

We are walking for....

• Quinn
• All our preemie friends- Carter, Kian, Olivia, Brooke, Macey, and Baylee.
• All our preemie families.
  
• Our NICU nurses, and doctors.
• Anyone who has a polio shot.
• All babies born too soon or too small!
  

Come walk with us or donate to Team Quinners here.

No donation is too small. This walk is all about celebrating the small!

Your donation will help babies who look like this...


Become this.....





Thanks!

Tubie or not Tubie

Last Wednesday, we said good bye to Tubie. Quinn's incision site had healed enough to remove the Foley Catheter (Tubie) and replace it with a button. It is so much nicer. She no longer has six inches of tubing coming out of her belly that we have to tape down. Just a simple button that is easily disguised under clothing. It works like a snap. We open it, attach some tubing, feed her, and then detach the tubing, and close her button. It also means we can go back to regular baths, inside of glorified sponge baths!

Quinn had so much fun waiting for the doctor. She crawled on the crinkly paper. She moved her hand like a bull before taking off the crawl. She looked in the mirror. She checked out the dinosaurs on the wall. She peed through her diaper. Then the doctor made the switch. It is a simple procedure that took three minutes. But, Quinn hated it. She screamed for 30-45 minutes straight after, and this kid almost never screams. Poor baby. It must have hurt more than we anticipated. However, she bounced back pretty quickly after that, and it has not bothered her since.

(Then...tubie)

(Now....Button, button, Who's got the button?)

The Rest of Easter

We had a fabulous Easter. We went to Dalan's parents' house in the afternoon and visited with them, VaRonica, Nathan, Mary Lou, and Dave. Dalan's dad showed me all these old pictures. I loved seeing them, and hearing the stories that go along with them! Quinn learned that crawling in a dress is no easy task, and enjoyed being the center of attention.

Later, we went to my Nana's for dinner. Again, Quinn enjoyed being the center of attention. We had way too much food, and I was grateful when it was time to feed Quinn, and I was forced to stop feeding myself.

Thanks everyone for Quinn's Easter gifts! You were way too generous!

Easter Eve

On the eve before Easter we went to my parents' house to dye some eggs. One of my favorite traditions! We had a blast.

Things I learned:

Ali and I can both fit a hard boiled egg in our mouth. Quinn also gave it a try.

Dalan prefers his eggs white, in the style of Puff Daddy.

McKay has "lots" of ideas for decorating and dyeing eggs, and will willing go over his allotted eight eggs to express his creativity.

A monster themed egg dyeing kit that comes with hair can lead to some disgusting looking eggs.

(Ali drew a Quinn egg.
Last year, she drew a fetus Quinn egg.
A new tradition has been born.)

Thanks everyone for a fun evening!

Easter Morning

Quinn was so happy for Easter this morning. She was all smiles as Dalan carried her down stairs and as she crawled, and searched for her Easter basket full of empty eggs. She was even more excited when she saw the musical table the Easter bunny left her. She really kind of got the whole thing. It was quite fun! I can't wait for her birthday!












***I have lots more photos and stories to post from Spring Break, Easter Eve, Easter Day, etc. I will get to them....eventually.

So big!

Quinn is all about standing. She constantly wants to be up against the couch, her walker, the dog, your led, her bassinet, etc. She can also now stand up against the couch hands free, she just needs her rump for balance in the back.


Quinn and Piper continue to be the best of friends. Piper does a lot of licking of Quinn's face. Quinn does a lot of pulling, and patting. This photo of Quinn rubbing Piper's belly is just too cute for words!



A lot more fun and exciting things have been happening while I have been on spring break, so more posts to come!

ZOO!!!!!

On Sunday, Ali and McKay invited us to the zoo. Patti got off work early, so she got to come too. McKay was doing some plumbing work for the Vala's, so they came too. Seven adults, two kids, and a whole lot of fun!

It was an awesome afternoon at the zoo. The weather was perfect. Quinn loved the animals as much as a baby can. She loved Isaac too. They are pretty smitten with each other. She took a good nap, and woke as happy as can be. She is a good baby! It is so nice to be able to do all these fun things with Quinn. We made sure we most of the classic Hogle Zoo pictures of Quinn. She was sleeping when we got to the gorilla house, so she did not get to measure up to the gorillas. Next time.

My only complaint, the baby armadillos were hidden.

The scale said Quinn weighed 41 pounds. Tubie is really working apparently.

(Sleeping) Hand comparison.

(Her mouth is NOT touching this bar.)

Highway to the Danger Zone

If Quinn was a character in Top Gun, she would be Maverick. She has become dangerous (but she can be my wing man anytime.)

She fearlessly pulls herself up on anything now. She crashes and she burns. She topples toys down. She crawls into spaces where she shouldn't go. She even tried to escape from her crib this morning, I caught her trying to shimming up the rails using the corners.

I love that she is mobile, and wants to play with some many things, but she now requires a lot more supervision. We constantly have to encourage her to be independent, yet safe. I am pretty sure that is exactly what we'll have to do when she is a teenager too. I was exhausted by the time she fell asleep tonight.



She also loves to play with the rug. That isn't dangerous. Just cute.

randoms

Lots of fun and new things have been happening around here, but before I blog about them, I thought I would blog about a couple of photos I got off Dalan's phone.

1. This is Quinn the first time she tasted jello. She went after the cup with great fury. She pulled her arm out of the top and her shirt, and then hoarded the nearly empty cup like a feral child (Romulus anyone?) And yes, this is going to shock some of you, but I have since bought sugar-free jello, and we let her eat a little bit time to time.






2. Quinn has stopped saying "guy-guy." I guess she is over it. Not over the binkie, just the name. She has been babbling Dada pretty much non-stop since them. You can't blame her, he is pretty neat!





3. Quinn has been sleeping well in her crib. However, she woke up at 6:15 am on Saturday morning, and I was not down with that, so I cuddled with her on the couch until 8:45. Dalan snapped this photo of the girls sleeping in on Saturday morning.

A day at the farm

We took Quinn to Wheeler Farm this morning to check out the animals, and enjoy the fresh air. It was so much fun, and a beautiful day. Quinn loved the cows the best, and her whole little body would shake from excitement when she saw any of the animals move. She was full of big smiles, and a happy girl the whole time. She even gave a goat a little love smack usually reserved for Piper.









Later this afternoon, Dalan and I went to a movie. In a theater! For the first time in well over a year! It was so fun. We are such movie people, and I missed the theater. We used the newfangled, futuristic coke machine. I got Peach Sprite. It was delicious. We saw Scream 4. We liked it. I only screamed out loud once. I will probably be scared for a week though!