A Carlson?

People are often saying Quinn looks like my side of the family. Some even swear up and down, she looks just like her G-Daddy, Red. Here are some pictures of Quinn, my dad, me, and Ali. (Pictures of my mom and Cole to come.) You can be the judge.

(Mind you Ali probably weighed double what Quinn does by the time she was three months old.)

Mind your p's and q's

Quinn has really been noticing Piper lately. Maybe the more we put her in her Bumbo, the more she is on the same level as the dog, the more she notices/interacts. Yesterday, she was sticking out her hand for Piper to lick, and then smiling and giggling, and doing it all again. Piper loves to lick Quinn. Quinn loves to watch Piper. Piper also loves french fries, which is how I got her to pose for these pictures....with the promise of fries.


p.s. The ultimate Piper/Quinn pictures coming in the next few weeks. I am so excited. I can hardly wait!

Happy Half Birthday

Dear Quinn,

Today you turned six months old. (i.e. it is your half birthday, you'll soon learn that they are a big deal around here.) A half of a year has gone by since your dramatic entrance to the world. Wow! I can't decide if time has flown by, or crept slowly along. Both, I guess. That first month was excruciatingly slow. The last six weeks that I have been on maternity leave has gone by in a blink of an eye. The rest went somewhere in the middle.

You have accomplished so much in the last six months.

1. You survived, despite the odds working against you.
2. You are more than ten times your birth weight (440 grams to 4470 grams plus).
3. You are more than double your birth length.
4. You smile, coo, and giggle.
5. You can hold your head up, and sit in your Bumbo.
6. You've rolled over on a few occasions, and are working hard on making it part of your routine.
7. You are happy and sweet (except when your alter ego "Romulus" makes an appearance, and then you act like a wild, feral wolf child.)
8. You are a fashionista.
9. You are loved the world around.
10. You love your toys, mobile, swings, and hands.

We are crazy in love with you! You are the best baby in the world, and we are so thankful and lucky to have you as our daughter!

Love,
Mama

Hands

Quinn has really discovered her hands as of late. She loves to stare at them. She rolls them. She uses them to knock her cannula out of her nose. She chews on them. Mainly though, she stares at them. Last night, she was sound asleep, but then I heard her oxygen alarm going off, and could hear her grunting on the monitor. I found her in her room staring at her hands in the dark and happily kicking her legs (which can cause her oxygen alarms to go off, since the censor is on her foot).

Toupee

Quinn's hair is now starting to look like a bad toupee. The top is getting more unruly, thick, and long, while the sides and back stay unchanged. To me her hair is a mix of Donald Trump, Don King, and a Who from a Dr. Suess book.

She seriously looks like a cray cartoon character in this picture between the hair, and the goofy face she is making!

Daddy, Doggy, and Boppy

Here are some cute photos of Quinn and Dalan....


Here are some cute photos of Piper and Quinn during tummy time...


And Quinn and her boppy, listening to Pandora on mommy's phone.....

Woombie

Quinn likes to be swaddled, but we lack a good swaddling blanket. All the ones we have are either too small or too large. Ali found this product, the Woombie, that is like a swaddle/straight jacket for babies. It was a little too much money from the actual Woombie site to try out for my liking, but then it was on babyhalfoff.com a few weeks later, so I got one. We tried it out this week to mixed results. Quinn seemed to like being so snug in the tight, stretchy material, but hated not having access to her hands. It was like torture. I think it would have been better if we would have started it from the beginning rather than 6 months later. I am going to give it one more try, and possibly pass it on to my friend Sierra who is due in two weeks!

Here I'll let the photos tell the true story of our Woombie attempt:

First moments in the Woombie....she is doing alright.

Then, she quickly fell asleep.
You can see her trying to have her hands against her face.

Next, she totally freaked out...no photos of that.

Then she quickly fell back to sleep, unzipped, but still in the Woombie.

So, I zipped it almost all the way up, but left her hands free.

And put her back in her crib....

And she slept for about an half an hour until her hands got stuck, and she freaked out. I got her back to sleep for about another hour until her hands got stuck, and she freaked out. So, I changed her into some normal jammies. We'll try again later this week, and let you know.