Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa's

After we opened up our presents, we motored on over to the Grandparents to spend the big part of Christmas with Quincy's Grandparents, cousins, aunts, and uncles. Quincy had a great time....playing with all the boxes and paper!

Christmas Morning

We are trying very hard not to spoil Quincy. Our plan is to only get her toys that have some sort of educational value. The one exception to that rule is her new "cell-phone" (okay, it's a total fake with a recorded message that is our voices). We purchased this phone for her in the hopes that it would pacify her so she wouldn't pick up the real phone and make bogus phone calls. She loved it for all of one hour as we took it to Grandma and Grandpa's later that morning and it is now officially lost. Oh well.

Her BIG present she received is a table and chair set that is just her size. I stained it avacado green (sounds gross but it's actually really pretty) and her seat cushions are big pink flowers. When she laid her eyes on it Christmas morning, she literally squealed (and I mean squealed) with delight. She absolutely LOVES it!!! She sits at it every chance she gets to play with her blocks, puzzles, new xylophone (another Christmas present), etc. It was a good gift.....

Pictures for Christmas Cards...

Last weekend we had one of our good friends (who has a really nice camera!) come over and take some family photos so we could have some Christmas cards made. The dress Quincy is wearing was purchased during our time in China and I have been waiting for the day that she could wear it. When I finally put it on her, Tim and I just cracked up...she looked so adorably cute and funny simultaneously. The Christmas cards should be good....

This-and-That

One of Quincy's favorite places to sit is in Otis' dog-food bowl. While it's kind-of gross, it's also kind-of cute....

Yesterday we went to the "Pink-Pig" train ride at Macy's. I guess it's a long-standing Atlanta holiday tradition and since we live in Atlanta and we now have a child, we're playing the game.....
It was a little chilly, so we bundled her up in her new sweater that her BFF, Lucy, bought for her for her birthday and headed out....


When we got to the ride, she was more interested in her shoe than the pepto-bismol-pink Atlanta tradition. We'll try again next year when she's a little older and see if she likes it any better....

The First Hair-Cut (and Black-eye!!)

Quincy's hair was finally long enough to take her in for a much-needed trim. We took her to a funky children's hair cuttery in downtown Decatur that we had made reservations at a week prior. I was so excited as her hair really needed to be cleaned-up, but I was also excited as it was another "first" that I could take pictures of for her future photo album of life (Tim thinks I am sooo lame for doing this). The only problem was the night before we took her in, she fell and got her first official black-eye with a rather large face-scratch to go along with it. AND, as if that wasn't bad enough, after her hair cut, her bangs weren't long enough to hide all of her older, yellowing face-bruises and they became painfully obvious (when she falls, she falls face-first). Oh, well. It will just make her photo-album more interesting....

The pictures are before, during, and after-cut pictures with the last one being at dinner afterwards looking all spiffy...

Halloween...

Quincy went as a dragon or a dinosaur...not really sure what she was....but whatever animal she was channeling, she sure was cute!!

Oh! She actually went trick-or-treating down the street (we just stuck her in the front garden for a photo-op...)

Quincy's First Birthday, Part 5---The Cake

For Quincy's birthday cake I decided to actually make a cake rather than purchase one (which is kind-of a big-deal as I really don't like to cook). I ended up making a cake in the shape of an alligator. No reason other than I thought it was cute. We placed one of the fire-works candles that we brought home from China on it. The candle begins as a large, single flame and then opens to multiple lit petals while the birthday song starts playing from some portion in the middle of the candle. She was just fascinated by the whole thing and kept looking to myself and Tim and smiling. We ended up cutting a small piece for her. However, she didn't want to actually eat it; but she did love playing with it.

Quincy's First Birthday, Part 4---The Zoo

We weren't really sure how Quincy was going to enjoy to zoo since she has the attention span of a one year old. However, she LOVED it! (Side-note: She knows how to say three words --mama, dada, and doggy). As we whizzed around the zoo, Quincy kept pointing to all the animals and saying, "doggy". It didn't matter if it was an Elephant or a Lion---to her they were all doggies.



The last thing we did before we left the zoo was hop on the carousel for her first ride. She picked the manatee and was all smiles for the duration....

Quincy's First Birthday, Part 3: The Birthday Breakfast and Grocery Shopping for Birthday Cake Materials

Quincy's birthday fell on a Monday. So, Tim and I took the day off to spend with her on her special day. After all, you only turn "one" once. We all slept in until 8 a.m. and then showered, dressed , and made our way to our favorite breakfast place: Thumb's Up Diner. Side note: The waitress at the diner is our favorite waitress and we have a kind-of-special history with her. She was our waitress at another restaurant on our first date 10 years ago. Neat, huh??



At the diner, Quincy got her very first "big people's" meal at a restaurant: A scrambled egg, a sausage patty, and a biscuit. She loved it so much she cleaned the plate (and I cleaned the floor under her high-chair upon leaving....which is the first time I have ever had to do that thanks to the dogs at home...).

After breakfast we went to the grocery store to get the supplies for making her cake. Being that we were shopping on a Monday morning, the store was virtually empty of shoppers so we could let Quincy walk through all the aisles without bothering others or getting hit by carts. Several of the pillars in the store had aluminum sheeting on them so you could see your reflection. As Quincy is a toddler, and all toddlers are fascinated with mirrors, she played silly games with her reflection until Tim was finished with the shopping. One of the games was hide-and-seek with myself and Tim using the pillar as her "hiding place". Smart kid. We LOVE her!!!

Quincy's First Birthday, Part 2---Picking a Pumpkin

After the hay ride and petting zoo we walked over to pick a pumpkin. I think this is the standard photo-op for all new parents (which we most definitely are).





Unfortunately, Quincy was more interested in eating her rock than picking a pumpkin.


We ended up going home with just the pictures and some great memories. We'll just get our pumpkin at the local Whole Foods (Whole Paycheck) around the corner....



Stay tuned for pictures from The Big Day. Bye!

Quincy's First Birthday, Part 1---The Day Before

Quincy's BIG Birthday weekend actually started on Sunday, the day before her birthday (so it wasn't actually a weekend, it was more like "Quincy's Big Birthday Two Days"...). The first thing we did was turn her car seat around to a front-facing car seat. She reached the minimum weight requirement two months ago, but she had to be one year old in addition to the weight requirement in order to switch it. As you can see, she likes the new orientation! She's a big girl now (actually, at 90th percentile in height, she's always been a big girl).



After we switched her seat, we took her out to the country for a hay ride and a visit to a petting zoo. During the hay ride, she was sooo much more interested in the hay than the actual ride. For some reason this new substance called "hay" just fascinated her. We're going to get her some for Christmas....
After the hayride we stopped off at the petting zoo on the farm. Quincy loved all the animals...she called all of them "doggy". We have learned that she refers to any animal as "doggy", not just our actual dogs. To her, they are all the same. I imagine this is the same with all children just learning to speak.







I love this picture.

Changing Seasons....

Switching gears from Summer clothes to Fall/Winter clothes....

A few weeks ago was picture day at Quincy's school. This is the outfit she wore. She had a beautiful white bow in her hair when I dropped her off in the morning and beautiful macaroni-and-cheese smeared all over her pretty dress when I picked her up in the afternoon. Thankfully the photographers took the photos before lunch....




We have an old, decrepit retaining wall in the front of our house that Quincy loves to walk up and down next to and then climb the stairs. I took this picture not because of the wall or the fact that Quincy likes to walk next to it. I took it as this was the day before I cleaned out her closet and packed away all of her summer clothes. Cleaning it out was a horrible experience (Bridgit, I KNOW you can relate to this) as it was like letting go of a part of her that is so special to me. I packed away all the pretty dresses that I purchased for her in China that she will never be able to wear again. Quincy is growing up and it's bittersweet...

One of my all-time favorite students is a complete nut (as is her sister, who, coincidentally, is also one of my favorite students)! She completely was not interested in Physics in the slightest bit so she would sit in my class and knit/crochet rather than listen to me teach. This is one of the two hats that she made for Quincy....it's also my favorite hat of hers!






Just a happy day in the life of Quincy....she likes cool weather (but don't we all???).





Quincy's birthday weekend pictures will follow shortly....bye!

Quincy's Big Weekend

So, Friday night I was amazed as I watched Quincy cruising up and down the length of the couch. She had come soo far in the previous two weeks. I mean, two weeks ago she just started to stand up...but only if she had something to pull herself up with. And then, around the same time, she learned to walk...but only as long as she was holding on to two things (one in each of her little hands). But by last Friday night she was walking assisted by only holding on to the couch with ONE hand. Then Saturday rolled in.....

Saturday morning I brought out a toy that we got from our neighbors, Andy and Jenny. It is a cart-type thing with wheels that a child can push around and place things in. Just to see if she would play with it, I brought it out. She LOVED it! She immediately pulled herself up and started tearing around the house...even steering around corners and our kitchen island. Well, the love for that toy was short lived.





Sunday morning we woke up and gave her the same toy. She wanted absolutely NOTHING to do with it. The reason? Because she began walking ON HER OWN! OMG! I sooo wasn't expecting this for another month or so! It was a perfect day for her to do this...great for photo ops! Anyway, I called a zillion people to tell them the news. Every single one said our life has just changed in a BIG way. My brother-in-law, Dan, stated it the best when he said that we have just moved from College Ball to the Pros....

Oh! the picture with Otis the dog isn't related to the story of Quincy's Big Weekend...I just liked it so I stuck it in....

Our new blog and some September Photos

So, in the previous month Quincy has learned many new things. Among them are pulling herself to a standing position and walking (as long as she is holding on to something or someone!). When she first learned to pull herself up, she absolutely FREAKED out when she couldn't get down. I discovered this one afternoon when I heard panicked screaming coming from her room during nap time. After comforting her and drying her tears, we worked on "falling on her rear" for the next half an hour. That fixed it---but maybe a little too well. For the next few days after that, she had a difficult time going to sleep as she discovered how much fun standing in her crib and then falling on to a bouncy mattress can be. When I would put her down for a nap, I would just hear loud giggles coming from her room and I knew what she was up to. I LOVE her!!! Anway, that new past-time has since stopped and she is now once-again back to normal napping.....

The latest new thing with Quincy is "teething". Quincy came to us with two teeth. Since that time, she has gained six more for a total of eight(!). As each new set of teeth popped in, we would just marvel as Quincy exhibited absolutely none of the classical teething signs that I hear from other mothers and fathers. She NEVER cried or drooled or became even the slightest bit fussy. Well....all that changed two days ago. Quincy's molars must be coming in...and she let us know in a BIG way! Our sweet, happy baby that has only cried (with us) about five times (standing in the crib---see above---being one of those times) just wailed and wailed all night long and ended up getting only about four hours of sleep due to this (as did I, but oddly enough Tim slept through the whole thing...). The next day was no different. She constantly was chewing on her fingers and she just cried and cried the whole day (see picture of waayyy unhappy Quincy to the left). We gave her baby Motrin and that would help for awhile, but then the cycle would just continue. Thankfully it turned out to be a short lived teething episode and we have our "normal" baby back today. I'm hoping for a normal night's rest (you know, the type that Tim gets...) for all tonight.

















I have included a picture of Quincy at breakfast that those with dogs can understand. That's all I need to say on the subject. Bad dog.







Fall is arriving so we can all begin to enjoy being outdoors again!! (And I get to dress Quincy in a whole new wardrobe.....sooo fun!!!)










Some of Quincy's new playthings.....