For Erica....

About two months old, but better late than never!

Quincy goes to Court

Last month, Tim and I took Quincy to court to petition for a United States birth certificate. The laws vary state-to-state, but our state requires an appearance in front of a judge for the order to go through. Once the order has been met, we take the order to GA's Department of Vital Statistics and we fill out the form to gain her US birth certificate. I'm not quite sure how this all ends up as we haven't gone to Vital Statistics yet, but supposedly when everything is said and done, Quincy will have a certificate that lists Tim and myself as her birth parents. Neat, huh?

p.s. This is the face Quincy makes when we say "smile".


Quincy checking out the surroundings as we waited in the judge's chambers.
However, she soon became uber-bored and a tad fussy.....
The judge who handled our case was the Chief Judge for the Superior Court of Fulton County. It was actually an honor to sit with her and answer her questions. They weren't interview-type questions...she was actually very interested in the whole adoption process (and she couldn't get enough of Quincy...which we completely understand!!!).

It's been awhile----we've been busy---sorry!!

So, after months of working on our house until the wee hours of the night, we finally put it up on the market. Our real estate agent told us "your house is never perfect until the day you put it up for sale". She was right. It is perfect.....but too far from our jobs. Hence the move.....we wish we could take our tiny-little house and move it to the suburbs, but no-such-luck.
This picture is just sooo pretty I had to stick it in.....
Quincy just discovered pockets.....
Our new lot where our new monster/suburb house will be built.....hey, but I saw my very first blue-bird (ever) here on this day. So there ARE good things about selling out and moving to the 'burbs, right??? Tim and I have been trekking up to the model-house/show-room every weekend to pick out all the stuff that is required for the house (carpet, hardwood floors, tile, etc). Quincy likes to hang out at the top of the stairs and look at all the people on these days....

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.