6 Months update and Memorial Weekend!

Happy Memorial Day to everyone!! I am so thankful for the men and women that have served our country!
We had a great weekend with my parents! They came for the long weekend, and it was so nice to have them an extra day!

We have decided that Quinn looks so much like my mother. I am going to post some of her baby pictures soon to compare, but they definitely resemble each other. I miss them so much. It was so nice to have them in town. They were great and gave John and I a date night downtown on Saturday! Quinn loves her Nana and Paw Paw!

Quinn had her 6 month doctor appointment this week. Here she is before the shots:)

Our big girl weighs 17 pounds 4 ounces. She is 26 1/2 inches long, and she is in the 67% for height, weight, and head circumference. She's a proportional baby:)
She loves to blow raspberries with her mouth or on our arms. She started saying "da da" this past weekend. Her sweet "da da" was up with her at 2 in the morning a few morning this week due to what we hope is a quick growth spurt, and I think it helped to make it easier when she would look up at him to say "da da." I still swear that, "hey" was her first word. She started making that sound after we would say, "hey" to her when she was about 4 months old. She loves vegetables over fruits. Sweet Potatoes are her favorite, and green beans come in close second. She started making a, "mmmmm," sound after each bite this week. It's so cute to hear.  I made a couple of fresh purees at home last weekend, and she was not a fan. They were fruits though. I'm going to try some vegetables next time. Hopefully, it isn't my cooking:)  She has started showing a little seperation anxiety this past week. It was just a couple of times at daycare and home. I think it is because she is tired this week. She just seemed to want her mama. She seemed better by the end of the week when I found her playing with her best friend at daycare the other day.

I'm so glad that they will go through all the stages at daycare together. They are only 12 days apart, and they are right with each other in milestones. We need to schedule a play date with her parents over the summer since Quinn will be gone for 6 weeks.

We are having a blast with our little baby girl. I can't believe how quickly she is growing! I am definitely counting down the days until I'm out for summer. It is going to be so much fun to spend 6 weeks with her!

6 months and Mother's Day weekend!

My sweet girl turned 6 months this past Thursday!! The day after she started sitting up!

This was our action shot before we had to leave for work and daycare. As usual, we were running a little late:) More 6 month pictures to come after this weekend.

I got my first Mother's Day gift from Quinn yesterday! The daycare was so sweet to make them for all the mothers.

This makes me so happy!! I'm excited about this weekend! We are going to go for a walk downtown today, and then my sweet husband made reservations at Husk for tomorrow after church!! It couldn't be better.

Sitting Up all by Herself!!

This happened tonight!!

The daycare and I have been saying for weeks that it would be any day before she sat up on her own. It finally happened tonight! As you can hear, I was very excited!!  This, along with puttng her toes in her mouth, have been the fun new things to report.

Fun parent moment

So this is not a current picture of the current movies out at the theatre, but I didn't take a picture the other day.

John and I were driving by the movie theatre the other day, and we stopped at the red light before it. We both looked at the movies that were playing, and I think we only knew what half of them were..lol! There was a time that we knew everything about every movie months before they came out in theatre. Now, I couldn't tell you what is out or what is coming out. I'm sure that it will only get worse, but I'm ok with my new priorities.

PS. I ordered my mother's day gift this week! I'm getting an Ergo Sport baby carrier, and I'm so excited. I also ordered the  Baby Led Weaning book to try with Quinn over the summer. We'll see how it goes!

5 months and the month of April:)

I know..I know..Where have I been??!!? We have had a busy last few months, and time has definitely gotten away from me. I'm going to start out of order with my new posts. We are going to go with her 5th month, and all the fun things that have been happening this April. We started the month by going to Mississippi for my spring break. John had to go to Florida with his unit for the week, and it worked out that we could make the drive together. Let me start by saying that driving in December with a 5 week old was a little easier than with a 5 month old:) She needed a little more entertaining this time around, but overall, she was a trooper. She got fussy around the 8th hour of the trip on the way there. The only things that calmed her down were both of us singing to her and watching the Peanut Butter Jelly app dance on the Ipad. I am ok with never hearing that song again!
John left for Florida the Saturday before Easter. Quinn and I spent Easter in Macon. It was so much fun to see everyone. Most of our family hadn't seen Quinn since Christmas. Here is a picture of a very happy Nana with her grandbabies on Easter morning:

Happy Nana

Happy Paw Paw:)

We tried to take some pictures of the cousins together after church. Reese LOVES her cousin Quinn.

After church we went to Columbus to see Jessica and Taylor's new house, and we ate lunch at Taylor's parent's. It was a perfect afternoon!

Quinn turned 5 months old the Tuesday that we were in Mississippi, and I decided to start her on solids. Avocado was her first food. She did not like it that morning when I tried to give it to her. I don't think she knew what to do with it, but she ate all of it later that night. She would grab the spoon out of my hand to feed herself.

I really wanted to wait until she was 6 months old, but she was showing all the signs. The biggest change was that she started waking up every 3 hours again. She has been such a good sleeper that I knew it was time to add some food. Plus her Paw Paw decided to give her banana pudding on Easter while I was out of the room. I came back, and she had it all over her face. She was very excited about the food though. It's funny to think about it now because bananas are the one thing that she hates to eat. I gave her some fresh bananas this morning, and she actually gagged! She gets that from her Daddy:) The only way that I've gotten her to eat them is mixed with her fresh avacodo. She actually ate a whole avacodo and half a banana at one time this week at daycare! I don't know where she put it. Her favorite food is sweet pototoes so far. She is not that big of a fan of fruits unless you mix them with rice cereal or a veggie.
Back to our trip.. She got to see her Uncle Jay while we were home. He is in Nashville for an internship now, and we haven't seen him since Christmas. She also got to see her great Uncle Bill and Gaga.

We had some professional pictures taken on Tuesday that week. I cannot wait to see them!! After that we went back to Meridian to visit with Jena, Will, Mary Evans, Cat, and Grandad.  It was so much fun to visit with them! Jena is due in October, and she looks great! I cannot wait to know if I'm getting another niece or nephew! Jena, Will and Mary Evans came to Charleston for a visit this past February, and I will post those pictures on the 3-4month update:) Mary Evans is SO cute with Quinn!

Happy Grandad!!

Her Cat has the magic touch. Every time she would hold Quinn, she would just fall asleep in her arms. She is also so sweet because she held Quinn for around a 3 hour nap one one morning. Our 16 pound girl can get a little heavy.
The last weekend of the trip was busy with getting everything ready for Quinn's Baptism at the Methodist church in Macon. It was very special to me to have my daughter baptized in the Church that I was raised. I did not realize how special the moment was going to be until we were all there standing in front of the church. I pray that we raise Quinn to know God and to reflect Him in all that she does in life. The morning went by so quickly that I forgot to ask everyone to stay after the service to take a group pictures. So...we have some snap shots of the day. One of the most wonderful moments of the day was seeing Bigdaddy come into the church. He suffered a stroke around 2 weeks before that day, and he had been in Jackson in a rehabilitation center. However, he said he was not missing his great granddaughter's day. It was wonderful having him there!

We tried to get a good group shot of the 3 of us. I didn't notice that Quinn was blinking, or I would have tried to get another picture. At least we have one of the 3 of us though.

The best part about the Baptism was that Quinn slept through the entire service! She actually started snoring when Brother Andy was holding her. The water on her head did not bother her at all. When Brother Andy took her around the church to show her to the congregation, she put her hand in front of her face so that she could still sleep.

Quinn has two godparents, Heath Jordan and Kim Bowers. They were both able to make the Baptism, and it was so great to see them! Quinn is so fortunate to have them in her life. They were so sweet and got her a beautiful cross necklace for this special day!

Cat and Grandad got her a bracelet with her name and the date of the service on it. It matches Mary Evans' bracelet from her Christening. We tried to get a picture of the two bracelets together.

That pretty much sums up the trip. We have been back in Charleston for 2 weeks. We are now back into our work routine during the week. I am counting down the days until my summer break. I cannot wait to be able to be home with Quinn all day! This stage is so much fun, and her little personality is really starting to come out.  She has just started blowing bubbles with her mouth,and she thinks it is hilarious. She is so close to being able to sit up on her own. I feel like every day is something new.  She is so long in the torso that she is already in some of her 6-9 month clothes. I still cannot believe how fast she is growing. It is hard for me to believe all the milestones we are going to go through over the next 6 months with crawling, walking, and talking! I cannot wait! I have dowloaded all the pictures from the past few months, and I will be making another large post for her 3-4 month update.

The Latest

The second week of work and daycare went great!
Here is Quinn with her sweet daycare providers:

Miss Jameka

Quinn was a little fussy when we tried to take this picture. I need to get a better one of her. Miss Jameka is great! She is due with her 4th child in April, and you cannot even tell that she is pregnant!

Miss Candace

Miss Candace loves to snuggle with Quinn. She won't let me put her in the crib when we get there in the mornings. She just wants to hold her and rock her:)

Quinn had a little trouble sleeping the first week of daycare. She would just take 2-3 20 minute catnaps. She has always taken short naps, but she usually sleeps a little longer than that. She is still sleeping great at night though! I think it was just a combination of the new environment and sounds. This week she is finally sleeping a whole hour in a half in the afternoon. This is how I found her last Friday when I went to pick her up.

Poor baby girl was all tuckered out. I cannot talk about how much I love our daycare enough. It gives me such piece of mind knowing that she is in good hands.
Quinn has officially outgrown her Puj tub. She has been taking baths in the sink in this tub, but she is ready for her own bath in the bathtub. Her sweet Daddy bathed her in her first tub bath last week.

She loved it! She loves her baths. You just have to keep her warm:) She officially turned 3 months old last Thursday. Here is a picture from that day.

3 Months!

Of course she had to have a valentine's day outfit this week.

I love leg warmers on her. She just looks so cute!

She has graduated to the big Dr. Brown bottles since she is now at around 4.5 ounces a bottle. They just look huge! She was starting to try to hold the smaller 4 ounce bottles, but I'm not sure she knows what to do with this new bottle.

We are getting excited about this weekend. Quinn's Aunt Jena, Uncle Will, and cousin Mary Evans are coming to visit Charleston for the first time. We are going to have so much fun. I cannot wait to see the cousins together.



We Survived!

Well..we survived our first week of work and daycare! As I was packing her things for daycare Monday morning, I realized that I had been in complete denial about that day. I had thought that I would be fine with dropping her off for that first half day, but when reality set in that morning, I started to feel the tears coming and a sense of panic! John saw my face, and he skipped his class to come to the daycare with me. Honestly, I think he was just as emotional about it as I was. I caught him staring at her while she slept in her bassinet that morning:) I'm so glad that she went to daycare a couple of days before I started back at work. I couldn't imagine going to work that day.  Here are a few pictures of her daycare supplies:

I realized after I took the picture that I put the tag on her bag that has the wrong number for John. They have the right one now.  Here is a picture of Quinn on her first day of daycare. I think her face is saying, "you are taking me where??"

Of course, she did fine! Her daycare providers could not be any nicer, and she was a happy baby at daycare all week.  I love that the daycare is right by my office, and there are only 4 other babies in the room with Quinn. I'm so blessed to have found a daycare that makes me feel comfortable. It helps me feel a little better about going back to work.

2nd day going to daycare



I now understand why parents feel they don't get to see their babies during the week. By the time I pick her up and get home, I only get around 2 hours of play time before she goes to sleep. I'm so excited about having her all weekend! It has made me realize that I'm going to change my work schedule. Before she was born, my hours were 8:30-5:00 or 5:30. That way I could get parents to bring their children in for testing after work and school. I'm now thinking I'm going to do 7:30-4:00 so that I get more time with my sweetheart! Obviously, my priorities have changed.

Loving on her Daddy

She is now obsessed with her hands. She tries to put her entire fist in her mouth. She is almost not even interested in her pacifier anymore. She is getting stronger every day with holding her head up! Such a strong little girl!  We are both working on our sleep schedule for work. This week kicked both of our butts with getting up earlier than normal. She went down at 8:30 each night instead of 10:30. I think we will both be more prepared next week.