Fat Day

We decided to stay true to America and hop on board her ever so popular trend, and gloriously ate our way through this wonderful Independence Day. Our little village of Cornwall puts on a picturesque celebration for its residents, hosting local bands for ear-plugging entertainment, pony rides for the wee ones, pie eating contests for the pudgy ones, a parade complete with tractor pulls and local pets, and food...food you can only get at events like these.

Joe and I downed some jerk chicken, complete with red beans & rice and cabbage from a Jamaican stand, then slobbered a chili burger, refreshed with some water and iced tea, then went for the kill and split a funnel cake. I must admit, we didn't completely fulfill our Red White and Blue face stuffing glory...the funnel cake went unfinished. I know, sad, but we neglected to wear our elastic pants, and buttons were about to pop.

All in all, we had a pretty fantastic time. Especially toting the Quinnster around. She is definitely a lover of the outdoors, chit chatting and gabbin' away with all of the passers by.

Hope everyone had a great 4th. : )

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Shark Bait Ooh Ha Ha!

She's been doing it for a couple weeks, but we finally got it on tape. : )

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Bubbles and Drool

Little Lady is 3 months today! Our jib-jabbing wiggle monster is slowly diminishing her role as a real live bobble head and is getting pretty good at holding her melon up. She just started giving us her first cackles of laughter this past week, AND.... has recently graciously blessed us with the capability of sleeping through the night.

Her fingers and fists are now her favorite items to nom and chew. We sometimes even find her going to town on her thumb.

She'll stare at Joe and listen intently when he plays guitar for her. My favorite thing to watch. : )

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Friends Julie and Dave dropped in for the weekend to meet Quinn and do some hangin'....and eating. (Julie brought strawberries she hand picked from her CSA farm, which we topped with whipped cream for last night's desert. So goooood.) We had a grand ol' time, especially playing 2 new games they introduced us to; Bananagram and Bohnanza. I love them. A lot. And will be going out to purchase Bananagram, tomorrow. : )

We perused the grounds of the Storm King Art Center and enjoyed the views, dotted with sculptures.

Good friends, good eats, good times.

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New Memories

Didn't think I'd ever be so enamored by this little creature of ours. I think I've watched this video a hundred times already. Can't stop.

We've been having a blast with little Q. Seems like she's showing us new things she can every time the sun rises. Hands down though, making her smile is the most addictive thing ever.

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Sunny D

Testing out our new clothes line with some freshly washed diapers. Toasty, sun dried, diapers. Ahhhhhhh.

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Can't wait to eat what we picked up yesterday at Four Winds Farm. It'll be a couple months....but the seedlings we brought home should be yielding some delicious veggies fo' sho'. We got a couple different varieties of 'maters (like "Green Zebra" ! ), some peppers, a watermelon, some winter squash, herbs, pumpkins, oh my! Broccoli and beans were sold out by the time we got there...we'll be on the prowl for those elsewhere.

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2 Months!

We celebrated Q's 2 month with a trip to the doctor's office and 2 swift vaccines. Yay! She was great though. Gabbed with the doctor as he checked her and gave the nurse a couple yelps when she got her shots. She is now proudly sportin' a band aid on each thigh.

Quinn now weighs 10lbs 6oz and is 23" long. She'll sleep a hearty 6-7 hours at night before getting up for a feed and has been giving us boatloads of smiles for the past week or so. Diaper changes are her favorite time to jib jab and tell you allllll about her day.

She's got a new trick I'll try to capture on video as soon as her legs aren't sore. : )

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Peeking

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Post Bath Toweling

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Started a pot o' herbs a couple weeks ago, and they're growing strong! We've got some basil, parsley and rosemary in the large pot, and some chives, cilantro and lemon basil waiting to pop out of their egg carton home.

We're also going to plot out a 3'x6' raised bed in the yard and fill it with seedlings we're planning on purchasing from Four Winds Farm's seedling sale. Nom nom veggies all summer. Hopefully, Q's first veggie puree will come from our little garden. : )

Temps are warm, sun is out. It's sandal season!

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Can't stand this happy face!

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Shake, Rattle, No Roll from Mikki on Vimeo.

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Our little lady is a month old today. Eeesh!

She's packing on the pounds and is beginning to swell with milk, taking on the John Goodman look - skinny legs, tiny butt, with a big round belly. Q loves to be held koala style, belly to belly, arms wrapped around our torsos as wide as she can muster. If possible, she would be oh-so-content in this position allll day.

New things around the room are starting to catch her eyes, tracking it as Joe or I walk with her around the house.

Not too much in the coo-ing department, she's opted to grunt instead.

A once a day pooper. Many an infant will poop after every feeding. Quinn likes to consolidate, albeit allowing us to save a diaper or two during the day, but when she does go....she lets it alllllll oooooout. Poo up the front AND back. Yay!

We're still mesmerized by her.

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I promise this blog won't become an obsessive shrine about our wee one...but, when you get to spend all day with your amazing mini-me kiddo, it's pretty much all you WANT to blog about. So deal with it.

Quinn is slowly starting to elongate her sleeping and eating schedule. What was once an every 2 hour event is now a good 3 to 4 hour party. Burly-man belches coming out of such a tiny body are also a new source of entertainment for Joe and I.

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Splashin'

She looooves bath time. : )

Fire, brimstone, and volcanic baby cries erupt when we take her out.

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2 Weeks

The past 2 weeks seemed to go by so fast, yet, at the same time, soooo wonderfully slow. The 3 of us definitely packed in our afternoons with sun drenched naps and walks around our neighborhood.

Quinn has packed on some fresh weight and is eating like a champ. Ahhhhh, we can't stop staring at her. : )

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A Pro

What she pretty much does...all day. : )

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A week 'behind', and in a hurry

She's here! Quinn Skinner made her way and took her first, quiet, wide eyed, sleepy breath at 1:55am Saturday morning. Weighing in at 7lbs 1oz and 21 inches long.

I had been feeling reeeally minor contractions Wednesday evening and then again Friday night, really irregular, pretty much painless. Those little episodes would last for around 4 hours, then fizzle out, getting Joe and I all excited only to go to bed kinda bummed.

But....lo and behold.....

After getting ready for bed and relaxing a bit, the clock struck 11:45pm and I felt a pretty substantial 'pop' down in the nether regions. I had no idea what the pop was, but boy howdy, the rodeo was now in full swing. Contractions lasting a minute/minute and a half, 2 minutes apart.....1 minute apart.... 2 minutes apart.... 45 seconds apart....

*Internal thought* "This is my first birth.....labor for first births average a length of anywhere between 12-18 hours. How in the freaking world do people do THIS for 18 hours?!?!?!"

Joe gave our midwives a ring, giving them a heads up.

About an hour later, *ding!* time to push! Joe later said he could SEE my belly pushing down. Having been in labor for an hour, the reality of it being time to push didn't even cross my mind, but Joe called the midwives again to let them know the change in action. They were on their way.

I can't even begin to tell you how amazing Joe was. His instincts kicked in and he knew exactly the things he needed to do. Within the blur of our 2 hour marathon, Joe took care of everything, making sure we were 200% prepared to have the baby without the midwives.....just in case.

I climbed into the birthing pool, pushed for about 45 minutes, Joe delivered Quinn.

It was just the three of us.

Just three.

No one else.

It was amazing.

The midwives arrived just 7 minutes after Quinn was born, all smiles.

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Tick........Tock....

What a weird grey area to be in. Huge change in life about happen....but we have no idea WHEN it'll happen?! I can see how this kind of anticipation could drive someone nuts-o. Joe and I have been just waiting....wondering...."maybe tomorrow?"....orrrrrr "maybe tonight!"......or "maybe.....next week...." Any of those being very real possibilities is again, strange.

We picked up our birthing pool from our midwives yesterday. Joe dominated it with his air compressor, and now it's set up and ready to be filled with toasty water to soothe both baby and me.

C'mon bebeh!! We're ready when you are. : )

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