Happy Halloween!

Quinn was still feeling a little sick today but we were able to enjoy a walk through the village where all the shops were handing out candy and they had some face painting, photography, and other fun activities. Hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween!

Quinn's two S activities

So, Quinn and I just finished the third of three sign language classes at our local community center. The first week's topic was food signs, the second week's was action words and this last one was animals. It's really amazing how many of the signs we covered in class pertain to our day-to-day life - even the animal ones! I hadn't realized the number of animals depicted in children's books before - it's apparently a popular theme. Our other S activity is swimming lessons. We have gone for two weeks now and have another lesson tomorrow, though we may not attend because she ran a fever of 102.7 this morning and came home early from daycare. She responded well to my regime of medicine, food, liquids, and sleep but we're still not sure if taking her tomorrow is the best idea. There are a total of nine lessons this session. She seems to really love the water and does not mind in the least to have water on her face... she doesn't even mind my putting her face in the water. It's really neat to see the other children in her class respond differently, there's certainly a range of comfort levels represented by the group of 7 or 8 kids, of whom, Quinn is among the youngest. We are going to be starting another music class soon, but Megan assures me it won't be anything like our last music class and recitals will NOT be a requirement. I'm holding her to that.
Here's a picture of Quinn in her swim outfit, unfortunately, it's a little bit small. We'll have to look around for another one soon.----Taylor

Quinn's 9 month checkup appointment

Quinn had her 9 month appointment last week. She is still in the 95th percentile for height, in the 75th for head circumference, and had dropped a lot to the 45th percentile for weight. The pediatrician was not that concerned as we explained Quinn loves to eat and eats a lot (and nurses too!) but will not want to see it go down at all by her next appointment. Our theory is that this is because she had a growth spurt a couple weeks ago and got quite a bit longer! I am a little worried but know that she is fine. We are adding some flax seed oil to her diet, we can start some proteins, and we are increasing her iron fortified cereal as her iron is a little low. We did decide to get her the swine flu vaccine as our pediatrician by some miracle had some. It was a little bit of a debate as Quinn is on a slow vaccine schedule and we weren't planning on giving her this but after some discussion with the pediatrician felt it was a good thing to do. She will need to go back on about a month for the two vaccines that she would have gotten at this appointment but can't be given with the swine flu vaccine. So we are finishing the first round of beans and lentils...we have been a little disappointed with them, so I am going to have to find some of my own recipes! Oh, also we were referred to a pediatric naturopath who is somewhat of an allergy and food sensitivity specialist and will make an appointment soon. I will keep you all updated.

Oh San Francisco, we do love you!

We took our first plane trip with baby for my birthday trip to San Francisco. Anyone who knows me knows that I usually have to drug the crap out of myself to get on a plane. Since I am breastfeeding I obviously can't go the pharmaceutical route so decided to have a hypnotherapy session with the woman that did our hypnobirthing class...not really holding out much hope that it would be effective. I am now a big believer! Taylor will vouch for the fact that I was the calmest I have ever been on a plane (without drugs...with them, I am practically comatose). Quinn was a fabulous traveler and fell asleep before take off on the way there and was really chilled out on the way back. Taylor even managed to make small talk (which she hates) with the over-sharing woman next to her.

Our trip was fabulous, we saw some of our favorite places and people. Unfortunately we didn't always get to spend as much time as we had wanted (so sorry Sarah and Alex!) but it made us very nostalgic for the time we lived there. One of the best parts was spending some time with our friends April and Jake and their son and their nephew (we were a big group!) at the Academy of Sciences...amazing! Quinn was so moved that she donated her pacifier to the albino alligator's swamp. A biologist had to be paged and we politely turned down the offer of its return. I also had a wonderful birthday party with the above group and my friend Cindy who braved the drive to join us for the Mel's diner extravaganza.

I did have a moment (okay we had several) of really considering what it would be like to move back to San Francisco. There is such a great vibe and such amazing diversity in the city. Diversity in terms of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, etc. etc. I wondered if we are denying Quinn a richer cultural experience by living in Portland. Don't get me wrong, I love Portland but there is something about San Francisco. Hmmm something to think about. Thoughts?