Quinn is turning one!

Though it's hard to believe, Quinn's birthday is tomorrow. We are amazed at how quickly the year has passed and how grown up she seems. We were able to spend almost a week in Boise over New Year's at her grandparent's house. When we arrived she had three teeth which had broken through - when we left that had doubled, so she was working hard. She was very excited to hang out with her aunts, uncle, and grandparents, though they taught her a bad habit of spitting and she can't differentiate between it being ok when she's not eating and it not being ok when she is eating. She has pretty much mastered the ability to pull herself up and is able to stand by herself without holding onto anything for 2 or 3 seconds before falling onto her bum. We continue to be stressed, over-tired, and busy but we can't wait to see what her next year brings. The picture of the snail is something her Uncle David made (with some assistance from Aunt Leah) using only hand tools. It's her book buggy and is very cool!

Rambly updates!

Sigh. My family is a mess of skin issues. On Tuesday the left side of Taylor's tongue swelled up and then it went away, and then on Wednesday she had swelling inside the lower part of her mouth, and today her wrists are swelling and she took Benadryl and has gone to bed. Quinn is actually ok and we haven't had to give her Benadryl in a couple weeks (since she ate the wheat and reacted...please don't let her allergy test show an allergy to wheat!!!). She has survived the worst diaper rash ever although it seems to be trying to make a come back (we used a few kinds of diaper cream, jock itch cream, compounded prescription cream, and finally an anti fungal that seemed to work)...and we have had to switch to 7th generation disposables.

Quinn had blood drawn for allergy testing and the results should be back on Monday. As we weren't able to expose her to eggs and a couple other things I am worried she is allergic but it won't show up. I am hoping for no allergies to soy and wheat. She has been weaning, which is sad for me and brought up all kinds of mommy guilt, but she is drinking diluted goat's milk (good for the lactose intolerant) and seems to be adjusting fairly well to that combined with breast milk.

What else? She is a super crawler and has even stood up a few times, has three teeth, says "hi", "bye" (not at the right times), "uh oh", and "mama"--but not to me. Oddly, her favorite word is sometimes "dada". She is trying on the "zaza" but isn't quite there. She is firmly in the stranger anxiety phase and can be clingy but is a really happy mellow kid still. The change to the "mobile" side of the room has been hard at daycare. If you are looking for daycare I would strongly encourage the selection of a daycare where the teacher moves with the kids or the kids stay with the same people as they grow.

Here is a picture of Quinn with her favorite great Aunt Kathy. For all of you who have asked Aunt Kathy is doing really well. The cancer was caught early and we have every hope that she will recover without the need for any more treatment.

Quinn crawls

So, this clip was taken last month - in most other circumstances it would be considered recent, however, given the rate of babies' development this is rather old. You can see her perfected army crawl here... she has since perfected her hands and knees crawl. She enjoys doing this most just after her diaper has been taken off, naturally. She has even begun trying to pull herself up onto her feet. It's fascinating to see her development as it unfolds and we wish we could capture it all...

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?