4 Month Checkup

I took Quinn for his 4 month checkup this week.  He did a great job with the shots, but I hated to see those big crocodile tears.  He recovered quickly and was fine.  His doctor said that by this age the eye color doesn't change much more, so Q will definitely have blue eyes.  He weighed 14 lb, 13 oz (35%) and was 26.5 inches in length (93%).  It seems like he's going to be tall.  Mia is tall for her age, so it's not surprising.  The other evening, I put some of Quinn's 3 month footie pajamas on him.  As soon as I finished snapping them up, he stretched his arms and legs.  I heard Pop! Pop! Pop! as the snaps came apart.  We are now moving into the 6 month clothes.  There's nothing worse than having your stretch messed up, so we'll give Q a little more room in his pjs.  Also, Quinn has discovered his feet.  It's like he's found two new toys.  He loves yanking his socks off and playing with his toes.  He works hard to get them in his mouth.  Breastfeeding is still going well which is such a blessing to me.  We haven't had to supplement yet.  I love having that special bond with him.  I wasn't able to breastfeed Mia for more than two months, so I'm really pleased with the experience this time.  I know that he would be just fine with formula, but there's no need to give him any yet.  The doctor okayed him to start baby food whenever we feel that Quinn is ready.  I'm going to be making his baby food like I did for Mia, so I guess I'll have to find all of my supplies for that soon.

Quinn at 18 weeks (4 months old)

Playing with his tootsies

 Trying to watch the iPad with Mia

Christmas Morning

We stayed at Mimi and Pa Pa's house Christmas Eve.  Thankfully, Benjamin had let Santa know that Mia, Quinn, and Zoey were at their house.  Mia and Zoey got matching baby dolls.  Despite the looks on their faces in the picture here, they were actually really excited.  We had to leave that morning to come back to Dallas.  We had intended to do that anyway so that we could spend Christmas Day with Wes, but there was an urgency because bad weather was headed to the area.  To make matters worse, I had a stomach bug on the drive home.  That was rather unpleasant.  It rained and then sleeted on us.  About halfway home, it started snowing.  It took us six hours to get home.  That's about an hour longer than usual.  Both kids behaved wonderfully though.  No fits, screaming, etc.  Quinn slept most of the way, and Mia kept asking me why people's cars were in the ditch.  I told her it was because they were driving too fast on the snowy roads, so she was okay with me driving slow.

By the time we got home, I was feeling really sick.  I had to snap a quick picture of the kids with the snow before going in the house and planting myself on the couch.  It wasn't fun to drive in, but I'm glad that Quinn's first Christmas was a white Christmas just like Mia's was.  Mia had asked Santa for a very specific list of gifts.  Anytime someone asked her what she wanted, she said, "A bike, a guitar, a flute, and a baseball shirt."  The first three items made sense, but I questioned her about what kind of baseball shirt she wanted.  She said that it had to be purple with a baseball on it with some pink and white.  Santa was quite proud of the shirt that Mia received.  She loved it, too.  When she saw the gifts from Santa, she hopped from one to the next.  She said, "I was so surprised!  I was so surprised!"  She opened her gifts from us as well, one of which was a Cinderella dress.  She put it on along with her helmet and tried to ride the bike through the dining room.  I got Quinn set up with all of his gifts for a picture, but I didn't get to do that with Mia.  She was too busy playing with all of her new toys to be bothered with posing for a picture.  Sweet memories!

Q on Christmas morning

 Q and his loot

A Down Home Christmas

Mia and Quinn had a great time in Oklahoma for Christmas.  Mia commanded attention wherever she went, and loved to play with her cousins.  Quinn was a big hit with everyone.  He was perfectly content to walk around in the arms of anyone who would carry him.  He especially loved it when my dad would sing to him.  As I've mentioned on here before, Quinn loves music.  He was mesmerized by his Papaw's voice.

Christmas Eve was spent at Papaw and Nana Bev's house, then at Nanny and Papa's, and finally at the white house with Wesley's family.  It was a wonderful, busy time, and I loved it!  

Quinn and Kaylee

Papaw and Quinn

 Christmas Eve

 Mia, Zoey, and Kennedy

 Cousins: Shaylyn, Camryn, Summer, Caleb, Mia, Collin, Kennedy, and Zoey

 Ready for Santa to come!

Park in the Dark

Wes had to work the whole weekend before Christmas, so it was just me and the kids on a road trip to Oklahoma.  Before we left, Mia sprinkled the magic reindeer food on the lawn that Benjamin had brought.  We had to make sure the reindeer would be able to find our house in the dark.  I guess I didn't realize how wild Mia was getting as she spread the magic reindeer food on the yard.  When I walked over to Quinn after taking a picture, I noticed that he had some glitter on his face.  Poor little buddy!  With a big sister that loves all things girly, he frequently has glitter on him somewhere.  As soon as we got to Heavener, we left again for Ft. Smith to go see the Christmas displays at Creekmore Park.  Zoey and Aunt Rachel came as well.  We were planning on letting Mia and Zoey ride the train at Creekmore.  It was the Saturday before Christmas, though.  We decided against waiting in the extremely long line for the train.  We opted instead to walk around the park to see the lights.  My camera didn't cooperate very well, so most of my pictures are somewhat blurry.  I'm on the hunt for a new camera, though.  I have it narrowed down to a couple.  Now, just hoping to catch a sale.

Magic reindeer food

 Green glitter, sorry little brother!

Creekmore Park

 Kaylee, Mia, and Zoey

 Mia LOVES Charlie Brown.  When I told her to open her eyes and smile, she said, "I'm smiling just like Charlie Brown."  Funny girl!

 

Finding the Elf

Benjamin showed up in a few other places before Christmas.  Mia understood that he would be reporting on her behavior back to Santa.  Reminding her of that fact was actually effective in curbing some less than stellar behavior on certain days.  She was a good girl this year, though, so thankfully Benjamin gave Santa a good report.  Benjamin even showed up in Heavener at Mimi and Pa Pa's house.  Mia was excited to see him there.  She was sad to see him go, but we told her that he'll be back next year!

Hanging out with some of Q's puppy dogs.

Watching Mia and Quinn from Mimi and Pa Pa's Christmas tree

Checking on the kiddos one more time on Christmas Eve.

Q at 4 Months Old

What with all of the festivities of Christmas and planning Mia's birthday party (that's in a couple of weeks), I have some back-blogging to do.  Quinn has changed a ton just in the last month.  He turned 4 months old yesterday.  He smiles ALL of the time.  Everyone who's around him for any amount of time comments on what a happy and content baby he is.  He's holding his head up like a pro and has even started spending a little time in his Bumbo chair.  He laughs and sometimes seems to be talking (well, babbling).  Nobody can make him smile as much as his big sister can.  He thinks she hung the moon.  She feels the same way about him.  Quinn has also started turning over a bit.  He goes from his back to his side, then takes a little break, and finally rolls on over to his tummy.  However, he hasn't quite figured out how to pull his arm out from under him yet.  He yells for assistance when that happens.  He likes to watch everything going on around him, especially if his sister is around.  Sometimes I have to ask her to go into the other room while he nurses.  If he thinks she's nearby, he will only want to turn his head around to look for her instead of finishing his meal.  I'm gonna make a bold statement and say that he's pretty much the cutest little boy I've ever seen.  In his 15 week picture, he's wearing pajamas that were mine as a baby.  I almost waited too long to let him wear them.  He's getting so tall that they were a tight fit.

Quinn at 15 weeks old

Q at 16 weeks old.  He wasn't too keen on sitting in the Bumbo that day.

Quinn at 17 weeks old.  Such a sweet boy!

Rolling over!

The Return of Benjamin

Our Elf on the Shelf, Benjamin, came back this year to make sure Mia and Quinn were being good.  He didn't have any crazy shenanigans, but Mia enjoyed looking for him each morning.  Last year, Mia watched An Elf's Story about a million times.  This year we found the case but still have no idea where the DVD is that goes inside it.  Benjamin was nice enough to bring a new one for the kids.  He also brought a bag of magic reindeer food one morning.  The glitter sparkles on the lawn to show the reindeer where to stop, and once they arrive, they can eat the oats as a yummy treat.  One morning Mia discovered Benjamin in the same spot on the coat rack as the day before and was confused.  We decided that he liked that spot so much that he came back to it the next day.  Mia said he must have been really comfortable.  ;)

Mia loved helping me put all of the ornaments on the Christmas tree.  You can see that there is quite a concentration of them on the lower half of the tree.  She did such a great job that we left them exactly where she placed them.  Sure, some branches have three ornaments on them, but she liked it.

One morning, Benjamin wanted to read Q's Paddington Bear book.

Benjamin landed on the coat rack two different days.  He brought Mia a reindeer purse with some jelly beans!

 Mia's class at daycare got to wear their Christmas pajamas to the class Christmas party.