11 Months Old!!!

I can't believe that Quinn is 11 months old already.  It feels like just yesterday that we were bringing her home from the hospital.  We've definitely been blessed as she is such a great baby with a wonderful personality.  She's still sleeping very well, even with the teething!  We've only had 1 night that wasn't so great, so fingers crossed that it continues.  Quinn's also very social.  She loves to sit in the shopping carts where she can see everyone and then bask in all of the "she's so cute!" compliments.  She's big on waving to everyone too so that they look at her...I think that we'll have our hands full with our little charmer!

What fun Quinn has been having with food!  I'm starting to relax a bit more with what I'm feeding her and starting to feed her some of our food as opposed to the semi-bland (spice-wise) food that I've been making - think plain pasta, plain steamed veggies, etc.  That being said, Quinn has tried (and loved!) shepherd's pie, zucchini quiche, and spaghetti with meat sauce.  I was definitely glad to get her to eat the quiche since she doesn't seem to like the consistency of  scrambled or fried eggs and I wanted to ensure that she wasn't allergic.

Spaghetti face!!!

Quinn also cut another tooth last week!  So now she has both on the bottom and the top two are definitely not far behind - I can see the whites through her gums.  Her little toothy smile is just too sweet!

As far as crawling goes, she's still doing her funny belly flop to get around.  Sometimes she'll do a couple of moves forward in a "normal crawl", but then it's back to the belly.  She can really move, so I guess that she's just efficient!

Falling asleep at Strollercise

Big girl eating out of her new bowls!

Teeny Tiny Peanut

OK...now what is the latest to report?  First of all, we've made the decision that I am going to be a stay-at-home-mom for the next few years!!!  HUGE decision and we're so happy with it!  I absolutely love being a mom and am lucky enough to have the opportunity to do this!  Plus, later on when I decide to return to active practice, I have a career path that allows me some flexibility (i.e. I could work from home if I chose).

Enough about me...on to Quinn!  Last month we had gone to the doctor for her 9 month check-up and she had dropped off of her weight curve, so our doctor said to come back in a month to re-weigh her and see if she has bumped back up or stay on the new curve.  Turns out that she has decided to change curves, which is completely normal at this age.  Quinn's head circumference and length have stayed on their curves (75th and 50th, respectively), and her weight is now following the 10th percentile - she weighs a whopping 16 lbs 8 oz!!!  It's funny that she's so slight seeing how the kidlet eats like a piglet!

Quinn's also walking around furniture now.  She hasn't yet stood on her own yet, but you can definitely see the wheels turning!  She's also mimicking what we say...it's usually either "mama" or "nana" and the occasional "dada".  We haven't counted any of them as her first words yet...but it's coming! :)

Finally making progress with a sippy cup

Eating out of a bowl...new work in progress

Loves pesto sauce!

Loves blueberries even more

But it looks like raspberries might be the new favourite

Quinn vs. Avocado

So I'm not a big fan of avocado...but usually Quinn is.  It's been a great fruit to have around since she started eating solids - I used to just scoop it out with a spoon to feed it to her.  The other day, I cut one up in chunks and she fed herself and she ate the entire thing!  This made me happy that I had bought 2, although it made a giant mess all over Q, her high chair, and the floor (I made sure to strip her down to her diaper beforehand)...she definitely needed a bath afterward!

Tonight being bath night, I decided to let Quinn at the second avocado.  And she HATED it!  She kept spitting the chunks out.  I thought to trick her by putting the chunks in her mesh feeder, and that worked for a little bit, but then she wised up.  Eventually I just gave up because I had had enough of catching the chunks that she kept purposefully dropping on the floor.

Here are the pictorial evidence of tonight's conquest by Quinn:

My little Shrek-face

Floor destruction

The many attempts to get Q to eat avocado - spoon, cut up with a knife, mesh feeders

First Tooth

It finally happened...yesterday as we were talking to my parents on Skype, I noticed something in Miss Q's mouth.  At first I thought that maybe it was a spit bubble on her gums as she was talking up a storm, but then I realized that her gums had opened and there was a little tooth poking its head out!  Then on further inspection (i.e. running my thumb over her gums) I felt the edge.  Wow!!!  She was definitely a late bloomer in the tooth department, as this tooth made its appearance at 10 months and 4 days old.

Other than that, Q's been motoring around like nobody's business.  She's still doing the funny swim/crawl thing, but it's very efficient and probably gets her around faster than if she crawled the old fashioned way.  She's also very good at pulling herself to standing on anything - coffee tables, her play table (her favourite toy at the moment), someone's legs - and much prefers to be standing anyway.  We've installed a baby gate on the main floor to keep her away from the stairs and are probably going to gate off the other stair access points this weekend.  Yesterday she decided to crawl up a couple of stairs after the cat...so it's time to rope that off!

Food-wise things are getting quite fun - Quinn's eating with her hands now, so everything is a new experience.  Sometimes I'll throw in the odd puree or cereal, but mostly her meals have consisted of finger foods.  She's a big fan of toast fingers and cheese bits!

Too Hot to Trot

The past few days here have just been crazy warm with the humidity (we're talking 40+ degrees with the humidex)...so not enjoyable!  Especially when our weekly Tuesday and Thursday activities involve walking outside with Strollercise.  Both of those days we chose to walk the malls with my sister, so not all was lost!  On Wednesday, we had a play date with Sophia and Alex.  It's crazy that all 3 of the babies were born within 11 days of each other (and no, none of it was planned!).  It's so fun to see them together and has been great to have 2 other moms to talk to about things and get different opinions.

Q is just changing by the second it seems.  She's getting better at eating finger foods, so we keep trying different ones.  Last night we tried cucumber (see picture below), but she wasn't the biggest fan and just kept throwing the spears on the floor.  She might have just been full as we gave her the cucumber after she had already eaten all of her dinner and we wanted her to be occupied with something while we ate our meal.

Half angel-half devil having some cucumber spears

Q's still working on being confident to pull herself to standing.  Most of the time she'll get stuck and then kind of panic...she's just overly cautious I think, which I don't mind!

Stuck but content

Peek-a-boo!

Having fun with Alex and Sophia

First Father's Day and First Day Being Sick :(

Here's the newest update from our not-so-new arrival!

We had Quinn's 9 month check-up (although it happened at 9.5 months) on Friday.  The nurse took Q's measurements and weight...and then plotted them.  Her head circumference is staying stable on the 75th percentile, but both her weight and length have dropped below the 50th percentile.  Her length was 29.5" (I think...should have written it down...I'm probably way off...maybe it was 39"?), and her weight was 15 lbs 15.5 oz.  When the doctor came in, I asked her about her weight and we went to go re-weigh Q since sometimes their scale can be off.  We got the same result.  Our doctor wasn't concerned though as she said that Quinn definitely looks healthy and strong, and that we would just re-weigh her in a month.  I'm sure that this next appointment is more for my sanity then anything and the doctor also explained that at this age it's not uncommon for the curves to change.  She didn't give us any special instructions about changing the way that we feed her or anything, so that was great news.  She mentioned that we should start giving her eggs now (first the yolk only, then the white only, then both together if tolerated well) before her first year immunizations.  It's crazy to think that that appointment is just around the corner!

We've started trying to get Quinn to eat some finger foods along with constantly trying new foods.  For finger foods, we've tried giving her some cut up green grapes (which she loves), some of the Gerber puffed bits (also likes quite a bit), and finally we've had some success with eating bits of bananas with her fingers.  It's actually quite funny to watch her eat with her hands - she grabs on to the morsel, then sometimes it goes in her mouth, and other times she thinks that it's in her mouth and starts chewing when it's actually on her bib or in her lap.  The Gerber puffs are funny too - since there still aren't any teeth poking through her gums (I swear I see some though!), each puff seems to have to take 3 separate trips in her mouth before she starts chewing.  She'll pop one in, then let it drop out, and this cycle continues until she finally decides that they're soft enough to chew.  Next on the list of "to try" finger foods are toast fingers, cucumber and cantaloupe!

New pureed foods have included edamame/yogurt (not too sure if she likes it), egg yolk/cheese (also not so sure), and chicken/sweet potato/apple (HUGE fan). 

The food issue brings me to our next point...on Saturday evening, Quinn decided that she wouldn't be a good eater as she normally is.  We tried everything and she finally decided that she would only eat Mum Mums and a Farley biscuit.  Oh well.  At least it was something!  So on Sunday I made the chicken puree for her to try, since she hadn't tried chicken before.  She LOVED it...so much so that she ate A TON!  Since she wasn't waving off food, we continued to feed her, figuring that she was hungry since she didn't eat well the night before or even at lunch that day.  Well, after we had put Quinn down for bed we were settling in to watch the conclusion of the U.S. Open when we heard her coughing and gagging over the monitor.  I don't think that our legs could have gotten us up the stairs faster...and we found our poor little peanut had been sick all over her bed and was continuing to get sick before our eyes.  Poor thing!  We gave her a mega bath, changed the sheets, changed her clothes, and took her downstairs for some cuddle time...when she decided to get sick again all over the blanket we had her in, all over Steve and myself.  So back up to the bath we went and I called Telehealth for some advice.  I also insisted that Q sleep in our bed that night because I was nervous about her being sick again.  Luckily, she wasn't and the advice from the RN from Telehealth was fantastic.  We only fed Quinn cereal yesterday and she's as right as rain...and currently yelling at me from her jump-jump.

Oh!  Last thing - Quinn pulled herself to standing on the weekend!  So far it's only been on lower things (about a foot-foot 1/2 high) but it counts!  Anything higher and she can't seem to figure out how to get up off of her knees to pull up...but it's coming!

Sorry for the novel...here are some pictures to make up for it!

Pretty blue eyes

Conked out in her favourite spot

Happy Father's Day!!!

In Awe

Standing up like a big girl!

My last post was about how much had happened in two weeks...and it's still going on!  Last Wednesday while at bootcamp, Q was fussing a little bit, so I decided to just stand her up next to a small foam bench for a change of scenery.  Lo and behold, she just stood there, proud as a peacock!  She hasn't yet figured out how to pull herself up to stand by an object, but she'll stand pretty solidly if put by an object.  It's quite funny when we stand her up in her crib as she squeals in delight and her blue eyes just sparkle.

Quinn also has been babbling non-stop.  Her little voice is so sweet and I think that she just likes to hear herself talk...which she comes by honestly!

Another very cute development is the morning snuggle.  Whoever is lucky enough to be the one to get Q out of her crib in the morning is also the lucky recipient of her snuggles.  You pick her up and she just lays her head down on your shoulder, content as can be.  I love a snuggly baby!

Getting into drawers...trouble is definitely afoot!

Making a mess of her bib and facecloth basket

Caught red-handed as I write this post!