1 Month Old

Quinn is wearing a skirt that Ella got for her birthday, but I thought she'd make a great Flamenco dancer in it as a dress.

My parents and the kids.

Quinn's first day at church.

Lear and Ella love to play with Quinn on her little play mat.

So far, so good. This baby has been a new experience for me, since she has hair and likes to sleep. Neither of my other kids had these qualities, so it's quite refreshing. Lear and Ella love to play with her, but their idea of playing is getting five millimeters away from her face and talking to her. I have to chase them away every so often to let her breathe. We love her a lot, and we're really enjoying her presence here in our home.

More Quinn pics

Quinn's here!

Here are some pics of our last week. Quinn was born last Thursday via emergency c-section, because my water had broken, I was in labor, and she was breach. I was terrified, but we made it through. Quinn was five weeks early (just like Lear) and has spent the last week in the NICU. We hope that she can come home tomorrow. I won't bore you all with all our griping about having a baby in the NICU - if you want details, you can call me. Let's just say that we are exhausted, frustrated, and ready to be a family again.

Cory and I cannot express our gratitude to all those who have been so generous to us with their time and cooking. We are so blessed by all the support we have received. To all our neighbors, family members, and especially the NICU nurses, THANK YOU. We love you guys.

Plagarism

I have a friend from grad school, who in her own words "is a world-known writer (I have a couple friends who are on vacation out of the country) who happens to have kids." I was so thrilled when I rediscovered her a while ago - because of course I lost touch after I graduated. Both she and her husband were great friends to me back in Iowa. Anyway, I am stealing a quote from her blog, because it is so very funny - and true.

(She was putting butter on the popcorn at a movie theater with her daughter.)

Daughter: What are you putting on the popcorn?

Marianne: Cholesterol.

Daughter: I really like cholesterol, Mommy.

Marianne: Everybody does, honey.

I hope Marianne doesn't mind. If I could figure out how to correctly reference a blog, I would. I wonder if IPA or WPA has made official guidelines on that yet (you know, for scholarly purposes).

Quotes

Ella quote: "Mommy, you arm pit smells good." Yes, she was smelling my arm pit for some reason. Nice to know your hygiene is good, isn't it?

Lear quote: "I really hope you didn't use up all the cute when you made Ella, Mommy, so there's enough left for Baby Quinn."

I have no motivation

I have no motivation. There is nothing I have the energy or desire to do but sleep. Nesting is not in my makeup right now - and I hate being accused of nesting anyway, so I'm ok with that. So, please forgive me for not posting much lately. Here, however, are some pics of the few pictures I've taken lately.

Ella decided one morning that she wanted to listen to some tunes - she wandered around the house listening to the radio for half an hour or so, dancing and trying to sing along.

We took the kiddos mini golfing for Family Night last week. Counting strokes with children is totally futile, but I think they had a really good time. You'll have to note Ella's unconventional putting style, which we refined after a lot of tries (it was a lot weirder to start) and Lear was mostly just playing hockey golf.

Lastly, here's a tummy picture of me. I hate this picture. Is my face really that fat? I hope not! I keep having people asking me when my baby's coming, expecting me to say "any day now," or something. When I tell them that I still have two months, I get a lot of shocked facial expressions and stammering apologies. Which is pretty funny, actually. Truthfully, I really don't have anything to complain about. Things are going well, and I am well aware that I am very lucky and blessed.

AARR!!!

I happened to take the kids to the library at the tail end of the story hour. We missed everything, but fortunately they had a couple pirate hats left.

Lear quote: "Hey, Ella, look! I found our long-lost worm family! Mr. Wormy, Mrs. Wormy, and their baby centipedes!" They then brought the family inside, comfortably tucked in a gift bag filled with leaves.

Ella quote: "Mommy, stop playing music! You makin' my ears hurt!"