Hello Friends!

Here we are. Almost September and I can’t stop thinking about where we were last year compared to this year. Nola seemed sooooo little and now she’s soooo big (no seriously – we just had our 15 month doc appointment, she’s in the 99th percentile for height and weight). As in…she’s 30lbs and 33 inches.

She runs. No – RUNS! With strong legs and steady steps. Climbing over the hills at the sandbox, the holes in our (new) backyard…the 1.5 inch difference on the floor between our dining room and kitchen. She is brave and fearless. There are knee-scrapes and bruises to prove it.

And she says stuff. Maybe it’s because she has been hanging out with Heideman girls  (vocab-geniuses) but seriously – who is this girl? Oh what’s that? What does she say now? Ok, I’ll tell you.

“Up-down-truck-shovel-slide-ball-King(ourcat)-tall-big-ham-banana-baby-peas-cheese-car-no-no-potty-park-chair-door-hi-bye-more-please.”

Please. She says PLEASE.

There’s more. But I can’t remember them all. Mostly I think she’s happy to be in her new house. As are we.

This house feels like home. There still millions of boxes to unpack. Of course. But we have the important rooms settled (kitchen, Nola’s room, bathroom, our room). And now…we just have to get to the good stuff. Hanging pictures, rugs, pillows- and attacking our gigantic to-do list. GIGANTIC TO-DO LIST. Oh and that list is long. Believe me. But…what are you going to do? There are parks to go to. A zoo to take Nola to for the first time and like, other stuff. Like how I may or may not be watching The Bachelor Pad right now instead of folding laundry. Details.

How can we possibly do it all? I don’t think we can- for awhile. But we’re going to be here, in this house – for as long as I can see. For as long as the cats are happy to sit in the open windows. For Nola to run in our sparse yard, with one ball and the occasional piece of sidewalk chalk. It’s ok. We’ll figure it out.

In other Nola-news…here is a grand photo dump. Our first pool visit at the beginning of summer right up to our latest beach visit this past weekend. For you folks on Facebook – apologies for the repetition. For everyone else…Enjoy!

Until the next time…xoxo

Like sands through the hourglass…so…are the days…of our lives…

Who used to watch that soap? Anyone? Bueller? Yeah, so sands, hourglass…you get it. I haven’t posted in awhile – wait, didn’t I just post the other week? Oh no – that was TWO MONTHS AGO. WHAT?!

Did you know it becomes harder to post on your blog when your baby starts walking and can’t-sit-still-and-be-contained-in-any-way-shape-or-form? And then they start only taking one nap? What? When am I supposed to get things done?

Anyway. Nola is thriving. Doing all sorts of things and is right on track to be the genius/wonderful person we’ve all imagined. She started walking on Father’s Day (a much better present than a picture frame made from elbow macaroni in my humble opinion) and says a variety of obvious (read: only if you know baby-talk) words. She can say “car”, “truck”, “vroom-vroom” (for motorcyle and grandpa of course) “cheese” (naturally, being from Wisconsin) “wa-wa” (water) and goes “woof-woof” when she sees a doggie. To be a complete tease, she can say “ma-ma” and “daddy” but only on her watch, and not upon request. My favorite might be “be-booo” which means ROBE. The robe she wears after taking a bath. DUH.

She can operate our iPhones and send gibberish texts with the greatest of ease all while surfing the web and talking to her peeps. Oh. And she can do push-ups. That part is true – I’ll try to get video. And this year Nola went to Summerfest before us. My awesome party-status has been completely put to shame.

In other news, we have bought a house. Hooray! Chaos and moving to commence shortly…a typical July for the Quinn household.

Until the next time…enjoy our latest pics from Nola’s baptism.

xoxo

Nola is one years old. Well today, she is actually 53 weeks and 2 days. But who’s counting. She is so fabulous and darling. Inquisitive and adventurous. And officially a toddler. One.

We had a small party for her the Saturday before her birthday. She was completely oblivious to the stress I was under prior to said party. Parents – how do you do this every year? You are insane. And undoubtedly, wonderful. Clearly I never understood what it takes to throw a party for someone that you want to give the world to, but in reality, can only give what time allows between work, grocery shopping, doing laundry, and breathing. We did the best we could…and I think…well, I think we did okay.

Highlights:

- Nola doesn’t like cupcakes. We tried vanilla and chocolate. Are they too messy? Perhaps. But she does like Cran-Orange Pumpkin muffins from Alterra. Which we generously gave her on the morning after the cupcake fiasco.

- You could literally pinpoint the moment when she realized that everyone was there for her. She went from shrinking violet to superstar in a matter of seconds. I wish we could have video taped that.

- Nola tried strawberries that day. And liked them.

I suppose there are a million things we could reflect on from her first year of life. I keep expecting to breakdown with emotion from the weight of it all…the growing up…the big girl she has become…the mom I am…the new obstacles to come…but it hasn’t really hit me yet. Or maybe I’m just okay with it. Finally.

Nola is down to one nap, and still enjoys an early bedtime. She is cruising about the room at mass speeds and I suppose it’s any day now that she’ll be walking all on her own. She can balance by herself and shows us some “jazz hands” in celebration when she actually lets go of the object that has helped her to stand. She says mama and dada and shakes her head “no” (where do they GET that from?!? like we ever shake our head no!!??!) and can never turn down an opportunity to dance.

Happy First Birthday Nola – you’ve put us on quite a journey – and we can’t wait to see what the next year brings. We love you! xoxo

ps: thank you sarah for taking such beautiful pictures. xoxo

When we took these pictures, it was hot out. We’re talking like, 80 degrees. Sure – it was a fluke of nature. A formality in Wisconsin really, to tease its residents with a glimpse of Wonderful only to take it away and days later replace it with AWFUL. Now…raining, snowing, sleeting. GRO-OSS.

But it was such a fabulous day…let’s remember it now shall we? Sunshine-y loveliness complete with sunscreen and sun hat. Nola loved the swing. A baby swing for our not-so-little-anymore baby.

She’s going to be one in three weeks.

I don’t know whether to rejoice or sob. Or maybe both. That’s normal right? What a strange paradox of feelings. Proud of her independence and yet so nostalgic for the newborn that needed me for everything. I certainly don’t miss the sleepness nights…or do I? When she breastfed every 2 hours…and now…we’re down to only nursing once a day, before bedtime. It’s strange. I suppose this is what parenting truly is. Never really feeling certain of anything. Except love afterall.

We are looking forward to celebrating her birthday with a party. A small one with close friends and family. No clowns or balloon animals. But there will be cake, presents and loved ones from out of town waiting to witness all Nola’s new tricks.

It should be a good day, rain or shine.

This is how she gets down.

This blog has been rather Nola-y lately. And that’s ok, because let’s be honest…it’s not like folks really care about anything else. But from time to time we get to do exciting things that don’t directly involve our lovely daughter, and that’s pretty fabulous too. A couple weekends ago, I left Nola for the very first time. It was for a good reason though…my dear friend Anne is getting married in May and on March 12th we showered her with all things bridal and bachelorette. It was awesome to see some of my most favorite people and spend some much needed time with Anne who has recently moved from Chicago (easy to visit) to Washington DC (hard to visit). Anne was looking quite spectacular and a great time was had by all. How was it leaving Nola you ask??? MISERABLE!!!! Of course she was left in the greatest of hands…her ever-responsible daddy and her loving grandparents. But in between sipping wine and laughing with the ladies…my mind was on Nola. I’m not sure I’m ever going to go somewhere again. Well. Ok. Except the wedding in May. But after that – staying put for the next 18 years.

Nola is officially 10 months old and is smart, loveable and strong. Here are some recent pics of her standing in her crib. How cute is the Strawberry Shortcake shirt? (courtesy of her godmother Sarah) xoxo

Hello all.

We are feeling the love in the Quinn household. Which is better than Nola has been feeling as of late. She had her first cold a couple weeks ago…fortunately not a bad one…but had a yucky snotty nose and trouble sleeping. Then after an unusually long nap Tuesday afternoon, Nola woke up with a raging fever. My poor little furnance! And then she threw up! Twice! Ahhhh! What was happening?? Babies aren’t supposed to get the flu…are they? If not, then our model is broken. Please let someone know.

What was particularly heartbreaking was that all she wanted to do was snuggle. And selfishly, I loved it. She was feeling awful…and I loved it. Not that she was sick (duh) but that she wanted her mama and all she wanted to do was lay on me. Under the blankets. With her arms around me. Awwwwwwwwwwww. How terrible is that?

Sadly (but in all seriousness, thankfully) this cuddle-fest was short lived. By Wednesday afternoon her fever had subsided and after some serious sleeping, she was back to normal Thursday.

New Nola developments…she is standing with assistance from whomever or whatever will help her. Not *totally* crawling forward yet, but somehow, magically, she can get from Point A to Point B in the blink of an eye. She got another incisor tooth (yes, she has fangs now – I blame Brian for making me watch True Blood when I was pregnant) and the top middle teeth are breaking through as well. We finally got her a convertible car seat and traded in her infant one, and I may or may not have shed a few tears during the process.

Hope everyone has a fabulous Valentine’s Day! Give lots of hugs and kisses to your loved ones. xoxo

Now there is proof. Life is sweeter after naps.

Nola turned 8 months old on Sunday and is quite the little darling to be around lately. If doubtful, see above picture. Brian and I are basking in these relatively calm moments before she becomes totally mobile. Watch out world. We know this will be chaotic because she is already a record holder in the Baby Who Can Move the Fastest and Farthest in a Backwards Direction category so one can only imagine what she will accomplish when she actually starts moving forward. I am already starting to mourn the loss of some of my interior decorating as I know we will have to make some adjustments regarding vases on tables, pretty books in pretty bookcases and other pre-mobile-baby design decisions. Oh well, such is life.

Speaking of life, in general, things are peachy. Nola is learning to feed herself things like bananas and toast and these little baby-snack-things called Mum Mums. She still eats a steady diet of breastmilk and pureed veggies and fruits, but we are trying to give her “real people food” whenever applicable. ie: whenever I’m not terrified that she’ll choke on something. In regards to building her social life, last month I started bringing her to the gym with me where she plays (read: patiently waits for mom to be done) in the Kid’s Clubhouse. I’m not sure if she likes it. I’m not really sure if I like it. But the folks are nice enough, don’t have criminal records (as far as I know) and we want her to get used to being around other little people…juuuuusssssttttt in case she ends up being the only little person in our family.

SIDENOTE: Grandparents: Hold the phone, the jury is still out on this decision. We are waiting for some divine inspiration to give us guidance. So you may still think happy thoughts with regards to our family planning. Ok. That’s all for now :)

And lastly – we have happy news to report! Nola got her first tooth! It’s not one of the bottom ones, it’s not even one of the top middle ones…it’s the tooth that is right next to the front middle one. Whaaaaa? We’re not sure why this one decided to show up first…but it’s a darn good one and we’ll take it.

“If you want to be a Badger, just come along with me, by the bright shining light of the moon!”

Nola is excited to be a Badger today – they are playing in the Rose Bowl. Hooray! She is *so* excited that she put her Wisconsin cheerleader outfit on and asked to be photographed. Obviously.

We have survived (and enjoyed) our first holiday season with little Nola. She overcame messed up schedules and showed us all how to properly unwrap presents. Tear paper into little pieces. Eat. Don’t actually play with new toys. Repeat.

I am happy to report that since her 6 month doc appointment, she has gained 1lb and a couple of ounces and is inches (literally) away from crawling. She can scoot backwards, but nothing we say can convince her that going forward is the way to go. Her teeth are still holding out on us. They’re in there. We can see them.

What will the new year hold? Hopefully a Badger victory and some pearly whites. La-la-la. Happy New Year!