Friday, February 26, 2010

Water and Papa

Lots of cute photos this week...however they're on the grandparents cameras! I should've stolen their contents. Oops.

Oh well.

Busy 24 hours here. My dad called me about 24 hours ago "I fell in the park and I can't bear weight, I'm calling 911. Quinn's okay."

I called Mike, Mike rushed home, we visit dad in hospital with broken femur and total hip surgery needed ASAP..no transport back to Milwaukee possible.

SO, we've had some "fun" family planning and changes the last 24 hours and hope the next 24 go better. Dad should be out of surgery soon.

Should you wish to send him a message, you can do so! But he won't get it until Monday now, seeing as that volunteer service is only M-F.

Email Dad (Joe) at PN Methodist Hospital. I believe he's in room 728...

So, Dad was here without Mom for the week watching Quinn and enjoying one-on-one time with her. I think after this week he understands why my decision to go back to work was so freaking hard to make!! The fall was a sad result. So, Mom and my sister booked a flight last night to come out today. Unfortunately all flights originating anywhere north of DC are MAJORLY delayed today...I think they're going to refund their flight (no cost) and drive....and still get here before the new ETA of the flight into MSP of 8:45pm. All other airlines are asking RIDICULOUS last minute booking fees. Wish them luck and a safe drive (or flight).

On the up-side, USA is kicking arse in hockey?? USA-USA-USA!

Hopefully to get some of Dad's photos posted soon...we forgot to bring his camera home last night! He got some precious ones of Quinn at gym class and playing this week.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Adorable

I just love the things this girl comes up with. She's a riot.






Monday, February 8, 2010

Day Off and Birthdays Weekend

Photos from today. After a few minutes of "no more snow, no more outside, ALL DONE!" I convinced Quinn to go for a quick stroll down the block (not so quick) by saying maybe we'd make it to the park. Little white lies...you can't quite tell in this shot, but the snow from the tire tracks in the road were up to her knees!! 6-8" of snow total...LIES ALL LIES! As this was at 10am today. Oh, well. Mike's the one shoveling and snow blowing, not me.



"cheese" You can kind of see her poor "rudolph" nose in this shot...she was soooo full of snot by this time...poor runny nose...and Mama's caught it now too...can't believe it took all weekend of snotty tissues to get to me, but it happened. We'll see how the rest of the week treats me.


And our Wisconsin weekend was to celebrate Dad's retirement and all the January and February birthdays. My dad, my niece Hailey, my BIL Tom, my sister Claire, my sister Kristin and my BIL Bill. That's a lot of birthdays in just a few weeks!!


And that's a lot of grandkids! This was the best shot I got of the 8 of them...and not even a Cosmo, Mocha, Eggo or Killer to be seen!



And the cake my sister Jen created...nice timeline, right?!


Yes, an actual video!!


Week One

Well, week one without Trisha is over, week two begins. Today I'm off (as I anticipated the predicted snow to make for an extra awful commute), and Quinn will have four days in day care this week. Hopefully these four days go better than last week's three days. She did not do so awesome with adapting to the day care center ways. And after just two days she got the "day care runny nose"!! Well, she's still her crazy self, she just doesn't interact with the other kids and the day care nap time is NOT when she's used to napping, so she calls for nigh nigh all afternoon while the other kids are well-rested and trying to make her happier! Maybe she'll catch on this week?? She has a few more weeks to get used to it, so we'll see how that goes.

No new photos, even though she's crazy adorable these days. We'll try to get some cute shots in the snow today!! BEFORE it gets all crazy post-snow cold!!

She found a new love...fruity pebbles. :) She looked at them this morning and yelled "nooooooo" but then loved them. She mixed them with my frosted mini wheats....whatever works for her!!

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

New Day Care

Well, on our way home from Grafton on Sunday, we got the phone call from Frog's Day Care Trisha saying she was in the hospital having a baby. All but 6 hours later, she had a baby girl! 16 days early. No awesome day care options arranged. We had several people willing to take her and watch her for us, but when it came time to make the decision on Sunday night, we decided a day care close to Mike's work or close to me in Farmington were the only two options that we were willing to do for just a few weeks.

I found a great day care, with availability for drop-in and weekly visits, awesome rates, great classrooms, and a fellow co-worker sends her son (soon to be sons) there! So, for the next few weeks while Trisha recovers and adjusts to life with a newborn, Quinn will have new friends to play with at a new day care. They supply diapers & wipes and encourage potty training every 2 hours! There will be 4-6 other toddlers in the room with her, mostly younger, but just as talkative (I heard several stories for the 5 minutes I spent in the room). They try to get the kids out every day, but I can totally understand if it's only a few times a week as it's well below freezing most days and handling 6 toddlers to get clean, fed, dressed, napped and taught and bundled appropriately ... wow and then getting them all outside to play. Yikes...well...that's why I'm not a day care provider!! I can handle my toddler (most days)...adding any to the mix is fun (like the other night when I watched Ted after a full day at work!!).

What else about day care...they offer breakfast, lunch and snacks. They have structured time to do art, read, sensory tables, and other activities. Nothing different that what Trisha does there. But, they have cameras set up so if I get time (ha ha) at work, I can check in on how she's doing and what's going on for a few minutes every day. Secured entrance with key entry or buzzer.

And it's almost half the price of anything closer to home, so she'll still get to commute with Mama every day to Farmington!

My only concern is that she won't get the naps she's used to (going on 2 hours here now) and she'll sleep on a cot instead of a 4-sided "cage"! :) It'll be nice as we plan to transition her to a toddler bed (cross fingers) this weekend when her new room is all painted and decorated. The snow last night put a damper on getting more done in her room, but having today home from work has slightly chipped away at the details. Maybe it's for the best as she crawled out of her crib yesterday for the first time ever when Mike tried to put her down for a nap! Injury-free thank God!

It will be nice to see the difference between a "center" care and her "at home" care that she's been getting. She gets LOTS of one-on-one time at home and Trisha's, but when we go to Gym class and playgrounds and such, she could seemingly care less if I'm around or not. She seems to enjoy the other kids and teachers that surround us. SO, we'll see how the rest of the week goes. I think Quinn will enjoy her time, but we may be anxious to get back to Trisha's, too! I'm still not sure if I'll keep her at Trisha's all four days or if we'll split time between the center and Trisha's or if we'll keep Trisha at all. We'll see what Quinn wants and how she handles the next few weeks. :) OH, and Grandpa R may still be coming up from Grafton next week to watch her for a few days, so that'll put a nice twist on it all too! :)

Trisha's baby! They had a girl, 6lbs6oz, 19", 6pm-ish on Jan 31st. Charlee Catherine. I'm soo excited to meet her! I'll probably stop by after work next week...maybe with Q to see how she is around a newborn ... that could be a reason to keep her from Trisha's for awhile longer too!!

OH, and potty training! Q's in pull-ups and diapers...but the diapers fall apart,tabs fall off...from how many times she wants on and off the potty. Last night she said..."Mama, Elmo Potty Time" so she sat on the potty and I read. About 1 page into the book, I smell...

"Quinn, did you go poopy?"

"aaawwwhhh!!!! MAMA POOP IN POTTY!!!!"
and she just GIGGLES like mad. Then she insisted on going on the big potty...and farted a little more. It was awesome hearing her giggle. I could tell she was as shocked and gratified as I was! I told her should could have a treat for making it to the potty in time.

"Quinn, what would you like for a treat?"

"uhmmm, GYM CLASS!"

SO, we did some tumbling, but we also went to gym class this morning (as we have 2 make-ups to do anyway). She loves that class and running and jumping and swinging and she's SO much better at following what the teacher is doing with exercises and practice moves. It's crazy how much she's learned and developed the last few months. I can't believe how much more I notice it when I'm not with her all day long!

She knows almost all her colors and shapes accurately; recently learning pentagon and octagon (which she insists on calling the "police stop sign octagon"). She knows the number 2 and number 8 by sight (odd choices, but whatever). We're working on letter recognition too...she knows Q. That's something else they will do at day care too. A number and letter of the week.

Oh what else has changed? Everything is "do it self". But when given her pull up to "do self" she wanted her "diaper back!". We'll see how that transition goes!

As for now, time to continue her room and getting stuff cleaned up. I'm not quite sure how the house gets so messy when we're barely here...but whatever. I'll blame the cats! :)