Vikings

So, inspired by the day of talking up the "inevitable" Viking win, Q wanted to wear a party dress to Jim and Stacy's the other night.

Yes, even by the middle of the game, Q didn't want to watch the horror on the television!!

Late Day

Well, work is postponed for awhile today as I declared today "clean the kitchen night" at work. That means since I'm no longer hourly...no way am I planning to spend more than 8-10 hours there in a day! So, I get to spend some time with Q this morning and head in to work in time for lunch. And apparently it's a good day to do so as the roads are littered with slow traffic and accidents from yesterday's snow, sorta melty and icy road conditions.

We went to Jim and Stacy and Finn's for the game the other night...Q really wanted to make it through the whole game, but asked desperately for bed at the OT. Who can blame her! She has TWO disappointing loses from the Pack and the Vikes this year!! Mike and I agreed the other night that she can be any fan she wants...as long as she's not a Bear! I'd prefer her to be anti-Dallas as well, but she just can't be a Bear fan. :)

Our day care Trisha is getting closer and closer to delivery...and she'd not due for 21 days! She's a the same stage as another friend of ours who's due in 8 days...AHHH! She's excited and nervous at the same time...all those feelings we all have before delivery. So, Stacy has agreed to help us with day care and I think my Dad still hopes to come out for some days too. Could be a fun couple weeks for Q! And what a transition for Trisha to make from preggo to just her and kiddo to watching 2 crazy kids and her own! Hopefully Q's through her "do it self" phase and let's us continue to help with hygeine. She's definitely going through some rebellious stage.

Oh well, time to go play!!!

Grammy? and updates

"Cookie Grammy Car!!!"
That's what I heard on the way home as Q managed to get her diaper bag off the seat and get into it. Apparently Grammy let her have cookies in the car and they stayed in the diaper bag since her departure last week. I didn't think Grammy allowed food in her car, I'm shocked! Is this the truth, Grammy? Inquiring minds want to know if Q's telling her little white lies already!

Over all, big news in the Born house today. I'm officially a FT dietary manager again...and well, still a FT mama! We've (I've) been debating for several weeks about what I really want to do ... and with Quinn loving day care and Trisha doing a great job being Mom to my little girl the past 3 months, it's hard to get her "used to" just me every day! Not to mention the extra money has been really nice with furnishing our home and retirement (I love thinking about retirement when I've only been working 10 years!).

So, I'm back at Trinity Care in Farmington. The drive gets to be tough some days, but the days I don't take Q with me ... the drive seems AGES longer. SO, not only do I become thankful for the company, but I get some time to converse with my little girl at the beginning and end of every day.

And yes, converse with her. She's a chatterbox and has a million words.

Her new favorite toy and book at day care is "barney phone" and "barney story". We have yet to ever watch a minute of Barney (mostly because what time is it on anyway?!), but also because what's TV?! :)

Her favorite thing to see on TV is "Berenstein Bears DVD!" and she knows how to put it in and start the x-box to watch it....too bad you need to go through some menu screens and input changes or she'd probably do it herself.

She's currently in a take diaper off in her crib and throw it across the room or lay it in her bed if she wakes up or attempts to fall asleep with a wet diaper. We're having some backwards clothes interventions to stop the peeing in the bed scenarios we've had. Apparently it's common....I guess she still pees through her diaper so the sheets change anyway...but it's TOTALLY different than a pile of pee. Sigh... SO, we've started more serious potty training but she still seems oblivious to pee and poop sensations. And she doesn't love the feeling. We've had one successful potty and all night dry...but the mornings are tough with her being super groggy and woken up to leave for a 45 minute car ride. I'm not sure how this training will pan out, but maybe soon!! I've also tried to limit her beverage intake after 4 to 4 oz as she pees a million times more if she gets more than that. She was getting pretty used to milk with dinner and stories and the transition away to only one or the other seems to be difficult. If she didn't drink much all day, I'd still let her have it, but she drinks very well all day long, so I don't think it's a bad thing...trying to control peeing in the bed at night!!

She also requested a "big bed" the other night so hopefully her room will be finished this weekend and she'll get her big bed with a new colored room! Wish me luck with the project!! :)

She loves bathtub crayons and she especially likes to color the bottom of the tub and below the water level. I didn't think it would work, but she proved me wrong! Silly girl.

She loves to cook and bake in her new kitchen since Christmas. Eggs, cookies, bagels and donuts are her daily specials.

She's a little bookworm lately too. I've started limiting her to 3 stories a night before bed as she'd be okay with reading all night long...and prolonging bed time. So we read when we get home, quick dinner, movie/puzzles/"gym class", 3 stories and bed.

Only 4 more weeks until our day care Trisha is due. We're looking for day care alternatives as she could really be out for up to 4-6 weeks....youch now that I'm working, right?! If anyone has local ideas, let us know!

I miss my days off!!

So I took off work yesterday to go to the Como Conservatory and Zoo with Stacy, Finn and Austin...and Quinn of course! Man, do I miss my days off during the week! I really didn't realize it until yesterday. It was the first time since starting back working again that I really realized what I was missing out on every day I drop Q off at day care. We had a really good time with the three kiddos. Austin and Quinn are crazy for each other and Finn seemed to just love being out of the house!

No official word on the work front yet, but we're hoping to having something finalized this week or next week. I'm still not sure what I want to tell them. I really love being at home, but man alive the money is nice! Especially as we're still furnishing our home.

Quinn's vocabulary is going crazy. She babbles ALL DAY long. Most of the time I can pick out what she's saying, but lately I swear she's picking up on the Chinese coming from the nearby elementary school somehow! She's counting 1-4 without skipping numbers now. She'll remember 5 from time to time, but she gets so excited she knows "one" now that she tends to stop and count backwards from 4 before going to 5. After that, she like to skip the odd numbers "five, six, eight, TEN, twelve". I'd like to say I taught her that on purpose, but it's just not true.

She got a Berenstein Bears DVD with 6 short episodes on it and it quickly became her favorite activity (after colors, play dough and running naked).

She eats us out of food most of the time...she's still a great eater. I swear each day when I pick her up she's gained a pound or two...I think we're in for another growth spurt!

New Year

Vikings game yesterday!!! Our anniversary present to ourselves via help from Mary (thanks!!). The tickets were actually in the former Gopher student section almost exactly where Mike used to sit (and somehow we failed to realize this prior to the game, but the tickets were good!) After several self-attempts, the guys behind us finally took a photo for us.


Sorry, Dannie, I tried the WHOLE GAME to get a good Favre "butt shot" but this is the best I could do for ya. :) Dude doesn't stay in the huddle very long!!!



And Saturday, while Mike was on a Dads with kids date at the MOA, I tested new colors for Q's room. From awful purple with even more awful pink to much calmer purple and green. The green is still a little loud...we'll see if I can find something with a new tone.


And one of Q's new Carol coats and sporting her shades too!! She's growing into a diva more and more. Heck, I'm just happy she wore clothes this day...she really only ever wants to wear PJs these days!!


Wow, has the year only been a few days long? I must say we had the most non-productive productive weekend. I feel like (with the exception of last night) we moved pretty much all weekend.

Some Photos!

For those of you who know our back yard, this is the back of our back yard...yes, where there used to be LARGE boulders on the back edge. Yes, the snow is higher than them now!! Crazy a lot of snow...and many months of snow to come!!



Play dress up as Daddy's tool helper! Hard hat, belt, vest and all...she loves it!


She opened Killer and Eggo's present at Grandma and Grandpa's. She actually interacts well with the cats and this toy. Yay good choice!!


One of the best shots we have of Q and a Christmas tree this year.


Q helping take a photo of Mommy.


I think today is the first day since November 21st that Quinn has gone without opening or seeing a present!!! Hopefully she'll get used to not having presents around all the time!!

MIA

Yes, how do you working Moms keep up with blogging?! Wow, life is busy.

We've been in Eagle Lake since Wednesday, did not want to try to travel in the predicted snow on Thursday. It was pretty heavy by the time we got here, but we were thankful we got here early! We had Quinn sled on Thursday (new present from Grammy and Papa) and then Mike and I went to Mankato to finish our shopping! Let me say, Christmas Eve Day shopping...WAAY less crowded than day after Thanksgiving...and near the same sales!

So, we went to mass on Thursday night, then to Granny's for food...and no bed time was had. She was up THREE times that night ... what!? She loves her routine, I guess.

Friday we got up, bummed around the house, late showers and opening presents, then to Granny's again for presents, food, and family. And a short nap at Granny's and up ONCE last night. Still...what the heck, Quinn?! She'll be glad to be back home tonight..as will all of us. Santa left a note here saying Quinn had more presents at home waiting for her!! What a lucky lucky girl . With a late November birthday and family everywhere...she's pretty much had presents to open ever week since her birthday! I hope January isn't too disappointing for her!

As far as today, we slept in (about 8:30!?!) and then had pancakes, eggs and sausage, then headed to the park to ice skate!! Quinn loved to hate it. She was SO excited to get her skates on, then we got on the ice (after much work and effort trying to get the skates on ... these 8s will fit her this year and probably never again) and she said, "no, back to truck! boots back! back truck!". We made her stay out anyway and she even had a smile after awhile. I didn't realize how stressful skating was on ankles, but she did really well. I'm proud of her. And again, we have some cute shots of that on Papa's camera.

My camera is MIA at home somewhere, so I hope to get cute photos of her with her new toys at home. Papa and Grammy have quite a few cute ones that I hope to steal. :) Overall, we're anxious to get home and back into our quiet routine of wake up, drive, work, drive, sleep. :)

Merry Christmas to all and hope you're enjoying the snow!! Quinn hates it, loves to look at it, you get it too close to her and she CRIES. She better get used to it if we have snow until March!! :)

Mo'Most home

That's what she says as we turn the last few corners "mo'most home!"

Too cute. Her vocabulary has absolutely exploded the past few days again...repeating anything and everything...but not too long after she hears it (usually). We've been working on spanish words lately...it's a totally different sound than english and she has frustration with english words she can't say, so spanish is not coming so easily. Guess maybe I should've pushed it harder awhile ago...ah well. The fact that she knows so many english words is exciting for me.

She learned heart and star shapes this weekend. She still confuses square and triangle sometimes, but is doing well with circle and rectangle (how she knows rectangle and not square i'll never figure out).

Everything is "green" again too. For awhile it was "yellow". And a lot of stuff was "white" and "black" this weekend...but she's back to everything being "green". As I've said before, at least she knows they're colors!!

As for now, I'm off to help shovel some driveway (another couple inches of snow last night...and it was never completely cleared after last week's snow!! oops!).

Quinn and Ted Ted

We watched Ted last night and he slept over. He wasn't much hassle though, both kids were sleeping before 8! It was awesome!

More Snow!

That's what Quinn exclaimed this morning as she ran to our big picture window. That more snow is the reason I'm staying home today. There was barely snow on the ground for "rush hourS" last night and no one was moving. About 2 hours to go my 32 miles. Yikes...it was awful. I have vowed to never drive to/from Farmington if there is even talk of snow or flurries. Never ever ever again. Quinn learned lots of new words and we listened to Bon Jovi's "Livin on a Prayer" several times and we were always halfway home!!

Anyway, Q has been loving Day Care. She practiced shapes the other day and knew 5 of 5 100% of the time! The words are really tough for her, but she will point to circles, squares, rectangles, triangles and stars in many of her books and surroundings. She's learning more than I can keep up with these days!

Since the last post we had our first pediatrician appointment here. She didn't know where we were when we checked in and looked at the fishies in the fish tank. But as SOON as we passed through the door to the exam rooms it was "nooooooooOOO!OOOOOOOOOO!O!O!O!O!" and she threw herself into her "i'm 2" tantrum. She's in the same percentiles for weight, height, and head circumference. The doctor was very impressed with how well she held onto crayons, her attempts at knowing colors, numbers and letter, and how many words she has. At one point she asked if she was quiet much during the day, or if she talked a lot. I responded with "i'm surprised she doesn't talk in her sleep!" The doctors and nurses were super friendly and the appointment took about an hour start to finish (with 4 vaccinations, two flu)!

Two Years Ago

Happy birthday Quinn!

I can hardly believe how much you have learned and changed these past two years. You continue to amaze me with how your play changes every day and how many words you know. You have the cutest Minnesota, Wisconsin, Brooklyn accent I've ever come across in my life. And you play so wonderfully with other kids when they are around...yes, you actually play WITH other kids sometimes!

Here are a few photos from your first "kids invited" birthday party, as you will very likely not remember anything that happened today. If only you'd pose for the camera like your friends that visited!

Duck is LOST!

Quinn no longer quacks like a duck. It's very sad as she had the best sounding duck once upon a time...I'm not even sure we have it on video. Sad, sad, sad day.

Some of our party decorations arrived yesterday. SOOOOO cute! We're excited to host a party soon!

Quinn also had her first play dough experience today at day care! She LOVED it!

Also, Trisha sings a "who's at day care today" song each day that apparently has actions and she knows them all and participates each day now starting today!!

I'm even more amazed by what she learns every day now that I'm not with her all day. She's growing so fast...only a few more DAYS until she's entering her 2's! Where does time go!?

One Week Left

...until Q's big birthday bash!

Okay, so really it's more of an excuse for an open house party, but she will have her own hour and half for whatever she wants. Or whatever I think she wants. Invites have (finally) been mailed out. To most people...we have yet to set up our home server, so I didn't even have most addresses. Regardless, Q will have a weekend of fun, I'm sure!

A few photos to share today!! From day care, and they're as cute as Q can be.


First up is Q and her day care friend. We're still not sure how Trisha got her to actually SMILE pictures....



Art hour from last week! Trisha discovered her love of glue and markers. Anyone need present ideas? We could use paper, markers and glue! :) And fun things to glue to the paper! Curt, Christine and Kumquat-to-be discovered her Picaso-like style with the "what will baby look like" last weekend. I should've taken a photo of it...hair and eyes on one side, mouth upside down on the other...ears and nose in some other random spot...again, Picaso-esque. Maybe she remembers the art we saw on our museum tours in NYC?





And her toy of the hour a few days ago...a plastic tub! (Note the various things around it that she so kindly removed before climbing in!

How Drunk Was I?

So, I must say, about 3 years ago...tonight...I was crazy happy in love and smiled more in a day than I ever thought possible.

But it also happened that I had a lot to drink and not so much to eat because my nerves were ridiculous out-of-control. No fear Mike wouldn't show. No fear of "losing" my last name. No fear of tripping. No fear of laryngitis. No thoughts of what was happening at work without me for the third day in a row with many more to come for a short vacation. No...I'm not sure why I was so nervous. But once the photos started getting taken and I was holding Mike's hand..it all washed away and I couldn't stop smiling.

Even as the drinks went down...the smile remained.

Even as Dannie talked about Mr. My's hair...the smile remained.

Even as Nate spoke of...uhm, ooh, don't remember what Nate spoke about!

Even as Dad spoke of his little girl...the smile remained (and the first tears of the day!!!).

Even as Mike spoke of his Oz characters...the smile remained.

And now today, looking at our photo book...the smile remains. I can't believe it's been 3 years. It's seemed more like at least 15! :)


We've had a crazy crazy couple years, Mike, but I'm glad I could spend them with you. And now with Quinn. And maybe some more kid(s) someday too! Our lives have changed so much as individuals and as a couple and as a family! Only time will tell what God has in store for us in the many, many happy years to come!

But really, the question of the night continues to remain in my head...and so many others that attended the reception that night...

"How Drunk Was I??"

Now for us all to try to re-live that night and join us for our housewarming party coming up next weekend. To yet again talk for 3 years about the night we got trashed at a party Mike and Katie had (with the help of their parents).

AND, of course, a very happy birthday to Grandpa Chuck today!!!!

Question Confusion

"How are you today?"
"Quinn"

"What's your name?"
"Brooke"

"Where do you want to go?"
"Yellow"

"What color is that?"
"COLOR COLOR MARKERS CHALK!!"

She's hilarious. I really miss my time with her during the day. But MAN does a day at work wipe me out...and the drive doesn't help much. Although, it allows time for interesting conversations between us (see above Q/A).

And ONE WEEK breastfeeding free. I really miss it more than I ever thought I would. It was great bonding. She's all about her choco milk now at dinner and before bed (which rolls into each other these days). I think weening was the reason for soooo many poopy diapers. I read in a few places even the little changes can upset the tummy. SOO, we're back to lactaid, expensive wipes and no breastfeeding. We'll see if we're willing to experiment with any changes any time soon. The poor girl's butt was cherry for a week.

Now she's "all done clean up" and wants "story book book book nigh nigh". So, time to go be a mommy! Just thought I'd drop a quick note to signify I am still alive...and working more than ever! Yay we can afford Christmas!!!!!

More Mine No Please

Quinn's favorite words.

More blankies
More shoes
More CANDY
More Juice
More pickle
More tickle
More blocks
More Elmo

Mine blankies
Mine shoes
Mine juice
Mine Candy

NO
NO
NO
NO
NO
NO

More blankies please
More shoes please
More candy please.

I love this Quinn phase...she's still cracking me up! And her name was Brooke today when asked. Brooke is the baby at day care that she saw almost every day. She likes Brooke a lot.

She enjoyed walking the neighborhood last night. According to Mike, once she realized she had to wear the costume to get candy, she participated better. :) Overall, we saw neighbors and had a mellow night.

Pumpkins and Stuff

Q was napping upon my arrival at Trisha's after my last (??) day of work in Farmington. Well, she woke up with some crazy hair. This was a shot when she was looking down, but it was pretty much sticking up this way even when her head was up. Thanks for all your great day care services, Trisha!! We've loved knowing that Q has been in great hands these last few weeks.



Last Sunday, we stopped by Jill and Tim's new house. It was a VERY cute place, and Q enjoyed handing the candy out to all the kiddo's. OH, and it was so nice Q, Jill and I enjoyed a trip to the near-by school park!





And, of course, last Saturday was a Halloween/Carving party at my sister's house! We had a blast and Q seemed to enjoy cleaning out her first pumpkin. And since she REFUSED to wear Yoda, I did! She would've been the cutest Yoda ever...we'll see what comes for Trick-or-Treat here tomorrow!!

And I wish I had a photo...but I won the "ghoulish dish" award! I made stuffed noodles that looked like monster heads. Maybe Mom and Dad got one that I can post soon.