It was a year like none other for me. It was the first time in my life that I did not spent Christmas with my parents. It had long been a request of Jake’s, even before Quinn was born — that he wanted us to have our first family Christmas, together, in our house. I was both excited and a bit sad at the idea. And while I know that as a family we will spend many many more holidays seasons with my parents, this year was a passage into the next season in our life. I was happy to be able to celebrate the holidays, with just us and our new family.

Christmas morning came and we plopped Quinn down in front of her gifts and let me say, this girl knows what to do when you put paper in front of her. She happily tore the gift wrapping off and was thrilled at the prospect of all of this delicious paper. Luckily, what was inside the colorful paper was a good distraction from her unending pulp cravings. She loves her new toys and is especially thrilled with this one and this one.

While the day started out almost like any other day, it quickly got into full swing. I began preparing our first family turkey.  Thanks to Arctic Blast 2008, the city of Portland had been basically shutdown for the past 5 days. However in spite of the weather, we invited Jake’s folks over for dinner. And there was no way his parents were going to set a rubber tire on the roads, but Jake was more than happy to venture out in the all wheel drive Volvo.

It was during this time that Jake was gone, I checked on the little 13 pounder turkey and had a momentary freak-out when I saw the little “button” had popped out. WHAT DO I DO? WHAT DO I DO? After being unable to reach Jake or his parents by phone to have them answer this question, I took a couple of deep breaths and got my bearings. I placed the ever hovering baby in her highchair (who can by the way say “HOT” but does not yet really know what “HOT” means), and took the bird out of the oven. I double checked the temp with our trusty thermometer and sure enough, it was ready to devour.  Jake returned with his parents and we had a great time. I don’t think I was ever so excited to see family members. Being cooped up in the house for over 7 days straight was really wearing on me.

Our Christmas continued yesterday when we headed over to my in-laws for a celebration with Jake’s brothers family. Quinn had a blast, despite barely napping prior to the event. She is in awe of her older cousins, and loves watching them run circles around her. The day was not without it’s baby milestone either. Quinn took 5 steps on her own. And can I just say that it was very cool of her to tackle such a milestone in front of many family members. We kept trying to get her to take more steps, but she’d do the baby-lung-forward thing where she just falls into whoever is closest to her.  But still, she did walk on her own.

So today is Sunday and the Christmas celebrations are finally over and done with. Even more importantly, the snow is FINALLY melting, which I am very thrilled about. I can now continue my rigorous routine of running to Target for a never ending need of baby diapers, wipes & other miscellaneous super essential must have items.

So where she used to remind me of a delicate little wall flower, she now reminds me more of Wile E. Coyote, creating a path of destruction wherever she goes.  Her destruction is two-fold, one part: curiosity, second part: unsteadiness.  She crawls at an alarming pace which is fine, however once she reaches her final destination — usually my shins, she pulls herself up on my pantlegs and wobbily stands as if she’s walking a tight rope and is about to lose it.

Her sole purpose in life right now can be summed up below:

1. Stand at whatever object is near her, then reach out to the next object and *fall* towards it, hoping she is still standing. Result: Potentially could land flat on her face, kissing the hardwoods.

2. Find a bookshelf and pull books off one-by-one. Result: Cries when one hits her toe.

3. Making her way to the potted Palm Plant, pulling off little pieces of the bark and trying to eat them. She also loves to grab handfuls of dirt and toss them on the floor. Result: Get’s pissed when I remove her from this activity, usually cries.

4. Pulling wipes out of the container, one-by-one. Result: She pulls one out, I quickly shove it back in, so the game can continue and so we don’t have a pile of unused wipes that need to be tossed. Yes, I pick my battles.

5. Find a drawer and remove all contents inside. Her dresser drawer is the best for this activity, as her clothes are small and can be removed easily. Result: Her bedroom is usually very messy with clothes and such strewn across the floor at any given moment of each day. I also have given up on keeping her clothes folded “nicely” in the bottom drawer.

6. To find me, lurking somewhere, out of her view. When she’s sitting playing, I quietly exit the room to complete some luxurious task like *peeing* (I know, how dare I). However within moments her little Mommy Radar goes off and she’s on the move. Result: She reaches me before my *task* at hand is complete.

These six activities, plus the 500 I’m forgetting to mention, happen everyday, throughout the day.  Multiply these activities by her unsteadiness, clumsiness and her unearthly amount of curiosity and you’ve got a day in the life of Quinn and Christine. Which when I think about it, I am completely and utterly amazed at how quickly these little blobs calm infants, become little people. She amazes me with what she knows. She amazes me with her personality which is full of energy, spunk and this undying determination. She loves to make Jake and I laugh with her little games of saying “ahhhhh” after taking a drink of water, or copying how we chew our food — she chomps her gums/teeth together loudly. The little person that she’s becoming makes any amount of exhaustion that I feel at the end of the day, so worth it.

Anyway, we brought it home and this is how the evening went…

Near dinnertime, Jake said he was heading out for a quick errand. I quickly bogarted his “outing” and asked, if Quinn and I could tag along and pick up a tree while we’re out. He agreed with little reluctance. Here are Quinn and I, sitting in the car, waiting for Jake while he popped into the grocery store.

Here he is walking back to the car, clearly beginning to regret this decision.

I brought along the camera so I could document the actual “picking out the tree” process, but I forgot. So, after the tree was in the car, and Jake was paying, I quickly snapped this photo of the tree lot from the entrance. Lame.

This was a two night process by the way. So the following night I brought up the decorations and let Quinn bless them all with baby slobber.

While waiting for Jake to finish work, Quinn and I passed the time waiting for the Tree trimming ceremony. This is a game I like to call, mommy-is-a-jungle-gym-and-baby-climbs-all-over-me.

Further photographic evidence of me being a human jungle gym. Look at the rage in her eyes folks. Somebody save me.

By the way, you’ll see that the tree is lit in the back ground… I had covered it in lights earlier that day, as well as some straight up MacGyver style baby proofing.

Bungee cords wrap the tree, which wraps around this exceptionally heavy table. All is covered in a holiday table cloth, which I’m re-purposing as a tree skirt. Which by the way, is a little money saving tip. Tree skirts are ridiculously expensive. I picked up this table cloth at Joann Fabrics for 11.99. The tree skirts were $50. Anyway, my baby proofing seems to be working. It would take much force for Quinn to tip this entire unit over.

Let the trimming begin. Jake let Quinn select which ornament to place on the tree… I have not yet purchased a “baby’s first Christmas” ornament.

Trimming complete. Mandatory family photo, which actually turned out good. And by good, I mean, we’re all looking at the camera and baby is smiling! (”Good” in no way references the actual quality of the photograph, as this camera and I are barely on speaking terms.) Did I mention this is what I want for Christmas?

Behold, the Olsen Family Christmas Tree 2008. Happy holidays!

The next we boarded the train for my parents house (my new favorite mode of transportation with baby in tow). While the train was loooonnnggg (6 hours), it does provide us with the “freedom” that little miss Quinn seems to enjoy. She was entertained by the passing scenery, unfamiliar faces smiling at her and of course the red “Emergency” handle at the base of our window.  She was a gem during the ride and the most exciting part actually had nothing to do with her.

The three of us were stretching our legs in the vestibule (the sections between the cars where bathrooms & doors are located). We spotted the “handicapped” bathroom and I decided to take advantage. It’s this great big bathroom with this fancy door that is automated. You push on the handle once to open/close and and vvvwallla… like magic the door SLOWLY opens and shuts. Anyway, I was taking care of “business”, taking special care to not let one inch of my skin touch the filthy toilet when the large door begins to SLOWLY open and a strange man is standing there. He yelled “OOPS” and walked away as I tried to close the door while saying “OH MY GOSH, OH MY GOSH, OH MY GOSH”… Of course the door could not close quickly, so my backside was on display for what felt like 5,000,000 seconds. When the door finally shut, Jake who was standing just out of eye shot, realized what had happened he yelled, “YOU’VE GOT TO LOCK THE DOOR”. Good grief, it was horrifying to say the least. My apologies to the poor guy. Anyway, lesson learned.

****

There was a huge family gathering the following day at my parents house, and by huge, I’d say about 40 close relatives. I was excited for Quinn to be able to play with some of her other baby cousins and watch the other kids run wild. I knew the day was a bit “off” when she shorted herself a nap for that day. A baby operating on minus 1 nap already puts you in the negative.

The party was in full swing and if there was one piece of entertainment for these 40 people, it was the babies. At this party there were 2, including Quinn. The second chubby-cheeker was my 2nd cousin Hailey who is 6 weeks younger than Quinn. The aunts and cousins where all over these babies, as they should be, and while Quinn tried to make an attempted to be social. She just wasn’t havin’ it. She became ultra-clingy to me and very fussy. Even the attempts to have Daddy hold her were an exercise in futility. She’d just whine and cry for me — reaching those little chubby arms out in my direction. I felt bad for her as I could tell she just wasn’t enjoying herself.

She made it through the evening and as soon as the last person left it was time for a bath, in which she brightened up about 100%. In the hour leading up to her bedtime, I couldn’t keep her quiet. She was so excited, talking up a storm.

Slowly but surely she’ll learn to love those family gatherings — in fact, I predict this time next year, the tears will be flowing when she see’s the last cousin head for the door.

****

The rest of our time up north was great, but went by too quickly. I was able to squeeze in some time with my good friend Cassandra and her daughter Addision and Quinn got some good quality time with Grandma & Grandpa Lint.

This day was wonderful from start to finish. I love that Quinn is really coming into her own and developing more and more personality as each day passes.  I loved just hanging out with my family. Laughing, telling stories and just relaxing. Perfect. Perfect. Day. Period.

It was a few days ago when Quinn finally figured out that magical limb coordination that changed her from a reliable blob on the floor, to hell-on-wheels. Well, hell-on-wheels is an exaggeration as her crawl is still on the sloppy side. Her arms move in the traditional “crawling” position and move accordingly, however her legs do a very strange shuffle that somehow propel her forward. Her legs are a mix between a traditional crawl/bear crawl/military crawl. She’ll focus on an object she wants, which is usually around 4-5 Quinn lengths away.  She’ll then lunge forward and proceed with caution. She will crawl only as far as she thinks she needs to then sits herself up. If she comes up short, she repeats. I’m calling this crawling. She has not yet set her sights on anything too far away… for instance, me in the other room. She’ll lunge in my direction, then just stare in my direction and whine while I shout bits of encouragement to her… “come on Quinn”… “keep crawling”… “come get mommy…” The encouraging words don’t seem to be creating much action yet as they seem to just remind her that I’m in the other room and NOT picking her up.  Which reminds me that I need to use this time, before she is actually hell-on-wheels, to finish baby-proofing the house.

My big dilemma/question is, what do I do with the evil cat litter box? Our house is simply not large enough to conveniently store it out of baby’s reach, yet within kitty-cat reach. I’m contemplating placing it on the back-porch, but that would require us to install a cat-door which I’m not crazy about. Any ideas?

I Stand Alone

Along with this skill is her new found desire to stand ALL THE TIME. This as well as pulling herself up and stand at whatever is close… the couch, a chair, coffee table, my legs. She carefully pulls herself up, then lets go so she’s standing alone. One of three things happen at this point, she either (1) falls on her butt, (2) she falls towards the object that she was holding, or (3) falls all the way to the floor and hits her head. Even though she is often brought to tears when she falls, she is so determined to stand alone, that once the water-works have stopped, she goes right back to this activity.

Climbing Stairs

Quinn loves to stand on the stairs and look up, as she tries to figure out, where daddy’s voice is coming from. His office is upstairs and he can be heard but not seen. I’m afraid I’ve created a bad habit because, she is officially bored with standing at the stairs and banging on the steps… She now climbs up the stairs. Unbeknownst to her, she needs my help to complete this activity, however I don’t do much except hold her back, so she doesn’t fall backwards. As we reach the summit, I can tell her little legs get tuckered out, so I’ll give her a little push on her butt. She is beyond proud of herself when she reaches to top. It’s hilarious seeing this little blob of a person make their way up our 13 steps. I think she’s going to be a bit disappointed when I put that baby gate up.

Vo-cab Comprend-o

Her current word comprehension list is:Mommy. Daddy. Kitty-Cat. Bird. Dog. She may be comprehending much more than this, however, when I say these words to her she clearly understands. For example when I say “where’s the bird?” She looks up in the sky, trying to spot one. When I say “Where’s the kitty?” She quickly scans the room, looking for Maya the cat. This whole word comprehension thing is so fascinating and I know that if you don’t have children this probably won’t blow you away as it has Jake and I. But seriously people, I don’t know what could be more fascinating than watching your child learn one new thing after another. It’s an amazing gift.

And with that I’m off to wipe a snotty-nosed-afro-bedhead baby.

After almost 3 weeks of playing this game, I finally realized… things were not going back to the way they were. (Hey, listen, I never said I was quick on the uptake…) I returned the box of work, 2/3rd’s complete, said my goodbyes and my “yes, we’ll be coming back to visit often” remarks and off we went. A very anticlimactic ending to something that has been the constant in my life for over 8 years.

It was a couple of days later that I began feeling sad about ending the nearly perfect situation with my employer. While I only went in once a week to return/collect more work, that visit, plus watching the stream of department emails come and go, was my lifeline to the “working” world. The last morsel of my “old” self. I tried to log into my work email in the hopes that someone forgot to disable my account but…  I no longer existed. I spoke to Jake about it and he said what most guys (dudes, sorry for generalizing) would say, “I thought this is what you wanted”. I replied with, “yes it is, but, I’m still sad about it.” I know you’re probably familiar with this predictable male-to-female conversation format that occurs on a semi-regular basis in our house (man hears woman declare feelings, man gives solution, woman doesn’t WANT solution, she just wants him to LISTEN. Man can’t JUST listen, must give ACTION, SOLUTION, ANSWERS to stop woman from “declaring of feelings”.) Sorry, I digress — the fundamental differences between the way men and women communicate is for another post, on another day.

After my mourning/moping stage, the idea of this new found “freedom” began to take shape in my head.  See, even though I was only working while she was sleeping, I never ventured off too far, due to her frequent naps and the fact that I didn’t want to be caught out-and-about while she napped in the car, because “naptime” was always my “work-time”.

So during the first week and a half, I found myself with more freedom, yet I didn’t quite know what to do with it. As a result, I defaulted to our typical stopping grounds — Safeway, Fred Meyer’s and the ever so wonderful, money-sucking Target. However, when our fridge was stocked and there was not one more baby item I could justify purchasing at Target, I realized that Quinn and I need some new “activities”.

I made my way through the Urbanmamas calendar section… and payed a bit closer attention to the “puddle jumpers” mailing list I am a part of and selected a couple of things to attend.

The first was this, the World’s Biggest Playdate. It was very entertaining and I’m sure Quinn will take away a decent cold or two, thanks to the “community” toys she managed to shove in her mouth. There were lots of babies, live music, and Elmo!

Then on Friday we spent the day at OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science & Industry) with my friend Janna & Eve. Eve is 13 months old and quiet the little role-model for Quinn. We played for a couple of hours at the museum and then put the babies in their respective strollers and went on a 4 mile stroll. The girls did wonderful and only in the last 15 minutes did Quinn start to fuss, but it was short-lived because she quickly crashed in the car. Next on the agenda is Gym Class at Gymboree on Tuesday & Library time on Friday.

The challenge to these “outings” is to look for things that are free, or very inexpensive at the least.  I’m excited about the Gymboree gym class, but at 65 bucks a month, I’m gonna stick with my “free class” pass and seek out other options.

My hope is to have an “activity” at least 3 time a week for her, and while this is mainly for Quinn’s benefit, these outing do mamma some good as well.  Being cooped up in a (non-gigantic) house with a baby begins to wear on my nerves after a while. And now that I’m getting the hang of this SAHM thing, I’m sort of getting excited about the things she and I can fill our days with.

Things did not go as planned. She lost her “cool” about 20 minutes into the debate. I took her outside to relax and I got stung by a bee. Which, what in the world was a bee doing on a cool evening towards the end of September??? Not to mention I’ve somehow avoided being stung by a bee for the past 20+ years — and I get stung now? I fell into a slight panic because the bee stung me on my arm, the arm that was holding my child. I also panicked because the last time I got stung, the affected area swelled to the size of a bowling ball. Just slightly unpleasant.

Anyway, long story short, I think it took us 4 hours to watch the 90 minute debate.  The other debates were of course the same, well, minus the bee sting. However for the remaining 3 debates, our expectations were correctly aligned with Quinn’s. And in the end, we were just glad we had a DVR that we could pause, rewind and fast forward.

So on this eve of the election which I am so excited for, I may not be able to sleep… I would love nothing more than to be glued to our tube from 4 p.m. on, watching CNN’s detailed reports on their “Magic Map”. However, I fear that I’ll have to settle for the election coverage to be the “background” noise to my standard evening with an 8 1/2 month old. Oh, and by the way, I’ve been trying to teach Quinn how important this election is, and why it is so important that Obama wins this thing…  And why we need to watch every silly news channel all night, however I’m not sure she totally got the message.

In her defense, she’s got a lot going on right now…  Learning to stand on her own, and oh yes, figuring out how to turn the lights *on* and *off*.

The End.

Fine Motor Skills. There’s no doubt we’ve got a good eater on our hands and she’s been refining her fine motor skills by eating as much finger food as I can give her. Currently at the top of her list are blueberries (cut up) and grapes (also cut into tiny pieces). It is the cutest thing when she carefully reaches for the berry or grape with her thumb and index finger, then slowly raises it to her mouth. Right now she manages to get the small piece of fruit in her mouth about 70% of the time.  The other 30% of the time it falls to her bib. What is so funny about these times is that she thinks it’s in her mouth and chews, chews, chews until moments later she realizes that there’s NOTHING in there. At which point she fuses asks for assistance from mom.

The motor skills are also in full effect when she’s playing. Guaranteed enjoyment is grabbing two hard toys and banging them together. While she is very satisfied by the noise that is created by doing this, her little eyes blink in slight surprise every time the objects crash together.

Sitting up on her own.

After 2 months of this move, she has finally figured out the roll-to-your-side-and-push-yourself-up technique. Up until a couple of weeks ago, any time she wanted to sit up, she would get into this pilates move and whine until you sat her up… Which got old, you know after the first 6 weeks! Anyway, it’s her new favorite move. So much her favorite, that whenever I put her on her tummy to practice crawling, she says, forget this, and just sits up. Hehe…

Military Push-Up’s.

Ok, so she isn’t doing Jillian Michaels type push up’s, but she does push herself has as high as she can go… on her toes with arms fully extended. She stays in this position for as long as she can stand it before collapsing. Then repeats over and over if the mood strikes her. I know she’s wearing black pants in this picture, but if you look carefully, you can see my dirt/dust particals underneath her. Hehe - I sweep/swifter every other day, but it’s a losing battle folks.

On The Move…sort of.

As of about a week ago, she can very effectively push herself backwards when on her tummy. The problem is that she appears to WANT to go forward.  So when she ends up further and further away from the object or person she has set her sights on, she get’s frustrated. In the photo above, she is moving away from Daddy and under the couch. Problem is that Daddy’s got the darn ball she wants. She can actually get moving very quickly when she’s on the hardwood floor. As for me, I’m trying to savor these last few weeks of limited mobility and finish baby-proofing the house.  First on the list is mounting our tv to the wall.

Chompers. She’s got 5 teeth now. 3 on the top, 2 on the bottom… And I’ve got the bite marks to prove this. The other night she got her hands on a magazine, tore a page and was eating a small piece of paper. This all happened within about 15 seconds. I quickly laid her over my lap and stuck my finger into her mouth to retrieve that piece of The Economist, only to be bitten so hard that she drew blood. I quickly pulled out my finger, cursing under my breath while she continued to suck/chew. I went in again, and this time was smart and went in from the side, where molars will someday be. I was finally triumphant and she was pissed.

Bath Time. Part of Quinn’s nightly routine is a bath every night. Our current arrangement for the bath, is either Jake or I hop in the tub with her. Each night she seems to discover and obsess over something different…  Sometimes she want’s to stand the entire time and play with the faucet.  Sometimes she wants to repeatedly push the “plug” switch thingy, down, to release the water. Sometimes it chewing on her toys… However the newest and most unpleasant new activity that she’s discovered is, while sitting up, she puts her mouth down to the water and drinks up. Last night Jake was bathing her and no matter what distractions he placed in front of her, this activity would not cease. So the bath ended sooner than later last night. Tonight I’ll bring in her sippy cup with the hopes of teaching her, “Are you thirsty? Here, drink from your cup. Not the bath water, which I’m 99.9% sure you’ve peed in”.

Naps. For quite a long stretch of time she has taken between 3-4 naps a day.  Each nap would range from 40 - 70 minutes. This would allow mommy to get all of the 1000 things done on her list, including the work I do for LP at home. I know that all good things must come to an end, but I was at least hoping for a gradual change. For a week now, Quinn has been napping in her crib and not only are the naps shorter (30-45 minutes), but she seems to want to only nap twice in the day.  Yes, I know this is the natural progression, and that soon, she’ll be down to only 1 nap a day, however how in the world am I going to get all this stuff done??? Do I hear laughter from the veteran parents??

People, where does this time go??? With her learning so much, so fast, things seem to be whizzing by us. I want to pause and rewind so many moments of each day. Oh and by the way, can I officially mark the day as her being “Daddy’s Girl?” No one can seem to bring a smile to her face like Daddy does and it honestly melts my heart beyond recognition.

And like clock work… I can hear her rousing on the baby monitor. But this is good news folks… it’s 8 a.m. I’ve had a whole hour and a half to my wee-little self.