iPhone Update

You know it's time for a blog update when your iPhone has run out of space because of all the pictures taken!  We have had such a fun month since Tony has been back.  The weather has been great and we are getting out as much as we can before it turns to the crazy Okinawa summer of heat and humidity.   Fortunately, we will miss most of the summer since we are COMING HOME!!  We bought our tickets a couple weeks ago and are very excited for May 23rd to come :)  Tony will leave mid June and Quinn and I are staying until early August as Tony will be in Australia for work.

Enjoy a few pics!!

This is our new friend and neighbor, Liza.  Liza is 4 months younger than Quinn and is as sweet as can be.  I've never met a 5 month old that sleeps as well as this girl does.  She will fall asleep playing on the floor, sleeps through the night, and I have yet to witness a "cranky pants" Liza!  (Quinn should take a few pointers!) Liza's mom and I go on many walks with these two cuties and "schedule" plenty of happy hours...oooooh the advantages of having a neighbor that lives across the street :) It will be fun to watch these two grow and become little playmates together!

Okinawa has some pretty awesome parks.  Tony and I have always said how much our nieces and nephews would love all the crazy slides and fun swings they all have.  Quinn hasn't developed too much of an appreciation for them yet, but I think by this fall/winter she will love them :)

I hope i'm not jinxing anything, but Quinn has been awesome sitting in the stroller at the courts while Tony and I play tennis.  I hope this is the case for a little while longer!  Once she can walk, she will have a racquet in hand anyway.

John Deere sweatshirt in support of our favorite farmers - Uncle Geoff & Uncle Andy - and Chris Soules (The Bachelor from Arlington, Iowa)

That's dad getting a small handful of sand out of Quinn's mouth. Nom nom.

Quinn loves watching all the kids run around on the playground!  Soon enough she will join in on all that fun!

We had a playdate this week and I let Quinn crawl around in the garage and outside.. She was very, very dirty!

This would be the face she makes when she can't get down ;)

Working out at the park with the group.  I haven't been able to go to many lately because the timing just doesn't work all that great. 

"Um, hey - dad....that's MY iPad"

In love with this plant... it was $300.  Crazy, huh!  If I were back in the states you can bet your bottom dollar this would have gotten a home that day... my home.

We've been having some sleeping "issues" with Quinn lately.  When she wakes up she immediately stands up in her crib and assumes she can't get back down - or just simply doesn't.  A couple days ago I brought my makeup bag into her room (she loves that thing) and practiced with her getting down from a standing position by laying the bag on her mattress.  It took some time and hesitation on her part, but eventually she did it.  I need to do it again.  Who knows if it's actually helping - but I can't think of a reason why it would hurt...so why not!

little gymnast who thinks she's pretty hot stuff.

Helping mom at JA (our farmer's market down the road)

You can see how large the produce is!  for $16 I got a huge thing of celery, head of broccoli, 4 humungo carrots, 5 potatoes, 2 bunches of flowers, 4 onions, a carton of baby tomatoes, and 3 green peppers.  That would have been close to $30 at the good ol' commissary on base.

Stay tuned for the 9 month post on Wednesday!

8 Months Old

Another month down for this girl!  When I asked Tony a couple days ago how he would explain Quinn to someone if they asked, he responded with, "she's a monster".  He's not far off :)  Although, she's the sweetest monster we know!

This past week we have had some pretty intense teething going on.  I see the swollen gums on the front teeth and it doesn't look all that comfortable.  I'm crossing my fingers that she just gets as many teeth as possible all in one shot so we don't have months and months of this.  For her sake and mine ;).

She is talking a lot these days and is trying her hardest to imitate our voices and words.  She loves to stand and play with her toys or crawl over them.  She loves to grab diapers out of the basket I have on the floor and throw them everywhere or grab toys out of the chest and take one by one by one out :)  In a matter of seconds my house can go from clean to a mess.  Many years of that ahead!  My sister sent us a "play" table that she is really enjoying right now.  Just yesterday I saw her scoot/walk sideways so she could get to the other side.  She still likes playing with all things other than her toys and I don't see that ever changing. When she decides to be "cranky miss crank" I usually go upstairs and pour out her shoes and that keeps her busy for a few minutes.  She loves laces and cords, as well.

Eating is hit or miss these days.  She still loves her orange foods, but also does pretty well with everything else.  Dinner time is our best bet to get her to eat well, but as far as any other time of day - she has little to no interest and would rather nurse.  We also tried puffs/yogurt puffs a couple of times and she gagged on those...we'll try again in a week or two.

Before this whole teething stuff, sleeping was going so well!  Most nights I was able to put her down wide awake at night and she would find her comfortable spot in her crib and fall asleep for 4-5 hours. This was heavenly!  We are back to every 1-3 hours of waking at night.  Hopefully that ends very, very soon.

Quinn absolutely hates the vacuum.  A few days ago I brought it out and was just going to quickly go over the living room rug and she was scared out of her mind.  She was shaking more than she ever had and kept looking at the evil thing and tucking her head in my arms.  We also need to take her outside if we use the ninja mixer!  She also continues to hate getting dressed after her bath, although Tony is having better luck with that right now - and also is starting to get pretty mad when we take away a super fun toy (like the iPad) from her.  Of course it takes .2 seconds to switch gears into something else...but man that look we get is priceless!  She has quite the fake cough going on right now, too.  and the fake "crylaugh"(I meant for that to be one word).  It's pretty cute I have to admit.

There are many, many dogs (or "puppies" as we call them) around here and Quinn isn't too sure about any of them.  She loves to watch and hopes they will come closer to her, but then once they do she gets a little uneasy.  I'm not sure if now is a good time to tell her that we'll probably never have a dog?

Here are some 8 month pictures of this little monkey.  Tony thinks we should start calling her by her actual name... I still think sugars, monkeys, and doodles fit just fine :)