Quinny Quinn Update

   Thought it was time for a little Quinn update.  We had her 12 month appointment (and shots) last Friday and although we were about 7 weeks late on that appointment it was great to see where she was at on the charts!  At 13.5 months she weighed 22lbs (58%) and was in the 99% for head circumference and 92% in height.  Tall girl with a large brain!  When I called to make the appointment with our wonderful pediatrician, Dr. Carol, we were told that he PCS'd last month.  I was so bummed!  So we were randomly placed with Dr. Taylor who just got to the island last month and we loved him.  He was so great with Quinn, had tons of questions, examined her scalp issues (more on that later) with great detail and care, and was just a great overall doc.  So speaking of her scalp, she has had some issues with dry skin, red skin, rash, rings, etc. from as long as I can remember.  Our last pediatrician (not Dr. Carol) looked at it for .2 seconds and just gave us some steroid cream to put on it.  Well, that didn't work.  Thankfully Dr. Taylor went to Dermatology right away and got some other expertise on the issue.  After today's appointment we were told it was the worst case of cradle cap they've ever seen.  I was actually relieved to hear this as it's a temporary thing.  We have a minor steroid cream again to put on it and hopefully it clears it up once and for all.

   Anyways, on to the fun stuff!  Quinn is as active as ever and as sweet as can be.  She is going to bed super easy with a bottle of whole milk.  I am working on being done with the bottle asap but it's really hard.  She isn't attached to it, really - but she does drink a solid 6-8 oz before she goes to bed.  Don't think she'd do that from a sippy.  Hopefully by her 15 month post we will have put the bottles back up in the closet :)  She is sleeping through the night for the last 2 weeks and for the last 3 days she's been taking 1 nap a day.  Hopefully these naps go a little longer than they have been, but I'm not rushing anything.  I'm beyond thankful we are where we are!  There were days I began to wonder if it would every change :)

   Quinn's favorite thing to do is to be outside.  Every morning we get out and she helps me water my flowers.  She's actually a pretty good helper and doesn't pick them anymore!  We walk to the park and I have to hold her back from not getting in the gross pond! She LOVES all water and also loves it in her face, which she definitely didn't get from her mom (or from her Grandma Huinker).  We had a typhoon this past Monday and we were getting a little stir crazy so I let her take a shower with me and she absolutely loved it.  I don't even like the shower water on my own face!

   She has also become pretty darn social with everyone she comes across.  She doesn't go to just anyone, but she will stare at them, give them a high five - or if the adult is a female, she will probably give her a hug and a kiss.  She is quite the kisser these days. :)

   Thankfully, she is 95% over the "eating rocks" stage.  I still need to watch her but if I just say "ICKY" she will put it down.  She has been building with our mega blocks we have and still enjoying the couch, her blankie, and a little netflix once in awhile.  Her favorite foods are homemade pizzas, fruit of any kind, peas and beans, hummus on toast, peanut butter on toast, and of course noodles and sauce.  Anything she can dip, she will.  Condiment girl.  I like it.  She is liking books more and more and her favorite one right now is the "puppy" book.  it's a touch and feel one that my sister passed down to us and she won't touch it, but she'll grab my hand and make me touch the puppies!  It's pretty cute.  Not too many new words these days, although, I THINK she said "thank you" today....or "dee dee" in two different tones.  It happened three times today - so we'll see.

Enjoy a few pics of Q!

  

2 Birthday Parties for a 1 Year Old!

Quinn was one lucky lady this year celebrating her birthday TWICE!  We were able to celebrate on her actually birthday (July 1st) with just our close family and then again on August 1st when my sister was in town with a bunch of friends! I had so much fun planning and decorating for the parties.  Not sure I'll do 2 every year, but as I told Tony - it was her golden this year!!  Quinn was so spoiled with great gifts and lots and lots of attention.  I don't have all the pictures I want as they are still on my stateside phone.  I hope to remember to post more pictures when I get those back - which hopefully I can!!

July 1st party:
My cousin Kelsey helped tye dye a shirt for Quinn and we put a "1" sticker on it.  It turned out pretty cute!  She thought she was pretty big stuff being a new walker and all on her birthday.  She even (demanded) got to sit at the "big kids" table.  We had a lot of fun opening presents and listening to toddler jams on the radio :)  It was a cold night to be outside believe it or not!

 

Grandpa Wally 

Quinn & Grady playing ball.  Sort of.

Gracie

August 1st party:

What a fun, fun day.  Everything went smoothly leading up to the party and the kids had a pretty good time!  I surprised all the kids with pony rides in the backyard.  Some were scared (Quinn being one) and others loved it!  My little nephew Grady was the first in line and I think rode about 4-5 times :)  He was so darn cute on them.  There were about 20 kids there which kept everyone on their toes!  

Grady and Amanda

Ivy and Grandpa Rog.  Look at that sweet smile :)

Grandpa Rog helped with all the rides.  He was great and the kids did awesome!

Amanda

I was wondering where this little frosting monster went - and I spotted her under the table rubbing all the frosting from the leftover cupcakes over her dress!  I don't even think she ate any of the frosting :)

Opening presents!! All the girls were in heaven.

More pictures to come!!! 

Grandpa Rog.

Where to even start writing about all that has happened the last couple weeks!  It's been way too long since I wrote my last blog post.  this one is dedicated to my dad.  He is the most easy-going, best dad I could ever ask for.  He never complains and never has anything negative to say.  I was so glad to have him with us on the way out to Okinawa and for an entire week.  We are going to miss him so much!

Working backwards...

Today (actually just an hour ago) my dad left from Okinawa.  He was here for a week and we had such a nice time with him.  He had an abundance of fresh fish, he went on many, many walks (I calculated a total of 35-40 miles this week), played cards, drank wine, drank beer, a little shopping, and just simply enjoyed every minute of his company.  Our flight over to Okinawa was interesting.  Not sure what else to say about it.  What I do know is that I am very excited to not be doing that flight ever again.  Mom and Mary dropped us all off at the airport on Tuesday morning Aug 4 and that was the start of a loooooong 22 hours.  All the logistics went without a headache for the first time in awhile, but we were all very exhausted.  It was about 2am our body time when we got to Tokyo and we still had to grab our luggage, get through immigration, shuttle to the other terminal, and wait for our domestic flight on JetStar.  That all took about 5 hours... with no sleep.  Quinn was on her 78th wind at that point and acting crazy, but very happy. She crashed hard right before we left for Okinawa and was in and out of sleep for the 2.5 hour flight back.  It is so much worse coming to Okinawa than it is leaving.  There's something about getting off that long flight knowing you have 5 hour layover only to get on another flight - short or not - that stinks.  So my dad is heading home now - but I think he'll be just fine.  No kids to worry about, all the beer/wine he wants (Delta is awesome) and as many movies he wants to watch!  Lucky guy :)  Here are a few pictures of our 24 hour travel day and time in Okinawa.  We sure miss him already!!!!

Unfortunately, we were not able to get an extra seat for Quinn.  The next best thing was the aisle with more leg room so she was able to lay down and sleep and play with her toys.  She did pretty well with all of it.  For about 2 hours she kept wanting to get into the aisles, but I needed to get the blood flowing again anyway!

This was in the Tokyo airport waiting for our domestic flight to Okinawa.  At this point Quinn had slept 2 hours in about 20 hour span of time.  She was running all over the place!  Oh, if you look closely that's her with no pants on.  She had 4 messy diapers on the long flight and went through a pair of pjs - and spilt water all over her other pair.  Lesson learned - you can never bring enough pjs on a flight!

DADDY!!!!!! 

Of course we need to have a beer after no sleep and 24 hours of travel with a small 13 month old toddler.

First day back home.  Her jet lag (which means my jet lag, as well) took about 4-5 days.  I think we are snapped back into our routine now!!

First morning at home having breakfast with Grampy.

Now on to our fun time here in Okinawa!  I'll let the pictures tell the story about how much fun we had!!!

Sushi on the floor!

Great helper at the commissary :)

Hi Quinn!

Dad's tennis lesson :)  He has a new backhand!

Happy hour friends.  Missing in photo: Liza and Roger

Morning that Grandpa left.  He had 2 carry-ons and that's it!! 

WE LOVE YOU GRANDPA!!!!