Last Sunday, we went to a surprise birthday party for Megan's sister-in-law, Char.  Megan's brother, Jeff (below) works for the Cleveland Indians and secretly got a suite for everyone to watch the game in.  Well, I guess Char knew they were going to the suite, but she didn't know that a whole bunch of us would be there waiting for her.  Here are pics of Jeff snugging Quinn and Char looking surprised



It was some sort of kiddie fun day, so Quinn got a free, size Youth XL jersey.  She models it here.  Just a little bit of growing to do.  Quinn is also modeling a plastic hat that actually is supposed to be holding the packets of sugar and sweetener, but I couldn't resist plopping it on her head.


Here are some shots with grandparents.


Oh, and to prove that we were indeed at a baseball game, here is a shot of the field and a shot of cousin Own watching the game (and Quinn watching cousin Owen).


Baseball is a lot more fun with air-conditioning and a catered lunch.  It was fun watching Owen and Quinn play.  She is big enough now that she "gets" playing and he isn't freaked out by her smallness.  Owen was letting Quinn tackle and crawl on him.  He was rolling around and yowling.  I tried to rescue him, but he assured me that he was just pretending and that I should let the mini-beast attack.  I'm so surprised that we didn't get a note from daycare last week that she she was plowing over the babies...

I have so much to tell you, but so little time. Here are the highlights...

Quinn had her first birthday party this weekend. She was an absolute angel (despite no afternoon nap) and everyone left knowing that we have the best, most adorable baby in the whole world. She was completely spoiled by all those in attendance. Oh, and cake is good. She just wanted you to know.

Meanwhile, I had the stomach flu from hell and could neither eat, drink NOR be merry. (don't worry people at the party, I didn't touch the food) *knock, knock* Megan and Quinn haven’t caught it.

I went into work briefly yesterday because we were moving offices and I had a couple of things to finish packing. I then came home and slept for over 3 hours. The craziest thing is that I was in the house by myself. I have only been in the house by myself once or twice since Quinn was born. Despite feeling like crap, it was heaven.

I was awoken from my slumber (sort of) by a call from the daycare. Quinn has pink eye. We have to pick her up within the hour. They’ve said she had pink eye before and it was more like excess "sleep" in her eyes, so we were dubious. The civic has a dead battery, so I had to track Megan down in her office hours to do an emergency baby fetch. Sadly, the daycare was right. Green and gloppy. Fortunately we already had the drops and got her started on them. Also fortunate was the fact that Quinn’s 12 months dr’s appointment was already scheduled for today, as she needs a dr’s note get back into daycare.

Fast forward to to today. The eyes are much better already. I am much better, finally. After much discussion with the dr, we DID end up getting the chickenpox vaccine, which meant 3 sticks in total. The stupid, GD nurse didn’t hold her legs down when she stuck her the first time. I didn’t look. I mean, I thought my job was to coo at her face end and make sure she didn’t know it was coming and all that. The legs were HER deal, right? Anyway, when she sticks the needle in, Quinn kicked her leg up really quickly and BENT THE NEEDLE in her leg muscle. This seemed to really startle the nurse, but to her credit, she kept going and got everything done. I don’t think we could have fooled Baby Q again. When she was done, the nurse mumbled some shit about not expecting Quinn to "fight her." WHAT?? You are jabbing her with needles!! She might be tiny, but she’s no weakling. She only cried a little bit. I cried more because I felt like I should have noticed that she wasn’t holding on tightly enough or something.

Vital stats of the day: 29 inches tall (59th percentile), 17 pounds, 11 ounces (6th percentile)

Believe it or not, that was the quick version.

• Happy Belated Birthday, Stacey! I know, we suck. Does it help that we thought about you all day? We really did.


• I have had terrible migraines for several days. Miscellaneous drugs have taken the edge off, but it keeps coming back with a vengeance. Today is MUCH better. The rains have arrived and that is usually a sign of good things to come. I swear my brain has a barometer in it.


• Megan and I went on a date yesterday while Quinn was a daycare. We saw Premonition. Don’t go. You’ll regret it. We also had some yummy lunch from Cap City and a fresh lime slush from our new Sonic. The only thing that would have made the date better was the lack of a drill in my brain (see item #2).


• The CDs have started to come in. I have Cathy/Beth’s and Trish/Kate’s. Good stuff!! Some of you have gone radio silent and I fear the worst. If you haven’t gotten your stuff mailed out, that’s ok. Just fess up so I don’t think it is lost, oh, and get it mailed!


• We’ve reserved a place for Quinn’s birthday party. It’s a shelterhouse place at a local park. It is enclosed and has a kitchen and bathroom and such. We used to have things there all the time when I worked at OSU. Nice place, yet inexpensive. Now we have to decide on a menu that will please the palates of 1 year olds and 60 year olds alike. Can you believe it is less than a month away? I so wish that I could invite all of you. You have been such a big help to all of us getting through this first year.


• Quinn is walking and talking and signing SO MUCH more. It is just amazing. It’s like something just clicked and now she gets that she can communicate with us. Daycare told us yesterday that she was talking up a storm all day. The downside to this is that most of the time we have NO IDEA what she is saying. Hopefully learning more signs will be helpful with her communication until her verbal skills catch up with her mental ones. I’ve already noticed some frustration at mealtimes when she is trying to tell me what she wants to eat and I’m not guessing successfully. Oh, and the walking, she just walks all the time now -- with plenty of falling down on her bum. step - step -step - crash - step -step -step -step -step -step - crash. It’s funny, but painful to watch. I’m just glad her hiney has the diaper for extra padding. Megan ususally picks Quinn up at daycare, but I was there yesterday. She ran over to see us instead of crawling like she did the last time we went. She’s just amazing, and cute and smiling and all grown up!


• I need to go to the regular dr (which I need to find one of), cadiologist (which I need to find one of), chiropractor (which I need to find one of), eye doctor and dentist. I’m looking into getting a DO instead of an MD, thereby cutting out the need for a chiropractor. Is this a good idea? Anybody else do this?