Blizzard 2016

In case you haven't heard, there was some snow here in Virginia over the weekend. Holy cow! I can tell you that this is definitely the most snow I have seen at one time in my whole life. It's really hard to be sure how many inches we got because of all the crazy drifting, but I read an official report of 34 inches for our town. At one point on Saturday afternoon I had to go across the street to my neighbor's house to feed her cat because she was stranded at work and the snow was up to my hips in some spots.

I have to tell you, the recent weather has made going back to work seem easy. So far the majority of the days have been snow days :) Major bonus. Matt has also been home due to taking his paternity leave after I went back and now he will have the day off tomorrow too. Life is pretty great.

To entertain ourselves during the storm we participated in our first Pat Collins Snow Stick Challenge. The theme was 'Cabin Fever Cure.' We love how our submission turned out. For those of you not familiar with Pat Collins and his Snow Stick, all I can say is that it's a very coveted prize here in the DMV. We also cleaned the house and did lots of laundry and of course a lot of shoveling! Yesterday (and today) was absolutely beautiful. The sun was out in full force and it didn't even feel super cold. We took Quinn out for a little bit in her snowsuit. The girl was so warm and cozy in there she fell asleep! On that note, I leave you with some pictures :)

Three Months

This is an extra special Friday at our house. Lots to love, as opposed to my last Friday post two weeks ago. My absence from blogging can be attributed to trying to enjoy the last few days of maternity leave and then returning to work (briefly!). This Friday Quinn is three months old, both Matt and I are off work (paternity leave for him and a snow day for me), and we are embarking on the biggest snowfall in five years! We celebrated today by going out for a quick lunch before a lot of extra together time this weekend.

Snow Day Story

Now for some quick updates on the life and times of Q. Three months! Hard to believe. Just today I had to bust out some of her bigger sleepers because she is so stinking long! She's like a little banana baby...long and skinny. We don't have a doctor appointment this month, so I am unsure of her exact stats but she has probably grown another inch and I would estimate she weighs about 12.5 pounds. We have lots of smiles and laughs coming from our sweet girl. She is also getting super strong. She can hold her head up pretty reliably and LOVES 'standing up' on our laps. She also loves to dance while we sing her songs. Some of her favorites include the Twist, the Whip Nae Nae, and Michael Jackson's Shake Your Body, along with all the things I randomly make up. I wish I could get a good video of it, but when you pull out a camera she becomes very serious and wants to stare at that instead. She's very observant and curious about all the things around her.

Quinn continues to have a lot to say. She makes lots of happy noises all the time. She still loves all things with lights and enjoys being in her play gym. She has become an expert at grasping her toys and reaching for the things she likes and that interest her. I guess all her time at the gym in paying off...I think she is strengthening her core. She spends a lot of time bringing her feet up to her chest recently, but hasn't quite found her feet with her hands. Speaking of hands, Q has spent a lot of time this past month sucking on her hands. It seems like when she is awake she is always moving. She loves to kick her feet and flail her arms.

Loves sucking her hands

The other night I left the room to heat up my dinner, I came back she had picked this up from beside her head and was grasping it with both hands! Go Quinn!

Matt and I continue to feel like we have won the lottery with Quinn's happy demeanor. She still sleeps like a champ in her crib each night. We had a little bit of a transition when we decided to drop the swaddle from her sleep sack, but now we are all set. I usually have to wake her up in the morning after about 9-11 hours of sleep. Up until about a week ago she was a great napper too, but seems to just want to entertain us during the day. I will most definitely take that in exchange for the great nighttime sleep!

The road to dropping the swaddle.

This is the month that my maternity leave ran out (although I have been lucky to have snow days and two hour delays most of the days, so it still feels like working isn't real) and I had to go back to work when Q was 12 weeks old. We are lucky enough to have Matt be able to take his paternity leave now, and then have family coming in to take care of her until the beginning of February. After that she will start daycare. I feel very good about where she will be going, but hard nonetheless.

Since her two month post, Quinn's clogged tear duct has opened (!), she's been to the audiologist and passed with flying colors, she celebrated Christmas, has taken her first road trip, and rocked in 2016. We are looking forward to her first big snow this weekend, her baptism next weekend, lots more milestones, and getting to see her personality develop in the next month! We love you little Quinn!

Out to lunch before getting snowed in!

Friday Love

This Friday is hard to love. It's my last Friday of maternity leave, next Friday I will be among the working crowd. I'm just a little bit in denial about the whole thing. I'm so sad to be leaving my Q, but I still have some days left and we are going to enjoy them. 

{ONE} 

Maternity Leave. Oh how I have enjoyed my weeks at home with Quinn. I just can't even imagine doing motherhood and work right now, but I know people do it and we will both be better for it. I figure I will need to see the counselor (HA!) at work for about two weeks since I will be sad, we will be finding a new family routine, and I will just be in general overwhelmed with missing out on almost three months of school.

{TWO}

Gingerbread Lattes. My mom has been visiting to keep us company the past few days since Matt is out of town. Today we decided to celebrate Friday instead of be sad about it. We took Q to her favorite, Target, and got gingerbread lattes while we shopped. I do love an occasional gingerbread latte even though I do not like sweet coffee. I always make a point to get one during red cup season at Starbucks :)

{THREE}

Making a Murderer. I noticed Making a Murder was quite a trending topic on the Today Show and social media, so I jumped on the bandwagon. I have watched seven of the episodes. It's awesome! I highly recommend, especially if you were a Serial season one fan. I can't wait to see what the last episodes hold. And then I can't wait to talk about it with someone and read all the things online about it. It's been hard to wait.

{FOUR}

Board Books. Because when I can't think of anything else to do, we read a book. Plus I love books and reading and want Q to share that love.

{FIVE}

Three Playoff Teams. All three teams the people in my house collectively pay attention to have made the playoffs. The Steelers squeaked in last weekend, the Patriots are the Patriots, and the Redskins somehow clinched their division. I've decided the Redskins are our number three team because it is Q's hometown team, and we do get stuck watching them on Sundays. Anyway, hopefully we will get to share the post-season excitement longer than one week.

Q's First Christmas!

I guess my theory on this post is better late than never! We were so busy over Christmas running everywhere, and then we needed to get back into the swing of things here last week, so I am finally getting to making sure I document dear sweet Quinn's first Christmas on the blog.

We took our first road trip as a family of three, driving four hours to my family's house in Pittsburgh. We had originally planned to leave on Wednesday morning after Q's breakfast, but Tuesday around lunch I started to think about all the things that usually happen in the morning, and it's usually Q's most awake time, and I started trying to convince Matt it would be a better idea to leave when he got home from work that evening. He didn't think so until he did think so when he walked in the door after work. So we hurried up, fed Quinn one last time, threw everything in the car, and crossed our fingers. She fell asleep about ten minutes in and didn't wake up until we got to my parents' house and took her out of her seat. YES! Same thing happened on the way home. We could not have had a better experience with her in the car. 

During our time in Pittsburgh, Quinn made her social rounds at both my mom's work and my dad and sister's work (they work at the same place). She also went to meet my grandma at her assisted living place and was a little celebrity with the residents there. We took her to church on Christmas Eve. She was seriously the best behaved baby. We were totally not adhering to any kind of schedule like we typically do at home. She was so go with the flow for our entire trip. She made us look good. 

Ready for church on Christmas Eve

Christmas day we had dinner with my entire extended family at my sister's house. This is where Q got to meet all of my aunts, uncles, and cousins. We are talking a lot of people, and again no schedule. She did great. Before visiting with everyone, we opened Quinn's gifts from Santa and did our family gift exchange. She got money for college, a winter bunting, lots of books, and a couple little toys, including the NogginStik. I did not want to buy that thing. It was expensive, seemed kinda dumb, and I wasn't even sure she would like it. The reviews convinced me. I'm so glad I did. Quinn is obsessed. I'm serious. I didn't think she would care, but she really likes this thing. I highly recommend it for new babies. 

There is not one picture wearing this where she doesn't look like this or worse. 

After Christmas day, we decided to give poor Q a break. We hung out at my parents pretty much all day on Saturday. Matt and I got to go out on a date in the evening. We saw a movie and went to dinner. Sunday was another relaxing day watching football and just hanging out with our family. 

First cousin pic

Old favorite and new favorite.

I am glad we have Q's first road trip in the books. It's good to know that we at least have a chance at traveling in the future. We are so lucky with how wonderfully she has fit into our family. This Christmas was definitely extra special with her in our lives. We know holidays will only continue to be more special as she grows older and really gets into the holiday spirit! 

The NogginStik!

Happy 2016!

Happy New Year! 2015 was a great year for us. We had Quinn! It will be a difficult one to top. Last night we just hung out at home and we were in bed at about midnight. We held off on opening our bean pot until this morning. There were lots of good entries, but the obvious favorite was October 22nd. We are looking forward to what this year will bring us and watching Quinn grow.