Xmas Festivities

Christmas with Nana and Papa made cookies and had fun playing with my new baby doll and crib.Christmas eve back home and was so excited that I would not go to sleep. "I sit on couch and watch Santa and Rudolph?" I finally went to bed around 10. Christmas day with the Duffys and made some more cookies with Mema. Then off to Texas for my first plane ride and the last time I will fly for free. Great holiday break.

Singing and playing piano with Granny.

22 Months Old

Quinn is now 22 months. She continues to be a source of constant entertainment. She is loving all the Christmas activities and loves looking at Santa (from a distance). She is a fan of Rudolph too. She actually sat and watched some of the Rudolph movie possibly 10 whole minutes which is long for her. She loves watching Imagination Movers and Elmo, but only to dance to the short songs and then asks us to play them again and again and again. She has been singing "Jingle Bells" and talking about Santa and her Elf on the Shelf, "Jolly" every day. We are using their names often to promote good behavior. It usually works but there still are the occasional time outs. She has been asserting her independence and is often heard screaming "let go or no don't" when we are trying help her. She yells this whenever something isn't going her way too. I was watching her in the video monitor the other day and she was screaming that while trying to remove her sock. It is hard not laughing.

Potty Training: We weren't planning on starting this process until after the holidays but Quinn has been asking to use the potty lately and has been successful, so maybe this will be a sooner transition. I was hoping to have a diapered child on our airplane ride in a few weeks purely out of convenience

Speech:She is talking in full sentences now and on our way home from daycare she just rambles about her day. She loves to talk about friends, family and her baby dolls.
Favorite phrases: Jolly where are you? When she does something naughty she will say,"Jolly sad, Santa sad, mommy sad, and daddy sad. I sorry Jolly"
Some of her recent favorite words: Pretty, awesome, cool, touchdown, silly, funny, Santa and Jolly.

It's been a busy month so I haven't been the best about uploading pictures. Here are some random ones (newest are first):

Making sugar cookies with Mommy
Candy canes
All ready for the oven

Caught.

Look at the cookies I made Daddy. Notice the boots. She loves wearing them and if it isn't them it is her bunny slippers. The girl loves shoes.

Kissing Jaren

Dress up at Nana and Poppy. My favorite is the pom pom on the head as her hair.

Nana is so funny

Getting ready to dance

Dancin' to Imagination Movers

Waiting for some Thanksgiving dinner

Cookies!!!

Happy with a full belly of turkey and Nana's cookies

Dress up at Mema and Papa's. She made the Elf mask at Bass Pro. She's already been there 3 times this holiday season.

Smothering her furry friend

Mommy and Daddy at Geja's for their 6th anniversary.

I love you cousin Claire. You are my favorite!

Waiting for a ride on the carousel Can you tell I am having some fun?

Watching Uncle Ryan shooting at Bass Pro

Quinn and Claire looking at fish with their daddies. Writing letters to Santa

Crazy girl...

Mom please stop taking my picture.
Hangin with silly Uncle Michael

21 months old

Up from her nap and ready to play. This is her newest baby "Jeanne" (Mema named it). The doll weighs about as much as Quinn. It is funny watching her lug it around. She also tries wrapping it up "like Jesus". She says Jesus mommy and then I help her swaddle the doll. She rocks her and whispers songs in her ear. She is such a little mommy. Tonight she had three dolls on the floor and she went back and forth feeding them each a bottle. Let's hope she is this attentive and sweet to any future siblings.

Quinn is now 21 months old. She has had an eventful month. She had another round of antibiotics for an ear infection and we have to go back to get her rechecked this week. The highlight of her month was definitely Halloween. She would say trick or treat and thank you after leaving the houses and tried grabbing fists full of candy. She had a difficult time understanding why she couldn't open every piece she received, which caused a couple minor meltdowns.She got over that and was very serious about keeping that candy neatly place in her bag. She saw a few of her buddies: Henry, Stella, and Claire (will post more pictures soon).

She is talking in clearer sentences and stating her opinion regularly. She is giving mommy and daddy a run for their money. She has started hitting, more so when she hasn't had much sleep, but still not what we want her to be doing. She is testing us often and continues to try to make a game out of throwing her food on the floor during mealtime. One minute time outs are unfortunately becoming more regular than we would like. Each day brings new challenges but is rewarding and exciting watching her grow and change.

She is becoming more imaginative and loves playing mommy with her dolls and playing with her kitchen set. Ring a round the rosie is still a favorite song and she likes the whole family to participate (hand Daddy, hand). She has an instrumental nursery rhyme cd she loves listening to in our car and will shout to us to play a particular song. She loves singing to Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes, Happy Birthday, Ba Ba black sheep, and Itsy Bitsy Spider. She sings to herself while she plays and attempts to sing the alphabet and finishes with "now I know my abcs next time won't you sing with me." She gets tripped up on the "qrstuv" and forgets what comes next so we hear that part of the alphabet 3 times before she finishes. She is saying love you and lists all her family and friends that she loves. Her favorite question is: Where are you.... (baby, shoes, daddy, mommy, Hayley, etc) ? She has spotted the fire alarms and she calls them detectors. She is constantly looking at the ceiling and spotting them where ever we go. We tried explaining their purpose and talked to her about her cousin Pat being a fire fighter. Pat fire...pause...detector. She is making connections, is so observant and has an amazing memory (of course, we are her parents so we think so) Weeks will go by and she will throw out something she remembers that we said to her. One of her daycare providers sprained her ankle and each morning she will wake up and say, "Dee boo boo on her foot" and then follows with "Dee need boo boo buddy" (which is what Q calls her ice packs). I have a feeling she is going to be talking about that boo boo for the next few weeks. Even though she has been challenging mommy and daddy here and there, she has such a warm and caring personality "most" of the time.

New Favorite Activity: Throwing the football around and saying hut hut hike and touchdown. She thinks that this is the funniest and belly laughs when the dog tries to become involved in the game.
STATS:
Teeth:16
Size: Shoes 5 and clothes 24-2T
Weight: 25lbs 6 oz
Height: Can't get her to sit still for this one. She is growing like a weed. She is opening all the doors, seeing over the table and climbing up into everything this month. We just installed some door safety locks because she had been helping herself to snacks in the pantry and had been pulling out all of the towels in our linen closet. She is already trying to break the lock system, so hopefully she will give up soon. She is pretty strong-willed so I wouldn't put it past her to figure it out.