Seven weeks

Our little Bakey is seven weeks old. The big news this week--he's officially smiling! And "talking!" He is a bit stingy with his smiles--think we may have a serious little guy on our hands! But he DOES do it! And he makes the cutest little coos when he is having a conversation with Matt and I. We are loving it and can sit and try to get him smile for the longest time!

He is getting so much more alert--really focusing on stuff--faces, objects, and his favorite---ALIE! He will move his head all around to follow her with his eyes, and he spots her anytime they are in the room together.

He's getting pretty good at holding his head up, though we've still gotten a few head butts when he's lost control of it momentarily.

He has a very serious/concentrating look on his face a lot of the time. He furrows his little brow and squints his eyes and stares SOOO intently.

He usually cries for the first 5 minutes of every car ride. As Quinn can tell you, "Daddy's arms are long enough to hold in his paci but Mommy's aren't." When Matt's driving he usually holds in the paci so Beck falls asleep. I wait him out. He falls asleep after a few minutes. He's not a big carseat fan, either.

When he gets hungry he gets his hands and arms all up against his mouth. I have to pry them away so I can get access to his mouth to feed him. The hungrier he is the bigger arm wrestling match we have! He gets pretty frenzied with those fists of his!

He is getting sooooo chunky! His little legs and cheeks are plumping up!

Life with a big sister.....

Includes lots of pink paci time!

Little Red Riding Hood birthday party

We asked Quinn what kind of birthday party she wanted to have this year. Yup, you already know what she said. Little Red Riding Hood. So I got to work making plans for a fun 3 year old party! We decided to do just an "adult friends" party for one more year until she was old enough to decide what friends she wants to invite. I tried asking her this year and she wanted to invite my midwives. Silly girl.

We have had the same group of friends at all Quinn's birthday parties each year. They are Matt's friends from middle school, high school, and college and their wives, so good friends who have known us long before kiddos! And now they all have babies, so there were babies all around, which was great with Quinn! She had a blast pushing Baby Joseph in his stroller in gazillions of circles. He apparently has a very strong stomach and isn't bothered by motion sickness. :)

My one criteria for the party was that I wasn't going to buy anything except food. So I had to get creative and repurpose stuff we had around the house and borrow other things I didn't already have. Thankfully Mimi has a great party stash and loaned me the tablecloths, napkins, and lanterns! The other stuff mostly came from our backyard. It was fun trying to come up with all the items I needed by searching our house!

Here are the invitations:

We had the party at the park near our house, which is also a tradition! It is wooded, so perfect for a "Little Red" party! Here I am getting everything set up...

Matt and I made a sign for the entry path:

The birthday girl-

And all the party guests wearing the "big bad wolf" mask I made-The food table--All of the food was in baskets (like Little Red carried to Grandma's, of course), there were wildflowers (like Little Red picked on the way to Grandma's) in mason jars....Grandsue gave Quinn a wolf picture that of course made an appearance....The cupcakes went on wooden pedestals Daddy made from cutting up logs. We had to bring them out at the last minute because it was CRAZY hot (of course...every year....) and the chocolate would melt.

Quinn and I baked chocolate chip cookies for the party favors....since in the Little Red story she takes "goodies" to Grandma's. Quinn knows ALL the lingo from the story and every little detail, so she had lots of requests for her party. :)Daddy's ax (because of the woodcutter in the story)....
Our menu was meatball sandwiches (Daddy's good idea), cheetos, chips, fruit, pasta salad and cupcakes!When we were making party plans I asked Quinn what kind of cupcakes she wanted, meaning which flavor. She insisted that she wanted WOLF cupcakes. Oh my. So I did my best, compiled a couple different ideas from the internet and came up with these:They were actually fairly easy to make and only took me a couple hours from start to finish. They include marshmallows for the 3-D components and fruit leather for the mouth.
A real wolf (or the neighbor's dog) made a surprise appearance at the party!!
Here are the guest tables:
I printed out the photos I took of Q in her "Little Red" get-up. Matt and I made branch photo holders by cutting up a branch and putting a slit to hold the photos. I used some placemats I had, red napkins borrowed from Mimi, and cut up more branches and woodburned 3's on them for napkin decorations.

We used some logs and some lanterns borrowed from Mimi for the centerpieces. And of course her favorite version of the Little Red story (she has several...every time we go to the library we get a different one).
I always print out a photo from each month of the past year for Q's birthday party. Matt made this frame (based on a super cool one some friends did at my baby shower) out of old fence pickets.

Singing "Happy Birthday"-

The party girl- (who wasn't this happy all night...she threw at least 3 tantrums while we were setting up for her party and took a big fall in the gazebo at the night's end....to be honest).It was a fun way to celebrate our girl!

Bathtime pictures by Daddy

Not joking here, Ma.

When Beck gets hungry and I don't respond quick enough he tries to suck some milk out of his hands, arms, fingers, fist...whatever he can get to his mouth. Last week he gave himself two hickies on his little arm. Poor baby, you'd think I never feed him. :)

Open the Eyes of My Heart

This song has been a favorite of Quinn's since she was little tiny. She sings it to her babies during her rest time, and she gets super excited if we sing it on Sundays during worship.
Lately she only sings it at one volume--LOUD. So it's not as much singing as yelling....But still cracks us up.
And the words of the song are so true as our prayer for our daughter--that she will see the Lord....not theories about the Lord or theology about the Lord....but THE LORD. Shining in the light of his glory and holiness....

Having class

Quinn with all her pupils lined up for "class." Which involves lots of bossy words, loud nonsense songs, some maraca music, several time outs, and lots of trips to the bathroom. Honey is always the naughty one, and lately Nana's been having some trouble behaving himself, too. It's pretty hilarious.

Quinnisms

When she gets wound up, Quinn starts talking REALLY loudly. One way Matt and I try to curb this is replying to her in a really soft voice, and often she will lower hers in response.

One day last week she was in a stinky mood and talking at a super high volume. I replied in a whisper and she said, "I can't hear you. TURN YOUR MOUTH UP," in quite the sassy voice.

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I've been embroidering some scriptures for Beck's room lately. I keep my stitching on the end table next to the recliner and everytime she walks by Q adds a stitch of her own and makes sure I know she did it

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She also is not supposed to mess with the settings on Beck's baby swing, but whenever she passes by she turns it up a few notches without me knowing....so I'll all the sudden realize he is REALLY flying in that thing. It will rock pretty hard and fast since he's still so little. Guess she's getting him ready for rollercoasters someday.
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When we put her to bed or for rest time, it's always the same thing--
Once we close her door and leave she starts yelling/whining/crying (depending on how tired she is)
"My feet are cold." Even if it's 100 degrees her feet are cold. She HAS to have them covered with a blanket of her choosing--one of the 4 "soft" blankets she has to have in her bed. And if she kicks it off she tries to convince you to recover.

"I don't have anything to hold." She has a gazillion stuffed animals in her room, but she somehow doesn't have one to hold. She wants you to come back and find her pink pig (which she's deemed the softest) and give it back to her, because although you gave it to her once, she has now thrown or dropped it and wants you to return it to her waiting arms.

"I want _______(insert name of opposite parent than the one that put her to bed)."
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One day last week Mimi was putting Quinn into her carseat after we ate dinner with them.
Quinn: I need a kiss.
Mimi: Okay, where do you want me to kiss you?
Quinn: Inside my mouth (and opens her mouth up as wide as she could.)
Needless to say Mimi encouraged her to choose a SECOND choice location for her kiss. :)
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Quinn--"Cats have to go potty outside because they don't have fingers to flush the toilet." (I am cracking up having a Meet The Parents flashback.....)
"Cats can't get their mittens dirty because if they washed them, they don't have fingers to use the clothespins."
Anytime we are listening to "her music" which is nursery rhyme and fairy tale cd's, if she hears one that mentions a dog or a cat, she asks to play it for Alie or Beaux later.
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To Daddy a couple weekends ago:
Q:I like Saturday because you stay home. And Sunday. Where do you go tomorrow?
Matt: To work.
Q: I HATE when you have to go to work.
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Quinn calls hand sanitizer "Hanitizer." She's obsessed with it. :)
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The director at her school told me last week, as I was leaving from dropping Q off,
"I don't really need to be here anymore. I am pretty sure Q could take over as school director."
Um...not really sure how to respond to that one. But she is probably right! :)
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We were driving down 1960 and there was a billboard for an "adult novelties" store. The girl in the photo was wearing not a whole lot of anything, but had really long blond hair. Q pointed it out and said, "Look, it's Cinderella!" Hmmm, not quite.
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One of Q's prayers last week:
"Thank you God for not hitting our babies and for you not fighting with our babies."

6 Week checkup

I had my 6 week visit to the midwives for my final postpartum check. My junior midwife (Q) helped weigh Beck....and he came in at a whopping 11 lbs! The midwife asked all about how I was eating, sleeping, feeling, how Quinn was doing, how Beck was nursing, sleeping, eating, pooping....We talked for about 30 minutes and I got some great information! She told me about the different nursing styles babies have and we decided Beck's is definitely "pirahna." He doesn't mess around and finishes his meal in just a few minutes! Matt loved that and has been calling him the little pirahna ever since. :) The only bad part of our day was that we found out Rena, the midwife who delivered Beck and whom I just love is moving to Colorado. Boo.

Quinn and Oma's beauty routine

When Oma was here Quinn loved getting ready with her every morning.

First they did hair.....and read a book during to keep Q's head still.

Then eye cream.

Then face cream.

Then lip gloss (after you wash the toothpaste and milk off your face, of course).

Nice and shiny....
Then sparkly lotion....for your arms.
Then good-smelling lotion for your legs....

It's hard work being a girl...in camo pants and rhinestone shoes, no less!