I just got back last night from a week in Niagara Falls Canada. Phew! Quinn and I survived. I definitely couldn't have pulled it off without my parents and my Ergo carrier. Poor Quinnie was teething the whole time. I can see that one on the top is close to pushing through. Luckily she was surrounded by lots of loving family to keep her distracted all day.

My grandma is turning 80 this Spring so we thought it would be a great time to go out and visit her and my grandpa. Quinn is their first great grandbaby. She also got to meet my uncles and great aunts. They were all great at bouncing her and dancing with her. It feels so good to see my baby smiling and playing with new people.

She did great on the way over. It worked out that take off and landing coincided pretty well with her nursing times so her ears didn't hurt. She took naps in the Ergo and was very entertained seeing the sights in the airport and plane. The first morning she jumped to almost midwest time, she was an hour and a half off on all her meals and naps. By the second morning she was fully on east coast time. She was cheerful all day, but the poor dolly didn't sleep so well at night because of her tooth so she shared the bed with me. She wanted to cuddle all night and kept reaching out for my face or arm. It was pitifully sweet. I'm happy to report she slept great back in her crib last night though :) 

The way back was fine with one surprise. A massive blowout while the plane was descending! She was all tucked into the Ergo for a nap and I could hear her grunting and then the smell hit me. Oh man, we were dying laughing as we changed her across our laps on her travel changing pad. As we frantically wiped her and changed her clothes, Quinn was just chattering away, "Baa baa baaay!" like nothing was happening. 

For anyone planning to fly with their baby in the future I have some tips. Absolutely bring at least one plastic freezer bag for containing anything nasty and an extra change of clothes. Quinn has had only two or three blowouts with her cloth diapers (which, by the way, I really missed using cloth diapers all week. I don't mind all the laundry, I love them.) but has had a number of blowouts when she has been in disposables when we are away from home. When I saw on an online packing list to bring a bag and extra clothes I figured it was prudent. On the way there, we didn't use them at all so I wondered if it was overkill. But after our incident, I was so glad I'd packed them. Also, I cannot sing the praises of the Ergo enough. For a teething baby who is having some difficulty with naps or needing to be on-the-go during naptimes because of planned actvities, it was a life saver. It also helped big time for being hands-free through the airports and served as a safe spot when she was overwhelmed at times. I recommend bringing your diaper bag as your purse with the items you know you will need and then pack a backpack to carry on things you think you might need, that way you can get to your essentials quickly. Bring some favorite toys and a new one or two, but don't underestimate everyday items around you. Quinn loved ripping airplane magazines, shaking a bag of pretzels, waving a straw around, "drinking" from an empty plastic cup, and holding my mom's watch. It was also helpful to be following the Baby-Led Weaning approach because Quinn could snack on whatever I was eating. She chewed on pears, apples, cucumber, etc. and even gnawed on a big chunk of pork tenderloin much to her great grandma's delight.

We're glad to be home sweet home! Quinn and I sure missed Jonathan and Shinobi. We got back just in time for Shinobi's birthday, he's five years old today.

Picks of the Week 5.13.12

O Mother, Great Is Thy Power - Desiring God

Motherhood Is Victory - Desiring God

The Beauty of Motherhood - Passionate Homemaking

Happy Mother's Day!

I have been working on two crafts that involve leftover fabric from Quinn's curtains. The first one is a little piece of fabric that stretches over the latch on the door so that I can open and close Quinn's door quietly. I saw the idea on pinterest and whipped it up with the help of my Mom and her sewing machine. I used two elastic hair ties to hook the fabric onto the door knobs.

The other project is made of some small scraps of fleece, Quinn's curtain fabric, some old clothes from a bag headed to Goodwill, and some random ribbons. I decided I wanted to make Quinn a little book. I figured that an essential one to start with is a Bible. Maybe that sounds like quite an undertaking, but I think for the time being, Quinn just needs to know Jesus loves her. All of the Old Testament and New Testament is made up of the beautiful story of God loving each of us and sending His Son to pay the ransom for our sin. So Quinn's Bible just has three pages:

Quinn sure likes to chew on it.

Blades of grass tickling tiny toes, 

daisy chains,

sandal blisters,

little boy at the park throwing a ball for Shinobi,

thanks, Lord!

Well, not much has changed since I last posted. Still hanging out with friends, doing yard work, going for walks, doing experiments in my kitchen. 

However, our yard is starting to get mushrooms! Just the sight of them makes me want to throw up! They are growing in the middle of our bark patches which seems really weird to me. Anyone have tips out there for how to get rid of them? I read that if you yank them when they're new they won't spread as much so we'll see if that helps. Ugh, they are so repulsive.

My peonies are almost big enough to make some lovely bouquets, what a treat! We are just living with what the former owners did with the yard this year (aside from a few plants I have pulled up), but starting to daydream about what we'll do next Spring. We have three cherry trees and one is covered in pink blooms. I think we will hang a tire swing from it when Quinn is a little older. I imagine she'll feel like quite a princess swinging under such a fluffy pink tree.

Quinn's tooth finally cut through, you can see it, bottom right, in this photo:

Poor little gal, it's been a long time coming. She's seven months old now! She's practicing making "p" and "f" sounds. She whispers them, it's quite cute. She practices moving one finger at a time in a graceful motion and stares at her hand when she does it. Her list of foods has grown with the addition of cauliflower, sausage kale soup with homemade chicken broth, pancakes, yogurt, homemade pizza crust, and berry spinach smoothies (very messy).