Lily (and Quinn) and the Imaginary Zoo

When she was just a baby Lily received the book "Lily and the Imaginary Zoo" from our friends Shawn and Liz. It is the story of a little girl named Lily who accompanies her Mom on errands through Boston. On their way she befriends a number of animals - sculptures scattered throughout the city. We read it often and it's definitely had it's time in the 'favorite book' seat. Even now, we still come back to it as one that she particularly enjoys reading.

Every since we got it I've wanted to take Lily out to follow the trail of the Lily in the book and find all the animals. Well, we finally got around to doing just that last week on Veteran's Day. Lily was home from school, Gordon had taken the day off to spend some time with Quinn before day care started up for him, and the weather was pretty nice for a November day. So off we went!

We took the T from Porter Square to Copley - Lily was excited because she loves the train. I was VERY happy that Gordon was with us to navigate the times that we couldn't find the elevator (Park Street) or there just wasn't one (Copley). Quinn fell asleep on the train ride, but here he is looking ready for an adventure:


Lily's first stop is the Boston Public Library where she meets a lion. Apparently I wasn't paying attention to the book, because I missed the fact that the lion is actually INSIDE the library. So after circling it looking for the lion, we had to give up and move on since the library was closed for the holiday. Not the best start, but thankfully Copley Square and our next stop is right across the street. Here's a photo of the library - see? no lion there! We've promised Lily that we'll come back to find him another time. (and now she asks me every day - "can we go find the lion today mommy?")



So next stop - Copley Square. Here, Lily's Mom "gazes up at Trinity Church" while Lily races the tortoise and the hare. Our Lily was a little disappointed to discover that the tortoise and the hare aren't real. "But Mommy - how do they race?" She got over it though and had fun playing with them them anyway. Funny side-note - while we were there another little girl came over with her Dad. And we overheard that her name was Lily too! Made me wonder if they had the same book.



All three of us decided to hitch a ride from the tortoise. He wasn't going anywhere fast anyway:



After saying goodbye to the tortoise and the hare we continued along Lily's trail to the Boston Public Garden to visit with Mrs. Mallard and her babies. I've been wanting to take Lily here forever anyway - I'm ashamed she's nearly 3 and it was her first visit! The garden looked really cool in all its fall finery. I also am ashamed to admit that at first we couldn't find the duck statues -what kind of Bostonian am I? (one that lives in Somerville, I guess) We did find her though and Lily was very excited to meet Ouack - her favorite of the 8 ducklings. Here she is sharing a pensive moment with Mrs. Mallard:



And here's Quinn, getting to know Ouack:



Our last stop was the frog pond statues in the Boston Common. I had no idea that there was also a playground here. It was the perfect place to end our little outing. In the book Lily does go on to Old City Hall to ride a donkey statue. Our Lily was not happy that we didn't make it to Mr. Donkey. But he was just a little too far and we needed to eat and get home for nap. So we compromised with some playtime in the playground instead.

Meeting Mr. Frog

As a final treat we ran into our good friends - one of whom happens to also be Lily - at the tadpole playground. The perfect way to end our little Lily adventure.

Two Lilys

Our day ended at Honk Kong Eatery in Chinatown where we ate roast duck and roast pig and yummy vegetables on rice. We all had a great time and hope to do it again in the spring/summer when the frog pond fountain is open and we can also find the lion and the donkey. I'm so glad we got ourselves out and into the city. We really don't do it enough - and it's such a fantastic time when we do - yay Boston!

Diapers!

Despite our troubles trying to cloth diaper Lily - we've been successfully using cloth with Quinn for - well 6 months now. It helps that we got a bunch of hand-me downs from our friends (thanks Sandra and Vita!) and that The Diaper Lab moved just a couple of blocks down the street from us.

I've been wanting to write this big old post about our cloth diapering experience with Quinn - but it just hasn't happened. And I think part of the reason is that it really hasn't been a big deal. We haven't really settled on a diaper "system" with him - we've just gone with whatever we've been given. He's usually in pre-folds - from Green Mountain - courtesy of Sandra and Roberto. We also got some Thirsties Fab Fitteds handed down from Rocket and we love them. So much that Q is still wearing the XS size even though - ummm he's really a small now. Given that we live so close to The Diaper Lab I find myself wandering in there every couple of weeks and picking up a diaper to try out. I just got a cool new Baby Kicks fitted for over-night that I'm psyched about.

Right now, he's at the edge of busting out of the small pre-folds so we're at a decision point as to what to do next. We'll probably end up getting some more pre-folds and maybe buying some fitteds too because they are really easy for diapering on the go. The real test will be his family day care. Kathy is totally willing to use cloth - but I need to be willing to keep up with the laundry when I'm working again. Stay tuned!

Anyway, the reason i'm finally writing this is that on the spur of the moment I entered some pictures of Q in the Diaper Lab photo contest. One of them was chosen as a finalist in the "people's choice" competition. He's pretty much getting trounced, but if you have a sec head over there and vote for him! Do it now though, because today's the last day (yeah, go me for getting the word out huh? ha ha). No matter what I think he's totally the cutest cloth-diapered baby in Somerville!

For fun, here are the photos of Q looking quite fab in his Thirsties (okay well really Rocket's Thirsties....) The first photo is the one that was chosen for the contest.

Quinn: 6 Months

Three days ago Quinn hit the 6-month mark. I'm still not sure how that happened. It feels monumental - he's halfway through his first year now and SO much happens in that second half. It's hard to believe that soon our little guy will be working on crawling and walking and then will become a toddler... OK OK I'm getting ahead of ourselves... but he just got here SO QUICKLY!

Six months also means that I'll be heading back to work. Soon. Like in 1.5 weeks. I have many emotions about going back. Part of me is relieved to be getting some solid blocks of adult time back - especially since Quinn still hasn't gotten the hang of the "napping for longer than 45 minutes" thing. I'm looking forward to having a chance to just be inside my own head for a little while everyday and to use my brain again. I'm also afraid that my brain no longer works. But I think most of all I'm not sure how I'm going to deal with missing Quinn. We've been quite literally attached at the hip since he was born. It's going to be very weird to spend such large chunks of my day without him.

So! instead of thinking about that - let's talk about what's been happening for Q in the last month.

• He's been making up for lost time with Papa
  
  
   
  
  
  
• He's started eating solid food - and boy is he a fan! So far he's had: rice cereal, oatmeal, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, avocado, prunes and pear. He was lukewarm on the avocado and the prunes gave him hives instantly. Everything else he's loved.
  
  
   
  
  
  
• He went to his first "big kids birthday party" for a friend of Lily's. He is so so so into his big sister. I'm pretty sure if she could lactate he'd forget about me altogether. I've noticed that he's a little crankier when Lily's in school and brightens up as soon as we go get her. The louder and crazier she acts around him, the happier he is. He loves it when she sings to him. She loves making him laugh.
  
  
   
  
  
  
• He's logged some good swing time at the parks thanks to some very pleasant fall weather and the awesome new park near us. [although the photo below was taken at Lexington Park - an old favorite]
  
  
   
  
  
  
• He's still a big fan of the Exersaucer and has chosen some favorite toys. Shown here is his rattle giraffe. He likes to eat him. But really, he likes to eat all of his toys. His latest favorite is a small T-Rex stuffy he got from our friends Robin, Jeff, Cybele and Jake. Gordon enjoys the irony found in a little baby eating a T-Rex.
  
  
   
  
  
  
• He's becoming really talky. He makes tons of adorable noises. He'll take little breaks from nursing to look up at me and tell me something. Then goes back to the task at hand - filling his belly. He talks with Lily. One morning they both woke up around 7 and were content to hang out in their room together just "talking" back and forth. Lily even moved to the foot of her bed so she could be closer to him.
  
  
• He can very nearly sit up on his own. He does it for pretty long stretches, but still topples over eventually. The picture here was taken on his 6-month birthday. This new skill is serving him well in his tower-toppling exercises. He is no longer as susceptible to injury due to mommy-spaciness.
  
  
   
  
  
  
• His sleeping habits are largely the same. He's had some nights that have been not so good, but has lately settled into a pretty consistent "bed at 7, eat at 3, wake at 6:30" routine. He goes to bed really easily at night now. He still naps in 30-45 minute chunks. Although one day last week he took a 2 hour nap in the afternoon. I am still hopeful that it was a preview to what is to come. He has not done it again since - yet. Do not laugh at my optimism.
  
  
• He tightens his hold on our hearts more and more with each passing day. Gordon and I both love making him laugh. We love being the lucky recipient of his smiles. We love listening to him coo at us to get our attention. We feel so lucky and so blessed to have this little baby boy in our lives. Our family feels that much more complete now.
  
  
   
  
  
  

Halloween 2009

Somehow we just celebrated our FOURTH Halloween here - where did the time go? This year I had aspirations of doing a "family-themed" Halloween costume - like maybe we could all go as characters from "Goodnight Gorilla" or something equally as charming. But then Lily announced "I want to be a ballerina - a fairy ballerina" and that ended that idea.

So I scrambled around and with the help of a friend's daughter's dance recital outfit, some funky Children's Place tights and set of wings, managed to throw together a pretty cute fairy ballerina ensemble. Then I literally collected every cute baby costume I could get my hands on for Quinn. He was a dragon one day thanks to a second-hand shop, a chili pepper two other days thanks to a friend and a chicken for trick-or-treating thanks to another friend. It's just too fun dressing a baby who has no prayer of making his own preference known. I couldn't stop myself. At one point Lily did request additional costumes for herself as well, but i managed to distract her - "Look! a pretty tiara!"

Halloween started a day early with a trip to Gordon's annual Halloween party at work. Here's a picture of Chili Pepper Quinn enjoying the festivities (and the attention):

On Halloween day we dragged everyone outside for a front yard photo shoot before the sun went down:

Our fairy ballerina demonstrating the art of twirling:

Everyone knows that fairy ballerinas LOVE chickens:

Me, looking boring with my cuties:

And now, Daddy's turn:

Fairy ballerinas also love to EAT chicken!

Halloween night we went out trick-or-treating on our street - a very happening place on Halloween. There's always a festive note to the air as most people hang out on their front steps handing out candy and chatting with each other. It feels a little like a block party. Lily was shy at first, but soon warmed up and enjoyed going from house to house collecting her loot. Quinn came along in the stroller and ended up sleeping most of the evening away. When he wasn't asleep he had this look on his face that was a bit like "tell me why I'm dressed like a chicken, again?"

Lily enjoyed getting the candy, but like past years hasn't been super into eating it. In fact her favorite score from the evening was a package of peanut butter crackers. She wanted to eat them as soon as we got home - and did so, after doctoring them up with a little jelly. Before coming inside, she and Gordon sat outside to hand out candy to anyone still out trick-or-treating. Sadly, there was no one left. But Lily was determined to share her candy so they eventually found some guy walking down the street talking on his phone. Lily ran up to him and gave him some items from her stash.

Post trick-or-treat, trying to give candy away

This Halloween our house got a visit from the Switch Witch - a shy, little which who loves candy. She comes by at night when everyone is asleep and takes the candy you've left out for her, switching it with a new toy. Lily was very into the idea and left a big pile of candy for her. She even allocated some of her candy to Quinn so he could participate. The next morning Lily found some wikki stix, a new book and some scary stickers. Quinn found a great new baby toy - it quickly became a favorite. Thanks to the Somerville Mom who posted an email about her to the message board!

Notes and candy left for the Switch Witch

First Foods

I mean to post something the first day that Quinn had a taste of solid foods.. and of course I didn't. Because I had no pictures! What's the sense of a post without pictures! Sigh. So now I have pictures, and I'm finally posting them.... weeks after they were taken. Yeah, I rock.

Anyway, the point is that Quinn is eating solids now. And honestly, I wasn't in a rush for it this time around. I mean it's really much easier to just sit down and unhook my nursing bra than to puree squash, freeze it, defrost it, pump milk for cereal, wash up the mess that ensues. (Ok so not all that is done at each meal... but you get the idea I hope.. otherwise you just think I'm a lunatic). But this boy - he's really into food. Soon after he hit 4 months he was reaching for my plate whenever I ate. Reaching for it and often getting his hand full of whatever I happened to be eating. Then he started watching me eat with such intensity that he would cry, literally cry, when the food was gone. It was like he spent my whole meal hoping I'd give him a morsel and the disappointment was just too much to handle when he realized that wasn't going to happen. So although I was all prepared to hold off on solids longer this time around - I just couldn't do it to him. We caved.

One complicating factor was Q's digestive works. I know, I know - TMI and all that - but really, what's a blog about babies without some talk of poop? So Q's been an infrequent pooper. And honestly - it's been great! We've used cloth diapers with him (yeah, yeah, got this whole post about THAT in my head too - whatever) and the fact that he only pooped once every 10 days or so was - just. awesome. But I worried that once he got solids he might get uncomfortably backed up. And at first, that seemed to happen. So we gave him some cereal for a day or two and then backed off when he seemed extra gassy/unhappy at night.

But eventually we got back to it and now he's eating once/day. We're staying away from potentially binding things like bananas and apples. He's had squash, sweet potatoes, rice cereal and oatmeal. We tried an avocado once but it just wasn't ripe enough. I also had the genius idea to give him prunes - to help with the pooping. And really, it was a good idea - and did help with the pooping. But it also gave him hives - like immediately. So... yeah, we'll back off on that for now. Any other suggestions for food that helps keep things moving?

And now that I've embarrassed him sufficiently by discussing his poop - let's talk about the eating. Really, this baby likes to eat. Lily enjoyed solids and all, but Quinn is a whole different story. The minute he *thinks* food is coming he starts getting all worked up. Pretty soon he's crying and you're begging the microwave to just HEAT FASTER. Then you get the bib on him - and he calms down a bit - and starts shoving it in his mouth hoping there's already been some food spilled on it that he can suck up. This activity buys you some time in the "getting the food ready" department.

Then, when you get to the business of actually feeding him - he goes bananas. Arms start flapping - he reaches for the spoon and does a combo jam your spoon-hand towards his mouth while bringing his face to the food. Immediately the food is gone and if there's not more soon -he'll cry. He likes to keep one hand on my spoon-hand the whole time - as if he wants to keep track of it in case I try to get away or something. If there's a lull in feeding he sucks anything that missed his mouth off of the bib or the bar in front of the Phil & Ted's Me Too clip on chair or the counter. He cries when the food is done - I'm still not sure how much would be "enough". Thankfully I've been successful with distraction techniques to ease the sting.

Gearing up for a bite

Already suspicious, there had better be more coming lady!

and yummm

Again, could you hurry up with the next spoonful please?