One Year Ago Today...

I can't remember what I was thinking at this EXACT moment last year, but I do remember thinking our lives were going to be VERY different in just a few short months! I remember being scared. I remember thinking that there's no use in continuing my job search. I remember thinking we need a bigger car (and we went out and bought one the next day). I remember being bummed that I couldn't drink on New Year's Eve! I remember Ben and I discussing how we didn't want to know the sex of the baby (ha!). I remember thinking about canceling our trip to the Sundance Festival in Park City; which I'm glad we did not do! I remember being so excited to meet our little bundle of joy and hoping he/she looked just like Ben.

And here we are one year later. No longer Ben and Amanda. But Ben, Amanda, and Quinn. I can't imagine my life without him. I feel like I've known him forever!

Here's the first post I made to It's A Mitchell- at 8:38 pm December 30, 2007.




After asking Ben to pick up Nachos Bell Grande and an Empanada from Taco Bell (when I already had waffles, spaghetti, brownies, an apple, and strawberry-banana-orange drink), I decided it might be a good time to take a home pregnancy test. That and the fact that tomorrow is New Year's Eve and I didn't want to booze it up if I was actually preggers!

Thanks to technology, I got my answer (in plain words) in less than 2 minutes!

PREGNANT!

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Quinn After Opening Gifts

Then he just said, "Bring it on!"

Once Ben and I "explained" what was happening and showed Quinn what to do, he got excited

(you know, for a baby).

Christmas Morning

As I am sure many kids do, Quinn started out a little overwhelmed at the whole "Christmas morning" thing.

GYMBOREE!

Today we went to "open gym" at Gymboree. This isn't the same as our class that we attend each week. This is just free time for everyone to play together. In class, Quinn is with babies only. In open gym, he plays with all ages (up to 5). Since Q can't actually walk or sit up yet, we are really just doing exercises. As you can see, he has great upper body strength and can hold his head and shoulders up easily. And his balance is getting better by the day! We had a great time!

Christmas, Quinn, and the Camera

Christmas has been great! Except for the teething...Quinn has decided his teeth are coming in and he should mouth on EVERYTHING and produce enough drool to drown somebody. Seriously, a LOT of drool. Anyway, this teething thing makes him hurt and that makes him wake up in the middle of the night which is not cool. So we've been getting less sleep than we're used to, but still worth it if the kid gets a few teeth out of it. At least it's during some time off so we don't have to go to work the next day.

As for the time off, it's been terrific. Lots of time to just be a family and hang out. I tell you what, Quinn is a really cool kid. He's a lot of fun to hang out with and he ALWAYS laughs at my your jokes. Great Sense of Humor! If you haven't met him yet, you are missing out.

One of Amanda's presents this year was a new camera. She takes a lot of pictures (and, as you can see from the blog, she takes GREAT ones) but she needed a new camera to give Quinn the proper showcase that he deserves...

So, she got a new camera and some new lenses and it's all great! I even got a chance to use it today and took a couple of snapshots which came out nicely. I've shared them here. I hope you enjoy!

--Ben

Our Ornaments

One of my favorite Christmas traditions Ben and I have is telling the story of each of our ornaments as we decorate the tree. There may be 1 or 2 ornaments that I can't remember where or why we have them, but that's it. We have family ornaments that range from pieces of Ben's baby mobile, ones he made as a child, some from his dad's childhood, to ones my grandmother made in honor of each family member's birthday. We have travel ornaments from our international travels: France, England, Italy, Switzerland, and so on. Then there's the New Orleans ornaments- they are a group all their own! Let us not forget the Auburn ornament group! We have a "yearly" ornament group to commemorate, you guessed it, that year. And this year, we started a Quinn collection. He already has 4! As corny as it sounds, I really hope he enjoys the ornaments as much as we do! And that the three of us will have many new ornament stories throughout the years!

What a Great Surprise!

So...this morning I put Quinn down on the floor so he could stretch out and roll around- his favorite thing after eating. We think he "found" his voice last weekend, so the shrieks and bursts of laughter didn't surprise me. I gave him Sammy to play with and listened to the continued babbling. After a couple minutes of silence, I look over and this is what I found...

...a chubby little baby sleeping soundly while hugging Sammy!
And there he slept for 30 minutes!

Eskimo Kisses

Quinn is developing by leaps and bounds everyday! The other day I was in his room rocking him and I called out for Ben (can't remember why). Anyway, Quinn turned towards the door and waited to see Ben walk in! It was so cute! And remarkable!

Sweet Baby

Changes, Changes, and More Changes

Quinn is just over 3 months old and is behaving like a 4 month old. We are seeing beginning signs of teething. TONS of slobber, lots gnawing on his lovey, and practically eating his hands. He does not care for teething rings (warm or cold), but seems to really like sucking/gnawing clothe. So it looks like we'll go the wet wash clothe route.

There's no more laying him on his back. As soon as we do, he FLIPS (not rolls) right over! He's able to hold his head up and push up with his hands. Sounds advanced, doesn't it?
And he has discovered the "army crawl."

Ben and I were blessed with two weeks of the Q-man sleeping through the night. Then, last weekend he decided he didn't want to do that so much. I think he had several reasons: 1. MawMaw and PawPaw were here 2. He started big boy food- cereal! 3. We got off schedule/routine 4. He just likes to spice things up a bit. Last night, however, we got a FULL night plus some! He woke up around 5 am and nursed for a few minutes, then slept until 9 am!

Quinn is so alert and happy. He takes everything in carefully and seems to be a deep thinker. He's also a huge flirt. Smiles and cuts his eyes at everyone. The boy can work a crowd! He loves for us to read to him, and against Ben's wishes, he LOVES to watch tv- just cartoons and football. Seriously...if we are watching football, the boy will stop what he's doing (including eating) and watch! Oh yeah, and that video series Baby Einstein. You may have heard of it. It's like crack!

Our next check-up is January 2. I'm guessing Q will be 19 pounds and 24 inches long. Okay, gotta run..Master Quinn calls!

Ho! Ho! Ho!

It's Santa!

Today was a terrific day! Our neighborhood hosted "Snow Day" at the clubhouse. Quinn got to meet Santa; although he (Quinn, not Santa) was sound asleep. Even when we passed Santa the Big Q he didn't wake even a smidgen! We skipped the "sleigh" ride cause the line was too long, but we did enjoy some hot chocolate and swinging in the park. We didn't get to play in the snow because there were too many big kids! Maybe next year.

P.S. The tiger Quinn is holding is his "lovey," Sammy.

Pull My Finger!

WAR DANG EAGLE!

What choo talkin' bout Willis?

This is such a Ben expression!

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Texas Mitchells had their first family Thanksgiving! Ben and I both baked and cooked and even though it was just two of us at the dinner table, we named all the things for which we are so thankful...the most important one being a big, beautiful, healthy boy named Quinn! Unfortunately, Q was sleeping during the actual feast, but he enjoyed the times of the day when he was awake. Like watching part of the Macy's parade and watching the Texas and A&M game. He even decided to peform for us by rolling over a few times on his floor mat. What a great day!

Playing on the Baby Einstein mat is part of our pre-bath routine. Quinn can almost reach the arch. Once he does, he'll be able to start the music by himself. And he'll love that!

The ladies call me "Q."

Conversations with Q

Falling consumer prices contributed heavily to the decline in overall spending. The so-called core PCE deflator rose by just 2% in the past 12 months, down from 2.2% by that measure in September.

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) and the Standard & Poor's 500 (SPX) index both gained about 0.6% over 2 hours into the session, while the Nasdaq composite (COMP) gained 2.2%.

You gonna eat that or what?

All this shop talk has made me tired!