It's my birthday!

The Qster made it through year one and so did we. I am happy to announce that we got a surprise, but not totally unexpected visitor yesterday when Ed McMahon showed up at our door with balloons, a crate full of diapers and a trophy for winning the parents of the year award. We scoured his prize patrol mini-van but couldn't seem to come across the check we were so sure we deserved. He must have forgot it somewhere. For not sleeping for an entire year (and the last few months of pregnancy) we thought for sure we had earned a check in there somewhere. Well, at least the plaque looks nice on our wall.

We had a beautiful day here in Florida with sunny skies and morning temperatures in the 60s that rose to the mid-70s by the afternoon. Quentin woke up in agonizing pain screaming his one year old head off due to a molar just starting to break the surface. We felt pretty bad for him. Those molars are big old squares jetting through a significant space of gum and it drives him crazy. He's constantly on the look out for anything to chew on to relieve some of the pain. We went to church where he went into super-squirm mode and it was a total bust. He wasn't interested in sitting still so Carrie took him out for the first half only to bring him back and when we went up to the Communion Rail 60 seconds later he had a freak out so I missed the second half. We may have gotten a message in there somewhere between the two of us but I'm not sure. We then took him out for breakfast but Quinny fell asleep in the car and slept through all of breakfast finally waking up when we were paying the check so that was a bust for him.

At that point we decided we better open up some gifts so he has some time to play with them. He received a couple of balls (which he loved), a toy with wooden pegs you pound in, a singing octopus, a packers jersey, a car dash to work on his driving skills, a lawn mower (too loud - it scared him) and a real life talking, neighing, eating rocking horse (which also scared him). He is warming up to everything though. When we unveiled the rocking horse from under a sheet I think he thought we just let a giant wild animal loose in the living room and he took off for cover. We have it all on video. He of course liked the balls best. Funny, how the $1.69 toy was the one he coveted most. He also received a gift certificate to Toys R' Us so we will maybe use that to pick up some more balls. He is really into throwing, kicking and catching at the moment. So much so that it was difficult to get him to refocus his attention on the other gifts.

After we opened the presents we attempted to put him down for a nap. He totally denied us so we took him and the dog to the park - in one car! Finally, we have a car big enough for all of us. (Black Friday persuaded us to purchase a new Black Beauty, but that's for a different post). We took the balls for him to kick around and headed to the park. We started at the swings, but he started to fall asleep after just a few pushes. I think they must put him to sleep in a swing at daycare so that didn't work out. Maybe we need one of those for the nursery??? So we moved to the soccer field where he tore it up running all over the place. There were a ton of families out there playing catch and kicking around soccer balls so we fit right in. We wore everyone out pretty good and came back for cake and ice cream.

He loved it! Check out the sequence of Quinny just going to work on that cupcake. He pounded that thing like he was getting paid. The first pic looks like he's been eating some cake. Look at that chin!

It's all about being special

Tomorrow is the big day and like last year we still have leftovers in the fridge but hopefully we won't be making a trip to the hospital. We stayed up late last night putting together his bucking bronco 21st century rocking horse. Meanwhile Carrie got the Christmas tree up, which according to Q is filled with "balls, balls, balls." No, son, those are ornaments. He doesn't understand the distinction and tries taking them off so he can throw them. Ornaments don't do well as projectiles on tile floor. Needless to say our tree is sparsely populated with decorations. Only at the highest elevations are there a few. I guess that's how it will it be this year. So our tree is posing in the nude with nothing but needles from the waist down but it doesn't mind and either do we.

We spent the day getting the grass mowed, raked and the house lit with Florida style Christmas lights. It was quite cool this morning - to the point that Carrie had a minor freak out for Quentin's health and actually turned on the heat, which down here means cranking the AC up to a respectable 68 degrees. We wouldn't want little Q-dog's paws to freeze while crawling around the floor. He didn't have a good night sleeping so he was a little crabby this morning and we gave him an early birthday present to keep the peace. It was a car dash with wheel, turn signals, horn, shifter and key to start. It plays songs and makes car noises, which he is really in to right now. He loves dancing to music, but not any music will do. He needs child music. I tried singing some classic rock to him, but he wasn't that into it. He needs the real classics like Old McDonald had a Farm and B-I-N-G-O. At first I was a little annoyed but then we experimented with other "children" tunes for the car and I realized there was a baseline for annoyance and listening to the Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round was rather refreshing in comparison.

We're certainly excited to reach the milestone of one tomorrow. I remember being a kid and my Mom putting up signs, banners and balloons so when we woke up we had this shrine for us to make us feel special. So, that's our goal for tomorrow. We want to make the Qster feel special for the day. We have lots of presents and we think we are going to take him to the park to play on the swings. He's not only walking at this point by can run a bit too so he's pretty mobile. We're looking forward to having a nice family day.

Here is a video we shot today of Quinny trying on one of Carrie's flip-flops. Notice he got it on the right foot. He is very curious and catches on pretty fast. He's almost bested the child gate. If he was a little heavier he could beat it. He understands how to break in but can't get the weight distribution quite right. I don't see that gate lasting too much longer.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving, mostly our newest member of the day of feasting, Quinny. We ended up doing our turkey on the grill this year to create more room in the oven for pie, beans, stuffing and rolls. Interestingly enough, our neighbors to our left were smoking their turkey and the neighbors to the right were deep frying theirs so it was an outside cooking affair around the neighborhood. Our 13 pound bird turned out deliciously juicy surrounded by smashed potatoes, green bean casserole, Grandma Spiegelhoff's stuffing, strawberry salad (with fresh strawberries), cinnamon rolls, pumpkin bread, deviled eggs and we forgot the gravy until we sat down. At that point putting off eating was not going to happen so we dug in and will make up the gravy for leftovers today. We finished with some home made apple pie and ice cream. After cramming it all in we celebrated the Packers dominating performance over the Lions with a toast of wine that we received for a gift from our wedding. It was a solid day. Quentin pounded the pumpkin bread, his Thanksgiving favorite eating piece after piece. We fed him a healthy portion of turkey to get him nice and sedated for the evening. He slept fairly well getting up twice, but eventually migrating to our bed in the wee hours. I didn't realize until I rolled over and thought Carrie really shrunk or the munchkin some how gained entry to our room. All in all we had great weather and nice day of eating.

We did a quick round of sharing what we are thankful for and of course health and family made the list. We have had several pregnant coworkers have complications and it's really amazing how lucky you are when everything goes well. Our healthy boy has been the highlight of our year watching him grow and become the man he almost is (two days and counting). I keep teasing him to enjoy his last few days of youth. It's not often one can brag about being younger than a year. He hits up the doctor on Tuesday for his one year check up, so that should be an interesting visit getting shots with a much more aware boy. We are especially thankful in this economy for not only having jobs, but jobs that we both like. Our economy in Tampa is boasting a 12% unemployment rate, so locally people are really hurting. An area charity handed out 1.6 million pounds of food yesterday and you can imagine numerous people still went hungry. We were fortunate to have such a formidable feast on our table.

We are gearing up for birthday celebration VIII, since the Quinster has had several parties. This one will be low key on Sunday with just the four of us. We have been receiving gifts through the mail that Q will get a chance to open on Sunday. I am going to be spending the weekend putting together some of his new toys. (Get used to that "they" tell me). We'll get some pictures posted soon after the party. The Christmas tree and house lights will likely get put up as well. It should be interesting with Q and the tree. We survived the dog so we think we can weather our one year old!

Here are some pics of Carrie and Q before eating. You can see the presents piling up in the background. Q had his own Thanksgiving shirt, bib and even PJ's! We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. It's my favorite holiday and with Quentin getting his birthday within the weekend it's even better.