slow on the updates

I KNOW. I need to update. However, big things are happening in the Brown household and I haven't been able to get a free moment to upload our Florida pictures. I want to do that before I talk about our semi-ill fated trip to Florida. It was a nice visit with the grandparents, but not without a string of rainy days and sick Erics.

Also, we're in the process of buying a house, so all of our free time has been spent signing paperwork and stalking the house as if it were a guy that we like but he has another girlfriend, so we drive by every night to see if SHE is there, the difference being that we are just waiting for THOSE people to vacate OUR house. I'll have pictures of that later too. Like, when we move in. Somehow, I don't think that the current occupants would love it if I stood outside taking pictures. Nor would they like it if I knocked on the door and asked to come in and take pictures. I'm not interested in the kind of police attention that just taking pictures through the windows would attract, either.

Anyway, it's in Collingswood and it's awesome.

Peanut Butter and Jams

Sooooo... After Eric's Friday night UPS fiasco, the whole family was ready for some fun. We met up with Sam and Kim and Ethan and some friends of theirs at the WXPN Peanut Butter and Jams show, a weekly kids concert held at a nearby music venue. This particular show was a band called Bubble and they played Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in its entirety (plus a few bonus songs) in celebration of the album's 40th year on earth here. Usually the bands use original material, like the lovely Bari Koral Family Band, but I think the album's tribute was a great idea anyway.

So we went.

Quinn had a great time watching everyone and he even seemed to enjoy the band, so that was good. Even if he didn't--admission is free for those under 1 years old.















As a bonus, there was Rogue Chocolate Stout on tap, so mommy and daddy enjoyed one of those each. Delicious!



Later that night we went out to eat at Johnny Mananas in East Falls and then watched the super exciting Falls Bridge lighting.


*Sorry for the picture quality. I forgot my camera and had to rely on old crappo camera phone.

We interrupt this baby's blog . . .

to request that you fire-bomb your local UPS. Or, if your less-inclined to violent protest, at least boycott their use.

So we were waiting on two packages that they tried to deliver Wednesday. Ginny worked from home Thursday to make sure we got them. They didn't show. She had to go to her office to interview someone and left the house at 5:45. I got home with Quinn at 6. He had come at 5:52. We missed him Friday, too. We wanted to get both packages before the weekend, as one included some stuff to finish our kitchen ceiling. Ginny called, and was told that they could be picked up anytime between 7 and 8:30 that night.

I tend to be fairly punctual, so I showed up at 7. After being told I had to wait 'til they called my address, I started to wait. I knew it was going to be trouble. There were already close t0 30 people waiting and more flooding in. One guy was already complaining about being there for an hour. I wasn't looking forward to an hour-long wait, especially since I didn't have dinner, and was planning on picking it up on the way home.

Around 8, I was seething. This was clearly Ginny's fault. She must have known the pain I would endure. Why was she so cruel to send me down here? I could eat Arby's I'm so hungry.

By nine, the place was starting to clear out -- only about 15 us still waiting. That's right. It's 9pm, I'm still there. My back hurt. I was past hungry. As you can imagine, at this point I'm trying to figure out what kind of damage I might be able to cause. No employees in the room, should I yank out all the wires from this cash register? There's another guy that's been there as long as I had. I asked if he thought a riot would be productive. He weakly smiled. His spirit was clearly already broken.

At 9:30, mine was too. Between sobs, I heard my address called. Finally. Of course, I wouldn't be compelled to ask you all to commit felonious acts if I actually got our packages. Nope. Apparently, the driver didn't take them off the truck so they were locked up off-site. Unavailable until Monday.

Strange things are afoot at the UPS. They knew we were coming for our stuff, couldn't they inform the driver not to lock it up somewhere else? They knew I was there waiting for my stuff, couldn't they find out it wasn't coming back before I waited for nearly 3 hours? After jerking me around that bad, wouldn't there be some sort of way to alleviate my pain? Refund the shipping charges? Give me a set time for delivery? Be prepared to part with their first born? Something?! Nope. They can deliver it Monday (which we won't be able to get) or they can hold it there for us to come back and enjoy the process all over again.

If you own a business, don't use UPS. If you're an arsonist, let's talk. Comeuppance will be had.

The baby death trap has been neutralized.

Quinn has begun the short, fast journey to total mobility. This is great, but also frightening.

Anyone that's been to our house knows that there is a rather child-unfriendly feature in the center of the living area. Our stairs are basically a stair-column that could easily trap babies, the blind, and it even managed to suck a 5 months pregnant lady into its terrifying vortex.


This is the view from above.











This is what it looks like from the back of the stairs. (that mess at the bottom is the basement. I like to think of it less as a hazard and more as a cushion)


So we bought 2 very long baby fence/gate systems and linked them together. Then we looped it around the basement stairs, blocking off both the upstairs route and the downstairs route. We will have to think of some way to block the area behind the couch, but hopefully we move before it comes to that.

Here is how it turned out:
From the dining room:


From the front of the stairs:


From the rear:


It's not perfect, but it works for now!

As Good As Fold - DailyCandy

As Good As Fold - DailyCandy

Quinn's Holidays

Unfortunately, Santa can't come to our house because we don't have a chimney and our front door has an iron gate that is Santa-resistant. But baby Jesus made sure that Quinn got lots of bows, wrapping paper, and boxes to drool all over.



Also, he got toys. Toys that jingle, toys that sing, toys that scatter all over the place and toys that bling.



On New Years Day, Quinn had his first exposure to Philadelphia's annual New Year's tradition, the drunk men dressed in feather suits parade Mummers Parade!


Fortunately, the rain stopped in the morning and the weather, as always, cooperated and remained relatively comfortable in the 50's. Unfortunately, the daddy and his friends thought it would be a wonderful idea to drink a keg of Golden Monkey so it was an early evening for all.

Let's play catch up

Things Quinn can do:
Pick up pieces of food and eat them by himself
Sit
belly crawl (this is somewhat new)
pull up from sitting
blow raspberries
click and cluck
drink from a cup with help
dive recklessly around when being held
say "dadadadadadadaaaaa"
roll around very fast

Things he's not doing (but will be sooner than we are ready for):
sitting up from lying down
standing up unsupported
reciting Shakespearean monologues from memory

Quinn at birth (11 lbs 5 oz of sheer bliss):

Quinn at 1 month:

2 months:

3 months:

4 months:

5 months:

6 months:

7 months:

Days and nights of Quinn

Quinn is 7.5 months old as of this posting. I'll be detailing, hopefully in not too much painstaking detail, about his growth, development and just his funny little ways... until I forget to keep updating or, as a 60something year old man, he respectfully requests me to stop reporting on his bowel movements.