New house coming along

But unfortunately, I'm still digging my way through stuff and don't have time to get out the laptop and put the pictures in it. It's also broken. It's usable, but some screws popped out and I can't figure out how to fix it myself so it will need some service, too.

We hosted the grandparents this weekend, and last weekend, all my sisters and their broods (save 2 brooding teens) made their way over so it's been busy. We are also hosting Easter at our house so hopefully we'll at least have just shoved everything into the basement in a panic by then.

Quinn and I are both stricken with some foul stomach ill. I hope he doesn't feel as bad as I have been. I had heartburn for oh the past 5 or so days with a lot of nausea, and he's just had it coming out of both ends (not that you wanted to know, but I did not have "it" coming out of anywhere)

I really jut hope he hasn't been having the heartburn but I've been getting it so bad I can hardly move or sleep or anything. So now I'm scared to eat.

FREE QUINN BROWN

9 month checkup

Quinn had his 9 month checkup yesterday. It was pretty uneventful he didn't pee on anyone or break anything at the dr's office.

He's doing fine, growth and development-wise. I knew that as he is an exceptionally tall and articulate gentleman.

He's just a bit taller than 30 inches and a hair over 20 lbs. His head is 18 inches + something. I'm bad at remembering his fractions, obviously. For you percentile-junkies, he's 50% in weight (average) and 90% in height (above average) so, to quote Dr. Crino, "tall and slim, which is just fine"

Um, no comment on the noggin, though. It's. . . girthy. It's in the 75%. Which is also fine. But a problem when trying to cram him into his 6-12 month pajama shirts.

Poor kid, they don't make "slim" clothes for infants. So either his pants fall down, or they're too short.

MOVING THIS WEEKEND

We closed on our new house yesterday, and as per usual, I forgot my camera to take pictures. But fret not, we will be returning to the house possibly tonight and definitely tomorrow so I will have some photos to share. We're actually moving in for good on Sunday. Totally fast!

We are really sad to leave our old house, though. I am already looking forward to moving back to the city. Hopefully, then, finances will permit a sweet pad on Delancey St. I'm not holding my breath, though. . .

I've enlisted the services of our office intern, Amy, to help out with the boy on Saturday. Interns are great! Actually, she is great. We'll also have some family assistance so, of course, we'll be all moved over and unpacked by Sunday night. Right? Okay, I guess not. Anyone that knows me, knows that I still haven't unpacked boxes from 3 moves ago. Yet I continue to travel with them.

But I did throw out at least 2/3 of my clothing collection and I hope to tackle shoes tonight. Wish us luck! You can buy my old clothes at the Philly AIDS Thrift, a store I'm definitely returning to to buy more stuff, because it's one of the cooler thrifts I've visited in a while. The stuff I left them with wasn't very cool, though. It's all Old Navy, circa 1999.

Cool: Online toy rental services

For those with a high tolerance for used items and a low tolerance for clutter:
Baby Plays

I think this is kinda cool, especially given our space limitations in our current home. Our new house is bigger, but that doesn't mean I want more toys all over the place!

I'm considering this. . . However, I think it's more per month than I actually spend on toys right now.

Also, Pittsburgh has a toy library:
Pittsburgh Toy Library

I wish I knew of one nearby!

Quinn's new cousin

MORE PICTURES TO FOLLOW of course.

Quinn got a new cousin, Kate, yesterday. This is in addition to his other new cousin, James (December), and his older cousins, Sophie (3), Brian (6), Jen (16), and Dan (19).

EH. For the mommy.

Yesterday, Quinn got me flowers. He required some help of course, but he was creative in his delivery.

First, he asked the daddy to conspire with him.

Then, he asked Miss Trish at the daycare to help him.

I took Quinn to his school in the morning, just like always--well actually we left a little early, but then couldn't find parking so we had to drive around for a while as the usual inconsiderate assssss I mean jerks blocked the whole parking area for a full half hour, so I called daddy during this time to complain and he was sad... but that's getting into the bad stuff so we will move onto the good stuff. ANYWAY. We finally got into the parking lot, and I went down to his classroom to get him settled in for the day. Miss Trish was like "oh we've been protecting some flowers for you." I was a little confused so I looked at them and I was like-uh ok. I had to peel Quinn out of his brown fleece suit of pure hate (I'll have to get a picture of this, but this is the suit he has, except imagine that baby miserable and angry, not happy and smiling. HELLO! FALSE ADVERTISING! Oh and Quinn's is brown. ) And then I had to put his bottles and lunch and stuff away, so I was just like thinking that the daycare got them for me, which was weird but I was focused on other stuff. But then I went over and looked at them, and they were my favorite flowers, so I was sure the daddy was in on this. I gave Quinn his kiss and watched him play with his buddy Marcos for a few minutes and I left. I opened the card and it said:



Eh! is his favorite expresssion, and his answer to everything. "Quinn, do you want lunch?" "Eh."
Sometimes, it's an emphatic EH! but more frequently, it's a complete and total expression of indifference. Like "eh. I could eat."

I don't know who wrote the card, but it looks suspiciously like the daddy's handwriting.

Here are the flowers (camera phone again, sorry. I need some new equipment.)



So the daddy, at Quinn's request, got the flowers at the flower store and dropped them off at the daycare before I got there. Pretty crafty.

In other news, the daddy spent Valentine's day playing poker with his boyfriends and then stayed out late at Ten Stone with his friend, "The Doctor". SHADY. Mommy got a late night, bourbon-soaked kiss on the eye, and it wasn't even Valentine's Day anymore! It doesn't matter, as Quinn and I watched cooking shows and ate Mango together. Daddy missed out.

About Florida.

Last month, we took a highly anticipated trip to Florida. Eric's parents rented a house in Winter Haven and we went down from January 16-20.

First things first, we discovered that Eric is on the FBI no-fly list. Also, Eric has an expired drivers license (not really, but try explaining that to Philadelphia TSA employees) so security was a little difficult. I tried to get a picture of Eric in the isolation booth at security, but, you know those security agents--always moving at a lightning speed, so I couldn't get a shot off before he was released.

The trip down was perfectly executed, as Quinn napped and nursed and quietly sat through the entire 2 hour flight.






(there are mommy-flippin' babies on this mommy-flippin' plane!)

Our flight was on time, but it was a little late for the guy once we got down there. No matter because he snoozed in the car ride from Tampa. He had been a little under the weather with a stomach thing for a few days beforehand but was holding his own after barfing in the car at the airport.

Eric, on the other hand, was breathing heavily and making desperate pleas for his father to pull over and allow him to investigate his stomach contents. His father ignored his pleas and we made it to Winter Haven without incident, but with much consternation.

Eric's gastrointestinal upset continued into Thursday and the weather was a bit chilly and rainy. We opted to just enjoy the house and grandparents that day instead of going to and doing activities. We had planned on going to Cypress Gardens but figured we could postpone that for another day.

Friday came, and I was all, "I need to go somewhere!" My nausea was building but I was determined to get out and about.

So we went to Cypress Gardens.

This is Quinn when we got there:


This is what most of the people that were there looked like:


Eric still wasn't feeling well, but the fresh air was clearly doing him some good:


We went on all the roller coasters, but I didn't really feel like doing any of the scary rides.

We toured the botanical gardens:


And we saw a Banyan tree:

And Jesus:


Quinn smiled a bit:


We also watched the WORLD FAMOUS water-skiing show.

Then Quinn began to melt down and it started really raining, so we had to go. We tried in vain to find a local brewpub, but without the help of the internet, we failed miserably.

On Saturday, ERic and I were not feeling hot, but again, I was like I NEED TO DO THINGS. So we actually went to the mall. and we Bowled! I bowled something like a 46 (a personal best) and Eric, being the bowling junky we all know him to be barely beat me with something like a 300.

We also attempted to go to the Citrus Festival, but $7 non-refundable admission with angry rainclouds bearing down on us prevented our entry to that.

Sunday was our departure day. We didn't think this through very well. We booked a 7am flight. Winter Haven is roughly an hour from Tampa. This meant we had to leave at like 5 am. This really didn't work out well for anyone, especially FBI Most Wanted Hopeton Eric Brown or whichever Eric Brown has been up to no good lately (Hopeton's actually dead now).


Eric in custody at Tampa (fortunately we were otherwise expedited because of la bambino):


Quinn fell back asleep in the car, so he was FULL OF ENERGY for the return flight. It was like wrestling a rabid gator. And he was screaming. No so much in anger, but just because someone told him how babies are SUPPOSED to act on a plane. See, he wasn't schooled in the ways of baby-flying on the way down. Someone, somewhere, corrupted him. So there are no pictures of that. I think mommy is still missing clumps of hair.

Yeahhhh Boyyeeee. Old School.

I'm not updating because I've had an inexplicable case of the hives. But I felt these pictures to be worth sharing:






















These are from our Florida trip. I need to add more details on that but I'll do so later.

I ride on the bus into the city every day...

Quinn took his first bus ride yesterday! This is not his first trip to the SEPTA rodeo, as he rode the Broad Street Line on New Years' Day, but he'd never been on a bus before! We took the 17 to his building and he was not impressed. We actually had to stand for a stretch, since SEPTA riders are not the kind sort, but then a woman opened up a seat for us and ushered us to it.

I wore him in a mei tai carrier and had my old maternity coat zipped up over him, so I looked like I just had an infant head growing forth from my chest. He seemed to hate everything about being under my coat but he did enjoy forcing eye contact with unhappy strangers. That's his favorite thing.