February Happenings.

Not too much happened in the month of February, though one event did occur that was worth documenting, I, Ashley Leavitt, had my 25th birthday. Boo. I can't believe I am 25. Oh well. It was a good birthday though. It was on a Monday, and Nathan only has one class on Mondays and so he was able to stay home most of the day. It ended with some tasty lasagna and a little Leavitt family get together and ice cream cake...also tasty. Nathan got me a new necklace for my birthday, I am wearing it in the picture below, it has two pendants on it, one that has a "Q" and one with a "N." I love it.

Woo. Birthday Picture.

Ah, earlier in the day, Quinn was just rolling around while I did some laundry - and we thought it would be funny for her to wear Nathan's gloves...and we were right. It's funny.

 

Aren't all babies 10x cuter in a laundry basket?!

Quinn - 8 Months Old!

Growing "baby" Quinn is eight months old as of last week. She is becoming so much fun, and everyday is better and better. Here are my favorite photos from this months photo "session"

She weighs about 16lbs, wearing size 3-6 months...still. But she will be moving on up to the next size soon.  

Still not crawling, but rolling everywhere. EVERYWHERE! It's always entertaining to find out where she rolled to while I was in the other room. I think the day is coming soon when she will crawl, so stay tuned.

She loves her dog, Duke. If she is ever upset, we just take to her to Duke's level and she instantly lights up and smiles. She loves to roll around near him so that she can pet him and let's be honest, pinch him.

Doing so much better with solids, she practically eats anything we give her, as long as dad gives it to her. Mom feeding her is a bit of a struggle.

Loves to shake her head back and forth, you know, the saying "no" head motion. I swear I didn't teach her that.

She is attempting to stand on her own, and is pretty proud of herself when she is standing. It's pretty cute.

A tooth is trying to make its way through - and I have to admit that I'm not terribly excited about this milestone, let's be honest. I'm still nursing. Enough said.

Sleeps almost through the night...she goes to bed at 7pm, and wakes up around 5:30am, drinks some milk, and then sleeps a little longer until 8:30am. 

She has been such a great baby, and we are excited for the coming milestones, but at the same time...they can wait - is it bad that I just want her to stay a little baby? I mean look at this...melt my heart.

That's an itty bitty Quinny.

Quinn - 7 months old!

Can you believe it? This little doll is 7 months old! I can't. Well, not much new has happened since the six month update, because that one was a little (a lot) late. She is working on attempting to crawl, but it's still not happening. She just rocks back and forth on her hands and knees, and then falls flat on her face.

She hates solid foods, but will occasionally eat some baby oatmeal - but get this, she LOVES those Graduates puff things. Weird, huh? Most babies don't like solids because of the texture, and those puffs are the texture of all textures. She is silly, but picky. I think I'm in trouble.

Well, that's all for now, until she turns eight months old...stop growing! Why can't you just stay little and cuddle?

Quinn's Blessing

 

While we were home for the holidays, we were finally able to give Quinn a name and a blessing for the records of our church. Nathan did a really great job, and one of the things that he said that I most enjoyed was that she would never be ashamed of her testimony of the Gospel, and would do her best to share it with others. What a blessing! Sometimes I wish that I would have the strength to do that. Nathan's mom made her dress, and it was so beautiful! We were even able to use some of the lace used on my mom's wedding dress! She looked so cute, and she loved playing with her dress as well. You could tell that she loved all of the attention, and smiled at every opportunity.

 

All the girls

...and all the boys.

The best attempt at photographing the Leavitt grandkids

But at least the girls posed well.

Christmas

We had a really enjoyable time during the holidays, especially since Nathan had so much time off from school and we were able to be with family. My mom and sister came down to the Leavitt's and it was a full house Christmas morning! We had a really yummy breakfast and opened lots of really great presents. Quinn mostly enjoyed eating the paper, but later that day got really fussy. I say it was teething, but there are still no teeth. So maybe she was just unhappy about all the commotion that was going on. Quinn got some really cute clothes and fun toys to play with - in fact out tiny little Honda Civic was so packed we had to debate whether or not we would actually have room to take Quinn home.

That's a joke.

Quinn with her new toy from Grandma Tanya - she loves it!

Checking out her cousin Grant, like I said she loves to watch her cousins

Quinn - 6 months old!

I know I say this every month when Quinn gets a little older, but man, I can't believe she is six months old! And since this post is a little overdue - I can't believe she is almost seven months old! We were gone for most of the holidays, and as a result we had a delayed doctor's appointment but here are the long awaited stats:

 

Weight : 14.6 lbs. (12%)

Height: 25.5 inches (28%)

Head Circumference: 17 inches (61%)

As you can see, she remains small for her weight, but she hasn't gone down in the percentile bracket, so the doctor isn't concerned. She is in the highest percentile she has ever been in for her height (WOO!) and she still has a big head for the rest of her body at least.

Since she was born her tear duct hasn't opened on her left eye and it has caused lots of goobers and at times has hardened and left her eye closed shut after waking up from a nap. Gross. I know. But it doesn't seem to bother, she still wakes up smiling, and I call her "Pirate Quinny" when that happens. Anyway, our pediatrician is referring her to a pediatric eye doctor to assess whether or not it needs to be opened by him or if we will continue to wait for it to open. Stay tuned for details.

Other than that, she is still quite the happy baby, and our visit back home for Christmas - she was a little more prepared for the chaos, courtesy of the previous visit at Thanksgiving. Her Aunt Amber even commented that she was a completely different baby this time - a much happier one, and less 'sober' this time. She loved watching her crazy cousins, and even made a giggle a time or two at the things they were doing. She especially loved when Grant acted like a dog, Quinn laughed every time! Here are some other fun facts about Quinn right now:

Wearing size 3-6 month clothes (3 months in Carter's), size 2 diapers.

Sitting up on her own.

Loves when someone sneezes, fake or real.

Hates solid food. Gags every time, then barfs...all....over...me. Yummy.

Really likes when people give her any attention, and smiles instantly. It's pretty cute.

No longer sleeping through the night, and wakes up once or twice. I blame the holidays and traveling, her schedule is all thrown off.

Says "dada" regularly, and in general loves to talk.

Thanksgiving Break

We had a lot of fun being home for Thanksgiving, it was really nice to see Nathan for more than a few hours that I normally get to enjoy while he is going to school. It was a really long drive home, but luckily Quinn did really great in the car, and slept for a majority of the time. She really only woke up when we stopped to use the restroom or something - but I think everyone wakes up when the car stops, don't you?

Went spent Thanksgiving with the Leavitts this year and got to enjoy being around the family. Our nephews, Grant and Collin, celebrated their fifth birthdays while we were there. FIVE! Holy cow, that is just crazy to me. They are the oldest of the grandkids, and Quinn certainly enjoyed staring at them, once she figured out they were the ones causing all the noise she had been so frightened from in the beginning of our visit.

Quinn also got to meet her Great Grandma Chloe for the first time, granted it was in the hospital, which was unfortunate, but we were excited that she got to finally meet her. I asked Grandma who she thought she looked like the most, and she boldly said, "she looks like her!" I thought that was pretty funny, but I suppose she has a point.

We also met up with my sister Ember in Moscow, and ate some of the yummiest Mexican food I have ever eaten. Ember was a baby hog, and just held Quinn the whole time, but let's be honest I kind of expected that. We made an attempt to tell the waitress that it was my mom's birthday, because it really was just a few days before that...but our waitress got switched and their was never another sneaky moment to try again. We just wanted to see mom in sombrero...is that so much to ask for?

Oh, and one last thing, we got to put up our Christmas tree before we left to go home, because I knew that I wouldn't want to do it when we got back. I love it! Every year we have a tradition where we go and pick out a new ornament from Hallmark, and the rule is that it has to make some sort of noise. We have a couple of very entertaining ornaments, and it makes every year so much fun testing out all of the ornaments at the store - but I'm sure that makes us some very annoying customers. This year, Grandma Tanya sent Quinn one for her "baby's first Christmas" and I think it's super cute.