Maya: 6 months!

The past six months have flown by... I can't believe Maya is this big already.

We took her to the doctor on the exact day of her first half-birthday.  She was 67 cm long (about 26 1/3 inches) and weighed 15 lbs  11 oz (almost double her birth weight).  She also was due for quite a few vaccinations, and I was grateful that most were delivered in a single shot.  She didn't cry at all for that shot, but the HepB was in a second shot and that proved to be too much for her, poor love.

I took the photo the same day, when she really couldn't stay sitting up very long and it's amazing how steady she is and how much longer she goes without toppling just 9 days later.  Her latest achievement: "creeping."  She scoots herself forward one bit at a time using her elbows and knees.  It's a funny move,  which occasionally results in knocking her forehead on the floor, but it's intentional forward motion!  In other words, we're in for it. ;)

Maya's Dedication

Our family, perhaps like most families these days, is somewhat religiously eclectic. I was raised in both the Disciples (my mom's) and Catholic (my dad's) traditions. I was baptized in my mom's church, University Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) shortly before my 15th birthday (I think. It's possible I was almost 14?). And now I'm a Disciples pastor.

I think it's fair to characterize the religious aspect of Tim's upbringing by saying that Tim's parents transitioned from practicing Catholics to cultural Catholics over the course of the first years of his childhood. Both he and his sister were baptized and have godparents, but weren't "raised in the church" after that point -- attending kindergarten in a Catholic school was basically the extent of his religious education. (As babies, my three siblings and I were neither baptized nor dedicated, since my parents wanted us to choose for ourselves. They made sure we got as much religious education as possible in BOTH traditions... so we could have the information to make that choice.)

So, when we had our first kid, it was pretty clear we would not have her baptized as an infant. This was interesting because I was serving a United Church of Christ church at that time, and it is their tradition to baptize babies. So, we had what we think was their first infant dedication, a brief ceremony during a Sunday worship service where the parents dedicate the baby to God, and the parents and congregation dedicate themselves to nurturing the child in faith -- I put together the liturgy. This is a pretty common ceremony in churches that practice "believer's baptism" (that is, baptizing people who are old enough to decide for themselves). Fortunately, that congregation is very open to a variety of experiences and perspectives (even in worship!), and it didn't seem to be anything other than a joyful moment for everyone.

Anyway, it turned out that even though it didn't matter to Tim whether water got sprinkled on the little baby or not, the *godparents* part was important to him, because those relationships have been special to him throughout his life. So, we had an infant dedication with godparents -- we chose the alliterative pairing of Jessica and Jesse (Tim's only and my oldest sibling).

Okay, yes, I realize the title says *Maya's* dedication... but you know me, I had to go into the theological background at least a little bit... and it turns out this is one of those "second child" stories, too. Because Quinn's dedication was an Event. We planned it so that Tim's parents and sister (who was the godmother, after all!) could make the cross-country trip to be there, we borrowed a fancy christening gown (which made the cross-country trip with the grandparents), and nearly ALL my in-town relatives came. Which was a lot.
See?

Well, sometime during the first, California, half of our whirlwind, bi-coastal baby tour introducing Maya to her family and friends, I realized something. While still in California, we had developed the following vague travel-planning guidelines: 1) After we get home after this, please let's stay in Nicaragua for a good long while 2) Let's come back to California next time we visit the U.S. and 3) maybe Christmas in the Washington, DC area in 2012? That meant that AFTER the baby-tour visit, it would be more than a year until we were back in the DC area, in the congregation where we are members (University Christian, the location of not only my baptism, but also our wedding and my ordination). And, since it's called "infant" dedication, it might be a good idea to take advantage of visiting our home church while the kid is still an infant.

So, instead of the big family event that Quinn's dedication was, it was planned totally at the last minute. The Dress was handed off to us the day before we left Fresno, just in case (we still hadn't totally decided/ figured out if we could even make it happen). We called the church to see if we could still get it into the bulletin at the last minute. We asked the godparents at the last minute (and in one case, after the fact!). My sister said "what would you have done if I hadn't been able to make it to church?" Little did she know... we had no Plan B! We barely had a Plan A. My older brother's family already had other plans. And then, my dad had a (mild!) heart attack two days before, so it wasn't just the California grandparents who missed it -- all three of her grandparents got a copy of the church bulletin in the mail. Fortunately, my aunt and uncle and even some cousins who were in town for Thanksgiving did come and help fill in a couple "family rows" near the front.

But, I was really happy that it worked out. It felt good to present Maya to our church family in that formal way.
Gloria, the acting senior pastor, talked about children and the raising of them in faith, and asked us to make some commitments. She then took Maya and walked her down the aisle, presenting her to the congregation.
And then, when she came back up front to our assembled family and handed Maya back to me she took Quinn from Tim's arms, carried her out and presented her as well.
I loved the way that took what could have been a tough moment for Quinn (of little-sister-getting-the-spotlight) and included her in the blessing of the moment.

We decided to think outside the box a little when choosing godparents.
Tim's "honorary sister" Elisabeth is her godmother,
my younger brother Eric is the godfather, and my sister Amy (a pagan who goes to a UU church) is the goddessmother. :)
The one thing that we learned from Quinn's dedication and did *better* the second time was to get more photos of Maya in the dress.

Maya's Money Shot

My most faithful readers may recall a post from Quinn's babyhood with a stunning photo that could be used to sell baby products (or at the very least, picture frames).

Well, being a second child myself, I was determined to try to capture a similarly enchanting photo of my equally gorgeous younger daughter at this age (also known as "the age when they really start to look cute").

So, here it is:

Success!

Quinn, born in winter in Washington, DC, sported a knit hat. Maya, born in Nicaragua in a tropical climate, is relaxing in the hammock.

4 for 4

How many birthday parties does a four year old girl need? Well, if you're Quinn, it turns out the answer is: four.

To Quinn, and perhaps to many other children, the essential element of a birthday party is - cake! Here is the cake from her birthday party at school at the end of October, right before we left Nicaragua.

Nicaraguan birthday parties are also pretty much required to have a piñata. Quinn is whacking away at it.

Maya came to the party, too!

The second fourth birthday party was at Quinn's grandparents' house in Fresno, less than a week before her actual birthday, and just a few days before the end of our time in California. It also featured:

a cake ( a *strawberry* cake -- Quinn was a little fixated on that this year)...

piñata...

and friends!

On Quinn's actual birthday, in the middle of the week, we were staying with my Aunt Leslie in Maryland, and she was kind enough to make the birthday girl a strawberry cake. The frosting was just pink as opposed to artificial strawberry flavor. I felt it was a decided improvement, and Quinn did not know the difference.

I did not get any photos of the cake, but here is Quinn with the brown-haired, blue-eyed American Girl doll that Aunt Leslie gave her.

And, for the fourth and final party, Quinn's Aunt Holly took the strawberry theme and ran with it:

These cupcakes were just pink with a few real strawberries on top, and again, Quinn did not seem to know the difference.

She loved celebrating with her cousins.

Happy Birthday to Quinn!

Having been so thoroughly feted, we had to warn her that she would not be getting nearly as many presents for Christmas!

Food Memory

We're participating in a gift exchange tomorrow with folks from the national church. We drew names a week or so ago and the price limit was the equivalent of 5 US dollars. We both had a hard time coming up with good ideas for the people we drew, until Tim had the brilliant idea of (me) making Christmas cookies to give as gifts.

So, I've been on a baking spree the past couple days, which feels just right for me. A big part of what I remember fondly about Christmases past was all the baking my mom did, most of which was boxed up for gifts to the neighbors. This meant she could bake all kinds of wonderful things, and only have the family overeat moderately. :)

I am sorry to report that in Nicaragua, as far as we can tell, there is no molasses. It seems odd, because they grow sugar cane here and LOVE white sugar (and molasses is a byproduct of making white sugar out of sugar cane). My theory is that they're making it all into rum instead (also quite popular here), but I don't know if rum is made from molasses or not. Whatever the cause, the lack of molasses puts a serious damper on the making of gingerbread cookies (often people-shaped, this year, star-shaped). I attempted a substitution of dark brown sugar and melted chocolate; it was sort of successful. The taste is about right; the structural integrity leaves something to be desired. Nothing is as sticky as molasses!

I also made chocolate chip cookie bars which "were not fancy enough for gift cookies." Or possibly, too delicious -- I am pretty sure they will be all gone by the time of the gift exchange tomorrow at lunch.

Today, I made two of my favorite "special for Christmas" goodies: fudge and sugar cookies. I remembered again this year that I don't actually know how to make fudge (since I make it at most once a year), so I searched the internet for a recipe that "looked right." I sort of thought it was supposed to be just butter, marshmallows, and chocolate chips, but once I started thinking about it, I seem to recall being disabused of that notion the last couple times I tried to make fudge... so I settled for the Campfire marshmallow "creamy fudge" recipe. For the sugar cookies, I searched for "Fannie Farmer sugar cookie" (that was my mom's go-to cookbook), and decided that this recipe sounded right.

The fudge is cooling overnight, but it seemed about right (although I may have overcooked it a little). The sugar cookies taste right, but don't behave the same way as the ones my mother made -- hers were thicker, mine spread out really thin and therefore are also wanting in the structural integrity category. I think I am going to blame the oven, which has numbers 1-5 rather than labeling the temperature in degrees.

Anywsy, when I bit into a sugar cookie, I thought, "Yes, this is what sugar cookies are supposed to taste like." Even though I have no idea about the recipes, I remember eating lots of these treats very well. It's nice to be taken back in that way. It also makes me feel a wee bit of pressure to find (and preserve from year to year) the *right* recipes. Otherwise, I'll never taste (fill-in-the-blank) the way my mother made it again! It makes me very grateful for a) my mom's three sisters and b) Fannie Farmer.

Santa, Maybe

I am going to go ahead and blame Lee for tonight's post. This is also the year for us, when we have to start figuring out what to say to the kid about Santa Claus.

It's interesting, too, that here in Nicaragua there's probably more of an anti-Santa movement than in the U.S. Santa Claus doesn't actually make much sense in a Nicaraguan context, because the kids get their presents on Christmas Eve (sometimes from the Baby Jesus) -- so Santa's late to the party on many levels. The opposition comes from, on the one hand, fundamentalist Christian influences from North America, and on the other, anti-commercialism and opposition to uncritical adoption of North American culture. It seems in many ways quite similar to the anti-Halloween sentiments I've noticed, although not as intense.

But, we are from the United States, so Santa is part of our culture, albeit in varied ways. Quinn's love for the Baby Jesus is firmly in place, so I'm not too worried about Santa supplanting Jesus in the Christmas Story. Not this year, anyway.

So, I decided to tell Quinn the whole story. About a guy named Nicholas who loved the Baby Jesus and loved children, and made sure that poor children (not just children whose parents had enough money) could have a present to open on Christmas in memory of the gifts the Magi brought to Jesus. Who, years later, when people remembered his life, got upgraded to "Saint Nicholas." And who inspired people to make sure that poor children would have presents on Christmas, so they left them labeled "from Saint Nicholas." I glossed over the languages the name went through, and said that it was the children, who sometimes make up their own way to say things, who changed it to "Santa Claus."

She liked the story, and asks to hear it again pretty regularly. Her first question was whether or not we have enough money to buy her presents. She also made up her own story, where Santa Claus "picks the flowers and leaves." But I think she has picked up on a lot of Santa stuff from school, movies, etc., because she said very decidedly that she wanted to get a present from Santa. So, we made a deal. If she can read "Santa Claus" by Christmas, she can get one present that is from Santa Claus. (I think she may be reading "Claus" for everything that starts with C for a while...) We're also watching a lot of Christmas movies to get in the mood (and because she's on vacation from school), so further Santa inculcation is inevitable.

It's also interesting timing because her imagination has just recently taken off. She makes up stories (and words, too, which can be confusing) all the time now. So she is in just the right place to be compelled by the magic of a new imaginary scheme, and already has the capacity to play along. And with her, we get to "play" a little more as well. We are so lucky.

Joseph the Stepdad

In the Christmas story, Joseph plays an interesting role. Certainly not an easy one (although, arguably, none of the roles are "easy"). Some discussion on facebook got me thinking about one of my favorite songs by Wyclef Jean, Baby Daddy. It's from his album The Preacher's Son, also a favorite.



The refrain:
I'm not that baby's daddy
treat him like he's my own
but, sometimes I sit and wonder
how can I father another man's son?
when the argument breaks in the pad
Shorty wanna scream I ain't his real dad now
I may not be your father, but I'm the closest thing to him

***

"Didn't you know that it was necessary for me to be in my Father's house?" (Luke 2:49, CEB) says twelve year old Jesus to his frantically worried parents who have been searching for him for three days.

I can imagine that Joseph would have known something the tension of the step-parent relationship. We celebrate in Advent that Joseph said "I'm going to treat him like he's mine."

All I Want for Christmas...

So, it's been interesting to me, gearing up for Christmas while living here in Nicaragua. I came to Nicaragua thinking of myself as a relatively non-materialistic person. And I still think that's generally true about me. I certainly tired pretty quickly of the required purchasing of things that goes along with moving to a new country and bringing only the possessions that fit in suitcases.

I expected my reaction to living in a country where extreme poverty is common to be developing even stronger feelings about living simply. And this has been true, sort of. For example, the house that was found for us to live in did not exactly meet every single requirement I had listed ahead of time. The budget could certainly bear more expensive housing, and we had the option of looking for another house. But one of the things that convicted me was driving past the houses that other people live in that are made out of garbage bags. It sort of took the joy out of house hunting, for me. (There were other factors, certainly, getting to know and like our neighbors here being chief among them.)

On the other hand, I've also gotten more materialistic, or focused on stuff in some ways. I find myself fantasizing about material things that will be available to me when we go back to the United States for our Christmas visit. So, here is my (mildly schizoid) wish list:

1) It would really make me happy if anyone felt moved to give to my favorite good causes. Partly because I have less extra cash to give out at the moment myself. I have a lot of favorites, but at this moment the top three are:

a) Global Ministries* - I guess the fact that I buy into their mission is obvious by the fact that I'm serving as a missionary on their behalf. I am just consistently impressed by their vision, and the number and quality of relationships they maintain with churches and organizations that are working "on the ground" in some of the neediest places in this world. One of the things that I see so clearly here and have heard about other partner organizations and churches in other parts of the world is that so much can be accomplished with relatively little money.

b) I will always have a soft spot in my heart (and, insofar as it's possible, my budget ;) ) for Christ House, where I served for a year as a full-time volunteer. They do amazing, holistic, compassionate work with sick, homeless people -- and they have been so successful in helping people move out of homelessness and into supportive community that they're starting a second building for their "graduates." They have also formed a lot of young people like myself over the years through their volunteer program, providing a safe space to serve and get to know people on the fringes of society and learn a LOT in the process.

c) Californians for Justice is an organization that Tim and I once volunteered for, doing impressive work in building power in communities of color in California. They have come to focus on public education, an issue I've been captivated by since I was coming up through that system myself. And they're doing it by organizing and empowering youth! (At least one of whom is a member of a church I served as sabbatical interim pastor for.)

I'm more than happy to answer questions about any of these organizations. :)

2) Okay, so that's the non-materialistic side speaking up there. :) The materialistic side has created a wishlist on amazon.com with desired books and music. Actually, I've had even more fun looking up books for Quinn. One of the things I miss the most about the U.S. is our library and the awesome children's book selection.

3) I want different clothes than the ones I brought. It was hard to know what to bring, never having been in this climate or social context before. I never wear my awesome summer dresses. I wear skirts most days. And short-sleeved cotton blouses are pretty much always appropriate.** I only wear T-shirts or shorts when I don't think I'll see anyone from church (and sometimes they stop by unexpectedly!) And I actually wear jeans way more often than I thought I would! (But the jeans issue will be resolved by digging through our items in storage while in Fresno.)

4) Umm, a hot shower? This is material but not shippable. :) I will be enjoying them greatly (and hopefully, daily) when we visit California.

5) A Club (you know, the anti-theft device) for our SUV. Not sure if this is practical to bring with us, because they are heavy, but I also don't know where to find it here.

6) Chocolate is always welcome and appreciated. They grow it here, but I think almost exclusively for export. We pay way too much money for Hershey's chocolate in the supermarket (although now we have a Costco membership, I think we may soon have a LOT Ghirardelli chocolate chips ;) ).

There you have it. It hasn't taken much "deprivation" (because, seriously, our lifestyle is not even that different, just a few more minor inconveniences) to arouse some materialistic longing in my spirit... but hopefully the balance remains (or even swings further to the solidarity/ appreciating how much we have side of things).

*If you're a member of a United Church of Christ or Disciples of Christ congregation that supports Our Church's Wider Mission (UCC) or Disciples Mission Fund (DoC), your church is already supporting Global Ministries in that way. So thank you! But over-and-above giving is also great. :)

**size 16 or XL, if you're particularly curious :)

Christmas Traditions: Quinn's Take

Every culture and every family that celebrates Christmas has its own particular traditions. In starting our own family by getting married, and especially now that we're raising a kid together, Tim and I have thought and talked quite a bit about the differences in the way each of our families celebrate Christmas, and the things that we might want to do in a new way.

But those differences sort of pale in comparison to the differences between U.S. and Nicaraguan Christmas traditions. We learned from a friend while on our most recent trip that as a kid, he always thought that the Baby Jesus brought the Christmas presents that his parents hid under his bed. Christmas trees are not that common here (okay, well, there certainly aren't a lot of pine trees), and, it being so hot, there aren't fireplaces, or chimneys, or stockings hung on said fireplace (much less a fat man magically squeezing down said chimney).

All this to get to my main point, which is that I'm pretty enamored of the synthesis that we heard from the back seat today. Quinn said "I'm going to sing a song." And then proceeded to sing something along the lines of "The stars gave presents to Santa Claus, so he could give them to the kids. And then the baby came, and the angels came to see the baby."

Just Do It

re-posted from our joint blog, On A Journey

I think I am resolving to try to blog every day this Advent. The idea came to me when I couldn't sleep last night, and in the clear light of day, it still seems like it could be a good idea. Let me see if I can try to explain why I feel moved to do this.

1) We are having an amazing experience here in Nicaragua. But the way I see our role as missionaries, our experience becomes much more worthwhile when we are able to share it with all our friends and family back home, especially those in our "families of faith," the Disciples of Christ and United Church of Christ. People in the pews of those denominations have been supporting the work of Global Ministries in building relationships with this church and other partners around the world for a very long time. Just as important as getting to know the people of La Mision Cristiana (Christian Mission Church of Nicaragua) is allowing church members in the United States to get to know them, too. By this logic, the more we blog, the better, so any reason is a good one. :)

2) I've been inspired my two really impressive women bloggers, both mothers. One is my cousin (okay, technically cousin-in-law, but I claim her), who despite having not only one child the same age as mine, and at least as rowdy, but also a baby whose age is still counted in months, and having spent a lot of time caring for both these children all by herself when her husband is on deployment, still manages to blog every day. The other person is someone I've never met, but I found her blog, Momastery, through a link posted by a friend on Facebook, and found her writing and the comments very inspiring. Both of these blogs have seemed to me like "places" where a real sense of community exists online.

3) It doesn't feel like Advent to me! Yes, there are Christmas lights and decorations up everywhere here in Managua, but the temperature is still liable to hit 90 on any given day, most schools just let out for summer vacation, and although our partner church here has many wonderful characteristics, they do not celebrate the liturgical calendar to which I am accustomed, and definitely don't light the candles on the Advent wreath each week to count up to Christmas. So, I want to try in my blogging to pay attention to the lectionary texts (the Bible passages that many churches read in worship each week) to get myself ready for Christmas, spiritually, together with many churches and Christians all over the world and through history.

4) I'm finding myself really pulled into the materialistic aspect of Christmas preparations, i.e. presents! -- that is, making lists of things I want and think Quinn might want and doing online shopping... so I'm seeking a little balance.

5) I love the lectionary, and I miss preaching. So, I want to write more. Don't worry, folks -- it won't be all Bible, all the time, but I would like to devote some attention to the Bible texts that lead us into Christmas.

6) Tim said last night, as we lit the first candle on the Advent wreath "I know it's the first Sunday of Advent, but I don't really know what that means." And I realize that I have more to learn about it as well. So, I would like to address that a bit as well.

I'm also posting this on my Nicaragua blog, and I may not post here most days, until I run out of ideas that are directly connected to our life and ministry here in Nicaragua. My ideas I wrote down last night while not sleeping include: Quinn's theological inquiries (aka "doozies"), a slightly overdue report on our trip to a church-owned farm near Waslala, the history of Advent, stuff I want for Christmas and the Nicaraguan cultural celebrations that lead up to La Purisima on December 8th. So, stay tuned!

I wrote something!

(and it got published :) )

Find my essay on leaving the country and using technology here:
http://www.youngclergywomen.org/the_young_clergy_women_pr/2010/08/keeping-in-touch.html#continue

Trees Fall in Brookland

So, we had a really intense, 20 minute thunderstorm yesterday afternoon. We were enjoying watching it from the porch until the lightweight porch rug was blown so that it totally covered Quinn! Then we enjoyed watching it through the windows. Power lines were swaying and small tree branches were flying on our street, and Quinn's toy plastic bucket got blown and/ or washed around the corner and stuck in the storm drain.

It was very dramatic. When we went for a walk to the Basilica (Tim took some lovely pictures) we saw that many trees had suffered serious damage:



And one quite large tree was knocked down entirely.



The traffic lights were also out at Michigan and Monroe:



For the drivers along Michigan Ave, things were pretty exciting, with a fallen branch blocking 2 of the 4 lanes right before the intersection with no stoplights. It was fortunate that not too many people seemed to be out driving on Sunday afternoon.

Learning Spanish on the Internet

So, I'm working on learning Spanish, and there are a few things that I have found really helpful.

I'm using Rosetta Stone software, and it's really great when I put in the time to do it, but at times hard to motivate myself to do it (since, you know, once I get on the computer, there's all of the Internet to read before I buckle down to work...). I just finished a continuing ed class and am hoping to start another one soon.

The instructor from the class I just finished gave us lots of helpful web resources. I really like BBC Mundo, which has short articles -- their photos of the day are particularly helpful, since the captions aren't too long and the photos give lots of context. I also like their "News in 60 seconds" but have to listen to it a couple times before I get the bulk of it. He also suggested spaleon.com, tomisimo.org, and wordreference.com (which has other languages, too!). I've also heard that Destinos is really cool.

And finally, the inspiration for this blog post is www.spanish-word-a-day.com, a neat service that will send a new Spanish vocabulary word to your email inbox, complete with pronunciation guide and example sentence. And now they've added a weekly review sheet -- it's a nice way to slowly add vocab, and it's been really encouraging to go from never having any idea what the words (or most of the words in the example sentences) were to actually knowing some of them already! :)

Happy Passport Day!

So, it turns out that today is National Passport Day. Not entirely sure what this means, but it made our lives a lot easier when it came to applying for Quinn's passport.

Children have to apply in person with their parents, and most passport acceptance facilities (most of which are post offices) have limited hours, Monday through Friday. I have concocted and abandoned more than one scheme for Quinn and me to meet Tim at a downtown post office at a convenient time so we can apply in person. The Passport Agency a block from Tim's work is usually appointment-only, reserved for people who are leaving the country in the next two weeks.

A few DC post offices do have Saturday hours, but it turned out that by the time we thought of it today, most of them were closed already. But, the D.C. Passport Agency downtown was open today for National Passport Day from 10-3, and we had over an hour left in that window. So, we hopped in the car and headed downtown, and had one of the most pleasant bureaucratic-processing experiences we've had.

We were greeted by a helpful person as soon as we walked in, we were called almost immediately after getting a number, they photocopied our IDs for us (the one thing we hadn't gotten to), Quinn got not one but TWO balloons, at least five people sporting Passport stickers wished us a cheerful goodbye on the way out, and we were in and out in about twenty minutes. It was awesome. Happy Passport Day, everybody!

Dorie and Dawn!

Quinn and I were driving home one day last week, singing songs in the car, mostly with a Christmas theme. "Jingle Bells" and "We Wish you a Merry Christmas" are two of Quinn's favorites, primarily because they are featured on the episode of Caillou where he goes caroling with his family. She usually refers to the latter as "Merry Merry Merry Christmas."

We were waiting at a stop light when Quinn insisted that we sing "Dorie and Dawn"! She repeated this request loudly, and when I failed to respond quickly enough, screeched at me. Apparently, this was an effective method of communication, because all of a sudden I realized she was asking for "We Three Kings of Orient Are." Which I then sang, making Quinn happy again.

A day or two later, she was playing with the three Kings from her nativity set, and she informed me that "this one is Orie" and "this one is Dawn." Since our friend Dawn is married to Wesley, it turned out that he was the third King.

2 months to go until Quinn is TWO!

So, I noticed that it was the 17th, and Quinn is exactly 22 months old, starting the 2 month countdown until her 2nd birthday... so I thought it might be an occasion to re-start my blogging efforts and post some photos from the archives as well.

It's hard to believe, on the one hand, that it has been almost two years since she was born
(I look a little shocked, right? I think it's safe to say that parenthood is a fairly shocking thing.)

I did eventually get used to the idea, once I had a shower and some sleep -- here I am getting ready to take her home.
Our little snugglebug...And then home with Daddy!

One of the most shocking things has been how little we've slept in the past 22 months (it got a lot better about halfway through, because we moved to a place with a little bedroom just for her when she was about 10 months), but what is really amazing is how much she has grown and changed, from that sweet little lump of baby to a constantly moving toddler!

Here she is just a year ago (September '08), at 10 months.
(Yes, she was born with thicker hair than she had at 10 months... it all fell out and took quite a long time to grow back in!)


And here she is now!


A totally different creature... and yet always herself!

My plan is to post photos from the past two years over these two months. Later this week... December '07 and January '08. Stay tuned...

Hubris

Funny story. Tim, Amy and I all got really sick to our stomachs two weeks ago. We were miserable, but so very glad that Quinn did not get whatever horrible illness (food poisoning? stomach flu? the world my never know...) we all shared. Amy and I recovered quickly, but Tim has not been feeling quite right ever since. Poor guy. Also, now he has a cold.

But, anyway, I was reflecting on these events last night, and I thought to myself, "Wow, Quinn has never really thrown up. She would spit up like any normal baby with a new digestive system, but she's never really vomited." Wouldn't you know, this very morning, she was playing in bed while I tried to get just a little more rest before facing the day... and she threw up like a big girl on Mama and Daddy's bed. She seemed unfazed, and possibly a little happier. But then she wanted to drink juice and eat a cracker about 20 minutes later, and that came back up, too -- on the floor of her room. She's having a fussy day, but I think after a while she was just hungry. She ate a good amount of lunch and is now sleeping soundly, so I'm hoping the worst is over.

Shout-Out

You know who you are. :) We'll see how long it takes you to notice.

This is near the corner of 14th and R Streets in Northwest DC.

Out and About

On President's Day, we took advantage of that rare thing: a day when neither Tim nor I has to work and went downtown to find our spot on the Honor Wall at the National Museum of the American Indian.


See, we found it!My mother made a donation in our names in 2005 as our birthday & Christmas presents for 2005/06. In June 2007, she got a letter saying the section of the Honor Wall we were on had been completed and detailing the location of our names. She never saw that letter, and it has been in my desk drawer ever since (pretty impressive considering we've moved twice!). So, it felt good to finally get there. We had a very delicious lunch at the Mitsitam Cafe.

After the NMAI, we went to the Botanical Garden to remind ourselves of the jungle and dream of warmer weather to come. Quinn was enjoying the flowers (and the warmth).



And I was excited to see this flower:


which we saw quite a lot of in the jungle in Ecuador, but didn't know its name (of course, I can't remember it now, either!).

5 Months Later...

I have to say, my frequency of posting is pretty pathetic at this point. Quinn is now 15 months old! She had her 15 month checkup at the doctor yesterday, and is 50th percentile for weight, and possibly 25th percentile for length, but she was really mad and squirmy when getting measured, so it's not clear that it was at all accurate (for example, the head size reading was *smaller* than at her 12 month checkup). Anyway, here's a picture of our girl on Valentine's Day, in her Valentine's dress, doing one of her favorite things -- carrying Mama's purse. She often says "Bye-bye" and pretends she is going to walk out the front door when she does this.

She's also getting really good at walking.

And she loves to play... this picture of her riding on the dump truck was just too cute. It seems like she's learning new words at the rate of one a day... but that's probably a slight exaggeration. She does say "Please" and "thank you" when prompted, and was trying out "sorry" yesterday (but I'm pretty sure she hasn't grasped the concept). It is amazing how fast she is learning and growing. Next thing you know, she'll be learning to drive!