During the Lockdown in Boston

     Technically Medford was not in the zone under lock down while Boston police and FBI searched for the suspects in the marathon bombings. However, we were highly encouraged to stay in doors, and the institute that mommy works at on Fridays had been closed. Since it was school vacation week, we were all home together that day.
     We went for a very short walk in the AM just down the street 1/2 way and back as mommy heard sirens and wanted to avoid anything potentially harmful. We then played inside and even set up an outdoor play area on our back porch. However, mommy, daddy and Quinlan soon got bored of that and we decided to venture out (cautiously) for a walk.
     Before we knew we were at the park 2 blocks away, Quinlan started squawking when the swings were visible and we thought "how to you explain a terrorist threat to a 13 month old who wants to go on the swings?"

     We decided that you don't and you allow him a few minutes of pure joy, while being very aware of your surroundings. The chase and man hunt were over 3 miles from our area so we felt confident that everything would be fine.
     We even got a shout out of an upstairs window from a local mom thanking us for our smiles. It seems we brought joy to both Quinlan and some local families as well.

     Quinlan truly loves his time on the swings!

Quinlan's First Fever

 
     Last weekend, Quinlan spiked a fever of 103.9 when daddy was watching him and mommy was away with the car. This had both of us nervous, as Quinlan has not really been sick since leaving the NICU. We called the pediatrician's office and were given parameters to monitor him to determine if we needed to bring him to the hospital.
     Quinlan did not have any signs of a respiratory infection, stomach issues, nor a rash, so we waited it out. After 2 days of 101-103 deg fevers, we went to the pediatrician's office for a holiday sick visit (as it was Patriot's Day and the regular office was closed.) By the time we drove down to Braintree, Quinlan was barely warm, cooing, and playing as if nothing was wrong. The doctor looked in his ears, listened to his lungs, and declared that he was fine.
   

     During his fever, all he wanted to do was read and be held. We kept him in cool clothing, tried to keep him hydrated, and enjoyed ever moment holding him.
      For a short time, he forgot that he was more interested in exploring the world and just wanted the comfort of his parents. And we obliged. We took turns holding him, and read through a good portion of his book shelf. Allowing him to turn the pages or just nuzzle against our necks.
     He slept surprisingly well, and was awoken only when we went to check in on him and give him another dose of Motrin. This was a pleasant surprise, as friends whose kids had recently been ill told us woes of being up with them every 40 minutes.
     By Marathon Monday, or Patriot's Day, Quinlan was well on the mend with both parents home to support him. This meant that the 3 of us were far from the finish line when the bombs went off. An unforeseen blessing.
   

Sorry, It Has Been A While...

    Quinlan is learning and mastering new things every day, and it really is fascinating to see the world through his eyes. It almost makes waking up before 6 AM every morning worth it!    
     A couple of weeks ago, Daddy constructed this double ball drop tower (6 levels instead of 3) that amazed and puzzled Quinlan. We showed him how to drop the ping pong balls in and watch them wind their way down, but he was more interested in banging the balls together in his hands or knocking the tower down.
     Mommy then took 3 of the levels off and from his belly his picked up a ball in one hand and placed in on the tower. We had to work on letting the ball go, but now he crawls over to it and with drop the ball and watch it wind down for 20 minutes!

     Yes, you read that correctly, Quinlan is now belly crawling!!! He started crawling a couple of weeks ago. At first it was only a couple of feet to reach a desired toy, but now he has discovered that he can crawl over the threshold of his room and will likely start following us around the apartment next.
      We took a video of his first crawling, which some of you may have already seen. It is great to see that he was, and is still, most motivated to move towards his favorite books. He is such a bibliophile and loves lying on his belly flipping through his board or flip-the-flap books. One can divert him away from playing with cords or other potential hazards, by opening a favorite book on the opposite side of the room.
     While he is crawling, he is still working on transitioning from belly to sitting, but can now get himself from sitting to his belly without help. Go Quinlan!

Bath Time is Lots of Fun

      Quinlan still LOVES his bath time, and can be in the bath for up to 30 minutes. It is a regular part of his bed time routine: dinner, bath, changed, and then bed. He has graduated to a larger inflatable tub that is supposed to transition him to the big tub eventually. We like the smaller tub as it uses less water and provides some cushion from the hard ceramic sides of the tub.
     He still experiments with movement in the tub, which is fun to watch. In fact, the first place he sat up by himself was in the tub and now he is practicing sitting with his legs straight.
      Typically bath time is bonding time with daddy as mom has to work late 3 nights a week and our little man is sound asleep by the time she gets home.

   
     Daddy has taught him how to splash vigorously sending water all over him and us. Quinlan enjoys this thoroughly. He also loves his floating toys that squirt water when you squeeze them. Of course he tends to squeeze them into his mouth.
     The water bottle was a neat trick that dad started. Turns out Quinlan will drink less bath water if you give him his own water bottle to suck on. This does however lead to a belly full of water at night and very wet diapers in the morning!
     But just look at how happy he is.

Quinlan's Year Appointment

      This little man, who is now just "too cool" in his new sunglasses, had his 1-year check up on 3/6. He did quite well on the Eat, Poo, Grow plan as the pediatrician was impressed at Quinlan's diet, his progress with self-weaning and his acceptance of cow's milk without any GI issues.
     What he was most impressed with was Quinlan's growth: our little man is now 35th percentile for height, 50th for weight and 80th for head circumference! There is no longer any question about whether or not he is getting enough food, which was a concern the GI doc had in December when Quinlan appeared to not be gaining weight.
     Quinlan continues to add new foods to his favorite list as we  continue to introduce him to more of what we eat. He now loves pan fried tofu, bits of salmon burger and bread with peanut butter or pesto spreads. Even though he is eating more types of foods, he still loves prunes, bananas and carrots: staples in his diet.

     While he has progressed in some things, such as eating and talking, he is still behind in gross motor tasks. Quinlan has not started crawling yet, but is working to push himself up onto his hands and knees and is starting to get his butt up in the air. All of which, we are told, can be the beginning signs of crawling. He can now transition from sitting upright to lying on his belly, although it is not always graceful. He has had a few forward face-plants, but seems to be making some progress there as well.
     He is experimenting with new sounds almost daily, and consistently say "te, te" for mom's tea and has started saying "mumum" more towards mom. The sounds he is currently playing around with are "th," "fuh,"and "sssss." He finds S's to be most silly and giggles when we practice them. He has also started making G sounds.
     We figure one day he is just going to say a full sentence. We wonder what it will be.....

He appears to still be very interested in teeth these days, and has gotten a third one on the top left.

And he very much enjoyed playing with the ribbons from his birthday presents.

Happy Birthday, Quinlan!

    

    Yesterday Quinlan turned 1! It is hard to believe that a year ago we were at MGH in the NICU and Quinlan had to be fed through a tube in his nose. Here he is showing us how capable he is at feeding himself. Of course when we gave him this slice of banana blueberry birthday cake, we did not expect him to try and eat the whole slice.
     We celebrated with some close friends and Grammy. Quinlan tried to grab the candle on the cake as he was mesmerized by the fire, and mommy helped him blow out the candle after everyone finished singing to him.
   

      He then opened a few presents with mommy's help including a fun wooden alligator from Great uncle Phil, a Trio building set from Allison and Emmet, a monkey from Melvin and Heather, a shape box from Grammy and some lovely clothes from Kristen. He made out quite well for his first birthday!
     All the clothes are 18 months, but this little guy is getting longer so he will probably be sporting them some time soon!

Blizzard of 2013

     Quinlan experienced his first blizzard a couple of weeks back! He was fascinated with the huge snow flakes and loved looking out the window. Both his mom and dad were home with him Friday-Sunday, then mom headed in to MGH while daddy enjoyed another 2 days off with Q.
     Overall we got 25" of snow with the storm starting Friday around 3pm, the heaviest snow after 8pm, and the snow finally subsiding Saturday morning. Thankfully both Main St and our side street were well plowed and the car was easy enough to dig out.

     Of course all that snow did not stop Quinlan from getting outside. He enjoyed a couple of walks in the carrier with his parents, and as you can see his little legs have gotten too long for the coat so we were sure to bundle him up.
     It was fun to see all the snow, but the coolest was the snow owl that someone did on one of the side streets near us.

Feeding Himself

      Quinlan started feeding himself a couple of weeks ago and now there is no stopping him! We started giving him Cheerios so he could get used to picking them up and chewing. Previously there had been some issues with Quinlan gulping solid pieces and gagging or choking, so we took this slowly with our mantra being "Chew, chew, chew!"
     He mastered it within a week and we were able to upgrade to sweet potato chunks and soaked prunes. He now enjoys bread with olive oil (dad introduced him to that), bananas,  breast milk & egg omelets, lentils mushed up in a ball, and avocado.

   



     Quinlan now refuses the spoon or tries to feed himself with it, so we have gotten creative with how we present food to him: mash in some cottage cheese with the lentil balls, adding oatmeal to the egg omelets. Q has his dad getting creative with the meals and he loves sampling whatever dad prepares.... including smoked fish!
      The neatest part is that he is now selective, and you can tell what he likes by what he reaches for first. Bread and bananas now have to be added to the plate last as he would eat a meal of just those if given the chance to choose.
      All this food helps him grow, in fact, check out all his hair in the picture below!

Bouncy, Bouncy, Bouncy

     Quinlan has been enjoying his doorway jumper that was given to us by our friends Ted and Juliana. We have tried putting him in from time to time and he has showed little to no interest until recently when dad decided to try again.
     Quinlan immediately started bouncing and doing what we refer to as his little jig. It looks a little like Irish step dancing and we are so excited to report that we got it on video. If we figure out how to post it online, there will definitely be a link on this page.

     And he loves trying to move the beads along the wire with this toy given to us by Tina and Mohit.  He will play for 30 minutes with this, either in the doorway jumper or sitting up, and has gotten quite good and grasping and moving the beads with his fingers.
      Kristen, his nanny, has even been able to use this toy as incentive to get Quinlan to work on pushing up from side lying into sitting as Q is still not transitioning positions without assistance. Oh, and he now will call out to you to let you know when he would like that assistance!

Sometimes he just loves to bounce, and does so on command when you say: Bouncy, Bouncy Bouncy!

Our Happy Boy in Plaid

     Check out this cutie in plaid. We are finding some clothes that just bearing fit him in the drawer including this 6-9 mos sized plaid shirt. He has been wearing it over his sleep suits to keep him just a little warmer during the day.
     It is amazing how much he has grown and grown out of! At the last pediatrician visit he was almost 18.5 pounds and was in the 15th percentile for height and weight, and 60th for his head. This explains why we usually end up struggling to get a shirt over his head before we notice any difficulty with snapping or zipping it up.
     He is now wearing 12 month sized clothes for the most part now and is starting to outgrown his cloth diapers!

    This big wide smile shows off his teeth, as Quinlan is super happy about getting bigger AND STRONGER! He can now support his weight through his shoulders and is spending more time on his belly playing with toys. He has shown some initial crawling signs, but still prefers the log rolling technique to get across the room if he finds something interesting enough.... such as a pint glass, daddy's prayer beads, and the rocking chair.
     He loves playing with empty boxes and wooden toys as well as anything that shakes, makes noise, or has moving parts he can figure out. He does not like anything with flashing lights or recorded music as it seems to scare him. Not sure if that is a throw back to all the beeps and flashing lights in the NICU or not.
     His favorite toys are still mommy and daddy and he loves to explore our faces.

Daddy appears to have teeth too, and Quinlan needed to check them out!