4-5 month pics!

Thursday night, we ran to Merle Hay Mall to get pictures from Sears! These are Quinn's 4/5 month pictures. We are trying to get a picture from each month during her first year. July was crazy, so we didn't get around to it, so this will suffice for 4 and 5 months. :-) I didn't have a coupon for a free print this time, so we ended up getting the $4.99 package from Sears. Big spender, right??? I really just wanted a big 10x13 to display in our foyer. We will do a nice 6-month shot and send prints out to friends and relatives. I had wanted to shop around MHM but it got kind of late so we just went to Staples (I geek office supplies) and then to CiCi's. If you don't know what CiCi's is, it is this kind of ghetto pizza buffet place. It is all you can eat for $5 and has this crazy good Big Mac pizza that I just love. It is our tradition to go there every time we are in the Merle Hay neighborhood.

So here are the photo proofs. Yes, they have the Sears copyright on them, because they are just proofs. I just chose my favorites for blogging purposes today.

Shhh.....

I am down on the computer this morning, sneaking in a little blogging/email checking/work. Why am I sneaking?? It is because I want Quinn to stay asleep! She has been not sleeping well at all lately. It all started when we came back from Idaho last week. She decided (?) that she only needed two twenty-minute naps per day. You can imagine how crabby she was the rest of the time! Watch out! In addition, she stopped sleeping through the night, something she has done since she was about 7 weeks old. Her normal pattern has been sleeping from about 10-7. Recently it got to the point where she would only sleep sitting upright in her carseat or on someone's shoulder. In addition, she developed this crazy rash all over her body. I immediately thought that it was an allergic reaction, but I couldn't think of anything to which she might have come into contact that was new. I hauled her to the doctor, and he diagnosed a summer virus! It wasn't roseola or anything more serious than a little cold, so we weren't worried and were somewhat relieved that she didn't have any allergies. Our regular pediatrician wasn't available, so we saw the doctor who is actually my own primary care physician. I simply hadn't met him yet. Our appointment ran long because he found out I was a teacher and wanted an advice on how to get his 13-year-old son to become a better reader and writer. Right up my alley. :-)

 He checked her ears as well (per my mom's suggestion) and they looked normal.

Anyway, she has been marginally better as of late. She ended up taking one good nap on Sunday and two good naps on Tuesday, but otherwise her naps are still less than an hour (usually less than a half hour) and she is reluctant to be laid down. That makes it really hard to get laundry done or do anything for myself. Last night she almost slept normally; she woke up at 5-something and was willing to be put back to sleep. (Whew!)

Please know that I am in NO way complaining about the change in her sleeping and behavior. I know that there are many, many babies Quinn's age and older who aren't great sleepers and who fuss all the time! The deal with her is that she has been such a good sleeper and such a content baby for 4 1/2 months that this new extreme fussiness has been a bit of a shock! Obviously it all goes with the territory of being a parent. I know that Randy and I will have many sleepless nights to come, many sick children to cuddle, lots of visits to the pediatrician, tears and noses to wipe, and we are looking forward to every minute of it.

We can't wait to watch our family grow. :-)

I wanted to share a picture from me from a year ago! I am about six weeks pregnant here. Not showing, of course, but definitely kind of bloated and yucky. So happy!!

Fancy girl

The biggest news around our house right now....Quinn got her ears pierced! We went to Valley West Mall the other morning because I had some errands to do in that part of town. She was being a dolly so I decided that that was my chance! She cried less than she has for her innoculations. Such a big girl!! They look great and haven't bothered her at all.

Not an update....

I know it has been too long since I've last blogged. I am also not updating anything right now....just know that I will be back and write lots as soon as I can! We are all doing fine; things are just a little hectic.

Okoboji trip

This past weekend, Randy, Quinn, and I went to Okoboji. We left bright and early Saturday morning. This was just a quick trip (no boating or shenanigans or anything like that). We went to celebrate Randy's grandmother's 80th birthday party! Much of his family was there and it was a lot of fun! We ate a LOT of great food, went on an afternoon boat cruise, and had an overall good time.

                                               Kasparbauer family

                      Aunt Amy and our roly-poly girl. No t-shirt can contain this belly!


My paternal grandmother lives near Everly, which is near the lakes, so we decided to stay with her on Saturday night. To our surprise, my cousins, Lalah and Melissa, and their respective mothers, Jenny and Mary, were there! They had just gotten back from a trip to the East Coast so we were delighted to see them and hear about their travels. Quinn was such a doll and hammed it up for the girls. It ended up being really late Saturday night when we got there, so we slept in Sunday, ate a huge breakfast, and ventured back to Waukee (with a few stops on the way, of course).

On a side note, Randy built this fantastic desk for office (a work in progress at this point). So far, all we have set up are our laptops.  Guess who likes to sit and watch Mommy and Daddy work?

Next adventure: Idaho this weekend! Wish us luck with Quinn's first time on a plane....

lost pictures

Some random pictures I haven't gotten around to posting...

                                              Time with Grandma

                           wearing her baptism bonnet and jammies!

                                                  so peaceful

                                                  mmm...fingers

                                                         can I help you?

                                                 just doing a little reading!
 

Night at the rodeo!

Last night, Randy, Quinn, and I went to the Dallas County Fair. We went because I'd won free tickets to the EXTREME BULL-RIDING AND BARREL RACING something or other... haha. Anyway, it ended up being so much fun! We ate dinner at home and then walked around the fair for a while before the rodeo. It was so cool - I don't know anything about this cowboy/rodeo-type culture, and I loved seeing all of the different things people wore. There were little kids dressed up in cowboy outfits and everything.

We stayed for about an hour and a half and then went to get a funnel cake before we went home. SO GOOD. I forgot how much I love junky fair food! I am so excited for Quinn to get older so she can really enjoy these things with us. I love doing fun stuff as a family.

4 month appointment

We had Quinn's 4-month appointment this morning! Quinn was a champ. :-) Our appointment was at 8 so it was an early morning for my late sleeper! Her stats are as follows: 14 lbs 2 oz., 24 1/2", and head circumference 16 1/2". That makes her in the 60 and 70th percentiles for the growth curve. She has gained two pounds in the last two months.

Of course, she also got her shots. She let out a few howls during them but was ok after, especially with a little Tylenol. I'd planned on going to get her ears pierced but in light of everything that's happened the past few days, I just made a quick trip to Target for some baby stuff. Afterward, we went over to Urbandale to see Randy and deliver him his phone charger and a snack. :-)

You can see her little Band-Aids in the picture below. She is also practicing holding her own bottle!

Thanks also, everyone, for the kind phone calls, emails, texts, Facebook messages, etc. during this difficult time for us. Cooper was really a part of our family. Our house is so quiet without him; I miss the soft footsteps upstairs and the nails on the hardwood floor. I keep thinking he's going to come around the corner any moment, begging for a snuggle, and I check his food dish at least five times a day. As with everything, I am sure it will get easier in time. Again, thanks to everyone for your kind words; we are blessed to have such great family and friends, and Cooper is blessed to have such a great extended family. He brought joy to our lives for a long time and he will be missed!

Feed Jake

Dear friends, it is with a heavy heart that I am writing today. On July 4th, my sweet dog Cooper passed away. He has been my faithful friend and companion for over five years and his death leaves me brokenhearted. I think what makes me most sad are the thoughts and plans I had for our family's future. I have all these images in my mind of Cooper growing up beside Quinn, roughhousing with her in the backyard, staying by her side when she got sick, and growing old and grey. I remember being so, so emotional reading Marley and Me but at the same time thinking Marley had had a great, long, life, had lots of human siblings, and had grown old. Cooper will never grow old, will never lick Popsicle juice from one of our kids' legs, and will never be a child's best friend. I can't help but feel that he has been cheated out of a life he could have had, should have had, deserved. I am not one of those people who believes that everything happens for a reason, so I am left in the middle of a search for meaning.

Cooper was hit by a car. I hadn't clipped his leash on correctly and he slipped out the door. While I know that this was an accident, I can't help but feel responsible. It was raining very hard while I was walking around our neighborhood looking for him so I could call him back. A man in an SUV came up and asked what I was looking for; he seemed to already know and regrettably informed me that he'd seen a small dog in the road across from our house. I am so glad that Randy was home with me because he was able to retrieve Cooper and bring him home where he belongs. I cannot get the sight of Randy coming over the hill holding so-still Cooper in his arms. I now know what it means to fall to one's knees.

All day Randy and I have been talking about our favorite memories of Cooper.
*Cooper jumping off the diving board at Randy's parents' and going for a swim
*All of the snuggles we shared during our hundreds of nights together
*How Cooper would always put his paws on whatever you were reading, as if to say "pay attention to me!"
*How he'd always run right into my dad's armchair at my parents' house
*How he would know when you were sad or sick and knew just how to make you feel better
*Poking his head through the bars of our stairs when we lived in Jefferson and pretending he was in jail
*Stealing the wood for one of Randy's projects and carrying a piece bigger than himself up the stairs
*How he'd tear apart a toy in less than a minute and we'd be left with pieces of rope, plastic, or stuffed animal all over the house
*How he'd lived in six different places and ruled the roost in each
*How he would travel with us everywhere we went
*How good it felt to come home to him after a long day
*His undying devotion, his sense of humor, his beard that was never quite dry, how handsome he looked after a fresh haircut
*The way he protected us
*The way he loved us so fiercely and thought we could do no wrong
*The stretches and yawns
*The time he ate my glasses
*The times he got his stomach pumped (twice)
*The way he was the constant in our crazy lives
*The way he was a good friend, son, grandpuppy, and brother

"It is not just that animals make the world more scenic or picturesque. The lives of animals are woven into our very being - closer than our own breathing - and our soul will suffer when they are gone."
~Gary Kowalski, Author of The Souls of Animals