6 Weeks & 3 Days (or Road Trip & Reflux...)

(Just so you know, Turner is going to do the bulk of the post, but I started it and will put a note by one pic as he wasn't home when I took it so I doubt it will make sense to him... Also, sorry for the lack of pix in Greenville. We had family portraits made and I think because of that AND the fact we were busy with lots of babies we didn't manage to take many pix.)


--Turner takes over here--


We had a great trip to Greenville, although it was a bit of a whirlwind. It turns out that traveling is not quite as easy with a baby. He travelled like a champ though and was a super-good. We stopped at Taco Mac outside of Atlanta at 11:30 and fed him while we ate and they won our eternal loyalty! They put us in a large booth and everybody came by and oogled over Quinn and made us feel great. . We didn't actually get to my parents house until around 3 AM on Saturday and my mom fed Quinn while we unloaded the car. Then we slept...
Saturday afternoon we took family pictures which we'll try to get posted up here before too long and that evening we went to David and Joelle's new house for dinner and to watch football. For those who care; we're not discussing the football games from that Saturday because the memories were too painful. For those that don't care; there was football, we watched it. Joelle made chili and we had my whole family there (minus Chris and Regina because Regina was out of town for the evening) plus my friends Steve and Candice Moore and their 2 kids Rivers and Delaney. If you're keeping score at home, that's 10 adults, 5 kids between 5 weeks and 4 years old and one very terrifying tiny Westie named Tucker (if you don't think a Westie can be terrifying, just ask Delaney!)
Sunday was church, lunch and a nice nap and then we went out with Chris, Regina, David, Joelle, Steve and Candice to Wild Wing Cafe while my parents kept Quinn and his cousins Lyla and Pressley. We had a great time and that's where most of the pictures below come from, so it'll be like you were there when you scroll down.

Turner, Jess, Quinn and Lyla having fun on Saturday night!

Me and Joelle at Wild Wing. She wasn't looking at the camera in the ceiling like she was supposed too!

Oddly enough, a guy who was playing in a band that night was wearing th EXACT same outfit as David.

Jess, Regina, and Chris at Wild Wings modeling their winning smiles!

My Aunt Susan and Grandmother came over on Monday morning while we were getting packed up to leave.

So, we got back to Nashville on Monday night after another good drive and it was good to be home. For the next couple of days, Quinn was spitting up quite a bit and fussier than usual. Finally, we decided to take him to the doctor's office on Thursday afternoon to see if they could tell us what, if anything, was wrong with him. His pediatrician suggested that he was the right age, race, and gender to potentially have a common but not well known condition cally Pyloric Stenosis (hyperlink included for those who want more info). It's essentially a condition where the exit valve from the stomach doesn't let food out into the small intestine. Dr. McVie (Quinn's pediatrician) said that it can be diagnosed easily with and ultrasound and, if it comes back positive, can be fixed with a routine laproscopic surgey. So, she got us an appointment for an ultrasound at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital and we headed over there.

Now, if any of you ever have a kid with pyloric stenosis, you'll know what to expect. After the ultrasound, we can't help you... Quinn didn't have it.

Dr. McVie told us to try adding some cereal to his formula and see if that helps. So far, he's been spitting up less and sleeping a LOT more. We'll keep you all posted on his progress.

I (Jessica) took this picture because I thought it was cute that Quinn had made his "I love Grandma" bib into a pillow. Since he isn't allowed to have a pillow, my smart boy made his own :-)

A not so peaceful Quinn modeling the shirt his mom made him.

Thanks for reading this far. I know it's been a long post. I got started on the new blog today and I hope to have that up in the next few days.

Hope all is well.

Oh, if your reading, you should leave a comment. We really enjoy hearing from everybody.

And again, I should thank my beautiful and amazing wife for keeping this thing up and running. Quinn gave her his first real smile while we were in Greenville. I think he's quite taken with her and thoroughly approves of the job she's doing as a mom. I wholeheartedly agree!

--Turner

Jessica's First Video...

So don't be too judgemental... Anyway, this is a little montage ("The hour's approaching to give it your best, and you've got to reach your prime, That's when you need to put yourself to the test, and show us a passage of time, We're gonna need a montage! MONTAGE!") of Quinn's quality time on his play mat with me chattering psychotically in the background (though I have seen and heard at least one mother on a baby's video that was more frightening...you know who you are :-) Oh, and the bit where I say "Ummm Hmmm" and "Hmmmm Mmmmmm" are because I was on the phone while videotaping. Basically, just ignore me talking and focus on Quinn and you'll enjoy it more!

5 Weeks, 2 Days and Counting...

Hey!
Thought I'd take a few minutes while Turner was watching football to post some pics (not sure if you are sensing how much I LOVE watching football...). This week it has just been me and Quinn. We've enjoyed having all the company, but at the same time it has been a good opportunity to start trying to establish a routine. Granted, I really only feel good about the routine we've had the last two days as Monday and Tuesday I was super-sleep deprived and not particularly pleasant. We're working towards a rhythm though and we'll get there. Granted, tomorrow we're traveling to SC to see Turner's family, so I'm sure that some adjustments will be made for the time change and such. Still, bit by bit I think we're getting a better idea for who Quinn is and what he needs instead of just general baby info... It's funny, but even as little as he is he still very much has his own personality, preferences and characteristics.
I'm finding that no matter what the baby books say, a 5 week old Quinn actually prefers to have quite a bit of "awake time" during the day. He's started taking a real interest in things this week, in particular, his bouncer chair and play mat. I'm not 100% sure he actually understands how his hands function at this point, but he really enjoys batting them towards objects and can hold onto something now for a few seconds at least if you give it to him. He's also started mimicking us, in particular by sticking out his tongue. And he's really looking for sounds he recognizes now, mostly me, Turner and the dogs. All that said, we're pretty sure he is a baby genius :-)

A shot of Quinn and his latest ability. I think this one is funny as so much of the time when he's out with his public he sleeps like a champ (we're finding that the outside world makes him peaceful, but this is a bit more like the Quinn we see at home-squiggly, wiggly and full of opinions)















If only he'd had a velvet smoking jacket and were in a library, I'm sure he'd have solved many of the world's problems right then... So deep in thought


















Doing a bit of his plotting from his bouncer. Don't worry, we keep him strapped in so he can't act upon his plans just yet!


















A little post milk coma sporting his outfit from Aunt Regina and Uncle Chris.


















Natalie and Alyson with Quinn at the DA's Office. We went by to see my co-workers on Monday and Quinn proved to be quite a ladies man. At one point, I'm pretty sure he had 7+ women all crowded around him and there was a line with an order as to who was holding him next.








Teresa and Becky with Quinn. He was very sweet and didn't mind being passed around at all. I think he loved all the attention.













Taking a bath. He still hates having his hair washed, but other than that, he seems to be really enjoying bath time now. He scoots around a bit and really likes having water sprinkled on him. He would still prefer that I leave his face unwashed though :-)





Well, that's all for now on this post. I'm going to see if I can figure out how to post a video or two now...
For those of you who are enjoying all the posting, thank football season :-)

BIG news at the TurnerPeanut...

Ok, so maybe it's not that big to everyone, but it's big to me!!

The TurnerPeanut blog will soon be moving to a new home! As of yesterday, we officially own www.turnerpeanut.com and there is an "under construction" page there now.
Over the next few weeks we'll get it up and running and hopefully create a better blog that's a little easier to maintain and upgrade.

Anyway, I know that's not exciting to everybody, but it's exciting to me!!

Love to all!
--Turner

New Years Update...Part I

Happy New Year! Hope everyone had a good New Year's eve. We did and I'm happy to report that Quinn is feeling MUCH better. We're almost done with thrush (knock on wood!). Thought I'd take this chance (Turner, Quinn and his grandparents from Greenville are watching some football-and by some, I mean possibly the 5th game today :-) to update the blog with some new pictures to keep you posted on the Mighty Quinn. (However, it is taking two posts as this go round it won't let me post more than 10 pix at a time...)





Auntie Michelle and Quinn opening his Christmas present. As you can see, he was really into it :-)












Mean Mommy and Aunt Michelle using part of the wrapping decorations to create a halo for Quinn. Granted, I'm pretty sure he wasn't a bit traumatized.











Turner and my mom and Quinn and I went to Rafferty's one night for dinner. Quinn was admiring this poinsetta from afar, so his daddy decided to let him get a closer look while Grandma Connie took a picture. Apparently, close up, poinsettas are TERRIFYING.











Another one of my bath time torture sessions. Granted, this one was greatly improved by using the shark puppet/washcloth that Santa Claus gave Quinn.















The fellas and I spent some quality time in the kitchen making a turkey pot pie with all of the Christmas dinner left overs. As you can see from Darwin's demeanor, it was quite tiring.









Me and Grandma Connie and Quinn at Rafferty's. (I'm pretty sure he loves us a ton, but is just still traumatized by the poinsetta). We did learn that night that noisy restaurants are actually kind of good with babies as if they cry, the other patrons don't even notice!










Daddy and Quinn doing the last feeding of the night. I love the way his little head has just fallen back over his dad's arm.













Quinn doing one of his hand jives for his Grandma Connie. He is nothing if not one, super-squiggly, extra-wiggly boy!









I love when his eyes get all serious like this. He looks as though he is considering whatever Grandma Connie is saying with the utmost concentration. Of course, it is quite possible he was just staring at the ceiling fan (he LOVES some ceiling fan), but I prefer to believe he is pondering the meaning of life with his grandma
:-) Such a wee, wise baby!

New Years Update...Part II

We all really enjoyed our Grandma Connie visit. I enjoyed the company, Quinn enjoyed meeting his Grandma Connie and listening to her talk and sing and make nonsense words and the boys (Darwin and Garcia) loved getting spoiled by their grandma.





















Darwin seems to be pretty well adjusted to Quinn, but Garcia is feeling a bit left out and he liked being able to go into Grandma Connie's room for special visits where he would do such things as shake hands with her (over and over and over and over...) and she would tell him how brilliant he was.














Both boys also enjoyed the fact that Grandma Connie would happily feed them everything in our entire kitchen if she could get away with it. She particuarly enjoyed sharing her Almonette Cookies with them and left the remainder behind when she flew out on the 30th with strict instructions that each boy get one per day. (And when I was talking to her today, she told me I should get another package at Walgreens as though Almonettes were now a regular part of my dogs' diets-they wish!!)










Turner's parents came in yesterday (New Year's Eve). We got home just in time to ring in the New Year and for them to see and help Quinn eat his first bottle of 2009 (which I am certain was monumental for Quinn). Today they donned all of their Gamecocks attire (Quinn included) to watch the bowl game.

























Although Quinn looks distressed, I am positive that he is just overwhelmed with Gamecock pride, hence the slightly angry face.





























Quinn's Granddaddy Curtis feeding him. I love this picture as Quinn looks as though he is trying with all of his might to really "get" whatever it is that he and his granddaddy are talking about.






































In other super exciting news, Quinn lost his umbilical cord (two weeks my eye!) today! So, he had his first "Big Boy" bath. Note: the water has a red tinge because his pirate washcloth's red dye bled into it, not because he was hurt in some way.

He actually seemed to like this kind of bath much more than a sponge bath although he still is not a fan of geting his hair washed or post-bath lotion time.





























This was the two of us hanging on the couch just a few minutes ago while his daddy got his bottle ready. As a side note, he smells amazing, like clean baby because although he objects to baby lotion, I always win that battle :-)









I'm still just astounded at how small and perfect he is... I am sure it is especially true because he is my own, but I could just look at him for hours (assuming he isn't wailing which is a little less pleasant to take in).