Thankful

They say time flies when you are having fun.  Time has been flying around here, that is for sure!

I recall that before Olivia was born, I heard all kinds of things from people about how children change your life.  I heard everything in the gamut from good to bad, including how wonderful parenthood is, how you will never sleep again, how your relationship will change, your freedom will be lost, kids are expensive, yadda yadda and on and on.  Only one person nailed it for me though.  He said "You are in for a ton of FUN."

Of course, it's not always fun.  There are challenging times, but, as my brother in law Marc noted, just like everything else, in the end it's about 99% perspective.  When I look back at the past few years and the whirlwind of change for me and Jason, I feel absolutely so blessed and thankful for our family.  When you come from a place of thankfulness, it is hard to not see the fun in it all.

With a brief update here, I can say the kids are doing great.  Quinn is starting with some words now.  My sweet baby doll says "Mama" a lot.  He also says "VEE-a" for Olivia (Olivia calls him "Quinny" which is really cute).  He claps hands and waves now too.  A little tummy tickling will get him started on a funny cackling belly laugh.

Olivia is really into dolls and stuffed animal loveys.  I think she wants to start an orphanage so she can play mommy for all of the babies.  She is talking a lot and is one of my favorite people in general to spend time with and converse with.  She loves singing and music. Some nights instead of reading books before bed, we will rock in the chair and sing songs together.  She is really playful and goofy.  I believe one of her objectives is to stir up fun in any way that she can.  Though she has moods that come and go at times, she is a bright spot in everyone's day that comes into contact with her.

Here are a few recent pictures of everyone.

I'll leave you with an Irish Blessing from the Cunningham family:

May your troubles be less 

And your blessing be more 

And nothing but happiness 

Come through your door

Love, Claire & Family

Halloween Goblins

Hi all!
We're all doing well and staying really busy at work and play. Jason and I are putting together a deal with the bank to purchase the car wash building and land that we have been renting for the business that he operates in Overland Park. Once that closes, hopefully in the next few weeks, it will be a big weight off of our minds! Earlier this month we took a trip to Phoenix for Jason's mom's wedding, and it was great to take the kids on a trip like that.  My dad says that traveling with kids instills flexibility in children (and I think in their parents as well!). The airline accidentally routed our luggage to the opposite coast, but thankfully it caught up with us before the actual wedding; needless to say we got quite a workout in 'flexibility'on the trip!

We took Olivia to the zoo outside of Phoenix again this year and it is funny to note how different the trip was this time. She was so interactive with the animals and really soaking it all in.

We fed the ducks these little pellets that they sell, and there was a pushy swan that insisted on being fed. When I ran out of food trying to lure it away, it actually struck out and bit Olivia on the fingers! There were some tears but she was a real trooper. After that, she then announced that she wanted to feed ALL of the animals, even the alligators, tigers, etc. She had her first carousel ride too which was a really fun experience.

Quinn is very inquisitive, exploring things all the time.  He's particularly interested in the dishwasher and toilet (!).  He's quite a climber, moving swiftly up the stairs and climbing on top of tables, etc.  He is one that we need to keep a very close eye on these days, that is for sure!

For Halloween, Olivia was a white butterfly-angel (butterflies are her favorite!); Quinn was a pumpkin.  Mommy didn't dress up but if she had, she would have been the Tooth Fairy and sprinkled some magic teething powder to help these little ones out (they are both teething a lot now!)

Here are a few pics from a studio photo session that we had a few weeks ago.

 Love all, claire

Lightning McQuinn

Hi all!
I know it has been awhile since my last post but work and home life have been really busy and I don't see any breaks in sight.  Life is good so I have no complaints, but I may be scaling back to one update per month from here on. 

The kids are doing great.  As you can imagine from this blog's name, Quinn has become a quick crawler.  He is very curious and in to everything. We must be really diligent about keeping the baby gates closed now because he is like Houdini trying to escape from rooms these days.  It is a lot of fun to watch him explore things and Olivia and I like to have crawl races with him in the rec room.  He is pulling himself up and standing.  The other day he even let go and balanced on his own standing up.  He started scaling some stairs and made it up 4 or 5 steps before Daddy picked him up.  He was giggling and excited about his new adventure!

On the Olivia front, I thought I would discuss her growing cast of loveys and other favorites.  Olivia has always let us know what she likes and dislikes.  She has a long memory in terms of these things too.

Drink: milk and water
Food: macaroni and cheese, craisins, scrambled eggs, black olives, shrimp, chicken
Movies: Cars and The Lorax
iPad (she calls it her "pa-pad")

I thought for a split second that she was going to start potty training a few weeks ago because she showed interest and actually used the potty a few times, but now the potty is something that she makes her two babies use. She pretty much refuses to use it herself at this point in time.

I've helped her name a few of her loveys, but usually she comes up with the names.  Here is a picture of most of them except for the Froggie who was lost somewhere, but she still asks about him, may he R.I.P.

In the above picture we have Dolly, Baby, the horses who belong in the stable (Nemo, Shadow, and Rob), Flopsy Mopsy (back row), the horses who get a lot of play time Bob (current favorite) and Blanca who are sitting on the green blankie which has been a favorite since she was 3 weeks old, the iPad, Scotty, Froggie (former version), and Sleepy Bear.

I am trying hard to schedule another photo shoot for the entire family so hopefully next time I will have some decent pictures of us to share!

Take care. Love, claire & family

Grocery Getter

Hi All,
We're all doing well and so far have been successful keeping up with our little ones.  As I said last time, Olivia is learning new words all of the time and she loves pointing things out that she knows.  She like to point out "daddy's truck", and when we are driving she points out other trucks on the road too.

The other day Jason taught her to call my car "grocery getter" and she surprised me with it out of the blue one day, and we all had a good laugh.  Now she calls my car that all of the time, and I know she enjoys the giggles that she gets when she does it.

These days Olivia LOVES playing with the play kitchen set that our friends gave to us after their little ones outgrew it. The set contains all kinds of play food, dinnerware, utensils, you name it.  I have been teaching her names of vegetables (corn, tomato, peas, carrots, potato, etc). I figure if we are not going to eat a lot of vegetables these days (she mostly refuses them) then at least we can talk about them!

Speaking of eating habits, Olivia absolutely LOVES eating olives (maybe that counts as a vegetable?). They are the perfect finger food for her as she sticks her little finger right in the center of the olive to pick them up. She also loves shrimp, steak, potatoes, macaroni and cheese, craisins (dried cranberries), eggs and graham crackers.  We are always trying to expand her palate and I know it will come in time but we are not really there yet.  She drinks only milk and water. I got a wonderful juicer and have been making fresh juices at home, but she absolutely refuses to try it.  Something tells me this is only the beginning of that kind of behavior!

Back to my blog series on motherhood, the topic of food and eating habits is very important one for raising little ones as what you do there sets the tone for the family as a whole probably for years to come.  When you have a little sponge (like Olivia) watching your every move, it is important to make good food choices.  While we want to allow desserts and not get crazy about withholding sweets, we are trying to teach moderation with the unhealthy stuff and keep more of the healthy stuff around the house.  Luckily Jason generally leans towards the healthy side and doesn't snack a lot so it is easy for us to be on the same page.  

In the first year of a child's life when you are nursing an infant, a big part of the mom's life revolves around feeding the baby.  I am not complaining though because the benefits by far outweigh any other aspect. Nursing is really incredible for bonding, and the mother-baby bond from nursing is the first 'relationship' that a baby has.  It also keeps me constantly in tune with his needs. At any waking (or probably even semi-conscious) moment I can tell you when he nursed last, when he will be hungry or when I will need to pump.  Sometimes when he is fussy or I can tell he has had a 'rough' day, I will snuggle and nurse him for comfort (then again that's probably a two way street!) :)

Another current benefit of nursing Quinn is that he is my little fat-buster, like a baby personal trainer!  The child is a voracious eater, and nursing is no exception!  It is a great way to burn calories.  With Summer coming to a close soon, I am making a push to exercise more and drop a few more lbs. of baby weigh before Winter sets in and it gets even harder to do.  I am trying to be practical about it and not stress over it either.  Bottom line (no pun intended) is that I need to be able to keep up with these little suckers as they have me outnumbered and are getting smarter by the day!

Here are a few pictures to share.  Olivia wanted to put her butterfly wings on Quinn the other day. He was a good sport about it.

Take care all. xoxo claire

T.G.I.M.

Hello!
I'm getting another July update in just under the wire.  The kids are doing great.  Quinn is growing fast and he is a really strong boy.  He wakes a few times at night to feed which doesn't bother me (I usually have no problem getting right back to sleep), but there are some trying times too when he doesn't go back down and wants to play instead at 3 am.  He's feeding well and still nursing great so that's what counts.  Another habit he has is pulling mommy's long hair... I swear by the time he is done with me I may have no more hair left!

Olivia is learning new tricks, words and phrases by the day.  She now helps feed the dogs.  She knows how to navigate her iPad to watch movies and open/close the applications that she likes.  She loves reading, and we are really big on Dr. Seuss around this household which is really fun and whimsical.  Besides the normal toddler moodiness and rebellion which sometimes rears up, she is really a joy to be around.  She's a happy kid overall and has a lot of fun at daycare with her friends.

Speaking of daycare, I'm going to pick up my series of thoughts on mothering because for me, having really good care for the kids in the form of daycare and babysitters is absolutely key.  I have a ton of respect for the "stay at home" moms and dads of the world, but I know that I personally am much happier and better off working outside of the home.  I titled this post "TGIM" (Thank God It's Monday) because in our household, though we certainly have a blast on weekends and vacations, we all like the swing of things with our regular weekly schedule.  I think that's a really good thing!

I think a big reason for this is because their daycare situation is top notch.

Let me back up a bit now to describe the saga of finding quality infant care back when I was pregnant with Olivia.  I am a planner and I try to be proactive about these things so at about 5 months along, I started seriously looking for a daycare solution for her.  I gathered recommendations from friends and started calling places, both in home daycare and facilities.  I toured a few places, got my name on waiting lists, and even wrote checks for deposits all to no avail.  Months went by and I started getting more nervous.  So I broadened my search (literally a Google search at this point!) and when I called several of the places, the women on the other end of the line sounded rude, frazzled or both. You could hear screaming kids in the background.  I had a few people tell me that I would have to pay them full price from that day on just to hold a spot until the baby was born and I needed care for her.

Then with a stroke of luck, I stumbled across Nina who runs an in home daycare with another lady.  She called me back immediately and we scheduled a tour.  I will never forget in the interview when Nina looked me in the eye and said "We want to be more than daycare providers for these children. We love them and want to be very important in their lives, like part of their family."  It was everything I had hoped we would find.  And these two women have definitely held up their end of the bargain by creating a great environment for kids.

We also have a few wonderful babysitters including Kathryn, Nathalie and Gracie that have come to know the kids well and helped Jason and I get out for a date night every so often.  Kathryn has even traveled with us which was a lot of fun.

I know that parenting it is a constant exercise in letting go as our children's worlds expand and they learn about new things.  I believe that having great care providers, playmates and eventually schools helps to ease our minds as parents with these changes.  Quite frankly, you never really leave your children as your heart always remains wherever they are.  Still we feel really blessed to have these great care providers for our children when we are not with them. 

Signing off for now and leaving you with one recent picture of Quinn. 

Love always, Claire

Night Crawler

Hello all!
Sorry for the delay with this post! We have been really busy around here with work and the business of raising little ones. Things are going well and our big announcement is that Quinn is officially mobile now!

We were out in Colorado on vacation during the first week of July and that is when he started crawling.  Since that day he has gotten progressively faster and has now adapted a "crab crawl" variation to cover ground more quickly.  It is really cute!  Unfortunately we don't have good pictures of him to share this time but we have a few videos for the family archive :)

Along with the newfound mobility, he has started on solid foods which he devours with great gusto.  I think both of these big milestones have made him a happier baby overall.  He was absolutely miserable and crabby when he couldn't sit up (4 months was the height of the misery).  Now he is not only sitting up, he is rolling around, crawling and pulling himself up on things.  He can actually get into that trashcan and start inspecting the contents, not just lay there and wonder what neat things he is missing out on!

It is really cute because the kiddos are starting to play a bit together and even take baths together.  I do believe they have a special bond and Olive has always taken an interest in Quinn.  Since he has gotten a lot more "interactive" now it is even more fun.  In the rec room downstairs, we will play games where Olive and I try to entice Quinn to chase after us. 

Olivia is talking up a storm with new words and phrases every single day.  She is really starting to get interested in things like counting and the ABC's.  She is a huge fan of flowers, butterflies, bumblebees and ladybugs (I anticipate the day when we see a bee and she tries to chase after it!)  We went to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo on our vacation and saw lots of neat animals, especially giraffes which she likes to talk about a lot these days.

That is all for now and I will share a few pictures. And I PROMISE to get more pictures of Quinn for next time.  The boy is growing like a weed now!

Jason and I feel so blessed to get to watch these sweet babies grow in these early days.  Even though it is hard work at times, we are up for it and enjoying the crazy ride too!

Love, claire

Nature vs. Nurture

Hi all,
Last weekend I enjoyed a visit by my sister Chandra and two of her friends from Minneapolis that she met through the Minnetonka Mom's Club.  These ladies all have a lot in common.  They each have three kids, their oldest kids are all girls who are close friends, and they each have two younger boys.  They had all 'escaped' their homes and left the boys with the dads in order to enjoy a road trip together.

Talking and spending time with them spurred some thoughts in me on being a mom.  I think it is neat how motherhood brings women closer together through sharing experiences, advice and support.  Once you become a mother, there is no going back.  You look at the world differently, I believe.  We'll see how this goes but I thought I would try a little series of posts with some of my thoughts on mothering.

First Topic: Is a mother born or made? I believe a mother is made through experience, necessity and  even trial and error.  A person may be born with nurturing qualities and that tendency but until you have something to nurture it is impossible to really know how deep it goes.

Watching my sister and her friends and their easy manner with my kids out at dinner one night, it is clear that the language of soothing a fussy baby is somewhat universal.  I see it in the eyes of people at restaurants; you can pick out the moms and grandmas very easily and almost see the memories of their own kids dancing behind their eyes.

People often say to us "enjoy every minute!" or "that part goes by fast" or even "you do know that this the best part of your life, right?"  Part of me wants to get snarly with them as I'm wiping mashed potatoes out of my hair and signing the check for a dinner I barely had time to chew much less digest.  But I know they are right about it too.  I think with parenthood we are WAY too busy to get nostalgic now but I am sure we will be the ones telling a young couple near us those things too someday.

Another fun thing about moms is that they are all unique and wonderfully imperfect.  Case in point, every impression I make ends up sounding like the Cookie Monster.  I often forget the lines for nursery rhymes and eventually make up my own version.  I have definitely lost some of my inhibitions along the way.  I remember when Olivia was young, it felt awkward to talk to her when she was so little and not talking back to us, but now with Quinn, that is like second nature.

I will sign off now with a few pictures of the little ones.  They are doing well and keeping us busy.  Olivia has a good sense of humor and her vocabulary is growing daily.  Quinn is almost crawling; he still doesn't sleep or nap that much but he is fairly good now about sitting and playing with toys.

Until next time. Love, claire