Irish Blessings

Hello!

This post is mainly an Olivia update. She's doing great but trying our nerves at times like any good toddler will do. I read a child development book that described toddlers as "changelings" and I think that is absolutely true. They are developing at lightening speed and processing so much that it must be exhausting for them - and for us sometimes too!

When Olivia does have a meltdown, I think she is almost surprised and maybe even scared by the intensity of her own feelings.  It is times like that when I remind myself to bring more love to the situation. A short memory and good redirection/distraction skills are also helpful.

Olivia loves to watch us and mimic what we do. She likes to help put things away. Yesterday I found a Netflix movie in the recycle bin! She is more aware of when her diaper needs to be changed. She often gets one and brings it to us.

She loves Quinn and, as he grows, I know they will have lots of fun together!

She is very observant and keen to understand how things work. It's a matter of time before she figures out how to open the baby gates and defeat the cabinet locks that we have installed. Morton has already figured out how to open the baby gates. I can't imagine HOW he does it.

Here she is in the booster chair for the first time. Very exciting!

Quinn actually sat in the high chair the other day. He's big enough that he can sit up. In this picture he was about 10 weeks old. He's growing fast!

My mom told me that "Clan Quinn" in Ireland was descended from the High Kings of Ireland. On that note, I will leave you with an Irish blessing:

 "May your neighbors respect you, Trouble neglect you,

Angels protect you, and Heaven accept you."

Love, Claire

Spring Forward

Hi all,

Since our family is pretty much complete, at least kid-wise, I'll start by setting the focus and intent of this blog (including who my audience is) going forward. Jason and I agree that we want to continue doing this blog as a record of memories, milestones and pictures for our family. We hope that the kids will look back and enjoy reading about their early days. And of course others who enjoy checking in on us are more than welcome!

The other day we had the transition from daylight savings time to standard time and I think the term "spring forward" fits for our household these days too. I went back to work full time last Monday after being home with Quinn for his first 8 weeks. I was ready to go back, but I'm also very ready to pick up the kids at the end of the day, especially to get some snuggle time in with Quinn. It's true that I love holding him so much; I've learned that I need to "share" him more with Jason and give him a turn too!

These days, Quinn has been awake a lot more and very alert (sleeping better at night these days too which is great!). About two weeks ago, we moved him up to his room to sleep at night. He has a wonderful, warm and cozy room and it is going well. This kid is growing fast. He's already in 9 month clothes. At his 2 month dr appointment, he was 99% in height and 83% in weight. Last night at dinner, he fussed until Jason got him out of the car seat so he could see everyone at the table. I think he just wanted to be included in the conversation.

Olivia has been talking up a storm, lots of new words and phrases including please=peez, I wuv you, breakfast=bekfast, etc. She's saying her name (o-VI-a - hasn't gotten the "liv" part just yet), brushing her (two!) teeth and serves as our resident button-pusher around the house. You name it, she can probably find a button on it that just MUST be pushed. I bought a bucket of over-sized Legos the other day and she and daddy have been building things. She loves puzzles and figuring out how things work. She also enjoys putting toys away which is a bonus for us. With Easter right around the corner, I have like 3 egg hunts lined up for her so after all of that hunting, she will be a seasoned pro!

Olive and Quinn get along really well. She thinks he is really cute and funny. He tolerates and maybe secretly enjoys her petting, poking and binki-stealing antics. 

Olivia checking out the rays at the SeaLife Aquarium in KC on Jason's birthday

This morning, Quinn's pretty smile! 

If he fusses in the morning, we put him in the bassinet in our bedroom and turn on SportsCenter. He may be a sports junkie... if it is on a different channel, he may fuss!

All in all, we are doing awesome. I feel so thankful for my sweet husband who could not be a more loving father to our children and dear friend to me. We celebrated his 38th birthday on March 3rd. That date also marks the 3 year anniversary of our engagement.

Signing off now. Love always, the cunningham family

Snow Days

Hi Everyone!
We're staying warm and dry here despite more snow here in the past 7 days than we've gotten in 2+ years in Kansas City! Luckily we didn't lose power here at the house, and no one has gone completely stir crazy just yet. The snow was very wet and perfect for packing and making forts, snow-people, etc, however it has been far too cold for us to take little ones outside to play.

To be honest, this is my least favorite time of the year... I would just as soon skip past all of this to Easter and warmer weather. So having little ones to chase and tend to keeps us (very) busy at times which is just as well since there's not a lot else to do right now.

Earlier this month, we went on vacation to Park City with my extended family. It is actually hard to call traveling with two kiddos at these ages a "vacation" but it was fun nonetheless. I couldn't ski because of my recent c-section surgery but enjoyed time with the family.

Olive has been teething en force and we can see a few teeth getting REALLY close(!!)... heck, they may all pop through at once at the rate she is going. The other day, Jason caught a video of her playing "peekaboo" with herself and the full length mirror on my closet door. It was really cute. She is talking a lot and has some new words and phrases including "Thank You", "All Done", and "Good Girl". She has been repeating our words more and more. Yesterday, Jason was reading a book to her about animals in the ocean and she said "octopus"!

Regarding Quinn, I am well aware that mom's can tend to think their boys are perfect and can do no wrong... I'm sure Quinn's future significant other may feel that way about me someday!  However I'm telling you, this kiddo REALLY IS so sweet and easy to be around. A friend of mine described him as "comfortable" and I think that fits for him. He is not colicky or fussy, in fact most times he is just the opposite of that. I'm going back to work next week and will truly miss being around him all day. In other news, he is holding his head up and starting to roll over. He's approaching 13 lbs now and growing great!

I just got a new phone that has a better camera so I will be snapping more pics of the kiddos for next time. I hope to be quick enough on the draw to snap one of Quinn's beautiful beaming smiles (he's been doing that a lot lately!).

Signing off for now. Love, claire & family

Power of Two

Hi all,
We are all doing well and I think adjusting pretty well to being "plus 2" around here. I don't think it is that much more work than having just one. The biggest shock/lifestyle adjustment came back in Nov 2011 when we became parents in the first place and our freedom went out the window.  And now with two little ones, barring some planning and effort to mobilize, you are pretty much home bound but that can be ok and even nice especially this time of year.

I'm pretty sure there's an Indigo Girls song lyric about this topic...

"The closer I'm bound in love to you 

The closer I am to free....

multiply life by the power of two" 

When my Aunt Beth came to visit us in the hospital with Quinn a few weeks ago, she told me that she was thinking back to what things were like for me 5+ years ago and she teared up thinking much has changed and how many blessings have come my way. Even through the medication haze and sleeplessness at the time, the sentiment was not lost on me. I completely agree and have pondered the question... how many times have I fallen in love since I met Jason 4 yrs ago in July?  Truly too many to count.

Here is a Valentine's Day card from our family including the birth announcement for our newest little Valentine:

Another newborn photo (doing his little hunky guy pose!). He was about 2 weeks old in these pictures:

Olivia has had some fun times since our last update. She had her first haircut back in January. I tried to run a nice fun bubble bath for her a few weeks ago but she got scared of the bubbles! We will have to work on that one. She is walking a lot, and enjoying some new found mobility. She enjoys snuggling with Quinn, stealing his binki, putting a blanket on him and removing his socks. I saw her the other day take her own sock off and then try to put it on him (he just laid there patiently however I believe this is foreshadowing for some "dress up" games in his future with his sister and cousins!).

Here is Olive in Daddy's workshop, helping him clean. And another with her doll, reading one of her favorite books:

We are anxiously awaiting news of Tori and Chris Guerrero's baby girl, Taylor!  She should be here anytime now.  Blessings going all around!

Take care. ~claire and family

The Mighty Quinn

Hello all!
Well, I thought I would get the inevitable "Mighty Quinn" reference out of the way early. Besides being a great Dylan song and one that my family often sings with great gusto at reunions, Quinn's name has special meaning to us. According to the name books, "Quinn" means the 5th son (or grandson). Our Quinn is the 5th grandson on my side of the family. The middle name "Allan" is special to Jason's family as it is a middle name that has been passed from his grandfather to his father to him and now on to his son.

I had pondered retelling the "birth story" for this one, but I'm not sure there's much to tell. It ended up being a scheduled c-section with your run of the mill complications and recovery time. Getting into the gory details for all of this would probably be TMI... I will say that Jason got lots of pictures this time and can definitely say that he "loves me inside and out" since he's seen more of my insides than he would probably care to remember!

To be perfectly honest, having another c-section was somewhat disappointing to me... I had dreams of an exciting and beautiful "natural birth" with lots of family bonding, etc. Jason and I put in lots of time at birthing classes for both kids. We joked to each other that we are the most well trained people who have ever not experienced natural labor! Oh well, maybe in my next lifetime??

I've heard from well meaning folks who say that "all births are natural... just the way they were meant to be"... I think that what they're referring to may be true on some level but misses the point for what we wanted to experience. All of that aside, I am confident that my two children came into this world the way they were meant to come into it. After being blessed with two very healthy babies in two years, I have nothing to complain about.

So a little bit about Quinn... he is a very sweet and cuddly baby. Even when he was in the womb, he had a gentle way about him. Unlike Olive, he was not a big kicker. Also unlike Olive, he loves being held face first against your chest. He loves to root his head up under your chin or in your armpit. One way to soothe him if he gets fussy is to clutch him to your chest with both hands and let him fight/root around until he gives in.

This kiddo loves a good swaddle. Jason has mastered a magic swaddle technique that even involves trapping both arms. This works well especially at night.  Since this big boy has nearly outgrown 3 month pj's at 2 weeks old, we will probably need to get some bigger swaddle blankets for him!

Here is a picture of Quinn sleeping with Daddy... I just checked and realized that I don't have any pictures of Quinn yet where he is not sleeping!

I would say his personality is 95% teddy bear and 5% grizzly bear (when he is hungry or irritated). And I just love to watch him whether he's asleep or awake. I must admit that he is one of the cutest darn babies that I have ever seen. :) I think the second time around you have a healthy respect for how quickly they change in the first year. If you blink, I swear you could miss something!

I am happy to report from the Cunningham household that our human family is complete! We are very excited to raise the babies we have, with no current plans to add to our human brood.

xoxo claire

Welcome Quinn!

Hi everyone!

We are beyond thrilled to announce the arrival of baby #2, Quinn Allan Cunningham. Quinn was born on Monday 1/7/2013 at 8:28 AM. Weight -10 lbs, 7 oz; Length - 21".  We got out of the hospital Wednesday afternoon. I will blog about the birth story soon.

When Olive first met Quinn, he was swaddled in her green blanket and laying on the ottoman glider in her room. First thing she did was pull the blanket off of him. When I said that the baby needed to be warm so we should give it back, she put it on top of his head! I said be gentle with the baby and she patted his head softly.

What happened next surprised me... she went over to the bookshelf and pulled out the "I'm a Big Sister" book. When I pointed to the baby on the front and then pointed to him and explained who he was, I really think she got it! Everything we have been talking about for weeks now might have set in on her, but I know they will be great friends in time.

Here are a few pictures of Quinn. I think he looks a lot like Olivia did except he is much bigger and he has mommy's (nonexistant) eyelashes whereas Olive got daddy's long pretty lashes!

We definitely have our hands full now and are focusing on getting to know our new little sweetie, supporting his needs, keeping our sanity and me healing from the c-section procedure.

Love always, claire and family

Happy New Year!

Hi Everyone!

Well unfortunately, we don't have any baby news yet but it won't be long now. I'm feeling OK overall but very LARGE and more than ready have the baby in my arms and not pressing constantly on my bladder! I was told in a recent dr appt that my 11 week sonogram actually pegged my due date for 12/27 so we're thinking that the dating was a little off and the baby is a little late. The dr is going to do a c-section on 1/7 if he doesn't come before then.

We had a great Christmas and New Years with Olivia and other family.  We had some snow around Christmas and New Years which I really like because it's pretty and makes it easy to get in the holiday spirit.

Here is a picture of Olive with me on Christmas morning opening gifts:

 
She's been teething a lot lately but overall napping well. Here's a pic just fresh from a good long nap. Looks like we will need to get that hair cut pretty soon too!

And she loves playing with her stuffed animals. Here she is feeding a bottle to Bunny.

While it hasn't been easy waiting these (almost) 2 weeks now for baby number 2, I am secretly relieved that his birthday will be spaced somewhat after the craziness of Christmas and New Years for future birthday celebrations.

Wishing everyone continued blessings in 2013 and beyond! Love, claire & family