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

Pint and 1/2 Pint

Hi Everyone!
Sorry it's been a little while since my last update. We have been having a ton of fun and are staying busy in the Cunningham household, that is for sure.

Quinn is really active and 'training' his little tail off to learn to crawl. We have a big futon mattress on the floor in his room and he loves exercising on it. He squirms and kicks, pushes and pulls himself. And these days, he is covering considerable ground quickly! I figure in a matter of weeks he will have his coordination figured out and really find his legs underneath him.  He's sitting up pretty well now, and when he topples over, he's all smiles and thinks it is exciting and fun.

Olivia is spending a lot of time outside. She loves flowers and also likes to help water the plants. She helps daddy in the garage by taking things to the trash and "organizing" his tools. She's climbing on everything these days. Her verbal skills are coming along great (she is really outgoing and social by nature). She says probably 50+ words regularly, including some phrases and sentences. On weekends if she wakes up early, Jason will get her a milk and sets her on the big comfortable chair in her room with some books. It is really cute because she will sit there for an hour plus sometimes, flipping through her books and playing quietly.

Olivia and Quinn get along really well. I truly believe that it is a blessing to have a sibling... someone of the same generation as you who knows you your whole life and has to deal with the same kooky parents. Quinn came along when Olivia was young enough that she never really showed jealousy, though there was a transition period for sure. Now, she just loves to help, feed, kiss and pet him. He enjoys the attention, I am sure. He is always really interested in what big sis is into.

Size wise, it won't be long before Quinn catches up to Olivia and they they will practically look like twins. I took Olivia to the doctor the other day for her 18 month checkup and she stands at 32" and 24 lbs. She's on the tall side and exactly 50% in weight which is where she has been tracking all along.

See some of the family pictures we got in early May at Quinn's 5 month mark.

 Love always, Claire & Family

E-F-G

Hello!
We're doing well and have been spending a lot of time outside enjoying the nice weather. Olivia is talking a lot and especially enjoys singing the ABC song (she likes the "E-F-G" part which she will sing over and over!). She loves being outdoors, picking flowers, "helping" daddy in the garage and riding in the big swing that we have. She often climbs into the stroller when she wants to go for a walk.

Quinn is a very active baby. One of his new nicknames is "Flap Jack" because when you put him on his back, he immediately rolls over to his tummy. He can't be left unattended on a raised surface like a bed or in a bassinet anymore because he will climb out of it. He is trying really hard to crawl. It's just a matter of time before he is off to the races. Sometimes how fast he is developing makes my head spin!

We celebrated Morton's 10th birthday the other day at home with the kids and at the dog park. Here are a few recent pictures of the kiddos.

Olivia using a chopstick:

Morton and Olivia hanging out in the yard:

 Reading a book together:

 Quinn in the tree swing!

Happy Memorial Day! Claire and family

Feet Are Neat

Hello!
Yesterday marked Quinn's 4 Month birthday. Man oh man... how time flies and things change when you're busy and having this much fun!  Read on for a post that is mostly a Quinn update.

Since the day he hit the 3 month mark, Quinn has been a different baby. It is like one day he "woke up" and acquired a tremendous amount of energy. It all started one day in early April on the changing table when he got a good solid grip with both hands, one on each foot. He was kicking his feet into his hands with counter pressure and looking up at me really really excited about his new discovery. A few days later, he caught his big toe in his mouth and that was REALLY NEAT too. This kiddo loves sucking fingers as well... his, mine, dad's, probably yours too if you would let him.

I know it is not best practice to compare your children, but sometimes it's hard not to do so. While the "fog" of parenthood may wipe out some of the "hard times" and make us nostalgic about the past, Jason and I both think Olivia slept a lot more than Quinn. It just seems like this boy just does not need a lot of sleep! I think he is very normal and I know he's growing great but I do wish we could get a little more shut-eye around here.

Quinn is really strong, like physically strong. I swear he does little exercises like sit ups, back extensions, curls, and so on. And he has a crazy-strong grip. Sometimes I get to nurse him when he is sleepy and calm (I love those times!) but just as often, I get to nurse a baby boy with ants in his pants. Quinn growls too. Like "grrrr.... grrrr". Not exactly cute but humorous!

Quinn has a touch of a temper. He has his normal "witching hour" which varies day to day but besides that he is a fairly easy baby, except for the 5% of the time when he turns grizzly bear on you. When this has happened while we are out in public, such as out to dinner, we have cleared out of a few places so fast they might as well have been burning down. At times like this, we affectionately refer to him as "Jack Jack" (the baby from The Incredibles which is one of my favorite kids movies).

Other nicknames for Quinn include Barnacle, Sweet Doll, Love Chunk, and (the most commonly used) Bud. Oh yeah, by the way I am a nick-namer. J and I probably didn't need to agree on what to call our children since I assign and use their nicknames almost as much as their real names!

Here's a picture of Q in the new kids recliner that we got. All he needs to do is trade in his binkie for a beer and the remote control and he will be set to enter manhood.

On the Olive front, she is doing great - we all survived a 6 week patch of teething where she was quite a bear, but at least we have 4 more teeth to show for it. Her taste buds are pretty wonky these days, and she's been a fairly picky eater.  She's been digging a lot on black olives and dried cranberries. And pizza (of course).

We had a family photo shoot yesterday which was quite a production to orchestrate (thanks Catherine!). So we will have some new pictures to share soon.

Take care, claire & family

Reality Check

Hi everyone!

I was reading back through some of my earlier posts and noticed that my tone is always pretty upbeat on this blog. I'm sure that's a good thing as I would not want to come across like a 'Debbie Downer' here (LOL) or leave a negative record of our lives for future reflection. However, I want this to be real, and as such, I must acknowledge that we do have challenging times. Let's take last week, for example...

Jason and I planned a vacation to Colorado to stay at my family's house in Cascade. We both knew going in that we would have to pack "lots of patience and a really long fuse" (Jason's words) for the trip. So we loaded up my little hybrid SUV, complete with luggage rack topper, two dogs, two kids, and two *crazy* parents, for the drive westward.

By the time we reached our destination in Colorado and prepared to set the circus down, everyone was tired. J and I both had a (pipe) dream of margaritas at a fave restaurant and then good long afternoon naps.  Nothing could be farther from the reality that was to come.

Upon arrival, Olive went directly into overdrive, exploring the house, grabbing at everything in sight, including pieces of my mom's kachina art collection, antique pottery, lamp cords, you name it. After Olive would lay claim to one of these items, prying it from her strong grip resulted in wails of disapproval and anger. Complete with two long wooden staircases, antique books and other decor, we had arrived at possibly the least kid-proof place on the planet.

To add injury to insult, Olivia also kept tripping and falling over the thresholds between some of the rooms. Since she's not yet a confident walker, minor elevation changes and slippage of her socked feet on the wood floor were problematic. After doing about 10 face plants, with wails and cries building in intensity each time, she finally got some better negotiating skills (she started doing a "crab walk" over the thresholds which was actually really cute).

Something about the mountain air must have kicked Quinn into a huge growth spurt as after we arrived in CO, and for the next several days, he would nurse about 30 minute out of every hour or two during the day. His fussiness was also in high gear for most of the first few days. Neither of the kids slept well for the first 4 nights or so. Of course that means that mom and dad aren't sleeping either. After the first 3 nights, I could honestly say that I was unable to string more than 2 hours of sleep together at one time. Not exactly a vacation!

After we got past the "hump" (literally Wednesday), everyone calmed down a lot and our (mostly) sweet children returned to us. The best part of the day was the evening when everyone got into pj's, listening to music and playing legos or other puzzles by the fireplace.

I talked with my sis about this and asked what is the secret to traveling with kiddos. She described it as a cost/benefit analysis. When they are this young, vacations are not going to be as traditionally "fun" or relaxing as you are accustomed to so just accept that fact. She recounted a story of a family trip to AZ when their youngest was 6 weeks old that turned into a fiasco where everyone probably wished they were home instead of wrangling their children 2,000 miles from the comforts of home.

I know Jason and I both want to travel with our little ones and explore things with them, however we need to be practical about what is fun for their ages and what is just plain too hard to pull off and/or not worth the time, money or effort. We are definitely up for more Colorado trips, though. And here's to hoping that we will get to enjoy those maragaritas someday after all!

I'll leave you with some pics of our brood from the trip. Wow, I can't believe how fast they are both growing.

Quinn on the yoga wall and after some tummy time on the bolster.  The big boy started rolling over on this trip!

Olive and Daddy at 11 Mile Canyon. She became a much more confident walker on this trip! Getting lots of practice on different terrain.  

Playing with legos at night.  Quinn was too young to play but they made his name out of legos!

Love, claire and family

Easter Bunnies

Hello!

We had a wonderful Easter this past weekend.  The weather on Sunday was perfect for egg hunting and outdoor activities.  It seems that stuffed animal bunny rabbits have multiplied around our house like bunnies will tend to do this time of year.  We may need to thin the herd a bit by donating some toys and other loveys to charity!

Here are a few pictures of Olive on the hunt.  She filled her bag up so full that one of the handle straps actually broke :)

She was not a big fan of the bunny ears so I had to distract her with stickers to get these pictures.

Here is one giving Quinn lots of love.

And another from last night at a fave spot, Louie's, where they have EXCELLENT macaroni and cheese.  It was so good, she decided to wear it.

News flash! Olive sprouted two front middle (top) teeth the other day!  Dad noticed it last night during bathtime. Finally some progress from all of the teething agony she has been going through!

We have a photo shoot scheduled in the coming weeks so we will be getting some good pictures of Quinn. He is almost 3 months old and doing really well.

Love always, claire

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