Jennifer's 365 Project

Chris showed Quinn how crayons work tonight. He's still too young to draw. All he wanted to do was run around with the crayon in his hand as opposed to draw on the paper, but he did enjoy watching Chris doodle.

Quinn is getting bigger all the time. We've started letting him walk around a little at the store when we go. He's getting much better about focusing on walking and not immediately wanting to grab things off of the floor.

He's still easily distracted though.

It's Quinn's first Christmas Eve! I had a half day at work so at noon we headed over to the east side of the state for celebrations!
 Quinn got to hang out with his Grandma Karath and uncle Scot.
 He also "helped" grandma with her Christmas gift.
 Uncle Jeff helped Quinn unwrap his gifts.
 And Quinn had a fun time running around in his elf costume.

Reading is fundamental.

Chris set Quinn up in the playpen out side right before I left at lunch to go back to work. It's a beautiful, warm fall day so he's taking advantage of the weather and clearing away all of the leaves that have fallen in the last few days.

It's election day today! So at lunch we headed over to vote! Quinn had fun and the women running the voting precinct enjoyed him.

Today is the 3rd annual Grand Rapids Comic Con! Every year they've moved the venue because the event keeps growing, so this year it's downtown at the DeVos Place.

Chris is a big fan of Green Lantern and a few years ago he bought me a Red Lantern shirt. So of course we were going to make Quinn a lantern too! We decided on a White Lantern.

Dan came over and we all rode downtown together.
 We ran into R2D2 while we waited for the doors to open.
 We visited Comfort and Adam's booth, which was pretty nice (it was a corner booth!).
 And we stopped by to see Corinne in artist alley.
Corinne is so sweet she had this adorable little Green Lantern hat made for Quinn.
The line to get into the con around lunch was getting longer. It wasn't quite out the door, but it was almost there.

This was our first experience out and about with Quinn at an event like this. It was a little stressful for me, just worrying if he was going to get tired, hungry, frustrated, or just be unhappy. I'm not sure why I worried so much - he is usually so happy and easy going. Plus Chris, who is home with him all day, wasn't worried at all.

And of course everything went fine. He was a trooper and stayed awake from 7:40 in the morning to about noon. We even tried to step aside into a quiet place to let him nap and he was too interested in everything to nap. It wasn't until we were on our way back to the car did he finally pass out in the stroller.

I think next year will be even more fun. Quinn will be older and it will be the second year in this venue, so some of the traffic flow oddities will be resolved by then.

Quinn has been taking a few steps here and there during the day with Chris all week. And tonight he took about three toward me in the kitchen when I got home from work.

Pretty cool to watch!

 We took Quinn to the park by our house this morning.
We goofed around and had a good time before any of the bigger kids arrived to play and enjoy the nice weather.

We drove over to the east side of the state to visit with Chris's parents. Quinn had a really good time with his Grandma Karath.
He enjoyed crawling all over the floor.
And sitting up on the couch, smiling away.
Then we drove out to White Lake to visit Chris's dad, where Quinn got to enjoy sitting on another couch. He's getting to be a pro.
Quinn had a lot of fun. Especially watching the ceiling fan. He loves ceiling fans.

Every year the Roberson's (my mother's mother's side) have a reunion in Midland. We've only attended one other time so this year we headed out to introduce the new baby to my aunts and uncles.
 My great aunt Bonnie enjoyed seeing little Quinn.
As did my aunt Bonnie.
And my aunt Elaine.
 Everyone got to hang out and enjoy the nice weather.
And Quinn was passed around to everyone. He had a hard time at the beginning of the day. That was a lot of attention all on him. He was way too distracted to eat, so then he'd get even more frustrated and start screaming. Both times we needed to feed him we had to hide somewhere so he could calm down.
 But as the afternoon wore on he started to have a good time.
 And enjoyed being carried about on shoulders.
 And playing with his truck.
We also were able to take a photo with all four generations - my grandmother (who is now 88), my mother, Jeff & I and then Quinn.

Driving to Bay City and Midland is always a long drive, but worth it. Now that we don't get together as a large group any more (most of my cousins are 10+ years older than me with their own families established) it was nice to see a lot of people and catch up.

Quinn is mostly sleeping through the night. That means the mornings are usually busy but happy times for everyone. Especially a well rested baby.

The weather is beautiful. The sun is out and it has been in the 60s for what seems like all day. So Chris took advantage and did some yard work.
Quinn and I went out on the deck to play and enjoy the sunshine as well.
We even did a little bit of tummy time, although he was pretty exhausted and ready for a nap at that point.

It's great that the weather is getting nicer. I'm really enjoying being able to get out of the house more.

So the maternity insert I made for my button jacket is now being used as an extra warm blanket layer for car rides. Yesterday it was bitter cold when we brought him home and today we have to go out and get some lab work done. So we bundled him back up and tucked the insert around to keep him extra toasty on the way to and from the car.

I'm glad that little quilted rectangle is still useful.
In the afternoon we used FaceTime so Chris's mom could see the baby. I'm glad everything got set up last week so that we were able to FaceTime with his mom in the hospital and at home so she can see her grandson.

This week we're trying SuperSystem, which is a tabletop game based on superheroes and you can use any miniature figures. The theme works really well with Comfort, Adam, Dan and Chris because they're all big superhero fans. And they all have a ton of HeroClix figures from playing that tabletop game.

You can basically make your own character - similar to how you spend points in an RPG in various attributes. Plus you can mix and match specific skill sets.

It's a nice customizable game. It's not like Warhammer and the like where certain figures are supposed to be assigned to certain types of things. Plus you make up scenarios about why your heroes are doing whatever it is they're doing.

Tabletop gaming still isn't my preferred gaming (I prefer video games) but this was interesting to play.

Chris's mom lives on the other side of the state, so we wanted to get her set up with video calling for when the baby is born. My parents already have all manner of devices to connect to us with but his mom doesn't have a computer or smart phone.

So yesterday Chris's brother Scot set up an iPad for her. And during the day and this evening we practiced using FaceTime.

I think she's really going to enjoy it once she can see the baby and talk to him as he gets older. We were also able to give her a virtual tour of the baby's room, which she enjoyed.

I actually didn't do much today. I pretty much just caught up on the news (via Chris) on the Microsoft presentation today. He has more information over on his blog.

We arrived home on the earlier side last night (compared to usual) and were able to sleep in this morning. I know those days are numbered, so I'm going to enjoy it while I can.

Today we rounded out our Christmas celebrations by doing a small Christmas day together at home, which is what we love to do.

Chris always buys something for Leki so he emptied Leki's stocking that was full of little toy mice and treats.
All in all I think everyone here is having a good day so far. The cat loves this box (and pulled a mouse in there) and best of all, we don't have to run around. Hooray for lazy holidays!

We left the hotel early in the morning and headed out to my parent's house for day two of Christmas celebrations in metro Detroit. Chris's best friend who lives in China (named Chris), is in town so he came over to my parents house and they headed out for a few hours to hang out, shop, and catch up.
That meant I got to spend the day with my parents and Dayzee, who is happy to just have anyone snuggle up and rub her.

When the two Chris' came back we had a late lunch together. Then Chris headed out to meet up with some family. It was awesome seeing and catching up with Chris.
They also bought two little onesies of our favorite characters - Green Lantern for Chris and Scooby Doo (with pants!) for me. Between what my friend Lori gave us and what we received these last two days, this kid is going to be all set to spit up on all sorts of clothes!