Year-and-a-half Pics

Our friend Justin, the one who took the black and white pics I posted a few days ago, came over to take more pictures the other day. I was so happy with how the pictures captured who Quinn is right now, and I can't imagine going to a studio could have ever done that. I love how we're in our own backyard too. (By the way, if anyone who lives around here is interested, Justin is up for starting to do this as a little side business. )

Letters, We've Got Letters . . .

If anyone asked me what Quinn likes the most, I would say music and letters. Since I just posted some musical videos, I thought I'd post some with Quinn and his letters too. The kid just loves letters, which some might say could come from his nerdy-about-English former-teacher mama. It started several months ago when he learned the letters Y, O, and B, thanks to the lids on YoBaby yogurt. Ever since then, he has picked up over half of the alphabet, in no order and without knowing the alphabet song. His favorite letter is Y, and he carries his foam Y letter around quite often. When he woke up the other morning, I heard him in his crib saying, "A Y, an' S, an' O, and B!" over and over. What's fun about it is he picks out letters in signs at the store when we're shopping, on buildings when we're driving in car, and in books when we're reading. They're always there as fun things to look for, talk about, and in those crucial moments, distract him from something else! (: I have always loved to read, and Quinn's love for letters makes me so excited about the day when he starts reading.

Sorry this video is a little long and has an odd location. It takes place in the bathtub because his foam bath letters are in there, and he loves to recite them. We tried to get most of the letters he knows on it.

Little Music Man

Quinn, like all babies, loves music and dancing, and lately he's gotten into singing more. He'll catch me by surprise by singing words from songs we're listening to on cd or the radio, meaning we listen to almost solely kids' cds or Christian music now! He has a couple favorite songs: "The Wheels on the Bus", "Jesus Loves Me", "Twinkle Twinkle", and "Snuggle Puppy" ( I finally learned the real tune to that book!). If you can forgive my singing voice, here are two little snippets of Quinn singing some of his favorites. He's a little zombie-ish because it was during lunch after church today, so he really needed his nap!

Beautiful Boy

I know I'm the mom, but these pictures take my breath away. Our friend Justin Ulrich took these without us even knowing when we were at a 4th of July cookout. We were surprised and awed when we got them this week and promptly called him to do another photo shoot for Quinn's year and a half pictures. I just can't believe how beautiful and All-American Quinn looks. : )

Mickey Mouse

I've mentioned before how much Quinn loves Mickey Mouse. Keep in mind, we don't really watch t.v. ever, so this love comes only from seeing the "Hot Dog" song at the end of Mickey's Clubhouse one time and loving the song, and the mouse, ever since. We have discovered that you can watch the "Hot Dog" song and the theme song videos on YouTube, so Q frequently asks to do that. And I usually oblige, even though that means we'll have to watch it no fewer than 10 times. My sister was holding Quinn on her lap while they were watching the clips over and over the other day, and I just had to capture Quinn's expressions. Keep in mind, he has seen it A MILLION times, yet he is thrilled and surprised every time. That pure joy and wonder are such precious qualities of little kids!

Hackney Visit

These last few weeks have just been a whirlwind of all kinds of fun activities. Last weekend, we had our annual Albert-Hackney Reunion. Our really good friends Chuck and Traci Hackney and their son Drew came to see us as part of our agreement to take turns hosting each other every summer. Since about 2 miles from the Hackneys is Lake Michigan and 2 miles from us is, well, WalMart, we were so grateful they were willing to come south to see us! It was of course nearly impossible to capture a 1 yr old and a 2 yr old in the same frame, but here are two pics of the boys. We loved having them visit and can't wait to see them again soon!

Normal Weekend, Continued

I usually post collages of pictures so I can include a lot without it being overkill. This time, though, I just can't choose between all the great pictures my mom took this weekend while we were visiting my parents! I love how these pictures really seem to capture Quinn's personality, so I hope you don't mind if I post several from our visit to the spray park. We had a great time in my hometown, and Quinn loved exploring everywhere we went!

Wearing Poppa's hat, and looking oh-so-round and still a baby. (:

Sweet boy!

There's the cheesy face again!

Walking--and swinging--between Poppa and Daddy

Such a happy kid, all the time!!

Head down, on a mission.

Normal Weekend

We've been enjoying spending the weekend with my parents, and my dad caught this video of Andy and Quinn playing with an exercise ball. We just cracked up at how he immediately knew how to make noises with it.

More party pics

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Here are a couple more pics from Sunday's party. I still don't have a very close-up pic of the "birthday boy" himself, Papa Lou, but I really like these pictures (thanks for sending them, Kamryn!). The top left picture is us with Uncle Brent, a faithful blog reader. (: Andy and I visited him in San Francisco when I was pregnant with Quinn. Sunday was the first time we've seen him since, so he was able to meet Quinn! The two pics of Q are of his new "cheesy" face. When you say "cheese", that's the face he makes. I think all kids go through that phase around this age, so I'm sure we'll have some goofy looking pictures for a little while. The last picture is of our little dancing boy breaking it down with Daddy to the music of the live band. (: