A Farewell to Motown

Ah Detroit.  How we will miss you.  To continue Ira's birthday celebration and as a farewell to the city, we decided to check out the "North American International Auto Show."  Don't ask me why they have "North American" and "International" in the title.  I'd understand if NAIAS was a mind blowingly cool acronym or something.  

We haven't spent enough time down town, so it was fun to get a better feel for the city.

 "GM or Ford? GM or Ford?"

 The toughest prosthetic arm a girl could ask for.  

  

 "Hmm, I'll take it."

 Ira wanted to sit in every single car he saw.  I sat him in this one, and he wanted me to go hop in the drivers seat.  But by the time I got to the other side of the car, a tiny toddler girl had appeared there.  When I asked her if they were going to run away together, she flashed her big eye lashes a few times, and then gave a deliberate nod of the head. 

 We met up with the cousins there, James and Janet Quiles.  It's been fun getting to know them better.

 I don't really know anything about cars, but these cars were FANCY.  You know, concept cars with solar panels, tiny buttons to open the doors, and stereos that took up 3/4th of the inside space.

On an unrelated note...Happy Chinese New Year!  It's the perfect chance to restart your failed resolutions from non-Chinese new year.  It's the year of the dragon so I whipped this up with some random puffed rice cereal we had in our cupboard.  It was fast and easy, but puffed rice "crispie treats"  are nothing like using the good crunchy stuff.  Imagine frosting covered styrofoam.  

 Ira's dragon face.

Ira's other dragon face.

We also painted some eggs red, which was fun considering Ira's obsession with the color.  The egg symbolizes new life, and red is the color of happiness.  I'm not sure how authentic of a Chinese tradition it is, but it was just right for the little man's capabilities.

In other news, the movers come tomorrow!  We still don't know when they're delivering our stuff, but it will be at least by the 4th.  So, it's sleeping on the floor and minimal toyage till then.  Wish us luck!  

Monkeying Around

Forts are awesome. Dad can sleep while
Ira plays

Ira had a little trouble sharing with a friend we were
babysitting, until he realized there was enough to go around.

Getting creative with the snow.

I hope no one saw me eat that yellow snow...

Dad trying to imitate Ira's camera smile

Exploring music has been fun, I wish we lived near my sister
Tiffany so she could teach him.

Ira - Two Year Celebration

What a wonderful two years it has been having Ira in our lives. Many people we meet tell us to 'enjoy him like this' while he is small and sweet, but he has only become more enjoyable as he gets older. We are particularly enjoying dance parties(that we have to have every night before bed), potty training (which he is finally catching on to), and his general curiosity.

For his birthday we decided it would be fun to get up close to some fire trucks, one of his other passions as of late.

We visited the Ypsilanti Fire department with some friends
including his cousin Janet (above)

He had his usual, silent, awe struck child enthusiasm as he soaked
in the experience.

He got to turn the lights on and off

His favorite was sitting in the back of the cab. He didn't want to get out.
We had to convince the fire Captain that he was really enjoying himself
despite his experssion.

His friends that came along. I love that he wore his (fire) boots and
is standing to attention here.

Sharon made an awesome fire truck cake for him. It was a surprise.

The happy two year old (thanks for the shirt Camille),
we got him a little train whistle that he loves.

Ira showing his dance moves off to cousin Janet.

Christmas Morning

My expectations for a Michigan winter have been all but destroyed. I thought this was snow country, but Christmas has come and gone with only the slightest flirtation of it being 'White'. Deep down I like snow, but perhaps because the last two years we had enough snow to be snowed in for a couple of days I haven't minded the mild winter. So while we didn't have the typical weather, Christmas was great. Ira loved his presents, and Sharon and I have had time to relax and get a lot of things done that we otherwise feel to exhausted to accomplish, this is especially good given the approaching move. 

Christmas day was great. I loved watching Ira get excited about each present and want to play with it before moving onto the next gift. We enjoyed attending a musical church service, preparing a Christmas feast, and virtual visiting with family.  It all made for a Merry Christmas.

We love you all and hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.

Ira enjoyed himself like every little child should.

Ira loves this little PEZ truck.
One of his favorite presents for sure.

This his happy face when posing for the camera.

We got some letter for the fridge,
 Ira really likes them.

Ira got a ton of underpants so we can start again
 on the potty training.

Let the holiday traditions begin

Christmas Eve has arrived! I'm actually a little disappointed in myself, I really didn't have Christmas on my mind much until yesterday. For those who don't know, we finally heard the 4th and last rotation for the program I'm in will be in Danbury, Connecticut. We will move the first week of February.  With such a short timeline the last few weeks and days have been full of distractions and the sudden urge to make sure things wrap up smoothly with this rotation. It wasn't until yesterday I realized how unprepared I was for the Christmas. I shamefully admit I was one of those people running frantically through stores picking up 'last minute' gifts yesterday. One would hope I had made more progress since my teenage years when my brothers and I would go Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve; one day is all the progress I can report.

Luckily, we are staying in Michigan for both Christmas and New Years. We will be starting our own family traditions as this will be our first Christmas with a child, away from family. We kicked things off today with a Christmas Eve Aebelskiver brunch. You may remember me mentioning my family making them for Christmas in an earlier post. We received the strange and ever so helpful Aebelskiver pan as a gift this year and couldn't wait to put it to use. You can find the recipe I use here. What are some of your favorite holiday food traditions?

He really liked them, despite his the disgust on his face.  It's really just his camera smile.

We wrapped presents and braved putting them under the tree today. Ira has been good about not playing with them. He can feel the excitement in the air, and loves all the sugary things to eat. He's been pretty cute and funny the last couple of days. What would a family post be without some highlights of him.

He loves helping out in the kitchen. He insists, "No, I do it"

You can't let those beaters go un-licked!

He likes all the shiny and glittery ornaments everywhere. We decided to do some Christmas Art with some old glitter glue we had lying around.

The Ira in boots picture of the day. He's still obsessed with them. Since he can put them on himself you never know when he will come around the corner and be wearing them.

We wish you all a Merry Christmas!

Bowling, Boots and Babies

The beginning of December has been great.  We arrived back from Utah with all of our shopping done, so now we can just party.

 After about three months, the GE bowling league has ended.  This is our team, "The Brave Little Toasters."  I think John (blue shirt guy), named us.  It's a descent name considering everyone else's were like "Here for Beer" or "The Brew Crew."  Ira was our mascot, and made more friends than we did.  I wasn't going to end up playing at all, but our team had a member who paid the $80 and didn't show up once.  Good deal for me! 

 We threw our first graham cracker house making party, at least, the first where we invited other people over to participate.  I'm not use to being a grown up enough to know how people will respond to this kind of activity, but I think everyone had a good time.  I guess everyone wants an excuse to eat extra candy and play with frosting.   

Ira's been kind of a hand full lately.  I blame it on a cold that's been making him a little more grumpy than usual, but I think it's on it's way out.  His vocabulary is expanding daily, and he's using short sentences more often.   

We got him these boots, a couple sizes too big so we could use them this, and next year.  But despite their hugeness, he didn't want to take them off even to nap, at least for the first 2 weeks.  

Now he's moved on to bigger and better things:  my boots. 

He likes it especially when he trips and falls in them.  

The pregnancy is going well.  We had a little scare a week ago, and I was showing a symptom or two of miscarriage.  So, we were told to go to the hospital.  This was my first time going to a hospital for any reason besides visiting a friend or delivering a baby, so it was an interesting experience.  We learned that 1. everything is fine!  We're super healthy.  False alarm.  2. Hospital visits take FOREVER!  3. I'd prefer not to deliver at this hospital in Detroit for a variety of reason, and 4. what the baby looks like.  We got an ultrasound, and although we didn't find out the gender, I think the little fetal personality seems masculine.  But  if we end up having a girl, don't tell her I said that.  Anyway, now we're mostly afraid to find out how much the bill will be for.  But it's a huge relief knowing the baby's healthy.  Thanks for all your prayers in our behalf.

A week from today is Christmas!  We can't wait.  Let us know if anyone wants to have a skype Christmas date.  Love you!

Quinn Thanksgiving 2011

We spent Thanksgiving in Utah with my family, next time we go out to visit we will not  only have a new baby in tow, but will have to start paying for a plane ticket for Ira.

As always with my family there was a lot going on with everyone together in one place. We never had a dull moment.

Besides a wonderful feast, a major highlight was a one day blitz to Southern Utah to get a canyon hike in. It was the first time all the siblings had been out on an adventure in quite awhile. We did Slideanide just south of Hanksville, UT in the poison spring area.

 McKay Quinn Planking. I'm going to start a counter cultural reverse plank one of these days.

A canyon adventure would never be complete without some water.

  Group photos at the end of the hike:

 My brother Nate and his wife Lauren

 My sister Camille and her husband, Gregg

 My sister Tiff and her husband, Araon

 Sharon couldn't come because of the pregnancy. As the only married sibling without my spouse to pose with I forced to improvise.

It was wonderful to be with family during the Thanksgiving holiday. You can see more pictures on my Brother and Sister's Blogs.