End of June

I was about to write a post about the Arave reunion, when I realized that it had been weeks since our last post, so I'll try to let the pictures do most of the talking.  

Therapy Party.  Yes.  My favorite board game, Therapy came in the mail a few weeks ago.  So we made brain jello and Rorschach cookies and invited the Millards and Millers over.  We all had babies a few weeks apart, so it was fun to have a little baby reunion. 

Eliot's many faces of waking up...in the order they occurred.  

We just had his 3 month check up.  He's up to 15 lbs 1 oz.  Weight is now in the 75%tile and Height and Head Circumference in the 95th. He is a big cutie. 

We drove up to Massachusetts to see our friends John and Beth Bond get hitched.  It was a beautiful wedding.  John is a work friend from GE.

Speaking of GE, we almost know where we're heading.  sigh...  Seriously.  I think in a week we should know for sure.  Ant's had three official offers, and we're strongly leaning towards one. 

Update Part II

 Ira's playing with playdough right now, so here's a couple of more visual summaries of our life.

 Ira in his boat (diaper box)

 Ira playing on his drum (cottage cheese container and spatula)

That's right.  Most kids trash their toys, but in our house we toy our trash.

This is about my limit though.  The neighbor left out these plastic plant containers and Ira has turned it into his new favorite game, endlessly kicking them around.  Here he's saying, "Mom!  It's bucket time!!!"  But I'm at the kitchen table nursing Eliot.

Another instance where Ira looks horribly neglected.  I was having trouble nursing Eliot that day, finally got him going, and wasn't about to stop just because Ira's pants fell down.  I just kept yelling, "Pull up your pants, dude!"  But he just kept trying to blow bubbles with his giant wand.  

Sorry these pics aren't the best quality.  Anthony and I went down to Pennsylvania to visit Mom and Dad, and hit the outlets.  It was really good to see some old friends again, Ira got some good grandparent time in, and Anthony and I got a load of cheap clothes. 

This is my friend Leah, who I met in Pittsburgh, lives in New York, and just happened to be in Reading the same day.  Our paths keep crossing at the most random of times, happily of course. :)

My friend Nichole and her beautiful family!  I think Ira has a little crush on Emma, and I'm tempted to arrange a marriage between the two.  

The job search is still progressing.  By next update, we just may know where we are going!  Anthony's been a champ through the process.  I can't imagine how stressful it could be trying to decide which opportunity to take advantage of.  

Alright, playdough boy beckons.  Love you guys!  

Flag and Father's Day

Things are going well here in the Quinn home.  Currently Eliot is napping, and Ira is pretending to nap, but playing with his trains.  I've gotten enough sleep the past two nights, that I don't feel like I need to collapse into my own bed for a mom-nap.  Woohoo!  This could be a new era of productivity.... Or, Eliot could go back to waking up 3 times a night.  Let's hope for the first.  

Here, Ira and Eliot are twins thanks to fun clothes that Camille sent.  You can tell that Ira still absolutely adores Eliot.  Yes, sometimes with an aggressive flare.  I guess it's that aggressive, two year old kind of love.  

 Ira killing some time before church.

For flag day, we talked about the American flag, and then did our best to dress up like it.  Ira found that the stars suited Eliot better. 

 Eliot's still super smiley.  He's in that cute no neck, no shoulders, head goes straight into his stomach phase.

 The Quinn flag: Designed by Ira, created by mom. 

The guys had a little food fest during Priesthood on Father's Day, so I made these in honor of Anthony.  Didn't quite get the collar's right, but oh well.  

I'm grateful for all the great dads in my life: my Dad, Anthony, Paul, my grandfathers, brother-in-laws...the random guy at the park who steps in when it looks like Ira is going to topple of the edge of a ladder...  It's a tough job that requires a lot of sacrifice and love.  Thanks guys!

Alright, Ira is no longer pretending to take a nap.  Gotta go.  

Family, Festivities, and Firetrucks

This past week has been full of fun.  We loved having Valine and Paul come visit, and were lucky enough to be on Mom and Dad's way back home after their month long excursion in Canada.  Ira was able to settle his grandparent confusion once and for all.  By the end of the visit he seemed to understand how we were all connected.  He seems to recognize what incredible people his grandparents are.

The Portuguese Cultural Center is half a block away from us and on Sunday we thought the Memorial Day parade was starting a day early when we heard a booming band.  There was a mass of people in Sunday attire following a very ornate statue of Christ surrounded by flowers and robes.  They were celebrating Santa Cristo.  Anthony and I later got out for an evening stroll and poked our head into the center's parking lot where there happened to be a massive party going on with folk dancers and traditional food.  

Memorial Day started out with a breakfast at Cor's, a tiny little diner a couple blocks away.  We've been curious about it, and thought it just opened.  As it turns out a married couple has been running it for 38 years, and I don't think it's changed much since then.  It's very authentically retro, vintage, and quirky.  And their cheesecake pancakes are divine!  Mmmm.

From there we headed down to the parade.  I love that all of this is within a few blocks from our house by the way.  Danbury's is probably the best parade I've been too.  No crazy Macy's day floats or anything.  It was more Norman Rockwell-ish than that.  A ridiculous amount of girl scouts, and more firetrucks than I knew existed.  The entire parade was more than an hour and a half, and it felt like the last hour of it was all firetrucks....which certainly didn't make Ira complain. 

In the mix of it all there were several cultural groups represented: organizations based on Peru, Brazil, the Phillipines, Lebanon, Ireland, and Germany.  You name it.  Lots of bands and dancing.  

Yes, even the Department of Public Utilities was represented. 

 Several guns were shot throughout the parade, just in case anyone was falling asleep...Eliot?

 I'm glad this isn't a regular sight in our country.  The Military Museum of Southern New England is right down the road, so there was no lack of tanks and hummers.  I think most of the big wars with living veterans were represented.  This portion of the parade actually got me a little emotional.  Old weathered and wise men, proud in their uniforms, many of them marching and carrying full sized flags even though in any other context they would look frail.  As much as I hate war, I'm grateful for those brave enough to stand up when the time is right.  

We loved having the Thun's here.  I can't believe I didn't get more pictures.  But here's an attempt at a cousin's sleep over.  It lasted about as long as Shaun the Sheep did. Ira really misses the girls.

 We had been wanted an excuse to buy theses.  Mmmm. Sodasgusting. 

The rest of life is pretty good.  Eliot is nursing really inconsistently which is frustrating.  I don't know how he doesn't starve some days.  sigh...  But, he's smiling and holding up his head well, and really really kissable.  Anthony blessed him at church Sunday with the family in town.  It was beautiful.  

Ira has begun a new obsession with dinosaurs, as you can see from our last post.

Anthony's job search is still in progress.  Still waiting to find out where we'll end up.  Only time will tell.  

As for me?  I'm getting use to having two kids, questioning if we should invest in an air conditioner, and am just about to take a nap.  Life is good.  

Have a good weak all!

New York City

 Happy Late Memorial Day!

We had an action packed weekend with Anthony's parents visiting.  It was a blast.  After taking the first couple of days pretty easy, we decided to take a trip down to New York on Saturday. 

 If you weren't already grossed out by germs on the subway, here's proof of them being spread.  Ira's been having issues with nose picking lately.  Some guy in Time Square came right up to him and said, "Hey Boy! Stop digging up yo nose!"

The Thun's came down for a couple of days...also a blast.  The girls handled the city like pros!

 Anthony got lots of stares with Eliot in the wrap.

 The highlight of the trip for Ira at least was seeing dinosaurs at the Museum of Natural History.  

He was in HEAVEN.  We'll have to make it back there sometime soon.

 We got some Pizza at Patsy's, but Ira preferred their amazing rolls.  Super crusty on the outside, soft and cloudy in the middle.

Their pizza wasn't what I'd say is typical New York style.  It was a healthy feeling, gourmet-ish version of the greasy stuff I'm use too. 

 Here's one of the Freedom Towers in progress. 

 The process of getting to the memorial at ground zero, felt almost exactly like the hassle of an airport.  The security is a little extreme, not surprisingly I suppose.  The memorial itself is breathtaking.  It feels more melancholy than most memorials I've seen.  It's vast and empty, gravity pulling everything around it down and disappearing.  It made me grateful for my knowledge of the Plan of Salvation.  Where we go after this life brings hope, no matter how tragic the death.  

You can't tell, but the Statue of Liberty is standing on Ant's fingertip.  We also hit Time Square, but it was a little too packed and crazy to pull out the camera.

I love New York.

Alright, I'm off to try and sqeeze in a nap.  Next post will include a more complete summary of the week.  Peace!