Opa and oma are here to visit

Five months after they left, opa and oma came back to visit! Quinn was very excited to see them again (and so was I of course). And opa and oma were beyond excited to hold and hug their little granddaughter again. Normally they see her on the computer screen when we skype, but this is much better of course.

They are staying here for 3 weeks, so lots of time to do fun stuff together and to spoil our little munchkin like crazy.

Playing on the floor with opa....

Oma feeding Quinn her veggies. She had the entire bowl gone in no time. Bite and swallow, bite and swallow....no time for breaks....We still laugh about it, because my mom herself is a very slow eater, totally opposite of how she feeds Quinn. So now when oma gives Quinn her veggies or fruit, we give Quinn a little warning to put her seat belt on and take a deep breath, because she's going for a speed feeding.

Quinn and oma laughing together...


After her 6 months birthday, I started to slowly transition from breastfeeding to formula. At the moment I still breastfeed her in the morning and evening and she gets a bottle during the day. Here, opa is giving Quinn her bottle. Actually, both oma and opa were baby sitting at that moment, as I had an adult and kids/infant cpr course at the American Red Cross that day. It was the first time I was away from her for 6 hours in a row. I knew she was in very good hands, but still........I couldn't wait to get back home :-).

Oma and opa with Quinn.

She greets them with her heartmelting smile every time she sees them. She is so used to having them around now, I'm sure she is going to miss them when they leave.

Weekend at the lake

Ryan took Thursday and Friday off, so we went up north and spent a nice long weekend at Paya Lake. The weather was okay, the sun could have been out a little bit more, but well. The temperature was great anyway.

We (Ryan and I) did go waterskiing. Too bad we didn't think about making pictures of that.

The water temperature was very nice as well and although we didn't take Quinn swimming yet, we let her feel the water with her feet.

Trying to get her into her life jacket for a boat ride is harder than you think......

Eating carrots on the dock.

Everything she can get a hold of goes into her mouth.

Yes, I'm going to eat you!

Chilling with grandma....

... and playing with her new cellphone.

On Friday, Ryan's cousin Jim and his wife Denise came over for dinner. It was the second time they saw her and couldn't believe how big she had gotten.

The neighbors son Jeff came over with his son Henry. Henry just turned 1 years old. He's not only twice as old as Quinn, but also twice as big. Quinn was smiling away when he was over, but Henry didn't have too much interest in her.....not yet at least. We will have to keep an eye on him when they are older....haha.

Quinn is 6 months old

Happy 6 months Birthday sweetheart!

Wow, I just can't get over it. Our little girl is half a year already. This is unbelievable. And what a changes we have gone through so far. She is getting so big and all the things she can do already. It's so much fun to watch her grow and explore.
Her 6 months stats are:
weight: 13 pounds, 11 ounces (6208 grams)
height: 24.75 inches (63 cm)
head circumference: 43 cm
With her 13.11 lbs she is still only on the 10% line with her weight, but she has defenitely started to gain pounds faster in the last few weeks. Probably the solids she is getting now are putting on the pounds.....she loves to eat :-)
What is going on in Quinn's life at 6 months:
* she sleeps 9 to 10 hours at night (yeahhhh!!!)
* on a good day, she takes two long naps (1,5 to 2 hours) and one little cat nap. Not every day is the same though, especially when we have errands to run, her naps are divided a bit different.
* her schedule looks approximately like this
6.00/6.30am: wake up time, milk
8.00/8.30am: nap
10.00am: milk
12.00am: sometimes a little cat nap
1.00pm: milk and cereal
2.30pm: nap
4.30pm: milk and vegetables
7.00pm: milk and cereal
8.30pm: bedtime (normally I nurse her too sleep. I know it's not recommended, but I love it when she falls asleep in my arms and she sleeps so good on it.....I'm not ready to change that yet) * we started introducing solids about 2 weeks ago. We started with cereal and just added vegetables. So far, she loves them.
* she figured out that with rolling over, you can get to different places.....
* she drools and chews like crazy, but no sign of teeth yet.
* her hair is getting blonder and blonder and is starting to fill in little by little.
* she smiles at everyone and is still pretty good with other people holding her. When she's tired though she prefers mommy or daddy.
* she is very nosy and wants to keep track of everyone and everything around her.
* she smiles at the computer when her opa and oma or aunt Aafke, uncle Arjan and her cousins are talking to her or playing 'peekaboo'.
* she laughs out loud when you tickle her or give her kisses on her belly.
* she is such a little sweetheart and we're so proud of her.
We're excited to find out what the next month will bring us :-)

We got her a cell phone for her 6-months Birthday. Now she can call daddy any time she wants!!

Yammie, these carrots are delicious!

Quinn loves to watch me folding laundry. Can't wait for her to be my little helper when she's a bit older (hopefully....haha)

@ The Little Gym

Quinn and I have been going to the Little Gym for a few weeks now and she absolutely loves it. Seeing other kids her size puts a big smile on her face to begin with. And she loves to do the different excersises together, sing songs, play with bells, balls and bubbles.

We go every Monday at 8am, where she is a little 'bug' for 45 minutes (the program for 4-10 months old's is called the Bug program). I'm positive that everything we do at the Little Gym helps strengthening her muscels and physical skills, but maybe even more it also develops her social skills. Especially when she gets a little big older and starts to interact with other kids more.

Miss Amy (the instructor) is so much fun. She just had her second baby 4 weeks ago and is already back to teach and play with our little bugs. Here she is helping Quinn with her sit-ups.

Quinn thinks that 2 reps is enough for now.....

Doing head tumbles is so much fun. I'm surprised (and glad) she kept her breakfast in :-)

Eating rice cereal

With less than 2 weeks until her 6-month Birthday I thought is was okay for her to try her first solids: rice cereal. Even though she probably didn't know what she was getting herself into, she couldn't wait to get to it!

A new taste (although I made it with breastmilk, so it wasn't too different) and eating of a spoon resulted in funny faces and quite a mess. But she loved "eating" like a big girl and looked very proud of herself. I don't blame her, because I was very proud of her too of course.

Practice Made Perfect.

Only a few days into it and things are going a lot smoother already. Although she still enjoys blowing bubbles with the spoon in her mouth once in a while.

The part she loves most is playing with her spoon after she finished eating!

Hot Summer day

What is more fun than to play outside on a nice hot summer day!

We got this little kiddie pool from one of our neighbors whose kids are too big from it now. Quinn is still a little bit too small to play around, but she enjoyed lounging in it like this. I'm sure next year we can't get her out of it anymore.....

We left her daiper on underneath her swimmsuit. Oh my god was that thing heavy when we took it off.

Another jungle

Going from her playmat jungle into the next jungle: her excersaucer. She is a little bit overwhelmed sometimes by everything around her, but she is starting to get the hang of it and is moving around more and more. It's so much fun to watch her go back and forward. There is so much to check out and noises are coming from every direction. What a cool toy!