Early Rising, Graduation, and Pedicures

Quinn still is an early riser. She goes to bed anywhere from 7:30 to 8:30 but is usually up sometime between 5:00am and 6:00am. The good thing is that she really isn't looking for us to do anything for her. The bad thing is that she likes to talk and she likes to talk loud!!! We would like to be upset with her for comprimising our sleep but when we go in her room and see this... how can we possibly be angry??

A couple of weeks ago after some hard work and lots of studying Sinead graduated! She got her degree and is now off to face lifes challenges.... which could include some more school! It was a happy day for the whole extended Bedford clan.

My birthday is coming and Brenda decided to have a fun day on Saturday. It was a spa day at Novo spa in Yorkville, a nice lunch at the spa, a move in the afternoon and our annual visit to Tony Roma's in the evening. It was a great day all around. It was also my first pedicure experience. Let me just say that is was interesting. The other 2 treatments I had, a massage and a herbal wrap, were a lot more of the traditional relax thing. The pedicure was a whole other animal. I wouldn't say it was painful and I wouldn't say it was uncomfortable. I couldn't bring myself to actually look at the work that the lady was doing. She had a wide array of tools and I had no interest in what exactly was happening. I did enjoy the massage chairs and the foot bath. I also really enjoyed the final product as you can see they turned out pretty good. If you couldn't figure it out, my foot is the one without the nail polish!

Margarita Island

New pictures from our trip to Margarita Island are on the website:

www.brelan.ca

Quinn meet Personality... Personality meet Quinn

As we close in on Quinn's 1 year anniversary we look back on where we have come from. The late nights celebrating if Quinn drinks more than 1 oz. The trips to the doctor and all the tests. All the other fun stuff of being a first time parent.

Now Quinn gets to where she REALLY wants to go. We say that because she always gives it a long thought before putting in the effort to make the move. If it isn't worth it then she moves on to the next important thing. For those of you that know, she is quite the little thinker. She isn't the type to just do things arbitrarily, there is always thought involved! One of our friends recently said Quinn sure has grown into her little personality. That she has. She now has all the personalities to go with her variety of faces.

Our whole household is actively awaiting a wedding later this month. Not that we live for weddings, but this wedding is in Margarita Island. There will be a whole mess of firsts for this trip. As part of the rigour of travelling, Quinn received her first passport. We thought the picture would be a bit of an affair but surprisingly the government likes the look of "Who the hell are you" for their passport pictures as you can see below, so we were in and out in 10 minutes!

Where has the time gone....

As we now sit back and think that little Quinn is now 10 months it absolutely blows our mind. We have been through 8 teeth (the molars are still causing havoc), more than our fair share of colds, a stomach flu, and moving from an infant seat to a car seat, and that is just the tip of the iceberg. Quinn continues to show us new interesting personality traits and reminds us that she is going to be quite the adventure as a little toddler. Her stubbornness to do her thing and do things her way really makes us cringe when we think about the temper tantrums that await us. Nevertheless we are loving every minute of it.

More pictures have been posted on www.brelan.ca

Where did the last 8 months go?

Here is a picture that illustrates where the last 8 months went. It is really amazing.

Quinn is so observant. She realized that someone in our house needs to be able to paint, and since MJ can't live at our house then Quinn is going to step up!! Don't worry little Quinn there are still lots of walls with base white on them!!

Santa is coming! Santa is coming

So it seems we are in the enjoyable time between teeth. Quinn's appetite has returned to normal and the cold it gone. We really savour these times because we know it is just a matter of time before another little bugger shows up in her mouth.

As we gear up for little Quinn's first Christmas we are resisting the urge to get her all kinds of unnecessary items. We have to remind ourselves that she is only 9 months and we will probably need use of those funds in the years to come!

Quinn continues to work on her "Who the hell are you?" look everywhere we go. It is rather funny to us. We figure she must get that look because her parents are always so silly around her. We guess she figures there should be at least one serious person in the household.

I am sure that Santa will be very good to her. She will actually have her first chance to meet Santa very soon and we all know what kind of face she is going to give him.

Here is a picture of Quinn showing us her musical ability.

Teeth and Colds

Quinn has received her 8th tooth. It is in it's final stages of making the push through. By our calculations that is her 8th tooth before her 9th birthday. Or if we look at it a different way, it is her 8th tooth in 4 months (she got her first tooth after her 4 month birthday). Along the way we have noticed some crazy patterns that foreshadow the arrival of those little white devils. It seems that every second tooth Quinn gets a cold. She is now working on her 4th cold. We also know that her appetite drops quite a bit when they are coming. Finally we notice that sleep becomes erratic. It is quite humorous. As soon as Quinn gets the sniffles we immediately start fishing around her mouth looking for the impending tooth. Invariably we always find one.

We are always really impressed with how well Quinn deals with colds. She has her moments but is sure a trooper. She continues with the smiles and giggles in between sneezes and a running nose. As you can see in the picture below, her eyes says "I'M SICK", but her smiles says "I'M CUTE". I guess she has had enough practice that she knows the routine as well.

Last weekend we finally made the plunge to get car seats for our little monkey. It is probably overdue, we don't think the infant seat is supposed to have the kids feet dangling over the edge like that. A couple of times we might have inadvertently given her little tootsies a knock when carrying the seat. It is going to be a bit of adjustment not to have the infant seat around. We are either going to have to carry her or take the stroller. We are mostly going to go with the stroller option because she isn't as light as she used to be. It was sure nice to have her nap in the restaurant in the infant seat while we had a meal. Hopefully it is possible for kids to sleep in a high chair.

The kids at the Santa Clause Parade!

Here are the McLean girls and Quinn at the Santa Clause Parade.

This is picture of Quinn sleeping on the subway home. Santa puckered her out.