Quinn is 1!

Believe it or not, Quinn is 1!!!  Where in the world did time go?!?!

We had a wonderful birthday party for him at Aunt Jennifer's house on December 23rd. 

Wow!!  A tag!!  The little things amuse him :-)

This wrapping paper stuff is cool!

Aunt Christie, Uncle Chris, Maggie, Aunt Jennifer, Nonna, Grandma, Great-Aunt Cathey and Great-Aunt Malinda were all in attendance - and of course Mommy & Daddy were there too!

Before the cake...

 Daddy made Quinn's birthday cake - it was apple spice cake.  It had no eggs and no sugar....but it was COVERED in cream cheese icing ;)  So, the sugar rush was in FULL EFFECT for a good hour after the cake was eaten!!

After some initial hesitation, he truly enjoyed smushing the cake and icing between his fingers. 

What is this stuff?!?!

Eventually he did eat some of the cake and seemed to really like it!  He tried to share, but Daddy said no thanks.  He's not a fan of cream cheese :-)

Daddy! It's so yummy!!

 So, he decided to share with me.

Here Mommy, check this out.

  Quinn really wanted Daddy to try the cake!! He tried launching it at him!

 Quinn got some great gifts - lots of clothes and LOTS of toys!  We successfully pulled off a Christmas-free birthday!!!

Now, the challenge begins of finding room for them in our house ;-)

There are tons more pictures on our Shutterfly site if you want to check them out!

The Putnam Family

Yeah for Quinn!

 

What a great time we had!!

ho ho no santa

Today we took Quinn to see Santa for the first time. We waited until he got up from his morning nap so he would be well rested. We put him in the cute little outfit that Daddy got for him and made sure he didn't have anything that he could spill on it. Then we set out for the mall. Low and behold we missed Santa by 2 minutes!!! He went to lunch! So, we walked around the mall for an hour and killed some time.

Finally, it was time and the big guy was back!! So we waited patiently in line for it to be our turn. Daddy held Quinn and showed him the trees and pretty decorations while I combed his hair. Then, it was our turn! I walked with Quinn over to Santa and I sat him in Santa's lap....and he SCREAMED in terror and wouldn't let go!! Santa tried to alleviate the situation and had me sit in the chair while he snuck around behind us so we could take a picture, but as you can see below, Quinn's no dummy and he knew the fat man was there!!

So, sufficed to say that Quinn did not like Santa - at least not this year!!

peek-a-boo!

After a long drive home from a very long visit in Maryland for Thanksgiving and the birth of our niece and Quinn's cousin (Yeah Maggie!! We're so happy you're here!), we arrived back in Charlotte this evening and stopped to get some food. John ran in to get it and "The Monster," as John calls him, Sally and I stayed in the car.
Always the happy-camper, Quinn decided to start a game of peek-a-boo. We've played it many many times but this was the first time he ever did it all by himself!! He was laughing and having a ball!
I quickly grabbed my cell phone to capture the moment. Please forgive the quality of the video!

I have a lot of pictures and videos to post from our Thanksgiving adventure, but I wanted to hurry and get this one up so everyone could see it!!

orange you glad....

Yesterday Daddy decided to see if Quinn liked oranges. Watch and find out what the verdict!

walking man

Aunt Christie and Uncle Chris bought Quinn a cute little toy this summer that converts from a car to a walker - or a walker to a car ;) He likes to play with the lid and the "shifter" on the front. He enjoys sitting on it and being pulled around the room. Up until now he hadn't really understood what he was suppose to do with the walker part-he'd just stand there and look at us as if he was saying, "OK, now what?"
Well, watch out because he's figured out how to hold onto it and walk along-and boy does he like it!! He walks from one side of the room to the other....and then back again!
Check him out in action! We have watched this over and over-it's just so funny! He's having such a good time! Great gift-thank you!!

turkey lurkey

Happy Halloween a few days late!! As you can see from the pictures, Quinn was a cute little turkey for Halloween this year!!! We only went to 2 houses (our wonderful neighbors) but we had a great time :-)
We had tried previously to get Quinn in the turkey costume and he WAS NOT a fan, but this time Grandma (who was here visiting all last week-so fun!!) suggested we try to get into it slowly (Legs first, stop. Arms, stop.), which worked!!! Go Grandma.
Quinn was so excited to go through his "loot" when we got home. Next year he'll be able to eat some of that candy....but not all of it!

Just to clarify -the turkey costume was in NO WAY a Virginia Tech Hokie costume!! :-) It was a wonderful hand-me-down from Lisa McKinney - thanks so much Lisa!!
There are more pictures on the Shutterfly site if you want to see them!
http://putnamfamilync.shutterfly.com/#

tickle tickle

I shot this a few weeks ago but keep forgetting to upload it!
We've discovered that Quinn is quite ticklish under his chin and I just can't resist hearing that little laugh! So, every now and then the Tickle Monster has to attack ;-)

our little pumpkin

I am so excited about the approaching holidays and immersing Quinn in all the festivities!
Fall has arrived and Halloween is around the corner! I went online and found a pumpkin patch here in Charlotte and we went this past Sunday.
Unfortunately, it was not all I had hoped for as the pumpkins were WAAAY more expensive than we thought they would be AND they had already been picked. Oh well, we'll try somewhere else next year ;-)
Nevertheless, Quinn had a great time looking at the farm animals and figuring out what the heck these round orange things were! He would touch one, tap it, then lean over to touch another. The vines were very interesting too. He's quite the investigator!!
There was one pumpkin he kept going back to, so that one is now on our front steps. Can't wait to carve it!

9 months...

If I want to believe it or not, Quinn is 9 1/2 months old. Time has indeed zoomed by.
Quinn has FINALLY started sleeping through the night! It only took us 9 months to get here...goodness! Naps are still hit or miss, but that's OK, it will come in time!
He continues to crawl like a champ! He gets into everything-and fast!!!

One of his favorite things to go after for some reason is Sally's Kong toy! It's so funny to watch Sally. She will just look at him and then look at me like she's saying, "Umm, that's mine. I'm not allowed to play with his toys. What gives?"
He has also discovered the door stoppers and loves to hit them and hear them make noise! In fact, he's pretty strong-he pulled the one on the front door off!!! We have a little He-Man!
He loves to walk back and forth on the couch and sometimes he will be daring and let go long enough to swing over and catch my leg when I'm sitting at my desk. One day soon, I suspect, he will be a walkin' man-then watch out!!
He loves making noises-he's learned how to run his fingers over his lips to make a "brrb, brrb" noise, which he enjoys. His newest thing is a throat clearing/fake cough. It almost sounds like he's grunting! He and Daddy play a game-Daddy will do it, then Quinn will do it! He also likes to play this game with Grandma when she calls!
He says Daadaa all the time...still no Mama. He said it once, but I think it was fluke! John tries to get him to say it, "Say Mama Quinn," Quinn-"Dada." Oh well. I'm waiting patiently for that day!
Quinn is always so very happy and such a pleasant little guy. He has the best facial expressions and makes us laugh all the time! We have truly been lucky!





We're heading up to Virginia next weekend for my church's Annual Bazaar. It will be the 87th year they have had it! We're excited to see Grandma, Aunt Cathey, Aunt Debbie, Uncle Glen and other family and I'm also excited for everyone at church to see how big Quinn is now!
We are also going to go see Aunt Christie, Uncle Chris, Aunt Jennifer, Nonna and of course "Nutella" while were are up that way. Won't be long before Quinn will have a new cousin and playmate-he's very excited, as are we all!! I'm going to be an Aunt, yippee!
I've uploaded some more pictures of Quinn to our Shutterfly site! http://putnamfamilync.shutterfly.com/#

rice rusks-good stuff.

I bought snack crackers a few weeks ago called Rice Rusks (also called Mum Mum's) because one of my friends said that her daughter, who is 2 months older than Quinn, just loved them, so I thought it would be worth a shot!
At first he didn't know what to make of them, but slowly but surely he's decided they are alright. Hearing him crunch on them with those 2 little teeth is just too cute! I recorded a snack session this weekend!

snacks

We've been trying to introduce Quinn to finger foods, but he just hasn't gotten into it yet. His doctor said that he'll let us know when he's ready.
Aunt Jennifer bought him some Puffs and Yogurt Drops when were on vacation and he promptly spit them both out and made the worst faces! Sally sure did like them though!!
Lately I've been trying again with the Puffs after he's eaten. I'll put a few on his tray and let him play with them, in hopes that he'll one day attempt to eat them. Sally patiently waits by his highchair in hopes that he'll drop one ;)
Yesterday he did eat one, and I caught it on video-too funny!!

Well hey, at least he didn't spit it out, so we're making progress!! Stay tuned!

Roar!!

I went to TJ Maxx this weekend and found this adorable tiger costume. Couldn't resist trying it on the little guy ;-) He seemed to like it!
Unfortunately it was 9 Months, so I am sure it will be too small by Halloween considering how fast Quinn grows!! The pictures were too funny-I had to share!

Fun Times with Grandma and Uncle Glen!

Uncle Glen and Grandma came to visit last weekend and what a wonderful time we had! They couldn't believe how big Quinn had gotten!! We did a lot of fun things while they were here. We went walking, went to the NASCAR Hall of Fame and to a few yummy restaurants in here Charlotte!

When we went to breakfast on Saturday Quinn couldn't help but notice a pretty blonde girl (I'd guess she was in her 20's) had sat across from us-and BOY did he notice her!! He stared and stared! She noticed and was talking to him and he turned his head to the side and smiled and smiled. The flirting was in full effect :-) We were all laughing, including the girl and her family. We're going to have our hands full indeed!!

Quinn has started making the funniest face. It's like he's saying "Ohh!" He'll do it when he's happy, when he's been caught doing something or when he sees something he thinks is funny. It's hilarious. I was finally able to get a picture of him doing it when we were at the Hall of Fame. He was looking at the cars!

Uncle Glen and Quinn had a great time hanging out!

We had such a great time and the weekend went by too quickly. We can't wait for them to come visit us again!!

Beach Baby!!

For our 2nd Anniversary John took me to Myrtle Beach for the weekend!! It was a family affair-Quinn and Sally came too of course :-) We stayed at a resort right on the beach that allowed dogs so we could ALL have fun! We actually stayed in the same place, The Sea Mist, last year. We tried to go on as many trips as possible before the little man arrived, because we knew we wouldn't really have the opportunity again-for awhile at least! Sally LOVED the beach last year and was right back in her element this weekend. She and John ran in and out of the waves when we got there on Friday night. Back and forth, back and forth. She was COVERED in sand! It was really great to see her having such fun! Quinn and I watched from the beach!
Here's Quinn checking out our view when we got there! I took this picture with him on my hip, so please forgive the extreme ear close-up ;-)

The next morning our "little alarm clock" got us up at 6am, so we got up and got going! We of course had to go to Krispy Kreme and have a "Hot Now" doughnut...mmmmmm. There's really nothing better!

Then it was off to the beach! We got back and got Quinn dressed, covered in sunblock and ready to go. Note to self, wait until Quinn is dressed before showing him his toy....

John said perhaps we should just go to the pool, but I wanted to go to the beach...should've listened to him! Taking an 8-month-old to the beach is A LOT of work-and requires a lot of stuff!! There was sand EVERYWHERE! However, he had a fantastic time! We laid out our towels and set up his Peapod tent, which is a wonderful thing, and enjoyed the weather.

Then we decided to take him down to the water's edge so he could see the waves and play with the sand. He really enjoyed that. He scooped the sand up in his hands and mushed it around. We sat far enough back so the waves just barely got us. Eventually he decided the sand needed a taste test-of course! We stopped him before he could get his whole hand in his mouth though ;-) I forgot how awesome it feels to have sand in your bathing suit....ugh! Oh well, it was worth it to see the fun he was having!
We stayed on the beach for about an hour then we headed to the pool. After all, Quinn was excited to show off his swim class skills to Dada! We stayed in the pool for a long time and he went under water several times-for Mommy and for Daddy! "Ready-Go!!" That's what they say in class to let the little ones know water's coming-he's so great! He knows to shut his eyes and everything! He loves the pool! We went back yesterday morning before we left too-and of course we took Sally back to the beach as well!

All in all it was a great trip and we can't wait to go to the beach again!!

first haircut

Quinn was born with a head full of hair and everyone said, "Oh, it will all fall out!" Well, we waited and waited, but it just kept growing! As the days turned into months an adorable mohawk appeared, which then turned into a sweet comb-over and lately you could almost tuck some of it behind his ears!! So, while we were at the lake we decided it was high time for a little trim!

Great-Aunt Annette did the honors! Aunt Jennifer and Mommy tried to distract Quinn from what was going on and the kitchen scissors and Nonna followed Great-Aunt Annette's cuts around with a plastic baggie to catch every last hair! This was the same day as Aunt Christie's baby shower, so there was an audience, to say the least! Not every kid can say that he had so many witnesses to his first haircut! Here's the video-it's a bit long, but cute!! You can hear everyone cheering him on!