Harmonica Serenade

Many memories of my Grandpa Johnson involve music. Listening to Grandpa playing the piano and singing. Hearing him sing "Blue Skies" when he was delightfully happy. Watching him play the harmonica (a skill that has always eluded me). 

So when we were cleaning out grandpa's house, I took one of his harmonicas. Just because. I have it sitting on our piano. Because both make me think of him. And when I think of him, I smile.

Mike took out the harmonica a couple days ago and [annoyingly] was able to pick up on the finer points of playing it rather quickly. Fiona was totally intrigued - so Daddy provide a mini-lesson. While she's not as good as grandpa [yet], she truly enjoys playing! As I watched her concert, I imagined grandpa listening too - and smiling!

Q is Baptized!

We started out the holiday weekend with a very special event. Miss Quinn was baptized on Sunday. We were blessed to have a church full of family and friends to welcome her officially into God's family. And what a wonderful time of year - to celebrate our child of God as we remember the birth of our Savior.

Quinn is very blessed to have special godparents as well. My sister, Auntie Emmy, and our 9-year-old nephew Ben have agreed to guide her on her spiritual path. We were so proud of Ben and how serious he took the entire ceremony. Quinn is a lucky girl!

Godparents

And Auntie Tracey and Uncle Kyle were wonderful to host a little party after the service at their house. Which used to be my Grandpa's house. So my extended family was back at grandpa's for the first time in several years - just in time for Christmas. Big thanks to Tracey and Kyle for that special gift to my family. It meant a lot to them to see the place as a home for a new (and wonderful) family!

Finally, if you missed the event and want to watch it, here is about a five minute video of the baptism part of the service:

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Since Grandma N is here tonight, we celebrated Mike's birthday one day early so Gma could join in. Bugs decided to sing "happy birthday" to Daddy ... and had her mind blown when Grandma said that it will be her birthday in a couple weeks too. All the more reasons to eat cake!

So this video is for Daddy, and Brenda (happy birthday, B!), and Grandma J, and Grandma N ... who all have birthdays in the next couple weeks! Play your cards right over Christmas and the Bug might encore just for you.

Q - 4 Months

Napping on the princess
couch

Here we are again - another month has gone by! Quinn is now 4 months old (yesterday) and we can't imagine this family without her! Quinn has the ability to make anyone smile ... it's impossible not to respond to her infectious grin with one of your own. In the last month, we've experienced quite a bit of development ...

• Stepped up the chatter even more. We have such lovely conversations! Fiona's conversations at this age were full of drama (and often ended so sadly), but Quinn's are hilarious!
• Smiling and giggling. All the time! Such a happy, happy girl
• Falling into a more predictable schedule for eating, napping, and playing. Lots more awake time, which we love. She is also starting to self-soothe and put herself to sleep. Hooray! (and occasionally will take a crib nap at home)
• About done napping during meals. She wants to be at the table with the rest of the gang. We think she is ready to start some solid food in a few weeks!
• Met Santa for the first time. Loves the jolly guy!
• Getting more interested in playing with toys ... and her feet and hands. Able to entertain herself more independently ... but still loves one-on-one attention.
• Loves to play with her pacifier and moves it from her hands to mouth often.
• Has started trying to mimic sounds. She is surprisingly good at it. Mike swears that a couple times when she has been mad at him, that she has sobbed "mama." 
• Had her first sick day from day care. Yucky colds for both girls!
• Tried out the jumperoo for the first time. She can't quite get it to bounce yet, but she loves the "upright" experience.
• Continues to work on her core strength and practices sitting often.

Fiona and Quinn continue to adore each other and the big sister is loving that Q is becoming more able to play. We love to watch them interact - even when Quinn grabs Fiona's hair (crying) or Fiona is too rough with her love (crying).

Babies by comparison (wow, those are some cute little girls!)

Quinn - 4 months

Fiona - 4 months

Santa!

New family game plan for our annual Santa date: pick the girls up a bit early from day care, drive to EP, meet Mom at the mall, and wait approximately 7 minutes to sit on the lap of the big guy! SCORE! Fiona was super excited to see Santa, but got a little nervous when it was our turn. She checked him up and down, agreed to sit on his lap with Quinn, but decided not to smile for the picture. She was very serious about the entire process and we could tell she was taking it all in. She rode home with me and told me that she "had fun, but I didn't smile. because I was done." So there you have it.

She asked Santa very nicely for a dollhouse and told him "thank you" and "Merry Christmas" when we were done. Quinn thought Santa had a very comfy lap and gave him lots of smiles and a bit of chatter. I think she asked Santa for a play farm!

To make the night even more special, we stopped at Perkins for pancake brinner [breakfast for dinner]. Quinn woke up before the food came and had a fantastic time playing with her feet, chattering, and smiling at anyone who would look at her. Fiona was happy, ate well, and shared a special french fry with me that she had dipped in ketchup, syrup, and chocolate chips. Yum ...

All in all, a very successful Santa date experience!