Quincy May's First Birthday Brunch

Somehow, I feel as if I am generally more tired and overwhelmed then most moms out there. Our life is blessed, but sometimes I am left feeling more exhausted then joyful or grateful. I unfortunately am not super-charged, can work all the time, cook organic dinners, and always be the hostess with the mostess, mom. I wish I was, but I am not. So, as Quincy's birthday approached, I knew,  if I was going to pull anything together it had to be easy, and I had to make decisions quickly. I vowed not to look at pinterest, and the overload of done-too-well birthdays out there. I wouldn't become stressed. I would put together what I could, and that would be that. 

So I decided on a birthday brunch, with easy breakfast foods, that would fit in midmorning before most toddlers had to be down for their naps. I decided on peach, gold, pink, and ivory as my jumping off point. With cold winter temps and a modest sized house, we invited just some of our closest friends and family, hoping everyone would fit under one roof. And then I  just ran with it. 

I purchased invites designed by this Etsy seller. Then I printed and packaged them myself. 

Then,  of course, we ordered hardwood floors (and no, we have not yet gotten around to painting the ceiling). The originally estimated three week delivery time was bumped up to one week (ONE WEEK!). Meaning, obviously, that our living room looked like this two days before the party. Obviously.

While thoughts of canceling danced through my head, we persevered. Q's party had to go on. So Jon stacked hardwood. I decorated. And we got it all together in the nick of time. That may or may not be hardwood flooring stacked in the back of that photo. That wall, however, may or not be white, instead of peach (insert smiley face).

For brunch, I laid some wrapping paper down the center of the table. 

I mixed and matched lots of white dishware that we had on hand.

I circle punched miscellaneous papers from my craft closet.

And…I sprinkled a few extra Quincy heads around…for good measure.

The food was easy. I recommend it. 

I put together a few yogurt parfaits in some glassware that we already had.

Picked up a few goodies from our local bakery.

Homegirl was not about to bake up homemade muffins. 

Come on.

Whipped together some mini frittatas the morning of.

With bacon and cheese, clearly.

I  made a glittery birthday banner, meanwhile getting gold glitter in most crevices in our house. 

And there was a mimosa bar. 

That I failed to take pictures of. 

I apologize.

I was busy having a mimosa.

Quincy was a doll, as usual. 

And Nolan was so excited to have friends over. 

He kinda-sorta thought it was his first birthday party.

I considered giving her a first hair cut before the party. 

Naaaah.

Always the picture of content sweetness this one. 

And, she enjoyed the cake, to boot.

We attempted to get Nolan in this photo with her.

Despite his great attitude, he would not oblige us with a photo.

Nope, he dive bombed his face into a hidden nook.

That child.

We call her Mince, Wince, Quince, or Q May. Pretty much any name other then Quincy. She is a dose of sweetness everyday. She prefers her dada over her mama, both of which she says out loud. She crawls, with little interest in walking. Missy has two teeth, and likes to eat anything other then baby food. She can spot a spec of play dough on our carpet from across the room. And will eat it. And proceed to drool blue. And girl has no interest in sleeping through the night. None, whatsoever. We could not be without her. She made our family feel so much more complete.

Blessed

       For some reason, with Quincy's arrival, I've learned more about how precious time really is with our little ones. They. Grow. Fast. Like, real fast. And because I have so very much loved my time at home with the kiddos the past few months, I wanted to capture that on film. The other day, while Jon was at work, I laid out a blanket (it was actually an area rug that I bought when I was living in Ecuador) and grabbed the camera. I put some clean jeans on Buzz and a white onesie on Q. Nolan was happy to oblige me (which is rare), and I'm very glad that I took advantage of his good mood. Out of the whole bunch that I took, I'd say only one was in focus and captured both kids at their best. There are shadows, there are closed eyes, and there is fussing. But that's the nice thing about photos of your own kids; each photo looks great, no matter how imperfect it is. I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

And this one was my very favorite.

You might be seeing it again, framed on our wall.

Blessed is an understatement.

       Right now my whole family is in Tahoe for our annual vacay, so I'm off playing at the beach right now. I return to work on Monday, the thought of which has been making me nauseous for weeks. I am extremely attached to my baby girl, and her and I have spent very few hours apart since her birth (I'm estimating a total of only about 10 hours in over five months!).  I'm expecting it to take me (and the family) a week or two to adjust to having me back in the working world. Wish us luck on the transition!

Side by Side: Four Months

       Quincy has reminded me how amazing babies are. In the midst of raising a roudy almost three year old boy, she is just the dose of sweetness that I need to make it through some days. She is a lover, and we love to love on her. She coos. She laughs. She holds my fingers tight. She still prefers to fall asleep held very tightly in my arms. She is also very much the second child. She has to nap on the go, eat when I have a chance to sit, and watch a lot of the action from the sidelines. 

       This week, Nolan accompanied me to her four month appointment. She now weighs 13 pounds even. I was too busy keeping Nolan from eating hand sanitizer to hear what percentage those put her at. Our sweet lady had to get a few shots in her leg and big bro was right there next to her to watch.  Several times after the appointment Nolan said to her "It's okay Quincy, it will feel better soon." Or, "It's okay Quincy, you're fine now."It was amazing to hear him both empathize for someone else, and to care for his sister. Sometimes he calls her "sissy" and wants to kiss her before he goes to bed. Sometimes he likes to hold her evening bottle for her, or kiss her in the crook of her neck which guarantees a smile. But a lot of times, he kinda completely forgets that she exists (true story).

Here she is, in all her beauty at four months.

Sweet Muffin.

After the move, I finally located our hard drive 

so I was able to find a couple of pics at Nolan at four months old too.

I'll be back with another home related post!

Quincy at Three Months

       Quincy turns four months old this week so I figured it was about time that I posted her three month photos. I snapped this amidst the chaos of packing and moving and was only able to get a few. 

Q is my little sidekick.

She has me wrapped around her teeny finger.

She gives us lots of smiles now and has learned to nap and sleep when not in my arms. 

She is doing much better in her car seat too, 

which makes running errands much less anxiety inducing.

AND I think she's pretty gosh darn beautiful too.

She is getting too big far too fast for my liking.

 I don't know if it's because she's a girl, or because it may be my last, 

but the second time around everything seems so much sweeter. 

       I am about five weeks away from returning to work, and the thought of leaving her makes me nauseous. I have been oh-so-blessed to have this extra time off work with her, but I think it has made our attachment to each other all that much stronger (and will make being separated all the more challenging). But I know I survived it with Nolan, and in the end he loved his daycare and all of his friends. We are very fortunate to have them starting in a great small daycare together, near to our new house. 

       Oh, and about the new house. I've been dying to share our current projects and updates but there seems to be too few hours in the day. I'll be back very soon with some fun house related news!

Easter 2013

      The Milam's have a little something in the works and I'll be sharing more on that soon. While I have a few free moments I wanted to share some Easter pictures with you. I picture that most people's Easter morning includes kids bounding out of bed to hunt for their Easter baskets, followed by cute Easter dresses and bonnets, and a special Easter mass followed by a delicious meal. Our Easter morning didn't go exactly like that. Imagine an almost 3 year old waking up very constipated, spending most of the morning trying to you-know-what, then picture a dad taking some drastic measures, followed by a successful bowel movement, and then imagine very relieved parents jumping up and down cheering. 

 After that was all settled it was finally time for some Easter basket hunting.

Getting warmer.

Thank you Mr. Bunny.

This was the first time that most of my side of the family got to meet Ms. Q.

It was also her first time in a dress.

Jonny and his baby girl.

Add in one more cutie pie.

And because babies are so stinking cute when they cry, I couldn't resist.

Or course the day included our annual Easter egg hunt.

Big cousins helping little cousins. Gotta love it.

This year, Buzz was really into it.

I die for his little calves.

Somehow, someway, this is what my little boy's Easter bag looked like after the hunt.

And then of course, we had to check out our finds.

We attempted to take a good family pic. 

Attempt #1- not quite.

Nope, not there yet.

This will have to do.

3 out of 4 looking at the camera ain't bad. 

My hair-now that's a whole other issue in itself.

I'll be back soon with some pics of our Spring getaway!