This is what happened when we decided to let Quinn feed himself with a spoon...he sure loves his doggie.

Walking and Talking

Ok, so the title is a bit misleading here...we're not really doing either of the above...yet. But we're making great strides in that direction.

The moment every parent lives for...when their child says that first word...what's it going to be? Mama? Dada? Or perhaps something even more meaningful like..."uh oh"?????


We've been trying for a while now to get a step or two on video and finally succeeded...

New Digs

Quinn has never had a proper cute nursery, so we thought it was time to make his room a cheerful, happy place.

The first step was getting shades to block out the sun for his pre-sunset bedtime (we had been using cardboard boxes taped over the windows *gasp*). Next we found these cute cute curtains!

And there were wall stickers that actually matched the curtains...could not resist them!

Detail of the scene over his crib:


There were lots of stickers, so they ended up on a few walls, cabinets, drawers...

Quinn seems to approve!

Mission Beach

Janet Smith (a Houston family friend) invited Jeff, Quinn and me to spend an afternoon with her at Mission Beach last week. This is only the second trip we've made with Quinn to the beach. It was fun to spend some time with her and to let Quinn spend some time playing on the beach on a nice, sunny, warm afternoon.

Dad took him out for a ceremonial toe dip in the Pacific.

Brrrr....water's cold. Quinn's not so sure about this toe-dipping thing.

I even got myself in this one...

Quinn was a big fan of the sand!

Janet with Qbert

All of us together at Janet's incredible beach house.

A Good Weekend

What a good weekend! Saturday Jeff and I made a big push to put the house together and finally got things up on the walls and put down a couple of our rugs...it's amazing how much more like home it feels now

I even let him keep that candle thingy on the wall...we'll have to see how long I can take it. :)

Quinn even helped by cleaning the kitchen floor

OK, just kidding. He was just trying to show off for his friend Quin who came over with her brother, her parents and a few other friends for drinks on Saturday night.

Sunday we visited Grammy for some fun in the backyard sun. Qbert is mastering standing and today stood up on his own a couple of times. This is his latest move. It's how the cool guys greet each other. "Yo Daddy-O"

Grammy busted out a new toy today. It's a water/sand playground (currenlty minus the sand). Quinn approves of the new plaything.

Loving to splash

Yeah, I know I'm cute

Happy naked baby

Crazy to think that he still actually needed a bath just a few hours later...

Crab walking in the grass.

A good weekend!

Bird Banding

So as part of my job I get to do some banding at a MAPS (Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship) station run by our office. Being new to the west coast a lot of the birds are new and exciting to me. Here are a few of the birds we captured and banded last week.

This is a little female Bell's Vireo - the focal species for the work that I'm currently doing. That's why she's being fitted with color bands in addition to the normal fish and wildlife service metal numbered bands. The color bands allow us to identify individuals from a distance without having to capture them.

This is a beautiful Ash-throated Flycatcher - the first one I've ever seen

A close up

A Lincoln's Sparrow

My favorite bird of the day: Lazuli Bunting (another first)

Isn't he handsome??

We also captured one woodpecker...a Nuttall's

Here's how to handle a wee warbler. This is a beautiful Wilson's Warbler

What a teeny little head

Vibrant little guy

And our parting shot is an Orange-crowned Warbler. He enjoyed his time with us so much that he wasn't in a hurry to fly off.


And since I can't have a post completely without mention of Quinny let me just add that the only reason that I'm able to sit here and edit/post bird photos is because our good little boy is taking a 2 hour nap! This after the 6th night in a row of sleeping 12-13 hours straight! I could get used to this...but probably shouldn't...

We've been having a great time lately. Quinn is quite the happy lad and as a result his parents are constantly chasing him around with a pesky video camera. Here are some recent captures:

I'll teach you to not pay attention to Daddy....

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