I had a wonderful ultrasound done today.  Baby is healthy, growing on schedule and…she’s a GIRL!  We are thrilled and, I’ll now admit, even though we also would have been thrilled with another boy, I was secretly hoping it was a girl.  I mean, c’mon, girl clothes are so much more fun!  And the shoes…don’t even get me started on little girl shoes!  We know Quinn is going to be a fabulous big brother to his sister…once he gets over the disappointment of her not being a train named James.  So without further ado, please say hello to our beautiful baby GIRL:

Even though Halloween is still 2 days away, Quinn celebrated big today.  It started out with a daycare party, ended with some trick or treating and included lots of candy!  candy!  candy!  (as Quinn says).   I was slightly nervous about how today was going to go costume-wise, considering that for the past week Quinn has been telling me that he wants to be a boat- a submarine boat to be exact.  Aside from the fact that he already had 2 costume choices ready and waiting for him, there is no way I am crafty enough to make a submarine costume for him and not enough time to buy one…if they even sell submarine costumes.  So I was expecting a full blown meltdown about the lack of a submarine.  Luckily, I was pleasantly surprised when he happily chose to wear his dog costume and didn’t mention the submarine again.  Lesson learned: don’t buy a costume for a toddler 2 months before Halloween because they are sure to change their mind about a hundred times.

In order to prep for our before-Halloween extravaganza, we carved our pumpkin last night.  Quinn loved scooping the seeds and said “ewwww” everytime he got a good chunk of innards.

I forgot to take a picture of it, but we carved the pumpkin to be none other than Thomas the Tank Engine.  Pretty awesome.

His daycare celebrated Halloween today with a party.  All of the parents brought treats for the party and when I dropped Quinn off I scoped out the goods- spooky cupcakes, brain juice, spider cookies, ghost candy.  I looked down at my contribution- apples, oranges and grapes.  Yeah, I was that lame mom who brings something healthy to a Halloween party.  Good thing Quinn is too young to figure it out…soon he’ll make fun of me for it, just like Ryan does!  Anyway, I stopped by briefly during the party and was able to get a picture of all of his friends in costume.

After work/daycare, Quinn’s buddy Angelica came over to go trick or treating with us.  Her dad brought flashlights for the kids and they were the hit of the night!

Trick or treating went well, even though it took us about an hour to hit up 10 houses.  Quinn got into it and by the end was saying “trick or treat” and “thank you” without me prompting him.  Then he came home and screamed for candy! candy! candy!, ate some m&m’s and went on a sugar high for the next hour.  Bedtime was really fun…not.  I’m sure we’ll have some more Halloween activities over the next few days and by the end of it all will have mastered the sugar consumption to bedtime ratio.  Until then, wish us luck!  I just might have to take one for the team and help his belly out by eating some of Quinn’s candy.  Cause I’m a good, caring mom like that! 

Voting on Baby Pud’s gender is at a tie- we find out on Friday morning so place last minute votes now!

I guess I should put in a vote for Quinn since he doesn’t quite have control of the mouse yet.  Although he is getting way better at using Ryan’s iPod Touch!  I’m thinking Quinn’s vote would be boy, since he named the baby in my belly “James” and he named the baby in his belly “Trevor”.  Not so coincidentally, both of these names are friends/characters in his beloved Thomas the Train DVDs.  He might be slightly bummed when his sibling doesn’t turn out to be a big red steam engine or a friendly green tractor!

We finished up Quinn’s big boy room on Sunday.  The only thing we still have to find is an old guitar to hang on the wall.  We decided to do a rock and roll theme for the room (since Quinn is a rockstar) but we didn’t want to go too overboard with it.  We’re pretty excited about how it turned out and Quinn loves it- he is sleeping great in his new bed and loves playing in there.

The idea for the room started with this:

Even though he will probably never understand what a record is, we thought it was necessary to have the Mighty Quinn album in the room.

Then we put a few more records up because they look cool.  It’s amazing how far music has come…now even Quinn has an mp3 player that is way smaller than these records!

We used rain gutters to create book shelves that Quinn could reach.  And of course his beloved train table needed a spot in the room!

We got the little pelican storage bin that hangs on the wall from Ikea, but decided to hang it a little higher because Quinn started out thinking it was a basketball net, and we were afraid he’d rip it off the wall on a daily basis.

And the big boy bed that Quinn is pretty proud of…

And a little storage station:

Last, but not least, Quinn’s roommate, Timmy.  Quinn loves sharing his room with him…not sure the feeling is mutual, though!

So that’s the “big boy room”.  We feel pretty on the ball, considering that we technically had until March to get him into a new room.  It was fun to do, since it meant I got to take a trip to my favorite store, Ikea, and Ryan got to use his new miter saw.  It’s the little things that really do it for us!

We had a busy day on Saturday, filled with aquatic creatures.  First up, swimming class with Quinn, the little fish who now goes underwater and jumps off the side.

After swimming class, we picked up Quinn’s friend Angelica and her family, and headed down to the Baltimore Aquarium so Quinn could see “sharks with big teeth”.  The kids had a good time, although the highlight for Quinn might have been the escalator and the revolving doors.

It was a fun day but we were all exhausted by the end.  Something about chasing your kid through the aquarium makes everyone involved quite tired!

In less than a week, I get my “big” ultrasound to find out if this little bean is a boy or a girl.  We’re super excited to find out!  Neither one of us is “hoping” for a boy or a girl since we would obviously be thrilled with either but I just want to know…I’m not good with surprises.  Plus finding out the gender will make it a little easier for Quinn to understand- as much as a 2 year old can understand the fact that there is a baby growing inside his mommy and that baby will come out and be his brother or sister.  So place your bets…boy or girl?

On another note, if I ask Quinn what’s in his belly, he tells me “my baby”.  Can he get any cuter?!?

Fact:  Quinn can eat more pizza than me – 2.5 adult size slices, to be exact.

Fact:  5 minutes after he eats above amount of pizza, he starts complaining that his tummy hurts.

Fact:  5 minutes after that, he no longer complains about his tummy, but the car smells like a barnyard and his diaper now weighs 10 pounds.

Lesson learned:  Do not let your 2 year old eat 2.5 slices of pizza.

A big happy (30th!) birthday to the guy Quinn and I are both crazy about.  No, not Handy Manny…Ryan/Daddy!  We love you!

The other night I attended a very small rock concert.  I was impressed- these guys have talent!  Only a confident musical artist would play in the (almost) buff.

This weekend we readied Quinn’s “big boy” room for it’s first occupant.  We painted the walls, hung curtains, hooked up lights, put together his furniture, made the bed and the list goes on.  We still haven’t finished completely, but it has the basic bedroom essentials for a 2 year old – a bed, a dresser and a train table.  (I’ll be sure to post pics when the room is fully finished.)

We gave Quinn the choice on where he wanted to sleep last night, although put extra emphasis on how cool his big boy bed is.  And since he is all about things that are cool and big boy-like, that is what he chose. After reading six books with me, two books with Ryan, and about 15 minutes of crying, he fell asleep in his big boy bed and didn’t wake up until 6:30 this morning.  It was a success!  Let’s hope the rest of the week goes equally well.  He was so excited about it this morning that he ran into his daycare class and immediately told his teacher about sleeping in his big boy bed.  I think this transition is going to be easier for him than it is for me.  Looking around his room and watching him sleep in a real bed last made me a little misty-eyed.  I don’t think I’m ready for my baby to be a big boy!