Fear is known

Mighty Quinn goes back to Providence children's hospital for a lung scan. He is to be injected with radioactive fluid so his lung activity will show up on a monitor.

All seems well for him until the nurses grab his limbs and start looking for his well hidden veins for the IV attempts. Before the needles even appear, Quinn now knows all too well what lay ahead.



No needles yet, and he is already upset with no chance of escape. Mom and I hold him down to the table while the nurses stick him. After four unsuccessful tries, Quinn gets a breather. And he is still good for a quick smile.

But then back on the table for another round of unsuccessful tries.

As I'm holding my son down, hearing the pitch change in his screams as the needles are inserted and fished around, I get an increasing urge to just overreact. End the whole doctor visit and come back when they invent a better way of getting an IV into my son. Needles are a big deal for toddlers. It's gotta be near the top of the list for things they hate most in life. Steph and I always make a point to ask for the most experienced staff member in hopes that Quinn might one day not have to get his veins picked apart a million times. The seventh attempt is the one that is usable.

There have been instances in the past where the nurses or doctors finally get an IV in him, only to have it slip out before it is used. So once the line was put in, Quinn's leg is taped to a splint, and wrapped and taped several times, rendering his foot immovable. Then it was on to the lung scan machine. He was taped to the plastic bench and slowly engulfed by the automated scanners.

He was scared pretty much the whole time, but it helped whenever mom was somehow in contact. Steph held his hands as he laid under the scanners for several minutes, and he dozed off.

Although, his awakening wasn't a very nice one.

The lung scans showed the doctors that Quinn is doing fine. The purpose behind these scans is to determine if Quinn will need his stints widened any time soon. I don't think Quinn cares much for doctor visits anymore.

In other news, I will be taking a new job with a new company after Thanksgiving (This is Dan not Steph by the way). It's the first time in my life I've actually negotiated a starting salary upward instead of just accepting an offer. For some that may sound easy, but I was proud of myself. The new job is closer to home and a huge saving on gas. The business travel I do will be shorter in duration and will not include places that my wife reads in the news about and worries. Hope life is going good for everyone.

Almost one

Not too much new on our front. Quinn continues to thrive and impress the doctors. As you can see from the ticker, Quinn is almost a year old. Wow. I looked back at the posts from this time last year. It's interesting to see how many of them mentioned that all we wanted was a healthy baby. Well, he is. A happy, healthy, active little boy. Wish granted. With the added bonus of gratitude to have this little boy in our lives. He is definitely the light of my life. I know everyone says this, but I just can't imagine life before him. I love you Quinn.

Even though he can walk now, he still likes to hold on to things so it's hard to get a walking picture. This is the closest I've come.

Quinn pumping iron at the Y friends and family night. We're trying to upkeep the mightiness.

What other time in your life can you find common household items that are larger then you are?

So, we have started our next round of RSV shots. Unfortunately this year he gets one in each leg since he's bigger than he was last year. Speaking of bigger, he is now 17lbs 9oz. I thought we would make 20lb by the time he was 1 but I guess not. That's alright. It makes it easier for me to carry him. Which I do most of the day.

Walking.....Yay!!!!

What we have here are the beginnings of walking. Dan was letting Quinn walk holding onto his fingers and noticed Quinn could walk while holding just one hand. So he suggested we see if Quinn would walk to me with out holding on to anything. And this is what we got.

Soon there will be no rest for the momma.

The many costumes of Quinn

After Quinn got into the paper towels we thought maybe he'd like to be a mummy for Halloween.


But then he caught sight of tombstones I was decorating with and decided they might be pretty cool to wear.

But then auntie Karra and Jeff bought him this great superman costume.

However with out legging we figured it would be a bit to cold.

So, Quinn was a lion for Halloween. Another costume bought by Auntie Karra. Thanks.

There is always something going on in our town. They really do such wonderful things for kids and family's. They had trick-or-treating downtown, along with a parade and a festival of of Jack-o-lanterns. So of course we went. And met cousin Mary there.

Cousin Mary made a very cute lady bug. Quinn was very intrigued. I think I know her. But she looks so different.

Mary was sooooo happy to see Dora the Explorer.

For anyone thinking about putting face paint on a less than one year old. I have to warn you, it's no easy task. But it looks so cute.

I had to put this picture up. It's a transformer.

Hi auntie.

I used the festival of Jack-o-lanterns as a photo op. Heehe.
Quinn and daddy getting ready to go out trick-or-treating for the first time.


The first house Quinn trick-or-treated at. The owner asked us a couple of days ago to make sure we brought him by. She bought him a stuffed football. It was so sweet of her.

My little sister went as red riding hood. Very well done. Why didn't I get a photo of the whole outfit?

I can't eat it yet, but I can certainly play in it. We only had six kids come by so we had a ton of candy left. I was so sad.

Quinn didn't mind at all though.

Sorry, I was so excited about carving pumpkins that I had to show everyone. It has been years since I've been able to do this.



Happy Halloween everyone.

Small update

Quinn loves to watch the world.

Handsome! I agree

So this weekend was my friend Steph's wedding. It was really beautiful and unfortunately I left my camera with Dan. I did get a couple of photos. And hopefully when Steph gets the pictures from the photographer I can get some of the actual wedding. Steph looked like she belonged in a magazine. She was gorgeous.

And Quinn was very studdly himself.

I am so proud of my little boy.

This was a really long weekend. We didn't get home until 10:30 on Friday and 11:30 on Sat. Quinn couldn't really see me all day since I was in the wedding, but still he was really well behaved.

People kept telling me what a sweet baby I had. He was so tired I don't know how he did so well.

Markers! Good idea right.......

Quinn enjoys drawing on our couch with grahams crackers. So I thought maybe he would enjoy actual markers. So I went to walmart, bought the washable non-toxic markers, and presented them to my son. The following photos are what ensued.

Did you see paper in any of those pictures? Yeah, maybe we weren't quite ready for this. But he had fun using them as chew toys, drum sticks, and conducting wands. So not a huge loss.

"Wha'cha eatin uncle Marsh?"

The thug in him pops out again, along with his little butt.