When I think back to this exact time last year…I feel an immense amount of anxiety. Quint at 6 months old was in the peak of his endless fussiness and we were a few days away from his first allergic reaction to rice that landed us in the ER. I can remember sitting in the kid’s nursery around 5 PM one day in August and just crying because it all felt more than I could handle. Dwight was gone 12 hours days with work and I was drowning in caring for what seemed like an unconsolable baby and an active newly turned two year old. I don’t like to be a complainer,  but that season of my life was really, really tough. 

Now, a year later, I have a happy, smiley and curious 18 month old that I could not be more in love with. Quint has stolen my heart in all the ways mothers of boys told me he would. He is such a rascal but I find myself smiling and giggling as I try to discipline him! He is constantly getting into the things he shouldn’t be and especially loves to splash around in the toilet when I’m not looking…heaven help! Ha!

He LOVES to eat and will pull on the refrigerator door and yell at me until I get him something! Usually he is emphatically repeating “snack” which comes out as “NACK NACK NACK NACK NACK!” It’s hilarious. His vocabulary is really picking up and he mimicks most words we say these days. 

He is wearing 2T clothing and is weighing around 28lbs. My arms have never been in better shape than they are now from carrying him around this past year and a half! He is still a great sleeper and has just begun to drop his hour long morning nap. As sad as it always is to see a nap go, it is nice to be able to spend the entire morning out of the house with the kids now. He still takes a really long 3 to 4 hour nap in the afternoon and is sleeping around 11-12 hours at night.

We have spent a lot of time in the pool this summer and he is pretty comfortable holding his breath underwater when we dunk him in. His hair appears it will stay blonde and those piercing blue eyes are going to be trouble for the ladies later in life! 

I have a lot of people ask me how he is doing with his allergies and I have to say, he really has little to no issues at this point. He still has the occasional skin irritations behind his knees and one spot on his back that won’t seem to go away but when I look back at photos of him covered in red splotchy patches last year….he looks like a different kid now. I am SO grateful we were able to figure out what his problem food was (rice) and we are still completely avoiding that until he turns two when we will do a trial to see if he has outgrown it. I’m not sure if I ever mentioned this publicly before but he also has a dermoid cyst above his right eye that we will surgically remove at some point during this next year but thankfully it doesn’t seeem to bother him. 

Quint loves to dance and nothing gets him going like I’m Turnt by Lecrae and the theme song to Elena of Avalor, haha!  He is absolutely obsessed with golf and any kind of ball…literally he wakes up saying “golf golf golf golf” until we get him his club. Dwight is in disbelief that all of his hopes of having a built in golfing buddy in a son appear to be coming true. 

You’ll find me soaking up these last 6 months of my baby boy until he becomes a big two year old.

We love you, Quint.