my baby is now free to travel around the planet

in case you're wondering, yes you do need to get a passport for your newborn if you're planning on ditching the country.

and yes, they do lie your baby down on a piece of white butcher paper on the floor in the post office to take her picture. i'm so sad i didn't get a picture of this

and yes, her eyes do need to be open, which can be quite a trick to wake a sleeping infant. and an even bigger trick to keep her from crying because she's ticked off that you woke her up. it included an awfully lot of waking her up, her crying, calming her down enough that she'd fall back asleep, waking her up again...

and yes, it does need to be a straight on shot showing both of her ears which means the mommy can put her hand underneath the butcher paper to hold her baby's head up straight (our pic almost didn't make the cut because both her ears aren't clearly showing...they're very strict about this. as though she'll even be look like her pic within the next week or so).

and yes, i did make the mistake of putting her in an outfit with what the boy calls "jail stripes" on the shirt. it really is a cute outfit in person and was a steal of a deal, but she looks like our little convict.

which is probably why we had to take an oath on our one month old's account swearing that she was not planning any terrorist activities on the united states.

and yes, she does get to keep this passport (with the photo) until she's five years old. how fun will it be to travel when she's five carrying a picture of herself as an infant? at least she'll be recognizable by the one ear that's showing.

a bad case of middle child syndrome

i've always heard about the baby of the family having a tough time when a new addition comes, but i had no idea it might refer to my dog...

the allusive "they" say that when babies get knocked out of their position as the youngest, they can show signs of regression and anger toward their parents.

since quincy's arrival, milo spends half his day in his crate BY HIS CHOOSING. he saunters into it - making sure we're watching him and then sighs a huge sigh and sticks his head out to remind us that he's in there - denying us all the honor of his presence on our laps or by our feet.

when she cries, he has a tendency to grab onto my leg as if to say, "come on mom - you don't need that. let's run away together, just you and me. leave that little annoying thing behind for good!"

so, in effort to remedy milo's sad (and pathetic - let's be honest) situation, we've pulled out all the stops.

the boy randomly saw this at the store the other day and how could he not buy it (have i mentioned lately how much i love the boy)?

yes, it's really called petchup and yes it really looks like ketchup. neither of us are brave enough to eat it to see if it also tastes like ketchup... i am proud to say this tasty (maybe?) little treat is made in colorado! oh, colorado, you're the best.

we've allowed milo the chore of prewasher

and, while the boy's parents were in town, we were playing imaginiff. the game requires eight players and if you have less than that (we did), then you have to have ghost players that everybody knows. Our ghost players included quincy, teddy and milo (because who doesn't want their newborn and two dogs as part of the game?)

unfortunately, i don't think having milo as a player boosted his ego much. when questions like "who would most likely board, and feel at home on, a ufo" came up, we all picked milo... ah our little alien puppy.

in other news, even with two four-legged animals as options, the boy's dad feels he's the most similar to the mythical flying horse, the pegasus... we didn't inquire further.

the first three weeks

it's weird how once you have a baby, all of a sudden posters like this make you very much wish this poor person finds his gloves that his mom made him. i'm also a little bit intrigued to know what the reward for found mittens might be...

good luck, kid!

in other news, i scheduled to get our piano tuned the other day and when i opened the door for the tuner, lo and behold, phillip seymore hoffman was standing on my front porch. i tried to take a picture to send to the boy, but it's hard to get a good, discreet shot of someone who's facing a wall to fix a piano.
but come on, who could even deny that that's clearly phillip seymore's bum??

so when he was telling me all of the things he fixed on our piano and was giving me a bill, i wasn't really listening - i mean, who could with such celebrity status in the same room? instead, i was holding my phone by my side and trying to get a better shot of him.

i mean seriously - let's compare:


and in other news, the boy got a new tat


quincy's found a love in music


milo's discovered that boppy's make for the perfect bed


and quincy's perfecting the art of both body and face contorting


ah. i love my family

meet quincy

introducing the one and only (we know, we googled it)

quincy annabelle

born december 29, 2009 at 9:00am - how's that for coming into the world with a favorite number??

it's amazing how this on christmas eve:

can turn into this before new years eve:

so far, she's very busy with lots of peeing, pooping, eating and sleeping. which is why, of course, it makes sense that we've already taken at least 8 billion pictures of her:

happy new year! love, the flaggs

final preparations

i'm a loaded gun. a few signs that we're close to having a baby:

1. my belly matches the contour line of my oval mirror


and check out that belly button! part of my daily exercises is to try to push it back in, but sadly to no avail. turkey is done.

2. to our utter delight, my parents' antique piano they gave us as a wedding gift came last week, so we're now all ready to lull the baby with our melodic renditions of chopstix (please ignore that giant hole in my sock. putting socks on is such a production these days as it is, let alone CHANGING socks after they're already on because of a measly hole)


(p.s. looks almost identical to my photoshopped version of the room, huh?? it's almost like i took that picture and just photoshopped myself in)

3. milo's claimed his favorite baby toy by dragging it into his bed this morning to cuddle with it. sorry baby, i don't think you're getting that one back. first come, first serve


4. our conversations these days consist of: "why are you limping?" "i'm not. i'm waddling."

and not that it has anything to do with anything (except it might detract the baby from wanting to be born into such a kooky place), but i'm pretty sure this girl i saw the other day on pearl street wasn't wearing any pants