on our way to grandma's house, we saw...

california was calling our name and we answered with a trip out there. and you gotta know that ANY trip is gonna be good when you start off getting what we dubbed "the green dinosaur" as a rental car!

i can't believe we didn't get our own picture of it! but imagine it more like this:

we started off our weekend with a day in san francisco where we rode trolleys,

took q-baby on her first tuk tuk ride,

and even got foot massages in china town.

turns out the boy has incredibly ticklish feet. i thought he was going to kick the foot massage guy (do they get the title of "masseur"?) right in the face. our guys kept talking in chinese to each other and i'm pretty sure they were saying, "man - this guy's a wimp with baby feet! i bet his own baby's not even so ticklish!" ...and it's true.

quincy's perfected the art of flirting and she pulled out all the stops for the foot massage guys. i think she thought it'd get us a discount or something. it didn't

she's crazy about opening her mouth all wide like that these days and i couldn't figure out what that's all about... then i looked through our pictures and the proof was in the pudding (how great and underused is that phrase??)

like parents like daughter??

our green dinosaur then took us to visit my grandparents (q baby's GREAT grandparents) and the boy's cousins and uncle/aunt. quincy knew she was surrounded by her peeps and hammed it up good for everyone (i think everyone hammed it up good for her too...) ushy gushy love oozed around the entire weekend. it was great.

next, we went to the maker faire, which is a giant geek fest where people make random gizmos and gadgets then show them off... think life-size mouse-trap games, giant cupcake cars, a mechanical tongue that licks a lollipop down to the stick...aka, complete entertainment.

and what's a trip to california without a stop at in & out burger with aunt wendi and uncle karl. mmmmm milkshake

q baby laughs her guts out

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.

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