A Letter to Quinn from his Mom

Adoptive Mom Cheryl Galvani Deutschlander mails this letter into the future for her son Quinn. Parents keep scrapbooks and baby books for us so we may learn about those early years before our long term memory is activated. Cheryl and her husband Mark are scientists so it is no wonder her letter to her son is precise and rich in detail.

Quinn and Cheryl at the Zoo

October 1, 2011

Dear Quinn,

September has been another busy month! At the end of August you had another appointment with the pediatrician for your second round of immunizations. Like the first time, you cried a lot during the injections, but stopped crying pretty quickly. You are a very brave little boy, after all! Also like the first time, you had no adverse reaction to the immunizations. You just carried on with the rest of the day as if nothing happened. At the appointment, the nurse took some of your measurements. Here they are, along with the percentiles:

You also sported your first teeth (lower central incisors) on Sept 16. I had been looking for teeth for a few weeks, because your drooling had gotten so bad. They are coming in quite nicely. I don’t see any more teeth coming in yet. Nani reminded me that I should be brushing your teeth now that they have come through the gums, so I bought you a little toothbrush with very soft bristles.

You have really made great strides toward crawling! You push up on your arms and logs and raise your whole body up. When we put you on the floor in the living room with your toys now, you are never in the same location when we look back into the room! We have already starting talking about baby-proofing the house. One thing in particular that we need to move is a ceramic vase with eucalyptus leaves in it that is on the floor near the television. One day, Daddy found that you had knocked over the vase, and you were chewing on the eucalyptus leaves! You will chew on anything we put near your mouth, including toys, utensils, fabric, and even other peoples’ hands and fingers.

You are starting to put on some weight now, and look more like a toddler than a baby. Also, I used to be able to put my hand around your thighs, but not anymore. Your little feet hang over the end of your infant car seat, so I don’t think we will be able to use it for much longer. The upper height limit is 30 inches, and you are at 27 inches. I guess it is almost time to get a big boy car seat.

As far as visits and visitors for this month, Nani and Grandpa Tony visited us from Sept 1 – Sept 6. It was the first time that Grandpa Tony met you and he just loved you. He thought you were so cute and just loved the fact that you were always kicking your little legs. He decided that you looked like you were trying to kick start a motorcycle! He also decided that you should be a professional grape stomper! Nani was also very amused by your stomping. She asked us to get it on video for her.

While Nani and Grandpa Tony were visiting, you tried solid food for the first time. Nani had fed cousin Ellie her first rice cereal, so she wanted to do the same for you. You ate rice cereal mixed with banana. You didn’t quite know what to do with it, so a lot of it got pushed back out of your mouth with your tongue. Nani and I laughed at how cute you looked with that food smeared all over your face. I also tried to feed you banana, pear, carrots, and beef with beef broth. You liked the banana and the pear. You seemed less than thrilled about the carrots and beef with beef broth. When I told Nani about it, she said that all babies like sweet things (like fruit) better and that I should try again with the veggies! Our friend Sue suggested mixing the fruit with the veggies at first. I like that idea.

We attended the Rochester STAR picnic on Sunday, Sept 11. It was held at the home of the Miller family in Greece. It was a very nice day and the food was delicious. They decided to do a taco/burrito bar for the main course. Daddy made his yummy 7 layer taco dip. It was gone so fast I barely got to eat any of it! Daddy is quite good at making Mexican food, apparently, because his guacamole is out of this world and any time we have company they request his black bean burritos. We were able to spend some time with a lot of our Adoption STAR friends and their children at the picnic. We always love events with our Adoption STAR friends. They are such an amazing and supportive group of people. I honestly feel that they would do anything for us. As an example, one STAR family (the Millers) is having a difficult time right now with medical expenses due to a series of illnesses in the family. The Millers have adopted two special needs children, both of whom are sick and need a lot of care. Some of the other STAR families have set up several fundraising events to help the Millers defray some of their expenses. Daddy and I plan to buy a few pitchers of virtual lemonade to help them out. We may also attend a pasta dinner that they have planned in November.

You met your Uncle Wayne for the first time on September 12. We met at Bugaboo Creek restaurant in Henrietta. Grandpa Dutch and Grandma Dona (or Grandma Munchkin, as she prefers to be called!) came with Uncle Wayne and we met for dinner after work. You were very well-behaved, as always. Uncle Wayne just loved you! They all plan to come for a visit at our house this coming weekend, Oct 1 and 2.

We also visited Grandma Melanie and Phil, Uncle Joshua, Birth Mommy Olivia, and her friend Andrea on Sept 24. They invited us to their house in Gates, so we went for pizza and dessert. One of the pizzas we ate was called Sesame Chicken and it was some of the tastiest pizza I have ever had! I wish we could get it in Canandaigua. Mommy and Daddy brought the dessert – malted milk balls and chocolate-covered espresso beans from Sweet Expressions in Canandaigua, and chocolate cake and tiramisu from Wegmans. We had such a wonderful evening. We talked and laughed and looked at pictures from their recent trip to Florida. Birth Mommy Olivia bought you a stuffed manatee because they all went swimming with manatees, just like Mommy did many years ago! I hope that you can swim with manatees someday; it is so much fun! Olivia also bought you two postcards, one with manatees on it and one from Disney’s Animal Kingdom. She wrote you very sweet messages on each postcard. We plan to save them with all of your other keepsakes. They also brought Mommy and Daddy some cool scallop shells from when they went snorkeling for scallops. We showed them the “Papa Pinguin” video on YouTube that you love, and we were all laughing at how excited you got watching it. Mommy has been trying to learn the dance that the penguins do in the video, and everyone laughed when I started doing some of the steps along with the video! Birth Mommy Olivia also gave you a very special and meaningful gift – the guitar that she had received about 5 years ago when she wanted to learn how to play guitar. She knows how much Daddy likes to play guitar, so she thought you would like to have one of your own so that you can play with Daddy. It is a small maroon acoustic guitar. Daddy plans to have it cleaned and tuned up at Mobile Music, where he takes guitar lessons with your Godfather Robert!

Another really cool thing that happened that night is that we told Olivia about Beemah! Our STAR friend Melissa told us about an adopted child who started calling his Birth Mother "Beemah" because he was too little to pronounce "Birth Mother." Apparently, one day he bragged to one of his friends (who was not adopted), "I have a Beemah and you do not!” So cute! We think that Olivia really liked Beemah because she signed her next text "Beemah."

A few days after Uncle Wayne’s visit, Uncle Kenny, Auntie Natalie, and cousin Ellie will be coming for a visit. You have not met any of them yet, and we are so excited to get the two cousins together. Nani made us promise to take lots of pictures of the two of you together. Grandpappy and Grandma Nancy are also making all kinds of plans for the visit. It will be a lot of fun.

We can’t wait to see what you will do next…

Love always,
Mommy and Daddy

Read More from STAR Families:

• Pre-Adoption Baby Showers: To Do Or Not To Do?
• From No Way to Yes Together
• True Story from 2001: A Special Adoption Story
• Carmela Meets the Adoptive Family
• A Young Adoptee Takes a Journey Back to Adoption STAR

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