Surprise! It's a...

It's a girl! 

Oh, wait. That's my son LOL. We went to pick up Quinton for our afternoon visit and he was dressed in a pink shirt and pink tights....and I thought the pink and purple panties were bad! Oh well. There's not too much we can do about that one.

Quinton decided to be a stinker today. He was very happy, but apparently has decided he does not want to smile for the camera, so there are not too many great pictures today. Sorry :(  I think he is just really interested in it. The flash distracts him and he wants to play with it. He is so curious about everything. Brian called him Curious George. I think it is really amazing to him to get to see and touch things he has never been exposed to before. He loves textures like the wallpaper and his Daddy's face. He loves sounds like the baby apps on the iphone and he loves visual stimulation (hence him being so distracted by the camera flash). Look how he spent the first 16 months of his life:

That's where he spends the majority of his day-laying alone in a hard wooden playpen. If he is lucky he might get a rattle or 2 tossed in there. This breaks my heart, but it makes all of his firsts even sweeter. He is loving life for at least 4 hours a day and I can't wait to get him home where he can love life all of the time.

We were very blessed today to go out to lunch with the missionaries that I mentioned in an earlier post. They took us sight seeing and to TGIFridays for some American food (thanks again ladies-you made our day). It was such a blessing to get to see Quinton's birth city and to just break up the monotony of our everyday routine. Rita is from the Ukraine and her church here in this region provides a lot of humanitarian aid to the baby house, orphanage, and local hospital. She told us so much about the history of this country and how it became what it is today. We had a wonderful time. I wish I had thought to get a group shot of us all. Here are a few pictures from our outing today followed by a couple shots of Quinton.

 This is a place that overlooks the river where couples come when they get married.

 us in front of a fountain

 in a park with the circus behind us

 in the city with Jackie and Rita

 Quinton too busy REACHING FOR HIS MAMA to sit still and smile for a picture!

 Quinton and his lovely little hat that he would not leave on (we had to hide from the nannies because every child should wear a hat!)

 Quinton trying to rid himself of another hat!

 just being silly

 Quinton being thrown up tossed up gently in the air by his daddy ;)

 You can't see his sweet face in this one, but this little guy is bearing weight on his legs! This is the same little boy who could barely hold his head up a week ago! 

Well, that's all for now. I guess we will see what tomorrow brings! I know I say it all the time, but we love and miss you all and we can't wait to get home so you can come meet our little love bug!