Quinn has a new ride to carry him from place to place. After recent weeks of increasingly uncomfortable and potentially dangerous travel in the Honda Civic, we have purchased a used Honda Accord to take over family travel duties. The poor Civic has seen better times and unfortunately, none of those times are recent:) To be fair, the faithful car has been extremely low maintenance and trouble free. But for the terrible dents in the back, it has been reliable- if not aesthetically pleasing. When I brought the car in this summer for a small recall, they told me then that the struts would need to be replaced within 6 months. They were right. A hard winter of St. Paul roads filled with potholes aggravated a worn down car and broke down my resolve. So, yesterday Luke and I had an adult sort of day planned with Quinn in the care of his Nana and Papa and on his way to Le Sueur for a sleepover, so I applied for a loan through my bank, was approved and we set out for new horizons. Despite the appeal of Volkswagon Passats, my research revealed that that choice would be a mechanical risk and perhaps send us into repair heaven. We'd love the ride and feel pretty in it, but we'd spend oodles on repairs. The Honda Accord on the other hand had a great reliability record. Despite the long wait for final numbers and financing, the day was a success and Luke and I were delighted to drive home a new car. I drove the Civic behind Luke and naturally, went over a pothole that caused the back right tire to explore. So, now the car we hoped to become a trusty second vehicle at some point is sitting sadly in the driveway with the donut tire on it, requiring immediate service to be usable in any fashion- nice:)

Anywho, Luke and I had a marvelous dinner at Cafe Maude as a late Christmas celebration for ourselves and then we headed to a move at Southdale to complete our date day. Today we're going to check out a splendidly reviewed breakfast place in the Twin Cities before heading down to see our gorgeous little boy, see our tiny niece and visit some with his family. For the first time in ages, I don't have to have a lesson plan for tomorrow because my student teacher takes over. Wild. It's going to be very odd to NOT be in charge in my classroom, but this was one of the features of taking on a cooperating teacher that I knew would be sweet. I'll observe him and certainly feel the pangs of separation from the kids, but I'll also be able to plan for the maternity leave and get things situated for the sub to be.

Quinn was a darling boy yesterday as we met his grandparents at IKEA for the hand-off. He insisted on wearing his new Darth Vader shirt and ate a great lunch there. He held hands with his Papa and was patient about waiting for Papa while the car seat was moved in and such. Luke and I marveled yesterday that it is very fun to watch Quinn's long term memory evolve and he holds on to events so well lately. He spoke of fishing with Nana and Papa last summer over lunch together:) Most things are referenced as "last morning" as opposed to yesterday or last summer, but he's working on it. We had a pretty good week working on the potty changing thing. We started big with Star Wars incentives and learned we had to back off our grand plan a little. But, he doesn't mind his new toilet seat and has used it a few times now without too much stress. Quinn has been a snuggling darling lately, though I suppose that's not new for him. The other night he wanted to cuddle, but was slightly awake and as is one of his favorite pasttimes, he rubs the skin on my elbow when its relaxed. Something about the wrinkled skin and funny texture entertains him. He's taken to giving Luke gentle bites on the ear when Luke changes his diaper. Funny.

We had a prenatal appt. on Friday and she's measuring right on schedule, which is lovely news. We have an ultrasound next Monday and it will be good to see her weight and more detailed progress. This week we'll sign up for baby classes for the next couple of months. We're also trying to get Quinn into the Learn to Swim program through the U. Dad's class recommended it over community ed so it's worth a shot.

Next weekend is Quinn's second pal birthday party at Edinborough Park for his bff McCall;) It should be very fun to attend.

Turns out that one thing that raises my blood pressure is the stress of my mother:) She was trying to tackle a little too much this past Friday in terms of errands before getting Quinn at school and it has me frazzled and annoyed, even a I realize that I try to cram too much into short periods of time myself. Anywho, after my annoyance, my blood pressure was taken and the top number was at least 20 points higher than the previous day when I was in for my sinus infection. Interesting the affect that stress has on your body. All in all, Quinn loves his time with his Grandma and Luke and I love the time we have together because she watches him every Friday afternoon/evening. But, she's aging and slowing down and that causes us some anxiety about her facilitating Quinn's care. We need to step up and set parameters that allow her to be more successful and not over-do it.

Quinn is the happy new owner of a green light saber, a tribute to Ahsoka from the Clone Wars. We havent' had Phineus and FErb or really any other programming on in the house lately except for Clone Wars cartoons. We've been good lately about his tv watching. He was a sucker for G-Force for the week after he was given that movie at Valentine's Day, but he's passed on the guinea pigs for now- thank goodness. So, storm troopers rule his little world and apparently, even though we "seem" to have a dozen of them, they're clone and rebel and odd other branches of the Star Wars armed forces. Who knows what that even means:) Oh wait, Luke does.

Luke and I are on a nice roll with learning new card games and making time for quiet us time in each day. We learned Canasta on Friday and though we haven't been able to play it since, I think it will be a nice progressive game. We also picked up a car card game too which is pretty entertaining. There's a relaxation to playing and a calm to it.

Quinn loves the Snowman book and it quite excellent at narrating it himself. I find it incredibly hard to improv narration with only pictures present and Quinn knows that Daddy tells that story, as opposed to me. I don't know why I find it to difficult to do, but I look at the pictures and just want someone else to have the words there for me:)

Alright, I'll try to head back to sleep since this is a kid free morning:) Loving and missing Quinn, but hope he's having a terrific adventure with his grandparents.