'Cause

My son is super smart. Lately, when I ask Quinn "why?" he wants to do something or needs something, he replies with "cause". Silly boy. He smiles every time he says it. Today we are giving Quinn his very first bike. It's red, a Radio flyer and the cutest thing you've ever seen... that is, until I get to see Quinn on it. Ever since Matt bought himself a bike, Quinn has been aching for one and there's little he wants or verbalizes that we say no to.... I don't mean that he is spoiled, just that he doesn't require much:) The only thing Quinn asks for lately that we don't give him is the "Bear" movie or rather, Kung Fu Panda. After Quinn wacked me across the chest, kung fu style, we decided that film wasn't quite the influence we were looking for.

We've gotten into quite the poor habit of eating dinner on the couch. We do our best to get him to sit at his little table, but a habit has been formed. As we percolate whether or not to take him out of daycare, I have to remember that some of the lessons he is learning there are about consistency and rules. I am sure he eats his meals at a table and he takes naps at the same time every day-- on his own. He has been asking for Jo-Jo today so I assume that he likes it, despite some of the recent chaos with more kids. I don't want to pull him from his routine, but I also want to be sure I can feed him...

My son loves wearing pajamas lately. He has a new set of Handy Manny pajamas and a shark set. Tragically, his Handy Manny pants suffered a blow when nail polish spilled all over them last weekend. I was painting my nails in the bathroom and Quinn found me. He wanted his nails painted too so I obliged. Somehow, Quinn's hand knocked the open bottle and he ended up with a giant splotch of paint on his pants and the floor of the bathroom and Mom were speckled with paint. Naturally, we were at the very dregs of the remover so little attention was paid to this pants. What attention we did pay didn't change much about his pants, with the exception that the color bled through to his leg and he was adorned with a bright red spot. By the next day it had faded, but it was quite funny.

We just removed his nail polish today before our Easter visit to Le Sueur. :)

When Quinn requests a band aid on his foot he responds in the sweetest way. Say, he asks for the band-aid to be on his toe or on the bottom of his foot. From that point on, he walks in a way that keeps that spot from touching a ground, walking on the side of his foot or heal. He certainly knows how to accommodate his injuries!

Things Quinn likes to eat: yoplait yogurt (strawberry or straw vanilla, nutri grain vanilla yogurt bars, cheese sticks, fries, pizza, pasta, Crispix cereal, cookies, ice cream, chicken corn chowder...

Things Quinn likes to play with: Handy Manny toys, cars, shovel/bucket, tennis racket, golf club, baseball/balls, horsey

Books we've been reading lately: Go Dog Go, The Mighty Casey, Click Clack Moo, The Empty Pot, Curious George (and the toy store, at the zoo, 1 Fish 2 Fish

Songs we've been singing: ABC's, Ring Around the Rosey, Twinkle Twinkle, Wheels on the Bus, Itsy Bitsy Spider

I used the list format just now because I never feel I can do this blog justice because I am so incredibly in awe of every single thing Quinn does. I feel sometimes like the writing in the blog is dry, but if I were to speak poetically about it all, I'd be here reminiscing about a single smile for months:)

Meet You

My son knows that when you shake people's hands you say, "Nice to meet you" except that when he says it, it comes out, "Meet you". It's the very sweetest thing. He shakes your hand vigorously and makes eye contact with you. Brilliant boy. When he is looking for you, instead of "where are you?" it comes out, "Are you?" I love the substitutions or deletions in his vocabulary. We are still pulling things a great deal. We also are spending more time outside. The other day we spent time shoveling in the backyard and hammering the side of the house. We also kicked around the soccer ball. Quinn is also all about driving the car. Getting him into his seat after Jo-Jo's is quite the feat. He'd rather crawl into the front seat and drive himself. He knows where the lights are and the mirrors. Heck, he can even open his door on his own while sitting in his seat. I have to be really careful to lock it! This past weekend Quinn and I went to the Walker for the first time for the Family Free Saturday. We had some fun moments in the sculpture garden looking at the big spoon and horse sculpture. He also liked walking through the arboretum. Quinn loves to be tickled. Lately, I have taken to writing the alphabet in his back and he loves the tickles. I don't even need to touch his back, but reach around like I'm going to and say the letter and he starts giggling. Silly, wonderful kid. His swimming lessons seem to have taken root in his world. At bath times lately, he loves to lay down in the water and float. He'll kick or push back until his head hits the end of the tub. His ears are completely submerged and his smiling face peaks out at you and checks to make sure we're watching. Quinn's newest pretending game is that there is water all around the bed or room and he needs to stay on the couch or bed because the water is rising. Pretty darn imaginative. We're newly into Crispix.

Rosy

All thing are Rosy when it comes to life with Quinn. Quinn is singing up a storm lately and knows his ABC's, Twinkle Twinkle and the Itsy Bitsy spider. He might also know Three Little Fish, but it upsets him that the fish jump out of the water and he always wants them to jump back in:) For the past couple days, Quinn likes to pull Luke and I into a fabulous game of Ring around the rosy. I wish I didn't know that the song actually dealt with the black plague, but that's hardly something I'll teach Quinn. The first time Quinn did ring around the rosy was probably at Bobbi and Levi's wedding with Ethan and Ellie. It was quite cute and still is today. I don't know where it's coming from, but Quinn has taken to disciplining his toys. His horse and Curious George seem to absorbing the majority of his avarice. He will tell George that he is a bad boy and either hit him or throw him. The horse occasionally gets kicked and/or thrown. Jo-Jo's says he's not doing it there, so I don't know where he picked it up. I do hope it passes. For the past couple days, I've been writing the ABC's on Quinn's back and he loves both the words and the tickles. Sweet boy.

ABC's

Quinn and I sing out ABC's together on the way to Jo-Jo's. It's pretty fantastic. He's got nearly all of the letter down and joins in with me, and likes that he knows the words. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. I tried to introduce Quinny had a little lamb today, but maybe I should have stuck with Mary because he stared at me like I was from another planet:) Yesterday was an interesting testimony to routine. Because Luke had the day off, he and I dropped Quinn at Jo-Jo's together. The addition of Daddy on the trip was not a bonus and Quinn disliked that Dad was with us. Plus, when we're all in the car, Dad drives, but when we go to Jo-Jo's, Mommy drives. Quinn could hardly decide who he wanted to be driving. His schemas were all distorted. Then, when we picked him up he was even more distressed. Now, part of that had to do with his exhausting day and the school age big boys being there, but I think he also needed his normal time to be with Mom, nurse and debrief. Poor soul. He cried all the way home.

Speaking of the nursing and tears, both real and unshed. We have purchased a bed for Quinn. For one week, it was next to our bed in the room. That became tired quickly because the appeal of the bed- for me- was so close and the twin bed took some getting used to for my back. Plus, Quinn craves more and more room in a bed and the twin bed with me in it isn't a great fit. Still, Quinn doesn't want to sleep by himself so we're trying to mix things up. Now, for about a week, Quinn's bed has been in his room and he's been sleeping pretty much full time in there. I say pretty much because sometimes I crave the space and comfort of the big bed and so does he. On his first night in his room, he went down early and I snuck away. Then, Luke and I were able to chit chat and hang out in our room without Quinn. It was pretty surreal. One minute, I feel weary from nursing and ready for space of my own and in the next, I don't want to alarm Quinn and I'm ready to stick with it as long as he needs. And he does love it. Sometimes when he's nestled next to me or across my body, he is so perfectly happy and at ease, so completely trusting of me... it's difficult to describe. I did some more reading this weekend about weaning and they say to not refuse, but not to offer. They say to change the routine, but not to do so drastically so that nursing may be more desired because of the upsetting change. It's all wild. At the heart of it all, I love Quinn and I want to be here for him as best as I can, for as long as I can.

Rubber Duck

My son really likes Bert and Ernie. One of their Hulu video posts contains the Rubber Duck song and he and Dad were singing that together before bed tonight. Quinn also loves singing the ABC's with me now. He has sections that he is able to sing with me and he waits anxiously for those moments of unison. It's quite adorable and I'll have to record him singing. Tonight Quinn is sleeping with his Dad in the big bed. I suppose the main goal is for Quinn not to sleep next to me, so even though this means that I'll be sleeping in Quinn's Star Wars bed, I'll roll with it:) Tomorrow, our idea is to have me disappear in the evening and try a night without me. Perhaps Quinn heard about this plan and is taking it upon himself to control the terms of the arrangement. Or, maybe he knows that the big bed is much more comfortable than his own. Despite having already spent $100 on his mattress, I do think we're going to have to upgrade it, especially if I'm going to be spending additional time there.

Lately, our pajamas are "jamas". We were really into Kung Fu Panda for a bit and called that the Big Bear movie. But, we're removing that from the rotation now that he's swinging at people and impersonating battle scenes. We are also going to need to reign in the Star Wars. Poor stuffed George felt the pain of Quinn's remote light saber tonight. Earlier today, Quinn hit his stuffed George and when Grandma asked why, he told her that George had pushed him. OH my.

Have I mentioned that my son loves ice cream and that he calls it cream? Last week we went to Izzy's and enjoyed a scoop and then we were off to Choo-CHoo Bob's where we had a lovely time. This week we kept the post Jo-J's high jinks to a minimum and we also had a swimming free week. There's a two week break between sessions and so we'll have this coming week of spring break off as well.

I'd love to write that I'm going to spend oodles of extra time with Quinn this coming week while I'm off school but unfortunately, I'll be doing my capstone. In the end, it will mean a better financial life for the family and Quinn certainly needs us to have our feet under us. Another guy at Luke's work was laid off this week and it feels foreboding...

My Jamas

For the past week, Quinn has been a huge fan of his blue monkey pajamas. Now, normally, that might not be blog worthy, but this is a little boy who typically sleeps in his diaper, or in the clothes he was wearing during the day. He even chose to wear his pajamas to Jo-Jo's on Wednesday. But, with all quirky phases, they come to a surprising end:) Last night he would have nothing to do with his pajamas and was back to life in the buff.

This past week we graduated from swimming lessons, though we all know that participation is the key in these little kid classes. While he definitely made some swimming progress, he certainly didn't bond to the instructor, a sweet high school thing that thought he could try to do rockets, when mostly my son wanted to play with the ball. This week he discovered that he could touch the bottom of the pool with his feet in the shallow end and that was the end to swimming. All he wanted to do was test the waters, if you will, and walk about. Funny kid.

This week we got the Elmo goes Green video to preview. I haven't sad through a whole episode of it, but I need to soon so that I can write up my review. Ah, Paul Rudd. From Clueless in the 90's to Sesame Street today. Quite the professional leap:)

Objects floating around our house: Quinn has been making all sorts of use out of the cardboard from the IKEA beds we recently purchased. The long cardboard has been set up for a long slide for his cars, which was then swiftly crushed when Quinn tried to slide down. Fortunately, that didn't stop the fun. Then, we wanted to fold the cardboard back over us like a blanket. We've wrapped ourselves in it and tried to hide and we've used it for multiple fort-like shapes. You have to love and appreciate how playing with the least expensive thing in the house is the most fun.

Yesterday Luke and Quinn were off to Eagles Nest while I graded. They returned with bulgogi and one tired little boy. It was Wall-E day, but more than that, we played a lot of catch. Quinn is SO funny when he throws. He often ends up spinning completely around when he throws or tucks his head under. It's rare that he can look at you and throw at the same time. The ball sometimes ends up behind him or to the right or left. To his credit, he did a great job of catching:) In Matt's arms, he laughed and laughed when the little beach ball bonked Matt on the head. Even in Matt's arms, he still turns his head away when he throws.

In other Quinn news, my darling son likes to collect pennies and change now and again. His pockets will sometimes he heavy with the change. The other day Matt witnessed him putting pennies in his diaper because he didn't have any pockets. A penny stuck to his foot the other day and that also seemed a convenient travel spot so he was miffed when he couldn't get his foot to attach itself to the coin again (the air dried off his sweaty little foot). Funny, wonderful Quinn.

Fun times at home

Quinn is perched semi-precariously on his father's back, calling his Dad, "Horsey". Now, he's asking for Mommy to ride horsey. My son is wonderful. We just finished up a session of tickling. Quinn likes very much to be tickled, but also like to watch other people tickle one another, SO, it sometimes goes like this, "Mommy tickle Daddy" or vice versa. He will join in too, if he feels the urge. His tickling is the sweetest little movement that doesn't tickle at all, but instead is sweet and funny. He scrunches his hand together and lightly touches the other person. Gentle, loving Quinn.