12/24 Christmas eve we spent most of today getting ready to go to the coast to stay in the yurt! Daddy was hidden away in his workshop for a good part of the day, too, so quinn and mommy played and napped and things like that.
12/25 Christmas day
We did christmas at home before we left for the coast. The first present Quinn opened was a rubber ducky that Grampy sent him. He could have played with it forever,
he was not really ready to open the rest of the gazillion presents. i gave him a cute little raccoon finger puppet in his stocking, too, and he played with the two of them…. the raccoon and the duck, lying sideways on my lap in milk coma. I love when he is just content like that. he got some toys from relatives, including a guitar that makes animal sounds and electric guitar riffs, those plastic stackable donut rings, etc. Grammy also sent some great presents; a little zip up barn thing with animals inside, some new homemade bibs, a few books. he also got books from aunt michele. (books are my favorite present for him now because i have to read a half dozen of them every night, and i like to have some variety.) there’s a great one called HUG that and the belly button book. One of the best presents were homemade blocks from daddy.
it snowed in portland before we left. we finally left around 3 to head for the coast. we drove over the coast range in the snow. we checked into our yurt at 6. we opened the yurt and WARM AIR came out. it was already heated. we didn’t even have to turn on the heat. so we brought in our sleeping bags and food and then looked at each other like, that’s it? that’s all we have to do? no tent to set up, nothing. we walked down to the beach to say hi briefly but it was COLD so we came back to our WARM yurt!
12/26 waking up in the yurt, quinn was in awe of the dome skylight. He kept pointing up at it and using lots of vowel sounds- aaaoooouuuuu, ooohhhhhh, wowoooooh… we woke up and i made us breakfast, (i cooked on the porch so it wouldn’t stink like bacon and eggs in our yurt.) and we snuggled on the bed some more and quinn rolled around on us (he is getting long and lean but also more rolly poly in terms of playing- he is so much fun, we were using “rolly pole” as action verb quite a bit, hehe). quinn played HARD the whole time. he is starting to cruise around furniture standing up, so he is amazing. and he would get over to the table where everything “interesting” was hiding from him, and he would pull himself up with his FINGERS to see over the edge of the table. he literally almost lifted himself off the ground that way, his toes were barely touching. we brought some of his new toys but not the electric guitar. we went out later on to see if we could take a walk on the beach, but the tide was pretty high. there was a strip of rocks and no sand to walk on, and for me it was too close to the dunes to be comfortable walking because the waves were really angry looking. i could just see us getting swallowed by a rogue tsunami.
then dada got impatient so quinn and i went back home and dada went walking. by the time i got to the yurt quinn was asleep and i put him on the bed and went to turn on my phone because i was worrying about dada. as i turned it on, it rang but i accidentally closed it so it hung up. So then i called dada back and he said “I’M SORRY I GOT ANGRY.” come to find out, he had been walking along and a rogue wave DID come up and get him, and he scurried up the dune about 4 feet but it STILL came up to his waist…. two waves in a row, and he couldn’t move, and the dune was melting around him…. he decided to come back then. then he found a wilson football (did anyone ever see castaway with tom hanks? WILSON!!!!) dada was upset with himself for being angry with me the “last thing i ever did” we played on the bed while dada’s clothes dried and then we played some more. and we went out later to try to walk again but the beach was still too narrow so we decided to get up and try first thing in the morning.
12/27 we did wake up and head for the beach, and we were able to walk since it was low tide. some waves would STILL come way up the beach, but at least there was more room to scurry out of the way and i felt ok having my baby there. quinn fell asleep in the sling and i had the raincoat up around his head for the wind, and dada and i put the rubber duck in the water and took a picture of it. then we came back and had to pack up and go. 🙁 it was too short. on the way home we had to backtrack once because the road we would normally take home had trucks jackknifed on it, and then the other road we took had an accident that made us wait for an hour in a HUGE long line of cars in the snow. and THEN this branch fell on the power line about 10 cars behind us, and it was far enough off the road not to matter much but there was this buzzing sound and bright flashing sparks and a fire on the power line for like oh 20 minutes. it eventually went out when the branch fell on the ground… but geez! quinn was a champ… this time the trip was 5 hours and he slept twice, and he got his diaper changed the 2 times we stopped and the poor baby had to be stuck in his seat the entire time, and he did GREAT. I played with him and read to him and sang this land is your land to him…. and yeah he complained now and then, but he didn’t really carry on like i think many a baby would…. so he is my hero. then we got home and got warmer and quinn fell asleep on my lap on the couch.
12/28 daddy had to go to work today, so quinn and mommy just hung out around the house and settled back into normal routine. Quinn napped quite a bit, he seems to be craving sleep lately. We took some walks (to go get photos developed!) and played with some of the new toys.
12/29 saturday! Another normal day. (everything seems so “normal” after you live in a yurt for 3 days!) Quinn took a ride with dad to the hardware store in the evening, so mommy could take a bath. But when they got home, mommy was still taking a bath, so Quinn got to take a bath, too! Nursing in the bathtub is so much fun. Quinn has been trying to put things through the “donuts” (those plastic colored rings from his new toy) like a block, and a wrapper from a granola bar. It requires some pretty fancy fine motor skills, though the square block still wouldn’t go through the round hole. Hehe.
a lactivist with a camera timer is a dangerous thing!
12/30 anticipating pages in books- smiling in advance. We spent all day at home, one walk but it almost snowed on us and we made it home just in the nick of time.
12/31 Quinn and I had a mellow new years’ eve, in the bathtub, while dad was out running the monitors for the Everyone Orchestra at the Wonder Ballroom. Quinn fell asleep before midnight (ha) and I laid down to go to sleep listening to the fireworks and cheers in the neighborhood right at midnight.
(eek! more lactivism!)
1/1 Happy new year! Quinn’s 6th tooth has arrived! His lower right second incisor has cut through, and I discovered it this evening. I am guessing he will get a few- there are several others that look close to erupting, and last time he got a crop of 5 all at once. It was interesting to me that there wasn’t much distress at all, no fevers or loss of sleep, so he must have done all the hard work the last few times when there was nothing to show for it in terms of new teeth.
Other reflections as the year turns over… I have been thinking there were a few milestones that kind of got left by the wayside as Quinn started pulling up to stand. But then I realized, all of these seemed to click into place around the same time: He now can crawl on his knees, which for a long time (and still sometimes) was not his style; he also can now get into sitting position no matter what position he starts in, whereas before, I usually helped him to sit. I noticed right around the time he started pulling up to kneeling that he was also working very hard, especially in bed, to sit up using his little abdominal muscles, and sometimes he would almost make it. Now he does it with ease, and knows how to use his arms and lean a certain way to help himself up, and can do it anywhere, hardwood floor included. Finally, he now kneels anywhere he wants as well, which seemed to come along with him standing up, and the same thing happened, where he practiced it in bed first, (in the middle of nursing usually, he would just jump up to his knees and dance, then resume nursing), and now I see him do it wherever he is, regardless of having anything to pull up on. Something seems to have kicked in, almost like he went from being 2 dimensional floor baby to 3 dimensional baby who can do EVERYTHING now.
Another fun thing I wanted to mention about reading with him, is that he likes to choose which book we read. I was always told that one gives infants a choice between no more than 2 things, or they get overwhelmed by the choices. But Quinn took it upon himself to start crawling across my lap when i finish a book, and picking the next one he wants to read out of the stack at the end of the couch. He is a young man who knows what he wants. He very seldom picks one that we have already read, in spite of there being only 20 or so to select from. If he does pick a repeat, he will stop me from reading it about 2 or 3 pages in, and close the book and toss it aside to go get a new one. This is something he doesn’t do if it’s one we haven’t yet read- he listens through whole books, almost every time. It is really amusing to watch him do this routine, and after a dozen books, I start to wonder how he can possibly like to listen to my voice this much?
1/2 we went to the lab today, and it felt a little rusty after not being there for almost 2 weeks.
1/3 today we were at home, but we took 2 walks. The second one was to the library up the street, where we got out 7 more books for quinn and one for mommy. Quinn is really proud when he holds two things in one hand these days (cds, books, blocks, tea bags, anything really). It is really cute to watch him work on it, and then look up all happy at one of us. He also has started hitting two blocks together to make music.
1/4 we went to susan’s today, and the 2 moms and 3 kids went for a big walk. The boys then played together for a while back at their apartment. In the evening, quinn got very involved with trying to put the cap on an empty baby food jar. He spent a LONG time working at it, and when he would get the cap on, he would get very excited and of course, we praised him for being a genius. Then he would take it off and do it all again. Very diligent with practicing things- he is a very determined little person.
1/5 saturday, and we did some errands this morning while daddy slept in. i turned quinn’s car seat around to face forward. (those laws are SO confusing and someone really needs to rewrite them! I am still not sure if he is supposed to be facing the rear because he’s not a year old yet, or if he needed to be facing forward 6 months ago because he cleared 20 pounds?!?! i split the difference, since his legs now have to bend to fit in it facing the rear, and he is ready to see things- AND he looks to most people like a 2 and a half year old.)
1/6 mama went to yoga class today all by herself. Of course it kicked her butt since it has been so long. But it sure felt good. And i had a wonderful welcome home committee. quinn had a burst of energy before bed… he started playing a new game with the blocks, where he would pass the cylinder (his favorite shape so far) to mommy and wait for mommy to pass it back. It was pretty interesting, because i had never done this with him, although maybe he was extrapolating from rolling the ball together. We both were giggling like crazy. Then i walked into the room as he was stacking one block on another. Yay! Up until now he has been the great demolisher, so this was fun for me to see. He did it again just so mommy could take a picture.
1/7 i made stroganoff in my crock pot and quinn was supposed to be eating something else, but he begged me to taste what i was having. It was made with all organic/natural stuff (turkey burger instead of beef, organic mushroom soup, etc.) so i felt ok letting him taste it- he LOVED it. Good old comfort food.
1/9 today we were home, so we dried a bunch of pears in the food dehydrator, made bread, and went for walks.
1/11 we went to susan’s today, where quinn “ate” cold pasta on floor with ro. We also went for a long walk. Quinn is identifying balls wherever we go now. He has his own two balls, a soccer and a tennis ball. At Susan’s he identified their plush soccer ball, and on the bus, he saw a guy holding a basketball under one arm and pointed it right out and said “ball!” (sounds a lot like “baw”). At home, he also points to various things, like the buttons on dad’s shirt, and calls them balls. His upper right 2nd incisor (tooth #7) made its appearance today!
1/13 last night was an all night nurse-a-thon; we haven’t had one of those in a while, so i guess we were due. Maybe it has to do with the teething that is going on, or maybe a growth spurt, or just something. This morning Quinn and i went to new seasons, to get some yummy food. Then i got to go to another yoga class (so far so good on my “go to yoga once a week” new years resolution!)
1/14 Quinn has been using a lot of new “words” lately when he is babbling. But it took me a while to figure out that one of them is a word he learned from Mr. Kitty. weow! He has been saying a lot of W’s (we-ew-we-ew-we-ew etc.) Which i wonder sometimes if they are really L’s and R’s in baby speak. In this case, I think it’s an R, because that is how kitty usually sounds- REOW! And anyone who has met her knows she talks enough to have an influence on a small child. I just hadn’t thought of it, but at one point today, I was holding Quinn and he pointed at the table where a bag of pretzels was laying and said “weow! Weow! Weow!” and all of a sudden it clicked. He sees her begging to be fed all the time, and here he was, wanting his favorite snack. I swear, you can’t make this stuff up!
Quinn is always making up new games with his toys lately. Tonight he noticed that his tennis ball fits perfectly in the little plastic green donut. He thought that was awesome. And so did I, of course.
Tonight we heard his first claps! He started clapping when I read the first page of goodnight gorilla (by far his favorite book) and he kept doing it on every page. (Of course he was being praised profusely.) it really is the cutest thing in the world. He holds his left hand still while he moves his right hand back and forth. He’ll also clap my hands by holding onto the thumbs or the outsides of my hands, and now he’ll clap his right hand on my left hand. So much fun.
1/15 lots more claps today, as we took our show on the road to go to the lab. Quinn seems to be over his shy phase (which lasted all of a about a month) and now asks to be held by Deb- today he gave her four hugs in a row when he saw her. I think attachment parenting really does work. I never had anyone babysit for him or even hold him very often during that phase when everyone said I should (basically, before 9 months when they get shy). But Quinn is just so comfortable in his own skin (hopefully some of which can be attributed to his mommy being there for him) and he now initiates going to be with other people all by himself. I think it would be different if I had forced that on him before he was ready. It seems to be the case with daddy, too- he and dad are getting to be best buds these days.
1/16 woke up at 3am to quinn clapping (*grin*). we went to indoor park with susan, gryph and ro today. Quinn had a great time there, crawling after balls, riding in the wagon (pulled by mommy and then by gryphon), and eating all of the snacks that susan brought. (little beggar.) the sun came out after we had walked all that way, so we went back out for another walk, this time to get more library books (and return some). We got another sandra boynton book (i swear the woman is a genius) called blue hat, green hat, and quinn giggled hilariously while we read it for bedtime (three times in a row.)
1/17 Quinn was standing up without support tonight briefly. He was pulled up on the firewood rack, with dad close behind him, and he wanted to reach out and grab what was on top of the speaker nearby. He took his hands off the rack briefly, four different times, and had no problem balancing! It literally took my breath away.
1/18 This evening was bowling night for Hammer and Hand, (dada’s company) so we all went bowling. Quinn was in complete awe of the number of balls, racks and racks of them, that he got to see. It is one of maybe 5 words that he knows, so he took advantage of the occasion to point at every single one he saw and exclaim “BALL!!!” each time.
1/19 The new game of the day was putting blocks “in” my lap. I was sitting cross-legged on the floor with Quinn and he decided instead of putting the blocks into their box, he would put them in my lap. It was very funny to watch him put them in, then reach in to try to grab them back out again. I often wish I could be privy to what is going on in his head when he makes these little decisions, which blocks to take out and which to put in, and what game he is thinking up next!
1/20 Mom got to go to yoga again!
1/21 We went for a walk with dena and bodhi this afternoon. Bodhi is SO big! He is saying lots of words now, including putting two words together. He is very outgoing, and played with lots of quinn’s toys until Quinn woke up, and also was very interested in the cat. When she jumped down from a chair, he got scared and crawled up into my arms quickly! It was very cute, and made me think he must remember how I smell or something, from when I used to watch him when I was still pregnant with Quinn and he was a tiny baby. During the walk, Quinn rode in the sling, and Bodhi started out walking but ended up napping in his Ergo on the way home. Dena is one strong mama to still be carrying that boy that far!
1/22 Quinn started coughing this morning, and had a long bout of it that he couldn’t seem to shake. Eventually we went to the lab- he was very social, going to deb on his own initiative, etc. In the evening he was crawling a LOT around the living room/dining room and into the kitchen, and at one point i stayed where I was in the living room and called to him and as he was crawling away it sounded like this: “quinn-mom-quinn-mom-quinn-mom”. It was pretty cute that he was acknowledging me even though he was not going to disrupt his travel plans for me.
1/23 11 MONTHS!!!
Quinn was still not feeling great, but we went to OMSI with susan and he ended up having a great time- balls and more balls, pulling pegs out of a foam rubber thingie, watching a fish tank at ground level where he could crawl right up to it.
He is saying more words than ever, so I’ll try to remember them all here- mom-mom, da-da, ball (bawww), bear (beaw), cat (tuh!), hot (also tuh! but specific to the fireplace and coffee cups), pluh! (not sure if this means anything specific yet- sometimes he’ll say it in response to things like apple and i wonder if it is therefore food related; it may also be his word for yucky, as in spitting out food, meh= milk, duck (duh!).
He has fun sticking out his tongue at us, and getting us to do it, or doing it when we are to mimic us- he also has been mimicking our speech, motions (shaking head) etc.
He has been crawling a lot- he did laps tonight between the fireplace and catfood area… but came racing back to the fireplace to knock down any tower mommy built while he was around the corner investigating the cat food (heheheh that way mommy didn’t actually have to get up or say no!).
His 8th and final incisor came in today. It is not tooth #8, however, because he has also pushed through his first molar- it happened a few days ago (not sure which day, I didn’t catch it when it first came through!). It’s the molar on the upper right side. Ouch! So the tooth tally is up to 9….
mama notes – when breastfeeding, quinn likes to climb on me to get to the other breast. Often he will end up falling asleep that way at night, and it is so cute and snuggly i can’t help but let him. He transitions from there into the bed just fine most nights. He is eating roughly twice a day solid foods now, and loving to feed himself. I have offered him food at other times of day, and he seems most happy with about 2pm and 6pm. Basically after his nap, and then an early (earlier than mine) dinner. Sometimes he’ll have a few bites of bread in the morning when i have my sandwich.
Leave a Reply