quinn’s nineteenth month ~ happy kin, my enthusiasm and gratitude teacher

Posted on September 23, 2008 by marybethrew

8/24

grammy, grampy, quinn and i went to seal rock state park beach in the morning. the weather was beautiful. lots of pelicans were perched on the rocks, and quinn is learning the word “seagull”. we went at the right time, because then it rained in the afternoon. we went to the apple peddler to celebrate quinn’s half birthday with apple dumplings and ice cream. quinn thoroughly enjoyed eating the ice cubes from his water glass, and stacking up the empty creamers from g and g’s coffee and tea. he was a little wound up when we got home, and played with grampy for a while, getting “stuck” between g’s feet, and bounced around on his leg. he would break away giggling, then say “funny” and then go closer again to play some more. the funniest part is that he waits until he is all finished laughing and is serious, before stating “funny.” it had us in stitches! we ate salmon chowder for dinner, with fresh corn from the farmers market in it. quinn has expressed his genetic predisposition (from me) for putting his empty food bowl on his head and declaring “hat!”

8/25

mama had to go to work today, but quinn had a great day with g and g, whose names are also: “bumpy, bampy, dampy, dunty” (grampy) and “om” (grammy). quinn helped g and g go to the store, and also went to the beach, where he put his sand bucket on his head, also as a hat. om said he just looked around when they arrived at the beach, taking it all in, then smiled and announced: “happy.” at bathtime, i got him to walk to the bathroom on his own by miming bubble-blowing, which he copied me doing as he willingly came to have a bath. the way he blows is so cute- for bubbles, or for when his food is hot- it is just such a sweet thing.

8/26

this morning quinn woke up with me (he has been sleeping much better the last few days!) before i left for work, we played a jumping game in the dining room. one of us would jump (he without his feet leaving the ground so far, but very vigorously crouching down and popping back up) and he would say “jump!”and laugh and giggle… then calm down and say “funny.” he gets downright serious when he tells me “funny.” gets me laughing again every time! before i left, i changed his diaper and when i laid him on the bed he yawned and i said “yawn” and he said it back to me several more times. he went to ona beach with g and g today (g carried him while q played with his beard) and learned to say “ona”. he also said “buckle” while studying grampy’s belt buckle, and “welcome” closely associated with “thank you” which has been very popular. i sang him “twinkle twinkle” later in the evening and he started singing “thank you thank you” after i was done (and after he applauded for me- aww.) it is so much fun to hear his voice become more sing-songy all the time. he seems to really have noticed how to give his voice different tones and inflections and it is really fun to listen to him experimenting with that.

8/27

quinn took grammy and grampy to the oregon coast aquarium today! he said some new words- “sea lion” and “jelly fish”. by all reports, he was fascinated by the fish- exclaiming “fishy! fishy!” while he watched them swimming. he napped on grampy in the sling and during the ride home, but only for a half hour, so he took another nap when i got home from work and did not fall asleep until around 10 while i walked him around the neighborhood, chatting with susan on the phone.

8/28

tonight’s new word: “dinner.” today g and g and q went to the library to return quinn’s library books. they were going to go to story hour but the storyteller was on vacation, so g and g read stories instead. they played outside a lot. grammy made chicken divan for dinner and quinn preferentially ate the pieces of broccoli- and i think he said “broccoli” too but his mouth was full so i wasn’t sure.

8/29

friday today and a three day weekend ahead! quinn said “watch” and “diaper” for g and g today. he ate grammy’s scrambled eggs with cheese. after work, we brought a picnic to ona beach. quinn announced “ona!” all the way there in the car. it does my heart good to know he’ll grow up knowing his beaches on a first name basis. we ate sandwiches and chips, but q was too excited to really eat. as we walked back from the water’s edge to our picnic blanket, he held grammy’s and my hands, and did “jump” between us. “jump” and “round and round” are big favorites right now. it started to rain lightly so we packed up, and quinn announced “raining!” as we walked back to the car. later in the evening he said “building” while we made mega block towers, and he also said “milk” for the first time!

8/30

farmers market and a garage sale this morning. quinn is getting really good at naming parts of faces- “eye!” is still his favorite. he also says (and points to): “nose”, “mouth” (moup!) “chin” “cheeks” and “ears” (eew). he has fun with the dollhouse, and really likes saying “chair” and putting “people” in “chairs” he also puts them in bed, and tonight i heard him say “sleeping” for the first time. i also noticed him walking backwards around the living room a little bit. we ate dinner out, and he devoured french fries and fresh fruit and scrambled eggs and ice cubes and had a marvelous time.

8/31

new today: “ shark, broom, gentle, bring, piano, star.” he said “star” while looking at his scrapbook with me (his 1^st year book is almost done! 2 pages to go!) he looked at the pictures for quite a while, commenting on who was in them, and what they were doing, and other objects he saw (guitar! hat! etc.) later in the day i also showed him pictures of talan again, and he was upset i didn’t let him hold them, saying “my baby.” (awwwwwwwwwwww…) at the beach today (nye) he had a good time walking between g and g. at the end of the day he went to the door declaring “outside! ride!” and making his car sound (from “let’s go riding in the car” by woody guthrie). but we went out in the yard and planted our peach/plum/avocado/olive pits that we’ve been collecting (it amazes me how innate it is to push a seed down into the dirt and give it water!) and then took a walk with the sling to fall asleep.

9/1

labor day. this morning we went to breakfast at cafe stephanie in nye beach, which was super yummy. quinn had yogurt and fresh fruit, but was more interested in the two little stainless steel pitchers that held the cream for the coffee. we walked down to the beach after our meal and did lots of the “jump” game and generally revolved around quinn’s exuberant joy of just being. he is so into what he does… when at the beach, he does it to the fullest- then when he’s ready to go, it’s “bye bye water, see you” and off we go to get really into the next part of our day. he is teaching me a lot about enthusiasm and joy and how to “be here now.” he also has given me a new appreciation for simple things like “thank you.” just the amazing expressiveness of his “teants youuu” including whole body movement doing the sign for thank you (almost blowing a kiss) makes it so meaningful to receive one from him, and makes me want to (i know, this is so cliche) be a better person and work on my own manners.

it is hard to have the 3 day weekend be over. new words: “yup.” while playing with dollhouse: “blanket”, “table” and “night night.” in the car: “seat” and “snap,” for which he has made up his own sign- two fists together, like when you snap his seat belt. “snap” sounds like “nyap.” while reading “the pigeon loves things that go”: “airplane” (he opens to that page to bring it over to be read, saying “eewplen!”) today he also said “bus” “train” and “hot dog” from the pigeon book. food related recent words: “spoon” (poon) “peach” “eggs” (eddies), and “avocado” (ado). he brought a peach to grammy today and said “om-dammy eat peach?” his words for g and g evolve daily. “wash” (pointing to the dishwasher). in the garage: “screwdriver” (sounds like cereal) and “pliars”.

after beach time, we went for a hike at the mike miller educational trail in south beach- it goes through some old growth sitka spruce forest. we saw a salamander (“sal-mon”) some snakes, a moth (“fa-fly”) and lots of trees (“tee!” with accompanying sign and accompanying exuberance over the size of the trees.)

quinn had a nap during the hike, and another one in the late afternoon, and it took him a full hour to fall asleep at bedtime, including many renditions of “twinkle twinkle” from mama (his requests: “how i”) followed by applause from him, intermittent nursing and standing straight up in bed, then laying across mama, eye-nose-moup practice, etc. he even giggled in his sleep before i finally escaped back out here to the kitchen to write all of this down…

9/2

back to work and daycare today, but quinn came home at lunchtime with g and g. the morning drop-off was chaotic, 5 kids showed up at once and quinn seemed a bit overwhelmed when i left and apparently still seemed out of it mid-morning when i called to let them know he is done having a bottle/sippy of milk during the day (so they didn’t think i just forgot it). new word of the day- “sunny.” he is a big fan of peekaboo right now, and says “pee-boo!” very well now too.

9/3

another morning at becky’s and afternoon with g and g. he is saying his name more and more, and often it follows the word “happy”. he will look around (e.g. when he gets home from daycare, or gets to the beach, or starts nursing after a long day) and pronounce himself “happy kin”. it is interesting to me that some words seem tied together. he often says “uh-oh, bee-bee (baby)” together. “jump…funny” is another example. but i would definitely put “happy kin” at the top of my life of favorites!

9/4

words words words… picture, dinner, kiss, fingers, glasses, big, helmet… g and g left when i got home from work (they watched quinn all day because becky is not feeling well after her knee surgery. they went to library story hour and the beach). quinn gave g and g hugs and told them “bye bye” and gave them kisses, announcing “tiss!” after each one.

9/5

when Quinn is talking on any of his several phones (old ones of mine, or his blocks or other toys which he “converts” via imagination) he often speaks to a certain “bunny.” this is intriguing to me, and i would love to know what he is picturing during this kind of play. we ate crab cioppino for dinner, made with some canned crab caught by daddy and sent especially for quinn. it was yummy! at bedtime, we took a walk with the sling, and quinn kept looking up and pointing out the moon to me (sometimes he says “moon,” other times “myune” hehe) he also clearly saw a few especially bright stars, and pointed those out to me too (“sar”). then he’d say “bye bye moon” and snuggle back into the sling.

9/6

at the farmers market we met trina and noah (quinn now says “noah”) and for a while we sat chatting, snacking on strawberries and apricots and bunnies, but after a while q decided to wander a bit. he kept being drawn to the musicians (violin and guitar) who play every week. i caught up with him when he’d stop to dance. he was doing a great slow dance to a mournful/gypsy-sounding tune, doing slow dips with his knees, and matching arm movements. i love the way he dances! at home he kept bringing me the guitar and he’d dance when i’d play a song (leavin on a jet plane, in honor of g and g on an “earplen” and of course, twinkle twinkle). later in the backyard quinn did some drumming with sticks on an overturned bucket (“dommo,” i finally deciphered to mean drummer, and now he also says “drumming.”) we did some weeding and he helped me “dump it” when the weed bucket needed “dumping” on the compost pile. and the musical finale of the day was a trip to cafe mundo to hear the all star high school jazz band. kym is involved in the “jazz at newport” festival, and these kids were staying at her house so she advertised their gig to us- i would have loved for quinn to hear more music but couldn’t justify paying a lot in case he was not into it/disruptive/etc. so this was perfect- he danced on my lap. these kids were impressive. tenor sax, trumpet, piano, upright bass (he was the best), and drums. very talented musicians, i was glad we went!

in the words department, quinn now says “hello” (hew wow) to himself in the mirror. words that he has been saying for a while are becoming more and more clear: open, help, pillow, etc.

9/7

this morning we went to ona beach, braving the fog and being rewarded, when the fog lifted, by having the whole beach to ourselves! (yay for after labor day!) we laughed and stuck sticks upright in the sand, fed each other bunnies, saw 3 real bunnies, and had a great time. Q almost fell asleep on the ride home, then looked like he would fall asleep in his yogurt/broccoli/beans at lunch.

walrus, flipper, careful, soft.

9/8

words: walking, shadow, camel, welcome, jacket, taste

9/9

words: broken, chicken, bowl, puzzle, yogurt (yo-burp)

9/10

no nap at daycare today so napped from 5:30-7 then got up for long enough to eat yo-burp and cheerios for dinner, only to fall asleep again shortly thereafter in the sling. we arrived at the beach just in time for sunset, but Q didn’t get to see it because he was already snoozing!

9/11

words: honey, swimming, tomato (mato), sling (sing)

9/12

words: heavy, whoa, wow (these have come up before today but i’ve forgotten to write them down), mop, sweeping, loud, bed, glasses.

i bit down on a grain of sand while we were lying on the bed and i told quinn it jangled me. he laughed hysterically and repeated “jangle!” over and over, then succumbed to hiccups so we started saying “hiccup!” instead. later in the garage, he studied my roller blades for a while. after a lot of careful thought, he pronounced them “shoes!” just before bed, he got startled by kitty jumping down from her food dish, and cried. we talked it through, and then was fine, saying, “kitty… jump!”

9/13

“min! min!” quinn’s request for a vitamin. (they are gummi bear vitamins, hence his enthusiasm.) we spent the first half of the day with trina and noah, playing on the beach, playing with playdough (a new word) and making (and eating) pizza for lunch. the boys ate their fill of huckleberries and raspberries, got good and sandy, and were videotaped performing their first rock concert (noah swaying, quinn spinning in circles, both holding guitars.) quinn says “noah” very well now, and trina sounds a lot like dena. he told us “noah shoes” when trina was helping noah put on his shoes. other new words include markers, floor, one, want and no! no is new today; want is an older one but very popular today.

9/14

words: arm, bagel, sandwich, dough (watching me knead bread dough.)

while the freezer was open, quinn pointed to the bags of frozen milk and told me “baby,” because he knows the milk in there is for baby ariana, and when i said “ariana” he told me “ana!” he seems perfectly happy to donate some of his milk, as long as it’s to a “bee-bee!”

the sudden appearance of “no” in the vocabulary is of course interesting. with it seems to have come a certain amount of attitude- i have a hard time not laughing when he says it, due to the tone of voice and pouty face. it is ever so brief, then he is back to smiling and going along with whatever suggestion i made that he declined…

9/15

practicing a lot of names- first at daycare he pointed at robert- “wobewt!” he now says garbage (garbo) and yucky (yutty) which i believe he picked up at daycare because i hardly ever refer to things as yucky. food on the floor? not yucky, still yummy. messy/dirty face? not yucky, just messy. we got a little messy faced eating blackberries off the bushes in our yard at dusk just before bedtime! we got about a quart, but quinn ate a good few handfuls of that.

9/16

more blackberries (ba-ba) tonight, though not many ripened today in all the fog. then we went to bilingual story hour at the library and learned our colors en espanol! quinn is very good at purple and yellow (in english), and tonight was working on “geen” and “boo” as well. he helped me crack eggs for dinner like a pro!

9/17

quinn told me “fire” when i turned on the gas heater tonight (it’s fall… :() then informed me: “hot!” he did lots of splashing, and saying “splash” in the bathtub tonight as he poured cups full of water on his face. (he says “cup” too.) other words of late- “dip”, as in dip cheddar bunny crackers in toby’s tofu pate, “fix it”, “giraffe,” “monkey,” and “horse-neigh! neigh!” have i already mentioned “fingers” “toes” etc from the toes ears and nose book?

9/18

annie’s mac and cheese for dinner because it was quick, and left us enough time on this rare still evening to walk to the beach for sunset! “set” is the new word today. quinn fell asleep on the walk home in the sling. i’m glad he still likes to do that! i have heard of lots of toddlers who give up babywearing once they can toddle but this toddler seems to really take a lot of comfort from snuggling up to mama.

9/19

nuts friend lauren taryn aidan bus round light on off go

9/20

met up with trina and noah at the farmers market- “noah! noah!” quinn exclaimed as we left the house. after we were full of produce we all came back to our house to play and eat lunch. the boys seem to have a great time- lots of parallel play but also lots of things were done together- we couldn’t tear the two of them away from the piano to eat lunch. quinn brought me a set of knitting needles i’d accidentally left out, and handed them to me saying “sharp” as in, mama put these away, they’re not safe, silly! he said bamboo (boo, a good start) today. also when noah left he asked a few times, “noah go? noah go?” as in, where did noah go? “home” is another word of the day.

9/21

today i told quinn “i love you” and he replied “yub-oo!” mama melted into a puddle on the floor. lots of chores today- bread baking, canning tomato sauce, strawberry jam and peach jam, making yoburp, etc. first thing this morning quinn was asking the whereabouts of people and animals: “becky go? noah go? kitty go?” we got to spend a half hour on the beach before dinner time- yay!

yoburp!

9/22

Q now says “necklace” without prompting (i have been wearing my abalone shell alternately with my koru spiral birth necklace). he also calls the abalone “shell”. he came home with an itsy bitsy spider craft project from day care so we sang it, and he knows the motions for “down came the rain”. we went out back to pick blackberries and i showed him lots of spiders living back there (‘tis the season, it seems.) so he now says “spider” and “web.”

9/23 19 MONTHS

can’t remember if i’ve “logged” the words stuck, and arm yet. but he was saying both today. he also said “helper” which i call him, quite often, and requested to eat his “sammip” (sandwich) when he got home from daycare. i am shocked that my baby is 19 months old! next is 20- that’s so big! we went down to the beach this evening and both hit the sack at 8.

quinn’s eighteenth month ~ muffins in the middle of the night

Posted on August 23, 2008 by marybethrew

7/24

Quinn managed to stay awake long enough to make it to the beach. We shared a burrito on the walk there- I hate to not sit down for dinner, but most evenings we then have to choose one or the other- dinner OR beach. Too hard a decision, so we eat and walk sometimes, unfortunately. Great beach weather- the wind was just dying down when we arrived. I watched Quinn study the way the sand can’t be grabbed, the way it trickles through your finger more quickly the harder you try to hold on.

His word of the day: bum-bee (variation of bumblebee). He said it and pointed to a helicopter that flew overhead. 🙂

7/25

don’t feel like writing much tonight- kind of sad about so many setbacks with getting Quinn’s visits set up with his dad. Also, there was another party at Scott Baker’s house and while they are fun, it is a reminder that I am not currently working on whales… but that can be temporary, and salmon are way cool in the meantime. Quinn fell asleep in the sling after hanging out with the dogs at scott’s house.

7/26

Quinn’s word of the day today was “happy” which was exactly what mama needed to hear! 🙂 we met trina and noah at the farmers market, then went to south beach (and had no car trouble! Yay!) quinn and noah worked on sharing quinn’s beach car (the one quinn’s dad found on the beach) and they both walked and ran around a lot. Quinn took a cat nap in the car coming home from the beach, so his real nap didn’t happen until 3 and bedtime not until 9:30. that was fine because we got a lot of cleaning done- my landlord gave me a vacuum cleaner, and happily, it does not scare quinn. In fact, he was fascinated and “helped” me push it around. He colored, played a lot with his dollhouse. At one point he came and got a bottle out of the drawer in the kitchen, and I asked if he’d like to feed some milk to his monkey. His eyes lit up, so I got his monkey and he “fed” otto the bottle. It was very sweet, he was cuddling and kissing otto. Then he decided otto needed some real milk and pulled up my shirt and put otto on the breast! This was hilarious and then of course quinn wanted to share some milk, too. He sat on the couch alternately feeding monkey and bear for a while after that. Definitely a priceless memory.

7/27

rainy morning. We ended up outside quite a bit later on, though. After quinn’s nap we walked (he walked about a block, then rode in the sling) to the library and got a library card. They have a fabulous children’s section, it was hard to choose just two books. They have a train track table, and lots of puzzles and a dollhouse. It was great, I could really inspect the books and pick two I really wanted while he played. I have heard there is an amazing storyteller but I’m always at work at the times she reads. 🙁 someday on a vacation week… after we left the library we walked down to the beach (we were already on the west side of 101) and back down the beach towards our usual route home. Quinn eventually wanted “dowm” so I let him run around (he is getting very surefooted on the sand) and eventually he decided to go towards the water. I managed to get his moccasins off, but he was pretty into going out to meet the waves (didn’t believe me that they’d come meet him) so he got his pants all wet up to the knees. He was in his glory, little water boy. It was hard to convince him to leave the water’s edge but eventually he got hungry and signed “food” so I stripped off his pants, put him in the sling and hiked home, yertle the turtle and dinosaur roar tucked under my arm, soggy sweatpants in the other hand, sandy moccasins in my back pocket.

Word of the day: apple. Quinn walked laps around the couch while I sat and read him yertle the turtle. He also put bunch of the dollhouse people in his bottle.

7/29

last night I didn’t get a chance to write because quinn napped coming home from the beach and until 8:30 (but nursed the whole time) then stayed up with me until 10:45. the beach was glorious (I’m glad we went; today we have downpours!) and we played lots when we came home which lately is kind of rare. (so yay for late bedtimes! Once in a while… 🙂) tonight he is in bed at 7:45, probably for the night. We had a fun evening, eating lots of food, coloring, and taking a bath. (after coloring his face blue and a poop diaper it seemed to make sense not to just “spot clean”.) he did not want to read a book or comb his hair after the bath, just go directly to sleep. So that is what we did. (his hair doesn’t need to be combed out every time it gets washed, right?)

8/2

Wednesday (7/30) quinn came home from daycare and fell immediately asleep at 5:30. at 9PM he woke up with a fever, and was back out by 9:30 for the night. In the morning, his temp was 101.7 so I stayed home from work. He slept the better part of the day, needing me right there for the most part, but having trouble nursing due to his nose being stuffed up. He only had milk, water and a few raisins and blueberries all day Thursday, but he managed not to get dehydrated. He got up to 102.7 at one point. I gave him baths and did the wet sock treatment while he slept. (I also gave him infant ibuprofen- “dye free! Will not stain!” how about, “will not induce ADHD in your child!” as a selling point, instead, and while you’re at it, take out the high fructose corn syrup!) on Friday morning he was still out of it, but down to 99.1 so I went to work but got called 2 hours into the day saying he was back up to 102. poor baby. So I took another day off, and we had a little more fun.i put the futon into bed formation and loaded it with toys, books, sippy cup, and snacks, and we read just about every story in the sleeping bag, propped up on 8 pillows. His fever was down for quite a while in the afternoon, and he was playing normally, but went up and down some in the evening. I pushed him to the elementary school on his tricycle and we went on the swings together. He went to bed at 7, and I at 8, like the night before (hence no writing got done) this morning he felt normal again (99ish) but was very grumpy all morning. We went to the farmer’s market and he rode around in the sling and got much more calm and happy being outside (he had demanded “o-zide!” at 5 am and I took him for a sling walk then as well.) so… being halfway intelligent, I took him for a drive down the coast a little ways, in toward drift creek wilderness, and then we spent a couple hours at seal rock state park beach, where he napped on my lap for a while as I leaned on a log. The weather was gorgeous and I was glad to get to that beach- I have been there several times before, but not since the move. Up by drift creek I stopped the car to pick a handful of thimbleberries but Q wasn’t too interested (obviously berry boy is still not himself!) but when we got home he ate a good dinner and wanted still more milk after that. Yet another bath, then bedtime.

8/3

Sunday today- a walk to the beach, a walk to the fairgrounds to see the quilt show (Q liked the brightly colored ones, especially with animals or “balls” on them), a trip to the grocery store, a walk in the forest down the block… as we walked in the forest I found a bird’s egg shell on the ground, but then further on the path I found a nest! It has nobody left in it, and must have fallen out of the tree. It is so cool to me, I grew up where the nests are all made of straw, hay, baling twine. Here- moss! Lots of green, stringy moss- looks super comfy for baby birds!

After the grocery trip Quinn asked to play with the tea (in the box) and after a few minutes of trying to open it himself, asked for help. He pulled out a few of the packets and then brought one to me, waiting expectantly for me to tear it open. So I did, and thanked him, and put the tea bag in my cup, and handed him back the wrapper, which he often likes to play with, and he walked straight over to the sink, underneath which is the trash. Again he waited expectantly, until I opened it so he could throw away the wrapper… I have not been one to teach him about throwing things away, but as usual he has observed it all on his own!

8/4

oh the joys of being awake from midnight to 3am! (cranky, cranky baby boy- he wanted nothing to do with me or any of my offerings until around 2. we were in the garage doing “bum” and taking the tires off my bike. That seemed to cheer him up enough to want to try sleeping again.) had to leave work early because becky was too sick to keep watching the kids by 3:00. I struck out on one set of errands (Quinn in tow) but got the bike tires fixed (they have a cool play area at newport bike where Q played while we waited). Then immediately upon arriving home i locked the keys (car and house keys) in the car. no doors or tailgates or garage doors unlocked… so i broke in through the sewing room window (i had left it open a crack) while Quinn liberally watered the tomato plant. he ate lots of yogurt, and his hair ate a lot, too, so then we took a bath and he went nicely to sleep around 7:30, and slept peacefully until 9:30 and then didn’t even nurse to fall back to sleep again. (he does more of that all the time, without me ever really “trying” to make him do it.) ah, an evening to string a few lucid thoughts together before i C….R….A….S….H momentarily… so glad Quinn is on the mend now! i hate so much to have him hurting.

8/5-8/6

after a good night’s sleep, Quinn had a rough time going to daycare. he cried all the way there. mr. kitty followed us there, and seemed to snap him out of his crying spell, and i know he stopped crying when i left. after work, we had a good evening. he helped me in the kitchen, ate a lot of yogurt and a banana, read quite a few books. he asked to go to the beach at 8, and carried his bucket to the door, so we drove to the beach and played a little. he went to bed around 8:30 after i finally managed to coax him into a walk during one final tantrum to end the day… or so i thought it ended… then we were up from 1-3 AM…. tired mama! i decided to go with it, and act as if it was a normal time of day to be awake. turned on lights, emptied the dishwasher while QUinn played with the garlic press and whisk and other utensils. baked a batch of blueberry muffins. played with tools in the garage….

morning came too soon, and with another tantrum, we were off to daycare. mr. kitty came along again. this evening was mellow- more yogurt and banana, some couscous, cheese and blueberries. i have been noticing the little details that Quinn picks up. he helped me put the wash in the dryer yesterday, and when i opened the dryer door he immediately started pulling out the lint trap to empty it. then he takes wet clothes that i hand him and puts them in. he knows which key opens the mailbox…. from a keyring holding 4 keys. sometimes it stops me in my tracks it is so amazing how much he knows.

8/7

we went walking after a rough day (for mom) and happened upon a drum circle going on in the little round kiosk at the southern path down to nye beach. Quinn started bopping before the building was in view, and the sign said “open to the public” so we listened to a song. i was going to continue walking but Quinn pointed and leaned and asked for “dowm” so i went inside and listened for another song. then on the next two, we sat and played some of the drums and shakers that were provided for the “public” to use, and Quinn was just reveling. it was pretty cool to see him get so into it- he would play a while, then stop and just listen and SMILE. so beautiful.

8/8

we had a nice evening, (and for that matter, a much better morning both yesterday and today) nothing particularly noteworthy as far as activities, but in milestones, we have several new words to record. we went for a walk, and at one point Quinn got down and it was the first time i heard him saying “running” and he said it over and over again. later he repeated several things back to me: “sharp” which was my explanation why he was not allowed to play with the scissors he pointed to; “chicks”, “pepper”, “boats”, “pumpkins”, “shells”, and “pencils” all words in his “1,2,3” book (he repeated almost every page, up to 12, but puppies, fish etc are already in his repertoire.)

8/11

monday. Quinn got up with a few minutes to spare before going to becky’s, and it made for a smoother transition. he was very content today, no tantrums, and generally cheerful. i asked him if he was ready to go to becky’s and he said “be-ty!” he says so many new words all the time. today i noticed “cereal” and “pump” and i’m sure there were others because his brain seems to be growing incredibly fast! tonight i caught him reading his 1-2-3 book out loud to himself- pointing to the picture of a pepper “puh-app-oo!” (app-oo is apple and lots of fruits and veggies are a version of apple to him at the moment- buh-app-oo is blueberries.)

8/12

today quinn started saying “uh-oh!” by far one of the cutest words yet. i have mixed feelings about it- mostly good, and a little wistful/sentimental- he’s growing up! usually he says uh-oh in innocent situations, but then sometimes he’ll purposely, for example, drop a spoon full of oatmeal on the floor and cutely exclaim “uh-oh!” mischief.

along the same lines, he also has learned “mine” and this evening grabbed the 1-2-3 book out of my hands and informed me that it was his… again, those battling proud/wistful emotions for a mama. yay! he can assert himself! boo, he lives in a world where he has to assert himself… it’s all a part of the process.

and then he tells me after nursing, “nummy!” ok, he’s still my baby. 🙂

8/13

cereal = “sha-role!” which was quinn’s response to me asking if he wanted to come to the kitchen with me. (his cereal is 10-grain mush. i have not figured out what he so loves about it, but boy is it healthy!) he ate the better part of an avocado for dinner, odd, he hasn’t been all that interestsed in them lately. perhaps his current brain development (esp. language centers!) is driving his food preferences. avocado = brain food!

at bath time he “requested” me to sing rubber ducky. (he said “duck” while swaying back and forth with a big grin on his face.) how can anyone resist that?

then at 2 am…. (groan)… we were awake eating yogurt and raisins, reading the belly button book, and being generally awake in the middle of the night for two hours. methinks his brain development is also the culprit for his special sleeping habits of late, and i suppose i will live through the sleep deprivation. he said “pict” and pointed at the newspaper clipping i have of brendan on the fridge, then “bennen” when i told him it was uncle brendan. he also enjoyed identifying mark’s and matt’s “hats” in the “pict”. hats have always been a favorite of quinn’s.

8/14

word of the day (or should i say hour, it seems like every day 5 new words tumble out of his mouth!) “burp!” (giggle, giggle). we also talked about, and ate, a plum (i think he called it “plump” which makes sense as he has recently been saying “pump” a lot. i got a picture of him clapping for himself after putting some of his dollhouse people into the beds… this was, of course, during his wide awake hours of 8:30 to 11 pm (hey, at least it wasn’t 2 in the morning again!)

8/15

newport is the place to “beat the heat” according to local public broadcasting… apparently other parts of oregon are hitting 100 degrees while we maintain a very oceanic 55. i am glad it has not phased me at all- we still have sun. i don’t mind 55 if it is sunny!

tonight quinn settled down pretty independently. he eventually asked me to play trains with him, then piled all the cars into my lap and climbed aboard my lap himself to nurse and be carried to bed. i live for moments like those, and am so thankful our nursing relationship has been such a good one, and not hurt by any of the recent changes we have been through.

8/16

we had another round of night waking- this time from 4-5:30 am. luckily it’s saturday so we then slept in until 9:30! we lazily made our way to the farmers market, where quinn ran around barefoot in the grass, carrying a fresh peach in each hand, while i sat and enjoyed my coffee. then he settled in my lap and ate half a peach. at the beach later on we could hear, but not see, the surf from where we sat on the sand. it was too foggy to see even that far! quinn buried his feet and “found” them over and over again, exclaiming “feet!” or “foot!” each time. another new word for him is hands although that one is harder for him to say. he clasps his hands when he says it, so you know what he means. he has requested to wear his one lonely sandal a few times, and in the evening while we were putting it on he told me “sambal”. while reading “i am a mouse” he pointed at the pictures of butterflies “fa-fly!”

8/17

new words today… chair, paper, people, tickle (“te-tu!”). he “reads” the word “box” when we read green eggs and ham. in his lift-the-flap version he loves to open and close the box with the fox in it. at one point i asked him if he could help me by taking a pillow that was on the chair (we were in the dining room) and putting it on the couch- i watched him go pick it up and deliver it right through the kitchen, into the living room, and onto the couch! then later on he decided on his own to bring that pillow and another one back to the chair in the dining room. 🙂 crazy thunderstorms in the middle of the night!

8/18

Monday, monday. tonight quinn went to sleep at 7 but woke up again at 8. i put him in the sling and walked while i talked to susan on the phone, and he ended up just sitting on my lap quietly while we finished our conversation, and falling asleep on my lap at 10:30. it was very sweet.

8/19

tues. today when i picked Q up from daycare he told becky and trisha not just bye but “bye see you!” he helped me sew a grocery bag. we read a lot, and he said “airplane” when we read “the pigeon loves things that go”. rode my bike to work today finally!

8/20

i am going on a new theory that quinn needs a little more attachment from me again. i think his sleep patterns are mostly to do with his enormous new vocabulary, but possibly also the 18 month separation anxiety setting in. so tonight i put him in the sling for a half hour while i cleaned and took the trash out. then i took a bath with him after dinner, and sling-walked him to sleep (bundled in the raincoat). he already seems to be more soundly asleep, so we’ll see if it helps. we haven’t had as much of a babywearing routine on weekdays while it has been not so nice weather, so i am hoping for some nice beach weather soon for some longer walks again.

8/21

today was the first day that quinn said bye-bye to me when i dropped him off at daycare. he and robert are often the first two there in the morning and they share becky’s lap and cuddle, and when i set him on her lap he looked up and smiled and said “bye-bye!” after work grammy and grampy came with me to pick up quinn (they arrived mid-day) and he wasted no time “warming up” to them. he climbed right onto grammy’s lap and started handing her books to read, including a new one they had gotten for him, “the tallest tree”. the last page of “the tallest tree” has a counting exercise, and after grammy went through it, he would repeat the names of things being counted, and say “fee-foh-fee-foh-fee-foh!” (3-4-3-4-3-4!)

8/22

quinn went to daycare for most of the day so g and g could settle in and rest up after their long journey. g and g went over after naptime and played with him at daycare, and after robert left, he was ready to come home with them. when i got home he was stacking firewood with grampy. he said “hammer” and “pompom” today. he fell asleep at 7 but got up again at 8 and was up until after 10. he requested bubbles when i put him in the bathtub. then after a bath, he ran laps back and forth from kitchen to dining room, putting potatoes into a pan in one room as he took them out of a bag in the other.

8/23 18 MONTHS!

quinn said “thank you” for the first time today (that i recognized) and also did the sign for thank you! we went to the farmers market and got strawberries, peaches and lots of veggies (quinn carried the purple onion, and also said “onion” today). then we went to the beach (nye) and g and g got to see how good quinn is now at walking on the sand. he had a good time climbing up a dune, and eating grammy’s pretzels. later we went grocery shopping and got my bike fixed again. we also did some work around the house, played outside, and did some block-stacking. after another bath, he went to bed at 8.

quinn’s seventeenth month ~ busy as a bumbumbee

Posted on July 23, 2008 by marybethrew

6/24-6/26

a blur. Found out we have to go to Portland this weekend. Getting prepared in all my “spare” time. Quinn is a trooper. His only rough spots at daycare seem to be when other parents drop off and pick up their kids, but otherwise he has a great time. They go outside a lot, have cool toys to play with. He gets to carry his bottle of mama’s milk around if he wants to.

Found out that grammy and grampy will come the last week in august to watch Quinn when becky has vacation again. As for next week, Q will be with Ida, who works with Rhonda (the expensive place we looked at but can’t afford… gotta afford it for a week!) ALSO I found out I will not have to go to sea at all this year. Oh my goodness WHAT A RELIEF! I think the earliest would be next may…..

6/27

so the trip to Portland is definitely on (there was a chance of it being rescheduled, but no). We’ll be staying with susan and gang Sunday night. Yay! But tonight, we had romper room at my office so I could use the computer to get ready… I have a beautiful piece of artwork in crayola washable “turquoise” on my desk drawer.

Last night Q and I had a date. I put him in the sling, and we brought a bowl of tuna noodle casserole to the beach. We ate, actually Q started feeding me at one point so I fed him, too. It was fun. We played with the bucket and shovel for a few minutes but it was chilly so Q jumped back in the sling and we went to café mundo which is right near the beach and went inside because I knew they had open mic on Thursdays. I got a peppermint tea and Q drank water from a cup and ogled the “balloons” on the ceiling (those fancy paper lanterns) and danced on my lap. We heard 3 or 4 songs and I changed his diaper and we went home. He’s a great date- long walks, feeding each other on the beach, live music… 🙂

6/28

farmer’s market, then back to work to use computer some more. Then to the beach! Where Q played for a few hours in the sand, and I got a little more paperwork done. We even splashed in the ocean a tiny bit- it is warmer than usual but more unusual than warmth, no wind! (it is also hazy/foggy but we’ll take it!)

6/29

one more stop by the office computer- ugh. Then we hopped in the jeep with $74 of gas in the tank and drove to Portland. We passed the Lincoln city kite festival, which was cool, albeit trafficky. Q was angelic for the whole drive. We finally arrived at susan’s and it was so great to be there among true friends again. I wasn’t feeling lonely or anything in Newport yet, but coming back to ptown made me realize how little people know me in Newport right now. I know that will change in time… anyway, wonderful reunion. We went and got ice cream with the boys and then Quinn and Ro got to take a cold bath together (it is 95 degrees; we’ve been adjusting to 55 so it’s a bit of a shock). Everyone fell asleep pretty early, with full satisfied tummies.

6/30

Q and I got to see Deb this morning. Then Q stayed with susan for a couple of hours during which time babies were only wearing diapers (it’s so HOT!) we waited until evening as it started to cool down to drive home. Q was content the whole time until Depoe Bay, where I changed his diaper- he did NOT want to get back in the carseat even for 15 more miles. I could hardly blame him, I was tired of driving too. He fell sound asleep as soon as we got into bed (around 10PM) no rest for the weary; work in the morning.

7/1

Q’s first day with Ida. It was hard for me to leave him there. His third new place in such a short time… I called in the morning and things were going ok. He was really happy to see me at the end of the day!

7/2

at Ida’s again. I get the feeling she has the TV on just about all day. GRR!

7/3

Quinn’s last day of random daycares- Monday he starts with becky for good! He had a bad morning and Ida called me at lunch to tell me he had been crying a lot. I decided to bring him to work for the rest of the day, since I was out an hour early and had a bunch of desk stuff I could do. Quinn played with megablocks, colored, and nursed on the boppy like old times. Later on, we celebrated the start of our long weekend with a trip to the beach. I asked, “do you want to go to the beach?” and he said “water” (waghl) and I said, “yes, where the water is, that’s the ocean. And the beach is all the sand. You want to go there?” and he nodded and got very happy and jumped in my arms and pointed to the door. 🙂

7/4

long weekend! We spent most of today around the house, cleaning, unpacking more boxes, and doing some decorating. I finally got the pictures hung up in Quinn’s room. Most of them are scientific illustrations I did long ago of sea creatures. There are some old acrylic paintings I did in HIGH SCHOOL, one of dolphins, one of a young beluga. Next to the beluga I hung a watercolor from college of an arctic underwater scene, complete with icebergs, which also features belugas, including a mom nursing her calf. 🙂 grammy was storing these for me, and I’m really glad she brought them out and helped me frame them all! Quinn’s room is kind of empty still, so I’m pondering what to do to make it more fun…

7/5

we did a lot today! In the morning we met trina and noah at the farmer’s market and shared blueberries and raspberries while we visited on the grass. We went home around naptime. I made raspberry jam and started some bread rising (yay! First time since the move!) Quinn climbed in and out of his potty seat, some of which I captured on video (“Pah-ee!”) in the rainy afternoon we got a whole bunch of groceries for the week, and then later we went for a long walk on a really cool hiking trail that we found 4 blocks away from our house! It goes out behind the town swimming pool into old growth forest. It was amazing! Totally quiet and no people, just trees and mist. Quinn napped in the sling, his second nap of the day.

7/6

our third day of weekend, we spent the morning at ona beach, playing in the sand. I was trying to write a letter while Quinn played but he kept taking my pen and filling it with sand until I finally surrendered and played, too. Earlier in the morning, Quinn had been up for a half hour or so playing (bum) and he pointed at his diaper and told me “poo”. And sure enough, he was right! It is great to see him gaining awareness. He’ll follow me (walking) into the bedroom many times now, in order to get changed, rather than me having to carry him in. we played out in the yard (it was a gorgeous day!) later on we did something fun in Q’s room. I had noticed two things 1) there is a lot of empty space in the room and 2) Quinn will spontaneously lay down on his tummy as if to rest, but h doesn’t make use of his crib mattress (on floor in his room) to do so. So I decided to set up the tent in his room and put his mattress inside the tent! He thought it was just the greatest new thing, to play inside the tent. Then, at one point he laid on his tummy, said “bye bye!” to me, and started to such on his fingers. It was very brief and then he was up again, playing. But I liked that he saw it as a place he could rest. He took a bath all by himself, which has almost never occurred. Last weekend in Portland, he and ronan shared the tub and I was not needed, and I think that may have helped him realize he could do it. He was excited to get in, so I didn’t bother getting in with him as I had planned, and he just played himself clean. Then he came out to the garage with me and sat in the stroller playing with tools and watching me sand my dresser and take off the drawer knobs. He always loves helping with “bum” as such enterprises are fondly called.

7/7

back to daycare. 🙁 it was a great weekend so it was hard to see it end. But Quinn is now officially in a permanent “spot” at creative kids, and he seemed interested in playing with the other kids as soon as we arrived. He still cried when I left (according to becky, for 2.5 seconds) but had a good day. He is now able to just lay down on a mat and fall asleep with someone rubbing his back. (as long as that someone is not mama, ha!) after work, we took a walk to the beach, and he napped briefly, so we were up late, and it was tough getting him to sleep even at 10:30 when he eventually laid down.

7/8

more daycare and more beach! This time we played- Q got down and walked around on the sand. It is so beautiful how he just glories in everything. There is so much to capture his attention and excite his neurons- he laughed and walked in random patterns, then snuggled back into the sling out of the wind to walk back home. Bedtime was only slightly earlier tonight (10).

7/9

more beautiful weather! Today we stuck close to home after work and just played in the yard- the wind gusts I felt today were probably 40 mph so I thought too much sand would be blowing on the beach. Not to mention it makes it hard to walk even for those of us with years of practice. Then our bedtime walk was to our new rain forest trail, just a little ways in, but enough to hear the evening calls of the birds that live there. Tonight he was in bed by 8:30. (mama sigh of relief!) oh! Quinn’s new all-in-one diapers came in the mail on Monday so he used them at daycare today. Yay! Back to cloth, another sigh of relief!

7/10

I have seen quinn sign “cat” in his sleep twice now, both yesterday and today when I got up out of bed and opened the bedroom door to noisy mr. kitty meows, I looked back and saw him do it. He also signed “more food” in the middle of the night recently, which I believe really meant “milk please!” he also uses the sign for “book” a lot now. Napped after we came home, so bedtime was 9:30ish.

7/11 Friday! Another nap as soon as we came home- sounds slightly stuffed up, I hope it is nothing serious but may be why he needs extra naps. Bedtime 9:30-10ish, extendo-nursing required. We read lots of books, and he used signs to tell me “more book” when he would go to choose the next one to read. Opened up package from G and G- my old fisher price dollhouse with all the little people/dogs/furniture/car/firetruck… FUN!

7/12

met trina and noah at the FM and bought TONS of blueberries. Then our car wouldn’t start. 🙁 popped the clutch, took it to the mechanic, have to take it to yet another mechanic on Monday. So… we stayed close to home except for a trip to fred meyer (slanted parking lot; I parked strategically but car started fine.) before fred’s, I blew up and filled up Quinn’s pool and he played in it for quite a while, dumping water between various containers. He started a new game of sorting- he walked up while I was unloading the dishwasher and made off with the silverware basket (I always take out the knives first thing in case he wants to help) and took it into the dining room, and sat on the floor. He proceeded to take everything out and put the spoons in one pile and the lids (from milk bottles, etc.) in the other pile. He put them back in and did it at least a couple more times. He also spent a lot of time with the alphabet magnets on the fridge today. He went to bed at 7PM! You just never know…

7/13

we stuck close to home today, given the jeep situation. We did go to nye beach for a little while this morning, but after 40 minutes we were chilly (breezy today!) so we left. We stopped on the way home to buy a transfer doodad to get the videos off my phone and onto a computer. Looking forward to sending those to friends and family, especially dada since he hasn’t seen Quinn walking yet.

Quinn played a lot in his pool again today (3 or 4 different times). We took a long (2 hour) hike on our local rain forest trail (not rainy today- the needles smelled so good underfoot!) bumped into jen, alan, aidan and taryn in the woods- Q goes to daycare with Aidan and Taryn. Quinn “fed” me water from his sippy cup while I hiked. He started on my back but came up front after a half hour or so. The end of the trail is a park with a playground! Still no swings, though, sadly.

Quinn was insatiable with reading books today- I finally took him on that hike because I could not bear to read “more book” yet again. (I think it was in the neighborhood of 15 or 16 books. He signed “more book” after every one!)

He has been surprising me with little things- more sorting, like the green chairs from the dollhouse all collected in the green beach bucket (same shade of green). He colored a little while, but when I looked at the coloring “area” all of the markers were away in the box with the lid on. He was playing with some Qtips and when I told him we don’t put them in our mouth he did this circular motion with one on his cheek (I guess that is what we do do with them! he must have seen me using them on my ears and thought it was my face…)

Another 7 PM bedtime! Ahh… bath and ice cream for mama.

7/14

third day in a row of 7PM bedtime- not as much of a sigh of relief when I don’t get to see him until 5:30! L oh well. I am glad his little body knows when he needs to be sleeping extra. I took him to the school playground (4 blocks away) at 6:30. he didn’t even really want to walk much of the way preferring to be carried or in the sling snuggling. He did play on the slide but around 6:45 even that was too much for him and he asked to nurse and fell immediately asleep as I walked the 4 blocks home. Earlier he “helped” me make dinner- he watched me grate cheese, and reaches down inside the grater as it fills up and grabs a handful to eat. J the car is fixed- $287 and a new starter later… yay for the ‘rents footing the bill! Grandpa’rents that is…

7/15

I think Quinn could have gone to sleep at 7 again but I took him out this evening to a barbecue. Today I worked all day cutting fish (taking samples for several studies including mine) and this was a “thank you” BBQ for the cutting party participants. I met (and cut alongside) another mom, Elizabeth, who works on salmon diet analysis (zooplankton) and has 2 boys, ages 3 (wyland) and 7 months (cole) and got to meet her whole family at the bbq. Quinn got overtired and wound up, but was generally a happy camper. He got to play with the croquet balls and the rain stick at laurie’s (the host’s) house, and eat pita bread, deviled eggs and raspberries. His favorite new word seems to be “down” (dowm) but he also just got the hang of “bread” (usually “hred”). He says “dog” now more often than “woof woof”, which had been the other way around.

7/16

I put quinn right in the sling after daycare and we walked to the beach, stopping at the bike store to get our stroller tire fixed on the way. He was asleep when we got there L so no playing. But I let him just sleep on me as I lounged in the sand, listening to the surf and enjoying the sun. 6:30 is too early for bedtime!

7/17

lots of cleaning this evening, getting ready for our first official company since grammy and grampy! Steve, dena and bodhi will be here tomorrow so we did lots and lots of sweeping, which quinn likes to help with a lot. We also made a pasta salad for tomorrow. We hung up our first co-created masterpiece (a picture of curious george flying from a bunch of balloons, with wonderful coloring by quinn) in quinn’s bedroom. It had been taped on the floor while we worked on it, but we declared it finished and taped down a new big piece of paper.

7/18

we ate our pasta salad for dinner and then steve, dena and bodhi arrived just as we were finishing eating. Quinn was already very tired (he went to the fair today with becky) but ended up staying up late (combo of excitement from company and junk food I have to remind becky not to feed him!) we played outside, planted some strawberries and mint steve dug from his garden for us, and then played with megablocks and trains and the dollhouse until around 10. quinn finally sacked out, but when I came to bed he had fits of restlessness interspersed with nursing until after 11:30. it was pretty rough. No more rainbow goldfish and pink-icing cookies and teddy grahams!

7/19

we spent the morning playing again, then I went to a yoga class while quinn stayed with the woolfs. (my first one in Newport! Yay!) I brought home a lot of blueberries (a quick stop at the FM on the way home) and dena cut up a cantaloupe. Steve cooked some orzo pasta and put melted cheese and tomato pesto sauce on slices of zucchini (baked) so lunch was awesome. Quinn napped for a while, and soon it was time for our friends to leave. We had a nice visit! Then quinn and I went to the beach (briefly; it was very windy!) then to fred’s (also brief thankfully) and I worked on some bread while quinn played with measuring spoons. His vocabulary is snowballing recently. Today he has been saying “boppy” which i have not yet interpreted. New words I can think of (I know there are many I’ll forget to list): up/down (dowm), inside/outside (zide- both of them are zide, context dependent J), bumblebee (bumbumbee), cow, boo, roar (when he sees the dinosaur book he roars), bowl, spoon, bread, cereal, open, help… these are only some of them, but good examples. Later on, I decided to check out the fair because I saw in the flier that there was a siletz Indian drumming and dancing performance going on, so I took quinn in the sling- he LOVED the drumming! He heard it before we even got in the gate and was bopping in the sling. He clapped and swayed and laughed and got SO into the performance. Then we walked through the livestock barns. He said “ba-ba” to the sheep and goats and “neigh-neigh” to the horses. We looked at the quilts and strolled around some more, then came home and quinn fell asleep in the 3 block walk home (we live close to the fairgrounds). A very good weekend so far!

7/20

Talan’s one month birthday! We had a lazy, relaxing day today. We ate a scrumptious breakfast (breakfast burritos) and then walked to the beach. Quinn took pictures with my disposable camera then used it as a shovel. By the time we came home, quinn was sound asleep (10:30) and he proceeded to sleep until 2:15. tired boy! He woke up very refreshed, and we played out in the yard, then in the living room. We read lots of books today. It is fun to see his associations with certain books. The touch and feel dinosaur book elicits a “rar!” whenever he sees it. “does a cow say boo?” is called “boo”. He calls Dr. suess’s ABC book “bumbumbee” because of “what begins with be? Barber, baby, bubbles and a bumblebee!” which is his favorite page.he says “bye bye” at the end of the belly button book (before I read the final line: “bye-bye be-bo!” he points at each balloon in each book, and says balloon, and a lot of them have balloons- good night moon, goodnight gorilla, belly button book, curious george… today when I asked him if he’d like some toby’s (toby’s tofu pate) he replied, “toby.” He has also started saying cheek (chee) when webpoint at his or my cheeks; he has said “eye” for a while now, but although he has said both nose and mouth, he prefers not to say them as much recently. I determined that “boppy” or “buppy” is puppy, I imagine becky calls her dogs “puppy” because I always say “dog” to him, but he likes the word a lot. (personally, bumbumbee is my new favorite word.)

We got some pictures in the mail today (FINALLY! It took a month this time!) and there were several from Portland of Quinn and his dad. I took those out to mail to his dad, but showed them to Q first. He immediately pointed out “dada” and then went through the stack finding dada in each one. Then he helped me put them in an envelope and put it in the mailbox (he literally put it in) and he talked about dada on and off the next hour or so.

He fell asleep around 7:30 for the night, we seem to be settling into a pretty good routine but alas, Monday is almost here again.

7/21

today felt like a time warp. Before I knew it, it was 5:30. becky said the same thing- nap time came and went while the kids played outside, so they napped from 4-5. Quinn was up later, therefore, which was a nice change from last week (8:30). We cooked burritos and ate dinner. Played with blocks, read books, took a walk, the regular evening stuff. he is such a lovable boy.

7/22

the weather was glorious today after work so Quinn and I walked to the beach (Q in sling). There was very little wind (unusual for Newport) and it was warm enough for bare feet in the sand. Q played with his shovel, filling my lap, his bucket, and his truck with sand. Then he told me he was hungry and he fell asleep nursing on the walk home. (7PM).

7/23 17 MONTHS!

A pretty “normal” day… it’s actually nice to say that these days, after so many changes. A little “bum”, a little backyard, some couscous and veggies, some yogurt in the high chair, a lot of nursing, and a nice warm bed to snuggle in!

quinn’s sixteenth month ~ big steps!

Posted on June 23, 2008 by marybethrew

5/24

memorial day weekend- going to Newport tomorrow to drop off truck and tools.

5/25

quinn in carseat a lot today. Went to beach while in Newport, walking distance from new house. Trip home was rough for everybody.

5/26

bad fight in middle of the night. Quinn and I came to stay with susan after he woke up. Plans are changing- I’m going to move to Newport with Quinn. Lots to do this week to get ready- I start work in 7 days!

5/30

got the uhaul and packed it today, with tons of help from steve, tons of help with cleaning from susan, and tons of help from dena with watching 4 boys! Quinn was mostly glued to me, as I “directed” traffic and sorted boxes and finished packing the remainder of things. Quinn napped in the sling. We have been so blessed this week by susan’s family opening their home to us, and have managed to have a really good time in spite of such huge changes.

5/31

Grammy and Grampy got into Portland last night, and we picked them up at their motel this morning. We went back to Susan’s, then pretty soon Grampy got in the uhaul and we drove back to the apartment for the last few things, including baby kitty, and left the key. Drove all the way to Newport! We stopped at Elmer’s for lunch on the way. Got to the new house around 5, and had the truck unloaded by 6. (much quicker than loading! Thank goodness.)

6/1

went to Newport café for breakfast. Got lots of things unpacked and put away. Quinn getting acquainted with G and G.

6/2

Started my job, Quinn staying with G and G while I work, and until I can find childcare.

6/5 WALKING!

Quinn started walking this evening! He saved it up until he knew just what to do, and started right in with multiple steps. He spent probably a full hour practicing, laughing uproariously the whole time, and hugging and kissing me when he arrived in my arms each time. He was so pleased with himself!

Lately he has been saying more words and doing more signs. He both says and signs “done” now when he finishes eating, nursing, or playing with a certain toy. His sign for cat is not the one I taught him per se, it is his imitation of me snapping which is how I “call” Baby Kitty. He also signs milk, bird, tree. I am working on food and more with him.

6/6

Friday finally- a long, hard week. Quinn came with me at lunch to look at another daycare (the 2^nd one) and was so happy to see me at lunchtime that it was very hard for me to leave again to finish the work day. He took 17 steps in a row for grampy today!

6/7

sat! mama and Quinn have all day together finally. It started out drizzly, so we went to the farmer’s market and salvation army first. We came home with strawberries, chard, broccoli, and a rose for grammy, as well as a few new dishes, a rug and some odds and ends. We also got a new sewing machine at a garage sale on the way home! (mine has been broken and I can’t borrow his dad’s anymore…) then after Quinn’s nap it was sunny so we all went to the beach and he tried out his new bucket and shovel from g and g. we got chilly but had a great time. Quinn snuggled into the sling to warm up again and then we went out for an early dinner at the apple peddler. He ordered a quesadilla and applesauce. We had a quiet evening and Q went to bed at 8- his schedule has shifted earlier to work with our new life here…

6/8

Sunday. We decided to hit the beach early today, as it was sunny and beautiful. We drove to Ona beach and found a nice spot with a “backrest” for g and g to sit against while Q played and played in the sand. He dug and dug, tossed shovels full of sand in the air, buried rocks, filled his bucket, and even, yes, tasted the sand. He also practiced his walking a lot. We went to the bayfront on the way home to visit the sea lions and buy some clam chowder to go. Before we even got out of the parking lot Quinn was doing his sea lion barking impressiong- he knew exactly where we were.

Earlier this morning, Quinn saw me pick up the rose and smell it while we were eating our eggs, and he said “vow!” (his word for flower). He kept saying it until I brought it close to him to see. When he reached out to touch it, I said “gentle”. Other times with plants and flowers I have told him we are gentle with flowers just like we are gentle with Mr. Kitty, but this time I just said the one word, so he touched it very gently and looked me in the eye and said, “meow, meow, meow.”

6/9

had a discombobulated day today, mostly worrying and feeling sad about Quinn having to start daycare. I came home and cried while Q nursed. After he nursed, Q sat with me and got a worried but smiling look on his face, touched my eyes, and then patted my heart, right in the center of my chest where it hurts to have all these feelings stuck, and then did his sign for “happy” (clapping). It was so apparent he knew I was feeling sad, maybe he even understood the exact reason, and yet he reached out to make me feel better.

6/10

today was better than yesterday (Mondays are going to be hard.) leaving Quinn is always painful, but he seemed a little less upset today, and he cried very little according to Grammy. I had a busy day, and when I called at lunch Q had invented the “pillow bum” game where he drops pillows off the couch and says “pillow bum”. I guess it is his first two word sentence. J this evening we took a bath (had our very first poop in the bathtub experience- I am amazed it took this long to happen, actually!) and Quinn did a lot of walking practice. A few times he crawled to the opposite end of the living room and down to the end of the hallway, then got up and walked all the way back to me (20 feet?) only losing his balance once along the way. He is amazingly surefooted in under a week of being bipedal.

6/11-6/16

the “ladies’ hammer,” the crowning gem of my tool collection (yes, it says that on the label!) has become Quinn’s favorite toy. He plays a lot of “bum” with it, and in spite of how dangerous it looks to have a one year old swinging a real hammer, he is astoundingly sure-handed with it. I really believe he could actually drive nails into wood, given how hard he swings it, and how accurately, but so far I only let him hit wood, no nails (we have to have SOME rules!) he had a great time helping Grampy stack firewood, then he played “bum” with a few of the logs.

He is a well rounded boy, however, and could also be seen attempting yoga poses while I practiced in the yard. I love when he tries to get under me while I’m in downward facing dog pose and stick his butt up in my face! He is a hoot. Sometimes he just goes “under the bridge” and other times he does the pose next to me. He’s also incredibly brilliant (I’m not biased either!) as evidenced by his play with his new mega blocks. (garage sale score from g and g!) immediately.after we opened the bag, he pulled out all the single purple pieces first, then the single yellows, and proceeded to sort them by color and make one tower of each color!

He has also learned (by watching) how to pull the leafy caps off the farmers market strawberries before he eats them (in large quantity. We bought lots and made jam!)

We made some friends at the beach yesterday (6/15). A mom (Trina) and her 2 year old son Noah walked onto the beach near where we were all sitting and we struck up a conversation- turns out she is a doula from Vermont, and almost as new in town as we are!

6/16

Grammy and Grampy left this morning. L we are on our own! It is sad to see them leave, but empowering too. And yet, having car trouble as I left Quinn at Summer’s house this morning was not exactly what I had in mind… we walked to the food coop after work and bought red quinoa and yogurt and apricots.

6/17

tonight we went to my boss Kym’s house for a lab get together. It was fun- we ate fish tacos and razor clams caught by todd (who I’m replacing- this was a farewell to him/welcome to me party) and brownie sundaes for dessert that I brought the fixins for (brownies fresh out of the oven; cook’s secret: buy the cheapest organic box mix, they taste a million times better than betty crocker!) the jacobsons have a great house right on a cliff overlooking the ocean. We watched the sunset from their deck and played with Guinness, their chocolate lab puppy.

When we got home, I had a message from Summer that she had to take her son to the hospital in Portland right away, and so she couldn’t watch Quinn for at least a few days. So at 9:33 pm I was calling next door to Becky of Creative Kids, where Quinn is supposed to start permanently in July, to see if she could squeeze him in for at least a day. Luckily she has 2 kids on vacation this week, but I am sad that he has to go to a second place so soon after adjusting to daycare to begin with…

So far it has been ok with the nursing situation. He nurses a lot when he gets home, and extra evening nursings, and the bedtime one seems long, too. He is sleeping a nice long 6-7 hour stretch though, so that makes it easier to deal with the multiple times from 5AM until wake up time. Pumping is going ok too, I guess.

6/18

Quinn has a fever- Becky called at 2 right as I was going into a meeting but I left at 3 and took him home. It went up as high as 102, very briefly, and soon after he fell asleep for the night he didn’t feel feverish at all. I am not sure, but I think it may be teething related. (canines?) he was drooling a lot, and pulling on his mouth.

6/20

low grade fever again in the afternoon, but he was able to stay at daycare, and it did not spike again. On the happy side, Talan Thomas Rew was born today! He was a wee tiny thing at only 10 lbs and 3 ounces, and everyone seems to be doing very well! I’m so excited to have a new nephew and for Quinn to have a new cousin!

We went to a “function” briefly this evening. Scott baker, the marine mammal geneticist here at hatfield, invited me personally to a gathering at his house… considering I’d like to work with him someday I made an appearance. Quinn came, in the sling, and we were only there for maybe 20 minutes, then I took him home to bed.

6/21

farmer’s market

6/22

beach! Practicing shoveling

6/23 SIXTEEN MONTHS!

Went to trina and noah’s house this evening for dinner, it was great! The boys played very well, noah is very good at sharing, as is Quinn. We even watched Quinn at one point take noah’s hand to “ask” noah to walk with him (Quinn is more steady on his feet all the time, but felt like having someone hold his hand at that moment- so cute that he picked noah for that task.) we ate beans and rice and spinach salad with craisins and pecans. Yummy! Quinn ate a ton. Quinn wanted to nurse at one point and noah inspected, then said matter of factly, “Quinn’s eating the belly button.” I LOVE the innocence in that statement. If only more of society were 2 year olds.

quinn’s fifteenth month ~ packing, playing, peekaboo and pears

Posted on May 23, 2008 by marybethrew

new words this month: Hi Pencil backpack peekaboo car duck play (bay) here there pear cheese

4/24

I accepted the job! I called from the park where I had quinn on the swings, and left kym a message that I’m taking it! Wow… big changes coming…

4/25

went to the lab to work today while dada watched quinn. The few times they have done this, it has gone ok. He cries around naptimes but he does eventually fall asleep, and he is learning to take the bottle. As soon as I get home I am back on duty, full throttle, do not pass go. Sometimes I manage to wash my hands before the hand-off.

4/27-4/30

calling about housing rentals, working on laptop (from the lab, working at home) a little, figuring out truck logistics, giving landlord one month notice… I start new job june 2^nd!

5/1

quinn threw up all night. I’m not doing so well myself today… ugh. Hope it’s over quickly. It will make packing a bit easier if we’re healthy and getting a full night’s sleep again soon…

5/4

lots of time at the park today.

Aunt Lauren had a dream about quinn last night. They were playing and she picked him up and they were on a bench- he was walking on the bench while she held onto him; then he was standing on her leg and she was holding him (she said he was big for that though) and he would echo the words she would say. Then they sat on the floor and played and giggled. When he giggled, his eyes changed colors- first one blue and one green- then they switched and she said, “hey! What are you doing?” and he giggled more- purple and blue… etc. and her laughing made him laugh and do it more.

5/6

the last 3 nights q hasn’t slept through the night. Various wakings, like an hour after he goes to bed, or waking up at 5am, then going back to bed at 6. or last night, the worst one, awake from 2:30-5:30am and I hadn’t gone to bed till 11:30 so I am out of it today!

5/8

more housing searches. Quinn and I got him a high chair today off craigslist! It is an old wooden one. Very sturdy. I like it, and he loves it! He asks to be put in it and seems to be eating more- maybe just the novelty of it.

5/9

I worked at the lab, then we drove to Newport! We actually got a hotel room in Lincoln city for the night, where q is jumping (on his knees) on the hotel bed. It must be genetically hardwired in human children!

5/10

on our way to seal rock this morning to look at house #1, we saw orcas out of the car windows. Wow! House number one- carpet (ew) and HUGE and no chance for wood heat therefore electric would be SUPER expensive. But SO close to the beach… BUT house #2, right in Newport, is perfect size, has woodstove, huge fenced yard, 8 blocks to beach, 5 blocks to food coop, 12 to fred meyer… it’s better than we thought it would be! 3 miles to work for me (seal rock house is more like 12 miles.) wood and bamboo floord, new insulated windows, new energy efficient appliances, new (nice) paint, French doors to the yard, 3 bedrooms, (I get a craftroom! Yay!) and… a DISHWASHER! YAY!

5/11

mother’s day. Got home late last night, not a whole lot of celebrating going on.

5/16

lab day for mama.

5/17

95 degrees. Quinn in pool. Water boy.

5/19

dada’s last day of work

5/20-5/22

PACKING. Quinn is just going with the flow.

5/23

my last day of work! Quinn is 15 months old!!!!

quinn’s fourteenth month ~ bum-bum-bum and dinosaurs

Posted on April 23, 2008 by marybethrew

words this month:

Hi Pencil backpack peekaboo car duck play (bay) here there pear cheese

3/24

went to japanese gardens today, which was beautiful. Quinn enjoyed the walk. There is a beautiful waterfall, amazing trees and shrubs, a pond with coy swimming in it, and amazing sand paintings.

3/25

quinn stayed with susan for a few hours today while i went to the lab. He is using lots of new words. we just figured out he says there (day!) and possibly here, outside, etc. (he definitely waves at the windows and doors now, if he wants to go outside.) he was saying fish “ish” at susan’s house.

3/26

home-baking bread, staying warm. Quinn is pointing to my nose a lot, as well as everyone’s belly buttons.

3/27

quinn is using his word for tools a lot: “bum!” it’s related to “boom” which he says when things fall and make noise. He has been really interested in dada’s work on building a guitar, much of which has been taking place in the dining room this past week or so. Quinn has been very observant, and watches how dada wraps the sandpaper around the sanding block, then he will try to do it himself, and try to sand the guitar, too. dada has been so patient while he does this, it’s been cool to watch.

Speaking of observant, quinn is also way into building fires… yes i know, not generally approved baby activity. He has watched dada do it a million times over the winter, and this week has been particularly cold (for spring). Both yesterday and today quinn “requested” a fire to be built in the afternoons- after he danced by the stereo to get me to put a CD on, he sat by the fireplace and pointed at it saying “hot!” over and over again, and picked up pieces of kindling and poked them at the screen until i got the message. Build me a fire, mom! So i did. And he helped! He knows exactly what to do. Kindling first, then the big pieces, which he watched me lay, then he helped crumple the newspaper and without me even showing him, he stuffed each piece of the newspaper underneath the grate. He did the same thing both yesterday and today. Then he knows to back off while i light the match and put the screen back in front. He is something else…

3/28

it snowed this morning…. it has never even snowed in MARCH in portland. Let alone the END of march. Blech. Global climate change.

we have figured out that Quinn has been saying “pick”. He has been infatuated with guitar picks for a while now, always a supervised game of course, and he is able to hold onto a pick and strum the strings now. We finally figured out which of his words it is- it sounds like “bih” or something like that. Now that we have identified it, it’s easy to pick out every time.

3/29

Quinn also has been saying guitar, it turns out. We finally identified that one- because he says it while pointing frantically at the guitar hanging on the wall that he wants us to get down and play, and let him play. He says it like “a-tagh” or “a-dagh” or something like that, sometimes just the second syllable but the “gh” sound is there to differentiate it from anything else he says starting with t or d. It sounds French in a way.

Another fun language tidbit that dada discovered… Everything we drink is tea “t” with the exception of dada’s coffee which is named “hot”. Soda is also tea, but since it is in cans which have tabs on them, and Quinn calls those tabs picks “bih” or “pih”, soda therefore becomes known as pick-tea or “bih-t”. Very cool bit of detective work on daddy’s part there…

3/30

this evening dada was sitting at the dining room table carving the neck of a guitar, i was at the kitchen sink washing dishes, and quinn was rearranging “his” cupboard (the one with all the canned goods, non-breakable items). dada could see quinn and at one point told me to turn around and look- and there was Quinn, sitting looking at what he had just built, a tower of cans stacked five high. Not only were they 5 high, they were arranged biggest on the bottom and smallest on top (soup cans- jelly jars with flax seeds in them- tomato paste cans). Then we cheered for him and he smiled, and looked proud, and then he accidentally knocked it over and looked up again and smiled and said “boom.” Very calmly. It was a very cool moment. He has been into stacking blocks some lately, but never that many, although he has been standing the cylinders up on end a lot lately. Usually it is just one cylinder on a flat rectangular block, or two side by side on the rectangle. So the soup can tower was pretty impressive!

3/31

indoor park and space monkey with susan

4/2

omsi with susan

4/3

i turned 30! Quinn and i had a good day because it started to get warm today finally! We went for walks, swung on the swings (quinn LOVES the swings.) in the morning we went to indoor park but it was lame- only 2 other babies and we were there all alone for the first 20 minutes. Boring! Well, we still had fun. Quinn is the kind of person you can be all alone with and he will somehow always make things fun!

4/4

i went to work at the lab today while dada stayed home with quinn. (dada is now working four ten-hour days so i can do this once a week!)

4/5

took some hand-me-down baby gear over to doug and meg’s house (they’re due in 5 weeks!) and then got thai take-out and some dvds for my birthday.

molar

4/6

went to omsi with dada today- quinn showed him all around the science playground, and then we checked out the dinosaur exhibit. Somewhere along the way quinn has learned a word for dinosaurs. (often it is just “dah” but sometimes it is “dah-nah” while pointing at one of the large skeletons.)

4/7

32 pounds!

Climbing on couch

4/8

Quinn can climb on furniture as of today. Yikes! He climbed onto the lounge today while i was sitting on it with absolutely no assistance! He is also standing up and letting go momentarily of hand-holds. Tonight quinn did the sign for “milk”. He looked at me and did it with both hands when i was doing it to him. It was really cool! His first sign… i’m so proud. (sign for milk: think milking a cow- squeezing your fist; his is way cuter than the “proper” version, because his little fingers go in and out a lot more.)

quinn has his own keyboard on the floor that he plays with when I type.

4/9

wow! Quinn already did his second sign! Today we were on the bus and someone was reading a book- i signed (and said) book a few times. Then after a few minutes he pointed back at that person’s book and did the sign to me! It was again, so very cool. (book is your hands in “prayer” position, then open them up like a book. His is cute because he opens them WAY up. Hehehe.)

today we went to omsi with susan, gryph and ro. Q is standing up and letting go of furniture quite a bit, then grabbing back on. He’ll reach between furniture that is farther and farther apart, and he “surfs” (gets really low with his arms wide) to get from one to the other. He asks me to hold his hands and walk him once in a while, but not often. I got to take a bath this evening while quinn and dada played “bum”. However, as we were getting ready to go for a bedtime walk, and I was putting him in the sling, he tore off my glasses, and as I was getting them out of his hands, he head butted me with his teeth, right next to my left eye. Ouch! I scared quinn with my “ouch!” and he cried, and I was in pain but trying to comfort him because he was afraid. What a mess! I have a bruise/cut and it swelled a little.

4/11 “bum,” by the way, is anything involving wood and tools. Stacking blocks, hitting them with the hammer, and saying “bum” as you hit them. Or standing up a piece of firewood on end, hitting that with the hammer, (bum-bum-bum) until it tips over. Hours of entertainment!

4/17 I listened to my new (birthday) mp3 player for the first time today and got to hear the mighty Quinn (it was on random!)

4/18 ANI DIFRANCO CONCERT at the crystal ballroom. It was fabulous! We brought Quinn, earplugs, sling, and boobs, showed up just in time for ani to come on stage. Quinn nursed and snoozed in the sling, then later on he was awake, dancing with me or with dada, and laughing and having an excellent time. He pointed at the stage and said “ha-tahg” (guitar) a bunch, and he would bounce if I wasn’t dancing enough, to make me dance more.

4/22

phone interview with Kym Jacobson at HMSC (Hatfield Marine Science Center) in Newport, for the Salmon Microbiologist position I applied for. I don’t know… I think it went fine, but who knows? dada watched quinn while I did the interview. Quinn and I have been outside a lot lately- lots of trips to the park to swing!

4/23 FOURTEEN MONTHS AND I GOT THE JOB!!!!!!

Wow! That was fast turnaround time. Last interview was such a long process, this one is almost too fast! But I’m so excited! Making the decision… the only thing will be how to make the sea-time aspect of the job work, but dada says he is game. It seems like a good thing- wish I knew whether the other one I applied for (salmon genetics) would come through or not- it would avoid the sea time bit, but this way I’m working for a woman which seems much better for me usually… I want to give her an answer tomorrow.

My baby is 14 months old, and I am going to raise him at the beach!!!

quinn’s thirteenth month ~ reveling

Posted on March 23, 2008 by marybethrew

2/24-3/1

quinn is a whole year old!!! We have watched him standing up and letting go of his handholds a lot this week- he is getting more and more adventurous all the time. He has mastered the plastic ring stacking game, and he is a pro at sticking out his tongue- he initiates it now, and it has helped us through many a diaper change. He find sneezes to be the most hilarious thing in the world at the moment, even fake ones!

We have been having lovely weather, and it has been such a nice break from the rainy winter. Many walks have been taken- especially since mommy can’t work this week (the lab is closed!) we went to indoor park with susan and kids one day this week, and have been playing in the backyard a little bit- quinn spent a little time checking out his trike- he really likes it, even though he can’t really ride it yet. Our walks are so much fun- he is now pointing out many things as we walk, and telling me what they are. Birds (buh!) balls (baww!) cats (tuh!) dogs (duh!) trees (tuh!) i actually wasn’t sure about trees until this week- we were looking at birds and then i said something about the trees and he pointed straight up at one and said tuh! so he definitely has that one down now.

He has been talking more and more, saying lots of little secret things we have no idea what they could mean… and also repeating things we say, like good (it sounded like a combo between dude and toot!) and shoe (sss). He has been very interested in shoes, especially mommy’s shoes, lately- he will bring one over to me and have me put it on, take it off, over and over. The best thing about my life right now is watching him just revel in the amazingness of life, and he finds it in the most unlikely places (like shoes!) which just makes me feel so good to see.

We went over to steve and dena’s for dinner and had lebanese food (quinn loved the pita bread, and tried a few other things that he seemed mostly unimpressed with. He and bodhi played with the toy elmo phone and lots of other toys all evening. Quinn was overtired by the time we got in the car to go home, and fell asleep to mommy singing this land is your land and mr tambourine man.

3/2

we took a drive out to the gorge today and went for a hike at elowah falls- the weather was gorgeous! Quinn rode on mommy’s front on the way out, and on daddy’s back all the way back. He took a nap on mom, which was nice, since we don’t do that as often as we used to. he played guitar with dad this evening- he has been really interested in trying to use a pick (no, i’m not kidding!)

3/3

stir crazy! Lots of walks!

3/4

went to omsi with susan

3/5

i went to work today while quinn stayed at dena’s for a couple hours. He and bodhi had a good time together, and he fell asleep in the car when steve drove us home.

3/6

we left for newport this evening, headed for my interview at the hatfield marine science center for a lab manager job in a shellfish genetics lab. The drive went smoothly until the very end of the 3 and a half hours, when quinn started crying and i had the directions to the hotel wrong. It was so nice to be on the coast, even that evening we first arrived. dada went and got us tv dinners at fred meyer while quinn settled into the hotel room with me. Then we went for a walk around the area. We were in the closest hotel to the marine science center, so we even skirted the grounds a little bit, which are right on yaquina bay. It really reminds me a lot of the marine station on ye olde southampton campus (a shout out to my girls here) may it rest in peace. A lot about the idea of living on the coast has had me thinking back to those college days, back when i first lived on a coast somewhere. I miss it, and look forward to doing it again!!!

3/7

interview day. Oh boy was i nervous this morning. we took quinn down to get some continental breakfast, and he had fun eating hard boiled eggs and biscuits in the high chair. He even had his first cheerios. dada and quinn dropped me off at 9 for the interview, and they had ALL DAY to themselves. We weren’t sure if they would be invited along for lunch, and it turned out they weren’t, so all told, they were without me for almost 7 hours. The interview went very well, i thought. Quinn was SOOO happy to see me when i met them in the parking lot at the hotel and took him out of his carseat (they had been all over- to beaches, to the historic bayfront where the sea lions hang out…) they had a great day, which made it so much easier for me to put my mind on my presentation and all that stuff.

We regrouped for a few minutes after that, but it was still light out and we wanted to take advantage, so we went back outside to drive to the beach. It had just started to rain when the interview ended, and now when we came outside the sun peeked out, and a double rainbow appeared in the sky. It stayed all the way until we got to ona beach. And on the beach, it was SUPER spring low tide, lower than i’ve ever seen on the oregon coast, and it was great- we could walk for a long ways and not have to stop for big rocks/cliffs in our way. We found fossil shells (pretty common for oregon coast but i’m still getting used to seeing them). Later we got clam chowder and fish and chips from a local place, and took it back to the hotel. It was really yummy and quinn seemed to really enjoy seafood.

3/8

Today in the hotel Quinn sat down and fed himself half a jar of baby food with a spoon. He has been pretty interested in the utensils lately, but this was really by far the most impressive use I have seen, and very effective. We spent part of the day on the beach- seal rock is one of our favorites. We also poked around Newport, Waldport, and drove as far south as Yachats before turning back north. We picked up classifieds wherever we saw them, and around 6 began driving home. The trip again went well until the end, and Quinn was really ready to be out of the car about a half hour before we got home. I sang every song I could think of, and eventually we made it.

3/9-3-15

this week quinn has really worked on developing his ability to use eating utensils. He has spoons and forks that i used when i was a baby, which is cool both for the nostalgia factor and that they are not plastic coated. (his wooden handmade by daddy spoon has been retired from too much biting! Sad…) i’m amazed at how much control he has with the utensils at this age.

A new development… Quinn has located his (and other peoples’) belly button(s). He started calling it “be” or “beye” and when we say it, he will now point to his own or one of our belly buttons. I think he is tickled by the way it sounds, and of course thinks it feels funny (as we all do) when he pokes his own.

3/16 sunday driving out to sauvie island

3/18 spent the day at susan’s. this evening quinn was very music oriented. He went around the room, playing every instrument he came in contact with, and fiddling with the stereo as well. He played a little piano, a little drums, and made up some other things to do by banging his blocks together, and things like that.

3/19 today i found out i didn’t get the lab manager job. Boo. We went to powells in the evening and got some new old books. In Quinn’s life, many things are being labeled Hot at the moment, since he is now fully enunciating (it’s not just tuh it is h-o-t!). He has been saying “hot” for things like, if I take off his shoes and he wants them back on- I am wondering if he is thinking “cold” when he does that? Or temperature in general, maybe.

3/22

went on an easter egg hunt this morning. Quinn picked up five eggs- they were the foil wrapped chocolate kind, unfortunately, so he didn’t get to really eat them. He did put them in his mouth, but i took them out before he got more than a little taste… i still think he really enjoyed himself. He seemed quite content with his five, it was all he could hold in his hands, and that was simply perfect, in spite of the fact that there were twenty more within arm’s reach. Hurray for being new to the world- lacking competitiveness and greed.

3/23

13 MONTHS!

easter sunday! Quinn and i babysat ronan while his family went to cirque du soleil. We had a good time (other then 20 minutes when ro wouldn’t stop crying/screaming) and the boys are so good at sharing and playing nicely. I actually read a few pages of my book, which I didn’t expect- something about their ages maybe, they seem to be more happy entertaining themselves when someone their same size is right there also entertaining himself. Or something.

One of the newer words in Quinn’s vocabulary is woof- usually it sounds like “oof” but other times it is just “fff” or still others “voof-foov-voof”. It is particularly cute, and since he started using it, that is what he says for dogs, instead of ever saying “dah” anymore.

quinn’s twelfth month ~ put a lid on it and quinn turns one

Posted on February 23, 2008 by marybethrew

1/24 We went to the lab today. Quinn is still not feeling good, but he had a mellow day, just kind of hung out on mommy (this is the day he had his picture taken napping in the sling on my back while i did lab work).

1/25 Quinn woke up at 4am and threw up. Again at 8am and 1pm. We went to a naturopath doctor in the afternoon. Quinn has mild ear infection and upper respiratory virus. He now has herbs and ear oil drops to take, and we are doing wet sock treatment (wet cotton socks, dry wool socks on top, put on before bed) to draw out his fever and help him drain the yuckiness.

1/26 very rough day but Quinn napped a lot which was good. Fever, no more puking after 4am, but kind of low energy and only a handful of wet diapers (dehydrated). Nursing like crazy, and taking herbs and water in sippy cup. Had him lay his ear on a hot water bottle when he napped. In spite of all this, quinn managed to invent the game of basketball when he was helping me unload a laundry basket (of clothes he had puked on, and a tennis ball he had also puked on). He spent several minutes putting the tennis ball in the basket and taking it back out again. I love watching him invent games for himself to play!

1/27 puked one more time in afternoon but overall good day, better spirits in general. Played normally, fever down, more wet diapers. Unfortunately now dad is puking… Another invented game was dropping cylindrical blocks through the empty paper towel roll (yes, it was empty because of cleaning up puke- quinn’s AND dad’s; quinn helped me clean up dad’s by unrolling the paper towels and ripping them off for me. Hehehe.)

1/28 dada stayed home from work today. We have some snow on the ground, and we’re all cooped up being sick (except me- i’m just taking care of the sick ones.) quinn is a little more himself, with more normal playing and more wet diapers. He seems to be done throwing up, and so is dada. Yay!

1/29 quinn and i finally went out for a walk today. He seemed to really enjoy leaning his head back and looking up at the trees, kind of in a zone, and feeling the breeze, and then he took a cat nap toward the end of the walk. We didn’t go to the lab today, and I’m not sure if we will go later in the week. It was sunny, briefly, and i’m very glad we took advantage of it since now we have that wonderful weather known as “mixed precipitation” going on. Both my men are napping to the hum of our new humidifier. He is still quite congested and his fever went back up a little bit again (99.8). I got very little sleep again last night, but for some reason can’t nap at the moment. I’ll probably feel like napping around the time he wakes up from his nap, as usual.

1/31 quinn slept through the night! Yippee!!! We went to the lab today and tried to catch up a little on what we didn’t do on tuesday…

2/3 this is the anniversary of quinn’s due date! At this time last year, we didn’t even know he was Quinn yet. We’ve just been having a slow weekend of errands and naps and such. It’s so nice that his sleep is back to normal. He is eating more than ever, i think he is trying to make up for the time while he was sick. He is spunky again… he has been playing with his train set, and blocks, and other things. Making up new games, as ever. Lately he loves pulling all the rolls of toilet paper off the bathroom shelf, then peeling pieces off of one roll and stuffing them into the end of the tube. He had a great time putting his cylindrical blocks into the end of an empty paper towel roll as well. These were very expensive toys, of course.

2/4-2/10

this week flew by for some reason! Quinn’s latest passion is putting caps and lids onto containers. He is getting very good with baby food jars, odwalla juice bottles, and plastic tupperware tubs. Last night (2/9) he was crawling around and located a tupperware tub, and must have remembered where he left the lid, because he hurried over to retrieve the lid so he could put it on…

he ate his first salmon last night as well, cooked by dad (it was yummy!) and he really took his time investigating it before he would actually swallow any. He also had broccoli and potatoes, and so did we. He is more and more often eating what the big people eat for meals.

He has had a minor sniffle this week, but it does not seem to be phasing him at all. Nothing like that last one… If anything he is nursing a little extra, but sleeping fine with just the humidifier running at night to help him breathe a little more easily.

Yesterday morning he fell off the bed while sleeping- we think he crawled in his sleep. So we are going to have to rearrange something there. He reacted great- he cried for about 30 seconds, nursed, and then was awake and smiling for the next 2 hours.

We were at the lab 3 times this week, on Friday just for a few hours to finish an experiment that could not wait over the weekend. He is riding on my back more and more in the sling, and he seems to like it. Next week we’ll work three full days!

On friday quinn had his first ride in a shopping cart! One would think he would have done that by now, but i always put him in the sling. This time i forgot to bring the sling, and so we took a cart for a test drive. He loved it! He seemed to really like this new perspective on the world. I liked being able to write a check much more easily. However, as I suspected, it made it very easy for the checkout person to reach right out and touch him, and that is why I think I have been so resistant to doing it up until now. But I still think it was overall a pleasant experience. He is getting to be such a big boy!

2/11 we had a lab day today but it was pretty rough. Maybe it’s just that it’s our first monday. I think maybe quinn needed to nap so badly that he couldn’t fall asleep, and then we kept having those miss the bus, need to nurse at bus stop, crying in public, not on the same page kind of moments. But it was partly sunny. And the evening was good, after a good nap Quinn played with his “toys” which right now are mostly containers with lids he can put on and take off (and put things inside). Yogurt container this evening was a big hit. He is having a great time eating burritos for dinner lately.

2/12 this morning quinn was entertaining himself for quite a while putting a harmonica through an empty toilet paper tube…

2/13 busy busy lab day- we worked 7.5 hours!

2/14 we spent the day with susan and co today. Quinn is very content and loves playing at their house, he tends to forget to nurse and take naps. He made up for the nursing in the evening (clustered 4 feedings into 3 hours) and went to bed just after 8.

2/15 quinn started using his spoon to try to feed himself dinner tonight. He also fed me, both with the spoon and his hand (handful of beans and quinoa is yummy in mommy’s tummy!) then he lost interest in eating and crawled over to the table and discovered that he can make the chair move all by himself- i think he will be zooming it around the room in no time.

2/16-17 beautiful weather this weekend!

2/18 today was sadly quinn’s last day at the lab. He isn’t allowed to go anymore, and it is going to be very difficult to figure out what the best solution is. Although we have been thinking about this for a while, we had no set plan of action and now it has ended rather suddenly.

2/19 quinn loves the animal babies books from the library, and when i pointed to the little wolf’s nose tonight he turned around and looked at me and put his finger on my nose.

2/20 mellow day. Quinn and i went to trader joe’s to get the last few missing birthday cake ingredients, and we started to clean the bathroom (he helped unpack the toilet paper from the plastic wrapper). Lunar eclipse this evening, which we were miraculously able to see- hardly a cloud in the sky.

2/21 q at susan’s- first day away for 4 hours while mom worked. 🙁 a very hard day for all. Quinn was a champ, though. He is the bravest, most adaptable little guy. He played well and even nursed (he has a backup milk mommy, yay mama susan!) and took a short nap. By the time i came and picked him up he was ready to see me, but he was all love- not angry or upset with me. Later that night he cried for a spell, and it seemed like maybe a delayed reaction. (he had no other obvious pressing needs.)

2/22 omsi with susan and friends.

2/23 birthday!!!

Quinn woke up his usual happy self. we went to the kitchen and he ate some banana for breakfast while mom made her breakfast. Then we took a walk while dad slept in a little bit. Quinn had a few presents from Grammy and Grampy to open, and he stretched that out through part of the morning and early afternoon. He got a great book (the three snow bears), an argyle sock monkey named otto, and a magnetic train set.

His party was scheduled for 2:00 and everyone arrived just before 3, all at once! Quinn seemed to take it all in stride, which was good because sometimes he has been known to be upset by people coming to the house. He knows them all though… Steve and Dena and Bodhi, Susan and Gryphon and Ronan, and Sukita. We had lots of food ready, a yummy nutritious yogurt-oatmeal cake with strawberries and whipped cream, sushi, chips and guacamole, juice, soda, etc. quinn received some great new toys, including his first toolbox and his first puzzle, an abacus, and probably some other things i am forgetting.

He ate and ate and ate for his party, played with the other kids, snuggled with the adults, and then ate his cake with true gusto. He just sat on the floor and stuffed his face with it. He seemed like he really enjoyed it (he was up a tiny bit late that night, yelling with glee at 10pm due to orange juice/maple sugar in the cake! But there does seem to be something to the idea of those more natural sugars not inducing the IMMEDIATE sugar high spike and subsequent crash- it stretches out longer…)

That evening I was playing on the floor with him, and he stood up holding onto me, then let go, standing without support and just my arms nearby in case he wobbled- his balance is great! He is wonderful.

He is communicating a lot more clearly in the last few days. He has decided on a gesture for nursing where he pats my chest (basically where a necklace would be if i wore one) and it has been very consistent. He also has been really excited lately about things he sees when we go for walks- he points to birds and says “buh!” or dogs and says “dah!” or cats and says “tuh”. His newest animal to point at is squirrels- they sound a lot like cats, with a little “s” thrown in for fun.

quinn’s eleventh month ~ clapping in his sleep and first christmas!

Posted on January 23, 2008 by marybethrew

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 6^th 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 2^nd 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 8^th 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.

quinn’s tenth month ~ pulling up and opening things

Posted on December 23, 2007 by marybethrew

11/24-11/30

Now that Quinn has gotten the hang of pulling up to his knees, he has taken it to new venues; on my pant leg, on my swivel chair at the lab. He’ll pull up to his knees on the stereo, and then bop to the music, or if there is no music, we take it as a request to put some on. The dancing is a pretty recent development, but now that he is doing it, I can’t ever remember him not having done it. I don’t think I’ve seen anything cuter in my entire life.

Also very cute is the mimicking he is doing lately. He will dance or move his head the same way one of us is doing. He’ll also mimic what we say sometimes, or if we make a sound with our mouth he’ll try to do it, too. He is quite the charmer.

He has taken to listening to multiple books every night before bed. I have memorized i am a mouse, goodnight gorilla, goodnight moon, feely bugs, that’s not my dragon, and a few others. I’m amazed by his attention span, he just seems to love sitting there absorbing the mommy time and watching what comes up on each new page.

Quinn’s newest hobby is opening things- he especially loves to open our cell phones, but he also likes CD and DVD cases a lot. He spends time trying to open things that don’t necessarily open like remote controls, etc.; if he sees that it has a seam, he’ll try prying it open with his beautiful little fingers and thumbs.

12/1-12/7

Quinn dancing at the stereo for music has become a regular daily occurrence.

Our bedtime routine now includes reading books every night before sling time, and it’s been pretty consistent (pat on the back for mom!)

Dad also gets a pat on the back for bringing home a soccer ball one day after work. Quinn is already getting the hang of rolling it back and forth with us. And it only took him a couple of days to say ball! He is actually saying “baaaaaa” but it is clear he is talking about a certain special toy.

12/8-12/14

What an exciting week! Quinn went from being a crawler who occasionally pulled up to his knees, to pulling up to standing all in one week! It’s shocking how quickly he is getting this stuff, we had recently been speculating that it might take him longer to get up off the ground given his weight, especially the weight of his head (no “so i married an axe murderer” comments please! heheh). He proved us wrong. He has always been a quick study, but let’s see… On the 12^th he pulled up to standing with his own strength, with dad right nearby for moral support. On the 13^th, he did it with mom right there. On the 14^th, he stood up about 30 times all by himself as if he had been doing it forever. This is not to say that he has not fallen a couple of times in the past days… he has. But he is getting to be a pretty tough kid, it’s never anything a little milk can’t fix. Sometimes if dad is there and says “whoopsies!” to him when he tumbles, referring to a game they play on the bed together where dada lets quinn roll off of him and “fall” onto the bed, then the fall is all a big laugh. If it’s mom, he’s more apt to cry a little, but i’m sure he sees my look of distress and cues off that- something i need to work on!

Speaking of weight… his weight gain has slowed down some, but his length gain sped up! He all of sudden looks like a lean baby! (Not his cheeks yet, thank goodness!) Susan commented the other day that he seems to be built like his mama, and that is the first time we’ve heard that so far… I think he is stretching out!

Quinn got an early Christmas present from Sheila (dada’s friend from alaska)- shoes! They are the most awesome little hippy moccasin booties you’ve ever seen. They have sheepskin soles, so he has good traction from the leather, and warm fuzzies on his toes, and the boot is crocheted out of rainbow colored wool. THEY STAY ON HIS FEET. I’m amazed. He doesn’t even seem to want to pull them off, it must be that they are just so comfy. They really seem to be adding to Quinn’s standing up efforts, in that they are not slidey like socks. He will stand up by the coffee table, couch, or lounge, and read books to himself, or play with a toy, or drum on things, or dance… he’s like the energizer bunny!

Yet another cousin will be joining the family, we found out dada’s sister Lisa is pregnant, also due in June!

12/13 marked Quinn’s first day wearing 3T overalls (much to mommy’s chagrin!)

I’ve been practicing with Quinn how to get down from the bed or couch safely, by turning over on his tummy and dangling his legs to the floor. (Ever since he fell off the bed that one time…) He is now doing it on his own, and several times this week he just started doing it of his own accord. He might be on my lap on the couch, and just roll to his belly, then get down and then ask to come back up and do it repeatedly. Or he might be in the middle of getting his diaper changed on the bed and scoot over the side before i can catch him- little sneaky pants!

12/15-12/21

12/15 Quinn is so much fun to read to. His current favorite is goodnight gorilla, and there is a page in the book that he loves where all the animals say goodnight-goodnight- goodnight- goodnight- goodnight in different voices. He has started to say “na-na-na-na” during that page (night-night!) which slays me every time. He has also been working on feeding himself- tonight was beans (black/pinto) and spinach and quinoa, from his wooden bowl. He fed himself a good 2 heaping tablespoons of this, using his hands, but holding onto one or two spoons the entire time. He has been enjoying playing with two of anything- spoons, books, bowls, both mommy AND daddy’s cell phones…

12/16 dad’s birthday- Quinn watched dad open presents, then played with all the tags on them. We all went to good will and bought some new books for bedtime, including “children’s treasury” which was quite a score!

12/17 lots of walks.

12/18 We went to the lab today; Quinn has been getting up on all fours today- hands and feet in sort of downward dog position… His sleeping pattern has gotten to be very unpredictable… last night went to bed 9:30, woke up this morning at 7, took cat naps all day (four of them 15 min to an hour long) and then went to bed at 7:30…..

12/19 and woke up at 7 again! A good night’s sleep. Then napped this morning from 8:30-9. Seems like a growth spurt, or at least in terms of development? It is almost as if his body decides at a moment’s notice, ok time to sleep NOW, need to build neurons. He woke up and got up on his knees and started dancing in bed. 🙂 He got a present in the mail from Aunt Lisa, some really cool alphabet block books, some organic vegetable toys, and a shirt with “peace” in many languages.

12/20 Another lab day- lab christmas. Deb gave us a card with owls on it (so thoughtful) and with money inside (very intuitive, she is. Hehe.) Quinn got three new little books- ABC, 123 and Colors. He is now practicing bringing an object with him when he stands up (his spoon, a little book, a toy, etc.)

12/21 We spent the day at Susan’s, taking walks to the playground, eating whole wheat rigatoni on the carpet (luckily no sauce yet), and playing guitars with the boys. Gryphon sang us a lovely rendition of Yellow Submarine. Quinn is really enjoying the rhythm of books- saying “na-na-na-na” or “da-da-da-da” depending on the words. He likes his new little engine that could, especially when I skip over the boring parts and just repeat “I think I can, I think I can” a gazillion times while turning the pages.

12/22 Spent a half hour with dad only this morning while mom went to DMV to renew our registration. Quinn took a big 2 hour plus nap only an hour and a half after waking up. Went with mama to children’s exchange to get some new (mostly) 3T clothes. We ended up buying a really cool wooden abacus that Quinn just loved as soon as we picked it up. Also got 3 extra large diaper covers… he is extra large! Now he is taking another 2 hour nap (and counting) while I work on this. A trip to the grocery store will round out our big day. While helping me in the kitchen earlier, he grabbed the cap of dada’s coffee thermos and pulled it out (it fits inside; it wasn’t screwed on tightly) and then when I moved away from the thermos he leaned way out to get me to go back to it so he could put the cap back on. This sort of thing sticks out to me because mostly when there is a game of some sort to play, Quinn is so far very good at the taking out and knocking down, but not so much at the putting in or stacking up. So having him put the cap back in/on was impressive.

12/23 10 MONTHS we went to target today, of all places to go on almost christmas eve! We had gift cards to spend for the family so we got new flannel sheets for the family bed, a new dvd player, and some music- the traveling wilburys, which quinn loves already. 10 months seems so OLD and GROWN UP. I am amazed how quickly it is all going by!

things only his mama knows… that little patch of blond hair on the back of his head. The mole on his left shoulder blade, right where his mama’s is. The way he doesn’t like it if you try to hold onto his hands.

mb

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