11-25-08
some of his musical faves are:
baby loves jazz
taj mahal young at heart
not for kids only jerry garcia and david grisman
a children’s celebration of folk music
in harmony (sesame street tribute)
but he really loves regular music just as much, honestly. i can put on michael franti and he is just bopping away. he loves happy upbeat music basically, but even “pretty” quiet music gets him dancing- he is so into dancing, i just love it.
he’s riding on his moose and holding his apple that he asked to eat, and when he got the apple from me he put it into a yogurt cup to eat it- so here he is with it munched all the way down to the cup like an ice cream cone.
awe and wonder; christmas lights at the aquarium
11-28-08 (added on 8-20-20 from found notebook)
Q and I went to nye beach this morning – no wind! it was nearly high tide, so not much beach was exposed. i drank coffee and tried to sit up straight and stretch while Q dug in the sand. he napped early and i napped with him, so no break, and then the nap only lasted an hour, so we had a few cranky moments together in the afternoon. later we went to the aquarium to see the christmas lights, Q was truly mesmerized by the reflections on the stream. he really liked the tunnel. we had more turkey for dinner.
11-29-08 (added on 8-20-20 from found notebook)
we went down the coast today. first we stopped at the water spout because it was high tide. big waves today! then we drove up ten mile creek which goes into the siuslaw national forest. we hiked down to the creek (Q in the sling) we threw rocks in the creek (splash! plunk!) then hiked back. on the way home, we stopped at the cape perpetua visitors center to buy a map, but Quinn was taking his second nap so he didn’t go inside. then we stopped at the store where Q requsted “ba-na-nas” and went home for more turkey, sweet potatoes, and salad. Quinn had a good evening of coloring with mama, and went to sleep at 9.
11-30-08 (added on 8-20-20 from found notebook)
4 day weekend. went for a wonderful mid-day sail. when we got home Q wanted to read zen shorts a whole bunch of times. his favorite character is the little girl, addy. (“where did addy go?” he asks when we are on a page where she is not depicted.)
he kept choosing his yellow fleece jacket all weekend- he LOVEs yellow. he has fleece in every color of the rainbow and sometimes i give him two to choose from, or sometimes i say what color jacket do you want to wear? if yellow is an option, he picks yellow. i finally had to wrestle him out of it last night because it is filthy and needed to be
washed (and not worn to bed).
sunday we went for a sail, which was awesome, the best sail yet, super nice weather but enough wind (not cold) to basically go across the bay, and it was just very cool. here’s the boy in the bottom of the boat, snacking.
12-1-08
i got him this new book, called zen shorts. i knew it was a bit older than him (amazon says it is K-grade 4 age) but i am just basically starting a collection, and don’t mind if he doesn’t want to read some of them until he grows into them or whatever.the first time or two i tried reading it to him, he got bored halfway and said all done. so that’s cool. but lately, and especially yesterday and last night at bedtime, he is now OBSESSED with the book. it is a story of three kids, addy, michael and karl, who met and panda named stillwater, and they each go to visit him and he tells each of them a story (all of which have zen meanings in them). quinn has a huge crush on addy right now- where did addy go? if i get too involved in one of the other kids, he’ll ask where addy is. but he does let me read through the entire book now, AND then he wants to start again at the beginning, or go back to an addy section and read that… over and over. i am so in love with my son. susan has said before (when Q started his “happy day” thing, which he still does) that she thinks he is a shaman or something. and i’m like…. hmmmmm. he is making me re-read and re-read these zen meditations to him…. or is he making me read them to MYSELF?
the last “zen short” in the book is called the heavy load. 2 monks are walking (on a long journey) and they see this woman who is scolding her attendants because she has no way to get across this puddle without ruining her silk robes, and they are holding too many of her packages to help her across. the younger monk notices, and keeps walking. the older monk stops, carries the woman across the mud on his back, and puts her down. she doesn’t thank him, continues scolding her attendants. the monks continue on their way. then hours later, the younger monk has been stewing about it all day, and he finally says, hey, that woman back there was so rude and yet you carried her on your back! and she didn’t even thank you! and the older monk replies… i put the woman down hours ago. why are YOU still carrying her?
it just dawned on me last night (after quinn made me read it for the 4011th time) that maybe i need to stop carrying some stuff now…….
12-2-08
he is pretty solid on green and red and blue and orange now. he has known purple and yellow for a while of course. he sometimes still mixes up the others, and i wonder about red-green color blindness and such, but i think it is just his brain getting them organized.
did i tell you he kisses me on the cheeks now? he says “cheek!” to get me to present one, then he kisses it, then grins at me, then turns my head and kisses the other one.
this morning i asked him to bring me his shoes and he said “tay mama” which i took to mean “okay mama”.
last night quinn asked to paint… so i got out a piece of fabric and taped it to the floor for him to paint on. but he got a little wild with the paint and while i had my back turned, he painted his whole face- i actually watched him surreptitiously rather than stopping him (it was much too late to save him from needing a bath anyway, so i figured what the heck) and he was so cute, the thoughtful look as he put red all over his right cheek. then i came back in and he told me “red face! red face!” then he was starting to get really nutty and trying to put his fully painted hands on furniture, so we got in the bathtub. he then refused to put on a diaper after bath was over, and ran into the kitchen to play, and then once again i turned my back for two seconds, and i heard “uh-oh mama, uh-oh mama!” and i look and he had pooped on the floor. hilarious. what an evening.
he is getting really good about not putting things in his mouth. he sometimes still does, like with a little devil look on his face. but like this week i got out the crayons. he has been doing mostly markers because they don’t have that inviting “eat me” wax smell like the crayons do, but now he seems like he understand to just color with them. so we color with “tans” now too.
12-6-08 (added on 8-20-20 from found notebook)
aquarium with noah and trina. octopus, sea lions being fed, “hello butt” halibut, nummy-nee touch tank.
12-7-08 (added on 8-20-20 from found notebook)
wake up: kiss! hug! happy day to you mama! up up up up up.
drizzly day. baked bread, books in rocking chair.
“quiet please!”
12-9-08 (added on 8-20-20 from found notebook)
very independent about dinner – he opened (unzipped) his lunch bag, found crackers and apple slices left over, decided to put those on the plate with his half a breakfast burrito that I had showed him was for dinner, but had left on the counter because he hadn’t been hungry yet, then carried it all to his high chair, somehow climbed up into it and sat with the plate on his lap, eating.
12-10-08 (added on 8-20-20 from found notebook)
“wow, guys!”
12-11-08
yesterday after he napped he rode in the stroller and we went to the asian market to buy cookie cutters and thenwe made farm animal sugar cookies. after that i tried to get him to play with his dad who had just gotten there, and he kept coming back to me “tooking!” he loves cooking so much it’s hilarious. so he was spooning the beans onto the tortillas, adding the cheese. he thinks it’s the BEST thing in the world.
“read it again,” is something i hear a lot these days.
12-12-08
i put up colored lights on the mantle this morning before quinn woke up and he was totally in love with them- wouldn’t sit in his high chair in the other room, because “piddy yites!” (pretty lights) were in the other room. so he ate his bagel on the couch and just looked at the piddy yites and kept saying it over and over.
12-13-08 (added on 8-20-20 from found notebook)
i’m noticing Q’s “k” and hard “c” sounds have markedly come along – milk has gone from “milt” to “mulk”. he can say kitty. muppin is already muffin. we baked this morning while i talked to grammy – so that i could talk to grammy, actually. anything short of baking would not distract him from wanting the phone! mostly inside all day, just the two of us. later went to the library when we got a little stir crazy. played with the trains and dollhouse for a while, then got out four books to bring home including “blueberries for sal” “alligators all around” “richard scarry’s best counting book ever” and “spots, ? and curly tails”. we read all four of these, and more, before bed at 7:15!
12-14-08 (added on 8-20-20 from found notebook)
snow! woke up to snow on the ground! Quinn needed to go outside right away and check it out. we acted out scenes from ezra jack keats’ the snowy day.
12-15-08 (added on 8-20-20 from found notebook)
snow day! woke up to snow on the ground (a little more than yesterday) and becky closed for the day so Q and i stayed home!
12-18-08 (added on 8-20-20 from found notebook)
“yike olives.”
wanted to see dada, so I put him on the phone. “dada? oh, dada. talk to you later, bye bye dada!”
12-19-08
quinn started saying “pretty cool, huh?” i realize i say it all the time when i’m showing him things… so he was figuring out that he could spin this string with a block tied to the end, and it would swing around, and he kept going “piddy too-el, huh!” (a statement, not a question.)
quinn said my name the other day. he was sitting at the dinner table with me, and i was preoccupied maybe i was reading or just staring into space and he was going mama, mama, mama. (i realized after) and then he said,”mimi-beff!” i was amazed. he said it a bunch more times that night, but not since then (several days ago now.)
12-20-08 (added on 8-20-20 from found notebook)
asked for a clementine “back together”
“bummer dude.”
“otay.”
“awight.”
doot doot on repeat.
12-21-08 (added on 8-20-20 from found notebook)
up from 4:30-5:30 needing “doot doot!”
painted this morning. rainy day – ona beach in am. very attached to raccoon and walrus babies – in sling, helping them go night night, feeding them last night (at 5am actually) he brought them to bed with us. brought them in car to go to the beach, etc.
