The Monster Within

I know that for both Tim and I the terrible twos started around 18 months. Well, Quin will be 18 months on Sunday and seems to be right on track with his behavior. I know some of you are thinking that I don't know what a child throwing a true tantrum looks like, well that may be true (and I am perfectly happy in my ignorance), but Quin is definitely not his usual sweet, well mannered, polite self. Lately, if I didn't know better, I would think there was a monster living in our son!

I know the past month has been EXTREMELY difficult with the move and all of his new teeth, but I think the terrible twos are upon us. I find comfort in knowing that this is just a faze (and in knowing that there is a drop-in child care center not too far away) and will soon pass. As for right now, he flips from extremely clingy and whiny to overly loud and opinionated at the drop of a hat. I know that a lot of this behavior stems from him not being able to properly communicate his thoughts and fears, but at least he knows how to sign. I am 100% sure that the signing that we have been teaching him has helped tremendously. Without them, the best he would be able to do is use his handful of words and then point and grunt. He would be a caveman!

He does love to push my buttons (he must have inherited that from his dad) to see if he can get a reaction out of me. He tries everything he can think of from throwing his food at me to knowingly playing with things that he is not supposed to. Most things get the usual response of me saying/signing no, although the occasional act is done in such outright disobedience that he actually says "no-no" while he is doing whatever it is he feels like doing. These instances actually have a tendency to make me laugh (I try and hide it, but sometimes it is just so hard!).

It must be an evolutionary mommy trait that no matter how much of a monster he turns into, I still find him just as cute and lovable as ever. Even when he tries to be really rotten, I can't help but laugh (most of the time)!

More Hats!

Sorry about that lack of posts, but we still don't have proper internet (we will get it next week!). As for this post, I will attempt to include one picture.

I know I have posted before about Quin's love of hats, but he seems to have gotten even more obsessed with them in the past few weeks. Anything that can be placed on his head is now a hat in his mind. This include pots, pans, buckets, stuffed animals, and anything else you can think of. Sometimes he picks something up that is actually a hat and proceeds to wear it as long as it will stay on his head. I am really glad that Quin does like hats, especially since we now live in a cold climate where we really should try to keep him warm. His love for hats (and actually being happy wearing them) means one less thing for Quin to throw a tantrum about.

I decided that since Quin loves hats so much, we should do a coffee table book of nothing but hats and odds and ends on his head. Is it weird that Quin likes to put buckets on his head and walk around bumping into things? I think it is just cute!

My favorite hat for him to wear is my cap from graduation. He found it in a half unpacked box and thought that it was very silly looking with the tassel hanging off. He immediately realized that it was a hat and wanted it on his head. Now, every time he sees it, he insists upon wearing it.

New Teeth!

Quin has been relatively cranky the last few days due to teething and I figured that one, maybe two new teeth were on the move (it is really hard to get a good look at his top set of teeth). I was way off. I actually pried his mouth open to take a closer look at the cause to all of his agony and found that four sections of his gums are very swollen. When it comes to teething with this boy, he seems to rarely have a singular tooth erupt. As with everything else, he has been handling it remarkably! I will post some pictures when I can get on with a decent connection. Until then, I guess you will just have to imagine his toothy grin.

General Update

Well, we are officially moved into our new house. We are still trying to adjust to a lot of new changes, but overall things are great. I apologize for the lack of posts, however we just got internet (dial-up, can you believe that still exists???) and since it is so slow, the posts may continue to be sparse (especially where pictures are involved).

Quin has done remarkably well on this entire trip. I really couldn't have asked for him to be better. The drive out here ended up taking 3 days (18 hours), but really wasn't bad. Boring, yes, but not terrible. Quin enjoyed seeing the cows in Kansas, although none of us enjoyed their smell. We were really lucky and didn't hit any bad weather; it was pretty cold on our drive though, actually hitting -4 at one point.

As luck would have it, our second night in Colorado brought with it the flu. It is the saddest sight to see a toddler throw-up in a bag. At least he warned us before it happened so we could get prepared. Poor little guy handled it better than I could have imagined. We initially thought that we just had a bit of food poisoning, but after hours of being sick we decided it was more. Of course, we were staying with Matt and Becky (and the twins) and were extremely worried about getting them sick. Since we were still feeling terrible the next day, we left their house, so as to minimize the spread of our contagious disease, and headed for a hotel. The hotel worked out great, allowing us time to sleep and get better.

After two nights at our local Best Western, we finally got to come up to the house. I was so excited to see it since I was sure the pictures I had seen did not do it justice. All I can say is WOW! This place is amazing. How many people get to say they live in a log cabin?? (By the way, the word cabin implies that this place is small, which is definitely not the case.) The only thing I don't like is the driveway leading up to it. Lets just say it scares the crap out of me. I like to think that I am a pretty good driver, yet this road is not fun. I hope I can get used to it!

It has been pretty amazing here. The first night we were in the house (Carl and Gwen were here too), we actually got to enjoy our first snowfall. I don't mean to brag, but I think Austin has been in the 80s with high humidity; thats just not the way January is supposed to feel! I love having a real winter (although it may get old)!

We have had a lot of stuff go wrong with this move, but I am sure things will get better. Quin is finally in his own crib and sleeping in his own room; no more moving around. He is now walking full time and has gotten really good at standing up and sitting down whenever the mood strikes him. Since things are getting back to some sense of normalcy, he has been eating a bit better. Until yesterday, he had hardly eaten since we left home. Spaghetti changed that. He ate half of my dinner! If he will eat it, I will feed it.

Sorry for the book with no pictures. As a parent, shouldn't I be into picture books and not novels? Oh well. I still haven't found the card reader so this post is just text. I promise that cute pictures will follow whenever I can get them up here!

We Are Home!

Just a quick update to let everyone know that we made it to Fort Collins, Colorado safe and sound. The trip out here was long, but relatively uneventful. We haven't been able to get up to the Poudre Plantation (our new home), but we plan on trying either today or tomorrow. We all seem to have gotten a touch of food poisoning, so we aren't feeling too great right now. I will post some new pictures in the next couple of days, but for now we just wanted everyone to know that we made it here!