Our Little Communicator

Quin is becoming quite the little communicator these days. It's really starting to feel like we're dealing with a real person rather than a baby, or even a toddler for that matter. Consider the following scenario that took place this morning.

I got up for work and got ready. While downstairs in the kitchen making my lunch (Quin's room is right next to the kitchen), I hear Quin stirring. He's awake and ready for some action. Sorry mom, time to go to work. I hear "Mama! Dada!" coming through his bedroom door. Elizabeth comes down and we go to say hello to our boy.

[Door opens] "Good morning Quin!"
"Hi hi!"
"Did you sleep good?"
"Yeah!"
"Are you well rested?"
"Yeah! Pee pee!"
"Did you go pee pee?"
"Yep"
"Do you want a new diaper?"
"Yep"
"Okay monkey boy, you can have a new diaper."
"Ooh ooh oohh aah aah aah" [monkey noises]

Being a parent is so cool.

This Is How We Slide...

Quin loves to go down slides. As with everything else, he seems to have developed his own unique style with which he approaches them. It would be best to describe this style in steps:

Step 1: The approach

Step 2: The preparationsStep 3: The launch position
Step 4: Letting go
So far, I have found two reason why this technique is not always successful. First of all, he sometimes hits his chin when sliding down (causing him to bite his lip and bleed...not good). The other pitfall occurs when he attempts a slide that is connected to a second slide. These often have a raised divider between the two, which during step 2 can unfortunately become positioned between his legs. If allowed to travel down the slide in this position, I imagine that it would be rather uncomfortable. As long as we are there to help, he should remain relatively safe sliding this way. Until he learns how to sit up the entire time he is sliding (the few times we have tired it, he ends up falling backward and hitting his head), this will work

Play!

Fort Collins has a very cool park that Quin is really starting to like. When we first brought him to the park, we weren't sure if he was old enough to really enjoy it, but he proved us wrong. Since our initial visit, we have been back a number of times and seem to be making it a weekly outing (if not more). On our last visit, Quin discovered the sandbox. He really enjoyed getting dirty and playing with all of the sand, until he tripped and fell face first into the sand; getting sand up your nose and eating a mouth full of it can really put a damper on all of the fun. On the same trip, he cut the inside of his lip open while going down the slide (he bit it). Poor little guy was having a rough time. It is really hard to see your child having so much fun one second, while the next he is screaming. He may have just been a bit over tired after playing so much, but even with the mishaps he still managed to have a lot of fun.


More than likely, we will head back to the park this weekend. Hopefully we can manage to avoid any mishaps and just have fun. I think Tim and I have just about as much fun as Quin does. The joys of being a kid!

New Pictures on Picasa

As a result of preparing for the move (and actually moving), I haven't had a chance to update Quin's Picasa web album until now. Since the last update was so long ago, there are a lot of new pictures. The new ones include (among other things) Christmas, packing, moving, The Denver Children's Museum, The Denver Aquarium, our new nephews, snow, and snowshoeing. Enjoy!

(The newest pictures are at the bottom of the 12-18 Month album)

Welcome!

Yeah!!! We finally have a niece. Yesterday morning Gwendolyn Katherine was born after roughly 12 hours of labor. Mom and baby are both doing great and should be on their way home. Congratulations Heather and Clayton. We are so happy for you!

Quin The Motor Mouth

Quin has recently had a lot to say, and isn't shy about expressing himself. He also loves to copy whatever we say; i.e. we have to be really careful with what comes out of our mouths. His favorite words right now are: bug (he loves to pick them up off of the the window sill and then announce to me that he is holding one), momma (he does ask for me if I disappear even for a minute), dadda (we have been meeting Tim for lunch about once a week and he gets very excited and exclaims "dadda" as he sees Tim approach the car), play (this is his favorite activity), snow (he pronounces it "no-no", but he really loves to look at it), book (he loves to flip through books and have us read), hi (he says hi to anyone who will listen, and even sometimes those who really don't want to), and bye-bye (he likes to say this to strangers as well as inanimate objects). He is usually pretty clear in what he has to say, but he is also pretty impatient with what he wants. I guess it all comes with the "terrible two" territory.

MMMMMMM......Snow!

We had our first adventure in the snow last week...

We got a good snow on Monday and I figured that since Quin hadn't been able to play in the snow yet, that it was just as good of time as any for our first outdoor, snow filled playtime. The play experience started out rough, since I had to dress him in his snow pants, boots, gloves, and a hat. I felt a bit like I was wrestling with an alligator in a mud pit. It took about a half hour to get him fully dressed, since every time I would get an article of clothing on him, he would take it off while I was working on the next item. Good times.

Once he was fully dressed, we headed out on the back patio. The minute we stepped under the roof line, the house decided to dump a pile of snow right on Quin's head. Lets just say he was a tad bit irked. Immediately he started sobbing as hard as he could, to the point that he was out of air. Poor little boy didn't know what hit him!



After getting past the assault, he calmed down enough to play and enjoy (eat) the snow. Perhaps it was the consumption of a snow cone at an early age (Quin got to try snow cone when he was only four months old) which resulted in his desire to eat every bit of snow in sight. I think he was more interested in consuming the snow than actually playing in it. Regardless, he had a lot of fun.