Naked Boy!

Quin cracks us up. A lot.

But last night he really got us in stitches.

We went to dinner at this island style restaurant in Fort Collins. Our food comes, and we had ordered Quin a corn dog. It came out piping hot, so we cut part of it up and gave him those pieces. Meanwhile, the rest of the dog cooled.

Finally, I gave him the meat on a stick, thinking he would have fun with that. He did. He started eating it all kinds of ways. Sideways, frontways, backways. Finally, the corn coating just fell off the wiener.

Quin stopped and stared at his cord dog with astonishment, his mouth agape. We could see the gears turning in his head.

Then, he blurted out (screamed):

"NAKED BOY!"

Art!

Not only does Quin love the river, cows, and music, but he loves to draw!  For his birthday, he got an art table.  We thought that he would use it occasionally, not really caring one way or the other.  We could not have been more wrong.  He colors, sitting on one of the little stools, not just a few minutes, but usually close to a half hour at a time; often multiple times a day!  Who knew that a two year old could have such a long attention span!  He even shares his colors with me...what a sweet boy!  Whenever he heads toward the table, he asks me to color with him by asking "color, too?" and I usually oblige.  

I have yet to let him paint at it, simply because I am afraid that he will make a complete and utter mess, but someday soon he may get to.  For now, he goes nuts on his Elmo and Thomas coloring books.  

We have been working on shapes, and he can now successfully draw a straight line (that counts as a shapes, right?) and a circle.   He likes it when I draw squares and triangles, although piecing the lines together is going to take him some time.  

Not only is his little table great for art, but the bins on the sides make wonderful storage areas for little toys.  He also likes to move his crayons from one storage cup to another (there are four, so all of the moving of things back and forth can keep him occupied for a while).  

All in all, he loves it!  It makes you feel good when you buy your kid something that they absolutely adore.  At the moment, this is his favorite toy.  Hopefully, he will continue to love it for several years!

Fun In The River

Quin LOVES the river.



He loves everything about the river. He loves the water, the noise, the fish, the cows that drink the water in it.

But strangely, we never really got around to actually playing in the river until a couple weeks ago. It wasn't that we didn't want to, it's just that we, well, didn't do it.



After Quin got his first taste of skipping rocks across that fresh, cool water, he wanted to go right back. So we took him to Gateway Park, about 2 miles from home. And we brought the camera this time.



And a bucket.



Quin learned about cause and effect.



Sadly, the level of the river has dropped dramatically. At it's peak, the river was a raging six feet deep. We wouldn't go near it with Quin. Now, it's shrunk to a puny 1/2 foot, and barely trickles. This was made worse this week when they seemingly closed some flood gates up river, and at some points the river almost looks dry. Lucky for us though, the diversion dam that sucks up millions of gallons of water to use for distant cities is one mile below us. So we don't see the impact quite as much.

It's starting to cool off now, and playing in the frigid river has lost some of it's appeal. One thing is for sure though: next year we'll spend more time in the water.

Cows

Quin is once again very obsessed with cows, however this time he can actually tell me interesting information pertaining to cows. Recently, at dinner, we had the following conversation:

Me: Where does milk come from?
Quin: Cows!!!!
Me: Very good!
Me: What do cows eat?
Quin: Grass!!!!
Me: Yes!
Me: What do cows drink?
Quin: (hesitating slightly) Water?
Me: Yep, Cows drink water.
Me: Where do the cows drink water?
Quin: River!!!!!
Me: Good!


At least he has his cow facts down! I have to admit that I was pretty surprised by how much he knows about cows. Last night we actually expanded on this conversation by asking him what lives in the river. He correctly responded that fish live in the river. Wow!

Since we have been going to the dairy a few times a week to buy fresh milk, he seems to have a renewed interest in the cows. On each visit, he gets to feed (or at least attempt to feed) the many cows that reside there. His favorites seem to be the little ones, although he is happy with anything that moos.

Perhaps his obsession is also fueled by the fact that for the past few months we have had free range cattle on our canyon road, often stopping on the drive in or out of the canyon to let a mother and baby pass.

Regardless, I have to say that I love cows too.