It blows my mind how Quinn’s language has evolved so quickly in the last few weeks. He talks ALL. DAY. LONG. Two of my biggest pet peeves are having someone tell me the same thing over and over again and someone saying my name and then not telling me what they want. I live with a toddler in this phase. Send help.
The most annoying he’s ever been so far in life was just a few weeks ago. Mama almost lost her shit, but I’ve since recovered. Quinn spent the entire day getting on a kick of certain words and saying them repeatedly, including what he wanted you to do while you were doing it. If he wanted, say, cheese, he would say “cheese” one bazillion times, even while you were literally getting the damn cheese. He doesn’t understand sarcasm, of course, but we like to say things like, “Oh, you want some cheese? Weird. Why didn’t you just tell me.” On a different, much less but still annoying day, he got on a kick of saying, “Pap,” because I told him we would pick Pap up later. He said Pap about a million times, and I was like:
M: “Say another word.”
Q: “Pap.”
M: “Socks.”
Q: “Pap.”
M: “Banana.”
Q: “Pap.”
*Sophie comes and assaults me*
M: “Sophie, get your nose out of my ass!”
Q: “Ass.” 🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️
He constantly tells me, “Hand,” and wants me to give him my hand so that he can guide me to wherever it is he wants to play at the moment. Being dragged around by an almost 2 year old every 5 seconds, particularly when you’re trying to do something, gets frustrating real quick.
Quinn is right on track with the Baby Center article about toddlers 21 months, 4 weeks old, that says he may develop a new phobia. They said it would likely be bugs or water. He lovesssss water so bugs it is. We were playing outside the other day and I pulled some weeds and a worm came out with them and crawled on the sidewalk where I was sitting. Quinn saw it and then we had a 30-minute exchange about it. He wouldn’t stop saying, “Worm,” and “Coming.” I was like, “No, the worm isn’t coming to you, it’s just crawling around.” I finally had to lovingly but firmly tell him the worm went back into the ground and to stop worrying about it. I later told Philip about this conversation because I thought Quinn was probably scared of the worm and I spelled W-O-R-M and told him DO NOT say that word. I couldn’t take another discussion on the subject.
Quinn is learning habits and demonstrates his understanding of our daily routine. For example, when I give him a bite of my eggs in the morning, he pauses and says, “Hot?” I say, “No, not hot,” and then he’ll respond, “warm.” Next, I say, “Yes, they’re just warm,” and then he’ll eat them. This happens everyyyyyy morning 🙄. After having the girls get loose due to the gate being open just a few seconds too long when a certain little boy stood in the way, allowing Sansa to seize the moment, he now goes to the gate and says, “Go!” when I’m about to open it. If I’m not in the room and Philip asks him where Mama went, he almost always says, “Pee.” 😂 Because I’ve so often asked if he’s okay when he’s fallen, he now automatically says, “okay!” when he falls down. Of course, even though he’s okay, it’s still imperative that I give both of his big toes kisses, even when sometimes he didn’t hurt his toes 🙄🙄🙄. He also learned to ask me to wipe his tongue when he gets a hair on it, which is often because dogs. His tongue is so small, it’s actually kind of hilarious to feel it. I’m used to being licked by 75-100 pound animals, and their tongues are much bigger 🤪.
Trying to lick me, while on a rare trip inside Walmart 🤦🏻♀️.
If we do something one time, he, apparently, remembers it for life. When I ask him if I can cut his fingernails, he says, “Row row,” because I sing 🎵 Row, Row, Row Your Boat 🎵 to him while I do it. I started that like a year ago but now we have to do it every time. We made my niece, Kate, cookies on her birthday and now every time he sees a cookie, he says, “Kate.” I’m like, “Yep, we made cookies for Kate, huh?” 🤦🏻♀️
Rolling the dough
Making questionable cookie cutter choices. Not sure if that red one to the right is a fish or? I told him we were making the letter “K” cookies but ended up with fire trucks, scallop edged circles, and gingerbread men, too 🤷🏻♀️.
Zoom in. He was covered in flour 🤦🏻♀️.
He did help clean up though. Don’t worry, I re-washed them 😉.
Kids repeat what they hear often and I didn’t realize how often I say, “Hmmmm.” Anytime I say it, my tiny shadow says it also. The other day I heard him tell himself, “Good job,” when he kicked a ball 😆. He uses his manners and asks, “How are you?” when he pretends to talk on the phone, often calling Lulu, if you ask him who he’s talking to. He told me, “Help please,” when he needed his soccer net put together and even said “(Excuse) scuse me,” when I told him he was in my way. We have a neighbor who likes to give the neighborhood kids Blow-Pops when he sees them out and Quinn will often tell him, “Thank you,” now, without my prompting. He tells us “Thank you,” as well if we hand him something and the other night at bath time, Philip told him to stand up so he could wash his butt, and when he finished Quinn told him, “Thank you.” 🤣🤣🤣
We weren’t sure how to teach him me/you, as he was calling himself “You” when he saw his reflection or a picture, but he figured it out on his own. He likes to play us against each other when we ask for kisses but he duped us both the other night. Philip asked for a kiss and he said, “No.” I asked for a kiss and he said, “No,” again. He then said, “Me,” and kissed his own hand 🤣. We busted out laughing. He has started understanding ownership and tonight said that his drink was “Me’s.” He often tells me whose clothes are whose when we fold laundry. Since he was born, I’ve thought it important for him to see both of us do roles considered masculine and feminine so that he doesn’t think household chores are gendered. I was installing a solar light the other day and he called the drill I was using, “Mama’s,” and he called the oven, “Dada’s,” later when he was standing by it. He sees Philip cook all the time and I’m often the one putting up hooks or other hardware for organization purposes.
There are a few things he gets wrong when identifying but he’s pretty close so it’s cute. He has a pair of pretend garden shears that he calls “knife.” This is also what he calls scissors. Since they’re both sharp, I go with it and tell him he can’t touch knives. He saw me drinking hot chocolate out of a coffee cup one night and he’s always saying he wants a drink of coffee, mostly because he knows he isn’t allowed to have it. However, I gave him a little bit in a cup with a lid that sort of resembles a travel coffee mug. He thought it was the best thing ever. So, if you hear my kid saying he drinks coffee and plays with knives, rest assured he’s just a little confused 🤣.
That’s his “knife” laying in the dirt 😉
I started the habit of repeating what he says back to him and typically, expanding on it. So, like, if he says, “Sophie,” when he hears her bark, I’ll say, “Sophie is barking. What do you think she’s barking at?” That helps him learn new words and helps show him that I understood what he said. This is a great tool when I actually understand what he says. When he says something that I don’t understand, he will not let it go. I will try to play it off after he has said something 10 times and I’m still not getting it and be like, “Oh yeah?” but he KNOWS. He won’t let me off the hook. Sometimes this leads to a tantrum, depending on what kind of mood he’s in. Other times, it makes him be creative in expressing himself. For example, he tried and tried to tell me, “Willow,” my brother’s cat’s name, one day and I was not getting it. After many failed attempts, he finally said, “cat!” That’s when it clicked, and I realized what he meant. His face lit up when I made the connection. The other day he took a drink of a new sparkling water that he hadn’t tried before and told me, “Sow-wa.” I didn’t understand, “Sow-wa,” and he said it over and over again. I asked him if he could tell me another word but instead he said very clearly, and very slowly, “SOWWW-WAAAA.” That’s when I got that he meant sour. The water, or “Pop,” as he calls it, was SOUR! I didn’t even know he knew that word. He should, as he’s experienced it several times, as he always says he wants a drink of lemon juice when I get it out of the fridge. I’m not sure how many times he’s going to want to learn that lesson but apparently it hasn’t stuck yet.
We’ve spent every warm day outside, mostly playing in the garden. I’m trying to get my beds ready for planting, as some invasive cover crop has taken over 2 of my big beds, and the 1 small one. Begrudgingly at first, I sacrificed the small bed to Quinn to use as a dirt box. He loves shoveling and using his “knife” to cut big hunks of dirt though, so it was totally worth it. He likes to sit in his garden shed and stalk the neighbors, hoping Scarlett will come over and play with him, and watch the elderly man on the tractor mow. He insisted I come in there with him one day and while we were just hanging out, he suddenly got up and ran to the driveway. This was the same time that a neighbor from a block over, who I don’t really know but see often on our walks, came driving down the road. Quinn LOVES to wave at people so of course he got this man’s attention, who then got to see me just hanging out in the tiny house, alone 🤦🏻♀️.
Working on a bed.
Mowing the yard 😉. No, I don’t actually let him do it, those blades are sharp. And yes, we have a non-manual mower, too, if you’re wondering. I’m not that eco-friendly..yet 😉. #goals
Ready to help pull weeds.
He was soooo proud of himself for shoveling the dirt and putting it into the bucket after Dad showed him how 🙂
Watching the neighbor mow 😆.
Quinn has really mastered his bike on the small incline down our driveway. We got him a scooter, too, and he’s doing really well with it. His favorite vehicle is his bubble mower though. He was obsessed with it the first few days after it arrived. We even had to find an episode of Blippi mowing because he talked about his mower so much. This past weekend I told Philip I wanted to mow the yard before it rained, but he was working on making some dough for dinner. I told him that was fine, Quinn could come out with me and then he could come get him when he was done. We all know there’s no way I could go outside without my mini shadow following. Philip agreed and asked what Quinn does while I’m mowing. He mows too, of course! Philip got a picture when he came out. Quinn was waiting for me on the sidewalk and would go one direction with me and then turn when I did to go the same the way 🤣.
😂😂😂
Most of his vehicles. He has another ride on truck that’s in the basement to help keep him busy while I do laundry.
This is another. It was given to us by my friend, Lisa. We’ve been gifted so many toys and clothes secondhand, it’s been amazing. I’m so glad we waited to have a kid until after most of my friends and family did so we get the things they’re done with 🤣🤣🤣.
We had a bit of a scare last Saturday as Quinn woke up with a fever and a nasty cough. Philip had been sick for over a week with just cold type symptoms. I’ve been fully vaccinated for COVID (with no side effects, yay!) but he has only had the first shot so far, so just to be safe, we had them both tested. Luckily, both were negative for COVID but Quinn had an ear infection. His allergies are causing lots of drainage, thus the lovely cough. He got his first antibiotic, and he absolutely hates taking it. They must have changed the flavor of amoxicillin because I lived on that stuff for the first six years of my life until I got my tonsils removed. I loved the pink goodness 😆. When I tell Quinn it’s time to take his medicine, he says either, “Run,” or “Hide” and does both 🤦🏻♀️. It’s a struggle and I can’t wait until he finishes the bottle. He was great at getting the COVID test though. They swabbed his nostrils and he didn’t put up any sort of fight. This is coming from a kid who tries to use the booger sucker on his own nose though 🤷🏻♀️.
🤦🏻♀️.
Ignore my counter mess, I was organizing. Anyone who’s ever seen me do that knows I have to make an even bigger mess to fix the first one 😉.
They’re not the only ones who have been to the doctor lately. Sansa had to have her annual heartworm test and a spot on her leg checked that looked infected. I took her to the vet and didn’t realize it was going to be a high-pressure sales situation. You stay in your car and they come and get your animal and ask you questions. The tech asked me about her leg, questions like, “Is she limping?” “Do you know if she sustained an injury?” “Is she eating? Drinking?” “Have diarrhea or vomiting?” I told her that Sansa was acting completely normal, just licking this spot a lot and some of the hair was gone on it. She asked if Sansa could get x-rays and bloodwork if needed. I told her I would like to just see what the doctor said about it before I authorize any additional testing. Like, I get all of the back and forth is a hassle but I just said she was acting mostly normal. I would need a pretty good explanation to warrant the extra expense. I want her to have the care she needs but I’m also not going to pay for unnecessary things, ya know? She asked if I had a budget I wanted to stay under, $100, $200, $300? I had already told her I needed 4 Nexgard (flea and tick preventative, which are buy 3, get 1 free) and those cost $60. The office visit, because it was a “sick” visit, deemed so by her need to have her leg checked, alone cost $48 ($10 more than a “well” visit). We were already past $100 right out of the gate. The tech came back out and said she has a skin infection on her leg, as far as they can tell without an x-ray (🙄 she’s prone to skin infections, she’s had several before so I’m gonna go ahead and feel confident that’s what it is) and she needed to have a blood test done to check her thyroid. With the medication for the infection and the blood test, we would be over the budget I set of $200, so she asked if I wanted to only get one Nexgard to stay under. I told her no, I needed at least 2, one for Sophie, and if I’m going to buy 2, it made more sense to get 4 with the BOGO deal. After all was said and done, Sansa was deemed to have hypothyroidism, a condition requiring lifelong medication and the total was $276. She offered me medication to give her for itching, but I already had some so I declined. She asked if I wanted an itemized receipt. Yep, I sure did. When I got home, I compared the prices of the medication to those on 1800petmeds, which is where I already buy their heartworm preventative. They were half the price online. The office has to okay the prescription for the Interceptor and it’s really kind of a hassle to get them to do it but when the price difference is $17, I can’t justify getting it from them. I don’t want to bash anyone, and I know people have to make money but I won’t pay double for pet medications when I can just order them. It’s actually more convenient for me to do that than to go pick them up locally so 🤷🏻♀️. I sure do miss Dr. Barnes, may he Rest In Peace.
Being good girls, with their friend, Steele, who comes to visit them on our walks, hoping Dad will give them a treat 😂.
Back to Quinn. We’ve been having another struggle with listening when told “No,” or “Stop,” and he is really trying my patience. Especially when it comes to staying in the yard and not going out into the street. I’ve told you all about the man who doesn’t know what a stop sign means and thinks speed limits don’t apply to him. While talking to another neighbor today, she said she thinks he doesn’t see very well. Speeding and having limited vision sounds like a recipe for disaster. Anyone know what can be done about this situation? We have 4 children under 5 years old on our street and I’m so afraid of what might happen.
He’s always wanting to “fly” and chase birds but that often leads to him getting in trouble for going into the road 🙄🤦🏻♀️.
Anyway, speaking of driving, we went to the zoo a few weekends ago. Quinn gets super car sick and wasn’t feeling too hot by the time we arrived. We also didn’t have the forethought to check the hours and got there 45 minutes before they closed 🤦🏻♀️. Four o’clock is way too early; I assume it will get later as we move into summer. We made a quick run through and Quinn didn’t even mind that we didn’t get to see everything. He would have been happy just standing and watching the zebra the entire time. Now every time I tell him we have to go in the car, he says, “Zebra,” pronounced with a short e, like Debra 😆. I’m like, “No buddy, we’re not going to see the zebra, we’re going to Walmart to pick up our groceries.” Then he’ll run and not let me put his socks and shoes on. I have to make empty threats that he doesn’t yet know are lies so he’ll comply. I’ll tell him, “Ok, Mama’s gonna go to the store without you. Bye.” He always comes running then 🤪. I wonder how long I can use that before he calls my bluff.
Even though he’s driving me nuts in this current limit testing phase, it’s also a fun time because he’s starting to make friends. He and the neighbor girl play together most days when it’s nice outside. I had to expand my fairy garden to accommodate them 😂. Quinn tries to ride the tiny bike and go down the tiny slide 🤦🏻♀️.
Plotting his next move.
Yep, that’s a fairy slide under his butt.
We went from this....
To this 🤣. And it’s likely to get even bigger because I still have some more stuff. I bought a bunch of stuff a few years ago but I prefer to make things for it, rather than buy them. I made the fence with some leftover wood pieces I had from another craft and some popsicle sticks. I made some “grass” areas with oatmeal lids covered with green felt. These helped provide a place for the playground that was level. The flowers on the ground are beer bottle lids, glued together and painted. The colorful walkway is made from milk jug lids. The area to the right is a piece of green burlap and I made the “fire pit” from a tea light holder, spray painted black. It’s still a work in progress but Quinn and Scarlett have already checked it out and rearranged 😂. I may need 2 fairy gardens, 1 for me and 1 for them 😉🤪. Oh, note the supervisors in the window. They make nose art on the daily. Keeping the windows clean is impossible 🤦🏻♀️.
I’m so thankful the weather is finally warming up. Sunshine heals the soul. Quinn gets his love of being outside straight from his Mama. We’ve been to the parks several times, gone for a bike ride, take a walk almost every day, and we’ve even been fishing! 😉
He can identify the color yellow and quantify 2 items 🙂.
Even when it’s raining, we still play outside sometimes.
He ended up getting sooo wet 🤦🏻♀️. He eventually started sticking his head under the drip from the broken piece in our gutter 🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️.
Next up: swimming! Come on hot weather, and get here already! We missed out on the public pool last year due to COVID. I’m hoping we can make it this year, assuming it’s safe to do so. Until then, we can make due with the hot tub turned way down, like we did today 🙂.
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