Look how much he has grown in one year! ð
I think the last few weeks have sent me on an emotional roller coaster. Sometimes going from one extreme to the next within the same day. Quinn makes me so, so happy but also, so, so frustrated. There are days that I feel like the control panel on an elevator in a hundred floor office building—all of my buttons get pushed multiple times a day. Sometimes he’s the biggest asshole allllll day long but then great when Philip gets done with work. Like, on the one hand, I’m glad the reign of Jerk is over, but on the other hand, I take it personally.
Some of the conversations we have crack me up though. Like, for instance, the other day, I was in the shower and Quinn came barging in the bathroom:
Q: “Trouble.”
M: “You’re in trouble?”
Q: “Yeah.”
M: “Why are you in trouble?”
Q: “Sophie.”
He gets in trouble for pulling her tail all of the time, so I assume that’s what he was doing and then came in to tell on himself ðĪĶðŧ♀️.
A few days before that, I was outside working on edging our front sidewalk, so I was on my knees and bent over, knuckle deep in dirt, pulling out the extra pieces I had cut off. Quinn came up behind me and touched my lower back.
Q: “Mama?”
M: “Yeah, baby?”
Q: “Butt” (As he patted my back).
M: “That’s my back.”
Q: “Butt. Get it.”
M: “No. Don’t get my butt.”
Q: “Open.”
*Hands completely covered in dirt. Backside facing the road*
M: “NO! DO NOT OPEN!”
He says open when he pulls his or anyone else’s shirt up, usually to put something inside a shirt. Luckily, he listened (for once) and didn’t try to “open” my pants ð. I did have a moment of panic though and jumped up quickly ð.
One day I told him I was going to go take a shower. He kept saying, “Side (outside),” and I told him we would go outside when I finished. He got upset and cried and then told me, “Fall.” I said, “Fall? You’re going to fall?” He said, “Yeah,” and dramatically fell to the ground ððð. I told him he could pick himself up or I would help him up after my shower. Needless to say, he got right up and followed me into the bathroom ðĪŠ. When we had visited his cousin, Lincoln, the day before, Link kept falling down on purpose to make Quinn laugh. That’s where he learned the falling trick from, although I’m pretty certain he wasn’t trying to make me laugh and was instead attempting to manipulate me.
This wasn’t the same day and I swear he wasn’t stuck ð. He loves to sit in his Bumbo chair, even though he’s outgrown it ð. I’m not sure what even happened here but he yelled for me to look at him ðĪĶðŧ♀️.
Anytime I tell him it’s time to change his diaper, he almost always runs away.
Q: “Mama!”
M: “Yes?”
Q: “Hiding.”
M: “You’re hiding?”
Q: “Yeah. Funny.”
M: “You are not funny.”
Even when he’s not trying to avoid a diaper change, he’ll sometimes run and hide and if you ask him if he’s hiding, he’ll respond with, “Boo!”
He picks up new words and concepts really quickly. Anytime I say, “Oops,” he immediately says, “Sorry,” as he recognizes “Oops,” to mean a mistake. When I tell him something he did wasn’t nice, he’ll ask, “Happy?” to see if that particular thing makes me happy. If I tell him it doesn’t make me happy, he might say, “Sorry,” but then will likely do it again ð. If he puts on a hat or sunglasses, he always asks if we think he’s, “Cool?” Of course, we have to tell him he is ð. Cool isn’t reserved for just him though, he put a hat on his Blippi figure this morning and called him cool ð. Philip and I were goofing around one day and standing back-to-back with our arms linked so I leaned forward and lifted him off the ground. Quinn came over and tried pick him up, and when he couldn’t, he said, “Heavy.” ðĪĢðĪĢ
Looking cool ð
And again...
And...
Looking the coolest ð. Those are Blippi accessories.
Quinn really is a master memorizer, who, like most toddlers, thrives on routine and repetition. About a year ago I started telling him I wanted to tell him a secret and I would whisper, “I love you. Did you know that?” When he started being able to say, “Yeah,” that would always be his answer. Now I ask him, “Do you know something?” He’ll say, “Yeah,” and I’ll ask, “What?” He’ll say, “Love you.” ❤️
He can identify heart and star shapes but we’re beginning to wonder if he’s color blind as he calls everything yellow. Well, except for his toy potato; that he calls brown. However, I think he just memorized that that toy is brown because he doesn’t recognize brown anywhere else ðĪĶðŧ♀️ð.
He’s still a great eater, trying most anything we give him, often more than once, even when he didn’t like it the first time. He had his first ice cream cone yesterday and I had no idea teaching someone how to eat an ice cream cone could be so complicated. He wanted to lick when he needed to bite and kept sticking his tongue all the way out. It was a hot mess, and so was he by the time we finished ð. I ended up getting him some in a bowl. Quinn loves oatmeal and will eat bite for bite with Philip, often dictating whose turn it is with a “Dada,” or “Quinn.” We’ve done him a disservice by letting him eat from our plates, as that usually means we’re feeding him. We don’t even care about messes, it’s just quicker that way. We’re trying to let him do it himself. In order to help him practice his fork skills, I make balls with play doh and give him a plastic fork to stick them with. However, he often pretends to take a bite but usually actually touches it to his tongue ððĪĶðŧ♀️. While he hasn’t eaten any for real, I wouldn’t put it past him because he has questionable taste buds. He STILL eats dog food any chance he gets. Like, he’ll get down from the dinner table to swipe a snack from Sophie’s bowl. I mean, maybe their food tastes really good? I’m not going to try it to find out though. He also puts bubble wands directly on his lips to try to blow them and then will lick his lips ðĪĶðŧ♀️. He has (mostly) stopped eating dirt though, so that’s something ð.
ðĪĶðŧ♀️. We literally play with play doh every. single. day and he does this every time ðĪĶðŧ♀️.
I’m going to write some posts about the different activities we do and the skills they teach and file them under the heading Play to Learn. These posts may not be too interesting to anyone who doesn’t have littles so if they don’t interest you, feel free to skip them ðĪŠ.
I said we don’t care about messes and that’s the truth, as long as they’re unintentional or for play purposes. I’ve made him a ton of different sensory bins recently and while I don’t mind if materials get on the floor, I despise when he purposely dumps them just to see my reaction. He does usually “help” clean up though, and by help, I mean make the mess worse, but you know what? I always let him do it. You know why? Because I want to build his confidence that he can do things by himself. If I constantly tell him to let me do it (because I’m bigger and better at it, even though I wouldn’t say that part), he’ll stop trying. I’ll also end up with a kid who doesn’t clean up after themselves and to that I say, “No, thanks.” Not to mention, it only adds a few more seconds to the clean up job. I’d say a few seconds are worth fostering a life lesson.
Definitely making the mess worse ðĪĢ. But as soon as I say, “We need to clean up,” he’s always ready to get his broom and help ðĨ°.
I may be patient with cleaning up messes but I’m far from perfect when it comes to parenting Quinn. I’ve spanked him when I said I never would. I hope the few times that happened were the last as I felt like a barbaric bully after the fact. I let my anger get the best of me and resorted to spanking instead of finding a better solution. I’m not knocking anyone who uses spanking to punish. You do what you think is best for your family. However, I don’t like it and I hope to be better at positive reinforcement and redirection in the future in order to avoid a recurrence. The times I did spank him, he just WOULD. NOT. LISTEN. Like, he didn’t give a single crap about what I was telling him. So, I get it. Maybe that was the only solution in that situation. I don’t know. I do still threaten to spank him sometimes ðŽ. The last time I spanked him he kept talking about it, like “Mama. Butt.” It may have traumatized him. I hope not.
Anyway, the weather has been wonderful, and we’ve spent so much time outside, it’s been awesome. Philip spent this weekend putting together the swing set I ordered a month and a half ago. It took him the majority of Saturday and half of yesterday to get it done. Quinn was super excited and loved the slide. He even played on the swing some, and that’s not usually his favorite. He gets motion sickness in the car and I think that’s why he doesn’t usually care for swinging. We were worried he may not be able to climb to the top by himself as it only has a climbing wall and no stairs, but no worries, he’s got it down already. Much to my displeasure. It makes me very nervous when he climbs it. He has also recently started climbing stairs without holding onto a rail. Fun times are had being dangerous, I guessðĪĶðŧ♀️. I think he’ll lots of use out of the swing set. The spot in the backyard is perfect for it; under the tree, so lots of shade. Probably, also, lots of bird poop but that remains to be seen.
He woke up from his nap to it being finished. This was the first time he saw it.
No problem climbing ðĐ.
I told him Kiki (a former Head Start teacher) would yell at him for going up the slide ðĪŠ.
Loving the swing ð.
Sansa also approves ð.
How to keep a toddler entertained while putting together a swing set: turn a box into a ball pit.
When that gets old, turn it into a skee ball table/ basketball hoop.
If all else fails: take a nap ðĪ·ðŧ♀️.
Several days this month have been noteworthy: Mother’s Day two weeks ago, the start of the Famers Market, and yesterday marked 15 years of home ownership. Philip got me a beautiful Mother’s ring for Mother’s Day, but we have to return it as I’ve already lost the stone in it ðĪĶðŧ♀️ðĪĶðŧ♀️. The start of market season makes me a little crazy with added stress (I’m the market manager, if you didn’t know,) but I love going and being a part of it. Supporting local growers is so important and you’ll know exactly where your food comes from. We had a great turnout for the first market, and I hope more people realize the value and come support them.
I had to crop this picture because my nails are definitely not picture ready. The garden doesn’t leave them looking very good ðĪŠ.
Summer is right around the corner and my plan is to spend as much time outside as possible and grow my boy with water, sunshine, and dirt. He’s like a little house plant ð. I’m vowing to lower my standards for sparkling clean floors and a dust free house (just kidding, this house has neverrrrr been dust free. Dogs live here) and just enjoy these months that I wait all year for ð. There’s too much to do outside, who has time to stay in and clean all day? If you want to visit us, catch us on a rainy day and the house may be presentable ð.
We’ve already had our first pool day. He was caught off guard by the coolness of the water his first time going down the slide ðĪĢ.
Wish me luck that I don’t break a hip in my old age learning to skateboard along side him on his scooter ð.
The girls have even had a play date recently. Steele comes over to the fence to see if they’re in the backyard, and if they are, I let him in to play.
All three of our kids love him.
I mean, how could you not love this face?
He’s such a sweet boy ðķ ♥️.
The second is something saved from living in a landfill by my friend Lisa, who does stocking at stores. She knows I love to repurpose things and asked if I wanted this crate. I used another one for a prop at Christmas time. This one stores Quinn’s outside balls. They’re great for many things. If you want one, ask the manager at Save-A-Lot if they will save you one. I can’t guarantee they will but it’s worth a shot ð.
