When I started thinking about writing this a few days ago, I planned to talk about how I was feeling pretty good about this mom thing right now. It was starting to feel like life with a toddler was getting easier and some of the battles I had worked hard to fight—putting Quinn in time out over and over again, for the same things—had started to sink in. Quinn went near the road one day and I told him to stop, and he did! Win for Mama! When we were playing in his room, he pointed to the chair I use for time out and said, “Time out.” I said, “Yep. Why do you have to go in time out?” He said, “Road.” Bingo! He understands that and we don’t fight about that anymore. When he was in the learning zone, I thought I was going to lose my mind though. I stayed consistent and he got it, eventually. But, if toddlers are good at anything, it’s definitely knocking the wind out of your sails and making you question everything you do. We had two days of pure non-stop-whining-and-demanding hell. He answered, “No,” to everything I told him to do. He would refuse to put on clothes but then when I said, “Fine, I don’t care if you wear clothes or not,” he would demand for them to be put on. He fussed about EVERYTHING.  It was exhausting. But then on the third morning, he woke up and wanted to watch Blippi for the majority and I was A-okay with it. Should I have felt bad about that? Maybe you think so. Do I? Not a chance. That was a much-needed reprieve and we both recharged and had a good day. 

While he rarely wants to wear his own clothes, he loves wearing ours 😆. I have a pic of him wearing my tank top that very much looks like a dress on him but I won’t post it. He may not appreciate me one day if I did. 

Wearing Dad’s socks…two different types, from two different pairs. 

We got him an apron for his birthday so that he could dress like Dada when he’s cooking 😉.

Quinn has been battling a cold, but I can’t even blame that for the two days of hell because those were days that he actually seemed to be feeling and sounding better. He’s still a little stuffy but not snoring or drooling like he was. I swear, the kid had so much saliva coming out of his mouth, it was like he forgot how to swallow! I thought that he may have been getting his two-year molars, but he let me feel his gums (without biting me, shockingly) and there’s no indication of them coming in. I couldn’t figure out why he would be drooling then but Kim told me her son did that when he young because he had a sore throat and swallowing was painful. That made perfect sense because the way he was snoring left no doubt that his throat was sore. I’m a pretty big whiner when I am sore or don’t feel good and I think having a sore throat is ranked up there with breaking an appendage (not really but I hate it a lot), however, I can’t imagine opting to just leak drool out of my face rather than bearing the pain of swallowing 😆. I don’t know though, maybe I’ll try that next time 🤤. Quinn really dislikes having his shirt get wet and wants it removed when he even thinks he has gotten wet so of course, there were many shirt changes during the days of his peak illness. He even drooled on my shirt when I was laying with him at bedtime. He kept saying, “Shirt off.” He had already taken his shirt off for the same reason and I told him it was already off. We went back and forth a few times and he finally said, “Mama shirt off!” 😂 I was like, “Ummm, no,” but I did put the blanket up over my chest so that he wouldn’t have to lay against it 😉. 

I’ve never seen a child get as excited as Quinn does when he takes his shirt or shorts off and squeals, “Naked!” It’s hilarious and he obviously doesn’t fully grasp what naked means. He has discovered his nipples and likes to point them out anytime he isn’t wearing a shirt. He did this to his cousin, Lincoln, the other day and we had to have a talk about boundaries. Lincoln was playing school with his sister and the two neighbor girls, and they were having nap time. Lincoln was laying, shirtless, under a blanket on the floor. Quinn came to get my hand and dragged me into the other room, just so he could show me Lincoln. He excitedly squealed, “Naked!” and pointed to Link. Link, who’s almost 6 and understands what naked means, was like, “I’m not naked!” I said, “I know you’re not. He just thinks you are because you don’t have a shirt on.” Quinn then proceeded to go over to Link and touch his nipple and proclaim its name 🤦🏻‍♀️. Link was, obviously, uncomfortable with this, and I made him stop. Good grief, this kid is curious 🤷🏻‍♀️. 

He’s really into hugging now, too. This also necessitated a chat about consent, but most kids are willing to give one back. During a pandemic isn’t exactly when I want him to pick up this habit, though 🤦🏻‍♀️. When we take our nightly walk, he will just randomly want one of us to give him a hug. I told him one night that I couldn’t give him a hug while walking but that he could hold my hand so now that has become a thing. Usually about halfway back on our trip, he’ll want to hold my finger. 

He also hugs the new neighbor’s dog 😂. This pic makes it seem as though Bear wasn’t particularly thrilled but he was cool with it. We wouldn’t let him hug on dogs who didn’t want it. 

I can’t believe the explosion that has happened in the last two weeks with his language. As far as vocabulary goes, he’s had a good grasp on many, many words for a while now. However, he was a bit late on the sentence train. He wasn’t putting very many words together, except for a few phrases here and there. Oh my, he’s saying so many things now, it’s unbelievable! He even said his first four-word sentence last week. This wouldn’t actually be one sentence if said properly, but he spat it all out in one demand: “Stop it go away!” This was said to the girls, who were both giving him kisses at the same time 😂😛. I had no idea he even knew those words, let alone how to use them. 

You never know what he’s going to say, especially first thing in the morning. I was woken up one morning with, “Cock, cock, cock!” I was like, “What did you say?” He repeated it and then said, “Peacock.” He thinks that’s what a peacock says 🤦🏻‍♀️. I blame his father, because he even though he didn’t teach him this particular sound, he did teach him that a giraffe says, “giraffe, giraffe” 🙄. So, if he doesn’t know what an animal says, apparently, he just makes up a sound relating to its name and peacocks have such a wonderful name for this trick 🤦🏻‍♀️. 

Today he gave us a few laughs with things he said:

*covers face while riding in the stroller*

Q: “Mama, find me!”

*points to goose poop on the trail*

Q: “Poop. Big.”

* grabs my hands and pulls me into the living room*

Q: “Mama, Dada horn. Get it.”

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤦🏻‍♀️

Quinn loves playing hide and seek, especially with the girls. They also love playing but only with me and Philip, because we give them a challenge. Quinn will throw a blanket over his head and yell for them incessantly—“Soph, come find me!” 

These are two of his other hiding spots 🤣🤣🤣

He randomly woke up from a nap one day and said, “Weird dada.” I was like, “Yep. Your dada is weird.” When I told Philip about this later that day, he replied with pretend indignation and “Hey! I’m not weird. Quinn’s weird.” Quinn retorts with, “Cool Quinn,” or “Cool Mama.” They go back and forth, and Quinn thinks it’s hilarious. He also loves to say, “Tickle feet,” anytime he discovers someone’s feet. The boy loves to make people laugh. He got my old work lunch box out of a cabinet the other day and was carrying it around. He showed it to Philip and they talked about it being empty. Philip asked Quinn was he was going to put in it and he said, “Head,” and stuck it on his head 🤣. 

When we were swimming in the hot (87 degrees so not actually hot) tub last week, Quinn climbed on my back. I asked if there was a bug on my back and he said, “No, monkey,” and made a noise like a monkey. Philip pulled me into the center of the hot tub with him and hugged me and Quinn was not having it. He climbed in between us. When Philip told him that he was sitting with Mama, Quinn said, “No, Quinn.” He sometimes doesn’t want to get out of the hot tub, so I use the same technique that is used at the pool; I whistle and tell him it’s time to get out. Now, when I even mention that it’s time to get out, he’ll say, “Whistle.” 😂

He really loves going to the big pool. 

Quinn has a lot of empathy and will apologize if you tell him that he hurt you. However, while he fully expects for me to kiss every one of his real and imagined boo boos, he will not kiss mine! I was putting dishes away out of the dishwasher one day and stepped across the open door while the bottom rack was pulled out and cut my knee on some silverware. It bled pretty good, and Quinn seemed to be a little concerned about it. He kept telling me, “Boo boo,” but when I asked if he would kiss it, he told me, “No. Dada.” He refused to kiss my scratch and wanted Philip to do it. Even though he won’t help my wounds heal, he will sometimes just randomly say, “Pretty,” and when I ask, “Who’s pretty?” he’ll say, “Mama.” That kid knows how to win hearts. 

He has also learned how to argue and that’s a skill he could’ve waited on 🙄. He eats dinner at the table with us but usually finishes first and gets down to play. However, he almost always wants one of us to do something with him during this time. 

M: “I will do _______, whenever I finish eating.” 

Q: “Quinn done.”

M: “Uh huh, I know Quinn’s done but Mama isn’t.” 

Q: “Yeah!”

On a day when he had taken a bath in the morning: 

*Comes into the bathroom when I’m getting out of the shower* (See, more bathroom stories?!)

Q: “Bath!”

M: “You already took a bath today.”

Q: “Again!”

He’s still demanding the impossible, or at least, the unreasonable:

*Finds the popsicle he left on the counter in a puddle in his bowl*

Q: “Fix it!”

M: “…well, I can but it’s gonna take a while.” 🤷🏻‍♀️

*Chews on his bink and creates holes in the nipple*

Q: “Fix it!” (and chucks it across the room 🙄).

*Intentionally pops a balloon that I warned him would have to be thrown away if he did so*

Q: “Fix it!”

🙄🙄🙄

Because Quinn gets so car sick, we decided to turn his seat forward since he turned two, and see if that helped on longer trips. It did seem to and even though I’m still very much of the mind set that being backwards is safest, not having him puke is okay, too. Now every time he I tell him we’re going somewhere in the car he asks, “Forward?” 😆 “Yes, bud, you can ride forward.”

Philip and I hadn’t been out to eat inside a restaurant in town since before Covid hit so we decided to go to Peking Buffet in celebration of our anniversary. (Thanks to Mimi for watching Quinn for us 😘.) It was as delicious as we remembered. While we were sitting there eating, a man I didn’t recognize came walking toward our table, staring at me. He apologized for interrupting and asked if I was the girl from Facebook 🤣. He said, “The one that does those videos?” And I said, “On the Farmers Market page? Yes.” He told me he knew he recognized me and wanted to tell me I do a great job with it 🥰. That was so sweet of him to take the time to say that! He told me I’m famous and I tell you what, it really did feel that way 😂😂😂. I can’t imagine how red my face was. 

I can’t believe August is here already and summer  will be ending shortly. The only good thing about impending cooler weather is the disappearance of all the damn irritating bugs. Why do ticks love me so much? Is it because of my unicorn blood? I bet it’s because of my unicorn blood. My sometimes positive, sometimes negative B blood type must be enticing because I find ticks on me more than the average person, I think. I hate them with a passion. And I’m not even a big bug hater, normally. Like, I’m the trap a spider and put it outside kind of person. But when it comes to ticks, I’ll gladly burn them with fire or gleefully flush them to their deaths. I also really hate flies but only because they bug me while we’re napping 🤣. I leave the sliding glass door open so the girls can go outside and flies come in. Quinn has learned that I smack them with the swatter so he’s always telling me when he sees one—“Mama! Fly!” 🤪. I have to go on a crusade before nap time so I can sleep undisturbed and he very much enjoys that. I do worry about what I’m teaching him though 😳. 

Speaking of bugs, poor Sansa really took one for the team last week when she got stung in the mouth 🥺. Quinn was sitting at the bottom of his slide and a bee kept buzzing around. Sansa saw it and immediately snapped at it. It definitely got her because she spit it out and went running inside with her tail tucked. I went to check on her and she seemed ok but I gave her some Benadryl anyway. It was close to nap time and I didn’t want her to swell up while I was asleep. She acted fine after we woke up 🤷🏻‍♀️.

I think she loves him a little bit 😍. And yes, I’ve told him, repeatedly, to close his mouth when she gives him kisses 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️. 

Here’s a pic of Soph, just because she’s pretty 😍.