Did you know there’s a worse question than being asked, “Why?,” repeatedly? Try this one: “What happens if I don’t?” That’s the response I most often get when I tell Quinn to do or stop doing something/pick something up/etc. Like, he’s weighing his options; figuring out if the punishment is worth doing things his own way. Not really. He’s actually just checking to see if he’s going to be in trouble if he doesn’t comply. The answer is always yes, so I’m not sure why he has the constant need to check but okay then. My favorite time he asked happened while I was peeing 🤦🏻♀️. He barged into the bathroom (because leaving me alone to pee in peace is unheard of in this house), and said, “Watch, Mom,” as he popped a small toy into his mouth. I immediately told him to get it out of his mouth and he responded with, “What happens if I don’t?” I told him he would be going into time out and I would throw the toy away. But then he got smart and asked, “What happens if I go out of here?” In other words, “You’re peeing and can’t chase me.” I assured him he would still be in trouble in a minute when I left the bathroom. He decided to believe me that time and took it out 🙄. But that’s another of his recent habits: telling me to watch him do something he knows he isn’t allowed to do. I’ve tried helping him out and telling him that he shouldn’t want me to watch him do things that will get him into trouble. At this point, he just genuinely wants to show off and isn’t deliberately trying to piss me off. Although, it certainly feels like it at times. I know he’s not equipped with enough executive functioning to be able to think that much about other people’s feelings and how his actions affect them. I mean, he is empathetic when someone is hurt or sad, but he can’t process how to piss people off yet when his entire world revolves around himself. Case in point: I was pumping one morning when Ash was having a particularly hard time. He wanted held and it’s difficult for me to hold him properly when I’m hooked up to my pump, for obvious reasons. Not to mention, even when I don’t have an obstruction on my chest, holding a fussy Asher surely must resemble wrestling a bag a snakes. He is EVERYWHERE and making enough noise to let everyone around him know how he’s feeling. So anyway, I was wrestling the baby bear, feeling pretty frustrated with the situation, all the while Ash was loudly crying. Quinn came over to me, completely oblivious to the situation, wanting me to read him a book. I had no free hands and couldn’t hear myself think; so, a great moment for story time 🙄🤦🏻♀️.
His lack of situational awareness is especially frustrating first thing in the morning, when, as soon as he opens his eyes, he says, “Mom, is it time to get up yet?” No. Leave me alone. 🤪. He wakes up with a fully functioning brain and assumes that applies to adults as well 😂. He wanted me to be a shark dentist at 7am, and since I was pumping and therefore held captive (using my old pump with a cord. My new cordless pump broke TWICE. I’m done with it 🙄), I did but it wasn’t my best work 🤣. Our day starts out much better when I’m the first one awake, so I have time to think about how much I want to go back to sleep without someone issuing demands or asking me questions. Although, Q being asleep certainly doesn’t guarantee he won’t ask questions; the other night he talked in his sleep and asked, “Why Sophie not like when you take her cheese?” It gave me a little chuckle 🤭.
He talks CONSTANTLY. We recently introduced him to The Wizard of Oz. We fast forwarded through a lot but he still watched close to 45 minutes of it. It’s the first movie he has ever made it through (kind of) without losing interest. Mostly because we promised there would be a wizard at the end and he really wanted to see that. I can’t imagine actually making it through the entire thing with him because he asked 1,937 questions during those 45 minutes. Many of those questions were, “Is that the wizard?” No. I know repetition is the key to learning, but a huge pet peeve of mine is repetitive noises, and that includes the sound of my own voice answering the same question over and over again 😡🤦🏻♀️🙄. “hey Mom, what are you doing?” “The same thing I was doing when you asked me 10 seconds ago.” Ugh. I’m glad this same thing doesn’t annoy Philip and he’ll happily repeat himself all day 🤪. We fill in each other’s gaps.
Some other words and phrases Quinn has picked up lately (and as a side note, I may have to make this it’s own section because I feel like there’s always a new list each post 😆)— ridiculous, I understand, you’re a toot butt, what are you even talking about, you’re not giving attention, and that’s amazing. Hands down, he picked up saying things are “ridiculous,” from me. Sometimes he even uses it correctly and it’s funny. He says, “I understand,” often, because I ask him if he understands why he was in timeout after we’ve talked about his offense. Sometimes he even tells me voluntarily, without me asking, because he knows the drill—as he should by now 🙄. He’s been in timeout 6 billion times. Telling us, “You’re a toot butt,” happens when he’s being funny, and also when he’s frustrated. It’s preferable to being called a “shit,” so I’ll take it 🤪. When some sass starts seeping in, is usually when the “What are you even talking about?,” comes out. He’ll know exactly what I’m talking, he just doesn’t want to hear it—like directions to put something away. He definitely doesn’t understand what paying attention means, as he doesn’t use his version of “You’re not giving attention,” correctly. He just says it randomly, and always when I am paying attention to him 🙄. His last phrase, “That’s amazing!,” just started the other day when he discovered the lap tray I got for him in our Walmart pickup order the day before. He was so excited to use it to eat cereal (cwereal) on the couch and told me, “This is amazing!” 😂. I laughed pretty hard that first time he said it, so now he says it often, trying to get me to laugh.
“This is amazing!”—Quinn
Speaking of laughing, I almost forgot about a phrase Quinn says that he definitely did *not* get from me and that’s, “I almost laughed my poop out.” 😂😂😂 Anytime he gets worked up giggling he says that.
Quinn thinks whispering and telling secrets is really fun. One day he came up to me and said, “Let me tell you a swecret: you can come to my house and pet all the cats and dogs. I have really good swecrets.” While watching a show about a kid with a dirt bike, he came over and whispered to me, “Kiki has a garage,” after seeing the boy get his bike out of one. I’m just glad he finally learned to whisper in my ear instead of into my mouth, like he used to 😂.
Another thing he has learned is how to open things using scissors—envelopes with junk mail, ziploc bags, and Go-Gurts, to name a few 🤦🏻♀️. I’m all for this phase of helping himself, but I would prefer for him to only cut the yogurt tube once, and not into yogurt filled sections onto the floor 😑. I’ve created a scissor monster. Anytime there’s something he could possibly open, I hear, “I can do it, Mom!” We got a package in the mail one day and he wanted to know what was in it. Asher started to fuss and needed to nurse before I could get it open. By the time Ash finished, I found Quinn with his scissors, all of his kitchen tools, and the package with a 4 inch hole in the top. He was really disappointed to find out it was canned tomatoes 😂. FYI, if Walmart doesn’t have items you want in a pickup order, they will ship them to you super fast and for free 😉.
We’re still working on counting and Quinn is up to 8, correctly, although he often forgets 5. As part of our evening walk, Philip brings 8 gummy bears and asks Quinn if he can count to 8, for which he is rewarded with a gummy bear. He has created a monster in this, too, and now when Philip says, “Can you count to 8?,” Quinn says, “What will you give me?” 🤦🏻♀️😂. Sometimes he doesn’t wanna work for it and he’ll say, “Why can’t I just have it?” 🤦🏻♀️.
He is still very into pretend play, often providing prompts for scenarios, making either Philip or me voice inanimate objects but then telling us, “You’re just Mom now,” or “You’re just Dad now.” He likes playing restaurant and wants us to order something from him but he’s often out of whatever it is we order 🙄. He’s still learning to share his toys, a social skill that is going to be necessary realllllly soon, because Ash will be on the move in no time. We kept Philip’s twin nephews a couple of weekends ago while their sister was competing in the Regatta Fest pageant (she won! Go Emma! 🙂), and I overheard Quinn tell Ayden, “I’m really not okay with you playing with that.” While I was impressed with him for communicating his feelings and not just grabbing the toy away, it was something that he hasn’t played with in the last 195 days, so it was eye roll inducing at the same time. I’ve noticed he’s been struggling with his emotions a lot lately and asks to be picked up often. I was getting frustrated by it, because, honestly, I’m tired from carrying Ash around and Quinn is even heavier. I had to check myself there though and make a mental note that he won’t want picked up forever and sooner, rather than later, no doubt, my days of being able to hold him will be over. So now I try to pick him up when he asks, if I can.
A bunch of rotten boys 💙
The novelty of touching Asher still hasn’t worn off but drives me less crazy, I guess. Quinn wants to check on Ash while he’s sleeping and I will tell him that he can, but I always remind him not to talk to him and not to touch him. He usually listens but sometimes whispers, “Have a good nap, Ash” 🥰. I will be getting Quinn out of his car seat and he’ll be like, “I want to touch Asher.” I’m like, “Let’s wait until we get in the house, okay?” 🙄. I took the boys to McDonald’s to get breakfast on our way to Story Hour last week, and while we were sitting at a table waiting for our food, an elderly man walked by us and said hi, tapping Quinn on the head as he did so. I said, “Hello,” and Quinn said, “Mom, we don’t touch other people’s faces.” So apparently he has learned something in regards to touching 🤭.
❤️
❤️ ❤️
We’re having more good days now but still have some challenging ones. I had to banish Quinn to the deck for baths because he wouldn’t stop splashing and throwing water all over the bathroom. Of course, taking a bath in a tote outside is the opposite of a punishment and I’m fully aware that it’s actually fun. He walked around naked for an hour, dumping water on everything. When it was too cold to take one outside one morning, I put him back in the tub with threats of no playgroup and a minimal amount of water. He didn’t splash and told everyone he saw what a good boy he was that day 😂. Hopefully, we surpassed that hurdle because it’s getting cooler and I can’t put him outside forever.
Poor Ash 😂
All of his time outs must be wearing him down because he will comply way more often than before, even if he does so by crawling to wherever I want him to go, all the while whining loudly. Hey, whatever gets him there 😂. He shows his protest to the situation but he still does what he’s told, so whatever. What’s super frustrating though, is when I give him a detailed explanation of why what he did was wrong and I know he’s not listening to a damn word I’m saying 😂. And then, he’ll confirm that suspicion by asking me a completely unrelated question, like what day it is or where we got the blanket on the bed. 🤬🙄🤦🏻♀️. What might be worse, is when he makes excuses for his behavior. Like, I’ll be telling him something like, “You were in timeout for jumping on the couch by Asher,” and he’ll say, “But, I just wanted to do a flip.” I’ll say, “Yes, and I told you not to,” and he’ll follow up with another, “But….” I. DONT. CARE. I can’t say that, of course, or well, I shouldn’t because he will most definitely pick up that phrase 🙄. He’s sassy enough already. He got wound up the other day and vroomed a toy truck too hard, accidentally letting it go, launching it right at Sophie. Philip put him in timeout and threw his truck away. It was broken anyway, but hurting Soph is a big offense in our house. We had also both told him to stop before that happened, so he got the max consequences. Anyway, he told us he was going to get another truck like that and we told him he wasn’t, so he said, “I’ll just get a pretend one.” My super mature husband then told him he would throw that one away, too 🙄.
Quinn is so nosy; it bugs the shit out of me. If he hears me mention somebody’s name that he knows, he immediately stops listening and starts asking what I said 🙄🤦🏻♀️. I can’t use my phone while laying with him in bed anymore because he wants to ask me a million questions about random people in my FB feed. Like, I don’t know every dog’s name or where a kid in an ad lives. I have to just lay there and pretend to sleep and hope I don’t actually fall asleep, if I intend to have any time to myself.
Something random I’ve noticed about Quinn is that he’s starting to get moles. Is three just when when that happens? Or is it different for everyone? He went from being a blank canvas to several spots in a matter of weeks 🤷🏻♀️.
Asher is at such a fun age right now—minus the hair pulling and the arching backwards in protest that he does. Those aren’t fun. However, he more than makes up for it in giggles, especially at Quinn when he dances, and how he reaches for me 🥰. Hes content to just roll around on the floor or sit in his stroller outside, so I’m able to finally get some things done. I’ve been very happy to be able to do some yard work that was desperately needed. He’s so curious and tries to grab anything he can. He particularly likes Philip’s water bottle, which was a favorite of Quinn’s, too. I wish he could focus a little more while eating and not be so easily distracted though 🤪. Why do babies learn to blow raspberries at the same time they start eating solids? 🤦🏻♀️ Even though it’s messy, him eating baby food is going well; he really likes his veggies. It was constipating him some at first, but I think that’s getting better. He loves his jumper, either because of or in spite of it making him poop every time he’s in it 😂. I tell him he jumps his poop out. Six months is a good age because I have finally figured him out—I know when he’s hungry or tired, and we’re on a good schedule. I’m so glad I didn’t give up and continued to try getting Ash to latch because that has made life so much easier, especially at night. I don’t have to get out of bed to warm a bottle or to pump, which is wonderful. However, after nursing him, I sometimes fall right back to sleep, leaving my shirt up. This provides an open invitation to re-latch at any given time; whether I’m awake or not 😳. It is quite a startling way to be woken up 😂.
By the way, I finally got my hair cut 🤪. My friend, Chris, cut it for me 🥰. It feels sooo much better!
I lost a few inches 🙃
How could Ash not laugh at this goof ball? 😆
Ash tried swinging at the park for the first time 🙂.
He learned how to stick his tongue out 😛.
I made Ash another sensory bag but he got mad that he couldn’t get the lily pads out of it 😆.
We harvested another watermelon from our garden and finally got a ripe one! Quinn loves chopping them up. I asked if it tasted good and he said yes, so I told him to give me a thumbs up. He wasn’t quite sure how, so I positioned his hand into one. He thought that was super cool so now we get a thumbs up every day about something 😂. Just wait until he learns what other fingers mean! 😬😂
We painted sunflowers with friends using toilet paper rolls as a stamp.
🌻 
We went on a nature hunt at the 4H grounds.
We collected some different flowers and I found the 4 leaf clover. We also found a buckeye in its shell and opened it up to find the seed.
Quinn worked on his fine motor and life skills by hanging laundry with clothespins 😉.
We used clothespins again to work on recognizing and matching the letters in his name.
😃
He completed a community helpers activity, identifying items that go with the professions of police officer, doctor, dentist, and firefighter.
We made homemade scratch paper—cardstock, crayons, black paint mixed with dish soap, and something to scratch with when it dries.
They turned out really cool!
I saw an activity on Pinterest that involved moving pom pom balls around a ziploc bag made to look like a person fishing. I put my own spin on it so we could practice quantifying numbers. I traced a Dalmatian picture and filled the bag with a little bit of water and pom pom balls. I wrote a number in the square and I helped Quinn count as he moved the balls to fill in Sophie’s spots with the correct number. Did you know hand sanitizer will take the labeling off of ziploc bags?
I created a sensory bin with an assortment of fall items and we worked on quantifying some more by me “ordering” items—I would like 3 sunflowers and 2 white pumpkins—from Quinn, who used a backhoe and a dump truck to deliver them, of course 🤪.
We reused those items with a catapult I made. This was a big hit! He loved shooting things straight into the air and nearly hitting me, despite having a target (a canning funnel) to shoot at 🙄🤦🏻♀️😂.
We decorated a Q with pretty leaves.
I made some clothes from scrap material and Quinn and I stuffed them to make a scarecrow after watching the Wizard of Oz.
🥰
I repurposed a Bunch O Balloons nozzle for Quinn to put beads on. I told him it was a Halloween tree 🤷🏻♀️. I put sand and leaves in the bottle and will make a sensory bottle for Ash when we’re finished with it.
We took some fall pics but I’m not ready to share them yet 😉. Next time.
Despite her begging, Sophie has really become a well behaved dog. We’ve even started letting her stay out of her crate when we leave and she hasn’t torn anything up. She sometimes goes to her crate when she sees us getting ready to leave, and when she does that, I still put her in it.
“Excuse me, I was wondering if you’d like to share.”—Sophie
“I thought maybe you didn’t see me last time, so I moved closer this time.”—Sophie
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