🥺🥺🥺
I have no idea how it’s possible for our baby to be one 😭. He’s an amazing kid—loving, smart, adorable, and always smiling. He’s fun to be around because he’s always making us laugh. Just over a year ago, I didn’t know how I was going to love another child as I love Quinn. Asher was a much fussier baby, having many periods of seemingly unwarranted crying, so bonding wasn’t instantaneous, unfortunately. I loved him, of course. We just had to work on building an attachment. However, I couldn’t imagine life without him now. He is exactly what our household needed ❤️.
His smash cake on his birthday. My pics did not turn out how I wanted 😢.
My set got all messed up 😂.
He went straight into the bathtub afterwards.
He didn’t eat nearly enough of it 😂.
I ended up changing the decorations before I gave it to him, but I didn’t take a new pic so this one will have to do 🤪.
Since the cake was just for Ash, Quinn and I made cupcakes for the rest of us.
Loving on the new dinosaurs he got in the mail from Nana and Juju.
We had his party on the Sunday after his birthday so that his uncles and their families could come.
In sticking with the construction theme for his party, I made Dirt Cake 🤤. This was a favorite of mine and Greg’s when we were little. Our mom
always made it to take to our family reunion in the summer, and she had to make a smaller dish for each of us to have at home.
🎵 happy birthday to youuuuu 🎵
He held onto that ball almost the entire time 😆. Cousin Lincoln helped Ash blow out his candle 😊.
😂
He stole Chris’s son, Reese’s, hat 😂
We took his gifts home to open, mostly because we forgot about opening them there 🤷🏻♀️. I’m a fan of this option except then Quinn opened everything for him in two minutes, and I didn’t know who anything was from 🤦🏻♀️.
❤️
It looked like Christmas again in our living room 🤦🏻♀️.
He had all of those new toys to play with, and I found him digging in my the cooler we took to the party five minutes after everything was opened.
He had his one year well check this week. As expected, his growth percentiles are extremely high 😂. He weighed 24 pounds, 10 ounces fully clothed, putting him in the 91st percentile for weight. He’s 31 inches tall, and in the 88 percentile for height. His most unsurprising measurement was his head circumference, which fell into the 93rd percentile. He gets his huge noggin from his dad. Thank goodness for c-sections 😜.
He was sitting up, eating snacks, one day when he just fell backwards onto that pillow. He noticed Steve and Maggie was on tv, so he decided to stay there 😂.
Ash has developed so much personality over the last few months. He is such a cuddle bug, and he loves giving kisses. He is vocal about his wants, saying, “Drink,” anytime he sees a water bottle, especially Philip’s. He signs, “All done,” when he finishes eating. He says and shakes his head, “Yes,” very well. He has learned how to get his own snacks, being able to pull to stand at the bottom shelf of the pantry. He grabs a container and drops it on the floor so that the lid pops off, typically spilling them all over the floor 🤦🏻♀️. He still isn’t taking independent steps, but he is soooo close. He pushes around anything that isn’t bolted down, and he kicks on his turbo power to crawl away anytime I need him to come to me. Being chased and chasing a ball are some of his favorite pastimes. Quinn threw Asher’s ball away from him one day and told him, “Fetch, Ash!,” and while he wasn’t wrong in calling it that, it still seemed like it was 😂. He loves rolling a ball or a truck back and forth with someone, and filling and dumping (mostly dumping) anything he can. This is a nice skill to have learned because he can now help clean up his messes.
He loves his brother ❤️.
🤗
Giving Mama kisses while waiting for Dr. Gary.
He even kisses the baby in the dishwasher 😂.
Pushing his new mower toy. We had to get him one because I know there’s gonna be a fight over Quinn’s this summer 🤷🏻♀️.
He couldn’t quite move the cooler since it still had ice in it, but that didn’t stop him from trying 😂.
Making all of the older boys chase him at the library 😂.
Messy Marvin strikes again 🤦🏻♀️.
Asher’s receptive language is impressive, he understands many words and commands , including, “Move, please,” when he blocks the screen door by holding onto the pneumatic closer when we’re outside. His little fingers could be easily smooshed if we tried opening the door while he was touching it. He can give a high five, and responds to any words related to leaving—night night, bye bye, ready for a nap, etc., with a wave. He can surrender objects on command, but only when he wants to 😂. He likes to imitate what he sees, especially dancing and tackling 🤦🏻♀️. I can’t imagine how fun it will be to have two children who want to constantly knock each other down 🙄🙄🙄. I already get a taste of that whenever we go to the library. Quinn and his friends are relentless with it, despite repeated warnings from us mothers. However, I’m choosing to live in a fantasy world where my children will one day soon play together joyfully, and peacefully, without constant supervision and intervention. Don’t you dare burst my bubble.
Attacking Brother 😆.
And again.
I’m honestly surprised that Ash isn’t walking on his own yet. He makes a good effort to keep up with all of us, which I thought would be the motivation he needs. I can’t imagine it will be much longer for him to take off though. For the most part, he likes being wherever we are. I can’t even take a shower without him coming in and ripping the shower curtain open 😂🤦🏻♀️. He always ends up soaked because he opens the side with the shower head. I bought some curtain clips on Amazon to help with this problem 😉.
I left the house one day while Ash was sleeping, so I didn’t get to tell him bye. Philip said when he woke up, he made a lap around the house looking for me. He said it was very obvious that’s what he was doing, but once he realized I wasn’t there, he was okay. The night before Asher’s birthday party, I was busy making food, so Philip had the boys in their room, keeping them occupied. We had a good run, Asher played in there for quite a while, but I messed up when I went in to ask Philip a question. Ash saw me and my ability to prep alone disappeared 🤦🏻♀️. I love that he loves me so much, but I get touched out pretty often, especially because he is still breastfeeding. I’m hoping to start weaning him very soon. I’ve introduced whole milk in a cup, but he spits it out about half of the time 🤦🏻♀️. I’m going to have to switch up my approach and make an actual plan. The new recommendation from the AAP is to breastfeed until age 2, but there’s no way I can make it that long. Aside from tiring of being constantly touched, breastfeeding is similar to being pregnant in that you have to avoid certain medications, alcohol, etc. Technically, I probably don’t have to avoid alcohol because he only feeds at naps and bedtime, leaving enough time in between that it wouldn’t affect him. However, my philosophy during pregnancy and breastfeeding/exclusively pumping has always been to avoid any potentially harmful substances that aren’t completely necessary or worth the risk. I don’t particularly miss alcohol, as I didn’t drink much before. I do enjoy an occasional beer (good ones 🤪), and I will do so again one day, but I’m not going crazy without it. It has been more frustrating having to avoid certain meds due to breastfeeding, as I’ve had some ongoing issues that are kind of put on hold until I can properly take care of them. So, I’m anxious to do that, as well as figuring out what size bra I will need once I’m done 😂. I’m certainly due for some new ones.
He got scared when the train went by our house 🥺.
Never far away ❤️
🤦🏻♀️
😍
Another perk to finishing will be potentially sleeping all night. I know, that’s probably another fantasy of mine 😂. Asher is a super light sleeper and anytime he wakes up, which isn’t every night but often enough, a sure fire way to put him back to sleep is nursing 🫣. I’m hoping to teach him to self soothe so that I can move them both out of our bed 😬. The bunk beds sure are lonely 😂😭. Just kidding, Sophie sleeps in the bottom one often enough 🙄.
The other night, I couldn’t sleep, it was too hot. Ash woke up at 4:30am and sprouted 8 more hands and feet, and tried to choke me out when I attempted to make him lay back down. Since he was so restless, I got up to change his diaper. I knew he had just peed, so I didn’t bother turning on a light. As I was cleaning him with the wipe, molten lava came spewing out of his butt. I was left in the dark, dumbfounded by my current situation. About those lights I didn’t turn on—they’re smart lights…we don’t have a switch for them, they’re controlled by an app on our phones. My phone was on its charger in the other room, of course. Since I couldn’t see what I was doing, I dumped out the bag of diapers and used it to contain the mess of poop. I used about half a pack of wipes, cussing inside my head the whole time, wishing for a miracle that I would avoid sticking my finger in shit. I don’t know if I came out unscathed or not because I tossed the bag in the trash and immediately washed my hands, not bothering to turn on the bathroom light and risking potential contamination of the switch.
Quinn took a turn making a mess with bodily fluids last week, as well. He has been working on potty training for a while. He had been doing great, rarely having accidents. I don’t even know what happened, but he started peeing in his pull-up on the regular again. I felt like he needed some help getting into a routine, so I started setting a timer on the Home Pod, and every time it goes off, he has to try to use the potty. At first, I was setting it for every hour. Now I usually set it for every 2, making sure he pees before and after nap, and before bedtime. This technique reminded me of training a puppy and the guilt I felt when the girls would potty in the house after I forgot to take them out. He’s obviously smarter and more aware of when he has to go than a dog, but the same premise applied—he needed me to help him succeed. He still fights me about going sometimes, but that’s another story 🙄🙄.
Anyway, the mess. I had set the timer and told him he needed to go. Sometimes he wants me to come with him, and sometimes he doesn’t. The day of the colossal mess, he wanted me to come. Just as he was getting himself situated on his potty seat insert on the toilet, Asher came crawling into the bathroom. I closed the door a bit, pushing it toward Quinn, and snatched Ash up before Quinn yelled at him for getting close to him 🙄. While I was occupied getting Ash, Quinn started to pee, but he wasn’t seated right. He said, “Mom! I’m peeing!” I was like, “Okay, good job,” but he kept saying it, getting more and more frantic. When I opened the door and looked, I saw why—he was peeing all over the wall, door, and himself 🤦🏻♀️😩😭. That incident resulted in a new potty mantra—horn behind the guard. We say it every time now as a reminder to check and make sure his penis is behind the barrier before the pee comes 😂.
Quinn does many things that make my head want to explode, and while watering the bathroom was bad enough, it doesn’t compare to what he did the other day. Well, what I thought he did, anyway. He came over to me while I was working on my recipe book, and brought his mini Magna Doodle, telling me it wasn’t working. I tried it out, and he was right, it didn’t write. I looked at the tip of the pencil and the magnet was missing. I freaked out and asked if he had been chewing on it. I don’t even remember what he said, but I knew that he had. If you aren’t aware, magnets and batteries are extremely dangerous when swallowed. I immediately started googling whether or not I should take him to the ER. The consensus was yes. I decided I needed the opinion of an adultier adult, so I called Marsha, who I had been texting with anyway. She had a great suggestion, which was to call poison control and ask their opinion. While I was talking to her, Quinn came to the conclusion that he didn’t swallow it, but that it had fallen into the couch cushions. Just as I was about to call the poison hotline, I found the tiny ass magnet after taking the cushions off the couch and sifting through all of the fuzz and crumbs 🤦🏻♀️. I confirmed that it fit into the toy before letting relief replace the panic. Chewing on every #*?%|_\ thing he comes across is another regression we’ve been dealing with. Philip and I have both told Quinn a million times to stop doing it, it’s not safe, threatening to put him in time out if he does it again, etc. and nothing seems to be working. He had a dinosaur chew toy for a while, but he took it on our walk one day a few months ago, and we haven’t seen it since. I was happy when that happened, because I thought we could be rid of this habit with its disappearance. Obviously, that wasn’t the case, so I ordered him a new chew toy. I’d rather he didn’t do it, but if he’s going to chew on something (and obviously he is 🤬🤬), I would rather it be something safe. I thought Asher was going to be the only one I needed to worry about watching out for choking hazards for. I get on Quinn all of the time about keeping small pieces to things (Lego, play doh, pretend coins, etc.) picked up off the floor and out of Asher’s reach. He does a decent job, but I still have to be watchful. You never know what you’ll find in my pockets from where I’ve spotted and removed random things to keep Ash from getting them. I even do it other places. I came home from the park with a pop tab and a rock that I had taken from Ash, and a small bottle of hand sanitizer that he found who knows where. I went to change my pants and was like WTH is in my pocket? 😂.
Quinn is really pushing my buttons again (not that he ever really stopped 😜). He argues allll of the time. If I tell Sophie to go away because she’s begging, being in the way, or trying to steal food from Asher, Quinn can’t help but tell me, “She can be in here if she wants to be!” 🙄. He knows it irritates me, so now he tells me just to be annoying. Anytime Quinn does something he knows he shouldn’t do and I ask him why he did it, he’ll respond with, “I’m the one who doesn’t want to talk to you.” 🙄🙄🙄
Between the dog, Quinn, and Asher, someone is always in my way. It’s mildly infuriating. So is the noise level in this house. I know I’ve complained about this before, but it’s still relevant. If something is loud, Quinn takes that as an opportunity to be even louder 🤬. Running the sweeper, Asher crying, turning on the blender, etc. will all result in Quinn screaming or howling at the top of his lungs. I have never liked loud noises. My brother loves to tell stories about how I would get him in trouble for screaming when I was little because I said it hurt my ears. I had my tonsils and adenoids taken out when I was 6, and prior to that had chronic ear infections. My theory is that I could suddenly hear better and that’s where my displeasure started 😂😂. He swears I was lying to be a brat. I can’t say one way or another, as his theory is probable 😜. However, I can confirm that disliking loud noises has been a lasting phenomena.
Even Quinn’s clothes are conspiring to annoy me 😂. I’m not kidding when I say that every single pair of his jeans ripped at the knee all within one week of each other. All of them. I’ve repaired three so far and probably have that many left to do. He’s starting to outgrow them anyway, so they may be good enough until he’s ready to size up. Up until this point, I saved most of Quinn’s clothes for Ash, but I think he’ll be getting all new size 3T jeans 😂. Maybe he’ll like sweatpants, unlike his brother, and we’ll be good because Quinn has lots of pairs that he refuses to wear so they’re in great condition.
Some days we thrive, and some days we just survive. Thinking back over the last few weeks, it feels like we’ve had more “survive” days, than thrive ones. No matter what, we always laugh; even on our worst days. That’s what gets me through, for sure.
Quinn’s trickery has evolved from watching a show called Kids Fun TV because they are always playing pranks on each other. He has picked up the phrase, “I got you good!,” from them. His tricks are 3 year old level, so very obvious, but it’s funny when he puts on a Spider-Man mask and tells you he’s Owl Man, but then pulls it off to reveal himself, saying, “It’s just me, Quinn! I got you good!” 😂. I actually like that show, the Skye family is amusing, even if a little cringey from the bad acting from the mom. He watches two other shows, Addie & Jillian and Fun & Crazy Kids, that I wouldn’t be sad if I never had to see again. The mom on the second one makes me wanna pull my ears off so I don’t have to listen to her voice 😂. Quinn learned the words urban legend from them because they’re always pretending to find made up creatures. It is pretty amusing when Quinn tells me he heard about the urban legend such-and-such, but that’s the only nice thing I have to say about that show 🤪. I remember when I thought Blippi was awful. Now I would watch Blippi all day, every day over them.
One of his costumes 😂.
Quinn has learned a behavior from his dad that, despite wanting to, made me laugh yesterday evening. I was feeding Ash when I heard Quinn say, “Mom. Is this floor squeaking?,” while having a huge, ornery grin on his face. I said, “Did you toot?!” He giggled while he said, “No,” and then told me he needed to go poop 🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️.
Another of their antics is how Quinn requests to be hugged whenever Philip goes back to work after his lunch break. Philip gives us all a hug and a kiss, but Quinn always demands, “Hug me funny,” and offers his leg or some other silly alternative to a normal hug.
Philip has faced some serious rejection lately that made me laugh at his expense. He brushed Quinn’s teeth one night (in the living room because we’re weird like that) and as he was going back to the bathroom, Quinn curled up to me and said, “I love you.” Philip replied, “I love you, too, Buddy,“ but Quinn answered, “I was talking to Mom.” 🤭
Ash offered up his own slap in the face when he was fussing and crawling toward us, and Philip stepped in front of me to pick him up, but he crawled around him to get to me 😂. I’m afraid Philip is gonna get a complex if they keep it up 😂😉.
Asher makes me laugh with his random pointing, which started out as a pirate impression that he learned from Quinn. I made Quinn a pretend hook for his hand, so he plays with it sometimes when he pretends to be a pirate. When the boys were in the bath tub one day, Quinn was rambling on with his pirate talk, and Asher stuck the rinse cup on his hand. I told him he looked like a pirate and told him to say, “arrrrrghh.” He attempted to imitate me. Quinn and I laughed, which reinforced the notion. Now he just randomly sticks his arm out without a cup on it, and it’s comical.
Doing his pirate point at the doctor’s office.
And at the park 😂.
He also likes to put hats on his face and crawl around while being unable to see where he’s going 🤦🏻♀️😂. Like, he does it all the time. He’s a goof.
🤦🏻♀️
🤦🏻♀️
I particularly like when he sits on Quinn or mimics things Quinn does. Philip was letting Quinn push him one night and pretending to fall over. Ash had to get in on the action, too, crawling over and trying to push him down 😂.
Quinn loves to laugh, too, and asks to be tickled. He ASKS to be tickled. Why do kids like being tickled? Bunch of weirdos. You tickle me and I’ll cut you 😂.
Here are the very few activities we did/events we attended the last three weeks:
Quinn practiced his cutting skills by finding what was “hiding” underneath. I printed a Big Foot picture for the green “grass,” Groot under the brown “trees,” a yeti for the white “snow,” and Kiki under her favorite color, at Quinn’s request 😂😂.
Quinn made a cloud windsock and blew on the rain drops.
We practiced letter recognition with a cardboard parking lot, where he had to match the letters on the vehicles to the correct parking space.
Quinn made me draw a designated spot for his fire truck and his tractor 😂.
We worked on number recognition (which we need to do lots more of 🤦🏻♀️), using the counting cows Mimi got Ash for Christmas.
The boys did an activity together. Well, kinda. I rolled most of the balls into the hole, as fast as I could so Quinn would have to scramble to keep up 😂. He said, “This is the best day ever!” His standards are very low 😂.
The boys’ older brother, Aaron, made a duct tape wallet for Quinn and gave him some money in it. We let him go to Walmart and pick out some toys, helping to find ones he had enough money to buy. He chose a big ball, a Spider-Man monster truck, and stuffed animal. He was so excited to pay using his money. We maybe hyped him up a little too much with it though, because the next day, he sassed me when I put him in time out for something, saying, “You can’t put me in time out! I’m a grown up now, I pay for my own toys!” 🙄🙄🙄🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️. Next time he gets money, it’s going into his savings account, like before 😂.
In, perhaps, the lowest prep activity I’ve ever done, Ash and I practiced releasing objects into a tissue box (slotted container), and saying color and shape words.
We practiced colors again when he wouldn’t nap yesterday, while he pulled bandanas out of a container.
He explored some sensory bottles that I made when Quinn was a baby.
Ash practiced scribbling on an LCD tablet.
We visited with their cousins. Kate had to protect Quinn from their dog, Kenobi. He’s a big puppy who doesn’t yet know his size 😂.
We got ice cream at the Dairy Bar, which Quinn was very excited about 😊.
We had fun at playgroup. He was trying very hard to not show his teeth 🙄.
🥰. Poor Iris. Ash kept touching her hair 🤦🏻♀️.
What we did most of all was spend time outside! Our total for the year is now 51 hours and 45 minutes.
We visited with our neighbor dog, Bear. He has cancer that seems to be progressing pretty quickly now 😭😭😭. Our dog, Pretzel, had the same kind: lymphoma. I knew as soon as I felt his neck one day when he was over, and then I talked to his dad. He’s such a good boy ❤️.
Quinn got to try out his new rain suit for puddle splashing.
We found more water puddles in the field.
Ash’s new coveralls helped keep him clean.
We played with bubbles 🫧
And on the swing set.
Quinn practiced ignoring stop signs, a life long habit, no doubt 😂.
Ash explored a possible future career as a flag person 😜.
We played hopscotch under the carport with our neighbor friend, Scarlett, while it rained.
Ash lucked out on his birthday and got gorgeous weather, so went to the park to play.
😃
Quinn was brave and let go.
Quinn wanted to take his chicken for a bike ride, so I got some big binder clips to attach it to the handlebars 😂.
Quinn picked me some wildflowers on our walk 🌸.
There were some puddles along the trail where we walk and I told Quinn they looked like the perfect conditions to find some frogs, and sure enough, we did! I only got pics of two but we scared a lot a more 😂.
We got to play with some library/neighbor friends on one of the warm days.
We went to the blue park, as Quinn calls it, and found some more familiar faces 🥰.
We went back today after nap, until it got too cold.
This time, we took baby Chloe with us and showed her around ❤️.
She’s even done it more than once 😳.
As long as Mom or Dad are around, she’ll allow lots of petting from both of them.
When we tried to see how much taller Quinn was than her,
And she snuck in a kiss to him ❤️.
I mean, just look at how beautiful she is 🥺.
She wanted to recreate a few of her pics from when she cheered when she was younger.
I think this one is pretty cool 😊.
No comments:
Post a Comment