Creative Kimpire: Quinn: 5y, 1m; A: 2y, 5m

2023-2024

It’s been about 6 weeks since my last regular post, but it feels like much more time has passed. August seemed to take forever as we awaited the start of the school year, something Quinn and I were both nervous and excited about. I’m once again thankful for the introduction that Little Red Schoolhouse gave him to the structure and expectations of school, as I credit it for this transition to full time Pre-K going so smoothly. Quinn and I attended the orientation held the week before his start date, where he got to meet his teachers and see his classroom while I was getting the rundown of the millions of forms I would need to fill out. It was a tough morning for me because I had run out of my prescription depression medicine the day before, having forgotten to pick it up at the pharmacy 😩. I get extreme withdrawal from missing one dose in as little as 8 hours. I was having brain zaps and trouble focusing. You know, the ideal condition for listening to important information 😂. As soon as we were done, I booked it to Walmart to pick up my medicine, but not before crying while scheduling our home visit with his teacher 😅. I wish I was kidding. I cried, Quinn didn’t. Good times.

Our home visit was scheduled for the next day, and it went well. After his teacher and aide left, I asked Quinn if he liked them and he said they were “very, very nice.” 😊. Ash must have thought so, too, because he wanted to go with them. He had come into the kitchen to ask me to turn something on tv for him, but when he realized they were leaving, he said, “I not want something on, I wanna go to school!” He was ready to trade me in for people he had just met 😂.

For months, Quinn had been saying he planned to ride the bus to school, just like all of his big kid neighborhood friends. Philip and I had our doubts, but he proved us wrong. He was so excited on the morning of the first day of school, but his excitement waned when we arrived at the bus stop. I could tell he was nervous, but he dutifully followed Harper onto the bus. She’s been so kind to sit with him on the morning ride to school, and his cousin Lincoln sits with him in the afternoon. His first day went well, and he couldn’t wait to go back the next day! During the first week, only half of his class went the first two days, and the other half went the next two, so he had a week break between days 2 and 3 due to having Fridays off and then Monday for Labor Day. When he arrived home on day 3, he got his chips out of his lunch bag to eat. I asked why he didn’t eat them at lunch, and he said he ate his pepperoni that I had packed first and then his hands were too greasy and he couldn’t get the bag open 😭. I felt terrible for forgetting to send him a napkin, but I gave him tips for next time, if it happens again. I told him he should’ve asked a teacher for help, but if that’s not an option, he can always wipe his hands on his pants, and then turn the bag upside down and open from the not greasy, bottom side. It makes me sad to think he may have been hungry, but I know they get an afternoon snack in Pre-K, and his eating frequency borders on hibernation ability anyway. He eats a ton one day, and then barely anything at all for days after 🫠.

He insisted I buy him socks “like Lincoln’s” 😅. They look like tights since they’re so tall and his shorts are so long.

The need to buy school clothes sent us in person shopping for the second time ever for him. We bought some things once before, but this was the first time we went with the intention of letting him pick out what he wanted to wear. The cashier at Kohl’s was so nice to give them each their own bags. They seemed to feel very grown up carrying them to the car 😅.

When we got home, he tried on some of his finds 😊.

Ashy was excited about his new skeleton shirt he got 😊.

I was curious to see how Ash would respond to Quinn being away at school. I asked him on that first day what he wanted to do, and he said, “I wanna sit on the couch and watch tv all day.” That’s valid. They both constantly ask if it’s their turn to pick a show, I can see why he wanted it all to himself. I only planned to allow that for one day, however, that night I turned the wrong way and pinched my sciatic nerve, leaving me couch bound for the next three days. That was the worst pain I’ve ever had in my life, and my right quad is still slightly numb. I was still experiencing some discomfort whenever I lifted things, got up from sitting too fast, etc. for over two weeks. For the first day of my ailment, Quinn was at school, and Ash was more than happy to be a couch potato, which made the majority of the day easier. However, days 2 and 3 were frustrating whenever they fought with each other. I was given pain medicine and muscle relaxers, neither of which helped at all, and they made me drowsy. Luckily, both boys were content having me trapped in one place, so they didn’t stray far from the living room, making it easier for me to catch a quick nap here and there.

I believe Quinn had been subconsciously experiencing some anxiety about starting school, and consequently, being away from me, because he has been stuck up my butt, driving me nuts. For about a month, he’s been afraid of doing anything alone. I thought turning five had made him brave, but it must’ve worn off already 😅. He’s scared of the dark. He’s scared to go upstairs alone. He constantly yells for me, just to see where I am. It’s obnoxious. I started suggesting that he take Ash with him when he wants something from his room, but doesn’t want to go upstairs alone. That works well most of the time. Unfortunately, Ash started noticing some of these incidents and claims he, too, is scared to do things on his own 🤦🏻‍♀️. I’m hoping this is a short lived phase.

Living his best life 😂.

Despite his fear of the dark, I had to set a boundary with Quinn involving bedtime. He was waking me up every single night, wanting me to lay with him (after I had already laid him to go to sleep). I would go to his bed and wait for him to fall back asleep, and if I didn’t fall asleep too, go back to my bed. But then sometimes he would wake up again and repeat this process. And sometimes Ash would take a turn. I was so exhausted that I couldn’t take it anymore. I gave him a whole speech about how we have a security system, Sophie wouldn’t let anyone in, we would keep him safe, etc. I asked him if there was anything we could do that would make him feel safer, and he wanted his giant stuffed dinosaur, Copper, to sit by the door and guard it. I made sure Copper was in place each night. He made it all night the very first night without waking me up. Unfortunately, Ash didn’t, but that’s a different story. I asked Quinn if he had woken up during the night and he told me he did. I asked what did he do, and he said he covered his head with his blanket and went back to sleep 😂. Perfect. He also told me, “If a robber broke in and tried to hurt Asher, I would punch him in the private and then call the police, and then get you.” Nice to know I’m the third in line of defense 🤦🏻‍♀️. I guess his bravery made a brief return.

Copper

He was doing well for a while, and when the stars aligned and Ash didn’t wake me up, I got a few nights with no interruptions. There were a couple nights that he forgot to pee before bed and ended up peeing while asleep. He refuses to wear pull-ups anymore, so he was a soaking wet mess, along with his bed. He woke me up those times, and that was fine, but I also told him if it happens again, he’s going to need to start wearing pull-ups again. He didn’t like that, and it hasn’t happened since 😆. He also took full advantage of my sciatic pain, which caused me to sleep on the couch for about a week straight. Our bed is too firm and I couldn’t get comfortable in it. I don’t know how he knew I was downstairs, but he always ended up coming down with me at some point. The first night that I was able to tolerate sleeping back in bed, I was awakened by his movement as he came into our room and stared at me like a creeper 😂. Once he assessed that I was in there, he went back to his room without intentionally waking me up.

Now that Quinn is gone for the majority of the day, the house is much quieter, and going places with just one kid with me is weird.

I almost felt like Quinn was at story time when Ash made the last minute decision to dress as Batman before we left 😅.

Despite the costume wearing, these two couldn’t be more different. I’ve felt guilty that I haven’t invested the time into teaching and playing with Ash like I did Quinn, but he isn’t all that interested in playing with me 😅. I had big plans, but we’re going to have to take it slow to establish new habits. His indifference to my attention makes it super easy for me to busy myself with house projects, which seem to be never ending. There’s enough wallpaper in this house that I think I’ll be tearing it down for the next ten years. Also, my workflow is to start 15 projects and then bounce back and forth between them until I finish something or get bored and abandon it, so I’ve got plenty to do (Just ask my husband. He loves that I do this 🙃.) However, I don’t want Ash’s brain to rot while I get shit done, so we’re going to have to find a balance.

Despite lacking the same kind of learning structure Quinn had, Ash has learned plenty via observation. A common phrase I say to Quinn is, “Less talking, more (whatever I want him to do.),” because he is incapable of doing things without talking about them. I’ve written many times about how talkative he is, which can be described as ‘extremely’, BUT I think Ash will be on another level. It isn’t just how much he talks, it’s the things he says that get me. Those two get frustrated with each other because I tell them they can’t both talk to me at the same time, so they will say, “Ash, stop! I’m talking!,” or “Quinn, stop! I talking!” Sometimes Ash will even ask, “Is it my turn to talk?” 😂. It’s especially bad in the car, maybe because they don’t have anything else to do. During one trip, Ash kept whispering, “Wanna hear a secret?” Quinn got mad about it and started repeating, “Say it louder, Ash.” Ash finally got fed up and yelled, “I NOT GONNA SAY IT LOUDER, QUINN!” 🤣. It cracked me up.

The randomness of what he says kills me. He fell asleep on the way to Sam’s Club last weekend, and when Philip woke him up getting him out of the car, the first thing Ash said to him was, “I love your eyeballs.”

As Philip was carrying him upstairs to bed one night, Ash said, ““Baby bunnies not super dangerous.” Alright then 😂.

It’s hard to tell what’s going on inside his head at any given time. He often comes running into the kitchen and says, “Mom, there a siren head over there! I gonna pew him! Pew! Pew! Pew!,” as he pretends to shoot an imaginary foe. Quinn hadn’t even been introduced to superheroes, let alone villains, at Asher’s age.

He legit made up a song about Quinn, replacing the Finger Family song words with his own. It goes, “Stinky bubba, stinky bubba, where are you?” 😂. Quinn got mad about it at first, but then I said it was my favorite song, so now he’ll tell Ash, “Sing Stinky Bubba!” 🤣.

I love the choices kid’s make when they don’t have the word for something. The other day I asked Ash, ”What’s in your mouth?”

Ash: “Gum.”

Me: “Where’d you get gum?”

Ash: “From dada, in his green wallet.”

His ‘green wallet’ was the pack of gum 😂.

Another word he gets wrong is burp. He’ll tell me:

“I burk.”

Me: “What do you say?”

Ash: “Excuse Asher!”

He knows his full name, but when I asked him what his name was the other day, he said, “Asher.” I said, “Asher what?,” and he said, “Asher Bean.” 😂. That’s what I call him all of the time and Harper does, too.

He knows what he wants, and what he doesn’t. I was putting on my sunglasses to go outside and Ash told me, “I not want sunglasses. I want my eyes out.” 😆

One morning, he kept telling me something over and over, but he was talking too fast and jumbling it all together. I finally understood he was saying, “I want cereal in a bowl, with milk on it, and a spoon.” I was like, “I need less information. Just ‘I want cereal’ is all you need to say.” 🤦🏻‍♀️.

While I was getting the grocery order one night, he gave Philip some not fun information.

Ash: “Dad, I got poop on my hand!”

Philip: “Where did you get poop?”

Ash: “From my pocket.”

Philip: “You don’t have any pockets.” 😳

It was up the back of his diaper 😑.

I’m hoping we can start potty training soon, especially now that I can focus on just him four days a week. He will use the potty every time you put him on it, but he never knows he has to go before he does it, so we may not be there just yet. He did tell me one day, literally seconds before it happened, or he thought it was going to, but that’s been the only time. He came to where I was and said, “I got poop!” I said, “Okay, do you want to go poop in the potty?” He stood there and grunted for a few seconds and then said, “It not coming!” 🤦🏻‍♀️😆. He wants to do everything big brother does, so the desire to use the potty won’t be an issue, we just have to work on knowing the cues before it happens.

With fall right around the corner, it seems like a good time to recap our summer fun and flops.

Pool ✅

Movie theater ❌

Movie in the park ✅

Camping ✅

Zoo ✅

Berry picking ✅

Fireworks ☑️ enjoyed the first ten minutes

Idelwild ❌

Weird floating circus ☑️ Quinn: yes, Ash: no

Town and Country Days ✅

I talked about the others in previous posts, but the last three happened in August.

We took an impromptu trip to Idelwild early last month, thinking it would be a super fun experience. Our own expectations are sometimes the reason for our biggest disappointments. This was true for Philip and me, expecting our child would like something millions of other children do, and for Quinn, who had the wrong idea about the type of place we were going. To be fair, in hindsight, I could have prepared him better, but I didn’t realize we were on different pages until it was too late. We told him we were going to a water park, something he had seen before in YouTube videos. The problem was that all of the big slides that were similar to what he’d seen before had height limitations that excluded him. The rides that he was able to go on were ones he didn’t want to because we couldn’t go with him. There were very few that we could all go on together. He hated Story Book Forest, which we kind of expected, and waiting in line was miserable for everyone because of his whining. Asher seemed to enjoy himself, at least. The only thing Quinn liked was the big climbing net.

This was easily the best part of our trip 😂.

We attended the Flotsam river circus when it came to town, and there aren’t words to describe what had to be someone’s drug fueled dream brought to life. I mean, I saw the entire thing and I still can’t properly tell you what it was about. Something about mutant fish, acrobatic pirates, and a person with extra *ahem* mammary glands pretty much sums it up. About halfway through, Philip decided to bail, and he gave the boys the out of going with him. In a shocking move, Quinn, our child who hates everything, opted to stay. Well, they both opted to stay but Ash stayed because I was staying with Quinn. Quinn chose to stay because he liked it 😅.

They picked the absolute worst time of day to do it because the setting sun reflecting off of the river was the backdrop for the show. As you can see, certain people stole my eye protection, making the encounter even less enjoyable, which was unimaginable 😑.

Despite the failure at the amusement park, we gambled on going to the fair because Quinn actually liked it last year. We should’ve saved the nearly $200 spent on Idlewild and just gone to Town and Country Days because it was a hit!

We all rode the Ferris wheel, the carousel, and the jumbo slide. The barn is always a win, and they were intrigued with the Dino show. Overall, it was a good time. Not to mention, the ice cream we got there was only $6 instead of $30 😅.

A little blurry but the best I could get from the video Nanna took 😊.

🦕 🦖

I’ve had some summer bummers, like the sciatica that I mentioned, but I also got stung by a yellow jacket on two different occasions. The first time was on the leg, which swelled and left a huge red spot for about a week. But the worst one was on my lip 😩. It swelled up and was numb for several days.

😂😂😭😭😭😭. That stupid bee bit me to hang on and stung me twice before I could get it off of me. They’re viscous!

I had a middle ear infection that was causing me so much pain I couldn’t sleep. However, because of its location, I thought it was my wisdom tooth causing it, so I had it pulled. It needed to come out at some point anyway because it was so far back in my mouth that I couldn’t even get a toothbrush behind it and it got a cavity that couldn’t be easily filled. It didn’t necessarily need to come out when it did though, and I still had to see a doctor to get my ear treated. It was a miserable couple of weeks figuring out the source of the pain. Let’s hope the next season goes easier on my body 😅🤞🏻.

Other summer adventures (in no particular order):

Foam party at the library for the last story time of the summer. We had taken a break from story time, but I knew this one was going to be extra fun, so I thoroughly threatened them about their behavior before I agreed to go 😅.

Ashy got a haircut 😅. He woke up looking like the top right, and I finally convinced him to let me cut it 🥹.

Somehow we ended up participating in the neighborhood car wash entrepreneurship 🤦🏻‍♀️. They only washed one car and got two more donations, resulting in $51! I’m in the wrong line of work, for sure.

We had our first yard sale at our new house, and the kids sold goldfish and animal crackers. Harper really made out with her lemonade stand! Next year we’re adding coffee to the list of offerings.

Lincoln got tasked with making sure Ollie didn’t wake up and roll off of the bench 😉.

It was a dangerous job, too, because I have evidence that he’s a vicious carnivore! 🤪

We didn’t need to leave our street to get a taste of a carnival with Lincoln’s and Annie homemade setup. They had games, like basketball and slide the marble into the horseshoe, complete with tickets and prizes 😅. Kate amused herself by digging and mixing a pad of mud that reminded me of my Nother Nan’s Texas sheet cake 🤦🏻‍♀️. They say she acts just like me, and they’re not wrong 😂.

The messiest bunch of slime makers you’ve ever seen 😅.

We took another trip to Oglebay Zoo, just for something to do. The goat pictured behind the boys was a friendly fellow who would’ve stood there all day if we hadn’t stopped petting him 🐐.

We attended Ridleigh’s birthday party, and they both tried skating for the first time. Quinn was a hot mess when we first got there, so I thought we were going to leave. He quit whining after a few minutes and was able to give skating another try. I was proud of him for not giving up! He really liked it once he got over his fear. The new skating rink in Moundsville is really nice!

We baked sugar cookies to welcome home Harper and Lawson on their first day back to school this year. Quinn didn’t start until a few weeks after the bigger kids.

We practiced skills at home, though, while waiting for him to go. He is starting to understand simple math! 🧮

He loves playing memory match and go fish with the alphabet cards I made for him.

When the weather cooled down during that lovely 70’s spell, we spent lots of time at the park. Quinn mastered the monkey bars, which he was super excited about.

He thinks he’s a big kid now 😬.

Ash does, too. He tells me he wants to go on the “big kid” swing.

He might think he’s big, but he doesn’t have those big kids legs yet. While I was still in recovery mode with my sciatic pain, Harper was very helpful in getting Ash home 🥰.

I’m thankful it warmed back up for our last pool day of the season. It was the perfect temperature and we had a fantastic time. Quinn did very well swimming without his life jacket and practiced holding his breath under water.

This pretend doctor office setup has kept Quinn and Lawson busy for several days. I found some printables on Pinterest to help create four jobs—the vet, the office manager, the pharmacist, and the customer— and they’ve taken turns being each one.

My oldest nephew, Coen, shipped out last week for boot camp. He joined the Navy and will have the opportunity to learn a super interesting job. We’re so proud of him but I’m going to miss him. He’s so great with the boys and has a good heart. I know he’s gonna do amazing and I’m excited to hear about where this takes him! He got to attend one last family get together for Labor Day before leaving. He took that opportunity to zip tie his brother to our climbing dome 😂. I’m now selling it, so here’s an idea for anyone interested 🫢🤣.

We also got together a few weeks before that to give Haleigh a send off to her second year at college. I’m so proud of those big kids 💜.

A few days later, Ash saw a picture of Haleigh on my phone, so he went and got his shoes and brought them to me and said, “I wanna go to Haleigh’s house.” 🥺

We got to see cousin Oakley in action when his team played in our town.

We visited the sunflower field in Hannibal, as is our yearly tradition. Bob from Hannibal Garden Center is such a great guy for planting them every year. It was kind of a shit show getting the photos, but we got some good ones.

🥹 babies. 2022/2024

Harper even got this sweet one of me and Ash, thanks to Mandy timing it just right 😊.

I love how much these two love each other ♥️.

The Carneys were gone for a week on vacation, and when they came back, these two were so happy to see each other 🥹.

Sunflowers were the only things I got to plant this year, but I’ve been working on preparing a space for a garden next year. 👀 the mantis on the right.

Fortunately, we’ve gotten to enjoy the fruits of Juno’s labor in my old garden beds. His tomatoes are so tasty!

It’s not Lucy from last year, but I was super excited to find this gal on Mandy’s butterfly bush. Idk why I’m so fascinated by bugs 😆.

However, I am not a fan of slugs, and these damn things are everywhere 🙄. They’re leopard slugs and they’re cannibalistic. I caught one eating another that Ash had accidentally squished 😬.