After two months of torture (mostly for me 😅), Quinn is finally going to get his hearing issue fixed. We met with an audiologist three weeks ago, where Quinn had a hearing test that he failed miserably. Well, his ears work, there’s nothing wrong with the nerves, but they’re filled with fluid and the doctor said he is experiencing significant hearing loss from it. I didn’t need a test to tell me that, but it was good to have confirmation of the source. We met with Dr. Tiu the next week and he recommended removing Quinn’s adenoids and putting tubes in his ears. He’ll be having surgery in a couple of weeks. Dr. Tiu told me to research symptoms of adenoid enlargement, and Quinn has many, like snoring, mouth breathing, and constant congestion and nasal drainage. There was one symptom he didn’t have, which is difficulty pronouncing the M sound. He says, “Mama,” and “Mom” 10,000 times a day 🙄.
Quinn hates long car rides, so two visits to Wheeling in less than a week was not his idea of a good time. He told me that it wasn’t worth it to drive up there because he didn’t get to do anything fun 😂. For the first appointment, Philip was able to take time off work to hang out with Ash so he didn’t have to go, but Quinn made up for his absence. By the time we got to Moundsville, there had been zero moments of silence and even he realized how much he had been talking. Quinn asked me, “Can I ever stop talking?,” and I said, “It hasn’t happened yet,” 🙃. He just laughed and said, “I always talk. The only time I don’t talk is when I’m sleeping.” I interjected, “And sometimes even then,” before he launched into his next tirade about a show he watched recently. On the way back, I turned on the radio, hoping to discourage some of the chatter, but then I had one of those moments that most parents can probably relate to. A song came on that had very mature lyrics (Rihanna’s Rude Boy), and whenever I tried to change the station, he told me to turn it back because he liked that song 🤦🏻♀️. To be fair, he probably couldn’t even hear the words, so there’s that, but still.
When we drove up for the visit with Dr. Tiu, Ash and Quinn took the opportunity to argue and fuss for the entire 50 minutes. Quinn really can’t hear well, so at one point, they were arguing over something Quinn thought Asher said, and he kept going, doubling down on his sassiness, even after I intervened. I finally told them it was time to pause the conversation and no one was allowed to talk for a while. We have never given our kids electronics in the car (aside from our roadtrip to the beach, which ended with vomit), so they don’t have much to entertain themselves. I don’t even usually listen to music because it’s too overstimulating. Quinn loved music when he was a young toddler, but since Ash arrived, we try to minimize added noise. They provide enough of it. They do love the song Abracadabra by Steve Miller band, though. I like watching them dance to it, Quinn has some pretty sweet moves 😂.
I think Quinn’s ear issues have just evolved into an automatic response of “What?,” any time he’s spoken to, whether he hears it or not. I tried testing him one day, asking him, “What do you think I said?” He said, “I don’t know!” I said, “No clue?,” and he replied, “No glue? 🤨.” I would accuse him of trying to be funny except he doesn’t understand rhymes 😆. At all.
Find the Matching Rhyming Word. This was the hardest game ever for him to play 😂
Ash has caught onto Quinn frequently asking, “What?,’ and now he does it. I don’t find it the least bit amusing. He already asks the same question a million times, which drives me insane. Instances like:
Ash: “Can I get in?” (The bathtub)
Me: “Yes.”
Ash: “Can I get in now?”
Me: “Yes.”
Ash: “Can I get in?”
Me: “YES, GET IN, ASHER!”
Ash: “Okay.”
He used to get upset whenever anyone raised their voice or corrected him, and he would cry, reminding me of myself as a child. However, I think he may be on the cusp of his threenager era, and I couldn’t be more sad 😔. He has gotten surprisingly better at controlling his emotions, which would be good, except it may be due to his attitude of “I don’t care,” which he has begun telling me often 😠. I can just hope that his season of sass and defiance doesn’t last nearly as long as his brother’s. Quinn morphed into a whiny mess about 2 months before his third birthday, and he’s just now starting to calm his ass down. I like to think that Ash’s disposition will lend in shortening his wild phase, but only time will tell. He is naturally a calmer kid than Quinn, and of course, he has had Quinn to show him the ropes, so maybe he won’t need nearly as much taming as Quinn did 🤞🏻.
We’d been sick on and off for almost a month, which contributed to some of the bickering and fussing, for sure. They didn’t have symptoms at the same time, of course, so just when one started to feel better, the one would be down. It always sucks when kids are sick, but the biggest annoyance has been their lost ability to do absolutely anything for themselves. Quinn will ask me to get him literally anything. He gets mad when I say, “No,” but I refuse to hand him his cup that’s within arm’s reach, RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM 🤬. No. Just no.
One good thing to come of it is Ash adopted an important courtesy, reminding Quinn, “Cover your mouth, please,” every time Quinn coughed or sneezed, whether or not he already had 😆. He himself doesn’t do it 100%, but I will say, he is definitely better at it than Quinn was at his age. Quinn used to get mad at me because I wouldn’t do it for him. I specifically remember him arguing with me in Walmart one time because he kept trying to put my hand over his mouth when he wanted to cough 🙄. He doesn’t do that anymore, at least.
Quinn does have good manners when it comes to thanking me for things, and sometimes it surprises me how happy little things make him. He is always appreciative whenever I make his bed for him. He likes his room being tidy. He thanks me when I get him snacks he doesn’t get to eat often. It’s easy to win his Best Mom Ever award, all I have to do is buy him ranch Doritos 😂.
Candy and other junk food is an ongoing battle in this house, but we do finally have some well established rules. On the regular, they’re allowed to have something sweet after they’ve eaten healthy food (or at least something with protein, because chicken nuggets don’t qualify as healthy in my book, but it is what it is) in the afternoon or evening. Ash doesn’t quite grasp the time restriction and often gets mad at me for not allowing him candy once he eats breakfast 🙄. We don’t have candy for breakfast, hard rule. However, holidays are a free for all. Any holiday that grants them candy—Valentine’s Day, Easter, Halloween, and Christmas—means they can eat however much they want all day long. I hope we won’t always have to police their eating habits, but if left to their own devices at this stage, they’d survive solely on sugar 🙄. Not to mention, society revolves around eating. We have to keep it in check at home, because everywhere else we go is infected with sweets—snack at story time, concession stands at ball games, etc. and I want us to be able to do those fun things elsewhere.
Like get cookies at the mall…
And have cupcakes and ice cream to celebrate with our friends and family ❤️…
And make chocolate dipped treats just because…
And have ice cream at Discovery World, made with their schmancy cold snap machine. They claim to have the only one in WV. You buy the can of liquid concentrate, which looks like a tall can of beer 😅, and put it into the machine, which freezes it into ice cream in about 3 minutes. It’s got nothing on Cold Stone, or even Stalder’s for that matter, but it was good.
They even provided some sprinkles and color changing spoons. Quinn liked watching it change from pink to purple as it got cold, and then back again as he warmed it with his breath. 😯💨
We hadn’t been to Discovery World in a while, but Mimi gifted us admission passes, so we took a spontaneous trip. The boys had a ton of fun 🙂.
I mean, how could you not? 🤪
We had our first candy holiday of the year—Valentine’s Day. Quinn wanted to make a Venom box to take to school for his party 🙄. Ash didn’t need a box, of course, but he made one anyway. His was Miles Morales, Spiderman. I printed the pics, and they painted, Quinn cut, and they both glued.
The Center for Children and Families held a Valentine’s box decorating event for families. The deadline for Quinn to take his box in to school passed before the event, so his was already done, but Lincoln needed one and most of his family was struggling with the flu, so we took him to get his done. He wanted to do a basketball court, and I made his nets. He and his friends were impressed 😂. I think I need more practice.
They were pretty excited to wake up on Valentine’s Day and have a breakfast made of complete crap 😅 🍭 🍫.
We got to visit with their bonus cousins, Lilly and Luka, at the Burger King indoor playground. I can’t wait to make them recreate this in 10 years 🤣.
Our learning adventure
Megablok Letters: Quinn practiced putting the letters of our last name in the right order, and then flipped over the printout to see if he was right. Ash matched the letters of his name in order.
Since Ash and I have been working on learning letters, I got out a matching game that I made for Quinn a few years ago. It had pictures of familiar people and objects with the corresponding scrabble tile letter. I had to update it to include more people because Ash didn’t even exist when I made it 😅. He is able to match a letter with every picture.
Quinn told me they have a puzzle in his classroom that is similar to one we have, which sparked his interest in playing with it again. He put it together by himself, and I told him to lay down beside it so we could measure which was bigger, him or the puzzle. The puzzle beat him by about 2 inches 😄.
Sophie pupdate 🐾
I loveeeeee taking pics of her sleeping. She’s so damn cute 🥰.
She even uses pillows appropriately. Well, whenever she doesn’t purposely knock them on the floor 🙄.
I always think it’s funny whenever she sleeps with her ear flipped out above her, but I get it now. I don’t like sleeping with my hair around my neck either 🤷🏻♀️.
She’s still being 💯 percent extra most of the time 🙄.
🙄🙄🙄
She’s clingy, but she sure is cute ☺️
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