I think she signed for milk this morning!!!  That is so cool!  Another Quinn thing I forgot to mention yesterday is that she does not like to have her high chair all the way up to the table and will push it back.  If you push it up, she will push it back.  Hence, when I feed her, 95% of it ends up on the floor or in her lap and the rest makes it to her mouth.  I have video of this - it is hilarious!  I personally love how after we try to shove her back to the table, she braces her arms and then giggles!  Silly boo girl!

She is almost one and although I blog a lot, I am sure there are so many tiny details that I have forgotten.  Here are a few things I can think of off the top of my head.  Oh and the bites of apple you see in the pictures are her brothers.  He was done with it, so Daddy gave it to Quinn to see what she would do.  She may have no teeth, but she quite enjoyed drinking up as much juice as she could get!

 - When I have her on my back in the mai tei, I will give her snacks by setting the mosel of food on the shoulder of the mai tei.  This gives her time to do her little consideration routine where she looks, reaches out, reaches back, looks, waves and looks.  After many seconds, a little hand will come forward and pick up the food.

 - She loves to pull herself up to Tyler’s train table and take apart his tracks.

 - She loves balls!  She loves to throw them and chase them and also roll them back and forth.

 - She continues to be a roly-poly on the changing table which makes it a real pain to change her diaper.  No sooner do I have the dirty one off, than she has flipped herself over to check something out.

 - Loves playing in rocks.  If I give her a bucket or container she will grab of handfuls of rocks and throw them in.

 - She likes swinging.

 - She giggles after she passes gas.

 - She likes to zurp me.

 - She is still the master on the one-handed stand.  From the second she could stand up, she was uber comfortable using on hand to steady herself.  She has taken a few assisted steps, but I think we are still a ways away from walking.

 - After 8 weeks of music class, she know understands that the “bum, bums” / “bye-bye”’s mean its time to put the instruments away.  So when she hears that, she now chunks her instruments as if to say, “I was done with you anyway!”

 - She loves the game chase.  If I start crawling behind her and say “I’m going to get you”, she giggles excitedly, turns around and takes off so I can give chase.  Likewise if we run after Tyler, she laughs hysterically.

 - She loves to pat and play with the water in Chase’s water bowl.  And the second time around, I don’t care.  If she is happy for a few minutes while I make dinner or wash dishes - have at it.  With the second it is amazing how certain things just don’t seem like such a big deal.

 - She still hasn’t any teeth.  Whatever I thought I saw isn’t there anymore.  So who knows.  I am not complaining - I know they will come soon enough.

 - She has many words that she says now - “mama”, “daddy”, “ty/ty or tyler”, “doggie”, and “duck”.  She points and I swear today pointed at a candle and sounded something out that sounded like “cah-duh”.  Maybe my imagination, but the duck was quite clear and she was pointing right at one.

 - Tonight she wasn’t ready to go to sleep just yet.  Whenever I would hold her over my shoulder, she would sit upright and start waving at the door.  I could only assume she was sending some last minute goodbye’s to her Daddy and her brother.  I remember that Tyler would always need a minute to process the goodbye when he was younger too.  So as someone was leaving and driving off, we would be saying and waving goodbye and then once that person was out of sight, that is when Tyler would start to wave and/or say “goodbye”.  Quinn in the same way!

Soon I will have to say goodbye to her first year.   It is bittersweet as I am excited at what this second year will bring, but also am fairly certain that I will not walk this “baby road” again.  At least I ended on a high note and she was such an easy-going, sweet, snugglebunny baby.  

I am done with my short, short hair.  And I need to return to blonde hair for a while. The growth will take months, but I am game.  Sadly, my hair is now think and wavy, so we will see if my old cute bobs are even attainable anymore..   I need a change..badly.  I want to go back to this:

{sigh}  It was supposed to be a fantastic day leading into a fantastic weekend.  Chris had taken a precious day off of work and was going to take his son to the San Antonio zoo.  He had been wanting to do this for quite some time.  The thought was that on a Friday, the zoo would be less crowded and Tyler would enjoy that more.  I would have a lovely day with friends and get some stuff done during Quinn’s nap.

Enter the rain.  Plans got changed.  Tyler and Daddy did end up going out to McKinney Roughs and I think had a good time.  But then he decided to take Tyler to Lowe’s and the train store (Terra Toys).  While he prepped Tyler that they weren’t buying anything - well, that would assume a rational child.  He came home and I think whined for the better part of an hour.  Had it been sunny they probably would have gone for a bike ride or to the park.   Apparently at the store, Tyler was telling his Daddy to leave him there and I think Tyler at some point decided that he wanted to live at the train store.  He wanted that to be his home.   While these experiences are healthy - going to a toy store and not buying anything and dealing with the upset of not getting what you want - he isn’t fun to be around while processing all of his frustrations.  And that is the crappy part, to some degree I have to be present when I really just want to check out. 

Chris and I exchanged cars since the CD player in the Forester is not working.  No big deal to me, but I didn’t ask Quinn.  Oh my God!  We took Susan and Piper with us on our adventures in South Austin and she cried the entire time.  We got lost and it was awful - trying to figure out where you are going with a crying child.  I felt terrible and was really stressed out especially since we had other folks in the car too.   Later that day I took her to Whole Foods in the Odessey and I got happy babble to and fro.  I don’t know if she missed her mirror or it was the car.  I knew she like the Odessey better, but I didn’t realize how much. 

We were going to check out a new state park this weekend and had lots of other fun plans we were excited about.  It just sucks.  It seems like Chris can’t take a long weekend without something screwing it up and making him wish he was probably at work.  I am cranky because my fun Friday break was quite stressful and I don’t feel recharged at all.

I am determined to salvage this weekend although I have the hardest time shifting gears when me plans go awry.  I hate change that way.  I am the world’s worst at it.   Chris doesn’t have the best attitude right now either - so I am trying to play cheerleader for both of us.

That and there are too many mosquitoes and flies in this house and they are driving me crazy.  {sigh}  I need sleep.  Whine, whine..I know.  But dammit, Tyler got to do it for an hour, I should get at least 10 minutes…

On the upside, I am close to selecting a paint color for the walls and plan to be painting my Monday or Tuesday evening!  Woo-hoo!  Now off to clean the bathrooms…  Hey, when else it is going to get done

Quinn Gets Her First Pair of Shoes!

She is starting to stand up a ton and will be trying to walk soon.  While barefoot is best, we take several adventures where sharp ouchies could be around, so I like to know that her feet are a little bit protected.  She picked these out.  I set out two boxes in front of her and she kept pounding on this one.  Secretly, these are the ones I wanted too.  Sunflowers - how perfect for her!

Do you know that I noticed today?  How she tranfers objects from hand to hand to help me out as I buckle her in her carseat.  It is little gestures like that which amaze me.  I love watching her hands explore her world.  Depending on the object, new or something she loves, he hands are quite tentative or grab with great enthusiasm.  She will point with her finger and likes to initiate the “pretend to eat my finger” game with me and others. 

She still thinks gravity kicks ass and is so damn funny!  I had her sitting on a low brick wall (I was holding her) at the Farmer’s Market.  She kept knocking the granola off and laughing her head off.  Then she moved onto other objects - Tyler’s cars, the sling, whatever she could find.  I would tickle her and ask her if she knocked it over in an animated her voice and she would giggle more lilke “yeah, you caught me! Let’s do it again!”.  She is so funny!

Oh, and she is on a mission to touch Tyler’s potty!  Today Chris was sitting in the bathroom as Tyler’s was sitting on his potty.  Quinn tries to crawl over Chris’ legs and when that avenue wasn’t working she tries to crawl under them butting her head on his legs trying to crawl through the “tunnel”.  He kept moving her away when she got close and she got so mad!  As I watched her, I told Chris, “this is 100% Chris Hedge right here…”

The Right Way to find my Summer Rythm

So I started off making a schedule of how we would fill our days this summer.  That didn’t satisfy me - it didn’t feel right.  So today I just sat down and started writing down all the adjectives that remind me of summer.  As I thought of words I could feel what summer is supposed to be like.  All these ideas flooded out- eating watermelon in the backyard, making and drinking lemonade and smoothies, bubbles, popsicles, wondrous nature walks searching for a myriad of creatures, and of course, water play (mini pool, hose , sprinkler, etc).  This is what I want my summer to feel like - slow and lazy.  That is what I want to create.  And while I want to have lots of adventures too - I want to challenge myself to have a morning at home with the kids where we have a slow, lazy day.  No where to rush off too - just the enjoyment of the day.  Something like this would usually make me nervous - but after writing down all these fabulous words, I felt FULL of ideas and ways we could spend the day.  I am excited.  It is going to be a great summer…

My dearest friend Susan was off on a photography mentoring trek for 6 days last week. So Sammy was my partner in crime during that time. We even chatted over the internet at nights. He was great, but I missed Susan. I keep laughing because she and I can’t seem to get caught up on our thoughts and coversations and since she has returned!! Six days in the life of a Mom, well, so much can happen!!

Sammy did a really good job - I was impressed. Quite a brave thing to do. With supportive family and friends he did get some breaks, but I hear he was exhausted at the end. Ah, if only all husbands could get that kind of intense, in the trenches experience.

He was great with the kids and I got a few shots of our adventures together. Here he is with both kids at the pond at the retail center that hosts our music class. We always have a snack and visit the turtles after class. I do love this place - they don’t build centers like this anymore. When you are at the pond, it feels so relaxing - it doesn’t even feel like a retail center!

Tyler and Piper

Flat out, these two are like brother and sister. I say that because they are not necessarily two peas in a pod - some days yes, but some days they are just at each other. I guess I find such joy on their dynamic because it reminds me of my brother and I. It is all harmonious when they are conspiring together. Susan and I had gotten to the Farmer’s Market early, so we took the kids to a coffee shop for a quick snack. They were done and proceeded to tell us “be right back”. Piper headed off pushing the stroller and Tyler walked alongside her. They were off - they were on an adventure without us and never looked back. Susan and I cleaned up our snacks and headed after them. We got too close and they were both saying “no..” holding their hands out - like “get out of there - you are messing this up for us!!”

Here are some pics from them sharing the swing at Northwest Park. Not many toddlers will do this - and Tyler is a big kid so there isn’t much room there. Piper doesn’t care - she loves to squeeze in there with him. The two of them swung and sang their favorite song of the moment, “Tingalayo”, at the top of their lungs!

So we went to Mayfield Park today to hike along the lake a bit and then hang out in the gardens and watch the peacocks!  We had a great time and I have a few pictures to share!

New Quinn Trick!

She was sitting in the carseat unbuckled since we were about to head to the Farmer’s Market.  I went to the passenger front to get something from the diaper bag and come back to find her standing!!  Are you kidding me??  I told Chris that Tyler never did this at this age, but he says he did.  I don’t think so though..I really don’t.  So here are my crazy kids in the car…