And this is Quinn – dressed herself this way. Yes, the girl can put tights on all by herself.. She is such a silly nut this one. One thing that strikes me about her these days is her efficiency with syllables. Really more than two are never necessary. Her pacifer is a pac, lollipops are lols, toiler paper is toilet papes… She shortens everything and it cracks me up – she has her own lingo at 3.5 yrs old.

She is completely obsessed with water. If she can find a container, it will get filled with water. The other day she got two bowls from her play kitchen, filled them with water and returned them to her play kitchen. She will take out 20 ziplock bags our of another kitchen drawer and fill each one with water making “fishies”.

She also on a daily basis empties the towel drawer in my kitchen and then stuffs all the the towels and washcloths into the bottom shelf of her play kitchen. She will take all the clothes from her dresser drawer and then stuff them in her nightstand saying they need to be there in case she needs them. She is a strange mix of hoarder and transporter and re-organizer. It is all at once funny and drives me crazy. She runs around the house full of purpose with a purse stuffed full of who knows what mix of toys, random stuff and toiler paper that is slung across her body like a messenger bag looking like a little old lady headed to Luby’s.

And she is so in the moment – she draws anywhere, on any surface and whenever she has the inclination. There are no boundaries – it is not Tyler’s art or Mommy’s notes – they are a canvas for her to decorate. And even if we claim them as ours well, she offers her help with our art or our notes. She is all about group projects, this one.

She plays with reckless abandon completely in the moment. The perfect example of a child soaking up life. Sometimes I wish I could join her more in her moments. Mine are filled with scenes of large-scale messes or asking her for the 100th time where the toilet paper is. After she goes to the bathroom, she always takes the roll and puts it under the night stand in case she needs it. The night stand is special as is toilet paper.

She is three and a half. I have no answers……merely observations coupled with amusement and bewilderment.

At lunch – full on “cheeeeese”

I am sitting here not knowing if Quinn will wake up or not. Last night, she actually didn’t and slept like a champ. Odd night out? Are we through the woods? I have no idea. Hubby is wanting to get on computer and I have about two hours of thoughts and stories I am dying to get out of my head. Talk about pressure! I will just get the small stuff out now and leave the weightier stuff for another day.

Conversation With Tyler

Me: Tyler, do you need to go poo?

Tyler: No, I am going to hold it..I am going to hold it for a couple of weeks.

{later Tyler starts to head to the bathroom and says…}

Tyler: Momma, I decided to let my poo out.

Recent Observations

Tyler did a killer job of sauteing some onions yesterday. He was using the spatula very well, slowly pushing the onions around. In the Learning Tower he is a safe distance from the fire and I think is now ready to do some cooking over the stove with me. I made a mental note to start giving him more saute jobs which we do a lot around here.

For the first time this morning, he and Quinn played in our house/kitchen area. Tyler told me he was “sauteing some veggies for you, mama” It was pretty cool!

At lunch – full on “cheeeeese”

Quinn Happenings

Her observation and imitation skills allow her to absorb and learn so much. She loves to nurture her babies – hugging them, kissing them and putting them, “night night”. She also loves to run trains with Tyler. She has thankfully moved from the destroying track phase to pushing the trains around and saying, “choo choo”. She is very much in the choo-choo mode the days. Whenever she backs up, walking or crawling, she will start “beeping” saying, “beeeep beeeep”. She wants to be up in the kitchen and will demand a “spoon!” when I am mixing something. If she is at the sink with the dishes, she will “wash” the dishes with the washcloth and rinse them. She still loves HUGE sticks and everyday we are outside can’t help but to collect every stick she locates. If her hands get full, she wants me to hold stuff for her – especially her pacifiers and wants me to put them in my pocket – “hold paci pocket”. Consequently, she thinks that I always have a pacifier in my pocket and when she asks for one, expects me to produce one. She loves to crawl up in her carseat all by herself. She loves being outside and just today was tooting around outside with Chase for about 25 minutes while Tyler and I were in the kitchen. She has SO many words and is working on smalls sentences. The other day it was, “I want sit in lap.” She loves to say “cheeeese” when the camera is out. She loves to play chase and will ask me, “chase em, chase em” when she wants me to chase her. She and Tyler both are amazing at tossing the Aerobe (type of frisbee).

The are both so darn amazing and now that I have ceased trying to stuff them in my preconceived notions of how things *should* be, I can appreciate them for who they are and all their amazing qualities.

There is just so much about her I haven’t shared. So much I observe about her and then forget to mention. Maybe I am still keeping her to myself as I did when she was a baby? But oh, she has such a personality. Observer and imitator to the hilt. As she was getting down from her chair the other day, she grabbed her bowl as if ready to take it to the sink like her brother does. She wants to do everything that I do. She likes to feed Chris and I. She loves to share her discoveries. She repeats everything we say. Her most used words are “down”, when she needs to get down from some where, and “hand” when she needs a hand to do something. She says “push”, “button”, “bike” (oh, how she covets Tyler’s tricycle), “bus”, “bird”, “plane”, “walk”,”book”, “read book”, “gu-night”, and my personal favorite “nack” (for snack).

When she can’t touch something or has to leave it (a cactus or a plant or whatever she has found), she will lean near to it and “kiss” it. Sometimes she will blow a kiss too. She says “hi” to nearly all those who passby. She loves to carry anything with a handle and dole out whatever is inside. She loves to empty and then fill back up. There is a sense of process and order in what she does.

She loves trying to put clothes over her head. She can takes her bibs off by herself. For sometimes now she loves putting socks on her hand. She loves the mini-mitts we have for the kids’ playkitchen and will put those on and wear them around the house. You can only imagine her jubilation when I brought Tyler’s gloves out for the colder weather and her great-aunt sent more for him. She is asleep right now with a red glove on one hand if that tells you anything.

She is a climber following Tyler up anywhere he goes on the playground and doing a pretty good job although I still have my hands an inch from her body. She will stand at 5 foot drops at the playground and put her foot out. I can’t tell if she is testing the waters or really wanting to give it a go. I am not at a point where I am willing to chance her decision.

She is feisty and the “no-noooo’s” are starting to come more frequently. When she doesn’t get what she wants it is an immediate drop the to floor tantrum. Her scream rivals that of her brothers and I can’t help but wonder if she picked up some tips from him over the year. She is not one easily redirected either. Her father blessed her with focus, determination and stubborness – the triumvirate of attributes you don’t want to your two year-old to have in spades. She excepts no substitutions.

However, I am blessed that like Tyler, she is an outdoor child. For all three of us the outdoors provides peace and balace. I also love the items that my children have in common – for instance the same way they both say “thank you” – it is this small, quick, but uber giddy “tink you”. She says it all the time and it is so cute. I also love her “cuse me”.

Most of all she has a smile that will melt you. She loves to smile and can charm the pants off of you. It is hard to tell her no when she is wearing that winning smile.

She is such a warm, fiery spirit and as her personality unfolds, I see how beautifully it blends and balances with our family. Here she is working on her spoon skills..

Emotional intelligence is a big deal for me with Tyler because he is a male.  Typically men are not encouraged to express themselves and connect with how they are feeling.  This feeds into a lot of issues later on in life.  I have spent a lot of time trying to get Tyler in tune with what his body is feeling and trying to give him as many words as possible to express himself.  Not just mad, but also frustrated, upset, angry, sad, nervous, excited, and happy.  He will straight up tell me that “I am very tired, Mommy” or that “I have a lot of energy today”.  Recently, he has made some very mature emotional observations and connections, and it blows me away.

• He was on an adventure with a trusted family member.  They went and picked up his wife who Tyler hadn’t spent as much time with lately.  Tyler turns to the famly member and says, “She makes me nervous, I don’t know her very well.”   Um, jaw on floor moment here.  I was amazed that we was able to assess those feelings in his body, put a name to them and then express them to the family member.  That to me was really amazing.  It is one thing to do it to Mommy, but another adult…that is great.  Our son in incredible,  heck, overly social and outgoing, but still, feeling can be hard to communicate.

 

• Today Quinn woke up from her nap, so I sat in the rocker to nurse her.  Tyler was in the room, but then left to go play in the living room.  After about 5 minutes, I hear him calling me, “Mommy, Mommy, where are you?”  Quinn and I went out to go see him.  Tyler tells me, “I didn’t know where you were and sometimes I get lonely.”   Again, I was really excited to see how he could communicate that feeling to me.

 

• He will just come out and say, “I am so sad about x.” or “x really frustrated me.”   I remember going to a Blossom workday, our waldorf parent/child class, before school started.  In the car on the way home Tyler says, “I am so sad we didn’t have brown rice snack.”  I had no idea he had this expectation in his head and it was so cool that he could let me know he was bummed out about it. 

Tyler is a lot like me and the older he gets the more I understand him.  I totally get it.  And I am also excited that out little boy feels so comfortable feeling and expressing himself.  The other day we were coloring and I was getting him to put colors to his emotions.  What color do you feel right now?  He was totally getting into it.  Hmmm, maybe with some of our next art projects, I should incorporate that.  I also need to read Raising Cain, which I hear is an excellent book on raising boys.

Anyway, I just had to share these amazing moments.  Chris and I continue to be blown away by Tyler.  Not every kid is showering their parents, siblings, pets and whatnot with “I love you’s” the way he does, so we are really lucky to hear those sentiments from him.  He wears his heart on his sleeve and it is really sweet.  Just the other day, he announced that he was also “my boo”. For the longest time if I called him my boo he would respond, “I am Daddy’s boo.”   But now he said that he was “both of our boos”.  Yay, upgrade for Mommy!  :-p

If only I could remember write down all that he says these days….it is all so fleeting.  Such is the way of parenting I guess.

Quinn…oh, Quinn..where do I start?  Our litte girl has come into her own in so many ways.

Water Bug

We took the kids to the beach with our friends who have a toddler Tyler’s age.  Quinn outlasted both of them when it came to the ocean.  She would be knocked backwards by waves, which then covered her face.  Not one tear.  She was  back up and in the water.  It was crazy.  She absolutely loved it.  At one point I was sitting in the sand building a castle.  She walked up between my knees and says, “Mama” with her hand outstretched.  I grab her hand and she pulls me to the water.   It was quite a pleasant surprise!

Watching and Learning

All these many months of Quinn in the sling or in my arms while doing various things with Tyler and I didn’t realize that she was making mental notes.  She now wants to wash her hands like Tyler does after he goes to the bathroom and she knows how.  I will hold her up and she first puts her hand under the whale soap dispenser.  She then puts her hands under the water and when I say “dry”, she squeezes the towel just like Tyler does and sometimes even says “dry, dry, dry” like I always do with Tyler.  She will wipe the counter with a towel, she will wipe her mouth with a napkin, she will wash her belly with a washcloth, she will try to put on her shoes and pants. 

She imitates every sound Tyler and I make.  She now sings “E-I-E-I-O” and now she will instigate some “Old McDonald” when in the car and Tyler and her will be singing.  She loves to peek around the corner and say “hi!”  She says “hi” to everyone she can…if someone walks by on the sidewalk or a car drives by.. “hi!”

Tantrums

They are short-lived for now, but if you get in the way of what she is doing or wants to do, it is drop to the ground upset.  She is generally happy until you interfere with her plans.  And this child is focused!!   Redirecting is not so easy with this one!  She is quite particular unlike Tyler.

Dropping Naps?

Say it ain’t so!  I don’t know what is going on except that these days, she just wants to keep going and going.  This is NOT working out for mama who is pretty exhausted after a day with no breaks at all.  Hence the lack of blogging lately.   It is my biggest parenting challenge as I never had this issue with Tyler.  At first I thought I would just give in to it, but now I realize that I do need that midday break as does my son, so we will be having quiet time and I will just have to figure this one out.  I didn’t realize just how much Tyler needs that break too.  He is usually quite mellow while she naps and he and I do our thing.  When she doesn’t, he is a hyper mess.  It is interesting just how much he needs that downtime too.  

I am working very hard right now on our daily rythms and big time consistency.  It hasn’t been but a week, so I am hoping after a few weeks we will all be programmed if you will and the kids will have a sense of predictability as to what comes next and their bodies will be tuned as well…and maybe Quinn will start napping again..please!  Sheesh!

No fear!

This child has no fear.  She will climb anything and will pursue her hearts desire even if that means climbing onto my nightstand.   She has great coordination actually and doesn’t have that many falls, but still, she makes my heart race.  As Chris said, it is her butt placement that seems suspect – she scoots too far back sometimes.  The other day she decided to get in the Learning Tower and then I guess wanted to get out.  I hear this “down!” shout.  I turn around and she is hanging off, holding herself with both arms, legs hanging off the side, afraid to let go.  I think she just assumes if there is trouble I will be there.  She is such a nut!!

Kiss!Kiss!

She kisses everything and everyone!  Like Tyler, she will now just come up and give me a kiss.  The other day, she did something that hurt me and I said “ouch!” and she kissed me.  She kisses her dolls, Tyler, and whatever else makes her happy.   She was in our wedding album looking at pictures of ‘Daddy!” when she kisses his picture and then turns her head to the side and lays her head on the picture sort of hugging it.  It was so dang cute!  She hugs dolls.   It is just so sweet!!

Talker!

She has quite a few words these days, “water”, “down”, “stinky”, “fish”, “dog”, “cat”, “truck”, “apple”, “cookie”, “paci”.   I can’t wait until I have to children babbling nonstop at me.  Some days I am sure it will drive me up the wall, but I am sure the kids banter will be hilarious!

I could go on and on, but it is late and I have a few wrap-up things I need to do before  bedtime.  Sorry I have been such a stranger.  Nights are such a balance as they are my only recharge.  I think I have also been really tired.  Tonight I have great energy.  TMI maybe, but post-partum, my monthly cycles have really kicked my butt.  I experience a tiredness right before them that I don’t ever remember.  I am a total zombie.  At any rate, I have much to post about and will try to do that more regularly!

Both my kids are killing me with cuteness lately.  They both are such wonderful souls.  Here are a few “Quinnisms” for you…

**  She LOVES shoes.  Not to be gender stereotypical, but she does!  If she finds Tyler’s shoes or sandals around the house, she will try and sometimes successfully get them on her feet!  One day, I was getting Tyler’s shoes on preparing for an adventure.  She found her shoes and brought them to me!  She wanted her adventure shoes on too!   She loves socks too…

In fact, she tries to put clothes on too!  She is already trying to dress herself.  She lives anything that can be a “scarf”.  She will throw the tape measure around her neck like a scarf..

** I have a doll crib that my Dad built me in Tyler’s room.  Quinn loves to pull the dolls and mattress out and then climb in herself.  She loves emptying things and filling them back up.  She will pull all the laundry out of Tyler’s dirty clothes hamper or any laundry basket she encounters.  She will try to climb in the laundry baskets too.

** If I am sitting on the floor with my knees up, she will crawl right under my knees like a tunnel.  She will crawl one way and then turn around and crawl the other way – it cracks me up!

** She really soaks up everything we do.  If she finds a washcloth on the counter, she will wipe it up.  If she finds a brush, she will brush her hair.  This evening she climbed up to a drawer, opened it and pulled out the heavy lemon juicer.  I set her of the floor to play with it.  She then crawls back up the stool, opens the drawer and throws it back in.  There is a pot in front of her, so she changes her mind, pulls it back out of the drawer and throws it in the pot.

** Such a money girl.  She pushes the stool over to think sink facing the wrong direciton.  No matter..she climbs up and reaches for the sink.  She is now standing at an angle at the sink with one foot on the top step and the other foot wrapped around her ankle.  She is so sure-footed it is unbelievable to me.  She has a strong sense of her body and how to balance, counter-balance, etc.

** HUGS!  Probably since she was 13 months old, Quinn will give ME the great, wonderful, amazing bear hugs.  Hugs where she wraps her arms around my neck and squeezes so tight.  These are the most amazing hugs ever and make my day.

** She is a talkasaurus these days!  If Chase runs out of the door when we leave for a walk you will now hear not only Tyler and I yelling “Chase!”, you will hear Quinn as well.

She says “water” when she wants a drink and “Tyler” very clearly.  She also loves to say “hi” to people.  The other day I did kind of a whispery “hi” and she imitated me right back. 

She is now loving “bye bye”.  When we drain the water from the bathtub after bath, she will say “bye bye!”

Another day I was saying it was bathtim and I swear I heard her say “bath time!”  We love her voice – it is the sweetest little sounf coming from our sweet little girl!!

Has a week really gone by since I last posted?  Geez!  Well, it has been crazy. 

Many Projects 

I have a lot of projects that are commanding my attention right now.  I am stripping wallpaper and have been cursing the previous owner of our house because when I began stripping the first layer of wallpaper, I found another layer of wallpaper. Nice.  One the positive side, this is a project I can work on during the day in small stints.  I simply use a steamer, so as long as the kids are away from that, they can help me tear or they just play around me.  I am still determined to get all my painting projects wrapped up before Christmas.

Quinn Back to Her Old Tricks

Now that swim lessons are over, Quinn is back to her old tricks of staying up until 9am or later.  So that leaves me with little time in the evening and I am usually too tired to do much.  I know this is a phase and once she is walking I feel confident she will settle back into a good routine. 

I mentioned a long time ago that I was going to run with her since her bedtime was later.  She didn’t like that plan very much and would cry while I ran so that was quickly scrapped.  I think the hardest part is that after a long day, I just want to relax and putting her to  bed is a very physical thing.  I am either walking her or if I am trying to nurse her to sleep, I have to stand up and rock her.  I like putting Tyler to bed some nights because I get to lay down!  How nice is that?? 

I just need to get her more activity in the afternoons.  I used to have to do the same thing with Tyler – get him to the pool for an hour or the playground.  I think a good hour outside before dinner will make a huge difference…I hope anyway.  At any rate, the days are slowly but surely getting shorter and I am hoping their bio rythms might follow suit..

Awake at 7am

I commented to Chris that our kids both wake up around 7am.  It took us almost 3 years to get to this place.  Tyler woke up early for years.  Quinn was waking up at 5am, then 6am, then 6:30am for the longest time.  It is nice because I can go to bed at 11 and so long as Quinn has a decent night, I am up at 7am feeling pretty good.

Wrapping Up August

The month that always seems to move the slowest is coming to and end and my little family prepares to ride our September “slip n slide”. 

I call it that because we have Labor Day Weekend, the next Friday Chris heads to Montana for 5 days, then right when he gets back it is ACL Fest for three days, then the next weekend we are headed to the beach for the weekend. 

Then I will wake up and it will be October and I will have to start thinking about Halloween since the last two years we haven’t really done much on this holiday for the kids.  This year I am determined to get costumes for the kids.  

It has been a nice summer…if you call it that.  I would almost say that we haven’t REALLY had a summer this year..not for Texas anyway.