Quinner :: 10 months

Well baby boy, all I have to say is that we survived another month.  Barely.

Not really barely but I did just a little while ago send this text to your dad:

You know how I said the other day that there was 
something fluttering in the window?  

Well, it was a moth and 
Quinn just found it and put it in his mouth!

You see little brother, you shove everything into your mouth and it's getting old.  Erasers, carpet, rocks, bugs, dirt, paper (lots of paper) are just a few of the recent things I've fished out.  It's really driving me crazy and hopefully, it will stop soon.

However, you are good at shoving food into your mouth, too and seem to be moving away from baby food all together.  I mean, you weigh 27 pounds (and are 31.5 inches long) and so you must be eating something, right?  Lately you've tried and liked: grapes, watermelon (love watermelon), avocado, rice, pasta, french fries, chicken to name just a few.  You're getting pretty good at eating what we eat, and haven't found too many things that you don't enjoy.  Oh, except a granola bar.  I gave that to you last week and you weren't a fan.

Lately, you are just on the go.  In a two day period you figured out how to walk along furniture, hold our hands and walk, and go up the stairs.  Now, you've got no idea how to go down the stairs, but you've made it up three so far.  In fact, if I cannot find you, you are either under the table putting food cooties in your mouth OR on the stairs.

Or, if you know the dishwasher or a cupboard is open, that's your target.  In fact, dad was loading the dishwasher on Saturday night and literally in a second, you were on top of the door hanging out, trying to get your hands onto, well, anything!

Naps are going well.  You are happy almost all the time.  You wave bye-bye and hello, stare at strangers, and are starting to dance to music.  You like to take things out and put them back into containers, love the bathtub and LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the swimming pool.  It's like you were born to be in the water.

You can make the sound of a panting puppy and even though we've been working on other sounds and blowing kisses, you only do puppy.  But, you're good enough that even when you see a puppy in a book, you do the sound.  You are your own Pavlov's dog.

It's so hard to believe that you are almost one year old.  Time has gone by so quickly little buddy and before I know it, you'll be going to school, then a mission, then to infinity and beyond.

I love you baby boy.  Keep being cute.

Summertime.....and the livin' is easy....

It's summer.

It's hot.

Elliott's last day of kindergarten was July 1.  He starts first grade on July 25.  Summer vacation isn't what it used to be.  He had a good break at the end of May and we were able to do some fun stuff.  We've also been trying to squeeze in some fun and cousin time when he hasn't been in school and the next two weeks are going to be as full as they can be with swimming and adventuring and crashing hard at night.

But, we've done some good stuff so far.

We built long overdue Christmas presents and started coloring away. They will take us the rest of the summer to finish.

We hosted scout camp in our back yard.  It was loud and crazy and the boys had so much fun.  There were about 15 scouts, a few leaders, and lots of late night talking.  But, the big boys got to sleep outside with their dad in their tent and minus a bloody nose for Elliott in the middle of the night, they slept great.

We've spent a lot of time hanging out with Uncle Willie. It's awesome. The best summer these boys of mine will ever have because of that.

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Last week, we had a cousin trip to the aquarium. Of course, we met for lunch at Crown Burgers and dad joined us. Then we headed to see jellyfish and sting rays and we got to see the little caimen crocodile things get fed, which was very interesting.

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The boys are definitely keeping me on my toes, always demanding projects and food, and activities. I'm doing my best to keep up and crash hard at night just like them so we must be doing something right.

And, perhaps most amazing of the summer so far is the basketball hoop. When the boys were so sad when we sold Shavy Jones we promised them a hoop to fill the void. The story of the hoops purchase is worth of another day, but it's finally at our house and the boys are loving it.

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We are the Champions!

It's a bit late in coming, two weeks in fact, but I needed to document the historic ride of Elliott's baseball team - the Indians.

But, not that it is two weeks passed, I don't have a lot to say so a few pictures will have to suffice.

Elliott started playing baseball the first week in April and he ended his baseball season on the last week of June.  That my friends, is a lot of baseball for a 6 year old.  We had two games a week for the majority.  The start of the season was absolutely frigid and Quinn and I spent most games at home or in the car.  The middle of the season was windy and rainy and Quinn and I spent most games in the car.  The end of the seasons and the playoffs were incredibly hot, but at least we didn't have to sit in the car.

Ross should really be writing this post, but Elliott did a great job.  He played machine pitch and often had difficulty concentrating on actually hitting the ball, but he did make some really great plays during the season, one in particular in a playoff game his team was losing.  Of course, I wasn't there and missed it, but rumor has it his team cheered him on and if they were strong enough, may have carried him on their shoulders.

In the end, his little team only lost one game all season long and the swept the playoffs.  Giant trophy's, frozen yogurt and pool parties ensued and though I'm not quite sure he really understood all the pomp and circumstance surrounding it, or why his super nice coach cried a bit, he really had a great time.  And, he's a pretty good baseball player, too.

And, he has two new trophies to add to his growing collection.

 

The Fourth of Joolie!

Yesterday was independence day.  Easily one of my least favorite days of the year, but with only one itty bitty glitch in the morning, we were able to pull a day off with happy parents, happy children, and lots of fireworks.

Seriously.  The fireworks?  There needs to be a curfew.  There are people who need to go to work the next day.  There are babies that need to sleep.  There is no reason to still be lighting aerials at 12:30 in the morning...for the third night in a row.

Anyway, the day started with an attempt at a sit down breakfast that ended with a sit down in a donut shop.  Then, we headed to the move theater to see Monsters University with Ross' mom and dad.  We started out well, saw some friends from the old neighborhood, but we had a minor ticket/seat issue with the rest of the people on our row, several rude movie goers and a baby that was supposed to take a nap but wouldn't.

So, I took the nutzo baby home where he promptly crashed, worked on my online class and made caramel popcorn while the rest of the group was at the movie.

 

 

After the show, it was time to pack up three bags worth of crap to head out to my grandpa's to swim away the afternoon and eat lots of barbecued burgers.  The food was tasty.  The swimming was excellent.  The company was pretty good too.  We had a great time.  My grandparents backyard is my happy place.  Having spent the entirety of my youth in that backyard swimming pool, it almost makes me cry to see my kids enjoy it as much as I did.  And, as with all family activities, though my grandma wasn't there in person, she was there in spirit...getting mad that we plugged the hose into the slide instead of just hauling buckets of water to get it wet.

After the party ended, we headed to my parents for our fireworks extravaganza, and a little Neal Diamond on the television. Everyone brought a stash of fireworks and we lit them for about an hour, but we didn't have anything to compare to my parent's neighbors. It was quite a show! The boys had fun and are future pyromaniacs. Quinn sat on my lap and held the speaker. This year Willie thought it would be good to have our own stadium of fire so we listened to Monsters and Men while we blew stuff up. It was actually a nice soundtrack to the festivities.

Then of course, we headed home. And, because we must be living right, all the little boys in the car fell asleep on the 20 minute drive, stayed asleep, and slept until 9:00 am this morning.

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True Love

My boys....they have all, when really little, found interesting things to fall in love with.

For Elliott and Wyatt, it was the front loading washer and dryer.  We would sit on the floor and watch the laundry spin for ages.  Seriously, Elliott could, before he was one, watch for a good 15 minutes.  The love turned from watching to trying to hug and kiss the laundry.

Exhibit A:




Exhibit B:



Boy number three, not to be out done by his brothers has found his own obsession.  Well, two, actually.  The first, is licking floors and eating carpet, but I don't have any video of that. The second?  The vacuum.  He LOVES the vacuum.  He isn't afraid of the loud noises.  He is always trying to climb on it, eat the cord, push it around, and chase the vacuum all over the house.  It's pretty cute.

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