Faith Precedes the Miracles

Momma, what doing?

2012-01-20T09:25:00.000-08:00

Last week (before the blizzard) Q and I were walking in the state park. He was leading, of course, and about every 50 yards he'd turn around and use the questioning pose of upturned palms, tilted head and shrugging shoulders to ask "Momma, what doing?"

I don't think there's anything cuter in the world. I would love to catch a video of it sometime.

His new word this week is found/find. Also adorably cute. We've had to search for Buzz ("Where Buzz?") several times a day since Christmas so he's had a lot of practice learning the word. Now he gets excited when he's looking for one of us and says "I found you!"

I LOVE this little guy!

It has also been a joy to see him discover snow. The first day was the most fun because there was only about 5 inches. Since then it's about a foot, which is the whole length of his legs so, walking in it is not so fun. He loves it until it gets in his face. Watching the wonder on his face! He and Daddy made a snowman the first day and tramped around to look at everything. We tried sledding, which is fun until it sprays in your face again. He was completely silent for about the first 15 minutes of our drive out in it yesterday, just watching everything in white. I have to say it was beautiful to look at when I didn't feel the need to focus on the road so much. Thankfully a snow plow has visited our little road or we never would have made an escape. I love driving on white roads!

Angel Scriptures

2011-12-31T13:29:00.000-08:00

I swear every day Q pulls out a new cute thing he does. Ian reads scriptures to us almost every night. This night he started helping Daddy read.

AR-15

2011-12-30T18:15:00.000-08:00

A while back Ian was talking about how the other men in the Elders Quorum Presidency are so into guns. I shared with him how I'd never used anything other than a pellet or paint ball gun and how I was interested: having no experience with them and not even knowing how to get it. Some friends down in Cali were totally into shooting and I had thought about asking then, but never did. Ian on the other hand had grown up a boy scout and had male roommates in college, so he'd had the opportunity on many a time.

He shared this with the presidency so Jim Woolbert took us out today to experience his love and experience with firearms. It was pretty cool. He started me off with a 22 which was a nice intro to the noise and kick, but after a few shots through my blind eyes at a target I could hardly see; I was ready to move up. I do think it's cool that the bullet can go for a mile!

Next he showed me how to use a 9mm pistol. His dad had me kinda freaked out about shooting too many bullets up in the air so I got a little nervous with this one. Plus I couldn't brace this one against my shoulder. Being an ABSOLUTE novice in the freezing cold wind I found it humorous that I was trying to hold it so I wouldn't get harmed by the kick back, aiming at a blurry target and afraid to pull the trigger too hard so I wouldn't shoot too many bullets like his dad said I might. The rest was pretty cool. I now know what it's like to shoot the weapons I see on TV all the time. I know what it feels like, sounds like and smells like! Jim demonstrated the semi-automatic aspect of the pistol so I could see the difference. I'm a really tangible learner, so this was great.

BUT, next he pulled out his recently assembled AR-15 which I learned is the civilian version of the most commonly used military M-16. Out came the earplugs. Q (refusing ear protection) and I hung out in the truck while I observed Jim & Ian shoot a couple into the tree. Then it was my turn. I have to say it was pretty cool. The scope was much easier to see the target even though the earmuffs made it difficult to look through it. This baby put out a lot of smoke and quite a bang. I was humorously remembering the girl in I-Robot who shot the automatic with her eyes shut - 'cause there was nothing I could do to keep my eyes open after that loud bang!

It was great and I'm grateful for the experience. Can you see the glee on Ian's face? Do you think he's glad he took the day off for this?

I learned the difference between single shot, 3 bullet bursts, semi-automatic and automatic weapons. 'Bout time! I've been living with a video game junkie for all these years and didn't know! He also told us all about the functioning parts of each gun and M-223 bullets he used. I learned a lot. I also learned why these weapons would and could fire underwater.

Even Q got to check it out, right before he hit his non-nap limit and fell asleep crying on my shoulder in the cold wind.

Merry Christmas 2!

2011-12-25T11:31:00.000-08:00

Today I turn two, so guess what my new word is?

Mine!

I'm so excited about my presents. I got a big Buzz Lightyear and a little Buzz.

I got Buzz and Woody jammies and Thomas jammies.

Life couldn't be better. Wish you could have seen my happy prance around the room when I opened them! I now wake up talking about Buzz, whom, of course, sleeps with me now. and I point out "Bu-eye" (bullseye, woody's horse) on my jammies. I'm pretty cute when I try to say "To Eternity! And Beyond!" It kinda sounds like "Ee! Anond!"

Daddy's presents are pretty cool, too, though. I want to play with them just as much as my own!

We had my birthday party on Wednesday when more family could be here. Grandma & Grandpa Walker, Uncle Daniel, Aunt Becky & Uncle Clarence, Adam, Jared & Marisa came!

WAS

7TH

HEAVEN!

So many people to play with and show off for! And more presents to unwrap! I LOVE opening presents! I got my own Woody! Happy dance! And Toy Story slippers! Happy Dance! and Toy Story 3! Happy Dance! And books about Thomas, Pooh and trains!

Momma spent about 2 hours making and decorating my cake, with Grandma, to look like Winnie the Pooh (since I love Pooh). She was pretty mystified when I wouldn't even try a taste! I REALLY liked everyone singing to me, though. That was fun. I just stared at the candles since I didn't know what to do with them.

2 year old stats: 31 lbs and 35.5 inches tall. He'll probably be taller than Daddy.

TaeBo Baby and the Copy Cat

2011-12-23T13:37:00.000-08:00

A friend at church told me last week that her mom claims babies active in the womb are calm when they come out and vice versa. It sounded a lot like an old wives tale to me, but since I can't remember what Q was like in-utero aside from having hiccups, we'll wait and see. This little girl appears to think that she's surrounded by a punching bag and is using it to her delight. There are times when I look at my belly and think "what the heck is going on in there!" Hence I've dubbed her TaeBo Baby. Maybe she's trying to let me know that she plans to keep up with her big brother as soon as her feet hit the floor.

Meanwhile I'm trying to imagine another member of our family that could be as cute as Quintin. Hard to do. OB told me last week that she's in the 95% for size. Lovely. She's likely to be bigger than Q. So much for my lifetime desire for petite newborns. However, my arm muscles are plenty strong enough this time around to handle it. What is 9 lbs compared to 30?

Mr. Q has definitely grown into the next stage of development. His fits are more frequent, louder and longer. One of our frustrations is that all his cries sound the same (always have). He's not like other kids with a 'fake' cry, so it takes a lot of problem solving to discover if it's a problem that can be resolved or a temper issue. This last week I've asked him to tell me what he needs and he's just slammed to the floor wailing (head and all, regardless of floor type). Well, can't help you with that one kiddo (if I'm close I try to block the floor-head slam). It probably doesn't help that Momma's harder to move and drag to a desired object now. It hurts me to move a lot of the time, especially if I'm on the floor. Pregnancy hips, I guess.

He did this while waiting in the bathroom line Monday night at the Warm Beach Lights of Christmas. What 2 year old wants to stand around when there is so much to see? Anyway, everyone in the room moaned when his head clunked the 1/4 inch carpeted concrete. I managed to catch his forehead with my shoe the 2nd time but he just picked it up again and did it next to my shoe!!! Crazy kid! That has to hurt!

But he is making progress in the Daddy appreciation area. At the ward Christmas party he actually walked across the gym to hug Daddy in the dessert line -and stayed there. That's pretty unprecedented. He NEVER walks away from Momma for another person. There is hope! He's also stopped having fits when I leave him with someone. It brings me such peace of mind that my child has finally established enough trust and security to know that when Momma says she will be back, she will, and there's no need to scream over it. And maybe I don't have to sneak out every time, now. Maybe he's saving all the good crying for Momma.

He started literally experimenting with boundaries this week. He got a hold of one of Ian's tools and walked around the room hitting it on things, looking at me each time to see if I'd smile and laugh with him or not. He blows me away sometimes with how responsive he is. He completely responded to me about what was okay and what wasn't, then requested a hug when it wasn't okay to hit Momma with it.

He's also continuing with the language explosion.

He jabbers at the TV, and his toys, and while we're driving.
When I'm talking to him he repeats the last word in every statement I make.
The other night we were trying to find out why he was whining, starting with food. Listing off things he could have. We asked if he wanted a cookie since that's what Daddy was doing and in the most pitiful voice he says "coo-kie." That was way too cute to resist.
He walks around the house saying "hey, ma-an"
He asks "Okay?" if you cough or sneeze or get an owie.
"Good Morning"
"What's dat? A caw!" (car)
"Get it" when something rolls away
He loves to be chased and tickled. This week he'll come tickle us then run away saying "Ge-Me Momma!" SO MUCH FUN this kid is!

This week he's been copying LOTS of Daddy stuff.
He found the paper towel roll and repeatedly held it up to his eye saying "I see you!" (pulling it away) "Boo!" He continued doing this with the play-ear of corn this morning since he couldn't find the roll.
When he gets tickled and roughed up he keeps saying "He-ey!" like Daddy does...with a big grin on his face.
Daddy pretends to be asleep so Q will say "Wake Up!" over and over again. Now Q tells anyone to Wake Up! anytime they are resting their head, laying down or closing their eyes.
He was riding around on his dino ride-on toy, got up, found a loose key then came back and stuck it in all the holes on the right side of the dino while continuing to ride around. That boy loves keys and key holes!
He's finally learning how to say "I love you" which is lots of fun.

Sadly, not all the copying is good. I've been on the verge of feline homicide on many a day the last month. So now, when Mande walks through the kitchen Q will follow behind her trying to kick her and saying things like "Man-e, out!" or "Man-e, down!" or "Man-e, stop!"

I'd finally had enough with the cats last weekend so Ian and I officially moved them into the garage. They DON'T like exile. They spend ALLLLLL day whining at the windows and glass doors to get back in. Too bad I can't reason with them. If they'd only learn to: always use the litter box; stay off the counters; not steal our food; stop whining; stop tripping me everywhere I go; and Mande stop hissing and growling at everyone and everything, I'd be willing to put up

with the cat hair everywhere and dust bunnies appearing 3 minutes after I vacuum. They have always been indoor cats, so I hope they learn to adjust soon. One of the neighborhood strays is trying to adopt us now that there's company outside our house. Last thing I need is another one! It feels so good not to have to worry about them! What a relief!

We also went to a fun Christmas festival/fundraiser here on Camano. They had a real camel, reindeer and firetruck!

I'm NOT crazy!

2011-11-29T13:18:00.000-08:00

Background:

With all my education, training and experience I've seen a lot of different styles of parenting...and made a few decisions about my own approach. I decided long ago I'm not going to be one of those ultra-hovering-worried about everything-first time moms. Yes Q falls down and gets bumps frequently, but no I don't let him lean over cliffs, etc.

Given that, when I take him to the doctor I expect to be taken seriously. I'm not bringing him in for every sniffle, so don't patronize me. This has not been the case over the last year. I picked a pediatrician, recommended by a few sources here, who has a reputation for being competent and on the ball, seeings how the Cali one totally missed the boat on his muscle delays. Every time I've gone to her (outside of well child checks) or even asked questions about my concerns she's responded with a smile and sweet voice basically making me feel crazy. As you can guess this has made me a little leery of taking Q in with any further concerns, even though his newborn doctors said not to hesitate because of his susceptibility to problems with his kidneys. When I call for an appointment and get a different dr I never refuse.

Present:

As I've mentioned previously Q has been sick with a yucky nose cold. The Friday before Thanksgiving I took him in because he had green coming out of his nose and I didn't want to get all the cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents sick over the holiday. It had been a week so I was outside the "too early to treat" time frame. The nice PA gave us some antibiotics for sinusitis which we had to wait an agonizing hour for in RiteAide, but the green went immediately away. (thank you so much for not blowing me off!) We went to Ferndale thinking all was on the mend. He promptly started coughing and the runny nose didn't stop. We plugged along hoping, but after a week I was getting worried again. This weekend he sounded like he was breathing underwater and I was asking him to cough for Momma several times a day.

I took him to his regular doctor yesterday kinda gritting my teeth. I told her every detail of the last two weeks, she checked him out and had her student share her opinion before her own. For the first time I was validated! They couldn't tell whether he's got walking pneumonia or his nose is draining into his chest, but to kill both options they are putting him on prednisone for a week to try to clear everything up. I really hope it works, it's agonizing to listen to him breathe.

Of course I never want to be right that there's something wrong with my boy, but when I know that there's something wrong I want something done about it! This time I wasn't crazy, there is something wrong and needs treatment. She gave me permission to go to public stuff so I'm really hoping he didn't get any family sick last week!

Shopping

2011-11-18T10:26:00.000-08:00

I'm so excited. I found this awesome deal on Melissa & Doug toys (sturdy painted wood) online and hit the jackpot. We're set for Q's Christmas. They arrived in the mail yesterday (wow - fast & free) and it's like Christmas for me already! I want to get them out and play with them. Time for self restraint. Good thing Q hasn't seen them!

Hypochondriac

2011-11-16T11:29:00.000-08:00

Ian had some movie playing the other night and we heard a high school kid inform his classmate that "fibromyalgia is a disease made up by hypochondriacs to justify their claims." Haahaaahaa! Oh, the healthy will always criticize the unwell. I can't tell you how many times I've heard non-depressed people say that depressed people should just get up and work, and healthy people say unhealthy people are making it up. I remember back in the day when I wasn't sick with chronic stuff and I couldn't even fathom what being sick all the time was like...so therefore it wasn't real, right? I never understood my sisters pain because I couldn't feel it myself.

I'll have you know that until 2004 I was a healthy, busy, busy lady. I don't think I appreciated it like I should have, but I think that opposition is in all things for a reason. Can't appreciate the good without the bad. And I don't even have it that bad, frankly. There are so many sisters in my ward that are in and out of the hospital frequently with horrible things I don't even want to think about! I truly hope they receive miracles! Anyway that silly boy in the movie got me thinking and I had to rant. There are many days when I think about how lazy I am when I'm not up doing all the time like my amazing in-laws, and then I have a good day and I am up doing all day and it feels great! But it only lasts for a day at a time. I remember my sister saying this same thing to me back in the day when my autoimmune stuff hadn't surfaced yet and I'd always console her that she was sick and had a reason. Now I need to heed my own medicine!

Last week I was in the rheumatologists office and I peeked at his notes on the computer screen as we chatted. I read "patient has been diagnosed with fibromyalgia." What??? I don't want to read that on my doctors screen!!!! I remember informing him when I first came to him that a previous rheumatologist had told me I showed "markers' for fibromyalgia. I didn't have the guts to ask him if that meant diagnosis. ????? I had also told him said previous Dr had mentioned lupus and now HE talks about lupus EVERY time I visit. He's pushing lupus drugs and treatment on me! Okay, I can deal with rheumatoid arthritis because that's what I know and it's being treated. I feel tremors at the thought of the other two, I want nothing to do with them. I'm pretty much blocking it all out of my mind except for those times I visit him (plus, I guess, the treatment plan I'm on is working for the most part, so why change it?). I even talked him into putting the next visit off for two months. He's really nice and extremely thorough, I like him. He's taken the time to be very explicit in answering all of my questions and he's the one that found my 2nd blood clotting disorder that's taken my pregnancy shots to a yucky but safer level (for me, not the baby). He may just have saved my life doing that.

We all thank him.

But don't scare me please.

I do not consider myself a hypochondriac that hoards diagnoses. A previous chiropractor said that fibromyalgia is what they say when they don't have a clue what's wrong. Maybe that's true, I still don't want it.

Sister says they come in three's. I've got my three, don't need five.

I do have to say that I truly do mourn the loss of things like; playing volleyball, frisbee; exercise like push-ups, jogging, yoga, crawling (even riding a bike can be difficult); and hard work like using a hammer, crowbar or ax. Those things are pretty therapeutic.

Ranting done. Apologizes to anyone for tmi.

My true purpose in writing today was that my men are sick. The kind we all relate to, sympathize with and DO NOT want to catch. Q's face turned into a virtual fountain of yuck on Sunday and it only gets worse by the day. It's so bad today that his nose is bleeding from all the kleenex wipes I've been inflicting on him. ('m still going to have to wipe down the furniture 'cause I haven't been 100% successful at catching it all). Then yesterday Ian came home sick after lunch and slept all afternoon. He tried going back to work today, hopefully he makes it and gets better quickly. I'm praying I don't get this infernal plague because it hasn't even been a month since the last one and I'm pregnant. This means I can't hardly take anything to help. Plus next week is a family holiday and I don't want to be miserable and/or share the misery. I know it's probably hopeless because Q and I share everything (that is until the facial fountain started). Plus he's sneezing/coughing on me, my plates, my bed... But I can hope. Rather ironic that all of a sudden he's wanting kisses again. Eww.

Comparing

2011-11-15T12:32:00.001-08:00

In all my education I've always known that parents aren't supposed to compare their kids to others. I did really well at this until Q was about 6 months old and we found out he had a muscle delay. The next 7 months were spent in therapy and trying to catch him up with his developmental milestones. I think that started the comparison bit that is hard to stop. I KNOW that all kids develop at different rates and it's a marvelous time watching with delight when something new comes around.

On that note, one of Q's 'closest-in-age' cousins that we see fairly often is George - the wild man. I think I heard that his brother calls him destructo-boy and he scares his mom to death several times a day. Granted, we KNOW that George has an older brother to learn from and follow which helps a lot of 'not-first-born' kids hit their milestones quicker. However, over the past year or so we've been flabbergasted to see all the things that George does that Q does not. And when Q does finally do something George did, we often say he's catching up with George. This week was one of those weeks. Side note: Ian keeps showing/teaching Q to do boy things that are not necessarily great, like writing on himself with the bathtub markers, and...

On Saturday Ian pulled all the soft pillows and cushions down and put them on the floor for Q to jump onto - off the couch. (he's finally at the gross-motor developmental level to be able to do this) Of course Q absolutely LOVED this and had a blast. What boy or even child wouldn't? And he is definitely ALL rough and tough boy. They had a great time. I think it started with us holding his hands to steady him on his way down, but he quickly worked to independence. The most painful part was actually getting on the couch. He'd climb the stool over the arm and kept whacking his head into the board on the back of the couch!

Well, Monday came around and Q decided it was time to do it again and set it up himself. I looked over and saw him pulling the cushions off all by himself (these cushions are about twice his size!) and proceed to jump off. He did this off and on throughout the evening. A few hours after he got home Daddy wanted to sit down comfortably so he put the cushions and pillows back. Did that phase Q? Heck no. Here's our George moment: Q continued to jump off the couchonto the floor for at least 20 minutes! He didn't care that his leg kept catching on the side (forcing a side split) and it'd bounce him onto his side, or that he continuously landed on his shins. He just smiled from ear to ear and ran to climb and do it again. When he finally took a break he was damp with sweat! Ian and I just stared and laughed at our crazy boy. Largest benefit of this newfound fun, you ask? He used up all his energy and we don't! What a blessing that little kids are made out of rubber!

I apologize for lack of pictures/video. When I finally pulled the camera out the battery was dead and Q was done. I'll try to catch it next time.

It's been a while

2011-11-04T12:56:00.000-07:00

Quintin has had a Language explosion this past month and it is so fun! He specializes in nouns, but a few verbs and nouns have crept in.

All letters and numbers are called "E," but I've started hearing a few more like T.
He now says "sad" when he's sad. It melts your heart, so sweet. And he's learning to say happy.
He can say almost all the common animals in his books and toys, many body parts, and clothing items. I can't say I appreciate those dirty little fingers poking into my mouth every day to say "teeth!"
Drink, milk, juice, sandwich. His cue for us when he's hungry is "Bite!" We don't know what happened to 'more,' ...miss that one.
He loves to gallop/hop around the room saying "hoppi" like he's a bunny. We often see bunnies outside our window and he just lights up when he spots them. He laughs/giggles when he sees them hop.
Thank you sounds more like "tang goo" and he says it spontaneously without prompting, or repeats after whoever says it to him. It is often followed with his rendition of Your Welcome which is more recognizable by the tone and cadence than the words. We're just starting to work on please.
He's just started to repeat back "Hi Buddy" to Daddy when he hears it. Absolutely adorable. He loves to say hi to us. "Hi Mamma," "Hi Dadda." (Ian's actually getting frustrated because even though Q beams when he gets home, he runs straight for Mamma and will only interact with him from my arms. I'm not sure what to do.)
'I want it' sounds more like "I wan-it" but it's cute.

Just this week we were using puzzle pieces with handles to clap and I started doing it 'front' and 'back' and 'side' 'side' as well as 'up' and 'down.' He thought this was fun and now does it every time he plays with that puzzle. It's a crack up to watch him direct us on which way to go and confuse front with side, etc. He absolutely loves the attention and I can hardly believe how much fun he is! He's a literal sponge right now!

Being a boy he's getting rougher by the day as I get bigger and more tender by the day. This past week he's been hitting me with something or slamming his head into me which results in a loud "OW!" Then he immediately reaches out and says "Hug!" Totally sweet but can we skip the first part and only do the hugs? I don't know where's he's learned to follow Ow with a hug, or maybe he's causing the ow to get a hug?

This weekend Ian taught Q 'ring around the rosies' and he's fallen in love. He already loved 'this little piggy' and 'patty cake' which you don't get to stop once you start. "Again!" we hear. Well, once again Daddy got more than he bargained for. Q requests it every night now (either saying "rosies" or "posies") and Mommy can't do it more than one or two times before getting too dizzy (as well as unable to get off the floor) so it's all on Daddy. :) It is such a delight to see Q learn and love life.

His mouth has finally decided to kick into gear and the molars have come rushing in, poor guy. He cut 3+ teeth within a few weeks. On the upside his ability to eat meat is increasing!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm approaching 6 months pregnant and this baby girl is getting violent, all 1 lb of her. I joked with the OB last week that I'm going to have bruises on the inside from her and outside from Q. I don't remember Q being like this and since I know several '2nd children' that gave their parents a run for their money, I think this girl is going to be a livewire. I guess we'll know in a year.

Trying to get my clothes to fit nicely AND comfortably has been a challenge. I'm right in the middle of little maternity and big maternity clothes. Result = frumpy! Yuck. I'll live. I also noticed the crows feet growing on my eyes. My glasses hide them but they're there! I really didn't want that to ever happen. Grey hair is fine, but I don't want the wrinkles.

I've started going to Mops again and it's been great. I really appreciate the mommy time and the ability to talk about things I'm really struggling with with others that are going through the same stuff. Plus the devotionals are great to help me evaluate where I'm at and where I want to be in my faith, relationships and personal development. Q loves the nursery this year and that's a huge load off. He's so incredible. Unless he's sick he loves going to play.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This summer 'we' used an idea that Ian heard on the radio during his commute. He cleaned out two trash cans and planted potatoes in the bottom. Then filled it in with dirt as the plants grew. We didn't start digging them out until about Sept/October. I have to say I'm pretty impressed with the result, even though a friend said it was pretty 'ghetto'. I'd say we've gotten about a 10 lb bag of potatoes out of each plant/can. It wasn't until yesterday that I finally got the shovel out and harvested the rest of one of the cans. I still need to do the other one. We'll certainly do that again.

Last week our external hard drive got accidentally bumped causing it to fall and break something in the internal hardware. UUUUUUGH! That little black box held ALL, ALL of our home videos and family pictures. I wasn't worried because Ian said it would keep them safe from viruses, etc. Guess we never thought of physical damage. Since he's a spiffy 'outside salesman' down in Seattle Ian has all kinds of contacts so he's gone to several companies to get assessments and quotes on rescuing the data. Uuuuuugh! It looks like we are going to have to pay over $1200 to fix it in a clean room in the mid-west with the promise of a 90-95% chance of success. Oh my. Precious memories are invaluable. You better believe it's all going on CD's and DVD's when/if we get it back!

The power went out last Friday evening. This was a good lesson for me (even though we have a generator).

Don't procrastinate taking a shower.
Don't procrastinate cooking dinner. (Turns out our cook-stove isn't connected to the generator circuit. Leftovers it is!)
Don't procrastinate starting the pellet stove for heat!

Luckily the power came back on in the middle of the night and life was normal in the morning. BUT it's only November and there are several more months of this coming. Hopefully lesson learned.

I apologize for no pictures. :(

September October Videos

2011-11-04T12:25:00.000-07:00

Grandma and Grandpa Skinner came for a short trip back in September. Q enjoyed having them around to play with! Here's a few videos with Grandpa.

I don't know where he picked up the "Yeah!" with hands but it's adorable and he does it every time he gets the rings on right.

And of course Peek a Boo is still his FAVORITE game!

He just gets more and more fun the older he gets. This video is SUPER long so if you don't have the patience to wait 2 minutes to get to the good part don't bother. He was cracking me up making faces.

He's also recently discovered that our bed is outrageously fun. He does this almost every day now.

It's a Girl!

2011-10-17T11:00:00.000-07:00

We get to have one of each! And this means I have to get a new wardrobe. I think some of my newborn stuff will cross over. :) Bonnie (m-i-l) and I were talking about whether we'd be dressing her in pink or not. But I don't know of many other color schemes that go with girls. I know my s-i-l Laura had a beautiful alternative color scheme for her boys...

She's a wiggly little girl, made a challenge for the sonographer. I would totally be claustrophobic if I had as little space as she does. I'm used to Q's 'too much fluid' so seeing her in those cramped quarters made me nervous, but the doctors were fine with what she's got. I also need to keep in mind she doesn't have to breath!

All her parts looked normal this week so it looks like we won't have any problems this time around. We're super happy about that. They are still anxious to keep tabs on her due to my history so we'll be seeing the specialists lots more, but that's okay with me. I'm grateful they are SO thorough and vigilant. I prefer my babies healthy and alive.

I didn't realize until we'd left that we didn't take home any pictures. I'll get some next time.

*******************************************
I've been super sick this last week, I don't recall having sinus headaches before like this but it's been a doozy. Now it looks like Q is coming down with it, not surprising since we share everything. I hope he doesn't get as sick as I have! Both of us don't have many options for medication, so it'll be a bit more slogging through. Ian hasn't caught it yet, hopefully he won't.

We've been up at M&D Walker's a lot this week. Bellingham has the best kids consignment stores! We found Q a cute tiger costume for $10 and got stuff for me to make mine. We really wanted him to be Diego this year but aside from having Mom sew the backpack and vest, couldn't think of how to do it. Maybe we can make a Diego costume for Ian and Q can be his Baby Tiger!

Plus this was the 2nd installment of Walker Apple Pressing for the Fall. Ian was out there working away while Q and I muddled around. He liked picking apples. I hate cold and wet!

My sewing machine decided to go kaput right at the end of the big cloth diaper project. Bonnie and I took it to a place to fix it and found out it will cost the same as replacing it! I'm undecided what to do. Mine is a nice older model with sturdier construction than the new ones. Plus I don't need all the techy gadgets the new ones have. If I find the time I'll try to find somewhere else that might fix it. Until then I'm going to have to bum of Bonnie and friends for their machines. I have several baby sewing projects I'm prepping for.

Remlinger Farms

2011-09-28T17:46:00.000-07:00

A while back I got a groupon deal for Remlinger Farms in Carnation, Wa. It looked like fun and we finally went a couple weeks ago. They had an AWESOME train that ran along the park. What can get better than that? This was half the reason I wanted to take Q, to ride on a train!This train was so cool and 'grown up' that Q would have NOTHING to do with sitting in our laps. He had to sit on his own and look at EVERYTHING! Along with the park rides, there was views of animals and little 19th century scenes they set up to look like mining, farming, railroad stuff.
This place is set up especially for little kids so Q could go on EVERY ride. Aside from the train his favorite was the roller coaster. Sorry, I didn't get a picture of that. He dragged us back to that one then got upset in line because the 'miner' front blocked the view of the coaster and he thought we weren't getting on!

Here Q is driving an old Jalopy around the track.
I was really impressed that he went on the Ferris Wheel and Carousel all by himself while other kids bigger than him wouldn't get on. Our cool cat just sat there and took it ALL in.

Notice the girl behind him crying!

They also had canoe ride. I wanted to jump in the water! It was a hot day!
On the flying pumpkins I forgot about centrifical/centripital (sp?) force and put Q on the outside. So the duration of the ride I was using all my energy to keep from squishing him in the corner!
Ian took him on the spinning barrels and was spinning so fast Q was plastered flat...we didn't think he appreciated that. He didn't ask to get back on, even though spinning is one of his favorite things to do!

Food, Glorious food!

2011-09-28T17:40:00.000-07:00

My 21 month old son has FINALLY decided to eat real food!
I was just watching jealously as a friend of mine fed her son tuna casserole last week. I was wondering when that would ever be my reality since Q would only eat crackers, fruit, soft stuff. I made some homemade spaghetti sauce and since then Q can't get enough! He eats almost anything I give him now. And as an added bonus, he's sleeping through the night! Full tummy's are a blessed thing. This is even better since we're having difficulty giving him dairy or soy, so at least now he's getting something nutritious.

Stats today: 35 inches tall, 28 lbs. He's on track to be taller than Daddy already!

It's a ??????

2011-09-12T22:48:00.000-07:00

Just wanted announce that we are expecting. Due in March. We're excited. We find out next month what it is.

Most everything is going well so far. My new doctors are super thorough and have discovered I have an additional condition called "protein S deficiency" that adds to my antiphospholipid blood clotting problem. I got the bad news this week that I have to continue my daily shots for 6 weeks after the baby is born. LAAAAMMMME! He thought I might feel better when he told me I could do them in my legs at that point. LAAAME! I'm already getting the nonstop bleeding and bruising...and I have 7-8 more months of this!!

My morning sickness is finally starting to subside, thank heavens. I was taking the nurses miracle recipe of vitamin B6 plus unisom to keep it under control. I was pretty good except for the evenings.

I can't believe how quickly my tummy has started popping out. I feel really lumpy! And I probably will until I actually look like I'm really pregnant. It's been a challenge to play and love my little Q without putting any pressure on my tender tummy. I had to start maternity clothes immediately since I'm so tender in the 1st trimester, and now that I'm less tender I'm too big for my normal clothes.

Anyhow, it looks like I get to add to the steady stream of Walker babies that have been coming in this year!

Developments

2011-08-19T12:05:00.000-07:00

Q's latest words (expressive) that I can remember:
Bubbles (although he's regressed to only saying BO! this week)
Juice (overgeneralized to any drink)
JayJay! because he loves the video!
Shoes (includes socks)
Nose (pronounced Noshe usually) This is by FAR his favorite word. If he's ever at a point that he wants to communicate but you aren't getting his message...he busts out "Nose!" I think it's because he knows we know that word. Because of this he's overgeneralized the use and meaning of the word beyond a facial part! Silly boy.
Open (pronounced 'Ahbe' at this point, working on it)
Choochoo (obviously this means trains)
Eyes (which he seems to think is glasses instead of the actual eye, guess that's what comes of having a mommy and daddy with glasses)
Tooth
Ouch (y), Ow it seems to be his word for upset because he says it any time he doesn't like what's going on. Crying wolf, much.
toes

bottle
more (pronounced mo)
two he says this when daddy is doing a 1, 2, 3 and then tosses him. He says "Two! Two! Two!" to get the game to continue.
keys he has recently become fascinated with keys, wants to hold them and point at every keyhole he sees. On his strolls with Daddy during stake conference this weekend he pointed out every keyhole in ever door they passed! A while back I made him his very own keychain so that he could play with that instead of mine; it's been a lifesaver this past week since I need to drive the car with them...and preferably without a screaming toddler in the backseat.
brush

kitty (pronounced ki-y) he's got the T down on boat but not kitty.
sshhh everytime we see anyone or anything sleeping
boat (this includes the ocean outside our window)
out
star (pronounced 'tar)
Mamma and Dadda! Yeah! I've been waiting so long for him to call us by our names! I love it! Everytime he sees us he says it. The other day he pointed at himself to say baby, then me to say mamma. :)
Daddy has also taught him all kinds of cool car and crash sounds, so he's got those down pat already.

Receptive: It is so exciting to know he understands me when I'm talking to him. I had to call him back from crossing the street to the neighbors yesterday and tell him he couldn't go over there without Momma. He totally turned around and played in our yard for the next 15 minutes! I was so excited! NO physical intervention!

Nursery
food
outside
prayer (about our last 6 FHE's have been focused on what prayer is and how we look and act during it so that our little guy can be a little more reverent. It lasts about 3 seconds at a time right now, but it's growing on him.)
airplane (he does the sign every time thanks to aunt Becky)
ears
chin

Q actually cut his first molar in August and he's cutting all four eye teeth as we speak. There was a six month break of no teeth and then all of a sudden here they all come. We're still undecided about whether it's causing his digestive problems or not. He's also getting ready to pop out a few more molars. Quite the crabby boy sometimes.

The Fair!

2011-08-19T12:04:00.000-07:00

The Stanwood-Camano Fair was the perfect size for us. Small enough that we could get to everything without walking FOREVER! We looked at all the animals first. Sadly Q was more excited about all the balloons he saw around than seeing the animals in real life that we talk about all the time. So we got him one.

We made our way over to the carnival and were baffled by the ticket prices. But then we were pleasantly surprised with the carnival workers. Because Q was so little they only made us pay for one of us to get on each of the kiddie rides. PLUS the slide guy let us to two or three times each time! It was a blast!

This Merry-go-round was MUCH faster than the one at the zoo. And once is never enough!
This slide was awesome. I'm sure I did it when I was a kid, but I don't remember. I was hollering all the way down, poor Q. You can see his balloon poking into the picture!He loved it so much that he'd immediately get back up and start heading for the stairs to do it again. Luckily he wasn't disappointed since the man let us go again.
Next stop was the Jalopy Junction. Q got to turn the steering wheel as we bumped around the little track.
Since we had extra tickets left over because they only made us pay for one instead of two, we got to do a few more rides again. This time Daddy took Q down the slide. And they let them go twice again!
And I did the Merry-go-round this time. Is it just me, or does it look like the outer horses are leaning out? Perhaps that's why I felt like we were going to fall out!
I so badly wanted Q to go on the real pony ride that Daddy said yes. It was a lot bumpier than the merry-go-round. After going around a few times with him he looked comfortable enough to let go on his own.

Summer Fun

2011-08-19T11:46:00.000-07:00

We've done a few fun things this summer. Q has decided that he likes his cap and sunglasses. He even tries my hat on too. I think he's the cutest thing ever when he's styling around with his shades.He's developed a fascination with belts.

He tried on mommy's socks.

He found fun stuff to do while Momma worked in the yard. Like try on Momma's work gloves. OOOO, and then he found the bird bath!OOhh, Momma! Water! Just at my height! Perfect!But there are consequences for getting wet. You look like you peed your pants Q!We also went to the zoo with Aunt Becky, Jared, Marisa and Grandma Skinner. Very fun but oh so exhausting!And we played at the park with the cousins.And with Momma's old best friends families...not so sure about that, though.Q helped Momma clean the house.And he helped Daddy exercise.

And we went for walks in the forest/park and did a facial skid down the path. You can actually see him go down at the end of this clip.

That wasn't so fun.Q played trains with his cousins. Hence he learned the word choo choo.

He started waving hello again, I'm so happy!

Here's a video of his adorable "Achoo"

Grandma Skinner's Visit

2011-08-19T11:31:00.000-07:00

Grandma Skinner came to visit for a few days and Quintin had a blast playing and laughing with her.
They played Hide and Seek.

Ran around the train track.

and Stomped.

4th of July

2011-08-07T11:05:00.000-07:00

Family, family, family!

We drove up to Mom & Dad Walker's (who weren't there!) and spent the weekend with Nate & Katie & kiddos, Matt & Lindsay & kiddos. Yeah! It was great to spend time with all of them and enjoy their company. Most of the kids loved playing and watching fireworks ALL weekend 'cause Noah was being a pyro and blowing them up all day every day! Quintin LOVED them, every last one.

Q also showed us that he can climb a 6 foot ladder unassisted, scare us to death! Getting down is another issue.
Sadly I didn't take any pictures, but you're all going to be jealous because I got two GREAT videos of the Amazing Fireball Escapade!

No Mom and Dad, that's not your grass and flowers on fire!

On Monday we drove back home and had a BBQ with my family: Becky & Clarence & kids, Peter & Sarah & Connor, and my mom who was visiting from HI. Yummy! We also went for a walk in the park next door.

Catch-up #3: Me

2011-06-16T14:44:00.000-07:00

Last winter Ian had mentioned that we might try cloth diapers for Q to save money. After rethinking my complete refusal at the idea, a few weeks later I started researching. Wowsers, it's a whole different ballgame than when I was a kid. All-in-ones, hybrids, pockets, one size...I was swimming in unknown terms. I decided to try a mix of a few and ordered them. Not long after that we went down to visit Nate and Katie (whom I know use them and even made their own). I asked a lot of questions while I was there and would you believe Katie's influence (and offer to loan the snap press) convinced me to make my own? Crazy, right? It took over a month for the supplies to finally arrive. Four yards of PUL yielded 22 diapers (should have been 24 but I messed up my first cutting), so we'll have enough and then some! I'm currently in the middle of the first snapping installment (4 broken snaps so far--requiring removal by teeth). Next will be sewing the first seam, then elastic, then sew, then snap again. It's hard for me to believe I'm doing this, but it feels good at the same time. We're saving money in the long term and reducing land fills! Oh, by the way I'm making one-size pocket diapers. This means the size adjusts from newborn to potty training. Katie gave me the pattern and everything. I'm pretty excited. Plus I've been able to make my own diaper pail liners and wet-bags for on the go! (actually I'm at the elastic stage now...took me a while to finish this post)

While I've been at this cloth diaper exploration I've been finding deals on accessories and ran across a lady in northern Wa that has her own online diaper business, which she was closing. I couldn't believe she was just letting it go. Ian pushed us to research buying it from her so we could have a business at home. We went as far as to contact the bank, and go to her house to learn about what she had, but when it came down to it...it didn't feel right for us. I didn't want to devote that many hours away from Q or the pressure of having to grow it. Man it was tempting, though.

I went to the temple a number of months ago for the first time since before Q was born with my friends Genevieve and Maren. (Sidenote: every time I go to the Seattle temple I run into someone I know. This time Dan Pugmire and Bishop Rudd were in the cafeteria!) I was curious to see how it would go since I usually struggle to stay awake. This was a whole new experience this time. The entire session I was being told to adopt a baby girl I had just learned about. I kept trying to clear my head and refocus on the session but it only lasted 30 seconds before my mind was racing to plan the details to make the adoption happen. Finally, in the celestial room I told Heavenly Father that I would start working on it BUT this wasn't the insight I was seeking in my temple attendance that day. Then he graciously answered my silent plea. My answer: nothing in life is meant to be perfect, aside from our relationship with Heavenly Father and the Savior. Our purpose in life is to learn, grow, and roll with the punches. Do the best we can and get back to Him by being faithful. Wow, this may sound simple and 'duh' to other people but it really got to my heart. My whole life I have striven to be perfect (I know, it's impossible) and have truly been disappointed over and over again (as well as way too uptight). It had most recently caused a lot of depression and frustration in my daily life because some HUGE imperfections had come to light. I feel like I have been partially healed of one of the greatest misconceptions I've carried around my entire life. I wrote this out and put it in my kitchen window to remind myself several times a week to take a deep breath and move on. Whether it's me, struggles we face, or the people around me...none of us are perfect and shouldn't be expected to be (my expectations are now sanity and doing our best)! Thank you Heavenly Father! You always know the right thing to say!

In March my Alaskan foster daughter Desiree found me on facebook. I hadn't talked to her since 2003, when she was about 11. How exciting! She was having a rough time on her own in Bethel with a sweet baby girl in foster care. (I'm a foster grandma!) It has been a unique experience to communicate with her after all these years and catch up on her life. I truly wish that I could fly up there and give her a big hug!

About the same time I noticed that my face was tense and tight every time I stopped to notice. I was worried it was stress, but when my eyes started hurting too I realized it was my glasses expiring. I worried about it for a while because glasses and exams cost moolah. However I dug around in my boxes and found my old glasses and after a day or two more of strain my eyes accepted the old ones and are now happy campers! Lucky day!

This is a poem our sweet support group leader shared with us as she said goodbye. I find it truly insightful and meaningful for this past couple years. Trials in all forms are difficult and often painful, but bring wisdom.

PAIN
Pain stayed with me so long today
I stamped my foot and said, "Be on your way",
And startled at the look he wore,
"I who have been your friend," he said to me,
"I who have been your teacher."
"All you know of understanding, love, sympathy, and patience I have taught you. Shall I go?"
He spoke the truth, this strange unwelcome guest.
I watched him leave and knew that he was wise.
He left a heart grown tender in my breast,
He left a far clearer vision in my eyes.
I dried my tears and lifted up a song,
Even for the one who had tortured me so long.
--Author unknown

Catch-up #2: Ian

2011-06-08T11:01:00.000-07:00

Ian's been doing job interviews for months for all sorts of jobs. One of them came through, he had a special hiring lady helping him this time. He was hired on as an Outside Sales Rep in Seattle for Grainger (industrial supply). He flew to Chicago for 8 days of training and a fun weekend. So, he said good bye and Thank you to Mom and Dad for providing a job the last 8 months and went on to the next adventure. He's been excited so far. They are a WELL established company and their sales plan is totally doable. He gets lots of toys (laptop, Iphone, printer) to work out of his company vehicle. Only down side so far is the commute, and I guess it's not engineering...someday.Quintin was pretty excited to see him when he got home. He gave Daddy the biggest hug ever.

Catch-up #1: Q

2011-06-07T15:35:00.001-07:00

Q is turning into such a little Boy. He's developed a LOVE for balls and cars (real and toy). The inside of the car is a virtual playground!I'm afraid to teach him how to honk the horn because I'm sure he'd do it ALLLL the time once I did. Better leave that off for a while.
He has learned "ba(ll)" for ball and says it ALL the time. He's recently started using the "more" sign and I'm so excited. He used the "eat" sign the other day. I was so proud of my little guy for communicating with me! "Up!" has taken on the meaning of any physical assistance he requires. We're working on that.

As you can see in this video from my phone, the most exciting toy at G&G Walker's is the pool table. He knows the rules: pool balls are for rolling, not throwing. If he breaches the rules he gets an "uh-oh" and removal from the table (this is usually not a happy thing in his mind). He's so dang smart. He actually got to the point the first weekend there that he'd stand and throw a ball to get off the table!

When he talks in babble he looks you in the eyes and waves his hands. It's unreal. I wish I could understand what he meant because it feels important! He can also say 'baby'.

We've been using the Love & Logic 'Uh-Oh' song for discipline and its working like a charm. We're so excited! We started with the pool table. One night we were at the counselor's and he was trying to get into her purse next to her. She knew about our methods so she says "Uh-oh" sweetly but firmly and looked him back in the eyes. He stood there looking at her for about 10 seconds then melted to the floor crying 'cause he wanted it so bad! SOOOO cool that it works. At this point, I think it's the only thing that would work because Ian's trained him that a loud, firm or angry voice is play. So, if you get mad at him he giggles and laughs (this can be rather frustrating, but it's good to make us use more effective discipline methods). The other night I saw him going for the recently uncovered, lighted plug for the pellet stove. I said his name firmly then uh-oh. It was so adorable I laughed! He stood there chirping and babbling like he could talk me into it!

A couple of weeks ago he was going around the house saying "atuu" a LOT. It took me a while to realize that he was saying "Aaachooo" for sneezing. When he was a little baby he would cry when Ian or I sneezed so I would always follow a sneeze with a silly faced "Achoo" and now he thinks it's pretty dang funny. We have Achoo-fests back and forth that get him belly laughing at the hilarity. And then of course I have to laugh too! He is SO dang FUN!

We went up to Mom and Dad Walker's for the weekend Ian was on his business trip. Nate & Katie's fam as well as the Nichols were there. He had a BLAST playing with all the other boys there. Although over stimulated, he was deliriously happy. On Saturday we went to a park and saw some animals. Q really liked the geese, chickens, rabbits, and goats...but the turkey's were the most friendly. 1st time he's ever seen them!He has to go outside every day, rain or shine. That little belly sticking out is so cute! This was an awesome bad hair afternoon. It's amazing what a little nap can do to your hair!
He continues to experiment with facial expressions. He makes faces all the time and he's recently started to give kisses...the decent kind without a slobbery open mouth.

What do you do with a toddler in the kitchen when you're trying to make dinner? Give him oven mitts!He's recently decided he likes watermelon. Can you tell where lots of it ended up?This was his first time on a tire swing at play group. He liked it. A LOT. He wouldn't even go near the regular swings. And it's always more fun with a friend, right? Have I mentioned that he likes to SPIN?
He's learned how to climb. So far he can climb onto a dining chair, into the car, onto the coffee table and just yesterday - the couch! Wow, never thought I'd see the day. This also means that he has entered the season of bumps and bruises. So far he's fallen off a dining chair, down some steps, tripped and hit his head on a rock, fell off the trampoline (bouncing off the porch on the way to the ground)...the list goes on. We're finding bruises and marks we did not see caused. Good thing he's made out of rubber for a few more years.He takes me walking on the forest trail without hesitation now. He traipses off halfway between walking and running - only putting up a hand to help get over big roots, etc. He absolutely loves one of the bridges along the way. It's either the noise his tromping makes or the water trickling underneath, or both. Razor has started accompanying us on these adventures, that's fun until he starts hollering when we're out of sight! Q gets a kick out of walking with a cat.

Photo Book

2011-05-24T01:14:00.001-07:00

Click here to view this photo book larger

Q this last week

2011-05-13T16:14:00.000-07:00

We got a package this week. Need I say more?

Q has decided that he likes being flipped and swung around. He is so much fun! I love how he has to go under Daddy, then turn himself around to make sure he's "in position" for the liftoff! Walking backwards is a developmental milestone and he was re-screened this week and tested into the 18 month old range! Way to go buddy! No more delays for you!

I love watching what he does and how me moves around. He does also bump and rock to music but by the time I pulled the camera out he was back to circles.

Do you like his new haircut?

Videos for G and G

2011-05-13T15:42:00.000-07:00

A few videos of Q and his chatty self...

If you can't tell, he's longing to go outside, hence the shoes and staring out the window.

I tried really hard to keep unmentionables out of the video...don't want CPS calling or him hating me 15 years from now. He loves slapping his tummyYou get to see his first REAL word, up. He already knows wow, wee and uh-oh but those aren't real words...and in case you are wondering there is a full length mirror behind me so that's why he keeps looking that direction. He loves his mirror buddy.

I acquired this parking garage at a consignment sale recently and he loves it! It only took a few times of it tipping over for him to realize it wasn't for climbing on. Under the couch has become the real parking garage of late. He's REALLY experimenting with faces lately. Lots of different kinds. Today he had this weird frown on all morning, the kind you make in conversation but not regularly.

Visit to Lebanon

2011-04-12T17:26:00.000-07:00

Mom & Dad Walker drove us down to Oregon this last weekend to visit Nate, Katie, James, George and Rhett for R's baby blessing. What a great trip! Q was so excited to play with the boys! He almost burst when he saw them taking a bath. Friends in the bath, what could get better than that? I don't know why there is no sound, but you can see his smile and little dance of excitement.

The other video showed nudage, so I'm sparing George's dignity!

We all went for a hike and saw waterfalls, moss, trees and dirt. If you look closely you might see a white spot to the top right of the falls. That's those in the family that had the nerve to climb the stairs to the top, Ian and Q included. Little did they know that we'd be coming back that way and they would be able to see it then without all that work! Q rode on Ian's back in Nate's backpack, thanks for letting us use it! We ate good food, visited, learned about all of Nate and Katie's latest projects. It was a great time. Hopefully Katie will send me the family pics so I can post them too! The ride home was pretty short for everyone except Dad as he's the only one that didn't take a nap. :)

Up!

2011-04-12T17:16:00.000-07:00

Well, Q has started shrieking when he's upset and having little crying fits, so it's apparent that he's entered a new stage of development that requires discipline and teaching. I decided that since he can say simple syllables like ma, ba, da, pa, wow, wee and such that he can certainly say "up" instead of grunting with arms up and jutting out his belly. Last week I started requiring him to say up to get said action from me. It took a lot of coaxing the first time and we both had a dance party to celebrate. The next time I told him to say up he looked at me, whimpered and gave up on getting what he wanted. Monday morning he was in bed with me and rolled and crawled around for a time without any response from mom (I was TIRED and didn't want to play or get out of bed). Finally he rolled over to face me and whispered "Up-hhh, up-hhh, up-hhhh" repeatedly!!!!!!!!! Who could resist spontaneous, talking cuteness like that???? Ever since then he says it all the time, and seems to think it means everything; like "I want that toy"! Ahhh, I love my little boy!

He also started walking on the rocks and grass BY HIMSELF for the first time this last week! Yeah!

Outside

2011-04-04T15:25:00.000-07:00

This morning Q brought me his shoes to put on. I put them on but made no move to go outside as it's cold and rainy and I was tired. After his 1st nap he brought me his shoes again, then immediately went and brought me my shoes.

"Come on Momma! It's TIME to go outside!"

My old neighbor Christina used to tell me this would happen, guess she was right.
So we bundled up and went outside, in the cold and sprinkles. His hands promptly turned bright red in the cold.

It was adorable watching him tromp around talking about it the whole time, and expecting feedback. :)

New Videos

2011-04-02T23:04:00.000-07:00

Fun, fun all the time!
Q likes to put on his big boy shoes. Usually he brings them to me as a signal that it's time to go outside.
This boy seems immune to dizziness like his daddy. Or else he LOVES being dizzy because circles are one of his favorite past times!
This was so precious I had to get a video of it. I love the look on his face when he's concentrating. He does get a little distracted at the end...
Our child has bizarre culinary tastes like our cats!

One Year Older, and Wiser Too

2011-04-02T21:19:00.000-07:00

March marked my 34th birthday. Yowsers time has gone by fast. The actual day was really uneventful. 2 cards, 1 present, ice cream cake. Although I hope to never repeat some of the events this past year held, I'm grateful for what I've learned and the resources I've found.

My toe is getting better. I'm still stuck in my birks but it only hurts if I actually step on it now, which I do about 7 times a week, grr.

Not knowing what I was doing I signed up to participate in the entertainment skit for the MOPS annual auction at the end of March. Every Friday Q and I went down to Camano Chapel to practice with the other veteran ladies. We did a Mommy Rhapsody like the one on You Tube but with a few Mops changes. It was really fun. They showed the actual performance to us the next meeting and I thought it was hilarious. I hope I have a chance to get a copy. It was so fun, and a great opportunity to get to know some of them a little bit better. The actual auction was fun. People were bidding upwards of $300 for a pie, $500 for a homecooked Indian dinner for 8 while they were lucky to get $400 for a $2000 value landscaping donation. Unbelievable! Ian and I were lucky enough to sit at the same table as the guy who won the pies. I think he spent over $1000 dollars that night.

About 2-3 weeks ago we came home to find the pellet stove sending flames out the top of the flue. That was a little scary. I found a guy to come out and clean the whole apparatus in the hopes that this would mend the problem with the auger that is doling out the pellets too fast. He was really nice and spent about 2 hours fixing it up. It started running correctly when he was here, but when I started up the next day the whole house filled with smoke. Today Ian pulled it out and we found that the vent had disconnected from the stove and the smoke was coming into the house instead of the chimney. He fixed it and now we have our heat source back. We've been living with a trusty space heater to heat the whole house for this whole time. I'm really glad this didn't happen in February with the snow and freezing temperatures.

Ian and I were devastated a few weeks ago to find out two of our favorite people in the world are getting divorced. It really shook us up. We are SO sad for both of them and their children, I was dragging for days. It has made us grateful that neither of us have given up on trying to save our marriage. In the end it'll be worth it.
Q is talking up a storm. Sometimes he walks around the house lecturing in baby talk, it's absolutely precious. He has so much vigor. I imagine he's going to have a lot of opinions to share when we start understanding him.
One day we were cleaning up and he decided he needed to help. Who could resist?

He has recently fallen in love with teddy bears (and balls) and here he's holding his white one and his red one.

He has progressed from walking with hands in the air to clasping them in the front or back when he's in the mood. He'll just pace around like that. Too cute.

He also thinks every day is a good day to go outside, whether it's a sunny or rainy day. I'm sure glad we have a raincoat for him. He was sopping wet this day.
We found a small piece of PVC pipe by the fire pit last week and I let him nab it since it was the only one he could carry. Getting knocked in the noggin made me question that decision.
Of course we have to visit the pots of moss and dirt every time we go out on the porch. Only today it was wet and loose...and muddy...
and he had to rub it on his face and mommy! I've never taken a cuter picture. This boy is a DELIGHT every day. Even that night when he was so congested he couldn't sleep flat and ended up in the recliner all night with mommy.

Circles

2011-03-15T21:49:00.001-07:00

I played Q my old tape of kids songs today that we haven't listened to in a very long time. I started dancing to it and he started walking in circles! The WHOLE time the music played! I wonder if this is his form of dancing? Or maybe he was copying me because the first song was the hokey pokey and I was 'turning myself around to do the hokey pokey'. The second one is cuter, so pick that one if you're not an adoring Grandma or Grandpa. They're kinda long.
The batteries died on the camera or I'd have another of him circling with his hands above his head and around his neck. Silly boy. I sure wish I knew what he was thinking sometimes.

We're kinda sickly around here. Q got sick, then Ian got sick for 2 days, then I got sick. Q is still coughing and I'm still stuffy. I always forget how totally exhausting it is to be ill.

We went to Costco today and a storm broke over the store while we were shopping. It sounded like the roof was collapsing. The power went out for several minutes, an alarm went off for several more minutes and then there was a lake in the parking lot as we left. Mind you, my toe is broken so I'm lucky to even get my birkenstocks on. Guess who went home wet today? Luckily I'd had the foresight to put Q's raincoat on before we left home.

I got my 2010 blog book today!!!! Yeah!!!

On the Go

2011-03-05T16:43:00.000-08:00

Some of the fun stuff Q has been up to lately...

Ian brought the step ladder into the living room to sit on in front of the fireplace and it is now Q's jungle gym. Who needs expensive baby gyms?I think half of his crawling/walking progress he's made is because he climbs all over it all day. Last night he slipped and ended up butt down in the middle, he wasn't too happy about that.

He also LOVES to shake his head, he's been doing this for months and thinks it's quite fun.
This one is pretty long, probably only Grandma and Grandpa will watch the whole thing, but I think his waddle is so darn cute!

So my sister was just saying a few days ago that pretty soon Quintin will be wanting to push the shopping cart in the store. ??? I didn't know what that meant, but man do I now! We went to Walmart yesterday and he would have nothing to do with sitting in the seat nor in the cart. He wanted out! So I tried to carry him, but when I had to stop and look at stuff I had to set him down. Then he'd take off down the aisle picking things out along the way. Oh, my word he was so cute toddling along. But, then I'd have to chase him down and put things back! This became more difficult in the clothing department with tight quarters, I lost him pretty quick in there. After about 15 minutes of this he decided he'd try something else. He'd push the cart as far as it could go then whine when it ran into something and stopped. I decided to let him push the cart around for me and would you know that he pushed that cart from one end of Walmart to the other and back again! I couldn't believe it. All I did was steer. Only problem was that he wouldn't allow us to stop so I ended up having to go through some aisles several times looking for what I needed. :)

I am completely amazed that two months ago he wasn't even crawling.

I'm finally posting some cute videos from back in January. We were in the waiting room at Children's Hospital and they have decks of cards there for the kids. Oh those chubby arms are already gone!

When the tech came out to get us she commented that it looked like he was wheeling and dealing.

Heads

2011-03-03T14:28:00.000-08:00

Quintin usually hates hats. Rips them off pretty quick. He recently saw himself in the mirror with a baseball cap on and thought that was pretty cool, so there's hope. He also hates hoods on his jackets, but he can't pull those off so that has been my resource this winter. Today we were outside on the porch exploring in the wind and sun and I gave him my hat (pink fleece) after his hood had fallen off several times. I couldn't believe it but he left it on! I think maybe because it was light and loose? Darn it if it wasn't pink then I'd use it from now on! I need to find another in a different color!

He's also over the last month or two developed the habit of banging his head when he's tired, frustrated, or near something hard. We have no idea why and don't know how to stop it. Any ideas? We'll put our hand down to cushion his head and he'll move to get back to the hard surface. Grr.

Da da da da da, da da da da da, hehehe

2011-03-02T00:16:00.000-08:00

I looked out the window this week to find one of these hanging precariously from our birdfeeder trying to get a meal. Mind you the feeder is only about 5x5x1 inches and this woodpecker is over a foot long. His back was parallel with the floor. What a silly, beautiful sight. Totally reminded me of Woody the Woodpecker!

Q weighed in at 27 lbs today. My arms are buff and back is out of place! He decided he was going to walk again this weekend. He's now toddling all over the house with a frequent plomp onto the floor. Man I could eat him up. He's making fish faces, tearing up toilet paper, exploring trash cans, chasing cats, opening cupboards, deleting files, emptying the laundry bin, giggling, chattering and melting my heart. I was spinning him in the computer chair today and he had a blast! Anything for that smile.

I told Mande "Down!" tonight to get her off the counter. Quintin exclaimed "Doe!" with his arms flapping down. :)
We do movements to Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star from his sing along DVD and it's so cute to see him bring his hands up to his head at 'wonder what you are' and his hands up high at "up above the world so high." He gets so excited at the "Ba-ba-baby, Ma-ma-mommy" song. He LOVES it when we sing it throughout the day. My little man is seriously attracted to music. I look forward to seeing what he does with it when he grows up.

Church was canceled this weekend due to the snow. Gersh, good thing they don't do that often because it was REALLY nice to have a day to hang out with family with NO pressure to do chores. I might get used to it.

I saw an awesome saying today at Mops: Some days your the windshield, some days you're the bug! HA, that's a great way to smile through a rough day.

I just found some movies of Q from back in October that are too cute not to share with Gpa and Gma in HI, enjoy.
His first pumpkin carving experience.
Showing off his Peek-a-boo skills.

Talking to the spoons.

Visitors

2011-02-25T10:03:00.000-08:00

These beauties stopped by to visit this week. I was really excited because I've never seen these birds before - EVER. There really are advantages to having bird feeders. These are called Evening Grosbeaks. Sorry the picture is a bit blurry, the bird feeder was swinging, but I'm glad I actually took it myself this time. You can't tell in the picture, but these guys are as big as parrots! I had to call my neighbor to ask him what they were since I noticed them out the window. And this one is a Varied Thrush. Orange! They are about the size of a robin. I've seen hummingbirds and robins back this week, too. They must have been faked out by the warm weather last week, 'cause it's freezing and snowing this week!

Q pulled his 'baby gym' out from under the crib this week so I decided to set it back up for him. We had put it away because we thought he was done with it. He's loving it! His occupational therapist keeps bringing over this tunnel to try to get him to crawl through it and he won't have anything to do with it, I think it scares him. But give him the gym and he's crawling figure 8's around the sides. It's rather amusing to watch him.

It's hard to describe how liberating it is now that Q can crawl (he actually stopped walking for about a week, I think he was listening to the therapists admonitions). He used to fuss after just a few minutes when I'd set him down because he got bored. Now when he's bored he moves to what he wants. I just have to watch that he doesn't get into anything dangerous. I can even have him in primary with me again without major difficulty. What a blessing.

He's starting to wave bye-bye more regularly now, that's fun. He likes patty-cake because he can roll his arms and clap his hands. We discovered he loves cantaloupe and kiwi, but only tolerates papaya and mango. I'm thinking he's mildly allergic to dairy because he's gotten rashes ever since we started feeding it to him. I'm not sure what we're going to do about it yet.

By the way, I posted some hilarious videos of him, but since I started the post in January it's back a ways. So, if you want to see them scroll down. I think his belly laugh is one of the best sounds in the world.

February

2011-02-15T15:45:00.001-08:00

Q started crawling at the end of January and has started walking like crazy this week. He gets more adventurous each day. He'll now walk about 8 feet across a room! He's also started climbing attempts; like over the gate guarding the fireplace! He's loving his new found freedom, he can follow Mom and Dad anywhere in the house, and he can get into all the cupboards. He's also refusing to sit down very long in the bathtub anymore. He immediately gets up and plays with the faucet. I just hope he doesn't fall and knock teeth out or something. This week he discovered splashing with his hands. Oh man was I drenched as he giggled and laughed. It is so much fun to see him learn and discover new things. Lately he's been using his hands a lot. Turning pages, etc. Books are now lots of fun...that is if he lets you read the page before he turns it.

The other day it was warm and sunny so I let him go through the sliding door onto the porch. oooo, that was fun! Today we stopped to watch deer pass through our yard as we were loading into the car, too cool.Ian and I went to the stake Valentine's dance with his parents. That was fun, there aren't nearly enough dancing opportunities for married people as there were for us when we were single. Q had his 3rd youth babysitter and miraculously didn't get injured! What a relief. Last time he fell and split his lip open. The time before that he got bit by a dog.

We spent the last week trying to recover from a family cold. I can't tell if Q's problem is the cold or incoming teeth. He's been a mite fussy. We've been brainstorming things we could get him to eat besides milk, water and crackers. He liked mac & cheese but did not like our crab dinner last night! I am so happy he was willing to eat baby food again last night...maybe we can use it up now and clear cupboard space! He's decided he likes juice and will almost drain the cup in one sitting. Pretty soon he'll be stuck with whatever we're eating. I wonder how that will go over. I'm in the process of trying to get him off the bottle. I can tell this will be a long process, he won't even drink milk from a sippy cup.

I had a feeling the other day that someone was missing. When I've heard other people say that they talk about having another kid. I've been wondering if that's it or if it's because Andrew's not here with us. I'll probably never know. I'm SO grateful for Q, our little miracle boy. He is so precious!

Today

2011-01-29T22:00:00.000-08:00

Today was the day we finally had to put up a gate to protect the cat food and litter.

Today is the day my baby is finally free.

Splendid

2011-01-14T12:40:00.000-08:00

I had forgotten how truly splendid the forest air is. Sweet, refreshing, lovely. It started coming through the car vents driving home last night. Ahhh

Hope, shots and MOPS

2011-01-12T11:08:00.000-08:00

I went to MOPS for the 1st time yesterday. It was awesome, I'm really excited to go now. They had a whole bunch of grandma's and grandpa's in the nursery for Q to snuggle with. I thought that was really sweet. We had to leave early but one of these days we'll go to the whole thing. I was impressed at how organized and supportive it was. I'm really excited, wish I'd started this months ago.

Q had his 12 month check up yesterday. We hate shots! On our way out I had to use the restroom and didn't want to sit him on the floor so I stood him up next to the wall. When he saw me use the tp he began maneuvering over to it. I tried to block him so instead he reached between my legs and grabbed the toilet! Gross, lol, just can't win. Now I had to wash his hands and mine! TP would have been better! How do mom's with more than one kid do this? Next we went to the country store to buy wood pellets. I was so distracted I drove off to the gas station before I realized I'd forgotten to drive around back to pick up the bags! Silly, silly.

Two days ago I slammed my head into a pointy doorknob. Man did that hurt! I'd almost forgotten about it until I started scrubbing my hair in the shower today. Ouch! How long does it take for a goose-egg to go away? My new rasberry shower gel made me feel like I was using my childhood lip gloss. :) That was fun.

I was kind of excited for Q's OT to come today so she could see all the amazing progress he's made in the last few weeks. I know she's going to be giddy when she sees what he's doing now. But, snow and sickness have put that off for another week. ;( Maybe he'll pull out a new feat to share by then!

I found out a couple weeks ago that a college friend of mine had lost her husband rather suddenly. Heart wrenching, I know what it's like to lose someone you love and not know how to go on, or breathe. Learning about her grief has lent a whole new dimension to my own personal struggles over the past month. It is amazing to me the depth of, of...I guess the word is feeling...that we experience in this mortal life. [Actually, I should rephrase that to some of us instead of 'we.' I have met people that have never had true struggles to deal with and therefore can't even comprehend what I am saying. Literally. (I've actually had more than one of them say that we should just focus on our blessings and be happy)] I know that the scriptures say that we have to experience the bad to truly experience the good. For a while now I've known how true that is, but I haven't liked it. But even in the last month I've been through this all over again. Two weeks ago I felt completely alone, trapped, hurt, furious and helpless. Hopeless, I could see no resolution to my problem. I had been praying for help for over a month and it seemed to only get worse. A few days later, a few words were spoken and my whole outlook changed. All is not resolved, but hope has been restored. I don't think I ever truly appreciated how essential hope is until I'd lost it.

I think this is my miracle for today: even when we feel we are in the gall of bitterness, Christ is still there watching over us. I know He lives! He will heal our hurts. And I know we will see Him and our lost loved ones again someday.

Developments

2011-01-07T12:44:00.000-08:00

Quintin:

started facing forward in the car. YIPPEEE!
cut his 7th tooth this last week.
commando crawled about 20 feet.
started crawling on his hands and knees for short stints....MIRACLE! (he was crawling some but his head was also down to support - so he had 5 points on the floor...looks kinda silly)
can move from laying to sitting and pull himself to standing with his elbows on the table.
can walk holding one hand now, instead of two. (you need one free hand to carry a toy along with you, of course!)
can stand on his own for half a minute.
had his first bad fall--head slam onto the floor.
met his 3rd Urologist. Children's Hospital was pretty cool!
his tongue sticks out most of the time, now. (watch out if you try to kiss him)
had a long visit with Aunt Becky and cousins yesterday - and LOVED it!
can't figure out when and how long he wants to sleep. I think we're transitioning to one nap a day.

Wow, what a week.
Somehow I got a hair of some sort stuck into my heel on Tuesday. It developed into a subcutaneous infection by Wednesday. I tried to drain it but it continued painfully growing. It's really difficult to get through the toughest skin on the body! I was worried about it since we don't have insurance. My parents loaned us some money so I decided to go to the walk-in clinic on Thursday. I dropped Q off with Becky at TaeKwonDo (how much more exciting can it get for a 1 year old?) and went in. I think it was the same doctor as the last time I went. He was so nice. Did you know there are thousands of pounds of pressure per square inch on your heel while you're standing/walking? No wonder I couldn't walk. His procedure hardly hurt. He left me with a hole in my foot to go find some support so I could start walking again. (limping around on the ball of my foot was causing cramps all the way up my leg!) I just laid there and cried...I wasn't crazy, there really was a problem that needed dealing with, and he helped me. It feels so releasing to cry. I've been trying to for several months now to let off some of the stress, but couldn't until this week. I don't understand why things have to get so bad in order for me to let go. Only now I feel like I could cry anytime and it feels raw...don't know if I like that either.

Aside from when Andrew died, this last month has been the hardest month to live through of my life. I'm so grateful for Q, if it weren't for him I wouldn't have made it through. Same for Ian. Even if we would give up on things for ourselves, Q is worth anything in the world.

Our counseling appointment this week was incredible. I think something clicked and I just might see hope that we'll be okay down the road. Our counselor is incredible and somehow finds a way to see the good in the bad. Her perspective each week is invaluable. I find it curious that she answers a question each week that I actually asked the week before, maybe she doesn't notice. Or maybe she needed time to answer? Regardless, it's wonderful to get answers. She's teaching us how to spin in a positive direction instead of negative. This is starting to feel like a group project at school...you learn in class, go home and practice, then come back and get corrected and/or validated for your efforts. I'm really grateful.

I've started branching out of my chocolate chip cookie rut and making new types. It's a bit of an adventure. Ginger crinkles last month, chocolate cream cheese sandwich cookies this month. I pressed some with a cool snowman press we've had but never used. I tried lemon frosting on most of them and Nutella when I ran out. I think the Nutella was better. The cream cheese cookies were quite blah so I don't think we'll make those again.

I didn't expect to be so truly alone out here on Camano. I miss Davis and all its conveniences. Close stores, close neighbors to socialize with, warmth, sidewalks to stroll on, convenient things to do...I'm truly grateful we have such a nice place to stay for now, but it's still tough. When I was a kid I planned on living out in the boonies like this, but I don't think now is the time, yet.

Our neighbor Alice is teaching me what the local birds are.
We have Towhee,
Mourning dove,
Junco,
Nuthatch,

Chickadee,
Wren (I think, although mine are more grey) ,
Downy woodpeckerand
Northern Flicker woodpeckers and
two types of squirrels; pesky grey invader squirrels and
shy brown native squirrels. The Northern Flicker woodpecker is the largest, then the doves and Towhee.I enjoy being able to identify them as they use the bird feeder outside the window. Q and the cats enjoy the show as well. When we go outside we can hear the eagles chatting away in the trees and soaring in the wind above the house. Wonderful.

Videos

2010-12-31T17:26:00.000-08:00

This is for Grandma and Grandpa across the ocean. Here's some home movies of little Q.

Hanging out by the tree.
Playing with daddy and Christmas lights.
Playing with his new duplo blocks and watching The Grinch.
Waking up Christmas morning.
Getting excited about his flashing ball.
Chewing on some of his presents.
Playing with some of his presents.

We're experiencing problems with his cake and b-day videos. I'll try to post later if we can fix it.

Holiday Season

2010-12-31T16:39:00.000-08:00

We had two Thanksgivings this year. We went to my sisters for the day of (of course the menfolk had to play Axis and Allies while the ladies played other games), then we all drove down to Portland for a Davis family Thanksgiving. It has been a long time since we've seen everyone.

My dad came a week later for my nephews Adam and Jared's ordinations. Most of us went down to the temple afterward for baptisms. Q and I walked around the grounds and enjoyed the ambiance.

I got called back into the Primary Secretary position in Camano Isl ward. It's great that I already know how to do most of the stuff, however this ward has a blooming Sr Primary which Davis didn't AND it's the new year which means loads of prep work. Things should start slowing down next month. :)

Ian and I spoke in our ward a couple weeks ago on the Atonement. I really enjoyed the prompting to renew my knowledge of that most important subject.

At last check Q was 25 lbs and 31 inches long. He cut his sixth tooth the week before Christmas, so no need to want his 2 front teeth for Christmas. He cruises the furniture, but has yet to get into the crawling mode. He grows stronger every day, though. He knows how to shake his head and is working on nodding, too. He's starting to learn to wave goodbye. He's been developing his fine motor skills a lot lately. He loves catching the cats tails and pulling really hard. He thinks it's hilarious when they hiss and growl at him. He loves dogs barking, too. He doesn't like the sound of bells ringing. He has learned how to pull himself to standing in the bathtub, so that means we have to watch him every second. Over the last month he's lost his affinity for food. He'll eat maybe 3 bites of bread and stop. He won't even touch baby food at ALL. The ONLY thing he'll take is bread products...cheerios, puffs, toast, roll. He's still into the bottle, and that's been his primary calorie source. I've thought that maybe it was because he's teething a lot of teeth, but there's no way to be sure I guess.

Q really liked the Christmas tree, he pulled down every ornament that wasn't placed high enough. He also started unwrapping a few boxes early! He's getting mobile enough that we finally had to put a gate up around the fireplace. I found him eating a wood pellet one day, ugh!
He didn't like Santa, however.After two months I finally got around to sanitizing the duplo blocks I bought at the consignment store for Q and he LOVES them. $10 well spent!

Ian's parents and two brothers came down to our place for Christmas and Q's birthday. It was really nice. We talked and played games all evening. Ian and I prepared a ham dinner. Q got to play with his extended family. What IS that weird thing? Hmm, maybe it's not too bad. Happy Birthday Cutie Patootie!

Fall

2010-11-15T11:02:00.000-08:00

I love this picture. Really intense. Although it may look like it, Q doesn't have a stubborn bone in his body, yet. Determined, yes, but not stubborn.
The weather didn't take long to get cold, wet and gloomy. I miss sunshine! My arthritis got so bad with the cold that I started increasing my Reliv. I need to increase it again because at this point my fingers at still so stiff in the morning that I can't bend them or use them until I 'milk' or massage them. What is really strange though is that if I wake up at 2:30 or even 5:30 in the morning they aren't that stiff, but any later than 7am and I can't move them. I know that the lack of movement and circulation causes the stiffness, but why does it wait until 7am? Mystery to me. At least the rest of my joints aren't hurting anymore. RELIV you ROCK!

I discovered this 'mother of all spiders' nestled into the handle of my parents truck when I was trying to get inside. Eeeks. Almost as big as my thumb! She had some powerful webbing, too. Even when I got her on a stick and tried to fling her away she didn't go far and was still attached to the truck handle! That must have been an awesome spot for catching meals.My Mom and Dad bought a cruise tour to Egypt, Isreal, Greece, Italy and another place I can't remember. They came to visit us before and after their trip.
We did a real family picture while they were here. It's nice to have an updated one...three new family members since the last one.
Q and I went up to Ferndale with Ian to visit his family. We were there two days. Q loved Grandpa and Grandma's tractor almost as much as Christina and Benson's car. He got his first taste of pumpkin and saw his first Jack-o-Lantern. Mom, Q and I hit the consignment stores for two days and found some awesome deals. Q had been getting pretty bored with the same old toys he'd had for a while so we found a boat load of new ones for cheap as well as a little car to ride on and a walker so he could get around despite the muscle delay. He loves his walker and the new toys were a hit. When he runs in his walker he has both his hands up in the air like a monkey. My speculation is that this is how his hands are when he's walking with us...but who knows?
Q also got to see Daddy's (and Grandpa and Grandma's) workplace. It was really good to visit the Walkers.

When we moved into my parents place we discovered that the neighbors had not been maintaining their trees and the view was almost completely gone. (what was supposed to be a hedge of pine trees turned into a forest!) We also noticed that there was a for sale sign on the house across the street. When I finally saw a car in the driveway I went across and introduced myself and asked about the trees. They said they signed the papers in 10 days and if we wanted to have the trees down by then we were more than welcome. We started the next day. With a little help from the missionaries we got 7 of the 10 trees down and over the cliff. Man, were we tired, and boy did those trees smell heavenly! It took us (Ian did most of the work) another week (mostly at night in the dark, and Q on my back in the backpack) to get the rest of the trees down and over the hill. Then we had to clean up the lawn to remove the evidence. We recovered half of the view, now we just need our other neighbors to trim their trees. The most amazing part about the whole project is that we were never sore. I expected us to be immobile a day or two later and it never happened. What a blessing.

BEFORE
(although there were cool clouds this day that make it look like we were on top of a mountain!)AFTER

The porches here were also so green and slimy that they were a safety hazard. Not thinking too clearly I rented a powerwasher the same day as the we started the tree project and I cleaned off the porches (ibuprofen to the rescue) and a little bit around the side of the house. That was a lot of work.

Poor little Q cut teeth 2-4 all in one week. That was a rough one for me too as he was SUPER clingy!

I couldn't believe it, but our entire freezer of frozen milk only lasted our hungry little boy one month! That went by fast. He's now on formula again. He adjusted okay, but our pocketbook doesn't like it.

I decided to finally follow through on Q's Davis pediatrician's recommendation to have him assessed for muscle delay. Two ladies came out to assess him and he qualified for muscle therapy. The muscle therapist has been coming out to see him once a week for about two months now. They also recommended he try acid reflux meds to see if that's why being on his tummy is so aversive. Three days after he started the meds (and a week after seeing his new bowen therapist) he started commando-inchworm crawling. We are really excited and wish we knew which one was working...
It took us weeks to unpack, but we are finally down to only a few boxes laying around waiting for us to get sick of them. Strangely, from the day we moved in I had 'nightmares' every night that I'd lost Q in the thick covers on the new bed. I'd often wake up Ian as I was searching the covers to find him. Thankfully, after two months the nightmares began to diminish and now they are down to only once or twice a month that I wake up Ian searching for Q in the middle of the night. I find it strange since aside from the first month that the crib wasn't up yet, Q always sleeps in his crib!

For Halloween we went to my sister's ward carnival. It was pretty cool. Q had picked out his tiger costume at one of the consignment stores we'd gone to, he got really excited about it. It also has a little box that roars in the nose of the tiger.Q's sleep routine has been completely whacked since we moved here. All the trips and stuff have thrown him for a loop. We've probably had about 10 days total that he's slept through the night. Plus he's moved himself from 3 to 2 naps a day. He discovered that he could walk around the house holding our hands and that's all he wanted to do. He was almost manic. For a couple days he wouldn't go to bed until 10pm, that did us in. I decided he was overexhausted and we started his bedtime routine an hour earlier. That worked for about a week, he was asleep by 8:30. I think having the Christmas tree up is what ruined that plan.

The week before Thanksgiving we got 3 inches of snow. Crazy...Ian had to use chains to get up the last hill coming home.

I just had to include some pictures of this cutie making faces in the bathtub. One of these days Eyore's nose is going to fall off.

September

2010-11-15T10:59:00.000-08:00

We had Walker's, Barrett's and Davis' here to help us unload our moving truck and start unpacking. This was the first time Q got to meet the Barret side of the family!Luckily Mom Walker decided to stay the night with Q and I our first night to help unpack essentials. I might not have survived otherwise. Ian immediately left with the guys to unload the rest of our stuff in our new storage unit (full to the ceiling and wall to wall!) then drop off the moving truck (they couldn't find it so it took them hours) and finally go home with his Dad to get dropped off at the Bellingham airport early the next morning.About 4 days later I flew with Ian's parents to Denver, Colorado for a Walker reunion. Ian followed a few days later from Sacramento. His sister Christina put up the entire family! That takes way more guts than I have. There were 28 people in their comfortable house, including 15 grand kids. It was really fun seeing family we hadn't seen in years. Again I must say that I apologize for my behavior on such a fun occasion, I promise I will try to be better next time!One of our excursions was to a red rock park, it was beautiful.Quintin absolutely LOVED his cousins. (All of them, even those not in pictures!) He loved being pushed around in the red car by Peyton. He would have stayed in that car the whole week! I was amazed he was able to stay in and NOT fall out!Look mom! I'm a big boy!All the kids loved playing in the hot tub.Ian had fun with the nieces and nephews.It was really good to see family we've been away from for so long.Quintin and I were alone in the still-packed house for two weeks once we got home. It took me about a week to find the crib parts so he slept with me until then - that was rough. We tried to make the best of it and get out to enjoy the state park across the street. Marvelous views! We tried the moby and the backpack and had fun getting some fresh air. Getting our new phone/net hooked up was such a headache. It took 9 phone calls just to find the right company. Then it ended up taking 3 weeks for them to get our order screwed up again and again and again. It took over another 10 phone calls and 2 house visits by technicians to get it straight, man was I frustrated.

Over the past (stressful) month my milk supply had been diminishing considerably. Since I had been trying to do this gradually anyway I decided to let it happen. By the end of the month I was no longer pumping at all. Q was solely on frozen milk. It was kind of sad for me but my arthritis had been getting so bad that I needed to stop. I think by this time Q's tongue tie had been repaired to the point that he could have learned to breastfeed, but it was time to stop.

After those two weeks alone Q and I got on an airplane back to Cali for a week. We stayed with some friends of ours, the Aldous' from when we first moved to Davis. Thank you Alice and Chuck! You were live savers! These pictures are on their trampoline out back. Poor Q had an MRI requiring sedation (it took them 3 freaking tries in his chubby ankle to get the IV in while he's screaming his head off-way to wrench a mom's heart), a pelvic ultrasound, and a special x-ray entailing catheters and dye. Poor guy. I think the x-ray was the worst because he had to lay on his side for about a half hour waiting for him to pee out the dye, which his bladder was in no hurry to do, meanwhile they're pouring warm water on his parts to stimulate pee but just turns cold once it's on the table. Therefore he was lying in cold water on a cold x-ray table mostly naked for a half hour with mommy and daddy holding his head and arms.
MRI Results: There are more folds on the left than on the right, but the computer says this is a normal way of developing. Lets cross our fingers.
Kidney test results: Dilation has increased from a 2 to a 3 requiring further monitoring and tests. Here we come Seattle Children's Hospital.
Quintin and I went to visit Grandma Alvina one last time and Winters to see my old school friends and say goodbye. We got to see Dianne, Andi (and Reagan), Alicia, Garret, Cynthia, and Tanya. They told me about how my old, awesome WHS principal is now a kindergarten teacher! I couldn't believe it. And my old classroom at WMS is correctly set up now, too bad I missed it myself. The new WMS administration is going well also.Groupon had a special deal at I Fly (indoor skydiving in a wind tunnel) so Ian and I decided to do that for our anniversary (albeit a month late). It was way down in the bay area but awesome. We have the video on DVD, but don't know how to transfer it here, so I guess you'll have to miss out. We had a blast.

Right before we left town we stopped off at the INCREDIBLE SPCA Thrift store in Davis for one last peak and snagged ourselves a nice black pak'n'play for $12! I had never intended to get one but with all the traveling we've been doing we needed a travel bed for Q. I couldn't believe we got such a deal. It was hiding under 2 other not-as-cool play pens. Yes!The Neurologist gave Q a fun pin wheel so that kept him happy for the start of our laborious trip home. In the first car picture you can see his one tooth that came in the day we packed the truck. :)We stopped and stayed with my cousins Carl and Chris in Portland on our way home. We'd learned our lesson last time not to try to do it all in one day with Quintin. It was good to see them and my cousin Jimmy. We made it home without any huge mishaps. Phew.

August

2010-11-15T10:48:00.000-08:00

A small Sisters Reunion was organized for my first mission president, Cliff & Linda Jones, at their house in Newport Beach. I think it looks like a fairy tale.Since I haven't made it to any of the reunions so far I really wanted to go to this one. Only four of us made it. Tilane, Sarah and Wendy all served before me.I braved the 7 plus hour drive with 8 month old Q and went to SoCal. I stopped to visit an old High School friend who had twins a week after I had Q on the way. SO good to see her. Pres. and Sister Jones were awesome it was wonderful to visit with them. Of course they adored Q!They took us out on a tour of Newport Bay in their little electric boat called a duffy. Quintin was adorable, even though he HATED the life vest which cranked his head and pushed on his chin. He fell asleep pretty quickly, so that was good. Q smiling at Sis. Jones. Who wouldn't love Sis Jones? I don't know about you but I wouldn't want a huge, stinky sea lion sleeping on my sailboat. No matter how cute he was.
Near the beginning of August we learned that Ian's district manager had been killing ALL of his attempts to move jobs in FedEx for the past 6 months. It was quite disappointing. We determined that we needed to move back to WA in order for me to stay home with Q. So, we started the process of getting ready to go. Ian also decided that he would finally apply to grad school.
Quintin was making tremendous progress with his bowen therapy, when I told his therapist we were moving out of state her solution (since she's one of the only pediatric bowen therapists) was for me to take the intro Bowen class that she just happened to be teaching in her office (1st time!) that month. What a blessing. We forked out the dough to keep our kiddo from being an invalid. I learned so much, it was awesome. (so far he hasn't regressed too much under my ministrations) People flew in from the midwest and the caribbean to take the class, luckily I only had to commute 45 minutes! We were hoping I could use it on Ian's back, too, but my arthritis has been a hindrance so far. :(

Packing was quite a chore. Q was unusually fussy the two weeks I was trying to pack and get us ready to load the truck. Unbeknownst to us Q was teething! The day we loaded the truck he cut his first tooth! It was another 2 months before he cut another! Several sisters in the ward volunteered to babysit Q to help, which it did, but when the day came we were still long from done packing. Some VERY good friends came over to help us finish. I don't know if we could have done it without them. We rented a 26 foot truck because it was the cheapest route, and we ended up needing it. If we had packed to the ceiling we might have had a few extra feet left over.
Here's the crazy scenario we planned out because our apt. manager wouldn't let us stay another month:

load the truck on Friday
Drive to WA on Saturday, me in the car with Q and Ian in the truck and the cats.
Unload the truck Sunday with family help.
Ian fly back Monday, to keep working to maintain medical benefits for all of Q's big tests in 3 weeks in Sacramento, Q and me home alone. Ian staying in an extra room at a friend of ours.
four days later Q and I fly to Denver with the in-laws for a Walker reunion, meet Ian there.
one week later Q and I fly home to unpack for two weeks alone.
Q and I fly back to Sacramento for a week to do his tests.
We ALL drive home together, finally, taking two days this time.

Is that crazy or what? I don't know why I thought I'd ever be able to do all that and maintain sanity. It ended up taking us two days to drive the moving truck to Wa, so that was crazy, too. When we stopped for food along the way Q showed his skills sucking on a straw for the first time. The stress of all this actually cut my milk supply by 90%. I'm so glad that's over. I believe my behavior in the month of September was reprehensible, so I apologize to everyone who had to experience it...I'll probably repeat this in the next post as well.

July

2010-11-15T10:44:00.000-08:00

The one and only park day we went to in Davis was at Manor Pool, one of the coolest pools I've ever seen. Not only do they have a water slide and lap pool, but they have a wading pool and a fun sprinkler section for the little kids to play in. It was about 102 degrees that day, so getting in the water was heavenly. I laid Q back and he fell asleep! He didn't mind the splashing and noise at all. I figured it must have been like the womb or something because he was out. I tried to go lay him on a blanket and that woke him up. I always planned to go back, but oh well.
Our neighbors Laura and Kenny introduced us to some succulent fresh garden food so I finagled my way into going to the garden with Kenny one day to partake some veggies for myself. I had no idea fresh lettuce was SO good! Mmmm, yummy.

My parents flew us over to Oahu to visit for a week. Grandma and Q got to play a lot.We got to see a cool Buddhist temple, (Can you believe this is all painted concrete?) a 'spitting' cave, (if you look real close below you can see tiny Ian on top of the rocks above) Hawaii Kai, Q's first ocean experiencethe Missouri (full tour-let me know if you'd like more pictures of that, I've got lots! Wow, I could never be in the navy -CRAMPED and HOT!) and Bowfin and the house addition my dad helped build for a friend of theirs.
We climbed to the top of Diamond Head. Ian finally got to see Waikiki beach. Q got to see his first parrots and koi pond. Q did all right on the plane rides.

Our trip to Hanauma bay was remarkable. Of course the parking lot was full and there wasn't any within a mile. We stopped to turn around at this shooting range and there just happened to be this guy with a van picking people up who gave us a ride, for a mild fee of $10. He said we had to be back up in the lot in two hours to get a ride back. For those of you who've never been there, the parking lot/entrance to Hanauma bay is at the top of the cliff. You have to wait in line to pay to get in, then wait for your session of the intro/safety video before you can even get into the park. Then you have to walk down the cliff to get to the beach. Then get all your gear on and get in the water to snorkel. (I didn't include time renting gear because we bring our own) This alone takes at least 45 minutes, so that would have given us maybe an hour to snorkel and get back up the hill for our ride. WHY would I pay 20 bucks to get into the park if I was only going to be there for an hour? Needless to say we didn't get back up for his deadline time. On top of that the surf was rough so the water was cold and murky and you could hardly see anything. :( Bummer. They really need to close that park for a couple years so it can recover from the damage millions of people do to it every year. When we finally finished and headed back out we discovered a cut on my foot and one on Ian's leg. Anticipating a mile walk along the sweltering hot road in flip flops to get back to our car was not enticing. We happened to see the van driver pull in when we'd climbed to the gate so Ian took off after him to get a ride back to the car. The guy didn't want to! He said he'd drive Ian to Waikiki for 20 bucks! Ha! Ian's like, why would I go to Waikiki when my car is here???? So Ian's walking back up the hill to 'waiting me' and the guy stops him to say he'll drive him to the car and he can come get me, but I had the car keys, so the guy finally says yes and we made it back to the car. Phew, what a hassle.

My parents live next door to the LDS tabernacle and there's this flock of green parrots that comes in to spend the night in the surrounding trees then fly back up in to the mountains the next morning. That was really cool, a whole flock! They make quite a ruckus on departure.

We went to meet the neurologist and get Quintin evaluated. Nothing set off a red flag for him until Ian told him that Q was right handed. Apparently babies aren't supposed to be 'handed' so he ordered an MRI to make sure Q hadn't had any strokes to inhibit one side of his brain. Great, way to set our minds at ease.

I finally made it to one of our Stake Picnics, after four years! It was alright, very hot. My car died again and I had to hitch a ride home with the Bishop's wife (Switching the car seat to her car with a sleeping Q inside was craziness! There's this stupid foot on the bottom that flips out easily but wouldn't go back in, grr.) then get it towed to the shop. WOULD YOU BELIEVE that the only thing that was wrong was that it was OUT OF GAS!!!! The gas gauge had died a few months before so we were using the odometer instead, and somehow Ian had gotten something confused and the odometer had not been reset correctly so that when I thought we had tons of gas, we had NONE! Stupid car.

I SPY

2010-07-11T22:40:00.000-07:00

Can you tell what is special about these pictures?

I spy a Q sitting back in his exersaucer!
(instead of slumping forward)
Miracle 1 for today!

AND sitting up!
Another miracle!

I spy an Ian diving for the ball!

I spy Q playing with Kenny and William from next door at the volleyball potluck dinner Ian organized last Friday. It was awesome, about 15 people showed up, most of whom played. It was real rally's back and forth!

I spy adorable little eyes peeking out from under a blanket (from Corda).

I spy a 'rubber band wrist' escaping covers.

I spy wild and crazy hair blowing in the fan after bath time, making a smiling Q and a smiling Daddy!

Oooo, what is that? The camera?

I'm in love.

2010-07-11T13:33:00.000-07:00

This was yesterday. I love this giggle! Q grins from ear to ear when he watches this!

We think he's going to be a pretty fast runner when the time comes.
Those legs are always kicking!

Video's of Q

2010-07-11T12:37:00.000-07:00

Yeah! Ian figured out how to get the video on! Here's what we've got:

1) The end of his 1st meal.

2) Laughing at himself in the mirror.

3) Giggling with Daddy.

4) Another problem with Houston, can't get the teether in the mouth.

4th of July

2010-07-10T07:08:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was our ward campout. This was the first one we've been able to attend due to scheduling and it was Q's first. I've never been hot while I was camping before, that was weird, I'm usually cold! Q fell asleep in Grandma Walker's sling at the campfire.Our tent was on an incline and I was at the bottom of it. That made for an interesting night. I ended up with about a foot of space by the end of the night. It was wonderful to hear the river and be in nature...it's been too long!In the morning Ian helped cook breakfast and went on a body rafting trip down the river. He came back pretty shaken up. There were a lot of rocks and logs under the surface to bang your legs/feet on and a few spots where the current goes over your head. My fear of drowning keeps me from ever doing exciting things like that. Q was pretty enraptured by his first river experience.On the 4th we went to a potluck with some friends and Q got his first real swing ride! He wasn't too sure about it, I think the 100 degree temperatures didn't help.I just had to include this picture of my baby who's almost outgrown his first car seat.
It looks like Q is going to pull a 'cousin James'...his undergrowth is coming in blond while the long stuff is brown!He rolled over from his tummy to his back yesterday! Way to go buddy!
His six month check up was this week: 20 lb 12 oz, 28 inches long. The pediatrician is sending us to a neurologist to check out his delayed developments. I think by the time we see them he'll be all caught up!

Woohoo!

2010-07-07T09:00:00.001-07:00

Quintin just sat HIMSELF up in his high chair! We keep it reclined due to his low muscle control, and he just sat himself up! All by himself! And stayed there!

AND yesterday he did a push up ALL by himself!

Thank you Judy! This therapy is working!

What a miracle!

6 month birthday!

2010-07-01T22:22:00.000-07:00

Quintin just had his 6 month birthday on Friday and we celebrated with rice cereal! I've been trying to upload video of the occasion, but no luck, yet. He absolutely loves being a big boy like Mom and Dad and eating food!

He also just started rolling over this week from his back to his tummy. He's not incredibly happy with his success since he hates being on his tummy!

He also LOVES to see himself in the mirror so I've been trying to include the video of that, even though it's pretty rough and Ian turns it sideways a couple times. Silly Ian. It's too cute not to share.

We went to a local pool on Monday and he fell asleep in the pool in my arms! What a cutie. Who ever heard of sleeping in a pool full of splashing children? I think it was over 100 degrees that day, so the water was heavenly.

Therapy session #3 tomorrow.

Ward campout tomorrow, I hope Q likes camping!

Chop, chop

2010-06-25T11:25:00.000-07:00

I'm considering cutting my hair up to my ears. Q has been grabbing and pulling on my hair all week. Now even my defense of putting it up in ponytails and French braids isn't helping. He digs right in with his little fingers with no problem. Is this really a phase? How long is this phase?
It's almost time to cut his hair, also. On the sides it's almost to his shoulders. :(
Q has started standing on his feet this week! We are kind of excited. This therapy must be working already! He's holding his head up higher, too. We go back to see her tomorrow.
My mom and dad are so desperate to see Q that they are flying all of us to Honolulu next month. It should be fun! I'm hoping the Q is okay on the flight, we haven't traveled, yet, so we don't know how he is on long trips.

Mmmm, yummy toes

2010-06-17T15:09:00.000-07:00

I discovered today that Q's back is ticklish. :) He rolled over and I was strumming my fingernails around and he started wiggling, giggling and rolling back over! Oh fun!By the way, our little chunk is 20 lbs now!
And almost 29 inches long!

Houston, we have a problem...

2010-06-11T10:29:00.001-07:00

This darn thing won't leave my binky alone! Mom comes and puts in my mouth for me and then this hand comes seconds later and rips it out!
Quintin has just recently begun learning how to grab with his fingers. These pictures are from about two weeks ago. At this point he can get it back in his mouth, just not necessarily in the correct direction. :)

He's also started learning to roll to the side (he actually sleeps on his side most of the time now). He tried it in the bath last weekend and shrieked for about 5 minutes because he inhaled water.One of his most exciting moments of the day is when we walk into the bathroom and he sees himself in the mirror. He practically jumps out of my arms he's so excited to see his 'friend' smiling back at him. Plus there's a second Mommy there, too! If I stand between the wall mirror and the door mirror he looks back and forth, back and forth giggling. It's the best.He loves to flirt with strangers; making friends wherever we go. Who could resist this smile?
I wish it were more in focus...darn kid doesn't sit still!
These are cute shark pajamas that Becky & fam. sent Quintin. Too cute!

Check out the hair!
Can I say "Woody Woodpecker, much!"
I've started looking for bargains on things that I don't need to get new. I told Ian that I wanted to get an exersaucer and he found one the next day at the thrift store for $0.25! That was exciting. The previous owner had taken it apart and put it back together weird so it took us a week to figure out how to take it apart again so that we could put it back together correctly, but now (except for a few missing toys) it's like new!He's not to sure about it. When he's in it he slumps forward and grabs the edges (explained later on) He'll play for a little while then want out.We were really surprised at how long his legs are (look at those chubby rolls!). We expected him to start at the lowest setting and grow up to the third but his legs can't go straight unless we have him on the top one!
I also found an umbrella stroller at the thriftstore for $2. It is SO much more convenient to have in the trunk that that big bulky stroller we have at home.Nowadays he's got some beautiful drool-rivers coming out of his mouth. Our shoulders are usually drenched after a few minutes with him. :)
Q LOVES playing with Daddy, can't you tell by the look on his face?
He also likes watching cartoons with Daddy in the recliner.

I borrowed a Bumbo from a friend to see if Q liked it. He did all right. He sure looks cute in it.

The weather in Northern Cali has been crazy this spring. Usually it gradually gets hotter from February on, but this year it rained and rained like we were in Seattle. I didn't mind it. It was cool and everything was green like back home. The only problem is that once the rain decided to go away, we were slammed by the temperatures that are normal for this time of year; with no break-in period. Q isn't taking it too well, not to mention the rest of us. We've started getting in the frigid pool outside just to cool down.

Since he is only weeks from trying his first solid foods I tried giving Q an ice cube in his little mesh-food thingy. He loves sucking on the ice. :)

For about the last month Q has been sleeping through the night (unless he's sick) which has been marvelous for us. He usually sleeps 8-9 hours. Happy day!

I've been off work for two weeks now and it has been wonderful. I feel free. I can do whatever I want without a deadline of when I have to go back to work. I can finally take on all those projects I've been setting aside forever. And I feel like I'm winning the war against the clutter and cleaning. I got the comforters washed and packed away and my sweaters. Soon I will be scrapbooking and making the quiet books that've been sitting on the counter for months. Curiously, having Q helps me get more done. Usually I get wrapped up in a book or the like when I'm on break. Can't do that anymore!

Since I'm done with work I've been able to again take on the effort to get Q's breastfeeding figured out, otherwise I need to stop pumping-the freezer is full. After several contacts I had a new, REAL(the $ kind) lactation consultant come to my house last week. She found that Q's back/neck muscles are so tight that he's experiencing some painful immobility.

Sidenote: Ian and I have noticed but, not yet grown concerned, that Q has missed some of the physical developmental milestones such as: lifting his head during tummy time and pushing up with his hands; pushing his feet to stand when in an upright position, sitting and holding his head up while sitting. In fact he screams when we put him on his tummy or put a shirt on him. We thought it was maybe because he's such a big boy, but we were wrong.

The LC explained that the muscle spasms were what was stopping all of these things as well as his breastfeeding. We had no idea he was in so much pain! It was somewhat releasing to know that it wasn't anybody's fault that he never breastfed; he couldn't. She recommended a bowen therapist and said that once the muscles were fixed he should be able to do everything just fine.

The therapist snuck us into her schedule on Sunday because she was going on vacation. Q cried most of the way through it but he seems more relaxed now. We can see more of his neck. She gave us exercises and stuff to do with him and hopefully with those he'll hold until we see her again in two weeks. We're really glad we figured this out because he wouldn't have been crawling or walking either! I love my little angel!

Last week I worked at the polls for the primary election. That was kind of fun, and different. The precinct I worked at was in a nice retirement home, so we got a lot of fun old people, and a couple loony ones. :) The day was interesting, I like helping people do stuff like that. It took us almost 2 hours to clean up and organize/count the ballots then pack them up to go to the polling office. Mostly because we couldn't figure out why we had 1-2 more than had been delivered in the morning. It all came out well. I had to pump in their pool locker room. That was a new experience, chatting it up with the women in there. :) No need to feel immodest since they were running around in their birthday suits!

Speaking of which...we finally got a webcam and downloaded Skype a few weeks ago. I called my mom to get her info so we could connect for the first time. All is going well then right as the picture is coming up she makes a noise and runs from the computer. All we see is a sliver of her backside disappearing. I ask her on the phone what happened and she tells me she's in her unders! Haha! Good thing she ran because Ian was the one sitting in front of the screen! LOL

Two weeks ago I was telling Ian that his brother's 18th birthday was that week. "Holy crap!" he exclaims, "I'm old! That means it's been 18 years since my mission! He was born while I was serving." I cracked up at his violent reaction. This month I am 1/3 of a century old!

Why God Made Moms

2010-05-13T16:37:00.000-07:00

Given by 1st grade school children to the following questions:
(this was too cute, I had to post it)

Why did God make mothers?
1. She's the only one who knows where the scotch tape is.
2. Mostly to clean the house.
3. To help us out of there when we were getting born.

How did God make mothers?
1. He used dirt, just like for the rest of us.
2. Magic plus super powers and a lot of stirring.
3. God made my mom just the same like he made me. He just used bigger parts.

What ingredients are mothers made of?
1. God makes mothers out of clouds and angel hair and everything nice in the world and one dab of mean.
2. They had to get their start from men's bones. Then they mostly use string, I think.

Why did God give you your mother and not some other mom?
1. We're related.
2. God knew she likes me a lot more than other people's mom like me.

What kind of a little girl was your mom?
1. My mom has always been my mom and none of that other stuff.
2. I don't know because I wasn't there, but my guess would be pretty bossy.
3. They say she used to be nice.

What did mom need to know about dad before she married him?
1. His last name.
2. She had to know his background. Like is he a crook? Does he get drunk on beer?
3. Does he make at least $800 a year? Did he say NO to drugs and YES to chores?

Why did your mom marry your dad?
1. My dad makes the best spaghetti in the world. And my mom eats a lot
2. She got too old to do anything else with him.
3. My grandma says that mom didn't have her thinking cap on.

Who's the boss at your house?
1. Mom doesn't want to be boss, but she has to because dad's such a goof ball.
2. Mom. You can tell by room inspection. She sees the stuff under the bed.
3. I guess mom is, but only because she has a lot more to do than dad.

What's the difference between moms and dads?
1. Moms work at work and work at home and dads just go to work at work.
2. Moms know how to talk to teachers without scaring them.
3. Dads are taller and stronger, but moms have all the real power 'cause that's who you got to ask if you want to sleep over at your friends.
4. Moms have magic, they make you feel better without medicine.

What does your mom do in her spare time?
1. Mothers don't do spare time.
2. To hear her tell it, she pays bills all day long.

What would it take to make your mom perfect?
1. On the inside she's already perfect. Outside, I think some kind of plastic surgery.
2. Diet. You know, her hair. I'd diet, maybe blue.

If you could change one thing about your mom, what would it be?
1. She has this weird thing about me keeping my room clean. I'd get rid of that.
2. I'd make my mom smarter. Then she would know it was my sister who did it not me.
3. I would like for her to get rid of those invisible eyes on the back of her head.

Anniversary

2010-05-07T18:26:00.001-07:00

I was just realizing in tears this morning on my way to work that this is the anniversary of our losing Andrew. He died the Thursday before Mother's Day three years ago. How bittersweet; we don't have him, but we do have Quintin. I think I will cherish every moment on Sunday because this time I get to hold my baby on Mother's Day. I am so grateful for the gospel and knowing that Andrew is not gone forever.I think this face looks like my baby pictures.

Quintin had his 4 month check up this week. He's 18 lbs 4 oz (90 %ile), 25 3/4 inches long (70 %ile) and his head is in the 90%. Dr. thinks he's about to hit another growth spurt, but otherwise it appears that he has slowed down on his weight gain. Maybe he will linger around 20 lbs for a time. He has 6-8 hour sleeping stretches at night about every other day, so that's lovely.

If you are interested, our ward's road show is posted on You Tube in 2 parts. You can play I Spy to find Ian. He plays two parts. Hint: he is in one of the dances!
Here's the link:
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9xx_L-RWbg
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSafinxEJfM&feature=related

Let me just reiterate a former point...I hate mockingbirds! It's like someone who changes the radio station every 30 seconds, or 10 seconds...grrr. All 24 hours, too. We are never free to open our windows without hearing that blasted bird!

Three kids got suspended from school in the class I work in today. Exciting day!

I think sleeping babies are the cutest thing ever. No wonder Anne Gedes is always taking pictures of them!
So Precious.

Oh, and I wanted to say that I love reading your comments!
And I love reading everyone else's blog, too, when I get the chance. This is a great way to keep up with the family!

Heart

2010-05-03T01:32:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting here at 1am rocking my sick little boy thanking Heavenly Father again and again for letting me have and keep Quintin. He holds a major portion of my heart.

Yesterday a friend called. She and her children had been walking through a cemetery when one of her daughters noticed there were graves for babies. In her explanation she mentioned that we had sent one of ours back to heaven and her daughter asked if it was buried where they were and could she visit it. It brought tears to my eyes when she asked me. Children are so sweet and tender.

It is amazing - the depth of feeling that enters your life with children. As amazing as the rest of life is before they come along; I think it is a half life. If you haven't split your heart in half and put inside another little person you haven't lived, yet. Granted, if I'd read that statement before Quintin arrived I would have cried in frustrated pain, but I still think it's true. It hurts to think that I could have two of my hearts pattering around my house instead of one, but in that I am truly grateful for an eternal perspective. I know that I will hold Andrew in my arms again and be able to love and snuggle him. Just not right now.

Providence & other musings

2010-05-01T15:52:00.000-07:00

About two weeks ago a social worker (SW) called on a Saturday and asked us to take a 4 day old foster child home from the hospital. Ian and I said yes and started getting ready to go get him. We had everything but a car seat we borrowed from a friend. When I got to the hospital I discovered that the baby had been exposed to an infection I didn't want to bring home to Quintin, so feeling guilty I asked the SW to find another home. As it turned out, she found a couple that had been waiting for a baby and they thought he was the cutest thing in the world. I think that was meant to happen.What an odd part I played in that plan. The little guy had been born 4 weeks early and after 4 days in the hospital was Quintin's birth weight! I had no idea gestational diabetes was that extreme. We agreed he resembled a walrus...

For Easter Ian and I built sugar cube castles instead of decorating eggs. I had some left over from a Science experiment at school. We made some bright colored icing and went to work. Ian's was all purple, but he tried to tip it over to add more supports and it crumbled. I was planning a competition and having you vote, but oh well. Here's mine.Ian was in our ward's road show last week. It was incredible! I don't understand why our ward didn't win. They told the most adorable story about a couple realizing they weren't losing all their dreams by starting a family. I was cracking up watching, and cried at the end. I'm so proud of my hubby and all the incredibly talented friends I have at church. What a privilege to know them! The next day Ian was incredibly sick and it's lasted 7 days plus, he's still trying to get it all out of his system.

Two weeks ago our next door neighbors gave us one of their extra baby gifts; a baby gym. (Their son is 2 weeks old this week!) What perfect timing! Quintin is just at the stage where he wants to look at things, it's perfect! If we set him just right he kicks the side when he thrashes and that jingles everything around. He sits here for an hour looking around, and sometimes gets mad if you try to take him out.Just this week he's started grabbing for things. He was grabbing with his feet first, ha! This weekend he's actually been successful holding onto something for a period of time. He's also started to move himself when he's on his back. We have to be careful leaving him anywhere now.

Is this not adorable?

Whatever is between fist and mouth, gets sucked on, too.A couple nights ago I missed my alarm clock for my middle of the night wake-up to pump. I woke up at 5am, WAY late for my schedule. I don't know how regularly feeding mom's do it, but since I'm only pumping I have to watch everything. On a regular schedule I get about 6-7 ounces per session. This particular morning's session I got 19 ounces! Goodness gracious! That's over a pound of milk! It's amazing I wasn't falling on my face!I've actually been getting so much more milk since I went back to work that we had to use part of our tax return to buy a mini freezer to store the extra in until Quintin needs it! It's already almost half full!

My co-worker was telling me about her friend who's baby wouldn't take her milk in a bottle. She was frustrated about all that waste, so she started using her stores to make the kids meals! Like Mac & Cheese! Ewww!
Someone else was telling me there's a website to buy human milk cheese!
Double Ewww!As you can tell, these guys are BEST buds. They love to play together, sing songs, read books, nap, eat, and giggle. Quintin LOVES his daddy and knows he has the best Daddy ever!In addition to using his hands a lot more now, Quintin has also started this silly 'cockroach' pose. Of course I think that anything he does is adorable. He's pretty cute with everything sticking up in the air for no reason. He'll have strong abs! Maybe he's trying to catch his toes...they're pretty hard to catch!

We took Quintin to a BabySigns class a week or two ago, it was pretty cute. I hope we go again, I'd really like to start using them with him.

Last week was CA standards testing in our school, glad that's over. We also had a writing assessment, which I got to help a student with directly. This particular child is usually extremely rude, but when he found out that I was going to help him by scribing it for him he was the cutest little thing. He really showed how bright he was, it was a pleasure to work with him. Ironically he got in big trouble with the principal for doing the very thing he was writing about in his assessment! Weird timing.
I was looking in the mirror recently and discovered that my glasses are hiding the development of crows feet! Ahh! I knew it would happen, but I hoped it wouldn't! Yuck. At the same time my arthritis has come back raging. I finally started back on Reliv again when I returned to work and it helps a LOT, but I'm not taking enough to kick it completely. My toes have actually started going numb, which didn't happen last time. It's a really weird feeling to have a numb toe all the time.We're loving spring time. This is an extremely wet one compared to the other three we've had, but it's still great. I've discovered living here that I hate mockingbirds. I remember seeing a girl hate one in a movie and not knowing why, but I have NOW been educated. It seems like there is no other bird within a mile of our place except the one mocking bird a block away bleating himself away at all hours. At first I thought it was cool because I could hear a variety of bird calls, but then I realized it was all copy-cats by one bird. That makes it not so cool anymore, it's like listening to the same radio station all day. You know how they have their set of about 10 songs they play over and over and over and over? That's a mocking bird. Ian's even heard it copy car and train sounds! I know I'll never get around to actually researching this, but I wonder what advantage that gives their species?This is the beautiful view from my new school, looking north. It doesn't do it justice.

We went to see the new pediatric urologist this week. He was not very clear and not nearly as approachable as our old one, but basically Q's dilated kidney will most likely resolve itself but they still have to monitor it to be sure. He doesn't have to take the antibiotics anymore. That's good because we struggled to give them to him consistently! He was adorable in the office and of course he wouldn't sit still in his many poses.This FUZZY picture almost looks like "Mom! Quite trying to take my picture! I'll never sit still!"

I absolutely love it when his face gets all squished up on Daddy's shoulder. We were just remarking about how his neck/double chin is climbing toward his ears!On the table he was pursing his lips over and over. He'd never done that before, silly boy. I never did get a good picture of it -that stupid digital camera delay thing. He does have a cool ghost-arm in this one.A friend of mine has a one month old that is losing his hair on top in front (he's starting to look like an old man). I noticed that he and Quintin are opposites. Quintin is loosing it in back and on the sides! In many of his pictures he's starting to look like he has a mohawk or a bad toupee.

Picnic Day

2010-04-17T16:56:00.001-07:00

Today was Picnic Day at UCDavis...BIG event here.
There is stuff to do all over the entire campus.
This morning we went with our friend Nicholas Hall and had some fun.

They raced up a climbing wall at the Army booth.About here Ian's glasses almost fell off so he fell behind.We ate free popcorn, tasted UCD olive oil and olives.
We saw huge walking sticks, cockroaches, marching bands in the parade, helicopters, sheep hearding dogs. It was fun.
Quintin was so pooped when we got home he fell asleep sitting up...
even though he'd slept through almost the whole thing already!He's so cute!

Wonder

2010-04-11T13:02:00.000-07:00

What causes my look of wonder you ask?

Well, grandmas made a generous donation to our budget
so Mommy went and found this FANTASTIC rain forest to keep in my crib!
There's a monkey, frog, parrot, butterfly and moving fronds! I LOVE watching things that move and make noise, so this is the most entertaining thing in the house besides Daddy!
Lucky thing Mommy asked around at the store because the only kind they had displayed were wind-up and only lasted 30 seconds. What a waste that would have been. Who knows why they hide the good long lasting ones in the toy aisle?

Me again...can I just say what a delight it is to get distracted with stuff and then look down and once again be surprised to have this amazing little boy in my arms.
What a great treat every time!
I love him so much!

I got to go to a sealing in the temple yesterday of a wonderful couple being sealed to their 2nd adopted son.
Oh, how sweet it was.
I am so grateful that the Lord blessed us with a son and
to know that my family will be together forever.

Growth

2010-04-08T18:45:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture of Quintin at 1 week in the basinet
we (mostly Grandma/pa Skinner) made for him.
Here's a picture of him at 15 weeks (3 1/2 months).Well, can you tell he's grown a little?
I think he's a full head longer than he was back then.
I think his head is twice as big,too!

The Early Bird Gets the Worm

2010-04-03T08:14:00.001-07:00

So I decided yesterday that instead of trying to sleep in (and failing) I would get up at my workday times and see how much I could get done, then try to sneak a nap in later. Wow! I was ready and pumped by 9:30, the laundry was done by noon and Quintin was fed, rested and happy to boot! I guess this is the way to go!
Plus I get to see adorable things like this, I wish you could see the little roll Quintin's body makes with every breath Ian takes.

Here are some of the latest pictures of our boy.

Look at that pudgy leg sticking out! Don't you just want to pinch it?

Love that hair!He's starting to get bald spots on the back...that's going to look great :{
Adorable toes!

These adorable feet are already pushing out of 3-6 month clothing!
And he's already in size 3 diapers!

Love

2010-03-31T22:42:00.000-07:00

Can I just say that this little boy is the most wonderful, beautiful, kissable, huggable, lovable endearing baby ever? I can hardly set him down I'm so busy enjoying holding him. His smiles and coos just twinge my heart and make my eyes water. I love kissing those soft cheeks and sweet nose. I am so glad our family will be together forever because my world would end if he ever left it. He truly is a bundle of joy.

He's started slobbering so bad that we have to put a cloth on our shoulder if we don't want it to be sopping wet and cold within a few minutes.
He blows bubbles while he smiles and laughs at you.
He's started sucking on his pudgy fingers, so cute.
His face shows great expression as he talks to you. So serious.
He's starting to get bald spots on the sides of his head from rubbing. It's making his crazy hair look even more crazy!
At 3 months he is already moving into size 3 diapers!
Very soon he will be in 6 month clothing.
Wow, we can hardly believe it's been 3 months.
Time is moving too fast, I want to freeze it and slow down each moment so I can enjoy them more.I love my little boy!

Faith Precedes the Miracles

Momma, what doing?

Angel Scriptures

AR-15

Merry Christmas 2!

TaeBo Baby and the Copy Cat

I'm NOT crazy!

Shopping

Hypochondriac

Comparing

It's been a while

September October Videos

It's a Girl!

Remlinger Farms

Food, Glorious food!

It's a ??????

Developments

The Fair!

Summer Fun

Grandma Skinner's Visit

4th of July

Catch-up #3: Me

Catch-up #2: Ian

Catch-up #1: Q

Photo Book

Q this last week

Videos for G and G

Visit to Lebanon

Up!

Outside

New Videos

One Year Older, and Wiser Too

Circles

On the Go

Heads

Da da da da da, da da da da da, hehehe

Visitors

February

Today

Splendid

Hope, shots and MOPS

Developments

More Q videos

Videos

Holiday Season

Fall

September

August

July

I SPY

I'm in love.

Video's of Q

4th of July

Woohoo!

6 month birthday!

Chop, chop

Mmmm, yummy toes

Houston, we have a problem...

Why God Made Moms

Anniversary

Heart

Providence & other musings

Picnic Day

Wonder

Growth

The Early Bird Gets the Worm

Love