Comparing

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

Late Halloween pictures. Quintin didn't appreciate his tiger outfit in the hot gym at church. Although I didn't get a good picture, I made my costume. There's a little baby skeleton on my tummy.

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!

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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.

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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).

1. Don't procrastinate taking a shower.
2. Don't procrastinate cooking dinner. (Turns out our cook-stove isn't connected to the generator circuit. Leftovers it is!)
3. 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

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!

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.

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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

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!

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 ??????

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!