Pool Party

The JCC had their pool party today for the whole school... Quinn was bouncing off the walls excited. We had a great time, except for the turtle decals on the bottom of the pool which scared us. Played with Harrison, and Colin... then found Maya and followed her around, generally happy - until it came time to share.

But all is good, It was a great pool party.

So much rational thinking

Amoungst the crying and the tantrums, there is so much rational thinking that is going on in there.

1)
Tantrum:
I don't want to use my bathroom, I want to use the other [utility room] bathroom

Eventual Calm Logical Reason:
I can reach the light there myself.

2)
Tantrum:
I want to unscrew the top of the toothpaste, instead of using the easy flip top lid

Eventual Calm Logical Reason:
I won't get toothpaste on the lid if I take it off

3)
Tantrum:
I'm scared of monsters... I don't want Grover to eat me.

Eventual Calm Does Not Compute brain fry:
I'll send Grover away and maybe Elmo can come to my room. "But Elmo IS a monster," I said. "No he's not". "He is covered in red hair, like Grover is covered in blue hair"

.....

Great saturday

While mommy wad studying for the GRE, daddy took Quinn to memorial park playground with Harrison. We met up with Leah Dawlett there.

Then Harrison and Quinn went swimming at the new house. They had lots of fun jumping in and swimming after things.

We were practicing getting out on the ladder and Quinn misjudged the distance and did a good job scraping her upper thigh. I anticapate this being her biggest bruise yet.

Losing the battle

You know that you are losing the "get stuff done battle" when you find yourself saying, "it is bed time and we haven't had dinner yet."

Technology today

I need my phone. I don't remember the words [to the song], says Quinn

What's in a name....

What's in a name? That which we call the terrible twos
By any other name would be just as freaking awful!

I'm so sick of not wanting to eat during meals that she should love (fruit dessert, spaghetti and meatballs, etc).. and then demanding snacks after not eating

Not going to bed... (thirsty, too hot, too cold, wrong blanket, tuck in the sheet, music too loud, music too soft, too bright, to dark, to far away, to close, sit in the chair, sit on the floor, etc)

Heading back to pullups at night

We've peed in our bed a couple of nights in a row, so I think that we will revert back to pullups for a little while.

Mosquitos

We were outside playing and a mosquito landed on Quinn. I told her to hit it. She didn't so, I came over and killed it on her... Unfortunately I was too late and it already bit her...When she saw the blood from the mosquito - she flipped out!

Boy, that is something that she is just going to have to get used to

Salad vs Risotto - who do you think won?

Wrong... the salad won... crazy.

We literally made a dessert risotto with cinnamon, strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries for dinner. She wanted no part of it.

Yet she opted for lettuce dipped in ketchup and that is the majority of her dinner tonight.

She is SO determined to get her way.

Cheerio!
Drew

Today's Learnings

French fries comes from potatoes. (she helped cut potatoes and bake them to fries)

Lots of trees is a forest (Memorial Park hike)

Lucy (Pat's dog) has a nickname, and that's Goose (because like Quinn, Lucy is a silly goose)

Lower your voice

At the restaurant, Quinn was talking loudly... So I said lower your voice please... She repeated her phrase an octave lower (essentially a deep voice) but at the same volume. Damn literal kid :)

Day in the sun

Problem with spending a day in the sun at the lake, is that you end up exhausted and grumpy and not able to effectively deal with exhausted and grumpy kids.

The gender divide starts early

So there was a 4 yr old boy at the playground, who was certainly interested in Quinn, but didn't have anything to say to her, but also didn't want her to leave....it's no wonder men can't get it right when they grow up.... Inability to talk to women is genetic.

Drawing princesses

All of those years Pam has spent drawing ballgowns and costumes had really paid off.... She can whip out drawings of princesses in no time.... Fully adornded with rhinestones and wings. :)

Law of Inverse Bedtimes

Why is it that if the kids bedtime is relatively consistent (8-9pm) that the time that they wake up is inversely proportional to the bedtime of the PARENTS.... If we went to sleep by 9, I'm sure the kids would sleep until 8pm.... but if we go to sleep after midnight, they are up by 4?

Quotes from today

Move me closer, so I can actually reach the box [of fruit rollups] myself. [After she has already been told that she has already had her two today]

Daddy, you aren't good at the chair, you are good at the floor. Mommy isn't good at the floor. [Talking about where we stay when we are putting her to bed]

Problem solving with playdoh

At Quinn's request, we were playing the adult cranium game this morning and she wanted to play with the cranium playdoh. She did not want to return it, so I told her let's swap it out for one of her playdohs, but then I said that the box wouldn't close with it. Then she went to find a small Playdoh which would allow the box to close. She is so good at problem solving.

All day with Quinn - twice!

Drew emailed a couple of weeks ago asking if I could babysit both kids 2 days this week. I responded: " Are you CRAZY!" Both kids, all day?! " I thought not! So they found a place to put Brock and I took on Quinn for Tuesday and Thursday. May I say she was an absolute pleasure both days, the entire time! What a cutie patootie!

On Tuesday we met Bennett and Ooma (Barbara Aaron) at Miller Outdoor Theater to see the Three Little Pigs. Had a picnic outside (it was a cool, fabulous day!), ran up the hill, and rode the train. Quinn fell asleep in the car on the way home and I managed to take a 45 minute nap in the car in the carport waiting for her to wake up. :-) We had a tea party inside and fed the birds outside. It was a thoroughly delightful day.

Since Tuesday was such a success, we met up with Bennett and Ooma again on Thursday at music class, then went on to a park to play. Quinn & I then visited Beverly (Drew's nanny), had a picnic on Heights Boulevard, visited Arts Alive so Quinn could see where Popo works, then had another successful nap experience on the way home. More tea party, including baking some real cookies, followed by watering the plants in front of the house.

The nice thing - I was not totally worn out after either day. Go Popo!

Jelly Sandwich

In my lack of sleep daze, I nearly made MYSELF a jelly sandwich

P a j a m a s

On her own, Quinn sounded out Pajamas last night as we were reading... she couldn't quite come up with the word on her own, but she had nearly all of the right sounds (she kept saying "em" for the "M" instead of "mmmmm" )

But looks like she'll be reading soon

I had fun today

Quinn said "I had fun today" just before going to bed.

Thanks Popo for the tea party, 3 little pigs play, picnic, and time in the garden.

Guidlines for icing

As a general rule of thumb, when applying icing, the apparatus should be edible (ie celery sticks). We made marshmallow cookies again tonight with Caroline, painting with celery sticks. Quinn ate about 3 sticks, and Caroline EVEN had one (Caroline doesn't eat anything green)...

Woot!

Another dawn patrol

Did another dawn patrol today. We did a 5k at rice. Quinn did pretty good, ran some of the time, and sat on the buggy board some of the time... Pam and I didn't run though, we walked.

New rule - no more naps after 4pm

So Quinn took her nap today from 4-6... That is never going to happen again. She didn't go to sleep until nearly 11pm.

She is a great problem solver

So, we've been having issues with Quinn coming into our bed in the middle of the night. We have started an incentive program to limit this (Quinn loves fruit snacks, which we limit to two per day... sleeping in our bed takes one away). We told Quinn it was okay to come get us if she is scared, but we have to go back to her room... We also said that we could go back to her room with her if she wanted us too. So then she asked if it was okay if she slept on our floor. (We said Zoe sleeps on the floor and would probably lick her, and she accepted that).... but man, she is a good problem solver.

Rough no nap day

Whew.... What a bitch... Both the day and the girl. No nap today.

Started going to bed routine 1.5 hours early... Ended up going to sleep only 1/2 hour eariler then normal...

But it certainly wasn't quiet...
She better sleep all the way till morning to catch up!

Birth control

I'm happy that we were able to supply some birth control to the couple at alumni dinner tonight... Actually, I'm sure Quinn's tantrums supplied it to many more people then just at our table.

8 hours

Woot! 8 hrs of sleep had by all!!! It's too bad it's not the weekend

Restaurants with playgrounds rock

Quinn enjoyed a wonderful Irish jig dancing in the soft sand at Lupe Tortilla

Earth day

Had a faboulous earth day at discovery green... Even though we ended up over tired and refused to eat