Ballgown entracement

Mommy tried on her old ballgown for the kids this morning. They were completely entranced. Quinn said that she wanted to grow big so that she could have a ballgown too.

Insightful little girl

So the day that I leave for a 5 day conference, Quinn asks how long will I be gone. I tell her I'll be back Thursday. She says that's a really long time, you are going to be really tired when you get back. :)

So true

Fantastic Reasoning skills

So, often times we double up stacking chairs instead of using a booster to get Quinn to the correct height at dinner. Tonight, we were at Rice, and Matt, on of our first years, was teasing Quinn about sitting on two chairs. Quinn's retort was "I'm not sitting on two chairs, I'm sitting on one chair - the 2nd chair is under the one I'm sitting on".

Well you can't beat that logic, now can you.

Role Model

"Sometimes I wish I didn't have a brother, so I could do whatever I wanted and didn't have to be a rule [sic] model all the time." -- Quinn

Life is good :)

Sinus Infection

For the record, Quinn just got a sinus infection. She has been congested all week, but last night it switched to a fever and Dr. confirmed the infection. On a lighter note, there are once a day antibiotics which must be super strong, as the retail price lists them at $600!

Suspected allergic reaction

We have a suspicion that Quinn might have a mild allergic reaction to canned sloppy joe mix.

Nighttime milestone

So part of Quinn's earning stars for gum requirements are either to fall asleep during songs, or to say goodnight and allow mommy or daddy to leave the room. Last night she wasn't asleep during the songs, so I asked her if she was going to say good night to me. She said that she was thinking about it.

She said that she couldn't decide.

I said, Let's try. I'll stand in the hallway.

She agreed, and so for the first time with a parent, Quinn while still actively awake, went to sleep alone in her room.

WOOT!

And just for the record, she has had 17 days in a row of earning stars, and 33 stars earned since Aug 1st.

Graffiti mitzvah

While at the playground, we discovered that some inconsiderate person wrote lots of graffiti on the playground equipment. Instead of swinging and playing, Quinn on her own, decided that she wanted to help clean it up (Daddy was already working on it). We spend some time with the baby wipes that we had, getting some of it off. Then after lunch, Quinn and Mommy went back with cleaning supplies. She, mommy, and other playground friends removed all of the graffiti from the playground!

Star Charts and gum

Quinn has been earning gum nearly every third day. She gets a star for falling asleep during songs (as opposed to trying to stay awake and keep mommy/daddy hostage until she settles down) and staying in her bed until morning. The she gets two consecutive stars, they double. 5 stars = gum. After nearly a year of trying this, it is finally taking hold and she is able to do it 5-6 days a week.

Yeah!

Tangled

Even though she watched it at Adrienne's during her last sleepover, we watched Tangled today as a family.

Tying shoes

Quinn just tied her own shoes today

Stomping fun

45 minutes of stomp rocket fun at the children's museum

Practicing falling

This weekend we had Quinn practice falling off the ski trainer and being alone in the lake, while we circled around for her. She'll be real skiing soon :)

Pizza Planet

Quinn's create-your-own visor from school had a space theme. Rocket ships, stars, suns, moons and Saturn (representing the planets)... She refused to call Saturn anything other then the Pizza Planet.

That's just for decoration

Quinn scraped her right arm just on the back of the armpit today. I told her to crawl into bed, as I didn't want to pick her up - so as not to hurt her. She said you can pick me up from this arm (left), this arm (right) is just for decoration.

So cute!

(BTW Pam later informed me that while teaching follows to dance, that she often refers to the right arm as decoration... the jury is out if that is where Quinn got it from, or if it was just a cute recognition that she was unable to use her arm, like decorations are just to look at).

Flabergasted

So from the girl who lives "pink"... pink clothes, pink room, pink everything - doesn't like pink milk (made from Berry Berry Kix)

Skiing

Quinn skied 1/2 of the cove all by herself today

Here's your hat, what's your hurry?

Several of my friends came over to Pam & Drew's house to 1) see Mandy (who was visiting from San Diego), 2) see Pam & Drew's house (hadn't seen it since they moved in) and 3) see Quinn and Brock (hadn't seen them since Brock was very little). Mary Beth was going to the dog show after the visit, so she brought her 4 year old grand daughter Annabelle with her. The girls right away played dress up and had a good time together. However, at some point Annabelle didn't share as quickly as Quinn thought she should. So Quinn said, ever so politely, "Isn't it time for you to go to the dog show?" and she ran to her room and brought back Annabelle's clothes. I thought that was a brilliant strategy Quinn had for handling the situation!

Deodorant

Quinn was quite happy with herself for slyly putting on mom's deodorant - even though we told her not to. After scolding her and explaining that she was too young for deodorant and that it might hurt her skin... her underarm started hurting (I'm pretty sure mostly psychological) - so we took a shower to wash it off.

After much crying, I'm pretty sure that she won't do that again.

4th birthday party

We had our rock star performer party today... All if the kids dressed in costume, got pix by Dan Mohr for the cup favors, Janet lead the Arts Alive part, and everyone iced their own cupcakes.

Then we got Quinn a new bed that has a bunk play space. It was a lot of effort to get here, but she loves it. We also got her skates, but in retrospect, I think that might be a year too early. And clearly the lilac nail polish was a hit. (For historical documentation sake, when Quinn was two, we said she could paint her fingernails when she was four- so this was a major milestone in her mind)

Playful roughhousing

After a little playful roughhousing, Brock accidentally gave Quinn a bloody nose for her 4th birthday.

Counting money

Quinn was over counting coins. We put the quarters in stacks. We had five stacks. I asked her how many stacks she had and she replied, "Four." I looked at her funny and she explained, "These 4 are my stacks. That one is yours."

Continuing on, we spread all the coins out to count them. I suggested we put them in lines so it would be easier to keep track of the coins she had counted. She said, "Or you can just pick them up as I count them."

I've been out thunk by a not quite 4 year old. Sigh.

Pgh Trip continued

The kids had a great time in DC. Quinn pretended that Samantha was her sister while they were doing cartwheels on the grass. Nathan was a huge help pushing the stroller and helping everyone climb.

What does Quinn remember most? The fact that she got gummy's and a lollipop on the plane home (she did a fantastic job on the plane).

Pgh trip

Well, we avoided near disaster when Popo brought our left toy backpack to the airport.

Everyone did great on the plane, but safety pops where quite messy for Brock.

Had a great time at the family reunion and then spent a couple of hours with Brian, Savanah, Conner, and Cadence.

On Sunday, had breakfast with Pappy and Cindy. Then a fantastic picnic at Tom and Jennifer's where we saw Maria, Peter, and the Foote gang again.

After several mishaps and misunderstandings around the rental car - we left three hours later than the we wanted (8pm instead of 5). Brock didn't fall asleep until near 10. It is a quarter to 11 and Quinn, Samantha, and Nathan are still awake watching videos.

Cautious bravery

I'm so proud of Quinn today.
First I'm proud of her for wanting to ride her bike down the big hill at Godwin park. Second, I'm proud of her for figuring out how
to drag her bike up the hill ( she ended up pulling the front handlebars while manually turning the front wheel). Finally I'm proud of her for deciding not to ride down the hill once she got to the top. Brave, creative, and cautious - what a fabulous combination.

Pineapple burns

After sucking on the core and having about fifteen pieces of pineapple, Quinn ended up "burning" her tongue from the bromelian (the enzyme in pineapple that causes that sensation... It is also used as a meat tenderizer)

Ski trainer

Quinn skied and stood up on the ski trainer today

Learning disappointment

Even though we missed our flight to San Jose, I'm quite pleased with our ability to tell Quinn "that what you are feeling right now is disappointment."

One point for emotional intelligence training. :)

Lost shoes

FYI, clear plastic jelly shoes disappear in the ocean instantaneously. Lesson learned - kids water shoes should be brightly colored

Dr Suess nightmares

Daddy screwed up. As customary on the weekends I let her watch a video... We were going to watch Sid the Science Kid, but on the home screen was a Dr Suess movie (I think it was a tv series), which Quinn wanted to see. I've like the other Dr Suess videos and stories we have seen, so we went ahead and watched it.... Now Quinn is having nightmares (and she has only been asleep for an hour). Crap!