Accessible Movies Rock

So we went to Discovery Green tonight to watch Toy Story 3. I had very low expectations, as dinner was all about meltdowns. Anyways, the show was accessible to hearing and visually impaired,  which means that a "narrator" described everything that was going on for the visually imparied folk. PERFECT! Not a single "What's happening now", "Who is that", "Why did that happen", "What's going to happen".... it was all perfectly narrated.

I wished I had discovered this 30 years ago for my sister!

Food battles

I don't get it... I just don't. And it is frustrating as hell! Tonight's dinner fish sticks and homemade mac and cheese. Totally failed. Fish sticks are normally a very acceptable and requested food. Quinn ate every single ingredient going into the mac and cheese as we were making it, yet put it all together and it makes her throw up (actually she convinces herself that she is going to be sick if she eats it, and creates a self-fulling prophesy.

I honestly think that it is the fact that there is Halloween candy around (although thankfully not alot, thanks to the Great Pumpkin :) )... but she wants the candy for dinner, knowing that it happens after dinner, creates a power struggle that she wants to win.

Grrrr....

Theater Movie Failure

Took Quinn to her first theater based movie today( Lion King 3d). We lasted about 30 seconds (not even one full preview). She complained that it was too loud and she didn't want to stay.... bummer

Eye Quivers

I hope that she never loses it, because it is the coolest thing to see. When Quinn is tired, her eyes will occasionally quiver, especially as she is fighting sleep. It is not something that she can do consciously, but literally back and forth about 6x per second, usually lasting only a second or so.

I'm remarking on it tonight, because usually it is expected (to us) and don't remember to blog about it... but tonight / today Quinn isn't feeling well. She had a temperature since mid day and ended up taking 2 naps. (She normally doesn't take any). The last nap ended at 6. So by 9 (the time she is normally asleep (bedtime starts around 8:30), my expectation was that should wouldn't be tired. And she was meeting my expectation, was awake, not wired, as I still think that she felt off, even after the medicine, but singing and reading and otherwise fully engaged.

And that is when I noticed the quiver. I started singing some bedtime songs, which she sung along with me. Then the next thing I new she was sleeping. It kind of reminded me of the scene from "A Princess Bride" where he says laughing, "Never mess with a Sicilian when death is on the line", then keels over. (BTW I don't look at her while singing as it makes the bedtime songs less engaging, so when I did look back she was asleep - but moments before, she was singing with me).

Active Alphabet book

Quinn seemed to love the Active Alphabet Book that Popo and Tia Mandy wrote and illustrated (with Daddy's motto - "work to completion".) She read/sang it four times!!! It made all of us involved smile hugely. :-)

Ren fest

Even though we only got 5 hrs of sleep the night before, because of a sleep over, Quinn dud an amazing job of not crying or whining at Ren Fest. She traded dragon tears with all of the prettiest fairies (great idea Pam!), saw lots of shows, rode some rides... And of course got our face painted. She even did a good job of sharing the wagon with Brock and Adrianne.

Fireplan

Quinn was talking about fire safety at school and asked us what our fireplan is. So we talked to her about what we would do in case of a fire. It is interesting to watch a really good problem solver grapple with these ideas. We told Quinn, if she couldn't get to mommy and daddy safely, it would be okay to go out her window. Then she said, she doesn't know how to open the window, and we said that in a fire, she could break her window if she couldn't get it open, even if we showed her how to open it. We gave her permission to break the rules, if it meant keeping her safe. She seemed to agree.... and after she got to our neighbors house and made sure that 911 was called, she would call Abbycadaby from Sesame Street to come and fix the broken window.  I love the partial real world that she can live in :)

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).