oUch

There are now 5 maybe 6 top teeth trying to push their way through... Quinn is not a happy camper this week. At moments he just stops what he is doing, grabs his mouth and screams. I'm glad we are on vacation, so that we can give him Tylenol, cold teethers, and frozen waffles all day.

As the song says...

"All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth"

On Christmas night Tony and I, in a panic, packed the baby up in the car and headed towards the emergency room with my slippers still on.

Quinn had woken up out of a dead sleep, he'd had no nap that day and was extremely tired and fell into dream land quite easily. About half an hour later he was on the floor screaming in pain, face red as an apple and tears flooding his face. He would not let us touch him and he would not be rocked or consoled.

Tony and I went down the list... does he have a fever, no. Is he hungry, he ate very little that day, we gave him his favorite snack he threw it. We gave him a bottle, he had a little. We checked his diaper... sounds silly but Tony noticed a rash earlier... better safe then sorry. He has a cold so we gave him medicine thinking he'd woke up in a coughing fit which was spurring this tantrum now. He got maybe 3/4 of the meds. He screamed so hard that the liquid meds just dripped out of his mouth right after I gave it too him. Then we thought maybe it's his teeth and we gave him Tylenol (completely ok to mix the meds)

It was so bad we could not wait to see the effects of the meds... that would take twenty minutes of watching him hurt so badly. So off to the emergency room we went. He calmed down significantly in the car. When he began making chipper sounds and playing with his car radio after about ten minutes into the drive we realized the meds had taken effect and nothing to extreme was happening if Tylenol helped... we could turn around. He stayed up playing for a while, my heart stopped pounding and life returned to normal.

The next day... he had his two front teeth. I had no idea cutting teeth could be soooo painful.

364 days till next Christmas!

Christmas was great! Quinn took his time and opened his presents all day. He picked a few favorites and had a blast all day. Mom and Chrissy came for dinner with tons more presents! Dinner went really well, especially since it was my first formal turkey dinner. All though it was precooked there was still a lot of things to be done. We all had our dish to make so we looked like a bunch of penguins in a box running around the kitchen. Mom was on Bean casserole and drink serving, Tony was on Sweet potato duties and heating the turkey, Chrissy on desert and babysitting, me on mashed potatoes, stuffing and table setting and Quinn on tripping the penguins duty. Acme supplied our feast for 29.99 (with Super card) we got a ten pound butterball, mashed potatoes, stuffing and gravy. It was very very good. I have no intention of doing it the old fashioned way when this was just fine, all though none of us liked the stuffing.

It felt very cozy after dinner sitting in the living room just talking while having our cherry cobbler. The baby at our feet playing with his new toys, Christmas tree lights blinking, soft TV sounds, rain in the windows... I could not have asked for a better Christmas.

Merry Christmas! hummm not yet

Well here we are waiting for Quinn to wake up.... the tree is lit up, presents are wrapped, stocking is hung with care... but where is the baby? For the first time in his little baby life he is OVER SLEEPING. and why is he over sleeping...I now know what a sugar high does to a child. Yesterday we were so busy with last minute stuff that tony and I didn't notice how often one another was popping a cookie or a cake in his mouth. He had "oh please be quiet in the store" graham crackers. Then some "of shit were late for lunch" Cinnamon pretzel" of course some "oh look he''s so cute when he eats this" fruit roll ups and to top that off, some marsh mellows for desert. Sugar is not usually on his diet plan but we were in the Christmas spirit and not paying attention. Quinn who has been going to bed at 7pm did not fall asleep until 10 pm. A sugar high is nothing to joke about!

After hours of putting toy together, wrapping last minute gifts and cleaning for the next day, we limped to bed around 1am.

Now here we sit waiting for the prince of slobber and drool to awake in his chambers. Tony is actually the cutest part of all this so far. I woke today to the smell of cookies baking. He's so excited. He wants to wake up Quinn but after last night I think he needs to sleep in a bit. Especially since he has such a long day today. BUT that doesn't stop Tony from clearing his throat REALLY loudly, walking a bit heavier by his door, clattering dishes, turning up the TV too loud. I just had to stop him from putting a strawberry milk bottle in his crib.

Here is a pic of our most patiently awaiting tree...

PS... the cookies are burnt!

nEw hAiR

Tony and I went nutso trying to get the right picture to show the new hair color. So I uploaded them all cause they're funny.

Here is the close up

I went with deep auburn but I think it's a bit to reddish... I've been looking for my perfect hair color which is a very elusive little sucker. Last time I tried blondish but I'm just not the blonde type. I've always wanted to go dark brunnette but after a scare with totolly black hair and the many dollars it took to get rid of it , I've been a bit hesitant, next time I'll go just brunette with no red at all. Baby steps.

The link below are the silly pictures, let me know what you think of the new color...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12255510@N00/sets/72157594425266400/

Can I ever get a good picture with molly the cat!

cHrIsTmAs

Well the time is almost hear. Ten days till the day. Mom, Chrissy, Tony's mom and hopefully grand mom are coming to dinner... Christmas night (supplied and cooked by acme).

The tree goes up this Sunday. Since our ornaments are very fragile. I'm planning a "make decorations for the tree day" on Sunday, loaded with construction paper, finger paints and all the fixings to make a winter wonderland. We'll make lots of silly decorations that I'm sure I'll tear up to see years down the line.

This year is very special because Quinn is really into wrapping and boxes. He's starting to understand that the little green square things that he has been playing with for weeks are really chocolate in disguise from some guy named Andy. The look on his face was priceless when that little green wrapper came off and he found a minty treat. Now he wants to unwrap Everything... great :) just in time for Christmas!

My Grand idea for his first "real" Christmas (last year he was way to young) is too buy a toy box and load it with wrapped gifts... this is including two of his favorite activities. Pulling stuff out of boxes and unwrapping. He takes any make shift box he can find like the laundry basket, a cereal box, a shoe, and fills it with his toys then looks inside likes he is surprised to find his toys in there, pulls them out like its a special gift and smiles at us, then throws it across the room and looks in the "box" for the next big surprise only to load it again later with the same surprise. So the toy box idea will be a big hit. I got the toy box from babies r us for about 60 bucks... I kept it simple with a cedar style box as opposed to the many cartoon versions, I figure one day I can just use it for clothes.

Tony has been talking about an idea one of his co-workers mentioned... he wants to buy him a piece of a train set every Christmas as a tradition... his train set will get built up every year. He wants to also buy him a leap frog interactive TV game. Quinn will have his own joy stick and can play learning baby games. This is the beginning of a special bond between father and son... Those damn video games! But it's inevitable that he will be a gamer, and i don't mind as long as the violent ones are not introduced until he is much MUCH older, maybe like 30, 40?

I'm very excited...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

cOOkie cAm

Kim's Cookie Cam is live...

www.ladygypsy.net/cookiecam

sMeLLy bOy

Jimminy Crickets my child stinks!

His breath is KICKING in the morning. Holy crap, it's smelly... I thought bad breath was for adults.

I took off his shoes the other day and after a minute or so I thought "I smell feet" I picked up this little cute baby foot and took a big whiff...... woooooooooo! He had smelly feet!

Saturday I'm laying on the floor on my back with Quinn watching TV. My knees were up in a bent position. He had crawled up on my stomach and layed his belly up against my legs and propped his head on the top of my knees while watching TV. This means his diaper butt was aimed at my face. He passed gas! In my face! So loud and stinky I had to leave the room!

At the rate his "stink" is growing I may have to buy him deodorant and cologne for Christmas!

tHe wOw faCtoR

Quinn has a new word and it's WOW... sounds more like vvvvvwooow.

I'm seeing a trend here. Quinn does not care about "normal" words like car, ball, book, truck, Metamorphosis. He likes words that spark an emotion or maybe just explain an emotion. Like wow. When he gets really excited about something he loves to say wow. Last night we were watching an old time version of Pinocchio. He just stared at the animations and said "vvwow" over and over.

And of course "ut-oh" is one of his most used and cherished words. He gets a little worried look on his face and says it with such meaning.

I think even dirty "dirtee" is an emotion filled word for him. Because it means there is something amiss with what ever is in his little hands.

"rooooaaaarrr" like a lion is way up there too and it means adventure. When we throw him around in our arms this way and that way we say "roooaaarrrrr" he loves to "roooaaarrr" with us and sometimes sounds just like a baby cub.

Quinn is psychic!

We have two panelled "french" doors that open to a sun room, which is about five steps down. Quinn never really sees that room since we keep it shut most times for his own safety. The other day Tony tells me that the doors were open and Quinn walked over and looked down the steps.

Now-a-days he says ut-oh when something falls.

As if he had predicted the future, he took one look at the steps and said ut-oh. He knew he'd fall pretty hard if he attempted those steps. But in true Quinn fashion he turned around and tried to climb them backwards anyway. Probably thinking "I think I'm gonna fall but I'll try anyway"

pUlliNg aWaY

I can't deny it any longer, Quinn is pulling away from us in small ways. It started out cute when he'd shoo my hand away when I wanted to help him on a complicated project like turning pages of a book or stacking cups with in cups. He'd slap my hand away with an "I'm a big boy now" look on his face. Then he began to get upset when he was picked up, he wants to walk now. He only needs to be picked up when he's tired or not feeling well. lately he gets mad if I hold his hand when we walk. I usually let him explore free of my mothering hand but if we're on a sidewalk or hard tile floor I hold his hand because he's still a bit unstable and trips on his feet. He'll yank his hand away and storm off.

Yesterday was the hardest, I picked him up from daycare and he was fine when I walked in but when I reached for his jacket he ran to his teacher and hid behind her. I called him over to me but he kept hugging his teacher and looking at me like I was a monster. My heart sank, he walked over to play with another child and as I approached him with his jacket he again ran to the teacher and sat on her lap. As I drove home I thought about how absolutely odd that was. He's never been unhappy to see me. He always runs to me with open arms and gives the other kids the "nana na booboo I'm going home and your not" look. Then the other kids walk up and want me to pick them up and take them too. Why was yesterday different?

Then it occurred to me.

The day before, right after I picked him up from daycare we went directly to the doctor and got a flu shot. I held him down while the nurse stabbed his leg. I didn't know babbies could give dirty looks. Quinn gave that nurse a look that would have turned her to stone had she looked over at him. But she slipped out the door so fast she didn't get a chance, maybe she's used to that look and tries to avoid it. Anyhow Quinn is at the age that he realizes mommy and daddy purposely helped that nurse to hurt him and he doesn't know why. Suddenly he's worried about trusting me to take him from daycare and from the teacher that has never purposely got him hurt by the mean nurse lady.

I took extra time for loves and hugs last night to try and regain that little bit of trust I had lost. By the end of the night with the nite light shining and his lullabies playing he fell asleep holding my hand through the slots of the crib, I think he forgave me. But none the less he is pulling away and I need to know when to let him and when to hold on tight and not to take offense.

tOo mAnY cHanGes

There are so many changes in Quinn that I have not recorded on here.... so everyday I'm going to post a new change and try and catch up. In this post we'll start with his words.

Geen means look - my fault, I kept pointing out green stuff and he learned that pointing means green.

About a week ago he learned to shake his head yes... all though he shakes it so intently that he sometimes falls over :) last night he began saying "yes" while shaking his head. I didn't realize that he understands the sound of a question, the pitch in a person's voice on the last word that says "question mark" until he began shaking no a while back... like " do you want some green beans"... shakes vigorously "no". Do you want your juicy... shakes vigorously "yes" and now says "yeah" which sounds like "yah"

He also started with ut-oh. When ever something falls he says ut-oh.

Dirty - was one of his first words... i suppose I said "no that's dirty" so much that he kinda picked it up. He would grab the item off the floor and bring it over to me and say Dirrrteeee and hand it to me. Now he's picked up on the fact that sometimes dirty is good so he'll pick up a piece of candy that fell on the floor, tony and I will say dirtee, expecting him to come ovr and hand it to us but now when he hears the word dirty he shoves what ever the object is in his mouth before we can take it. Then realizes carpet kernels don't taste good and spits it out.

Of course there is momma and dadda

Two weeks ago he tried to say Chrisssy, every time I see my sister I point her out and say "aunt Chrissy" he now says some kind of version that sounds like yissy or rissa.

I have been trying to teach him "I love you" He knows that the words "I love you" come with a hug and a whisper in the ear so when I say it he smiles and says "Eye la" I like to believe he associates the expression with hugs and kisses.

I believe "nana" means Donna, his daycare teacher.

Animal noises
He likes to say CAAA-cawww , the bird sound.
and he tries to roar like a lion becuase of a book we read to him.

Two nights ago he slammed a sippy cup on my toe, I screamed OWWW OWWWW OWWWW.
He looked at me for a moment then screamed OWWW OWWW OWWWW!

I think I got it all for now :)