I'm not sure who likes a new dish of dogfood better.....

And yes, Alie DOES have her leash on inside. Quinn's favorite game. And I think Alie has grown slightly fond of it, too. :)

Happy bday,MEEEEgan!

Last night we went to Cyclone Anaya's in Midtown with Meg and some friends to celebrate her birthday. Quinn was pretty good, since we were out well past her bedtime. She got lots of auntie lovin' from the M's, scored some cake from Meg, performed all her tricks ("spaghetti," "Spicy meat-a-ball", eyes, singing, etc.) and even seranaded Meg with several renditions of Happy Bday. She calls Meg "Meeeeegan." And last night when Q wanted to tell Meg something and Meg wasn't listening, Q would grab the side of her face and turn Megan so she was looking at her. Hilarious!

After dinner we had to walk over to some condos because they had some balloons out front that Q spotted and wanted to "hodju the boons!"

More roadrash

Our girl is growing. Two reasons I know that this weekend.
1) I started cleaning out her closet and have a rather large pile of clothes she's outgrown. It's been a while since she's had a growth spurt, so I had gotten a break from the monthly closet change-outs, but the too-short shorts and skirts indicated it was time to delve into the larger sizes!
2) She has been falling ALL WEEKEND! Everytime she runs she takes a spill. I think she's having to get her sense of balance used to a bit more body to handle, and having a little delay in coordinating her legs and her brain! Saturday, on fall #4 or 5 she hit the pavement in our church parking lot pretty hard. She has a bruise on the top middle of her head and a patch of roadrash on the side. We had to take a pic with my camera phone to show Oma.
Also, this is her new face for pictures, little stinker!

The girl with an "Opa's Candy"

On School Days, everyone has to pitch in around the house!

Quinn's favorite chore is washing her lunchbox dishes. It's so much work it makes her parched, as you can see! :)
(click for larger)

Hanging with Mike and Inda

I think Q has changed I-ya's name to "Inda..."

They watched Q for us last Friday because I had a district meeting for work. She spent the night on Thursday night. They had a sweet airbed set up next to their bed (which Q promptly climbed up on the ottoman and dove on her bed as soon as she saw it). What did she do at their house? Breakfast al fresco, some swinging with Mike (I am sure she asked for "huge" pushes), some computer time with an old keyboard, running in their garden, playing with some toys, a little book time with Einstein, and lots of fun! She was OUT when I came to pick her up that afternoon. :)

Here's her new face--she wrinkles her nose up at you, especially when she says the word "might," as in "might bite," or "might be slippery."

A favorite game--"Mike, see YOUUUUU!" Meow, the cat, likes it too.
Thanks for the fun pics, Mike! Love seeing what my girl did while away from me!

23 Months

Here's our big girl with her handful of bugs! Her tub of cracked corn has some kind of mealworms in it and she loves picking out a few to carrying around every evening during our outside time.

"Hold it, the toad" and "hold it, the bug," and even "hold it, the lizard" are common phrases in our house. We are trying to spare the lives of the poor victims being held and teach her to be gentle, but we have had some traumitized toads, some tail-losses with the lizards and some lifeless bugs after our girl finished "hold it."

Her favorite songs this month are:
Bunny Fufu, Muffin Man, Jesus Loves Me (she sings "Jesus loves me, this I know it!)
Six Little Ducks (She has the poster of this song and iguana always has to count the ducks for her!)
Holy (her name for the song "Open the Eyes of My Heart")

She has started saying our dinnertime prayer and her own bedtime prayer with help from us. So precious! She always prays for the family dogs: Alie, April and BJ. And the stinky boys.

She has started recognizing the letter "L" as "inda's etter"

Her favorite toys are the baby oatmeal carton--she likes to take the lid on and off and drop her spoon down inside, the mushrooms Ms. Nataly brought her from Russia, her plastic tiger figure, Pink baby, Bamboo the Red Panda figure Oma got her at the zoo, and her plastic toy frogs. Also at night she wants Mooski, Meow her stuffed cat, and Grapes, her purple bear.

She has become interested in stringing work and enjoys stringing beads on a shoelace with some help.

Her favorite books right now are Let's Eat and Smiling. Matt taught her how to say "spaghetti" like a true italian and uncle Mike taught her to say "that's a spicy meatballa." Hilarious!

Some of her favorite phrases are: "No nap!" and "Mommy, I made!" (Mommy, look what I made!) She also loves to tell us, "Be Quiet" when her baby is sleeping.

She is loving playing with the babies and the kitchen at school in my classroom. I have seen instances of pretend/imaginary play starting to emerge. She loves to bring me a teacup and tell me it's "hot soup!"

She is talking up a storm. Tuesday she was eating some peanuts for her snack in the car on the way home from school. I had to stop by Kroger to get something for dinner. When I told her that, she replied, "Momma, I'm gonna take the peanuts in the store." As I was getting her out of her carseat she handed me the peanuts and said, "Put them in your purse, Momma." I got out my little notepad to write down what she said so I could tell Matt later, and she said, "Momma, stop writing!" Tonight while she was swinging outside she said: "Look, Beauxy's watchin me swing. Beauxy's right there. Beauxy's going to sleep! Shhhhhh." She can also say, "Opa and Opa in Wy-omin!" She talks about that every morning on our way to school.....

She is loving brushing her teeth. With watermelon toothpaste, of course. Also taking her pants/shorts and diaper off for bath and needing just a little help with her shirt. We are having her try to get herself dressed whenever we can. We have to put her in 1 piece jammies right now or she'll take off her diaper in the night if it gets wet....and often pee on the floor.

Potty training is coming along. She will pee in the toilet all the time and is doing pretty dang good with pooping. Only problem is she is not great at knowing if she REALLY needs to poop or just an off chance. So we take LOTS of false-alarm poop trips to the potty every day. She gets an "Opa's candy" when she poops in the potty. She is loving the bathroom at school. Her teacher taught her to turn on the light by standing up on a stool today. That amazed her and she has done it at least 100 more times since she learned. She also adores playing in the sink when she is supposed to be washing her hands.

She loves playing a game with Daddy where she hangs on his neck without him holding her as long as her arms will last, and then when she drops off, he catches her and throws her up.

She loves going to church and seeing her friends--both the ones in her class and also various other people of different ages that she looks forward to seeing. Martha and Pop have become some of her favorites recently.

She is outgrowing some of her summer clothes! It's been ages since she's had a growth spurt but I am finally noticing stuff becoming too short--especially skirts. And she wore out a pair of shoes! They look pretty beat up, which excited me, because she usually doesn't wear stuff long enough to look worn, so this was a first for us!

She is still our "moke" girl and would drink a gallon a day if we'd let her. :) She also loves her lunchbox and getting it out at lunchtime and eating from her little container. She is doing so good at eating independently at school. Getting her lunch out on her own, eating and cleaning up fairly well, too!

Here are some pics taken a couple weeks ago. Yup, I have had the pictures and my notes on what she's been doing sitting by the computer for more than a week now. She's still officially (but barely) 23 months, so I am still good!

More fun with Om and Op

Found this on my camera phone today. She wants to use scissors SOOOO bad. She knows to put her fingers in them and she'll say, "Open, close, open close." Her fingers just seem to have a mind of their own, though. Soon enough she'll be cutting!

Here's the tadpole-catching spot!

And the tadpole-catching team!

Rockin' the baby cone!

We took my parents to Brewsters while they were here and Q had her first baby cone (they are FREE there!), which was a huge hit!

Lazy Saturday morning....

We were thrilled to have a lazy Saturday morning for the first time in ages! Sleep in as late as we wanted....linger over breakfast with no reason to hurry....and then everyone had to pitch in and do a little clean-up, as Momma can't keep up during the week when she's working. Quinn was more than happy to oblige!

After cleanup there was even some time to watch the Jesus Loves Me signing Youtube with Daddy! Don't look closely at our computer area....that is definitely under construction as soon as we have a chance to re-do it. None of the "blueness" (knobs, paint, etc.) is our doing.

She only calls him "Matt."

She knows circles!

We've been practicing our shapes casually for a while now....today Q was playing around on some placemats on the kitchen floor and she said, "Took, Mama, a circle!" and pointed to the round placemat! Yeaaa, Quinny! She recognizes circles!

Her new favorite game is to talk me into putting on Alie's leash so Q can drag the dog all around the house, all the while yelling, "Alie, sit! Alie, Slow DOWN, Alie run, Alie, c'mon!" and other bossy phrases. I don't think Alie minds it all THAT much. Matt always says that to Alie, any attention is good attention. :)

Oh yeah and Q keeps her arm up in the air the whole time because otherwise it slips off. She looks like a little Nazi.

Eating Opa's Candies....

"Took, Opa!" You know what that means!!!

Her fave afternoon activity

Swinging, singing songs on the phone with Oma and being outside all at the same time----Quinn is HAAAAPPPY! (If you know Quinn you can hear her saying "Happy" right there....)

On the repoitoire: Little Bunny Fufu, Twinkle Twinkle, Row, Row, Row Your Boat, Baby Bumblebee.....

Getting in some hand movements. She really wants to make bunny ears but has a hard time. We've been practicing.

Thought you might want a visual of the other end of the phone, Oma!

Some Quinn-isms from Oma and Opa's visit....

My parents were here for a visit and left Sunday. Quinn had some funny things to say while they were here.

(Quinn has trashed her room and there are books and toys everywhere)
to Oma: "It's a mess, isn't it!"
Oma: "It is!"
Quinn: "I know it!"

To Opa, as I am carrying her off to take a nap: "Goodnight, Op!"

In the car: "Opa's precious!"

And the funniest: On our way home from the zoo Quinn was very tired and apparently her hands got a little out of control. Just out of the blue she reaches over in the car and hits my dad. I didn't know anything happened, I just hear her suddenly start wailing like she's in immense pain. I keep asking her what happens and she finally answers, "I hit Opa." I had to turn around because I was laughing so hard. :)

We ate lunch at Rao's one day and Q and my dad were sharing a gelato. I got up to get a refill and when I came back to the table Quinn said, "Eating ice cream! Opa HAAAAPPY!"

My parents bought her some lifesavers to get as a treat when she poops in the potty. She calls them "Opa's candies."

Fun at Mike and I-ya's

Monday I went back to work for a 6-8 week assignment. Quinn spent the morning with Mike and I-ya since I had a meeting. It looks like she had a blast!

A little hide and seek......

A walk....notice the progression of the dog, BJ. First he's out in front, then next to the stroller, then IN the stroller! (Click pic for large)

Some quality time with Einstein and his 7 books.

We got a report that she even saw a truck she was SURE was Daddy's! At least she picked a Ford!

Thank you, Mike and I-ya for watching Quinn! We love that she loves you both so dearly!