Everything's New and Fun

Jared and I have had a really nice couple of days at home with Quinlan. Traveling, visiting family, and spending time with others was wonderful. It's amazing to see Q interact with others--he's such a little social butterfly! He has a smile for everyone, and he looks to each person to be picked up. However, I think both Jared and I, and even Q, enjoy being home in our space--he had to check out each and every toy on Thursday morning, to make sure it was still there and good.

He keeps trying to do new things--opening doors (scary!), emptying the dishwasher (really, more like playing with the dishes), gardening, eating breakfast tacos (yum!). His new favorite word is "dat!", though he eeks out "dawh" (dog) and "eeaho" (into the cell phone) with surprising accuracy. He's getting loud, too--just wait, soon he'll have a voice to rival his mama's!


I think the coolest thing about this picture is what happened before taking it: he had 2 plastic spoons, and he dropped one of them in the watering can. Then he tried to use the other spoon to retrieve the first. It was so awesome to watch--you could just see the wheels turning!


Emptying the dishwasher at Pops' and Nona Stina's house. Yeah, I earn my keep.


Learning how to garden with Fossil


Breakfast Tacos!


Lemme out of here!!

We'll post some other pictures from traveling, but this is a pretty accurate representation of all of the new, fun, and exciting things Q's been up to. We're headed to his first birthday party today. A coworker of mine has a daughter turning two, and there will be a petting zoo! I'm sure Quin'll love both the party and the animals.

Still Traveling

Today, Quin and his fam relocated to yet another house to visit with his Mossil and Fossil while here in PA. He was very excited to spend time with more people. He is never at a loss when he is with people; he loves any level of attention that he can get.

One of the interesting parts of traveling is being in other houses. I don't expect people to baby-proof things, and I hope that Q listens when we tell him to stop or move away from something. This is how we experienced the stairs and had all sorts of fun.

Today, when we got to Mossil and Fossil's, Q was thrilled to find that there was some furniture that seemed just right for him. Now he can sit on the front porch and look like a little old man rocking.

Traveling

Quinlan traveled with his Mom and Dad up to Pennsylvania (and New Jersey) were they celebrated Pop Stevenson's 90th birthday. It was a great gathering, with many branches of the Jones family represented.


Q's great-grandmother Mom-Mom, Q's connection to the Jones.
The trip up went very well, with a flight from Austin to Houston and then a connecting flight from Houston to Philadelphia. The torrential rain in PA kept us in the Houston airport a little longer than expected, but it provided Q a chance to nap. Flying free as a lap baby went very well until the turbulent landing churned up all of the snacks Q had eaten during the 4 hour flight, causing the little man to throw up all over himself and his Mom. She handled it much better than I would have, and we managed to get him cleaned up and changed before getting off the plane. Katharine had to wait until we got our bags from the carousel to do a quick change in the airport bathroom.

The birthday boy (Great-Grandpa Pop) and a collection of family members.

26 people gathered at the gorgeous home of Judy and Rob Cope. Their farmhouse, originally built in the late 1700s, provided Q a first chance at attempting a flight of stairs. This video was shot on a second attempt, after Katharine sent me to go find the camera during his first attempt.



We drove back to West Chester to spend the night with Nona Stina and Pops. Q doesn't seem to care where we are, as long as there is food.

Spring is fun . . .

Spring is certainly in bloom here in Austin. The wildflowers are popping up, and the weather is getting warm. We tend to skip degrees like warmer. It was cold (and snowy a few weeks ago?!?), and now it is sweaty warm. You can't beat 80 degrees. I'm not complaining about that, and I miss the Jeep on these window-down-while-driving days, but it seems like an interesting jump on the thermostat.

Q, is, of course, just going along each day, loving life. Katharine has been running outside more, and she frequently protects herself from the sun's powerful rays with a hat. Q likes to take the hat and hold it out to someone who will put it on his head. He usually wears it for a few minutes and then drops it somewhere on the floor. Of course, he does the same thing with his own hat when you take him outside and want to protect him from the sun, which could be strong enough on his pale skin to make him whoosh away into a pile of ashes.

Here he is with his Momma's hat, standing up at his car from the video. He likes hitting the horn. I hope that doesn't translate into a cranky driver in a few years.

Since it has been so nice, we are trying to get him outside more and let him experience the world a little bit. He doesn't seem to mind anything and is crawling around with great abandon, picking up leaves and acorns and who knows what else. He has even been pretty good about not eating things too much.

Look at all of these leaves, oh, and the grass, and the rocks, and the bricks and the dirt and the ants and there is so much stuff everywhere to look at! It is so much fun!!!!!

On this particular evening, Katharine had gone for a run, and then came home and attempted to clean off the piles of leaves from the driveway. They have gotten quite bad in some spots, and she filled up one giant bag in only a few minutes with really only scooping them up.

Q seems to be ready to help. We have been working on cleaning up but wow, was he ready to jump right in there and help with the leaves. It's almost enough for me to want to warn him off, you know: "Be a kid, have fun, you will work for the rest of your life!"
But really, I can't wait for that extra help.
I can already envision the job chart.

Driving Lesson Number One: Steering

Not sure if this bodes very well for when Q starts driving, but it seems we are slowly approaching our next milestone. One of Quinlan's one-year birthday presents is this little car, which makes lots of noise and also has a bar to help balance the little dude when he stands up. He loves it.




He is so much fun.

A Full Weekend

Quinlan had a very busy weekend.

On Saturday, he took his Mom and Dad to Lake Pflugerville, a 3 mile walking trail built around a man-made lake. Mom ran around it three times while Dad and Q walked it once and looked at all the different birds that were there.

While at the lake, Q tried calling Fossil on his new cell phone,

but the reception was a little spotty.

Sunday, Quin tried out his artistic side. It wasn't quite ready for framing, but after banging the crayons on the paper for a little while he decided to taste them. Hmmm, crayons, are they a food group?

I want that one, no that one over there!

Also, on Sunday, Dad finally hung up one of Q's birthday presents, the new swing. Q loves swinging at the park, and now he can swing in the front yard. There may be some adjustments made, but the swing is hung safely and can be used. It got a little breezy but Q enjoyed some swing-time right before taking his Sunday bath.

Laughing while Mom pushes Quinlan.

Q chilling out and having fun in the new swing.

Olympics

We really haven't let Q watch much TV recently. None really. My Dad is probably disappointed he missed the parade of nations at the opening ceremonies in Vancouver. My Dad (Pops) has been an avid Olympic fanatic since before I was Q's age. He is attending the winter games this year and blogging about his trip, a repeat of what he did in Beijing. If you are interested you can read about his experiences (with Nona Stina, of course) here.