Lions, Tigers, and Bears: Oh My!

While visiting Grandpa Roy and Grandma MJ up in the DFW area, we took a day trip to the Fort Worth Zoo. It was Quinlan's first zoo experience, and he really enjoyed it, as did his entire entourage of Mom, Dad, Grandpa Roy, Grandma MJ, Auntie Jenni, and Shelby. We made it through most of the exhibits, only skipping the reptile house and the Texas exhibit because of time--the poor kid needed a nap and lunch pretty badly!

Q and his Mom in front of the orangutans--we got to watch the female spit at the male when he tried to steal her snack. We hoped Quin didn't learn any new tricks.

Fish! Q loved watching the ducks and koi swimming around on the pond.

If we can teach him to say flamingo, I think he'd really impress people.

Quinlan and his Dad, watching and learning about the gibbons. Q did not want to be in his stroller because he was worried that he'd miss the cool animals, so Dad carried him a lot.

Adorable!

Giraffes!
Q consistently points to all of the animals in the books we read (and we've been reading a lot of animal books lately), and he really seems to like the giraffes.

Listening to Mama lecture about the difference between primates and
monkeys--note the glazed eyes.

Quinlan's first carousel ride!
Shelby and Jenni graciously offered to take him.
Of course, as soon as he saw his Mom watching, he burst into tears.

You can see Q trying to make his elephant sign--the lifted arm and the trumpeting noise--we tried to catch it on video, but he was really quiet and there was a lot of background noise. He usually does it on command now, whenever you say, "Elephant."

Quinlan poses on the same komodo dragon that his Mom sat on when she was a
little kid visiting the Fort Worth Zoo.

All-in-all, it was a great day trip to take and Q really had a lot of fun. It was fun to watch him sign for "more" as we walked in between exhibits. We had a wonderful family adventure before returning to schedules and work.

End of Summer Trip to Frisco

After the trip up north, Q made the shorter trip to the Dallas/Fort Worth area to visit with Katharine's parents in Frisco. It was a great, relaxing visit with friends and family.

Quinlan traveled with his basketball and had a great time running around Grandma MJ's and Grandpa Roy's house.

It didn't take long for Q to learn that he could help in the kitchen. And by help, he means eat some of whatever is being cut up.

Visiting with Aunt Jenny was lots of fun. Q was able to borrow her phone,
but he gave her lots of kisses in return.

Grandma has a hippopotamus planter that Q loves. He has a Sandra Boynton book about hippo belly buttons and was very excited about the hippo that he could touch.

Grandma MJ got lots of snuggles and cuddles. Q loved playing the piano and
watching videos online with her.

Quinlan loved his time with Grandpa Roy, who let him listen to music on the computer and recruited Q to help water the trees outside. Here they are sitting up past Q's bedtime to watch the beginning of the MLS Allstar game.

Katharine and I opted to drive up in the evening. We fed Q and then put him to bed in his car seat. He did a great job sleeping on the way home from Frisco. It was great to be with Roy and MJ for a few days, and Quinlan really loved every minute of it.

Home, briefly

After traveling to Pennsylvania, we spent just over a week getting used to being home again. Q had several busy days in that time, starting with a visit with his Aunt Liz and his favorite cousin, Brazos.

Q's secret to winning canine affection: Share your food.

Here Q is reading the paper and eating breakfast at home. Look how happy he is!

Quinlan and his mom, reading at home.

I think some of the food made it past his face and into his mouth, maybe.

I love this picture of Q balancing on Katharine and being kissed:
a perfect mother - son moment of affection.

The Austin Children's Museum opens up its doors for free every Sunday afternoon for their final hour. We thought it would be a great way to let Q try something new and experience the museum without dropping the hefty $6.50 adult admission charge. Plus, I figured Q would really only need about an hour to run around and play. I think it was a good choice, but I was definitely wrong. Q could have spent several hours there, only to stopping to eat and sleep, if we had allowed him.

With pieces this size, everyone wants to learn how to play chess.

On the bubble near the slide; look inside at the happy smiling little man.

Ready to take on the slide.
I don't remember shoes acting as such serious brakes on those things; it was almost hard for him to get down. Did we just learn to pick our heels up, or are they making those things safer these days?

Things to touch and make noise with.

Another photo that I really like. It isn't full on Q's face, but his expression is still pretty clear.
He obviously thinks this is good stuff.

They even have fish here!

He looks cute, but the hat was a molded plastic and was certainly not very comfortable.
He gave it a quick try and immediately took it off.

He certainly looks right at home with a drum kit.
He was a little annoyed that the sticks were attached.

Q had a lot of fun, and we both enjoyed watching him and playing with him as we wandered around the museum.

Trek North, Part Four - the final word

All in all, we had a really nice trip up to PA. I wanted to include this video as the final note. Q found this card, which had been given to Fossil by my Uncle Stan. Every family needs an Uncle Stan. You'll why see in a second.

Needless to say, Q loved this card and absconded with it on his return home.




Katharine says that the little word he says at the beginning is his word for music. It sounds a lot like, "Ba - Be" to me, but she has a better ear for these things. He says "Vo" for phone and "Me-Mo" for remote. It is like having another language speaker in the house, and I need a translator for most languages not English; admittedly, I occasionally ask for translations of English words too.

It is really amazing to see how he acquires and uses language. Katharine could create a whole list for anyone who is interested. I like to sit and be amazed. Plus, he has his little head bobbing dance going on, obviously a good time.

Trek North, Part Three

Q was very lucky to have his Uncle Jay and Aunt Elena drive down from Rhode Island to visit him. They met us in West Chester and hung there before making the drive to my Mom's and spending time there with us over the weekend. It was great to see them and very fun to see that they had come with research on how to sign "Aunt" and "Uncle" as well as the letters, "J" and "E". Jason was also working on chocolate, which I am sure with some positive reinforcement of something chocolate Q would pick up very quickly, but, sadly, that's not happening quite yet.

We didn't get too many pictures of Jason or Elena, but it was still great to see them. Jason did make it into a video. (Coming Soon.) Here he has a card that Fossil received. Q loved the music it played and commandeered it. We now have it in Austin; sorry, Fossil.

Mossil and Fossil wanted Q to feel at home, so they prepared for his visit by getting a new pool. I don't know who looks more at home, Fossil or Q. Yes, Q was allowed to go skinny-dipping, as long as he was in the shade. He loved his Fossil swimming time.

Part of our trip was a chance for Katharine and me to get away for a few days. We had a great couple of days on the Eastern shore of Maryland, where Katharine got to experience blue crabs (and picking them) for the first time. We also got to sail on the oldest skipjack sailboat in the country, a 125 year old boat, with a captain who was almost that old. It was great, and Q was in capable hands while we were away.

(Photo by Fossil)
Mossil got special finger paints for Q to express his artistic side.

(Photo by Fossil)

I think Q loved painting on himself as much as he liked painting the paper.

(Photo by Fossil)
Mossil also found some also boots for Q. He loved them and hiked up and
down their street in them.

(Photo by Fossil)

Q's Aunt Kiera got to spend some quality time with him, as well. He loved working out with her and pulling on the rowing machine.

Check out those outfits!

DAAAWWG!

Quinlan loves that Mossil and Fossil have a dog. Sami was a great sport about the whole thing and loved the extra treats she got. He would help throw the ball and then feed her the treat when she brought it back. It was perfect, since he got to constantly scream his two favorite words, DOG!! and BALL!! They were very cute together.

A great group

After Katharine and I returned, we had the chance to go and visit Quinlan's other great-grandmother, Jared's Mammy.

Greeting hugs in Mammy's apartment. Q loved her necklace.

We all went out to lunch, where Q got to hold hands with Mammy.
He was full of smiles and laughter.

Playing in the sprinkler in the front yard at Havertown was lots of fun. The water made rainbows and Q laughed some more.

The only other "activity" that happened without photos was a great visit with Katharine's Aunt Meg, who came over to see us and Q. She brought some fabulous crackers, which Q of course loved and was a great visitor for our last day in PA.

We flew home on the 17th, 10 days after arriving in Pennsylvania. We had an early morning flight through Chicago and Q, after a long trip, slept most of the way from Chicago to Austin.

He is his Dad's son and was very happy to arrive home, checking out all of his toys and reveling in the familiarity. We had a great trip up with many good visits. Since coming home, Q has celebrated his 17 month birthday, visited his Aunt Elizabeth, been to the Austin Children's Museum and has been getting ready for another trip, this time by car, to see his Grandma MJ and Grandpa Roy in Dallas. Future posts to follow, of course.

Trek North, Part Two

Of all of the great toys that Nona Stina and Pops had at their place, Q still gravitated towards any electronics that were available. This video starts off with Q playing the piano, and then there is a great plug for the website as Nona Stina pulls up the blog for Q to watch a video of himself.
The reason I am sharing this particular video is because at about :50 seconds in, Q starts to tap his fingers into his palm, showing more. Then he waves his right hand which is his version of the sign for movie. He is supposed to be waving over his left wrist, but hey, it works. Between his sign for movie, and banging his head with a C to get the computer, Q is very technologically in tune.

Trek North, Part One

Katharine, Q, and I returned Saturday after a week and a half in Pennsylvania. We have lots to share and plenty of photos, so in an effort to make it easier to post and read, I will break the trip up into parts.
We started out Wednesday the 7th with an afternoon flight out of Austin. Bad weather in Houston delayed our start, but Q did fairly well on the plane until we arrived in Philadelphia at midnight. Katharine and I had hoped he would sleep for the evening flight, but he was not very interested in that. He only drifted off for short spells in between *gasp* clips of Toy Story he watched on the iPad. I know, I know, we are horrible parents, but the other passengers on the plane were very happy that he was peaceful and quiet, even if he didn't sleep.

We started at my Dad's in the borough of West Chester. Q's Pops a prepared grandfather with toys at the ready all over the house.

Dinosaurs were everywhere, and he had this strange stretchy plastic ball.

Q, hanging out on his Pops' chair, color-coordinated and loving life.

Quinlan walks around and repeats two words with pretty fair regularity, "bawl," and "dawg" for ball and dog. He finds them in books, in person and in stuffed form. He was very excited about this over-sized "dawg" at Pops and Nona Stina's place.

Pops did his best to educate little man on the wonders of food. Quinlan helped pick ripe tomatoes from his garden. It was lots of fun until he was told he couldn't pull the green ones.

"How about this one? Can I pick this one?"

Q met a friend who keeps watch over Pops' garden. This little gnome has seen some better days, but is still a smiley little chap.

Nona Stina helped Q learn the wonders of beets. They were not from the backyard garden, but they were still fresh and wonderful. Q shares a love of the root vegetable with his Dad.

Quinlan got to spend time playing the piano, which he had previously practiced with Grandma MJ. He loves music and seems to really enjoy making it.

While with my Dad, we also go to see Quinlan's great-grandparents and their new place.

Mom-Mom loved watching Q run around and carry his ball from room-to-room.

Great-Grandpa Pop had Q help hit the button for the elevator.

Stevenson men - 90 years in the making.

4 generations--aren't they good-looking?

We stayed with my Dad for the first few days that we were in Pennsylvania. Q adjusted to sleeping in a new place well and didn't seem phased by the hour time difference.
The journey will continue with part two, coming sometime soon.