24 down, 16 to go....

Katharine and I went to see the midwife and the medical practice this morning for her 24-week appointment. It was another quick visit without too many questions or too much new information. I was a little surprised when Liane handed me the Doppler to try and listen to Zoe's heartbeat. I kept searching and hoping maybe she would offer assistance or guidance, but I was left all alone to search and find our little girl all on my own. (Notice that he did it, too!)




We are excited about the Christmas holidays and know we have been somewhat sparse in our recent posts. We will try to capture some of Q's excitement to share in video and photo. If we don't see you to wish it in person, Merry Christmas!!!!!

Thanksgiving Fun

Thanksgiving came and went, as did many visitors, all of whom were wowed by Q with his eager and inviting attitude. In true Quinlan fashion, he was not interested in food on Thanksgiving, but he happily dug into some leftovers.

It was pretty funny to watch him dip the bread from the stuffing into the cranberry sauce.

Aunt Liz came up and brought her dogs with her. When Q is told Auntie Liz is coming, he always says, "Dog!" He seems to be good at making connections.

Katharine's cousin Kelsey is spending a year in Texas working with Habitat for Humanity and spent the holiday with us, while Q chased her around and stole her phone.

After waking up early on Saturday, Q spent some time wrestling his dad.

After pinning his dad, he was very eager to cuddle.

The post-Thanksgiving Christmas preparations have begun, and we are trying to get good photos. Quinlan really is enjoying the decorations and having so much fun with everything. Experiencing each step through his eyes has been so much fun.

Quick Aside:
This evening, as we were reading to Q, he was drinking from his water cup, and he hit Katharine with it. She took it and put it aside. A few minutes later Q saw it and made a quick grab for his cup, prompting Katharine to tell him he could have it, but no hitting Momma with it. Q replied, "Dadda," which didn't sound very good from my end. Katharine had my back though and told Q, "No hitting Dadda with it either." He smiled at her with his knowing smile that says, "I know what you are saying but will only listen to what I want to". To that, she laughed and said (admitting defeat), "You're incorrigible." To which Q replied, "Yeah." Ahh, the joys of parenthood.

Dos is a GIRL! Dosa?

We had our 20-week checkup with ultrasound today. Everything looked good--and it turns out that Dos is most certainly a girl, as we have been suspecting for a while. Quinlan and his Grandma MJ accompanied us to the OB/GYN, and MJ was the baby-wrangler for our visit. Here you can see Q looking on very intently to what was going on in the office.

What are they doing to my mom????

Here he is, engrossed by the computer screen. It WAS pretty cool.

A girl! Good news for Q: he'll still be the much-beloved, only grandson.

We are very excited and thankful as we go into the Thanksgiving weekend to be surrounded by family, in close contact with those who are far away, and with happy, healthy hearts and bodies. We'll be celebrating our eighth anniversary on Monday, too!

Working out

When Mossil was here she taught Quinlan how to train people who are working out. He is an expert in counting down and telling you that you have "One more". He even holds up his finger to show you.

In addition to running the workouts, he also picked up a few tricks for his own workouts on the special ball his Mossil bought him.

Check it out - -

Halloween

Quinlan was very interested in the whole set-up of Halloween. As soon as decorations went up, he would point them out wherever we were and ask his favorite question, "Wassat?" ("What's that?" in Quinlanese, a new language in which Katharine is an expert, and I can barely get by.)

He particularly loved pumpkins and enjoyed helping me turn our light-up ones on each night as part of the bedtime routine. We have placated his enthusiasm for holiday decorating with some turkey towels, or, as he calls them, "Gobblegobble". I can only imagine his excitement when the bins for Christmas show up to replace the measly collection of turkey towels.

With all of the excitement around Halloween pumpkins and decorating, we wanted to let Q paint a pumpkin. We both decided he was probably a little young to attempt a carving project.





Later on that night, we had plans to trick-or-treat with a neighbor friend who is Q's age. The two of them were geared up to visit with a few specific neighbors we know. It was very exciting and fun.

The little doggy all ready to go.

He seemed a little unsure at first, but got into the spirit by woofing a few times.

Here he is, coming off a porch, one of the four we visited. He did a good job of knocking on doors and really got into the fact that people gave him things.

All in all, this was the first holiday that he really understood some of what was going on around him, and that was pretty exciting to watch and participate in with him. It makes me look forward to the Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Year season with much greater anticipation.

A Stupendous Visit with Mossil, Part 2: The Haircut

After 20 months of letting Quinlan's hair grow, he was getting to the stage where a strong wind might have caught the wings he had growing and lifted him off the ground. This photo was from Saturday morning prior to "The Haircut". I love the pose and the new glasses, but the hair sticking out was so precious.

Yeah, I can dig it!

I think he was frustrated over not being able to run around and go where he wanted to, since we were corralling him to a chair so that there wouldn't be an accident with the scissors.

Here's a shot of the longer hair as he runs around. Now that I look at this, it seems like he is holding onto it; maybe he was attached to his longer locks. Or maybe, he just didn't want to be told what to do.

Hmmm....a comb and the computer: which will hold his interest longer?

"Come on Mossil, you're blocking my view."

All done!

With the hair stylist
We were very thankful Mossil was willing to make the first trim.

After his first haircut, he was all ready to go out. Of course, he wanted to trade his new glasses with mine; he was still looking pretty good.

I am still adjusting to his new, older look. Our little boy is getting ready to be a big brother and keeps getting bigger and wiser everyday. He continues to bring us joy and laughter--with occasional frustration thrown in. He's pretty awesome. :)

A Stupendous Visit with Mossil, Part 1

Q is a very fortunate little dude, who has been blessed with 6 grandparents. Each of them has a special relationship with him, and it is so wonderful to watch each interact with him in their own unique ways.

This past week Q got a visit from his Mossil, who spent a few days on Q's schedule; of course, she made sure he was getting plenty of exercise. This means he also got plenty of rest after long mornings playing in the park.

In addition to walking to the park, Q got a lot of time outside in our yard, too.
Of course, he needed to make sure everything was cleaned up.

Driving his car outside: places to go, things to do.


Cooking!?

Q loved mixing different ingredients together. Mossil showed him the special spices.
He was very proud of his composition.

A proud Quinlan
I like his posture here.
Maybe more art than story-telling, as far as pictures go, but I would hate to call my photos art.

Weekend!

Quinlan was so excited about his Mom's birthday that he wanted to immediately wear the shoes she got from her sister. Q loves wearing giant shoes.


Sunday we were able to visit with some friends and go to a pumpkin patch. Q has been very interested in pumpkins and points them out wherever he sees them. It was fun to watch him surrounded by pumpkins and see him run around from one around to another and then back again.

"These are my size! I can pick them up!"

Q kept returning to see the face on the only artificial item in the place.

Before we went to see the pumpkins, we stopped in to visit Michele and her crew and their litter of cats. Quin followed a few around meowing at them and was very happy to pet and even hold Skipper when he was handed him. Talk about precious!

Packing materials

Q helped his Mom celebrate her 30th birthday by taking care of packing materials.



Clean-up was never this much fun.

He is always a treat and was very good about sharing some of the attention with his Mom today. He started off early by helping me run out to get breakfast. Q took some time to fill out the card I got for him to give to his Mom. He signed his scribble on all four surfaces of the card. It was fun.

15 weeks and counting

Katharine and I went for our second appointment today to check on how both she and the little growing baby are doing.

Jared learned the there is much less information at appointments for second pregnancies. The first time around I didn't know what questions to ask; this time around I don't have any questions. Katharine is doing great, though a little (a lot?)tired. But that is probably mostly from working and being Q's Mom all the time, plus the fact that Q is resisting my clock lessons and insists on waking up at horribly early times every day of the week - even the weekend. Maybe I should start teaching him how to read the calendar, too.

It was nice to see Lisa today. Lisa was the midwife that spent the evening with us the night Q was born. As I fought to stay awake, and Katharine experienced labor, Lisa was a calm presence, ready to assist and guide us. Interesting how you will never really be close to a person like that, but there will always be a connection.

Listen to Dos's heartbeat. A strong healthy heart. Lisa said the baby was moving around like a wild person....which doesn't bode well for trying to teach Q's younger sibling how to sleep in.



We are scheduled to go in for the next appointment, which will include a sonogram to determine the sex of the baby, on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Until then it will be back to the regular Q updates.

Fall . . . fun . . . .Q!

Quinlan has been growing into his awesome Vancouver Olympics sweatshirt. Q's Quatchi sweatshirt came from his Pops and Nona Stina, who attended The Games last winter. He proudly wore his namesake on his chest in the morning, since we have experienced some wonderfully cooler weather here in Austin.

Quin is an avid reader like both of his parents. He frequently brings books to one of us to read to him, and then he often takes the book to the other one to have it reread. Cuddling and reading are favorite pastimes for us all.

Before going out last Saturday, Q played with his reflection in the mirror. He still seems to love watching himself and often finds a surface that reflects to play with.

Q went out with us on Saturday to attend the local Pflugerville Chamber of Commerce Expo. He did well spinning promotional wheels at various tables, but really loved people-watching, as long as the person he was watching had a dog with them.

After a long morning, filled with many cool new toys, Q clung to his Mom and didn't want to explore the cool big trucks that were at the Expo. Maybe next year.

I didn't get a photo of it, but Q "borrowed" a deck of cards for the card game, Phase 10, tonight and ripped open the box to play with the cards. I avoided my initial response of frustration, picked up the cards and showed him some that were similar, explaining that we promise to teach him when he gets just a little older. The box says 8 years old, but I think he will be ready before then. It was very cute, and he even did okay when I took them away. Of course, his Mom suggested we feed the fish immediately thereafter, so that probably made everything better.

More in the ever evolving world o' Q

It always seems like the weekends are too short, even when Q tries to stretch them out by waking up extra early. Saturday I heard him waking up and noticed that there was still a 4 on the clock - before the colon. In his defense, it was almost 5, but still way too early. I am working on teaching him how the two hands on the clock touch a little after 6:30.

Anyway, even with the extra couple of hours we get to spend together, the time seems so short. He keeps growing and changing, so it was fun to look back on some photos that I hadn't uploaded to see what we have been up to.

I got some free Clifford stickers at school, which I knew Q would love. He carries his Clifford book around with him and calls it the "DeDog". We think he is saying, "red dog," but only he really knows. Anyway, he did love the stickers, until they had to come off.

We also got a new vacuum, not very exciting. We have a nice carpet vacuum, and had been using a Mini-ShopVac to suck up the debris from the tile and the edges of rooms. It worked great, except the cord and hose were both pretty short. Alas, it gave up the ghost. We found this Eureka on sale at Target, and it really does as good a job as the ShopVac ever did, with more convenience. Plus, it has the added bonus of an adjustable handle, so Q can use it with more ease - that boy loves a good vacuuming.

We were very lucky to have a dear friend come for a visit. Jenni spent several days chilling with Q and he loved every minute of it. He was calling her "Neni", which he said like, "knee-knee" and loved the extra attention that he got.

Halloween Oreos, with orange cream filled yummyness-can't go wrong there!

If you haven't seen the Muppet version of "Mahna Mahna" please stop what you are doing and watch it below. We are very careful about not watching TV with Q around. However, we are allowing him about 3 online videos a day, giving him between 5-10 minutes of "screen time." I know, we are horrible parents rotting out his brain, and some day his teacher will probably blame all the horrible things that may go wrong on the accumulated hours of videos. Really, we have a great time, and often sing Mahna Mahna several times through the day. In case you were wondering, I do the "do do, dodo" part, and he gets the cool one.

PETS!!??!!!

We finally broke down. It was clear Q wanted and needed a living creature smaller than him in the house. He loves animals so much and talks about them almost as much as he talks about balls (which is a lot). So, with much planning and preparation, we acquired some Tetras.

Here we are, watching our new friends. He is very intent to sit and watch and sometimes point.

Not the best photo in the world, but shooting through glass is not a photo-trick I have learned. We set up a small aquarium and have 5 Mini-Neon Tetras in it. We aren't sure if we are going to name them anything, since I can't tell them apart. Maybe Q can.


Here is a fuzzy Q, with his new fish swimming along in the background.


It has been a great week weather-wise here in Austin, and Q is loving the extra time outside. The neighborhood is sprouting Halloween decorations, and we have chalk drawings all over our driveway. It is a good time to be a Dad.

The life and times of Quinlan Rian

With school in full swing for Katharine and me, it is great to sit back and see all the fun we are able to have with Q. I love coming home and seeing him, and my weekends are totally devoted to him (and grocery shopping, which we usually do together - Katharine sometimes comes too.)

One of Q's words, that he uses frequently, is "draw". He loves to draw and takes whatever instrument he can get. He loves stealing pens, but will use a pencil if he has to. His favorite is Katharine's highlighters, but he also uses his crayons. He has made several pieces while at daycare, which he brings home and shares with us.


He usually draws at his table, but he wanted to draw in the kitchen, so we used his floor mat, which happened to be clean for the occasion. He is holding tight to the highlighter he stole from his Mom (though she gave permission if he stayed on the mat).



We were very happy to have some nicer weather come through this weekend. We let Q decorate the driveway, which he loved.


Another major change around here was the chair switch. We moved from the highchair to a booster chair. During the transition we had a few days of Q trying to eat from a chair, but the temptation to get down and run around was too great, and he didn't really eat a lot.


He likes his new chair and loves being a big boy and eating at the table.



Still reading.....

Q has always enjoyed reading, and we have several other pictures of him enjoying books that have been shared previously. I like this photo, and like several of the other ones here, shows our growing boy as he becomes more boy than baby.



Another new activity Q participates in is shoe stealing. Q loves to get a pair of shoes that Katharine or I leave out. He takes them and walks around in them smiling his happy smile.

He is a wonder. :)