Marching to his own beat

More pics of Quinlan being Quinlan

We have been having lots of fun with him, chasing around the living room, and laughing lots. He has an infectious, riotous laugh. It is a great reward for being a parent and makes the early morning wake-ups, minor fits and messy diapers more than worth it.


Q will read for extended periods of time and has several favorite books that get reread many times each day. He was thrilled that his Aunt Liz visited and read to him.

Liz had come over after her trip to Ireland. She was kind enough to bring Q his second drum. The first she bought him for his birthday and felt like he needed a second one to round out his growing musical interests.

Here, Q plays his Bodhràn, a fancy lambskin drum from Ireland. It was pretty funny, coming home from work to be greeted by the little drummer boy traipsing through the house keeping his own rhythm on his new drum. He was very proud of himself.

Katharine helped Q practice using a measuring tape that I had left out last week. Here he checks on the diameter of his steering wheel.

Yes, that is a locust shell.
Strange, I know, but it brings back fond (though admittedly odd) memories for me. We used to collect these in our backyard and occasionally wear them on our shirts. It is funny how the little shells stick to your clothes. I also remember a box of collected shells be traded as a wrapped present between my brother and grandmother. I have no explanation for that memory, maybe Jason can help fill that in for me. Anyway, when I saw this shell on a wall at work, I just had to bring it home for Q. He was quite interested in this new item.

At first, I thought he would try to eat it. He decided that he would try to crush it instead. He did think it was very hilarious, and for the briefest of moments the locust clung to his shirt. Then as the little man grabbed it, he broke off a front leg, and I decided to hold on to it.

With the pool in the backyard, it is nice to keep towels handy. We used to keep them in a basket in the kitchen but with all the swimming that has been going on the basket emptied out, and Q found a new toy.

Q officially laid claim to the basket and has been seen sitting in it and watching the world out the window, as well as driving the handles like a steering wheel. I think he likes to take food there, like it is a special eating area. Here he has a tortilla chip, and this morning he took his apple to eat in the basket. Occasionally, he will stand in it and do his happy dancing, which looks a lot like walking in place only faster and with more giggles. We tried to put towels back in the basket, but after a few minutes of free time in the kitchen, he had the towels on the floor, and he was back in his new special sitting place.

Katharine and I took Q on his first trip to Ikea. If you are not fortunate enough to have an Ikea close, I feel for you. Not only can you spend hours wandering the store, you can find great deals on purchases you didn't even know you needed. (We resisted most of those.) Q was not as impressed with his free (until July 5th, kids eat free) dinner, though I ate the mac and cheese that he didn't, and it wasn't that bad. Our intention for going was to pick up a child-sized table for Q.

Quinlan loves his new table. The chair gives him some room to grow, but he can almost manage to get himself up into it. Several times he hasn't even tried and just stood at the table to draw. He loves drawing with his crayons and with Mom's special pens.

His head is down here, but he has the best smile on his face. Either it is the aqua monkey pen he is drawing with, or it is the miniature furniture that he loves sooo much! Plus, I had the added bonus of a few minutes of quality building time for me--though there were less pieces than previous Ikea purchases, which left less room for error.

Life from Q's View

We use several cameras in our house: an older Fujifilm digital, a fancy SD video/still Canon, and probably my favorite, the Flip Mini. The Flip is probably my favorite. It is a simple point and click video camera. It does do a minimal zoom, which I think I have used once. It is small, something I can't say for either of the other two, and it is easy to upload and use videos, something I never really considered with the other two until I had the Flip. I don't think our version of the Flip is even available anymore, and we will one day get a newer HD one, but I will be sure it is still small and pocketable.

The other reason I like it is that there is nothing that can get really messed up with it, and so it is fun to let Q play with it. The other morning Katharine and I were watching the New Zealand vs. Italy World Cup match, and I let Q occupy himself for a few minutes by carrying it around. He shot over 50 videos, most of them the minimum 3 seconds, but he did film some nice ones around 20 or so seconds. I clipped some of them together to give you 2:05 seconds of life from Q's perspective. It is a little wobbly, a throwback to the Blair Witch shaky camera. Q is down with all the (older) trends. There are a couple of highlights, amongst them: the director cameo at 13 seconds, the feet walking on screen, and some random words he throws in there every once in a while.

Happy Child

I love my son. I can't ever say that enough. He and Katharine made a wonderful Father's Day for me. Hanging out with the two of them is the best thing I could ever ask for.

Here is my beautiful family, after an early Q wake-up call. He was really nice and let me sleep until 6:30 on Sunday. It has been good though, when I don't have to work I can watch the early World Cup match.

Here is Quinlan, thinking he should be wearing his Mom's sandals.

Q always wants to help and be part of the action. Of course, he's started to help me clean the pool.

Part of my Father's Day gift were some requested kitchen utensils. Quinlan thought he was pretty special to inherit the replaced items.

Having a snack after swimming
Quinlan was very funny with an apple. He desperately wanted to eat it on his own and did a good job of chomping off little pieces and chewing them up.

I have heard that people enjoy seeing our little boy and that he is always so happy. I don't want to ruin that impression for you, but I did want to share some authentic baby moments that occur. Here Q wants his apple back, after he had tried throwing it on the floor, twice. He is not very happy.



Of course, that is not all the time. Here he was thrilled to be using the big broom. I can't tell if he is making vacuuming noises (he loves the vacuum) or if he is vrooming like he is driving. Either way, he is having a grand time.

Random video of Q

Most Mondays this past year someone would ask me how my weekend was. My answer was usually the same: I enjoyed hanging out with Q. Of course, most people don't know what that looks like, or how crazy it can be. Most of the time it means playing, swinging outside, reading books, whatever. Some of the time though, it means following Q around while he does whatever he thinks he needs to be doing.

This video is 5 minutes and 43 seconds long, so if you are interested in watching Q wander the living room feel free to watch. There were many little moments that made me laugh, but I particularly like his developing soccer skills.



I've been working on the appearance of the blog. Feel free to comment with any thoughts, good, bad or indifferent.

Q takes a trip to Dallas, comes home, and gets sick

Katharine and Quin took a quick trip up to Dallas. Grandpa Roy and Grandma MJ had a patio put onto their place, and Q enjoyed the new outdoor setting. Of course, the last time we were up there it was snowing. It is always good for Q to get some grandparent time, but the trip coincided with Q's Great-Aunt Vangie and his Aunt Liz heading off on a trip to Ireland. Vangie, sitting in blue, was looking forward to her trip, and Q was glad to see her and Liz before they took off.

In the picture, it looks like Q is sitting on a mini-soccer ball, a gift from Grandpa Roy. Q proudly brought it home with him and loves to carry it around and throw it forward. We'll have to work on dribbling with his feet.

While visiting, Q got to play the piano with Grandma MJ. Soccer phenom or piano virtuoso.....maybe both?

Grandpa shared some tunes of his own with little man. I love his look here, filled with such interest and curiosity.

Today, Q decided that even though he is still taking antibiotics for his ear infection, he would develop a fever. We are hoping it is a little virus of some sort and will pass quickly. He spent most of this afternoon sleeping, but when he was awake he was laying on the floor or, like here, cuddling with his Mom.

He also cuddled the remote control. I let him have it since he was feeling bad. I know, I'm a softie. He held it like it was a teddy bear and didn't want to leave it.

Poor little sick boy.

Summer time . . . .

Not much to say, just some new photos. He is a constant joy to be around, even during his moments of fussiness, which do seem to be happening a little more frequently. He's starting to realize that he wants what he wants.

Here Q is vacuuming with his Grandma while she visited a few weeks ago.

Another picture from Grandma MJ's visit, showing some quality reading time. Notice how Q is ready to turn the pages. It looks like this was one of the many readings of "Brown Bear, Brown Bear," one of Quinlan's preferred books.

On another day, Q hung out with his Mom, reading on the floor. I loved how this picture caught Katharine and Q laying in similar positions reading together.

Q has started giving kisses, usually upon request, although occasionally he does it spontaneously. He generally goes in with a big wet one but also has been practicing blowing kisses too so that he can share those via skype.

Summer weather has settled in Austin. Most days it is hot; some days it is hotter. Soon it will be even worse. Thankfully we have the pool, which Q loves. So far he has been good about not trying to go near it unless we are prepared with suits and the Tobie's Trousers' swim diaper. Though if you are in the water, he thinks it is free game and he can rush over / in. You can see by his smile that he likes it.

Not only does he like being in the water, he seems to enjoy putting his face in and making his own bubble attempts. He will certainly be our little fish.