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.