OMG

this might just be the highlight of quentin's life to date:

considering we watch his bigfoot video several times a day, i think he'll be stoked.

the aftermath

this morning baby girl's eye was practically swollen shut. she is going to have one heckuva a shiner.

even by lunch time the swelling was going down, but you can see the black and blue mark forming.

poor princess pickle pants :(

big brother

when i went into the nursery to get the kids up this morning, this is how Q greeted me: "momma! i'm happy!" when i asked him why he was happy, he said: "acuz sister feel better!" what a good big brother.

take this dog and shove it

free to good home: surly, blind, deaf, 15-year old beagle with a taste for babies. - jack the beagle has done it again. this time he got my precious baby girl. i don't know exactly what happened as i didn't see it but he attacked her this evening and got her beautiful face pretty good. - aside: mark my words, jack. you are as good as dead to me. if your grandma didn't intervene this would be your last night on this earth. touch one of my babies again, and i don't care. it's off to the executioner we go. and that's if daddy doesn't get a hold of you first. - caroline obviously screamed when it happened but it didn't seem to bleed as much as when jack got Q. we decided to go to the ER, to get it washed out well to prevent infection and see if they thought we needed stitches. other than the wound and the blood, you would never have know there was anything wrong. caroline was her usually happy-go-lucky self, toddling around the waiting area and smiling and waving at anyone who would look at her. - it was assessed that the wound would heal without stitches, but probably would leave a big ugly scar. there will still be a scar, but hopefully with the stitches it will be less noticeable. fortunately, i did not have to stay in the room while they stitched her up - she got seven stitches in all. even still, we could here her screaming from the waiting area. pure torture. coincidentally, the plastic surgeon who stitched her up tonight also stitched up my brother's face when he got bit by our family dog twentysomething years ago. he does fine work. - when we were leaving, the nurses gave her a new noble hospital teddy bear. she really liked it and hugged it the whole way home. - warning: the pics are graphic. don't look if you don't like blood!

before it got cleaned at the hospital:

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after, hugging her new teddy bear

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quentin was very concerned. i think he saw more of what actually happened than any of the grown-ups. before we left for the hospital he kept saying, "sister hurt. she have boo boo." when we got home, he wanted to kiss it all better.

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poor poor baby girl

seriously jack. try it again. just try it.

that was that

after his nap today, quentin said to me, " mommy, i no scared of cows now." ok.

picture perfect. no.

quentin and caroline are wearing matching pajamas tonight. of course, i thought this was going to be a fabulous photo op, envisioning the two of them cuddled on the couch together giggling and smiling. instead, i got this:

i tried.

more quotable quentin

daddy: hey, are you thirsty? quentin: no. i'm quentin.

moooo

when quentin woke up from his nap after the fair on saturday, he said, "i'm scared of cows." not sure if he had a bad dream, or if the cows at the fair freaked him out. or maybe it's the obscene amount of cow decor in this house. but he kept saying it. and at one point, i was the worst mom ever because i mooed at him to try to make him laugh, and he freaked out. i only wish i had it on video :)

participant

quentin attempts the pedal tractor pull. it's helpful if you can reach the pedals. he didn't care anyway - he just wanted to drive the tractor.

180,000 people went to the air show...

so we went to the fair with the 12 other people left in western mass. while very sad that there was almost no one at the fair, essentially signaling the death of said fair, it was nice to have more space, and not have to fight crowds for anything.

quentin feeds the animals in the petting barn

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the petting barn food was sold in ice cream cones since they could be fed to the animals too. Q didn't quite understand that farm animals would eat ice cream cones too.

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he was really amazed that the donkey ate it

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taking a train ride operated by a seriously-disgruntled carnie enjoying a chocolate, sprinkle, and whipped cream covered waffle on a stick. guess who bought him that monstrosity?

playing whack-a-mole. he didn't really get it, but of course liked banging the mallet

i love how you can see his reflection in the game. it's so hard to get a pic of him smiling these days.

the bounty when daddy let him win

caroline also likes it. and better get used to getting hit with it.

so they had a kids' pedal tractor pull, just like the ox draw we watched earlier. we signed Q up for the 3-4 year old division.

he did not win. he could barely even reach the pedals. he got smoked by vincent. i am willing to bet that vincent is closer to the high end of the 3-4 age class anyway. (video of Q's pull in the next post.) he did get a ribbon for participating and it does say first place, so yay!?

caroline is not impressed. (nor was that creepy red-headed girl above.)

and with that, is was time to head home.

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oh and since the fair is actually fairly (ha!) close to the air force base, we saw a bunch of the airshow anyway. and got to see the best part (the thunderbirds) from my parents' backyard once we were home and the kids were napping. take that 180,000 suckers who sat in hours of traffic.

self serve

quentin is very much developing an independent streak. "quentin do it." is an increasingly more frequent admonishment from him, like if i try to to turn the water on to wash his hands or peel a banana for him. soooo... i put him down for his nap today. sometimes he plays for a while and then crashes, sometimes he just never sleeps but will at least play quietly in the room for a few hours, giving me a much-needed break. i was listening to him on the monitor and could hear him talking about poop. i decided to check in on him, since i have been desperately trying to get him to go on the potty. but i missed my chance. he had pooped in his diaper and then tried to change himself. he grabbed a clean diaper and some wipes, climbed up on to the changing table, removed the messy diaper, wiped himself clean, tried to put the new diaper on, climbed down, and tossed the dirty diaper and wipes in the trash. i could tell this because the changing pad had some fresh poop smears, there was a dirty diaper in the trash (not the diaper champ), and he had a clean diaper hanging off one of his legs. and the fact that he told me, " i pooped. i change me."

the quotable quentin

playing with bath toys in the tub: "be careful boats! rucky duckies are hungry. they eat you!"

opening the corn

my dad came home with a ridiculous amount of corn yesterday, so my mom, Q, and i did some major shucking today to prepare it for freezing. quentin was surprisingly helpful. we really liked pulling back the husks and unveiling the corn. when it would get stuck, he'd get frustrated and hold the piece up, demanding, "open it!" and i think he only tried to eat one ear.

we must be related

baby kiwi at 13 months, playing in the tupperware cabinet:

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baby caroline at 13 months, playing in the SAME tupperware cabinet:

housebroken

so potty training has taken an interesting twist... - our kid is housebroken. - yup. housebroken. like a dog. - a couple of days ago, he went out the dog door and came back a few minutes later holding a diaper full of poop. we've now seen him do this several times - go outside, poop, remove diaper, bring it back inside, announce his accomplishment. - so he is definitely acknowledging when he has to poop, is aware of when he does, and no longer wants to remain in a soiled diaper. i guess that's a good thing? - in other potty-training development, he fell off the wagon for a few weeks with regards to peeing on the potty. he had been doing very well with it until jeremy came to visit a few weekends ago and then he just stopped. but i have figured out how to get him to do it. if he is completely pants-less (no pants, no diaper) he will ask to go pee on the potty every time (unless he's strapped into his booster seat to eat - good times.) but if he has a diaper, pull-up, or big boy underwear on, he will just pee freely and at will. so we just have to deal with a half-naked kid running around at all times. progress?

heartbroken

all of the craziness with us temporarily living in different states with various family and friends is hard on us all, but i think quentin is struggling the most. - he keeps asking to go home ("mommy's home, not grandma's home.") we keep telling him that we are staying at grandma's for a little while and then moving to a new house. he definitely has internalized that because he will say, "new house! near lilly! play trains!" but he's still sad. - a few days ago i was reading him a bedtime story. it was a backyardigans book where uniqua is frustrated because she wants to discover something no one's ever discovered before but keeps losing out. Q has become very aware of emotions and pointed to uniqua and noted that she was sad. i asked him why she was sad and he said, "she wants to go home." - then yesterday, i overheard him on the baby monitor as he was waking up from his nap saying, "i don't want to move away. i don't want to move away." and when i went in there to hug him tight, he asked me to see the boys. he heard kids playing in the neighborhood outside and he wanted to play with them. i asked him if he missed his friends and he said yes. - it's breaking my heart :(

mini me

in recent days, quentin has been simultaneously driving me crazy and cracking me up: - he's really starting to mimic us and the things we say. he is always reprimanding the dogs for jumping and barking and the cat for being on the furniture. if he sees it before we do (or if we are just too busy to care about the pets and what they are doing) he gives us this look like, "aren't you going to yell at them? fine i'll do it." - i brought him into the room to put him down for his nap yesterday. caroline was already asleep in the crib in there. Q did not want to sleep so he threw a bunch of toys into the crib to wake up pickle. then, when she started to cry, he said, "no sister. don't cry. go to sleep. nap time." - earlier today he pointed to me and said, "mom, stay here. i drive grave digger to store. i'll be back. good bye."

famous!

quentin made his television debut today. i had sent birthday wishes and a photo of him to sprout. i almost forgot about it, but my mother reminded me. we spent a good chunk of the morning watching and waiting to see if he made it. sorry the video is bad - taking a video of the VHS playback is the best i can do!

the unveiling

the unveiling of Q's big gift. it's a little blair witchy, sorry about that!

happy 3rd birthday quentin!

Q's birthday party was yesterday, here at grandma and grandpa's house. the jumpy house was delivered at 7 a.m. so the fun started very early. Q was a little hesitant about the jumpy house at first but once we forced him in, he loved it. -

pepper octopus

jello aquariums - gummy sharks in blue jello!

the nemo cake

this is supposed to be the jellyfish forest that marlin and dory swim through in the movie. you get the basic idea at least.

quentin decided it was gift time and just started opening his presents

pickle loved "helping"

family bouncing

the kid loves cake

the only way i could get him to smile for a photo was to put frosting on my nose

caroline also likes cake. and jello.

balloons! not afraid this year!

playing in the pool was also fun

"driving" his new gravedigger

i think he had a wonderful day, between the jumpy house, the gravedigger, the presents, the cakes, the pool, and having practically his whole family here. he has talked about it all day today, and keeps singing happy birthday to himself!