barber shop duet

quentin's hair has gotten pretty long over the summer. of course i think it is adorable when it's a little bit long, because he gets curls. but it was definitely getting to the point where even i knew it was time for a trim. i planned to take Q to the supercuts or whatever is here but grandpa really wanted him to go to his barber shop, so that's where we went.

before

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"the deal" - grandpa promised ice cream if Q behaved

thank goodness for monster trucks. that kept us sane (and relatively quiet during the hour and a half wait for the barber.) seriously, an hour and a half after grandpa left us there. for the 4 dudes ahead of us to get their hair cut. and most of these dudes were in the 75+ age category, so that really wasn't that much hair to cut to begin with. and no one else seemed to think this wait was particularly long so this must be the norm. a way for men to avoid women. and take more time than necessary to perform a task. like when they bring reading material into the can. but anyway, i digress. it was a long, long wait for a 3 year old.

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sitting in the chair he had to sit on a weird booster board to make him tall enough

angelo may be a bit slow and methodical with the hair cutting, but he's not dumb. he has a stash of matchbox cars for when the kiddos come. and the matchbox cars may actually be as old as the dudes in the lobby :)

the after. enjoying his hard-earned ice cream cone

so chatty

caroline is picking up words like crazy. this morning, she picked up one of Q's monster trucks, held it up, and said, "the truck" plain as day. i also heard her say both grandma and grandpa very clearly. then after her nap she was toddling in the kitchen and noticed the animal crackers on the counter, pointed, and demanded, "cookie." and in the tub before bedtime, she was "reading" a finding nemo bath book, pointed to dory, and said, "what's that? fish!" she also points at all the cow decor around her and moos.

15 months old!

caroline is 15 months old today! i miss my baby girl but grandma snapped some milestone photos for us. what a big girl!

dirt!

some backyard fun, courtesy of grandma

touch-a-truck plus

last weekend, there was a touch-a-truck at the local children's museum. at first, Q was underwhelmed since there were only a handful of vehicles there. but he seemed not to care once he started running around and climbing on trucks. the construction equipment was a big hit, as usual.

ready for the job

but the biggest hit was this flatbed trailer. he loved running and jumping on it.

and pickle got in on the action too!

posing with uncle matt who joined the truck-touching adventure

breaking and entering?

here's the mail, it never fails, it makes me want to wag my tail

since the touch-a-truck was held behind the children's museum, admission also included free admission to the museum. caroline had a blast. we really liked this children's museum. it was perfect for the toddler set - plenty of stuff even pickle could do.

unleaded

last week, Q's pediatrician called because his lead levels were elevated (8) and they like it to be under 5. so they wanted to do a real venipuncture blood draw to double check. i hauled the boy out to a lab to have his blood drawn. he was a trooper. he sat on my lap and whined a bit when he saw the needle, but then he saw the sticker (band-aid) and didn't even notice that they were drawing blood. results came back and he is just fine.

3 year check-up

quentin went in for his 3-year check-up a couple of weeks ago. we went to his boston-area pediatrician, since we are nowhere near settled in philly. he got a couple of shots and had a finger-prick blood draw. he barely cried because the nurse told him the band-aids were stickers and he really wanted them. his stats, which i think are totally off because Q was messing with the scale thing, making it extremely difficult for her to get a good measurement. height = 38 inches (58th percentile) weight = 37 pounds (89th percentile) after his check-up, we went to a free play at his old gym. he was very happy to see his gym teachers and play in a familiar environment. after the gym we cruised by the old house. i was worried he might flip out and want to go home. but he didn't even notice. he was too busy playing with a monster truck.

job!

so yeah, i haz one. last thursday i received a phone call from an old coworker of mine, offering me a position on his team. i will start in a contract position, while they try to escalate the case to have me hired as a full time employee (they are currently in a hiring freeze, otherwise i would already be a real employee.) he wanted me to start the next monday (i.e. last monday) and we actually figured out a way to make it work, but do to the paperwork required to get me up and running it wasn't feasible from their end. so tomorrow it is. my first real day of work since february 2009. dude.

not chee chee. payder.

after swim class last week, we took a family trip to costco. while we were waiting for my mom to pick up some prescriptions at the pharmacy, i pushed the kids through the electronics section. we were perusing the huge plasma TVs and i said, "whoa quentin, look at these TVs." he looked at me like i head three heads and said, "no mommy. not chee chee. payder." now if you are fluent in Q, you know that a "chee chee" is a TV and a "payder" is a computer. i guess he doesn't understand the evolution of TV technology since we have really lame old enormous TVs. but we do have LCD computer monitors so that's why he thought the sweet TVs were payders.

swim class: take two

week two of swim class went swimmingly :) this week it was jason's turn to be grumpy and quentin was the good kid. he remembered how to kick his feet and just splashed his way around the pool. he really seems to like the class. and miss megan, the teacher. he talks about her a lot.

warning: erratic posting ahead

so things are super crazy. in the past week and a half i have obtained a job, enrolled the kids in a sweet new daycare, and we have found a house to rent. i am way behind in posting. am trying to do a big catch-up prior to hopping in the car to drive down to PA for my first real day of work in 20 months. insane. so expect more craziness from us for a while. sorry.

insomnia and a credit card

are a bad, bad combo.

i found a ton of rare and super cute fabrics online last night so i ordered a little bit of a whole bunch of them. when you put the swatches together like this you almost get a sense of what the quilt will look like!

decorating imaginary rooms

despite the fact that we do not own a house or even have an actual residence, i am continuing to decorate the kids' future bedrooms in my mind, and as a result i buy things.

i got this for Q's room

also got a few of these boxes, thought they would be cute on a shelf or something

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i got a couple of these for pickle's room. they are actually collapsible shopping baskets but i thought they would be great for corralling dolls and stuffed animals

she also got this cool piggy bank, mainly because jack bit her and i thought she deserved something cute. and i decided her bedspread will be a handmade (though probably not by me - hello etsy alchemy!) patchwork quilt. i've started buying cute fabrics, mostly from the remnant pile to use. the yellow hedgehog one in the corner will also probably be the curtains and the teal paisley one will also play some sort of larger role in the room too because i just love it.

shopping is fun.

there's an app for that

i'm trying something new in our attempt to potty train Q. i have a potty app on my phone. you can set potty alarms for any frequency you want and quentin can earn "virtual stickers" for going potty. i would personally rather earn candy and trucks, but i also already know how to use the potty. after one day he seems to like this so we'll see how long it lasts.