attention IKEA customers:

do not use your IKEA high chair in this manner:

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or this one:

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- and not this way either:

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- don't do this: - - nor this: -

- seriously? don't so this either: -

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how have we not made more trips to the ER with this kid???

turkey day

quentin enjoys his thanksgiving feast of bread, peas, and half a can of cranberry sauce. what a weird kid.

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caroline all dolled up for the day. she did not have any turkey either, though someone was sneaking her some whipped cream.

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monster (truck) mania

quentin is OBSESSED with monster trucks. he associates our laptop with monster trucks because we sometimes watch monster truck videos from youtube on it. this morning he brought me the laptop and said insistently, "TRUCKS." we've done this enough times that i knows "the good ones" (i.e. the longer ones with lots of truck action.) i put one of the long videos on to amuse him while i attended to miss caroline. Q brought his favorite monster truck over and was playing with it on and around the video. so darling. please don't judge me for my filthy house. or the fact that i buy moments of peace with monster truck videos. :) -

5 months old!

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caroline is 5 months old today! she's getting so big. strong too. and she adores her big brother. it's been super hard to nurse her whenever he's around, because she doesn't want to focus on eating when she can watch what Q is doing. she's a big talker too, cooing and experimenting with all kinds of sounds. no teeth yet (surprising since Q has a whole mouth full by this age!) and we're wondering if her eyes are going to stay this bluish gray color. Q's were already brown by this point.

and she's off...

caroline loves to play on the floor now. a comfy blanket to lay on and a sprinkling of infant toys are all it takes to amuse her for at least a few minutes. she's also an expert roller now. she has taken to barrel rolling so she needs to be watched like a hawk. you turn around for a minute and she rolls right to your feet! she's also trying desperately to get up on all fours, so i am sure crawling won't be too far behind. here's some pics from some floor time last week. it's too bad the little mirror toy has so many grubby fingerprints all over it because it would have been an awesome photo otherwise! -

hair cut!

quentin's hair was long enough again to justify his 3rd ever haircut. he was pretty wiggly this time. the hair-cutting lady at the pricey just-for-kids cartoon-themed hair place was rather surly this time so i can't say i blame him. here he also enjoys the heck out of his lunch - "pa-pie" a.k.a. pizza. you may also notice a bit of swelling and bruising on his nose - the result of a gym class accident on saturday. but man, does he love this pizza. -

just because

the sweetest thing ever

i picked quentin up from day care yesterday. while i was trying to wrestle him into his coat, one the of the other moms got there to pick her baby, who is a couple of weeks younger than caroline. Q saw the other mom putting baby charlie into his car seat and starting flipping out. he started crying, "no! no! sister! sister! no! no!" caroline was safely in her seat behind me, but Q didn't see her, so i think he thought the other mom was trying to take his sister home. he immediately calmed down once i showed him where his baby sister was. so sweet. and much different than the hitting phase we went through!

tummy time

for some reason, caroline prefers lounging on a blanket on the floor to any baby-occupying device. and even the blanket is only good for a few minutes, then it is time to be held some more! but hey, she's cute. -

- hey! watch me roll! -

- see! -

- yeah, i did it. -

snippets

some cute moments from the past few weeks: - quentin put his two monster trucks side by side on the coffee table and said, "race!" and then pushed them both to make them race across the table. -

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- while watching a nascar race with grandma, quentin kept exclaiming, "wheel! wheel! wheel!" just like he does when we're out driving, except that he must have said it like 30 times in a row because there were so many cars. -

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- quentin is very perplexed by autumn. he keeps pointing to the naked trees, saying, "all gone!" -

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- he continues to be obsessed with jumping. now he will stand on the couch, wanting to jump off. but he knows he will fall and hurt himself if he makes the jump himself, so he asks, "i jump?" and holds out his arm until you grab his hand so he can make the jump safely. -

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- quentin also "jumps" up the stairs to his room, on all fours, saying, "ribbit" with each hop.

english-to-quentin, quentin-to-english dictionary

quentin's verbal skills are really coming along, though we probably only understand half of what he says (and outsiders can probably discern only 25% or so.) he loves to talk and is very proud at himself when he has learned a new word. he also gets very frustrated when he repeats the same word or sentence over and over but we can't tell what he's saying. i've got to give him credit, though. he just keeps trying and eventually we understand what he is saying and then we can help him get closer to the actual word. - here are a few of our favorite of Q's recent (mis) pronunciations: - aa dun = upside down aat = hat ahhhpool = apple anana = banana boo = bird bopp = poop buddy = blueberry buttin - pine cone dock = sock dupp = jump kyeck = cake melmo = elmo mullk = milk poompoon = pumpkin wiff = leaf - he also loves to play with his toy kitchen and our shelf full of cook books, announcing, "i cooking!"

truly amazing!

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we now have 4 of 4 major kitchen appliances installed and functional!!!!

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the stove took 4 attempts over the past week, but after exchanging the original one for one an inch and a half shorter, it's in with not a millimeter to spare. we also still have the old fridge chillaxing in our dining room until we get the chance to haul it to the cellar, but at least we can use our kitchen again!!! next project... painting the cabinets and probably the faux brick back splash.

pack animals

tonight i stepped out of the room to fill Q's sippy cup with milk. i came back in to find this: - - quentin just cuddled right up to caroline who was enjoying some rolling time on the floor. so cute.

2 out of 3 ain't bad

best buy's installers came today to do the stove, microwave, and dishwasher. you may remember that i was concerned if these would actually fit. impressively, the dishwasher is in with no problems. it was very tight, but fortunately our 50 year old counter tops have a little bit of give in them and they could lift them up enough to shove the dishwasher in. while doing the dishwasher, the guy actually noticed that the drain pipe was rusted through and there was a massive dime-sized hole in it. he fixed that for us, no charge! they installed the microwave with no problems. before they did, they measured the microwave and said that this is the one of smallest one microwaves out there, so if the stove didn't fit it would be easier to find a shorter stove than find a smaller microwave. surprise, surprise. the stove is about 1/8" too tall. the photo above shows that the stove can't be pushed all the way back because it hits the bottom part of the microwave. grrrr. if it didn't have a switch to turn on the oven light on the top of the back splash, it would probably fit. fortunately (at least so far, we'll see how this actually plays out) best buy makes it pretty easy to exchange appliances so we picked out a range that is 1.5 inches shorter, though ~$50 more expensive. we're just waiting for them to call us with a delivery date to bring the new one here and take this current one away.

lounging around, watching nemo

this is the face of a boy

who does not feel well

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so pathetic. but he seemed much better after a good nap!