monster jammies

these new jammies from aunt becky arrived just in time for pajama day at school. now every time i ask him what he wants to wear to school, he says "monster jammies!"

quentin in trenton

back in january, we left pickle with the norcross clan and brought Q to trenton, nj for monster jam. we splurged the $5 extra for pit party passes so we got to get on the track before the show and see all the trucks and drivers. Q was in heaven.

to make it even more perfect, he got to play with his toy trucks on an actual monster jam course. notice that there were several little boys doing so. even more fortunate was that this section of the course coincided with the line to have your picture taken with gravedigger and its driver. we waited while he played. perfect.

i think Q was overwhelmed because he got shy all of a sudden.

but atleast he smiled with daddy!

we are familiar with taz the monster truck. but not with this paint job. and Q has not stopped talking about "red taz" since.

eradicator. never heard of him.

full boar. he may have this one in his potty toy box. not sure.

we know backdraft. though it is known only as "firetruck" in our house.

shockwave

waiting for the show to start with his new donkey kong truck.

the cotton candy was green and purple and came with this awesome gravedigger hat

racing time

and then he crashed. still clutching the cotton candy. little boy heaven.

The charmer

Q is still insisting on getting cuddled to sleep. I was laying in his bed with him tonight when he put his hand on my shoulder and said, "mommy, you are a good friend."

Awwww.

sentences and other chatter

caroline has started speaking simple sentences.  some recent examples include:

 

• "bubbles pop!"
• "neenee poop outside." (neenee is tini the dachshund)

 

she's also forming more complex, but verb-less thoughts like, "wuhwine tissue nose." (i.e. caroline needs a tissue for her nose.)

 

and she loves talking about her friends at school: ninnie (annie), ry-ry (riley), ty-ty (tyler), nat-nat (natalie), max (uh, max), ee-a (liya), zee (ramsey), and co (cole).  she knows the rest of her school friends too but hasn't attempting saying their names – and it's understandable – they are ethan,jackson, briston, and evangeline.

call me wuhwine

pickle knows her name.  she is wuhwine.

Holy crap!

Q has done it.

Pooped on the potty.

Twice today.

Lamest posting month ever

Ugh. I am sorry.  I have a backlog of eleventy billions posts to put up, with photos from Christmas, not one but two Monster Jam trips, Valentine's Day, our house, an aquarium trip, and all kinds of other stuff but we are severely hampered in our posting ability right now because:

 

• Computer #1 while actually hooked up to the internet is from 2003 so it                is            so              slow             it              can't                 handle                it
• Despite (or because of?) a brand new router and a brand new wireless adapter, Computer #2 cannot connect to the internet via our wireless network for some inexplicable reason (Matt!  Help!)
• Netbook is out of commission because the cat chewed through the power cord (his cord tally this month consists of 2 iPhone chargers, the netbook cord, an extension cord, and the cord to my alarm clock -  how has he not been electrocuted??)
• iPhones are good for text posts but not photo ones
• Cannot blog on work computer

 

I fear a new computer is the only solution but that is $$$ I don't have…

Southpaw

Oh, and based on all the "aht" we've been doing recently, I think it's fair to say that Pickle is a lefty.

Pick-asso

Since Monday was a holiday for both work and daycare, the kids and I went on a Target adventure.  The Valentine's Day merchandise was already down to 90% off so of course I had to check it out.  There were some cute valentines that were Olivia the pig and monster trucks (favorites of Pickle and Q respectively.)  I figured we could use them in "art" projects or something – at 10 cents for a pack, how could I not?!?!  Jeremy was on call that day/night so I needed to amuse the kids for the rest of the day by myself anyway.  We talked about doing art all morning and I told Q we would do it after nap time.  As soon as he got up from his nap, he asked about art but his sister was still sleeping.  All through dinner prep and dinner consumption, Q kept talking about art.  And Caroline kept exclaiming, "Aht!"

 

So finally after dinner Monday night, I cleared the table and set out construction paper, markers, crayons, stickers, glue, the 90% off valentines, and some leftover bits and pieces from our Valentine making (I'll blog that eventually – posts involving photos are still a challenge.)  Q was excited so Pickle was excited, even though she didn't know what was going on.  Quentin literally put two entire sheets of heart stickers on a piece of construction paper, then asked me to glue a couple of monster truck valentines to it.  And then he checked out.

 

But Pickle… she made 6 or 7 sheets worth.  She'd color with the crayons and markers and then ask for and point to the accessories she wanted to use – she used everything – stickers, die cuts, Olivia valentines, monster truck valentines.  She was very specific about which sticker or valentine she wanted, and she knew right where she wanted to stick them.  And she knew when each piece was complete – she would push it away and say, "done!" and then ask for more paper.

 

So, as I was cleaning off the table from dinner last night, Caroline starting chanting, "Aht!  Aht!  Aht!"  And she cranked out a few more masterpieces.  She followed it up with making me write the letter C over and over again, with every single crayon and marker, until we filled up two more sheets just with Cs.

 

We may have a new nightly ritual on our hands.  Anyone need some custom aht?

Some quotable Quentin

Driving past a Red Lobster:

Q:        Look!  A crab!

Me:      That's a lobster.

Q:        A lobster is a crab… who can fly.

 

In the car, completely out of the blue:

Q:        Mommy, what do alligators eat?

Me:      Do you think they eat fish?

Q:        No

Me:      Do you think they eat birds?

Q:        No

            brief pause

Q:        Dogs don't eat pie.  They eat dog food.  And bones.

 

Picking him up at daycare yesterday:

"No mommy.  Go back to work!"

Hockadon

As we were getting out of the car this morning, Q was pointing behind me and saying, "Look! A hockodon! A hockadon."  Since it helps to look for some context when trying to translate Q into English, I turned around to see what the heck he could be talking about.  But didn't see anything that I could even remotely consider close to hockadon, just the road and a couple of office buildings.  But he was insistent and kept repeating, "a hockadon!  A hockadon!"  Finally, he said, "it's red. It has S and T and O and P."

 

Octagon.

A comedian in our midst

So one morning last week at daycare, I was helping Q go pee on the potty as is our new first-thing-we-do-when-we-get-there-because-we-wear-big-boy-underpants-now ritual. After taking care of #1 business, he tore off an exceptionally long piece of toilet paper and wiped his butt (??? Just go with it, he's an odd kid!) but the TP got stuck between his cheeks. Perplexed, he turned his head to check it out and exclaimed, "look mommy! I have a flag like Bigfoot!"

Vocab

More to add to Caroline's list:

Clock
Night night
Outside
Hat
Bag
Coat
Nice
Lilly
Ginny
Love you
Cup
Door

Sorry if there are duplicates from previous lists. I can't remember anymore!

A mind of her own

Let the battles begin. Caroline is no longer content to just go along with Quentin. She has discovered that she is entitled to her own preference.

So when Q tells me he wants to watch a video and I ask him which one, he usually replies with some monster truck based selection. She used to be cool with whatever, but now Pickle votes for "Memo" (Elmo.) Every time.

Information retention

In short, Quentin is getting too good at it.  He hears and remembers EVERYTHING.

 

A few weeks ago, Jeremy and I were watching Tosh.0 (Comedy Central show where comedian plays funny YouTube videos and we all laugh) on TV while the kids played.  There was a clip of a boxer who big-time hurled while being proclaimed the winner of a bout.  Q saw it.  Thought it was hysterical.  He could relate, having gotten sick in the driveway a few months ago.  And ever since, he been saying repeatedly, "He sick. He no go to the potty."

 

He knows his monster truck videos by heart, including the commercials that air on the ones we recorded from TV.  He also can name just about every monster truck, and is working on being able to name the drivers too.

 

And a while ago, he noticed that I have a giant scab on my elbow.  He asked me, "Mommy, how you get boo boo?"  And I stupidly told him the truth.  Mommy fell down at the airport.  (Yeah, not something I am proud of.  After deplaning in Philadelphia a few weeks ago, I was walking towards baggage claim and wiped out on the super-slippery floors.  This was not a simple stumble.  This was a big-time slo-mo, arms flailing, bags flying catastrophe.  I felt my shoe start to slip and I tried to steady myself, but I failed miserably.  I went flying forward, getting tangled in my luggage and smacked the floor.  HARD.  Like I didn't just slip and get a little squirrely.  This was full-out laying face-down on the floor.  Both my knees hurt so bad I could barely get up, the friction from thwacking the floor melted whatever synthetic material my pants were made of, and I scraped my elbow somehow.  My knees still hurt two weeks later.  And of course this is in a busy airport so there were like a million people that saw the whole calamity.  One lady did come over to make sure I was ok and help me up.  But the rest just stared, and probably laughed at me.  I bet it was funny to watch.  I totally would have laughed.  Hopefully no one happened to catch it on camera.  Note to self: check YouTube for crazy falling lady at airport.)  But anyway, so he noticed my boo boo right after it happened and we have not discussed it since.  This morning, his teacher asked him if he had a good weekend and he replied, "Yes!  Mommy fell down at the airport!"

She don't stop

Since I got her at daycare she has added the following to the list:

Mine
Me
Yucky
Door
Floor

More!

Pickle's list of words continues to grow.  She loves books and being read to, so we have been flipping through some of those "baby's first words" types of picture books and she continues to amaze with the words that she already knows:

 

Bowl

Apple

Circle

Snow

Elmo

Bear

Jessie (from Toy Story)

Phone

Choo Choo

Nemo

Cereal

Notice a lot of her words are food-related???

Underpants

Quentin is on day 6 of wearing underpants during waking hours (pull-ups for naps and overnight) with no accidents!  He is very, very good about going pee on the potty.  School even taught him to pee standing up.  We have not managed a poop yet though.  He is now in the middle of his 2^nd consecutive 3-day poop strike.  He does NOT want to go on the potty, nor does he want to go in his underpants.  So he holds it.  He held it all day Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday and finally pooped while sleeping Tuesday night.  It's now Friday, so he has got to have to go again.  But no amount of bribery or praise seems to motivate him.  We have upped the ante and said he can have 2, even 3, trucks for going poop on the potty.  Daddy even mumbles that he can have the whole darn box of trucks if he goes, but he's just not interested.  Oh well.  We will just enjoy the underpants success for now!

The list grows

I forgot several of Caroline's words.  Since I typed the list, I have remembered:

 

Milk

Cookie

Yummy

This

Here you go

Truck

The sweetness

Q is 3.  He can be a holy terror, but he has also the sweetest demeanor sometimes.  We are getting settled in the house and every time we do some sort of decorating (painting the walls, putting up curtains, etc.) he says, "Mommy!  It's Beautiful!!" like he is seeing the Mona Lisa or something.  And he hasn't learned to lie yet.  Often, I'll be in the kitchen getting dinner ready and I will hear Caroline cry in the other room.  When I go out to there to see what's going on, Quentin will say something like, "I hit sister."  And when we tell him to apologize to his sister, he takes hold of her hand and looks her right in the eye and says, "I'm so sorry sister." in the most concerned tone.  And then he gives her a big hug.  Precious.

words, words, words

Caroline is a chatterbox.  We don't remember Q being anywhere even close to this verbal at this age.  But she's nowhere near as physically active as he was.  I guess that's the difference between boys and girls.

 

Pickle knows some sign language.  Her teachers at school have taught them the basics: please, thank you, more, and all done.  She uses them all the time, and as she has gotten braver verbally she uses the sign and the word at the same time.  She regularly uses a bunch of other words too:

 

Hi

Hello

Bye

Yes

No

Mommy

Daddy

Doggy

Woof

Kitty

Meow

Puppy (her lovey – pink puppy)

Fishy

Goat

Cow

Moo

Pig

Duck

Mouse (yeah – we're totally addicted to peekaboo barn on mommy's phone)

Juice

Crackers

Chicken

Chips

Pizza

Cheese (the food and what you say when you get your picture taken)

Spoon

Shoe

Sock

Belly

Book

Car

Ball

Kiss

Baby

Uh oh

Stuck!

Poopy

Bug

Flower

 

She knows to how to nod her head to say yes and no.  She points to her diaper and tells us when she's pooped.  Heck they other day, she pointed to the polka dots on her crib bedding and exclaimed, "circle!"

 

And I know there's more I can't even remember!

Was that a tumbleweed??

We're still here.  I have a huge backlog of photos and posts to put up, but time and computer access are severely hindering my ability to do so.  I could sacrifice more of the 4-5 hours of sleep I get to post them, but that's probably not such a good idea.  I will catch up eventually.

QQ to-go

Quentin is so full of verbal randomness that I can never remember everything that makes me laugh. So rather than try to remember all the quotable Quentin for a massive blog post, I will leverage this cool email post feature and post it as it happens. So here it is, the first QQ to-go:

While changing his diaper:
"my butt ouch me."

Sent from my iPhone

Silly girl

Caroline is currently emptying the contents of my purse on to the toddler arm chair in the living room. Only challenge is that my purse is two rooms away in the kitchen.

She putters to the kitchen grabs one item from my purse, putters back to the chair to drop it off, and then heads back for more. My purse is full of junk, I mean stuff, so she has already made 15-20 trips back and forth. And she thinks she is doing something bad so she's got the cutest devious grin.

Peek at pickle's room

I ordered this awesome wall decal from etsy for caroline's room. The ladybugs and flowers will be the same color as the photo but the tree will be black to match her crib and changing table. Very excited to see it in person! Pics of her room will be coming once the decal and some other finishing touches are done!

Baha boy

Oh yeah, he also sings "who let the dogs out? Woof woof woof woof." it accompanies a Monster Mutt monster truck video on YouTube that he watches often.

poconuts

I forgot my truly favorite-est Quentin song of late.  I think his class must sing a funny version of "Itsy Bitsy Spider" where they purposefully replace words with fruit to make it silly.  He is always singing:  "Itsy, bitsy spider went up the water poconuts."  Then he pauses, grins the silliest grin, and says, "Poconuts?!?!?!"  Sometimes he continues the song replacing other words with bananas, apples, etc. (in case you hadn't picked up on it, a poconut is a coconut.)  I always tell him he's a poconut.

Frezants!

I wish my phone took better pics but I still love his expression

Girly girl

Loves her baby dolls!

What a mess.

the singing Q

Quentin loves to sing and is learning all kinds of songs at school.

 

He sings the good morning song to everyone, anyone, and anything.  It's to the tune of "Farmer in the Dell" and when he sings it sounds like:

 

"A morning Mommy.  A morning mommy.  Fro fra frah freere fraday.  A morning mommy."

 

Translation: "Good morning, mommy.  Good morning, mommy.  So glad you're here today.  Good morning, mommy."

 

Then there's the "Twinkle, twinkle little star" and alphabet remix.  He'll start with "Pwinkle, pwinkle, wittle star.  How I," and then I think he confuses it with the "now I" end part of the ABCs because he'll continue, "know my ABCs, next time won't you sing with me."

 

And speaking of the alphabet… he knows it.  I've heard him do it.  But recently he's started mixing it up a bit to be more to his liking.  He really likes the letters "H" and "O" so when he gets to "H" he will sing repeatedly, "H and O, H and O…" and then eventually pick back up, until he gets to my favorite part: "O, P, choo choo ess, choo choo vee."

 

There must be a "days of the week" song that has an accompanying dance, because he will also sing (like a broken record): "The days of the week. Hop, hop.  The days of the week.  Hop, hop."

 

And the best…

 

There's a Grave Digger monster truck video he watches on YouTube all the time that is set to George Thorogood's "Bad to the Bone."  I often hear him singing his version of it (which is so off that I can't even type what it sounds like.)  But you know what it is due to the enthusiastic, "bad to the bone" chorus.

Hockadoodledoo and other Q-randomness

He's been full of it lately.  I guess he's picking it up at school, but he just says and does the funniest things these days.  And I need to get better about posting these as they happen.  Having a home computer set up might help.  Consider it a new year's resolution.  And maybe I will locate my camera too.  It's good to have goals.

 

As I was merging on to the highway after leaving daycare last week, in a super serious and kinda bossy tone:

"Mommy, be careful.  Don't hit the cars.  Don't hit the trucks.  Be careful."

 

He is also monster-crazy.  He still talks about Lilly's "monster kitty" and our next door neighbors have a "monster doggy" (a super friendly lab.)  He loves to pretend there are monsters in his room, closet, on his train table, in the kitchen, where ever.  He'll say, "Mommy, I scared. Monster in the (fill in the blank.)"  Then, because he's gotten used to me responding with it, he'll say, "Monster.  Get out!  No monsters allowed in the (fill in the blank.)"

 

Yesterday, we had our family Christmas, mainly so we don't have to lug all their gifts up to Massachusetts and then bring them right back.  (Especially considering their main gift was a play kitchen!)  Each gift he opened, he asked, as he started tearing the wrapping paper, "Is it a monster truck?" Oh. No."  It was a sad affair, I guess, because we did not give him any monster trucks.

 

He has also taken to sleeping in his closet.  It is not a large closet, mind you.  It's a typical 1920s house closet, like the size of a coat closet these days.  He has curl up in a ball to even fit in there.  But he insists on having his pillow pet and his blankets in there.  We tuck him in, and then once he has fallen asleep, we go back in and move him to his bed.  It's better than what we've been doing for the past month though.  He had been insisting that once of us cuddle with him every night, which basically means one of us falls asleep in his bed with him while the other one is stuck making lunches, feeding dogs, doing laundry, and all the other household chores.

 

When we are in our living room on the couch, he will shut the lights off and tell us its time for bed.  He'll make one of us lie down on the couch and then bring us a monster truck to "cuddle" with.  It is then expected that that person pretend to fall asleep.  Once Q is sufficiently happy with the fake sleeper, he'll tip toe over to the other one of us and ask if he can "hockadoodledoo".  He then gets in the sleeper's face and yells, "HOCKADOODLEDOO!"  Then repeat this like 8 times in a row.  It doesn't get old.

Mission accomplished

All year, when life was sucking a big one, I kept sane by telling myself it would be ok by Christmas and I would have a tree. Well, things didn't go as well as we hoped and we are still living out of suitcases, but we have a tree dammit. Decorated even. Take that, life.

Old Mother Hubbard went to her cupboard...

To get her poor dog a bone.
When she got there, the cupboard was bare. Well, if you don't count the toddler and the giant bear full of animal crackers.

I didn't do it. I swear.

Silly goose

At least...

One of them is smiling

loves the brocky

Ready to go, Daddy!

Edited to add (since my supposedly "smart" phone only sees fit to include the text of my phone posts 50% of the time.) Daddy took Q to get his hair cut. Pickle stayed home with me. It was quiet, too quiet, so I went to see where she disappeared to. I found her like this, waiting for daddy to come back in and put her coat on too.

vaca sagrada!

for the past few days, quentin has been singing something unrecognizable.  at first i thought he was just making it up but he kept signing the same incoherent syllables so i knew it had to be "something".  yesterday in the car on the way home, i figured it out… he's singing the days of the week… in spanish.  good work, preschool.