guess we are boring dinner conversation

check out that nice shiny new bathroom

oh, and the kid using the potty.

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quentin loves the potty now. he even asks to go sit on it. doesn't stop him from going in his diaper, but this is still miracle progress.

We Found a Pulse

Many 2.5 year olds are potty training or a last showing interest in potty training. Quentin, not so much. A Huggie full of crap does not slow him down. We read an article about signs your child is ready for potty training. They gave a list of 5 things, Quentin was not doing any of them. We've had a little plastic potty for awhile and I tried to get him to use but he just wasn't interested. We recently got one that you can put on the big pot, but we hadn't used it yet. Anywho, after deciding to wear his dinner again, I gave him a tub and afterwards decided I would put him on the little potty that goes on the big potty. He was sitting up there all comfortable and then he starts straining and the next thing I know he's peeing! I was so excited for him and you could tell he was really proud of himself. He now loves going to the potty. I am hoping this means that he'll be potty trained before his sister!

my son, the chef

maybe he's making us dinner?

hodge podge

lots going on we met with our realtor on sunday to talk about getting the house on the market soon. she came back today with comps and a price suggestion. sadly it's not great, but it's on the high side of what we expected so we're ok with it. based on the experience with the last house, we'd rather start lower and sell earlier than languish on the market for more than a year and end up selling low anyway. so the plan is to be on the market by march 1st. we have a few projects to finish up - bathrooms mainly and then a bunch of decluttering and packing to do. there is a shiny POD in our yard just waiting to be packed. it will be fun to trudge through snow to do so. quentin is a disaster these days. he is definitely in that "pushing his boundaries" stage. he gets a big kick out of ignoring us when we say no to something, like throwing his dinner at his sister or similar. and time-outs don't seem to have any impact - he thinks they are funny. his speech is also improving and he's getting more conversational. there may be hope for him yet! we had an interesting (only to me probably) conversation about one of the other kids at daycare. quentin was very concerned that baby charlie was not coming home with us but then he decided it was ok and said, "baby charry go with charry momma home." i think he really digs daycare because every morning when i get him up he asks to see linda. then he asks me if he will see the kids at daycare, "mikey? wyan? breddan? charry? bay-ee?" he's not usually happy when i tell him he's stuck with me for the day. his counting is also improving. he still refuses to acknowledge the existence of the numbers 3 and 4 but i have heard him get as high as twelve otherwise. he likes to count his body parts - "one nose. one, two ears. one, two eyes." (set the bar low, kid!) and his brand loyalty continues to expand... coming home from daycare on tuesday he was pleading for me to stop at "gurgit" (target) because he wanted cookies. normally he says, "no want this" when we pull into a target or other shopping center.

another favorite game

it's called "where cat go?" basically when the cat heads to the cellar via the kitty door, you get down in front of the hole and yell, "where cat go? here kitty kitty." and when the cat comes back, you yell, "cat!! cat!! cat!!"

Q's new toy

Q has become obsessed with holding his sister. he'll climb on the couch next to me when i am nursing her and ask, "preez? sister?" he giggles like crazy when we put caroline on his lap and usually within moments he is shoving her aside to go back to playing. but he almost always comes right back, asking, "preez. more sister?"

squash

the vegetable exploration continues with butternut squash, by far her favorite so far!

do green beans want to go to the party in my tummy?

yes. - caroline tried beans today and LOVED them. this was the first time she did the "baby bird" where she sits with her mouth open waiting for the next spoonful to come her way. -

puff catty

caroline has started her first finger foods. she really likes the peach-flavored gerber puffs. she is pretty good at picking them up, but can't always get them into her mouth. she concentrates really intently on picking them up and makes the cutest face when she gets one in. -

these apples are delicious

after eating some more peas for dinner, caroline tried apples for the first time tonight. she liked them much more than peas! but she really wanted to eat the baked pasta we were eating :)

peas please

our exploration of solid food continues. today caroline tried peas. i actually made my own baby food - i've made green beans and peas so far. it was so easy - i am mad that i didn't so this for Q. -

caroline shows just how messy one can get while eating peas

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- and the big boy isn't much cleaner after his pizza

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caroline really seems to like sitting at the table with us. i think quentin is a little jealous that she's in the high chair though. he never got territorial when she moved into his old room or his crib, but he seems somewhat sad that she's in the chair.

save the rainforest

tonight we attended a "meet the rainforest" night at the elementary school. i saw it advertised in the newspaper and they said there would be a monkey. Q has been a big monkey fan lately so we figured it might be worth the $10. for 2 hours, we got to sit on the floor of the gymnasium with a few hundred of our townsfolk which made the place so warm, it felt like we were actually in the rainforest. it ended up being much better than we expected - worth the cash and the sore rumps. -

quentin awaits the start of the show

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the scarlet macaw - i know this from go diego go

this one freaked quentin out. it was the first animal to come out and it flew out into the gym and circled the crowd. i don't think he was expecting that!

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another macaw named kelly -

- python!

the dude had some kids volunteer to come up on stage and then the crew brought this guy out. the guy then said, "ooh this guy's getting angry" and the little boy holding the head flipped out. too funny. then he explained how pythons suffocate their prey and asked if anyone wanted to volunteer to demonstrate that - most of the kids in attendance raised their hands. -

- quentin's reaction to the enormous snake - - the python being naughty based on the guy's reaction, i don't think the snake's antics were planned -

- gators! -

- as Q said, "big gator" -

- kinkajous - another critter we've seen diego save on nick jr.

they are not monkeys. but they were close enough for Q. -

- a serval - a creepy vicious cat thing -

- and what we came for... the capuchin monkey... drinking from a sippy cup

quentin immediately reached for his cup so he could drink like the monkey -

- and caroline was there! -

movin' on up

quentin has graduated to the booster seat at the dinner table (for the most part) so now caroline gets to sit in the high chair. she seems to dig it.

truck, where are you?

quentin brought a monster truck (his new one from daddy) upstairs a few minutes ago when we went up for a diaper change. he forgot to bring it back down because he got distracted by an empty coke bottle he wanted to put in the garbage. now he is walking in circles around the house saying, "truck, where are you?"

My Day with Boy

Today, the bathroom tile was getting re-glazed. Since Tuesday is not a daycare day and dudes were going to be wreaking havoc in our home we decided it might be a good day to have Quentin out of the house as adding a terror to dudes wreaking havoc is a recipe for not good outcome. So, we signed him up for daycare at Mass General. We didn't need to be there until 830 so with my ticket to HOV lane in tow we took off at about 730, FYI Hanson to Boston during AM rush hour without the HOV lane cannot be done in an hour. We pulled out of the driveway and I started rocking out to some old-school Metallica (For Whom the Bell Tolls for those interested) and to what should I see in the back seat but my 2.5 year old son banging his head to the beat just like his dad. I was so proud. Since we were two dudes rocking out on our way to Boston, we stopped and got some Munchkins from Quentin's favorite establishment, Dunkin Donuts. Another FYI, there are about five to choose from on our route to the highway, more if you are willing to take very minor detours. This of course started to incessant "no-nucks" (aka donuts in the Lexicon of Quentin), "a-more" (more, duh), and "PLEASE." The kid can polish of some donuts. On the radio station I listen to, they are qualifying people for a wing eating contest. Basically they are coming into studio and trying to eat some god-awful amount of food in 90 to seconds to qualify for the wing contest. People were trying to eat a bag of cheesy-poofs, 10 Popeye's chicken legs, 50 pieces of sushi (from the grocery store = high quality). Do you think I could qualify if I said my 2.5 year old could eat 10 Munchkins in 90 seconds, sadly I think he could. Once on the highway he got to point to all the "big trucks" while I got to point and laugh at all the suckers in gridlock while we coasted down the HOV. The rest of the drive was pretty boring. Once we got to daycare they had a water table set up. Within 5 seconds he was up to his elbows in water and his security blanket was sleeping with the fishes. I tried to pick him up to say goodbye but he got hysterical because he had to check out all the new toys so I said goodbye and went off to my morning lectures. After a thrilling three hours, I had to head north to Revere to basically pass out Plan B to a bunch of promiscuous teenage girls who wisely did not want to be on the next season of Teen Mom. After handing out my last box of Plan B to a girl who didn't use condoms because of some issue with latex and just didn't like the feel of non-latex I headed back to the general to pick up the boy. He seemed to have a good day and to my surprise they told me he napped on a mat on the floor. I still cannot comprehend this. He sleeps in a packandplay at daycare and most of the time at home when we put him down for naps he plays in his room for an hour before finally deciding to nap. Even as I write this I can't believe that he napped on a mat. For part of his afternoon snack they gave him water to which he responded, "No want that." I think the ship has sailed on him drinking water. He is a juice drinker, but we dilute the holy hell out of it. However, he recently has become a little more picky and will refuse to drink it if he feels we have over-diluted it simply saying, "No want that." When we got to the car, daddy had a surprise for his little buddy, a Grave Digger monster truck. Needless to say, he loved it. We are not sure how but he is already calling it "Digger." Neither of us really drilled it into his head that the truck was called Grave Digger but somehow he knew. The car ride home was full of more requests for "no-nucks." I had a fun day with my little HOV pass.