What we're saying ...

It's become clear. Quinny is talking - she just isn't talking to me.
While in Kentucky Mom reported she had a lot of words to say. "I want a snack". "Milk"
The other day when I picked up Q from school I left C in the car (other mom's were outside standing guard). I was carrying Quinn out of the building - she clearly said "Where's sis?"
Last night she was trying to say Christmas Tree.

Maybe if I didn't keep her constantly on my hip, allowing me to see what she wants because I am sharing her line of vision, then she'd have a need to use words. Oh well - I kind of like having her close by!

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Last night over dinner, we were talking about what people do.

Cora: Mommy you are the teacher and the college students are the students.
Me: That's right. Mommy is a teacher.
Cora: No! You are a Prof-ess-OR

We went on to talk about which of her friends had mommy and daddy professors (she goes to the College's daycare, so half of the kids in her class have professors for parents). Then, we had to talk about what everyone else does.

The boys' mom helps people learn to talk.
The boys' daddy is a teacher.
Miss Mandi is a dentist.
Miss Jenny is a lawyer ("Her office is next to yours, right mommy?").
Uncle Shew is an eye doctor.

Me: What does daddy do?
Cora: He makes money.
Me: He does, but that is because he is an engineer.
Cora: THAT'S RIGHT!!! HE gets the buggies out of people's ears! That's what engineers do... Right mommy?

Why are we not going to Mia and Papaws house?

We're (slowly) making our way to Kentucky. Every stop we make, Cora protests that she wants to go to Mia and Papaws house.

For example...

Cora: where are we?

Me: we're at daddy's work to pick him up.

Cora: but I want to go to Mia and Papaws house.

Another...

Cora: where are we?

Landon: at Wendy's

Cora: but I want to eat at Mia and Papaws house!

Landon just came out of a nowhere exit's BP. He'd had trouble paying, and had to go inside several times. He bought a lottery ticket; when he handed it to me, he declared he was determined to turn that horrible place into our millions.

Landon: I was going BONkERS!

Cora: Noooooooo! But I want to go to Mia and Papaw's house!!!

Horses in belly

Cora, Quinn, and I have been bouncing around a cold for a few weeks. Cora had rough coughs, I had a raspy voice for a week, and Quinn's nose ran constantly. A lot of people have commented about the way we sound. 

I guess Cora's been thinking about all of these comments.

Today Cora was talking to Grandma Iris.

"I've had to cough a long time to get the horse out of my belly".

Earlier She said to Landon, "I don't want to take my medicine; I'll just keep the horse in my belly."

Princess Grandma M

A few weeks ago, Landon went to St. Louis to meet up with Tim and see Grandma M.
He brought back two special rocks from his childhood (I know--- And he calls me nerdy). One was an old smooth sandstone; the other a real living sponge.
Tonight Landon and I were putting away clothes, rearranging drawers, [pulling Christmas decor from the attic... Quinn was already asleep. Cora was in bed, but ritualistically up every few minutes to make sure we were still there.
When Landon found the rocks, he went in to show her. She was super sleepy.
He told her these were rocks Grandma M brought to him when he was a little boy.
She must have asked where she got them.
For the sponge, he said she got them from the bottom of the ocean.
She didn't quiet get it, so he explained further...

Landon: Cora, you know, the bottom of the ocean. Like where Ariel lives.
Cora: (sleepily) When she was a little girl Grandma M was a princess?

Quinn is jumping

Two feet, entirely off the ground, jumping.
November 20, 2013
Some day I'll fill in the baby book.

So much for empathy...

Last week, I was shocked when Dr. Candy (the ECDC Director) commented that the teachers were impressed by Cora's ability to empathize for her age. "My Cora? She's not empathetic with her sister... are you sure this is right?"

Don't think I'm starting to brag. Clearly she isn't empathetic to the needs of Mommy. For example...

In today's email update we learned that they read a book on thankfulness, then each suggested something he/she was thankful for to write on leaves to attach to the "thankful tree" in their classroom. Over dinner tonight, I brought it up.

Me: (really excited) Cora, I heard from your teacher that you read a book about being thankful.
Cora: Yep.
Me: What are you thankful for?
Cora: (blank stare)
Me: What did you tell your teacher you were thankful for?
Cora: (dead pan and matter-of-fact) lollipops
Me: Is that what you told your teacher? What did you write on your leaf for the thankful tree?
Cora: Just my lollipops. That's it. That's what I'm thankful for.

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On a different note, Cora and I had one of the most rewarding convos I've had as a mother (thus far).

We were on our way to school when Cora announced, "We forgot to say HI to Jesus yesterday at church"
I tried to explain that Jesus is everywhere so we can just say hi now. I'll admit, the conversation started as a way to curb a meltdown (have you ever seen that website about "Reasons my 2 year old cries" with irrational things that cause meltdowns? I didn't want our daily meltdown to be about not specifically saying "hi" to Jesus yesterday at church).

I won't even try to go into the whole conversation. It would just cheapen the memory. It's suffice to say that the convo continued through dropping Quinny off at school, all the way back through Mt. Pleasant and into downtown, and took some crazy tangents ("But WHERE is he in this car?" "No, the doctor made my heart Mommy" "Once, at our old house, a raccoon died, too".; "I think I see a boy over there walking on water") and apparently continued into bedtime with daddy ("We build bridges so that we can walk on water too and our feet don't get wet, right daddy?").

Teaching little souls what is good is a really tough job!

Quinn: 20 Month Update

The most mind-boggling thing of my life right now is that Quinn is the same age that Cora was when Quinn was a newborn. She's still such a baby!




When I first got pregnant with Quinn, a lot of people commented that Cora wouldn't get to be a baby for long. Up until the moment when I realized Quinn was the same age as Cora when Quinn was born, I didn't understand that.

We've been so happy that we had these two back-to-back. They are already great friends, will only be one grade apart at school (maybe two; it's still up for debate), and now, I don't even have to put the hand-me-downs away. When Cora outgrows it, Quinn pretty much is able to walk right into it (Quinn is tall and Cora is average, so Quinn isn't that far behind in height). Cora is such a protector of Quinn.

However, now that Quinn is the age that Cora was when Quinn was a newborn - I totally get why people commented that Cora would miss out on being a baby. When I look at Cora's pics, I can see it - she was a baby! When I think back to what I expected her to be able to do, I sure didn't treat her like a baby. When Cora was 16 months old, I had her going up and down the stairs on her own (I was full-term pregnant, THEN I had a little bitty baby to carry). When Cora was this age, I had her playing by herself while I did most of everything, including nurse a baby. When Cora was this age, we were definitely using time-out consistently. Poor Quinn! She'll never develop discipline. Quinn gets put in timeout only when she does something violent to Cora (pull her hair), and Cora demands justice (Quinn symbolically gets timeout).

Quinny is attached to my hip. As long as we are in our house, she wants to be everywhere I am. While I cook, she wants to be on my hip. While I do laundry, she wants to be on my hip. While I get dressed in the morning, she wants to be on my hip. I have to coax her down in order to take a shower. It's a wonder that she walks at all! She is on my hip so much that I think it is causing me to get a pinched nerve on the side where I am constantly carrying her. I'm pretty certain I can attribute that to having Quinn on my side for all of my chores... Seriously, if Quinn isn't on my hip, she is often wedged between my legs so that I am walking like an easel, pushing her along with me.

If I am not holding Quinn, this is what I usually am seeing of her:

Quinn has developed some super-cute mannerisms. She has this deliberate nod in response to questions. For example, today I asked her if she wanted some milk. Before she answers she thinks about it, and then she gives a really slow, deliberate nod. Her head goes all the way up, then her head goes all the way to her chest. It's all her own. We haven't been big on sign-language at our house, but she knows the signs for "more" and "all done", and is so proud when she uses them.

Quinn loves to play chase - running laps around the stairwell in the middle of the house.

Quinn isn't saying much. Mama. Mine. More. Dada. Bird. Pearl. Dog. Every now and again she'll break out a babbled sentence, and we're pretty sure she is saying something she is really passionate about ("I want a nack!"), and that she is actually saying the whole sentence, but it isn't consistent. She babbles some, but not all of the time. Yesterday, Cora, Quinn, and I were sitting on the porch waiting for Prestley to come over. Cora was on the swing. Quinn was walking around. I was sitting on the top step in case Quinn decided to head for the stairs. Over and over she ran at Cora in the swing, got right to her and made an announcement (which sounded something like "Abble gabble flabble da da"), then  ran back towards me laughing like she had shared the world's biggest secret.On Saturday night at the Groeber's, Quinn was able to magically find a package of cookies, no matter where we hid them (that's a bit of an exaggeration). When I finally took them inside to the counter, she stood in the floor, arms up-stretched, and screamed "COOKIE!".

This morning, I gave her the lady-bug chair to sit on while I got dressed. She immediately got right in the bug's face, and carried on a conversation for several minutes, squeezing its cheeks and kissing its nose.

She understands language (she always nods, but almost never says "yes"), follows two-step commands ("pick up the paper and throw it in the trash"), and no one seems a bit worried about her language development (i.e., Doc Davis practically laughs when I bring it up; so does Miss Aimee).

Honestly, Quinn has never been very demanding. She gets mad occasionally when Cora steals a toy or when I refuse to pick her up; otherwise, she pretty much rolls with life. She's always been like this. I suspect she has a pretty high tolerance for being hungry or thirsty, so there isn't much need to make demands (not that we are starving our child; but usually, I think about Quinn's hunger before she seems to be bothered). She sleeps pretty much on command, and isn't very sensitive to changes in her schedule (although she has a need to nap by 1PM daily). One day she wore a thin t-shirt to school, and came home with an unmentioned bite on her shoulder. I called Miss Aimee just so she'd know (I wasn't upset... but wanted to make sure this was noted in case Quinn retaliated on someone the next day); we both agreed that it was likely that no one knew because if Quinn cried, it wasn't an urgent cry. She feels pain, but isn't very dramatic. For example, the other night she fell backwards into a cabinet, and hit her bottom on the corner. It definitely hurt, and she stood up with a little fuss, rubbed her backside, and came to me for a kiss. About a minute later she stood up and rubbed her backside again, and came to me pointing for a kiss. No drama. No big tears. Just a little signal that her bottom hurt.

She's adventurous. I'm not the only one who says it. She likes animals, especially Pearl. She has no trouble climbing ladders and tackling big slides. Sometimes REALLY big slides - the kind that make me question whether I'm a good mother because she's probably too little to be up on those big slides (I have GOT to post pics from the pumpkin patch).

Quinn still has a paci when she sleeps; it's become an addiction. Now, she two-fists her pacifiers, keeping one in her mouth and the other in her hand, lest she gets tired of one and needs to switch it out. Poor Cora- I made her quit cold-turkey at 13 months. I suspect we'll send Quinn's paci off to the paci fairy when she turns 3. I'm not stressed out. This phase will be gone too-soon.

When we hand Quinn a drink in a sippy cup, she always gives it a little shake to see if there is anything in it.

When I try to lay her in her crib at night, she has started wrapping her legs and arms around me so tight that I can barely pry her off.

She gives super cute kisses, with a wide-open-mouth that leaves slobber on my face. She likes to run her fingers through my hair. She almost always has a runny nose.

She loves raisins, bananas, and GoGo packs of apple sauce.

She eats almost anything.

That's our Quinny :)

It's hard to get a pic of Quinn these days - she's always on the move. Here's her jean outfit from Mia.

Look at that mouth covered in chocolate. It was morning here - chocolate muffins.

With her brown cowboy boots.

A napping Quinny - cute little bum.

She was so proud eating this apple. I peeled the skin off of one side and let her go to town.

I couldn't get her to pause for a pic here, either.