Snowplay

Sunday I took Quinn out into the relatively balmy -6C temperatures to get some fresh air. He had his big boots on, his big snowsuit, and the big mitts that snap onto it. I call it his space suit since he has all the mobility of an astronaut in it. He's getting used to the boots quite well and can now walk around not too badly. The mitts are a serious impediment though - the suit and mitts are a little big as of yet, and he can't grip anything.

I wasn't sure what he wanted to do, or could do outside. We're still figuring out the outside-in-the-winter thing. Including Quinn. He wandered around for a bit and ordered daddy to do a few things, but he really couldn't do much himself. I decided to try to figure out how to make winter outdoors fun for him.

I put him in the sleigh shovel and pushed him around some. He didn't really seem to get a kick out of that. I packed down the snow on the mini-hill I previously shoveled in the driveway; he walked on it a bit but that wasn't really working either. I plunked him on top of the mini hill; he liked that a little. I tried to slide him down the mini hill and that got a little giggle, but it was tough sledding and I couldn't scrounge a suitable sliding implement on short notice.

Next time Bec poked her head out the door, I asked her to get his knit mittens, which are quite a bit smaller. They wouldn't be good for serious cold or long jaunts being carried in the backpack, but it was relatively warm and he was moving about so we thought we'd try it for awhile and see how his hands fared heatwise. I managed to get his thumbs actually in the thumbholes which took a little doing. It's amazing what a difference that makes. He could grip most anything then.

For awhile we played fyonto yodo (front loader) in the snow, dumping into his dump truck. He liked that. I started shovelling a path in the backyard to the composter, more for something to do than anything else. Quinn started helping with his little yellow shovel. Then he gave me his little yellow shovel and he started pushing the great big sleigh shovel by himself and trying to tip it over like I do. He had the right idea! By then I'd finished the path to the composter and then he had a great time walking up and down the path, shovelling along the sides and walking in and out of some spurs I'd dug.

It was a slow start, but by the time it was time to come in he didn't want to, which I think is a sure sign he's learned to have some winter fun.

A storybook ending

We did the usual bedtime routine tonight. In the bath, Quinn was a quite owly that he couldn't have Elfo Wattatan in the bathtub, since Elfo was downstairs awaiting a bath after the yogurt treatment Quinn gave him at breakfast. I don't know whether he was concerned that Elfo was inside the dishwasher, or whether he just didn't like that Daddy wasn't responding to orders very well.

Sometimes now Quinn opts for stories and cow's milk over breastfeeding at bedtime, so Bec usually has the bottle on hand in case he chooses that option. Tonight Bec realized she forgot it so I went to retrieve it. By the time I got back he was yelling the clearest sentence I've ever heard him utter - "I WANT READ FASSY NASSY BOOK" (Fancy Nancy - a book series involving a high maintenance little girl - Bec teases me about trying to get him to avoid them but I have to concede they're actually pretty good books...).

Once he was ready, he unexpectedly came out with "Daddy read book". This is unusual since Bec always puts him to bed when she's home. However, I've been putting him to bed more often recently as Bec's been out more, and it's become quite natural and fun. We asked him three times, and he was sure - he wanted daddy to read him a story and put him to bed. So Fancy Nancy notwithstanding, read I did! And a little proudly too I might add! He and I had a good weekend together and Bec mentioned this morning that he often seemed a little sad when I left for work on Monday mornings, so this was a perfect way to end the day. I'm really looking forward to 11 days off at Christmas and spending more time with him.

He Gets The Family Picture

We got a print made of a picture of my mom and dad, my brother and me from my recent birthday celebrations. When Bec brought it home today, Quinn caught sight of it. He immediately lit right up with a Great Big Smile and said "Nana Dampy Unca John!". Bec phoned me at work to tell me about it, and I lit right up too. I phoned my parents tonight to tell them and they lit right up as well. Grampy was particularly excited to no longer be known as "Dumpy", although that moniker also had some quirky endearingness to it.

It's hard for family to be separated by so much distance. I really need to work harder at webcam calls to keep the memories fresh. But Quinn impresses me that he remembers, and obviously remembers fondly, far flung family that miss him so much. We all brightened one another's day today.

O Christmas Tree

We decorated our Christmas tree tonight. Quinn was quite into it. While we were putting up lights, he had a separate string of lights that he carried around and eventually put on a branch in a pile. I took it off, but then thought "why'd I do that?". However I couldn't get it back on the branch he had put it because it was too heavy, so then it had to come off. He carried around some ornaments. We tried to pick sturdy ones but one of them bit the dust, prompting a dustbuster cleanup. We've got so many we could actually stand some attrition... Anyway, after that it was about the dustbuster, but he still put some ornaments up while toting the vacuum in his wake.

I forced our cat Tulsa out of her self-imposed basement exile to be part of the family for once. She immediately hid under the tree. Quinn was very excited to see her, but he contained himself very well. He crawled under the tree and offered her his car-ornament, a candy cane and a wooden car - all earnest efforts from our young son. He even ventured some gentle pats, saying so in the process. She didn't run away at least. Is that progress? Hard to tell. We really wish he could have a family pet. Oh well, for a moment today she was part of the family.

I really love a real tree. We got a nice full dense one. We have lots of nice ornaments, and many meaningful ones. It smells nice. It's just...Genuine. This day and age of environmental awareness makes me appreciate the luxury of it. It is a former living thing that adds meaning to our lives; its tenure as a tree was abbreviated; its meaningful stint is rather brief in the big picture; upon which it will be returned to the earth for renewal. Lots of symbolism in that, especially this time of year.

I'll love it every day. Thanks, O Christmas tree.

Sleep Nirvana

Three consecutive days of 7am-730am wakeup times! Wow! Wow in two ways - 1) that's luxury now and 2) if you'd told me 2 years ago I'd be excited about getting up at 7am I would have thought you were crazy. But that was then and this is now. It was after a week that included some 5am's, but all in all wakup times seem to be stabilizing nicely. It still gets out of whack sometimes - timechange + sickness took about a month to recover from, but I think recovery is easier now (easy for me to say since Bec does most of that work...but I think it's true). He still usually naps for a couple hours each day too.

It's been a tough road and Bec has been a superstar. I think the biggest lessons learned are: that everything is connected (night sleep length and time, nap(s) length and time, feedings, fresh air, exercise, stimulation); that each kid is different and no book or expert should tell you otherwise (no book will say 9.5 hours of sleep at night is enough...but attempting anything else with Quinn just pushed the problem around); and that consistency and ritual is king (the nightly routine puts him on rails toward bed, and it has even proven to be portable when we travel). And one thing I've come to accept is that things can knock it off the rails, especially sickness, but that it *will* recover again.

I can put him to bed now quite comfortably for all involved, and down for naps, though Bec still does the majority of it. It's pretty special, and he seems more attached to me in days thereafter. All this semblance of normal life makes us hesitate when considering a second one, but who knows...maybe one day.

Word updates

He's got some great new words - in addition to the old faithful "fyonto yodo" (front loader), he now has "baygo teener" (vacuum cleaner), "baydo" (blanket), "wayuphigh" to stand on our shoulders, "wantdown" to get down from his high chair, and my personal favourite "elfo wattatan". Any guesses? No? How about "elephant watering can". Give yourself five bucks from me if you matched Bec's prowess at figuring that one out.

He also has entered a phase that we'd refer to in software as "babbling interrupt" - he says a word or a phrase and he'll repeat in 981 times until you echo it back to him. Sometimes he's asking for something, but sometimes he's not even really talking to you. Only saying the phrase back to him stops the incessant self-monologue. Mostly it's cute but it does wear at times.

He understands so much. He follows instructions pretty well, even sets of 2 or 3 instructions sometimes. He seems to understand conditions and sequences. In spite of the babbling, sometimes it's hard to get him to repeat something you didn't understand, or only understand part. Repeating what he says "acknowledges the interrupt" in software parlance, and so he stops saying it. But he doesn't understand when you ask him to repeat it. We're going to need to work at developing that concept I think because it leads to frustration on both sides at times.

All in all the whole communication thing is coming along nicely.

Trains

Quinn's in a big trains phase. We read Thomas the Tank Engine books that Bec got from the library and they're a big hit. They're well done, with 4 self-referential stories in a book, so there's some continuity and he gets to know the characters. The characters make mistakes and learn from them. The books are also a smaller physical size so Quinn can hold them easily. He often grabs the books on his own, climbs up on the couch and looks at the pictures and tells himself stories, babbling away to himself.

Bec requested the compendium from the library and you should have seen the look on his face when Bec produced it at home. His face lit up in a huge smile (he's becoming *much* more expressive, smiling and laughing and...oh yeah some of the bad stuff as well...) and he held his arms up. "Weed! Weed!" he said. It has even supplanted Richard Scarry, at least for the moment, which is saying something (it probably helps that we hid those, in self defense).

We've got some of the small Thomas trains too (Percy, Thomas and Bertie if you're keeping score) and he loves those too. He's stopped calling them tugga-tugga's, and Bec laments that his little-boyness is starting to wane, but certainly trains are a big hit right now.