Excavator day!

Our house reno is getting under way. This morning I awoke to some beeping and went downstairs to find Quinn entranced by a truck picking up a dumpster. More beeping. Excavator has arrived. Sheesh Quinn, which window should we look out?? Dumpster guy had to rearrange the load so we ran to the front window to watch the excavator unload. Then dumpster guy started pulling the box onto the truck and we ran to the back window. Then the truck was gone and we ran to the front window to watch the excavator again. He picked up an extra bucket and drove into our yard. Quinn was practically vibrating with excitement, giggling, and grinning from ear to ear!

Shortly after he parked, our contractor's workers, Andrew and Steve, showed up and started the excavator again, picked up the extra bucket and drove into the back yard. Quinn sat on a chair by the back window, munched on some snack and watched the old garage concrete pad get ripped up in 15 minutes flat. Quinn was particularly excited that he might use the bulldozer blade (stabilizer) to push the rubble around, which he eventually did. Another 15 minutes took care of the asphalt and deck pilings.

I had to tear myself away from the excitement to go to work, but apparently Quinn got to sit in the cab during a break, and Andrew (who also has a son, 4) sat him in his lap and let him pull the levers. Apparently Quinn was telling Andrew what all the levers did. Andrew was impressed with his knowledge.

An excavator, Quinn's favourite thing, right here in our own back yard! Quinn was in heaven, and he lapped it up all day. A day that shall be forever ensconced in Quinn's memory as Excavator Day.

A master of vacuuming

The other day I had the hand vacuum out for something. Quinn got ahold of it when I set it down. He wanted me to turn it on for me. I encouraged him to do it himself. He wanted to cover his ears though (he's very sensitive to noise). I said maybe he could put on his earmuffs (ear protection we bought for him for taking him to concerts). He liked that idea. He found his earmuffs and wanted me to put them on for him. I encouraged him to do it himself, and showed him how. Then he wanted me to turn it on. I encouraged him to try it himself, using his two thumbs to press harder on the button, which is kind of stiff.

He then proceeded to vacuum everything in sight. The couch, the ottoman, the living room floor, the kitchen floor. I even moved some furniture to take advantage this outburst of industriousness. He took his earmuffs on and off, and turned the vacuum on and off, and was quite proud of doing so all by himself, all 27 times. Then he figured out how to empty it, which was a little messy, but no matter. The battery eventually died and that was the end of that, except for him chattering about it for another half hour.

The next day I got home from work to see him with the big vacuum cleaner out, earmuffs on, vacuuming like mad. He could turn it on and off, retract the cord, empty the bin in the kitchen garbage can, put the bin back on, lining up the notch, and start vacuuming again. He vacuumed for an hour.

Every now and then I have to remind myself he's two.

He's very serious and businesslike when he's putting his earmuffs and going to work, but also has a certain air of satisfaction in going about. I wonder if maybe he's mirroring me tearing down the garage a couple weeks ago, which Quinn watched intently. It's early to say for sure, but it appears he'll have a work ethic, and also safety consciousness, both of which please me. It makes me wonder whether it's just his nature, or whether early examples can be formative lifelong. Whatever the case, he is a master of vacuuming now, and proud of it.

Weekend at Grandma's and Grandpa's

It was our anniversary this weekend. Bec's parents offered to take Quinn for the weekend. Woohoo! We've been talking about it for awhile and Quinn seemed excited about it. It's a big step - first overnight not in the care of mommy or daddy. However, I strongly suspected the step was bigger for us than for him. They picked him up Saturday morning. Bec was a little forlorn but Quinn was like "can't wave now mom and dad - I'm eating my snack". Fortunately we had stuff to do to keep us busy for the afternoon.

One of the things that changes when you have kids is you become much more efficient with your time. I thought I was pretty time-efficient before kids but now I realize how far off the mark I was. Even still, we were astounded at the amount of fun and accomplishments we crammed into the slightly more than 24 hours Quinn was away. Most refreshing was the ability to go to a nice dinner at a normal time and not have to choreograph schedule around bedtime. No wait - it was the ability to sleep in. No wait - it was getting from the door to the car in less than half an hour. No wait - it was the ability to go to the spa together and spontaneously go for ice cream on the way home.

So many vestiges of lifestyles gone by. The relentlessness of parenthood is particularly high at this stage of going-on-three that Quinn is at and the break was sooooo welcome. But we missed the little gaffer even still. We were both quite excited when the call came that they were inbound. Quinn apparently had a wonderful time and didn't ask about us once. As usual, sleep was the only challenge. It sounds like everyone had fun, and while the grandfolk aren't exactly clamouring to come do it again next weekend, they sounded open to doing it again soon.

As often seems to happen with a scenery change, Quinn seems to have taken a mental leap forward. His speech is even more clear, he seems to grasp a few higher concepts I don't remember him knowing, and he can now jump. Yes jump - he's been quite behind on that front but we haven't sweated it since everything else, physical skills included, seems on track, but now he can do it. He seems quite proud of it too.

A great leap forward for all of us.