Slobbery Harmonicas

Quinn was proudly playing his harmonica when I walked in the door from work today. "Daddy play" he said emphatically, triumphantly holding up a dripping, slobbery harmonica. "Uh, sure....daddy play... {ugh...}" says daddy. Fortunately the low 'C' seemed least awash, and even more fortunately Quinn was excited enough about his harmonica as to immediately want it back after one blow (ick) and one draw (ack! what was I thinking!) by daddy.

You just have to be immune to slobber with a two year old.

Ice Cream Frenzy

We went to dinner at a nearby restaurant last Sunday. We asked Quinn if he wanted ice cream for dessert. He said "YESSSSSS!!!!" in a way that made his ice-cream-loving mom proud. Out comes an amount of ice cream about three times as much as we'd hoped. Bec and I plowed through our own shared dessert as fast as possible to begin to defray the amount of ice cream Quinn ingested as much as possible. Quinn scooped huge spoonfuls of ice cream into (and around the general vicinity of) his mouth.

We decided to walk a bit before heading home. Quinn immediately went charging down the sidewalk full tilt in a frenzy that was anything but plain vanilla. At a used car lot he began weaving around the security posts, then circling back doing it the other way, over and over again. He ran around the posts and parking lot with hair flying and a huge grin for 10 minutes without pause. After a while I decided quite possibly he could walk the whole 4 km home under ice cream power. I retrieved our bikes and we started to coax him in the direction of home. Sidewalk running, raised curb balancing, and yet more empty parking lot careening ensued.

After achieving about a quarter of the distance home in anything but a straight line, we had to bundle him back into the bike trailer due to bedtime constraints. I honestly wonder how far we would have made it. It was about 20 solid minutes of sugar rush. On the one hand, we were alarmed by the reaction, but secretly a little gratified that he obviously didn't get a lot of sugar, which is somewhat difficult to achieve in this day and age. We'll have to build up his tolerance I suppose - both his daddy and mommy have had years of building such an immunity - but it sure is mighty entertaining at this stage.

Quinn's Busy

The other day I asked Quinn if he wanted to come look out the front window to wave bye-bye to mommy. "Quinn's busy" he announced in an official tone of voice, and he resumed playing garage. Since he'd done this once to Bec already I was able to contain my laughter and therefore respectfully respect his wishes. He definitely has a mind of his own.

And what a mind it is. "How it works?" is a daily fixture. We've taken apart his vibrating truck to see how it works. We've examined a toilet under repair, bicycle gears, garbage trucks, lumber mills, flour mills, natural gas delivery and furnaces, airborne and aquatic propellers. He even listened attentively while daddy explained how he "makes wires work" at work, which was a bit of a challenge to explain to a 2-year old.

Bec rides me about the long-play descriptions I give Quinn, but I try very hard to explain everything in terms he understands, and he eats it all up. I love that part. I try to avoid preconceptions for Quinn, but other than not being a Leafs fan, being intelligent is something I really really hope he demonstrates. It's so much easier to keep them engaged and "busy" when they're intelligent. So far, so great!

Articling

Quinn is articling already. He used the word 'the' a while back. He's effectively employing lots of stalling and imploring strategies. He's quick to point out injustices when daddy forgets a step at bedtime. It's obvious that our strong efforts to keep our promises are duly noted. Quinn is doing very well at observing playground sharing fairness. And finally, Quinn's eyes light right up when you give him some coins for his piggy bank.

Being called to the bar can't be far behind.

Chomping muffins and Mommy and Magician

If you ever want to feel good about your magician skills, I recommend you practice on two-year-olds. Bec made some muffins this morning, some big some small. Quinn likes to take a bite out of a small muffin and then call it a "chomping muffin" due to its pac-man-like appearance. Now he likes to feed Viola The Stuffed Hippopotamus, his new best friend, when he eats snack. Then Mommy The Amazing Magician pulls this amazing trick where she tugs a little on Viola's tail and lo and behold, a mini-muffin appears from it!

He never tires of it, so I also recommend that if you want to practice on Quinn, be prepared to practice a lot.

Hooray!

Quinn's started this thing at the supper table where he suddenly throw his hands in the air and says "hooray"! Sometimes it's a particularly emphatic "hoooo. RAYYYYYY" with matching hand flourish. He's definitely got some ham in him.

The Mystery of the Missing Hockey Sticks was solved by Quinn today. Two of his three mini-hockey sticks have been missing for days. I searched high and low and could not find them. My biggest concern was that they might be in the garbage. Not being able to find them, I was forced to rummage through the garbage to ensure they weren't in there. I didn't find them, and so I figured they'd turn up someday.

Quinn's mini hockey sticks are key implements in retrieving items from under the couch, which happens, oh, about 175 times a day. Today something went underneath again and he went to get his hockey stick. Suddenly he was taken with an idea and said "Quinn missing hockey sticks. Quinn use hockey stick to find other hockey sticks". He went under the dining room table and started rummaging around in the vicinity of the drawer on one end. Lo and behold, inside Bec found the hockey sticks. Quinn was quite proud of himself.

It amazes me that he can stump us at such an early age. That doesn't bode well for teenage years eh? But the important thing is that the sticks are found. Hooray for that.

Nor'easter meets Sou'wester

Quinn has now figured out how to squirt water out of his bath toys. I've required a full change after his bath the last two nights. Our little nor'easter is making me need a sou'wester.

On another note, we had an hour-long Skype video call to Nana and Grampy last weekend. It went very well. Our laptop lacks the horsepower for smooth video but it was quite serviceable nonetheless - plenty good enough for an hour-long call. The mobility of the laptop makes it much easier for them to see Quinn in his natural habitat, playing in the living room. Quinn was playing with his grandparents long-distance, making them coffee in his kitchen and holding up the cup to nana's mouth in the picture on the screen. I think all involved enjoyed it immensely.

Lost and found

I was successfully able to retrieve the letter Y alphabet train card from the gap above the dishwasher and below the counter, using a butter knife and a barbecue skewer. However, the missing potty pot remains missing after an extensive search. Hopefully Quinn didn't pick this time to use it for the third time ever.

How that works?

Being an engineering geek, some of my favourite times with Quinn are when I'm explaining how something works to him. It's especially fun when he gets into his "I'm learning something" mode, where he gets quiet and attentive, and sometimes even makes lyrical "hmmmMmm" sounds. Today it officially transitioned to him actively wondering. "How it works?" he said a couple times today. And then he'd listen attentively while I explained as best I could in terms he'd understand.

The first was the dishwasher. He got a big kick out of me describing how the water comes out of the holes in the spinny things, and he spun the spinny things around for awhile. (Hopefully the dishwasher doesn't suffer the same fate as our currently ailing vacuum cleaner, which has spent a little too much time as a pumper firetruck.)

The second was his toy fishing rod. "How it works?" he said? And so I got a pen and a string and showed how when you turned the pen with the string attached to it, the string wound around the pen, and turning the handle on the fishing rod was like turning the pen. He wanted to see inside the fishing rod. I got a screwdriver and started to take it apart, but alas one of the screws stripped and we couldn't get into it. (You just can't get a good used toy plastic fishing rod for $1.89 any more)

Inquisitive, this boy, and in an analytical way too. I have to say that at the outset I was sort of dreading the "why" phase, but right now I'm quite excited about it. Several people have commented about his analytic tendencies. Wait til I start showing him spreadsheets! He makes his engineer daddy proud!

Unsleeping

Quinn yelled for 2 hours and 35 minutes at bedtime tonight. That's 9300 seconds. Uttering "Want Mommy" approximately every 4 seconds, that totals about two thousand, three hundred and twenty five times he repeated himself. Now, I know he's a ways off from an engineering degree, but you'd think he'd get it after awhile - we're not coming in.

It was an hour fifty last night. Naps have gone to heck - wail on the way down, sleep short, wail when he wakes up. How can it be so bad after this long?? We're a house full of stress hormones because of it, that's for sure. Maybe it's his campaign to be an only child.

Does sleep trouble cause the stress, or does stress cause the sleep trouble? After a grueling week of analyzing and debating, through household illnesses and on limited sleep, I'm changing jobs to try to reduce my stress level. Maybe my stress is transferring to him? I'm trying to do my part to fix it. Hopefully our lot's lot improves. A lot.