The Camping Experiment

It went about as well as could be expected I suppose, and we learned a few things. Quinn had a blast, but sleep was difficult, which is pretty much what we predicted.

We arrived at Fitzroy Harbour Provincial Park mid morning and went to the beach. Quinn had a blast. Of course he wanted nothing to do with his own sand toys and prowled the whole beach in search of others' toys. In the end that worked out ok though - he's getting pretty good at interfacing with other kids, except for the part where kids don't want the forced trade...but he's getting better at it. It's a process. We went for a swim and Quinn loved that. We ate some lunch at the beach and then went for a walk, hoping Quinn would stroller-nap, but that was not to be. At least he got some quiet time, except for his own constant babbling. So we went to our site and set up.

After setup and snack, keeping Quinn corralled was difficult. We realized we need to bring stuff for him to do on-site. We elected to go back to the beach. This was a hit all-around again, except for the lack of shade on the blazing hot day. Returning to our site for supper, Quinn very nearly fell asleep in the stroller - awkward timing, post-nap, pre-bed, so we kept him awake. We roasted hotdogs over an open fire using sticks. Quinn didn't like the smoke much, and gave the fire a lot of respect by staying well away from it (how do impart that safety importance without terrifying a toddler? I'm still searching for the sweet spot in that tradeoff...) but he still had fun. Clearly he was tired though. Great we thought - maybe the upcoming bedtime will go ok.

Yeah right! Putting him to sleep in broad daylight, in a tent, in the heat, amid numerous neighbours' radios, was a complete non-starter. First we tried him just laying down on the floor of the tent. Moments after Bec left the tent we heard a 'zzzzzzzipppp' and then the cute little mostly-naked imp peeked around the corner of the car at us. Attempt #2 was in the travel crib. Again he wanted mommy to leave, and moments later he climbed out of the travel crib and....'zzzzzzzipppp' again. After a stroller stint, another travel crib attempt and two and half hours of trying, he finally fell asleep during the second stroller stint, just when we were debating whether we'd need to abort and return home. He stayed asleep during the transfer to the crib and stayed asleep all night.

Unfortunately Bec fretted about Quinn being cold all night and didn't sleep well. After a blazing hot day and a hot bedtime, it got coolish at night, so Bec kept putting a blanket on him and he kept pushing it off. Then of course, he was up with the sun. With a missed nap and a short sleep, he was a mess. Bec and Quinn went to a shallow stream that looked interesting but he wanted nothing to do with it. So they went to the beach while I tore down. I caught up with them at the beach, we had a short lunch there, and then hit the road, hoping for Quinn to have a car-nap. He wailed "don't wanna leave beach", "don't wanna go in car", etc etc, but he was asleep within a minute and a half in the car. We took the long long looooong way home and all was well after that.

It was a massive prep for about 24 hours of "wildernessing". The prep should be easier next time around though - first time camping in awhile, especially car-camping, and first time with a toddler, extended the prep. I think Quinn really enjoyed it though. With some more entertainment for Quinn, and just not attempting to put him to bed til it's dark, I think it could all go a lot better. And first experiences for Quinn are often "groundwork". Next time we'll all be a little wiser. It's all part of the process for all of us I suppose.

Sneaky Trucks, Collapsing Bridges and Playing Pillows

One of Quinn's favourite things to do right now is play "sneaky trucks". I have no idea where the name came from. It must be some offhand thing we said that he glommed onto. Anyway, it involves someone being the cement truck driver while Quinn operates the front loader. The cement truck driver has to drive around with a load of wooden blocks. Then Quinn/front loader driver announces that he needs a load of blocks. The cement truck driver backs up, complete with back-up beeping, and then the driver gets out, goes around to the back and operates a pretend lever to dump the blocks into the front loader. Then the front loader driver goes crazy, shaking the blocks out of his bucket all over. In the original version, the cement truck driver had to collect the blocks up from all over. In a continuing effort to not play games where Quinn does all the ordering and everyone else does all the work, we've compromised on the cement truck driver collecting nearby blocks and the front loader driver pushing the rest over with his front loader for collection. He'll play it for 20 minutes straight. He'll play it every day. He'll play it several times a day.

Previous to that, it was "collapsing bridge" that was the popular game. Quinn would "make a bridge" by stretching over the chasm between the couch and the ottoman. Mommy or daddy would then have to crawl underneath the bridge, upon which the bridge would collapse on top of mommy/daddy. Sometimes we'd just then lay there in a heap. Sometimes the bridge would get flipped back up on the couch to giggles. Sometimes the bridge would flop off mommy/daddy and run around for a flying head tackle on mommy/daddy. Right after supper became a popular time for "collapsing bridge" so one day daddy joked about pizza flying out his nose after one bridge collapse. That then became the ongoing shtik, with various food flying out of daddy's nose and the mysterious invisible raccoon whose favourite foods were nose pizza and nose cereal.

The classic "Playing Pillows" has also had longstanding popularity, both on the couch and on Mommy and Daddy's bed. It basically involves a big pile of pillows, and various front flops, back flops and flying tackles. Quinn then sometimes hides under the pillows to "go to sleep" (emulating his father's slightly odd pillow predilections methinks...), followed by a euphoric "Time To Get Up!" announcement and more flops and tackles.

Who needs battery-powered flashing and blinking to have fun?

Rover the Robot

I always wanted one. I finally bought a Roomba Robotic Vacuum. It drives around on its own, seemingly randomly sometimes, scooping up dirt with a little brush/vaccuum on its underside. It's got several sensors to avoid obstacles or react to bumping into things, and has "advanced algorithms" for full floor coverage. Watching to see if it eventually gets a plainly visible bit of dirt is a little like high-speed cow-chip bingo. It even returns to its docking station when it's done or its battery is exhausted.

It's been a source of great fascination in the house. I love studying how it goes about its business and trying to figure out how it's making its decisions. Bec loves to micromanage it, picking it up and making it go over missed spots (I'm working at getting her to be at peace with the Advanced Algorithms...). Quinn gets up on the couch and chatters excitedly about its progress.

We decided upon a name of 'Rover' for our robot. Rover has already become a part of the family. In fact, Rover might have already surpassed our perpetually-hidden cat Tulsa on the depth chart. We joke about Rover tickling our toes. Quinn woke up the other morning and said "Time to turn on Rover!" (or 'Woever' as he calls him). One other day Quinn was having a complete meltdown until I played the Rover Fascination card - upon which Quinn was completely galvanized and forgot all about his malaises. That was an unforseen benefit not shown in the glossy brochures. Even Tulsa, terrified of everything, seems to not even notice it.

As a side benefit, it's even actually not bad as a vacuum. It's not a replacement by any means, but it keeps a lot of the summertime detritus in check. Like all pets though, it has achieved status enough to likely warrant expensive repairs when the inevitable breakdowns occur. Until then, we'll keep studying, coaching and placing our cow-chip bingo bets.

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.