Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Silly Kids Stories :)

 

Quinn has been waking up from naps fairly unhappy these days. Usually getting him a snack helps, so I'll often let him out of his room and then go get him a snack while he follows me to the kitchen, crying the whole way. Yesterday, he was particularly pitiful. His cry was literally a "boo-hoo-hoo-hoo" with a raspberry on the beginning "b." It was adorable and sad at the same time.



Aurora decided to dump a bunch of water into our drier one day while I was taking care of Quinn's diaper. I came back to find our laundry room floor covered in a nice layer of water and the drum of the drier about as full of water as it could be. Later that night, after I'd calmed down about the whole thing, I asked Aurora why she decided to put water in the drier...She told me it was an experiment. Well, at least she came up with a good reason. (And, yes, she got a nice lecture about asking permission before doing experiments so that we can make sure she doesn't do an experiment that could hurt something or someone.)



Quinn is talking all the time these days! He doesn't always say real words, but I'm pretty sure most of the time he's trying to form real words. The cadence and syllables in his words often match up to real words and sentences even when none of the words sound much like what we're pretty sure he's trying to say. He's even trying to say full sentences, which is just amazing to me for a 20 month old!

The other night, we were looking for his lovey and asked him, "Where is lion?" He answered with what sounded like "Where did it go?" and started looking for it. His understandable (to us) words are: thank you, no, all done, uh-oh, yes, car, ball, toot-toot (train), daddy, momma, poppa, go, hello, up, amen, woah!, bubbles, bye-bye, Aurora (he has a couple variations on her name). His phrases include: "not all done"/"all done," "thank you"/"no thank you," "1,2,3!,"  "I jump,!" "I did it!," and a few other "I ____" type phrases. He might even say his name sometimes, but I'm not sure. It's not like the "qu" sound is the easiest to say...



When Aurora gets hurt, rather than asking for a bandaid, she goes looking for silk to rub over the wound. This works OK as long as it's a bruise or scrape that isn't bleeding...



Quinn has started pushing people around. He's strong enough to give a good shove, but not really to push people over...yet. However, Aurora has decided she likes the falling-down game, so when ever Quinn gives her the slightest push, she throws herself down on the ground and exclaims that Quinn gave her such a big push that she couldn't stay standing! She doesn't like Quinn pushing her, but she hasn't figured out that reacting to every push by throwing herself on the ground only encourages him.


~Regina

Friday, May 24, 2013

Summer Fun!

Summer is finally getting here! It's been a strange spring here in Tennessee but the weather is finally warming up and the and I have been loving playing outside all day long. :) So one warm morning earlier this week, I squirted some baby wash into the kiddie pool and filled it up. Hours of fun ensued. Water+bubbles=awesome!


Some window washing was attempted....


And later, after drying off, Aurora showed off her dance moves...


I think she could do that all day long if she didn't fall down so much!

~Regina

Friday, May 17, 2013

Aurora Loves Fabrics

Aurora has recently become aware that there are many different kinds of fabrics. Since she's currently obsessed with princesses, she likes to talk about their clothes and what they're made of and things like that. I think she's going to loooove sewing when she gets older. But recently, she's been very curious about what people around her are wearing and we saw this firsthand this morning...

Today we were at a playdate and Aurora started going around to each of the moms and touching or stroking their clothes, hair, and whatever else they were wearing. She loves touching everything! She was talking to each of the moms and they didn't seem to mind, so I chose not to worry about it. Later, one of the moms came up and complimented me on how sweet Aurora is because while she was touching everyone and everything, she was telling them how beautiful they were and what nice things they were wearing. Apparently, it made several moms' days. :D

 What a sweetie!

~Regina

Thursday, May 16, 2013

What a Sweet Big Sister!

We have noticed that, of course, Quinn is more likely to imitate something when Aurora says or does it than he will do with us. Most of the time this is not the greatest things, but sometimes it works out well.

This morning as breakfast was wrapping up, Aurora and Quinn were waiting to have some pieces of mango. Aurora decided to wipe her face with her pjs (!!) and I came out to find both kids happily wiping their faces with whatever part of their clothing they could pull up.

As I passed out the mango pieces, Aurora said, "Say 'Mango,' Quinn. Say 'mango!'" Quinn grinned and responded, "mah-GO!" They went back and forth several times: "Mango!" "mah-GO!" "Mango!" "mah-GO!" until they were giggling so much they couldn't talk.

Then Quinn started getting impatient while waiting for me to make his mango into smaller pieces. Aurora said, "Say, 'please,' Quinn." and demonstrated the sign. Quinn made some sound that didn't sound even close to "please" but tried to make the sign (which I have unsuccessfully tried to teach him over the past couple months). Aurora exclaimed, "That was close! Yay Quinn!"

It was all just so sweet. What a good big sister Aurora is. I feel like they're just the perfect siblings for each other. :)

~Regina

Monday, May 13, 2013

Actions have Consequences

I know you aren't supposed to compare your kids, but sometimes the differences between our two amaze me. This is one of those things...

We were eating breakfast and Aurora finished her breakfast and got some fruit. Quinn, who had 3-4 more bites of his food left, pushed his bowl away and said, "Ah dum!" (all done). He was ready for fruit, too!

I explained to him that when he had finished his food, then he could have fruit. I showed him Aurora's bowl and his bowl and restated that he needed to finish his food before he got fruit. He was very angry about this and cried for 5 or so minutes. Then, after I once again told him he could have fruit after finishing his food, he grabbed his bowl and gobbled down his breakfast. He was quite happy when he got his fruit.

Aurora at this age wouldn't have even understood that explanation or maybe just not cared about it. She would have thrown a fit and carried on and on until the table were cleared. She wouldn't have finished her breakfast and wouldn't have gotten fruit. We actually have been fairly careful not to set up situations like that for her even now because she still doesn't always grasp the concept or feels the need to fight it to her detriment.

But Quinn... he gets it most of the time. He seems to understand that if he does or doesn't do something, something else does or doesn't happen. He will generally protest for a while and then cooperate. Usually these things are very small, immediate consequences, like eating breakfast and then getting fruit or picking up toys and then getting new toys, but he amazes me with his understanding.

It's so interesting how different kids' brains work! I love watching their personalities emerge! :)



~Regina

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Pillow Racing!

Our silly kiddos have such fun playing together. This pillow racing game cracked me up.

This also makes me wonder if I should mop the floor more often since those pillows are the ones Quinn sleeps on...

~Regina