Jumping Q

Quinny learned to jump. It's so funny. She also learned to say "jump." There's a lot of jumping commentary around here!

Halloween Spirits

 We're getting excited about Halloween! The fall and Halloween themed books are favorites, the house is full of jack-o-lantern decorations, there's a pumpkin pie candle ... and the costumes have been donned for a trial run.

I was in drama club in high school - and loved it. And dress rehearsals were always a good thing - to work the bugs out before the big show. Pre-Halloween activities are like dress rehearsals around here. And it was a good thing too. The hand-me-down Minnie Mouse costume that was earmarked for Q is a tad too small. When I saw a tad, I mean that the skirt ends at about her waistline. And the back-up Mickey Mouse costume that Mike bought on Friday (because the stupid online store forgot to ship the one that I ordered ... and arriving on Tuesday does NOT help me) was about 3 inches too short.

But they rocked the tiny costumes and were as cute as little Disney mice can be! We headed to Pumpkins in the Park again. And met our S-town buds again. It was awesome. A little on the cool side, but the bigger kids had a great time participating in the games this year. And doing the trick-or-treating. Q got to trick-or-treat too. She had a good time.

Then today, we went to the pumpkin patch. Even though we got pumpkins yesterday at Pumpkins in the Park, Mom and Fiona need at least one trip to the real patch. Both girls had a really good time exploring all the pumpkins to find just the right ones to bring home. Just a couple weeks and we can carve them. Rumor has it, Auntie is going to join us for that fun festivity!

Q's Off Week

Big blue eyes

This babe had a tough week last week while I was in Texas. She popped a 103 fever the day I left and spent two days home with daddy. They did have a nice time - especially since she slept. A lot. In addition, she popped two teeth! We are up to eight now. Go, Q, go!

She was still a bit edgy on Saturday, but she was a good sport while we went to a tea party AND to watch daddy's hockey game. After a LONG nap on Sunday morning, she was back to her typical Q self. Hooray!

"Don't eat crayons"

We totally had a second child moment on Saturday when she lost her mind after I told her not to eat the crayons. Instead of feeling bad and comforting her like I would have done with Fiona at that age, I laughed and took a picture. Fiona tried to help by also telling Q that you can't eat crayons. Q did not appreciate older sister's contribution. Poor second baby!

Bonus round: Quinn has quite the vocabulary these days. But her top 5 words tell you all you need to know about her ... "cup, more, help, down, woof."

In the Pool

We love the water. Therefore, our girls must love the water. Fiona is a total fish - but if it's bigger than a bathtub, Quinn is not so interested. That meant swimming lessons. For both.

We lucked out and were able to get them both in their respective classes at the same time. The time is not ideal, but we're making it work. Quinn is swimming in the beginner class with Daddy and Fiona, the big girl, is doing her very first no-parent class.

We went the first week, full of trepidation. I figured that Quinn would not be happy about the class and Fiona would embrace it with love. I could not have been more wrong. After the first few minutes of adjustment, Quinn was in. I spent the first class sitting on the side of the pool with a Bug who refused to go in. Sigh ...

I was in Texas last week and Quinn was sick - but Mike braved it as a single parent and brought Bugs to lessons. She wouldn't go in the water at first ... until Mike went over and told her that she needed to get in. Duh! I had explained, sympathized, and encouraged - but never just told her to go in. Oops! Today was week three. Bugs went in and is getting more comfortable. She doesn't like that the boys in her class splash all the time, but she digs the rest of it.

Since they were all happy enough in the pool, I was free to sit on the bleachers and play with my telephoto lens. Hooray!

When All Else Fails, Make Up Words

Back in the spring, I wrote about Fiona’s “big girl checklist.” I’ve learned that there is apparently only one person in this house who can focus on more than five goals at a time without getting an eye twitch. To dispel confusion, that person’s name does not begin with an M, an F, a Q, or a Y. Thus, the big girl checklist was edited, prioritized, dissected, discarded, resurrected, loathed, and other such things for the last few months.

I can proudly say there has been progress. And failure. We’ll start with the failure. It’s funnier. (more updates will come over the next few blog posts)

The PRP is an epic fail around this joint. She is just not having it. And the next person who tells me to just take it away and she’ll be fine will inherit a three-year-old. And you’ll see. You’ll see.

Did you ever wonder what would happen when two people with fairly iron wills produced offspring? We can tell you. Said cute, blonde offspring have “ironer” wills. I don’t even care that ironer is not a word. It fits in this situation. Fiona is ironer!

For example, when we drove home from our 4th of July adventure up north, Quinn cried from GR to about 10 minutes north of Aitkin. That’s about 50 minutes of straight up crying for those not familiar with northern MN geography. Do you know what our parental response was to Quinn’s attitude? Amateur.

Fiona once bellowed, screamed, sobbed, and rampaged from GR to south of Milaca. I think that’s a violation of the Geneva Convention. It’s enough to make you consider stopping for an exorcism. Ironer.

Fiona’s current crying record is 5 hours. 300.minutes.of.nonstop.crying. Ironer.

You take that damn pacifier away from her. I dare you!

PS: Sunday marks our one year anniversary of the move to the big girl bed (thank you, blog record-keeping miracle). That was another collision of iron and ironer wills. We’ll extract the pacifier yet. Just have to find the right angle.