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March 29, 2010
good at art does not make you an artist
On the way home from art camp... mid-conversation...
Me: "So he's an artist too?"
Quinn: "He's good at art but he is not an artist.
Posted by terri at 09:39 PM | Comments (0)
irrigation
Turns out the sink sprayer is an excellent irrigator for toddler's who get bubble soap in their eye. As she walked away looking like a drowned rat, she even said Thank You. Inhuman? I don't know. A success? Oh, yeah.
Posted by terri at 09:35 PM | Comments (0)
smells and toe jams (in an unrelated way)
Two things I wanted to make sure I captured that Allison is into right now...
Smells, smells, smells. She seems to have a sensitive little nose and immediately says "stinky" and scrunches and covers up her nose if there is something she things is stinky nearby. In the mornings she'll come up to give you a cuddle, then stay stinky and point at your mouth and back away (she does this to all three of us). At the museum the other day she was offended by the way the donkey and cows smelled. As a result she says stinky whenever she sees a picture of them in a book... so much for learning their real names...
And the best one was when Caleb was out visiting. We put the three kids in the bath. Right before Caleb exploded and apparently was still carrying a bit of the stink. Kristen set him into the tub next to Allison. She squealed "STINKY", gasped her breath, covered her nose and mouth and tried to scoot over to the other side of the tub. It was hilarious.
Toe jams. Allison is a nut about checking for toe jams whenever she takes her socks off. She takes big offense to anything left in there and will start hollering for help if she can't get it all. She's a little thick so it's especially cute watching her trying to pull up her foot so she can peak between each and every toe.
Posted by terri at 03:32 PM | Comments (1)
Bible basics
It was an enlightening drive to Quinn's art camp this morning.
Quinn: "I know how all these people got on the earth."
Me: "oh yeah?"
Quinn: "Yes. God made the earth then put 24 people on it. Those people had lots of babies in their tummies, then those kids grew up and had babies in their tummies, and they kept doing that until they filled up the earth."
Me: "But it started with 24 people?"
Quinn: "Yes. Your mom's mom was one of those people."
Me: "Did you know it took God 6 days to make the world?"
Quinn: "I don't think you really know about this stuff."
I guess we need to spend a little more time back at the basics :-)
Posted by terri at 10:03 AM | Comments (1)
Allison's first movie!
Allison went to her first movie today - How to train your dragon, in 3D. Unfortunately she wanted nothing to do with the glasses and didn't really get into the movie. She enjoyed the popcorn for a short while but what she really seemed to enjoy the most was going to the bathroom. In fact we went 4 times. Which wouldn't have been nearly as annoying had we not been sitting in the very top row (at least we were right in front of the stairs) against the wall opposite the exitway. So we made 4 trips down the stairs, across the theater (sorry to the folks in that front stadium row), and then back up the stairs.
At least she was free :-)
Posted by terri at 02:42 AM | Comments (0)
blankie
Allison loves things with soft textures, especially at bedtime. She insists on sleeping with a fleece baby blanket. It started with a white and yellow duck blanket that was Quinn's but thankful she has become accepting of any color/pattern. She likes the blanket pulled up to her neck, and lately buries her hands under it too. When she's falling asleep she'll often rub the blanket on her check. Tonight when I went in to soothe her she had the blanky all balled up and was using it as a pillow. It was so cute :-)
Posted by terri at 02:35 AM | Comments (0)
"us"
Today during Children's Church, they were talking about the crucifixion and that Jesus died for his friends. The kids were asked if they knew who Jesus' friends are. A couple answered of the time period "the Israelites", "John", "Mary". Quinn's answer was perfect: "us.".
Posted by terri at 02:21 AM | Comments (0)
March 28, 2010
expelled
Allison got kicked out of the church nursery today (ok, it wasn't that dramatic). We weren't in church but for maybe 10 minutes before I got a tap on the shoulder. They were so sweet about it and tried so hard to get her to calm down, but nothing worked. The guys words "she won't even let us touch her.". They tried playing with her and even offered her goldfish crackers. When they went to hold her to try to walk around with her and console her she totally lost it. So when I got in the room she was sitting alone along the side in hysterics while the other caretaker in the room stood about 5 feet away trying to reassure her and calm her down. Once I got there she jumped into my arms and latched on to me so tight... well that is AFTER she gave me a penetrating glare for about 10 seconds. She quickly asked to go to the bathroom (in between the hiccups and hysterics) and really did need to go. She hates to poop in her pull-up so I wonder if that's part of what started the escapade?
There was only 1 other younger kid in the room which was for ages 1-2 so it had a lot of "baby" toys in it. They seemed to think there just wasn't enough stimulation/distraction for her in there.
It took about 15 minutes to completely settle her down, then we met up with Quinn on the way to Children's church. I guess one of those ladies had been sent over to try to console her earlier and as soon as Allison spotted her she lost it all over again. Later, she slowly started warming up, and was completely independent again once the kids started playing a game that required you to sit on a mat and take your shoes off. I think maybe next time she should just hang out with the 5+ crowd. They don't seem to mind and she seems to think they are her peers. She even raised her hand to go up and read the bible verse on the white board. LOL
Posted by terri at 11:14 PM | Comments (0)
potty training
So I thought maybe we had this potty training thing licked. I bravely let Allison keep her underwear on (instead of changing into a diaper) knowing we were headed over to Sam's after I picked her up Friday. We diligently visited the "affroom" (aka bathroom) two times at Sam's, the last one immediately before leaving. Half way into the 15 minute drive home I hear "Affroom, affroom, affroom, ...". Thinking for sure it must have been a false alarm I kept driving. Well, turns out it wasn't a false alarm. It was then that I realized my mistake, as I saw Allison clutching her half drunken 20oz bottle of water. Oops.
I have to say I have washed 100x more carseat covers due to Allison then I ever did for Quinn. It IS NOT a fun job. In fact this was the first time this particular carseat cover was ever washed - and it was a hand-me-down from Quinn. If you've ever taken off a carseat cover to wash one you know why you don't do it unless it's absolutely necessary. I can't believe how nice it looks now though :-)
Posted by terri at 11:05 PM | Comments (0)
March 24, 2010
"dramatic personality"
I just saw this in an article about 1 year old temper tantrums (of which Allison had many):
"...if the child might be an excitable, dramatic personality by nature. If so, she's probably just as boisterous when she's laughing with joy. She's the type who, in time, can funnel her intensity into great leadership skills and great efforts to be successful. "
Sometimes I think they just write this stuff to keep parents of these children sane. I have to admit it's a lot more uplifting and healing then say a doctor telling you "Maybe you just have difficult babies." (true story)
Posted by terri at 03:45 PM | Comments (0)
reasons why you should take me bowling...
I had a lunch date with Quinn at his school yesterday. After lunch I stuck around to help out his teacher; grading and sorting some of their completed assignements. It's amazing how much you can learn through spending time in their environment and through their schoolwork. I saw Quinn's persuasive essay asking mom and dad to take him bowling. It was very specific (just our family) and pretty convincing. I guess we'll be going bowling this weekend :-)
Posted by terri at 01:36 PM | Comments (0)
March 22, 2010
More popcorn stories...
When Quinn was getting dressed for t-ball saturday, Allison came wandering down the hall with one long navy blue t-ball sock barely on and the other in her hand. At her request, I put them on her but left them scrunched down. Apparently not quite what she wanted, she quickly pulled them all the way up - which was the very top of her thigh - and then headed downstairs to get her shoes on. Aside from the socks she had on a t-shirt and her new sponge bob undies. Oh my.
Posted by terri at 11:03 PM | Comments (0)
March 18, 2010
monsters in my closet
Last night while working on Quinn's report on Michael Jackson, we watched the Thriller video (well we didn't actually make it through the entire thing). He'd seen it before so I didn't think it would bother him so much but it was already past bedtime. So that night he refused to sleep in his room because he is afraid of the closet (which has been the case for awhile). He decides he wants to sleep in the bonus/toy room. Which is a large unfinished room which white plastic all over the walls and there are no blinds on the windows. I actually think it would be creepier sleeping in that room then his bedroom. When asked, he stated his explaination matter of factly "there's no closets in here". As long as he's not in my bed!
Posted by terri at 10:18 AM | Comments (0)
Famous African American
Quinn has to do a report on a famous African American for school. It's been interesting because he's never really paid attention to skin color... hair has always been his descriptive reference. After a discussion on the history of skin color, he comes up with some great ideas all on his own...
First it was Barack Obama. Good but I thought he could be a bit more creative. Next choice was Martin Luther King Jr. Again, not the most original. The next choice was Aarthy. So we go on a tangent conversation about how she doesn't really meet the criteria for two reasons. He reluctantly accepted the fact that she's not famous... yet ("but she might be one day..."). So we move on and he picks Michael Jackson... and he's not budging on this one: "He was the best dancer and singer ever".
So we spent some time on the computer looking up answers to Quinn's questions...
did you know he had 9 brothers and sisters?
that he won 15 grammy's?
He obviously had 3 kids, so I ask Quinn if he knew what kind of kids he had. Quinn looks up with a puzzled face "two brown and one tan?". Oh my, not exactly what I was going for...
We'll see how his presentation goes tomorrow. But I think the assignment accomplished it's goal. It's increased his awareness, hopefully in a good way.
Posted by terri at 10:01 AM | Comments (0)
March 09, 2010
out cold
Last night Quinn feel asleep on the couch after insisting he wanted to watch me finish making a Perler Bead taco for him (see previous post). My back has been bugging me so I tried waking him up to go upstairs into his bed, but to no avail... he was totally out cold. So I lugged him upstairs, like a sack of rice, feeling so much heavier then his 43 pounds. All tucked in he slept soundly until about 2 hours later when I went in to shut off his bedroom light. I don't think it was 5 minutes later that I heard him patterring down the hall into our bed. Go figure.
Posted by terri at 03:43 PM | Comments (0)
practice makes you faster
Last night Quinn wanted me to do beads with him (Perler beads). It was getting close to bedtime and Quinn had picked out a small but intricate one for me to do. So when I mentioned that I might not be able to finish it before bedtime he comes back to me with "Well that means you need more practice so you get get faster and better at it." Which sounds exactly like what we tell him on days when he complains about his math worksheets taking too long :-)
Posted by terri at 03:32 PM | Comments (0)