Quinn Peterson's Weblog

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.

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 :-)

shush

Allison got up way too early this morning... especially since I went to bed way too late. Here's what went down while I was desperately trying to get 5 (or maybe 30) more minutes of sleep...

Allison: "mom, mom, mom, mom,..." (you get the point)
Me: "Shush!"
Allison (in a whisper now): "mom, mom, mom, mom,..."

Even in my exhausted state, I found it funny since I've never heard her whisper before :-)

To infinity and beyond...

Scott: I can count over 100
Quinn: I can count to infinity
Scott: Then do it
Quinn: It would take me all night
Scott: Oh, ok.

Rollar Skating try #1

Unsuccesfull attempt at roller skating at Caroline's birthday party today. Quinn enthusiastically ran off after Scott and at some point wiped out. His butt and pride were hurt but I went around the rink with him a couple of times. It was like the blind leading the blind, so I'm not sure it was helpful at all.

stoplight

More musing from an adorable 5 year old...

On the way home from school, as we were stopped waiting on a red light...

Quinn: "Why is the stoplight changing colors when there isn't even a car here?"

Terri: "I guess it doesn't know that."

Quinn: "Why isn't it smart enough? Doors are smart enough to know when you are there. Sinks are smart enough, potties are smart enough, those hand drying things are smart enough..."

Yia-Yia's blanket

Quinn has a special red blanket that Yia-Yia made for him. He sleeps with it everynight. Allison loves to sleep with a blankie now too and apparently is jealous of this blanket. The other day she was going down for a nap in our room and saw the red blanket in the bed. I saw her eyeing it then looked around. She quickly snatched it and tried to cover herself with it (it was mostly bunched up around her neck and chest). With the most content look on her face she patted the blanket and said "Yia-Yia". It was so cute.

Maybe one day Yia-Yia will make one for Allison too (guilt totally intended :-)

Look up high

Ok... here's another funny one I've been meaning to share...

To get Allison to look up while I am rinsing her hair in the bath, I've been knocking on the bathtub wall and saying "Look up high". This has been going on since she's been old enough to sit in the bathtub. Well recently when I told her "Look up high", she squirmed her way over to the wall and started knocking on it. It was hilarious! And just another example of how easliy lessons you think you are teaching backfire. I'm sure one day she'll come to learn what "look up high" is but for right now, she simply thinks it means to knock on the bathroom wall. I think tomorrow I'll say it outside of the bathroom and see what she does...

Equality for all

I find Allison's need for equality and structure so funny (and foreign). Here are two examples:

Allison is the first one to clasp her hands togther for prayers at dinner. She's very particular about everyone participating and will glare down and wait for anyone slacking off. Well the first time we did dinner prayers with Quinn's cast on she wouldn't start and kept glaring over at Quinn... she was upset that he didn't have his hands together properly - something he couldn't really do with the cast and sling on...

Today Quinn wanted to clean the walls for fun. So I found a sponge, wet it down with water and sent him on his way. Well a nano second later, Allison is at my leg holding out her hand for her sponge... no biggie, I find another and hand it over. Well she just leaves the sponge in her outstretched hand and starts doing her eh, eh, eh noise, then points to the sink. Realizing my mistake, I wet her sponge and handed back over. She eagerly accepted and ran along to join up with her brother. Just one example of how she looks for equality in the smallest of details.

Mom, Mom, Mom...

As we all know, Allison is a demanding little girl. The good news is she's finding ways to communicate her needs a little better. Her latest thing is coming up to me and patting me on the leg while she says "Mom, Mom, Mom" to get my attention. It's really cute and I was feeling quite special until she did it to Jason today (including the "Mom, Mom, Mom").

part politian

Quinn's kindergarten class is having elections for class president and apparently several kids have told him they are voting for him. According to him, it's between him and Julia. Well, at Barnes and Noble Friday night, Quinn picked out a Firefighter book for his class (since they are talking about them right now). I didn't think anything of it till the way home when he stated "Everyone's going to be so happy I got them this book. I think I'm gonna get a few more votes now.". I laughed so hard. I guess my little artist is part politian.
PS: I blame KT.

1st intersession camp

Quinn got bored very quickly during his first intersession break so we decided to put him in a camp at Hoops City U / TK's jungle. It looks like a fun camp that will expend some of his neverending energy. He was excited about going yesterday until bedtime when he got really anxious and started obsessing about it. We talked for awhile and he settled down and woke up happy this morning. I was so proud of him at dropoff. There were two younger kids (probably his age) hanging off to the side and a bunch of somewhat older kids casually playing soccer. He quietly watched the older kids for a bit then started looking for an opportunity to jump in and kick the ball. What a huge step for my little guy. I hope he had a great day!

homework tangents

Quinn and I were working on some homework. I read the instructions which said to cross something out. Quinn's reply back "do the Jesus cross or just 'x' them?"...

Worried about Tim

Jason's cousin Tim recently had back surgery and is having a difficult recovery. During our trip to IL over the 4th Quinn made Tim a superhero card wishing him well. Well today he asked if we could call Grandma declaring "I just wanted to hear how Tim was doing. I've been so worried about him.". "I just want to help Tim". What a sweetie :-)

making new friends

One of the things we were most anxious about when Quinn started kindergarten was socially how we would do. He does not have a very good track record when it comes to change and we were especially worried that he would have a difficult time without his best friend Scott at his side. So I was a bit suprised (and excited) by the following conversation...

Quinn: "I made a new best friend today."

Terri: "Oh yeah, what did you do?"

Quinn: "We were talking to each other and stuff and I even let him wash his hands first."