Language and growth

Quincy is having major language spurts – the beginning of many fun months I am sure. Quite different words than Aidan’s were. Mama was just about first. Ball was also early and Balloon. Daddy has been surprisingly a bit late. Doggie was earlier – and now Doggie and Daddy are often rather hard to tell apart – need to use context! Aidan joined the word stable a couple weeks ago – he says it very well. Quincy likes to point to various objects and label them as belonging to Aidan or Daddy. He especially likes to point out Daddy coat in the dining room hanging on closet knob, and Aidan cup (as opposed to his cup at the table). He says Moo, Woof, Whoo (owl sound), Tick Tock (Clock – early word), Duck (an early word), Baby (he signs this concurrently), Home, Phone (sounds a lot like his Home), Bus, Cheese (he doesn’t really eat cheese so don’t know why he bothers with this one!). He has been signing Where, Help, and More for some time now. He just added Book a few days ago – interesting to me as I showed him the sign along time ago and he has just started using it himself (no prompting or recent showing by me) – ditto with Baby. He also does Fish (a lot like his Baby). He also signs Hear. There are other words as well and he is acquiring them pretty fast. Apple has been one he has had for a while – I noticed today that he was designating something (perhaps all things) red as Apple and then later a plum (which he used to correctly say in the book) as an apple. He can also sign this one. He can nicely say two syllable words like Raisin and Shovel, repeating after you, and is willing to attempt Butterfly and Strawberry. He likes to say Elbow – it cracks him up as it is then usually followed by him pretending to eat my elbow. He also correctly identifies face parts and says Eye and tries Nose and Ear.

Quincy is also enjoying reading – and is more emphatic about which books he is interested in than Aidan ever was, and is also wanting them multiple times (that More sign gets a work out). Aidan was quite happy to have us pick out 5 or 6 books and run right through them. Quincy is also more of a self or active reader – even compared to Aidan of today. I think some of this comes from being kid #2 and having to entertain himself to a much greater degree – and he is very good at it!

Aidan continues to have excellent language skills for his age. He still hasn’t mastered all the exceptions in our language (something is Broken not Braked, there are Men not Mans etc). We took the kids down to the Main Library today. I saw him engage at least 5 adults when we were out and about in conversations. He is always asking Why (to my chagrin sometimes after 150 times or so in a day!). So he asked a man on the train if the paper next to him was his. (No) Why not… Later got in quite a conversation with someone about his earphones. He tries hard to get kids to talk to him, but they more often than not ignore him or can’t really talk themselves. Amanda reports that he then will usually turn to the adult with them at a playground and get them into a conversation. I’m meanwhile usually dashing after Quincy…

I took them both to Mervyns a week or so ago – and swore not to do any shopping with 2 again for a while! Aidan was busy trying to chat up people and Quincy felt it his mission to dash around the end of aisle and play hide and seek with us. At one point I asked Aidan to stay with him (figuring I could always find Aidan if I called), Aidan would go a few steps and then stop and finger some item of clothing “wouldn’t this look good on me (or Quincy)?” Argh!

Aidan could never be described as modest. He cracks me up with his “don’t I look cute in this picture” or “doesn’t this shirt and pants look beautiful on me?” (when they often clash). He is quite deliberate in his dressing these days and has interesting rationales for why things look good together. The blue camouflage pants look animal like therefore they will go nicely with the zebra socks and this orange shirt with an animal picture on it… Usually there is some color tie-in – here is a tiny red stripe in the shirt print so the red pants will work nicely. So he actually does OK a lot of the time. I also love when Aidan asks me “What did I just say”. You’d think he could listen to himself – he expects me to! And often when he asks Why I will ask him back “Well why do You think?” and he will launch into an explanation. So if he already thinks he knows, why ask?! Altho perhaps this could really be a case of wanting to confirm his theories. Pete gets a bit, well annoyed is the wrong term, perhaps amused, when Aidan asks Pete something, gets an answer, and then immediately turns to me to confirm the validity of that answer. I will enjoy my position as all knowing – as I know only too soon I will be relegated to knowing nothing… Aidan has formulated some framework in his mind where The Builders are responsible for all the world. I think they are somehow a combination of Bob The Builder and God. He will reference The Builders making Trees for instance. I don’t really understand what he thinks happens. But I have fallen into this scheme of the world as an easy way to answer some of those Why questions. Why is the straw that shape? The builders made it that way. Why? Because they did. Doesn’t always satisfy him, but sometimes it does.

Quincy seems to have physical skills similar to what I remember Aidan having – very self-aware of his body in space. I tend to be on the complacent side when watching him tackle a challenging climbing apparatus – other moms get very worried for me! He can shimmy up high ladders and complex things and takes care to make sure his feet are correctly positioned etc. I also don’t expect him to ever dash off a ledge (although off a sidewalk is another matter). He likes to Walk up stairs instead of crawl – and can even sometimes do it himself if they aren’t too steep and he can put a hand against a wall – or else he is very happy to hold my hand and hike up (and even down which is harder). He really wants to jump up and down like big brother does – but can’t yet. Aidan was about 22+ months when he mastered the 2 footed jump. Quincy just does the ankle thing like Aidan used to so doesn’t get any air. Quincy does a very good seated jump though – gets a lot of bounce off his bottom there! Aidan has good skills still I think for his age although I have seen some kids with amazing ball handling skills that he doesn’t have – I would bet practice makes a difference here. Aidan is catching big balls quite well. Quincy even manages sometimes. Quincy throws better than little Aidan did – his balls actually go FORWARD! Aidan does a nice forward roll. He also does great Donkey Kicks – puts hands on object say 1 or 2 feet off the ground and then kicks up back legs (often with aid of trampoline) – he can get his legs almost completely over his head – it will be interesting to see the day that he goes over! He does a good job on the balance beam at Acrosports too. He runs pretty fast – like a big boy now. Quincy now enjoys being thrown around in the air as much as Aidan has/does. And since he can make those More signs… Aidan gets a bit jealous sometimes of the things I do with Quincy and wants similar treatment – one move I have is to take Quincy by the waist and swing him up and over until he lands with his bottom on my shoulder facing backward – and then back down again. I have to explain that there is no way I can do that with big boy Aidan – nor swing him from the ankles between my legs. There still are plenty of tricks I can do with Aidan including balancing him on my feet up in the air and swinging him around in “airplane” rides.

The kids continue to enjoy each other and sometimes there are real gigglefests in the backseat of the car as they egg each other on with silliness. Jealousy also continues mostly from Aidan but also from Quincy. I can see both aspects continuing on for a couple of decades to come just in different guises. There are mornings Aidan can’t keep his hands off Quincy. Fortunately Quincy is a pretty tough little guy. Yesterday he bit through his lip pretty severely falling off a (very low) footstool – he cried a bit and I got some really big hugs (he is VERY good at the big hugs) and then off to playing as normal – the bleeding hadn’t even stopped before he wanted me to let him go on his way!

Quincy continues to have much more stranger and separation anxiety than Aidan. I was fine dropping off Aidan with Ginette and Lucien while we headed to a play – I don’t think I would do that at present with Quincy. He enjoys his babysitters, but I get the huge trembling lips and crying and big tears whenever I leave – and the long pauses for air between sobs. Really sad. Aidan was also a natural flirt pretty much since birth. Quincy is much more reticent about even smiling at a stranger – he has to be really comfortable. Quincy hates me to leave him, but he is quite fine about leaving me – like today when he was running laps around bookshelves playing hide and seek with Aidan. But if he isn’t sure where I am or if a stranger were to try to talk to him then the tears would immediately come out. Quincy has continued to cry fairly constantly through the whole visit in the gym childcare – even when Aidan goes too.

Quincy has had haircut #2. It looks OK despite the lack of cooperation. I continue to trim Pete and Aidan regularly. This latest time I even used the razor on Aidan – he was pretty into it. I also make both my big boys strip down and sit on a little chair in the tub to contain the cleanup mess. Pete grumbles a bit… Quincy gets a lot of oohs and ahhs over his white blond hair – and of course the requisite “where does he get it from?”.

Pete continues to enjoy a scant 40 hours a week job working out of downtown (using MUNI to commute). He makes it home near the end of dinner usually – but it is great to see him in the evenings in addition to the late morning starts (9ish usually but often a bit later). Quincy has just started being willing to go back to sleep even if he sees daylight in the morning. Phew! So now we sometimes get to sleep into 8 – or 7.30 instead of 6 or 6.30. His nap has also moved (due to sleeping in I think) to just after lunch from morning. He was the only kid his age I knew who napped in the a.m. – occasionally as early as 9.30!! Today he went down at 11.30 but he also woke at 6.30.

So what have we been up to in the many many weeks since a last update?? My high school friend Becky was here in early April with her 3 yr old son and her husband. We got together 3 times or so which was fun for me. We have been to the Exploritorium a few times. We checked out a playground a bit south down the coast last weekend. We have been to Crissy field many times as you may have noticed from photos – including while Nanma visited and when Becky visited. Nanma trecked around with us for a week. Both boys enjoyed her company but especially Aidan I think. I always enjoy having another adult around – it really mitigates the jealously thing as there are enough adults for everyone to have one… We had a very busy Easter weekend – first with a birthday party for baby of Pete’s college roommate Greg (our 1st meeting with her) – complete with egg hunt. On Easter we had a mini-egg hunt here (Quincy was remarkably good at it) followed by brunch and more eggs and baskets at Thomas’ new pad down south 35 minutes. Then a stop off at the train in Tilden Park followed by Dinner at the Eggerths with the usual family gathering of 15 or so. I took a key-lime pie that was great. Too bad it was sort of for Pete’s birthday but was mostly scarfed before he got back to the dinner table. I let him have half of my piece… Pete took his birthday off work for a little more time with kids and a rare day golfing with highschool buddy Rick. We had a snow weekend in Tahoe a while back (late March I think) with Zoe & Thomas that worked out well. Now Pete & I are trying to figure out our summer travel plans. I continue to keep busy with preschool stuff especially pertaining to my Board position but also a bunch of other things. I seem to have become the email voice of our afternoon Director as she isn’t on-line. Still enjoying my Friday afternoon teaching days. Aidan has a very best friend Theo at school. They are very very cute together. At his parent teacher conference I was told that he is very good at inserting himself into others’ group play without any disruption – a skill I still haven’t mastered – he must get that one from his daddy. I was also a bit appalled to learn that he sometimes (especially if he thinks he is unobserved) will get a bit bully like especially if another kid isn’t “listening to his words”. He will also feel compelled at times at clean up time to insist that something be done exactly right (at least as he views it). At least both my boys are actually pretty reasonable about doing clean-up – even Quincy. Quincy sometimes will clean up only to dump everything out again – but he’s moving in the right direction. I do notice that he is aware that certain things belong in certain places – if you give him a small bowl of snack food he will immediately take it off to the little table and usually even climb into his chair to eat it.

Well, enough from me for tonight! I need to do some Co-op Board stuff and Pete’s pushing to get out another edition of the CVH (Cole Valley Herald). Fortunately he is the main contributor, but I am on the hook for at least one article and of course all the graphics.

At last, a chance to sit down with a (mostly) working computer and try to knock out an update. The computer still has it’s side off, exposing its innards to Quincy’s curious gaze – but so far not his curious digits. And a new hard drive, motherboard, and videocard. Good news is that the old hard drive works enough to copy over our old info, a discovery made after a couple of weeks of sweating it. Chalk up a lesson on the value of backing up your computer!

We have had continued nice weather around here with the occasional sprinkles. We received e-photos from my parents and 4x6s from Nanma Phyllis of some of the piles of snow they are living through. I have just gotten us reservations to head to Tahoe with Thomas & Zoe for 14th & 15th of March where we hope to see snow – although it is quite possible that it won’t even be right outside our door like it was last year. I have been taking lots of snapshots (as usual) with my new camera – and will upload some to ofoto one of these days. Included are ones from a place called Hidden Villa that we visited down near Palo Alto a weekend or 2 ago. What a nice place – in a fairly steep valley – neither of our cell phones would work – and the nation’s purported 1st Youth Hostel is there. There is an organic farm and also some animals that our friendly guide Duncan took us around. There was only us and another family with small kids on the tour and he did a great job of keeping Aidan’s interest for the 90 minutes but also imparting information that the adults could enjoy. He started off with having us try to put our fingers into the soil in the “people places” and the “plant places” – there were raised plant beds that were of course well aerated and hard packed dirt walkways in between. A good way to explain to kids why they need to stay on the path! He cut up a stalk of rhubarb for all to try – Aidan thought it yummy to my surprise. Aidan has become the epitome of preschool picky – “no, peas are yucky!” – leaving me to pick them back out of the mac ‘n cheese – but not a word about them today floating in his ramen noodle soup – and rice in sushi is fine, brown rice with take out Chinese is fine, but any rice that mom makes is sure to kill you… Back to the farm, after that we checked out the composting heaps and got good looks at all the do-gooder worms in action. Pretty amazing how quickly they can convert the greens into “worm poop” otherwise known as nice soil. We learned the hand/body movements to “munch munch, wiggle wiggle, poop poop” – a favorite with the kids as might be expected. We got up close and personal with some sheep and a cow but kept our distance from the goats and pigs. Quincy was fascinated by the animals as usual – and also as usual, a bit terrified. He wanted nothing to do with touching a sheep. We took one short treck alongside a babbling stream in the cool shade of the trees and it looked like there were many other nifty pathways to explore another time. To our sorrow our friends Thomas, Sara & Eric are moving to Redwood City – 35 min away south on a good day. But maybe we’ll go back with them. Thomas is pretty delighted with the move as he will now have a pool, and Sara is looking forward to one of the 5 bedrooms being her craft room. He will continue to stay in his Acrosports class with Aidan and go to his nursery school so we should still see plenty of him hopefully.

Yesterday after my yoga class while the boys picnicked on the grounds of the Legion of Honor we trundled down to Ghiradelli Square for the 1st time in forever. While there Aidan noticed a lot of coins in a fountain. Why are they there? He asked. I explained that sometimes people liked to make a wish and throw coins in the water. He asked for a coin. His wish with his penny? That he could have a playdate with Thomas. Later amended to be a desire for Thomas to come to the Dolphin Club sometime with him. (We stopped in for him to do a poop). Cousin Sue does the polarbear swim there – something like 50 miles in the little cove there during the winter months – no wetsuits allowed. Cousin Phil joined her one winter but now just goes on the rowing boat expeditions. A much saner approach! A few weeks back we joined the Garfields and Eggerths there one Saturday evening (after the twins had their 1st sleep over with Sue & Jeff in the city) for the usual pizza and salad. A few weeks later we were heading back again to meet with the Garfields and Phil, Julia & baby Ellie. Aidan was looking forward to seeing cousin Bobby & Johnny again and Rick “who threw him high in the air”. None of those guys were there, but Phil always rises to the occasion. He took Aidan & Ellie for various wheeled object rides (and Quincy too sometimes). 1st one of the rowboats on it’s little trailer. Then a wheelchair with Aidan clutching both Ellie & Quincy, then a dolly, then a tiny dolly, then a desk chair on wheels – and finally Phil ran out of found vehicles. Yesterday we were supposed to head to Phil et al’s house to meet up with the whole gang + his parents – but Ellie decided to be sick instead. Aidan doesn’t really understand why the Dolphin Club isn’t someone (perhaps Sue & Jeff’s) house – just like he has trouble understanding that his teachers don’t live at his school.

It is also interesting watching Aidan try to get some understanding of how time works – or at least all of our expressions for it. Yesterday, today, tomorrow are very hard let alone any expression that refers to a timeframe that is further out. There are some good quotes in this arena if only I could think of any offhand. We are crossing off days on a calendar as I hope that he can see a visual of the passage of time. I think some more cognitive development needs to happen plain and simple though. Aidan is dressing himself top to bottom including buttons and Velcro items. Hasn’t mastered starting zippers (on jackets) nor of course tying shoe laces – but those will be coming soon enough. He has some interesting fashion statements. He will claim that all sorts of colors are his “favorite” or his “really favorite” or “most favorite” but I think orange really is it with red following close behind. Bright. He likes to “layer” – as in wearing 2 shirts. But he is all for layering one short sleeve over another. He does have some logic usually for why he selects what he does (it used to be TOTALLY random) – and usually there is some tiny area of the color of one thing in the other. And he will say “I look VERY cute wearing this shirt and pants”. Not too modest my boy!

Quincy puts up with outfit changes much better than he used to – not so much screaming. And if you ask for specific cooperation he will often give it.

Took Quincy for his 15 month check up today. 76 cm tall I think and only 17 lb 14 oz in weight! The Dr called him “petite”. I think Q is behind where Aidan was in language although his comprehension is very good – his pronunciation skills are still lacking. The Dr said he was right on track though. He is clearly ahead of where Aidan was physically. Quincy went back to waking up every 2 hours for a couple of weeks – I was going crazed. Turns out that 2 more molars did start popping out and just in the last few days he has gone back to more of every 4 hours for waking – SOOO much better although still far from sleeping through the night! I often leave him on Aidan’s bed toward the end of the night – and if I am not in there with him he will wake and come running down the hall. He’ll climb right over Pete if he is in the way. Funny in a pathetic sort of way. Then there are the nights that Aidan comes running down the hall in search of me. There was a night last week when we had the sofabed going to (so we could close door on Q’s crying in crib if needed) and I put in some nighttime hours in each of the 3 beds! I currently have a sinus infection which has been a real drag. Funny too as it didn’t follow a cold. So no real congestion to speak of, just the pain… The kids have been quite healthy although I noticed that today Quincy is coming down with something as he nose has started dripping. First time I think that he has had something before Aidan catching it and giving it to him.

I have a feeling that I have lost my blogger audience – but no matter! This is my record of kids development, as incomplete and occasional as that might be.

Aidan is really doing a lot of body exploration – by that I mean that he now runs quite well and is constantly doing “tricks” – standing on one leg, various types of hopping, galloping, twisting jumps, rolls, balancing on various furniture items, balancing objects on himself. It is fun to watch him try new things and master them. We were at Acrosports this morning and I was impressed as how accomplished he already is at 3 ¼. He is clearly a bit more coordinated than Thomas at present, but that has almost always been the case. Today they were hopping backwards down the “fasttrack” (long skinny trampoline) and doing open and closed legs (think jumping jacks) concurrently. I also watched him walk along a balance beam backward with a ring balanced on his head and later just climb right up on the uneven parallel bars with hands on top bar and feet on bottom one and shimmy right along to the other side. He has such fun doing it all too and also seems to very much enjoy his companions (there are 5 total in the class). He and Thomas often hold hands when walking between activities – too cute. I think Thomas usually initiates but however it happens I like to see it.

On the downside, Aidan sometimes has an unbelievably hard time leaving Quincy alone. Quincy is quite self directed in his play and is quite happy to explore (or get into mischief) on his own. But there are days that anything Quincy touches Aidan suddenly NEEDS. Even at the playground the other day – Aidan had 4 shovels – but Quincy picked up an itty bitty pink one – and Aidan suddenly desperately needed it to add to his stash. I wouldn’t let him have it so he kept following Quincy around – “has he dropped it yet? Is he done with it yet?” Sad. Then Aidan of course did end up with it and Q nothing. So I spied a rake – just like one A had only blue instead of red. And guess what – desperate NEED for that one too. Comical if not so unbelievably frustrating! On the flip side, sometimes he can be very sweet to Quincy. He will build towers and tell Quincy he can knock them down – and Q waits until told now – a big improvement!

Quincy has obviously good understanding of language now. I can give him an item in the bedroom like a tissue and ask him to go put it in the trash (in the kitchen) and he will. Cool. You can ask him to point out things in books – where is the bear’s eyes – and he points. Mostly correctly… You can ask him to help put things away or back – and he will especially if you do it as well. So nice to have him help put things back and not just pull them all down. I can also ask Quincy where he wants to go and to show me what he wants and he does – I’ll pick him up and then follow the pointing. Very helpful.

He clearly picks up behavior from his brother. Sometimes now he throws himself down on the ground when not getting his way – he even bruised his forehead superbowl Sunday doing that! This morning I was telling him “no” touching the stereo. He wasn’t paying attention so I had to physically remove him. Then he came over and looked at me and threw the calculator he was holding on the ground. So I told him no throwing and picked it up. Then he started to deliberately empty the study trash can while looking at me so that got removed. All very deliberate testing of the waters. Aidan sometimes (esp at dinnertime when I am home alone with the kids) will say his legs don’t work and flop on the ground – “you have to carry me!”. Not much fun for any of us. But Quincy soaks it all in and I think has decided that maybe this behavior is useful in some way. Oh well!

Quincy clearly recognizes what “sputter” refers to (him blowing wet raspberries). When you mention the word off he goes! You should have seen the kids in the car yesterday – I am not sure who started it but they were both “sputtering” away and laughing/giggling away between times. Very cute together. Quincy still faces backwards in his carseat so he and Aidan have good views of each other. I can also ask to see Quincy’s tongue and he’ll stick it out for me – and of course I have to do the same back which elicits the giggles.

Quincy walks quite well now and can sustain pretty decent knocks from – oh say his brother – and still remain standing. He lolls a bit as he goes – clearly still a new walker – and one of the smallest kids around you see walking. But he likes to get down and walk and although I think he prefers to head off on his own, he will go along and hold my hand or even have me on one side and Aidan on the other. I really need to find the harness I never successfully used for Aidan – Quincy is surprisingly quick and I can turn around and turn back to find him missing. Not a lot of fun.

I am sinking further and further behind on household tasks like updating Quicken, filing, medical claims etc. I no longer have any Aidan naptime – Aidan will grant me a few minutes to do some computer work after I put Q down for a nap – while he watches Blues Clues or does a puzzle or a poop (like at present – fortunately a long event! And one he recently decided he needed “privacy” for – thus a closed door). He is getting a bit antsy for me to come play with him so I need to go soon. Quincy no longer obliges with an afternoon nap while Aidan is at school so I’ve lost that time. I do have babysitters but that time flies by! I just finished up this year’s solicitations for our coop auction on March 8 – we are each responsible for raising $1000 from at least 10 items. We exceeded this year’s quota thanks in part to Pete working at The Gap and getting $250 from them in 5 giftcards. Hopefully The Gap will continue to employ Pete – otherwise his company would like to send him to Mutual of Omaha in Omaha! Not a place any of us are anxious to visit! The co-op just asked me if I would be willing to step into a Board position starting tomorrow as Parent Participation Coordinator (I am currently Publicity Assistant). And then come June (normal Board transition) to become Vice President and head up the Building Committee and a master plan for school work. Guess I have been a very proactive person to date and they need more of that – I am supposed to beef up the Board position I am stepping into – the current guy was letting things fall by the wayside and not coordinating well with the various parent and Director (teacher) needs. So thanks for all the hard work – is more work… At least I am enjoying it and I want to know all about how things run and who is who and of course I have a lot of ideas for change etc so will get to try my hand. So we shall see.

Well, Aidan has told me 3 times that he is tired of waiting and wants to play Hess Truck (mom should be happy to hear that – he wants to play at least once a day – I am not sure how well they will hold up at this rate tho!).

Had lunch with a some friends from the “old days” – used to get together with 4 or 5 others from San Diego every once in a while at a local (downtown) dim sum place. Funny how we all ended up here. Could have been a lunch 3 years ago – time goes by and yet so little sometimes changes… Of course I have 2 great little kids to show for my 3 years J

Having a rainy time of it today. Another great Acrosports class to start off the day for Aidan – he had so much energy and was so bubbly. Kept chatting away too telling the teacher stuff (what I’m not exactly sure). Quincy seems to be on the upswing from his cold too. Finally had a long nap today (which I was gone for at lunch) and a reasonable night last night and no fever etc. Now if I can get my sinuses back on track and if Pete doesn’t come down with it like he looks to be doing we’ll move on… We know people with Chicken Pox, Strep & Hand,Foot & Mouth disease so a common cold has almost been a blessing ;-)

Aidan was cute – I changed out of sweats for lunch today. He said “mom – you look pretty! I LIKE your pants! And look! They match your shoes! They match!”. Makes you feel pretty good until you remember the interesting outfit he wore yesterday that “matched”… He also is into preferring a couple pairs of his socks – and when he takes them off at night he says he wants to wear them again tomorrow… he wore his “zebra” socks today and picked out some blue on blue camouflage patterned fleece pants to go with them – said they looked animal like so would go with his zebra socks. Interesting.

Quincy has been able to milk this sick thing a bit. We have had him sleeping in our bed as he was waking so much – and a couple of evenings he had a late nap so got to stay up way past Aidan’s bedtime. The one night he started out just about comatose on Pete’s shoulder while Pete watched the playoffs. Then the Tylenol must have kicked in – boy was he raring to go. Pete and I kept looking at each other wondering what happened to the sick little boy who had woken up! At one point he grabbed the tambourine and one of the sticks and was walking around drumming away (Aidan was asleep at this point).

Both boys (at Quincy’s instigation) are enjoying what I like to term “shopping” – they grab brown bags from beside the frig and walk around with them and deposit items inside. I must have spent 15 min looking for my sneakers one day – only to discover after I came home that they were in a brown bag under some toys…

Aidan has been very jealous (?) the last few days of Quincy. Anything Q shows interest in A has to have – yank it out of his hand if that is the only way he can get it. And there has been a lot of “my legs don’t work – pick me up and carry me there”. You should see how pathetic he can look lying in the hall with one hand stretched out and up and him blubbering “help me help me”. Fortunately I know he is not alone in this behavior. Apparently Thomas is a victim too – only Thomas has even more parts that don’t work – hands, mouth etc – “I can’t put the food in my mouth”. Oh well, I know that this too is a phase and will pass…

well, Quincy is asleep (nap) and Aidan is occupying himself doing puzzles. His current activity of choice when I nurse Q down is puzzles - I have to take the pieces out (it is too hard mom!) and he puts them back in. He is simultaneously working on 4 puzzles I believe (altho the pieces are kept separate). No more TV these days for him interesting enough. This a.m. we had our 2nd "big boy" Acrosport class. He is in a class with Thomas and there are 5 kids total - all 3 and 4 yr olds - and one teacher. Moms (and Dads and siblings) have to watch from the bleechers way up high. Q gets excited to see his brother running around below. The kids all do great and it is a much better class than the old one. They call it "Tootsie Rollers". They have a trampoline they call the Fast Track - it is maybe 5' wide and I don't know - 50' long - and the kids hop down it - I think you could use it when learning to do vaulting etc. Anyway - today they had the kdis hop, hands on hips, half way down, jump on a mid-way mat and Freeze then turn around and hop the rest of the way backward. You should have seen Aidan go! I didn't know he could do it backward. You will have to come watch...

Aidan & I both have colds. Ick. Aidan came down with his Sat nite and I feared it would be a bad one but despite not getting his normal amounts of sleep he has been in a good mood and doing really well the last few days. Hopefully Pete & Quincy avoid it. We'll see.

I changed YMCAs and now work out at the Presidio - it is nice seeing the bay again frequently. They have all the free yoga and pilates classes I could ever want. I took a Pilates for the 1st time since early in my pregnancy with Quincy and did remarkably well. It was the intermed/advanced class with my old teacher who remembered me right away.

We had been doing well with Quincy before Portland re sleep - alot of 6 hour stretches at night. Now he's under 3 again. Molar #1 is almost all the way in... But we are also letting him cry it out at least once (w/out milk) to try to get him back on the longer stretches. The downside to that is that Aidan was finally sleeping thru the night in his own bed (Ijust jumped in and nursed Q when needed) and now we have to relocate him to another room so that the prolonged crying doesn't disturb him. He isn't woken by short amounts of crying (of course neither is his Dad!).

Quincy is just clearly communicating more and more. The other day I asked him which chair he wanted to sit in (at the little snack table) - he picked the yellow one and pointed to it. He and Aidan now both sit down at the little table for snacks and some meals. I was impressed when I gave Quincy a graham cracker the other day - he then promptly went over to the cupboard and pulled out a bowl and put it in it then returned to the table to sit down. Of course a bite or so later he carried both over to the trash and dumped the graham and then the bowl into the trash... Guess he was done! He also loves to "read" and is pretty active about it. I tell him to pick a book and climb into my lap - and he does! Then we look at the pictures and he turns the page (on command) and we touch the various textures etc or point to animals. He loves dogs - but is a bit afraid of them. There is a new dog downstairs and he loves to look for it in the window - but if he sees it then he wants to be held!

Well, I think Aidan is tired of playing by himself - it has only been an hour! So I should go.

I spy a new tooth! Bottom right a molar has appeared - to join the 8 other existing teeth. This means a little gap between the front ones and the molar - guess that one will appear later.

Beautiful weather - spent 3+ hours at Crissy Field (beach just about under GG Bridge) yesterday with friends. Kids had a blast.

Quincy is our little squirrel. He deliberately hides things. Latest casualty - one of his new shoes... he didn't really like wearing big boy shoes and figured out how to get out of it. I have NO IDEA where it is. The cleaners didn't turn it up either. I have watched him (unbeknownst to him) pick up a random (to me) object and take it to the end of the house, open a drawer (like in the Secretary in the Hallway) and deposit said object then hurry away. Eek! He also enjoys depositing items in the various trashcans around the house...

02/12/31 update…
seems like I will never actually get around to writing unless I start… it has been a long time and I always make mental notes of things I want to write about (mainly something too cute that one of my boys has been doing of course). Ouch – I just went back to look and the last one was early November! Tells you something about our life… we kept quite busy doing this years edition of Cole Valley Herald. It seemed to take on a life of its own and grow and grow… Then it was time for the calendars… now I just need to trim the file sizes to something that will open from the CD for Kinkos to handle – apparently 125mb files just don’t work – and that is only ½ the year in pics only. Oh well.
So, we end the year with a little toddler – and he really does. He now only crawls if he is moving a vehicle around the floor – just like his older brother. Vroom vroom. It was fun to watch the progression just in Portland from wanting to walk to almost exclusive walking. I took the boys shoe shopping on a rainy day the Thurs before the holidays. Aidan got a very nice (expensive) pair too and was very happy. Quincy wasn’t happy at all about having clunky shoes put on his feet – he thought maybe he should just sit down and scream about it. A short while later he forgot about it (at a friend’s house afterwards) and toddled around in them. The toes are already nice and scuffed. I would have put him in Aidan’s old shoes except that he is younger than when Aidan got his first and as I suspected, has smaller feet. We love to watch the glee in his face as he does his best Frankenstein impression lumbering around – usually with something in one hand and the other raised about his head – like he wants to hail a taxi. With nothing in either hand it is both hands above his head – rather hysterical.

Like the rest of Quincy’s development, the move to walking has been progressive. About a week before his 1st birthday he started letting go and taking a few steps – I even captured some of the earliest on video and sent it forth across the web to the grandfolks. Just a week ago before we headed north I watched his persistence in walking the length of our hall (long as you know) – he stumbled maybe 5 times but only crawled perhaps 4’ out of the total length – he just kept getting up. Now he thinks nothing of the hall and back.

I have been interested to see his language skills blossoming the last week or 2 as well – interesting that he is working on both at the same time. He does have clearly distinguishable words now for some things (clear if you are his mom that is!). Mostly things that start with “B”. Ball, Boom, Book. Pete is thrilled that pointing has become a big part of communication. He can be very clear in his intent now. He seems very interested in animals too (I don’t remember this kind of interest from Aidan). He was trying to say “cat” and “meow” and then “woof woof” for dog. He seems to have decided that all furry 4 legged creatures work fine with a “whooo whooo”. Last night at a party he was excited to see a cat “whoo whoo” and we watched it go outside. Several times during the course of the evening when I had him in my arms (usually to distract him from some mischief) he would point to the kitchen then the door and tell me “whoo whoo” – it was clear he wanted to go find that cat. He is ignoring my effort to get him to sign – although he is interested in watching me do it and seems to comprehend my signs.