Catching up with Quinton

It's been awhile, and in the spirit of New Year's resolutions, and in the spirit of the iPad keyboard I got from my parents for Christmas (thanks mom and dad), it's time I start blogging a bit more regularly. But to get regular, I first have to catch up with the past few weeks. Luckily, Quin is 3, and is constantly generating new blog material.

You Like It?

One of the things Quin is always asking is if you like something. Not only does he value your friendship, but he wants you to like the things that he likes. One of the phrases he uses when he particularly likes something is "let's buy it." It can apply to anything from a stick of gum to a store. Of late, he's been trying to impress us with toys or things that he's drawn, and then asking us - "you like it?" If we answer yes, he will immediately follow that up with, "you wanna buy it?"

You Better Not Shout, You Better Not Cry
One of the nicest parts of having a three year old in capitalist America is the holiday season threat of no presents in exchange for good behavior. We are doubly lucky in our day and age in that we can text, e-mail, or call Santa on our cell phones, making the threat ever present. We used it like crazy! And for the most part it worked. After opening our presents in Christmas Eve (a Grady tradition), Quin woke up the next morning, said something naughty like "poopy" or something like that, then looked me in the eye and said, "Santa's not watching me any more..."

Damn you Steve Jobs!
I'm an Apple fan boy - I like to believe that I'm more grounded than the real crazies, but I still spend way too much money on Apple gear. For example, I'm typing this on my iPad (my second), Quin is watching my iPhone 4, my computer is an iMac - you get the picture. Two summers ago when my cell phone contract was up, I upgraded to the iPhone 4 and gave Ethan my disabled iPhone 3g as a glorified iPod. This Christmas, taking after his dad, Ethan asked for the latest generation iPod so he could take video, something his 3g would not allow. So when Santa delivered on that request, Quin inherited Ethan's old 3g, and all the apps that Ethan had on there. We did a first volley of getting rid of all of the "inappropriate" apps (OK, we asked Ethan to do it, which may have been our big mistake) then gave it to Quin. He got rid of the gun apps and some others, but others he must have missed... As we were driving up to Neillsville on Christmas morning, we hear a fart sound coming from the back seat. We didn't think much of it, but it continued, and then Quin yelled to the car, "Mommy, stop farting!!!" Jenny looked back to find Quin pressing a button on some app that Ethan had "forgotten to delete" that made a pretty good fart sound.

It's nice that Quin has his own iPhone now, but it hasn't stopped him from asking to use mine all the time. I suppose it's faster, has better games, etc. The other day, though, he came up to me like he will and asked, "Daddy, please I have your iPhone for Facebook?" Now I have no idea how he knows about Facebook or what he wanted to do about it. The only thing I can think of is that I constantly give Jenny crap about snagging my phone to catch up on my Facebook life. I suppose he does listen sometimes!

Skiing with Mr. Bill.

Last Friday was a day off of school and work for the family, so we traveled down to Alpine Valley ski resort (OK, it's a bump that they make snow on for skiing) for Ethan's ski club and Quin's first time skiing. I took him down the hill a couple of times, but apparently I must have shown my frustration and inability to handle this situation, because a clown skied up to us and offered to show Quin a couple of things. He took Quin up the magic carpet and had him down the hill in no time flat. Before I knew it, Quin was signed up for a private lesson with Mr. Bill the ski clown! I have to tell you, he did quite a job, though! By the end of the day, Mr. Bill had Quin on the chair lift on the big hill. By the time I got him, we went down the bunny hill two more times and all Quin wanted to do was go fast! He didn't even fall once while skiing down the hill.

Hopefully this is the first in a line of more regular updates. I have a hard time getting myself to write these sometimes since the events seem so trivial and boring. But sometimes I go back and read the entries I've done in the past and realize what these are - they are my kid's baby books. There are many things in here that we would otherwise forget - and it's important to remember these things.