Kickles and Hillbillies

Of course my wife reminded me of some things I forgot... If only she knew how to blog!

The other day Ethan and I were driving to Soccer when we passed a section of road we frequently pass. On one side of the road is a pretty steep, tree-covered hill with a couple of houses on top. Ethan asked me, matter of factly, if the people living there were hillbillies. To be honest, I was laughing to myself, but calmly collected myself before explaining that they were not hillbillies. I was a little surprised that I was unable to come up with a really good description of a hillbilly without referencing Deliverance...

Not sure if I mentioned this one or not yet, but it deserves a repeat if I have not. A few months back, Jenny's nephew invited us to his apartment to dinner with his two kids. His oldest is about a year older than Ethan. The two of them get along very well. While they were eating, Matthew asked Ethan if he wanted to play cards after dinner. Intrigued, one of the adults (there were many, so I can't remember who it was) asked him what type of card games he liked to play. He answered, "you know, five card stud, Texas Hold 'em, those kind of games. My grandma taught me how to play them. Ethan looked at him and said, very matter of factly, "My grandma taught me how to crochet."

I also forgot a couple of cute things Quin has done in the past months. He doesn't do it so much anymore, but about a month ago, we were reading a book to him called Fishy Kisses and Gorilla Hugs. Jenny taught him to do both, so he was going around giving everybody fishy kisses with his mouth pursed and moving... He still gives them on occasion, but not quite as much as he did a month ago.

He also loves to be tickled. He pronounces it "kickle." He'll raise his shirt and stand by you saying, "kickle" until you tickle his belly. One day he was playing with a toy dinosaur, complete with growling dinosaur roars. At one point, he took the dinosaur and put him on my stomach and said, in a growly dinosaur voice, "kickle, kickle."

Lastly, Quin has been using the potty lately as well! Well, I guess he's not really using it. He stands by the toilet and asks me to put him on there, pants on and all. He'll sit there for a minute or two, smiling, then grab the roll of toilet paper, take a few pieces (I help him to only take a few pieces), then pretend to wipe his butt. When he gets done wiping his butt, he takes the same piece out from behind him and wipes his face... Not sure where he saw that one. I can only assume Jenny does that.

Freedom...

Quin climbed out of his crib the other day. We were working around the house and he was acting like he was tired. He generally doesn't like to take naps during the day, but we like him to take naps. So I put him in his crib and began to let him "cry it out." I went outside to take care of something, and a couple of minutes later came back inside to find Quin standing downstairs, smiling at me. He hasn't done it since, but we now know it is possible...

Vacation 2009 - Evil River Part II

Here it is, the big vacation update! Of course, it's been a month since we went, so the memories have already started to fade, but I've uploaded some pictures to our photo gallery and the site's slideshow is now showing them. Hopefully this gives a better idea of how the vacation went. To see all of the pictures in the album, either click on the slideshow, or try this link here.

In August of this year, our family joined the Zieglers, Johnsons, and Abholds on a trip to St. Germaine, WI to stay at one of the remote Black Bear Lodge resorts. The resort was pretty nice, 6 cabins arranged along the lake with piers out front, a firepit, a shared fish house, and a "game room." We selected the first off-peak week to book our stay, and were rewarded with some of the coldest weather I can remember on a summer vacation. The first day was pretty nice, in the low 80s, and the second wasn't too bad, in the mid to upper 70s, but that was the end of that. Weather ranged from the 30s at night to windy and 50s during the day. Our cabins faced west, so we took the full brunt of the wind most of the time. Luckily we were able to find activities to do that did not involve going in the water or being outside all the time...

One such activity was going to GI Joe. Early in the week, Ethan and I decided that we were going to see this movie during this week because we rarely get an opportunity at home to get out to the movies. Unfortunately we didn't end up going until the second to the last night, and that was one of the nights that was actually pretty nice from a weather perspective. Nonetheless, we both enjoyed the movie, Ethan moreso than me as he has, or more specifically had declared it his favorite movie of all time. On the ride back from the movie, Ethan was discussing the finer aspects of movie making and asking my opinion on whether they would make another one. He has pretty much figured out Hollywood already as he basically equates the likelihood of a sequel on the money the original takes in. Hopefully I don't spoil the ending, but Cobra gets captured by GI Joe (there, I spoiled it). Ethan summed up the potential of future Joe movies by saying this,

"Everybody knows the bad guys are going to get out, and they're probably going to make a lot of money, so I'm sure they'll make another one..."

Quin busied himself all week by perfecting several new skills. One of the ones he's been working on for awhile now is the ability to walk up and down stairs without having to sit down. I'm not sure why he is so intent on doing that, but once he sets his mind on something, he does it and doesn't stop until he's satisfied that it is done right. So he entertained himself by walking up and down the camp stairs for what seemed like hours on end. By the end of the week, he could do it without falling or sitting down.

It seems silly to talk about now since he has added so many new words, but the vacation up north seemed to be Quin's verbal coming out party. Probably because I don't see him all day, but it seemed to me that Quin learned and used more words on vacation than he's ever used before. Now, looking back, I think that may have been true, but his latest achievements have far eclipsed those of that week. Let's see, he was still using "all done" with great success, he had "go-go-go" down pat, and was also starting to attempt to pronounce some more difficult things. For example, one day he got stuck in a lawn chair. He looked at Jenny and said, "guck." On another day, he picked up a rock and proudly said "cock."

As I said, many of our activities involved things away from camp, and away from the wind. On a particularly cold day, we found our way to the go-kart track. Ethan was very excited to drive his own go-kart. Unfortunately, when we got there we realized that you had to be 53" tall to drive one yourself - he only measuredin at 52" (thank God!). So Ethan abided and rode tandem with me - I let him drive, and let me tell you, it's a good thing he didn't drive himself!!! After the go-karts, he discussed at length the possibility that he might grow an inch in the next 24 hours so he could drive a go-kart tomorrow!!!

In the end, it was a very nice week, despite the weather. We got to see some of the tamest ducks I've ever seen, we saw a dog destroy a muskrat Discovery Channel style, and Ethan and I even fished a little bit. In fact, once I found Ethan fishing off the end of the dock by himself with no prodding or bargaining from me at all!!! Now that the kid's trip is out of the way for the year, it's time for Jenny and I to start planning the adult's-only vacation that we so desperately need!!!

Quin Quickie

I couldn't resist blogging this before my "big vacation update" later this week...

Quin has been talking A LOT MORE lately. I sat down to try to figure out the words he knew now and lost track. He's become much more interesting in the last month or so. Anyway, a game that I always play with him is to push his nose and say "beep beep." Ethan might do it to him, too. So now he goes around and pushes people's noses and says "bee bee" just like we do...

Apparently he doesn't just stop at noses, though. This morning when I was changing his pants, he grabbed his penis and said "bee bee..." Once I figured out what he was doing, I had to concentrate very hard not to laugh so hard that he fell off the changing table...

Kissing Cousins

Kissing Cousins

These pictures are from awhile ago, but I thought they were cute enough to post anyway!!! This is a picture of Quinton kissing his cousin. Man, he's really going for it! OK, they are second cousins once removed, or third cousins or something (you'd have to ask Blaine for the exact designation), so that's probably OK in most You can tell they are from awhile ago as they were for Jodi's baby shower - and they've already had the baby!!! Man, I just don't 'blog enough...

Swimming at the Lake

Jenny and I participated in a triathlon two weekends ago. My parents came down to watch the boys while we were out punishing our bodies (thanks mom and dad). The festivities took place in a state park, so we purchased a state park sticker. Since we purchased the sticker, we've decided we should try to get our money's worth from it - so to make a long introduction a bit longer, we've been going to the state parks in the area all week this week. On Tuesday, Jenny has her tennis league, so it's just me and the boys for the evening. Last night was warmer and sunny, so we decided to go to the state park and hit the beach. Quin just loved the water. I couldn't keep him out of it. He first found some puddles towards the top of the beach where he played for quite awhile. Until, that is, he realized there was a BIG puddle not too far away (the lake). Once he got there I couldn't get him out of there! He just loves the water. He makes me kind of nervous, though, since he has absolutely no fear of, and also no coordination in the water. Eventually he found a way to get around without falling in the water and swallowing a stomach full...

The funniest part of this story is the contrast between the boys taking a trip to the lake alone and taking a trip with mom in tow. When we went to the lake last night, we all put our swimming suits on at home, went to the lake, swam, then remembered that we needed a towel - luckily there was one in the van. We all used the same towel, dried off, went home, and went to bed. Tonight we did the same trip, this time with mom. When Ethan and I got home from work and camp, there was a picnic supper packed, extra clothes, four towels, garbage bags for our refuse, I could go on. Let's just say there are differences between trips that dad plans and those that mom does...

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Quinton has been serenading us with his lovely singing voice lately. We've been shocked lately to hear a very recognizable rendition of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," or it could be the alphabet song... The words aren't that clear, but the tune is spot on. He is already a better singer than Jenny!

Remote Control Car

A week or two ago, I got Ethan's remote control out and we played with it in the driveway. Ethan and I were having a blast, but Quinton didn't like it so much... He spent the entire 30 minutes we played with it on my lap clinging for dear life. Strange what kids will be afraid of.

Marley and Me

A week ago, Ethan and I watched the movie "Marley and Me" while Jenny was gone for a night out with the girls. It is a basic movie about life, family, and the family pet, Marley. If you just looked at the title and watched casually, you would think that the movie is actually about a dog and its owner. If you are an attentive and perceptive viewer, however, like Ethan, you might just take away a different message from the movie. The message Ethan took away from it was quite intuitive. Towards the end of the movie, Ethan says to me, "Dad, do you want grandchildren?" I said, "of course." He replied, "Well, you better hope Quin has some then, because I'm never going to." When I asked him why, he told me, "because kids ruin your life." Apparently the message he took away from the movie was that being young and married with a dog is a blast and you get to "make out" all the time. Once you have kids, though, your life is over and you don't even get to "make out" anymore... Very perceptive, indeed.

Cub Scout Camp

Cub Scout Camp

Last week, Ethan and I attended Cub Scout day camp for our second year. This year we went on the 3 day camp. Camp started at 9:00 AM and went until 4:00 PM. Besides the mosquitoes, it was a bona-fide blast for both of us. Ethan was able to do all sorts of different activities, including archery (which is is very good at), mini-golf (which he is not so good at), highlander games, knight's quest, etc. For me, it was a good opportunity for me to see Ethan interact with other kids and adults and how he did in the different physical and social situations. Let me tell you, if you ever find yourself annoyed at your child, spend some time with other people's children - like 18 of them. You will quickly appreciate your own!

Ethan proved very adept at archery, and we got do shoot each day we were there. He also very much enjoyed the castle out of which his group was based. I was very proud of the fact that he tested into the "swimmers" category, the highest category at camp. To do this, he had to swim 6 laps in the lake swim area on his front, then 2 on his back. Only 2 other kids in his group tested that high! Guess those YMCA lessons are paying off.

The camp is themed for the different years in scouts. Wolf scouts are the Pirates and do their activities around a pirate ship. Their leader is Captain Chris. Bear scouts, which is Ethan's group, are the Knights and are based out of the castle. Their leader was Sir Jim. Webelos are miners (as well as minors) and are based out of the mine. Their leader was Miner Mikey. The staff was outstanding and kept the kids engaged at all times. At one point Ethan assured me that he was going to stay in scouts until he received his Eagle. I would love if he would stick with it that long...

At closing of the second day, the heads of each of the groups declared that for the last day, the kids could shed their costumes and wear regular clothes just like the leaders. The leaders, incidentally, wore clothing matching their role - so Captain Chris wore a pirate outfit, etc. When they said that, Ethan was just about vibrating with excitement. Dressing up in costumes is one of his favorite things in the world. We spent about two hours the rest of the night preparing our costumes, him as a knight and me as a miner. The next morning he could not wait to get to camp! By 7:30 he was already asking me if it was time to go yet. When we finally got to camp at 8:45, he was disappointed to find out that not all kids shared his enthusiasm. In fact, only about 3 of the 80 kids at camp dressed up at all, and I was the only adult... He made me very proud, though, and stuck with his custume throughout the day. His biggest worry coming into the day was that his costume would not be the coolest. At the end of the day, however, he was convinced that his was, indeed, the coolest costume.

Miscellaneous Updates

Quinton has discovered that he likes to drive the vehicles that Grandpa and Grandma Grady bought for Ethan some years back. What is surprising is that he is actually able to drive them to some extent! Invariably he ends up in the weeds and somebody has to turn him around, but he definitely knows how to make them go.

He is starting to say more and more words. He says "bye bye" regularly now and waves. He is very goofy sometimes... When I first see him after work, he gets a big smile on his face and runs up to me, seemingly to give me a hug. When he is almost to me, he stops, bends over, pretends to pick something up off the ground, then hands it to me... Not quite sure what he's doing there. He has also been prone lately to spin around in circles for several seconds until he falls down from dizziness.

I'm sure there's more, but I can't think of it right now. Hopefully Jenny will read this and remind me of what I've missed.

It's amazing how Quin already thinks he can do everything his big brother can do. This morning I asked Ethan to help me take out the garbage, so he wheeled the garbage can that I had sitting out over to the side of the road. Quin, not to be outdone by his big brother, saw that I had the red plastic gas can sitting by the van waiting for me to fill it for the lawnmowers, and promptly grabbed it and started moving it towards the side of the road as well...

Testing out a new "quick-blog" tool from my Mac. It doesn't allow me to post pictures or anything, but should allow me to post more quickly and, therefore, more often.

Quin woke up ata 5:00 this morning! What is the matter with him!!??! About a week ago he went four days straight waking up at 6:30 or later. Jenny had to wake him up one day at 7:30 so she could get Ethan off to school! I don't remember when they start sleeping properly. I know it's by the age of 6 or 7 if their name is Ethan.

Quin's talking quite a bit more.  It helps that he can somewhat tell us what he wants. If he's hungry, he goes and points to his high chair, but normally he just wants a "nana (banana)." Of course, his most effective way of saying that he wants something that we're not providing properly is to scream at a very high pitch. Remember the most annoying sound in the world from Dumb and Dumber? Well, they weren't quite right.

That's about the limit of this new tool's ability to post, so I'm off.

Pets...

Quinton and Ethan's, well, all of our pet Barley passed away on Monday. Two weeks ago she suffered what appears to be a slipped disc in her back. Her back legs quickly became disabled, and over the course of the next two weeks she lost control of her bladder and bowels. She was almost nine years old.

The kids really loved her. Quin probably moreso than Ethan, though she's been a fixture in our house since Ethan has been around. Quinton just loved her, despite the fact that he tried to kick her on occasion and pulled her hair, all of which she handled without complaint.

Monday was a very difficult day for Jenny and I. She spent the weekend at the vet in hopes of a miracle that just didn't come. On Monday, the whole family went to the vet knowing what was going to happen. Jenny and I spent a lot of the time in tears. Ethan looked sad and seemed like he wanted to cry but just couldn't. I think he was upset most by seeing how upset Jenny and I were. Later in the day he did manage to get a good cry out, but it was a confusing time for him I believe.

Her life ended peacefully, though a tad early. One of the main issues we're encountering in her absence is how much we have to clean the floor around Quin while he's eating!!!

She loved to sit on the back of the chair in the sun. She loved to come and welcome you whenever you came over. She was a good dog and we will all miss her.

Sesame Street

Lots has happened since the last time you were updated on my two favorite kids. Ethan and Quin's only remaining great-grandmother passed away, Ethan received his first communion, and Quin has had his first ride on the lawnmower... Let's begin.

To set the table, I used to watch video blogs on the mac while I was feeding Quin last year. It was nice because I was able to control them with the remote control while I used my other hand to hold the bottle. One of my favorite blogs is College Humor. The video I happened to be watching that day was titled "Pot Cookie Monster" about a cookie monster like the one from Sesame Street but instead of regular cookies, he liked pot cookies... Here is the video...



At any rate, about a week ago, out of the blue, Ethan asked me who my favorite Sesame Street character was. It's not unusual for him to ask my favorite of whatever, today it just happened to be Sesame Street Characters... I answered, because I have to, "I don't know, maybe Oscar the Grouch." He responded that his was Big Bird. I then thought about it and said, "wait, maybe Cookie Monster." He asked me, "don't you mean Pot Cookie Monster." I guess the moral of the story is that Net Nanny and other programs to protect your kids from these types of things on the internet aren't that effective if you are letting them watch you browse the internet...

Last weekend was Ethan's first communion. He did fine, but he was a little nervous. At one point I caught him rehearsing the exact position of his hands when he went up to receive the host.

Quin is getting bigger and more bold all the time. He has now successfully climbed the ladder up to Ethan's top bunk and found a way to crawl into the bed! Today I found him on top of the kitchen table!!!

Quin is also talking a bit more. His best expression (the one we can understand the best) is "All Done," which he sings rather than says. Lately he's been making Mmmm sounds, which Jenny hopes will lead him to finally say "mama" but so far no luck. He's also starting to mimic Ethan pretty well. Ethan is a bit of a protector and enforcer with Quin, so when Quin starts doing something "naughty," Ethan says "No no no." Of course, Quin picked that up right away and can now say "No No No" in the right context and everything!

3 S's for Ethan

It's been awhile since I've updated this site on my favorite 7-year old. Ethan's been doing quite a bit lately, now in the home stretch of his 2nd grade year, about to receive his first communion. But why the title "3 S's for Ethan?" Really it all stems from a sad little game I play with my brain when I'm trying to remember something. I figure my brain can only remember 3 things at a time, and then only if I name them interestingly. In this case, I came up with three things I wanted to write about for Ethan, and I managed to make them all conform to some word starting with S. Let's begin:

Skiing

A couple of weeks ago, Ethan, Jenny, and I went to Lutsen, MN for a small ski vacation. We left Quin with his Grandpa and Grandma Grady for the few days we were up there. It was a great vacation, but the nicest part was to see how well Ethan had taken to skiing. This is his fourth year on the slopes, but it's only been a couple of times each year. Nevertheless, he has proven to be a very adept student of the sport, and is now skiing much faster than I'm comfortable seeing. By the end of the vacation, and one day of ski school, he was handling all the hills that Jenny was comfortable with. My only concern is that he is a bit cocky. By the end of the second day skiing, he was begging me to let him go down the black diamond hills, the ones rated for "experts only." I talked him out of it, but I'm sure it won't last too many more years. Where has my baby gone!!?

Segway

In my posts about Disney last year, I mentioned that I got to ride a Segway, and it was awesome. On that trip, Ethan and I tried to convince Jenny that we should buy a Segway for us to use at home. She said we could do that when she got new furniture.

A couple of weeks ago, Jenny ordered a new couch and coffee table from Overstock.com. It was delivered a week later, and while I was putting it together, Ethan came in the room and said, "awesome! Now we can get a Segway." It had been almost a full year since we had talked about it, yet he remembered the conversation immediately upon seeing new furniture in the living room!

Adult Things (wait for the S connection)

On Thursday night, Ethan and I were saying our prayers. I mentioned that we should pray for Grandma and Grandpa so they had a safe trip back from Arizona. Ethan asked me where that was, so I explained that it was in the southern part of the US between New Mexico and Nevada. In fact, I explained, it wasn't far from where Jenny and I were going to take a vacation in the coming months. "Are you taking us?" Ethan asked me, referring to himself and his brother. I told him no, that we weren't taking them. He asked me why that was, to which I answered, "because we're going to do adult things." "Like swear?" he retorted...

Smartest Kid Alive???

I can't be sure, and I'm probably not a good judge since he is my child, but I'm pretty certain that Quinton is the smartest 13 month old to have graced the planet. My first clue happened a couple of days ago. We sat him in his high-chair to feed him and mixed all of the food onto his tray. His tray does have segmented areas, but we generally just put stuff in the large middle one. I think we put some chicken, apples, cheese, and crackers on the tray. He finished up the apples and cheese pretty quickly as they are two of his favorite foods, but the crackers and chicken remained in the center. I turned around to do something (I would claim that I was doing dishes, but my wife may call my lie out on that one), and when I turned back, all but a few of the crackers had been placed in one of the segmented partitions. I watched in amazement as he sorted the remaining 2 or 3 crackers out from the chicken and the proceeded to eat the crackers one by one, all the while ignoring the chicken (he doesn't like meat very much). Some could argue that it is an early sign of OCD, but I'm pretty sure it's an early sign of pure genius!

Another sign showed up a couple of weeks ago. He has a toy telephone that he carries around with him. Lately I've seen him talking on the telephone. I'm not really sure how he got that one. I'm guessing one of us did that to the phone since this is a pretty antiquated toy telephone, looking more like the phones of the 80's and 90's rather than the ones we use today, but he knew what it was for!

Speaking of talking, apparently Quin has been talking to us for quite awhile. It took his grandparents to realize it. We left Quin with them while we vacationed in Lutsen, MN for a ski getaway and when we returned, my mom and dad told us all the words that they recognized. Sure enough, taken contextually, he was saying all sorts of words! Before we left, we thought all he said was "da-da" and "da-di-di-da" and other variations therein. But if you listen close, he is actually saying words. The ones we recognize so far (and this is not all inclusive) are:

• Hi
• Dada
• Thank You
• All Done
• Uh Oh
• Barley
• Ethan
• Peep

I'm sure there are more, but those are some of the more frequent ones.

I haven't even started talking about how well he sings! Oh well, I guess that's good material for another post sometime down the road.

Birthdays and Readers

Quin and Ethan have been busy folks as of late. Quin went and turned one and we barely even acknowledged it! Well, digitally anyway. In true Grady boy fashion, Quin celebrated his birthday not once, not twice, but three separate times so that he could cover all his bases. Our favorite celebration was the one we had at our house with just our little family, though. It was the first time Quin really got to dig into some chocolate cake, and boy do I think he was impressed!!! Here you see him starting his sugar coma! It didn't take him long and he was pretty much demanding that he be fed cake any time one of us was eating some. I had a piece on my plate the other day when he was eating his supper and he spit out the noodles he had in his mouth and screamed until I gave him a bit of my cake! He may have a sweet tooth... Now to figure out how to take advantage of it...

Quin is developing at a nice pace. While his height and weight are only in the 40th percentile for his age bracket, his head is solidly in the 90th, which means he really does take after his dad and brother. He's been walking for about 6 weeks now and is getting quite proficient. Lately he has even mastered the ability to stand up in the middle of the floor. The early connection between actually moving forward and hysterical laughter is now gone and he is capable of propelling himself as silently as you could expect a 1 year old to do.

He's still a very happy boy. He laughs all the time, loves to blow and give big wet kisses. He still loves Barley! Barley is such a good girl with him, and that is saying a lot as Quin really likes to give Barley big wet kisses as well! He likes it so much that he tries to hold her still with clenched fists while he delivers said kisses on her back.

We had a bit of a traumatic event recently - Quin finally got a haircut. We were going in to get his 1 year old pictures taken and decided it was finally time to part with the hair (no pun intended). He was a very good boy in the barber's chair - he didn't cry once. He only fidgeted a little as the hair was falling down over his face.

Ethan is, of course, doing well as always. We recently found out the peril of having another reader in the house. For valentines day, I got Jenny one of those oh so clever cards that said something like, "This card has a wheel you can spin that, whatever shows up, I will promptly provide for you." On the wheel it was filled with the same task, "A night of hot sex." Yes, yes, very clever. Jenny left the card on our nightstand, I assume so she could trade it in at some point, when Ethan got ahold of it. I was walking through the downstairs when I hear Ethan say, "Jenny." I didn't realize at the time that he was reading the card! He got to the point where he was reading the different options on the wheel and repeated several times, "A night of hot sex, a night of hot sex, a night..." Luckily it hasn't come back in question yet.

Brett thinks that Ethan is destined to be a real ladies' man. Last weekend when Brett, Blaine, and my parents were down to visit, Brett was having a conversation with Ethan about various things. Ethan declared to Brett that he, "[knew] a lot about two things, Star Wars, and Jesus." Rumor has it that Brett has him lined up to teach him so he can score a girlfriend!

Quinton's top 10 Lists

Top 10 things Quin does that drive mom and dad crazy!!!

1. Plays with the computer mouse while they're using the computer.
2. Drinks from the dog's dish
3. Plays in the dog's dish
4. Plays in the toilet
5. Takes all the toilet paper and paper towels off of their dowels onto the floor
6. Identifies anything that is not currently on the floor and within his reach and frees it to the floor
7. Eats dog food
8. Climbs the stairs when nobody is watching
9. Touches the TV
   
10. Licks things (like the gym wall and miscellaneous bolts sticking out from it)

Top 10 things Quin does that make us wish we had a dozen more

1. Big wet kisses
2. 100 Megawatt smiles
3. Sleeping 11 hours at a crack
4. Constant laughter
5. Cuddles (for anybody, not just mom and dad)
6. Playing the piano
7. Cat-like curiosity
8. Playing peek-a-boo
9. Saying "da da" (this might be on Jenny's other list)
10. All the rest of the things on the first list
    

Fully Ambulatory

As of last night, Quinton has become one of the walkers of the world.  He took his first tenuous steps from Jenny to myself last night before bed.  Everybody was very excited.  Well, Ethan was a little disappointed since he was in the shower when it happened, but was excited nonetheless.  Looks like it's time to get the house to the next level of baby-proofness.

Another score for the "nurture" portion of the nature vs. nurture debate.  Quinton walked when he was 11 months, 2 days old.  Ethan first walked when he was 11 months, 0 days old.  These results are not scientific by any means.

2009 Update

Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a wonderful 2008 and are ready to endure what is sure to be an interesting and trying 2009. I have mailed a "2008 Year in Review" to some of you, those that I knew could take it (it's a 30 minute video of our family). If you would like one of your own and did not receive one, please e-mail me and I will be happy to send one out to you. Now, on to the updates.

Quin
So it's been a very long time since I have posted, so obviously Quin is doing all kinds of things he didn't do since the last time. Where do I start?!? Well he can climb stairs now. Ethan says he is too little to go up wooden stairs, and I tend to agree, but that doesn't stop him from trying. He can "talk," and he still does that quite a bit. The only things that are recognizable are "dada" and "hi," sometimes he even puts the two together. I'm pretty sure it is random, though, as he says it not only when he sees me, but when he sees the dog, when he sees a lamp, etc.

Quin is now quite proficient in clapping as well as waving bye-bye. We haven't quite gotten him to blow kisses yet, but he thinks it's funny when we do it, so maybe soon. He is also not quite walking, though he can stand for longer periods of time than before. I, personally, thought he would be walking by now, but I'm OK with it taking a little longer than I thought it might. He is a MONSTER for getting into things, so when he walks it will only be that much worse.

Ethan
Ethan is doing well as always. He had a wonderful Christmas and is very excited about all the video games and Legos he got (along with everything else). His two front teeth have finally started to come in, so that's good. He has a strong desire to make a movie. Tonight he asked me how long our camera's battery would last. He was very disappointed when I told him it would last only 1 hour since he wanted to make a 2 hour movie... The pose you see here is his idea for a promotional picture for his video of him and his friend dueling with lightsabers. He wants to put his picture on one side and his friend's on the other and put "v" on his picture and "s" on his friend's, "you know, because that means versus." Once he has it all put together, he wants me to put it on Youtube. Maybe I will...

I'm sure there's more, but I can't think of it right now. It's a new year, though, so it's time to resolve to do things that may or may not happen - I resolve to update this blog at least twice a month. There.

Happy New Year again, and I hope to hear from or see you all very soon.

Quin

Quin is literally growing before our eyes. He has at least 7 teeth now, perhaps 8, and is crawling all over the place. This time it's not the army crawl I talked about last time but a full-on, four appendage crawl. And he is getting into EVERYTHING!!! Did I mention he loves to pull himself up on almost anything? I know, I know, for those of you that have kids this is really nothing new, but for the second time now I am astounded at what these kids can do! What's more, after he pulls himself up, he is already experimenting with letting go of the thing providing him support. We're fairly certain that he will be walking before he's a year.

We've also proven ourselves as "second child" parents. The other day Quin had a temperature approaching 104 degrees. Bad, right? Of course. Well, we gave him Advil, gave him a bath, then forced liquids, and got the fever down into the 101 range and didn't even take him to the emergency room once! A day later, the fever broke, and he had his 9 month well-baby checkup anyway, so he got some medicine for a mild ear infection that seems to be the cause of the sickness. Jenny and I are very proud of ourselves. At his checkup, Quin weighed in at 20 pounds and is 29 inches in height. Still rolling right along at the 50th percentile in each.

Incidentally, the picture above is my proof that Quin is now a true Grady.

Ethan

Ethan has been taking swimming lessons at the YMCA for the last 2+ years. He has had to repeat several classes, but this most recent one he has had to repeat like 4 times. This time, he has finally passed onto the new class!!! His front crawl is getting very strong and he can consistently hold his breath for greater than half the width of the pool. We're very proud of him!

What's more, I am constantly impressed at what a good kid he is, particularly since I am his father! He has a boy in his class who is very big - OK, he's fat! Ethan wanted to tell me a story about him the other night and described him as "that boy that wears the blue swimming shirt," and, "the guy that touched the wall last in our swim race." I asked, "you mean the chunky one?" and he said, "not really. I guess a little..." What a good kid.

He's also doing well in school, although he has struggled of late in religion. Jenny has him so scared of him, though, that she threatened him that if he didn't do better on the next test, she would be angry. He was so nervous, he went up to the teacher after he took his test and asked her to grade it right there and then. (He got 100%)

We're teetering on the edge of having to finally tell Ethan about Santa. He is asking questions on almost a nightly basis. Jenny is starting to feel bad that we are "lying" to him. I feel covered as I just divert whenever he asks. For example, the other day Ethan said to me, "Dad, tell me the truth, does Santa come to our house or do you guys come?" I answered, "I don't understand the question - Hey, doesn't that Monsters vs. Aliens movie look cool!" OK, maybe not father of the year material, but those of you that read this blog already know that I've been eliminated from the running for some time.

On a parting note, it has snowed down here again. The snow is showing a similar pattern to last year where we get some snow, it warms up a little to melt some snow, then we get pelted with snow again. The first day we had snow on the ground, I woke up, looked outside, and said "Oh s**t!" I then went upstairs to wake up Ethan, he looked outside and said, "Awesome, it snowed!!!" When I hugged him and got him on the bus, he smiled at me and said, "have a snowy day, dad!" I guess it is good to remember once in awhile what it's like to be a kid. Ethan and Quin remind us all the time.

General Update

Ethan

We had Ethan's parent-teacher conference yesterday. He is doing very well in School, mostly thanks to Jenny. She works with him constantly on his school work as well as reading, basic math and the like. It's a lot of work, but it is apparently paying off. While in the conference we were able to read some of Ethan's stories and reports that he's been writing up. I plan on posting a couple of them to this blog in the near future. One of them which is hilarious is his essay on what he would do if he were president. He is clearly a democrat in the making, let's just put it that way.

Speaking of politics, Ethan has been very interested in the whole political process during this election season. During the lead-up to the election, he was often coming home and asking Jenny and I who we were going to vote for. Like everything else, he would change his mind on his vote on a daily, or sometimes hourly basis. I think he ended up "voting" for John McCain. Yes, we live in the republican underbelly of this proud blue state. I can't remember his exact reasons for "voting" for McCain. At one point he wanted Obama because "McCain is too old." Oddly that's not too far off of the reasoning I was using...

Quinton

Quin is rapidly developing right before our eyes. If you haven't seen him for a month or two, you might not recognize him. He now has 5 teeth that have broken the gum line with no fewer than 3 more just about to poke through. The first few teeth he cut were a bit of an ornery experience for him, but now he seems to take it all in stride. He is a very happy kid almost all the time!

He is now crawling in earnest. He's been doing that for almost a month now, but only recently has he gone up on all fours more often than he has done the "army crawl." One of his favorite destinations is the dog dish, mostly because he knows he's not supposed to go there. Just yesterday, he headed out of the kitchen, then waited in the hallway until I came out there to look at him. When he saw me, he turned around and bolted as quickly as he could for the dog dish, laughing all the way. Now he is starting to venture into the third dimension by pulling himself up onto tables, people's legs, the toilet, you name it. Looks like it is time to lower his crib mattress.

Unfortunately Quin is sick right now. We've come to expect this having had Ethan go through the daycare experience. I seem to remember some winters where Ethan seemed like he was sick from October through June. Luckily sickness doesn't seem to dampen Quin's spirits at all. What does dampen his spirits (actually it pisses him off) is when we have to wipe his nose. Mean parents!

I am not at home to post pictures and Ethan's creations right now, so look for them in a quick update post later this week.

Big Strides

Quin has learned the fine art of movement. He still doesn't really "crawl," necessarily, but he lilts along like an army man. Actually he looks a little like Igor would look if he crawled. Since he's been in motion, he's bee quite happy and quite a handful. I don't remember if Ethan got into as much when he was younger, but Quin really likes to get into everything!

Unfortunately, Quin's also been sick for the last week or so. He hasn't really let it get him down, but his stomach has obviously not been feeling well for quite awhile. That part is easy to remember from when Ethan was younger, unfortunately. He hangs in there, though. On the worst day, we had to change his clothes 4 times!

Just when I was approaching what I thought was maximum frustration, Quin pulls out another first and totally disarms me. We were at church on Sunday for Jenny's nephews baptism. There were several occasions where the parish applauded. Whenever Quin heard it, he clapped as well! I didn't even know he knew how to clap! At one point during the mass, Quin had fallen asleep and another applause broke out. He woke up and tried to put his hands together to show his appreciation, but was just a little too tired to stay awake long enough...

It's Official!!!

That's right, Quin's a Grady! Poor kid... On October 2, 2008, we had our final court date at the Waukesha County Juvenile Court to finalize, legally, our adoption. Largely it was uneventful, but it still managed to choke me up a little bit. While there we met another family that was finalizing, except this was their THIRD adoption! Crazy folks!

Quin's getting bigger and moving around more and more all the time. Today, I'm proud to say, he said his first word that I could understand. Jenny was telling me that daycare said that Quin had been saying "dada" lately. When he heard her say that, he promptly said "dada" to us. We're working on "mama," but hey, the kid knows what he likes!