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!

Catching up.

I know that I'm getting behind because my wife has told me that I'm in trouble because of how infrequently I blog. I didn't even know she knew I had a blog... Oh well...

Quin's doing great! He's 7 months old now and is quite mobile. No, he still doesn't (really) crawl, but has developed a rolling technique that enables him to get pretty much wherever he wants to go. He's also started to try out the "all fours" thing by getting up on his knees and lunching towards things that are slightly out of his reach.

I'm pretty sure I've written about this in the past, but I have a feeling that we're going to be in a bit of trouble in our household before too long. Quin appears to be taking after his big brother in the talking department. He is capable of babbling on and on for minutes on end. He also manages to use several consonant and vowel sounds. On occasion he will even try to mimic something that somebody else is saying!

Wednesday marks our court date. After that, Quin will be a bonafide Grady at long last. We'll post pictures then!

Guess who has a tooth?

No, it's not Ethan, and it's not Barley either. That's right, Quin's first tooth has finally busted its way through his gums. We were wondering why he's been so crabby lately, and the old "well, he's probably teething" excuse was wearing a little thin some 4 months later. But lo and behold, it really was true this time!

Here you can see him having a deep conversation with an old Elmo doll. He seems a little skeptical I think...

It's the best state fair...

Last week, Quin got to partake in his first State Fair. He "fared" pretty well, though I'm not sure it was entirely his cup of tea just yet. Ethan had a blast, at least for the most part. We started out by getting a wrist band and going on the rides. This is really the first year where Ethan was ready to go on the "big kids" rides. Unfortunately we were there with Micky and her kids, and they aren't quite ready. Not to worry, we split up for an hour and allowed Ethan to go on several rides by himself, and he had a blast. He even got to go on the bumper cars while I talked with a couple of Chicago guys waiting for their kids. The only things he was not able to go on were the rides that had a 52 inch height limit. Apparently he isn't quite 50 inches yet. Guess the NBA isn't necessarily in his future!

After the rides, we grabbed some dinner then went through the animal barns, like you are supposed to at the State Fair! Ethan's definitely a city boy. He was amazed that the cows would poop wherever they were. He also told me that this goat had its udders in the wrong place! Then there were the "racing sheep" that had blankets on them. To be honest, I suppose they could have been racing sheep for all I know. I don't know why they where those blankets!

Quin is doing very well now-a-days. He is now able to roll in both directions, which sounds great in theory, but is a bit of a pain in reality. This means that he is mobile, to a certain degree. I placed him on the floor in our living room the other day and went into the kitchen for something. When I returned some minutes later, he had migrated to the other end of the floor and was playing with the coffee table! I just can't wait until he can crawl or walk!

The last few nights, Quin has treated us with full nights of sleep! 10 hours minimum for 3 nights straight! Let's hope I haven't jinxed it by writing about it!

"Where the hell did they put them?"

Time is flying by. Quin is starting to get more and more independent, which is nice as he was being a bit clingy for awhile there. He is very good at rolling and can sometimes even roll from his back to his stomach. His latest trick is to stay in a seated position if we put him in one to start with. He's also reaching for toys and other things that are out of reach, which I'm told is a developmental milestone. So way to go, Quin.

Ethan has had a couple of funny situations in the last few days. First, we were over at Tony and Michelle's, Ethan's aunt and uncle's for a birthday party. Many of Jenny's family members were outside being eaten by mosquitoes and playing cornhole, when a policeman pulled into the driveway. Apparently a 911 call was made from a cell phone at this address, so they were coming to check it out. Well, I guess Tony's sister knew the guy, so she invited him in to look at Tony's shed. While he was touring the place, Ethan came up to me and said, "Dad, it's cool to have a cop at your party, don't you think?" I told him he probably won't think so in 9-10 years...

Fast forward to yesterday (that sounds kind of funny, doesn't it?), Ethan had some friends over the day prior to play Wii and look at Ethan's new Bakugon - a Pokemon knockoff. One of his friends apparently asked if he could keep one of his characters, but Ethan said no. Well, yesterday Ethan was looking for his little guys and could not find them. He immediately assumed that one of his buddies took it. He became suddenly obsessed with finding the toy, looking all over the upstairs. After about 5 minutes of furious looking, he said loudly, "where the hell did they put them?" After my initial shock, I calmly told him that that word was not appropriate for kids to say. He seemed to accept that, but called us out on using those words... Guess it's time to start watching our language again.

Ethan the Triathlete

This past weekend was the Pewaukee Sprint Triathlon. I ran in this event last year along with a team that we had assembled known as "Big Sky Multisport." We had our own jerseys and a whole bunch of people. Ethan was so impressed when he came to watch! He wanted to be "on my team."

This year we did it again, and they have a kid's event. So I ordered Ethan a jersey and he competed in the kid's triathlon. Well, it was actually a duathlon this year since we've had so much rain this summer that the lake where we swim is closed with algae problems... At any rate, Ethan is now offiially a Big Sky Multisport member.

When I first gave Ethan his jersey, he wore it everywhere! Of course, the jerseys are made of some sort of moisture absorbing, space-age material or something, and they don't always agree with the wearer's body parts. After Ethan wore his for awhile, his nipples started to get very sore. So before his race on Saturday, he asked me to put some band-aids over his nipples so the shirt wouldn't irritate them. They worked like a charm, but he forgot to take off the band-aids when he got home, then went to a friend's house to go swimming. His friend's mom told me that she knew quite a bit more about Ethan's nipples than she ever wanted to know.

Quin's doing very well, also. Jenny and I had to get up early this morning for our race (at 4:30) and it was my night to get up with Quin. I was very happy when I woke up at 4:30 and found that I hadn't been interrupted in my sleep the past night! He may not sleep through the night consistently, but he seems to know when it's imperitive to do so. He's also added the raspberry sound to his ramblings, which is pretty funny.