Boys' night

I work on Saturday evenings, so Tom and Quinn have boys' nights, which are usually rowdy and messy. They also involve lots of videos and self-portraits like these:

Learning new skills

Some things Quinn has learned in the last few weeks:

- To hold his arms out wide when someone asks, "How big is Quinn?"
- To pull himself up into a stand and - much harder - down into a kneel.
- To walk beside me, holding my hand.
- To grunt, whenever he thinks something is really funny, "Ha!"

One of his favorite new skills is drinking from a straw. It's makes him big like Baba, and he loves that!

Skype vs. Quinn

We love the idea of Skype, and we're trying hard to use it so Quinn can stay in touch with Auntie Bonny in California.

But every time we try to use it Quinn just wants to pound away at the computer keyboard and doesn't seem to see his Aunt right there on the screen.

Any ideas??

An eating machine

Quinn is making great progress with his eating. He now scoops quite skillfully with his spoon (I said skillfully, not neatly...) and is starting to show some preferences for what he likes and doesn't like, which we're happy to see. We're still working on getting him to pick up food - or anything else - and put it in his mouth with his fingers, and he still won't let us do much in the way of brushing his teeth. But we're making headway!

One sick boy

Quinn has pneumonia!

On Tuesday morning he choked on a piece of mashed banana. Tom slapped his back and got it out and we thought nothing more of it it.

But on Wednesday he woke up with a nasty cough and a slight fever. I didn't worry too much until I got him up from his afternoon nap and found a different boy: bright red cheeks, very lethargic demeanor and too weak to even make much of a coughing sound. Off we went to Dr. Duperret, then to Radiology Ltd., and found it was pneumonia.

He is on the mend with the help of strong antibiotics, but still pretty sick, poor little guy.

This is his first time sick since we met him on Nov. 1, and it's a doozy!

My work here is done

We redid our kitchen last year, and one thing I wanted was an open cabinet where Quinn was free to play with his stuff. It has sat undisturbed - until now.

Suddenly, he discovered it, discovered it was all for him, and now he can't get enough.

Here is one play session, ending with him abandoning a tiny area that he has transformed into something that looks suspiciously like a baby crime scene...

Does this fit into that?

Quinn has become very interested in how things fit together. Today the object of his curiosity was his shapes box. After being totally stumped by the thing at Christmas when Auntie Bonny gave it to him, he has mastered where every shape goes and is now looking for additional uses for this beloved toy.

Hmmm, a doggie chew stick. Does that it into the square hole? Yes, it does. And how about my hand? Does it fit into the circle hole? Well, yes, it does. It's so cool how when you're 20 months old, anything can be a learning tool!