Quinn always manages to wake up with some major bed head.  Today’s nap was no exception!

He woke up from his 2.5 hour nap super happy and played in his crib for a good 20 minutes while Ryan and I hung out in his room.  He’s really into things going up and down lately, so he was making his turtle go “uppppa” and “dow”.

The time change adjustment has really worked in our favor since we’ve been back.  He still goes to bed at his usual 8:00, still takes 2-2.5 hour naps, but has been sleeping much later in the mornings.  We’ve been having to wake him up for daycare and both days this weekend he slept until 8:15.  And then cuddled with us in our bed for 20 minutes.  It was heavenly!!!  We’re crossing our fingers that this keeps up.

Quinn’s 2 favorite words right now are HI and BYE.  He says hi to us about 50 times a day and will greet just about anyone he sees.  And when he’s done with something or someone, he’s not shy about telling you BYE-EEE.

Bye-eee, blog readers!

Quinn had his 18 month check up today.  All looks good!  He is 25 pounds, which is in the 50th percentile, and 33 inches, which is in the 75th percentile.  I asked all of my usual stupid, overprotective mom questions and the doctor very gracefully answered all of them with a straight face.  He got 2 shots- one in each leg- and cried initially, but the tears disappeared when they offered him two stickers.  Stickers seem to solve everything!  I wish that worked for adults.

As I was downloading my photos from our trip, I came across this one…

…and the first thought that came into my mind was, “Why did we get on the plane and come back to Pennsylvania???”

As I mentioned yesterday, the trip was fantastic.  Quinn had a blast and if you asked him what he thought of California, he would say “choo-choo, airplane, busssssss” and then he would smack his lips together to make a fish face.  That about sums it up!

We started out the trip at a hotel by the airport.  Quinn slept in the bed with us and it took him over an hour to fall asleep because he was busy tapping us on the shoulder and saying “hi” over and over again while we were trying to sleep.

He did awesome on the airplane- despite being diverted to Louisiana on the way out and having to sit on the plane for an hour waiting for fog to lift.  I think we read the Thomas the train book about 100 times in 3 hours.  Quinn has decided that Ryan reads it better, so he got the brunt of the reading.  It was fine with me!

After getting used to the time change, we went to the model train museum.  It was a serious model train museum- they had exact replicas to scale of California scenery.  Pretty impressive, especially to Quinn!

Of course they had a Thomas the train table and we just couldn’t walk past it without playing.

The museum was located in Balboa Park, which is a beautiful park with about 10 museums and some gardens.  Quinn loved the fountain.

We liked the cactus garden.

And the lizards were pretty friendly.

Before we left the house, Quinn took a pretty big tumble off the bed and onto the nightstand.  This was after telling him about 100 times not to bounce on the bed, but one little monkey just didn’t listen!  Here is his sad little bruise:

Quinn enjoyed some local music:

Happy boys.

After a nap, we went swimming at the pool.  Quinn was skeptical at first, but once he felt that the water was heated, he was kicking his feet, jumping in and asking for more.  I think he was trying to impress the cute little girl who was in the pool with us!

The next day we went to the San Diego Zoo.  We all loved it.

At one point he decided his Uncle Justin and Aunt Ashley would make better parents and hung out with them for awhile.

All of the action was exhausting so Quinn napped for an hour or so.

Bummer for him that he missed the disgusting wad of saliva the camel was chewing on.

Luckily he woke up for the elephant and has been doing his elephant impression all week.

To top off the day, we took the Skyfari ride over the zoo to the exit.  Quinn was in heaven that we were close to the airplanes.

On Monday, we went to the Legoland Aquarium.  It was perfect for Quinn- not crowded and geared toward kids under 5.  There was a touch pool that he LOVED and laughed/shrieked everytime he put his hands in the water.

Because we were in Legoland, all of the exhibits somehow included Legos.  This guy was made out of Legos.

Quinn and Ryan went into a bubble in the middle of the tank.

Check out these cool dudes. They were looking at some “wa-wa” (water for those who don’t speak Quinn…and by water he meant the ocean).

Our last day there we went to La Jolla.  Since Quinn can’t handle the sand, we picked a beach area that didn’t require going onto the actual beach.  We checked out the seals sunbathing on the beach.

Quinn was happy running around the grass above the beach.

And after all of the fun filled days we had, this is what made Quinn the most excited: airpaaaaaaaaaaaaaane!

Ryan had never been in the Pacific before so he took a little dip.

Quinn was very sad that we were on the sand and that Ryan went running into the ocean.  I think he had a death grip around Justin’s neck to make sure he wouldn’t put him down.

But perked up just in time to cheese it up for the camera.

We rarely get a picture of all 3 of us, let alone a picture with all of us smiling, nevermind a picture with a beautiful background.  This is definitely my favorite picture from the whole trip!

Tonight Quinn seems to be back on schedule and we’re getting back into our old routine.  Fenway is still on vacation at my parents and comes home on Saturday.  I miss him and his big silly face but I will admit, it is nice to be able to leave our luggage on the floor without worrying about anyone eating it!

Now that we know Quinn can handle long days of travel, we’re dreaming about another vacation.  Quinn’s criteria- it must have airplanes, buses, trains and fish.  Oh, and no sand.

We just got back at about 7:30 tonight from our lovely week in San Diego.  We were very sad to see that it didn’t automatically change to spring while we were gone and were greeted with some gray skies, much different from the sunny skies we were getting used to!  The trip was great, Quinn did awesome on the airplane and overall we had a fabulous time.  Now if only we could get back on east coast time… right now it’s 9:30 and Quinn is up in his crib crying.  I’m exhausted since I’ve been up since 3:45 so I’m off to bed- but I’ll be sure to post pictures and stories tomorrow!

Our house is busy with travel preparation.  We leave on Tuesday after work to head to the hotel near the airport and then our flight leaves early Wednesday morning.  My plan was to be completely packed and the house cleaned by the end of the night tonight, but of course that’s not going to happen.  We are mostly packed, but I’m still trying to figure out if I can get rid of anything from our suitcases.  I am a chronic overpacker and now that I pack for Quinn, he, too, has become an overpacker.  I spent hours eliminating items from the suitcase but I still feel like we have a lot of stuff.  I guess that’s because Quinn *does* have a lot of stuff!

We dropped Fenway off at Fat Camp yesterday.  Actually, he’s staying with my parents but I’m hoping that with his twice daily walks and open fields to run in, he’ll lose a bit of weight.  Quinn doesn’t understand where Fenway is and a few times today he has walked around the house calling “Feewee”.  I have a hunch that the feeling is not mutual- I’m pretty sure Fenway is not walking around my parents’ house looking for Quinn!

We’ve been trying to prepare Quinn for the plane ride but I don’t think he gets it.  We have lots of snacks and activities for him on the plane, along with a portable dvd player.  We’ve been getting him used to headphones so the rest of the plane isn’t subjected to Thomas and Elmo.  He’s doing pretty good with them!

I’m leaving my laptop behind so I’ll be disconnected till next Wednesday.  So that means no blog updates.  Don’t worry though, I plan on taking a bazillion pictures and I’ll be sure to post them when we get back.  Hope you all have a great week and a half- I’m sure that we will!

Most days, I do drop-off and pick-up at daycare.  I like it because it gives me a chance to keep in touch with Quinn’s teachers and see him interact with the other kids for a few minutes.  Lately he’s been great at drop-off: giving me a kiss and saying “I love you” before he runs off to play with his friends.  But today he had a hard time and the teacher revealed that he’s been running over to the door throughout the day and crying “mama”.  My heart just about broke when she told me that.  I wish she hadn’t told me because now all day today I’m going to picture Quinn standing at the door crying out for me.    And to top it all off, the pants he’s wearing today are a little too short and the shirt is just a smidge too small so the poor guy is going to look even more pathetic .  Oh, the guilt- for both leaving him at daycare and for dressing him to look like a flood is coming!

In honor of spring coming, I changed up the blog’s appearance with the theme “Almost Spring”.  Today felt like spring- still a little cool but warm enough to be outside.  As you can see from the last few posts, Quinn loves to be outside.  Loves loves loves it.  The minute we come in the house, he runs to the back door to go “owsiiiieee”.

I have spring fever more than I usually do, but that’s OK because in a week, this pale Pennsylvanian family is going to be basking in the glorious, warm San Diego sun!  We can’t wait…me to get in some warm weather, Ryan to visit California for the first time and Quinn to ride on an airplane.  (I should say that we hope the airplane excites him or else it’s going to be a really long plane ride!)

Quinn says “I’m out.”

This was one of those weekends that makes you realize just how much you really, really, really love weekends.  We didn’t go anywhere; or have any real plans; on Saturday we didn’t even get in the car to go anywhere.  And it was a perfect day.

We started out like we do most Saturdays- playing and watching cartoons in a diaper:

Ryan gave Quinn a spare keyboard to play with.  Quinn likes to jump on it and pretend he’s surfing.

After playing and eating breakfast, we woke Ryan up and walked to the barber shop down the street so Quinn could get a haircut.  Quinn did great- he sat still the whole time and even smiled when the barber was using the trimmer.  I wouldn’t let them cut his bangs because they are still growing out from last time.  He looks pretty cute, but what else is new?!? 

After the haircut, we spent a lot of time outside- playing with Fenway, trying to see if our pond fish were still alive (they are), discussing plans for our backyard transformation that will hopefully happen this spring and just hanging out.

Quinn spent a lot of time playing ball with Fenway:

And spying on the next door neighbors:

And just being cute.

I tried to get a picture of me and Quinn together but Quinn wasn’t having it.  This is the best I could do- apparently at 1 and a half, Quinn has decided that he is already too cool for pictures with his mama.   (And holy hell am I pale!):

After being outside for a few hours, we went in and all took 3 hour naps.  It was heavenly!  We ended our perfect day by grilling up some dinner and dancing in the kitchen.

Perfect weekend, I miss you already!

Thanks to some beautiful and warm weather yesterday, Quinn got to try out sidewalk chalk for the first time.  Once he saw that you could draw choo-choos with the chalk, he was sold!

I don’t know what plant this came from, but Quinn thought it was really cool.

running down the driveway to greet daddy…

greeting Ryan

psyched about Ryan’s drawing of Thomas

After finishing up with the chalk, Ryan and Quinn decided to race up and down the driveway.

look at that fierce competition

they were neck and neck…

but Quinn emerged the winner!

We loved being outside and I’d say we’re all looking forward to the warm weather ahead of us!

Now that Quinn and I are both over our ear infections, the house is much happier!  Quinn has been in such a great mood every day after daycare and gets downright silly during his after dinner playtime.  This boy is definitely going to be a big goofball!  We did have a meltdown yesterday when we got home from work/daycare, but only because I was preoccupied by Fenway’s recent path of destruction in the kitchen that I didn’t notice Quinn had opened the lid to the trashcan and took out the stale fig newton we threw in there last night.  I didn’t notice, that is, until I heard Quinn saying “mmm, mmm, mmm” and look over to see him with his mouth wide open getting ready for the first bite.  I ran over before he could actually take a bite, but it caused some major distress and resulted in Quinn crying and refusing to leave the trash can’s side for about 20 minutes.  I think he was hoping I would change my mind about the fig newton!  But that was our only real moment of upset this week and I blame it on Fenway, the wood burring dog.  (You can add Quinn’s wooden kitchen utensils and a small portion of our dining table to Fenway’s list of conquests.)  And now with some stellar weather in the forecast for this weekend, I think we’re in for some fun days ahead!  Hope everyone has a great weekend!