Today was one of those days that I mentioned in the last post- 3 parts wrestling match and 2 parts jungle safari.  I should have known it was going to be one of those days when I ran upstairs to grab a diaper and came down to find Quinn sitting at Ryan’s desk.  He had a pen in his hand and was “coloring”.  On his legs.

It looks even worse in combination with his black eyes that he still has from his fall…

I won’t go into details of our day but I will tell you that it consisted of a certain someone screaming at the top of his lungs in the grocery store because he didn’t want to sit in the cart, a walk in which my 28 lb. son insisted on walking our 90 lb. dog (I know, it’s shocking that the walk didn’t go well), a playdate where Quinn managed to take every toy out of the hands of his friend and made her cry several times, and a case of diaper rash.  Oh, plus I stepped in dog poop.  Just one of those days, I suppose.  The night did end on a good note when Quinn did a pretty rockin’ drum solo accompanied by some great singing.  Quinn is now in bed and I’m going to follow suit very soon to sleep away all remnants of the majority of today!  Let’s hope tomorrow is all fiesta!

I just started reading a book called “The Happiest Toddler on the Block”.  The second page of the book summarizes the toddler years like this:

Toddlerhood is like three parts fiesta mixed with two parts wrestling match and one part jungle safari.

Ain’t that the truth!  Some days are all fiesta, some days are mostly jungle safari and then some days are mostly wrestling matches with a little jungle safari thrown in.  Luckily the latter days are rare, but when those days hit, they are exhausting!

And because a post is not a real post without a picture of the mighty Quinn, here he is a few weeks ago, all decked out in his Elmo pjs and his after-bath hair.

One of Quinn’s best friends was born yesterday.  Welcome to the world Thomas David V.   And congratulations to Jeni and Todd!

Baby Tommy (as Quinn calls him) was born at 6:51 yesterday weighing 7 lbs. 14 oz.  Quinn and Ben (the 8 month old son of another of my best friends from college) look forward to teaching Thomas the ways of the world, and I look forward to watching the 3 boys grow up together.  I’m sure in a few years the 3 of them will be running circles around us 3 frazzled mothers!  I’m going up to see them this weekend and I’ll be sure to take plenty of pictures of this beautiful little guy!

Last week, the day after the infamous head bang, Quinn and I sat down to dinner and some great conversation.  We touched on some important topics- what rockets do, how old he is and his enthusiasm for baseball.   Pretty much normal conversation with an almost 2 year old…

Pizza out, people, pizza out!

Quinn tested out his new green crocs today.  We had to retire the blue ones because they were really worn out and they smelled so bad that I could smell them whenever he was in the car with me.  His feet may be small but they sure are stinky!  He’s equally enthralled with these new crocs as he was his old ones.  We’re trying to stress that these shoes aren’t for running- but apparentally they are great for jumping!

Sorry for the blurriness- he just moves so fast!

The good news is that Quinn’s forehead bump is almost gone, replaced by a bruise that is getting lighter every day.  The bad news is that now he has two black eyes.  No, he didn’t fall again- apparently bruises on the forehead drain into the area around the eye, which is what happend in this case.  The part between his nose and eye is slightly swollen and dark.  Yesterday looked worse than today, so I’m hoping this will get better soon.  For now, though, he looks like he was in quite the bar playground fight.  Eh, at least other kids won’t mess with him!

We had a great weekend- but no pictures from it so this is going to be one of those boring no-picture posts.  I’m loving my Fridays off in the summer (I work my weekly hours in the course of 4 days rather than 5 days).  This past Friday, Quinn and I met one of his friends at a really cool science museum geared towards kids under 5.  Quinn loves it there and he literally ran around the entire hour and a half we were there…taking a kid or two out in the process.  He just can’t slow down- even though he tells me “Boo boo.  No running” several times a day.  I guess he has a hard time following his own advice!  Then we had some friends over on Saturday night and learned how to play Texas Hold ‘Em.  Quinn helped me out by throwing my chips around- I think he was trying to distract the competition.  And now today we are doing some organizing/cleaning in and around the house.  Sundays are good for that.  And a weekend is just not complete without a trip to Target, so off we go when Quinn wakes up.  Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Just wanted to give an update on Quinn’s head- it looks so much better today.  He’s been acting completely normal- his old silly self.  When I called his daycare today they said he had been great all day and he even told his friend Tommy “No running”.  At least he learned a lesson out of this!  I talked to his pediatrician twice about his bump just to double and triple check that Quinn was OK.  They said that a couple things were good about the situation: 1) that Quinn cried right away when it happend, 2) that there was a visible bump (which I’m told is better than not having a bump, because that means the bump could be inside the head), and 3) that Quinn has been eating, sleeping, walking and playing normally.  Right now he is playing happily with his trains.  Here’s proof of the miraculous recovery:

and the side profile, pretty much back to normal:

Thank goodness all is well.  I’m sure this is only the beginning of bumps, bruises, scratches and all that fun stuff.

I got the dreaded call from daycare about an hour before I was going to pick Quinn up today- “Quinn is OK but we just wanted to let you know that he fell and hit his head against the play kitchen.  He has a really large bump and he won’t stop crying.”  I’m glad they prefaced it with “Quinn is OK” but still…it’s scary.  And Quinn didn’t sound OK over the phone, judging by the banshee screaming I heard in the background.  Luckily my work is only 5 minutes from daycare and I was able to be there in 15 minutes.  I honestly was expecting a small little bump and wasn’t prepared for the ginormous welt that is on poor Quinn’s forehead.  It’s like a unicorn stub.  He was still crying when I got there but would stop intermittently to tell anyone who was listening about the lollipop in his hand and the “inber tube” he went on last week.  We’ve been watching for concussion signs but given that he ran around and yelled with the boys next door for most of the night, we think he’s fine.  Just a little bumpier.

Check out the damage- it’s huge but at least he’s feeling well enough to give us his cheesy smile.

and his side profile- see the huge protrusion on his forehead?

from the other side- see, he’s pointing to it with his finger, but his finger is taking a detour up his nose!

If he hears you talking about his head, the poor guy looks at you with the saddest, watery eyes, points to his head and says “boo boo hurt”.  Heartbreaking.  Hopefully he won’t catch on that Ryan and I can’t say no to him when he pulls the boo-boo card, otherwise he’ll be playing us for a while!

We all have a case of PVSS- Post Vacation Stress Syndrome.  I think it will really hit me and Ryan tomorrow when we’re sitting at our desks at work but it’s already hit Quinn.  He was used to having lots of attention from lots of people and always having someone around to meet his needs and tell him stories.  Now if he doesn’t get what he wants the second he asks for it, he hits or bites something- the garden hose, his baseball, the chair.  Daycare should have an interesting day with him tomorrow!

As I mentioned in my last post, we had an awesome week at the beach- the weather couldn’t have been better and we enjoyed spending time with family.  Our house was right on the beach so it was great to be able to walk back and forth throughout the day.  Quinn was a cute, adorable attention hog- as you’ll see from the pictures, since most are of him.  Here are some of my favorite pics, but you can check out the rest here.

the best beach outfit ever: a diaper, sunglasses and an urban cowboy hat.

Quinn on his “inber tube” (that’s what he calls it)

a beach nap

Quinn’s oceanside pool

kiteflying

excitement about kiteflying

beach baseball (notice the pitcher’s technique)

this is what it was like all week for Quinn- center of attention and all eyes on him!

cool boat

too cool for school

storytime with Grammy

watching the sunset on the beach

Quinn is now officially a beach baby- tan lines on his bum, blond streaks in his hair, and sand grains still lingering in his ears!  The funny thing is that even though he played in the sand at the beach, he still cries at the thought of putting his feet in his sandbox at home.  I guess it’s just not the same as the beach!

We’re back from our week-long beach trip with a new kid- one who likes the ocean and sand and the beach in general.  I won’t say Quinn did a 360 from his previous sand aversion since he still won’t sit on the sand- he did more of a 270 and will now run, touch, and play in the sand.  By our last day, he woke up talking about pirate ships, the beach and his feet in the sand.  I loved it and was thrilled that he adapted so well!  Here’s proof of our new beach bum:

Now we’re back in reality of washing clothes, dusting sand off everything and trying to get Quinn used to only having an audience of two rather than the doting audience of 11 he has had for the past week.  I think it’s going to take us a few days to get him back on his normal schedule, but our week at the beach was worth getting off schedule!  I’ll post a more picture-heavy post about our trip soon.