A big happy (30th!) birthday to the guy Quinn and I are both crazy about.  No, not Handy Manny…Ryan/Daddy!  We love you!

The other night I attended a very small rock concert.  I was impressed- these guys have talent!  Only a confident musical artist would play in the (almost) buff.

This weekend we readied Quinn’s “big boy” room for it’s first occupant.  We painted the walls, hung curtains, hooked up lights, put together his furniture, made the bed and the list goes on.  We still haven’t finished completely, but it has the basic bedroom essentials for a 2 year old – a bed, a dresser and a train table.  (I’ll be sure to post pics when the room is fully finished.)

We gave Quinn the choice on where he wanted to sleep last night, although put extra emphasis on how cool his big boy bed is.  And since he is all about things that are cool and big boy-like, that is what he chose. After reading six books with me, two books with Ryan, and about 15 minutes of crying, he fell asleep in his big boy bed and didn’t wake up until 6:30 this morning.  It was a success!  Let’s hope the rest of the week goes equally well.  He was so excited about it this morning that he ran into his daycare class and immediately told his teacher about sleeping in his big boy bed.  I think this transition is going to be easier for him than it is for me.  Looking around his room and watching him sleep in a real bed last made me a little misty-eyed.  I don’t think I’m ready for my baby to be a big boy!

Quinn often comes home from daycare with drawings and little art projects.  This one that came home yesterday is my favorite.

Any guesses?  Thankfully, his teachers were nice enough to write on the bottom of the paper what this is.

Duh…an elephant!  Quinn is obviously going through his abstract phase right now.

The weather was so nice yesterday that it almost felt like summer.  We ended up doing a lot of summer-like activities, so that made it really feel like summer re-visited – swimming (even though it was inside), hanging out on the front stoop, walking in the grass barefoot, and getting ice cream.

Quinn had his first swimming class yesterday.  By the end of the class, he loved it.  But at the beginning- he was that kid screaming and crying as his mother tried to drag him into the water.  Luckily, after about 10 minutes he turned himself around and by the end he was asking to go down the huge indoor waterslide that they have.

He and I were exhausted from the class so we came home and took a long nap while Ryan did some work.  We’re in the process of selling some furniture on Craigslist to get Quinn’s big boy room ready.  Quinn tested out the cabinet of the desk we’re getting rid of…

We took a walk and Quinn demonstrated to the entire neighborhood his new favorite activity- screaming.  And boy, can this kid scream.  It’s ear piercing.  When I ask him what he’s doing, he very matter-of-factly tells me “I’m screaming”, like I couldn’t have figured that one out.  He never tells me why, but the way he breaks into giggles afterwards leads me to believe that he thinks it’s funny.  News flash, Quinn- it’s not funny for your acoustically sensitive mother!

After dinner, barefoot stoop-sitting out front and a successful Craigslist sale, we headed out to get some ice cream.  Quinn seemed excited, even though he refuses to eat ice cream, and told us he wanted “yellow” ice cream.  Turns out there is no yellow ice cream at our local ice cream joint.  We ended up with half a scoop of vanilla with sprinkles in a cup for Quinn.  As usual, he refused to eat it but really enjoyed holding it.  On the way home, it suddenly got quiet in the back of the car so I turned around and… Quinn was eating the ice cream!  I know, sounds weird that we would be so excited about it, but this is a kid who doesn’t stray from his usual repertoire of foods and sweets are not part of that repertoire- especially cold sweets like ice cream.  He did have a pained look on his face while he was eating it, but when we got home, he ate some more at the table and then goofed off with Ryan.

Somewhow the shower cap made it into the kitchen and we all tried it on.  Quinn looked the cutest in it.

It was a great pretend-summer day!

Quinn got the cutest play cookie baking set for his birthday and has been baking cookies for us daily.  Good thing they are wooden, otherwise we would all be on a sugar high.  Plus the fact that Quinn doesn’t really like sweets, so wooden cookies are just perfect for his taste buds!

Nevermind that he’s using my new grill basket.  The minute I took it out of the box, he commandeered it for himself.  Apparently they make the cookies crispier or something.

He’s so domestic.  Betty Crocker- watch your back!

Man, whoever is in charge of this blog is completely slacking.  She hasn’t posted anything new in a week.  How boring.  It’s like she has something else going on, like feeling like complete crap in the evenings due to being pregnant.  Oh wait…

That is what’s going on!  I just don’ t have the energy right now at the end of the day to think or do.  So instead of letting Quinn fend for himself, I decided to channel my energy into taking care of his needs and let the blog slack.  As a great reminder of why feeling crappy is OK, I had an ultrasound yesterday of this beautiful babe:

They grow so fast, huh?  Just a few weeks ago he/she was the size of a lima bean, now he/she is a peach.  Everything looks great and in a month or two we’ll find out the gender.  Any guesses?

And, I promise, I have about four posts in my head and many pictures/videos on my camera that will appear on the blog at some point soon.  And you don’t want to miss them- Quinn got a real drumset as a birthday gift and he rocks out pretty hard on it.  It’s awesome[ly loud].  So stay tuned!

The day after Quinn’s party, Uncle Zach Elmo was still in town, so he stopped by right after breakfast to say hi to Quinn one last time.

Quinn was ready for Elmo this time and was sporting his Elmo pajamas.  Thanks for coming, Elmo – Quinn is still talking about you!

We had Quinn’s 2nd birthday bash this past weekend.  It was a lot of fun…and I’m still exhausted.  It feels like I still have a hangover from it, even though I obviously did not consume any alcohol.  I wrote a long post over the past 2 days with pictures from the party, only to have it disappear when I tried to publish it.  Very annoying.  And I don’t have the energy to write the same post over right now, so I’ll do a little highlights post. The R-rated PG-13 highlights.

Elmo stopped by the party, compliments of Uncle Zach.  Here is Elmo “preparing” for his appearance.

Quinn got a birthday kiss from his girl, Angelica.  Look at that head turn – pretty good technique!

And then it turns into not-so-good technique.  Not sure if he is still going in for the kiss or trying to bite her.  We’ll have to talk to Quinn about open mouth kissing…

Quinn got a ton of presents from his very generous family and friends.  One of the toys is a truck name Chuck the Truck.  Quinn likes the toy, we like when he says the name of the toy.  And as the very  mature adults we are, we had him say the name over and over and over…

I’ll post more pictures later when I’ve fully recovered.  Another member of our family was feeling a little ill the next day as well- our dog, Fenway.  His hangover also was not alcohol related, but rather the food he snuck from unsuspecting party guests.  He threw up a few times in our backyard on Sunday- we told Quinn that was a sure sign that he threw a pretty rockin’ birthday party!

Quinn received a new tricycle as a birthday present, and it’s pretty bad-ass.  I think this tricycle will make Quinn the leader of the neighborhood tricycle gang- check out that chrome!

And those streamers?  Oh yeah, they’re black leather streamers.

Maybe the blue turtle helmet takes away from the coolness factor of the bike, but with one head bump already, we don’t need anymore!  And Quinn actually loves his helmet, he calls it his football helmet.

But Quinn’s favorite part of the bike?  The bell.  This kid is officially cool.