Splash Pad Surprise

A few weeks ago, we went to the park after supper.  It is a fantastic completely assessable park so klp can take his walker all over it.  It is a fantastic park and we are really really thankful that we have one so close to us that is this great.  We played and played and played that evening and it was past dark so we headed to the car.  Right by the parking lot there is a little splash pad.  My boys have never seen one, so they were just walking around on it.  THEN their Daddy pushed the button that makes the water come on.  One boy LOVED it and one boy FREAKED out.  I'll let you guess which one did which! :)

If you guessed q was the one that freaked, you are CORRECT!  He just so happened to be standing in the middle of a circle where water sprays up all around it.  When the water came on, none of it was splashing on him, but he was surrounded!  Haha! He just stood there screaming.  We tried to get him to just walk through the water and out of the circle of doom, but he couldn't get the courage to walk through the horrifying sprinkles of water.  After a few pictures, we reached in and rescued him! :)

In the mean time, his brother was walking ALL OVER THAT THING.  He was cracking up and squealing with excitement.  He was in HEAVEN!!

He eventually talked Q in to coming a little closer, but he still wouldn't go all out splash.  He stayed on the outside edge where no water could get him.  But thats ok.  :)

This boy was completely SOAKED from head to toe! He was also completely THRILLED!





















I took a little video.  Its pretty dark since it was....well....dark outside.  But hopefully you can hear the squealing and listen for qsp's little "I don't know"  its pretty cute.

A few things about Quinn

He is reading at a 9th grade level.

He takes good care of his animals.  Feeding them......

....and making sure they have plenty of water.

He is very 

SILLY

and he has a mother who needs to wash her windows more often.

He has big blue eyes and a birthmark everyone always thinks is a scratch.  

He's VEEEERY sneaky.

He usually starts his morning off with a banana and some milk while I get his breakfast ready.  He has very puffy eyes when he wakes up.  He has to carry his big blanket over his shoulders so he doesn't trip on it.   

He aslo speaks other languages.  Ever since he started talking, he's often put "le" in front of a lot of words.  One of his first words was "ball" but according to him, it was "le ball".  Along the same French influenced lines is "le Bubba", "le car", "le book".  You get the idea.  And just when I thought he only spoke French, I discovered another one.  I went in his room to get him after his nap.and when I walked in the room, he said, with his best ITALIAN accent,   "Hey maMA!!" I checked to make sure the Cake Boss wasn't in his bed, but he wasn't so it must've been Quinn channeling his inner Italiano.

If you count East Texas Twang as a language both of my boys are fluent.  I hear it every time they say "Bye" (and lots of other words).  It makes their daddy roll his eyes, but that's what he gets for leaving me at home to teach them to talk!! :)

He has just recently learned to run. It took him 17 months to get the courage to walk, so you can imagine that running is a little scary for this cautions one.

He is having a REALLY REALLY hard time adjusting to klp being at school.  He is lost without him.  Translated: he is clingy and wanting me to be with him every second of the day.  He won't let me get 2 feet away!  There is lots of crying and lots of whining.  It ain't pretty.  Its only 3 days and only til 1:15 so I'm sure he'll adjust.  He better.  :)

He has since stopped doing this, but he went through a little phase where he would play this "game" with us.  He would say, in a very high pitched sing songy voice, "Hey Mama!!!" and I would reply in the same high pitched sing songy voice.  "Hi Quinn!!!" and then he would lower his voice really low and slow and say "Heeey Mama"and I reply with a matching tone, "Hey Quinn."  The game would go on a few rounds and then he would stop.  We thought it was hilarious and have NO IDEA where he came up with it.  He hasn't done it in a while and I never got it on video.  Its not the best written story (unless you have a really good imagination) but it was a pretty cute little game.

He totally bonded with his Daddy while I was away with klp in the hospital.  I have seen a big difference since then.  He often chooses Daddy over me *GASP!*

All week he wakes up in the mornings and from naps clapping.  At least he's happy.

When he gets ready to do a trick, i.e. throw a ball in the air, he says, "Mama, Waaaaa" (Mama, watch!)

So you don't go thinking he's nothing but a broad cultured funny boy, I'll give you some dirt.  He's kind of getting mean.  He will hear klp ask me to do something and then he will try to run get it first.  He will hear klp tell me he wants to rock and he'll run to the rocking chair first.  Not cool.  Doesn't work around here. He's also started the "MINE!" thing.  UGGHHHHH. I  DO NOT like this.

He's sleeping soundly, but I expect to hear clapping any minute so I better go finish up a few more things.  Happy Weekend!

Guess Who's Reading??!?!!

Maybe reading is a bit of a stretch....MEMORIZING may be more like it.

For the last few weeks, the book "There's an Aligator Under My Bed" has been klp's book of choice every night before bed.  Its true that he's probably heard it read 100 times, but that doesn't change the fact that its pretty awesome that he has it memorized!  The other night I  let him finish the sentences on a few pages and was shocked at how much he knew.  So last night I decided to video the whole book and see what he could do.  The lighting is low, the filming is bad but I was trying to read, turn pages, film, and hold him in my lap all at the same time.  Hopefully you can hear it OK.

You'll notice he points out the lights. He's obsessed with lights and finds lamps, lights, street lights, flashlights, or any other form of light in every book he looks at. He also loves to look at all the toys on the floor in the boy's room.  

Remember he says "lmmm" (with his tongue sticking out) for the word "eat".

"garage" is a pretty cute word coming out of his mouth! :)

He uses the same tone and inflection that we use on some of the parts.

Ignore my annoying voice.

Enjoy!

Big Help and Great Friends

I try to make the boys earn their keep around here.....

so they have to HELP decorate wrapping paper for Daddy's birthday present.....

then HELP Daddy open his present........

and HELP clean up after themselves.  I can't just let them stick around here for FREE!!!!! :)  

When Great Aunt Nancye gave klp this frog puppet in the hospital, initially q was afraid of it (as he is most things that are new and big).  But now I think its safe to say that they are GREAT FRIENDS! He's giving him a big kiss!!!  

Here are the boys with Ali and Mabry.  They love these girls....they are such GREAT FRIENDS!

This is kind of a stretch but i had to fit it in this blog.....Quinn and klp's walker are BFFs.  Seriously, he loves this thing.  Most kids do.  We usually let qsp have a turn at some point and we're pretty sure it confuses people.  It cracks us up and I'm sure it doesn't hurt for klp to get to see someone else walking in it.  This picture is blurry but I couldn't snap one that wasn't blurry because he BOOGIES on this thing.  

Brothers....the GREATEST FRIENDS in the world!!!  

(here klp is tickling qsp....if it had sound you could hear his high pitched dededededededede that he does when he tickles. I think its from us saying tickletickletickle when we tickle him)

(notice q's fingers are crossed on this thumb sucking hand. That's his latest thing.  When he sucks his thumb, he criss crosses either his first two fingers or his last two fingers)

This is so them.  klp dying laughing squealing. Q/Linus with blanket and thumb.  Both with crazy just-out-of-the-bath hair.  And only diapers.  

Hats

Kanyon is REALLY into hats.  He wakes up asking for his hat and tries to sleep in it.  His love of hats started with this Montana State hat that his Montana cousins gave him..  He pulls it down really low over his eyes almost to the point where he can't even see! I push it up and he pushes it right back down.  He knows how he likes it I guess.  Though it all started with the MSU hat and its by far the one he wears the most, he has spread the love to all sorts of hats.  

The fireman hat our friends gave him in the hospital has been fun!  Q only wears it backwards and only for about 10 seconds.  klp wearing a tiny green hat....

We went over to play at Chandler's house so his options there were a bit more.....ummm....girly.  But it was a hat and thats all that matters.  Plus, this is ALMOST a top hat right?? Abe Lincoln? 

Then there's this hat.  The Happy Camper hat aunt Nancye got him when he was a baby.  It is a BABY hat!! Its TINY.  But it was his favorite for a while. He didn't care that it would squeeze and then eventually pop off his head because it was too tight or that the bill was way too short for a big boy. I would try to hide it so he wouldn't see it and forget about it, but then he would ask me for "Bubba Haaaa" (Bubba's hat)  I told him one time that the hat stayed in Bubba's closet because it was a baby's hat. So he just called it Bubba's hat.  There was no forgetting the beloved green hat.  

In efforts to trump "Bubba's hat" I offered him "Daddy's hat" and it was a hit too!  Here he is proudly wearing the Phillips Bar Diamond Ranch hat.  

Quinn?  He's more of a glasses guy right now.  

Works of Art

Kanyon LOVES to paint. I think we have school to thank for that.  Last year, every day when I would pick him up, I would ask him what he did at school.  The conversation would go like this: 

me: HEY KAN!  How was school?!

klp: gooooo (good)

me: Good! What did you do? 

klp: I wiiiiieeee (write) I puuuu (paint) 

me: Oh fun!  

klp: I owwww cakwa (I want a cracker)

And he would chow down on his goldfish in the car all the way home.  So, this summer we did some painting and even let Q join the fun.  One day I documented with pics.  

a rare moment where klp in using a color other than black....more on that later

Q has a lot to learn about painting.  Mainly that you're supposed to paint on the paper.....not your hand. 

qsp would hold his water cup (which had barely any water), dip his brush in the paint, then the water...

then his hand.  This required LOTS of focus and concentration.  

klp noticed what his brother was doing and was kind of laughing.  Then my Occupational Therapist Mommy light bulb went off (I'm not an OT, I just think like one after 4 1/2 years of being Kanyon's mommy!).  I said, "Why don't you try to paint your hand!" This meant he had to open his tight hand and figure out how to get the paint in there!!!  Its the story of klp's life really: even play is work.  But he loved it and it was good practice opening his hand.  

I put the breaks on the mouth thing. He was putting it all in his mouth.  YUCK!

qsp loves all the colors and they all ended up on his hand, giving it a nice reddish brownish tint.

klp does NOT like all colors.  Every single time I've painted with him, he only paints with the black.  I'll show him the other colors and put them on his brush and he immediately goes back to the black.  hmmmm Ansel Adams??  

First Day of School

Thanks to HUS we got a few more weeks of summer at our house. But today summer is officially over. Booooo!!! He walked right in and was Mr. Chatty. He headed straight for the train table and picked up a stray phone on his way and said,"hey!!". He's in the same room with the same teachers and most of the same kids. If it were up to me I'd still have him home but I have to share him 3 days a week. I know he will do great!

Peek-a-boo!

PEEK

A

BOO!