Quinn - 18 months

Our baby (ok, fine...toddler) girl is getting so big!!!  Every single day I am amazed by the things she is doing and learning.  This, to me, really shows the difference in the second child with having an older brother to watch and learn from! She might not use as many words at this age, but she is so intuitive and picks up on everything! And the difference between a boy and a girl are really starting to show more and more at this age.  Some things good (she's not as wild and crazy and will actually obey the things we say) and somethings bad (the girl attitude is already beginning), but either way so fun to see the differences. Quinn is the friendliest baby you will ever meet and loves to say hi and bye to anyone and everyone.  She is happiest when we allow her to be a big girl and walk by herself everywhere we go, no matter the size of the crowd.  She will just walk along with everyone waving and saying hi! She's still a bit slow, so sometimes we have to pick her up to keep up the pace, and she is never very happy about that!! She is so polite too and sometimes is the one reminding US to say thank you! Her favorite things right now consist of playing with cars/trucks, rocking her baby, putting on shoes or getting our shoes ready for us, and picking out a boo (book) to crawl up into our laps to read.  She might not always want to finish the book, but she loves to read. She also loves to sing and dance.  Her "dancing" tends to look more like a bull getting read to attack or a sumo wrestler stance and stomp, but the second she hears music she starts moving every time. Her favorite songs to sing are ABCs, Jesus Loves Me, and Oh No You Never Let Go (which is brother's favorite song, thus why she hears it all the time!). She also loves to count to three and really loves to count to three to "jump".  At this point her vertical is a bit lacking though!! Quinn can be super independent at times, but also loves to be held while I do things or stand at my feet quietly while I am cooking in the kitchen.  She doesn't want me to hold her, but will just likes to be close by.  I find it very enduring, but I find myself being super cautious before taking a step! Her newest words this month are: "here you go", "what's this or what's dat", "bubbles", "swing", "Mo & PawPa", and "One, two, EEEE". Probably my favorite thing about Quinn right now is her love for her daddy.  The moment she hears the door open in the evening she gets so excited screaming, laughing, and going crazy.  Then she doesn't want to leave his side or let him put her down.  She wants to eat with him, change his clothes with him, anything as long as she is with him.  She gives him the sweetest cuddles too, and will give me the stink-eye like don't you dare try to take me from him!!! She loves to lay her head on her daddy and just cuddle.  It is truly the sweetest! I get plenty of cuddles throughout the day, but she likes to make up her lost time with her dada! I can already see that this little girl will be the joy, the constant glue, the peace-maker, and biggest lover of the family.  She lives for her family and really not many other people, although she loves her sitter and the girls that watch her a church (thank goodness!). We love you to pieces sweet girl!

May not eat many foods, but will eat candy! Go figure! 

Quinnbot 1.0

 

Eating more candy

Her first (and only) house to trick-or-treat at!

I love it that the sweet ladies at church send us pictures...Quinn is clearly loving the video and songs!

Loving that Quinn's ride seems to be much crazier than Jude's! 

Post bath with daddy

Hanging out at the gym 

Swinging...

More swinging....

And more swinging!!! 

(She could seeg (swing) all day long!)

Somebody's first milkshake after flu shots!

Looks like she ate a lot more than she actually did, I was shocked that she didn't love it! 

Air show

Playing golf with Mo

Doing some heavy "research at the library.  

So well that she figured out how to turn it off!

Not into the fire truck 

She stood there looking at that guy for the longest time!

Pumpkin patch time

 

Pondering  

"Excuse us, we are ready to go please!"

Hanging out while Jude does gymnastics 

More pumpkins 

Sweet Quinn and Daddy 

She could stay like that forever 

- Favorite foods: NOTHING...ok, well she will eat a few things but a VERY limited list.  Baby puree that is store bought (will no longer eat mommy's baby food that I work tirelessly to make), bananas, apple sauce, carbs (bread, toast, muffins, crackers, cookies), PB sandwiches, and sometimes cheese.  Literally that's it! Most things she won't even touch and will just push or throw away, and if she does put it in her mouth (or we trick her into it) she acts like she has been poisoned!
-More often than not we call her "sissy" or "sis".  We call her this so much, that most people around her call her Sissy even though she's not part of the family! I have even had people actually ask me, "So what is Sissy's name?" Ha!
- Loves to play the night, night...wake up game that her daddy taught her!
- Still sleeps with multiple paci's.
- She is taking after her daddy and walking on her toes a lot.  Hopefully this is just a stage.
- Wears size 18-24 month clothes, size 5 diapers, and size 5 shoes.

Jude - October

- We were laying in bed one night as I was putting Jude to bed and we got on the subject of heaven. zi thought we were getting pretty deep when Jude asked, "Are there donuts in heaven? What about cookies?" I told him that heaven will be better than anything he can think of, and he followed up with, "well does God had an oven?"  I guess he had sweets on the brain!!
- In another conversation with our little deep thinker he asked if we have to stay away from Jesus because he was on the cross. We reminded him about the fact that Jesus is no longer on the cross and that it actually ended well because he is now in heaven with his Father.  He seemed good with that and continued on.  I thought he was done, but a few minutes later he asks, "Why did Jesus have to leave all of his friends?" We love the fact that he is thinking deeply about these things, but truly "tests" us in explaining all of these heavy topics to a pre-schooler!
- Another evening when putting Jude to bed he asked me if I wanted to feel his heart beat.  He then grabs my hand and places it on his tummy and proceeds to tell me that its "beating" when his stomach goes in and out as he breathes.  I guess we need to work on anatomy a bit more!
- After dealing with what I am sure was a "major" injury, Jude starts to tell me about being tough. "I'm tough mommy, BUT sometimes I cry when I bleed....BUT really big boys cry when they have lots of blood too." (just in case I thought he wasn't tough!)
- One day when we were getting out of the car Jude found a little heart sticker.  He then begins to put it on his heart because "that's where Jesus lives and he loves Jesus."  We begin to walk, and a few minutes later, very seriously, Jude looks up at me and asks, "I wonder how Jesus stays in everyone's heart? hummmm... How does He do that?" (this was my first time to attempt the topic of the Holy Spirit, it was a lofty one!)
- After school one day I asked Jude if he ate the special lunch that I packed him and he confidently responded, "No, it was so and so's birthday, so I was holding out for cookies and cupcakes!" Well at least he's honest!
- We have been having to talk about not using "potty words" to be funny lately. After school one day he proceeds to tell me that a friend at school used a potty word so Jude put his finger up and shook it at him (he proceeds to show me putting his finger up and very slowly moving it side to side with a pretty good "mommy" face). I told him that, yes we don't want to use potty words, but that was the teacher's job. I then let him know that it isn't very nice to shake our finger at our friends and that we should use kind words instead.  He stops me and says very matter of factually, "Oh no mommy, we weren't allowed to talk, so I just had to shake my finger at him." So basically he didn't take in a word that I just said and let me know that he "needed" to do that!