Happy New Year!

I had a great Christmas post but I couldn't upload the accompanying video so I never posted it. I will get a Christmas one out there but wanted to get our new year's resolutions out first. We had a beautiful day in Tampa today and there is a cold front coming through so we don't think we'll get too much time outside this weekend after today so Carrie took the Luckster and Q for a walk this morning. We decided we would grill out for our NYE dinner and get to spend some time outside playing ball with all of Quentin's new toys. He got a T-ball set from the Sloppys so we set that up but he only used the bat to hit our patio chairs to listen to the "music" they make and threw the balls. It's a start. We grilled up some burgers and cheesy potatoes with several appetizers Chez' Carrie whipped up.

After gorging for the umpteenth time this holiday season we decided to go around the table and make our resolutions for the new year. Quentin promised to sleep more starting with tonight. We are definitely holding that one to him. He said he would cry less, be more mischievous, climb more, continue to work on his sports and love his parents. He has made the switch to full time mobile boy and we are spending all our time chasing him down. There is not a minute out of the day that he isn't into something he shouldn't be. As soon as you put him down he immediately surveys the room and any place that is normally off limits but is currently unsecured he bolts for. That could be the stairwell, the well known dog bowls or the master bathroom where he gets into Carrie's lotions. He wears you out. My resolution? Hopefully chasing him less.

We'll get some Christmas pictures posted shortly. We hope everyone has a Happy New Year! Champagne at midnight if we make it that long. Last year we didn't have the energy for any champagne or to make it to midnight. Here are a few pics from the visit. Q's first look at snow, playing like Mozart and ready to go for the Badger game. The Badgers of course started the Big Ten Bowl Season off by knocking out #15 Miami.

Oops! We forgot to...

We had a great casual Christmas last night. As we begin our family traditions with our expanding family the first item was to go casual for holidays. Dressing up is nice for pictures but not so nice to hang out in all day so in palm tree land we're doing it up island style. Shorts and T-shirts will suffice for our holidays. Secondly, when in Florida - land of the pirates of olde matey you must invite the Captain to your holiday festivities. We invited two Texas fifths of Captains and that helped with the overall atmosphere. Of course we wanted as much family as possible as well, but the Reiters keep moving out of state so we are down to Rachel. Now, that's not a slight to Rachel, she added a spunk to our party that we needed. Rachel is very much a part of the family so we were glad she was able to attend. With it being a work day we didn't have tons of time to get ready and with Q's bed time looming we had to hustle. We made hors d'ourves for the main course and cookies for dessert. We enjoyed the Captain and munched on won tons (nicely done Care)!, cocktail wieners and of course M&M's. And no party at our house would be complete without our world famous taco dip. We gorged and then we started to open gifts.

Lucky, is a bit of an attention whore, so we thought we would give him a gift first so we could film Q ripping into gifts without a big shaggy dog getting in all the shots. Well, he went first but that didn't deter the furry shots. We are proud to announce our dog's behind represents roughly 25% of the Christmas video. We are now taking applications for an editor. Q opened his first gift, took the bow and stuck it to his ever growing belly, and fell in love with a new ball game that you pound balls into a hole and they go through a contraption before spitting out the bottom. That was it for him. He loved it and it was tough to redirect his attention after that. He opened a few more gifts from Grandma and Grandpa but due to the late hour didn't get a chance to play with them. In fact we put him to bed and came back downstairs to exchange gifts on an adult level when we realized we forgot to give him his "big" gift! Hilarious! I guess that's how you know your kid is spoiled. He got so much stuff we forgot the crescendo gift. So, I have one really shiny new wagon with giant home made bow still in its hiding place in my office. I guess we'll have some event when we return from Wisco to give it to him. It should be a nice addition when we take Lucky for walks.

Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa S. for sending some bigger gifts down to Florida. We are, however, running out of square footage so keep that in mind for the next round of Q gifts. We also want to thank Nanna and Poppa Steve for all the awesome gear they left on their last visit. I will be decked out in full Packer gear upon getting on the plane today. You are, however, setting the bar too high for me with that hand bag you gave to Carrie. If we could slum it a bit more in the future I would appreciate it. A quick shout to Rachel thanking her for watching our dog over the holidays. Please make sure the puppers has a jolly Christmas. That four foot bone should last the week, but watch out for the ramifications of him eating it in the flatulence department. He is well versed in clearing a room.

We are flying into an ice storm today. Hooray! Just in case traveling during the holiday season wasn't a thrill, add a dash of freezing rain. Jehovah Witnesses just stopped by the house so I have them putting in a good word for us to arrive safely. Such nice people. They just want to chat the day away, on a Wednesday, at 11 am in the morning. Hmm... We also noticed they skipped our neighbors and the house after that and the one after that. We must be on their short list for recruits. Have a Merry Christmas everyone!!

'Twas the Night Before Christmas...

Actually tonight we will be celebrating Christmas at our house with the family before trekking through the airport for the fourth time as a ticketed passenger in the last seven days. That's how you squeeze the miles in at the end of the year. Yesterday I was in Moline, Dubuque and flew out of Cedar Rapids to Minneapolis where I sprinted about a mile and a half with briefcase, luggage, and in a full suit to make my connection, the last flight of the night to Tampa. Upon arrival to my gate, which was already boarding, out of breath and thinking that was the farthest I had ran in quite some time I was happy to find out I made the flight all to arrive home at midnight. We are leaving for Milwaukee on Wednesday and I didn't want to have to turn right back around so at least I get a whole day in Tampa to celebrate Christmas in the sunshine.

We are very excited to see Quentin tear through all the gifts under the tree. He has tons of gifts that people have sent down and that we have spoiled him with. Even the Luckster, is sooo lucky that he has at least three gifts under the tree. Such a good puppy... It looks like a little snow heading into Wisconsin so we hope we make it without delay. We found the deal of the century on a flight but that means we are taking a late flight, but a direct flight. Quentin is such a mover and shaker now we're worried he won't sit still. I already feel for the poor guy that's going to get his seat kicked for the duration in front of us. Our departure time coincides with his new bed time so we are hopeful he will sleep through the 3 hour flight. We can't wait to celebrate with our little guy and the family!

A while ago we attended a Christmas party and I was trying to describe the crazy talents of a artist that was there. The party was hosted by our photographer and it turns out that he posted some pics on his blog and Q made the cut a couple of times. There are also several examples of the silhouettes. It's just crazy to think these were getting churned out in about two minutes free hand with a pair of scissors. Definitely check out the link. http://www.jasonangeliniphotography.com/blog/?p=7756 See the model in the black and white at the end? Looks like all man to me! We'll post some great pictures of Christmas in the next couple of days.

The Christmas Tree

The Q-meister turned one on November 29th. He was not into his birthday presents at all. Today is December 20th and he is obsessed with the tree, the ornaments and extremely focused on the presents as they continue to multiply under the tree. No bow is safe at our house. They have all been removed. He took a couple and it was kind of cute. I moved the presents farther under the tree. He grabbed a couple more and it was still kind of cute buy I started to wonder whether it was even worth putting more bows on. I move the gifts way under the tree. Well Captain Persistence just gets on his belly and crawls all the way under there to get them. Now we don't have any bows. I guess he's still pretty cute but the gifts are not. What's a one year old boy to do with no bows to pull off? He's moved on to opening the gifts. He's smart. He's not going for the top of a gift. Oh no. He's going for the corner, the easiest point of entry. He knows he can wedge is pudgy little finger into that crease, get a grip and start tearing. Clearly, he's missing the concept of wait until Christmas. Not only that, but he's opened one of Carrie's gifts and this morning started in on Lucky's 4 foot long wrapped bone. Lucky already knows what it is so he's standing right next to him urging him to hurry up. It's criminal these two. They might as well be brothers!! We can live with it. We are celebrating our family Christmas on Tuesday before we hit the road so we only need to survive a few more days. Every time Dennis the Menace does some new cute mischievous thing I just think about the damage that is heading Grandma's way. I hope the ornaments start about 3 1/2 feet up the tree. One can only assume no gifts have been wrapped with bows. A present terrorist is coming to town and it doesn't matter who's been naughty or nice.

With all the Christmas rushing around we thought a nice dinner out would be a nice change of pace. Q is finally sleeping and hitting the hay around 7:30 so we are militant about keeping the schedule. That means, hooray!, we're the early bird special people. We had a gift certificate that we received for Christmas last year, still not used, so we employed that to head out to a local restaurant. Now, I think a little hippie goes a long way. Let's face it, facial hair is cool. You may not like it but that just means you're a square. Long hair on dudes is awesome. We don't want to go crazy here and you can leave your mullet at the trailer park but long hair for dudes is generally a sweet fashion statement. So, in the spirit of who wants to give their one year old a buzz cut the Qster is sporting a nice old melon of shagariffic hair. It's his trademark. He came out with inches of hair and for all we know he could go bald at some point so let's sport some locks.

Back to the dinner. We had to wait a few minutes for a table and a woman was playing "he's sooo cute" with him/us and then asked if he was a boy or a girl. Really? I mean I know he is extremely good looking. Is he too good looking for a boy? Is there such a thing? He's dressed in blue overalls so I'm not sure if that was a moment of extreme caution trying to avoid I don't want to call their ugly daughter a boy. But outside of that what gives? They sat us in a booth, so it's Carrie on one side, me on the other and Q on the end of the booth with his back to the foot traffic. A few minutes into dinner a group of 5-6 people are like ooooh, look at the cute girl and her dress. Excuse me? Do I need to hand out glasses this charitable season? They think my son is a cross dresser? He's wearing overalls! Does he have a pink ribbon in his hair? How drunk are these people? I'm not cutting his hair so that's out. I guess more T-shirts that explicitly state "All Boy" or "Daddy's Son" or even "Momma's Boy" are better than this kind of treatment. So I hope these ignorant gender blind people are just an abnormal slice of the goofy gene pool that resides in Tampa. Hopefully, when he arrives in Wisco, where people still know the difference between a boy and a girl, he'll called out for being the sooo cute little boy that he is.

Here is a pic of Q shopping. As you can see he is exhausted and our rare day sleeper is out cold in a shopping cart.

Man versus Dryer

A few posts ago I commented about how our dryer died. We have propane for our house so the stove runs on propane, the water heater and our dryer. This is supposedly more efficient but makes everything cost more. We've already replaced the water heater and our stove died the first year we bought the house but as part of closing the previous owners tossed in a home warranty to sweeten the deal so the stove repair was covered. Well, upon coming home and gearing up for another short jaunt today and then leaving for Christmas on Wednesday we are in dire need of a dryer. Carrie has been getting by while I've been out by doing a load a day and get this, air drying. Ha! What a novel approach. We've been blasted back to the sixties!

Yesterday was the first day I had to really deal with it when all my dress shirts came out looking like I had them stored on my dorm room floor for the past consecutive 10 years. I would have to iron 6 times to get all the wrinkles out so I was determined to get a dryer in the house yesterday. It turns out I know very little about appliance purchasing. Imagine that. Even if I was able to purchase a dryer no one actually carries them in stock. After I purchase it and get it delivered I still have the additional step of tracking down a licensed plumber to hook the gas line up. It took about 3 phone calls and 15 minutes on the internet when I realized if we wanted a dryer we were either going to have to live without one for at least 3 more weeks or find a plan B.

Plan B. - call a repair man. Novel idea number two. Genius! I'm generation X, which apparently is not much better than Generation Y (Just buy another one! Money grows on trees! I've never lived a day without everything I've ever wanted! Text messages cost money)? I just assumed it came with the house and was old and wouldn't be worth the cost of repair. I call this guy up and I tell him I want to ask a few questions because my POS dryer has died and it's really old and I want to know whether it would be worth paying for a repair and wondered if he could diagnose it over the phone. How old he says? I say, it was installed in 2001 and is no longer shiny. He laughs at me. It turns out these things are supposed to last 25 years and all gas dryers are made the same regardless if you paid $250 or $1,500. The difference in price being who is a sucker and how many cycles you want that baby to have. (Personally, I just want my clothes to be dry).

Long story short. I made the phone call at 10:30 am on a Saturday. I was drying my clothes at 12:30 pm Saturday with my quieter (apparently there was 21 cents - two dimes and a penny caught on top of the giant drum making a very pleasant screeching sound while on), more efficient, repaired dryer. The whole experience totally changed my mind set. I'm not sure I won't repair every last thing in my home for the rest of my life, probably to the point my poor wife will be living with 30 year old appliances. They'll work though! All I know is the Qster is a lot happier wearing his dry pressed shirts.

Here is an iPhone video I took of Q sprinting through the living room. Notice the disaster in the background.

Cardinal Sin

I was in Chicago this week at a conference and was presenting on Thursday morning to a small group when my phone started ringing with a Tampa number, but one I didn't immediately recognize. The same number immediately called back. Shortly there after Carrie was calling so at that point I realized something must be wrong and stopped to take the call. Daycare had been trying to get a hold of both us. Carrie wasn't answering her phones because she was on a conference call. It turns out they had an emergency at daycare. Quentin had been in an accident caused by one of their employees. He had taken a pretty good fall. They had him on a changing table and committed a cardinal sin. They left him there for a second to pick up something they had dropped on the floor. It only takes a second. In the time she moved away from him he lunged to grab her, missed and fell off the table landing face first on the floor. He fell awkwardly so he wasn't able to catch himself so the impact was on his face. He also had a pacifier in his mouth making the situation worse because it's hard plastic. He ended up tearing the skin off that attaches your upper lip to your gum above your front teeth. He's lucky he kept all his teeth. There was some blood, a lot of crying and some fear with a head injury since he could have a concussion. I was out of town so it was a wait and see moment while Carrie rushed to daycare to take him to the doctor. They decided to cut the remaining part of skin off and thought it would heal in a few days. They told us to just monitor his sleep by giving him a little poke every 30 minutes or so to make sure he was stirring.

After flying home and getting in late last night I spent some time with him this morning and he wasn't acting any different than normal so he's going to be fine. That was our first call and my colleagues, nearly all parents, said it was good preparation for the ones that are sure to follow. At least it wasn't the police. In our parenting class they were constantly harping that it only takes a second and I think most tragedies involving children lost sight of them for a second and disaster struck. It makes me a lot more concerned leaving him at daycare. Being involved in operations at work my first thought is how many times did this same thing happen with no consequences? If this happened once surely it's happened before and the child (not just ours) simply didn't fall. This is a procedural mistake. The real question is, is this a pattern of behavior or an isolated incident? For what it's worth the teacher supervising him we really like and so does he. She felt awful, crying the entire time Carrie was there when we picked him up but that doesn't make me feel any better. I just feel like the only thing we are paying for is safety. I am expecting my child to not have to wear a helmet to the changing table. Maybe I should be more cynical about the whole process. After the first few months of taking him to daycare we haven't thought much about his safety but now all day long that's all I'm thinking about. After all we had to bring him right back this morning. That's like sticking your hand right back on the hot stove after getting burned. What if he would've ran into the road? I guess it's not wise to the play the what if game.

We'll most likely just have to get over it. For what it's worth the daycare just went through their yearly safety training. I think that makes me feel worse. They probably should've made sure everyone was awake.

On a more positive note follow the link to our wonderful screaming child on Santa's lap. He enjoys screaming through life's firsts. (Remember his birthday cake)?

http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/creativeapps/slideShow/Main.jsp?token=358034830803%3A1643649734&cm_mmc=site_email-_-new_site_share-_-core-_-View_photos_button

Meeting Santa

My smart, intelligent, beautiful wife checked the Packer schedule and realized they were playing the Bears this past weekend and then scheduled some time with Santa after the game was over. Fortunately for all parties involved, mostly Santa, the Packers won the game and afterwards the family attended their first Christmas party together that our photographer put together for all his clients. This was one classy shindig complete with a Thanksgiving-esque meal of turkey, stuffing, mash potatoes, green beans and gravy. They had drinks, desserts and build a better coffee/hot chocolate with marshmallows and chocolate chips. The little Qster took his first stab at being naughty or nice meeting Santa for the first time. He screamed, but eventually calmed down enough to stare in amazement and then wanted off Santa's lap. We haven't gotten the pictures back yet, but I think there will be a few priceless moments in there. The photographer thought he got some nice shots of full fledged screaming while telling Santa what he wanted at full volume.

They also had an artist there doing silhouettes free hand with scissors. I have never seen anything like it. She was sitting at a desk and asked you to sit about 3 feet away staring straight ahead. She would be viewing you at a profile. In about two minutes time she would take a 3 X 5 black piece of paper and some scissors and simply cut the rectangle into you. It was crazy. We each got one - for free so now Carrie, Q and I are immortalized into silhouette.

Upon returning we walked into an appliance debacle. Our dryer had been running for like 5 hours without shutting off (or drying our clothes). It has died. That meant we have few remaining anything left in our house that hasn't needed to be replaced. On top of that I noticed our mini-adult-beverage fridge door was open. There was such major icing in the freezer that it grew an iceberg out the door, which meant the ice was melting all over the floor. So we had a dryer on for hours without working and a freezer defrosting on our floor. So I began the task of cleaning everything out and defrosting the rest of the ice with my MaGuyver tools of screwdriver and hairdryer. A little heat here. A little chipping away there and after about 3 hours the iceberg at dissipated into the bottom of my cocktail glass. My always helpful son walked up to the fridge and pulled a what out? A redbull and then tried to chug it. Buried in the ice? That would be a bottle of Jaeger lost from a three year's ago New Year's Eve party when we were young, and slept, and did such crazy things as Jaegerbombs.

Tonight Junior gets his second haircut. He's too big of a hippie and can barely see. I still think it's awesome, but feel a little bad for him so we are trimming it up for the holidays.

The Farframslepin Method

Quentin came home from daycare yesterday in a wife beater. I thought it a bit odd, but then I noticed how nice his pipes looked. I'm sure his all female teaching staff thought it hot when they took his shirt off and decided to find something to accentuate his manly brawn. If only the shirt had read, "Welcome to the gun show" we would've been in business. He's got some serious muscles. I think it's probably from the reps he's been getting in with the regulation size football. We have two in the house and he's been spending every afternoon after school throwing the pigskin around a bit trying to get a feel for the ball and generally working on his technique. He can toss it about 3 feet on average but if he needs a last minute bomb for a come from behind win he can long arm it for about 7-10 feet depending on what kind of pass rush he's facing. With his practice regime I'm not sure we have time to have another child. I would hate to neglect Quinny's dream of entering the NFL as a number one draft pick just so he can have a sibling. I guess time will tell.

He took his return visit to the doctor yesterday to get his shots. They also noticed his strong arms and gave him a shot in the arm, literally, for the first time. Ya, he didn't like that very much. He was pretty good after calming down and getting out of the doctor's office. He's officially in the "one year old" room now saving us a few bucks on daycare. Sweet. He's required to wear shoes now and no longer is allowed to sleep in a crib. Growing up is tough! They sleep on mats instead. Super sanitary no doubt! Speaking of sleep we are using the Farframslepin method after reading a few books with mixed results. The wifey is pretty optimistic and I guess we're doing better overall. There is a lot more crying but we just sort of let him work it out on his own now. He's going down pretty easy and sleeping longer but still getting up throughout the night. We just don't go get him anymore. Instead we crowd around the 1.5 X 1.5 inch screen on the baby monitor at 3am and place over/under bets on how long it will take him to figure out how to fall back asleep. He immediately stands up in his crib upon waking/crying so it's not an easy position to fall back asleep in. We haven't whispered, "Shh, everyone is sleeping. Please go back to sleep" in his ear in a couple of days so the middle of the night stairmaster has been put to bed for the moment. I think in the end the farframgrooven method might pay off. Tonight will be night number 8 so we should be making serious progress at this point.

Here is a pic of me riding Quentin's horse. I put it together so I get to ride it whenever I want to. Q is really coming around. He'll sneak up behind "Blaze" and pull on his tail to hear a Neigh. He likes doing that but isn't too keen on riding him yet. Baby steps.

The Sleep War Update

We have been waging war with our son over sleep for the past four days. Actually, tonight will be night number four. If this is winning I'd hate to be losing. The stats from last night. He went down (I use that term lightly) at 7:50pm and cried until 9:30pm. We check on him in 5, 10 and eventually 15 minute intervals where we are reassuring we love him and it's sleepy time. We tell him we would appreciate it if he was a wee bit quieter because *whisper* "the whole house is sleeping. Shhhhhh." He was soundly sleeping so we thought we might be in good shape. We went to bed a little after 10pm and were out like a, dare I say? light. I woke up in a puddle of drool to him crying and went upstairs. Carrie was out so cold she had the monitor next to her head and didn't even wake up. We are using two versions of fixing our sleep woes, which probably isn't wise. One says we are not allowed to touch him under any circumstances. The other says if he gets up in the middle of the night he's pretty much out of it and you can pick him up to get him back down. Big mistake. I pick up him and rock with him and he goes back out fairly easily. I put him down in the crib. He rolls over grabs his teddy (another part of "winning)" so I think I am golden. I don't even get to the door, and we're talking less than 5 feet before he is standing up wailing away. Choice words uttered and I lay him down patting his back and I'm getting no where. I spend 30 minutes total and give up and take off downstairs. That's when persistent son versus persistent parents dig into their respective trenches for the long haul. This kid has staying power. He stood up the entire time crying until around 3 am. Off and on he was falling asleep - while standing up! Now, there is a little part of me that is extremely proud of that son of mine. I mean talk about manning up. That's a tough little dude up there. It's like slow, painful torture to not go up there and relieve him. I feel awful every second of every minute he's crying when you know if you just scooped him up he would be fine and go right out. It's horrible. I can't believe people can be so nonchalant about it when they tell us, "Oh ya, we just let Jimmy scream his head off for a whole week. We needed the sleep. Sucks to be him! Ha!" Now, I am a first class cynic but this is your kid we're talking about and maybe their kid isn't awesome like mine but my awesomer kid is dying and that is tough sledding for me to deal with. I foresee paying for therapy for my little guy down the road.

Finally, at 3 am he collapsed and hit the mattress. He was standing for over three hours. There must be some sort of endurance award he has earned. He woke up at 5:30. You have got to be kidding me?!? This kid is superman. Geez-WAH-leez! We have my brother in law and his GF coming to town tonight. Hope you brought the ear plugs, because guess what? Your room is next to his. Oh, ya, we are breaking him in so I hope you don't plan on going to bed before 3 and like to rise early, like before 5:30. Oh no? Well, you know when people tell you that you'll never forget this vacation? Well, put it in stone my frined. This is a vacation you'll never forget! We are in way over our heads at this point so there is no turning back. The book tells you to suck it up and no one should have to go through this twice. Guess how long the books says it may take? Umm ya, two stinking weeks! I think if I would've read that part first I would've just moved him into my room permanently. Two weeks? Where are the karma Gods? What did we do to deserve this? How is this kid holding out night after night like this?

So, every night around 7:30 we begin to get a queasy feeling in the pit of our stomachs and start furiously praying that tonight will be the night that Q learns to put himself to sleep and stay asleep. And every night, in one bad turn after another, our ferocious praying falls on deaf ears as we strap ourselves in for another ride on the InsomniaQ Express. It's not pretty, but it is parenting - we think. So welcome brother-in-law to the station that never sleeps. We hope you enjoy the extra awake hours you'll be spending with us.

Off subject but we made our photog's blog as did Lucky. What a Lucky dog... http://www.jasonangeliniphotography.com/blog/?p-7491

Numero Uno Weigh In

The little guy had his one year doctor's visit and managed to pull his first weasel. As in he weaseled out of getting his shots because he woke up the night before with a fever, which makes shooting you full of viruses a bad idea. He won't weasel for long as he has to go back in a week to get them. He's looking at chicken pox (really? I mean this was a rite of passage for my generation), pneumonia, hepatitis A and one other that is dose number four and the final one, which I can't recall.

I am dropping a few pounds and I think it's because Quentin weighed in at 24 pounds and 14 ounces and I'm picking him up 275 times a day. It's like going to the gym without changing into your workout gear or having to pay. Well, that's not true. I'm definitely paying. I'm just not getting a membership out of the deal. That put him in the 75th percentile for weight. He measured 32 and 1/4 inch, which was in the 95th percentile for height. He's going to be tall. While we were discussing what a fine physical specimen my son was, he was playing on my lap with a dog that barks and in typical Quentin fashion threw it on the floor to which he quipped, "uh-oh." Well, the doctor got all excited hearing that because apparently that is a "complex word combination" that he shouldn't be smart enough to utter until 18-24 months. He went on to show the doctor my nose, eyes and ears, which is also advanced - knowing body parts. He also knows up! down! ball, ball, ball, ball, ball, ball, hi baby (more complex word combinations), momma, dad, apple, etc. He's walking like a mad man and has 11 teeth with the 12th and final one year old molar coming in. He's really growing up.

He's becoming quite mischievous in his old age and is so dang smart. He learns so fast by watching, thinking and is really a good problem solver. He's getting tall enough that we had to move the TV because there is a little red circle that lights up when it's on and he's fond of flicking it on, flicking it off, flicking it on, flicking it off. Umm, I'm watching the Badgers beat the 5th ranked Duke basketball team over here. He is also obsessed with the "balls" on the Christmas tree, which of course are ornaments. So we did the smart thing and placed them high. Well, he tracks down a fly swatter that we got for our wedding. (Odd I know but it's a "high end" fly swatter and looks like a sunflower). At any rate he gets the fly swatter and then starts batting the "balls" higher up on the tree. What a genius! Oh, wait those balls smash when swatted. Smart, smart kid, but that keeps us on our toes. Too funny.

He got a new pair of shoes this week too. He wears a 6.5 extra wide. What a shock! It's a good thing this kid didn't come out feet first! So, he's got these monster feet. He had an awesome pair of chucks that are too small now. Total bummer. I think we'll get him another pair for Christmas. He's gotta look cool. The lady at the store said they would last 3 months. Sweet. I only have to buy shoes four times a year.

I uploaded a video of a ball he hijacked from some other kids at the park and just started playing with. As you can see a ball of any size will entertain the Qster. Enjoy!

It's my birthday!

The Qster made it through year one and so did we. I am happy to announce that we got a surprise, but not totally unexpected visitor yesterday when Ed McMahon showed up at our door with balloons, a crate full of diapers and a trophy for winning the parents of the year award. We scoured his prize patrol mini-van but couldn't seem to come across the check we were so sure we deserved. He must have forgot it somewhere. For not sleeping for an entire year (and the last few months of pregnancy) we thought for sure we had earned a check in there somewhere. Well, at least the plaque looks nice on our wall.

We had a beautiful day here in Florida with sunny skies and morning temperatures in the 60s that rose to the mid-70s by the afternoon. Quentin woke up in agonizing pain screaming his one year old head off due to a molar just starting to break the surface. We felt pretty bad for him. Those molars are big old squares jetting through a significant space of gum and it drives him crazy. He's constantly on the look out for anything to chew on to relieve some of the pain. We went to church where he went into super-squirm mode and it was a total bust. He wasn't interested in sitting still so Carrie took him out for the first half only to bring him back and when we went up to the Communion Rail 60 seconds later he had a freak out so I missed the second half. We may have gotten a message in there somewhere between the two of us but I'm not sure. We then took him out for breakfast but Quinny fell asleep in the car and slept through all of breakfast finally waking up when we were paying the check so that was a bust for him.

At that point we decided we better open up some gifts so he has some time to play with them. He received a couple of balls (which he loved), a toy with wooden pegs you pound in, a singing octopus, a packers jersey, a car dash to work on his driving skills, a lawn mower (too loud - it scared him) and a real life talking, neighing, eating rocking horse (which also scared him). He is warming up to everything though. When we unveiled the rocking horse from under a sheet I think he thought we just let a giant wild animal loose in the living room and he took off for cover. We have it all on video. He of course liked the balls best. Funny, how the $1.69 toy was the one he coveted most. He also received a gift certificate to Toys R' Us so we will maybe use that to pick up some more balls. He is really into throwing, kicking and catching at the moment. So much so that it was difficult to get him to refocus his attention on the other gifts.

After we opened the presents we attempted to put him down for a nap. He totally denied us so we took him and the dog to the park - in one car! Finally, we have a car big enough for all of us. (Black Friday persuaded us to purchase a new Black Beauty, but that's for a different post). We took the balls for him to kick around and headed to the park. We started at the swings, but he started to fall asleep after just a few pushes. I think they must put him to sleep in a swing at daycare so that didn't work out. Maybe we need one of those for the nursery??? So we moved to the soccer field where he tore it up running all over the place. There were a ton of families out there playing catch and kicking around soccer balls so we fit right in. We wore everyone out pretty good and came back for cake and ice cream.

He loved it! Check out the sequence of Quinny just going to work on that cupcake. He pounded that thing like he was getting paid. The first pic looks like he's been eating some cake. Look at that chin!

It's all about being special

Tomorrow is the big day and like last year we still have leftovers in the fridge but hopefully we won't be making a trip to the hospital. We stayed up late last night putting together his bucking bronco 21st century rocking horse. Meanwhile Carrie got the Christmas tree up, which according to Q is filled with "balls, balls, balls." No, son, those are ornaments. He doesn't understand the distinction and tries taking them off so he can throw them. Ornaments don't do well as projectiles on tile floor. Needless to say our tree is sparsely populated with decorations. Only at the highest elevations are there a few. I guess that's how it will it be this year. So our tree is posing in the nude with nothing but needles from the waist down but it doesn't mind and either do we.

We spent the day getting the grass mowed, raked and the house lit with Florida style Christmas lights. It was quite cool this morning - to the point that Carrie had a minor freak out for Quentin's health and actually turned on the heat, which down here means cranking the AC up to a respectable 68 degrees. We wouldn't want little Q-dog's paws to freeze while crawling around the floor. He didn't have a good night sleeping so he was a little crabby this morning and we gave him an early birthday present to keep the peace. It was a car dash with wheel, turn signals, horn, shifter and key to start. It plays songs and makes car noises, which he is really in to right now. He loves dancing to music, but not any music will do. He needs child music. I tried singing some classic rock to him, but he wasn't that into it. He needs the real classics like Old McDonald had a Farm and B-I-N-G-O. At first I was a little annoyed but then we experimented with other "children" tunes for the car and I realized there was a baseline for annoyance and listening to the Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round was rather refreshing in comparison.

We're certainly excited to reach the milestone of one tomorrow. I remember being a kid and my Mom putting up signs, banners and balloons so when we woke up we had this shrine for us to make us feel special. So, that's our goal for tomorrow. We want to make the Qster feel special for the day. We have lots of presents and we think we are going to take him to the park to play on the swings. He's not only walking at this point by can run a bit too so he's pretty mobile. We're looking forward to having a nice family day.

Here is a video we shot today of Quinny trying on one of Carrie's flip-flops. Notice he got it on the right foot. He is very curious and catches on pretty fast. He's almost bested the child gate. If he was a little heavier he could beat it. He understands how to break in but can't get the weight distribution quite right. I don't see that gate lasting too much longer.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving, mostly our newest member of the day of feasting, Quinny. We ended up doing our turkey on the grill this year to create more room in the oven for pie, beans, stuffing and rolls. Interestingly enough, our neighbors to our left were smoking their turkey and the neighbors to the right were deep frying theirs so it was an outside cooking affair around the neighborhood. Our 13 pound bird turned out deliciously juicy surrounded by smashed potatoes, green bean casserole, Grandma Spiegelhoff's stuffing, strawberry salad (with fresh strawberries), cinnamon rolls, pumpkin bread, deviled eggs and we forgot the gravy until we sat down. At that point putting off eating was not going to happen so we dug in and will make up the gravy for leftovers today. We finished with some home made apple pie and ice cream. After cramming it all in we celebrated the Packers dominating performance over the Lions with a toast of wine that we received for a gift from our wedding. It was a solid day. Quentin pounded the pumpkin bread, his Thanksgiving favorite eating piece after piece. We fed him a healthy portion of turkey to get him nice and sedated for the evening. He slept fairly well getting up twice, but eventually migrating to our bed in the wee hours. I didn't realize until I rolled over and thought Carrie really shrunk or the munchkin some how gained entry to our room. All in all we had great weather and nice day of eating.

We did a quick round of sharing what we are thankful for and of course health and family made the list. We have had several pregnant coworkers have complications and it's really amazing how lucky you are when everything goes well. Our healthy boy has been the highlight of our year watching him grow and become the man he almost is (two days and counting). I keep teasing him to enjoy his last few days of youth. It's not often one can brag about being younger than a year. He hits up the doctor on Tuesday for his one year check up, so that should be an interesting visit getting shots with a much more aware boy. We are especially thankful in this economy for not only having jobs, but jobs that we both like. Our economy in Tampa is boasting a 12% unemployment rate, so locally people are really hurting. An area charity handed out 1.6 million pounds of food yesterday and you can imagine numerous people still went hungry. We were fortunate to have such a formidable feast on our table.

We are gearing up for birthday celebration VIII, since the Quinster has had several parties. This one will be low key on Sunday with just the four of us. We have been receiving gifts through the mail that Q will get a chance to open on Sunday. I am going to be spending the weekend putting together some of his new toys. (Get used to that "they" tell me). We'll get some pictures posted soon after the party. The Christmas tree and house lights will likely get put up as well. It should be interesting with Q and the tree. We survived the dog so we think we can weather our one year old!

Here are some pics of Carrie and Q before eating. You can see the presents piling up in the background. Q had his own Thanksgiving shirt, bib and even PJ's! We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. It's my favorite holiday and with Quentin getting his birthday within the weekend it's even better.

The Sleep Book

We simply can't get over the hump in the sleep department. We have decided we are taking this up to threat level Red, to borrow from our Government's complicated terrorist threat level color coordinated scheme. (Red very bad, orange kinda bad and green very good). We are hoping at some point we get it down to green. See, you didn't even know there was green did you? Green is good. Green means a whole night sleeping in every one's own bed for a minimum of eight hours or more. I don't know if we've ever seen green. I spend most of my free time in airports and I've actually never seen the color change from orange. Orange is nice if you like Illinois or Syracuse, but for sleep orange only nets you about 2-2.5 hours of sleep. We don't care for Illinois or orange or for that matter, 2.5 hours of sleep. Our library shelves are packed with books on sleep but now we are preparing for war. We are reading Patton. We are reading the Gods of War. We have taken days off. We are drawing a line in the sand. We are forming alliances (parents versus child). We are taking it up a notch. We are prepared to go a whole night without sleeping.

Then, just then, in the heat of battle preparations we read the first paragraph, which simply states do not wage war if child is teething. But of course. What a conundrum! Our child cuts teeth like it's a full time job. At $8/hour for building teeth our kid has already paid for his own college. Our kid even snuck in a molar on us discovered this weekend. That little dandy bought him a whole weekend of crabbiness. "I can't believe we didn't know. Oh, poor guy. No wonder he was so fussy." Not helping...! He's up to nine teeth with two more molars coming in. Did the author throw that caveat in to give parents (or his over priced book) an out? How can you win if the first paragraph lobbies for a tie? A stinking tie? Even Quinny is prepared to take it farther than that. What to do now? I think we'll cheat a bit and fire a few shots anyway to instigate Sleep War III. Be prepared for screaming for multiple hours. It sounds harsh, but then you haven't lived here for the past year. That would be the year of 2009, not the Ox (we're not Chinese), the year of sleeplessness in this household and we can take it any more. We're going postal in the sleep department. We may have to lose a little to gain a little and we are ready for the challenge. TV is bad, but doesn't this sound like a fairly solid 4-5 year run of a reality show on FOX? "It's parents versus newborns. Who will win the battle of sleep versus zombies? The attention war. Your kid wants it. These parents want some sleep. It's war and it's on FOX. This Sunday, following the Simpson's. Check local listings."

It all goes down Monday night or possibly Tuesday if we really want to be alert for that conference call on Tuesday morning. We're taking the rest of the week off. Can you inject tryptophan? Hmm, see this is the weekend to wage war. Leaving with a pic of Q walking on the sand for the first time. I love that gut. It's so, so sweet. He now gives her a good two handed pat when he takes his shirt off and that is what having children is all about.

The Toilet

My kid loves water. It doesn't matter if it's a drop, in your glass, in a dog bowl or a swimming pool. The kid just loves the water. He's secretly hoping we never move back to the midwest because all the water freezes and he knows that would be no fun at all. I'll give you an example of how he is intrinsically attracted to water. You are holding him and there is a glass of water sitting on the counter. You are in conversation and before you realize the Qster has stuck his whole arm into the glass to splash around for a bit.

Well, Junior is walking now and that means he has some height and can get to places he couldn't just a few weeks ago; more water access. He has discovered the toilet. This son of mine is possessed by a sense of determination. And he's willing to apply that determination even to a toilet. He simply wants to win. (Secretly beaming with pride even if it is revolving around a toilet). What a fascinating object for a child to explore. It's white, makes fun noises when beating on it, flushes - uh-oh. Is there water in there? Hmmmm. So I am in the shower this morning with Q on the other side of the curtain playing with a toy enjoying himself. You hear our little drummer boy smacking the toilet and life is good. He enjoys pounding on things so he's in his element. He's entertained, you are getting your shower. Suddenly an eery silence. It only takes about 30 seconds of silence and you just know something is not right. A quick peek around the counter and what do I see? I see my kid elbow deep in the toilet. He learned to lift the toilet lid and play in the water; his own personal swimming pool at Quentin-height. What great joy! Looks like Q will be joining me for an early morning shower. There is a solid chance he's the next Michael Phelps.

As he continues to get more mobile I foresee new and interesting adventures similar to swimming in the toilet. I actually wondered if a child has actually fallen in and drowned. We all laugh, "What did you fall in?" Ah, ha, ha! But, seriously a quick google search and yowsers. So it looks like we'll have a little weekend excursion to the child proof your toilet store this weekend. It's always something...

Here is a pic from the "vacation" that we took down to Marco with Quinny getting a ride on Dad's shoulders while wading in the surf.

Blog Withdrawl, Emergency!, Friday the 13th and More!

I know, I know I just haven't gotten around to writing a blog. I came home from a trip, took a personal trip (from hell!), and am on the road on another trip writing from the Jacksonville airport at the moment. This is going to be way too long to keep your attention so I'll break this up over the next couple of days and do my best to blog from the road.

First, let me explain that a curse does indeed exist on Friday the 13th. The last one for Carrie and I was the day we found out our daycare absconded with our money and closed shop. This was about 10 days before we were supposed to drop him off. Tears were shed. This year we decided we would outsmart the Gods of fate and fortune by taking a vacation day. What on Earth could go wrong during a vacation? We drove down to Marco Island, a posh little resort island south of Naples where my father and brother earned a trip through work. I used some hotel points to join them. Everything was grand until about 1am before we left when Q decided to spend the whole night awake forcing us to take the three hour trip on empty. Empty of Zzzzz that is. Shocker!?!, I know. The speed limit in Florida on I-75 is as fast as you are willing to go so it can be a bit of a dangerous situation when the average speed is 80 but we made it and even held a conference call with clients where Q was quiet for a solid 45 minutes. He didn't sleep a wink until about 11 miles short of our destination, but I repeat - Shocker!

Got there and found the sweet nectar that is the fuel of all things relaxing and we felt like we were going to have a solid casual, much needed stress free day. We even got upgraded to an ocean view, for free, at our hotel. Things were looking up. We went out for dinner, got busted trying to dine and ditch (long story and not enough time to write about that one. Maybe another time). We went home where of course it was going to be another marathon session to actually get Q to sleep so my brother and I went down to the hotel bar leaving my much too patient wife to deal with our much too often wide awake son. We didn't even make it through one severely over priced drink before the calls came in that my Mom was feeling ill.

One thing led to another and we were asked to walk down (being the responsible fellas that we are) to their hotel. About two blocks short we saw ambulances rolling down the street and knew it had to be trouble. We beat the EMS up to the room by about 30 seconds and the next thing we knew we were chasing the ambulance down the street to the hospital. Before we even knew what was happening we realized that fate had smacked us right upside the head again on Friday the 13th. There is no escaping it. We have already begun working on plans to build a sustainable 24 hour bubble we can all live in for the next Friday the 13th.

My Mom ended up staying in the hospital until Monday morning. It took a while to get the diagnosis right with a serious upswing in "this is getting worse before it gets better" but in the end we received fairly positive news. My Mom will make it and shouldn't have too much trouble tacking on another 30-40 years. (She's only 38 you know).

It was, however, the vacation from hell. Instead of relaxing we got stressful. Instead of Jimmy Buffettesque beach bars, we got hospital ER's. Instead of Q swimming in the pool, we got falling off the bed trying to knock out that cute face full of teeth. The good news is my Mom is okay and heading home on Wednesday. A little R and R and she should be back on her feet. Now, if someone could remind the Gods of fate the next time I'm trying to catch a plane and running late they owe me not once, but twice.

Here is a view from our hotel room and a picture of our "big boy!" playing on the hotel's playground. Standing, walking, throwing a full size football. Look out NFL the dream is very much alive!! (That's my old man on the bench prentending he knows how to text message).

Ladies Man

Quentin and Carrie took off for the weekend to enjoy the great white north flying to Minneapolis on Thursday morning. For Quentin this is the last trip he'll take on a plane before turning one. At some point we'll have to go back and add all of them up. I wonder what the record is? He has to be near. Just thinking about all the airports he's visited makes me wonder if this will have an effect on his life later. Will he be a road warrior, world traveler, or will it cause him to be a small town shut-in? The possibilities are endless.

The weekend is Carrie's annual girls shopping trip/weekend. Really? Isn't that like every day? Seriously, do these women really think they are fooling anyone by implying they aren't shopping the other 51 weekends out of the year? Carrie texted me the posted picture yesterday after about 3 hours into the trip. My all-man son was already fast asleep. I'm sure he was wore out from the constant banter of 18 women talking at the same time, in harmony of course. I can hear them now, "Oh, that blouse is soooo cute on you! Do these jeans make my butt look big? That color totally makes your eyes look awesome!" Alright, that may be a little over the top but that's what I imagine this trip being. For me, well, I get the big screen all to myself for a quality football weekend in which my Badgers and Packers can win in the same weekend. Yipee! (Update - the Packers are awful and lost to the creamsicle jersey wearing worst team in the NFL Bucs - by 10!).

Quentin returned on Sunday so happy to see Dad. It's crazy that he's so little and can miss you as much you miss him. That brings a little joy to your heart. Everyone tells me how it's fleeting and they only love you unconditionally for those first 10-15 years and after that you're just getting in the way like a typical geezer. Well, I'll take it while I can. He has gotten even more coordinated by the time he returned standing up and picking objects up. He got home last night and picked up a toy probably 2/3 as long as him that must have weighed a pound and was just standing. He's starting to take a step here and a step there. It won't be long. My folks are coming down on Wednesday so maybe they will be here for a monumental moment of walking. He will stand as well now and chuck a ball. This pitching thing may work out. Andre Agassi has a book coming out where his Dad pulled him out of school so he could play tennis for 5-6 hours a day as a six year old. (He officially dropped out in 9th grade). He hated it of course, but he's whining about that now from his $29 million dollar mansion while getting another $2 million for writing a book about how much he hated it. Let's face it we all do things we hate and very few of us (Anyone? Anyone at all?) get paid millions for doing the things we hate. Could it really have been that bad?

So, hopefully, Quentin survives the ladies weekend. I'm sure he'll be doted on endless. Hopefully, all these women won't stretch his cheeks out pulling on them while telling him how cute he is. Maybe, he'll run into a nice midwestern girl to elope with. Well, I'm probably getting ahead of myself. Enjoy your Monday!

HallowSCREAM!

We hope everyone had a fun Halloween. We had less trick or treaters than in previous years and wondered if that was because there were more opportunities to attend all-day events being that it was a Saturday. The nearly full moon was a nice touch. We carved pumpkins on Friday evening and they took a few hours to complete but came out well. Carrie did the spider and I did the skull. They were a hit with out trick or treaters as not too many neighbors sliced and diced pumpkins this year.

The dog behaved with well with the constant ringing of the door bell followed by an equal number of barks. The timing was not all that great as we were trying to put Q to sleep. Why would these people not come earlier in the night? Our doorbell was still ringing at 9:30pm with 3 year olds on the sidewalk. So you have Quentin on his way to visiting the sandman and the doorbell ringing, followed by a bark, Q opening his eyes, repeat, repeat, repeat. This resulted in a very long night as Q has reverted back to getting up every couple of hours and God knows we have put in our dues at this point. We are stuck in a painful cycle. He doesn't sleep through the night, which makes him over tired, which makes for a long whiny weekend, which frustrates Carrie and I and then you start your work week exhausted and out of energy. Is it possible the work week is actually the least stressful, dare I say relaxing part of the week? Shudder, shudder, shudder. Now that is a horror story no one should have to live.

We tried screaming it out last night with nothing to show for it except that our neighbors thought we were running a very successful haunted house. Inside we did have a house full of zombies but not the flesh eating kind. The time change; getting an extra hour of sleep - laughable. An extra hour! Ha! How about a straight hour of sleep?!? I'm ready to feed this kid a shot of booze with his late night bottle. Is it too early for a Tylenol pm? He was sleeping through for about three weeks but we are squarely, well, back to square one. Screaming it out is a toughie because this kid has a set of lungs and it's really more torture than just going up there and getting sub-par chair sleep. Sitting in bed listening to Q serenade you with high octave screaming at 3:30 am is not as pleasant as one may imagine.

So we are back to visiting Amazon.com and getting more books on how to trick your child to sleep or maybe trick the parents into pretending this all just pleasantness surrounding the joys of parenthood. I'm out buying lavender and spraying his mattress, teddy bears, etc. so he can have that sleepy lavender aroma. Is this getting sad or what?

We are going to try to wear him out today taking him on a long drive (sleep please!) so maybe he can catch up on some sleep in the car, go to a fair to stimulate him enough so he'll be tired upon return. Less night sleep results in shorter naps, so we need to get a good nap in to catch him up. As you can see the dressing up thing wasn't for Q. Maybe next year. Enjoy the Halloween pictures!

Ball, ball, ball, ball, ball

This is what we hear all day long. Ball, ball, ball, ball. Quentin is really becoming a pitcher. There are 8 million balls floating around the house now so he can bounce them, play catch and most important throw them (with both hands to hedge our bets). We had a prior tennis career so there are tons of tennis balls in this house. We've added a galactic ball we picked up at some trendy toy store for blue blooded grandmothers, and a football and basketball he was gifted from family so he's really got the sports covered. I looked into golf clubs but they tell me it's too early. Apparently you have to learn how to walk before you hit the links. I thought, that's why they invented golf carts. Tiger started at 2 after all and is younger than me with how much money? Exactly. We aren't practicing enough!

He is also now standing solo. You hold on to his waist for balance so he doesn't smoke that genius melon he's carrying on his shoulders and what does he do in return? He keeps brushing your hands off so he can be "independent." Hmmm, must get that from Carrie. So he gets your hands off him and then raises both hands to the ceiling in a Rocky-esque pose to clear up any confusion that he is champion of the world. He then looks up at the ceiling, no doubt reveling in the fact he's so cool that he loses his balance and you, being the number one parent of the year, are there to catch the newly minted independent Q that two seconds ago was too cool to need help. The thankless job of parenting. He's already a teenager before turning a year old!

He is also terrorizing the dog with his "walker" which is a fancy name for wheels with plastic handle attached that allows him to lean a bit and cruise around the house walking. He loves it (mostly because he feels so cool doing it). He makes the vroom noise while doing it - so awesome! The dog is trying to get out of the way and play at the same time. This translates into him getting slammed into or over repeatedly. Honestly how fast can a 100 pound dog maneuver in a house with a clumsy 11 month old Q-roadster vroom, vrooming all over the place with furniture everywhere? Not to mention the floor, a virtual mine field of Q's toys and the dog's. Did we mention there were balls everywhere in case you want to fall on your duff cartoon style? It's a pretty entertaining scene. So much so we made the observation yesterday that the TV doesn't even come on any more. Well, that may be a little bit of a stretch. Let's face it football is still a priority around here. LinebaQer needs the education. He hasn't quite grasped everything surrounding the game yet but he is clearly picking up the basics. He will dominate the pee-wee league. He's only a few short years away from becoming MVP.

Tonight is the big pumpkin carving spectacular. Think Charley Brown's Great Pumpkin but with a Qster theme. The carving begins this afternoon. We should have some great pictures or not so great depending on how things turn out by tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Here is a picture we took of Q busting out his "warm" clothes. Look at me and my long sleeves. They are spectacular!

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to

Our trip to Kansas City was a great success. We had a some snafus along the way, like my better half forgetting her ID in the car, but her best half figuring that out before he left the car in the parking garage. Or maybe my better half forgetting her designer sunglasses on the plane and her dreamy husband haggling with security, the police and the Southwest personnel to track it down and let me retrieve them. Success! Disaster averted! Q, as usual was very good on his umpteenth trip. He will have qualified for a free ticket by the time the year is up. Fortunately we don't have to buy him a seat yet. He is still heading up to Minneapolis for the ladies trip in November and will also fly home for Christmas so he has another good 4 planes left to board. He is getting to that seat kicking, pulling the person's hair in front of us and taking the occasional swat at that just sticking out melon in front of us but other than that he's behaving quite well. Southwest is now flying direct from Tampa to Milwaukee and we realized this weekend that there is more leg room on their jets than traditional carriers because they do not have a first class section. They take that extra space and give each row another six inches or so of leg room. And they don't charge to check luggage! That's great for a growing Quinny. We are starting to fall for Southwest (ticker LUV and now I know why).

While in KC we threw a little impromptu birthday party for the Q-meister at the "Other Place" with mixed results (see photo). The place was infested with Iowa fans (in Kansas?) rooting their vastly overrated team on against a 4-4 Michigan State squad where they barely pulled out a win throwing a TD on the final play of the game. Clearly, national championship caliber. With all the excitement of Iowa going down early in their fieldgoalfest it was pretty loud and Q is one to want to run around these days so he was getting a little tuckered out. The important thing was that Iowa sneaked out a victory and Q got to spend some much needed time with family members he doesn't get to see too often. Everyone was very nice in showering him with clothes, a mini basketball and football (he can chuck it these days), some much needed toys and a book to help him learn his colors. We had a cake and he got a chance to make a wish and blow out his one candle. He'll get another shot at in a couple of weeks when the Sconny relatives fly into town and we will all meet up in South Florida.

Poppa Steve and Q's Nana were gracious enough to sacrifice putting off a long drive to babysit Quinny on Sunday afternoon while Carrie and I were fortunate enough to finagle some Chief's tickets from Amber and Corey, who hosted us for the weekend, early riser (read Q screaming at dawn) and all. It was a much needed 4 hour break for Carrie and I, this being only our third event Q-less. It, predictably, downpoured the entire second half but the fellas stuck it out moving from our seats in the 18th row all the way up to the fast clearing out first row. Not bad for an NFL game even though the Chiefs took a shellacking losing 37-7. Believe it or not ponchos were selling for a garage sale-esque $2. Andrew helped us out by playing hooky from his basketball event(s) so we really do understand the importance of family and how everyone takes one for the team sometimes. Brett and Audra were also able to attend and we even got to see cousin Jayne, but not her awesome man-cave. Just not enough time in the day... We wanted to thank everyone for their good cheer, sacrificing and incredible job of hosting from Amber and Corey who do know how to treat a guest. It was like staying at the Plaza Hotel.

I could go on and on but I know most of you should be working right now not reading about Q's travels. The picture was a classic. He had enough. He already opened up his gifts and had been sung to so all he needed to do was pose for some pictures and blow out the candle but he was D-O-N-E, done as the picture, ah shall we say screams? Enjoy!

Pumpkin Patch

In the spirit of celebrating fall, our mutual favorite season, we took the Qster to the pumpkin patch in Hyde Park last weekend to introduce him to pumpkins, hay and scarecrows. Carrie and I have always had our little traditions for the holidays and each year we have carved pumpkins. A pumpkin is an expensive commodity in Florida with prices starting at $10 and going up to $25 for a normal size pumpkin. At this event those were the prices. They had plenty available. We skipped the buying part in hopes we can find a better deal closer to Halloween. They don't last long in the fall heat anyway so you can only get a few short days out of them after you carve them. We took some snap shots of Q in the pumpkins and on the hay bales they had set up. Once he got acquainted with the straw he thought it was pretty neat.

We are heading to Kansas City for some fun this weekend where he will truly get introduced to fall and get a chance to see all the leaves changing. With his impending birthday coming up we are going to get a chance to see Carrie's family because they have decided to make the drive and help us celebrate. Our friends and Carrie's cousin Amber and her BF, the Coredog were gracious enough to host us at their house. We are all going to attend the Kansas City Chiefs game on Sunday if the weather behaves. Carrie's parents will get a chance to spend some time with their favorite grandson while we attend the game. It will likely be too cold for him to root for the one win Chefs. Carrie and I are excited to spend some time with good friends and hang with some adults for a change of pace and it's great to be able to see so much of our family in one place without a holiday being involved.

I have put up a picture of Q wearing his Sunday best bathing in pumpkins and sunshine.

Garage Sale

Quinny is really into playing with toys at this stage and has a blast at day care. When we drop him off in the morning he'll hit the floor and just start grabbing the toys off the shelf and you guessed it - throws them on the floor. His teachers say he empties the whole place in minutes. This brought us to the realization we have no toys at home so we went out on a little adventure to Target with Q in tow to find him some toys. We had a great plan and then we were introduced to the price tags. Ridiculous! Toys are outrageously priced so we stayed in the store for a while "testing" different toys out to find out which ones he really likes but only bought him a token toy. We needed a back up plan. Where do you get toys if you don't have hand me downs because you are on child numero uno? Answer...Garage sale. It just happens that our neighboring subdivision, which is massive was having their annual garage sale on Saturday so we gathered up the troops (Lucky), strollered up and headed out for a little adventurous Saturday.

Carrie and I got some to go coffees and it was a surprisingly cool Saturday morning with temps in the low 60s making it an excellent fall day to be outside. The whole neighborhood was a buzz with kids, dogs, and people hawking their wares. First stop I bumped into a couple from Wisconsin selling a parrot head. Sorry, Q but the first buy is for me. I obviously need a parrothead for the next Buffett show. We then traversed through the streets for the next several hours finding everything from toys to some needed Christmas lights. In the end Quinny picked up some toys that he can now play with including some trucks, which he has taking a liking to and even makes the "vroom-vroom" sound as he's sliding it around the floor.

The Qster is so much fun to just watch as he's in his own little world playing around the house cruising all over the place at a lightning quick pace making noises and being his curious self. He'll peak under the couch and then run into the dining room table right over the dog, who doesn't flinch (best dog ever) and then stumble across a ball which he'll chuck across the room and get Lucky's attention and then those two will cruise up and down the floor chasing the same ball. It's pretty entertaining to just sit back and watch.

A couple of days ago he cruised into the bedroom and I went looking for him and found him in the bath tub! I have no idea how he got in there but he did and was very happy about being in there. The kid just loves the water. There was minimal residue from the last shower and he's in there splashing in it and proceeded to bust out his water toys and play in a nearly dry tub. Here is a pic I grabbed well he was in there. He's so much fun right now. Walking is not too far away...

I can share

Quentin has always been such a happy baby during the day and now... we think we may have turned a corner in the sleep department (finally!!) as he has strung several nights in a row of getting up once or less (as in none!!). We waited before telling anyone as at this point we don't want to jinx ourselves. At this moment I am typing and knocking on wood at the same time. He literally turned 10 months old on the day and slept through the night four nights in a row. Since then he's been averaging one wake up usually late morning, 3:30-4:00 am but goes right back to sleep. I can tell you we've been taking such advantage of the long night's rest that we've barely noticed we aren't getting up. It's unbelievable getting a full night's sleep that even after a week or so of getting the shut eye you already can't believe you ever survived not having any. We are thrilled. We didn't do anything different. He simply got older. It's the strangest thing I've ever witnessed and we had given up hope altogether so this is quite a happy and celebrated occasion at our house.

Lately, the Qster has dropped the up, up, up and exchanged it for "duh, duh, duh." I'm not sure what it is but he is saying it at all times non stop and saying nothing else. It almost sounds like a Homer Simpson, "D'oh!" or a soft "Dude," which is forever stuck in my vernacular from growing up in the 80s and certainly possible he could've picked it up. My employees give me grief about the constant "dudes" in meetings as in, "Dude?! Seriously? We can't do better than that?" We'll see if it turns into a bigger word at some point.

He has gotten much better about getting up and down from a standing position and has figured out how to squat to pick something up without going all the way down so he can bounce back up to a standing position. His favorite thing to do is drop everything on the floor and I mean everything. He'll move around the living room crawling to a location and then stand up, grab everything off the couch, coffee table, end tables and throw it on the floor. Our floor is a real life mine field. With it being Florida we are bare foot at all times and stepping on some pointy object is a serious hazard nearly every time you move around. Our bedroom full of stuff on the floor. Our bathroom full of toys on the floor. It's a constant race to pick things up so we can just dump them back on the floor again. He'll take his pacifier out, throw it on the floor (also in the car) and then cry that he doesn't have it any more. You'll pick it up and he'll throw it on the floor again within 30 seconds and then cry some more. Kids! Hmmph!

He has been quite a good sharer as Q and Lucky are constantly fighting for our attention and the same toys. Quentin is into balls to throw and crawl after and of course this drives the dog crazy so there is a constant race when he chucks one. The other night Quentin was getting ready for bed and came over to give me a kiss goodnight while sitting next to me on the couch. We were pretty close and he was working his pacifier over and then out of no where, and very unexpectedly, took it out of his mouth and thrust it into mine in a split second. I had no time to react. I got the business end of the pacifier in my mouth. Kind of gross. It's been a while since I've had one, but what a sweet gesture. That's his new thing when you get too close while he's sucking on one so we are at least aware of it now. What a great sharer!

Life's little lessons

Last night Quentin was afforded a rare opportunity. He was able to witness a live lesson in loyalty. It happened in Minneapolis and I know that he will forever remember it as he grows older and begins to make life's choices and how those choices will come back and reflect upon him and the kind of person, the kind of character he will have. Brett Favre came out onto the field wearing horns last night. No, not those horns, but the horns of a Minnesota Viking and the Packers got what their GM sowed; a painful, humiliating defeat at the hands of their very own home bred super star because he doesn't understand the concept of loyalty. After Quinny and I wiped our many tears away from the anguish of those three plus hours of absolute torture where our once proud hero picked apart our defense like a powder puff football team there was a valuable lesson to be learned. Son, you don't cut your best players, you cut your worst players. Your best ones may come back and wipe the field with your short sightedness. Quentin looked up at me with a look that only a child can give you. I could see the wonder in his eyes, the disappointment in his face. He knew that Ted Thompson was of the worst kind of an executive in sports. Here is a man that puts his own ego above all else, which provided Quentin another lesson. One in vanity. Son, you're never above the team. Although, there may be an I in win, there is no I in team. The Packers, now only one game better than the Detroit Lions, and two games below their old washed up, oh wait, well their old quarterback, Q still assures me the Packers will find a way to grind it out and make the playoffs. My little man is a little smarter and has more character than the entire front office of the Packers. I guess there is a silver lining after all. And to that we thank Ted Thompson, who should be looking for a new job in about 12 weeks.

Here is a picture of Q doing a little posing while eating the alphabet and sporting a mohawk. He loves the water, whether that's his pool, the bath or the dog bowls.

Quentin has caught yet another cold and was at the doctor's office again, which afforded another opportunity to be weighed in. He came in a 23 and 1/2 pounds. That kid is a load to carry around let me tell you. It's getting a little sad that Carrie goes into the doctor's office knowing what medicine he needs. He was in there nearly a month to the day for the same thing. He keeps picking these colds up at daycare and he can't kick em' so they manifest into a sinus infection and then he needs some meds to get rid of it. He actually enjoys slurping down the medicine so at least it's not an issue to get him to take it. It doesn't really bother him though. He can't breathe out his nose, so he has trouble eating sometimes but he maintains his happy disposition, which is great.

On a not so great note...Sadly, we lost a family member today. The first one we've lost as a family living in Florida. Oscar kicked the proverbial bucket this morning. I was horrified. I came in from my morning walk with Lucky and was rushing upstairs to get something out of my office when I noticed Oscar laying down and taking a nap on the bottom of his fish tank. I used my super powers of perception and deduced that Oscar doesn't normally sleep in such a comfortable pose. I knew he had passed. I shrieked and Carrie came rushing downstairs, where she too was horrified at the site. (Ironic he died on fish fry Friday). I would like to take a moment to eulogize Mr. Oscar. "He was a good fish. Weighing in at a solid 3 pounds 4 ounces he gave years of enjoyment to old and young alike. He gave far more than he ever took from this world. He was always doing tricks for guests and our family while never complaining and constantly entertaining. He grew up a big fish in a little pond starting his life in Gainesville before quickly moving and settling in Tampa where he spent his remaining years. There will be a funeral in the backyard this evening at 6 O'clock sharp. Any donations can be made to the local aquarium. May Mr. Oscar find the big ocean in the sky and live a happy spiritual existence swimming with the fishes."

It looks like this weekend we will be making a trip to the pet store to find us some new fish for our aquarium. I think it will be a fun experience for Q getting to see all the animals. They have snakes, lizards, rodents, dogs, cats, fish, birds and any other animal you can think of there so it should be something different for him.

I still can't get over him standing all the time. I went up to get him this morning and he was standing in his crib. So weird. I've attached a picture of him standing so you can see how big he's getting.