Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Z stands for Zebra. Z stands for zoo too. Z also stands for zilch as in I'm not catching any zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz's over here! There are so few Z's being caught in this house that Carrie and I went out and bought a new bed just to make sure it wasn't our bed that was making Q wake up every hour of every night of every day of every week of every month of every year he's been alive. We tried it out last night. Guess what? It had no effect. Between 8:30 and 5 am he got up 5 times including starting the day at 5, which consists of him standing up in our bed, using me for balance while he slaps my back. That could be for doing such a good job on the stairmaster getting up every hour, but some how I don't think so. I then got an email, which was well written and pretty funny forwarded to me about Carrie's cousin Justin and how he spent his entire life not sleeping until he hit teen years and then the opposite happened and he was never awake. Sleeping through the night, the morning and even some of the afternoon. Is this how it works!?!? It was entertaining but what remaining wind there was in my sails, and I'm talking about just a wisp of wind being left, immediately went the way of the dodo. Sayonara wisp! The directions for attempting to get sleep was to pull your pack and play out of the closet, set up in front of the TV, tune TV to Cartoon Network, find hopefully comfy couch in sight lines of insomniac child and attempt to find the forgotten z's. This way when child looks over he can see you are still in the room and this should cut down on the crying. Intriguing. This weekend we will set up base camp in the living room for our sleep deprivation experiment. Scientific results will be released shortly.

In the mean time we are happy to report we have a bright boy that was taught "up" at daycare this week so every word out of his mouth is "up" while he is pointing and looking up at the sky. Up, up, up, up, up, up. Yup, that's up. We got it. Up, up, up, up, up. Uh-huh. So I obviously need to get out to daycare and explain that's great. Nice work. That's some good progress. We are really more interested in him learning, however, Go Pack! Could you spend less time on directions (up) and more time on Go Pack!? The football season is entering its fourth week and after all, there are only 17 so we don't have much time for this to be effective.

We have also taught him how to fake cough, for those times when you need to stay home from school for a mental health day. He loves it and has it down. He gets a kick out of how much I appreciate his fake cough. That's my boy! He does a great roar as well and can keep that roaring up for 30-40 minutes at a time. We spend half our Saturday's watching football and roaring when a good hit takes place to express our testosterone driven animalistic desire for good hitting. He's so much fun to play with. He'll copy nearly anything you do, so the possibilities are endless. You just need a creative mind and well, check. We could take him panhandling and make a bundle showing off his "talents." Up, up, up (that will be $2 please). The one trick that escapes us is the sleeping one. Just a few words of advice to potential parents - one story home. Those stairs are great for the calorie burning but you really don't want to get your heart pounding 17 different times in the middle of the night.

The Qster turned 10 months today so we're inching closer and closer to that first year. Come on down for Thanksgiving. The Packers play, the turkey will be delicious and we will celebrate the Q's first birthday. Curiously, here is a pic of Q sleeping, I know right?!, at the mall, sitting up! See, now is this that hard?

Wetting the recliner

I was getting ready to hit the road again on Tuesday and Monday was well, a Monday so it was late and I still hadn’t finished packing to take off for an early morning flight. Quentin was doing his usual wake up ritual every 45 minutes after being put to bed at his usual 8pm bed time. Carrie was getting sick of the stair master routine and needed some help. We finally got to bed and Q tucked in around 10:30. Then the phone rings – it’s work! I am way too dedicated. I finally get to sleep and at 11:30 Quentin wakes up. Like clockwork. Every hour on the hour. I decide I’ll take it even though I’m getting up at 5. Such dedication…I think it’s 1:34 because I’m delirious and I can’t see the clock or rather too tired to make out the digits so I think I’ve been tossing and turning for hours and have only clocked 15 minutes of sleep. In reality I have been asleep for 15 minutes but it's only 11:30. I get up stairs and pick him up. I assume the position in the recliner, our 1-3 hour middle of the night bed, which ironically is about as comfortable as our bed these days. I am half asleep and he’s out cold. He feels kind of warm to me but I’m not wearing much and his blankets aren’t real people size and this is Florida so I’m flaunting some skin. It’s warm so I’m not complaining. I’m half asleep mind you and I start to think man, he’s really warm. Hmm, I feel weird, kind of funny in a not so funny way. I really shouldn’t feel this warm. He jostles and moves off my mid section sort of and I realize my boxers are wet. Did I just pee myself? No way. There is no way I am that comfortable, right? I am actually half asleep, half dreading work trip number 345 and am having a middle of the night debate with myself about whether or not I just wet the recliner. At that moment I wake up long enough to have the thought, "What the H is going on here?!? Am I really this tired?! Of course I didn’t wet the recliner! How old am I for crying out loud? The kid is peeing on you! Wake up!!" So, I realize the kid has wazzered all over me and just happened to be positioned on me just right to cause this great debate. My keen since of perception kicked in when I realized his PJ’s were soaked. Now I’m trapped and I don’t know where his PJ’s are and I’m full of pee and he’s full of pee and it’s the middle of the night and I have to get up at 5 and I’m just wondering is this what parenthood is all about? And I think, this is exactly what parenthood is all about. You get peed on and change your kids diaper and clothes and he doesn’t wake up during the process. Here we can’t get this kid to sleep 2 hours in a row but in his sleep he can pee all over himself, me, get stripped, a diaper change, new clothes and not wake up. It makes you pause and wonder is he just screwing with us every night? Is he just testing us to see how dedicated we are? You don't think he's timing us getting up the stairs do you?

On top of all that Delta calls at 5am to let me know my flight’s been cancelled. That about sums it up. It took me 14 hours to get to Iowa on Tuesday. I have driven it and it’s about 18 hours. That’s pathetic, but my diaper was clean the whole way.

Here is a picture of our little man getting dirty outside. All boy...

Long time no bloggin...

I apologize for the delay as with all the travel and family stuff the blog has gotten lost in the shuffle. Quentin has been making a ton of progress. He is full steam ahead with the crawling still making a bee line for the dog bowls any and every time the baby gate isn't in lock down mode. We are also getting pretty quick on the draw generally heading him off in time right before the splashing begins. I think since he keeps "losing" the dog bowl battle he is still using his mischievous powers to wreak a little havoc and has discovered the toilet paper roll. Yes, our kid is a professional TPer. The baby gate blocks off the kitchen and the bathroom but he can still gain access to the master bath if he really wants to traverse the whole first floor of the house including negotiating two full left turns. This weekend we discovered him with about half the roll on the floor and him quite enjoying himself surrounded in toilet paper. This has led to Carrie hiding the toilet paper, which isn't as great of a solution as it sounds. Ummm, one may need that TP later...

You would think all this running around would yield long peaceful nights of sleeping but we are still no closer to him sleeping through the night than the day we brought him home. Let's face it, it's never, ever going to happen. I have people telling me now, "Just wait until he turns one year old. At one year he'll sleep through the night." Oh, brother! That's what they said at 3 months, and 6 months and definitely at 9 months. I say phooey. Nobody has met our kid. He is allergic to sleep and it isn't going to happen so stop getting our hopes up!

While he isn't sleeping he did pass another milestone learning how to stand last weekend. On Friday he couldn't pull himself up but we wake up on Saturday and he's standing all day long holding on to a couple of toys, the furniture, everything. It was unbelievable to see him one day unable to do it and the next day he was a pro. Now, he's pretty good about getting up there but not so hot about getting down. If you are near him he'll grab on to you and sort of lowering himself down but if you aren't around he's more or less stuck standing and will eventually fall on his bum with a crash. It doesn't hurt but it scares him ending in tears about half the time. It reminds me of those old school Charmin commercials where the kids stuff themselves with Charmin so they can take a pain free hit. I think we may stuff a bunch of Charmin in his pants so he can land hard on his fanny and not sweat it. At any rate walking is in his near future and probably before his birthday in November.

His teeth keep coming in and he is officially up to 8. With his full head of hair and his mouth filling out with Chiclets he's looking more like a toddler than a baby every day. He's wearing 18 months clothes and already grew out of his badger gear before the Big Ten season even opened. I tried to get him dressed for game day on Saturday and the jersey was already too small. You really have to rotate that wardrobe or he'll end up wearing things once. We can only buy him a handful of outfits at a time because he grows out of them so fast. He's going to be a big kid. His gut his really rounding out. One that Al Bundy would be envious of. It's really a thing of beauty. He could model for Buddha. He's learning how to wave, say good-bye and give high fives. We are working on getting him some swim lessons as he kind of has a Phelps-esque body with long hands and feet and is going to be tall. I could handle Quinny bringing home 9 gold metals at the 2029 games.

NFL Predictions

Are you ready for some football? The NFL kicks off the season this Thursday and Q wanted to get some predictions off his chest before the season opener. Specifically Quentin wanted to record his thoughts regarding the NFC North division. (Note: I tried over and over to get the video to load, but it wouldn't work so Carrie put it on Youtube. It is worth the look - very funny. Here is the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NvrJ1V1Vrw . As you can see from the video he spent some quality time thinking over each question carefully before deciding on the eventual champ. With all the pre-season football he's watched and the quarterback changes that the North division saw during the off season I feel confident that Quentin picked the right team to climb to the top and make the playoffs. Now, Q's time is valuable and the only time he could give us was during lunch and we accepted that. So, while he's predicting he's munching as well.

On another note we grilled out yesterday and Rachel was able to come over and join us for our grilling this holiday weekend. In an omage to Iowa we had pork loin and corn on the cob with potato salad and various dips for munching. It was great to catch up with Rachel and for Q to get a chance to spend some quality time with his cousin. Other than that it was a pretty quiet weekend. We did spot a gator in the pond in the back. That's the first one we've seen since we've lived here so we aren't quite sure what to make of it. Should we be worried our child and dog are about gator meal size? He was pretty aloof spending most of the time under water but we'll keep an eye on the pond when were in the backyard from now on. We hope everyone had a good weekend!

Since it took me so long to figure out a way to post the video this is slightly out dated and should've come out on 9/7....

Nine Months

Quentin is still growing like a weed and had his nine month check up this past week. He weighed in at 22 pounds and 3 ounces and was 30 inches tall. I don't recall the percentiles but for one he was in the 95% and the other the mid 70s. He was healthy, but he did get an unexpected shot. We skipped one at a prior visit and we could've loaded up on his next visit but decided one quick one would be better for him in the long run. So he got that with a little cry and was fine shortly there after. He is at the stage now where he is pretty shy around strangers. He used to smile at anyone that would interact with him but now he's expressionless sort of eyeing people up to see what they are all about. He is certainly not interested in having strangers touch him and that goes for the nurse and doctor too. So, as soon as they took him he was crying even though we were right there holding his hand. I guess this is a good thing from a stranger-danger perspective. He's going to get some shots at the next one; chicken pox was the only memorable one. He has a couple of visits before the dreaded MMR so those worries can go on hold for at least six months. They made the chicken pox mandatory these days, but really? Kind of over kill in my opinion. Who couldn't use a week off of school anyway? In the doctor's words, "We are trying to eradicate it." Good luck with that. But by all means I wouldn't want to be the one parent that held up the eradication of a disease as dangerous as the chicken pox. The vaccine doesn't work as well as they thought, so you have to get another round at age 4 or 5 now. They found this out the hard way - vaccinated children that came down with the disease anyway so why not give em' another shot! Hopefully the second time is the charm right? The medical profession...ha!

My fall travels have started hence the delay from the last posting. It's a lot sadder this time around. Last year due to Carrie's pregnancy I was able to work around my travel schedule better but this year it's back to painful normal, which also puts a burden on Carrie to be home alone for the weeks I'm on the road. I was missing the family quite a bit this past week and was definitely ready to come home. Carrie is still looking for that manny for some light housework and a breather now and then. For everyone up north you can take another crack at summer as the weather is on the verge of turning truly enjoyable; no air condition, sunny every day and no humidity.

I think because I am a lot during the week traveling I appreciate my time with Quentin more. I was up with him from around 2-3 the night I came home and when you first get up there I pick him up and I am rocking with him thinking how tired I am and how hopeful I am that he will quickly regain his delightful dream state so I can find the comfort of my own bed. But after the decidedly uncooperative Quentin shows his hand, squirming and quite awake, I keep thinking how few and far between these moments will be. How many more times will I actually be up here or even have the opportunity to hold little sleepy Q for an hour or two? He's getting so big it won't be long before he starts sleeping through the night on the regular or is too much of a man to be held by his dad so I just appreciate being there and fantasize about who he may grow up to be. Quite entertaining and a nice way to pass the time. Could I be rocking the future President of the NFL, I mean United States? Could he be an international businessman or a settle in a small town and make a difference locally? The possibilities are endless. It's almost like sitting there with a lottery ticket before the drawing and anything is possible. Will he be a good student? Artistic? Will he have a good singing voice? It's sort of mind boggling that at one time you could've done anything, gone anywhere and been anyone. It's exciting to think he has his whole life in front of him and not a single choice has been made for him yet. He can do anything and be anyone. I can't wait to see who he becomes. I think that must be one of the most satisfying parts of being a parent.

I am going to try to get a few more postings out here before the weekend ends and with the NFL season nearly upon us Quentin and I have been working on our NFL predictions. I am hopeful I will get that video posted tomorrow. In honor of him turning nine months old I thought I would post a recent picture and one the day he came home to show how big he's gotten.