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!