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.