Getting Settled

Time has just gotten away from me. We have been so busy with doctor visits, traveling for work and getting situated in our new city that I haven't done a good job updating the blog. We have lots of news so I will get to it.

I finished my last week of travel until the baby is born this week. That should help free up more time to write the blog about the goings on in Iowa. Quentin is growing up so fast. He is speaking in 3 word sentences and has a vocabulary that is expanding daily. We did a little research and at this age he can learn a new word every 90 minutes. Holy Schnikes! There is a lot of that going on around here as language has been getting adjusted on the fly. He will repeat anything you say especially if it's in short sentences. For example let's say you discovered a leak under the kitchen sink (seriously, does every kitchen sink leak?) and as you are prying off the nut holding the whole thing together your hand slips and you take a healthy amount of skin off your hand. One might lead with a 4 letter word expressing great pain. Well, that would be the moment your son, standing next to you with total fascination discovers a new word within 90 minutes of the last. It's at the moment that you have to correct him that you actually said shucks. Shhhhucks. Shucks. That's right Quinny, say it with me, "shucks." Now use it in a sentence, "Oh Shucks that hurt my hand." Very good Quinny. Carrie is enjoying the less aggressive me as I am now fond of saying gems like good grief. It's a whole new world out there and apparently you're never too old to change.

Quinny tries so hard to get you to understand what he's saying. When his vocabulary was limited you knew what he was saying even if he wasn't speaking clearly. Now, he knows so many words it's harder to understand what he's trying to tell you, but interestingly he doesn't get frustrated with you. He'll say the same word over and over 100 times waiting for you to get it. Tonight he kept saying, "queen" and pointing to the floor. I couldn't figure it out for the life of me so I asked him to show me. He takes me to the laundry room and points to the swiffer. He was saying clean floor. He likes to swiffer. He wanted to clean the floor. How cool is that?! Everyday moments are so much fun with him. I'm totally fascinated with how smart he is and what he picks up. Every day it's something new.

Speaking of picking up we have begun the potty training. He has used it a couple of times and we have an official Elmo porto-potty-training-chair. Elmo is incredibly appealing to him. It was one of his first words and everywhere we go he'll recognize Elmo gear. They have Elmo balloons at the grocery store so he's always screaming Elmo at the store. He is fascinated with the bathroom now; washing his hands and taking a crack at the Elmo-porto-potty-infant-chair. I've been told to entice him with M&M's. M&M's in the bathroom? That sounds like a smashingly good idea.

For junior number two we are still working on names. We are all over the map and I'm concerned this kid could go two weeks without a name outside of "buddy" as in come here buddy like the dog had to endure. We are still breached so we toured the hospital and feel good about the care mom and baby will get if we do in fact have a C-section, which is looking more and more inevitable as the days tick by. It's a toughie for us. We spent all this time not finding out the sex and now we are going to choose the birth date. That just doesn't sit right. I feel like a cheater. We are still holding out hope. The next ultrasound is a week from Friday so we'll see if there was any turning then.

My folks are coming to town this weekend so that will give us a breather to get the baby's room pulled together. Currently, it's masquerading as cure all for a house full of boxes. That is to say it's filled with boxes that couldn't or haven't found a proper home. We need a crib, dresser and another chair to hopefully spend less sleepless nights in than Q's overused chair.