Four Months Old

Well, the Qster turned 4 months old this past weekend and celebrated by getting up at 3:30 am to start the work week. He's sort of like an adult - he sleeps in, or in his case through the night on the weekends and likes to start the day early on the week days to the chagrin of Mom and Dad. He did two nights in a row of sleeping all the way through the night and we foolishly thought we may have stumbled upon a sleeping break through. That would be one of those knock on wood moments that passed without actually knocking on some wood and man, did we pay the price. I had to travel out Monday night and didn't arrive to my destination until midnight giving me far too long of a day. Carrie won rights to being home alone with the mutt and our infant solo. We are really getting accustomed to cruising through the day dazed and confused. To our surprise I don't think anyone has really noticed. It's a good thing we don't use chainsaws for a living.

The big news of the day is Quentin has contracted some diaper rash. His first rash! Put it in the baby books. Believe it or not we went out and bought something and I am being literal here (google it) Butt Paste. Apparently, the paste works really well. He doesn't appear to have any discomfort by it but I know I wouldn't want to be running around with a rash so to be freakishly cautious parents he's heading in to see the pediatrician on Friday. I'm sure the doc will enjoy inspecting our child's first rash. What a great moment. I think this is exactly why we bought the HD video camera. It's these kinds of moments that the grandparents want to be a part of but due to long distance living were not possible until now. And in stunning HD. Good thing we'll have the goods to bring to Sconny next week for all to view. I know Q will appreciate these moments when he's dating in high school. This is exactly the kind of thing that assures your child makes curfew on the weekends.

Speaking of foolish incidents and adolescents. It turns out my brother-in-law (16 mature years under his belt) was "performing" some sumo wrestling techniques in geography class and was taken to the floor while having his arm snapped. Yowsers, that's one tough A in geography. I guess they were studying Japan and this is how the school system in Iowa teaches geography. (Anyone smell law suit)? It sounds like the local doc thought the break was a little out of his league and sent him to the orthopedic surgeon. That's not a good sign right before the snow melts. Will it actually melt? Is spring ever going to arrive in the Midwest? The nerdy weather guy says yes, but the weather gods seem to say no. At any rate say a little prayer for our fallen teen as his sumo career, brief but extremely entertaining to classmates, came to a crashing halt today. I leave you with one laughing, extremely happy Q turning 4 months.

Did I just sleep through the night?

Quentin slept all the way through the night yesterday and his timing couldn't have been better. On Thursday night we had a guest and stayed up a little late catching up on old times. That made for a rough Friday as we didn't get the number of hours required to be a parent so we applaud Quentin's sleeping powers and impeccable timing. He didn't let us get off quite that easily, though. I got up and decided to change him this morning. Since his "changing table" on the first floor is his pack and play it sits low and forces you to lean over for a few minutes creating havoc on your back so I decided to put down his changing pad on our bed and change him there. Well, all was going well and he was happy as ever. I get the diaper off him, turn around to grab the diaper from the pack and play staging area (while holding on to him - we learned that in parenting class) and of course in the 3 seconds it took me to turn around he's vandalizing our bed with his whazzer. In that 3 seconds he managed to spray himself, his outfit, our comforter, our sheets and mattress pad - all while smiling enjoying every minute of it. It's the first time I've had a whazzering incident while changing him. It's safe to say our linens are being washed today and we may be in the market for a new duvet. That thing is dangerous. I am happy I didn't turn around and get sprayed myself, so that was a bit of a relief. In the first two hours of waking up I've had my bed thoroughly peed on, picked up 3 dog dumps (I know?!) and upon coming back in from doing that have Q drop a load and get to change his very nasty diaper. I think I want to go back to bed. No one told us having a dog and kid was going to be similar to working at the water treatment plant. I have a bar of soap permanently attached to my hands for more efficient cleaning.

We don't have much going on this weekend and we're happy to hear it. We got a family walk in this morning and showed off Q to some of our neighbors. We think we are going to check out an art show in Tarpon Springs, which is a little north of here. It's a little warm today and pretty humid. I think we are beginning to lose our optimal weather as the humidity has been creeping up a little. We could really use some rain. They have banned all sprinkler use, car washes, any fountains public or private and whatever else you can think of using water. You can only use a hose (with a shut off device) to water your lawn. In other words you have to have a nozzle so you just can't run the hose. It's crazy. We need the rain. I leave with a picture of Quentin in his car seat. As you can see he doesn't like it and immediately upon strapping him in, this is the sad look he gives you. The wailing starts shortly after...

Smiling and Giggling

Quentin had another round of pictures taken with a photographer and learned how to smile in these. They turned out great. We were very happy and Quentin looks like he enjoyed the experience as well. I have included the link to the photog's site. I'm not sure how long they will remain up but you can check them out at http://smilestore.picturepeople.com/my/images?tk=f7126acd-d556-4bf2-983b-c6527d82a587. Apparently this won't hyperlink in blog-land. It did when I tested it across email so it looks like you will have to copy and paste the address into a browser if you want to check them out. I was just informed that the photographer was an attractive blonde and Quentin was putting on a good show flirting, contributing to the smiles. Yes, he is all man even at 18 pounds.

Quentin is also learning how to giggle and if you laugh at him for an extended period of time you can contagiously give him the giggles. Once he gets going it's pretty funny as he learns how to hysterically laugh. It's hard for you to keep laughing for minutes at a time but I can fake it pretty well and he seems to really get into it. As you can see from the pictures he's really gaining personality and growing up. It's been a lot of fun to watch him mature if only for a few months. He's really close to learning how to roll over from his back to his tummy. (Apparently, it's a lot easier to go the other way as he's been doing that for quite a while). We're hoping he picks that up soon. He can almost get over, but can't quite make it, which causes him to spin around like the hands on a clock. We will put him to bed facing horizontal in the crib and come up in an hour and his head will be facing the opposite direction. He's trying so hard to roll over he ends up spinning his whole body all the way around (like the stooges). This is causing him to rub all his hair off so we figure the sooner he learns to roll over the faster it will grow back because he won't be constantly sleeping on his back.

I leave with a great picture. We call it milk-gut. It must be so nice to let it all hang out with no fear of what other people are thinking. Hilarious. What a great comfort zone!