Pain and Agony

Pain and agony as defined by Webster's Dictionary - to make suffer or cause distress and intense pain of mind or body. (His physical pain, our mental anguish). This summed up last night for the Spiegelhoff household. Forget everything I wrote on Sunday's post about how the Qster was taking these new teeth like a champ. No, he loaded up last night and let all the pain, agony and frustration out like an atomic explosion of screams coupled with some wails mixed in with some generous tears. He didn't make it to bed until 11:30 crying for about 90 minutes before finally allowing his head to hit the pillow. "Finally!" we said and immediately hit the sack only to be woken by blood curdling screams at 2am as Quentin announced his waking. The whole family made it up to the nursery for a two hour bonding experience. Carrie and screaming Quentin were on the chair alternating rocking with the screams to create a cacophony of squeaking chair and child. Lucky and I were on the floor hoping to catch some shut eye, which eventually occurred. Around 4 am Carrie got me off the floor and success! we had a sleeping baby and could return to the quiet comfort of our bed - as a family again. So now Quentin, exhausted wife and myself climbed into bed as the dog nestled into his pillow below on the floor, only to have Quentin ready to get up and raring to go at 6:30 this morning by kicking Carrie to announce he was ready to start the day. This kid has a motor let me tell you.

Powerball is up to $222 million and we're hoping we win so we can afford a night nanny. They can work the grave yard shift while we sleep it away. We bought a ticket for Saturday's drawing and matched the powerball cashing in $3! Unfortunately we didn't match the other five numbers, which is required to cash in on the $200 M. prize. We're going to let it ride in hopes of the big payoff. I have some work colleagues coming to town tomorrow from Pennsylvania for a few days of brain storming and we are swapping PA tickets for FL tickets to increase our statewide dragnet of lottery strategy. And no I don't need to hear how I have a 1 in 2 billion chance of winning. You don't win if you don't play. And I don't want any naysayers getting in line asking to ride on our private jet after we win. Upon winning we will be throwing a rather large soiree and you are all invited. So, come Thursday look for the really tired, but extremely happy family on TV with the giant check. That will be us.

I leave you with a happier Quentin enjoying his brand new highchair. The bib is foretelling...

My toofs multiplied

We pried our child's mouth open for full inspection after having a finger gnawed on with greater intensity than usual and it tuns out the bottom teeth had babies. Quentin is going to be Dracula for Halloween because he's getting both his top "fang" teeth. I believe that is the scientific name. That should make for a great Florida Cracker picture as most of our world famous crackers are also missing those all important front teeth. He is truly in a position to say, "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth." So cliche, I know. He is taking the new toofasuses arrival like a champ with only minimal crying but we are probably going to head out and get some more chew toys for him as he is getting bored with the handful we own. (The dog needs a new one too). He really likes to chew on anything he can get his hands on. He continues to take his toll on the various periodicals lying around; books, magazines, his favorite - newspapers and is often met with the response, "Hey, I haven't read that yet!" He just smiles and continues chewing. We have wondered whether or not eating the pages of today's news and entrainment is harmful. Is this like devouring paint chips when we were kids? Let's hope for the opposite and just pretend he's soaking in the daily news through osmosis.

We took him to the Florida Aquarium on Saturday to swim with the fishes. They were offering a deal that gave anyone with a May birthday free entry so between the three of us we only had to pay for one ticket. The ticket price was kind of steep and upon entry we realized it's half aquarium, half outdoor water park for the sub-12 set. So you take your kids through all the exhibits, have them bring their suits and and then let them hang out at the water park soaking the day away. Conveniently, although providing a moral dilemma, a bar sits pool side so mom and dad can pound cocktails before hopping in the car for the family drive home. Worse, they allowed smoking, which we found disturbing and considering 99% of the place was families we pondered what were they thinking? It was neat to see and offered a lot of hands on activities so you could pet stingrays and large native species like tarpon. Quentin was on his most excellent best behavior but wasn't all that interested yet. I think he needs anther year or two. I loved it and was pushing the kids around for a better view much to Carrie's chagrin. I like fish, what can I say?

After the aquarium we came home and had a nice afternoon just playing. Quentin is really interested in textures at the moment. He likes to grab anything and scratch his fingers across it to see what kind of sound it makes. He really likes things that crinkle and has a special attachment to tags and labels. He likes to crawl around on the couch trying to get the tags on the throw pillows. He'll do the same to the patters on your shirt. It's interesting to see him continue to gain hand eye coordination to pick things up and taste them. He's really aware of his surroundings and like all males he loves the remote control. Our remote (Direct TV) has a few buttons of bright colors and I think that's what he's going after. If he sees the remote he's making a B-line for it. He's going to make a great husband some day!

Here is a shot of Q with Carrie at the aquarium and the second one is Q's expression when we told him he's got more teeth. "No way? Sweet!!!" We need to start profiting off this kid's cuteness factor!

We endorse Pampers

The great debate over the better diaper came to a close this morning with me getting a poop soaked wake up call shortly after showering and getting dressed to start my day. Generally speaking people don't want to wake up, shower and then get covered in poop. At least not this person. It's poetic justice. I'm out there trying to save a buck and I will now be gladly spending the extra coin to ensure the rest of this family stays dry, clean and hopefully poop free. We thought the blowouts were a phase. It happened when he was little and then they just stopped so I just figured that was something that goes along with being a newborn. It turns out we switched brands during the poop-free lull and then switched back and are now living in blowout city, population one. The store sells 160 Pampers diapers (these are the blowout free ones) for the same price they sell 200 Huggies. I take this moment in time to remind readers there is no such thing as a free ride in life or a "good deal" so as I rid my shorts of poop and Quentin's outfit of poop and his chair of poop and his changing table now covered in poop I have decided to donate the remaining Huggies diapers to daycare where they have professional poop cleaner uppers and we will be purchasing the more expensive but blowout free Pampers for the remaining years we find our child(ren) in diapers. This is why we have endorsed the Pampers brand. If you find yourself in blowout city, population you go with quality. You'll see the savings on the back end from doing less laundry. You don't want to have two family members in outfit number two by 7:30 am. It's just not efficient.

I just returned from a visit to Iowa and in the land of irony the weather was flip flopped for a change. While I was enjoying Iowa's upper 70s and sunny as sunny can be Florida is entering their 10th straight day of rain accumulating a much needed 6 inches and counting. The record for consecutive rain days is 12 set in June 2003 and we look like we are going to break it. So much for the sunshine state. Our lawns went from burnt out to grass that is now 12 inches high and needs to be mowed but it hasn't stopped raining long enough for Carrie to get out there and fire up the push mower. Our pond out back, which was on water life support has nearly filled back up to a respectable level. The fish can breathe again! I fear for the mosquito onslaught that is sure to follow, though.

We're looking for a nice relaxing long weekend. Carrie has been begging me to take her to see Terminator 4, so if she's nice to me the next couple of days I'll take her. She just loves those shoot em' up killing movies. Me, I prefer the love stories, but it's her world I'm just living in it so I'll guess she'll drag me kicking and screaming to the latest Terminator installment. She just loves that Arnie and all his clever lines. Hasta la vista baby.

(Picture titled, "Ummm, soo yummmy...")