Zoo Friday

I have every other Friday off and yesterday was one of those free days.  \pplppp[p[p[p'loml ,m,;m'k''(Quinn's addition).  I asked Qbert what he wanted to do and he enthusiastically exclaimed, "ZOO!!"  So off to the zoo we went.  We were among the first people there and got to see some of the animals at their best!  The bonobos were particularly entertaining yesterday...howling and running and chasing.  I'm amazed at how these guys resemble humans...could watch them for hours.  But Quinn was ready to move on...

Bonobos relaxing after morning excitement

Another highlight of the day was the hippo with her week-old baby.  When we first arrived at the zoo I asked Q what animals he wanted to see and he said, "O-us," which I interpreted as octopus and explained that there was not an octopus at the zoo.  Later when we stumbled upon the hippos I realized that he was saying, "uh-oh-us," which is to be interpreted as hippopotamus.

Mama guarding her baby

 Mama hippo got pretty nervous when baby swam up to the glass.  She used her nose to nudge him back into the safety of the corner of the exhibit away from the people.

Nose nudge

one he can play with

The other major highlight was the unexpected sighting of a helicopter.  "Copters" are one of Quinn's favorite things.  It took some doing to get him away from this exciting find.

Our final stop for the day was another special request....the giraffes.  I'm not sure what he likes best here, the animals or being able to climb up on the railing.

San Diego Children's Museum

Last weekend was a little bit rainy so we thought we'd try something new and took Quinn to the San Diego Children's museum.  It was not as fabulous as the only other one I'm familiar with in Indianapolis, but we had a pretty good time!  

The huge chalkboard was a very big hit and occupied him for a quite a while.

 
Another favorite was the "rain house", which is a small colorful building with a tin roof that has sprinklers going on top of it to create the sound of rain.  Inside the house is a large foam animal puzzle.

Quinn made a friend in the rain house:

Throughout the museum were several large play areas with foam blocks and dress up items.  Here Quinn encountered a pair of cute younger red-headed twins who kept him entertained.

The biggest hit of the entire museum though was the orange curtain that hung between a "racetrack" and another playspace.  He enthusiastically ran back and forth through it until I had to put a stop to it for fear that he would be run over by the large cars that spin around the track.  Luckily we didn't get kicked out of the museum for his crazy antics.

Where has February gone?

Mowgli thinks that it's still Halloween

 I was reminded today (thanks Emily) that I've sadly neglected this blog.  Things have been busy 'round these parts.  Jeff had a workshop to run all last week (which went really well!) which meant early mornings in the office and long days.  That in turn meant that I've had a lot less free time.

The good news is that we're all healthy (knocking on everything wood I can find).  Unfortunately that does not mean that we've managed to get out there and be social at all, since everyone else we know is fighting some illness or another.

Loving his bike

We were hoping to get to spend some time with aunt Jaime and cousin Kyan his afternoon, but not sure yet whether all are healthy enough to make the trip down to SD...fingers crossed!

Since our last update Quinn has survived his second haircut, and it's finally grown out enough that we all like it.  :)  He's also decided that the orange/red wool sweater we got him in Scotland is not a straight jacket and he will wear it willingly (finally).  So great, we'll get like 2 weeks of wear out of this thing before he outgrows it completely!  Just to prove that we've gotten some wear out of it I got the camera out during our rainy day playtime last week.  We've also just discovered the old wooden scooter that we got as a baby shower gift from Kim and Danielle.  It's been a huge hit and we go up and down the street on it.

His vocabulary is constantly growing, and he's especially good with his animals.  He knows most animal sounds and knows the names of many, including Manta Ray, Octopus, and his current favorite, Hippopotamus.  He is still not combining any words, except for the occasional, "More ____."

 He knows a few colors, but for the most part everything is "yellow."  He likes his letters (especially Os) and will point them out everywhere.  He doesn't count, but if you ask him to he'll say "two".

Currently he enjoys riding toys, climbing, slides, reading his books, taking his critters for rides on airplanes/boats, puzzles, bubbles, trains, star tattoos, making happy/sad faces, walking on trails, and the zoo.  Also somehow he's developed a love for Elmo, which is odd, since until today he's never seen Elmo in action (Jeff just picked up a sesame street video this morning).

We've been plagued with rainy weather out here, which puts quite a damper on our normal routine of outside play.  This weekend should be an interesting one...rain expected for the entire weekend.




Here are a smattering of other photos from the past few weeks:

I had to recently hide all of the circular blocks that came with one of his little trains, because this has become a favorite game (see below).  He puts them in his mouth and then makes gagging sounds.  He apparently likes the reaction he gets out of us, because it cracks him up.  Me, not so much, so they are quarantined for the time being.

Fun game called lets scare mama and make her think i'm choking

 This is another favorite toy.  It's a Swiss train that was mine as a baby.  It has little people riding on it and you can turn their faces from happy to sad.  He LOVES "choo choos" and is also currently quite obsessed with happy and sad, so this toy is quite the hit.

choo choo chuggin

A current favorite food (bordering on obsession) is raisins.  If it's possible to OD on raisins then we're surely on our way.  I love this photo of him munching on his favorite snack.  

Another recent favorite activity.  No other explanation necessary.  :)

Some flying fun with mama

End of a good weekend

Sickness has plagued this family for the past month...first Mama got it, then Quinn, Dad, Quinn again, Dad, Quinn, Quinn, Mama, Dad, Mama. Fingers crossed that we've finally kicked the pesky germs ( I type this as I still struggle to breathe...). Anyway, that is why we've been MIA in the blogosphere since mid January. We've also been busy with work and home improvement projects, so little time remains to take fun photos and type witty (or not so witty) captions for them. What follows is a smattering of photos from the past month...some old and many from yesterday (a good day).

This photo is really for Aunt Jaime, who would be appalled :) at Quinn's outfit. Yes, we really do dress him this way (though not intentionally).

Aunt Jaime with 56 pounds of boy.

On Saturday morning we spent a bunch of time in the front yard. Our neighbor, Ricky, came over and introduced Quinn to the marvels of skateboards.

My boys in their levis hard at work. The rubber boots were Quinn's own addition to his outfit.

The cats LOVE their new yard. Here is Mowgli enjoying the warm winter morning sun.

And handsome Boris too

It was then time for a little walk. Luckily we have a nice canyon trail in our neighborhood that Quinn loves to walk on. We decided to let Q walk his dog for the first time. He took his job very seriously.

Back home and back to work. Dad was installing the last of the flagstone in the front yard and Quinn decided to help by throwing dirt every chance he got.

This has got to be one of my favorite series of Quinn photos yet. As I was snapping these I was telling him to stop eating the dirt (but at the same time enjoying his little naughty side).

Once the work was completed we took Quinn to a neighborhood plant nursery. In addition to plants they have a small playground, a bunch of free-range chickens, goats, rabbits and a desert tortoise. It's the perfect place to take a kid for a fun, quick getaway. After feeding the chickens we had lunch in the cute little cafe next door.

And to top the weekend off, we had guests over tonight....Becca and Rob with their two kids and Billy and Denise with baby Evan all came over to not really watch the super bowl. We enjoyed the summer-like weather and ate fish tacos with margaritas on the deck. A lovely evening that I am going to go and continue now. Goodnight!

Cousin time

Cousin Kyan was at Grammy's on Saturday while Jaime and John went to a charity event, so we took advantage and descended upon Grammy's house for some QT with the cuz. The boys had a blast playing outside all afternoon and here are a few pics to prove it. Jaime called later that night after Kyan had gone to sleep to report that Kyan was murmuring, "Quinny" in his sleep. So sweet. They really have a good time together.

Exterior House Progress

OK, we finally feel that we're far enough along with our front yard project to go ahead and post a few pictures. You may remember what our house looked like last March:

The first big job was to tear down the hideous archway. That was accomplished long ago... Only recently have we gotten the momentum to do the rest. I wish we could say that we did this ourselves, but we did not. We recruited the help of Wes (North Park Native Plants) who (as you might imagine) specializes in native plants. He came up with a plan and did the installation. Once the plants are established (no, they will not be so tiny forever) they should require no watering!

Unfortunately we forgot to take photos of the yard demo, but here's the house post-demo with the DG (decomposed granite) substrate down. We also thought it was time to say goodbye to the blue and were in the process of deciding on a color here....

The color chosen and the planting begins

The plants are all in with a few rocks thrown around.

Finally the walkways are completed (Jeffrey gets credit here)

Self portrait in walkway

The mostly finished product. :)

Check out Wes's website to get an idea of what these plants will look like once they become established!