Zoo Zoo Zoo

Two trips to the zoo in one week! And Auntie Em arrives for a week long stay! Good times are ahead for the crew.

Here is Quinn with his buddy, Grace

Emily and Quinn "feed" the flamingo some pennies

Denise and baby Evan checking out the monkeys

Clyde enjoys some Thanksgiving pumpkin

Inspecting the lion's teeth

Lunchtime

Feeding Frenzy

Kim and baby Daisy

Bedtime Conversation with Quinn

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We had such a nice day today! Jeff and I both got up before Quinn, had banana pancakes for breakfast, and a relaxing time cooking a few dishes at home before going over to Jeff's mom's house for the gathering. We had great food and great company! It was really nice to spend the day with Jeff's family and good friends. I amazingly actually remembered to bring my camera, but didn't manage to take any photos of the food or of any of us enjoying the food....looks like all I managed to capture were pictures of the boys (shocker).

This was a fun game: Jeff running full speed around the yard with the boys in tow.

Our boy looking quite dapper

Cousin Ky looking smashing in green

The brown-eyed duo

They're finally starting to play together a little bit more

Cruisin'

I'm so very thankful for my beautiful baby boy, for my wonderful husband, for my amazing family and my fabulous friends. Thanks to all of you for always being there and for being the incredible people you are!

A boy and his dog

Job: Mom or Biologist?

Less than a week to go until Daddy gets back. We're finding ways to entertain each other. The scene below is what I found this morning when I forgot to put the vacuum away.

Who needs toys when you have a vacuum cleaner? I should mention that he was going "vroom vroom" the entire time too.

Ride 'em cowboy!

Lazy tuesday morning on the couch with the mutt

Happy kid

So I have a dilemma...I was offered a job yesterday. I interviewed for it quite some time ago and after hearing nothing for so long I assumed that they were not going to offer it to me. I've managed to get used to the idea of being a stay-at-home mom for the next few months until I go back to work for USGS. I'd planned to take an extended trip to the east coast around the holidays, have a visit from Emily on the books, thought we'd join the YMCA and continue doing gymnastics... The job begins on Dec 6. It will mean that I will have to very quickly put Quinn back in daycare, change my Xmas plans, etc etc etc. I'm actually really torn on whether or not I should take it. I'm sure it can't hurt my resume, but not sure how much of a boost it will provide....anyone out there have any thoughts, advice? I'm willing to listen to it all...oh and i have to decide by tomorrow...

Haircuts and single-parenting challenges

Two weeks down and one more to go before Jeff gets back from Nigeria. We've had our share of challenges, but also some good times. We've managed to join friends for dinner on two different occasions, spent some time with Grammy and cousin Kyan, been going to Gymnastics classes at the YMCA, visiting Lake Murray, walking the mutt...

We've been fighting a runny nose for about a week....not sure if it's a bug or teething, but watching "baby signing time" always helps. He loves that video and asks for it by signing and singing "baby". Just from the video he's picked up a few signs (baby, train, car, shoes, sleep, bath, please, thank you). His spoken vocabulary is growing like crazy too, which is tons of fun.

We also just had our first (real) hair cut! We went to a place that specializes in kids cuts so he got to sit in the fancy fire truck while he was getting snipped. As you can see, he was pretty excited about the entire experience.

Getting ready to go...the baby mullet is going away!

Almost finished

Bye bye mullet!

Modeling some new hand-me-downs from his buddy Holden

Of course I always try to capture the positive here, but we've had lots of this face lately too:

But then 5 minutes later he's screaming with joy

The other change since Jeff's departure is Quinn demanding to sleep in the big bed with me. It's okay as long as he doesn't try to suffocate me in my sleep. I have to admit that I kinda like waking up and seeing this sweet little face next to me.

Boats Boats Boats

Our boy loves boats, and I mean really really loves boats. He walks around all day saying, "boat, boat, boat". He knows where every trailered boat in the neighborhood is, and where to find every boat picture in all of his books. I've been meaning to take him down to the harbor for quite some time to let him see some big boats in action, but only today did we finally manage to gather up the energy to go. On a whim we ended up touring the maritime museum (damn whim cost me my admission price PLUS the price of a parking ticket, but oh well...it was worth it).

Here is his first glimpse at a mini boat

The maritime museum is actually housed in/on an 1898 ferry boat. This is the view from the top deck.

The passenger area upstairs was beautiful!

The entire room was lined with these stained-glass windows.

And check out the detail in these benches. They knew how to travel back then!

As much as I was enjoying the ferry boat, Quinn was pressuring me to move on so that he could see the tall ships. The first one we checked out was the HMS Surprise. This was the setting for the film Master and Commander. It's a replica of an 18th century Royal Navy frigate and is a pretty stunning ship.

Quinn even got to steer it.

He enjoyed the ropes too

Here's a view of the Surprise with the Star of India in the background

Lots o rope!

Pretty Ship!

Next up we went to check out the Star of India. This ship is the world's oldest active sailing ship. She was built in 1863 and was one of the earliest iron ships. She gets out on the ocean each November for a birthday sail. The torn sails were a haloween remnant.

Captain Quinny

Once we had seen all of the ships we went for a walk down the waterfront. After all of our recent swimming session I think Quinn thought he could go for a dip in the water...he was really trying to get down there. Silly boy.

We're doing a great job of keeping busy while Daddy is away. 2 more weeks!