Lava Tubes & Frog Hunting

The last couple of weeks have been pretty uneventful.  Just working on house projects and entertaining the kids.  Quinny is successfully crawling EVERYWHERE now.  Not on his hands and knees, but dragging his legs behind him-- he rocks back and forth when he's on his hands and knees like he knows he can do it but just can't muster the courage to try...  He's way more interested in standing and holding onto things right now too.  I am betting he'll be walking before he's a year old.

This last weekend we decided to get out of the house and look for a pet frog for Ronin.  We headed up north to see what we could find.  Our old hiking road seemed to be washed out because we wound up by the Ape caves instead.  Without a flashlight. So we just wondered around the lava tubes above ground.  They are pretty cool!

On our way to the lava tubes ready to catch a frog!

Mommy exploring a lava tube - Ronin took this picture!

Ronin in the same lava tube

A family photo in the woods :)

Ronin going down the ladder to a lava tube

The bottom of the ladder... looking into the tube you have to crawl thru to get to the other side

I'm not claustrophobic- but crawling through this scares the crap out of me!  Apparently there's one spot you can stand up in the middle of the tube, but the whole "trip" is about half the length of a football field.

This is the "exit" for that lava tube.

Next time we'll have to remember our flashlights and actually go through the ape cave though!  But it was a fun little adventure for the day.  We didn't see any frogs for Ronin to catch. We did see a pretty blue moth in the outhouse though...  and Kiera chased a squirrel.

My friend Jody and her family from belgium came up for a visit this weekend too- it was nice seeing her and the boys played with Ronin and made a huge mess of the house but they had fun.  Jody's boys understand english, but are shy about speaking it back so at least they understood Ronin when they were playing.   I had warned Ronin before they came over that they don't speak the same words as he does, and he said "But everyone speaks my language!" haha

Our friend from High School, Alexis, even came over to visit with everyone, I haven't seen her since High School, it was nice to get to chat with everyone again :)

Me, Jody (and her son Beno), Alexis, and Tracy

Quinns MRI is this Thursday... Keep him in your prayers and thoughts and keep your fingers crossed that the whole day isn't too stressful for him. Poor guy. I feel the worst about not getting to feed him for several hours before the MRI... he loves to eat!

Well, eventually we'll catch that frog, and eventually Quinn's MRI will be done...  so until then take care and lots of love!

C

5 years and MRI scheduled

Rory and I just celebrated our 5 year anniversary this week!  I had some very lovely flowers delivered to my office on Tuesday- they are beautiful!

Quinny is still all smiles and very happy- no new teeth to report.  He's very interested in standing and has been working on crawling as well- he's just about got the hang of it, he goes faster when he rolls from place to place, but he's up on all 4's like a dog and sometimes he'll jump his backfeet forward and laugh, but then forget to move his hands and fall on his face the next time he jumps his legs forward...  I think he'll have it down in the next couple of weeks... then look out world!

Quinn is laughing at mommy while we wait for daddy and brother to get out of the gym.

Ronin singing about jellyfish while playing the guitar.

Quinn looks like he's comforting his big brother or something... haha

Daddy let him play with his big guitar.

Part of the Jellyfish song, and Quinn trying to help.

Quinn's MRI is finally scheduled for 2pm on June 28th.  It's going to be a tough day.  We have to be at OHSU by 12:30, but his MRI isn't until 2pm... He has to stop nursing by 9:30 and can have only clear liquids until 11:30, and then nothing until after the MRI... they have to sedate him so he holds still.  This breaks my heart, I don't want to see him get jabbed with an IV or be sedated... but I know he won't remember any of it and it's just to make sure there's nothing going on in his brain.  He's been diagnosed with Spasmus Nutans, and should outgrow it by about 3 years at the latest, but the MRI will clear up any other underlying condition.  I pray they find nothing else going on and that it's a wasted MRI...  My poor little cuddle-bug, I'm not looking forward to the 28th at all...  So needless to say, I put off weaning him until after the MRI is over since having breast milk allows him to stop eating 2 hours later than he would have had to with formula.... I don't think he'll be too happy not eating for that long...  :(

Other than that little stresser in our lives, things are going good.  The boys are growing.  Ronin is a smarty pants and always cracking me up.  Quinn is the happiest baby I've ever seen and makes us warm and fuzzy inside.  :)   We are celebrating our anniversary tomorrow (thursday) since we asked for that day off, along with Friday.  But Friday we are taking the boys to the Enchanted Forest for a little family fun time.  :)   I love our little family!  And hopefully sometime soon the sun will warm things up and we can actually USE our new pool!!

Lots of love,

C

New pool

We finally got a swimming pool!  It's not a huge one since we weren't really sure it would get used enough to justify buying and maintaining a large one, so we got one just big enough to have a little summer fun in :)  Ronin could NOT wait to fill it, so he sat in it while the garden hose was filling it with water.  It had to be freezing cold! 

He has been telling us all kinds of nuggets of information, like: "did you know if you are really sick you should eat cat food?"  "did you know noodles are just sand?"  he also wanted to know why he can't have his zebra fish (live fish) in the swimming pool with him when he swims.  haha!  We are going to plan a "pool" party for him and a couple of his friends, it should be entertaining to watch!

New swim fins

Quinn is enjoying all kinds of baby food lately.  I don't think there is one he hasn't liked yet!  His pediatrician called me last week to schedule an MRI for Quinn... I didn't expect a call from anybody, but she explained that it has bothered her for a couple of weeks now that the eye doctor didn't actually see the movement in his eye and that an MRI just gets a better look at the connection to the brain and the brain itself to rule out any other problems.   The eye doctor diagnosed him with "Spasmus Nutans".  Which most of the time says they grow out of it - but it also explains the head bobbing he does, since it seems linked to the eye movements.   I'm still waiting to hear from them to schedule the MRI... she said they will "gas" him to make him lay still.  :(   poor guy...  I know he won't remember and it will be good to rule out tumors or other things... 

Here he is giving himself some high-fives in the mirror- the cuteness is almost too much! haha

Other than that not a whole lot going on at home!  We've been trying to swim at the gym as much as possible, Ronin is a FISH!  and Quinn seems to like it enough not to cry :)  Oh and Quinn says "mo-mo" and "mum-mum"... so he's getting closer to saying MA MA!! 

Quinn LOVES his big brother so much!

I love how much the boys adore each other :)  I know Ronin can't wait for Quinn to play with him and Quinn can't wait to play with Ronin - I hope they become the best of friends for a while before they start fighting. haha

Aren't they cute?!

Lots of love,
C

Memorial Weekend & Watermelon

This last weekend Quinn, Cheyla and I went to Nana & Papas house for the night.  Quinn did awesome on the car rides there and back- no crying!  He had a good visit with Nana, Papa and the dogs.  He liked to pet the dogs through the pack-n-play netting while he sat in there playing with his toys.  :)

Petting Bella

Quinn w/Nana

Quinn sitting in Nana's chair

While we were gone Daddy and Ronin got to go to the boat house for the night and fish and take the boat out.  Sounds like they had fun :)  On Monday we went to the gym to workout and go swimming.  Ronin got about 90 minutes of swimming in - he's doing amazing, loves swimming under water, I'm shocked at how far he's come!   Quinn and I jogged the track for a while and joined them.  Even Quinn is getting better with the water, although he wants to grab things under the water and doesn't realize his nose/mouth will go under when he does.    We had a lot of fun though!

After we did some grocery shopping we came home to eat some dinner- I gave Quinn a piece of watermelon in his little mesh "fruit" feeder - he LOVED it, he couldn't get enough of it and kept slurping up the juice and cried when I took it away to feed him real food.  He's doing so good liking most of the fuits and veggies we give him. 

Eating watermelon in his fruit feeder

slurping his watermelon

Rory and I started watching a show called "the Killing" which isn't really very scary - but we put headphones on Ronin and let him watch Curious George while we watched some of our show - He's pretty cute in headphones!

We are going to try to get a smaller outdoor pool this summer to lounge in when we aren't at the river.  Ronin is pretty excited and I think it will help him practice swimming/diving even more.  Plus it will be nice to cool off when it's super hot outside :)

Not much more going on this week... 

Lot's of love,
C

"Dadda" days

Quinny had his 6 month checkup last Monday.  He had three shots, the first shot he kind of frowned for, but the next two he wailed about until I picked him up, and he said in a very angry/sad voice "DUH" and then he was over it.   After we got home he decided it was time to start saying "dadadadadadadada" over and over...  So as much as I tried to coherce "mama" as his first word, dada came out instead... my consolation is that he doesn't know what it means and just likes to hear himself talk... otherwise I'm sure he would have said mama first! haha

I got the "walker" out this week so Quinn could be in the kitchen with me when I'm baking/cooking/cleaning - I didn't expect him to actually move the thing yet - but he's all over the place already!  I guess he got a taste of freedom and he's going with it!

Quinn in his walker

Showing me his "sweet" face

Ronin is quite the comedian lately.  I find myself laughing at the most unusual conversations and statements... for example I told him to quit trying to kick me in the butt and his response was "but my foot is your butt's best friend!"   

He's actually doing well going to sleep in his own bed lately.  We had to put our foot down and have a strict "3 books and lights out" rule at bedtime...  and it has to be me reading the last 1-2 books or he'll guilt daddy into staying in his room until he falls asleep.  He says things like "But daddy, I haven't gotten to spend much time with you lately!"  or "I just want to snuggle because I love you".  Which are both heartbreaking to hear, but he knows it will turn into daddy falling asleep in his bed with him... tricky little guy!  Talk about playing the heart strings!   The other day he told me something like that and I wasn't falling for it - and he commented "but doesn't that just rip your heart out mommy?" haha  too smart for his own good!

Rory and I were able to go to a friends party this last weekend.  She turned it into a "prom" night since her best friend never got to go to her own prom.  It was loads of fun and much better than our real prom!

Rory and me :)

My BFF Tracy :)

Those teeth again!

Quinny swinging for the first time!  He loved it!

Goofball!

Eating his foot

6 Months and iPhone happiness!

Quinn is now 6 months old!  He's wearing 9-12 month clothes, such a big boy!  I can't bring myself to wean him of nursing yet... he's such a cuddle-bug and I will miss having him so close :)  Maybe just one more month...

About to eat the ball

Two boys in a wagon

Ronin is such a good big brother :)

Cutie-pie - he wouldn't smile for me though!

Just chillin'

Not much has been going on around the house.  We went to the river a bit last weekend to enjoy the sunshine.  Ronin never wants to leave though...  Quinn started eating bananas last week, he thinks they are too sweet first thing in the morning, but once he warms up to them he seems to love them :)

On Mothers day Rory made us french toast for breakfast, we all went swimming at the gym, and then we came home and had Mike, Shelley and Sean over for a barbecue.  It was a nice day :)  I also got an iPhone for Mothers day!  I'm so in-love with my new phone!  It's the best gift :)   We got it from a used cell-phone store for fairly cheap and we switched our plan to a pay-as-you-go Tmobile plan with unlimited minutes/text and web so we could avoid the overage charges we were getting with Verizon, and it doesn't cost us $30 extra to have a "smart" phone...   So I'm super happy!

Ronin is doing awesome at swimming!  I was with him yesterday and he says "let's go underwater and wave at each other!"  So I did, and he did exactly that with a big smile on his face!  I'm so proud of him!  Once he got over his fear of water he seems a bit fearLESS now! 

So now summer has started and I suspect we'll be doing a lot more sun-roasting activities... My goal is to keep Quinn out of the sun- in the shade all summer to protect his fair little skin...  poor guy has my skin tone.  hehe

Lots of Love,

C

Two Teeth!

The last two weeks have went by in a flash!

  Quinn now has a second tooth, it came in 4 days after his first!  He's so cute with his toothy grins :)

You can kind of see the bottom two teeth...

Ronin, Quinn and I made it to the Farmers Market a couple of weekends ago, where Ronin had a hand-dipped corndog that he later told daddy was "so delicious". haha  It was a great weekend and I can't wait to go back again for another "delicious" corndog.

Deliciousness

Quinn has also been practicing sitting up on his own!  He's growing up soo fast!  I think we were in a hurry to see Ronin reach all these milestones, and now that I realize it goes so quickly I want Quinn to slow down!

Praciticing his new sitting up skills.

We got to go to Lacamas lake a couple of times these last two weeks, neither time incited a fish though.  :(

We are going through some "sleep training" with Quinn to get him to lull himself to sleep without the need of nursing, crying or rocking to stay asleep.  It seems to be slowly working- last night he slept for almost 7 hours straight!  But Ronin is still having a hard time staying in his room all night, especially when Quinn does wake up and makes noise waking everyone else up.  Hopefully we'll all get into a good sleep routine sometime soon!  I'm so ready to sleep for a full 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep!  I feel like it's been at least a year since I've had that!

Ronin recently watched the first Indiana Jones movie, and when the man got his heart ripped out (I forgot about that part) he asked us to turn it off.  We did and I tried to explain that it was a fake heart, the guy is an actor and it's not real blood but catsup.  After a while he accepted that it was all fake (I think?) and the next day I asked him to go check on his baby brother and he replied with "I can't mom, I'm busy...  gee... I hope nobody's ripping his heart out!"  I think I burst out laughing when he said that!  Too funny!    And we were talking about how he can't sleep with us when he's an adult and how he'll have his own house and wife and he grew very worried and said that he doesn't ever want to move out and wants to live with us forever and doesn't want a wife but that he will sleep in his own bed all night when he's adult. haha!

Yesterday was the Home and Garden Idea Fair and I had to put in my 4 hours of volunteer time.  So I crawled into the trunk of our electric car just to see if I could fit.  And I do.

Lots of Love,
C

First Tooth and Volcano's!

This last week was chocked full!  We joined the gym as a family so Ronin got to swim with daddy and go down the big slide, which he loved!  While mommy and Quinn ran on the track upstairs.  We are pretty excited that we can all go as a family and Ronin even got his first ID card!  On Sunday we all went to Battle Ground lake to go fishing and enjoy the weather.  It was recently stocked with fish but we didn't get a single bite.  The man at the end of the dock let Ronin reel in a small trout he had caught though- that was nice!

Quinn is 5 months old now!  And yesterday (4/17/12) his first tooth broke through!  It looks like the second one is close behind- I can't wait to see his toothy grins :)

This day he turned 5 months old

This one cracks me up- I'm trying to pull his lip down to see his tooth!

Yesterday Quinn had his eye appointment finally!  It took a while to dialate his eyes and then she did a quick eye exam with some lights and lenses and told me she didn't see anything to worry about.  All the causes that are associated with eye's that dart aren't there and she says he'll be just fine, his exam was 100% perfect and his vision seems perfect as well.  She doesn't want to see us back unless the pediatrician asks for another exam.  That was great news!  I was really worried something would affect his vision or he'd need surgery.  So it was a huge relief!! When I got home I gave Cheyla the day off and got Quinn to take a nap while Ronin and I made a valcano out of papermache - while he napped I dried it so he could paint it and we could make it "erupt".   He said I was a cool mom for doing that, aw!

Ronin asked me where fairies live, and I said I didn't know- maybe under mushrooms or in the clouds.  And later he asked me where Elmo lives - or where Sesame Street is.  I said I didn't know, he said he thinks Elmo lives above God and "The Scissor man".   The "scissor man" he's refering to is Edward Scissorhands. haha!    And while we were playing Mr. Potato head we decided to make Ms. Potato head too, and they went on a date- he said they had to kiss before they went on their date- I asked why, and he said so they know they are in love first. haha   And he even made a table for them to eat dinner at -- and then he served them leftover Mr. Potato head parts, which made me laugh and I said "ew, they are eating eyes and noses and lips!" and he said "no mom, it's food!" haha


and more pictures:

I love it when he makes this face!

More rice cereal... yummm...

Feeding his brother :)

He found a worm

Ronin's drawing of me!

Riding his bike :)

This week it's more fishing, swimming and then Sean comes over Friday night for a sleepover... I'm tired just thinking about it!

Lots of Love,

C