1st Camping Trip as a Family

Friday afternoon, Quinn, Kirch and I headed up to Rocky Gap State Park for our first camping trip as a family. Now, granted, we stayed in a little cabin that had electricity and air conditioning, but I have accepted that as I get older I don't like sleeping in tents.

The weekend consisted of about 20 adults and 10 kids - it really was a great time. We shared the cabin with the Kastbergs and everyone else pitched their tents in the field we had rented. This has been a tradition that Donna Scheleur and Don May have been holding for 10 years now. It was great - albiet VERY hot! It was mid to high 90's every day we were there - and without a shower, you can imagine how rank we all were by Sunday afternoon when we got home!

Friday afternoon, after everyone pitched their tents and we removed a family of mice from the bed Quinn and I would be sharing over the weekend (oh yes - a family), the kids played like crazy with the bubble machine and other toys everyone brought. Quinn immediately started digging in the dirt and filling up buckets (a task that every 2 year old is familiar with). When we finally all got our children down for bed about 10pm-ish, the adults partook in some beers and smores by the campfire. Ahh, nature...

Saturday we all headed to Lake Habeeb and went swimming. Quinn had a blast! She is not a fan of going under water, but really enjoyed playing in the sand and floating on the innertube. After a nice long nap, we all began preparing for the pot luck dinner. There was lots of - meat. Lots of it. Chili, steaks, chicken, meatballs, and so on. We all enjoyed fruit, dessert and drinks and especially everyone's company.

Quinn refused to go to sleep on Saturday night. She finally konked out at 11:30pm and I headed out to the campfire for about an hour. Boy, we can't party like we used to. Everyone was very laid back Saturday night at the fire - very much unlike Friday night's festivities!

Sunday, when we got home, we all enjoyed the best baths/showers of our lifetimes, I think. It was a laid back Sunday afternoon, and we all stayed inside. Kirch and I had had enough of the heat, and with Quinn recovering from her 2nd ear infection in 3 weeks, we thought it a good idea to just keep her busy in the house.

We already have our spot picked out for June, 09. It is a treehouse campground near Harper's Ferry, so it should be lots of fun. It's always fun with our group of friends!

Diaper Exit!

Oh the time is so near. Quinn is really potty training now. And I'm not sad ONE SINGLE BIT that she will be leaving the diaper stage behind very shortly. We have given up regular diapers. Yay! One less thing to have to buy and then promptly throw away, adding to the nation's garbage problem. She now can go on short excursions with undies on (to and from daycare - that's as brave as we've gotten) and longer outings with pull-ups without making a mistake. Last night Quinn and I went to Target and she went potty in the bathroom twice, leaving her pull-up dry! It's no fun lining the public toilets with TP and telling her over and over not to touch anything (especially when I have a fold-up potty seat that I left in my car!), but it's that much closer to being out of diapers forever! I actually made a bold move and left the diaper bag home last night, too. Big step for me - I bring that thing everywhere. I really need to stop and put more faith in the fact that my little one gets that pee-pee and poo-poo are for the potty now.

Getting prepared to launch...

I don't know why it is, but poo-poo is always a bit more challenging for toddlers on the potty. They have to be ready for that one. Well, 2 weekends ago, Quinn just said, out of the blue, "I go poo-poo on the potty." OH HAPPY DAY!!! I knew we were on our way.

So proud!!!

We've had our accidents, but now that daycare is on board and letting her run around in underwear, we are veeeerrryy close. The real test will be on Friday when we head up to Rocky Gap for the weekend to go camping. Quinn insists on sitting on the big toilet without a seat - so I hope it won't be a problem for her to use her portable potty seat for the weekend. I guess we'll see. But I have a feeling that she will be fine - and out of diapers completely before she and I go home to MI for 4th-of-July weekend!

Off I go! Yay for me!

It Didn't Happen

Oh my gosh, what a let down! The Wings lost in triple overtime to a great goal on the Penguins' power play. In Detroit. They stole our home-overtime-huge celebration-take-back-Stanley-in-our-own-house win!!! At about 1:15am, no less, which makes this morning quite brutal since I now have nothing fond to remember why I stayed up that late in the first place...

Oh well, shake it off, boys. Next game is tomorrow night in Philly. Guess we can settle for an on-the-road win...

This is not about Quinn

It is 12:19am on Tuesday morning and the Wings just WON'T win the game! We are going into a 3rd overtime in Detroit, with the Wings and the Penguins tied at 3... Seriously, I can't take this kind of pressure. Stanley could be ours with just one little goal!

GO WINGS!

...and here are a few new pictures of my cutie... Spring is in the air!

My Kid Tattled on Me!

And I thought we were tight!

On Tuesday Kirch picked Quinn up from daycare. As they were driving home, Kirch, always more conscious of his language in front of her than I am, said "Shoot!" for whatever reason (I think he said he was trying to make a left hand turn into traffic). So Quinn, being the sponge that she is, follows suit and starts saying "Shoot! Shoot!" Then, all of the sudden, she says "Asshole!" Kirch whipped around and said, "What did you say?" Quinn looked at him and said it again - "Asshole!" So she says this a couple more times as Kirch is trying to shush her. Then, this is the kicker - she says, "Asshole! Mommy say that!" Can you believe it? I just about shit my pants when Kirch called to tell me I had just been ratted out by my 2-year-old daughter! What a crack up!

You know, the truth is, that is my "word" when I'm in the car. Everyone is an asshole. If someone pisses me off, I immediately say, "Asshole..." And as quiet as I think I'm being, or as hopeful as I can be that she's not always paying attention, this is proof positive that she definitely is. Guess Mommy needs a time out!

Mother's Day, 08

What a day - my Mother's day started at 1:30am this morning, in true mothering fashion. Quinn came down with a little bug that ended up all over her crib the first time around and ALL over ME the 2nd time! Ugh. She woke up crying (not unusual for Quinn - she usually wakes up from a dream or something at least once or twice a week crying, so we go in and calm her down and that's that), as I said, at 1:30am, so I went in to rock her a bit. I noticed she felt a bit hot, but really didn't think too much of it. I put her back to bed and not 10 minutes later she started crying again. So i went to get her and I just decided to bring her to our bed for a bit, then transfer her back when she fell asleep. I brought her baby, but her baby was soaking wet, so I fumbled around in the dark until I got to the bathroom to turn on the light - to be unpleasantly surprised to find Quinn-up all over her doll! Quinn was fine, hanging out with Kirch, so I went into her crib to find all of her dinner EVERYWHERE. How she didn't get it all over her PJ's I'll never know. So I finally got her sheets changed and we put her back to bed around 3am. Again - 10 minutes later, she was crying again. So I went in and picked her up - this time she let me have it. And boy, did she give it to me! All over me, from head to toe! My poor baby, all I could do was let her get it up - and she kept saying, "All done... all done!" It's a horrible feeling, not being able to do anything for your child when she is hurting. But as I have said a hundred times before, the girl is tough. Kirch got up, cleaned up her carpet, changed her, and she was none the worse for wear... We took her back to our room, watched "Finding Nemo" (for the millionth time), and after about a half hour, I took her back to her room to finally put her to bed for the last time. By this time it was 4:30am and her fever had broke (which was only 100.1 in the first place), and she slept until 7:30am.

Kirch was kind enough to get up with her so that I could enjoy some lazy time in bed - which I totally ate up! I stayed in bed until like 10:30am, sleeping and watching tv. I Heart Mother's Day.

Quinn was completely fine the rest of the day. We did the annual shindig over at Mike & Rachel's and had a great time. It was a long, but happy day for all of us. Quinn missed her nap, but you'd never know it. And her appetite came back with a vengeance. She played and played with Jodi, Bill and everyone who would pay her any attention up until the minute we left for the evening (which was about 6pm). She promptly fell asleep in the car, but woke up with no problem to take a bath when we got home. That girl was dirty! But it was a great day.

And the best part - Kirch and Quinn bought me a trip to the spa in Potomac! A Swedish massage, a manicure, and a pedicure. Most of you who know me well know that I can't stand anyone other than Kirch touching my feet - and a pedicure has always been COMPLETELY out of the question (ICK, ICK, ICK!!!) - but I feel that I'm finally succumbing to the idea of someone making the worst, ugliest part of the human body look good sounds pretty damn relaxing. And hey, it's to make me feel good - so I'm going to take advantage - maybe I'll even convert to being pro-feet! Ugh, that may take a while.

Me and my Grandma!

Kenny and Matt

Mike, you're a good back-rubber!

I'm sorry I puked all over you, Mommy! Happy Mother's Day!

Kirch and Kevin

ABC Song!

On Sunday Quinn decided she was just going to start singing the ABC song - what a proud day for Mom and Dad! We've been working on this forever and she just showed no interest in learning the ABC's, so I can't speak for Kirch, but I'd sort of given up for the time being. Well, there she was, playing on the dining room floor by herself, muttering away... and we had both noticed - hey, that sounds a lot like the ABC's! Sure enough, she was singing proud! Here is a quick video, but unfortunately the memory ran out before I could get it all. Don't worry, there'll be more soon!