Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Pictures!

A random assortment of pictures from the last few months. Quentin's first school Christmas concert, him thrilled with the tree that he chose for the family ("it's not too big, not too small"), the kids after decorating the tree, Quentin with the first snowman that he ever built entirely by himself, the kids in the snowbank, Jade being a cowgirl, seeing Fafa (great-grandfather/my mom's dad), and Jade and Quentin showing off the poncho and sweater that Granny knit them (Thank you, Granny!).

















Labels:

Sunday, February 08, 2009

25 Random things

This is going around Facebook, and e-mail, and I thought that it would be (maybe) interesting to do this about our family too. The idea is to generate 25 random notes about yourself, and try and get others to do the same. This is not going to be about me, but rather the children, and children-related things.

1. Yes, Jade was named after me. I've always thought my middle name was really cool. Her middle name is from Henry VIII's daughter.
2. Quentin got his name because I was getting frustrated with the 20,001 names that were available in the book I was looking at, and decided to come up with the most unique intials I could get. We ended up both liking the name. And we haven't met anyone else with the initials QXW.
3. I toyed with the idea of calling Quentin 'Samuel' so he could be a 'Sam Whitcher' (say it out loud). Then calling him 'Hamlet,' or 'Ham' for short, and putting 'Samuel' as his middle name. (Ham Sam Whitcher). Students thought it would be great to use the name 'Blair' for a boy or a girl, and that 'Samantha' could work for a girl.
3. Tyler thinks he had a hand in coming up with the punny names for our children. He didn't.
4. Our children were born 2 years, 2 months and 2 days apart.
5. Quentin was conceived first try.
6. Jade showed an independent streak from the start and took another month or so.
7. Both children enjoyed poking their knees out the tear in my abdominal muscle. Quentin especially. That's how I knew he was mine, because I knew what his little legs looked like.
8. We used cloth diapers exclusively after using the hospital's 5 disposable diapers for the meconium.
9. We even used cloth wipes.
10. Tyler did almost all the diaper changes at home, and 75% of the cleaning of them. (I did maybe five toilet rinses in all that time. Anything else I did was with the washing machine. He did all the dirty work.)
11. Both children were potty-trained by the time they were 3. (Okay, Quentin was a week or two over the 3 year mark.)
12. The doctor never believed me on how advanced our children's vocabulary was at an early age. (They didn't talk around her, therefore, they couldn't be using more than one word at a time, right?) Even now, they have immaculate enunciation for their age, and use the most random wonderful words. Quentin's current one is 'fascinating.'
13. I stopped counting how many words Quentin knew when he could say 'hippopotamus' at 18 months.
14. Quentin nursed until I was 3 months pregnant with Jade.
15. Jade nursed until she was closing in on three years old.
16. Jade sings constantly. She makes up her own songs daily. Today she was singing about rock and roll and the summer. I swear it sounded like she was singing a Sex Pistols song!
17. Both children children were in singing/music class from the time they were infants. Quentin can correct what note you're supposed to sing if he knows the song. He loves being in the children's choir at church.
18. Jade loves dancing. And she'll do it for an audience too, if she knows you!
19. Both children are in soccer. They're getting pretty good at the skills too.
20. They have both been in swimming lessons every spring. We're going to sign them up again this spring.
21. Quentin has taken skating lessons and gymnastics.
22. We had to buy a little fitness trampoline for Quentin when he was very little so that he'd stop bouncing on the couches so much.
23. If I get a call from daycare to bring Quentin home, it's because they know he's really ill because "He's just not bouncing."
24. Jade has broken her front tooth. Twice.
25. They are two of the most adorable children that you will ever meet. I can't imagine life without them - I really do love them with every ounce of my being. Because they are so absolutely wonderful, sweet, loving, smart, funny, caring and supportive, they make my days shine.