Once upon a time, there was a chatterbox, a nudist and a vampire. All of them were named Quinn.
My almost eight-month-old son has been quite the performer lately. Quinn’s learning all kinds of new tricks. He’s starting to crawl, scootching across the floor on his belly a lot. He gets up on his elbows and knees and rocks back forth. Sometimes he’ll rock a few times and then LUNGE forward in one big motion toward the toy he wants. Q can also sit up by himself now, and just today he almost pushed himself into a seated position without any assistance. He also likes to wrinkle up his nose and breathe heavily through his nose like a bull, smiling his new toothy grin the whole time. It’s hysterical!
But my three favorite new tricks of his are the chatterbox, the nudist and the vampire.
Quinn’s been cooing and “talking” for a long time, but now he’s starting to repeat the same sounds and put different sounds together. He says “da da da da da” over and over, which is the beginning of him saying “Da da” for Daddy. And he says “Bwa bah bah bah buh buh bah,” which is the beginning of him saying, “Yes, mother, blah, blah, blah, blah,” while rolling his eyes at me when he’s about fourteen. Yes, our little chatterbox is quite the conversationalist. From the moment he wakes up until he goes to sleep at night, he’s chatting. Not sure where he gets that from. His father and I hardly ever talk. We’re quite introverted people. (HAHA! Right!)
On our recent Kauai vacation, we discovered that our Quinn has preference for being naked. I guess most babies do at a certain age, but Q can now make that happen all by himself when left to his own devices. Our first day on the island was really warm, and we hadn’t unpacked all of Q’s clothes yet, so we let him play in the floor in just his diaper. When he started to get tired, I took him upstairs for a nap. After listening to him talk to himself on the monitor for a while, we determined that he probably wasn’t going to fall asleep. I went back upstairs to get him, and I discovered that the child had removed his diaper. Q-ball was lying in his pack-n-play, buck naked near a giant puddle of his own urine, happily singing to himself. I’m going to live in ignorant bliss on this one and assume that because I never actually saw him put his wet diaper in his mouth that he didn’t actually do it. (Ew.) Now we know to at least keep a onesie on our little nudist.
Quinn’s vampire trick is the most impressive, however, it’s also the most dangerous. Q’s thing is rolling, as you already know. This kid can roll all the way across the room in seconds. Now he likes to grab onto the edge of his giant blanket (that he never stays on) and roll himself up like a burrito. Sounds funny, right? It is until he starts to panic and can’t get himself out of it. Since I’m super paranoid Q’s going to suffocate himself, I don’t leave him alone on the blanket anymore. I always make sure I’m nearby!
Here's a picture of Q rolling himself up in his green blanket. He looks like he’s drawing the blanket around him like a vampire’s cape. “One, two, THREE poopy diapers in one day! Bwa ha ha ha!” (Sorry, that best impression I can do of The Count from Sesame Street.)
Q-ball is quite entertaining. It’s such a blessing to spend my days with him, watching him explore his world and learn new things. We have a blast together, and I wouldn’t change a thing.
