I'll Take the Letter "Q" Please

You know how some summer camps have a "talking stick" that gets passed around and only the person holding it can talk? We need one for parenting. The person holding the stick is the one who has to watch Quinn. Or I can just be responsible myself and close the laptop whenever I'm not working on it. I stopped working the other night for just a couple of minutes to do something in the kitchen. Quinn decided he was going to help Mommy get her edit done. Jalal saw a whole bunch of text highlighted on the screen and jumped over the gate to get to Quinn and the computer. Not only had he typed some gibberish, he also somehow removed the letter Q. Hmmm...the letter Q? His initial? Seriously? Considering how many keys there are on a keyboard, that's a pretty big coincidence. Or is it? He may be small, but he's not stupid. Jalal gave him a bath the other night and said Quinn was putting his face in the water! I saw him do it tonight, too, and he's trying to drink it! We got him these little fish squirters and he loves it when I squirt water into his mouth.
So Louella is doing a little better. Jehad got the nurses to back off on some of her meds so she wouldn't be practically comatose, and she is now lucid enough to help take care of some of her final details (will, power of attorney, burial plans, etc.). She's even sitting up and watching TV and things now. Jalal talked to her yesterday and she was so happy that we were coming to see her. She's still fighting.
Now I need to go back to Charleston tomorrow. One of my friends from Arcadia lost her husband on Tuesday, and I feel like I need to be there for her. It's a very sad situation, so please say a prayer for her and her family. Quinn and I are staying with Barry and Vicky and Aundrea and Erika. I am so grateful to them. They'll even watch Quinn while I go to the funeral on Saturday morning.
Anyway, as a result of everything being so crazy, I better get going. I need to get some stuff packed up and some work done. I'll try to keep you posted over the weekend. Love, Us.

Whirlwind Life

Just when things start to settle down, life gets in the way. The last time I wrote, I said we might have to go see Jalal's mom, Louella, in August. As we were planning that trip, Jalal spoke to one of his brothers about the situation. Turns out Louella isn't doing too well. The doctor took her off the chemo and put her into Hospice care. The cancer has spread all over, including to her breasts. So after 9 months of fighting this, she's now going to be staying at home and the Hospice nurses will try to make her as comfortable as possible until she's ready to move on. She is really out of it, from what I hear from my sister-in-law, "hallucinating" and talking to family members who have passed on. So after some very difficult emotions, we've planned a trip out to LA next week. That's right! We leave Monday night for Atlanta, fly to LA Tuesday morning, and stay until the following Monday. I think she's waiting to see Jalal, so it's good that we're going so soon. We just hope she holds on that long. But we don't want her to linger in pain. So this week is going to be crazy just trying to get everything done. Yesterday we made some progress, most notably getting haircuts for both of us and getting Jalal's car washed. Today, I have a huge to-do list, including turning in our lease renewal (yeah, we're sticking around), cleaning MAJORLY (we had an incident with spaghetti sauce on the rug last night), and packing for the trip. Plus, we've got story time at the library.
Yesterday was Quinn's 9-month check up. We both like the new doctor, so that was good. He got a good report. He does seem to be shrinking, though. Since he was about 6 weeks old, he has consistently been in the 10th percentile for weight. Between 4 and 6 months, his height jumped from the 50th to the 75th percentile. I kept waiting for his weight to jump up and start to catch up to his height, but the opposite happened! Now he is exactly 18 pounds (the SEVENTH percentile!) and 27 1/2 inches long (the 13th percentile). Jeez! How does my kid eat like a horse and still manage to be the smallest kid in the world? Okay, I'm exaggerating, I know. And the doctor says he is very healthy. He still doesn't have any teeth, so maybe that will make a difference? So of course I'm very sensitive about it, as I have always been. So I'm trying to give him as much food as he wants to eat now. And I think I might sneak in another small feeding in the mornings if he'll take it. The doctor also recommended a pediatric opthalmologist for Quinn to have a check up because of my experience with retinoblastoma. So that appointment is set for next month. I'm not worried about it really because we've paid attention to his eyes and haven't seen any indication that something is wrong. But I'm glad we're checking it out. Anyway, I need to get back to cleaning house. I put in a work order for the stove because one of the burners is not working right (and it's the only big one, the other three are small). So if they are going to come fix it, I better clean the kitchen.
P.S. Thank you to Lorraine, who wins the brownie cutting question from a couple of months ago. For those of you who don't remember, my brownies were ripping and looking messy when I cut them. The trick Lorraine offered is to cut them with a plastic knife. It works! Thanks!
Love, Us.

My Little Bruiser

Quinn is a beast. Seriously. The more he moves around, the more he beats up on things, including himself. Last week, he gave himself a nice black eye. At the same time, he had scratched the bridge of his nose. It was pretty deep (I think he did it with his fingernails, my fault), and it looked bloody no matter how much I washed it. I guess I should be grateful it's not worse. He loves to hit things, whether it's beating the baby monitor against the glass coffee table (aye aye aye), smacking his own remote control against his crib bars, or just smacking me on the chest every time I pick him up. I know he's just exploring how things work, but I fear for our stuff.
I got the swatch for my bridesmaid's dress today. It is beautiful. But I'm not going to tell what color it is!
I am starting to plan Quinn's first birthday party. We wanted to have it in Charleston, but now it looks like we might need to go out to California to see Jalal's mom. So we may have to have a smaller party in Greenville. But I'm still planning themes and stuff.
Yesterday we went to a Baby Signs class at the main Greenville library. It was a lot of fun. Quinn didn't pay any attention to me, so if he learned anything, it was because of the moms around me. I met a couple of nice people. I'm trying to use the signs I remember around Quinn as much as I can. We learned mommy, daddy, drink, milk, juice, banana, cereal, eat, sleep, blanket, teddy, stars, light, sun, water, bath, bubbles, duck, fish, frog, and all done. There are probably a few more I can't remember. Oh yeah, like dog and cat. I also am trying to teach him please, thank you, and more, which either I know from the ASL I've learned or my sister told me. It'll probably be awhile before he can sign back but maybe it will ease his communication frustration until he gets totally verbal. Oh, and I wanted to tell you what he does when he doesn't want to eat something (very rare!). He squints his eyes. He doesn't squeeze his mouth shut, which I think is funny, but if I try to give him a bite of food he doesn't want, he squints. It cracks me up. He's eating the heck out of some cantaloupe right now. And it seems this time around he doesn't like brussels sprouts. ???
Well, he's resting now since he started to get very cranky. We're going for a walk in an hour and a half, so I'm going to try to get some work done until then. Jalal has tomorrow off so I thought I'd try to take the day off, too, so we can celebrate his first Father's Day together. Love, Us.

Quick Story

Okay, I really need to finish my edit today because we're going to Mother Goose on the Loose at 11:00, but I wanted to tell this story really quick. I have Regis and Kelly on in the background and they just said that ice cream trucks are now not allowed to play music because residents have complained (probably in New York). Anyway, it reminded me of the other day when Quinn and I were playing. I heard kiddie toy music going on and I couldn't for the life of me figure out where it was coming from. I thought Quinn had left a toy on, and I literally went around and around the room looking for it. Finally I looked out the window and saw the ice cream truck. I was going crazy! It kept playing for probably five minutes, too.
So I promise I'll write more later, either today or tomorrow. Love, Us.

Late Lazy Morning

We all went to bed late last night, so we slept late this morning. That means no church today. I did get an email and a phone call from someone at LifePoint yesterday, so that was nice. So a lot happened last week. I'll try to hit all the big points, but I may have to come back later. Wednesday morning, I went down to the Simpsonville library and signed Quinn up for the Summer Reading Program. Now he can attend all the special events this summer. The first one we went to that day, called Mother Goose on the Loose. It was a story, rhyming, music thing with about 25 kids there, all under 2. I think Quinn had a good time, but he got a little tired and clingy toward the end. It was nice to get out and be around other kids our age. We'll go back this week too, as long as I can get him to nap early enough. One day last week he slept almost three hours in the morning. While I was loading up the stroller for that library trip, we met a neighbor, Chrissy. She was walking her twin boys around the cul-de-sac and offered to help me get the stroller in the trunk (Quinn was "helping" too). Her boys are 11 months old. We talked for a few minutes and agreed to walk together in the evenings. She came by at 7 that night and we walked again on Friday night. Even though it's that late at night, it's still very hot, and I'm obviously out of shape. She was prepared to run a marathon when she got pregnant, so she's in much better condition than I am. It's nice to have someone to walk with, though.
Quinn and I had lunch with Leah on Friday. That was the day he had his long, late nap, so he was in a great mood when we met for lunch at 12:45. I love getting together with her. I also got online that day and found a website called Carolina Momma. It's basically a message board. I found a local message board of Greenville moms, some of whom are planning a play date at a park down the street in a couple weeks. So I'll join them there and maybe meet some more people. I posted a message looking for a book club, but nobody so far knows of one. I may have to plan one from scratch.
Yesterday, Jalal had the day off and we spent the whole day together. We finally took a long-overdue (read "expensive") trip to Babies R Us. We bought gates for the kitchen and the front hallway, as well as a cushion for the coffee table. And last night, Jalal split up the play yard and blocked off the fireplace. So now I can say the living room is mostly baby-proofed. (Mostly because the cleanliness of the couch and coffee table will come into play. But I don't feel like I have to watch him every second now. I know he can't get to the dangerous things. He's currently exploring his new freedom now. What a tornado. We also went to the mall and walked around. It was just supposed to be for a while to have a cool place to spend some time. But we ended up staying there for a long time. I forget that this is a big mall compared to those in Charleston. Jalal found three sportcoats for great prices. I found some shorts and a pair of crop pants. I just can't bear to keep wearing jeans in this weather. It's been hitting 100 this weekend. When we finally got home, we gave Quinn some time to run around. He went crazy, giggling and squealing and climbing over everything. It was so funny. We finally got him to calm down and go to bed around 10, much much later than his usual bedtime. So now his whole schedule is about two hours behind usual. I'll probably make sure he takes a shorter nap this afternoon so he can still go to bed at his regular time. Well, that's pretty much what we've been up to. Love, Us.

"911, What's Your Emergency?"

So, I can't believe I forgot to tell about this earlier. Quinn has played with the phone for a couple weeks now, but he's never done more than hit 3 and # a few times. This morning, he dialed 91111. Great. Jalal grabbed the phone and ended the call, but obviously not before it connected. They called right back asking if everything was okay. Glad to know that they are quick responders here, but I can't believe my kid called 911. Jeez.
He was still cranky tonight, and he wouldn't even talk to Aunty Trish on the phone. I don't know if he gets shy or if he just doesn't get it, but he won't even squawk when I hold the phone out or put it on speakerphone. He does smile and tilt his head and sometimes try to eat the phone, but that's about it. I know he's a smart kid, but sometimes I wonder. Like at dinner tonight. I was talking to Trish while preparing his dinner. I cut up a whole meatball and put it on his tray while I worked on some brussels sprouts. It was a couple minutes later that I realized he wasn't eating. He had been sitting there with a piece of meat in his hand, almost smooshing it into his nose, but he refused to take his pacifier out of his mouth. As soon as I popped it out, he frantically shoved the food into his mouth. How long would he sit there starving, I wonder? What a weird kid.
So I had a first of my own today. I watched a TV show online for the first time ever. I have been looking forward to that new show In Plain Sight about the U.S. Marshalls overseeing the Witness Protection Program. I missed the pilot on Sunday, so I found it online and watched the whole episode tonight on the laptop. I love this thing! It was a little bumpy in places, but it was great. I never could have even tried that on our PC. I really liked the show. She's a smart aleck, so I guess I identify with her. (No comments from the peanut gallery.) It still had 20 minutes (out of 65) left when I figured I could put it on full-screen. Hey, I never said I was tech savvy. Okay, if my eyes get any drier, they are going to get stuck in the "open" position, so I'm going to get going. If anyone gets a random call from a Mauldin number, it's probably Quinn and I apologize. Love, Us.

What a Day!

Whew. I'm worn out. Quinn is so cranky today. I think he's getting a tooth any time now. I wish he would so he would stop crying. We had to make a trip to the bank today because my deposit of almost $600 never made it into my account. Turns out someone else got lucky and they deposited it into someone else's account. So I got hit with more than $100 in overdraft fees. After sitting in the bank for almost half an hour, they got it cleared up and credited the fees. Thank goodness our rent check didn't bounce. Turns out our overdraft protection never got hooked up to our savings account either. Like I said, what a day!
Quinn had a big day yesterday. Jalal didn't have to work, so we went to a place called Hollywild. It's a sort of zoo for famous animals. It was so crazy. They have the lion that Disney used as a model for the Lion King and all these animals that have been in commercials and movies and such. A lot of the park serves as a petting zoo. We fed llamas, goats, deer, and emus. They had a safari ride, where we got to feed deer and emus from the side of a bus. The emus were pretty scary, and they looked like they thought Quinn would take better than the stale bread we were giving them. I kept him pretty tight on my lap. He got his hand licked by a bison, too! He really got a kick out of it. The rest of the park was pretty cheesy, but the safari ride was great.
Last night, I decided to let him learn to climb stairs. I know it sounds stupid, but I was reading What to Expect the First Year, which said a child who knows how to climb stairs is much safer when presented with an unprotected staircase than a child who just knows stairs are off-limits. So I let him climb the first two stairs, thinking he would get tired and that would be it. A couple minutes later, he was grinning at his daddy from the top of the staircase! What a kid. Well, I'm going to get back to work. If I haven't mentioned it before, not a lot of housework gets done when we take days off work. Love, Us.

Ahh, Peace and Quiet

Quinn is down for a nap, though the occasionally rustling I hear tells me he is not totally passed out. He was tired enough after lunch to snuggle up next to me and put his head down on my chest, so he better sleep. Now I hear him playing with his toys. Oh well. As long as he's calm. Jalal is off to work for the evening. He came with me to church this morning. We went back to the place I tried last week, LifePoint. He said he liked it because it was small, though he did say it was "churchier" than the other places he's been to. And he called the music "ChurchStock," which I thought was hysterical. It really did make you feel like you should be wearing daisies in your hair and a peasant skirt or something. Not that it was bad; it just is so much tamer than West Shore. Anyway, it's been a busy week as I've tried to work as much as I could. Ok, I'm back. So, I'm taking a break from editing for a few minutes. I think after Quinn goes to bed, I need to focus on the house for a while. There are still so many boxes and things that need to be unpacked and put away, so I'm going to knock some of those out before I go to bed.
So I met up with Leah for coffee on Friday. We're going to have her and her husband over for dinner, but she's picking up ER shifts now and is on call a few nights a week (she's a nurse), plus Jalal's schedule is so evening heavy, it might take a few weeks until we can find a night everyone is free. But then we'll have taco night! I'm excited about that. We haven't a full-on taco night since we had our couples care group over to our house, which must have been almost two years ago. Can that be? Jalal fries his own taco shells and makes fresh pico de gallo and guacamole, and he puts everything in martini glasses for flair. That man knows how to throw a dinner party, let me tell you.
Yesterday, we needed to get out of the house, so Quinn and I went to Falls Park again. We bought one of those ground blankets with the nylon backing so we can even use it if the ground is damp. As big as it was, Quinn still spent most of his time on the grass or in the dirt. He only tried to eat one leaf, so I consider that a success. He did destroy my water bottle. He is obsessed with water bottles, and he thinks they exist for him--to drink out of, play with, and chew on. (Still no teeth, by the way, for those of you on tooth-watch.) We had lunch out there and stayed for about an hour and a half. As soon as we got in the car, Quinn collapsed and fell asleep doubled over in his car seat. It was pretty funny.
So Jalal is going away for his first training from Marriott. He planned to go to one in Tampa, but then it got cancelled. So he picked New York City instead. (How cool is that? He gets to pick whichever one he wants to go to. Though his boss said flying to Seattle was a little much, so it's not unlimited.) He will be away for 6 days in July. I wish I could go. That would be so much fun. Quinn and I could sightsee all day and we could go to dinner and shows at night. Wonder if recreation could go on that company credit card? I'm just trying to find a time when I can go visit my sister. Maybe we'll get our dresses in soon, and I can take them with me. I need to call the bridal shop tomorrow and see if the color swatch has come in. Seems like it should have by now. Well, I guess that's enough for now. I'll go work for a little bit until my little bit wakes up. Love, Us.