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.