Long Awaited Catching Up

Our wireless internet isn’t working, so I’m only online a few minutes a day. I apologize that I didn’t get back on here right away. We got a new washing machine yesterday! It was a great deal, a Kenmore 800 series for $399. It was brand-new but majorly marked down because it was blue and they had a surplus. So what? It’s nice to know our clothes are actually getting clean now. We also decided to get a little potty for Quinn. I know it’s a bit too soon to push him into toilet-training, but he did go in the real toilet a few days ago. I was giving him a bath the other night and he started making his “poopie” face. Trust me, this is not mother’s intuition. He gets all red in the face, holds his breath, and starts grunting. So rather than let him go in the bathtub, I picked him up and held him on the edge of the toilet seat until he went to the bathroom. He seemed perfectly comfortable with it, so I thought maybe it wouldn’t hurt to get him thinking about potty-training. I’m not really sure about the best way of going about it, so any experienced advice is welcome. Wouldn’t it be great to have a 2-year-old boy who’s potty-trained?

Quinn has his 18-month checkup with the doctor on Friday. As usual, I can’t wait to see how much he weighs. I think he’ll be over the 50th percentile by now. That kid is getting huge! Every day now, we retire another outfit (18 months) that is too tight or short, more tight than short lately. Luckily, Jalal and I are the masters of economical shopping. We have a decent-sized spring wardrobe for him already that we haven’t paid much for. We haven’t paid more than $10 for any item, including shoes! We picked up most of it from the outlets in Charleston. Speaking of which, we’ve had two fun trips to Charleston, plus a road trip to Cincinnati, Louisville, and Gatlinburg.

Our first Charleston trip was for the wine expo. I did start to feel better, but not much. I couldn’t really enjoy the wines too much with a stuffy nose. I remember tasting a J Vineyards pinot noir, one of our personal favorites, and it tasted nothing like it should have. So right then I knew there was no point in drinking any more than it took to make me feel better. Oh well. Vicky and Barry came with us the expo while Aundrea and Erika, their girls, watched Quinn. They are so good with him. I wish they lived here so they could sit for him all the time! The next morning, we met for breakfast with my Aunt Linda and Uncle Bruce, who were coincidentally in town for a few days. It was great to see them since we hadn’t seen them since dad’s funeral. Plus, Aunt Linda had been very sick and I wanted to see for myself how she was doing. It stinks that we don’t get to see them as much since we left Charleston. I never see Uncle Bruce as happy as he is when he’s feeding something new to Quinn. Uncle Bruce is the reason Quinn dips everything in ketchup, including tomatoes (redundant) and Cheerios (gross). They gave him this stuffed Curious George, which he took on our road trip. It was very cute. Whenever he got tired, we’d give him George and he would hold him over his shoulder and pat on the bottom. Haha!

Our road trip was a lot of fun. We were expecting snow and cold, but we ended up with temps in the 60s most days. First we spent the weekend with Lauren (Auntie L.C.) in Cincinnati. It was so nice to see her again, and she adores Quinn. We went to the Children’s Museum there, which was fantastic. I wish we could’ve spent more time there, but Quinn has his limits. While he slept, we went to the Cincinnati Zoo. Even in winter, when a lot of the animals weren’t out, we had a great time. There was a snow leopard that actually meowed at me and Lauren! It was so close we could almost touch it (behind a cage, though, of course). Then it bit its own tail and sat there with the end of its tail in its mouth watching us. Lauren was so funny. She talked in her cat lady voice and asked if the “kitty” wanted a new mama to snuggle with. Nut. Then Lauren kept him for an evening so Jalal and I could go out. We went to Morton’s Steakhouse for an early Valentine’s Day dinner. It was wonderful! The works: valet parking, expensive bottle of red wine, tuna tartare that melted in our mouths, steaks cooked perfectly and bigger than your head, lyonnaise potatoes, asparagus grilled with balsamic vinegar, and the best soufflé in the world. They make this Grand Marnier soufflé with fresh Chantilly cream that is to die for. It must have come straight from the oven because it was huge! I can’t thank Lauren enough for that. When we got back to her place, it was after 10 p.m. and Quinn was still awake. He was crazy wound up and driving her poor cats up the wall. They were probably very happy to see him go. Then we went to Louisville and stayed with Mike and Crystal for a couple days. It was nice to see them for a happy reason instead of all the bad reasons or working reasons we’ve seen them lately. First they flew down to help us move to Greenville, then they came to California for Louella’s funeral, then they flew to Florida when my dad died. They are good people. Anyway, they have a cat, too, Bob, so Quinn was happy chasing the “mah” around (that’s what he says for “meow”). We went ice-skating together, and they had skates small enough to fit Quinn (actually we had to go up a size from the smallest). He went around for a few times in Jalal’s arms before Jalal tried to get him to skate on his own two feet. He didn’t seem to like that very much. There was a woman there who gave skating lessons and she took him around once or twice with me skating alongside them. He did a little better with that (maybe because she was more in control). Still not his favorite thing just yet but we’ll try again. Our last day of vacation we spent in Gatlinburg. We were hoping to try sledding or play in the snow, but there was no snow! The wind was too strong for us to even ride the gondolas to the top of the hill where Ober Gatlinburg was. So we went to this cute little Rainforest Zoo. Everything was low enough for Quinn’s eye level, so we let him run around and see the lemurs, frogs, alligators, birds, kangaroos, goats, snakes, and more. We (Jalal) broke down and bought him two stuffed animals (because he’s running a severe shortage on them, don’t ya know?). They were absolutely adorable, with HUGE eyes. I’ll see if I can post a picture so you get the idea. That night, we took Quinn to the Dixie Stampede. That brought back a lot of memories. First of all, Jalal and I had taken Louella there once in Myrtle Beach. Second, the preshow included some classic bluegrass music played live, and one of the songs was “I’ll Fly Away,” the song my dad’s friends played at his memorial service. Anyway, though Quinn only ate a couple of bites of biscuit and then Goldfish crackers, he did enjoy watching the horses and lights. Our hotel room was really nice in Gatlinburg, too. It was only a Fairfield, but it had a fireplace and a Jacuzzi tub in our room, as well as a great view over the river. The next day, we took the scenic route home through the mountains. I guess the winding roads and play of shadow and light got to Quinn because he threw up. Poor kid. We’re up in the mountains where it was pretty chilly and windy, and we strip him down by the side of the road and wipe him down with baby wipes. We made it home just fine, though, and with enough time to do a big load of laundry at the Laundromat.

Our recent trip to Charleston was for Isabel’s third birthday. As usual, we drove down on a Sunday and came back on Monday. I really didn’t want to go at first because we had only been home from our big trip for two days. But I’m glad we did. We always have such a wonderful time with Willie and Caroline, and Vicky and Barry. Quinn held his own at the party among all the three-year-olds, too. I heard a lot of people say he was a cool kid. Uh, yeah. I knew that. This was another late night that he stayed up playing, but he was a champ. It was also great to see the remodel of the Wests’ home, which was more like a whole new house. It is incredible! And now Jalal and I have something to go on when we design our dream home. I think we might have to start smaller though, like skipping the “chronotherapy” lights in the bathtub and the built-in automatic cappuccino machine. It’s a good place to start, though. And we got to see Chris and Kim, which was great. Chris didn’t believe me when I told him Quinn is fussy (read: prissy) about getting his hands dirty. Then Quinn got a couple pieces of glitter on his hand and kept going to Chris to get them off! I swear I didn’t put him up to that either. The next morning, we met my old friend Desma at the Children’s Museum, where she works, and we all played for a couple hours. All in all, it has been a good (crazy!) month. Now that we're caught up, let's move on. I am going to make dinner now, but I'll try to get on again soon to tell more about the mundane, funny, day-to-day stuff in our lives, like my bowling league and Quinn's favorite words. Preview: his current favorite numbers are 2 and 9 (though I'm pretty sure that one is "nein" or however you spell "no" in German). Love, Us.