The Quams Blog: An update on our children

Yes I said CHILDREN! It feels weird! Anyhow, I feel fortunate that we've got one week under our belts, of sending Lincoln and Olivia to daycare. To be honest, it's been much more successful than it was when we were just sending Olivia. We have managed to get those two in dad's car by 7:30 each of these mornings. Amazing! And this works very well for me to also get ready and get to work on time.

However, leaving for church this past Sunday was a different story.. We got up with reasonable time, but add Olivia's breakfast in and we are always chancing it ;-) Also, I had gotten myself ready first and then was working on Lincoln - in the end, I had to change my outfit as Lincoln may have hosed me ;-) It's the first time I didn't catch it in time that it literally went all over me. Thankfully from the neck down, so I didn't have to worry about my hair! Lesson learned - ALWAYS be prepared for that! Hahaha.. I'll forget in short order again, I'm sure of it. Then when trying to get in the car, I hit my glasses and broke them - coincidentally, I had just gotten them fixed the week prior… Then we tried to manage our way out of the end of the driveway, which had just been plowed up by the city plow. No luck… we got stuck… so Ben had to snow blow behind the car so we could get out. We made it to mass by the second reading I think… hahah… We really should have known with as much snow as we got, and as heavy of snow it was, that we wouldn't be able to make it through without clearing it, but you live and you learn (and sometimes you don't which is when you make the same mistake more than once ;-).

Olivia has been coming up with a lot of zingers lately.. A while back, Dad was trying to get her to show off by singing a song in front of the Baptism crowd. He said "I really like to hear that one song, you are my sunshine" and she turned to him and said "well, then sing it!". Hahahah.. She says the word disgusting a lot, for anything she doesn't like.. It's funny to hear her say the word, but not so funny when it is in reference to what is on her plate for dinner! She now says ridiculous too. The other night I caught her saying 'damn it' - and I said Olivia, did you mean to say 'darn it' and she said, "NO MOM, I was saying damn it!"…. Uh oh… She wants to do 'knucks' alongside of high fives sometimes, and unfortunately her pronunciation makes it sound more like a derogatory term for African Americans, so hopefully she doesn't say it in front of people that would wonder if she was saying it that way, or hopefully she can just learn to pronounce it right.

She still LOVES being a big sister. She probably tells us 15 times a day "I'm a good big sister, right?" - and it is usually true, even when her face is right next to his and she's got a hold of both of his arms making them move directions he'd prefer they not… yes, she is still being a good big sister. We couldn't be happier about how much she's embraced it - and we FORTUNATELY haven't had a repeat incident of the 'I don't like Lincoln'.

Lincoln is very happy when he's happy and awake, but when he starts getting fussy he's hard to manage - as he doesn't soothe well by our tactics and he fights sleep. It's what he wants, but he doesn't want to do it.. We are looking forward to him figuring out thumb sucking - he is trying very hard but unfortunately it's usually his entire fist that goes in which isn't as soothing, is it? And so he gets mad… I think he'll be a lot calmer when he does… I put all his 0-3 month clothes away, and he's moved into his 3-6 month and most of his sleepers are a little tighter on the length than I'd like them to be for having just moved him into that size! He still loves being on his changing table and getting his diaper changed. Overall, I would say he seems like a happier baby than Olivia - or maybe a more social baby. He really smiles and coos and hams it up. On Sunday afternoon, we had Grandma Janie staying with us (due to the blizzard), and he spent about 20 minutes on the floor being super sweet and interactive.. He even got a few short squeals and quick giggles in, which was fun.

We are very lucky to have two healthy children. We pray that we continue to be blessed through the winter season!

Big sister is really good at reading to Baby Lincoln! This book she has fairly memorized, so it worked well.

Look at this chunker! Love his rolls.. this shows the line that goes down the middle of his chest when he sleeps on his side - it's a crease line that I get too ;-)