The pink hat

Quincy has found the pink fluffy hat from Miles' toy box, and he has taken it as his own. This is the child that protests any hat that I ever put on his head. He loves this hat and puts it on anytime he sees it. He gets excited in the morning when he first sees it, he wears it playing with toys, walking around, and sitting to watch tv. He has even worn it to nurse. He puts it on all by himself, although it's not often on very well, sometimes we're not sure how he can see, but he is happy. So we take pictures. Here are a few from this weekend:

One word vocabulary

Quincy still only says one word, "bye-bye," but he is saying it much more often and has learned to use it quite well. I recently realized that this little 12 month old child has learned to use his one word to communicate in many different ways. Of course he uses it in traditional manner when saying good bye to someone, he says bye-bye and waves to the person. In addition, when we are inside our house he will go up to an entry door and either bang on the door or reach for the door handle and say bye-bye when he wants to go outside or perhap somewhere else. If we are at a store, when he is ready to leave he will just start saying bye-bye. At naptimes and bedtime, when he is ready to go to bed he will randomly start saying bye-bye and wave to us. I then ask him if he wants to go upstairs and go to bed or take a nap, at which point he walks directly to the upstairs door, bangs on the door or grabs the handle and says bye-bye. And occasionally once he is awake, if he we don't get up to him quick enough I have heard him in his crib saying bye-bye. I can only assume he is saying bye-bye to his crib. While eating, if he is done (or doesn't not want a particular food item) he will drop food, piece by piece, onto the floor and wave to each piece while saying bye-bye. When out for a wagon ride, if he wants to get out and walk, he will stand up in the wagon, try to get out and say bye-bye. And most recently, if a tv show is on, when the credits start to roll at the end he says bye-bye and waves to the tv. This I believe he isn't trying to tell us anything, just saying good-bye to the tv show.

So with his one word vocabulary he can tell us (or someone else) goodbye, he can tell us when he wants to leave the house, he can tell us when he is done in a store, he can tell us when he is ready to go to bed or nap, he can tell us when he wants to walk instead of ride in the wagon, and he can tell us when he is done eating or when he doesn't want to eat something. And probably a few other things that I haven't caught onto yet. Do you sometimes feel that your 1 year old is smarter than you?!

Miles' bad dream

So this morning over breakfast Miles told me all about a bad dream he had last night. Normally if he tells us about dreams it is the same thing, such as "I dreamed about having a snack downstairs." And he would tell us about the snack dream every time he woke up. Well, this morning I think he told me about an actual dream he had. Although I'm not entirely sure if all of it was a dream or if he started adding to it as he was telling me.

His dream:

A big scary brown and green strong giant was trying to get me. It was a big and green and strong giant, but not the Hulk. This was a mean giant. The giant came from the clouds. I was really scared of the giant, and the giant was trying to get me and take me away from you guys. You guys protected me. (awww) I thought he got trapped in Daddy's room. Then Daddy fought the giant - he fought him because he is a man. (a bit sexist here?!!) And Daddy can fight a giant because he is big and strong, like the Hulk. (awww) They fought in Daddy's room with hard swords (like the ones he wants, as opposed to the foam swords he is allowed to have). Daddy knocked the giant down. The giant fell down on his head. He probably got a booboo on the back of his head.

Just playing

Yesterday was a bit of a rainy day. Miles and I spent some time splashing around in puddles, then it was out for a bit of shopping and the kids got to spend some time playing at the playarea in the mall.

Quincy and Miles playing on the tractor:

Quincy loves climbing through the tunnels:

Quincy climbed up one side of the slide,

And down the other side.

And, just like Miles did, Q likes driving the tractor:

Family band and dancing

While Mike and Quincy were playing with some musical toys, Miles apparently liked the music and came in to dance along. Here is a short clip of the family fun:

Random photos

We have had a quiet week at home this week. Some down time for Mike to recharge between band camp and the start of school. Mostly we have played around the house and yard.

Here are the boys in their new wagon. We were going for a ride around the neighborhood. Apparently the boys had the sun in their eyes, I didn't realize it until I looked at this pic on the computer. Oh well, they loved going for a ride in their new wagon. Miles loves that it has a door he can use all by himself to get in and out. Quincy just loves that he has a full seat to sit in. They both like the back seat best, so they have to switch off each ride, which doesn't go over great for the one that ends up in the front seat.
Mike piles up the yard toys when he mows the lawn, this was a new configuration with the toddler slide. And Miles immediately found interesting ways to play on the slides. Here he is climbing from one onto the other.

Here he moved the small slide end to end with the bigger slide and tried to slide down one and up the other. As you can imagine it didn't work quite as he had hoped.


And Quincy. This is his newest expression. "Oooh" And he often says "Oooh" along with it. At first he was only doing this when we told him no or took something away. Now he does it when he is surprised or excited as well.

The Devine piano trio.

Carnival

Last night we went to a local Fireman's Carnival, which Miles was very, very excited about. He has been playing with a Little People ferris wheel and carnival game toy lately, so he has been asking to go to a real carnival. So all day yesterday he was nearly bursting out of his skin with excitment. He got to get cotton candy for the first time, which he liked the flavor, but didn't like it once it started getting sticky on his fingers. He played some carnival games:

And, finally, he got brave enough to ride some carnival rides. He loved the rides, and wanted to ride every single ride there, and any ride he did go on, he didn't want to get off.

He was concentrating so hard on driving this horse almost the entire ride. He would alternate between having both hands on the rope to drive the horse, and one hand on the horse rope and one hand on the bell rope to ring the bell. He was pretty serious about making sure that horse was going where it was supposed to go!

This train type ride was one he talked us into on our way out of the carnival, he was jumping up and down excited when he was a train on a train track. He ran and tried to push his way to the first car so he could drive the train, but, alas, someone else was already there. He took it well and happily got into the second car.

This fire engine ride was the first ride he went on. He was so busy ringing the bell on the front of the engine I think he forgot to be afraid, the ride started upand was going before he even knew what was happening. he rode this ride two times and had a huge grin each time!

Here is a little video clip to show he actually was riding the ride:

Misc Photos

Here are a few random pics from this week.

Miles hiding in his brick block castle:

Quincy trying to carry around my little handbag, he was going through the wrong door if he was trying to head out shopping. He even tried to walk up the stair the correct way, he didn't want to put that bag down so he could crawl up the stair. Eventually he did put the bag down and crawl, but he did remember to pick up the bag once he got up the stair:

We had some good rains this week, so Miles was super excited to go outside and use his new umbrella in the rain. But, once he got out there, he thought the umbrella wasn't doing a good job fighting off the rain since the rain was still hitting the umbrella, so back into the porch he came to use his umbrella in the rain, on the screen porch...

Fun times in the band room last night, Miles and Quincy kept trying to play in the instrument storage closet, the one with all the percussion instruments.

Then Miles found a flag sitting out. He was doing pretty well, he's going to be a well rounded marching band member once he is in high school.

Walking

Quincy has been practicing walking for a few weeks now. He is now walking more than he is crawling. He is doing very good trying to walk over and around toys, and he is trying to walk faster all the time. He still has quite a few falls, and still resorts to crawling on occassion. I have no doubt he will be running very soon. Here is a little clip I got of him walking yesterday. He got the singing and dancing duck from his Aunt Lisa, and that gets him walking every time it is turned on, he loves that duck. I got the video clip on the camera, hence Miles thinking that I was going to take a picture:

Quincy's birthday party

Quincy had fun at his first birthday. Miles loved it too. Grandma Devine & Justin came in from NY, Grandma & Grandpa Morris came in from NH, and his friends Brandon & Sienna came to celebrate his birthday with him. Here are some photos from the party:

New toy bin - yay, now he can find all his toys!:

Openning presents:

Big brother Miles, hamming it up while waiting for cake:

The cake, a big Q for our big Q-man:

Quincy eyeing his cake, wondering what this is all about:

Checking out the cake:

The first taste, hmmm, will he like it?

Yep! He loves it!

The happy, chocolate face birthday boy! (Although he didn't let much cake miss his mouth, so not much of a messy face to clean up!)

Happy 1st Birthday Quincy!!!!

Wow, one year old today. I can't believe how fast this year has flown by and how much Quincy has grown. One year ago today just a tiny little bundle in my arms. Now he is toddling around, walking more often than crawling. Eating like a horse and growing like a weed. Quincy is such a happy, joyful baby. Smiling and laughing all the time. Except when Miles tries to take a toy away, but he is learning to hold his own and has won a few of those toy tug-of-wars. My word does Quincy love and look up to his big brother, just wants to do everything that Miles does, imitates all the sounds Miles makes, and follows him everywhere, even into time-out.


I looked at Quincy the other day and realized he doesn't look like a baby anymore, he looks like a little boy. A very adorable little boy. Luckily, he is my adorable little boy.

Happy Birthday my sweet baby boy!

Buh-by

I do believe Quincy said his first word last night, well his first word other than momma and dadda. At the end of dinner he was dropping pieces of food off his tray and each time he dropped a piece of food he said "buh by." When I asked if he was saying bye-bye to the food he smiled real big and waved. Later on in the evening, him and I were at a store when he suddenly started saying "buh by" again. I asked if he wanted to leave the store and if he was saying bye-bye to the store, he again smiled and waved, this time saying "buh by" again.

So Miles first word was "uh-oh," and Quincy's first word seems to be bye-bye.

Another museum trip

I didn't get many pictures yesterday, but here is Miles getting into one of the airplanes:
And a stop at a fountain:

Yesterday we took another day trip to the museums. Since Miles went to the Natural History museum first, and he loved it, that is the only museum he wants to go to now. We knew he would love the Air & Space museum, so took them there, with the promise of stopping in to see the dinosaur bones at the Natural History museum. As expected, Miles loved seeing all the airplanes, rocket ships, astronaut gear, space ships, and just about everything he saw at the Air & Space museum. About halfway through our tour of the museum, he even admitted that he liked the museum and was having fun. He got to go into a space module, into a couple of airplanes and see some airplane cockpits. We saw a movie in the planetarium, which Miles loved, and Quincy slept through.

And here he is in the planetarium:

We then made the promised stop at the Natural History museum, saw the dinosaur bones, and then planned on leaving, but there was a torrential downpour outside, so we got to see a bit more of the museum. Of course, Miles still insists that he didn't like the Air & Space museum and says he only likes the dinosaur museum. But we know he loved it.

Please excuse the disjointed feel to this, half way through posting this I was unable to move the pictures where I wanted, and had to leave them where they were.