Merry Christmas

Umi Goggles

Lauren has been wanting goggles for a while now. The Team Umizoomi on Nickolodean use goggles, so she calls them her "umi goggles." Tonight, she brought them into the bath with her.

Quinn's 16-month stats

Quinn is growing so fast. At his 16-month checkup this week his stats were:

21.8 lbs (11%), 31.75 inches (60%) and his head, 18.9 inches (69%).

The doctor was really happy to see him well onto the charts now. From a physical development standpoint, his calves need to beef up, but he is progressing well. Still about four or five months behind. His mental and speech development is also about five to six months behind - about like an 8-9 month old. So I get my baby a little longer. We know he'll catch up and truely, I do forget some times how old he is because I have had this sweet baby for longer than most. He is just the sweetest thing too.

This past month, he said his first words - "bye bye" (with the waving), "hi" and "uh oh." Still no "mama" or "dada." He's kind of saying something like "more" I think too, but it might be his word for "milk" too. Not sure. He wants to move when he pulls himself up, so should be soon. He likes to walk when holding onto our hands too. He loves to swing outside (loves to be outside period) and loves the bath now too and is quite the splasher. Let's just say mommy gets a bath too.

He's had several ear infections (one more and the ENT says to make the appointment for tubes), but you'd never know it because he just gets cuddly and not fussy. He's not the biggest cuddler, so when there is a rare moment where he's too tired to sit up and look around, Jay and I fight over who gets to hold him. He loves playing with sister. His favorite toys are balls, the stacking cups, and any object he can put into a bucket or container and take out again. Here's a new game he started this week with Lauren where he pushes her on the fire truck:

Another Proof of Gollaher Gene

Lauren's new favorite food - rice and raisins (warm rice, cinnamon, milk and sugar and optional raisins). A Gollaher favorite and an oddity to the in-laws. She asks for it every night. I let her dump the cinnamon, so it gets a healthy dose.

Swim Class for Lauren

It's no secret Lauren loves the water, baths, sprinklers, whatever. The only problem is we signed her up for swim classes about a month before they started and had to hear her ask incessantly when she was going to go. We were just glad Farmington decided to add a Saturday only session this year so we could do them. The first nice day of the year (seriously), they started. She was so excited to "learn how to swim without floaties." We look forward to taking the things she's learned in these four lessons and spend lots of time practicing at the pool this summer.

We got there a little early on day one, so the she just kept staring at the water asking when she could go in.

She finally followed the other kids and sat by the pool waiting for the teacher.

Her teacher, Miss Shannon. Lauren kept shouting to me watching her, but soon became a good listener.

Learning "tiger arms."

Buddy and mommy just sat at the side and he entertained himself for an hour with his stacking cups (or as Lauren calls them, "snacking cups.") He loves to build things and put things into other things. Plus, he's afraid to crawl on grass, so he just sat contently the entire time.

Playing "motor boat, motor boat" with the class.



 

Jumping in playing "monkey's on the wall."



She finished the guppie level 1. Unfortunately, they don't have the other sessions on Saturday, so we'll have to do some private lessons with mommy this year. She is confident in the water, just needs to get the coordination of kicking her feet at the same time as moving the arms. She loved going and had a fun time. We are proud of our little guppie.

Quinn's New Trick

Quinn is advancing leaps and bounds. His latest trick: pulling himself up. He doesn't quite have the hang of moving once he's up there, but he's really proud of himself. And so are we.

Big Little Eater

Buddy eats and eats and eats. He is really making up for lost time. The only time we really hear him fuss is when he knows we're getting food for him and we're not fast enough - like I Dream of Jeanie fast. He kicks his feet and shouts and cries. It's quite stressful to get food on his tray actually.

He eats as much as we do sometimes. And if we're still eating when he's done, he wants more (he's a social eater apparently too). We have to finally cut him off after three pancakes! It's just not healthy at that point. He'll still eat anything too, which is great since Lauren has become pickier this year and it's quite annoying. It's hard to tell if there's a favorite, but he does like peas and corn, chicken and tuna, pancakes and noodles.

We finally go him off the bottle and using a sippy too, which was a struggle. Lauren went right to it, no problem, so we expected the same. The teachers at school helped too by not really letting him use a bottle, so it was then up to me to reinforce it at home.

Cute spaghetti face.

Even though the post is about Quinn, I love cute spaghetti faces.

Breakfast is a favorite. Haven't introduced syrup to him yet. We do an all-fruit jam instead and he loves it. 

Day Out With Thomas - Memorial Day

Lauren and Quinn earned their Jr. Engineer Certificates again this year over Memorial Day weekend. We went to the Day Out With Thomas at the Heber Valley Railroad courtesy of Intrepid who does the PR for the event. We were able to take our friends (and Thomas enthusiasts) Jack and Nate (oh and Allison and Justin went too), with us again this year, which was fun. We played with trains, did train stamps, mini golf, rode the train and tried cotton candy for the first time. We finished the night at the train burger place in Heber where Lauren was more interested in the train that goes around the dining room than she was in her grilled cheese. Some fun shots:

Lauren's first attempt at golf. She wanted to wack the ball like a croquet mallet between her legs.

She loved seeing it go into the hole. She was determined to get it there "by her own."

Lauren and Jack weren't afraid of Sir Topomhat this year. I still find him creepy.

Ready to ride

The four junior engineers

It may be lame for the adults, but there is no denying the excitement and interest of the kids.

Something I never wanted to give her, but it was hard to say no to free. Lauren loved eating pure sugar, of course.

Quinn's reaction was a lot more to my liking. Trying it...

and denying it.

It was fun family togetherness time. Cold like last year and two hours was just the right amount of time. It was fun to be with the Kellers too and to see all the kids' fascination.



Hawaii for Work - Really

Room with a View: I had the opportunity to go do a media tour for Turtle Bay Resort and the Polynesian Cultural Center with KUTV News for work. It was five days of go, go, go. The itinerary included luaus, night show, cultural center, surf lessons (this is super hard), segue tour, golfing a PGA course, beach hopping along the North Shore, four and five star restaurants, three straight mornings of 2 a.m. live shots (6 a.m. in Utah). It was nice traveling with media, because as the handler, I also got a lot of star treatment. Fun!

I was also able to see the folks and get five-star treatment at the temple for being their daughter. The last day I was able to golf with my parents at the ugliest clubhouse I've ever seen (but actually a fun course) in Kahuhu. My companions were a lot of fun and it was fun to have some time with Fof and Painho. I may be the only one who gets to go visit them before their mission is over.

Mother's Day and Father's Day

One of the benefits of having the kids in daycare, is they make sure to have an art project for Mother's and Father's Day. My favorite is the randomness of what Lauren loves about me. I love this time when the kids love us and their worlds revolve around us. I'm going to savor this moment.

Proud Moment

Quinn Finds the Lid Drawer

Quinn's favorite game right now is the throwing things on the floor and we pick them up. You all know the game. He also likes to take things out of buckets or baskets and then put them back in. The lid drawer was a fun game for him since he was able to throw things on the floor, but also put them back. He can't open it himself yet, but I'm sure it won't be too long before then and it will become a favorite like it was for big sister (Click here to see Lauren in the lid drawer 2009).

Quinn's New Battlewound

Quinn is trying to pull himself up onto things, but not quite successful yet. He was attempting one such climb at school when he slipped and landed on a covered screw. We came to get him and took him to the Instacare where they discovered it was more of a puncture than a scrape and gave him one stitch to close up the deep little hole. He was in true form, only crying when restrained, but happy the rest of the time and had all the nurses commenting on his good nature. He's just trying to get as many scars and stitches as he can before he's two. Jay has yet to get one and considers them badges of honor, so he's already jealous.