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January 26, 2004
Llampa's gone.
Quinn and I went to my mom's house after Gymboree today. It's my first day completely on my own with her since...well, since the nightmare of the last 2 weeks has come down. It was nice to be back in our routine.
She did her usual routine when we arrived: screamed with glee, ran through the house, threw her Baby Lucy around, and then she followed us back to my dad's room, where my mom was making the bed. (She's claiming that room for her own this week.)
"Lampa?" she asked. My mom and I looked at each other nervously, then kind of ignored her.
"Where Lampa?" she asked again in her little mouse voice.
"I don't know," my mom said, which I think is what she told me when I asked her where babies come from and if there's a Santa Claus.
"Quinny, Grandpa isn't here anymore. He's gone," I told her.
"Lampa gone?" she asked, looking around, glancing into his bathroom and his closet.
"Yeah, I'm sorry sweetie. Grandpa isn't here with us anymore."
"Lampa is gone," she said to herself, almost sadly. Then she reached out and put her little hand on his bed and stood there until we were done and we all left the room together.
Posted by Amy at 9:51 AM | Comments (3)
January 14, 2004
Born To Run
Quinn likes running around. It's still sort of clomp-clomp-clompy when she does it, but it's still running. I never thought I'd enjoy watching a child running and exercising, but there you have it.
She's vocal when she runs. She started out saying "Baby Linny run-ing! Baby Linny run-ing!" (She calls herself Baby Linny, I guess because she can't get the Qu yet) That cry would go through the house as she made the circuit from kitchen to living room to kitchen to living room, carrying her blankie.
Then, a few days later, she added a little bit more information: "Baby Linny run a race!" We don't know who the race is against, or, more puzzling, where she picked it up, but that's the new catch phrase.
Posted by Andy at 12:44 PM | Comments (1)
January 2, 2004
Dinner, Store, Library!
Last night, while Mommy went to see Hairspray!, Daddy and Quinn went out for a night on the town. I explained it in best Dora the Explorer fashion: "Dinner, store, library!" After a while, she started sayin' it, too: "Inna! Stow! Wibawy!" What's at the library, Quinn? "See, bookies!"
Our first stop was at Steak 'n' Shake, where she ate a bunch of chicken, and downed her entire milk. Then, as a treat, I got a milkshake, and gave her some in her cup. Oh, she was in love. "Ice cream!" she cooed! She did her best spooning of ice cream glop into her face.
Then it was off to Kohl's to return a shirt that I found stuffed in the hall closet. It was in the bag, ready to go back, but out of sight is out of mind. It sure seems that they're much more accomodating with returns after Christmas, so they didn't care that it was bought at least six months earlier.
Finally, it was off to Borders, which I've taken to calling the library for simplicity, since the difference between the two is lost on her. We went straight back to the kids section, turned the corner, and.... There was someone sitting on the steps!
See, there's a small set of steps (more of a carpeted ziggaurat, really) that she likes to sit on. Unfortunately, a daddy and three kids were sitting on the steps, reading. Quinn was NOT at all pleased with that. She gave them the stink-eye for a minute, while I encouraged her to sit on the bottom step with me. "There's lots of room, sweetie, we can all share." Finally, she grabbed a Boynton book off the endcap, parked her butt, and read. Then, it was back for another. And another. She made the trip twelve times, once for each book, even though there were only six titles. Rereading the same book didn't bother her.
After a while, the dad and kids left, but by that time, she'd parked in front of a bookshelf with Dora & Blue's Clues books, sitting quietly reading them. I sat reading my new copy of the excellent Linux Security Cookbook, until about 45 minutes later when she walked up to me and gave me the biggest hug. "Are you all done reading, sweetie?" "Go home?" she asked. So we cleaned up the stack of books, packed up and went home.
It was a good night.
Posted by Andy at 11:34 AM | Comments (1)