The White House

Quinn\’s vocabulary is once again blooming and tonight as he was jumping up and down on the bed he said \”Mama Watch Me!\”. It was so sweet to hear and I look forward to hearing it over and over and over again in the coming years. Tonight he also said \”How are you Mama?\”. Yesterday he asked Don \”What\’s up?\”. He\’s really putting his words together and using words/phrases that we haven\’t necessarily tried to teach him. A couple of words that he is using more and more are Thank You, Please, and Your Welcome. Again, we haven\’t worked too hard at these — he has just picked them up naturally.

It seems crazy to make a post without any pictures, so here are a couple from our night with Rod, Risa, and Robby.

A paparazzi showdown.

This is Robby. He\’s about a year older than Quinn. He really would have loved to play with Quinn, but Quinn is still in to parallel play. Plus they had a train table.

We went wine tasting with Rod & Risa about 7 – 8 years ago in Virginia and purchased this very large bottle of wine. With a little help from Barbara, we were able to get it to Chicago and surprised R & R with this blast from the past. We had lots of great laughs over this bottle of wine.

After lots of snow and delayed flights, we made it safely to and from Chicago. It was so much fun to be back in Chicago for the first time in 2+ years and had such a great time with the grandparents and friends. I took 400+ pictures so it was hard to whittle them down.

We\’ll start at the beginning. Mae had lots of Don\’s and Brad\’s toys for Quinn to play with. Here he is sitting on Brad\’s pony. Quinn really got this pony rockin\’! (Notice the James train in his hand that he\’s unwilling to let go 🙂

And how Quinn loves to open gifts. You can see a very happy and proud Mae in the background.

On Sunday we went to this great Children\’s Museum — it was more like an educational indoor play area for kids. Quinn had such a good time!! There were lots of cars, trains, diggers, water, instruments, and other fun stuff for him to do. Here he is getting a little help from Mae with his digger.

Listening to the music he made in the music section.

Riding the conveyor belt in the grocery store.

Then we headed to Corky and Meg\’s. Here are the men in the family checking out the cardinal on the birdfeeder outside the kitchen window.

Quinn had great fun with these blocks. His great grandmother \”Nana\” played with these blocks when she was a child. (Again, notice the James 🙂

Quinn didn\’t quite catch on to Grandma Meg\’s name and just called her Eg or Grandma Eg. It was so cute. Here they are checking out the rotating santas powered by a candle.

And speaking of Santas. We spotted this house that must have had 100+ santas in their yard. This picture does not do it justice. I loved it!!!

We visited a museum that had a huge train set in the basement. You might be able to tell what Quinn is \”saying\” in this picture. Choo Choo!

Grampa and Eg

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