Spring in Review

We saw Chitty Chitty Bang Bang live at the Majestic theater. Quin really liked it! He said the king and queen were his favorite. He sat really well with minimal wiggliness for all 3 hours. 

Ammon has started saying "oh, man!" "wow!" and "oops"
Likes to whisper "om-nom-nom" and pretend to eat stuff.
Likes to play "get you" which means he loves to run away from me so I can chase him.
LOVES coloring, especially painting. He is really focused, works hard to make precise motions with the pencil or paintbrush. He tries really hard to write letters.
Started calling me "mumm-ie!" instead of momma.
Grandpa Dodge is his favorite person in the world. He seems to think grandpa should be at our house when we get home. I've heard him say "where's gampa?" when walking through the door.

He gets excited when he finds Michael's clothes and always wants to wear them. He went around with ninja turtle pants as a scarf.

Fun day at the Nurtured With Nature farm

Quin and Ammon did an obstacle dash at Cheadle Lake. Quin loved it! He did the actual dash with Michael and wanted to do the whole thing again with me.

I asked Quin to do a running pose. Did not dissapoint

May the 4th at the library

You are my sunshine

Earth Day Parade

Peterson Butte hike:

Best face paint job EVER

Painting together

We got 14 baby chicks in February.

Ammon liked them so much he tried to climb in the bucket with them several times

Ammon is a chicken whisperer. He loves them! And they seem to love him too. He likes to take the grain out of their feeder and sprinkle it on the ground in front of them.

At home in the chicken yard

Charming Aunt Polly's chickens

Quin likes the chickens too. He tries to help them learn how to fly by tossing them in the air (and I try to get him to stop throwing the chickens)

Helping grandpa at the lumber yard

Best bed head ever

Easter:

Ammon was SO happy to ride a pony!

Passover dinner a few days before Easter.

Talking water gardens hike in Albany

Jurassic Quest in Salem

Quin loves helping grandpa with handyman projects

Some cute Quin Sayings

• "These fruit snacks are pretending to be food"
• Quin is obsessed with our next door neighbors. He is always asking to go over to their house. After riding on scooters outside with his neighbor friends he said "my neighbors are better than superheroes." No one has ever been paid a higher complement!
• Ammon loves Batman and has started to be interested in dressing up like Quin does. He found some batman pajama shorts and wanted to wear them, so he plopped them down on his head. I put the elastic around his forehead so it was a "hat." Quin laughed and said "he's a batman grandma!"
  
• "That house is huge. A dinosaur could pick it up... and eat it"
• A neighbor boy was trying to play with Quin. Quin came over to me as I'm weeding the front yard and says "This is my momma. She loves me very much." And gave me a hug. 
• In the morning Quin called down the stairs to announce "here comes this boy!"
• Me: "do you want your bagel hot or cold?" Quin: "I just want it sweet"
• Quin "When I grow up.... I'm going to be a dad at my house."
• I asked if he wanted to put on long pants so his legs wouldn't be cold and he responded with "my legs are not getting cold. They're sweet! See? I am rubbing them." and then he started rubbing his legs. Kids are so strange!
• When his toast was ready and I handed it to him he exclaimed, "my toast! It's practically here! Like the Grinch."
• I made broccoli cheese soup and Quin said "this yummy soup is green." And later, "You are a good job at making yummy soup momma."
• "Can you put a kiss into my ouchie?"
• My piano student arrived for a lesson and Quin happily exclaimed "Oh! Are you coming into our house?" When I introduced her, Quin patted Ammon and said "this is our baby, Ammon."
• After church, he tried to describe a game he had played during Sunday school. I told him it was called "chutes and ladders" and that we have it at our house. He replied "I love shooting up ladders!"
• Used a measuring tape to measure my belly and exclaimed, "Wow! You're so fat!"
• We were playing doctor and I pretended to almost die. Quin said "I saved you very much."

We played a game during sacrament meeting: Quin would draw a picture and I had a stuffed animal puppy who would "watch" him draw. If it was something scary like a volcano erupting, the puppy would run away and hide behind my back. He drew a dinosaur and the puppy ran away. Quin said "don't worry. It's just an adantasarus. I'll just extinct it" and he turned the page.

Quin makes up adorable songs all the time. Often with things like "Jesus loves us" or "the Holy Ghost helps me" in with stuff about dinosaurs and Superman.

I told Quin I would love him even after I died and he got really concerned. "I don't want you to be died." and after talking about it some more "just don't get died." It meant a lot to have him express his desire for me to live. I was hospitalized twice as a teenager for suicide attempts and I have struggled with depression and self worth issues ever since. I really struggled when Quin was a baby. I felt so inadequate. I didn't know how to take care of him or if I could. I desperately wanted my mom to take one week old Quin home with her when she flew home to New Hampshire because she was obviously much more capable as a mother. I was constantly worried that someone would come to the door to take him away from me because I wasn't taking care of him well enough. In my darkest moments I thought about ending Quin's life and then mine because I was so worried about all of the bad things in the world that I couldn't protect him from. I had thought that keeping him from experiencing the rejection, failure, and pain inevitable in life would be the best way to protect him. I'm so grateful that I had excellent medical people who helped me get the medication and therapy I needed, and for my wonderful family and friends who kept me safe and loved. I'm so grateful that I'm still alive and that I have Quin! Knowing that Quin wanted me to always be in his life gave me a fierce determination to keep going. 

Mother's Day is hard for me. I love and respect my mother and grandmothers and all of the amazing women in my ancestry. Mother's Day is a stark reminder of how I don't measure up to them and of all the things I'm not. But I really appreciated what the speakers at church said. I felt buoyed up by the message that God loves all mothers and that the work of a mother is important in His eyes.