Thursday, August 28, 2008

Wish you were here




Dear Daddy,

I hope you and Dexie are doing OK. We're having a great time at Grandma and Grandpa Smith's house in Pennsylvania! Can we have a horse and buggy?

Mommy took me to the zoo the other day. I got to pet a deer. We should get a deer. They're like a horsey, but closer to my size. I could ride it and you wouldn't have to put me in the stroller any more. Mommy said that it might give me ticks, but I don't know what those are and they sound like they could be fun. So let's get a deer.

I also got to meet lots of new friends. I saw my aunties Shari, Penny and Juniper. I got to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa Crissman and Mommy's aunties and uncles. And I got to see my good buddies Elliott and his little brother Parker. Can we get a little brother? I'll let him ride the deer, OK? I promise.

Grandma took me for a ride in the wagon. I don't know where she was taking me. I just hung on tight. Grandma's doggie Holly was close behind in case I fell out. But I didn't. We really need a wagon. We should get one. Wagon's are nice. The deer could pull me and my new little brother at the same time. Fuel efficiency, Daddy!

OK, Daddy, I'd better get going. I need some rest. We're going up to Grandma and Grandpa's camper tomorrow. I have a feeling we might need one of those, too.

Love you and miss you,

Quinn

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Live from Amish Country

Quinn and Mommy are on vacation to see Grandma Smith in Pennsylvania, leaving Dexie and I to fend for ourselves.

We sure miss them, but luckily Daddy found this great All-Quinn-All-The-Time TV channel. We've got a live feed to the Smith headquarters in Smicksburg, Pa., so we thought we'd share it with everybody else.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

The little man and the sea


Upon his first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean, Quinn stared out at the expansive, white-capped landscape, and said: "wah wah."

So it's not the most profound statement. Still, Quinn's first trip to the beach -- despite the dismal weather -- was yet another landmark reached at the ripe old age of 21 months.

The water was cold, the wind was blowing, and Quinn had sand in his eyes, but he still couldn't get enough of the salty sea water. Holding Daddy's hand, his bare feet sloshed along the Pacific Shore at Cannon Beach, the ocean waves -- nearly surfable white caps moments earlier -- dissipated to a benign slap at his ankles.

He made friends with the sea gulls, collected a bucketful of rocks, helped Mommy and Daddy make a sandcastle, got wet and sandy enough for it to be a messy problem. Then we ended the day with some seafood and a nap on the hour-and-a-half ride home.

Next time -- and there will be plenty of next times for our little man of the sea -- we hope the weather will be friendlier
.
But for this time, it was a day that ended with a wave to the Pacific, and another profound statement:

"Bye bye wah wah."

Saturday, August 02, 2008

High and tight

Mark your calendars historians. Today was the day when Cap'n Quinn Garrison Siemers went from cute to handsome.

With an assist from Elmo, Quinn took a seat in the cockpit of a mini fighter jet, oblivious to the aesthetic reformation happening above his years. At that moment, a pair of scissors were relegating his golden curls to souvenir status, a few satiny threads tucked in an envelope before Mommy gives them a final resting place in a scrapbook.

Quinn's first haircut came off without a hitch. While his eyes were fixated on an Elmo DVD, the talented and patient stylist went to work, stealthily trimming away his hipster do into what she called "the little boy cut."

A first haircut is hardly a seminal moment for the person getting shorn. Quinn cared more about the roomful of toys and the plastic riding horse. But it's a landmark for parents, a historic notch in the passage of time of the lovable little creature they created. We stand there, cameras at the ready, to document those moments for posterity, because we know our little ones won't remember it otherwise.

Another set of parents were two stalls over, watching over their little brown-haired boy in a miniature Jeep, also sitting motionless, also captivated by Elmo. Like us, they had a camera, they oohed, they ahhed.

Like us, they were watching just another notch in the belt of history. More are to come, maybe even tomorrow. Probably tomorrow. And we'll be there, ready to preserve and record it as official historians, an artifact in the life history of Quinn Garrison Siemers.

Just like those locks. They'll be in a scrapbook, perhaps filed under "c" for cute.












Riding in the airplane.













Watch where you put that comb!













"Daddy, how about we give that beard a trim?"













Riding the horsey.

And, for a bit of comedy:


"Oh no, what did we just do?"