Leo

A few thoughts on my favorite Second Son of a Second Son of a Second Son of a Second Son (yes, Leo is at least the 4th in a line of second sons):

1. He recently started pulling himself up and walking along furniture. He will also take a few unassisted steps if -- and only if -- he's walking to Kristin. He will not walk to me, Max or Aviva, only Kristin. He has always had a special place in his heart for Kristin. Like the other kids, he likes me, and he likes to play with me, but he absolutely beams with light when he see his mom.

2. He is so sweet. So much of his personality reminds me of Max as a little boy, except that Max used to be so aggressive. It's like if you took all of Max, took away Max's aggressiveness, and put everything back in, you would get Leo. Leo cuddles (at least with Kristin), smiles all the time, is generally happy to be anywhere and do anything (other than be the subject of Aviva's affection). Just pure sweetness.

3. Leo loves Max with all his heart. Leo gets to pull Max's hair, which hurts Max, but Leo loves it. And you can tell that Leo loves Max for it. Max will also scare Leo -- Max will hide behind something than jump out and scream at Leo. I think it's annoying; Leo loves it. Even though he's also a little bit scared at first, when Leo realizes it's just his big brother Max, he starts smiling and laughing.

4. He is the only one of our three kids who wakes up talking to himself (and not screaming bloody murder to get out of the crib). And for that, I will pay for him to go to any college he wants. The others are going to BYU.

Aviva

A few thoughts on my favorite little girl in the whole world:

1. Aviva is absolutely unrelenting. Were she a stallion, she would never be broken. Were she the queen of France, she would say "Let them eat cake." But she's a little girl. And when she wants something, she uses all the tools at her disposal: smiling, crying, fighting, tempers and tantrums, sweetness, etc. Redirection is difficult with her because she herself is a master at it, and has used it to her advantage. It is impressive to be in the presence of someone who knows what she wants, and often gets it through the sheer force of her will.

2. She has recently started being very chatty. When I picked Max up from the school the other day, with Aviva and Leo in tow, Aviva ran up and hugged Max, grabbed his hand and asked, "How was your day, Max?" Another student's mother was there and turned and looked at me and put her hand on heart. I agreed. I heart when Aviva asks Max about his day. And she does it a lot. She asks me about my day at the end of the day too. And she listens to my answers.

One day a few weeks ago after asking Max how his day was, she turned and said, "Don't you want to hear about my day?"

3. She has also recently started to give appreciative thanks. For the first 3 years of her life, I'm not sure I ever heard her give a sincere thanks. Mostly, I think, because she thinks she earned everything she ever got (see #1 above). But recently, she started being grateful without prompting. One day after school: "Mom, thanks for putting that yogurt in my lunch. It was so good." And from there, she's been thankful for a whole host of things: thanks for remembering to bring water on the trip, thanks for bringing a sweater, thank your for getting us cheese pizza you're the best mom in the whole world, thank you for taking us to the park, etc.

4. She loves our nameless neighbors the "bike neighbors." (They're obviously not nameless, and Aviva knows their names, I think, but only ever calls them "bike neighbors.") One of their favorite games -- and Max loves it too -- is Cops and Robbers. All of the kids but one are robbers, and the other kid is a cop. The cop is supposed to chase the robbers and put them in jail. Aviva loves to be the cop. She never catches any of the robbers, which suits the robbers just fine, but she loves to have people run from her in fear. She just loves it.

5. She tries to force Leo to like her. She used to do this by straddling Leo as Leo lay on the ground and Aviva said with a sweet voice (but forceful) voice: "You love me, yes you do." Over and over and over. It was clear to everyone that Leo hated it. When we would ask Aviva to stop, she would glare at us and say, "Leo likes it."

Leo now has a wary look on his face when Aviva approaches. They've reached a sort of detente, but he better always let her think he loves her or I'm worried about him.

6. We recently introduced Max and Aviva to the Wizard of Oz, mainly because I got tired of making up stories and decided to start borrowing fro Disney and other sources. When we first started watching the movie, she was so scared of the wicked witch. And she never remembered Dorothy's name. "What's that girl's name who's with Toto," she'd ask.

Now, she loves the wicked witch. Yesterday I asked her what she likes about the Wizard of Oz and she said, "The wicked witch." She said I could be one of her flying monkeys.

Max

A few things I love about my oldest:

1. Max is full of enthusiasm and he cannot help but put his whole soul into the things he does. This often means he's screaming with happiness at 6:00 am. A few of the things that make him scream with happiness: watching dolphins at the Baltimore aquarium, watching the lollipop guild sing to Dorothy with their mouths in a crooked way, wrestling (which means him running at me full steam from the other room and ramming me with his huge and hard-as-rock noggin'), playing with cousins, and eating crepes with nutella.

2. Max is so affable. People everywhere love him. I picked Max up from school the other day and ran into his old teacher at the playground while I was waiting for Max's class to finish up. She took one look at me and said, "You must be Max's dad. You look just like him. I love Max. He's always so happy and the kids just loved being around him." That's the way I feel.

3. He cares for his family. Whenever his friends are being mean to Aviva (by, for example, not letting Aviva play), Max always sticks up for her. Always. He'll tell his friends that that's not how he plays, and then he'll go and grab Aviva's hand and say, "Come on Aviva. Come play with us."

And with Leo, he is always so quick to make Leo happy when Leo is crying. One of Max's favorites is to let Leo pull Max's hair. Max cries and laughs at the same time.

4. He hates homework. His homework consists of doing things like "writing the number 4 four times" and "learn the first three digits of your phone number" -- it's not that complicated, even for beginning kindergartners. But he hates it. When I asked him the other day if he was ready for his homework, he said, "I hate homework. I have to do it every day. Every day, dad!" Other things that he hates to do every day: put on clothes, brush his teeth, and go to bed.

5. A few cute stories about Max recently:

• Last night while praying: "Please bless daddy to go to work tomorrow and makes lots of money."
  
• Max said to Kristin the other day, while driving back from Michigan after a week-long trip there, "I can't wait to jump into daddy's arms."
• Max sings in primary at the top of his lungs. He loves him some singing time.
  

OBX 2010

We had our annual Quinn Family Vacation in the Outer Banks, NC in early July. I think I laugh more during that week than any other of the year. I look forward to it every year.

This year was particularly special because Garrett and Anna got married while we were there. Their photos are amazing. Our friend Meredith took the pictures and they are amazing. You can see them here, or here on her blog. Here are a few snapshots that Shauri took.

I'm trying to post some funny videos from the week, but it takes forever to do it on Blogger. If anyone wants to give me some hints, I'd be happy to take the help.

He Makes His Daddy So Proud

The last time we were in Michigan, Lisa and Ben were playing with us at Grandma's house. She took him home (down the street) to take a nap. Ben laughed the whole way and Lisa kept shushing him so he wouldn't wake up the baby. They pulled into the garage and Lisa said, "Okay Ben, let's go take a nap." She turns around and just then, Max pops out of the back of the van and yells, "Surprise!"

Lisa's jaw dropped and she said, "Max! I am going to beat you." His response? "Looks like I beat you, Lisa."

Ha! Meanwhile, we were looking all over the house for Max. Luckily she pulled in with him before we had time to panic. When she told me the story I laughed so hard and I told her she must call Abram immediately. I mean, "looks like I beat you, Lisa."? I can't think of anything more Abram-like to say in that situation.

Proud daddy moment #2. We were at a friends house and all the kids were outside playing hide and seek. Max came in and his pants were soaking wet. He has been potty trained for a long time, so I was pretty surprised. I asked him what happened. Why didn't he come in and go to the bathroom? His response was, "I was hiding and I couldn't come out or she would have found me." I knew Abram would love that story. Talk about commitment to the game.

I had this conversation with Aviva last night:

A: Mama, Heavenly Father give me a treat?

K: I don't think He has treats Viva.

A: Yes He does (with attitude, of course)

K: No He doesn't (with the same attitude, of course)

A: Yes He does, the bread and water.

That was pretty cute. It got a big smile out of me.

Aviva loves nursery. She talks about her teachers all week long. They're clearly doing a good job because "Jesus wants us to be happy" is her favorite phrase. She loves to interject any time she thinks it is relevant to the conversation, which is more often then one might think. All we can do is agree though. Jesus does want us to be happy.

Brothers and Sisters

Poor Leo. He was so content all by himself. As terrifying as his brother and sister can be, he gets so excited to see them. To see anyone really.

Leo is my only baby who didn't wake up screaming both in the morning and from naps. He just sits and plays and talks to himself until I come get him. When I walk in and he sees me, he gives me a smile that takes up his whole face. His body tenses up and he starts shaking, he is so excited to have me pick him up. I just love this little baby so much.

Aviva thinks he loves her that much too. I know because her favorite activity is to lay on top of him, get right in his face and say in her baby voice, "You love me, yes you do. Yes you do, you love me."

Max's favorite thing about Leo is when we, or anyone else, tell him that Leo looks just like him. He is eating the big brother/little brother thing up. Here is a photo Lisa recently sent us of Max and Keely. We showed it to Max and asked who it was. His answer, "Aviva and Leo." He laughed and laughed when we told him it was him and Keely.