Happy Halloween!

Here are some pictures of Quentin in his dragon costume (and one of all of us with our jack-o-lanterns). On Saturday we went to "Boo at the Zoo." Quentin isn't really into collecting candy yet (no complaints about that!), but it was fun to have a chance to take him out in his costume (and see all the other kids in costume too).

Quentin's new pet

Quentin has been fascinated with fish for a long time, so we finally decided it was time to get him one of his own. He likes to stop and look at it whenever he walks by, usually repeating "ffff" "ffff" "ffff," which translates as "fish" "fish" "fish" (we're still working on the "ish" part).

Making Laundry Fun

Cars and Blocks

Quentin still enjoys cars and trucks as much as ever. His current interest is arranging them in a line. He is also really into stacking blocks, something that never used to interest him. Sometimes he likes to stack them himself, other times he hands them to us and indicates that we should stack them. I'm not sure why, exactly, but as long as he stacks them himself sometimes, I don't mind playing along.

Dancing remains a daily activity. He will lead us over to the CD player to let us know that he wants to listen to music. If I try to leave to wash dishes or make dinner, he will often seek me out and lead me back so we can dance together. It makes it hard to get things done, but it is a lot of fun!

How Quentin does his part for the environment

Apparently today is "Blog Action Day." Everybody is supposed to write something about the environment. I don't exactly see how writing about the environment on our blog will really help anything, but it is something we care about, so why not...

So, we got to thinking about what we could write about that pertains to both Quentin and the environment. There are probably several possibilities, but the obvious choice was that Quentin wears cloth diapers, and has since he was just a few weeks old. Some people will argue that cloth diapers are not as environmentally-friendly as they appear. It is true that washing them takes a lot of water, but that doesn't really account for the water (and other resources) used in making disposable diapers, not to mention transporting them. I was going to post a link to a site giving statistics on cloth vs. disposable diapers, but I couldn't decide on one. However, they are easy to find, and for the most part, it seems clear that, all things considered, cloth diapers come out ahead. I do know that babies go through a lot of diapers, but with the exception of long trips and now daycare, Quentin has been using the same 24 diapers since he was about 5 months old. He outgrew the previous set faster, but we sold them on ebay to a couple with plans to use them on several children. That adds up to thousands of diapers that won't be going into landfill. Admittedly, they are a little bit more work, but you get used to it, and we feel better about it, so it is well worth it. Plus, they come in lots of cute colors!

Anyway, that's our contribution to Blog Action Day. I don't mean to criticize anybody who chose not to use cloth diapers--I know there's a lot that weighs in to the decision and babies are a lot of work already. But, for what it's worth, I highly recommend them.

P.S.--We used the kind of cloth diaper that you wash at home, so I can't really comment on diaper services. I'm not sure how the water bills for washing add up, but I'm pretty sure washing them yourself is cheaper, but a diaper service would probably be easier. The choices for diaper services in Lawrence were limited at the time.

Choo choo

Quentin has been learning a lot of new things recently. His vocabulary is still fairly limited, but he's been making definite progress lately. Some new favorites are "choo choo," "go" and fire-engine sounds. He also says "hello" on his toy telephone(well, it's more like "h'wo", but close enough). Some other current interests are:

Lining up and rearranging his toy cars. He is obsessed with just about anything with wheels.

Playing with his Elmo tool bench.

Coloring. For a long time he was only interested in rearranging the crayons. Now he suddenly wants to color all the time.

Just being silly!

Dancing! BINGO is his current favorite. He's been working on the clapping--the timing isn't quite right, but it's a start.

The Great Pumpkin always picks the most sincere pumpkin patch to rise out of

Today we went to the pumpkin patch. Quentin looks grumpy in most of these pictures, but he actually had a great time. He particularly enjoyed leading the way in the corn maze (usually the wrong way).