Just the Highlights, Mam.

Daddy Q and I took the boys out to feed the swan and geese tonight...the geese were nowhere to be found; so, the swan plus 4 ducks got lots and lots of bread!

There are soccer fields right next to the pond where we went. A girls soccer game was underway; Daddy Q and Liam were really interested in it. Owen had more fun throwing leaves, rocks, and sticks into the water to watch the ripples. After the girls game finished, Owen and Daddy Q took the field.

They were playing while I snapped photos...I am hoping to get some cute ones of Owen playing sports for his sports-themed big boy room. What I got, were a lot of him being frustrated. It got me thinking more about something I have thought about fairly often recently...

You see, I read a lot of blogs. Some of them are by people I know in real life...some of them are not. When I read the blogs of others, I find myself thinking how lucky they are that their kids always smile / they seem to always do really fun things with their kids / their babies seem never to cry / the moms sound so together and have lots to blog about /etc. etc. etc.

But, the more I thought about it, the more I realized they may be doing the same thing as me....posting the highlights of the day. I know what its really like here in the Quinlan household...it's not picture perfect all day everyday...that's for sure. But, when I go to post on the blog, I use the pictures of smiling, happy kids and delete the reminders of tantrums or spit up. I am drawn to the images where the kids are having fun--I leave out those when they got frustrated with what they were doing at the time (unless, of course, it turned out cute in spite of frustration levels). You see...a picture like this:

...is usually deleted.

What's going on here, you ask? Well...let me tell you. Sometimes Owen will play ball with you (football, baseball, soccer, etc.) using traditional skills and concepts that we all know and can pick up on. But sometimes, Owen has a certain "thing" he wants to do. His "thing" can arise from a game you once played with him many moons ago (something you really and truly don't remember), or from something that someone did with him when you weren't around to watch, or from something he just gets in his little almost-two-year-old-head. When that happens, you better figure out what he wants or else....its his way or the highway.

The image above is Owen telling Daddy Q where to stand and what to do and his face shows just how angry he is starting to get because Daddy Q isn't figuring out *his* game. We were both stumped; but, Daddy Q and Owen got it worked out....Owen showed him what he wanted--here's how.

Once Daddy Q was standing where Owen wanted him (which was behind the goal facing toward the field), Owen wanted "up". From Daddy's arms, he threw the ball over the goal. He then looked at GQ, like...see? Then he got down, walked around the goal, got the ball, gave it back to GQ, and then went and stood where the ball had gone when Owen threw it and told him to "go". He wanted Gerard to throw the ball OVER the goal to Owen on the other side. Seriously? Who plays soccer like that?

Gerard asked me what they were teaching him in SoccerTots. Ha Ha!

Littlest Man in the House was loving his carrots tonight!!!

See?

He loved them so much, they made him wild-eyed!

To my family, thank you all so much for the fun Halloween cards--the boys enjoyed them all! Owen has had a blast with these glasses of Liam's that G. A. Julie sent. He puts them on Babis, Dada, Momma, Bubba, Kacki, and on the stairs....every*one* gets to wear the glasses for a few seconds and he starts over. Fun times.