Wednesday, September 21, 2011

New Beginnings


Long time no blog! We are doing well and continuing to grow and learn as a family. Quinn is amazing, challenging, and frequently quirky and crazy. She moved to a new classroom this fall at her fabulous school. Apparently Q is like her Mommy and has trouble with transitions--it has been a little heartbreaking to go back to crying drop offs but I think she is starting to adjust.

It is interesting for us as she and her tiny friends have become so social and great at talking. Q has been talking about families a lot lately--she knows that many of her friends have a Mommy and a Daddy but is very clear that she does not have a Daddy she has a Zaza. We have found that in parenthood as with life in general the things that we have to be more vocal about are less to do with sexual orientation but more about gender and gender identity. Possibly because we live in Portland and have a very supportive school atmosphere (I really want to acknowledge the wonderfulness of our city) we have many people that go out of their way to point out to their kids or correct their kids around the fact that Quinn has "two mommies". They aren't doing this in a negative way and really I believe everyone is coming from a good heart and trying to be supportive...but Q doesn't have two mommies. She has a mommy and a zaza. So we are in a position of deciding how to let people know this in a way that doesn't create tension and still gets the point across. I think we have done well--most of the time we just say something like "actually Quinn has a mommy and a zaza--I'm her xxx, insert name here--nice to meet you". People have responded well although I don't think they really get it--even when we clarify with--well, Taylor doesn't identify as male or female so mommy and daddy don't really work but I think it is important to be clear and proud about who we are as a family for us and for Q. I can't wait to see what conversations we have as she gets older!

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Quinnisms


After dropping food on the floor:

"It happens"


Her new phrase when she hasn't seen you in a little while:

"How ya doin today, mommy/zaza?"

Also used:

"How ya doin' today, Zaza's tummy?"


After she told us she had an owie and we asked how she was doing:

"No big deal"


When she gets upset:

"Keen (how she says Quinn) takes a break and breathes" (we have taught her some relaxation breathing).

And my favorite of the month, especially given the gender issues involved, Quinn's new occasional name for Zaza makes me giggle every time.

"Miss Zaza"


The picture on this post is Quinn and her cousin. She really enjoys holding hands and hugging friends.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Quinn sings ABCs

Here is an awkwardly captured video of Quinn singing the ABCs. She has just started this in the last week and her progress seems quite impressive. She also loves chanting numbers, any number from 1 to 9, and sometimes 10; she chants these numbers in very unique combinations and orders. So far, we can't discern a pattern, but she does seem to have a fondness for 2, 3, 8. We have a back-log of videos that we will try to post. And now that Taylor has school to procrastinate, some of them might even be posted in the coming weeks!