The backyard, etc.

He's totally obsessed with this lantern we have on our back porch - opening & closing it dozens of times in a row, taking out the candle & then putting it back in over & over again. And then there's his really great attention to detail that he's had since a baby (picking up the teensiest piece of fuzz off of the floor, etc - which maybe just means he's a little OCD like his mama). It has proven very effective in bug-catching as of late (eek!). We've caught him more than once trying to pop a little beetle right into his mouth, & the other afternoon he spent a solid 5 minutes trying to catch a luckily very fast spider. 

Repeat after me, Quinn: Insects are not snacks!!! 

Insects are also terrible & mean. I got attacked by a massive & destructive army of fire ants yesterday morning while standing in some grass (& apparently on top of their castle). It was - & continues to be - a horrid experience. I. HATE. BUGS. And fire ants!! They sting AND bite, at the same time! Probably the worst creature on the planet, & a direct sign from a Heavenly Father who knows & loves us, reminding us just how terrible Hell really would be. Get your act together, Kathryn!! If you've never lived in the south & have never met them, lucky you! I'd never even heard of them until the day after we closed on our house in Texas. I was sitting in the grass in our front yard with Quinn, talking on the phone with Suzi (a Texan). After telling her where we were she said, You're in the GRASS?! You're in Texas! You can't be in the grass! Go inside!

Excuse me?! No grass?! No grass. Welcome to The Great State of Texas. I guess the grass here isn't very soft, anyway. 

But seriously, I have roughly 30 bites on my ankles & legs & they itch & sting - somehow simultaneously. Even worse, I was wearing a skirt, & let me tell you - those little heathens were trying to get up to my lady bits (I have two bites a solid 8 inches above my knee cap)!! 

(Excuse me while I use every ounce of willpower to not scratch my legs off.)

We had a dark & stormy afternoon yesterday which resulted in no power for several hours (a not-so-uncommon occurrence, it turns out). Since my oven, stove & microwave were out of commission & Pirates Booty for dinner didn't sound like a good idea to anyone except Q, we headed out for some Friday night TexMex (not so great, it turned out - ugh), & followed it up by Pinkberry (welcome to Texas!). Being out together was a very good thing. 

Today - we spent all morning at the pool. I've felt like we've had very little all of us time lately - since we moved here, really - & Quinn kept looking back & forth at us as if to say, You're BOTH here!! He'd go back & forth between us in the pool, clearly overwhelmed & excited to have both of his parents in the water with him. He was happy & it was really nice (as is being submerged in water as often as possible these days - Hello, summer!). We ordered & ate lunch by the pool & stayed as long as we possibly could. Q fell asleep almost immediately on the way home, a certain sign that he enjoyed himself.  

I like weekends.