Seeing Calves

We are trying to gently nudge Benjamin into making his afternoon nap THE nap for the day... this photo is on day 1 of the experiment of keeping him awake and active in the morning. Good job, Momma (NOT)... 2 minutes in the car on the way out to the Creamery, he is fast asleep - in his new carseat!


Benjamin woke up as soon as we stopped - it was only about a ten minute drive, so maybe we'll be back on track... Anywho, we walked up to the calf barn and saw some sweet babies. Benjamin LOVED the calves and hens and roosters ...

I wonder why Mommy and baby Benjamin already have such different points of view!

Big Papi and Benjamin are exhausted after the creamery visit and a trip to the Common Market!

An early evening playdate at Mrs. Clark's house :) Benjamin and little Maggie are one month apart (Maggie is older - but teeny tiny!). I love the way Dave (Cadia Rose's Daddy) is looking up with so much love at his wife, Natalie... She was in the photo, pre-crop, but the angle was unfortunate, so I opted for the crop :)


At the Catoctin Mountain Orchard with Uncle Corey, Aunt Sydney and Prima Tana...

Uncle Corey plays "let's scare Big Papi"
with Benjamin, on top of a rotten pile of hay
- seriously, it is stinky slimey sinky gooey rotten!

Benjamin has a proud Prima showing him how to play on the train

SUPER WONDER GIRL of the UNIVERSE!

Tana brought her fancy Nancy purse and sunglasses,
along with her sparkly Boston Red Sox logo hat!
Perfect accessories for teaching Benjamin how to play on the tractor - dontcha think? :)

Unpleasant News..

Nothing about the sweet puffins (thank goodness!)...

However, this is a very strange coincidence:
In the past two months, both sets of our parents have had their homes burglarized.

One set live in Puerto Rico, and lost many precious items and all electronics.

One set live in Cincinnati, and lost only their giant television, but probably "only" because the neighbor saw the selfish nasties (who then saw her seeing them and sped away) and called 911.

Makes me want to build a little safety nest for them close by so that we can help keep watch - with Forest's assistance, of course... and maybe a few of his friends too.

Dear Burglars,
Stop bothering people with your lack of self confidence or respect for yourself and others. You only have one life to live - make it worthy and full of positive energy for yourself and others.

Thank you,

bwyl *SherryQ* xo

Photos and moving bits...

Sport Boy!

Benjamin and Big Papi play a game of "chase me" before bedtime :) June '09

Sleepy bear in the car sportin' his awesome stretchy strap sunglasses! June '09

***I removed two photos of Benjamin and his cousins in the bathtub, and one little movie clip of Benjamin in the bathtub. These were precious and sweet moments with our precious and sweet baby puffins... but, it was brought to my attention that not everyone views children in the same way. I know that, but I forgot for a moment... stupid reality, stupid nasty people.***

Giving Forest a dental exam

Teasing Mommy with his standing/walking potential!

Rockin' out!

Just before Benjamin became very ill... super sick stander!

Sweet baby bear was SO sick over his birthday celebration weekend - we were exhausted! July '09
Showing Big Papi how to eat sweet corn :) July '09
Something is finger lickin' good... more CORN! :) July '09
Tio Hiram sent Benjamin this cool green puppy - a perfect pet! (Sorry, Forest!) July '09

WineBerries from our yard - we made an awesome gluten-free crumble!!! yummmm

He is a super duper dancer - but wimped out in front of the camera... so mostly just a diaper and mommy encouragement video :)

bwyl *SherryQ* xo

My Goodness!

at the Festival of the Arts the first weekend in June!
What happened to June?with Prima Tana, learning about digging in the dirt with Flat Sneaks!

Just after Benjamin gave Forest a dental exam - surprisingly, all went well :)

I can take things out of the laundry basket!

I try to go down the stairs with all of my toys, all by myself!

What happened to my sweet baby? He is SO big and starting to stumble walk!!!!

June slipped away very quickly with playgroups, Father's Day, Tana here for a week, and poor little Benjamin getting ill :(

Benjamin had back-to-back viral infections, followed by an ear infection. This all started the weekend before his Abuela, Abuelo and Tio Tony came into town - and continued right through Granny, GDad, Prima Zoe, Aunt Kerry, Uncle Jim, Titi Evelyn, Uncle Qefli, Primo Aidan, and Prima Nadia's visit... We ended up taking him to the ER on July 4th, the day of his celebration :(

Uncle Qefli helps Aidan cut his Happy Birthday Cake! Benjamin and his Happy Birthday cupcakes! Ttit Evelyn comforts a sick Benjamin...

All was well, though - the family pulled it all through and enjoyed themselves all together for the weekend! They played Wii, went through downtown Frederick, checked out some of the Smithsonians and memorials, played in the sprinkler, and with the sparklers :) Benjamin did enjoy having everyone around, and wishes so much that he had felt better so that he could've played and giggled too!

Benjamin has recovered very well from the illness, and is busy, busy, busy, growing, growing, growing and being a one-year-old!!! He likes to look at books, dance, throw balls, make music with instruments, be chased and startled, put doggie food in his mouth and then crawl away quickly while giggling, and push furniture about. He is a truly wild and wooly sweet baby bear!

I can hardly believe it has been a year since his birth - it all seems so surreal... what a blessing we have received in having Benjamin in our lives :)

We'll see what we can do about getting a sibling for our sweet baby bear. Our insurance plan changed this past year, and we are not sure what it will cover in regards to the two frozen embryos. Poor frozen puffins! We'll keep you posted ;)

We hope that all of you are doing well, and we hope to post more frequently (yeah, right!).

bwyl :) *SherryQ* xo

Welcomed by the Kerins of Hudson

My dear friend for over 20 years (blangitty frick-a-chick, another "oldie" indicator!), Mrs. Kerins, has been overcoming challenge after challenge these past few years, and I have been too self absorbed to be of any assistance (boo, bad friend, indeed). To help distract us from these circumstances, I conspired with Mr. Kerins to have the Quinones family be surprise weekend houseguests at the Kerins of Hudson's.

John Kerins, Benjamin Quinones, Big Papi, Teddy Kerins

We drove from Frederick to Hudson in about 6.5 hours - not too bad considering that I-76 was shut down from Pittsburgh to 80, so we had to take a detour, AND we were traveling with one little Mister "unenthusiastic carseat rider."

Upon arrival, we went straight to the front door and rang the bell. Mrs. Kerins opened the door to us asking, "Is this where the fan club meets?" She was SHOCKED - she stared at us for a seond in complete disbelief, and then bent over laughing and crying and trying to catch her breath! It was the most wonderful reaction and we all felt so smarty arty at having pulled one over on her - as Mrs. Kerins is exceptionally clever, and I had myself convinced that she had us all figured out!

The Kerins family are all handsome and well - Mrs. Kerins is dilligently working on her recovery. We had a splendid weekend of cooking out, hanging out, playing outside, laughing out loud, and hugging all around :) We love the Kerins and we miss seeing them!!!! Hopefully we will not have to wait too long for a planned weekend of fun ;) THANK YOU to Mr. Kerins for allowing us this intrusion, and T H A N K Y O U to Mrs. Kerins for being such a great sport. :) xoxoxoxo And, Thank You to those beautiful boys for playing so nicely with Benjamin and showing him how the "big guys" roll... xoxo

bwyl *SherryQ* xo

Around the House and going to the FMS

Benjamin likes to look out of the windows and use his very loud voice to greet the day :)

Teddy keeps Benjamin company in his VERY OWN bed - I know that you are shocked (frankly, I am too - about the bed, I mean). We purchased a tempur-pedic style foam twin mattress, so that Benjamin would still have the same feeling as sleeping in our bed. He really likes to play around on his bed, and seems to be napping there pretty well. The next step is going to be putting him into his own bed while he is still awake and see if he falls asleep on his own... Sounds like another "Mommy" issue to me too :)

We had some beautiful blooms this month... and our very magic tree continues to hold on... defying all gravity, wind, and the past few winters of ice storms. It truly is a magic tree! I too wonder who lives inside of there, but shy away from getting close and really exploring - I don't want to scare anything away :)



A silly baby playing in a guest room - please avert your eyes from the nasty carpet/ Grandmother's old chair that needs recovered / table extensions stored underneath the bed/ random room divider covered with a fabric piece from Egypt / and empty Pelligrino box :( Dear Sherry, fix up your house, please. Thank you, random guest.

This month also found us at the Friends Meeting School as stand-ins for Tana's Grandparents on Grandparent's day. Although, come to think of it, if we had come from a different time, or family situations, we are old enough to be grandparents - FRICK and EEEEEEEEEEEEEKS!!!! >:P Daggumit and dang, we are OLDEN...

Tana is the sweet puffin in the tie-dye shirt on the far right of the screen with impish curly hair. Curiously enough, behind two tall boys (Patrick and Akash), and next to the assistant teacher, Miss Tina. Tana gets to spend a lot of one-on-one time with Miss Tina :)

This video is very fuzzy (sorry)... and Benjamin became very excited at one point and knocked the camera all around (again, sorry!) Tana is reading her story about her pet, Forest. Forest is our Golden Retriever - notice at the end how she says that her favorite thing about Forest is that he lives at Titi's (that's me) house! Tana and Forest have had some challenges ;) Having each child read their stories aloud took over an hour... 3, 4, and 5 year-olds sitting for an hour... aye, yi, yi.

bwyl *SherryQ* xo

The Piano Man

Hee hee :)

This is from earlier in the month - he can get up and down with total and complete abandon, I mean, "ease."

Of course, I keep telling Granny and GDad how much of a super music genius Benjamin could be IF he had a black lacquer petite baby grand piano, and matching bench... I'm just sayin' that I calls it how I sees it :)

bwys *SherryQ* xo

Benjamin receives visitors :)

This past month Benjamin turned 10 months old, and received visits from Granny, GDad, the younger McCoys, the Hess family, AND the Gelhaus family of Ohio! Ms. Robyn and her handsome Red Sox fan beau, Michael, also joined in the fun! Don't tell Benjamin, Robyn and Michael may have also stopped over to see the Gehaus family :) Even though I was exhausted for some unexplained reason, it was lovely to see everyone! My mother and my husband really stepped up to the plate with all of the food (THANK YOU!) We enjoyed a Mexican fiesta evening with tasty treats - but I forgot to put on the music, Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, which would have made the evening even more fun...


Benjamin enjoyed Prima Zoe and Prima Tana's visit!




Sleepy Benjamin is thinking a lot.





Prima Tana and Prima Zoe wore pretty dresses to Beans in the Belfrey with their Mommies and their sweet Granny!

Jack Gelhaus knows all kinds of tricky tricks like walking, running, growing awesome teeth... Benjamin was in awe, and a little bit perplexed!

Our little non-API (but all meeting through and communicating through API) baby playgroup met at Benjamin's house this month! How fun!!! My theory was that if we hosted the group, then I knew we would make it - and be on time... I didn't count on Benjamin deciding to fall asleep about 10 minutes before everyone arrived, and then to sleep soundly through 2/3 of the playgroup ... wouldn't you know it!?! Oh well... we're going to host again in June, maybe he'll stay awake for some of it then :)

Spring brings to mind...

Thoughts of cleaning up and out...

Quickly turn to thoughts of playing with baby Benjamin!




... and enjoying an old puppa

Benjamin likes to "Chatter"

These aren't the best examples - he sometimes really gets going with all of his sounds :)

Just prior to me grabbing the camera, he was snuggling his head into the puppa's fur and babbling away - telling Forest his adventure stories. By the time I started the camera, he was trying to get back down onto the floor (which he will only do occasionally on his own) and talk on his telephone to the mysterious people that must live in there...

Here Benjamin has climbed onto my yoga brick and is holding on for dear life onto a chair. It turns out that he is telling me that he needs a new diaper - you'll see the stinky nose face that I falsley attribute to a scary tale. Once I helped him up after his fall at the end (he was fine), I discovered the true story... a diaper full of things that he did not want it to be full of ;)