Finnisms

When asked to go get something for me, Finn responds "on it" and takes off running.

Finn informed me tonight that he couldn't sleep because piggy (his stuffed animal) was talking to him. He then proceeded to have a talk with piggy explaining to piggy that he needed to be quiet so he could sleep.

He will frequently comment..."that's odd"

"Daddy, let's get our play on"

"Dad, I have great eyesight, I must be a tyranosaurus rex or something"

"Let's stop to think"

Helaina update

Helaina has been growing by leaps and bounds. She seems to be stretching out and has shot up to the 90% for height at her last well check. She is now rolling like a pro and sitting fairly well on her own for brief periods. She has a heart warming smile and adorable giggles. We are making our way through several foods and so far her favorite seems to be brocolli...let's hope that continues! Her hair is starting to fill in and still has the cute "peacock poof" in the back.

Halloween 2011

Buzz Lightyear and the Cupcake!!!

Finn's fishing trip with Bob

Helaina's first meal

rice cereal

sweet potatoes

toe jam

Finn flies a kite

Wisconsin Dells 2011

We headed to the dell's to meet up with Aunt Ann, Uncle Devon and cousins Van and Penn. While there Chris celebrated the big 4-0 with some surprise visits from some friends and family.

Apple and pumpkin farm 2011

Finn turns 3, August 18th!!!

We can't believe it but Finn is now officially 3! He is a self proclaimed "big boy" and is wanting more and more independence.
For his birthday we had the Beall's and Gran Patty come for a visit and were joined at a bouncy house by a few friends as well. It was a lot of fun for the kids as well as the adults.

Finn enjoys a summer treat.


Helaina now has a piggy like her big brother.

What Just Happened

I would guess every parent faces the daunting task of trying to convince their child that sooner or later things in a diaper better belong in a toilet.

What began with a few borrowed books and progressed to short then long stints of just sitting Finn on a toilet and reading books and coloring pictures. He was earning stickers and M&Ms for the effort he put forth to sit not really sure of how to do what he knew a toilet was for.
We had weeks earlier showed him the new bat and ball he would earn when he finally used the potty. His sticker chart was filling up. His M&M sweet tooth lacked the staying power we had hoped for. But his willingness to put up with us requesting that he sit on the toilet was admirable.

Then this morning after a rather long stint of what I thought was the usual waste of time I asked, "Are you done?"
Finn said that he was. But before he got up I heard the sound of pee hitting the plastic of the training seat and failing into the toilet.

The expession on Finn's face was one of "Is what is happening what I think is happening?" His eyes were wide and a look of excitement drew across his face.
"I'm peeing Daddy! I'm going potty, I'm going potty!"
We hooted, we hollered, we jumped up and down. We were excited to tell Mommy and we earned the big bat.
All in all we played ball and bat all day and peed in the potty four times and had no wet diapers. He is very proud of himself and so are we!

Summer update so far...

Time flies by quickly...even more so in the summer.
We have been keeping Finn very busy this summer. He has enjoyed a quick trip back to Grandpa Keith's farm and loved every minute of it. He rode on a "red tractor" (sorry Uncle Ed) and of course watched the cows.

He has been taking a soccer class once a week which is pretty entertaining. It basically involves him running in circles for about 45 minutes. He enjoys it but does keep saying when it is time to go to "soccer school" that he wants to go to baseball school. I think his daddy has brainwashed him! He loves the Brewers and we also recently had an evening out at a Brewers game. Finn wore his Brewers shirt with matching pants and baseball cap. He brought along his little baseball glove and as soon as we got in out seats he took his "baseball stance" and held his glove up high just waiting for a ball to drop out of the sky into the glove. An extremely kind couple sitting beside us actually went and bought a baseball and dropped it into his glove for him. Finn was very excited to get a real, hard baseball! What a great act of kindness! Finn has continued to play baseball at home and calls our backyard Miller Park and makes us call him Ryan Braun, his favorite player of course.



We also traveled up to Green Bay to see Thomas the train at the National Railroad Museum. We rode the train and Finn got to speak to the conductor which he was tickled about. It is so fun and heart warming to see his face light up getting to do and see all of these things he loves.
Currently Finn and Chris are taking swimming lessons once a week. I think Finn is starting to participate a bit more this year!
Finn is also taking some zoo classes this summer and at one of them got to feed the goats on the zoo farm...freaked him out a little bit.


We also recently took our annual trip to the strawberry farm for some picking. Finn was more interested in eating rather than picking and kept telling me how good they were while I was trying to pick faster than he was eating!


Helaina is growing by leaps and bounds. We had her 2 month check up and she was 11lbs and 6 oz and right at the 50th percentile for height, length and head circumference. She is smiling a lot and just starting to work on some giggling.

She continues to be a great sleeper and actually slept through the night the past two nights. Hopfully that keeps up!
We had our first annual tree planting for father's day this year. Finn picked a great tree!

We keep reminding ourselves how fortunate we are to have two great and wonderful kids that make us smile every day!