Finn the talker

Finn continues to keep us very busy and put smiles on our faces every day. He amazes us with all the words he is saying and what he picks up on. We have needed to start to spell out words in front of him for those things we aren't really wanting him to hear.
Recently he has been saying "REALLY?" in such a way that you think he thinks you have just told him the most amazing thing ever.
When Finn wants to be carried I had been jokingly saying to him, "what, are you legs broken?". This seems to have back fired on me as he now beats me to the punch line coming up to me saying, "Mama, my legs broken, uppy please".
He also has been telling us that he "lubs" (loves) us...which is very adorable.
We enjoyed a Thanksgiving meal with our friends Mary Beth and Bob. Finn was the only child at their house and got lots of attention. He has been wearing his turkey hat, made at daycare basically non stop (except for sleeping) since he came home from daycare the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. It is in pretty sad shape currently as it is made out of construction paper. I think we will need to retire it soon!

Aunt Katie's and Uncle Jason's wedding trip

Finn with Mommy and Daddy

Finn showing his disco moves!

Uncle Jarad, Aunt Joy, Cousins Jett, Jackson, Jaylyn and Juli

Grandpa Ken, Grandma Terri and Auntie Ann

Fall 2010 pics

Finn visits new baby cousin Lilah and cousins Faythe and Macy


Finn had a love/hate relationship with the boat ride at Arnold's Park




Finn snuggles with piggy


Finn and Daddy were hard at work this fall working on the new walkway.




Mommy and Daddy's birthdays.




Annual trip to apple and pumpkin farm...

This pumpkin was heavy!

Halloween 2010

Updates...

The summer has flown by and now it seems we are well on our way through the fall. Finn continues to change daily and continues to put a smile on my face daily.

Finn has moved up into the 2 year old room after his birthday this summer. The biting continues in the big boy room as he has now been bitten twice since the move up. The interesting thing is that now Finn can call out who has bitten him. For the last two weeks we intermittently hear how Lucas bit Finn. I initially said to Finn, that wasn't very nice, was it? "No mommy", then I asked Finn if he took a toy from Lucas? "Yes mommy". I really appreciate the honesty of a 2 year old!

Finn has also taken a liking to the word only. When I told Finn we were going to make a birthday cake for daddy, he was quite adamant that birthday cakes were for mommy only. When I grab the laptop, I hear, "no mommy, daddy puter only". We hear "only" numerous times a day. It is odd the things that kids pick up on.

Finn is a constant destructor. Just as soon as you pick up a bin of toys and move on to the next, Finn is dumping out the last. Usually not to play with, perhaps just to see mommy's frustration!

Finn is also very into talking about mommies, daddies and babies. This is reference to his trucks all the way to talking about the newly planted grass out front, known at our house as "baby grass".
Finn loves his daddy and wants to do all things just like daddy. A couple days ago daddy was moving some rock around with a shovel and yard cart. Finn immediately needed to get out his shovel and wagon and begin "helping daddy". It was pretty cute.

Finn met his new baby cousin Lilah Louise and refers to her as Lilah Lou. At their first meeting Finn took a kleenex and very gently went up to Lilah and wiped her nose. It was pretty cute how slow, deliberate and delicate he was. During this same trip to see the Beall family, we went to Arnold's Park, a small theme park in the Okiboji area. Finn rode his first ride...boats going round and round and round. He seemed to like it. The next ride was a very small roller coaster and his very nice older cousin Faythe rode with him and ended up trying to console him the entire time as he was freaking out.

We enjoyed our annual trip to the apple orchard and pumpkin farm. This year the challenge was convincing Finn not to eat the apples on the ground.

Oh Dear Please Don't Fall

Thursday a worker was over and needed to look at some of the mechanicals that are up in our attic. The access to the attic is in the hallway and is 10 feet off the ground. It requires me to bring a ladder in from the garage and angle it up through the access hatch. It is steep and somewhat shaky as I climb the ladder. The worker has a bad knee. "It needs a surgery," he teels me as he slowly makes his way up the ladder into the attic.

I was up in the attic showing the worker what he needed to see when I heard Finn calling out, "Daddy... daddy."

It sounded remarkably close.

Again I heard, "Daddy," and just then Finn's head popped up through the attic access hole.

He was on the ladder.

He had climbed the ladder shoeless and in his pajamas.

My first tendency to freak out was supressed so that I could calmly walk across the attic to reach Finn before a foot slipped. I did get to him and managed to get myself on the ladder with Finn before any accident. We backed down the ladder together as I thought about how this was going to sound as I explained my thoughts as I saw his head pop through that hole.

Birthday Truck Load

Finn turned two on August 18th and has had a delightful birthday week. The weekend prior to his birthday he enjoyed a visit from Grandpa Ken and Nana Terri. We spent time at home playing trucks with them and reading books as well as a trip to the zoo. Finn also "helped" Grandpa Ken and Daddy work on a house project which to Finn's delight involved ladders and tape measures.





Finn had a birthday present one day early...his new baby cousin Lilah Louise Beall, who Finn fondly refers to as "Lilah Lou"

On his birthday Finn and Mommy went to the park in the morning and to the pool in the afternoon. The day was topped off with cake and presents in the evening once Daddy got home from work. Finn really dug into his mini birthday cake this year. Finn is also the proud new owner of a tricycle and a scooter (as well as a Thomas the train helmet of course). Finn also spent the majority of the day wearing a birthday crown made for him at his daycare.




At the end of his birthday week, his Aunt Ann, Uncle Devon and cousins Van and Penn came for a visit. Finn loved time with his cousins and overall they played quite well together...I think this spells trouble for the future!! :)






Finn ended his birthday week with a big party at our home with several of his friends. The kids had a great time in the kiddie pools and bouncy house. We think Finn did love his truck birthday cake despite the tears as everyone was singing happy birthday to him. Once all eyes were off him he slowly warmed up to the truck cake and began scooping frosting off with his fingers. Finn hosted a "truck trade" as well where his friends all brought a truck and went home with a different truck. Finn now has more trucks than he knows what to do with and is loving it!





Over all I think his two year birthday was a success...here's to another great year!

Late this summer we were able to visit with Uncle Edy and family as well as Aunt Sophi and family and Gran Patty. We had a great time at Backbone State Park despite the crazy floods they were recovering from at the time of our visit.
Here are some pics...

a fierce game of bad mitten

Uncle Edy cookin' up some southern jambalaya

Cousins Kaiser, Quentin, Faythe, Macy and Finn

the whole clan

kids are funny...

Finn's speech has been exploding. He is speaking in 3+ word sentences at times and although we can't make 100% of it out we generally get the point.
Finn has been on the recieving end of bites at daycare and we have talked about biting being "not nice" and "naughty" and Finn tells us the Sydney got a time out for biting. Finn has also been a target for mosquitos this summer. He has now told us on a couple occassions, "no bite squitos, time out"! It is funny how he puts things together.
Finn also loves "tubby time" and also loves bolting from the bathroom after and running naked around the house yelling "stweeaaker"!
Finn has recently enjoyed time back in Iowa visiting grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. He loves the farm and talks frequently about cows and tractors. We have also been doing some web cam talks with Uncle Joe in Korea and cousins Van and Penn in South Dakota. This has been entertaining watching Finn try to figure out why these people are talking to him from the computer.
We are gearing up for Finn's 2nd birthday, which will be filled with trucks, tractors and diggers and perhaps even some choo choo trains.

Get in my Belly

At the dinner table tonight Finn asked where the cheese from my sandwich was. I told him that I ate it and that it was in my belly. Not more than 1 or 2 minutes later we watched him pull up his shirt and stuff his sandwich under it smearing mayo across his belly. Of course when asked what he was doing his response was that he was putting his sandwich in his belly.

Mud fun

A couple days ago we had storms and a ton of rain overnight. This left us with some pretty large and awesome (according to Finn) mud puddles in our backyard. Finn enjoyed some muddy goodness.

baseball pics

Jesse and Chapin

Finn and Daddy

The boys at the ballgame

So Tuesday, not tomorrow but last week, was swim day at day care and what swim day at daycare means is wear your shorts and have mosquitos bite your back. Poor Finn looked a bit like a chicken-pocked bubble boy. A few days and a few dabs of ointment later Finn and I met up with Jesse and Chapin for a Brewers loss. It was Chapin's first Brewer's game and we all had a good time having to bail after the sausage race (3 of the 5 racers went out in a heap just short of the finish line, the first I have seen sausages go down since Pirate Randall Simon knocked one over with a bat) due to inatentiveness on behalf of the toddlers. This worked out as Finn was due for a swim lesson and leaving early means less traffic.
Finn is improving in his desire to participate in swim lessonsand I am excited for next week as Laura has been practicing with Finn plugging his nose and putting his face under the bath water. Whether this will translate to the distraction filled swimming pool will be seen. Stay tuned.

Pool Day, Zoo Day and Strawberry Day...Summer is here!

Last weekend we were lucky enough to have a visit from The Beall Family before Aunt Sophi is banned from travel prior to baby number 3 arriving. We had a wonderful time and enjoyed a few fun-filled summer days.
We went to the zoo where Finn had a great time with his cousins Faythe and Macy looking at the animals and acting like crazy little monkeys. Of course the zoo day ended with a "choo choo" ride which Finn was a bit timid about initially but ended up enjoying the ride.










We also spent some quality time in our backyard with a couple blow up pools. Faythe was our local "lifegaurd" on duty and did a great job keeping Finn and Macy in line. Macy taught Finn a great trick of jumping up and landing on their bottom. Finn decided this would be great in the tub as well and has resulted in lots of water on the bathroom floor. It is hard to get upset when he giggles his head off everytime he does it.







We also headed to the strawberry patch and I think our three little ones ate more than they picked. I had a hard time keeping the basket full while Finn's little hands ate one berry after another...stem and all!










Finn, Macy and Faythe also enjoyed some time with Grandpa Keith and Granny Pam as they nicely came up for the day for some quality time with the grandkids as the mommies and daddies enjoyed a trip to Miller Ball Park to check out the Brewers.