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