cookie good

On Sunday afternoon we went to a Jewish Food Festival in Elmira, mostly because my mom said she'd have felt bad if they'd have gone to all the trouble and nobody had shown up. Well, rest easy because the place was packed with people, a high percentage of which were older women fawning over Finn. Bonus: It's not so easy to find delicious matzoh ball soup in the middle of March, but they had several vats. As you can see from the photos above, Finn really enjoyed his hamantaschen (at least I think that's what it was; all cookies are chia to him) and ate a couple of them as well as some potato latkes with applesauce before zonking out in the car on the way home.

Oh, and on the baby front - 4 more weeks, but I think she wants out.

saturday in the park

McKinney Park is a very cute playground not far from our house that we ventured to this morning for some serious sliding-down-slides and leaf-picking-off-the-ground activity. It was so much fun to run around (or waddle, as the case may be for certain parties) and enjoy the 60-degree weather!!

Checking out the equipment.

Methodically examining each leaf.

It's very important to pick up the perfect leaf.

Posing with Dada (in his vintage Norwich t-shirt,
the same one Dada wore approx. 35 years ago!)

'Happy'

We kept wondering why Finn would say "happy" and then take these 3 specific blocks to a corner of the living room to make this specific shape. Then a couple of days ago, Andrew was watching the military channel (shocking I know) and Finn pointed at the old airplanes and said, "happy!" So there you go.

St. Patty's Day

Yesterday was definitely one of those days. I dressed Finn in this adorable Irish-appropriate outfit but every picture I took turned out like this.


Or this.

Then we met up with Andrew for dinner and Finn was in a much happier mood. His Great Aunts Mary Frances and Judy brought this rugby shirt from Ireland last year. I remember thinking that it looked so huge so was delighted when it fit him so well this year. A perfect addition to his spring wardrobe!

Mall carousel

the mall carousel

Yesterday we went to the mall to see Auntie Ann's granddaughter perform Irish dancing (and she was so cute, and I forgot my camera) but I managed to snap this photo of Finn on his New Favorite Thing at the Mall, the food court carousel. I wonder if he'll remember that it's there every time I try to sneak in for a quick trip to Baby Gap?

St. Patrick's Day photos to come, do not worry...

scrub & spell

Finn is spending the night with his Papa & Mimi tonight and yeah, obviously we're a little biased but we both completely melted when we saw these photos of him in the bathtub with his new FOAM LETTERS that must have made his day. I left him off around 1 pm and found out that he took a 3 1/2-hour nap shortly thereafter (a record), hence the sleepy face in the bottom photo.

It's wonderful to have a night off to straighten the house, return phone calls and have date night and yet we're already looking forward to smelling his little baby-fresh head tomorrow afternoon!

organizing

Bottles in one spot, bowls in another.

It's pretty common for toddlers this age to sort and stack their favorite objects but it still amazes me to watch Finn - his preferred media right now are his blocks (he loves to "build" cars and tractors) and the tupperware/Finn drawer, which he unloads and organizes on the kitchen floor pretty much every morning while I'm making breakfast. Then he'll carry some stuff over to HIS kitchen and stack over there too. One of these days we're going to work on putting everything away, but for now he is providing our daily quotient of amusement.

ELMO LIVE!

Finn had a very special day today with his Papa and Mimi at Sesame Street Live in Elmira. We tried to explain to him the significance of the occasion but he didn't really get it ahead of time. However, it's my understanding that upon their arrival at the Clemens Center, Finn was pretty much ecstatic to meet the characters and see them sing! And dance! Here are a few pics that capture his excitement pretty darn well.

Quite possibly one of the HIGHLIGHTS OF HIS LIFE so far
(and to think that I was worried he'd be freaked out by 6'-tall Elmo and Abby?)

Gotta get to our seats fast!!

Finn and his Papa (yes, there's some resemblance?!)

Toward the end, Finn was a little tired and wanted to sit on Mimi's lap
but he still mustered up the strength to applaud.

snowy photo op

We got about a foot of snow over the weekend so wanted to take some photos outside. By the time we got bundled up yesterday the wind had picked up so it was a little chilly to play, but Finn was still fascinated by the big piles of snow Andrew has been scooping.

I will be so sad when he outgrows his blue jester hat.