two-and-a-half finn

It's a pretty sorry situation when I'm so tired in that it's easier to just turn on PhotoBooth to snap a photo of my child than to get the camera out and *sigh* go through the trouble of importing ... so anyway, Finn and I were on the sofa after his checkup today watching netflix online and - well, here you go.

His checkup was great. I told him there'd be no shots (thankfully this turned out to be true) and that he'd have to show the doctor his teeth and possibly to jump up and down. When she walked in he immediately opened his mouth wide to show her his teeth. Then he helped her turn on her flashlight and cooperated with all of her requests, answering all of her questions (what does a cow say, where are your ears, etc.) with atypical patience.

My favorite part - aside from hearing how healthy he is at 32 lbs and 34" tall! - was at the end when the doctor was all done, Finn looked at her and said, "THANK YOU for checking me." Just for being so sweet we went to the car wash after as a special treat.

the bear

Tess has a bear-shaped nightlight in her room. It has an LED bulb and keeps her company during her naps and at night. Before I put her down in her crib we always say good night to "the bear" because she totally adores it. I think partially because the bear sort of looks like Tess. Little button nose, wide open eyes and soft, round cheeks.

She gives bear a little drooly kiss.

Today she wasn't really into her nap.

It was more entertaining to look at the snow fall.

And more snow fall. And yet more snow fall.

She's getting so big... which makes me simultaneously happy and sappy.

My goal for the weekend is to film her waving "hi!" or "bye!"

Snow painting

Phew!! This is cheering him up.

Outside

We had to get outside this morning. It's so beautiful out, plus the house smells like - well, I won't get into that. But Tess was throwing up yesterday evening and it was Finn's turn again really early this a.m. Aside from general blah-ness we seem to be on the upswing though. Let's hope this bug has run its course.

Here's Tess in her bugaboo watching her big brother paint the snow.

fun times

It has been one of those weeks ... but getting better. Last night Finn was up with a tummy ache for much of the night. He has never been sick like that before and I had images of everyone in the house being flattened by a stomach bug for the next 2 days. Thankfully he was up at 7 jumping and his crib and singing Farmer in the Dell at the top of his lungs, so we think he's ok. I'm trying to figure out if maybe he ate some dirt at school and it upset his stomach - who knows?? He told Papa today "I ate oyster crackers last night when I was sick!"

Anyway, on a more appealing note, here are some photos of Finn and Mimi baking cupcakes last week - yum.

Little Supervisor

Oh yes, that will do.

Success!

Frosting - the best part.

Mmmm!

winter fun

Finn has had some great times in the past few weeks playing in the snow.

Lord knows, there is plenty of it...!

Is my hot cocoa ready yet?!

Building a snowman with Mimi.

Down the hill with Dada!

nine months

Our friend Brie took these photos of Tess yesterday in honor of her nine-month birthday. If you haven't already seen them on facebook, here's the link - enjoy!

he says

Finn is quite the talker. Sometimes it's exhausting listening to him all day, but lately he's been saying some pretty funny stuff. The thing is, I'm not always even sure that he knows the meanings of the words he uses, but he manages to use them in the proper context. So who knows. It's a good thing he makes me laugh because we haven't been outside for two days.

Anyway, here are a few that I wanted to pass along.

(In the kitchen, I was washing the food processor).

F: What THAT do?

N: Well, let's see. You put the food into this container and the blade chops the broccoli into tiny pieces.

F (thoughtfully): Ohh. That's VERY CLEVER.

["Clever" is his new favorite word. He uses it to describe things that really are clever. Such as himself, or his favorite trucks. Or his new book about tractors. Or the parts of a combine.]

Tonight he was using his pretend phone. He hung up after having a very animated call and sort of pretend laughing.

N: Who was that?

F (matter-of-factly): Enzo.

N: Oh yeah?

F: Yes, he gots new garbage trucks. And recycling trucks.

The fake phone rings again.

F: Ha! Ok, bye!

N: Who was that?

F: Massi. He has new trucks too. Now I have to call Dario.

A: You mean Uncle Dario.

One more and then I'll stop:

The other day, I was giving him a Mash-Up - his favorite thing to eat, of course, since it's basically a tablespoon of applesauce sealed into a pouch and costs like $100.

N: What kind of mash-up would you like?

F: Grape.

N: We don't have grape, but we have orange.

F: Oh, orange! That's totally awesome.

N: (Snort.)

All I can say is, I hope that our senses of humor remain intact tomorrow - a foot of snow is on the way!

Flying an old-timey plane

We went to the Curtiss Museum in Hammondsport today ... Snowing again, needed to burn some energy. What a great museum! And of course Finn loved all of the planes, bikes and automobiles. This is a mini replica of something - I wasn't paying much attention, sorry to admit.

new apartment

This dispatch just arrived from Finn's grandparents in Waverly and cracked me right up.

We picked Finn up from school this morning and brought him here to stay overnight. He remembered that Stan and I had been working on the apartment and he wanted to see it. We finished it up Monday, so I took him up to see the progress since he saw it last week. According to Finn, he thinks he can finish the place off while living there – and tried to demonstrate his knowledge of tools as you will see in the picture. He even figured he could use all of Papa’s and Uncle Bob’s tools (note the name in the picture – I had to tell him what it is for after his usual ‘what this do?’). And according to him, the kitchen could wait until last since Mimi lives right next door and just loves to cook for him.

a little bug

It's so sad when a baby that normally looks like this:

Wakes up from her nap feeling under the weather and sad. Here's our little snoozer:

She woke up from a nap at 2 pm crying and so upset (this never happens) and after a couple of hours of on-and-off crying (again, never) her dada suggested that we call the doctor, who thankfully got her in immediately, diagnosed an eye & ear infection, prescribed antibiotics (which I hate doing but...) after one dose she seemed so much better and is now sleeping soundly. I hope the poor little thing is feeling much better tomorrow. Maybe some Vitamin D would help us all!

a good team

I've been trying to take more video lately since it's always so much fun to go back and look at old ones ("old" being relative, of course). The other day I was SO glad the camera was downstairs when F&T were playing in the tv room and I caught him being adorable. If you're in a hurry skip to the :40 mark.



(What he says there if you didn't catch it is "We make a good team!" Talk about aww.)

shoveling

We've been getting snow every few days and Finn has busily been putting his new Christmas shovel to good use. The audio on this clip isn't much since I was filming from indoors, but hopefully you'll still enjoy the cuteness.

no photos, please!

What kind of world is it when a brother and sister cannot play in peace and harmony without a flash going off every five seconds? Sheesh!!

morning alarm

This is what Finn was singing this morning.

I'm only sorry that I don't have the accompanying audio:

YOU SAY YES! I SAY NO!

HELLOO HELLOOOOO

I DON'T KNOW WHY YOU SAY GOODBYE I SAY HELLO!

HELLOO HELLOOOOO

I DON'T KNOW WHY YOU SAY GOODBYE I SAY HELLO!

CAMPFIRE LADIES SING THIS SONG DOO DA DOO DA

CAMPTOWN RACE TRACK ... ALL THE DOO DA DAY

GONE TO RUN ALL NIIIIIIIIIGHT

GONE TO RUN ALL DAAAAAAAY

I BET MY MONEY ON A ... NAG

SOMEBUNNY BET ON A BAAAAAAY

...on endless repeat. There are definitely worse ways to wake up.

first school picture

The day that school pictures were taken, Andrew came with me to help wrestle Finn into a seated and smiling position and we left thinking, "Oh well. Next year we'll get a good one." Then we got the proofs back and were so amused by this somewhat serious yet adorable photo. I say that if you had to identify Finn's two grandfathers in a lineup based on this photo it would not be terribly difficult.

At the moment, Finn and Andrew are downstairs observing Papa and Mr. Al replace our water heater. I keep yelling down (jokingly) asking Finn if he's ready to come upstairs. "NO I'M NOT READY TO COME UPSTAIRS. I'M HELPING." It's now 8:30 pm and I'm thinking that he might be too tired to even take advantage of the luxuriously hot water for a sudsy bath!!

a typical morning

I really don't have a lot to add, other than that if you're having a not-so-great day, this should help.

Brunch with Santa

The Sunday before Christmas we went to the country club for brunch with Santa. Honestly, we were a little concerned about how this was going to go down after Finn didn't want anything to do with Santa last year on the East Haven trolley. This year was a little different since we had explained to him that Santa brings presents (I'm really not sure how long I'll be able to perpetuate this myth but we'll see). The setup was in our favor because the buffet was upstairs and you could choose whether or not to stop and see old St. Nick downstairs on the way out. Here's how it went.

Tess was up for anything!

She asked for a Lilly Pulitzer swimsuit.

The skeptic.

Tess and Caroline - her BFF born 20 days ahead of her.

We are so happy that they live just up the block!

(Her older brother is 2 months older than Finn so they are friends too).

Finally he bravely approaches, lured by the promise of a lollipop.

Lollipop=secured. Shopping cart=requested.

Success!

Christmas

Hooray for the holidays, and hooray for them being over! Ha! After a few days' recovery I wanted to get these photos up right away. Thanks to everyone who helped to make it so special - including those that we were with in person or talked to on the phone or exchanged cards with - it was really a sweet weekend. A few photos to provide evidence, below.

Upon waking and seeing presents under the tree,

Finn naturally heads straight for Tess's big present.

Aha! But then he sees his workbench.

And grocery cart. Score!

Loading his tools into the shopping cart.

It's like he was trying to play with everything at once.

Naturally it was important to begin drilling immediately.

Lots of things to fix.

Tess was so excited for her first Christmas!

And toys of her very own!

This photo is so "Mick" to me.

Is it the footie jams? The hair? The expression?

Big brother helping little sister open her presents.

What do you mean, this musical snail is not for me?

Aunt Sue and Uncle Mick sent this fantastic superhero cape.

Tess loves her new activity table.

Taking a moment to just enjoy.

Later that night... (we had taken a long break from presents)

Finn opened his stocking with Aunt Heather & Barber cousins.

"A HARMONICA!"

The next night, we posed with Tess in her Christmas hat.

Mimi knitted it (or as Finn would say, "Mimi yarned it.")

Unfortunately she won't keep it on but we have photos for posterity.

king of the juice

Mama's boots are a perfect fit.

Andrew took Finn to see the Christmas Pageant tonight at the Waverly Presbyterian Church, since it's a neat tradition and Finn pretty much loves anything with music and lights. By all accounts he was on his best behavior and very enthusiastic, clapping at all of the music and expressing pride at his grandfather who helped to change the sets.

The best part is when the narrator was talking about the "King of the Jews." Finn immediately asked Andrew (in what I'm sure was not the most quiet whisper), "WHERE'S the juice? May I have some juice?"

I'm looking forward to lots of good pre-holiday commentary - and behavior - this week.