16 months!

Tess with her friend Zip the Monkey

(the frighteningly life-like toy)

I'm sure that there are some parents of 16-month olds who use the potty 2-3x/day who don't feel smug about their child's potty-telligence, but I'm not one of those people. Let it be known that Tess was officially using the potty before she could walk. (She says "poo poo potty," and then she goes. It's a miracle of nature.) As of this week, she's now taking steps - albeit tiny and very tentative steps, and usually only to me - but it's happening. Did you read the part about the potty?

After she sat on the potty earlier today, we had this conversation.

Me (jumping up and down, which is what I do): Yay, Tess!

T: A-GAIN, Mommy.

Me: Yah, Tess!

T: A-GAIN, Mommy. Teeth, Mommy!

So I give her the toothbrush.

T: Thank you, Mommy.

Me: You're welcome.

T: You're welcome, Mommy.

She is such a joy. The nice thing is that she and Finn are also a joy together. Much of the time anyway. We're not living in wonderland - they fight, they push each other, but they also cuddle and give kisses and I love it. Finn's school starts in 18 days.

eating a peach

Finn came down a few minutes ahead of Tess and me this morning, and I walked into the kitchen to see him standing on his stepstool with a peach and giant scissors. When I asked what he was doing, he said "I'm eating a peach with this bulldozer ripper." At least he's becoming more independent, even if that means all of our sharp objects need to be hidden in upper cabinets, apparently.

let's hope not

Me: Aw, Tess has a little owie on her head. Finn, did you see what happened?

Finn: No, I didn't.

Me: Hmm, I wonder where it came from.

Finn: Well, it came from Papa's milling machine.

Baby on Bed

Ahh... The elusive day when they nap simultaneously (and yes, that's my head-print next to Tess). Even better I got to cuddle with them both. Bliss. To be followed by two very late bedtimes as they're both still asleep at 5:20.

Finn turns 3

It has been a big week in our household. Last Friday, Tess started using the potty. On Saturday morning, Finn walked into the bathroom and saw her using it again and ... he started wearing underwear and has been using the potty ever since. Needless to say everyone is pretty excited about his big-boy-ness and thankful that when school starts in a month, he'll be out of diapers.

Sunday was the big day - his third birthday! We had a wonderful party in Waverly and many of Finn's great aunts and uncles who happened to be in town joined us, it reminded me of birthdays growing up with so much family nearby, which made his party extra special. (As Katy told me about one of her friends - my kids will have kid parties when they start asking for them, haha.)

Yesterday Finn started climbing out of his crib and then he finally made it, so it was time to take down the crib and transition him into his toddler car bed. He fell asleep last night after many stories and some back-scratching and slept until 7 a.m.

Now for some party pics. Check out this CAKE!

Heather outdid herself with an awesome (and delicious!) construction cake.

She made fondant pylons that spelled "FINN"

My only regret is that we don't have video of "Happy Birthday"

or you'd be able to see and hear Finn singing louder than anyone else

Sitting in his adirondack chair opening presents.

He loves his John Deere tractor

(a gift from Uncle Pat and Aunt Neta, visiting from KS!)

The orange bow didn't seem to faze him.

Aunt Susan and Tess with Aunt Neta and Beckett.

Sandbox fun right before the rain REALLY started.

Finn received this terrific excavator from Jim & Colleen

... very handy for dumping sand into his wheelbarrow from Mimi & Papa!

Little Blossom

For all of our photos from Sunday here's the link.

THREE!

Happy Birthday to our FAVORITE 3-year-old!

We love you, Finn!

stoka party

The Stokas came up from Miami a couple of weekends ago and we had a GREAT time. The kids wore each other out, which was awesome - and it was fun watching them play together. We'll see you guys again in November if not sooner!

Enzo and Finn are almost the same size and had lots of fun together.

The kids on the putting green after dinner.

Tess in the baby pool (aka "tubby")

Yes, that's Tess on the mini excavator that

cousin Paul brought over to show the kids.

Enzo LOVED it!

(Finn and Massi opted out.)

Tess loves her Aunt Katy.

(And Uncle Dario.)

We had a great evening singing on the porch.

Enzo kept saying, "Again! Again!"

Biscotti

We're at the farmers market downtown and T is in heaven with her biscotti!

She had her 15 month checkup yesterday. Her nurse practitioner was amazed by how well she speaks (when Tess pointed at a poster and said "It's funny!" the lady about fell out of her chair) and she's not concerned about the not-yet-walking - which nobody else cares about either...

Weight: 20 lbs 4 oz (on the petite side)
Height: 29"
Head: XL (haha)

Sadly we also discovered that her sniffles and general misery in the past few days is the result of a double ear infection, her SIXTH :(
All of the biscotti you want, my sweet.

This message has been sent using the picture and Video service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, Quicktime@ 6.5 or higher is required.

15 months

Our sweet girl is 15 months old today! And she's about to walk without our helping hands ... in the meantime, practicing in her playpen (and possibly reacting to something funny on tv.)

Cousins

We are having so much fun with Katy, Dario, Massi and Enzo visiting from Miami. Tess and Enzo are playing so well together, it's very adorable. Poor Tess needs some doll accessoreies, stat ;)

wood river

One of these days I'll have time to catch up. But until then, here are some more photos from our trip!

Finn made himself right at home at the farm.

Tess managed to hold it together for a little while.

But as soon as she got comfortable with Aunt Mary Frances...

(a few minutes later.)

When people ask me where Tess's red hair came from,

Aunt Judy is the answer from the Wagoner side!

I LOVE this picture.

It was great to see Uncle Dennis and Aunt Jane!

if only

Finn: What are those things on your leg?

Me: Freckles.

F: We should go get the tweezers and get them off.

M: That would be great, but they are part of my skin. They come from being out in the sun too much, and they don't go away.

F: Well ... let's get the tweezers and get them off.

gingers and quotes

Grady (4), Tess (14m), Cadyn (21m), Finn (almost 3), Bryce (21m)

A few cute quotes to share from our trip... Last week, the kids were playing at Aunt Judy and Aunt Mary Frances's with my cousins' kids, above. Finn and Grady are about a year apart so they were playing trucks and I heard this from the other room:

"FINN. My name is Finn Barber."

"Finn Barber." That was Grady.

"Phinneas James Barber."

Then a few moments later, I heard Grady say, "Move out of the way, Barber!"

(They were like little teenagers!) BTW the photo above is but one of many cute ones of the crew, and I should clarify that Grady is not about to hit Tess, nor was Cadyn very upset. The photo session was near the end of the morning and they were all getting a little tired but they still got along so well.

Anyway, a few days later, we were at my friend Karen's, who said to Tess in passing, "What are you doing down there, missy?"

"It's Tess," Finn said.

"What was that?" Karen said.

"That kid's name is Tess."

This morning we were walking down the stairs and Finn said, "Let's pretend that I'm the boss for a while." I said ok, but as soon as we got downstairs he said, "No, Mama - you're the real boss." Yesss! At least he understands this, (even if he doesn't always listen to the boss(es)).

last day of school

Clearly I'm still playing catch-up here and posting from a few weeks back while organizing our vacation photos. Anyway, here's a quick before and after celebrating the end of Finn's first year at school:

First day of school, Fall 2010

Checking everything out.

Walking with confidence on his last day in June

What a guy.

We love Montessori! See you next year!

two grandfathers

We spent Fathers Day in Wood River with Papa and Granddad. Although we were sad that the timing of our trip had to coincide with Father's Day away from Andrew, it was really special to be able to be with grandfathers from both sides, meeting up at the Wagoner farm.

This is at the beginning of our trip so there are many more photos and descriptions of our uhm, adventures to follow.

En Route

We're back in the quad cities on our way back, with lots of photos to share about the days in between. Who did we see? Well, who *didnt* we see?!

Yes, that is a bandaid on Finn's forehead. Thankfully the pediatric urgent care in Omaha can't be beat! He bumped his head last night, ended up with 3 stitches and hasn't complained about it since.

machine shed

We have a few vacation days to catch up on ... it's been a whirlwind trip and we've seen so many people that we love. On the 2nd day of our drive out, though, we stopped in Davenport, Iowa for lunch at the Machine Shed restaurant. The kids were both getting pretty antsy so a restaurant featuring old farming equipment was just the ticket. It didn't really even matter by that point that Finn had a giant bowl of ice cream for his meal. Another huge score was the large family seated nearby whose kids were so loud and miserable that they received all of the scornful glances that we might have otherwise. If we make this trip again, we'll include this in our itinerary.

Finn enjoyed this old tractor muy mucho.

Tess thought the Machine Shed was wonderful.

It has senior citizens. It has bread. It has ceramic kittens in the gift shop.

I love this photo. It's like she's saying, "This here is my Papa."

(And he's driving us all the way to Nebraska!)

11:39 am

Crossing the Mississippi.

Day 2

Someone isn't in a very good mood and doesn't want his picture taken.

It's ok though. We're just outside of Chicago heading west on 80, making good time. Lucky us, we get to drive across Illinois and Iowa this morning!! :)

Indiana (almost)

7 hours of driving down, 11 to go. It's really amazing to me how pleasant a road trip can be when one has the following:
- A father-in-law who has done all of the driving so far
- A mother-in-law who loves to entertain kids
- A happy almost-3 year old who loves nothing more than slowing down for road work (trucks)
- A sleeping baby, who for some reason smells like sourdough bread but in a good way.
- Honda Odyssey.

Will update you all as we near Illinois.

This message has been sent using the picture and Video service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, Quicktime@ 6.5 or higher is required.