Fall festivities

Rock and Roll

Finn just told me 'Rock and Roll!' in response to a question. Fan-freaking-tastic. No clue where he learned it.

Adventures in Today

Today (so far):

-Finn asked to talk to Daddy on the phone and talked to him for a good 10 minutes.

- Finn cried all the way through out 'school' class, and begged to go home. When will he get the hang of this whole singing and dancing thing??

- Finn snuck out of bed and went out in the backyard at nap time. I have no idea how long he was out there before I caught him. Apparently the little lock on the screen door means nothing to him anymore.

- I was at the store buying dinner fixins, when I realized there were things in my cart I hadn't paid for... and that Finn was reaching over (from the basket of the cart) to the next self check out lane and 'stealing' cookie mixes from the man next to me that he had already paid for.

Thankfully, I realized this BEFORE I got home, or anyone got mad. But even as I put them back on the man's belt, Finn reached over and threw them back in the cart. This kid is unbelievable. The people at the Jewel were cracking up as I tried to keep up with him and told him to stop stealing. He is SO MUCH faster than I am.

Yesterday:

- Finn told me his penis was a volcano and it was 'gonna blow' at diaper time. Then he proceeded to make motions like it was a fire hose, complete with 'pssshhhhht' sound.

WHERE DOES HE LEARN THIS STUFF??? And seriously, with boys, it's ALL ABOUT the downstairs from a very young age... this explains so much I never understood about my teenage boyfriends! LOL. I sincerely hope the next one is a girl. :)

My little Student

r

Well, I have enrolled Finn in a few classes at the park district. Tumbling (which he TOTALLY NEEDS to burn off some energy), and a 'play with me' type of class with preschool type themes. He adores tumbling-- I drop him off and he doesn't even notice I'm gone. The first day was too funny, he learned to roll, and do the balance beam, and worked on obstacle courses, and did summersaults.

I stayed for the first class, and he CRACKED ME UP the whole time. He is by far, the most energetic kid in the class. He also has NO CONCEPT of waiting his turn. So, as the other kids did their obstacle course, Finn could be spotted taking off, running in front of them, behind them, and all around. It was SO FUNNY to see that it's not just me, he's like this with everyone. I took some pics and vids with my phone and will post them if I can, but the quality won't be great.











We are also taking a preschool kind of class to teach him how to play with other kids, and the importance of structure and following directions. So far, he is not a big fan, and asks to go home the whole time, but I hope he will learn to love it soon.

Catching up

This is part of his train set, and it's about 5 feet off the ground with no furniture near it. I have N IDEA how he got it in there, but I really respect his creativity and resourcefulness. :)

Now that I have finished my final, and the event I was planning is behind me, I hope to have time to get back on and post things time and again-- sorry for my absence! I hope to hear back soon and get more business once I'm official. My final exam was 28 pages (single spaced), so it was no small feat. PHEW! GLAD that is over!

Finn is changing so fast-- my little baby is now wearing a 3T, and is really grown into kid-hood. My baby is gone... *sigh*. He plays with such imagination now, and is always telling us 'you be ___', and then we role play like certain animals, or like we're in outer space (his new favorite thing). It's so awesome to see him embrace his creativity and imagination! I love watching him manipulate his toys and his world to be better suited to whatever game he is playing.

We talk a lot about trains, dinosaurs, and outer space. I think I invented the best game ever when I invented the Kiss-asaurus, because he will just kiss you and kiss you all over your face and it's SO CUTE. He also really loves going to see the animals. We have a zoo membership this year (compliments of a client-- yay!) and he loves it SO MUCH. It's so exciting that he has finally 'grown into' the zoo. He tells us all about the animals, and what they do, and recaps his trips to the zoo for weeks on end.

His energy level is still VERY high, and I find I can hardly keep up with him! He's such a physical player, that I need to take breaks or I can't play with him that long! He is always jumping and 'flying' and rolling and doing summersaults! He's my little gymnast!

He has done some adventuring lately as well! He went on a weekend 'safari' with Poppa and Grandma and Sammy, and he just loved it. He didn't miss us at all, and really had a great time! I missed him~ I was sort of lost without him because its not often I get a break~ but the husband time was nice! It's too easy to forget what that is like!





I swear those two could pass for siblings. Did my genetic contribution mean nothing??

He also went to the Lincoln Park Zoo with Grandma (my mom) and apparently had an exciting 'monkey encounter' through the glass, and still tells us about it. I'm telling you, those monkeys knew he was one of them and wanted to know how he got out. He also tells us that grandma ate his hot dog-- but that was just a misunderstanding. :)

Train Table (dun dun DONE)

We finished it!!! Poppa and Grandma went out of town with Sammy and Finn, which gave me the time what finish what Tom so lovingly crafted all those months ago for Finn's birthday! We designed it together, and Tom built it all himself. Then I did the painting, finishing, and gluing down of the tracks. The only thing we bought was the actual train set because I wanted one that was magnetic. It has two tracks, three trains, zoo animals it can carry, two train stations and some other accessories.

He should be home any minute, I hope he likes it!


I think this is a Finn's eye view.
Some detail, with my trees, grass, and fluffy clouds.


Doesn't it look fun????

iA birds eye view of the whole set.


I even included an airplane for good measure!


And a picket fence with a horse out to pasture, as well!


Here is the train station with peeps waiting for a ride. They fit in the cars, too.

another train I affixed to the side for show.

These are good shots of the 'topographical' look I was going for with the water and the trees and the sand.


I bought him a Finn train! Isn't it awesome!?

a birds eye view of the whole scene.

one of the sides.

Because I am a dork, the bricks matched up on each side.

Putting on the finishing touches!

Peg Leg Pirate Finn

Who knew cardboard tubes were so fun??? Two year olds, that's who.

Here is Finn getting 'stuck' and telling me about it.

And here he is showing me how it all works.

And here he is playing quietly with breaks for Scooby.

Then, he moved on to putting other things in the tube, like his sippy cup. Which he smashed, and eventaully just sat and drank out of, which was awesome.

Fun around the house

Here is Finn in a red hat.

Here is Finn in some milk crates.

Here is Finn listening 'to the radio' (which was his idea and he called it that)

Here is Finn drinking a Corona.

Just kidding, he picked it up off the counter when we had a BBQ, but it made for some good pics. Boy that last one really brings out the belligerent Irishman in him. :)

Circus fun!!!

We went to the Circus, and had SO MUCH FUN (me included)! My friend Colleen gave us a pass for Finn and a BOGO adult ticket, so I made a friend in line and got us both in for $11. It was SUCH FUN!

They had trapeze artists, clowns, trampolines, silk rope artists, contortionists, animals, and motorcycles on ropes. Finny and I had so much fun, and he kept yelling. 'oh no, mommy! She's in trouble! we need to help!' when people would flip upside-down and do dangerous things!

It was horribly hot and the bleachers weer quite bad for my back, but we had a marvelous time, filling up on blue cotton candy and coke, and screaming and clapping as the acts required. He would clap and yell, 'good job!' when people were done, which also cracked me up!

Anyway, we were all so disappointed Daddy couldn't come, that we're going again when it comes back to Aurora in a few weeks. I can't wait-- I had such fun and it was such a good family adventure!

Complexity

As time goes on, I realize these posts are going to be more narrated by me, and less by photos. The times are changing.... my boy is getting bigger!

I also won't be able to post as much as I once did. With my business, my website, teaching, and births, I am barely able to keep my head above water. Not to mention that Finn is more difficult to wrangle and requires more interaction from me every day!

For example:

Yesterday he woke me up by putting a sheep in my face and telling me he had a sheep and it was sleeping. Then he handed me my phone and told me call daddy, which I did. And they talked for a good 10 minutes on Tom's way to work. When Tom told him he loved him, Finn said, "you too daddy!'. He's getting so sweet and so expressive.

He's never been as interested in talking to us as he has been with playing with us, but he does have the skills when he chooses to use them. Also, yesterday, he walked up to me with his plastic shark, and said, "Mommy! Look! It's a scary shark!' then he pulled his leg out from under him and yelled 'ouch, my leg!' (as if it bit him) and then got bored and walked away. He's a riot. Don't ask me how he knew it was shark week, because we don't let him watch it!

Then, I had 4 peaches in a bag on the kitchen table to get ripe. I came upstairs to 'Mommy! I found yummy peaches! They're so yummy!' and bites were taken out of ALL of them.

Then, as I prepared for class on Thursday, I told him he had to put the pillows down because they were for 'mommy's ladies'. And he put his hands out like he had a round belly and said, 'mommy's ladies have babies in bellies'. I almost fell over. I have never told him that or taught him that specifically, and it amazes me what he can pick up.

Because we go to La Leche League meetings, he sees that babies drink milk and will tell me about babies and milk, and even goes so far as to call my coffee 'mommy's milk'. It's sweet. He will tell people 'babies need milk from their mommies'. I love it.

Here's another story: Lunch was at 1pm. As I work doing my course evaluation/review for this week, he played. At 3 he came up to me like he had something in his mouth. It was 3 pieces of un-chewed hot dog. He was sucking on them! FOR THREE HOURS! It's SO GROSS but he thought it was really funny. Anyway, it took like 10 minutes to convince him to chew them and swallow because he would not give them back to me! Now he has nasty hot dog breath.... but he sure keeps me on my toes...

We have a new babysitter, and she brought over some hard plastic animal figures. Elephant, reindeer, pig, horse, cow, lion, cheetah, panda, etc. He calls them 'his guys', and will make them bounce when they talk, and they will say, 'hello lion, hello pig', and then make the appropriate animal sound. Then he will make them stand on one another to look for daddy 'where's daddy? I don't see him', or go to sleep and then they snore. He cracks me up, and the details he is interacting with his world with amaze me. The point where I was 'in charge' of teaching him how to engage his world is passed, and now he learns for everything and everyone and I am contstantly amazed at where and how he must learn these things.

On the physical front, he can now climb up slides, and all sorts of other advanced scaling maneuvers. I think I have a future base jumper on my hands.... :)

Have I mentioned that bath bubbles are 'hot snow'. Another hilarious example of his logic skills in action.