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Monday, June 15, 2009

The 'P' Word





We're potty training. Again.

Finn can hold his bladder well, but the aggravation of this process makes me want to quit again.

I HATE this part, and would rather change diapers. Such a battle of wills.

Good thing his tush looks so freaking cute in his big boy undies, or I might go wild.

Wish me luck!

Dinosaurs and Monkeys

We took Finn to the Field Museum this week-- man was that a hit! It has been well over a decade since either Tom or I was there, and we were surprised at how much we LOVED it. Especially the evolution exhibit-- since the stupid New Lenox school district didn't teach that.

Well, Finn really liked Sue, the big Tyranasaurus (I don't know how to spell that). He was really a big fan of all of the dinosaurs, and so Tom (being a kid inside, himself) bought Finn THREE mold-a-ramas of dinosaurs. He was thrilled, brings them in the bathtub, puts them to bed, and plays with them to no end. Here he is playing with Daddy, showing how scary the T-Rex is!



And on a side note-- the Dino exhibit at Brookfield Zoo was neat, but very disappointing for a kid as small as Finn-- another year, and I think he would have flipped his lid! But the zoo, as always, was a huge success, and we owe a shout out to Colleen and Dan for such a great gift!!

Oh, and also at the Field Museum, Finn liked the dioramas of the animals, which were really quite impressive. I don't remember ever seeing them before, but they have obviously been there for years. There were a lot of monkeys from all over the world, and Finn showed his kinship by hoppping all over the floor yelling, 'OOH OOH EEH EEH' like he was among friends. It was really funny, and I didn't care who stared.

This is a shot of him 'going ape'.

Ghosts and Hot Snow

Finn likes Scooby Doo. Check that, he LOVES Scooby Doo. He asks for Scooby all the time, and yells and hollers and jumps around when it's on. It's funny, but kind of odd.

Anyway, Scooby almost always has ghouls or ghosts of some kind, which don't scare him at all (this will surprise you when you read the next post). He often yells at dark areas of the house, 'GHOST!' and then runs away laughing. This must have been a scene in one of the Scoobys on my mom's on-demand thingy.

Well, Auntie Eriney taught him to put a sheet or blanket over his head and yell GHOST, until you find him, or he finds you, and he screams and squeals with joy. It's an awesome game. Loud, but awesome.

On a side note, today, when he was in the tub, he told me the bubbles were snow. Then he corrected himself, saying, 'It's hot snow'. It was too good not to pass on.

Fish Monsters

We were on vacation at my mom's house last week. We did the 'Chicago Tourist' thing with Finn. The weather was SO CRAPPY, and put a damper on our plans, but it was still nice to get away (from the dogs). My mum was gracious enough to put us up in her humble abode, and even let us have her bedroom and kick-ass bathroom. It was a sweet deal for us, and very nice of her.

One of the places we went to was the Shedd Aquarium, a long time favorite of Tom and mine. We LOVE the sharks, and the new oceanarium was fantastic. Finn, though, was less impressed. This was surprising, as he always points out fish, dolphins, whales, sharks, frogs, and turtles when he sees them. I really thought he'd be a pretty sea-faring kid. So far, no dice.

He was frustrated and not as interested in the fish as we'd hoped. He was happy to be out and playing, but it could have been Fuddruckers for all he cared! When we got to the Lake fish, though-- the big, gnarly, ugly ones, he hid his face and cried 'monsters' until we took him away. We thought nothing of it and moved on-- until that night.

HOLY CRAP!

He screamed bloody murder for over an hour, telling me there was monsters, and he was scared. This was presumably preempted by a nightmare about those stupid fish, but needless to say we were quite shocked by the whole thing, and will wait a little longer before we go to the Shedd again...

The new Mommy and Daddy

Finn recognizes people in pictures, and he has for some time now. He will now point out and name every person in the picture.

He's also started some 'social recognition', for lack of a better term. He sees things of different sizes, and tells me the big one is daddy, the medium one is mommy, and the small one is Finny. Then he makes them all kiss. It's quite funny.

I don't know where he learned it, since I am actually taller than Tom, and girth-wise, we're a close race. This is why I'm calling it social recognition. It's a normal thing, I suppose, but it illustrated to me how little control I have over how he's going to see gender identity and roles, and what a hard, long road it will be to raise an egalitarian, respectful young man.

I plan on talking to him, about the world and everything in it-- and I hope I can follow through as I plan to. But I'm no fool, and I know my words will only hold his audience for a short time-- then his own voice will be more important. This is the challenge before me, and some days it seems greater than others.

I'll try to stop getting ahead of myself now...

Carey? Or Soprano?

Drew Carey?

Harry Carey?

'Junior' Corrado Soprano?

You decide.


AWESOME. Either way.






The new Garage


These get parked 'outside' my printer here, and in the 'garage' by closing up the tray that catches the papers when they come out, and messing up all my print jobs. D-OH!

A Bug's Life

This is Finn and his new fascination with bugs. He's been into them for a while now, but here you can hear him saying 'Bumblebee'.

For the record, any old bug is a bumblebee, especially ladybugs. I think the whole idea of a bug being a bee, and starting with a B (phoenetically) got him mixed up. He used to say bee when he saw pictures of flowers, too. It's amazing how he associates things.

He says everything from, 'where'd bumblebee go', 'tiny bumblebee, cute baby bumblebee', 'did you see my bumblebee mommy', to 'I don't know where Bumblebee is'. It's nuts how fast his language is moving, and it's hilarious how focused he gets on a few things at a time-- I'd say he's a little obsessive!




The only bug that is NOT a Bumblebee, is an ant. Ant is a character on a show we watch called Word World, where there are also characters called Bug and Bee, ironically. When Finn sees an ant, he screams 'ANT ANT ANT' and jumps and dances around. It's a riot.

The other day one of them was on the front porch and it went from the top to walking on the side (defying gravity), and Finn went CRAZY!!! He yelled 'DAD! DAD! The ant fall down!! DAD! ANT! DAD!". It was so funny, I couldn't stop laughing. He was SO impressed with that Ant for walking on walls. As he should have been. He;s such an awesome kid.

Friday, June 5, 2009

Ribbit, Meow, Bumblebee

Finn has entered an animal phase. I LOVE it. Here he is acting like a frog, yelling RIBBIT! with each hop, and MEOW as he stealthily crawls around like a kitty. And just to note, kitty seems to ALWAYS be followed kitty. And I don't know why.

You also get a bit more 'bumblebee' action in this one.


Captain Kitty (Captain Kangaroo is SOOOO old school)

One word: MEOW.



This isn't a good shot because I'm filming myself while being mauled by a kitty-- but he walks around on all fours purring and mewing and then rubs up against your legs and climbs up on to your lap to rub your face like a kitty cat. It's so cute!

I just LOVE this animal phase he is in!

The kitty is the main show these days, but he's also a frog, and a rabbit, and a dog. The dog Hoooooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwlllllllllllls and licks your hands and face whether you want him to or not. It's funny, but a little weird.

Danging Queen, I mean King

Finn learned how to turn on my IPOD while on the docking station, and also how to change the song. He will change the song until one with a good beat comes on, stand in the corned and dance his little heart out!

It's the CUTEST! He will dance with you for a little while, but gets camera shy, so this is the best I could capture. It's just delightfully adorable to watch him dance, and it kills me that he can work my IPOD already. By the time he's 8, I expect him to fixing my computer!

It's so awesomely fun to dance with him, we're going to have Curry family dance party nights (when Tom gets home at a reasonable hour) and dance dance dance until we're all exhausted!!! It should be so fun! I already made a playlist so he wont' have to keep changing to song.

This is a short clip of Finn acting like a puppy. Of course, I couldn't get him barking or wagging his 'tail', but this will have to do!



I'm also hoping for some video of him acting like a monkey soon, which is QUITE the riot, I assure you.