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.

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...