Finny's other Daddy

So Finny woke up crying tonight and Kevin went up to soothe him. When up there, Finny said, "I want my Daddy! I want my Daddy!"

Kevin said, "I'm here. I'm your Daddy."

And Finny said, "I want my OTHER Daddy!"

LOL.

So, when Kevin came downstairs, he thought I might have some 'splainin' to do. =)

Merry-Go-Round at the mall

Finny playing the Wii at Best Buy

Finny's 3rd Birthday!

We rented a little room at the Family Museum. They had games and music and it was really cute.


These are the next-door neighbors and some kids from Finny's school.


It's funny, this is the same cake topping I got last year, for his second birthday. This time I had it professionally decorated though, and *surprise* it was much better.


All his friends "helped" him open presents.


I love this picture. These two girls are so adorable.


Finny's camera smile. Even after I told him to "smile naturally." This is a cute little fire engine at the museum.


At the museum they have this awesome water park outside. It is probably Finny's favorite part. Unfortunately, he splashed water on himself and soaked the front of his pants, and all the little girls wouldn't hug him goodbye afterwards.


Finny's dump truck and front loader, gifts from the grand parents. As predicted, the first thing he did when he got them was pile in all of his toys and cart them around.


I got some additions to his train set for his birthday, and I spend about 2 hours building this with him! He has lots of fun "helping" me, but sometimes he'll say, "I don't like this part!" and knock over a triple-tiered loop that took 20 mins to build! Oh well, it's still fun though.

Then, when he operates the trains, he likes to sit on that little bench by the wall. He likes to make them crash, of course, while I prefer the beauty of crash-free travel.


A close up of a triple-tiered loop system. =)


Of course, even after spending two hours building the train set, there is always the imminent threat of construction vehicles nearby. Because the only thing Finny likes better than building a train set for two hours with Mommy is tearing down said train set in less than a minute.

Finny's first birthday party

A girl in Finny's class invited him to her birthday party. She was turning four!

Takin' a boat to China

So, last night Kevin and I wanted to take Finny to Chuck E. Cheese as a nice surprise. I decided that I wanted to make it a complete surprise and not tell him until we actually got there.

But, as we were getting ready, I thought I'd give him some hints and sort of talk it up. So I say, "So, do you want to go out Finny? Maybe get something to eat?"

And he says, "Yeah!"

So I say, "Okay, that sounds good. Where do you want to go?"

And he says, "China!"

I was a little confused. We'd never really tried to teach him the countries yet. Maybe he learned about China in school?

"I think China is a little too far. Anyplace else you'd like to go?"

"I want to go to China!"

So Kevin gets out a map and shows Finny where China is. "We live here," he said. "And China is waaaaay over here, across the ocean."

"We're gunna drive there!" Finny says.

"No," Kevin says. "It's too far away. See, this is the ocean. We can't drive across the ocean. It's water. We'd need a boat."

"We're gunna get a boat and go to China!" Finny says while riding in the car to go to Chuck E. Cheese.

"No, honey, we can't afford a boat, I'm sorry. It's too expensive," I say.

"We need more money?" Finny asks.

"Yeah," I say. "We don't have enough money."

"We gunna go to the store and buy more money?" Finny asks.

Kevin and I are laughing now, of course. "No, honey, you can't buy money at the store. It doesn't work that way. You have to get a job and earn more money. You want to get a job and earn some money?"

"No," Finny says. "I can't get a job. My knees hurt too much."

We were very sad to learn that, at age 2, Finny is already feeling the strains of a hard life and is ready to retire.

So after we're done at Chuck E. Cheese, Finny is skipping through the parking lot (holding my hand, of course) gleeful and exuberant of his time at the pizza place. "So," I ask. "Did you have fun at Chuck E. Cheese?"

"Yeah!" Finny squeals.

"Was it better than China after all?"

Finny is thoughtful for a moment. "No, not better than China," he answers.

Random Short Finny Stories

- Finny loves watching Deigo and Dora. The shows are very educational, I think, because they are very interactive - frequently asking questions about things going on, and so forth. For example, they'll say, "Is this ball blue or green?" And then after waiting a few seconds they say, "Green! Right!"

So, I find it very funny that Finny shouts out the answers and is wrong 98% of the time. Statistically, I think that means he must know the answer, but chooses to answer it wrong. Why? Who can possibly know?

I think it means he's as much a smart ass as he is smart. =)

- Every once in a while, when Finny is watching Diego, something will happen that makes him cry! The other day, Dora's backpack was broken and Finny started whimpering and ran over to me to complain. He doesn't like anything to happen to his "friends."

- Finny and I were pretending to eat each other's body parts (I'd say, "Can I please eat your elbow?" and then he'd offer it to me and vice versa.) No, I'm not encouraging cannibalism, just a fun way to go over names of things.

So he said he wanted to eat my chin, so I said OK, then he grabbed at it and popped the imaginary quantity of chin into his mouth. So then I asked, "What did that taste like?" and he thought about it for a long time, before answering, "Mashmellows!" which I think was a nice compliment.

Now, whenever we play, we have to also name what the body part tastes like. I think it is a great lesson in naming both body parts and things that have a taste (spaghetti, cereal, chocolate, bread, etc.). Finny often thinks very long and hard to try to think of something that has a taste that we haven't mentioned yet, and the pickin's are getting slim.

For example, I was startled to find that one of my arms tastes like cat vomit.

- Speaking of cat vomit, we have two cats. And, well, Finny is experienced with it and the process of cleaning it up. (By the way, he looooves to clean up cat vomit. I'll say, really loud, "Who wants to clean up cat vomit?!" and he'll scream and jump up and down saying, "I do! I do! I want to clean up cat vomit!" with the same enthusiasm as when I ask who wants candy.)

So, the other day, Finny himself threw up on the floor. After cleaning him up, I got paper towels and a carpet cleaner to clean up the floor. He came over to help, and pointed to the mess and said, "Cat vomit!"

I said, "No, this is not cat vomit. It's just vomit."

So he said, "Yeah, cat vomit!"

So I said, "No, just vomit."

And, he kept trying to repeat it, but for some reason he just couldn't say "vomit" without the "cat." I tried to annunciate very clearly, drawing out the syllables, "VAAAUUM-IT" and he would say, "cat VAAAUM-IT." It was just stuck in his mouth that way. It was so funny. I finally got him to say, "Finny vomit" which was good enough for me.

Random pics

First, we had a family trip out to the Bettendorf Family Museum. Great stuff. I took tons of pictures but they were all, somehow, so horrible as to be utterly useless. This is the only one remotely worth posting.


Next, I'm posting a really horrible picture of Finny that I took while documenting a damaged refrigerator door on the play kitchen he got for Christmas. He still has that screwed up "camera smile" and yes, he needs a haircut really badly! Sigh, maybe next weekend.

Shabby Chic or Stupid Junk?

So, I saw this at Target and was so shocked that I had to take a picture.

This is an actual product, costing almost $8, and it is SUPPOSED TO LOOK THIS WAY.

The tag says that it is Shabby Chic - which evidentially means a cheap white paint job that someone has scratched with a pen, or perhaps a set of keys.

Shabby Chic is supposed to be vintage - old fun stuff with quirky style and unassuming charm. You should be able to tell it was well-used and well-loved over years.

And, if the item is new, it can go through a process called being distressed - where an item is intentionally damaged to produce a vintage look. Definition from Wikipedia: "In distressing, the object's finish is intentionally destroyed or manipulated to look less than perfect, such as with sandpaper or paint stripper. For example, the artisan often removes some but not all of the paint, leaving proof of several layers of paint speckled over wood grain underneath. This becomes the "finished" piece."

That is obviously what someone intended to do with this "distressed" but new fixture from Target. But instead of distressed, it looks like a 2-year-old scratched it with some keys. Hello? This is just bad.

Christmas 2007

These were taken with my cell phone, so I apologize for the poor quality.

Shredded paper

The shredded paper came in a gift box from Finny's grandparents. Of course, he loved it probably more than his actual presents. And of course, it made the biggest mess of all time.

But, when I tried to get him to throw it away, he would whine and say, "No! It's my Christmas present!" So, I indulged him a while.

Finny and his cousin, Miles, at the Olive Garden

See you Monday!

Finny likes to say bye-bye to, uh, things, as they are flushed down the toilet. Usually he says, "Bye bye, poo poo!" but recently he's been expanding his repertoire. Now he says things like:

"Have a nice weekend, poo poo!"

"Nite, nite!"

"Goodbye, alligator!"

And, my new favorite:

"See you Monday, poo poo!"

I hope he doesn't!

Iceicle

ABCs

The Cutest Thing Ever

So Kevin gave Finny some Nutty Bars. And, guess what? Finny really liked them!

Now, Finny is constantly talking about Nutty Bars and he is constantly concerned about the acquisition and attainment of Nutty Bars. He has what I call the Nutty Bar Status Update. The Nutty Bar Status Update goes something like this:

"Dad, do you have any Nutty Bars?"

"Nope, sorry Finny I don't."

"Did you just have some Nutty Bars?"

"No, I didn't."

"Are you going to the store to get some Nutty Bars?"

"No, not right now."

"Are you going to go to the store soon to get some Nutty Bars?"

(At this point we're cracking up laughing.) "No, not right now, Finny."

"Oh. Are you going to go to the store tomorrow to get some Nutty Bars?"

"Yes, maybe we'll go to the store tomorrow."

"Okay!"

Status Update Complete.

Halloween & Thanksgiving

Finny dressed as Diego for Halloween.




Halloween picture time at school:


At the school Halloween fair, getting his face painted. He wanted a pumpkin.


"Fishing" for candy at the school Halloween fair.


The kids got to frost and decorate their own cake at the school Halloween fair. That's Bob The Builder to the right.


Our first thanksgiving. I guess we need some serving china. =)