Thursday, June 27, 2013

Pigtails & Sprinklers



Over the past weekend, the weather got quite hot here and uncomfortably humid.  The weekend ended with the air conditioner being turned on.  And that was mostly because my poor girl is a profuse sweat hog.  By the mid afternoon on Sunday, she was actually dripping sweat from her forehead while playing in the house.  We decided that a cool bath in the middle of the afternoon might be the ticket.  Within an hour of the cool bath, her hair started dampening again.  When I touched her head, my hand came away wet.  That was the final straw on putting-up-with-the-heat and the air conditioner was switched on.


But before cool air invaded our home on Sunday, Saturday, we threw in pigtails and had our first go-round in the sprinkler.  The water was ice cold and she wasn't too sure about running through the sprinkler.  But she was fine standing stationary in the spray and trying to reach her hands into the middle of the water.


We are now entering in the most adorable phase with Finorah.  She doesn't say many words at 16 months.  In fact, you can count on one hand the number of words she will spontaneously say "da" and "ball" being her top two choices.  But she is beginning to imitate words that have been said to her.  With most two syllable or two word phrases with the exception of "apple", she doesn't quite say the correct contestants, such as "all done".  But I have a feeling that within the next month, we may have a vocabulary explosion.


And the other thing that she has begun lately, which slays me every time -- she will speak in sentences complete with inflection.  Of course, she doesn't make one lick of sense, but I still carry on that conversation.  I'll ask her to sit down in the bath-tub and then looking me square in the eye, out comes her complete response to me as to why she doesn't really have to sit down.  I'll ask her about what she ate for breakfast at daycare and out comes her own way of saying french toast and fruit.  Every single time that she talks to me and always looking directly at me, I can't help but giggle because she is just so gosh darn cute.


We are leaving for Ireland next week (all three of us) and we had a friend stop over to meet the dogs as he will be taking care of them while we are gone.  And something that he said totally opened my eyes to my own child.  "She doesn't look like a baby anymore -- she has a little girl face."  (insert sad face)  It was then that I recognized that my girl isn't a baby at all, that she is growing into a little girl.  It makes me both incredibly sad that the baby phase is over forever and also very excited that we have a whole new stage to look forward to.

Thursday, June 20, 2013

A Week in the Life (v.11.2)

Forewarning... Summer is getting into full swing and we really like some clothes-less babies in the summer...

Daddy gave Finorah a bath recently...  He sent me this text message.

His proof that Finorah actually wrote the message on the wall.

Daddy's favorite outfit

Somebody really loves yogurt...

Finorah does her own hair styling -- her product of choice?  Pork & beans juice.

We are cutting 3-4 of her molars right now.  She decided that the cold block of cheese at the grocery store was a perfect teether.  We put the block back after she was done...  j/t

Another one of Daddy's gem.  She is learning consequences -- if she offers her cheese to Munk, he is going to eat it.

After being given more cheese, she feels better.

Love her little red nose from crying...

Like Mama like daughter...

Getting a push from Kristin, who is getting a push from E

In our household, we like to show our love...

She is just making sure that Bishop doesn't have to over-extend herself by getting up off her rear to eat.

The latest sleeping poises -- exhibit A

Exhibit B

Exhibit C

Last night, we discovered the joys of the piano.

Saturday, June 15, 2013

It's a family affair...


Please ignore the crazy crooked lamp shade. 

So I've been really bad at taking photos lately.  I still get at least a couple of shots a week on my good camera and try to take at least one or two with my phone.  There wasn't a Week in the Life post this week, because I only have three photos (and two of them were taken by E).


Singing and dancing in the streets

My family was out to visit last weekend.  My mom, two of her sisters, and two of my cousins drove out to Ohio for three days and then drove back.  It was wonderful having them out.  They came out when Finn was less than 3 months old and decided to come out and visit again.  We hung pretty low all weekend.  We went to the Westside Market, then to Great Lakes Brewing Co. and the next day we went to B.A. Sweetie's, the world's largest candy store.





I think they all had a great time and I really appreciated the fact that they took time off of work to drive out to see us.  Even though I moved away over 10 years ago, it's still difficult to say goodbye.  Tears were shed by almost all as they left.  I guess goodbyes are never easy, no matter how routine they become.




Monday, June 10, 2013

Mountain Mama

Editor's Note:  This post was written last week, but the photos weren't uploaded in time...




Back to back weekends, we have traveled distances over 450 miles one way.  The week before, it was the 600+ miles to get back to my home of Iowa.  This past weekend, it was the 450+ miles to get back to E's childhood summer home to visit his family.  Of course, each drive had it's moments of screaming and crying, but surprisingly for both weekends, those episodes didn't last too long.

Cousins...




Dog pile on Aiden!



 We made it to the Catskill cabin without much incident.  Finn had her first McDonald's shake along the way. Let's just say that it ended with me trading E for his empty shake, otherwise my dear daughter would have wanted to finish the whole thing!  We were at the cabin by 8:30 on Friday evening and we left on Sunday around noon.  It was a short trip, but it was very sweet.  There was a lot of hard work and sweat (it was also 95+ degrees that entire weekend with no A/C), but there was also a lot of cousin time, eating, and photos.  It was a fantastic weekend!

Sheena was generous to us and gave us this great backpack.


Humidity curls...



 
 


 

 



Mairaid got a splinter and there had to be a Catskill surgery done...

We all scream for ICE CREAM!!!!


Finn got to meet two of her cousins and one aunt for the first time and was reintroduced to one cousin and one aunt.  It was also the first time that the entire family (sans one) was together since the Christmas that I was pregnant with Finorah.  This post is going to be photo-heavy as sometimes a photograph speaks a thousand words...











 



Birthday Hugs!

Birthday Hugs!