We made it.

Poop adventure, Number 2

We've had a couple poop adventures that rivaled the misery of the McDonald's incident. The first is a tale of a visit to Carter's to shop for some clothes and then a trip to Gymboree for some bopping and hopping.

Finn had been acting a little shy all morning. I attributed it to shopping for clothes, which can drive any guy into his shell. Hoping to soothe his down spirits we moved into the line to check out of the store.

Apparently irritated that we didn't shove the lady ahead of us out of the way and check ourselves out, the lady behind us in line stood right on top of Finn and me, literally.

I heard a strange noise and looked down at Finn. He was in turn staring at a little puddle on the floor. I thought he had thrown up and began to get out the wipes to clean up. Then I noticed the horrible sight; it wasn't vomit.

I grabbed Finn and ran outside to clean him up. Of course we didn't have an extra set of clothes, but being at Carter's, we bought a new emergency set for him. His shoes, socks, pants, and undershirt were all ruined.

As I went back in with a naked baby to get the new clothes, I saw a peculiar sight. Sarah was hunched down over the woman's shoes who was behind us in line. She had been so close to us that Finn's poo ended up on the toe of her shoe. So in addition to cleaning the floor, Sarah had to wipe off a stranger's shoe.

Of course there was too much commotion to take a picture of the actual event, so I made this rendering of the incident.



Please keep this in mind next time you crowd someone or stand in their personal space. Karma has a way of balancing out these trespasses. People can do anything in their space and respecting it is good for both you and them.

Going away party: Part two

The second going away party held for us was my work. We went to City Barbecue for a buffet which was awesome. I'll miss that place.

Finn made a new fried. Lt. Steve and Finn hung out the whole time. I think they really had some good times together.

I got a couple nice gifts and some kind words. The gifts were a class picture of everyone I worked with over the last 9+ years. The second gift was a nice piece of costume jewelry.

The small scale model engine is usually given mounted on a plaque and often referred to as the golden colon for its undulating shape. My version is diamond encrusted and comes hanging on a nice gold chain. It seems that my affinity for hip-hop music hasn't gone unnoticed in the office. It was a funny, homemade and well-appreciated gift.


After lunch the party continued at the bowling alley. Finn was impressed by the loud noises, flashing lights, and throwing balls at things. He even gave it a shot himself after I left two standing on the first ball.

The ball was pushed with great effort and low speed. At first it looked as if the aim was true, but them the ball started to drift to the left. However, without visible cause the ball straighten course and then came back to the right. Meanwhile the lane two our left had thrown two balls of their own. Then the seemingly impossible happened. The ball struck the lead pin from the left and drove it into the pin on its right. Finn picked up my spare on his first-ever ball.


Subsequent balls proved that event to have been a freakishly unlikely occurrence. He got more gutters than pins his other attempts. We all enjoyed the whole day and he got to text his lady friends on Emilee's cell phone. It hardly gets better than that.

More chores

Finn has begun doing more chores around the house. Now he can help water the plants. He likes it because he can go up in the window sills and also gets to pour water.

Normally he only pours water on the floor and that ends up poorly. But now he gets praise for dumping water on something. Everyone is happier.

New game

One day when Sarah was getting new glasses Finn became bored with the mall. Mostly it was because we weren't sure how long it would take and we just hung out near the shop. That meant we couldn't go to his favorite stores like Lids, Cardboard Hero, and other sports memorabilia stores. Instead we were confined to LensCrafters and the couch in the middle of the mall.

That's where the new game was invented. It's called "Ohh no!". I throw his stuffed globe up in the air and let it bounce off my head while saying "ohh no!". Now it's a classic. It's not just for the mall, we also play at home too. Here's a video sowing the play. I've gotten to the point where I can head the ball directly back to Finn like a world cup champion.



As you can see, he finds the game hilarious. An interesting part of the video is watching Mr. Pibb way in the background waiting patiently for his evening treats. Despite the commotion, he just sits there waiting for 5 bits of food.

So we each have our own way of having fun at night: Pibb sits in the corner, I hit myself in the head, Finn watches me bounce things off my head, and Sarah sits back and laughs.

Going away party: Part one

As the day we'll move approaches (it's still not definite), the going away parties have begun. The fist one was from the hockey team. It was a very special night for me and meant a lot. Players that I had for one year five years ago came to wish me well. Players who hadn't even played hockey in a couple years came by to say good-bye.



There were a lot of nice things said and I had a lot of nice things to say about the players, parents and association. I'll really miss the whole experience, including the early morning practices. I wish the best luck to the teams, from bantam to varsity on their seasons. They are filled with talent and people are expecting big things this year.

Sarah and Finn were there with me and Finn had a great time. In fact, he was the life of the party and crawled up on the pool table and became the literal center of attention. He was fantastic the whole time, even when he got away and almost made it into the kitchen before I caught him.


Thanks again to the team for their constant support. I'll stay in contact and watch the season from afar.

Trick or Trick

Halloween was a big night for the Finn and Elena. They got to go out trick or treating for the first time. Of course, last year they were in costume, but this year they knocked on a door and got treats.

Finn went as a Finn, as we showed before. Elena went as a Dutch girl, which she is. Her costume was super cute and even had fake wooden clogs. Together they had a united-nations or Disney's small world feel.


The two went through our building knocking on doors for treats and found that our neighbors upstairs had a good stash. Knowing that we aren't big on candy for Finn, they had Teddy Grahams and Animal Crackers.


The kids aren't great with patience and figured a bird in the hand was pretty good so they immediately sat down and ate their cookies. It was the cutest thing.

All the walking and eating eventually wore the two out and they decided to change into their pajamas and watch a movie. It was a good ending to a nice day filled with costumes and cookies.

Moustache?

I've decided to join the latest craze sweeping the nation, growing lip hair. You may ask a couple questions. First why would I put fur under my nose? A group called Movember (think moustache and November combined) is encouraging people to go a 'stache for the month and use all the attention as a way of asking people to donate a couple bucks to prostate cancer research. If you'd like to donate, click here and follow the directions. If that link doesn't work, just go to movember.com and click 'donate' and search on my name. The money goes to three research teams trying to find better treatment methods.



The second question that immediately jumps to mind is "why so big?". Well, that gets more attention and hopefully more donations. I'll continue to grow it as long as it is working. Otherwise, frankly, the attention and strange looks really aren't worth it.

Thanks in advance to everyone. I know that the economy isn't the greatest right now, but a couple bucks times 1,000,000 moustaches will make a difference.

Presidential Election: 2042

Finn was looking out the window the other day which seemed to me like the classic president-staring-out-the-window-of-Air-Force-One look. So I put the pictures together to see what it would look like. Plus with all this election stuff going on, presidents have been on my mind.

I know he's not eligible until he's 35. Even then, really you have to be a bit crazy to run. Maybe this picture is as close as it needs to come.

Fall finally comes

Cooler weather has moved into the area after a late arrival. That means that the parks are now empty since temperatures under 60 degrees are far too cold to let your children out in for the folks around here. Ault Park usually has a ton of kids there every day, but now without competition for the swings, Finn had a ride on my lap on the big swing.

Double the fun

We figure that Finn has been so much fun that it would be twice as nice if we have another baby. We're on our way now with number two due in early May. Finn was so excited and proud that he got a shirt made to commemorate the event.

We've had an ultrasound and saw a lounging little baby in there, fully reclined and taking it easy. Everything is progressing well so far and Sarah's moving out of the feeling sick portion of pregnancy.



Finn was with us on the ultrasound trip. He didn't really know what was going on, but found that flipping the light switch was great fun.



We're so excited and glad that our move will be done way before Sarah gets too far along to be able to set up the new place. No word yet on a boy or girl, but well know more near Christmas.

Can't stand this much fun

Finn and Elena have been spending a lot of time together in anticipation of our move to DC. Although they mostly parallel play when they are around other kids, they actually play together. Besides pushing each other around on wagons giving each other toys, they copy the other kid. Here's a picture of them copying me when I was laying on the floor. They think it's pretty funny.


They're going to miss one another so much after we go. Finn runs over to their door when we go to their floor and Elena does the same when she comes over to ours. I'm sure they'll meet up again as they grow up, but it won't be the same from far away.

Caught with his hand on the apple chair

Finn snacks a lot. I figure it's because his stomach can't hold a ton of food despite the size of his belly. Like a true American, what he really enjoys is food on the go. He doesn't like to sit down for a big meal-like snack, but wants to keep playing.

Sarah's solution was to put his snack on a chair and let him grab and go. He loves it and will sometimes run to the chair to see if there is anything there. It is somewhat reminiscent of Mr. Pibb sitting all night long at his snack bowl. That's right, our cat has both a food dish and a snack bowl. The significant difference is that while Mr. Pibb just meows loudly, Finn can say the word "snack".

Big boy

It's been busy again and I've fallen behind in my posting. Hopefully I can load a few in the hopper to catch back up pretty quick.


Here's a short message to start the process and whet your appetite. Finn looks much older now than he did a while ago. Here's sing two-word phrases and counting. When he counts, there are 2 of everything. For example, he says "1, 2 bus!" no matter how man buses are in view. One day he shocked us by saying "three" but that was a one time event.