It's been very dry lately

Anyone need a tissue? or a dark blue shirt with guns on it?


The guy outside has at least one of those.

Stinky

You know what's stinky?


A drained reflecting pool.

Memé visits

Sarah's mom came down to visit one grey weekend. Our big trip was down to the Mall and White House to see the standard sites.


The day was nice enough to stay warm without jackets while we walked around. We've also taken to using the dual stroller even with a single baby. It handles the brick sidewalks better and has half of it available for carrying our stuff.


Sarah is looking more and more pregnant each day. This was almost a month ago too!

A very nice part of the visit was when Nancy watched Finn and we were able to go alone together. It was our first time out alone since our trip to Tortola. Even then we had Sarah's foot cast with us. We didn't do much, but did get to eat out distraction. And that's nice sometimes.

Junior Fire Chief

One morning we woke up to firetrucks lined up and down our street. Finn and I went outside to investigate. It seems that there was a false alarm down the road. After it was clear that things were okay, a fireman came up a made Finn a Junior Fire Chief.


Knowing that Fire Chiefs generally have moustaches, Finn sloppily ate his Nutella on toast so he would perfect the look.


Since then, the hotel nearb had an alarm go off to. Finn ran, put on his hat, and took me outside so he could run the command center. At least for the junior firefighters.

Snow Day

This "winter" had a single snowstorm here in DC. Luckily Finn was prepared with his hat, mittens, and boots. While most of the area around our place was quickly shoveled, the square across the street was left covered in snow.


After playing for a while, he stomped his boots off and headed back home for a nap.

Rock the Red

Cousins Chuck and Andi couldn't make a Caps game that they had tickets for. They generously offered them to us. We donned our red clothes and headed to the Verizon Center. While the score in this shot says 2-1, it quickly got out of the Caps control quickly and ended 6-2.

Finn didn't care. When Ovechkin scored he threw his hands in the air and yelled "Goal!". Whenever he heard the organ, he would clap his hands and slap his knees.

It was definitely a great time and thanks again to Chuck and Andi for making our day.

Nuts

Finn greets me as I come home each day with a single word, "Nuts!". At first I thought that he was upset that I come back each day, but then I realized that he wants a snack before dinner. While Sarah finishes up cooking, Finn and I sit out in the living room and eat peanut or pistachios. Finn has a clear favorite. As he says at the end of this video "I love it".

Inside the Gallery

There are interesting chairs and stools to take a rest on:


But that isn't as good as a painting of a train!

National Portait Gallery

The National Portrait Gallery is a great place for us to go. It has one of the most diverse collections (not just portraits), is in a beautifull building, and had plenty of space for Finn to run aroud in.


The building is a rectangle with a center courtard that has very cool fountains that stream a film of water across sections of the floor. Kids and adults alike love to run through the water. Finn also likes running through the open space.


It's hard to get a picture of him when he is running at fullspeed, but we did our best to capture the big smile.

After he was a little tired, Finn would sit at the edge of the fountain and splash away in the water. He stayed relative dry until he dicided to run through the water and slide face first like Pete Rose through the water.


His newest phrase he can say is "soaking wet".

Trains are a continuing theme

Since it is very difficult to find time to write blog posts, I think I will concentrate more on the pictures and less on the words. I should be able to catch up on the posting with the sacrifice of my witticisms.

The Afterparty

The day after the wedding, we went to Opry Mills mall to meet with Cailin, Nicolai and Jess for lunch. While we were waiting, Finn found some snowboards he'd like to try out next year.


It was nice to see our friends who we rarely get to see anymore. It's also good to see little Amalia who we usually only see in her blog.

Kyle's Wedding

My friend from highschool got married over the long weekend in February. We drove out to Nashville, put our fancy clothes on, and went to the wedding. Finn was so excited about his "new outfit" that he would say it over and over again. I tried to teach him that men wear clothes and women have outfits, but mom's influence seems to have outweighed my own.


The wedding itself was very nice. I hope Finn didn't ruin it too much when he made a dash down the aisle with Sarah chasing him down before he reached the wedding party. The amount that they care for eachother was clear from the smiles on their faces and the looks in their eyes.


The reception was a roaring party as expected. The toasts were plentiful and truly covered the spectrum from calls for immediate pregnancy, to a reminder that being American was the greatest thing possible. The dancing was filled with memorable moments and continued long after we brought the very sleepy boy back to the hotel.


It was Finn's first wedding and set the bar for him to which all others will be judged.

Finn sees Mr. Pibb as someting not to hit (as much)

Finn has grown to enjoy Mr. Pibb's presence and has even learned that that presence can be extended if you don't pull the cat's tail or pound your fist into his side. Finn even calls him by his proper name "Mr. Pibb" and no longer just "cat" or "kitty".


Here the two are sharing a bowl of the juice from a can of tuna. While it is a favorite treat for Pibb, Finn was more content watching than drinking.

A boy and his stick

The warm weather provided a great opportunity to go down to the riverfront park and run in the newly green grass. Like all kids, Finn picked up a stick and started hitting things with it immediately. Most of the aggression was taken out in the large tree in this picture.

After walking, running and jumpig it was time to make the walk home. That walk is uphill and Finn needed a breather on the way. The little ledge on the steps up to a townhouse was a perfect spot for him to rest his feet.


There are a number of parks along the Potomac in Alexandria for us to go to. They have everything from big fields and basketball courts, to sand pits, jungle gyms, and see-saws. There is a definite difference in Finn when he gets outside and can run around for a while. His nap is longer, he is less irritable, and eats better too. It'll be great once the weather is permanently warmer and he can get out each day, even if just to the rooftop recreation deck in our building.

Back to the zoo

We took a trip to the zoo on a warmer day last month. The zoo, as with other places that Finn really likes is a difficult place to leave. We always say that it is tough to do things he likes, because it is so traumatic to leave.

The zoo had a couple things going for it that day. The first was that the orangutans were crossing the cables traversing the zoo. They can go between two buildings to get a change of view.


The second thing was the Amazon exhibit. Not only at the giant fish in the aquarium the coolest thing in the world, they have bugs. To make sure we saw the bugs, Finn would say "Papa see? Ohh yeah!" and then make the sign for bug, which he interprets as picking his nose. It is very similar.

Return of the Faux-hawk

A pre-bedtime bath lead to some creative hair styles on a cold February night. It is very difficult to look tough while holding a stuffed doggy in your mouth, but he' trying his best.

Butterfly exhibit at the Natural History Museum

In Cincinnati there was a live butterly exhibit at the Krohn Conservatory for a few weeks each year. Here the Natural history museum has a similar exhibit year-round. Finn likes the butterflies flying around, and got very exited when they landed on Sarah. Here he watches one butterfly while another ;ands on the wall behind him.

Cat games

Some games are great to play with your pet. One of those games is laser tag. You shine a laser pointer one the floor and let the cat try and tag it. It turns out this game also works great with kids. Who knew?

I do feel a little bad for playing the same game with our son as I did with our cat, but he had fun. Hopefully he won't still be playing when he is as old as Mr. Pibb.

Modern Art

We swung over to the Hirschorn to check out the best Modern Art has to give. It was underwhelming. Not that it was all bad, but the percentage of things we like is not as high as other museums.


What it does offer is a round museum with very few people in it so Finn can run the hallway endlessly.


I'm sure we'll go back sometime to check out the traveling exhibits, and it is interesting to see some of the pieces. A little variety is always good, especially in art.

Taking notes

Finn has a notebook now. He keeps a green crayon in the pad with it which he uses to jot down his thoughts and sketch the sights of the town. I thought he would only play with it once, but he asks for it and uses it all the time. While he likes the train set most and I will admit that was a purchased toy that he loves, it is another example of a good toy already sitting in our house.

Back to the ice

We headed back to the ice and took to the stakes for a second, and probably final time this year. Finn progressed to the point where he could stand on his own, even with the dullest blades in the world.


A few days ago, we were at a store to pick up some new things for the second baby and saw a rink next door. I took him in to see if there was a youth game going on; it was public skating. He kept saying "Shoes off...ice". I felt bad we had to go without skating that day.


He really got the hang of it in the second time out. It was too warm out for me though. All the skating and lifting left me very sweaty.



It'll be interesting to see next fall if he is as excited as he was his year.

Playing with the trains

Finn spends about 3 hours per day playing with the train set. The first thing he says in the morning is typically "Downstairs, train tracks." His intense concentration is amazing to me and the apparent thought behind his play is great.



The train track is without doubt, his favorite birthday gift ever.

Inaguration Day

On Inauguration day we stayed in to watch the ceremony and speeches, but then took to the streets to enjoy the rest of the day off from work. We walked down to the Old Town waterfront. Here is a nice ship of the Coast Guard ship blockading the Potomac River against raiders.


After seeing all we could, including the ice flows on the river, we all walked back to the house. Yes it was that cold, but we didn't have to be out in the weather for 8 hours like Chuck and Andi did.

Finn has increased the distance he actually walks when we go out. He's even walked the entire distance from the Metro stop to our house. Google maps calls it 0.4 miles.


Having the day off and being in a place to experience the atmosphere surrounding the events is spectacular. I wonder what the next event will be. Of course I know since this post is about 6 weeks late.

No more crib

Two years seemed long enough to sleep in a crib. Maybe less than two years if you don't count the early days when he would only sleep in the car seat. Plus the crib converts to a bed and we figured that we should use that feature for a little while before a new baby needs the crib.


Of course unleashing nap time has lead to some issues with tissues. One day he somehow got to the wipes and threw them everywhere around the room. Either before or after that, he pumped half a bottle of lotion out and put it on his head, shirt, blanket, and anywhere else he could get to. At that moment I almost regretted the words I sing when applying his lotion: "Lotion cow-dog, lotion Finn, lotion everybody".


He dosn't always stay in bed, though that is getting more common. The is a typical picture of him at nap time. He gets out and goes onto the floor to play. At some point he gets tired and wants to get back in bed, but he doesn't always make it before sleep hits.

We're getting a bit nervous about the arrival of the second. We're not really completely unpacked (but are likely to never be now) and the time is amazingly short. We're only 4 weeks away from the point when Finn was born with the second one. Yikes.

Repost

It seems that the video of Finn dancing didn't appear in the post about Knute the first time. I got the probem fixed, so make sure to check it out.

Building Museum

One of the coolest places in DC for kids is the Building Museum. It is in an old armory, I think. There is a giant inner courtyard with a fountain in the middle. There is also a few exhibits especially for kids. One of which is the firefighter dress-up place with big Lego pieces. It's probably good that I said that explicitly since it would not be identifiable from this picture.


There is even a mini house to play in too. There are lots of cool things for kids to do all around town and I think Finn is slowly seeing them all.