Playmats, not just for newborns

I caught something falling out of the sky

Mom and the boys

Finn wouldn't cooperate, but we still got him in the picture.

Freaking me out

I've finally had time to post this, but it has been driving me crazy. The night before my birthday I had a weired dream. It was so vivid I even wrote a post about it.

I never really believed in psychic powers, but this is too bizarre.

Little Playa

Fountains

more sleeping

Double stroller

Brothers gotta hug.

Mom and the youngest

Liam lap time

New tent

Finn got a new tent from Ikea. He likes to measure it with his measuring tape.

Family dinner

The pool is now open

It's nice since it is hot and humid everyday that it doesn't rain.

Size Comparison

Compare to Finn and the Kleenex box here

Somebody spilled

He's pretty good about cleaning up after himself.

At the playground

My birthday

I had a great birthday, which meant a day off of work and time with the family. Thanks to everyone for the good wishes.

Last night I had a weird dream last night. I dreampt that Michael Jackson euthenized Farrah Fawcett, then offed Ed McMahon for not repaying his debts and then killed himself by overdosing on prescription medicines. I wonder what that dream means?

Anyway, thanks again to everyone for the great birthday!

Bath time for everyone

Liam doesn't like baths yet. Finn doesn't mind the extra noise.

Afternoon

Liam catches a few more minutes of sleep.


Finn learns about dunking cookies. For example, a big cookie doesn't fit into a small milk jug.

Walking on the wall

Finn loves the playground in the park next to our house. We always see the next door neighbors when we go to the park; way more often there than on our street.

One of Finn's favorite things to do there is to walk along the perimeter wall around the playground. When we brought Liam, Finn thought it would be fun if Liam walked the wall with him. I had to help Liam since he can't walk yet.

Memé comes to town

Memé came into town to meet Liam and got to stay through a tough time. Liam had to go to the hospital with a fever over 103. After a few days on IV antibiotics he recovered fine and it seems it will be only a short-term hiccup.

Memé's visit was nice and involved a trip to the zoo and crocheting. Here's a shot of the zoo trip. There were some apparent shenanigans going on the the elephant house. I suppose it's spring and that's what happens.


Of course there were lots of times with Liam too. Here's a morning picture with the Liam swinging away.


It was a nice visit that ended a little abruptly with Sarah and Liam going to the hospital. But at least Memé will get to come back in a couple weeks to spend more time with everyone.

All the boys

I have giant hand.

Moving? Alpaca!

The new house has a farmers' market in the adjacent park. One of the booths is an all-natural yarn sale with an alpaca pen behind it. The alpaca farmer was apparently high at 10am. While Finn played with the alpacas we enjoyed the conversation between him and a slower adult that walked by. Here is an imprecise transcript:

Lady: Are these cows?

Farmer: No man, they're alpacas!

Lady: Why are they here?

Farmer: Why are any of us here? (pothead laugh) No man, the kids love them. The parents follow the kids and then people buy our stuff.

Lady: What stuff?

Farmer: The fiber! The fiber from the alpacas...we raise them and take their fiber and make stuff with it. People buy that stuff. I don't know why.

Lady: What are their names?

Farmer: This one is smokey. He's 6 months old. Wait no. That one is cocoa. He's 9 months old. Hold on. The brown one is cocoa. He's 6 months old and the grey one is smokey who is 6 months old. (pothead laugh)...whatever. You got $500?

Lady: No.

Farmer: You can buy them. You got the cash, we got the alpacas!

That's when we left.

The boys

The boys really like to hang out together. I suppose it is more precise to say Finn likes to be near Liam since Liam doesn't seem to care for much than sleeping and milk.

Finn will walk up to us and ask "Hold it, Liam?" and then we sit down with them and let Finn hold him. Finn is so sweet. After holding him he'll often say "I love it, beans." Someday he'll express love for Liam too.

Bath time

The first bath at home went as all first baths at home go. You can almost hear the cry in the picture. I also realized that Johnson and Johnson's "No more tears" slogan is not the same as "no more crying". It is based on the fact that newborns don't actually make tears.

Building a Trike: An epic family story

One bright and sunny May day, a young boy named Finn was out with his father. They generally start the day with a 10 or 15-mile jog just to get the blood flowing. However, this was not an ordinary day-it was particularly special. There was a new boy at home and Finn was going to be a big brother for the first time. Finn wore his special shirt to let everyone know how special the day was.


When they got back home they discovered not only a little brother, but a new tricycle! It turns out that each sibling you get brings a fun gift to apologize for the lost parental attention. Finn, don't get any crazy ideas...


So Finn and his papa pulled out the directions and uncharacteristically his father read them. Finn meanwhile scrambled the parts and hid screws to make the assembly more of a challenge than it should have been.


Finn is a really useful boy. He helps his papa build things including this new trike. Finn used his shiny pliers with a red rubber handle to loosen the bolts that papa tightened and sometimes even helped with the screw that papa was working on at that moment.


The bike was slowly taking shape and only the last two wheels needed to be put on the frame. His papa said "Please hand me the wheels so I can finish this for you".

Finn laughed and waved the wheel while saying "This wheel?"

"Yes Finn."

Finn just laughed and waved the wheel in the air.


The wheels made it onto the trike eventually. Though he did need them anymore, Finn decided to hold on to the pliers for the rest of the day as he peddled off into the distance.


The whole time the bike was being built, Liam did what Liam does best: sleep.