Table manners

I am thankful that we have time to work on Finn's manners. This is not the Anne Landers approved muffin eating technique.

Pirates Ahoy!

Not only are pirates rampant off the Horn of Africa, they are all over the place in Michael's crafts in Annandale, VA.


Why is it that dressing babies up in costumes is almost irresistible?

Because they do this:

This is the funniest thing I have ever seen. ever.

Daily Grind

Finn's started going into day care twice a week. He has to be there promptly and comes home after lunch. Rather than being hesitant to leave, most of the time Finn is excited to go.


Here he ponders all the excitement to come. Will they go for a walk? Will they have large motor skills class? It's all so exciting.


The answer is that he'll go read a book with a girl who seems wary of Finn's approach.

Back in Cincinnati

After all the work was done in Dayton, we drove the familiar path down I-75 to Cincinnati to see how the city is faring without us. Finn was most excited about getting to see Elena again. He had been asking about her every day leading up to our trip. We also hear that Elena asks where Finn is when she walks back from the rooftop deck past our old house to her home. Here was the reuniting. Finn is getting off the elevator and walking down to Elena's house.


They played together and ran around out on the deck, just like in the old days. They shared Elena's toys and split pizza and watermelon for dinner.


After the first night we had to go to a hotel. It was strange being back there and not having a home to go back to. Liam, who never knew our old place, was perfectly happy with the hotel.


The next day we were going to the Reds' game with our friends I used to coach hockey with. Elena agreed to join us to find the appropriate clothing to wear to the game. Finn loved the giant foam finger, but there wasn't room enough in the car to bring it home.


While down by the river we ran into another friend who was out on his bike. It was good to see Jason and he is one of the few people who, although there was no plan to meet up with, you weren't surprised to just stumble across him randomly in Cincinnati. It was nice to be able to catch up with him again, and see him back on his bike after a year hiatus from a broken ankle.

The walk continued along the river to the playground. Liam got pooped pretty quick from all the bouncing and fresh air.


After running and walking all morning the kids wanted a break. They wondered over to the tennis court and watched the people playing there. Finn pulled out his one phrase he uses when watching sports, "That's awful!" He picked that up in the Caps final playoff game. They weren't playing well and I had given up. Of course that's the moment that Finn remembers...


Finally it was game time. The Reds (probably) lost. I can't really remember, but I do know there was a 2 hour rain delay in the 7th inning. That's when we left.

The company was better than the game. Our friends Adam and Katy with there little boy Tyler came down. We got to discuss the joys of having a newborn since the Liam and Tyler were only born a few days apart.


It was a great trip back to Ohio, but it already feels like a place we used to live and not a place we still call home. It had the same feel as coming home from college senior year. Everything is very familiar, but not quite home anymore. When we got back to our home after a 12-hour drive, it felt like home.

Air Force Museum

While we were in Dayton we went to the Air Force Museum. We, in this case, means Sarah and the boys. I showed up after my meeting one day, but there was so much left, they they went during my second day of meetings too.

Finn has progressed from the running and looking phase to be old enough to participate in the more interactive parts. That includes the walk-through cargo aircraft and the fighter cockpits you can sit in. The cockpits have this convenient warning.


After determining that Finn was not a hazard for getting stuck and declaring Finn to be "sure-footed" he jumped into this F-16 cockpit.


I like this picture because it shows Finn's I'm-really-studying-what-I'm-doing-and-trying-to-figure-it-all-out face. He eventually figured out where the throttle was and where the footrest/Multifunction Display was.


He has still talked about the Air Force museum since we've gotten back. Also, every airplane he sees now is an F-15. In fact, he claims our flight to Germany will be on an F-15. I'm glad it won't be.

Road trip!

I had to go back to Dayton for work and we thought it would be a good chance to go back and see the folks there once again. So we loaded up the car and headed out West.

Liam doesn't like the car rides too much. We're not sure what it is, but it may be that he gets worried when he can't see us. He got to the point where he asked to sit up front. I was ok with it, but Finn said that he kick the back of Liam's chair, so we put the two kids next to eachother in the back seat.


We stopped for a couple donut holes on the way. Finn likes the chocolate ones the best and felt the new to share the other kinds with everyone else.


When we got there, we were able to meet up with our firends Jeff and Angela and their kids Rowan and Lydia. It was a good eveneng of catching up and getting to see their new house. The house is great and it was our first time to meet the pretty Lydia.


There will be much more on the Ohio trip in the next couple days.

Bath time is fun time!

New babies tend to hate bathing. At some point it becomes fun like a trip to the pool. I hear that baths are again disliked for a time at some point in boyhood.

Liam has entered the loving baths phase. It makes it much better for everyone involved if the kid likes it and doesn't fight the process.


Someday when Finn is less wild or Liam is better positioned to defend himself, the two will take baths together. That will probably increase bathtime fun to the edge of drowning.

Arts of all sorts

Finn was quite the artist for a few days. He was trying different media hoping to find his true calling.

Here, with the help of our buddy Knute, he tried street art with sidewalk chaulk. It ended up being a participation piece.


He also tried finger painting. Always one to worry about cleanliness, he disrobed, went outside, and put plastic down on the ground. His fork brush worked great and required no additonal clean-up.


After all of the experimenting, he dicided that his preferred medium is train. He always go back to them at the end of the day.

Natural History Museum Painting

After the Merry-go-round, we went into the Natural History Museum. We started with all the standard sights: lions, elephants, whales, dung beetles, and of course giraffes.


But what really got his attention was the special painting room. The museum people set up an area where kids could put on a smock and then paint the things that they saw in the museum.


Finn was immediately entranced. He chose the purple paint and started filling in around the red fish the other kids made.

Meanwhile, Liam sat in the Bjorn and just watched the activity. I think he was jealous of the freedom of movement and fine motor control. He'll be there someday, but for now he's got to be content to be attached to Mom.

Merry-go-round

Another stop we made while my mom was out here was to the merry-go-round on the Mall. It's a guaranteed hit but Finn had never achieved is goal of sitting on the magic dragon. Every other animal is a horse except for the dragon.

He and his grandma went to the ticket window and Finn was entrusted with holding the tickets until time to board the ride.


Grandma, using a technique learned Disney World, broke to the right as the other kids all went left. The path was wide open and they made it to the dragon first!


I'm sure we are just setting ourselves up for failure next time when we don't get to the dragon. But we'll take today's success and deal with the life-lesson in the future. And remember, always go to the right when everyone else goes left. Going out on your own can reap some great benefits.

Bottle feeding

I hear that if you don't give a kid a bottle, after a while they won't take one. That would result in us never being able to leave Liam for more than a few hours at a time in his first year. And while I love that kid, I think there has to be some time when Sarah and I go out on our own. So in preparation for that, I heated up a bottle of milk and sat down to feed little Liam.

I think I saw a documentary where they nursed an alligator back to health by hand feeding it from a bottle. I'd also have to assume that it wasn't as dangerous as it sounded because the alligator's teeth wouldn't have come in yet if it was still nursing from its mother.

If some veteran can feed a baby lizard, I am sure I can feed my own son. It turns out all babies like milk. I successfully fed our boy and will be able to go out on a long date eventually.

By the way, it was a former military member who nursed the alligator and not some animal doctor.

Wolf Trap

Wolf Trap is an outdoor theater where a varied list of artists perform. The whole gang, including my visiting mom, went one day to a kids show. Finn is actually old enough to watch a show now. He can stay calm all the way through so as not to make the entire show about him anymore.


Then, after the concert, there is a huge field for running around and making new friends. As per normal, Finn ran up to a "big kid" and started playing with him. He is the most social 2-year old son I've ever had.

The running is a must to tire the kids out before the drive back home. It seemed to have worked that day.


For those who don't run yet, there are nice benches so that people can bounce you and feed you. The shade keeps things a little cooler now that the summer has hit in full force.



It went very well, and Sarah wants to go back when the symphony or some other show that doesn't involve clowns and kazoos is there.

Getting bigger

One of my favorite parts of parenthood is seeing the changes in the kids as they move from fetus to infant to baby to toddler...

In this picture you can see Liam is already gaining control of his noggin and looking at things near and far. His hand control isn't completely there, but he is moving his hand to rattles and toys, grabbing on from time to time.

A second kid is like reading a book when you've seen the movie based on it. We all know the main events that will happen and have a preconceived notion of how it will unfold, but all the details are different than you expect. There are even new things that you didn't see before.

The main difference is that the book is generally better than the movie. With a family, one kid isn't better than the other. In fact, you're all just characters in the same great storyline.

Future Photographer?

Continuing our effort to find a vocation for Finn, we suggested that he try photography. Personally I don't care if he is Ansel Adams or a paparazzo as long as he can support himself within a year or two. In fact, I think that these days the paparazzi may make more money than legitimate photographers. Except maybe those at Glamour shots.

He was very excited by the idea when we posed it to him. You can see the wheels spinning in his head behind that wry grin.


He jumped away from the train table and tried to find a camera. His first attempt failed miserably. You can understand since everyone's first try at anything rarely works well. After some counselling, he understood that it is the camera and not the lens cap that takes the picture.


His second try and finding the camera worked out much better. He had the camera and ran over to his favorite subject, Liam. He gave some good direction to his model, telling him how to pose and when to blink.


The result was very good. Here is our youngest with some (red?) hair growing in.


It seems that he may be qualified to work at Glamour shots after all. The thought made him so giddy that Finn rolled around on the floor and nibbled on his toes. He is only two after all. Besides, I've always heard that artists are quirky.