Bike ride stop at a park

During one of our July bike rides we stopped at a park for some water and Finn refused to get back into his bike seat until he got to play on the jungle gym.

Home again

Finn was glad to get home from the trip to Massachusetts so he can spend his evenings playing on the rooftop deck of our building. He climbs onto every chair out there and is so proud of himself. He also likes the increased air traffic now that he's back in Cincinnati and has lots of opportunity to show us his sign for airplane with acccompanying sound effect. He had fun in MA checkingo out the mailman's truck, but the constant sirens in the city are more familiar.

Meeting Lucy*

Back East for 4th of July, we had the pleasure of meeting little Lucy Bea for the first time at her grandparents' house. Lucy is the new daughter of my oldest friend from middle school, Liz. It was all moms, babies, and grandmas for the evening, as Lucy's dad and grandpa were in NYC for a big Red Sox/Yankees battle. Finn was surrounded by women that night, but as you can see in the photo below, he didn't mind.


The Lineup: Proud Grammanita wearing her "I Love Lucy" t-shirt, Lucy Bea (at the time, 10 weeks old), Liz (motherhood agrees with her!), Sarah, Meme, Finn (ready for bed with Cow-Dog and paci).


*This post was written by Sarah, despite the label below.

Surprise trip to Wisconsin

While Sarah and Finn were off in the Berkshires, I was supposed to be in Virginia. However, the Air Force decided that the second week of my tour would be in Florida. That meant that staying in Virginia for the Fourth of July weekend didn't make sense.

That weekend was also the weekend my aunt and uncle from Colorado were going to visit my parents in Wisconsin. My brother Lanny was going to have a high school graduation party there too.



I drove 16 hours in a day and half to get there from Virginia. It was great to see everyone be able to see Lanny again before he heads off to college.

Full showing of pictures are here.

Off for the 4th of July

I was scheduled for my reserve duty for the first two weeks of July and rather than sit around Langley again, Sarah and Finn went up to a family event in the Berkshires.

Finn was very well-behaved on the flight up to Massachsetts. Here is a very patient boy waiting in the airport terminal.


While separated from me, Uncle Josh served as a surrogate. The two got along very well the whole trip, Finn getting very pset if they had to be separated.

A boat-load of pictures of the events are here.

Yoga at Friendship park

I try to attend morning yoga at Friendship Park, but have only been able to make it once. It is a free class offered each week. I really like yoga. It makes me feel better and really helps usable strength as opposed to beefing up.

Finn waited patiently at the side of the park. When the class went over an hour, he finally stood up off of the booth and search for other things to do in the park.


He wandered around and looked at the river and the flowers. He didn't get anxious to leave or get back on the bikes and go home.


After the class was over, we took Finn down to the playground for him to play on the slide and run around the monkey bars. It's always (once) a great start to the morning.

Squirt bottle, best thing ever

Our bike rides are fun, but they can get very hot. to combat the heat, Sarah brought squirt bottle to mist us during the ride. I always thought that I got sweaty enough, but maybe not.


Finn quickly figured out that pulling the trigger shoots mist out and that's unlimited fun. He ended up unscrewing the cap and losing it so I wouldn't recommend this as I toy.

He loves the bike riding and even seems to like his helmet now. When we approach the bikes, he gives the sign for hat that we also use for helmet.

Adventureland: Airport

We had to go over to the airport to add him to some tickets we had as an infant-in-arms.

That phrase always make me think of men-at-arms and He-Man's Friend Man-at-Arms. Below is a picture of them that look similar to us packed into an airliner.

Anyway, I got WAY off topic.

Finn stood and watched the planes taxi in and out. He likes the airport as much as most places he goes and it's free. Maybe he likesthe zoo or the aquarium more, but life needs variety, and the airport gives that.

Keys and locks

This picture may look innocent enough. A boy perusing his parents literary collection for his favorite books: The way of the Sufi or Untimely Meditations. However, in the foreground is a set of keys in a lock on a trunk.

Those keys are Finn's set. He was always trying to take our keys, so we went to the hardware store to get some blanks as a toy. The guy laughed and hand over a few mistake he had made and said no charge. One more data point to say kids don't need toys.

What truly makes it post-worthy is that Finn picked up his keys, walked over to the trunk, put the key in, and tried to turn it. He has definitely learned about locks and keys from watching us and is imitating what we do. The rate at which he learns and tries new things never stops to amaze us.

Sand Box

We were remembering how much Finn loved the beach during our trip to Myrtle Beach. Of course we can't create an entire beach in downtown Cincinnati, but Finn is small and he may just like a sandbox. By sand box I mean a box of sand. It turns out he does.


This little trick works wonders and is yet another example or howtoys aren't needed. to make a sandbox, all you needed is an empty box and a bag of sand. Toys inculde old measuring cups, an icecube tray, and a funnel.

Of course it comes with danger. There is the constant threat of spilled sand and a sandy shoe. But with prudent prevent measres like a tarp laid down underneath, plaing can be more fun that clean-up of common condo areas.

Firefighter Finn

One night we went up to the Mt. Adams United Dairy Farmers for a sundae. As we approached, Finn got excited and made the siren noise. There was a firetruck parked right outside the store.

He walked right up and stared at the dials and gauges. Soon the fireman came over to explain what each thing does.



Cincinnati has a great firefighting tradition. My favorite reference for any fact, Wikipedia.com, says:

"On April 1, 1853, the Cincinnati, Ohio (USA) Fire Department became the first full-time paid professional fire department in the United States, and the first in the world to use steam fire engines."

In addition to that "so-called" fact, Cincinnati is the home of the Cincinnati Fire Museum. We need to go over there some time.


The fireman also showed Finn his helmet and nozzle. Finn paid extreme attention through the whole lecture, and was fairly upset when we had to go. Maybe he'll be like his cousin Mark who was a volunteer firefighter.

Popsicle

We made popsicles for Finn. Well, if you make them, they are frozen juice which is definitely not a popsicle. We made the rookie mistake of using grape juice and then became paralyzed with fear. Howeve after an episode in the pool, we thought that it would be safe to let him run around outside with a drip-sicle.



He loved them which is clear from the picture. What is also clear is that his belly is directly over his mouth. The drips of grape juice prove that.

What wasn't obvious is that grape juice stains concrete. After his frozen treat Sarah ran around with a spray bottle of Clorox to erase the evidence of the pops. We still haven't given him his second pop from the tray.

Hof Brau Haus Newport

After a long bike ride, we stopped at the Hof Brau Haus for a sausage and beer. We thought Finn might enjoy a touch of this birthplace right here in Cincinnati (or at least across the river).

He loves slow-cooked or processed meat like ham, pulled pork, and brats. I think that everyone loves fries. I mean grease, potato, salt dip, dip, dipped into sweet ketchup, what isn't to like?


When acting like a German, it is not enough to just have a hot dog. You must have a beer with it. Finn had to learn to drink from a real glass and not a sippy cup nor a straw to do it, but he figured it out.


Plus, nothing ends along bike ride better than a relaxing meal and a beer to cool off at lunch. Perhaps Finn would like to learn to play to tuba and join their "oomp-ah" band. That's a respectable profession.

Mr. Chirpy

The return of the cicadas came again this year. It's not the huge explosion that the 17 year cycle bugs were, but there were plenty of them flying around in the older parts of town. Here is one of our red-eyed friends that is on Sarah.

Another decided to land on me.


Finn didn't make a big deal out of the bug, just pointing it out to us as something new. It was just another thing in his world that he hadn't seen before. We forget what it is like to see things that are truly novel, but we shouldn't. It makes life a little more interesting.

Finn spins

Finn dances in a mode similar to the chicken dance combined with spinning in circles. This video shows one of the first times that he started spinning around in a circle.

This is evidence that people are not born with an understanding of spinning leads to dizziness.

No babies were hurt in the making of this film.

Once more into the zoo

We have made several return visits to the zoo. One was during the free zoo day. While it was still interesting, it was way too crowded.


The highlight was the bear fight we saw. The two black bears were playing by standing on their hind legs and batting each other in the head. It was impressive and engaging as you can see by our faces.

Backyard pool

Finn and Elena enjoyed the summer weather outside in our inflatable pool. You can see how exciting he gets both with her and the pool. After spending 30 minutes blowing up the pool and filling it with water, th kids jumped in and started splashing.


Elena was surprised at the size of Finn's belly. We caught her staring.


She needed to test to see if it was real by using the poke test.


The pool party was a lot of fun and we've had many trips back out to the pool. The pool is a perfect toy. It is deflatable for easy storage, it gets the boy outside, and holds his attention for an hour.

Jill, Rich, and Ben visit

Jill, Rich and Ben came out to Cincinnati to watch their beloved Red Sox play our beloved Reds. Ben got to play with Finn's old toys, which immediately made them way cooler than they were the day before.


Finn became jealous of Ben using his jumper. They both wanted to play with the slot machine part of the jumper. Eventually Finn spun the chair around to face Ben the other way so he could have solo control.

The day of the game, everyone dressed up in support of their team and headed down to the park.


At the game, it was a classic father-son (and mom) day out. The kids were very well-behaved and both eventually fell dead asleep.


When they left, Ben had to use Finn's old car seat. Finn became jealous once again and crawled around and played in the car seat that his legs and arms hung out of.


It was a great visit and the Reds won the game we attended. That sent half of us back with smiles. Getting to see friends we hadn't seen in six months sent the other half back with smiles.

Bubbles

It was very difficult to find a single bottle of bubble soap. Every store wants to sell a six pack of bottles or an automatic blower. Where is the red bottle and stick hoop?

Unable to find what we wanted, I mixed some water and dish soap in an old plastic dish and made hoop out of some twist ties. Viola! It works.


If Finn is super excited about something, he learns to say the words very quickly. Bubbles came almost immediately.

We eventually found an 89-cent bottle of bubbles, which is good. The tist ties weren't the best bubble maker in the world, but Finn never noticed.

Ohio River tests its banks

June was full of rain for most of the US. The result was that the Ohio River was running much higher than normal. The river boats that normally have 60 feet of clearance above thier stacks were squeezing under the bridges.


The park was unaffected. Finn is now tall enough to grab the monkey bars while running underneath. He climbs up the bar ladders rather nibly. Well, at least the first rung or two. It becomes a little scary after that.


Since June, it has been significantly dryer and the rivers have returned to normal levels. The park is nicer with the lower water. The serpantine wall is exposed, the water is marginally less muddy, and more large barges make it upstream. A barge passing always makes it a good trip to the park.