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.

Using utensiles

While I as off in Germany, Finn decided to become civilized by regularly using a fork and/or spoon. Here he is eating breakfast with a fork. Since then he has perfected the art of stabbing pieces of food with miniture trident.



Before he always like the biggest pieces, those pieces that he could pick up and gnaw chucks off of. Now he likes his food cut into small squares to stab.


He's officially surpassed a monkey in intelligence. He uses simple tools and has a language. That's a big step.

Biggest news from Germany

I'm pretty sure that our friend Rich from Dayton won't read this. He said that reading blogs to know what your friends are doing is a waste of time. So I am free to say whatever I want.

We rode the U-bahn together to the conference from our hotel each day. We laughed at the nice posters of the current hot German rock stars.



The biggest Rich new of all was post-conference. He met up with his girlfriend and came back with a wife! Unbeknownst to anyone of us, he and Christine, went down to Italy and took their vows after running from consulate to embassy to ensure that they could "get this thing legal" as he explained in a voicemail to me.

I suppose that was why he was often confused and distant during our trips and dinners. I thought that it was Rich being Rich, much like Boston Red Sox fans have grown to expect Manny being Manny.


Amazing, that Austrian rock star is still working, even if it is just selling his movie rights.

I don't have copies of the wedding pictures with me, otherwise you would see the most happy couple in the world in one of the most beautiful places in the world. We're so happy for you two and congratulations again!

Real time update: Post-op foot

Now that we have all the information from the doctor and the results of the surgery, I can better depict what happened and give a prognosis.

As she landed a side leap, Sarah's weight landed on a rolled ankle, pulling the tendon violently. The force ripped the end of the bone off of the outside-most (5th) long bone (metatarsal) in the foot. The bone fragment was then pulled by the tendon about an inch toward the heal, cutting all the soft tissue as it passed. The bruising is the result of that cutting and tearing. The toes are bruised from the pooled blood spreading throughout the foot.
The doctor said that the incision occurred right below a nerve running along the outside of the foot. He warned that it cold result in numbness and pain due to the swelling from the surgery. That warning was accurate. Tingling numbness is alternating with pain, typically coinciding with the end of the Vicodin's effectiveness.

All the time, the foot must stay above heart level. That means 24-hours of laying down per day. That doesn't mesh well with Sarah's general life-style and is rather taxing mentally. The physical repair was to insert pins through the floating bone curling the ends around the edges. The other ends of the pins were drilled through the bone and secured in place with wire wrappings around the bone.

In another 10 days when the swelling subsides a hard cast will go on and stay on for another month. No weight can be put on the foot for at least until the hard cast comes off in mid-September. The doc also warned that failing to follow his instructions may result in a less than fully functional foot.

So right now the help from the grandmas is coming in very handy since Sarah can't take care of Finn while forced to stay on the couch. Nancy was able to extend her stay a week, and mom will come back down next week. After that we'll scrape together help to watch Finn. Nancy is trying to come back down again and I will take a couple weeks of sick time from work.

It'll be better a couples months from now when things are back to relative normal. But we're a little intimidated until then.

Beach went off to Germany..again

Some longer readers may remember when this blog was entitled "Strangers in a Deutschland" because we lived in Germany. I returned back in the early days of June for a turbine engine conference in Berlin.


Finn escorted me to th airport. Here we are in the elevator riding down to the car. If you're wondering why is he unusually tall, he is standing on the suitcase.

Germany is as crazy as ever. They have wacky things on TV. The strangest thing this time was the 24-hour talking French toast channel. I took a picture of it because it was so bizarre. If anyone can explain this, please let me know. If you don't I'll continue to think that the Germans are the Alabamans of Europe.

Getting the hang of eating corn

Finn's more recent attempts at eating corn on the cob have progressed nicely. You may remember the first attempt, while succesful, involved eating the cob from one end.



As you can see, he now eats corn the more common way. He can also get most of the kernals off the cob without help. These kids are awesome with how much they learn so quickly.

Airplane toys

Finn had been very interested in airplanes. He points out each one that flies overhead and makes the sign while imitating the sound of the engines. We figured that it had been a while since he had gotten a new toy, so we strapped on his back-pack and set off looking for one.

We went up to King Arthur's Court Toys hoping to find that old Playmobile plane set. We didn't find that, but did find a small Delta 747 with flashing engines and whirring noises. The best part is that it is self propelled, but goes at two speeds. After a short slow speed roll, it quickly speeds up rotating the nose up like it will actually take-off.



He liked the toy so much that he only paused for a second to point out the turtle in the window as we left. I imagine that the noise it makes will haunt us later, but you can't avoid noisy toys anymore.

Reds game with friends

We had some tickets to the Reds and when with our friends, Kelly and Chris, and their son Ben. Finn is getting the hang of the whole baseball thing. Yo sit around and watch the other team score against Reds' pitching and shove food in your mouth.


We saw Griffey Jr. smash his 599th home run. Unfortunately we missed his 600th. We're so far behind, he's hit 607 at the time of writing this post, and who knows how many by the time it shows up on the blog. (We've been pre-writing them and releasing them one per day if you hadn't noticed. The goal is to eventually catch up to real-time.)


After the game we had dinner at Rock Bottom and played on Fountain Square. Finn love the water and splashing in the fountain.


After the big day, Finn felt lucky to see the Reds win so we went to be before things went bad. You can't press your luck too far.

Finn to Robby Knievel, "Watch out for me"

Evel Knievel's son, Robby, recently took the motorcyce jumping reigns from his father by jumping over 24 truck in Cincinnati a couple month back. Finn was inspired.


Of course, Finn doesn't have his learner's permit so he can't actually beat Robby's feat yet. It doesn't mean at he can't start training.

Finn climbed up on Firefighter Tad and showed his balancing skills. Though you can't tell in this picture, he was going about 25 mph across the floor. The tricky part was steering.


We're working on sponsorship. It would be nice if he could start pulling in some cash for us. If this ontinues, we'll make him wear his bike helmet all the time. That's the key to popularity, wearing a helmet. Chicks dig safety.

House chores

Finn has mastered sweeping and vacuuming and has moved on to more complex tasks that take him to new elevations. He is rising off the floor to help his mom do more chores.

Doing the dishes is a lot like bath time. There's water, toys and lots of splashing.


He pulls the chairs over to the edge of the table or counter and climbs up to get to the workspace. Sometimes Sarah moves the chair over for him and gives him specific things to pay with.

Breakfast is commonly French toast. Here Finn adds the milk to the egg miixture in preparation for the grill.


Playing with cooking tools is also a fun game. We showed him how putting a spoon in the bottle opener would play the Wisconsin fight song. That was a favorite game for a long time. It's another example of toys being seconded by everyday items like a spoon.


He must really like us to try and copy everything we do. He thinks anything we do is super-cool. I know that will change at some point, but it's great right now.

Backpack

We got Finn a leash. It connects to his backpack. For some reason, this backpack is the greatest thing to him. He loves wearing it and running. We put a juice cup in to so that he can bear some of his own load. That makes it even better for him.

He loves it so much he even learn to say 'backpack' in one day. Well he says "Bah-pah". Hey, close enough.



Getting a good picture of him wearing it is a challenge since he immediately sets off at full speed. I suppose that is why it comes with a leash.

Aquariums back home

Finn has a yearly pass to the Newport Aquarium so he can go nearly as often as he'd like. I'd like to move in there, but that's just not possible.

One of is favorite things is turtles. One of first words was 'turtle'. Here he is at the exhibit looking at the turtles climbing out of their eggs and scrambling to the safety of the sea.


The shark exhibit is amazing. To see these sharks that are 20 times his size and filled with sharp teeth is exciting.


A question we ahd was when would Finn stop blindly running over the windows in the floor and become scared of the holes. Clearly, we've reached that age.


The full series of pictures can be seen here.

Hockey season begins

I've had summer hockey conditioners the last couple weeks. That is the time that the team can meet, practice, and play a few games to shake off the summer rust.

Finn has also started hockey practice. One of the parents from the team gave him a hockey stick and ball last year. He has taken a liking to it and hit the ball around with the stick. Sometime he does it while wearing a 'do rag made out of his shirt.

I don't get the new fashion trends these kids have.

Bike riding in Cincinnati

One of our standing weekend activities is going for a bike ride. Finn likes it and likes that the route usually goes by one of the city's many parks where he can play on the jungle gyms. He likes the slides and climbing up the stairs. Of course, all that activity can make a very tired boy.

The ride also makes a very tired set of parents. The city is beautiful, partially because of the hills throughout, but that makes for a tough ride.

Another tough aspect is that riding on the streets can be a problem at times. There are many people who don't think that bicycles should be on the streets and don't give the room that they should. One, probably thinking they were helping, hit the horn right before passing us. For the record, that's not helpful.

We've started driving our bikes out to a suburb where a massive set of trails starts. Trail riding has no car traffic and very few hills since it is on the old rail bed.

There are plans to extend the trail all the way to the river and build a riverfront trail through downtown. That would be great and give us access from our house.

Here are more pictures from our ride.

Cincinnati Zoo is super

Although we loved visiting the National Zoo, it's a little too far away to go on a daily basis. For that we have the Cincinnati Zoo. It is a great zoo and has some very neat exhibits. In fact, it is so big and filled with wandering paths, it is possible to be lost.

Our family joined up with Elena's family to visit the zoo early one Saturday morning. There was not much of a crowd and the monkeys were howling. Finn was as interested in the animals as much as ever and had a big smile on his face the whole time.

He got so excited that he would run off ahead of us if we let him out of the stroller to find the next animal. He's getting fast enough so that we actually have to jog to catch up with him.


He concentrates on the big animals which are much easier to see than the smaller one. I have trouble seeing the small cats hidden in the rocks.


His favorite viewing spot in on the ground so he can run wherever he wants. That is followed by riding on our shoulders so he can see over the crowds.


His favorite exhibits continue to be the water animals. The zoo has an unbelievable manatee exhibit. Here's a video of him running around to watch the fish and manatees.

Real time update:Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday Sarah!

Although your foot is broken and surgery is on the horizon to repair it, take this birthday week to enjoy a break in the sun.


By the way, yes, that is the view from our dining room, out onto the patio, and into the Caribean. It's as relaxing and great as a vacation can be. Sarah even hobbled down to the beach for a bit.


You do so much at home and never get a break. This is well-deserved. No worries for the week and just relax and listen to the reggae music coming up from the beach.

Enjoy the peace and quiet and the return trip home to Finn so he can say "Happy Birthday!" in person.

Greatest photo of all time

What's going on out there?

He's been interested in the outside constantly and climbing up in to the windows. We can no longer open our windows frm the bottom, but have to slide down the top half of the window. He loves the business and excitement of the outside world and like telling us all about it. Here's a video of him explaining what's going on.

Holy Mole'!

We made it back to Cincinnati fine and easy. There was some discussion on CityKin, a downtown Cincinnati parent's blog, on where are good places to eat with kids downtown. Margarita's was mentioned and gave us a hankering for Mexican food.

Finn loved it. Sarah got the some enchiladas and I got chicken mole'. Finn ate it all. Beans, chicken, sauce, guacamole, everything.

He's been eating a lot this Summer, which may have lead to his giant growth spurt. He ate this entire sweet potato. It was as big as his head, much like a
La Bamba's burrito.



Although we've said it before, it bears repeating, we fear for his teenage grocery bills.

Stumbling into a wedding

Fifth street was closed back around Memorial Day, which provided great opportunity for some folks having a wedding to take pictures in the middle of the street. Based on the number of cameras and video cameras they must be important, or at least think they are. Perhaps they are part of "The Other White Meat Tour '08".


That same weekend,The Other White Meat Tour '08 was here for the Taste of Cincinnati, which was very popular this year. We're glad that they moved it down to Fifth Street from our street. We don't miss the butter left over on our doorstep.

Here's a shot of the crowd, the amount of trash left after the weekend is staggering.


Congrats to the wedding party whoever they are!