We had a fun Halloween this year, with Finley just starting to walk and able to walk up to people's doorsteps for candy-getting... he wore the same costume Brie wore when she was almost one, so we were constantly comparing how the two of them looked in it.  They do look surprisingly alike!  I got pumpkin carving pics but didn't get pictures of the pumpkins finished, and not too many of the kids in costume.  Josh's mom did get a lot more pictures so hopefully I can get hers soon.  I've posted the pics in an album, but have decided to start limiting my photos to my network.  I've added everyone I can now, but if you want to be added, just let me know.

 

I'm going to post the pictures from our pumpkin picking in Wilcox in an album, because there are so many...

 

Also from our Tucson trip... great fun!

 

 

 

 

Well, I guess he's more toddling around.  But he's doing great.  Think we need to get some video, haven't gotten any in quite a while.  Here are some pictures from Tucson two weeks ago when we went down to go pumpkin picking...

 

        

The world lost a good, sweet, man over the weekend.  A friend from high school, Owen Shelksohn, passed away on friday, unexpectedly.  While I hadn't spoken to him in quite some time, he was never forgotten.  He was always such a wonderful, caring person, always there to help others.  And with a great sense of humor.  It's amazing the outpouring of love that I've seen for him on Facebook from those who also knew him from high school.  I hope he knew how many people he had touched.  I will be setting up an account to collect money for his wife and family.  Please feel free to donate what you find appropriate.  I'm sure every little bit will help.  How tragic to lose someone so young, just at the beginning of his life.  I will post more info on the account after it's set up.

 

I can't even remember when I first heard about this organization, but I'm sure it was some time ago.  Then I kept hearing the name, and each time I thought "I should check that out."  Never got around to it until today.  I couldn't even remember what it was called - thank goodness for Google.  I went on and searched for something like "Give small loan company africa" or something similar.  Ha ha.  Anyway, if you have a few dollars lying around, it's amazing what good it can do.  Check out Kiva at http://www.kiva.org/app.php.  Their website says that "Kiva lets you lend to a specific entrepreneur, empowering them to lift themselves out of poverty."  You can invest as little as $25, and you do get paid back over time.  Today I lent $100 and gave a donation of $15.  Not much.  I challenge you to do the same.

Yes folks, Finley almost has his first two teeth.  I know you are as excited as I am.  Just like I'm ready for him to walk so I no longer have to carry him for my entire life, I'm excited for him to get teeth so that he can start actually chewing things rather than just gumming.  I can feel and barely see both bottom middle teeth, so they are working on coming out.  He is surprisingly good-natured about the whole thing.  I was wondering if maybe teething feels like when you got your braces tightened when you were a kid.... remember that feeling of not wanting to eat because it hurt to chew?

 

We had a fun weekend... Saturday Brie's friend Jade from her last school had a party at a bounce place, which was great fun.  Then the kids went straight from there to grandma and grandpa's house to spend the night.  I had a fun girls' wine party and Josh went out with a friend... first time I had thrown a "theme" party - complete with party games, tons of appy's, and decorations.  I'm usually not into that sort of thing but I thought it was fun, and hopefully everyone else had fun, too.  Who knows, I might get more into "theme" parties now.  It's kind of a lot of work, tho!

 

Today we went to help Katie move out of her place in Scottsdale and back to Fountain Hills.  After that we hung out at the 'rents for a while with all the family (J's parents, grandparents, kids, Katie, etc).  It was good and it's soooo nice that the weather is finally cool so we can go outdoors.  What a lovely change.  We also not only got a night away from the kids, but apparently get gifts for letting the grandparents watch them (LOL)... grandma had been shopping again and sent us home with a big bag of clothes for both kids.  I realized today that I'm very lucky that she has good taste... while my kids don't need all the stuff she buys them, it definitely saves me having to shop (whew!), and the stuff she gets is really cute.  I imagine that some people have grandparents that like to shop but buy hideous things, so at least we love the stuff she buys them.  Even though it's a bit in excess.  And Brianna, at least, really loves the stuff.  Who knows, Finley might be a fashionista when he gets a bit older.  You never know...

Finley's progression to a 9 month old crawling, babbling, getting-into-everything infant...

 

Height: 28 1/4" (50%)

Weight: 23 lb 3 oz (80%)

Head: 18 3/4" (95%)

 

Obviously his brain is HUGE and his height growth is not keeping up with his weight.  Surprisingly, he is the same height as Brie at this age, but the percentile seems lower.  Guess that's because he's a boy. I 'm also surprised that his weight is only 80% - he seems HUGE to me.  Ah well.

 

Some things about him:

- No teeth yet!

- Still eating and drinking pretty much everything, he does pretty well for someone with no teeth!

- Just weaned, mom needed her boobs back

- Crawls "properly" everywhere now

- Pulls up and cruises

- Can let go and balance, standing

- Can let go and transfer to another piece of furniture not within arm's reach

- Sleeps through the night (needed a little prodding on this but now can do it consistently)

- Had to switch carseats to a convertible back to front-facing, he got way too big for the infant carseat

- Loves bike rides and stroller strolls.  Is pretty much happy to do anything with Brianna

- Loves attention and likes to pretend he's shy (plays peek-aboo with new people by hiding his head in my shirt and then peeking out)

- Took his first camping trip a couple of weeks ago

- Is starting to like to hit/pull, especially on his sister.  We are trying to nip this in the bud.

 

Some things about Brianna:

- Couldn't leave her out!

- Is now in preschool 3x/week

- Can write "Brie" on her own

- Knows her colors, shapes, and some letters

- Loves to draw people.  They're really quite good

- Loves her baby brother and generally plays very well with him

- Is very active, currently doing ballet, swimming, tumbling, and itty bitty sports. We have to get the energy out somehow!

- Just got a new 16" bike and is practicing with training wheels.  She would like them off soon!

- Loves to help with anything.

- Is very social.  Especially loves her girlfriends from her previous school, Stori and Amber.  Also loves our friends' kids, Ashley and Jessica.

Finley is now quite the mover.  Time to keep the baby gates closed all the time.  The other day Brie was upstairs doing something, and I went upstairs to check on her, left Finley downstairs playing with his toys in the living room.  When I left her room to come back downstairs, Finley was halfway up the stairs.  yes, indeed.  I kind of thought that was a fluke.  Then, yesterday I left the kids in the living room, Brie was eating breakfast and Finley was doing what he does best, getting into everything; while I went outside to take the recycling out.  I came back in, not maybe 5 minutes later, and couldn't find Finley.  I asked Brie "where's your brother" and she didn't know (engrossed in cartoons).  I then heard him upstairs... I asked if she took him upstairs, she said no.  Turns out he had climbed all the way up the stairs and was in my bedroom, calling for me.  Guess he thought I was up there.  Cute, in a way, also scary in a way.  Guess the baby gate goes up at the bottom of the stairs now!!!

For some reason I was blocked out of photos.  Posting quite a few now, as that was resolved.  Am still not able to post within my blog posts, hopefully we will get that sorted out soon.  Currently trying to have Finley play in a playyard rather than pulling everything off every shelf, he's not crazy about it.  Guess I should get him out...

Here we are, the end of August already.  Maybe that means that cooler weather is to come... although I'm sure not too soon.   It's still in the triple digits here in Phoenix - supposed to be 110 or more today.  Which means, we are still prisoners to the indoors.  Harder when you have two children than when you are a single adult.  I feel like we've been telling Brie forever "we will do it when it's cooler" in response to her requests to go to the park, ride her bike, play outside, etc, etc, etc.  I am happy to go to the city pool with her, since that's the only thing we can comfortably do outdoors.  I feel a bit of cabin fever - I imagine what others might feel during the winter in cold places...

 

My dad prompted me to write an update... noting that I hadn't posted anything much in quite a while.  Sorry for that.  I find I'm not at the computer all that often, and finding a quiet moment when I can actually sit down and type is quite difficult to find.  So, let's see what we've been up to.  Finley is now 8 months old, and Brianna is, well, still 3.  Amazing how time passes so quickly.  Finley is still performing his military crawl to get around (very quickly!) - I've found he can actually crawl "properly", but it isn't fast enough for him, so he always ends up on his belly.  He pulls up on everything, "cruises" around the furniture, and can take some steps assisted.  Still not letting go on his own, yet, though.  He is quite mobile, and I don't really remember Brie getting into as much as he is getting into, but then again, we had much less "stuff" when she was this age.  Her toys/crafts/markers/etc are everywhere, and he is so curious about that.  I often find him chewing on a piece of chalk, remnants of a tattoo she applied to herself, marker, etc.  I have to be pretty careful to scan the floors whenever he is down, as he is at the age to put everything in his mouth.  Fortunately he doesn't seem to try to swallow anything... just tasting. :)

 

Turns out Finley wasn't teething - he was actually sick.  The not sleeping and runny nose progressed to a full-blown chest cold... so bad that I actually took him to the doctor (strange for me!).  They gave him some steroids, both in shot form and oral to take home, and it seemed to clear up pretty quickly.  So, still no teeth, and I can't feel anything coming.  I will have to look back at when Brie started teething, because I have no memory of that.  I'm happy to not have teeth, as F is still breastfeeding furiously, especially at night, and from what I hear, teeth can cause some serious pain.  He is eating quite well (solids, that is) also, though... eating most everything we eat.  I love my food grinder!  Haven't found much he doesn't like... other than maybe squash and carrots.  Doesn't seem to like those orange things.  Everything else seems to get his approval.  He definitely isn't having trouble keeping his weight up!

 

Josh and I escaped last weekend for a surprise weekend away.  Josh surprised me for my birthday (belated, because I've been working so many weekends) by making reservations at the Hotel Valley Ho in Scottsdale - a totally cool (way too cool for us! :)) hotel, retro 50's chic, for Saturday night.  His parents took the kids, and we spent Saturday at the mall, out to lunch, then hanging by the pool (with some cool refreshments!), where they had a DJ playing.  The hotel room was awesome - open floorplan with a freestanding tub in the middle of the room. You can check out pictures of the rooms and the hotel on their website.  Then Saturday night Josh had made us reservations at the restraurant - Trader Vic's... so it was great, we never had to leave the hotel grounds.  Dinner was yummy and we just had a blast.  Sunday was back to the pool in the morning after a wonderful breakfast, also at the hotel.  It was so nice to get away, recharge our batteries, and remember what it's like to be a couple first, parents second.  Usually it's the other way around.  Thanks Josh!

 

Life around here has been busy, as you may have gathered.  we've been having fun, and Brianna is well established now in her new preschool, which is only MWF for a couple hours.  She seems to really enjoy it, though, and has been working on her reading and writing, learning letters.  Exciting stuff.  We also hired a new nanny to take Josh's mom's place in watching the kids while I work during the week - it became a bit much for her, with a full-time job and two children to watch on her day off.  The nanny started this week... I didn'ttalk to her after, because Josh relieved her before I got home, but it sounded like it went well.  How nice to have someone show up here in the morning and be herewhen we come home - what a change from a 45 minute round trip to drop them off and pick them up!  Hopefully it works out!

 

Posting a few recent pictures...

We have had some serious sleep issues in the past week.  Finley decided that the second I left the room after putting him down for night/nap sleep, he would scream like a banshee (spelling?). After trying to make him feel better the first few times, I just decided we would let him cry it out.  Apparently, like Brie, he is quite strong-willed.  We went through a few nights of hours of crying... once at bedtime, and then numerous times throughout the night.  I was amazed that BRianna either didn't wake up or at least didn't get up!  I was sure that he was just experiencing separation anxiety - since he's about at that age.  So, I started sending Josh in (poor Josh, as he has to get up to work early in the morning), which didn't really help.  Finley got quite mad when Josh walked in rather than me.  I found that breastfeeding didn't really help either, as he would eat and fall asleep, but then the moment I put him down, he was crying again.  So, no use feeding him time after time.  I decided once a night was enough.  It was a rough few nights, crying and crying.  Then, I thought I would try, just try, Hyland's Teething Tablets... even if he wasn't teething, just to get him to sleep.  I can't feel any teeth, but I know the babies can feel them even before we feel buds.  I went to Sprouts and got a pack (the woman working there highly recommended them, as I have heard from others also).  I thought "yeah right, like this will help."  Well, last night right before I fed him (about 8), I gave him two tablets.  Fed him, put him down, around 8:30.  One little cry and then he was asleep.  Wow! I thought for sure that wouldn't last.  It did!  Right up until 4:45 this morning!  That's great!  I gave him two more, fed him again, and then put him back down. Again, one little cry and then back to sleep.  Until 6:30.  Amazing.  I have to admit, I was not entirely comfortable giving him the tablets because the ingredients list Belladonna, which you can check out online.  Essentially, it's a sedative.  However, our amazing midwife, who is up on her homeopathic remedies, says that in homeopathy, the plant isn't actually in there, it works differently than that (still can't get my head entirely around homeopathy).  So, no risk.  Okay, well, I know it works, so now we'll stick with it.  Oh, and I didn't mention, Finley woke up talking this morning, rather than crying.  Yay!  He has a bit of a runny nose today, so I do think it's probably teeth.  I tell you, I will stick with Hyland's and now think maybe I should start Brianna on their Calms Forte for KIds, maybe it will calm her down? Is it bad to drug your toddler? :)

Brianna finished her summer program at her old school last week, and doesn't start at her new school (preschool) until this coming Wednesday.  So, we've had a jam-packed week of family time and fun activities... it was hard the first day, getting used to having her here all day, but we've done some fun stuff and it's actually been pretty nice having her around.  Though, I'm sure she will enjoy starting school agan so she will have more friends to hang out with.  Mom and Finley get old after a while! Monday we went to the city pool after hanging about the house all morning... Tuesday we met a friend of hers at the city pool in the morning, yesterday (Wed) we had a friend of hers over and all of us went to the Phoenix Children's Museum. T oday I was supposed to work but they didn't need me, so we're going to go to the Arizona Museum of NAtural History to see dinosaurs.

 

I've decided that maybe it wouldn't be too bad to move somewhere with rain and snow.  At least you can suit up and go out in that weather.  Arizona summers never really bothered me too much until I had kids... now I feel a bit like I'm in jail since we can't go outside.  Brie has been asking for ages to fly her kite, ride her bike, play at the park... it's just too hot.  If we lived somewhere with snow, we could suit up and play in the snow.  Here, there's nothing else to take off to get cool in the hot summers!!!

 

 

I realized the other day how much more I used to blog.  Sorry for any of you who would like to know what's going on in our lives.  I'm not so good about it any more.  With one child it was much easier to sit down and type for a few minutes.  Two kind of doubles the amount of time you get to spend with kids and family.  I've also been trying hard not to spend as much time at the computer so I can be an active participant in my family rather than someone glued to the computer or TV all the time.  We're trying to shut off the computer and shut off the TV as much as possible - not just for our relationships, but it also seems to help Brianna behave better, which is an interesting side result.  Anyway, we had a great time in Canada, visiting my brother in Vancouver, and then my dad on Salt Spring Island.  My brother enjoys our camera and took some good pictures of all of us.  It's nice to have some pictures of me, since usually I'm the one taking the pictures.  It's also nice to have good family pictures of all of us.  We had a really good time, and the weather was awesome.  Had to come back to 110 degree + weather here, though, afterwards!!!

 

Okay, the baby is crying now that I'm not there, so there you go.  That's why I don't blog any more.  I will post pictures of Canada and then get back to him.  Will post more updates later.

Well folks, here we are.  Finley is 6 months old already, and Brianna is 3 1/2.  Amazing how far we come so quickly.  Finley had his doctor's appointment yesterday, got three shots and an oral vaccine (totaling 6 vaccines!) and has been quite feverish and unhappy most of the day today.  Well, that's a stretch.  He was feverish and unhappy this morning, but has slept maybe 5 hours total today.  He's a pretty easy-going guy.  Here are his vital stats:

 

 

Weight: 20 lbs 15 oz (95%)

Height: 27" (75%)

Head: 18 1/4" (95%)

 

Currently at 6 months old, we can expect these things from Finley:

 

Rolling all over the room, back and forwards

Standing unassisted, as long as we are behind him to catch :)

Sitting unassisted

Babbling/vocalizing (he often does this to get someone's attention)

Playing with toys, grasping and pulling

Moving toys from one hand to another

"Scooting" himself forward... not crawling, but pretty successful way to move

Eating most everything (we started him a bit earlier than Brie because he needed to feed the bulk)

Potty trained

Just seeing if you were paying attention

Loves to Smile

 

He's a pretty lucky boy - he's 6 months old and has his own room, has played in the pool, been on an airplane, been to the beach, has 8 loving grandparents and lots of extended family, a great sister (although I must add that he cries when Brie tries to hold him), and two loving parents.  We look forward to a great future with our lovely little family.

 

Oh, and Finley did not really like the beach much.  The sand was rough and the water stings your eyes!  He seemed to like the pool much better... most of our time on the beach was spent under our umbrella, some of it with him napping.  Hopefully when we return in two years he will like it a bit better.