Finley Blasts Off

Finley loves his space shuttle and after enough blast offs in the basement and many viewings on you tube, Finley is able to do the countdown on his own :)

Boy, is he going to be excited when we go to see the space shuttle that's now parked on the Intrepid in NYC next month!

Dagny at 1 Year

I put together a bunch of photos that sum up what our little girl is like as she enters her second year of life.  She is full of energy, drama, and smiles.  She loves her big brother (and us, too, probably), stuffed animals (her loveys, Agent P, winter monkey, and Mush), books (Big Red Barn, Puff the Magic Dragon, any animal book, and whatever book you just read to her), and putting stuff into containers and taking them out.  She's not the best eater, but more like a small bird who pecks at things and eats just enough so that we don't throttle her.  She does love blueberries, baby cheese poofs, cereal with milk, peaches, pasta with meat sauce, and green beans.  She's doing great at school and her teachers seem to adore her; the smile on her face when I pick her up in the afternoons remains one of the best things in my life.  She can walk, crawl up stairs, and almost get into the tub on her own (face first). As of last week, she loves to swim at the pool and we are thrilled about that!  Dagny loves going for bike rides with Finley as he pedals his push bike and she gets pushed in her big red car.  She enjoys playing in the water table, sandbox, piles of dirt and pebbles, pretty much anything that can be messy.  She loves "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and "Row Row Row Your Boat", both of which she can "sing" pieces of.  I could go on...but I will stop and show the photos!

Playing in a giant lego castle:

Dagny and Mush:

 Looking super girly and making a phone call:

Walking around a bit:

Swinging in the breeze:

Water table fun:

 Showing off her magnadoodle skills:

 Goofing off before school in an adorable dress (Thank you, GG and Grandpa!) with her loveys, Rocky and Hops:

Dagny dresses like a worker and delivers frisbees:

 Devouring a popsicle after a warm, wild trip to Drumlin Farm:

And one last one...a bathing wild child!

Nuts and Bolts of Ms. Dagny

We had our long awaited one-year check up at the doctor today.  I armed myself with snacks, water bottles, ipad and headphones for Finley, and a few questions for the doc.

She weighed in at 23 1/3 lbs and 31 inches tall.  This puts her in the 76th percentile for weight and 92nd for height.  The doctor gave her a quick physical and said she looked great :) Then, she asked me all sorts of questions while Dagny wandered around.

1. How long has she been walking? About 3 weeks give or take.
2. Does she have any words? Yes, a few: dog, duck, hi, ball, no, bubble, uh-oh.  Sadly, no "mama" or "dada" yet, but hopefully that's coming soon.  Showing off her "toddlerness," though, she will often say "no"  if you ask her to say one of her familiar words or novel ones.  Such a diva.
3. Can she point, wave, and clap? Yes, yes, and yes!
4. How does she sleep at night? 10 hours plus before eating and will then go back to sleep for more.
5.  Two naps? Most often, but lately has been fighting that routine--especially at school.
6. Does she do any pretend play? Cooks, drinks from play cup and says, "ahh," and puts phone to ear to say "hi."
7. Tried moving her to whole milk? Eek, yes, we tried last week but after 3 days of small amounts--her digestive system was a wreck (I will spare you the details) and is still recovering.  She suggested waiting for the diaper rash that has emerged to heal and then try soy milk or lactaid.  Never easy, huh?

We'll go back at 15 months :)

Dagny got her Hepatitis A shot and then we went upstairs to get her blood drawn for a baseline lead test.  She let out an ear piercing scream with the shot, but then remained totally stoic during the blood draw (unreal).  I was floored.  She only got upset when she wanted to rip the bandaid off once we got to the car.  What a tough cookie.  Finley was very patient throughout, though he did exit the room during the blood draw - smart guy.

We returned home for some sweet potato fries and green beans (Finley chose the fries, Dagny chose the green beans) for lunch.  What a morning!

Friends are the Best

Last weekend we were in Somerville for a laid back BBQ with some friends.  It was really hot out, but the patio was shaded and I didn't have to cook, so it was perfect! Dagny dug right into the mulch and totally covered herself within minutes.  

Soon, her slightly-older-counterpart, Sam, joined in but managed to keep himself much tidier.

They didn't talk much, but both seemed quite engaged in the mess.

 The older kids, Eliot and Finley, had worn themselves out in the sun playing baseball (mostly Finley) and getting soaked on the slip n slide (all Eliot) so after downing a hot dog each, they went in to watch the old school Lorax video.  I went in to change Dagny's diaper and check on them, here's what I found! So adorable :)

Aunt Caitlin Plays Outside

Despite it being outrageously hot last Saturday, Aunt Caitlin went outside with Dan and the kids to play.  What a kind soul :)

First, she pushed Dagny on the swingset.

Then, they headed to the driveway to play hockey.

What a great shot this one is!

Soon it was off to the races.

Officer Finley had to pull over Dagny for speeding, though.

Thankfully, Officer Dan kept her from rolling down the sloped part of the driveway.

Before heading back inside, a fuzzy, fast-moving caterpillar was spotted! I love how Dagny's using Finley as support here, an adorable sibling moment.

 Thanks for all the photos, Caitlin, and for braving the heat and humidity!

Mess or Masterpiece?

Finley knows that it drives me crazy when he just dumps stuff out in the playroom for the fun of it, but I'm learning to be more flexible and to live in the moment (in other words, two kids outnumber me at home during the day, so I'm kinda screwed).  This happened a week ago or so and the pictures still crack me up!  This particular mountain of a mess was a team effort,

 but Dagny reigned supreme!

 Finley enjoyed the spoils of their endeavor and I managed to avoid cleaning it all up for nearly thirty minutes :)

Trucks in a Heat Wave

On Wednesday, we headed over to the town where I taught this past spring for a kids' truck event.  Let me be clear: it was over 90 degrees and we went to an unshaded parking lot full of trucks.  Finley, I am officially wrapped around your little finger.  We arrived and spotted an ice cream truck right away...but not much else.  Finley was looking around a bit disappointed, but then a HUGE ladder fire truck pulled in, followed by a pumper truck, an ambulance, and a police car.  Phew!

He wanted to go to the ice cream truck first so we walked over with Dagny in the shade of the stroller.  Finley was disappointed that he couldn't get in to drive the ice cream truck, but was delighted that the event was sponsoring the ice cream truck so we got to pick something and cool off for free! Finley chose a strawberry popsicle and off we went to find some shade.  It was one of those double popsicles so we broke it apart and Finley started on his half while Dagny and I shared the other.

While we tried to eat our popsicles before they completely melted, we watched the trucks rolling in and the ladder truck raised its ladder all the way up to Finley's complete amazement.

 

Also a tractor rolled by pulling some cars and Finley was ecstatic to see a "train" roll by us.

I asked if he wanted to ride it in and he shook his head.  I figured maybe later on I'd ask him again. Our popsicles were done and off we headed to the trucks.  First stop, a street sweeper.

Then, a front loader.

 And a tanker.

He couldn't resist the fire trucks any longer, so we walked over to the ladder truck where a friendly firefighter hoisted Finley into the front seat.

 Finley asked him about the ladder and he showed Finley where the lever is to make it go up and down.  Cool stuff.  We also walked through the ambulance.

Just then, the train rolled by again and Finley exclaimed, "There it goes, let's get on it!" and I was thrilled.  The enthusiasm was drained a bit by the nearly 20 minute wait in line to get on the train, but thankfully it was in the shade so we managed.  The train cars were small so Dagny and I would have to ride in one and Finley in a separate car...hm...but by wonderful coincidence there was a father in line behind us in a similar situation.  His daughter, just a bit younger than Finley, was eager to ride but he would have to stay behind with his younger daughter who was sleeping in the stroller.  We figured if our two older kids rode together, that would solve our respective problems :)  When it was finally our turn, Finley and his new bud, Anna, hopped into a car and Dagny and I got in the car behind.  Finley was pumped!

 Off we went!

Dagny was a pleasant passenger despite the bright sun and bumpy ride.

Finley and his new gal pal had a total blast!  

When we got back to the parking lot, Anna's dad was so thankful that I rode with them and I was happy to have helped another parent of 2!

We went into the back of a limo before leaving and then we stopped to pick up a pizza to dine on at home in our cool, dry, air conditioned house :)  Finley begged to play a little before it was nap time and I'm glad I obliged, because he immediately made his own truck event and had a line of "kids" waiting for a trip up the firetruck ladder and onto the school bus!

Art imitating life!