We Heart Virginia Cousins

After a lovely, lengthy nap on Saturday afternoon, we drove over to visit Finley's new cousin, Natalie Helen Mixter. Now Finley has two cousins! Owen (who is just a month younger than Finley) is a big brother! Natalie was pretty chill and the older boys were able to do their thing, but Finley did point to her a few times and say, "baby." Cuteness.

Finley and Owen saw each other last in December, so they've both grown up quite a lot and had fun playing together. Seems like all boys like to build and destroy things, roll trucks around, and bounce from one toy to the next and the next and the next! It was really neat to see them together and seem to more or less enjoy each other's company.

And they shared their Grammy's attention just wonderfully!

Soon it was time for a snack and Finley impressed everyone when I asked him, "Can you say Owen?" and he promptly responded with "Owee." I think his Uncle Chris' jaw dropped :)

Both little guys like to be outside, so I took Finley outside and my mom and Owen soon followed for a little walk in the condo complex. When Owen caught up with us, Finley gave him a hug (it was adorable) and soon the two were off. They took turns leading the way and we tried our best to continually steer them towards the sidewalk and away from people's porches and cars.

Staring longingly at the gated pool...summer will be here soon enough, boys! Though they did try to get in through the locker rooms. Such determination!

After a long walk, we swayed them to walk back towards Owen's house by reminding them that we would pass by the motorcycle. Finley walked right over to it and asked, "Up? Up?" Sorry buddy, but your GG in New York wouldn't be pleased if I let you on one of those!

Back at Chez Owen, we headed straight to the back patio where the fun continued.

Soon it was dinner time and both boys enjoyed some grilled hot dogs before it was time to say goodbye. It was a wonderful visit and next time we get all three cousins together, who knows what they'll be up to!

We Heart Virginia 2

My parents not only have a lovely house, but a lovely outdoor space and neighborhood. Finley just LOVES being outside these days and as soon as we exited the garage, he spotted some shovels and dirt (mulch). He flipped over an extra plastic planter and used it as a bucket. He soon uncovered a stick and thought that was pretty neat, too. Cheap thrills!

Luckily, Finley enjoys cleaning up as much as he likes making a mess.

Soon the birds were calling and Finley couldn't resist a bird hunt. We crossed several yards and almost caught up to this silly birds. It's amazing to me how far Finley will distance himself from me when we are outside, but if we're inside there's basically a 6 foot maximum!

After bird chasing, we continued on the sidewalk towards the main road in hopes of spotting a truck or two. We were almost to end of the sidewalk when I turned to my mom and said, "Too bad, school's not letting out now, I bet lots of buses would pass by." No sooner had a finished that sentence, when Finley yelled and pointed, "BUS!" and as if by magic, a school bus drove by and stopped to drop off some kids across the street. And then he took off running, downhill towards the big yellow bus. So I took off, too!

I caught up to him and had to convince him that he bus was leaving soon so we couldn't catch up to it, but that darn bus shut off its engine. What are the odds of that?

Luckily, three more buses came by and Finley was happy to watch those go by from a safer distance. Did I mention I love cheap toddler thrills?

Later in our visit, we also took a little trip to Borders to check out some books and other kiddos. As soon as we came into the story reading area, Finley grabbed a book and sat down next to some fellow readers.

For some reason, he selected a chapter book to dive into. It was hysterical to watch him so intently "reading" such a big boy book. He later dabbled in some more age appropriate books and followed some other kids around checking out what they were reading and playing with, but he always came back to that same chapter book (even though I had re-shelved it a couple of times).

Thankfully, this dump truck book FINALLY caught his eye and we chose to buy it and take it home. He held onto it all the way through the parking lots, on the car ride home, and we probably read it four hundred times on the plane ride home. I'd say it was a good purchase, though that chapter book probably had more of a plot...

We Heart Airplanes, Too

Our flight down was uneventful, but tiring. We had a whole row to ourselves and while that appeared to be awesome, Finley was totally uninterested in sitting on my lap or anywhere else for that matter. He wanted to crawl on the seats, crawl under the seats, walk up and down the aisle, be carried up and down the aisle, etc. Arg. At least he didn't complain about his ears popping!

However, our flight back home was much more fun. My worst nightmare of being seated by the window with two people next to me AND Finley on my lap came true, but that ended up being a gift. Since we were trapped by the window, he never showed an inclination to want to get up and move around. Phew! Looking out the window at take off was thrilling and all consuming.

He called out "car!" "truck!" "a-pane!" (airplane) and just loved seeing so much on the move. We even saw the rarest of the rare: a yellow airport fire truck! The actual flight was pretty fun, too. Finley sat nicely, snacked on and off, chatted with me, held tightly onto his new toy bus from Grammy, and we read his new dump truck book a dozen times. The funniest entertainment, though, was the safety card. On both flights, Finley couldn't get enough of the trifold comic book. He pointed at the emergency inflatable slide and said, "Wheee!" I hadn't looked at one of these things in years and now feel much more prepared for an inflight disaster.

We landed, got our bag, and met Dan at the car. While Finley played a little hard to get with his beloved Dada at first, by bedtime, it was a tickle fest! Finley loves being tickled, but now knows how to tickle us right back!

Traveling is fun, but nothing's better than home :)

Wednesday Fun!

Our weekly playdate with Gabi and Charlotte got a little more exciting this week since Charlotte's new swingset had arrived in her backyard and it wasn't raining outside so we could all go out and enjoy it!

Monkey see, Monkey do!

Something tells me our Wednesday playdates are going to have to be expanded to Tuesdays and possibly Thursdays this summer, can you say swingset AND sprinkler?

The Conquering Hero

We continue to have fun exploring all the playgrounds/parks near us. They all seem to have unique aspects to them, pluses and minuses, but I love the variety!

One such playground that we drive by ALL the time, but had never gone in, didn’t look all that appealing from afar. Old slide and jungle gym, overgrown grass, and not much else---except a sandbox! That’s pretty much enough for Fin these days and so we strolled up the street and around the corner to check it out. Finley jumped out of the stroller and got to work.

However, that slightly rusty slide was soon too tempting to ignore. Despite my pleas of, “Finley we only go down slides,” he just had to try it. What a stinker!

After sliding down from halfway up on his belly, he decided the ladder was worth a try. I held myself back and let him conquer this one and was laughing as he step he checked to see if I was watching and asked, “uh?” before going to the next rung.

With some reassurance, he made it!

In fact, he seemed so proud of this accomplishment that he did not want to slide down.

I really had to beg after five minutes or so and then moved over to wait at the bottom.

He came down, quite quickly in fact and then went back up once more before getting back into the sand. It started to drizzle later on and Finley felt the drops and looked up as if to find out where the water was coming from. I said to him, “It’s raining” and he immediately dropped his beloved shovel and ran to the stroller. He climbed into it himself (a first) and tried to buckle himself in—it was hysterical! I guess he’s a fair-weather digger.

By the time we got home, the rain had stopped and Finley wasn’t quite ready to go inside yet.

Luckily the one magic word to get him indoors, DINNER.

Mama's Day

With Dada away, Finley got an early start on mother’s day. We drove into Cambridge and were the second set of customers to arrive at The Friendly Toast. As several other families with young kiddos strolled in, Finley had fun looking around and snacking on some cereal while we waited for our breakfast to arrive.

Soon it was waffle time and after devouring the small pieces I had torn off for him, Finley requested the rest of the waffle to eat on his own.

When we finished, we ran around the outside of the restaurant and Finley was keyed into all the birds tweeting and flying around. But alas, he just can’t run as fast as they can fly.

En route to the Children’s Museum (where members get in one hour before the masses!), we came across a couple of geese and Finley was soon on the hunt!

Some other children joined him and I overheard one of the other parents say, “Be careful, geese bite” and I was like, “Oops, bad mommy” and ran over to snatch up Finley before he became goose chow. We spent a nice hour or so at the museum before heading home for lunch and a nap. After a nice, long nap, Finley and I took an excellent, almost sunny walk through Lexington and ended up at a playground. No pictures, since the little guy was on the move and I just can’t stand to let him climb up into structures and down slides without being spotted. Maybe someday…

One final mother's day note, I got my first Finley-made Mother's Day gift from Beth's. He stamped a frame with some bingo markers all by himself (and didn't get that much on himself!).

One of many more to come and I say, "Bring them on!"

Future Elephant Man

We have entered the vortex that is spring ultimate frisbee, ah yes, the time of year when Dan not only coaches the Tufts (Elephant) men's team but also begins the annual tryout process for his own club team. This means a lot of time on the field and not at home on the weekends, but now that Finley's a little older he can go along for some of the fun. On Saturday, Dan took Finley to Tufts practice in the morning and Finley was in his element. Running around in the grass, saying "hi" to all passersby, and most importantly--playing with a frisbee. Dan brought along our mini-soccer ball and there were some tennis balls lying around, but our little guy always heads right for an available disc and tosses it around amusing himself for surprising lengths of time. He'll do it on his own, but enjoys it when you say "Ready...throw" and he'll spike it right on cue. As practice was winding down, Dan texted me this picture to assure me that fun was being had by all.

Can't argue with evidence like this, can I? And who knew the Blackberry Tour could take such excellent photos?? Take that, iphone!

On Sunday, Finley and I went to the first part of Tufts practice in order to soak up some sun before lunch. Finley seemed pleased to be back on the field and found a frisbee to play with immediately. He did try out his tag-sale lacrosse stick here and there, but what can beat a frisbee or a plastic orange cone? We watched the boys play, read some books, chased some birds, had a snack, saw some trucks, said hi to some softball players, and even returned a softball to the Colby coach. The greatest part was watching Finley spot Dan every now and then and point saying "Da-Da" and sometimes start running towards him. When the team was huddling up about 30 or 40 feet from us, Finley turned around when he heard Dan's voice and just started making his way over to the crowd, frisbee in tow.

He found his dad and stopped to listen right next to him.

Absolutely adorable to watch :) One of those "I love my family moments" for sure.

Finley, it's a good thing you like frisbee practices, there will be plenty in your future!