Fun with Family

Finn and I spent a week in South Carolina to visit friends, family and get some much-needed R & R. The drive to Sumter is about 8 hours . . . when riding with a talkative two year old, it felt like about 16. I have decided that Finn needs his own "activities director" to accompany him on long trips. "I need this, I want that, can you do this?, where is that?" and on and on, for 8 hours. However, we did make it in one piece so I am thankful for that, but I think that trip is a two-person job.

Finn was so happy to see his Mimi and Bop and especially his cousins, Luke and Mary Daniel. He spent a majority of time in water of some kind: swimming pool, sprinkler, bathtub, water hose and mostly without clothes. Which is one of the great things about living in the south: no one cares if you take your showers with a garden hose and a bar of soap on the back deck. Well, no one cares if you do that and you are two. There would be a problem if I tried to do that.

Finn stayed on the go. He got to take a ride in the convertible, but was a little disappointed when he wasn't allowed to drive. Mimi founds Mark's Lego collection from when he was a kid. Which means those Legos are about 40 years old. He called them his treasures and loved playing with them. He jumped on the trampoline, ate popsicles, played with cars, learned to ride a scooter, but mostly he played with his cousins and when he wasn't with them, he was talking about them.

I was also very lucky. Mimi and Bop kept Finn a few days which allowed me to sneak down to Atlanta to see my mom and my friend, Kriya and meet her new baby girl, Bree. On the return trip I was able to swing through Greenville, SC to see Valerie and Bryan. It was such a treat to visit with friends and not have to worry about Finn.

Before we left, we went to the swimming pool one last time and then and there, Finn conquered the diving board. With floaties on, but he jumped off all by himself and then paddled over to the ladder. He will be swimming before I know it.

We had a wonderful visit and can't wait until we see everyone again. When we were leaving, Finn asked me "Ma (which is what he calls me now), where are we going?" And I told him we were going home to Washington, D.C. And he thought about it for a minute and said, "Can we just go back the other way . . . back to Mimi's house?" Here are a few pictures from our visit.

Mimi always has such good food in the fridge

Best way to spend a hot day: eating popsicles in the sprinkler

He double-dog dares you to walk in front of him

Getting ready for his "bath"

Taking his new Toy Story underwear for a test

run on Mimi's joggling board

Swimming with his cousins

Luke dives in

Cannon ball!!

Fun in the pool

Mary Daniel always makes him laugh

Hmmm, the next Michael Phelps in training??

Ready . . .

Set . . .

Here

He

Goes!

So proud of himself

His new favorite toy: a coffee can full of matchbox cars

Playing Legos with Mimi

He doesn't want to leave . . .

Locked Out, Part Deux

We spent the past week in South Carolina visiting the Lyles and I have lots of fun pictures and stories to share. But before I do, I wanted to share this little jewel with you. I have mentioned before Finn's fascination with doors and locks, so this should come as no surprise, least of all to me, who was recently locked out of the house and the bathroom (twice). Well, the little bandit struck again, a mere 12 hours after we got home.

The thing about renting is that everything is temporary . . . meaning you don't want to spend a lot of money to customize the house to your needs because chances are, you won't be there that long. So, yes, we did notice that the doorknobs to the bedrooms were exterior doorknobs, meaning you needed a key to enter if you ever found yourself locked out. Since the house isn't ours, we don't possess said key. Which should not have been a problem since most people don't lock their bedroom door from the inside and shut it, unless they have a key. But Finn isn't most people. Even though after the second bathroom locking, he PROMISED never to lock another door.

I guess another drive-by locking was too tempting to resist. Which I discovered when I went to unpack his clothes. The problem was that it was only 9:30 am, which means he was locked out for his nap time ... probably not a big deal to him but a very big deal to me. I made a quick call to Mark whose solution was to use a knife or a credit card to "pop" the lock. After half an hour of unsuccessful attempts I gave up. All of a sudden Finn became distraught over the fact that he was locked out of HIS room. Cue tantrum in front of locked bedroom door.

I won't bore you with the rest of the details but suffice to say that the day ended with Mark and Finn going head to head with the doorknob. Hammers, screwdrivers and lots of noise were involved. Needless to say, the doorknob didn't fare so well . . . neither did the door.

You're My Favorite Deputy

Finn is a big fan of all things Toy Story. It's no secret--he's seen Toy Story 3 twice in the theatre. We have LOTS of Toy Story paraphernalia, but the pajamas have to be my favorite. Here's why:

Isn't it hilarious? He loves them and requests to wear them every night, even though they are at least a size too small. Hey, the tag says "wear snug fitting."

Even George wants to wear the Woody pajamas

Handy Man

First he learned to open doors. Then he learned how to lock the doors. Finally, he discovered that he could lock the door, walk outside, shut the door, thereby locking everyone else out. Which is funny the first time it happened. And slightly less funny when it happened to be the bathroom door. Thank goodness Mark (and Finn) are such handy men and we able to remove the door nob, unlock it and put the door nob back on.

Finn took good notes and now gives it a try

Dog Days of Summer

When it is this hot outside, a man has to do what a man has to do to keep cool.

Fabulous Fourth

Happy Birthday America! I feel very blessed to live in the land of the free and home of the brave, and grateful for the men and women who fought and continue to fight for our freedoms!

This fourth of July was different for me for a couple of reasons: one, we weren't moving like last year, and two, I wasn't running the Peachtree Road Race. It was a actually a fun, low-key holiday. We decided to skip the parade, since our experience last year proved that keeping a toddler entertained during the endless minutes between floats and bands was less than pleasant. Plus, it was HOT! Lucky for us, our friends invited us to picnic at the marina and catch the fireworks from their boat. It was the perfect way to spend a hot independence day. Between all of us, there were 8 kids under three, which meant there was never a dull moment. But everyone had fun and the grand finale was the amazing fireworks show from a prime spot of real estate on the Potomac.

Cribs are for Wimps!

Proof that you can teach an old dog new tricks, or rather, eventually--you can get a toddler to sleep in a bed. On May 11, Finn decided he never, ever, ever wanted to sleep in his crib again. I know the exact date because it happened to be my birthday. Since then, we tried a lot of different configurations: toddler bed, mattress on the floor, mattress in the corner, etc. and finally ended up with him sleeping on his crib mattress in front of his crib. He wouldn't even entertain the idea of moving to a big boy bed. He slept like that for nearly two months.

Finally, this week, we went to Pottery Barn Kids to let him test out some new beds. He decided it wasn't such a terrible idea after all, first selecting the bed shaped like a boat (?), then a set of bunk beds (??), and finally to the rather (boring) twin bed we ended up with. We waited nearly a week for everything to be shipped to us and then on Saturday, Mark put the bed together and then there were no more excuses for Mr. Finn.

He picked out some cute transportation sheets that hadn't come in yet, so he was forced to sleep on boring old blue sheets. I was a little nervous about how it would go down, since Mark said he spent the entire trip home from the pool telling him how he "did not want to sleep in the big boy bed because of the vaccum." Much to our surprise and relief, he went down without a fuss and slept over three hours. Same thing happened when we put him to bed for the night. No complaints. Who knows how long this will last, but I'll take it as long as I can get it. I'm so proud of my big boy.

Remember this?

Big Boy Bed!

With a little help from my friends