Show Me Your Beads

In celebration of Fat Tuesday, we thought you would enjoy these pictures. Actually, I thought you would enjoy them. When Finn is old enough, he will be completely mortified. These pictures fit in the category I like to call "yearbook blackmail." Because they are very likely to reappear in Finn's senior yearbook. 

Mark had a week-long meeting in San Diego so we spent the past week visiting my parents. It was great seeing family and catching up with friends, although we didn't have enough time to see everyone we wanted. During our stay, Finn found Lindsey's stash of Mardi Gras beads while rifling through her stuff (no, we don't really want to know how you got so many beads). He decided to earn his beads by showing a little skin as seen below.

Free, to a good home

Dear Paw Pals,

I really like the little guy, honestly, I do. I just want things to go back to the way they used to be. When there was always room on the couch for me and a free hand to give me belly rubs. No one splashing all of the water out of my water bowl, no one stepping on my head and stealing my favorite toys. Which is why I want to find him a really good home with lots of room to roam around. I'll take him back in a year or two or three . . . 

I'm crossing my paws that someone will take pity on me and help me out. 

Sincerely,

Lily

In Sickness and Health

After this week, I'm convinced that whoever was inspired to put that line in wedding vows must have endured a bout of the stomach flu with his/her significant other.  Because if you can survive that, you're golden. We've been very fortunate to make it through "sick" season without any major illnesses, so I guess it was inevitable that someone would get sick at some point. Apparently, our number was up. I just didn't expect that all three of our numbers would be up AT THE SAME TIME. Finn got sick on Friday, I came down with it Saturday and Mark went down on Sunday. I can safely say that the only thing worse than puking your guts up is puking your guts up while cleaning up someone else's guts, while listening to your husband complain about puking his guts up. Finn was a real trouper though, I think he took it better than any of us. Hopefully, the worse is behind us now. 

Moving on. I can't believe it is February already. I have no idea where the last month went or what we did. I'm guessing it was business as usual. For a few weeks, Finn thought he wanted to give up his morning nap, but has since decided against it. He has 10 teeth and two new ones are on the move. He loves stealing the remote control and hiding it. His favorite thing to eat is blueberries (today at least) and he enjoys throwing the ball to (and occasionally at) Lily. His new words are baby, lights and vroom, vroom when he sees a car go by. Oh, and he doesn't think the economic stimulus package will necessarily solve our current financial crisis.

I haven't taken that many pictures lately, but here are a few from the Superbowl party at the Crowley's and our big snow last week. 

superbowl party=more playmates

Say cheese. Even Pepsi (the dog) is smiling

Football game? What football game?

Just one of the guys

Superstars of Dance

So happy together

Eating snowflakes

Playing with dad in the snow

Eat My Dust

Earlier last week I took Finn to the mall (a brave task in itself) to get his first pair of big boy shoes (aka shoes with soles). I tried to buy him shoes earlier in his life but he would take them off and throw himself on the floor anytime I walked over with a pair in hand. So I gave up. 

Now that he is moving and shaking, it is high time he overcame his phobia of all things shoe-related. I am his mother after all, how is it even possible that he not love shoes as much as I do? In the store, I told him we were buying big boy shoes and he could pick out the ones he liked. He immediately headed for the pink princess glitter sneakers. Which I was all for, except they don't really go with 99% of his clothes. I asked the salesperson to show me what they had in velcro. Since there were only two pairs, and only one in his size (a whopping 5 1/2), that's the pair we took home. He's adjusted quite nicely, although at first he walked around like a penguin wearing skis.

We had one nice day weather-wise last week . . . and by nice I mean it was in the high 40s and possibly cracked 50, so we headed outside for some much needed fresh air. And to practice wearing shoes.

Not so sure about these shoes

Stopping to inspect a leaf

Lily come back, I "promise" I won't pull your hair

Eat my dust (yes, that's mud all over the back of his pants--he's like a magnet)

Sunday Morning

Ahhh, a nice relaxing Sunday morning spent at home with my family . . . a good cup of coffee, lounging on the sofa reading the New York Times (especially the Sunday Styles section). What's that? Oh, right. That was my Sunday morning BF (before Finn). This is my Sunday morning now. The only way I get to read the paper is if I get to it before Finn does.