Smarty Pants

"Mommy, if I'm growing so much all the time, how am I going to fit in your house when I'm 1000?"

Skyping with Nathan (who is in Iowa, an hour ahead of us) I commented that it looked like it was already so dark there and was still bright out here. Fin chimed in "Moooooommy, it isn't dark there, the skies are all connected!". Lol!

"Ellie, I'm a really great brother and a really smart brother for you, am I. I know you must love me so much."

Just now: Getting him in his pajamas, he's naked. He reaches down to "adjust" himself and something big falls out from between his ahh, boy bits. Me "what in the heck just fell out from under your pee pee?" Fin: "Oh it was just a piece of my nachos.".  Me "???" (ok we did have nachos for dinner but that was hours before and he was fully clothed at the time and who walks around and rides their bike all night with a nacho in their crotch?)


Fin: "When I have a house it will be a gold house and it will be where Daddy's band plays when they go up high in the plane"
Me: " Do you mean your house will be in Tahoe?"
Fin: "Yes. And it will have 20 bedrooms and no backdoor and no front door and no bathrooms. It will be my favorite house."

Fin: Lacking anything to use an acceptable hook - improvises with a clothespin "ARRRRG! I'm Captain Clip!"



Fin is more and more of a little man every day. I'm his Mom, so I could be biased ;), but he is so smart it blows my mind. He is well past the difficult times of being 2 and 3 and has been such a sweet boy and great helper lately. Tantrums are very few and far between. He is starting to enjoy his independence quite a bit, doing his music class by himself (I'm NOT allowed to come in at all).
He is such a sweet guy, he enjoys playing with girls over boys for the most part. Princesses, Daddys Band, Race Track, Trains and Restaurant are his favorite games. I love it but we are hoping he'll find his place among the other 3-4 year olds soon. Right now he struggles with the girls not wanting to play with him and the boys playing games that are "too dangerous and mean". Sigh, poor little boy. It breaks my heart sometimes.


12/09/12 Fin singing while playing his version of musical chairs "Ding ding ding dading dading" Nathan asks if he wrote that song himself. Fin "Yes, the name of the song is Beer Toots".

Playing "KIDS ON STAGE" (basically a board game thats like charades for little kids) - Fin is doing amazing, acting out things that I didn't even realize he knew. He is so proud and clearly trying to think of how to express how great he feels he is doing (I don't think he'd heard the term "I'm on fire!") Anyway, he is struggling to say something and suddenly exclaims "I AM JUST TOOTING IT OUT MY BUTT!" I guess it was the most dramatic thing he could think of. LOL!

A collection of quotes and such

Fin and Ellie playing with their watercolors from Grandma Peoples

Fin: Hey Mama I wish I was on a team with kids and a ball and wore special shoes.

Me: Well we could probably make that happen this spring. What kind of ball do you want to play?

Fin: FIRST Basketball, then baseball, then soccer, then tennis and then (pause) do you think there's a squash court around here?

Me: uhh, probably?

Fin: Good I really want to play squash too then.

Me: ???

Fins Birth Story (as told by himself)

"So one day I woke up and you took me to the doctor. And they checked me up and then I was born. I then Daddy stuck this bellybutton on me. Then we went home."

Fin: I can't WAIT to be a Dult. (and a few days later, randomly while crossing the street) - I really want to grow up, SO BAD!

I asked if he thought it was more fun to be a kid or an adult:

With NO hesitation "Adult."

Me: "Why?"

Fin: " When I'm Adult, I'm going to have beer, wine, coffee and margaritas... Actually no margaritas."

Me: "You think that will be more fun than playing toys and climbing on the playground?"

Fin: "Well I'll just have beer and play on the playground."

Me (trying to avoid a future problem) "Umm, yeah, well, I hope you know you're gonna have a lot of chores and barely any time for riding on the slides when you're Adult."

Fin: "I am not going to be Adult until I'm 20 so I'll ride slides now and not drink the beer and NOT drink the margaritas."

Me: "Yes, good plan."

Fast Asleep in the Shopping Cart

Mom and I made Christmas cookies this year. Including rum balls. Fin was distraught that he couldn't have any and clearly thought it was some evil plan to be mean to him, to make a treat and then put "beer" in it. Now nearly everyday I'm reminded that he likes his cookies WITH NO BEER!

Speaking of beer ... when asked what he wanted Santa to bring. His answer:

Presents for Daddy and Ellie and Mommy and Fin.

A cash register and a sink for Daddy

A dolly for Ellie

Pretend beer for Mommy (she likes beer)

and Cars and trucks (and cars and trucks and trucks and cars) for Fin.

Today Fin was running around with a piece of masking tape. It was getting all wadded up and stuck to itself and he was freaking out. "Ahhh! This tape is messed up and I need it to measure stuff". I tried telling him that you don't measure with tape, as it has a tendency to stick to things and not stay straight. He wouldn't listen and insisted that his tape wasn't working correctly. I was still in the dark until he clarified it was his "Measuring Tape". Duh Mommy.

Eating Chocolate Pudding "finger paint"

Ellie was trying to grab something of Fin's - he looks at Nathan and says "Ugg, that frickin CHILD!"

Fin: When I'm 4 I'm going to be a Fireman - real! Then when I'm 14 I'm going to be a bus driver, for a city bus, probably the 0 bus. Then when I'm 15 I'll be a musician and I'll be a doctor when I'm 20!

Me: That sounds amazing!!! What do you think Ellie will do when she grows up?

Fin: Uhh, she can be my Mommy. (then to Ellie) Hey - you can be a Dult and be my Mommy and watch me in the firetruck out the window while you are drinking beer!

Clearly there is a Beer theme in our conversations lately. Hopefully this indicates only a fascination with an offlimits thing and not some underlying future problem. I'm not too worried at this point ;). However I don't know if it paints me in the best light... but in the interest of an accurate blog - these are the things he says. (sigh)... :)

Totally wiped out after playing at the playground

Fin: "Come see my band! It's a concert and the name of the band is "Zeroboygeographictongue".

Me: On the floor cracking up!

Then a few days later he announced that Zero Boy Geographic Tongue had written his first song. Titled: Barnes and Noble (we play so many trains)

It's very catchy and has been stuck in mine and Nathan's heads for several days now.

Happy lady at Storytime

A list of Ellies words as of 3/25/12

Cat (dat)

Woof (woooo!)

Horsey (hessey)

Cheese (chee)

Bubble

Pompa

YEA!

Yeah

Hi

Nanight

Mama

Dada

Bye and Buhbye

Eeeeeeee (what a horsey says)

Nana

What's that? (whasat)

Who's that? (whoooat)

Book

Ball

Vroom (playing cars or trains)

Boooooo! (what a cow says)

Hot

More (Moe)

Nurse (Nur)

Sprout (as in the PBS channel with Sesame Street - pronounces it SprOWE!)

Water (Wa)

Milk (Muh)

Gdog (G)

Hi, YEA! and What's that? being her very favorites. Her little voice is so breathy and sweet. Except when she says YEA! and BYE. She really gets those out.

And lots of other words she THINKS she is saying but are actually just either babbles or certain tones she uses that match the tone we use to say those words. But she looks so darn proud when she thinks she's told us something.

She also sings E i e i Ooooo for Old McDonald. And her favorite song "Hey Mr. Knickerbopper" She pats her legs and says "Bop Bop"

 

She also does a few signs. I just haven't ever dedicated the time to teaching her that I did with Fin.

But she does do

Water

Milk

More

Light

Where

What (which she usually uses the "where" sign, but you have to take it in context) ;)

Eat

All Done

Please

Nurse

Big girl on the tire swing

HeeeeeeeHeeee Mummmummmmuuum!" I guess she figured someone should enjoy it. :)

Lightening the cat food eating horse

Today Fin was standing on his stool watching me make sandwiches. He grabbed two twisty ties off the counter and threw them on the floor.

Fin" Hey pick those up right now"

Me " umm, no. You threw them on purpose, you pick them up"

Fin (in his best completely exasperated voice) "Mommy I am going to be a Boss someday when I grow up. So right now I'm learning how to be a Boss and you have to help teach me. So I'm learning and you pick that up, now!"

Me - totally bewildered,  I pick them up.

A rare smile for a picture (at storytime)

Proud moment

Ellie tried to bite Fin

Fin " Ellie PLEASE do NOT bite me. I'm your BEST friend and that's not how you treat your friends. I'm not even your naughty friend. I'm your BEST friend."

 

What Fin is up to... update

This may be mostly for me. I need to get some of this stuff down so I don't forget. You're welcome to marvel at how amazing my children are as well...

Finnigan

- Amazes me every day. Recently he has (so sad) lost just about all of his "babyness". He is officially a little boy. And he loves it. He LOVES to run around with the bigger kids. I just melt watching him play. When we go to the playground he is always so outgoing. "Hi what's your name? My name is Fin. Do you wanna play with me?". He has so many little friends he has know his whole life basically, as well. It's awesome to watch them play and interact now!

Fin and Noah at the Denver Art Museum

Fin and Noah making a clay pot together (so proud of him for getting his hands dirty!)

Running around outside the cupcake shop with Dante

He is still (always) our little performer. We constantly play "Funkyphino band" (Daddy's band), Music class (where he plays the role of his music teacher Miss Maureen) and James Brown. He adores performing for anyone willing to listen. The other night at a restaurant, we sat in an area that was elevated from the rest of the restaurant. Fin spent 90% of our time there singing and dancing for the rest of the customers and wait staff. He is SUCH a ham.

Favorite songs and singers currently are ABC's, Itsy Spider, You are my sunshine, (ahem) James Brown - Sex Machine (as far as he know the song is called "Make it Funky" and he sings it "Lovin Machine"), so a little more appropriate.

He also still plays guitar constantly. He knows all the different types, though he prefers his "coustic". Unless we're playing Pretend, then he plays a Stratacastor. The other day in the car he says "Mommy look at me!" (I look back and he's tapping and rubbing his fingers on his head really fast) Me: "what are you doing?" Fin "I'm playing hair guitar!" (I'm fairly sure he misheard someone say "Air guitar"! It's funny though, if you ask him what he is going to play when he grows up like Daddy, he'll tell you he's going to be a drummer. I feel bad, I'm probably stifling him but we just cannot put a drum set into our tiny little apartment.

Awww, his first tattoo. Just like Daddy. Its crazy that just a few months ago he freaked out when I tried to put a temporary tattoo on him. I had to scrub the itty bits of this one off after I couldn't take it anymore 2 weeks later. He was not pleased with me.

For Halloween this year he was a Doctor. Which is what his long term career plan is. I think it's a great idea. He asked to be his Pediatrician Leanna at Ellie's last appointment. So cute. I'm so glad he likes her. I think he has a little crush ;). His joke for Trick or Treat is: What's a healthy insect?  .... A Vitamin Bee!   We hear this 50+ times a day now and have been instructed to laugh hysterically each time. Too bad, we found out after teaching him his joke that they don't do jokes in Colorado. Darn it!

Dr. Finnigan Peoples

"Checking Ellie's checkup"

 No, he did not get to keep any of his loot. But don't feel too bad for him, I got him some "healthy" goodies that I swapped him for. He didn't mind a bit. And THANKFULLY didn't tell any of the people that they had "yucky candy".

My camera went nuts here, but here he is getting ready to go through the "haunted" maze we  helped a very wonderful Mom at our garden construct. It was refrigerator boxes with strobe lights and doll heads hanging inside. Pretty creepy actually. Fin did not realize that doll heads are supposed to be scary. I went through with him the first time and went he came to the big head you had to go through he kissed her and said "oh HI!". :) 

Very proud of his Fin pumpkin

Speaking of crushes, I cannot express how much he adores his Music Class teacher, Miss Maureen. She is his whole world. So of course he acts like a totally different kid around her. He either gets a little naughty or just acts really goofy. At home Nathan just silently mouths her name to him and he gets all red and yells "aaaaahhhh no STOP IT DADA!" So embarrassed. It cracks me up. But besides that, he loves Music Class. Lately, we've been going each Thursday to the Siblings class. It is really wonderful. The kids each get a turn to play the auto harp, the guitar and a GIANT drum. Songs all have motions with them and involve lots of running/jumping around the room. They get parachute time, bubbles and there's even the occasional accordion. As long as I remind him that "Miss Maureen loves it when you listen and follow directions and she really loves it when you sing", Fin is a great leader in class each week. I am so proud.

Costume day at music class

Playing the big drum with Miss Maureen

His other favorite things to do are play Hide and Seek. This is basically a game of bossing. "Mommy you hide HERE and then I'll count - OK, now help cover me up in these pillows and then you go count. Don't count until I say go. Don't find me right away, look in the kitchen first... etc..." It's not often very fun for anyone but him but he could play 24 hours and day and still find the same 5 hiding spots wonderfully entertaining.

On his new clubhouse loft bed/stage

He's so smart, it absolutely blows me away. Right now he:

knows the whole alphabet, recognizes every letter and probably knows about 90% of the letter sounds. He's even starting to sound out words. (a very little bit), like F-I-N or M-O-M. He's very good at figuring out what letter words start with. I think it's amazing.

He counts to 20 on a regular basis, but can count to 30 if he's in the mood.

Knows my whole phone number.

He's very interested in cars and can tell you what everyone in his immediate family drives ( Like our car is a Honda Odyssey)

He catches everything. Everything. I feel like I would be the smartest woman on earth if my brain absorbed even half of what his does everyday.

He started using sarcasm, which completely freaked me out and then made me laugh. He told me after I bumped him on accident "Hey thanks a lot for pushing me Mom". Geeeeeeez. He's done it a couple of times. So funny.

He is awesome at baseball. He crushes the ball when using the tee. Lately Nathan has been pitching to him and we couldn't believe how often he hits the ball. He really gets hold of it too. This is his favorite game with Daddy, they play nearly everyday now. He knows at least 5 players on the Rockies by name and loved going to games last season. I wouldn't think a 2 year old would like sitting through a whole baseball game, but he really enjoyed it. We are very much looking forward to the NBA season as well. I know he has dreams of being basketball player - I hope he starts to grow soon, because at this rate, it's gonna be a little rough.

 New haircut

Playing at the mall

Driving a "boat" at the mall

Lately he has been noticeably stressed by the amount of attention that Ellie requires. It shows itself as Fin resorting to a lot of baby activities. He likes to play "Ellie" and rolls around on the floor, bites, says Dadadadadada and that sort of thing. It breaks my heart. I know he doesn't get nearly as much attention as he used to. Especially since E turned into a monkey that doesn't sleep and requires 19 hour a day supervision. It's gotta be hard on him. He mostly handles it so well. He's always the first to jump in and try to make he laugh or sing to her when she's upset. He talks for her constantly in a very high pitch voice. It's very funny. She says all kinds of things and has very strong opinions that usually mirror whatever Fin's wishes are. Today he started asking to Nurse, again. Hopefully this is short lived. He hasn't nursed since September. So it is breaking my heart for him to bring it up again now. This age definitely has it's set of challenges that are complicated by having a 1 year old sister. Not quite a baby and not really a 'big' boy yet...

I can't imagine a smarter more wonderful little man though. He is nothing like the little boy I though I would have. He's so much better than I ever could have dreamed. He is growing up faster than I can wrap my brain around. He is nothing like anyone I've ever known and still the spitting image of his Daddy and me. I see so much of each of us in him. It's pretty awesome. I might have to go now sneak in a few kisses - because I think - yes - he's finally asleep ;)

Clean boy, post bath :)



Nathan has been struggling with a cold and cough lately. Which means that Fin periodically "feels pretty sick" as well. Today during a very dramatic coughing fit

I said "Ooooh Fin, are you OK?"

His reply "Well I'm sick and I really have a pretty bad Head Egg."

I think all of us love the car carts. Fin takes SUCH good care of his sister when they're driving around. Usually has his arm around her to "keep her safe". Unless she honks his horn. Then all bets are off.

 

Song made up in the car while waiting for Nathan to come out of the store:

Mommy, mama, mama - she's in here.

mama's driving, mama's driiiiiiiiiving.

She driving around and THEN

she opens her mouth then she closes it really fast so a bug doesn't get in there.

Then she drives around and around.

Then daddy comes out of the stooooooooooooooooooore!

(we were sitting still in a parking space - with the windows closed. I really couldn't guess where he got the part about the bug in the mouth?)

Carseat inside for a cleaning. So even though it's torture to get in it while it's in the car. It's the greatest toy ever when it's in the living room.



We've been talking a lot lately about "who is a son/daddy/daughter/mommy etc..."

So this morning he asks "who is My daughter?" I (always so quick) answer "ummmm"

Fin - "I'll tell you - my daughter is your wife!"

Bathtime. It's constant war for the bathtoys...



Fin: "Hey Ellie, I just wanted to tell you - STICKS can be sharp and poke you in the eye. LIPSTICK is for putting on your mouth".  --- Good good advice.

Long walk home after a hard day of play!

Fin has really been missing Nathan lately. Between work and gigs, we don't see him nearly as often as we'd like. So before bed last Saturday, I tried to get him excited since Nathan was off all day on Sunday.

Me: Fin, Daddy will be home ALL day tomorrow to play with you. We can play toys and see him the whole day!"

Fin: "Yeah, IIIIIIIIII know. He'll be home tomorrow and we'll play toys and baseball and have fun for a little while. Then I will have to just go to bed. And then when I wake up it will be a work day again and Daddy will have to go right back to work."

Aaaaaaand just break my heart.......

Playing in the creek at the Children's Botanical Gardens



June was Grandparents month!

This past June we were so lucky to have my Dad came visit us in Denver for the first time! Not only that but a week later Nathans parents were able to come out for a long weekend as well. It was too fantastic for words. I think Fin was in 7th heaven with all the attention and as much "show and tell" as anyone could handle ;).

We were all in busy mode for the week of my Dads visit. Spending time with family friends that live in town - Jim, Nicki and Donovan Izzolena. Going to Colorado Springs and hiking Garden of the Gods and then heading over to Manitou Springs for some arcade fun (awesome!) The arcade area had tons of those quarter rides - like at the grocery store kind of things - Fin had a blast! We took a trip up Lookout Mountain, alway a beautiful view. Visited Lakeside Amusement park (where all the rides were 50 cents) and took a trip to Heritage Square. Whew!

Driving the train with Uncle Danny

Dad and Danny on the Go Carts :)

Happy Birthday to Gdawg ( or is it Gdog?) Anyway. Fin was so pleased to help blow out the candle and eat ice cream cookie "birthday cake"!

Snuggling his hero Donovan and Dono's Mom, Nicki. Donovan is an amazing drummer and lucky for him, Fin has invited him to join his band ;) Lol.

Race car driving at Lakeside

The other kids on the rollercoaster cried and screamed and Fin had a blast! He always suprises me. He rode around screaming "YEEEEEEEEA!!!"

Ringing bells on the horse and chariot.

These boats were not in actual water, which I think Fin thought was a little lame. You can't fool him so easily

This will be the closest he ever gets to riding a motorcycle.

Ahhhh, here's the real boats. We had a little trouble getting him off of this one!

Then just a week later Nathan's parents Jerry and Judi came out for a long weekend. We had a wonderful time. There was an Art Festival just down the street where they had kids crafts (perfect to take a break while it rained!). We went back to Lakeside and rode rides AGAIN! And got to go see Daddy's band perform with Micheal Jackson's former guitar player. Which was amazing - they had a impersonator (which I found just this side of creepy) but still I have to say was extremely realistic.

Art fair craft he made with Grandma Judi

Of course Grandma and Grandpa HAD to get him an ice cream cone... ;)

Nathan's Band Funkiphino

"Horseys up-down"

The train around Lakeside with Grandma and Grandpa

Miss Ellie rides on Daddy's shoulders.

It was a great couple of weeks. We all so much look forward to everyones next visits. Who could ask for a better start to summer!!!