Humor You.

Two posts! One Night! You lucky things, you...

But really, I don't like to leave long, personal, post just sitting at the top with no anecdote to go with it. It gets sad and lonely up there. Plus, while the details of Finn's life is ever-entertaining for me, maybe you're not as obsessed with him as I am...and that's just fine. Because if you were...I don't know how I'd feel about that.

Also, I'm feeling creative. And I'm reading Revolutionary Road and it's bumming me out in a big way so I thought I'd share a funny store to cheer me up.

As usual, I digress.

So today I hosted the weekly neighborhood playgroup. Holy hell, it was almost nightmare-ish. I say almost because while there were like, 30 kids ages 1-5 running around my living room, dumping toys everywhere and putting their hands on my windows that I JUST PAYED TO HAVE PROFESSIONALLY CLEANED...ahem...they all did clean up in the end so the lasting impact on the house was minimal. The impact on my nerves, not so minimal.

That was a total tangent, FYI. I hosted this playgroup which meant I wasn't able to go for a run in the morning. Which meant that I was totally bumming around in my skivvies instead of my running clothes all morning. I'm a homeowner now! You can't stop me!

So I open the garage door and Finn makes a break for it. This kid can run like his grandma. Which, out of context, would make him seem slow, but do you know who my mom is? Google that crap. Anywho, I go to chase him and then I'm like, Shoot, I'm not wearing, like, real clothes.

And Finn is running around the driveway. And I KNOW he's about to make his mad dash down the street like he usually does.

And then there's me. Super mom. Undies. Yeah.

This is where I'D LOVE to say my obedient child listened to all my begging and pleading and asking and threats and came inside. He didn't.

I offered him gum (his fave. Is that bad? Yeah. Ok. Noted.), I started to close the garage door thinking he'd panic and run inside. No dice.

I asked nicely.

I didn't want to leave him unsupervised to go get dressed so I did what every awesome person does.

Bribe him with cookies and frosting.

Worked like a charm.

And let me tell you, giving a two year old pure sugar at 9am is totally legit if it means you didn't have to flash the neighbors.

Finn!!

Ah, yes, my little bundle of endless energy, endless conversation, and endless antics.

He's the handful, people.

Let me tell you all about how this lil' man is growing up:

- Favorite phrases: " I fast! (when he's running...usually in the opposite direction of me). I dance! I talk! I read! I hug! You get the picture. It's all about him. Either that or he's spewing ideas for new Apple products...

- Holy crap, this kid talks up a storm. All day long he tells me all about the mail truck that he saw yesterday and the trash truck he is looking forward to seeing on Monday. He tells me about how he loves Isla and mommy and daddy and grandma and Nick (once he starts talking about family members he goes through the list of everyone).

Basically, he likes to relate to me everything that is going on, has gone on or will ever go on. He knows a ton of words and can string together some pretty good sentences. He repeats everything I say (swear words definitely included. He dropped a PERFECT F-bomb the other day. But NOT because I'm a terrible parent. I asked him his name and he started to say Finn and then saw a truck. Finn + truck = Yeah. Good gracious.) and is really articulate and clear. I love that he takes in EVERYTHING going on and tells me or Luke about it and even remembers and talks about it a few days later.
 
It never gets old. (ha! that's a joke...silence is golden at the end of the day, trust me.)

All in all I think he's a pretty smart cookie.

- He knows his ABC's like a boss. Not in order, but he can point out A-Z like nobody's business. Except V, and Z...but everyone knows those letters don't matter anyways. 

- He's got two of his two-year molars...those bad boys were probably the source of his cold/ear infection last month. The devils.

- He takes my phone and points it at Isla and says 'cheeeeese!'. Apparently he's caught on that my phone takes pictures. He points at me and his dog too, because we're all so photogenic like that and he just wants to capture that. I cannot, however, take a picture of him because he HAS TO HOLD THE CAMERA. Has to.

HAS. to.

- He's moved into his toddler bed (aka his crib with a toddler rail on it). I don't even think he knows that he can get out because he wakes up in the morning and just chills out until I drag my tired butt out of bed to get him....and by drag MY butt...I mean kick Luke's butt out of bed to go get him. Either way, someone is getting him and that's all that matters, right?

Right.

- If you ask him how old he is he says 'twoooooo!' and holds up two fingers as best he can. Close enough! Three more weeks!

-Whenever he picks up his shoes he says, 'eeeeeeew!' I don't understand it. They smell, but not that bad.

- He loves reading books and being read to. I think I've read 'The Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly' like a bajillion times. She dies at the end, by the way. Sorry if I've ruined it for you. Deal with it.

- He loves his wittle sister with a passion (when he actually pays attention to her). The hugs and kisses that girl endures during the day makes me think she's probably a lot tougher than I might give her credit for.

- If he wants to do something with me but I'm holding Isla, he pats her bouncy chair and says, "Isla! Chair! Outside!". Yes sir, right away...big brother mentality right there.

- P.S. He got a haircut the other day (something he still reminds me of on a day to day basis) and he didn't cry until he barfed for the first time ever as far as getting a haircut goes. I don't think the hair dresser knew how lucky she was.  And for that I low-balled her on the tip. Sorry!

- P.P.S. Luke got a haircut and Finn noticed before I did. He was actually the one that told me. I feel ashamed. And proud. And ashamed again. Sorry, Luke.

He wanted me to take a picture of his dog but I was sneaky sneaky and got him instead. He looks tired and bit disheveled but he just woke up from his nap and he takes his naps seriously.

3 months :)

Isla is 3 months oooooold! And isn't she just a total peach? Ah, I love this girly so much.

What 3 months has brought us:

-I call her my super smiler. She smiles. A lot. And at everybody. Her smile lights up a room, its adorable. She does not, however, smile at Finn. She gives him a face that looks more like, "I'm tired of your antics, dude." That's my girl.

-She reaches and grabs things dangling in front of her. She's got pretty good aim, too. She also puts her hands in her mouth. All in all, I guess what I'm saying is, she found her hands and is figuring out what they do. Babies. So silly.

-She laughs at who-knows-what. I hear her laughing most often when she's left in a room by herself or I've turned around and no one is paying attention to her. She is obviously easily amused.

- She can ALMOST roll from her back to her tummy. Whaaat? Finn couldn't do that until he was like, 7 months old. Super star. She does it at night so she can sleep on her side.

-She has never really ever slept more than 4 hours at a time at night and she naps in 30 minute increments during the day. Tortuuuuuure.

Basically though, she's a fantastic, chubby little girl who squeaks and coos and does all the little baby things that I am totally eating up and loving.  

And Finn? He's almost TWO! And if you ask him how old he is, he holds up two fingers and says "twooooo" He'll be getting a detailed post in the next day or so because there are a few things he doesn't like sharing with his sister and those are: toys, pacifiers and blog posts.

But here's a picture of him "driving" a fire truck. BEST DAY EVER for this kid. He is obsessed with anything that has wheels so this was a big effing deal, yo. And he'll tell you all about it.

Finished!

Y'all are gonna get a photo dump today. TGIF!

I felt like I left the last post unfinished. Like, I know there was someone out there going, "Ummm...why didn't she put the rest of the house pictures up?! What a bitch"

And to that person I say, "First of all, don't be rude. Second of all...I totally understand. So here you go."

 Note the sleeping baby :) Our living room. BTW, we do have a TV. We're not totally Amish, I'm just standing next to it.

The beautiful bright hallway upstairs with the bedrooms.

The master bedroom. Definitely needs some pizazz, right? Not just a mega-huge mirror... We can't really do a headboard with the window...Pintrest, don't fail me now!!

The dining room!

There you go. I never leave a job unfinished!

Our House! Mostly..

I took a few pictures of the inside of our house. And stopped there. But hey! Progress!

So, we painted the WHOLE interior within a week of moving in. No more terrible tan walls.   It was no good.

I definitely went light and bright as far as colors were concerned. It makes the house look so much happier and bigger. Some might call it boring...I call it, screw you, its my house and it looks great.

But yeah, lots of taupes, and grey and cottage-y whites and all that. Very dreamy. Very HGTV worthy, too I might add.


We also painted the front door and took down all the decals the previous owners had put EVERYWHERE. They were so bad. Like, "Celebrate Life And Family And Faith And Jesus and Loving and Laughter And Etc. And So on and So Forth All The Time Always"...

...ok, we get it. You didn't need to plaster that on every wall. But that's ok. Don't worry about it. I took them all down literally one hour after getting the keys in my hands. That's how much I did not approve.

Anywho, moving in and everything went great, but we got the keys a week before we actually moved...the week that Finn, Ilsa and I were sick and Isla got her shots and Finn got an ear infection. Not the best week for packing and moving but we worked it out like a boss.

I digress, here's some stuff for ya:
Here's the outside!

This is the entry way (formerly a nice dark red that was actually not so nice.)

And the kitchen (with the fridge we had to buy at the last minute because the one we bought didn't fit. Whoops. Luke picked it out sans me, and I must say he did a great job). There's a dining room behind me. Use your imagination.

The kids' rooms (these were the only rooms that didn't get painted. I don't mind it so much. Not the best pictures and you can't see the cool pictures on the other walls but meh, you'll survive.

The laundry room that I painted a loooovely 'palm breeze' green that my camera isn't doing justice. Sigh. Love that place.

 

And finally a set of shelves. Important because this used to be the ugliest  built in bookshelf you ever did see. Like, terrible laminate, bad paint job. All that. Luke went to work with a sledge hammer and took down that beast and then re-drywalled. He's ah-mazing. I just decorate.

Backyard! Finn does our yard work (pantless) as you can see :)

There are more rooms that didn't get on this roll of film because kids are distracting and if Finn sees the camera he has to have it. Aaaaaaah.

Just like that.

But you get the idea. Totally awesome inside and out, baby.

What you don't see: Our living room with the 'kid's nook' (I put a shelf about halfway down the wall so they could reach their books and their play bins are underneath. Effin' genius over here, yo). The master bedroom, and our extra room that houses Luke's computer, my sewing table/machine and any guests we may be entertaining (currently Luke's parents).

Fantabulous!

A Quick Comparison...

 

Cheeks, nose, lips, chin, big blue eyes and no hair. Check, check, checkity-check. I guess they might just be siblings after all...

Keep It Together

Most days (as of late) my main goal is to try a keep my sh*t together. I don't want to be one of those moms that looks like life is totally eating her up. I try and keep my cool, keep the kids, I don't know, dressed, fed and relatively polite and presentable...Like, I want people to look at me and say, 'damn, she handles life with two kids like a pro'.

It's a lofty goal to be sure...


I try to have my diaper bag always packed and ready but I always manage to forget someone's diaper or run out of wipes or forget juice or formula. It makes for interesting outings everyday when I find out what exactly flew under my radar (usually its a diaper when one of them has a major poopsplosion).

In other words, my mind is a total dumping ground right now, but I try not to let it show.

And then today hits. We're at the library and Finn runs into a bookcase and splits his lip open (why do we go to the library ever? Its a total drama-fest every time. And not in a good way. But he always has so much fun in between drama-ramas.) (Also, Finn needs to look where he's going). Some lady offered to take Isla for me while I patched him up and only in the MIDDLE of patching him up did I think, 'Shoot, I just passed my baby off to a relative stranger. Meh, she looked legit."

He recovered asap and we played a while longer.

And then as I'm trying to get dinner ready Finn comes in handing me his blanket declaring, 'Mess! Mess!'.

Oh by the way, it was covered in poo.

So was his stuffed dog.

So was his toy box (it needed to hosed down. Kill me now).

At that moment, I didn't care if anyone (anyone!) saw me totally disheveled scraping poo off of things and being, well...not so totally together.

Don't get me wrong, there was no yelling or crying or anything like that on my part (its actually a rare day I lose my cool outwardly...) but on the inside, I was totally planning my escape to somewhere with Isla. Why Isla? Because she was sleeping calmly through all of this and frankly, I totally respect that.

Thanks girly.


No, I will never be able to wear my bangs down again after that dipwad hairdresser ruined them. Also, not the best picture but Isla is so freaking chub-tastic I couldn't resist...

 Oh, and Finn. I love you too, poop monster :)

Next up: I promise I'll tell everyone about our new house and even include pictures!