This Kid

The day after I had Finn, Deacon had an appointment to go through the same assessment program Zeke went through in March. Josh brought him in (obviously, since I was still in the hospital) and went around afterwards saying how Deacon aced it. One of us was supposed to go back the following week to get his assessment results, but one of the two ladies who assessed Deacon called that morning and confirmed what Josh said. She said that Deacon is exactly where he should be at his age and they have absolutely no concerns about his speech/development and so he does not qualify for any services. She then went on to say that since she knew we had the new baby and since Deacon is perfectly normal, we could count that phone call as our meeting and she would mail us the report, so we wouldn't have to go out there with the new baby or anything. Score!

However, I would like to point out that while his speech and development are right on track, there is very little "normal" about this kid. For example, the other day (I guess week now, looking at his hair) Deacon dumped the toys out of the pretzel tubs, put the tubs on his feet, and walked around like that for a good ten minutes or so, very pleased with himself.

There's also this new thing he's been doing in the evenings, when he's getting dressed for bed. He now likes to pull his shirt mostly off, then announce that he's a pirate, and run around going, "Yarrg!"

However, he is a good older brother, who loves Baby Finn. See how gently he's petting the baby's head? Although, he does not enjoy it very much when Finn cries. Usually when Finn starts up, Deacon can be heard gently (and sometimes not so gently) saying, "That's enough, Baby Finn. That's enough." Or, like on the ride home from church this past Sunday, "It's okay baby. It's okay. Don't cry. It's okay."

However, he does still like to put random things on his head. Things like the bottom half of the box to his new puzzle.


As well as things like this weird rubbery thing that he found at Amity's house while we were playing over there yesterday.

Seriously, this kid cracks us up all the time. One last example before I go. The other night they boys were in bed and just kept misbehaving, causing us to constantly take turns going in and putting them back in bed and what's it. As I got up for one of my turns into the beasts' den, Josh said, "Go in there like a spider monkey." Meaning, throw open the door, jump in, and be all loud and crazy. So I did. After leaping from the middle of the room into his bed in shock, Deacon looked at me and said, "Whoa, Mom. Take it easy." Needless to say, no disciplining happened that time around. Oh, Deacon. Life would be a lot less interesting without you.

Moosen!!!

So, the boys were eating lunch at the table, while I was feeding Finn on the couch. Nothing too out of the ordinary, when the boys spotted the cat outside and got all excited that Peavey was on the fence. I was confused by this because I was certain the cat was inside, so I got up to check it out and sure enough Peavey was outside on the fence. Not only was he on the fence though, he was doing his "I'm stalking some sort of prey" stance on the fence. This made me curious, so I looked around at what he might have been staring at, when I saw it:

The moose!

It was seriously the biggest moose I've ever seen, and it was just hanging out behind our house, eating. Since all these trees were in my way of getting a good shot of the moose, I wanted to go out back and take one from where the cat was hanging out. Before I could do that though, Zeke announced that his tummy hurt (which is code now for he has to poop), and Finn was still eating. So, I "finished" feeding Finn, helped Zeke clean up after pooping, got the camera and went outside, only to see that the moose was not where it last was.

I was a little disappointed because I thought this meant the moose had left, but it didn't. It just moved over a bit and layed down, I assumed, for a nap. So, I went out, climbed the compost structure (don't freak out Josh, I was very careful), and took a couple of pictures.

I came back in, texted Josh about it, made sure the boys finished their lunches, put in a video to occupy them until naptime, and resumed feeding Finn.

A half hour later or so, I had all three boys down for naps, was eating lunch, and texting with Josh again, when I decided to look outside and see if the moose was still there. Well, she was. But she was no longer alone.

THE MOOSE BEHIND OUR HOUSE HAD A BABY!! I quickly texted this to Josh, and went out on the deck to take more pictures (I was not going to go all the way to the compost pile again just in case that was too close for Momma Moose's comfort). As I was zooming in I realized that there was not one new moose, but two! THE MOOSE BEHIND OUR HOUSE HAD TWO BABIES!!! Sorry for the shouting, but this is super exciting to me.

Isn't it all so sweet?! Of course, Josh is bummed that he missed it all, but he did rightly warn me not to let the boys outside this afternoon if they are still there when naps are finished. And here's just a little video to finish this off, mostly because I wasn't sure how good the pictures would come out and I wanted to make sure you all knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that there are in fact moose behind my house.

He's Got Moves

Tomorrow is the last day of school here. I'm not sure how that's going to go over with Zeke, it could make for a long summer. But that's not the point of this post. The point of this post is that today, Zeke's class, and the other preschool class, put on a little show for their families, complete with refreshments afterwards.

It was really cute. They "performed" six songs. The first was a muscial version of the book "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" Zeke was the goldfish.

Second was a song about wheels turning and drums beating in my heart which involved a few hand motions. Then a song about how big are you, Mommy and Daddy, which involved the use of scarves.

Fourth was a song about moving all the different parts of your body. I like this particular clip because it shows how "serious" Zeke tried to be while performing whenever he looked in our direction, and it shows how he had to pull up his pants after the jumping parts, which occured in just about every song they did.

They followed that song up with "The Chicken Dance". Oh, yeah. I'm just going to let the video speak for itself on this one, once I say that Zeke was totally into it and boogied down better than any other kid out there on this number.

Go ahead and watch that again if you want, I'll wait. And sorry about the sideways footage in the first video. I guess Josh thought the video would turn with the camera, but it didn't. It's still so much fun to watch.

They then closed with a slower number where they ended by walking to their parents, climbing in our laps and "falling asleep". So sweet.

Josh had to get back to work shortly after the performance was over, but the boys and I stayed for snacks and to hang out for a bit. That is, until Finn decided he had had enough and wanted to eat something as well. So off we went, having had a great time, with a great end to a great school year. (I can hardly wait for September now.)

It's That Time Again

It's time for summer haircuts. As you can see, Zeke was super pumped to get his head shaved. Deacon, on the other hand, did not enjoy the experience at all.

But they sure do look handsome when all is said and done.

Fire!

Today was a Friday like any other Friday. Nothing out of the ordinary happened. Nothing, that is, until after we finished eating lunch. Josh came home from getting his car serviced and told us that there was a fire truck on our street. So the boys and I checked it out and sure enough, there was a fire truck directly across the street from our house.

As a matter of fact, as we were checking out the fire truck a second one came along. Then things got really exciting. The firemen broke in the front door and started checking out the house. (Apparently someone left a pot on before leaving the house and it caused a little fire which set off their alarm, which alerted the fire department.)

Once all of that excitement was over and our neighbor came back home (thanks to Josh calling his wife to let her know what was going on), I told Josh to take the boys outside to see the fire trucks up close. Because really, what little boy (or adult boy for that matter) doesn't love to see fire trucks up close and personal? So, the three of them went outside and stood on the front lawn for a minute until the firemen invited them over to check things out.

Here's what I love about Alaska, everyone out here is so nice. Not only did they let the boys check out the truck up close, but they let them try on a helmet,




and they let the boys hang out in the fire truck!

My sweet boys were so pumped when they came back home, it was great. Even Josh was super excited by the whole thing. And who can blame them?

And, just because he's the sweetest thing ever, here's another picture of Finn to finish out the post.

Just Some Pictures

Hey all! So, it's been a full week since Finn was born, and we are finally settling into a little bit of a routine, and figuring out how to do this. Good times, good times. Since it's close to "feeding time" though, I wanted to throw up a couple of pictures for you since it'll be awhile before I get them up on Flickr (and I have no desire to put them up on Facebook). That being said, here we go:

This is Zeke and Deacon's very first time seeing "Baby Finn". I think you can tell by their faces (sorry they're blurry faces, I took it with my phone) that they are quite taken with him.

Resting with Daddy


We got home from the hospital on Friday. Saturday morning Deacon woke up and said, "Deacon try Baby Finn?"



Zeke, of course, had to have a turn after Deacon did.


And then here are just some pictures of the little smush face.

And that's all for now. I hope to actually write some soon, but we'll see how that goes. I'm still trying to catch up on some sleep/rest. Just know things are good, we're all in love with the little man, and if anything I'll try to take some more pictures and post them when I get a few seconds here and there.

He's Here!

Welcome Phinneas Alexander Walter (aka Finn)!

Finn was born on 5 May, 2010 at 14:30 pm.

He weighed in at 9 lbs 4 oz.

He measured 22 inches long.

More to come once Mommy and baby are home.

(Sorry the pic isn't that great...I left the camera in the car and had to go with the iphone)

Still Here

We're still here.

I am still pregnant.

Nothing exciting has been going on.

I just wanted to let you know we were still holding steady.

Oh, and Josh will post something here, and on facebook whenever #3 decides to show up.