Finn Claims His First Victim

Last week, Zeke made some Halloween pictures in school:

Today, Finn managed to roll/scoot himself around until he finally managed to get his hands (and mouth) on one - he's been trying to get at them for awhile now:

When the boys saw the damage, the following conversation ensued:

Zeke: Oh no, what happened?

Me: I'm sorry honey, Finn ate your ghost. Are you okay with that?

Zeke (somewhat sadly): Yeah. It's okay.

Deacon (as he enters the room from stage right): Oh no, what happened to ghost?

Zeke: Finn eat the ghost.

Deacon: It's broken?

Me: Yes, it's broken now.

Deacon: I know! I get Handy Manny tools! Deacon takes off running for the playroom.

Zeke: Yeah! Tools are good for fixing! Zeke follows Deacon, then they both come back.

Deacon: See Mommy? Tools help fix ghost.

It really was a good idea. But sadly, there's nothing that can help fix that poor ghost. I guess I need to start paying closer attention to Finn when he's on the floor "entertaining" himself.

NINJA!

Deacon is a ninja. He will gladly help himself to whatever food or drink you've left laying about when you're not looking. For example, I made the bowl of cereal the other morning, ate a few bites before the bus came for Zeke. By the time I got back in the house I found this:

Notice his own bowl of cereal on his placemat.

His favorite, though, seems to be my tea. Within seconds of having made myself a mug of tea, there are little eyes watching me, waiting for the moment when I put the mug down so he can pounce. He's not always subtle. In fact, most times he'll walk right up to you and ask for a bite of whatever it is you're eating. He usually does this to Josh at lunch time. I've learned to wait until Deacon is napping to eat my lunch. Josh hasn't learned this yet.

Deacon has also been tearing it up in the music department. Just like his daddy, Deacon enjoys making up his own songs about...well, about whatever he wants. Whatever it is he's looking at, whatever someone around him might have just said, about whatever he is doing or wants to do, about absolutely nothing at all. It's fantastic. And he just busts out with them too, there's no warning, just the sudden sound of singing. He likes to sing already written songs too. Here he is singing part of "The Wheels on the Bus".

Deacon is also a crack-up. He's still saying the most hilarious things, but sadly I can't think of any right now. He has this crazy sock thing going on currently. We really shouldn't put him in bed in socks anymore because they never stay on his feet. Last night I went down to check on him as his playing started getting out of hand, and I found him with his socks on his hands. It wasn't the first time this has happened. And socks on the hands are fine, I have no problem with that. It's when I go in and his socks are on the ground/in his bed/anywhere other than his feet, and they're soaking wet because he's been chewing on them, that gets me. I mean, eww! So there's that.

However, I finally got a picture of one of the many, many wonderful faces he makes throughout the day. And I think this picture really sums up Deacon nicely. I'll set it up for you, so it makes a little bit of sense. A friend of Zeke's from school let us borrow some of his and his brothers old Halloween costumes, in case the boys decide they want to dress up this year at all. So we were going through the bag of costumes the other night, trying just about all of them on. Zeke was the most excited about this and finally settled on wearing the Wolverine costume for awhile. (I think it was the mask that had him the most excited about it.) Deacon finally agreed to play along when we got out the Spider-man costume. I was trying to get a decent shot of the two of them together, just in case this was the only time I could get them both in costume at the same time, and this is what I got:

Man, I love this kid!

Maybe We Should Have Named Him Barnabas

In the book of Acts, in the Bible, there is a man whom the disciples called Barnabas, or "Son of Encouragement". And rightfully so, he was a very encouraging man, and a man of good character. Sometimes I wonder if maybe we should have given the name Barnabas to Zeke.

You see, my sweet boy has never really been one to hide his excitement over anything. He is always ready to literally jump for joy (and clap, there's usually clapping) when he's excited or really happy about something. "Oh boy!" is a phrase you hear a bunch coming from Zeke. But lately he's been turning his enthusiasm for life towards others.

I cannot tell you the number of high fives I have recieved over the past week. It usually goes like this: I open/do/figure out something. Zeke realizes I did it, says, "Mommy, you did it?" When I reply in the affirmative he exclaims, "Good job, Mom! High five!" Then he gives me a high five. Or ten. You know. It's such a nice little boost. "Daddy, you cleaned the table? Good job, Daddy. High five!" "Mommy, you made the sandwiches? Oh yay! High five!" "Deacon, you cleaned up the blocks? High five!" Finn doesn't get high fives - yet. He does get kisses all over his head from Zeke though.

The other thing Zeke has been doing lately, is pouring out the thanks. In a most excited voice you'll often hear things like, "Mommy, you cleaned the yellow spoon?! Thank you!" "Daddy, you bought bananas at the store?! Oh, thank you!" "Mommy, you cleaned my dinosaur shirt/Spider-man pajamas/Wall-E underpants/etc?! Oh boy, thank you!" "Daddy, you found my green ball/purple spider/red rock/etc?! Oh, thank you, thank you!" I have to say, I think it's great. Of course, some times he takes his excitement a little too far, like the other morning when he was so excited to have vanilla yogurt and his yellow spoon that he gave both his yogurt cup and his yellow spoon kisses. Now, when the kisses are being given to me, that's no longer taking it too far.

I'm not sure how long it'll last. I hope forever. It really is nice to be appreciated for all the menial tasks that have to get done, like laundry and dishes and food shopping. Especially, when the appreciation is delivered so enthusiastically.

Jack!

This past weekend, our next door neighbors had some work done around their house. Apparently they were getting water in their basement. Unlike us, where the water enters our basement into our garage, their water was getting into bedrooms and things. So they had two dumptrucks full of gravel dumped on their front yard, which they put around the side of their house - sort of like to act as a drain I think. But then, as if a giant pile of rocks wasn't enough, then Jack and Alfie showed up. (Jack and Alfie are characters on Thomas the Tank Engine. I linked to pictures of them if you click on their names.) Needless to say, it was a very exciting time for our boys.

Perhaps the best part of it all was the day Josh had the older boys outside (it was a little too chilly for Finn). They were playing and raking leaves and doing what boys do when they're outside. When the operators of the machines were taking a little break, Josh asked if they boys could see them up close, maybe even go in them. And much like with the fire truck back in May, it was perfectly fine!

Josh said Deacon was the one most excited about going on Alfie, so he went first:

Not really wanting to be left out, Zeke got on too, although he does look a little less than thrilled. Josh said Zeke got really excited once he was off and the realization of what had just happened sunk in.

Once again, I am loving Alaska for just how friendly and nice most of the people are here. I'm pretty sure if we were almost anywhere else, the boys wouldn't have been able to get anywhere near the truck, let alone sit on it. Josh said the operator told Josh he could get in too with the boys and make it move around a little bit, but Josh didn't really think that was a good idea. It's a wee bit difficult to keep two boys still and safe when you're also trying to operate heavy machinery. So, good call there, babe.

What a fun time it was for our boys. I can almost hardly wait to see what happens here next!

Daddy + Deacon = Good Times

Two weeks ago (or so - it's amazing how time gets away from me these days), Josh was able to take a whole week off from work, as he had a bunch of "use or lose" leave time. While it did make mornings a little more stressful until Zeke was on the bus, it was great having Josh home. It was especially great for Deacon. He and Josh spent a good amount of that time together.

They did things like watch Sesame Street:

This picture cracks me up for two reasons. One, Josh is the one watching TV, while Deacon is doing a puzzle. Two, it's hard to see in this picture, but Deacon is wearing sweatpants under his pajama shorts. Josh said he didn't want Deacon to run around in just his shorts (because it was chilly), and Deacon didn't want to wear the sweatpants, so they both lost.

They also colored:

I think Josh was trying to show Deacon how to color inside the lines instead of just scribbling all over the page. Which worked, because he's much more "careful" now when he colors. It's kind of fun to watch.

There was also a jam session or two:

Rock on guys!

Finally, there was also a lot of rough housing, and wrestling, and shoulder rides, and this:

We also took advantage of having Daddy home to take a drive through the mountain across the river from our house, and to check out the Imaginarium at the museum in Anchorage some more, and to relax and enjoy some family time.

And now I'm off to watch some more Chilean miners get rescued. Praise God! What an amazing thing.

Five Months of Finn

That's right, another month has flown by and my chunk is now 5 months old. I took him to the clinic for his 4 month well baby appointment (on his 5 month birthday - don't ask) and he weighed in around 18.3 pounds (90%) and is about 27 inches long (95%). He did really well, and is a perfectly happy and healthy baby - even though he did let the doctor have it for looking around in his ears. He sure told her a thing or two when she was finished.

As you will see in the picture below, Finn enjoys covering his face. Usually he'll pull his blanket up over his face while he's asleep, but lately, he's taken to "hiding" behind the quilt Josh's mom made for him, that I have hanging over the side of his bed. He's peeking out in the picture, but usually his whole head is under there, like a little tent, I guess.

I'm still really enjoying Finn. Or Chunky Monkey. Or Boo-Boo Bear. Or Mr. Finntastic. Or Sweet Cheeks. You know, whatever we feel like calling him at any given time. He loves to blow raspberries (he did so for a solid 45 minutes last night), and he has discovered his feet and enjoys holding on to them. As you'll see in the video below, there is very little in life that's better than doing both at the same time.

We started Finn on baby foods last week. Green beans were first. He wasn't too pleased the first time, but he came around. It should be fun to see how he reacts to the carrots he's going to get tonight. So far, none of our boys have like carrots (not that we blame them).

Otherwise, not much else is new on the Finn front. He's still happy most of the time, he still spits up quite a bit, he's rolling and scooting in little circles - which makes me think he'll be scooting forward soon, followed very closely by crawling. And, I am pleased to say, that Finn's baby book is all up to date. Well, except for those "The World Around Me" pages because I don't enjoy having to do those pages. But everything else is filled in and pictures are printed and cut and taped in there, and it's looking pretty good. And since I just spent time fiddling with pictures, and cut off my train of thought, I'm going to end the post here. Because...yeah.

There Goes My State of Denial

Even though it snowed however many Sundays ago that was, and even though most of the other mountains around our town have been dusted (and in some places completely covered) with snow, I was able to remain in a little state of denial of the rapid pace in which winter is approaching. So long as the mountain right outside our house was still bare, I could happily say that winter is still some time off and there will still be many lovely fall days.

All of that was dashed today. I brought Zeke out to his bus this morning and said to the bus aide, "Oh. I didn't realize it was raining a little bit."

"Well" said she. "It's raining down here at least." As she said this, she made a giant sweeping motion with her arm and directed my line of sight to the mountian, to my mountain, my mountain that was holding out for me, and I saw this:

Sigh. I guess it's time to get serious, mentally, for winter. The bus aide tried to make me feel better by saying that it doesn't really count until the snow is on the lawns. But by then, it's really too late - winter's already in full effect. Of course, the sun did wind up coming out today, so all that snow has melted off, but it's just a matter of time before it stays. And stays. Aaannddd stays.

At least I made some sweet hats for my sweet boys:

Since the picture doesn't show the hats off "real" well, Finn's is just red and black stripes, with a grey one in there somewhere, Zeke's is red and blue with one grey stripe and a "Spider-man-esqe" spider on it, and Deacon's is red and grey with two yellow stripes and and "Ironman-ish" symbol on it. Zeke has essentially worn his non-stop since I made it. Around the house anyway. It was a little bit of a struggle in the beginning to get him to wear it to school, but now I show him the temperature on my phone and tell him that it's cold enough that he has to wear it, and then he's okay with it.

Now I just have to get a "Green Lantern" one done for Josh and a "Batman" one done for me, and we'll all be good to go.

Maybe He Does Get It

One of the more frustrating parts of "speech delay" is when something's bothering the boys and they can't tell me what. If they're hurt, they'll eventually understand I want to know what hurts and provide the proper information, but if they're just sad or upset for some reason, the most I can get from them is "I sad." That makes it kind of hard to help them through whatever it is that's upsetting them. And besides repitition and providing possible answers as to why they might be sad, I am not sure what else to do, and I wonder why they just can't understand what I want from them.

However, this morning I overheard this conversation:

Deacon as Deacon: Hello Egg. What's wrong?

Deacon as Egg: I'm sad.

Deacon as Deacon: Ohh. You're sad? Why are you sad?"

Deacon as Egg: I'm sad because I'm hurt.

Deacon: You're hurt?

Egg: Yes. I cry now.

Deacon (as he gently pets the egg whisk): It's okay Egg.

It was seriously, too sweet and almost too funny. But it makes me wonder if he is starting to understand more about how to express what's wrong with him, you know, when something is wrong, and how to comfort someone who is upset (by the way, comfort is one of the new "word on the street" words on Sesame Street this season, and I'm linking to it because it's Jason Bateman, and I like Jason Bateman...anyway). It was pretty exciting for me. Then he and the egg went into the playroom and had a blast doing something that caused Deacon to squeal with delight and occasionally say, "Silly Egg!"

Silly Egg indeed.