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.