New Year's Day 2009

So, boy,

I thought it was time for your old man to write a little note about your progress. It is a short story, but, it unfortunately outlines my child-rearing skills up to this point.

I made everybody pancakes and bacon for breakfast - one of my favorite things to do on a lazy day off. We all ate ourselves silly, and I had to end up throwing away a couple of half-eaten pancakes.

We then proceeded to take our eyes off of you for a few minutes (as any parent knows, these are famous last words). At the end of that time, you approached us with evidence that you had opened the garbage can and proceeded to munch on one of those half-eaten pancakes. I can't argue with you, though. They were pretty tasty.

We love you, son.

Your Old Man

15 Month Update

Dear FIN,

On Friday last, you turned 15 months. Again, asking myself, where did the time go?! I took you to the doctor yesterday for your 15 month appointment, and I ended up lying to you - I seriously didn't know you had to get a shot. Be forewarned, you'll get 2 shots at 18 months. Your stats are:

Height: 32.5 inches - 90th percentile

Weight: 27.1 lbs - 80th percentile

Head circum.: 80th percentile

This month you have become more calm, yet more busy... if that is possible. You are predictable in what trouble you like to get into, but you are more intense with your play time. You will play with something for a half hour straight. You still are not interested in TV, which I guess is a good thing. For Christmas, Santa brought you a Jack in the Box, some puzzles, and a connector lego set. All in all it was a great Christmas. Grandpa Dahlke made you a toy box with your name on it, and the back folds down into a desk. You LOVE it! You love to sit on it properly and bang on the toy key board. Here you are on the box and with Grandpa.

Love your mama.

14 Months plus

Dear FIN,
I'm getting a late start on celebrating your 14 month mark. Its not because I haven't thought about it, I think about you every second of every day, but lets face it, this isn't about me, this is about you. You keep me very busy, as well as work these days, so I'm just now, a week and a half late getting to typing out your 14 month update.
You have started running, not metaphorically, seriously running. I got you a membership to the Betty Brinn children's museum - or indoor park, as I call it. You are a mad man there. Even though it might as well be called a giant bouncy room, you still managed to trip, fall, and get a nice scraped up cheek. The same cheek that you scraped up a week earlier when visiting your Aunt Sara & Uncle Henry in Phoenix. I should also tell you that you made your first trip to Las Vegas. You lost money. But you made friends, so its a lose/win, which in the end balances out.
I'm told by Leanie at Daycare, you can sign for more, and sign all done. You also like to play with playdough, but I'm not brave enough to have you play with that at home, mostly because either the dog or your dad might end up eating it.
You are still hanging out with 6 teeth, you swing your arms... a lot, and you are starting to understand the word "no", however, that doesn't mean you stop going after what you want that has a "no" attached to it. Good thing Leanie takes pictures of you, because I haven't been good at doing so. Here is a picture of you outside in the snow. You are so tall. My heart continues to grow with you. I love you baby.
Love your mama.

A line to remember

Just heard at Target:
little girl: "Mom, I want a credit card"
Mom: "You don't need a credit card at age 4".

Future replica of grandpa

We have taken FIN to the children's museum, Betty Brinn a few times. Its more of an indoor mad house where kids can touch, play with, destroy, lick all the things that they are usually told not to, when they are adult size. This place has all kinds of stuff, kid sized. Here is a picture of FIN next to a Snap-on tool box, just like the one his grandpa has. It is so much fun to watch him go nuts at this park. He can go on slides, push around lawn mowers, and bang on crap as loud as he wants. And guess what, he didn't cry once. He was having too much fun! Nope, it wasn't my baby running around with a snotty nose crying, with gum stuck in their hair. First of all, he doesn't have that much hair, and secondly, he needed somewhere to put his gum.

We know who really has it together in this family

This photo was taken on Oct 19 (I remember because its the mama's birthday), and for those of you who understand my logic, I also remember what I wore on my birthday... so I digress. I think of any picture we try to get as a family, there takes some preparation, perspiration, and alcohol. Seems the dog was sitting there pose ready, while the rest of us got our act together. It wouldn't have occurred to me to re-look at this picture, but Francisco did, and said it depicts us well - me trying to keep FINs head on, Francisco making him sit up, and the dog telling us to get our stuff together.

Its Official

My baby is walking.

13 Months

Dear FIN,
You made it to 13 months, and I would've been able to say, "you made it this far completely content with crawling" but yesterday, on your 13 month milestone, you busted out the walking like a mad man. Its like you just got it in your head that you wanted to walk. And you worked really hard at it too. You still like to crawl around, but you definately split your time between crawling, and sending me and your dad into a frenzy baby proofing everything.
I spend a lot of time trying to figure out your next move, but as usual, you are one step ahead of me. You have been eating really well, and just when I think i'm making your favorite meal, you decide that you hate it and toss it on the floor. Which brings me to the next point, Winston is plain ol' getting fat. If we reduce his dog food intake, I'm pretty sure you'd sense it and feed him everything on your plate. You love Winston... most of the time... when you realize he is there. You play so hard with everything, and are so inquisitive on how things work. I just wonder what you are analyzing in that sweet head of yours.This has been a fun month. Just this morning your dad remarked at how some people think that age one is worse than the terrible 2's. Where I like to think, I enjoy everything with you, every day. I like how you just lay on your back and hold a toy above you and just stare at it, for 2 minutes. Its 2 minutes of not chasing you. 

I know you will continue to grow wickedly fast... I take great pleasure in holding and squeezing you when I can - mostly against your will, but its my will against yours to keep you my baby as long as possible.
love - mama.

A day at the park

Daddy said the light was perfect. So we posed.

Baby you can drive my car... round and round and backwards

Once again FIN, here you go proving that day care is way awesome! You get to drive a car without a proper license. I doubt your passport will get you out of a ticket. However, if a cop sees you maneuver a car like you do in this video, he might just let you off with a warning... mostly because he'll be too dizzy from watching you spin round and round to want to write out a ticket.