Our first family "hike"

We must confess that after living in Colorado for over 2 years, we have done very little in the way of exploring.  We've often talked about it, but have found that the 8-month winters and small kids just don't mix well and really limit our time to get out and about.  Even though Finn is still quite little, he is a much more even-tempered baby than our previous one was.  He's pretty much always happy, even when he's tired, or he's easily distracted and made happy.  So this year we resolved to get out and see a bit more and do some exploring.

Memorial Day this year was a perfect opportunity.  We still haven't replaced our grill (we found it was inoperable when we arrived in CO) and so we needed to go out for burgers anyway.  We stopped at Smashburger for lunch before heading out to Ute Valley Park to explore.  It was our first time at both places.  Unfortunately, we have a hung jury on Smashburger, but Ute Valley Park got thumbs up from everyone!  We covered ourselves in sunscreen while in the parking lot, I strapped Finn into the Baby Bjorn with a hat and blanket to cover him up some more, and we took off on our "choose your own adventure" afternoon.  There were so many trails in the park that we didn't see all that many people.  We would cross paths occasionally and so we knew they were there, it just didn't feel crowded.  At one point I saw a path that looked like it offered more shade and so we decided to go that direction.  We ended up at a little creek with grass and animals and rocks.  It was a perfect place for Kai to look around while I gave Finn a bottle.  Kai thoroughly enjoyed exploring until a fly started buzzing by and then he decided it was time to leave.

Both on the way into the park and on the way out, Kai picked up as many rocks as he could.  At one point early on in the hike, he actual slipped and landed flat on his tail still holding onto his rocks in each hand.  It was pretty funny!  And he had a great patch of dirt on his bum.  Too cute!  He even made up a song about rocks on his way back to the car.  It was a fun family outing!  Here's to another one soon!

The slip onto the bum while holding both rocks.

Dirty bum.

 Very tired Finn.

The end of our path.  The rock was the shady spot where 

I stopped and fed Finn.

Kai's lizard friend.

 Kai's ladybug friend.

 The view of Pike's Peak.  Can you believe this park

is right in the middle of the city??

Look What Finn Can Do!

Finn started crawling yesterday. He figured out that the moves he has been using in his crib for the last several months actually work on the floor, too. He doesn't like to go too far, but if a toy, or momma, is just out of reach he'll do a couple of little scoots to get there. I took a video of one of his earliest attempts, but wasn't sure I was going to share it because it took him quite a while to get going. And then later I was trying to take a video of him standing up, and he ended up coming to me instead. So, here's that video. He just does one little scoot, but you get the picture.

It would seem that this week has been a big week for Finn, a tooth, crawling, etc. However, for the life of me, I can't find his tooth again. I'm positive I saw it earlier this week (about Sunday through Tuesday) but there's been nothing now for three days. I asked Reid if I had imagined it, but he had never taken a good look. I know with Kai that his teeth would come and then drop back down again, and so I don't know if that's happening with Finn or if I've just lost my sanity. There's nothing that even looks like a tooth has ever even been there. So weird, I have no idea what to think!

There's a tooth!

Finn's first tooth made it's appearance on Sunday.  Well, really only the tippy top of it, but it's there.  As is normally the case when teeth first appear, all attempts at a picture have been futile.  But I imagine in a couple of weeks, there will definitely be something to show.

Developments This Week

Kai had his 3 year-old well check this week.  Getting out of the house and initially at the doctor's, I faced a lot of resistance.  Once the nurse pulled out a lollipop, all was well and Kai was happy.  Since he was initially throwing a fit, we had a hard time getting his weight.  I stood on the scale and held him and then we subtracted my weight.  Needless to say, that strengthened my resolve to do something this summer to get rid of this baby weight!!  Kai's weight (with his clothes) was slightly over 28 pounds.  That would be in the 15th percentile!  We figure take off 2 pounds for his clothes, which would put him at 26 pounds and in the 10th percentile!  The doctor was very happy, especially considering at his 2 year check-up he weighed only 22 pounds and wasn't on the charts.  How 4 pounds over 1 year makes that much difference, I don't know, but she was happy, so I am, too.  He put up absolutely no fight at getting measured and came up 36.25 inches tall.  That's a 4 inch gain from last year and puts him in the 20% percentile.  It's the highest he's been on the growth chart for both height and weight since he was 9 months old.  Go Kai!

In other news, Finn officially pulled himself up on an inanimate object this morning.  (Insert deep sigh.)  I'm not ready for this.  Now I have to put dropping the crib mattress on my list of things to do. He hasn't done it in his crib yet, but he's been trying and I know the minute he gets his hand on something to hold he'll be right up.  So far the bumper on the rails has kept him from getting a solid hand hold, but I don't want to push my luck.

And finally, Finn almost slept through the night last night.  He settled down to sleep around 8pm and didn't get up until 5:40am.  Had he made it to 6am I would say that he made it through the night, but for me 5:40am is not quite there.  But I'm so proud of him.  His sleep was really disturbed by being sick and having our visitors and he finally seems to be getting back on track.  Yippeee!

Grammy and Papa's Visit

Reid's parents came out to visit us, meet Finn for the first time, and help celebrate Kai and Reid's birthday. We enjoyed their visit and certainly kept busy. Over the 10 days there were a lot of pictures taken, mostly of the boys, but also of some of our activities. We certainly did keep busy with outlet shopping, dining out, playing at home, and even a picnic at the park. Here are some photo highlights!

Standing up--Finn's FAVORITE thing.

Finn and Papa all dressed up.

Riding the plasma car on the deck and stopping to see Finn through the window.

Pushing Daddy on the plasma car.

Finn watching Kai ride the plasma car on the deck.

Kai's morning routine.

Eating his hands.  Just so cute!

Finn wants to be JUST like big brother.

Multi-tasking--playing and eating.  The ONLY way to get him

to take a bottle during the day.

Playing tug-of-war with Mommy with his clothes.

It's his absolute favorite game!

Showing off his picnic outfit.

Picnic at the park

 Cleaning up to go play.

Going down the slide next to daddy.  Way off in the distance.

Almost there!

I've finally gotten all of the pictures and am almost done sorting through. I only have one more post to go. I just wanted to let you know that the posts are posting to the blog in the order that I started them, so scroll down under the video of Finn to see birthday pictures.

Uh Oh!

Finn has been getting better and better at pulling himself up. He has even taken to standing next to furniture and holding on by himself. (I have to put him there, though.) Yes, I know he's not even crawling, and he really hadn't even been close to that until yesterday. Late yesterday afternoon I looked out from the kitchen into the living room to see Finn on his hands and knees rocking back and forth. Uh oh! And then today he ended up that way several times. To make matters worse, this afternoon Finn leaned over, grabbed my arm, rolled to his knees from his bum, and then stood up. Like I said, UH OH!!



If you listen closely, at the end he starts crying and saying "ba ba". We think it's his way of asking for his bottle. This video was right before dinner so the poor baby was pretty hungry