So we get to Santa, and Santa says “Hi Finn! High-five!” Finn looks dead at Santa and says “Slam dunk.” (no high-five)

Finn is the coolest. 

He wasn’t really scared of Santa, but he just wasn’t in the mood to mess around. He just wanted to deliver his Christmas request, and then get out of there. When he sat on Santa’s lap, he squirmed around a lot (imagine Finn and Santa wrestling) and didn’t want to smile. We maybe got one out of him… hopefully the pictures turn out.

Babies

Bella has been such a good big sister to Finn. She tolerates all of the hair, ear, and tail pulling, getting blocks thrown at her, the long, slow, interrupted walks around the park. She’s also a really good nanny – Finn cries and she goes to comfort him, she has a million kisses for him when he wakes up in the morning, or comes home after a trip out of the house. She even gently plays tug-a-war with him.

Bella hearts Finn

She’s such a good little nanny, but she takes her responsibility for Finn to the extreme, and I don’t believe she trusts us as parents. I’ve seen her look at me as if I’m the worst parent ever when I do something like spin Finn around or flip him upside down. I feel her judging me when I encourage Finn to try new and scary things like going down the stairs on his butt. And the incredulous look she gives us when we let him cry it out (her eyes saying: How could you…). When we’re at the playground, she keeps a steady eye on him from her position at the stroller. She watches his every move, and occasionally barks to let us know that although on the side, she’s still watching.

Bella watching from the sidelines like the recess lady

Despite her judgement, disapproval, and right out distrust of my parenting skills, she is the best dog I’ve ever had. I feel even closer to her now as we both go into our middle age together – she’s turning 7 and I’ll be having the 19th annual celebration of my 21st birthday. Maybe I will buy a muscle car and the two of us can take road trip down Route 66 looking for trouble… if only she liked car rides…

This Thanksgiving weekend has been so much fun and has me really looking forward to Christmas. Janay spent most of the week leading up to Thanksgiving making food… lots of food! We had an amazing feast, complete with homemade pies that we couldn’t wait for – Janay baked the pies on Tuesday, and we shared them with our friend Pamela for dinner that night – they are delicious.

Feast! (Notice the half-eaten pies in the background?)

Last year, Finn ate turkey and potatoes blended. This year, we gave him a turkey leg which he had no idea what to do with it. He did enjoy the green bean casserole, though.

Uh, where are the tacos?

Yesterday, we braved the downtown crowds and spent some time wandering around looking at the holiday decorations. The line to see the Nordstrom santa was really long, so we skipped it for now – it will probably be faster if we wait for mid-week when most the kids are either at school or daycare.

We took a ride on the Christmas carousel in the Westlake park – it’s always put up every year right after Thanksgiving. I’ve never ridden the carousel, but I’ve always wanted to – and then yesterday while we were watching the people go around on it, Finn said – Ride it! so we did. For the first time this year, I got really excited about Christmas. Finn’s eyes were HUGE taking in all of the lights, horses, and decorations of the carousel. It was really amazing.

On the carousel

After the carousel, we took the Monorail over to the Seattle Center to see what was happening there and to get some sushi.

On the Monorail

Finn LOOOOVES trains. He sometimes asks to watch youtube videos of steam trains on my laptop – and then we have to watch them again and again and again. At the Seattle Center yesterday, Winterfest was happening, so we took a break and watched the trains go around. We could probably have stayed there all day – Finn was in a trance.

Choo Choo!!

Then we ran over to Sushiland for some sushi – one of Finn’s favorite meals…

Hey Finn, you wanna get sushi? YAH!

The other three that he’ll ask for specifically – Taco Del Mar (sniff, he makes me so proud!), beans and rice, and pasta. He also asks for different fruits all the time: seeds (pomegranate), oranges, strawberries, blueberries, oh yeah – and yogurt. Anyway, here we are at sushi.

I heart sushi!

For Christmas, we’ll probably stick around here – I still don’t have vacation time. It will be a sentimental Christmas as it will be the last in this house of ours. I can’t wait to see what place we live next and what new things await us.

This wasn’t the only incident. There have been a string of car break-ins over the last few weeks. Neighbors are organizing and working with the police to catch the thief, but meanwhile poor Finny is missing his ID, Batman (which for some reason he calls Super Why), and his toy airplane. Bastards. Who steals a diaper bag!? Enjoy the raisins, stupid.

Then, Saturday morning we woke up to bad news. Janay’s grandfather had passed away. He had been ailing, but after a long stint at the hospital and some treatment, it seemed he was going to get better. Clifford Julius Odden (Janay’s maternal grandfather) was a tall, strong, extremely funny man. He and his wife, Joyce had 8 children, 18 grandchildren, and 21 great grandchildren during their  61 years together. I’ve often admired their life together and hoped for a marriage with Janay that will be as sweet and strong as theirs. In fact, it was their wedding date and Janay’s parent’s wedding date (both in September) that made us choose ours (Sept. 20). Maybe hoping for some of that good marriage juju will rub off on us.

Cliff & Joyce Odden

I met Grandpa Odden back in 2004 while Janay and I were visiting her parents in Alaska. I had heard a lot about her grandparents before I met them (lots of stories about house building, their farm in Minnesota, the Dari Vi, their drives from Minnesota up to Anchorage, and jokes about those whacky Norwegians, Lena and Ole), it was clear to me that the two of them were well loved and respected in the family. I felt nervous about meeting them and wanted to make a good impression. But when I hugged Cliff, I hugged him so hard that he said I made his hearing aid ring. He was laughing at the time, but at that moment, I felt like I blew it – he’d seen through my desperation for acceptance, and knew that I was a dork. But Cliff and Joyce have been nothing but sweet, welcoming, and warm to me. I’m so glad we were able to spend some time with them this summer, and even more happy that Finn had the time he did with his great grandpa.

There is a very nice obituary written up for him that you can read here: http://methvenfuneralhome.com/fh/obituaries/obituary.cfm?o_id=1304184&fh_id=11632

And a well-timed article about Cliff’s royal roots, from the Mille Lacs Messenger: http://millelacsmessenger.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=21658&catid=82%3Aarchives&Itemid=210

Sunday morning we arranged for Janay to fly to Minneapolis on Tuesday, but made the decision that Finn and I would stay home.  Since I just started my job, and blew all of my vacation in the first 20 days of employment, I won’t have more vacation until March 2012. On top of that, on Sunday, Finn came down with a bad cold (which he promptly shared with me).

I arranged with my work to telecommute Tuesday – Thursday (they were very understanding), and then on Friday come in to the office (I have meetings). Finn will spend the day with his little friend Neve (and parents, Scarlett and August). He’s never spent a whole day away from us, so I’m nervous about how it will go, but I feel like it will be an overall positive experience for him.

*   *   *

So today is Wednesday – day two of Project Take Care of Finn, and it’s going really well. Other than both of us being sick and requiring lots of tissue, it’s gone pretty well. I was really nervous about how I’d manage it all. Janay has been the primary caretaker all this time, and she’s done a great job. They are always out doing something, and she’s great at keeping up the entertainment. To me, although she’s probably told me a thousand times, I’m never sure what they are up to every day, and the thought of standing in her shoes for the week felt pretty daunting. It’s exhausting for sure, but it’s been really nice because I get to spend so much time one on one with Finn. And really, it doesn’t matter what we do as long as we’re having fun!

Yesterday we went to toddler gym – a basketball court filled with tot toys and a bouncy house once a week and opened to the public. It was a weird experience – it reminded me of the dog park where everyone knows the dog’s name, but not so much their parent’s.  There are parents milling about, some staring at their phones while their kid bites some other kid. Yep, a lot like the dog park. There were mostly kids Finn’s age there, but a handful of 4-5 year olds who were super fast on the trikes. One kid, looking the opposite way in which he was peddling, nearly ran Finn down. I used my super mom powers to suddenly throw myself right in the path of the trike before it ran Finn down. One benefit of being a mom – you get to scold kids you don’t even know, and you feel like you have the authority. “Hey, slow down and watch were you’re going! There are babies wandering around here.” It kinda rocks.

We also went to Lincoln Park. Have I mentioned yet that we’re putting our house on the market? We SO need a bigger place (as illustrated in this picture).

Can you find Finn in this picture?

Crazy, right? Finn really needs his own room, and Bella really needs a yard. So, yeah – our house is on the market. Now every once in a while, we get realtors coming through, and we need to make ourselves scarce. We had a realtor come yesterday, so it gave us a good reason to hit up our favorite walk spot – Lincoln Park.

The leaves on the trees are so beautiful right now. A lot of gold and green. Walking through the park Finn kept saying “beautiful” and “gorgeous” at the leaves. It’s so amazing to me that he’s able to think these things, let alone say them! I think about the kids Finn’s age who aren’t talking as much, and I realize that they’re probably thinking these things, but they just can’t say them. It’s pretty cool.

Lincoln Park

Anyway, the evening ended with some homemade chicken noodle soup  (thanks, Janay!), a warm bath, and a really easy bedtime. Finn’s been so funny about sleep lately. At night, he will go through the usual bath, books, rocking and singing, but he’ll sometimes cut you short, reaching for his bed and saying “good-night!” or “laydown!” It’s pretty hilarious. I think back to the 13 months I spent trying to get him to sleep – working through all the screaming, wailing, and pinching, and sometimes he’d cry too (kidding). And now he’s more interested in being laid down than listening to the songs I know enough to sing (think 80s music). What? He’d rather go to sleep than hear me sing “Friday I’m in Love” one more time?

Pe-shaw. Kids these days.

I uploaded a bunch of new photos to the online album. You can look at them here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/112527365288731030494/BabyD?authkey=Gv1sRgCOr7uqTC8vy5dQ

And I’m always uploading videos to youtube. This one is my current favorite…

You can watch others here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/paisleysox?feature=mhee 

Finn is starting to string words together into clear sentences, like “Bella, I’m sorry.” and “More [pomegranate] seeds please.” We can understand him now about 60% of the time. He’s still babbling a bit, but the babbles sound more and more clear, as in – he’s clearly talking about something!

My favorite is hearing everything he has to say in the morning – that’s when he’s his most talkative. Right now he wakes up and says “Cooper” first thing – it’s his bedtime lovey – a cute, stuffed lion with wide, friendly eyes, and a multi-colored tail that Finn insists is a flower (He’ll say: “Flower. Smell it.” I’ll sniff it and say “Pee-yew! It stinks!” Janay will sniff it and say “Mmmm, that smells good!” it’s a silly game, but he thinks it’s hilarious). Then he’ll start talking about what ever is his favorite subject du jour. For days in a row he would wake up saying “-tar!” meaning, guitar. He really, really loves music – especially guitars.

Janay has an old acoustic guitar that he’s obsessed with playing right now. We had it out the other night and he was plucking and strumming the strings – I said “Finn’s jamming!” and he said “Jam on it!” I admit, I’ve been teaching him to say jam on it, like “Put some jam on it” in a James Brown kind of voice. I love that he applies this saying to other things – especially when he’s going all Jimi Hendrix on the guitar.

Other Finn things – he’s started eating with a spoon. Big improvement over the caveman eating he was doing before. He’s getting molars – which has caused lots of grief in the house. Even Bella is upset by the crying. We’ve been giving him ibuprofen chewables, and that makes life a lot easier since he thinks they’re a tasty treat, and has even started to ask for them on schedule. It’s nice that he can tell us his “teeth hurt”, but it’s also soul crushing to hear your little baby say he’s in pain.

Meanwhile, my new job is super awesome and I really feel like I’m challenged (in a good way) and learning a lot. And working downtown is just the best thing – I’ve really enjoyed walking through downtown and taking in all the sites (good and bad).

Speaking of challenge, I received another offer to teach, but this time at the university level. The co-chair from my masters program (HCDE) at the University of Washington asked me to come back this coming winter quarter to teach Web Design & Publishing. It’s such an amazing opportunity that I said yes. It’s only 2 days a week during the afternoon – so it won’t take a lot of time away from family or job, so it’s perfect. While I feel nervous about teaching (hoping I won’t suck), I’m anxious to start and excited to teach at the UW.

**********Okay, I’ve been sitting on this update for about a week now. I’m going to publish it and write another update soon. Stay tuned!