More Videos

This first video is of Finnegan today. He was talking about the bugs (buggy's) outside with the trees. He even shows his new favorite "airplane" impression. :)





This second video is of Finnegan saying "Beth". He says it about 1/2 way through the video and then nothing more very exciting happens... Just Finnegan being Finnegan :)





Here is another short list of some other words Finnegan is saying...

• mama
• cheese
• sleep
• buggie (as in bug)
• tree
• down (this one is still pretty new)
• rocky rocky - when he's on he rocking horse.
  

Finnegan's New Words.

Here's a short video of a few of Finnegan's new words. He seems to be exploding with words in the past few days. Some of them are short lived, but other times we hear the words over and over again... Here are some of his new words:

• outside
• up
• apple
• bye
• cow
• He "moos" like a cow
• water
• book (bout)
• bite
• bike
• Izzie
• Beth - I have this one on video... I'll post it sometime...

It has been broken!!

The plateau that is!! Last week, after my death defying attempt at a spinning class, I am now down 1.6lbs this week. This is the biggest weight loss I've had in over 6 weeks. I am now only 1lb from my lowest that I was after being sick during Vacation!! Yippee!!

Spinning to Death

This morning, I unintentionally slept through my alarm and missed my mornin workout with Shawnta. She called at 6:15am and I was still in bed, sleeping soundly next to my hubby :) Warm and cozy and then the phone rings! CRAP! My dear friend knows I've been having trouble sleeping and she grants me a pass to go back to bed... But to make up, we'll go to a class at the Gym tonight.

We've been talking about doing some extra classes at night for a couple of weeks and it just hasn't seemed to work out withour husband's schedules and others. So, we just haven't made it. We decided that we wanted to do a spinning class. As I was leaving, Ken asked "what class are you going too?" I said "a Spinning class". "A spinning wheel class?" HAHAH!! No, not a spinning wheel. We weren't going to do crafts, but work out!! :) Silly Husband.

We got to the class, and I've never done one of these calsses before simply out of fear. They always seemed like it might be fun, but I never really wanted to jump in and try. Shawnta's been to the class before, so it was no big deal to her! So we went. We were two of 6 in the class. The teacher helped us get our bikes ready and then the class started. By about 5 mintues in, I was dying! Literally!! When we were 15 minutes in, she began intervals - which was the point of the whole class. We'd push as hard as we could for 20 seconds, and then relax for 10 seconds. We did that 7 times in a set and did 3 sets. Needless to say, half way through the first set, i was really dead. I decided that as long as I kept peddling and keeping my heart rate up, I was doing my body some good. So, at 4 minutes to 6pm, I decided that I'd stop at 6pm. I really couldn't take any more and really didn't want to do it anymore. Shawnta kept checking in on me and making sure that I was doing ok. i'd come in with a headache, and it went away, but it was back now, and every 20 and then 10 seconds, the gal leading the class would yell into her microphone. OH!!! STOP THE YELLING ALREADY!! :) But I returned to my original thought, as long as i wasn't dying and I just kept peddling at the speed I could manage, I was doing ok.

Afterwards, I thought I would faint. And then remembered I hadn't eaten dinner and lunch was more than 4 hours ago. Luckily, Shawnta had some raisins in her purse - oh, the benefits of having kids :)

On the way home, we decided that we probably wouldn't do that class again. Shawnta enjoyed it, but we were reminded how mind over matter it is, and we would enjoy other ways of kicking the pounds rather than putting ourselves through bootcamp, and having our own personal "Jillian". :)

For you Stay At Home Mommies...

Below is a news story that a friend of mine forwarded me from the Roanoke Times (near Blacksburg, where we lived in VA). And coincidentally, the question was submitted by someone from Tacoma, WA. But this is a great article... One that I read to my husband and it definitely helps me feel "validated" on those days I realize I've gotten nothing done!! :)

Q: Best friend has child. Her: exhausted, busy, no time for self, no time for me, etc. Me (no kids): Wow. Sorry. What'd you do today? Her: Park, play group ...

Okay. I've done Internet searches, I've talked to parents. I don't get it. What do stay-at-home moms do all day? Please no lists of library, grocery store, dry cleaners ... I do all those things, too, and I don't do them EVERY DAY. I guess what I'm asking is: What is a typical day and why don't moms have time for a call or e-mail? I work and am away from home nine hours a day (plus a few late work events), I manage to get it all done. I'm feeling like the kid is an excuse to relax and enjoy -- not a bad thing at all -- but if so, why won't my friend tell me the truth? Is this a peeing contest ("my life is so much harder than yours")? What's the deal?

I've got friends with and without kids and all us child-free folks get the same story and have the same questions.

--Tacoma, Wash.

Relax and enjoy. You're funny.

Or, you're lying about having friends with kids.

Or you're taking them at their word that they actually have kids, because you haven't personally been in the same room with them.

Internet searches?

I keep wavering between giving you a straight answer, and giving my forehead some keyboard.

To claim you want to understand, while in the same breath implying that the only logical conclusions are that your mom-friends are either lying or competing with you, is disingenuous indeed.

So, because it's validation you seem to want, the real answer is what you get. In list form.

When you have young kids, your typical day is: constant attention, from getting them out of bed, fed, clean, dressed; to keeping them out of harm's way; to answering their coos, cries, questions; to having two arms and carrying one kid, one set of car keys, and supplies for even the quickest trips, including the latest-to-be-declared-essential piece of molded plastic gear; to keeping them from unshelving books at the library; to enforcing rest times; to staying one step ahead of them lest they get too hungry, tired or bored, any one of which produces the kind of checkout-line screaming that gets the checkout line shaking its head.

It's needing 45 minutes to do what takes others 15.

It's constant vigilance, constant touch, constant use of your voice, constant relegation of your needs to the second tier.

It's constant scrutiny and second-guessing from family and friends, well meaning and otherwise. It's resisting constant temptation to seek short-term relief at everyone's long-term expense.

It's doing all this while concurrently teaching virtually everything -- language, manners, safety, resourcefulness, discipline, curiosity, creativity. Empathy. Everything.

It's also a choice, yes. And a joy.

But if you spent all day, every day, with this brand of joy, and then, when you got your first 10 minutes to yourself, wanted to be alone with your thoughts instead of calling a good friend, a good friend wouldn't judge you, complain about you to mutual friends, or marvel how much more productively she uses her time.

Either make a sincere effort to understand, or keep your snit to yourself.

Monkey Boy!!

Here are some photos from the week...

Here is my sweetie after eating a Mint Oreo... He loved it! And had it all over his fingers! You can also see his bruise on his head from his fall last week. This was taken on Friday last week, I think... So this is 2 days post. :)

These are from today. You can see his bruise is almost gone. He probably won't even have a scar, which is nice.


This hat came in the mail from Aunt Kelly!! Isn't it so cute?? It's made by CiteFuzz.

He kept in on for a while, and then decided he was done with it. He was so cute with it on. It is a little snug, but I think that I can stretch it out a bit so he can wear it a bit more this winter and then next winter too :)
On a different but similar note... regarding how cute he is... we saw a friend of ours at Gymboree today named Ryder. Ryder is a month older than Finnegan and is super cute. We took Finn on Saturday to Gymboree for a makeup class and saw Ryder and his dad (Ryder's mom normally brings him). Today, Sharon (Ryder's mom) said that her husband had commented that he saw us on Saturday and how we (Ken and I) should go into the business of making babies, because Finnegan is so cute, he thought we should have plenty more!! You always think that your kids the cutest in the world, but to hear someone else say that you should have more because you make cute kids, is a nice complement, especially when a guy says that! I don't think we'll go into business doing it, but I'm sure we'll at least try a couple more times :)

Posting??

So I haven't posted in a while, it feels like. There really isn't much that's happening around here, to blog about.... Here are some highlights o the week...

• After Finnegan's big fall on Wednesday, he had his first nose bleed on Friday! That was exciting!
• We visited a friend of ours in town who had a new baby last week. Finn and I went over and took her some meals and played with her daughter for a bit. It was nice to see a new born baby. But amazing too, to think that my little guy was that small!!
• Today we had a mommy and daddy date with Finnegan. We still have a few make ups to do at Gymboree and so we went as a family today. And of course I forgot my camera. But Finnegan had a good time with Daddy, especially! What a special time it was for us to play together.
  
• On the weight front, I'm a little frustrated still. I've not only broken the plateau, but gone in the wrong direction. I am hoping its because we've been doing sculpting ths week and I'm gaining muscle mass. And although the scale is up by 2 lbs, I really don't feel like I've gained 2lbs. I feel good about how I look. I keep working out each day and we're plugging along. So whether or not the weight is moving, I'm still doing right by my body. :)
• Ken and I went on a date last week to see Revolutionary Road... It was pretty good. Nothing, I'd own, but definitely I enjoyed the Winslet/DiCaprio duo.
  
• We have a Super Bowl Party tomorrow. I've made Tomatillo Salsa Verde. Hopefully it will taste good. If so, I'll post the recipe. I've never used Tomatillos before, but I'm excited to see how they taste.
  
• I've been freezing the last week. And complaining all the way. So this week, instead of buying a Snuggie, I pulled out my fleece robe that I got for Christmas several years ago. I feel like an old lady who walks around in her robe all day, but its the only solution that I can come up with for staying warm :)
  
• I have begun cropping the over 400 photos I have from our vacation so that I can start on Finnegan's scrap book. I also realized that I bought, WAY too many photos. But when 5 people took photos, and your ordering from 5 (or more) albums, it's hard to remember which other photos you purchased. :) So, the extras will go in Finn's personal photo album that Aunt Kate got him for Christmas.

Have a great weekend. Hopefully I'll have more to talk about next week... perhaps I'll do a review of Superbowl commercials.

Oh, we're rooting for Arizona Cardnals, as a hopeful revenge for John McCain! :)