The "Finnster, et al."

Thursday afternoon Nana came to visit the Begley's.   We had planned for her to arrive at my house by around 3:30 and then go pick up the boys.  Well, of course, I would get called up to the courthouse and didn't actually make it home until around 4:00.  Once I got home we went to Victoria's house to pick up the boys. When we got back to my house Nana gave Finn his present - a pair of Lightening McQueen swimming trunks.  He put them on and we left for dinner at Qdobas, courtesy of Nana.  The first thing I did when I got to Qdobas was go to the bathroom.  Something about the ventilation in the building made it possible for me to hear (while in the bathroom) Finn singing the Finn McMissile Score in his booth 50 feet away as though it was being broadcasted over the radio.  Finn ate chips and black beans.  On his first bite Finn dropped black beans down the front of his shirt; he was filthy. After supper we went back to the...

Well, its has started . . . Finn is asking why.  "Finn eat your dinner - whyyyy."  Finn, don't throw your cars . . whyyy."  Last night I made potato wedges and served them to Finn with ketchup.  He didn't want to eat them.  I left them on the table for him to eat at his leisure.  He asked to go outside, he asked to watch one of his shows; my response was always the same - "after you eat your potatoes."  He would then crawl into my lap, hug my neck and in his most whiny and drawn out voice say "whyyyy."  This went on for an hour.  I didn't give in though.  Finally, when faced with getting to go outside with Michael Finn ate his potatoes and loved them.  In fact, he asked for them for dinner the next night. Last night Finn helped Michael put together the "Power Tower."  While I was inside cleaning up I looked outside and saw Michael and Finn sitting on the sidewalk looking at a bunch of screws and bolts. Michael told me th...

Finn's bedtime routine can sometimes be pretty taxing.  First we potty, then we brush our teeth, and wash our hands.  Once our bathroom duties are over we start on the bedroom routine.  First we read a Bible story.  Currently Finn's favorite story is Rebekah and the 10 camels. After the story we turn on Finn's fan, turn on his music, give him is blankets and then pray. After we pray we do "little kiss, little hug, little secret.  This is something that I invented as a young child so it is only natural that I do it with my boys.  If I happen to forget Finn will ask me for a little secret.

Today after church we took the boys to the playground. Michael does his pull-ups at the Beech Elementary School playground and then goes over the track to run his three miles.  Today I went with him and let Finn play.  While Michael was running Finn and I played on the swings; he sat in my lap and we swung really high.  While we were swinging Finn sang a song from "Cars" and "Ice Age."  Then he told me that his favorite movie was Cars, that his favorite song was Lion King and that his favorite color was blue, green and yellow.  I then asked him who his best friend was and he said "you mom."  I asked who is other best friend was and he said, "Dad."  Then he said, "he's nice boy." After swinging Finn decided to go down the big slide.  He wanted to climb up the stairs to the slide by himself.  I was really nervous and tried to help him.  He was having none of that.  I did stand behind him and hold my arms out just in case....

Potty training is going really well - I think we have had a breakthrough - thank goodness.  We having mostly dry pull-ups and a "dirty" is rare.  I swear that child can poop on command.  When Finn goes to the potty he wants to read "Cookie's Week."  It is about a cat that gets into mischief every day of the week.  So not only does the book serve as a conduit (of sorts), Finn is also learning his days of the week.  This is Finn making sure he had actually "gone."  So gross.  We have put an end to this - but not before I got a picture.  My poor children will disown me me when I put some of these pictures in their wedding video :) After he gets done I will usually tell Finn that I am really proud of him.  If I forget Finn will say, "you are proud of me mom!"

Finn has proven to be a bit impatient.  Since he is two (and a half last weekend) I am not surprised.  During one of Finn's impatient spells, without thinking, I asked Finn to "hold your horses."  Very defiantly and with a bit of perplexity in his tone he responded, "I will not hold my horses!"  Then he started looking around for horses.  It's so funny to see your children respond to phrases they cannot understand.  I explained to Finn that "hold your horses" means to wait.  Later in the day, in response to getting in trouble, Finn said, "I will hold my horses mom."  Keep in mind he was in no way in trouble for being impatient.  Actually, Finn is starting to say things that he thinks we want to hear; or maybe he says things he either assumes or hopes will get him out of trouble.  Now when Michael puts Finn in timeout Finn will say "yes sir" over and over again. Friday was a great day.  The boys and I met Michael at Danny...

I have learned that Finn's freewill can be bought at the price of a sip of Diet Wild Cherry Pepsi.  Tonight Finn, my very own vegetarian (except for fish) ate a bite of chicken.  I told him that if he would take one bite of chicken he could have a sip of my drink.  He took two.  He told us that he thought the chicken was good - but you could tell by the look on his face that he wasn't crazy about either the taste or the texture.  Michael and I sat there and made "uummm" noices the whole time he was chewing to try to get him to like it more.  After he swallowed I gave him a sip of my drink.  Who knew Finn could be bought so easily.  In addition to trying chicken Finn ate a helping of Long Grain rice; which he has decided is good. In other news involving cokes:  When I am drinking a coke Finn will walk up to me, flash me his sweetest smile and say "you can share your drink with me?"  If I am feeling generous I will give...

I won't sugar coat it - today has been rough.  I have switched my home days with the boys from Thursday/Friday to Monday/Friday.  Since opening my practice I can't remember a busier Monday. My phone rang off the hook from 9:00 to 5:00.  In addition to the constant phone ringing - Finn made a major breakthrough in potty training.  This meant that I had to drop everything, including Sam at a moments notice to help Finn potty.   I think that he had at least 10 bowel movements today.  Now, they weren't all full fledged bowel movements.  In fact, most were tiny little pellets that Finn used in order to get Cars fruit snacks.  He would have a successful "go", eat his fruit snacks and then immediately tell me that he needed to potty again.  And usually he did. After dinner, while Michael was working out I sat down to feed a starving Sam.  Right as I sat down Finn told me he needed to potty.  I felt terrible - I had to put Sam down a...

On Saturday Gran through a party for Sam.  Specifically it was a party for friends and family that hasn't met Sam to come and meet him and eat lots of great food.  We had a really great time.  Chelsea and Sharon helped Deniece with the party - the decorations looked great!  The food was also really good. Lois and Sam Sam received lots of great gifts and so did Finn for that matter.  Gran stocked Finn up with some great pool toys complete with Lighting McQueen pool chair and sunglasses.  This is how Finn thought he should wear his sunglasses :) Thank you Gran for throwing such a nice party for Sam.  We had a really great time. We got home from the party around 6:00.  Finn had still not had a nap and was really being awful.  He put him straight to bed when we got home at his request.  Five minutes later he comes running out of his room saying "I slept all night."  I kid you not - he was totally new child a...

Finn had learned that if he runs into our room at 6:00 in the morning saying that he needs to "poo poo in the potty" one of us will come running. Most days he doesn't produce - instead he uses this to get us up out of bed.  This morning he manage to drop one tiny pellet and then asked for his "prize."  While we consider this cheating we gave him a finger paint set in an attempt to remain consistent.  (This was a gift that friend of mine gave to Finn  - we saved for a time such as this). Finn loves to do artwork and he had a really good time finger painting.   On Sunday we were running a bit late for Sunday School  - so I put Sam in the car wearing just a diaper.  I through his church outfit in the bag and we left for church.  I tried to cover him up as much as possible so that people wouldn't freak out when they saw a non-a half naked baby riding in a Baby Bjorn.  I was able to get him dressed in cla...