The "Finnster, et al."

On Friday we met Grandad and Gigi at Chewy's for dinner.  The boys had spent the night with them at the Opryland hotel the night before.  When I walked into the restaurant Sam spotted me and immediately started fussing.  His fussing soon turned into crying - loud crying.  This crying, fussing and all out fit throwing went on for the rest of the meal.  Twice I had to take him away from the table and put him in timeout near the kitchen.  Let me tell you that I got some strange looks from folks in the waiting area.  I was glad that Sam was happy to see me, but I would rather him show me how much he missed me with hugs and kisses rather than with screams and fits when I try to put him down.   Finn was happy to see us too.  He tried to sit in my lap as well.  Every so often he would scoot his chair closer to me until finally they touched. While Finn was generally better than Sam, Finn had his moments too.  Once again Finn decided that he wasn't going to eat anything. I forced him to

On Monday Nana came to keep the boys while I braved the courtroom.  While I was gone Nana painted, played and cooked supper.  She made crockpot chicken and dressing with corn and peas. On Monday night both boys loved their supper.  Tuesday was an entire different story.  When I warmed up the chicken Finn asked me if he liked it.  I told him yes and instructed him to eat.  He did not.  After 20 minutes of stalling Finn asked Michael to reheat his food so that he could he it.  Again, he did not.  20 minutes after that he asked me to reheat it.  I did.  Finn respondes, "I can't eat this because it has been in the microwave two times - it is not good now."  I once again instruct him to eat.  He takes one bite and then fakes throwing up.  He says, "my mouth just threw up."  I instruct him to eat.  He tells me that he is very tired and needs to go straight to bed.  I tell Finn that he can go straight to bed after he eats.  Finn pretends to fall asleep at the table.  I

This weekend started out pretty lousy, but turned out to be a lot of fun.  On Friday Gigi came to keep the boys while I was in court (the "unfun" part of the weekend).  I learned that while driving to get some lunch Finn broke my sunglasses.  At first Finn told Gigi that it was "on purpose" but then changed his story to "it was an accident."  But as Finn often does he had an idea of how to fix it.  Instead of telling me about the sunglasses he wanted to go to Wal-Mart to buy me another pair so that I wouldn't find out.  Gigi did not let him get a way with it.   Finn in Daddy's shirt Later that night we went to Gran's house to eat Supper with Uncle James who was in for the weekend. Sam ate a cupcake and then went straight to the bathtub - it was everywhere. FInn played in the den with Gran's toys.  He also told me that he liked playing with Randy (Randy Whitehouse). On Saturday Finn helped me to get Sam out of bed.  He walked into t

On Monday Finn, Sam and I went to Sparta to visit with Bruce.  More on Bruce in a moment. I told Finn we were going to Sparta and he got really excited - more excited than I thought was warranted given Finn's limited knowledge of Sparta.  He started to talk about the long car ride and started naming the movies he wanted to watch on the way.  This is not abnormal given that Sparta is long trip for a little boy.  Then he started talking about Alabama.  He said, "mom, it is a long way to Alabama, but once we get to Alabama we are close to Florida."  I quickly realized that Finn thought I was saying "Florida" instead of Sparta. (I pronounce the vowel sounds in Florida exactly like the vowel sounds in Sparta).  I explained to Finn that we were going to Sparta to visit Papa Bruce.  He looked confused, but he was still excited. The trip down was pleasant.  Finn watched "The Land Before Time" while Sam looked over his shoulder.  Neither boy napped, but t

Friday the boys spent the day with Nana while I was in court. After court I drove down to Manchester to pick up the boys and head to Grandad's house.  Upon my arrival at Nana's house I learned that Nana has rubbed off on Finn a little bit; Finn had made a "to do" list. Anyone who knows my mother knows that she makes a to "do list" almost every day.  Finn's "to do" list was filled with fun things that he wanted to do which included: Playing with Sam, eating, taking a nap (which I am sure Nana nudged him in the right direction on this one), swimming, and crashing monster trucks.  I think there were at least twelve items on Finn's list - I just can't remember them all. We stayed at Nana's house just long enough for me to think that I popped Sam's shoulder out of place.  I rolled him over on the bed and I think his arm got stuck underneath him. It was dead weight at first, but after a few minutes he was using it again. Here a fe

Last night after dinner Finn decided to read to Sam.  He decided upon "How Do Dinosaurs Clean Their Rooms?"  Finn has memorized every word and quoted the entire book to Sam - interestingly he knee exactly where to turn the page.  Finn was so precious reading to Sam.   Both boys were very restless so I decided to have a little fun with Finn by taking him to the pool.  At 7:30 Finn and I were wading our feet in the water.  It took Finn about fifteen (15) minutes but he finally got up enough courage to wander ten (10) feet from me - sheesh. . .  Once they turned the running water off to the slide and play area Finn decided that it was safe to play on it.  He was so cute going down that slide - mostly because he felt so accomplished. It was nice spending one on one time with Finn.  We had a few good laughs, we played Godzilla and Finn told me how much he loves swimming.  When we got home Finn snuggled up next to me and we watched Tangled.  It was a nice night. Th