The "Finnster, et al."

Yesterday Finn and I went to spend the night with Nana and Papa. Emily, Coop and Hank spent the night too. Shortly after arriving we all went for dinner at Logan's Roadhouse. We were sat in a huge corner booth. Finn sat in between me and Papa. Finn was so excited about being at Nana and Papa's house that he could barely contain his excitement within the boundaries of the booth. From the time we sat down until the time our food came a whole hour had past. During that hour Finn did the following: eat a crayon, try to eat peanut hulls, threw peanuts over the booth at the neighboring table, spill his cup of water, pick up his empty cup and heave it at the next table, bounce up and down next to Papa, attempt to climb the wall behind us, and attempt to drink everyone else's drink at the table. Finn did take a few minutes from his exhausting routine to eat four (4) huge rolls. At one point he was double fisting. Halfway through his second roll he started asking for anoth

All happened this past weekend, but I want to start with Finn's biggest achievement to date. On Sunday after church Finn took a four (4) hour nap! Unbelievable. On Saturday Finn, Michael and I went to do our family grocery shopping. Finn has taken to wanting hugs while riding in the buggy. He will throw himself into my body and wrap his arms around my waist. It is so sweet; but I look seriously ridiculous half slumping over and pushing the buggy. Later on in the day I went to a huge consignment sale in Franklin with Mom and MJ. We had a great time. Later on in the night we (me, Michael and Finn) went to Greg and Shelley's house to watch Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Finn and Macey T. played all over the house while we watched. Finn did a pretty good playing with Macey. He just didn't want her to hug him. Around 10:00 (pm) Finn came over to where I was sitting and said "lay down." He would lay down in the floor next to me and hug my neck.

Today Finn woke up at 8:00 - it was wonderful! When he finally did drag himself out of bed we went downstairs to eat breakfast. He asked for waffles and dip (which is syrup). After breakfast I set Finn's little tent; he played in the tent most of the day. He would bring books in to read and big trucks into play with. Since Finn spent most of his day in the tent I ended up spending half of my day in the tent. He would say "mama in tent." He would get so excited when I got in. For lunch we met a very special friend from church at Cheddars for a little lunch. Finn emptied all the sugar packets and then took to pour pepper on my shoulder. After lunch Finn took a two hour nap while I caught up on some work. After he got up we played in the tent someone and then we went to the Post Office. When went in a diaper and a t-shirt and crocs. He looked so cute waddling around with that little diaper sticking out. By the time we got home it was almost time for Michael

This morning after breakfast I was sitting on the couch, drinking a cup of coffee and watching a special on the new Harry Potter movie. Finn was sitting in the floor playing with his toys. After a few minutes he looked up at me and very seriously said, "Mama, TV off!" I immediately turned the TV off. Finn then looked at me and said "mama, play puzzles." I immediately got in the floor and Finn and I started playing puzzles. I was both tickled with Finn and a little embarrassed at the same time. Around 12:00 Finn took a three hour nap. At the same time I took a two hour nap and then finished the rest of my Harry Potter book. After Finn woke up from his nap we blew up his new swimming pool and we spent the next two and half hours outside. Finn liked the pool a lot until we attached the water slide. He liked the slide somewhat, but did not like water sprinkling on him. After we had been out for while Gran and Pa stopped by. Pa came by to tell us all goodbye;

Friday morning Finn and I went to town to run errands. After his nap we stopped a Mr. Oliver's office to pick up some mail and chat for a few hours. Mr. Oliver wanted to hold Finn so badly but he wasn't about to be held. Instead he played nicely around Mr. Oliver's office. After we left I picked Finn up a grilled cheese and then we headed back to the house. After getting back from our visit Finn helped me make Gran's birthday cake. I made Aunt Tracey's special strawberry jello cake. Finn didn't physi.cally help but reminded me about the cake all day. Every so often he would come up to me and say "Dan's birday cake." Later on that evening we met Gran, Pa, Mimi, James and Chelsea at Cheddars for Gran's birthday dinner. It was around 7:30 when we got there so Finn was starting to get tired. I don't think he stayed in one place longer than 10 seconds all night. At different times during the dinner we would take turns taking Finn to

Well Tuesday was our last day at the Beach. I woke up around 7:30 to an empty house. When I say empty I mean no Finn, Grandad or Gigi. Everyone else was asleep. I quickly ate breakfast and then got ready to go down to the beach. Gina ended up coming back while I was packing up and we walked down together. Finn was fussier than normal while on the beach this morning. He was so preoccupied with protecting his toys from the tide that he couldn't enjoy himself. After about an hour he asked to go to the pool. We had a nice time at the pool until Finn started getting fussy around 11:00. Michael and I took him back up to the room and put him to bed. He slept for almost 3 hours; one more reason I love being at the beach. While Finn was snoozing Michael and I snuggled on the couch and watched Inception. After Finn woke up we made a "not so quick" trip to Sonic and then back to the pool. Finn played with his school bus in the water with Grandad and Daddy and then we all dried off a

Today started much like yesterday; at the beach by 8:00 and at the pool by 9:00. The weather was fairly ominous today and for some reason Finn was really nervous at the beach. He played for a while with his toys and then he asked me to dig another hole. He did get in the ocean and play in the waves for a while, except this time he wanted to actually want to stand up on his own. The time in the water was short lived; Finn caught a glimpse of his toys on the beach and got very nervous that something would happen to them. After about an hour Finn started saying "pool" so we headed on up to the pool. At the pool we played in the water with Grandad, Gigi and Daddy. By 11:00 Finn was exhausted so we took him back to the room and put him down for a nap. He only slept about an hour and then he was up for the day. I tried to get him to go back to sleep by taking him in to my room and watching Veggie Tales on the laptop. Good idea, but it didn't work; I ended up falling asle

Well today Finn woke up with Grandad at 5:30. I didn't get up until 6:30. By 8:00 we were all on the beach. Finn left a few minutes earlier with Grandad and Gigi and Michael and I took the sky walk over to the other side of the resort where we found the best pool ever. I had no idea this pool was here - it was quite a find. The seaweed on the beach was much better today. Finn still was not really keen on getting in the water but had a ball playing in the sand. Today he played with his rake, shovel, bucket and sand castle toys (shaped like a train and a boat). First he and daddy made sand shapes. Then we dug a big hole. Finn enjoyed the hole! He would help me scoop out sand and then we would put his feet in it. He really enjoyed when Grandad started filling the hole up with water! Around 9:00 we went to big pool where Finn jumped off the side to to me (without me holding his hands) for the first time. He also paddled around in his boat for a few minutes. I am