Paula!

When Finn was a small proto-toddler, I wondered if he'd grow attached to blankets or things, and drag them all over the house. Well, he's over 20 months old now, and he has become really attached to probably 2 things, besides his parents. They are a green blanket (blankey!) and his hippopotamus stuffed animal, Paula. Or, rather, "PAUUULA!"

I wouldn't say that Paula is her name, exactly. It seems to be his word for hippopotamus, which is much too hard to say. He'll call hippos in books "Paula" as well. Last night he slept in his new bed again, after a week off, and his ideal sleeping position was on top of Paula. She's definitely getting squished and warped due to frequent use. Another favorite activity is 1-on-1-on-1 wresting between Finn, Paula, and "Gonkey," his inflatable bouncy...donkey. (NOT a horse. NOT.a.horse.) He also likes us to place blankets over Paula or Gonkey, and talks to them about going ni-night.

Finn got Paula from our friend Dave (Rolo) who picked Paula up at IKEA a few months back. Great job Dave! Here are some of Finn and Paula's greatest hits from earlier today. Katie kept asking Finn about her to finally get the "Pauuula!!!" wail that we've been wanting to record for weeks.

Paula from Katie on Vimeo.

Big boy bed and random videos

Milestone #1 for this month - Finn slept in his big boy bed for the first time Saturday night, and then did it again on Sunday. Then the past few nights he's decided it's more important to sleep on Paula, his hippopotamus (which is another story for another post), and has been in his crib instead. The important thing is, he's in favor of the idea generally, and we think we'll have him more or less settled in by the time we travel back to the midwest in August, which is good since he's probably too big for the pack and play now. Here's a picture we snuck in and took while he was sleeping on the first night.

Milestone #2 - we have had pee in the potty! It wasn't exactly intentional - we make him sit on his potty while he brushes his teeth after bathtime (so he doesn't pee on the floor), and the other night he made a deposit. He does like to sit on the potty (usually fully clothed) and say "Pee! Pee!" so that's fun. (We'll spare you the photo of that.)

Random movie #1 - Finn at the fountains downtown on Sunday. Hard to believe it was just about 8 months ago he could barely stumble around in them. The best part is right at the beginning.

In the fountains again from Katie on Vimeo.

Random movie #2 - Finn likes to ask if he can watch Sesame Street, and he does it by asking about various Muppets. Usually he'll go through a stream of 5 or 6, but when I tried to take a movie he decided it'd be more fun to jump on my stomach and get a close up look at the camera.

Asking about Sesame Street from Katie on Vimeo.

And here's me in San Francisco last Sunday, getting a couple things signed by Neil Gaiman, one of my favorite authors.

Jonathan gets back from Pasadena in less than 48 hours. Think I can make it?

A day at the beach

On Thursday I stayed home so that Katie could get some serious work done for a scholarly article that she is trying to get published. Also, the dentist filled my 3 cavities that morning. Don't get me started on that. I made it 32 years without a cavity, and that will have to suffice.

It has been hot lately, so Finn and I headed to the beach after his nap. We live about 35-40 minutes from the Santa Cruz beach. It can be 90 here and 75 there. Also, if it is windy, it can FEEL like 50 there, which is what happened Thursday. COLD! But Finn and I made the best of it. It took him about a half hour to get off of my lap and even run around in the sand, but he got the hang of it. He stayed warm by clutching the small towel that I'd brought for myself. I don't think he ever even dropped it, so you can tell that he is growing up.

Note that it wasn't all fun and games. There was time for quiet reflection while staring at the open ocean.

So, yeah, it was a good day! :)

Boys will be Boys

Last Sunday we went to Ross and Rachel's to hang out, since some of the old Mountain View crew was back together. Their son Arthur is getting older now--he's 15 months, only 5 behind Finn. Finn has recently started to pay more attention to him, now that Arthur that he can walk around well. No longer will Finn just sit on him like a chair.... I think we have a lot of playtime with Arthur to look forward to in the future.

Here they are playing with Helen's play tent, which I think barely managed to survive the onslaught of these two. Apparently it was only $5, so that was a relief. At the end you can here Finn telling Josh about a monkey.

Untitled from Jonathan Fortney on Vimeo.

Here we are sitting in their kitchen on the floor. Finn and Arthur were playing by the fridge with some magnets, and eventually things took a turn for the tumbly. Finn started hugging Arthur, while at the same time falling down...on purpose, I think. It was too close and exciting for me to really get them into the shot. Arthur is apparently "used to" Helen mangling him up pretty good, so he was no worse for wear.

Untitled from Jonathan Fortney on Vimeo.

Learning more words, including friends' names

If you could only pronounce 10 or 20 words so that people besides your parents could understand them, do you think "buckle" would make the list? I don't think it'd make mine, but it's on Finn's, along with "monkey."
Here's a clip of some of his other linguistic idiosyncrasies; "car" and "truck" are pronounced the same, and until recently off and on were both pronounced "on." Let me tell you, I'm glad we got that one sorted out.

Finn's unique vocabulary from Katie on Vimeo.

We're up to about 70 or 80 words that Jonathan and I can understand, and adding more every week. It's both amazing and entertaining to watch. It's also scary to think that in less than three months we'll be back to "You're crying! Why are you crying?" "Waaaaaah" territory with Finn's little brother. Said little brother is getting bigger, stronger, and pointier all the time. We are so, so, officially in the third trimester. Get ready, ribs!
This afternoon we went to Ross and Rachel's to visit and to see Jason, who's in town for a few days from Idaho. Finn got to play with Helen ("Hehn") and Arthur ("Ahtter"), and had an absolute blast. He and Arthur are only 5 months apart, getting more and more fun to watch in action together, and already look like trouble. Watch out world! Jonathan has a movie or two I'll let him post, but here's a still that should give you the general idea.

Zoo, part 2

Although the San Francisco Zoo is quite nice, it lacks elephants. If you want see elephants, then you go to Oakland. That's just the deal. Finn really likes elephants, so to Oakland we went. They also have a nice zoo, but it is hillier and tougher getting around. We didn't get to see all of it, really, so we'll be going back again someday.

Finn doesn't say the word elephant, but instead he makes a special noise, taking after Katie. She makes really good elephant noise by forcing air out between her lips. Finn's rendition is a little more like "raspberries." You can almost get a feel for it from the video, even though I don't think it was even audible. I also note a small sigh at the end... I guess that it was time to move on.

Checking out the Elephants from Jonathan Fortney on Vimeo.

I bet you never knew that toddlers could be messy eaters. Here he is eating frozen blueberries on a hot hot hot day. Smile goofball! We'll have to keep more of those on hand in the freezer.

We had a nice 4th of July. We had friends over and enjoyed the free Los Gatos festivities. Finn and I sat and listed to the Peninsula Banjo Band for over an hour. He sat on my lap and bopped his little legs to the music.

Our growing family

Remember how we're having another baby? That's only about three months away now (late-September-ish), which suddenly seems REALLY SOON in lots of ways. I can definitely tell that my innards are not all where they are supposed to be, and that I'm warmer than usual (I'm not even cold at work), and that I have a little more trouble catching my breath. The last two are great, by the way, when it's already 95 degrees out and you've had a cold (or sinus infection, or something) for about 4 weeks (last Thursday and 3 weeks ago were the low points; I'm breathing better this week and can once again climb stairs, and hope I'll be 100% soon). I also get kicked a lot, which is still fun and not painful, and we're going to start thinking about names any day now. Maybe next week.
Since someone else will eventually be using Finn's crib, we got him a big boy bed last weekend, hopefully early enough that we'll have plenty of time for him to make the transition. We put it up in his room yesterday, and so far he's a BIG fan. He likes to climb on it, and lie down and pretend snore, and point out all the animals on the blanket: monkey! fish! elephant! unintelligible jabbering! (In the photos, please also note his new dinosaur pajama shirt, which he would wear all day every day, if allowed.)
Generally speaking, Finn's a great napper these days. He goes down reliably, at a predictable time, sleeps for 1-2 hours, and is pretty okay when he wakes up, especially if you have a glass of milk waiting. And maybe a graham cracker. And a dinosaur book. And patience for dirty looks. But he's still more likely to sleep longer if he sees someone in the room with him when he comes half awake, so the best thing for now about the new bed in his room is that I get to take naps when he does now, instead of just hanging out in there and reading. I'm psyched.