P.S. More on Graham talking

Here's a short movie I took the other night of trying to get Graham to say some stuff. He was giving very decisive (and false!) "No!"s just before I turned the camera on. I'm sure all the parents are familiar with this - both the Nos and the camera effect.

Graham says some words from Katie on Vimeo.
Graham's other favorite word is "Boo." Sometimes as in "boots," but usually as in "Boo!", which he'll yell at you from under a blanket, around a corner, or when taking a stuffed animal out from hiding. It's a good word.
My two cents on Finn's talking - my favorite sentences this past week have been "My friends didn't seem to like it very much," and "Why you don't want Daddy to be fancy?" The first was about a book that he brought to share day, and I just like the phrasing. The second was when he and Graham were papering Jonathan's pants in Valentine's stickers the other night, and I attempted to intervene. He was both indignant and puzzled. Sorry, no photo of the fanciness.
But because I hate to do a post without a photo, here's a random one from a recent hike, back when we had nice weather. You know, in January. Not like today, when I foolishly decided to walk to work, and now my pants may not be dry before lunch. Anyway, that's the Pogonip, just a hop skip and a jump from our house. Neat, huh?

Two grown-up boys

Finn of course has his own wants and needs. (yogurt, The Incredibles movie, bike riding, Gorilla Munch cereal). But Graham, little chubba jolly Graham, alas, also has wants, besides just being squeezed and tickled by his parents. The cutest is his sassy "Nooooooo!" in his little squeaky voice, if he disagrees with you. He's remarkably good at making animal noises, and has a few actual human words he can pull out as needed. But yeah, he's starting to have his opinions. He also is quite willing to "attack" Finn if he wants to have some fun, but that basically never goes his way in the end, since Finn is big and not afraid to be the victor.

Lately we've been to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Happy Hollow zoo in San Jose, and to the beaches in Santa Cruz and in Pismo Beach, which is 3 hours south down the coast. (Hi to Sarah and Joel!) Being outside is certainly great for family sanity.

Finn is full of questions, as always. Lots about Mr. Incredible and the Incredible Hulk, which he certainly now knows are different people. We spent a considerable amount of time at the dinner table last night discussing how, often, big things can be faster than smaller things (horse vs. cat, say) but then something can be so big, that it can be slower than small thing (elephant vs. horse, say). I'm not sure that he bought it. Anyway, lots of active discussions, which can be repetitive, because he just won't care that we had the very same discussion the day (or minute) before.

Here is Graham at the aquarium last month. Both boys had a great time, although the Outer Bay tank is closed for refurbishment.

This is one from bath time just last night! Maybe a haircut for Finn this weekend? One thing that Graham can ask for (and does) is a bubble bath. "Bubbo!"

These last two are from on the beach in Santa Cruz. Finn spent most of his time under the boardwalk, while Graham preferred the open sand, after he finally woke up from his nap. It is about a 30-40 minute walk from our house to the beach, so that is a good weekend activity when the weather in nice. Finn even rides his bike all the way there. Coming back home uphill is a different story!

Christmas?

In what I think is a new record since we started the blog, it's been 25 days since our last post. I'm not sure we've been any busier than usual, although Jonathan is teaching this quarter and has this whole Kepler thing going on, and I continue to be surprised at how much fuller the weeks seems now that I'm working full time. I think the big difference is that the boys go to bed at EIGHT now, and we were so spoiled for so long with Finn going to bed at 7. Ah well.
Want to hear about our Christmas?
We went to a tree farm and picked out a tree. Finn helped cut it down and carry it to the car.
Then we decorated it.
We went to a lighted boat parade at the harbor. The boys' favorite entry was a fire-breathing dragon kayak.
We had great luck with weather flying back to the midwest, and both boys did great on the planes and in the car.
We celebrated in Iowa with my family, although apparently I did an even worse job than usual of documenting the event, and we have no pictures at all of any of my family. Here's some proof that we went to Iowa - Finn on Christmas morning in my mom's living room, with one of his favorite presents from Santa.

Christmas bugs from Katie on Vimeo.
We celebrated in Minnesota with Jonathan's family, and saw some of his friends as well.
Then we came home! We were asleep by 10pm on New Year's Eve, but since we had gotten up at 2am Pacific time, we figured that was okay.

Merry Christmas! :)