Skinned Knees

The weather has been quite pleasant here lately (well, I guess that isn't such a surprise, sorry) and the boys have been wearing a fair amount of shorts and t-shirts. Scrapes and scabs aplenty! This is actually less "costly" for Finn than wearing pants, since he tends to rip holes in the knees with regularity, which costs us money and time for patches or new pants. That or he can look like a little hobo who wears rags for clothes. It happens. Finn is now 4 1/2 years old, as of the 13th. We're now getting him a little involved in organized activities, which has its pluses and minuses. The minuses are that things cost money and we have to drive him there! But so far he's done a version of soccer with strong parent participation, and tonight was his first swimming lesson in a long time. (We'd done some water-babies type stuff in the past, but it had been a LONG time.) He did great! The only problem from his perspective was that it was only 30 minutes.
He's very proud of his new swimsuit that says "Totally Jawsome" with a shark's mouth. Graham and Finn are really getting along pretty well these days, and while they do play pretty rough, they make each other laugh a lot. Graham can apparently laugh even while getting manhandled as I tell Finn to leave his brother alone. At some point the laughter turns to tears, of course! In this orange (the official color of Fortney Boys, LLC) photo, I think they are both being mice. Graham is "Super Mouse" while Finn is "Flash Mouse."

Obviously here they are "Batman" and "Tiny Batman."  The warm weather has brought out the backyard hammock as well. While last year they were good about not playing on it, this year, not so much. If you turn the volume up to 11 you can hear them giggling. I took the movie from our bedroom window.

Why is this here? We have a lot of snails and slugs in our yard. This one is only about 2 inches. The much rarer banana slugs (never seen in our yard, yet) are more like 6-8 inches.

Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da

I recently came out of my teaching cocoon after 6 months within it. Now my life is much more flexible until September. It hard to teach a class and keep up with everything else in life. Other things obviously slip---my contribution to the blog being one of them! I do enjoy teaching and I get a lot of personal satisfaction from reading my evaluations, which generally show that the students think that I know what I'm doing! Or at least that I'm enthusiastic as we stumble along together.

The boys are growing up. Graham is 2 1/2 today! Graham has started to pee in his little potty from time to time, so we'll see where that goes. The swag (stickers, fruit snacks) are far more important to him than any sense that this is what one is "supposed to do." With Finn, it was a long process, and I don't expect anything different with Graham. Only my brother Justin's kids potty train themselves in a week. (Grumble, grumble.) Graham is now in his terrible twos, as he complains about what we're having for dinner and often will lay face first on the ground when he doesn't get his way. But he is still effortlessly cute and snuggly.

Finn is nearing 4 1/2, and about 2 moths ago he told us that he wanted to learn how to read. Katie has been doing nearly daily lessons on reading and writing with him, and he's getting really quite good. Here he is on a "sick day" (he got better fast!) on campus with me. He got to see the room and I teach in and he played with the chalk for about 45 minutes. And he wrote my name pretty well, I must say! Organized soccer practice (Soccersaurus!) just started, and swimming lessons, after a 2-year layoff, in May as well.

My mom came out for a few days earlier in the month, and everyone had a great time. I occasionally daydream just how nice it would be to have more of the family close-by, and then I think about how the life of an academic scientist rarely allows for you to work where you grew up, which is at least possible (if not the norm) for most other jobs that exist. So there is that. Santa Cruz of course has a number of other wonderful attributes!

The boys play together a lot these days. Finn told Katie yesterday that Graham is his favorite person to play with! Graham, being Graham, is usually up for anything that involves Finn, even when it is getting mauled a bit. They had several cute moments on the couch this morning. I promise that Graham was having a good time.

A Gentle Soul

For those of you who don't know Graham very well, I think it is fair to say that he is a quite a bit different than Finn. Maybe not as different as my brother and I (Hi Justin!) but they are very distinct. Graham is a sensitive little guy who wants to make you happy. He takes slights very personally. He will give you as many hugs and kisses as you need, and will ask you for them. He dances. This is one of the cutest movies ever.

Dancing to Ella from Jonathan Fortney on Vimeo.

Actually Finn is a lot more sensitive in some particular ways. If Finn hurts himself he will wail and let you know about it for 20 minutes. And many band-aids will be required. Graham will forget that a bump or accident ever happened in about 20 seconds, and just go on his merry way. The children-addled brain I have makes it hard to sensibly compare the two, mostly because it is hard for me (already) to remember what Finn was like 2 years ago. But that's the beauty of the blog! :)

The most important news of the week is that we got Graham a big boy bed, very much like Finn's, from IKEA. The two boys are back in the same bedroom, probably for many years to come! He had been sleeping in the pack-and-play in the office for the past several months, because that was easy, and the boys would never wake each other up. He's now slept in his bed back-to-back nights, and he loves it. Finn has been showing him the ropes, including the VERY KEY rule that you can't get out of bed to come wake up mommy and daddy until the moon light comes on at 6:15. That is the key to everyone's sanity. When we're in the Midwest in August, Graham will be too big for the pack-and-plays there, so we had to get him trained sleeping on a bed before then. Finn likes having his brother in their room, but he needs to stop piling so many stuffed animals on Graham when Graham is trying to go to sleep.

For comparison, here is Finn sleeping in his bed from the same time of year in 2009, but he was about 6 weeks younger.

Below is one of my favorites from two week ago---Graham sitting with Cato, our neighbors' cat. Cato looks just like Mona, but likes attention from small people more than Mona does. Just a very peaceful scene.

Here are brothers being brothers:

We visited Alex and Laura up in San Francisco a couple weeks ago, and during brunch the boys each got balloon creations. Graham got a flower, but the balloon artist suggested it could also be a hat. I think he was right.

Boys being boys

Wow, that month got away from us pretty fast here on the blog. But now I'm at 30,000 feet, and have some free time. (This is also my last science trip for the next few months!) Katie will be be posting about some new very tiny animals that live in our house, so I'll leave that to her...

Graham is growing up fast and likes to do what his brother does. He wants the toys Finn is playing with and sometimes the books Finn is looking at. ...and the cereal he is eating.... He has been nabbing various books around the house as "mine" and he carries them around. His favorites are a dinosaur book (that is mine!) and a bird book (that is Katie's). He likes to hold them in the car too.

Graham has a reasonable array of all of his teeth, and is talking up a storm---mostly one-word phrases. But he can sneak in the occasional two-worder, like "mine book!" He certainly can follow a wide array of complex multi-part instructions. And he is STILL a really snuggly little guy!

We have two musical instruments, as far as I know. A kazoo and a harmonica. Both are orange (like Finn's bike) since that is his favorite color.

The Fortney Band from Jonathan Fortney on Vimeo.

Here are two pics from the boys at various parks. The top one is from Los Gatos, where they have a giant model airplane. We visited there right after we got some family portraits taken in and around the forest in the park.

Here is Finn trying out a new tree at Westlake Park, which is just down the street from us.

For a friend's 2-year-old birthday party, we make the hour-drive up to Redwood City, to Ryan and Sally's house. They have this fun little horse that I think Finn sat on the last time we were over there. Sadly, I think that our boys' room is pretty much at toy capacity, at least until they get bunk beds in the year 201X. We'll see!

Dad, why don't we have one of these? from Jonathan Fortney on Vimeo.

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!

Boys

Some people would say you'd be crazy to have kids. I wouldn't necessarily disagree with them. But once you've started down that path, I say two boys are the only way to go.

Tummies from Katie on Vimeo.

Random from Katie on Vimeo.
Brief explanation for the first video: somehow it has become part of our bedtime routine that between dinner and bath the boys run around and "show tummies." Both of them expect it, and start to strip as soon as they leave the table. We have decided to roll with it.
Explanation for the second video: none.

Christmas coverage coming soon. ish.

Decemberists

December in Santa Cruz! On the plus side, there is no snow. On the minus side, there is no snow. It's been raining a lot here. I'm not sure I'll be able to make it out to cut the grass until March at this rate. At least the grass has started growing more slowly. I did manage to get some wet leaves raked for the boys to jump in.

Our standard-issue plan between 5:20 (when the boys get home) and 6:40 (when we eat) had been to make them run around outside, or I take them to the park. But it's pretty dark by 5:30, so we're all forced to make it work in the house. When we're all stuck in the house, things like this happen, because Momma is the best, and everyone needs her hugs.

We still make it to the park on the weekends. The rate of Duck-flation continues to increase at an increasing rate. There must be 100 ducks there now. Easy. Here is Graham herding them around the pond. He and Finn managed to force them into the water, like two little-boy sheep dogs.

And sometimes we do play in the backyard, even when it is raining. But things don't always go well. Below, at least Finn was having fun. It was mostly my fault because I stuck Graham up there against his will....

If you look carefully behind Graham you can see the edge of our garden. It has become massively overgrown with clover, and some grass, and I think a part of the garden may just stay like that.

A real post about the boys and stuff

We've got lots going on, in non-daycare-related areas. We made our (nearly) annual trek up Hwy 1 to the giant Arata pumpkin farm. This year we went with Francis and Emily, and their daughter Mae. Arata has a "river" of pumpkins, and more importantly, a giant hay maze that changes from year to year. Katie in particular is a huge fan. She has here own method for getting through the maze. Finn and I are good at finding dead ends. Here are Katie and boys, deep, deep in the maze.

We got three pumpkins, one for me, Katie+Graham, and Finn. Finn's only metric for choosing was that the pumpkin was "BIG." Katie and chose two with fun stems.

Here is a post from two years ago, at Finn's previous visit to Arata. It's fun that Graham is getting to wear all the same cute clothes that Finn wore when he was 1.

Our neighbors across the street have some elementary-school age kids, and they've given us a few of their old little-kids stuff, like these two folding chairs, which the boys love.

I think that Katie already posted about this, but we managed to make it to the last beach train of the year, which winds starts up in Felton, and winds down through the redwoods down to the beach boardwalk in Santa Cruz. I snapped this cute pic that I like a lot. Sometimes Graham seems pretty big, but he is really just a little guy compared to his brother. Oh, and he's walking more now. Although he CAN do it, more often he has chosen to crawl instead.

So Happy Together...

Why bother doing a blog post if I can't get a song stuck in your head, right? But then I reward you with a video, fresh from this morning. This airplane was Finn's present for his first birthday. Graham has been using it for a walker/push toy lately, and that has renewed Finn's interest in it. Here they are sharing nicely. Mostly.

Walking together from Katie on Vimeo.
And in case that weren't enough, now I will explode your head with more brothers-together cuteness.

Yes sir, good times around the Fortney house lately. Graham turns ONE on MONDAY! He'll be walking soon, he's moving closer to an all people-food diet, and he understands a TON of what we say to him. Finn, who has always been fond of songs but not so much singing, now sings all the time - random lines from everything from "Wheels on the Bus" to "Eight Days a Week" to "Lisztomania." But he would like someone to explain to the Beatles that babies cannot, in fact, drive your car.
I'm doing great. My job is simply wonderful. If you are a library geek I would be happy to explain to you all the reasons why. On top of that I get to walk to my office through a redwood forest and drive home with a vista of Monterey Bay. You may know I have a yard 5 houses from a duck pond, that it backs onto a creek and is popular with local deer, skunks, and the like, but did you know that my house is within a few miles of:

• beaches (with sea lions. And surfers.)
  
• mountains
  
• book and record stores (new and used)
  
• a ROLLER COASTER
  
• a butterfly migration hot spot
  
• an annual aquatic parade
  
• a steam train
  
• at least 3 wine bars and innumerable wineries
  
• 2 or 3 breweries
  
• restaurants from Afghan and Brazilian to ... Thai and vegan? What's a cuisine that starts with Z?
  
• TWO weekly farmers markets
• gourmet chocolates
  
• three completely unrelated independent local grocery stores/small chains
  
• so many great bakeries I sometimes think my head will explode

There's more, I'm sure, but that gives you a picture. You'd never guess that I like food, huh? Life is good. Come visit.

Well, do they look alike?

Some people have asked what I'm doing with all my spare time now that I'm not in school. Well, for the most part it seems my things-to-do are like a gas: they expand to fill the space available. But I have been branching out a bit - in January I did a bunch of MCLE (mandatory continuing legal education) so the state of California still thinks I should be able to practice law, just in case that comes in handy. I've been making lists - things to do, places to go, people to call and mail things to, and all the great real and potential band/album names in Dr. Seuss (Wumbus, Too Many Daves, Kid Sneelock, and Midwinter Jicker, to name a few). Last week I picked up a knitting project I started in 2007. I've been to the dentist 3 times in about as many weeks. And today while the boys napped, I played around in Photoshop, and here are the results.

Finn and Graham at 1 Month

2 Months

3 Months

4 Months

4 Months

I don't know which is more fun - seeing how much Finn has changed, or trying to figure out what Graham's going to look like as he gets bigger. Cute stuff, either way.
I've also been cooking more. I used to maintain a sidebar on this blog of what we were making each week, but it was too much to keep up with, plus so many people read this through Facebook or a blog reader I don't know if anyone even noticed. If you're still curious, I do bookmark recipes at del.icio.us. Things there generally fall into two categories: a) things we've tried and liked, and probably make a lot and b) decadent, complicated things that I would love to make someday if I ever have the time and someone to help eat them. Anybody else have your own recipe file I should bookmark?