As We Like It

Summertime! Tomorrow is the 4th of July, which may end up being Graham's favorite holiday after Christmas. He is quite adept at spotting American flags, telling us he sees them, and that they are there "Because our country is America!!" Yes, I used two exclamation points on purpose. He's really into it. In our neighborhood there is a July 4th bike parade, which Finn had a blast at last year, so we'll doing that again.

In other news, while Katie was in Anaheim at a library conference, I potty trained Graham in 2 days. Yes, I'm that good! OK, in reality Graham just finally decided that he wanted to wear underwear, and that was that. It's been 10 days now, with very few accidents, and even nice work in the #2 department. It's really quite amazing compared to his brother, who wasn't quite doing this well at age three, as you might recall. Graham, at various times this week after doing his business: "Are you so proud daddy?" "FANNN-TASTIC" "Do I get a fruit snack?" "Are you so happy?" Then later: "What does proud mean?" This no diapers thing is all I hoped for and more.

Graham is also growing out of being a fantastic sleeper. (Not as we like it.) Usually both boys go to bed at 7:30 pm, and wake up at 6:15, which has worked fine because Finn doesn't take a nap but Graham still does. He's of course always needed more sleep since he's younger. Finn is still on this schedule, but as Graham gets older, he apparently is needing less sleep. He hasn't been falling asleep until probably 8:30 pm lately which has necessitated moving him and his bed into the playroom. There he can kick around and play after Finn has gone to sleep. This really isn't ideal for anyone, but as long as he keeps napping, I don't see any way around it. Sigh... It was such a perfect system, people! I don't have any pictures to correspond to these stories, so here are some other photos:

Dressing up "like daddy"

Finn IS growing up, isn't he!!!

Superheroes enjoy watermelon

Thanks daddy for finding my fishing pole, buying some worms, and taking us down to Westlake Park (down the street)... Finn hasn't asked to go since, so it may not have been all that he'd hoped for.

Growing up, and Christmas

Firstly, let's debut the new size chart! Since our last update, both boys have had birthdays. Graham has always been a little behind in height and head size, but has sometimes been a bit heavier. But now it appears the young version of Finn is ahead in all categories. What this means for the future, I don't know. Finn is undeniably a big guy--a 95th percentile type of kid.

Well, the holiday season is over, and the Fortney Family has survived, and enjoyed it! We spent 12 days in the Midwest, split between Minnesota and Iowa. The weather was relatively balmy (mid 30s), and there was no snow on the ground. So that was a little unusual. Grandparents were hugged, cousins were riled up, and raviolis were consumed.

Before we left, Santa was smart enough to come (I guess he got the letter!), and the boys got their very own 2003-era Fujitsu laptop, amongst other things, like color-changing matchbox cars. They are quite excited. (Actually, the computer just broke, but Katie is going to "share" her Mac with them for awhile until we find a resolution.)

Both boys were excellent on the plane ride out. Traveling with them is just getting easier and easier. Graham was especially interested in having his very own bag of potato chips (they bought us nearly an hour), as well as checking out the in-flight tunes.

Last year at my parents' house I spent a good 2 hours making Finn a hollowed out snow cave that he spent about 10 seconds in. This year I spent about 20 minutes raking leaves to make the ultimate leaf pile, and the boys loved it. Mostly they would get running starts and try to go right through it, with limited success.



After the trip down to Iowa (Katie may have pictures?) we spent a few hours at the Mall of America, before we caught our plane out of town. You have never lived until you've played mini golf with a 2-year-old and a 4-year old. At least 5 times, Graham had very short "My do it!" temper tantrums when we tried to help him. He was laying face down on the green carpets. Finn only did a full wind-up whack once (the 2nd hole). And no one got hit in the face, so it was pretty successful. We also rode on quite a few rides at the gigantic indoor amusement park, which is not longer called Camp Snoopy. Oh, and we ate at the Rainforest Cafe. Yay!

My Spoon is too Big!

Going out to restaurants with the boys takes a certain state of mind. You have to want to go out to eat (fun!) while wrangling the boys in an unfamiliar environment (maybe!). We're gradually finding places in Santa Cruz that are kid-friendly. That can range from the restaurant being loud (a plus), to having books for kids to look at (new books!), to giving each child their own ball of pizza dough (a huge winner).

A couple weeks back Jessica and Daren, and their kids Caitlin (age 4) and Liam (age 2) came over the hill from Sunnyvale to spend the afternoon with us. We went to the Surfrider Cafe in downtown. We'd been there once before (they have books) but managed to keep it quiet that the kids meals came with ice cream. But not this time! Both boys really loved their vanilla ice cream, with Graham really taking to his "I'm a big boy now" status. There isn't much that is cuter than little boys with big spoons.




We've been making it down to the park 2-3 times a week, depending on the weather. Ducks are there in tremendous numbers. And coots. "What is a coot?" you might ask? (I sure did.) It is like a duck, but smaller. Instead of webbed feet they have what looks somewhat like green leaves that extend from either side of their three toes, to help them swim. Both boys like to chase the ducks and coots, which usually happens in slow motion. It's rare for the ducks to have to ever actually take flight to get away.

Here is Graham coot herding. The coot whisperer?

Duck walking from Jonathan Fortney on Vimeo.

Chicken, it's the new gum

Tonight when I gave Graham his toothbrush he stuck it in his mouth, then took it back out and spit out a wad of chewed up chicken. From dinner. Which had ended over half an hour earlier. Apparently when you don't have all your molars, you can just work on a few bites of chicken all through tummies time, bath time, pajamafication and the like, without ever swallowing or giving up. He's a persistent kid.

Graham's a big chicken fan now, as Jonathan discovered while I was gone. I think the boys had a pretty good time without me, although I was told (and could tell) that I had been missed. Finn says I was gone for "soooo many days, Mama" but politely asked me "how was your day in Philadelphia, Mama?" He's so polite sometimes, I hardly recognize him.

Less than 3 days after I got back, Jonathan left again. The boys seem to be taking it all in stride, although Graham did look around for Jonathan to get his good night kiss after bedtime stories tonight. Here's a picture we took on one of the days we were actually all here, and a couple I took before my trip in case I got homesick.


Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the potty training bribes have gotten a bit out of hand. The peeing has long been easy, but like many kids, Finn's had intermittent struggles with #2. We started out with 1 M&M rewards, which quickly increased to 2 M&Ms, swappable for 2 chocolate chips, which were somehow more exciting. Somewhere in there things got crazy, and now he's getting daily girl scout cookies and has a chart that, when filled (4 weeks total, 12 days to go), is redeemable for a bike. I mean, we were going to get him a new bike this summer anyway, and the cookies will stop when the boxes are empty, but... geez. The way Finn usually works is that he responds really well to incentives (okay, bribes), and then once he does something long enough, he eventually forgets to ask for his reward. Toothbrushing, peeing on the potty, and I forget what else have all gone that route. I just hope we make as graceful an escape from this one, because it is a *big* one. Wish us luck.

Graham is getting big!

Yes, he's just now past 11 months. He's a machine when crawling across the floor, and has been for weeks now. He can walk with the aid of parental fingers. He can cruise from chair to couch and back again with the best of them.

What, you want more? Well, he can already kinda say a few words: Daddy (daddada...), kitty (keih!), and Finn (Fh!). He usually won't do them on command. I would say that "Fh" is the clearest, because that is a pretty unusual noise for a baby to make. Usually he just babbles in stuff with "a" as the vowel. I think that daddy is now less clear than it was last week.

As he's eating more and more solids, he's liking finger foods more and more. O's, goldfish, raspberries, graham crackers, saltines, teething biscuits... He's becoming more annoyed with being spoon-fed baby food, since then he's not in control. Sometimes at dinner he'll flatly refuse the spoon! But I'm not giving up because we've got about 15 more jars to get through. And what is better for eating than *finally* getting those two top teeth that you've always wanted? He just had those bottom two for many months, which just wasn't cutting it for the big-time eating.

After some initial troubles in sleeping through the night at our new house, we eventually realized he was probably getting a little cold at 3 a.m., after he kicked off his blanket and before the heat came on. (Yes, in summer here you need the pilot light lit.) Now with a bigger blanket that we put on him right before we go to bed, we are all sleeping better. Since he's been sleeping through the night pretty well since he was 8-9 months, he's 5 months ahead of Finn!

Long Form Movies -- no edits! ;)

The minister of chubs is starting to grow up. As you know, he can army crawl. He is starting to get pretty good at pulling himself up and standing, using a parent's legs, or the couch. He hasn't mastered it yet, and he doesn't know how to sit back down once he stands up. But he's really learning fast.

He's really into the solid foods, as you might expect, since he's an eating savant. "Puffs" and Os are a big hit--although having just one in his mouth makes him angry. Three are preferred. He can do a pincer grasp sometimes, and on one occasion he's managed to put an O into his own mouth.

Puff Eating from Jonathan Fortney on Vimeo.

He somehow discovered that he really likes to play ball, both with me and Katie.

Playing Ball w/ Daddy from Jonathan Fortney on Vimeo.

Finn is growing up too, and is excited for our move next month to Santa Cruz. He is excited for the big yard and the big garden. I don't think he knows that we'll be really close to the pond that he liked visiting, so that will be a fun surprise. He and Katie made letter cookies this week. He's a big fan of "F."

Letter Cookies from Jonathan Fortney on Vimeo.

The Theater Experience, + Eating

Finn is a big fan of Toy Story, and Toy Story *2*! (He strongly emphasizes the two.) He has two Toy Story hats (one for home, one for school) and recently got Toy Story Crocs. Oh, and the pajamas. In the runup to TS3, there was clearly much more TS gear at Target, which he asked about. While Daddy was watching basketball briefly on TV, there were two TS3 commercials, which he asked about. I broke down and explain that people were making a NEW TS movie, but it wasn't finished yet. So it seemed like a good time to try the theater. We prepped him by talking about the huge screen, the lots of seats, and the popcorn. We didn't prep him for the loudness, which kept him with his hands over his hears for the many advertisements and 5 ponderous previews. I think he used up a good half-hour of his movie attention span before TS3 even started.

He liked the show, it thankfully wasn't too loud, and it held his attention for probably the first half. After that he did pretty well, but preferred to stand, sit on the floor and peek between the seats at the screen, or move from lap to lap asking questions. Sitting on either side of him kept him from crawling down the isle. So it was pretty successful, and we had a great time! Thanks to Rebecca watching Graham for us!


Speaking of Graham, we've previously told you that he is quite skilled in the consumption arts. He's quickly ascended the food ladder from milk to chunky baby food, to bread rolls, and to cheerios, not necessarily in that order. I'm pretty sure that he can drink out of a straw. Let's just say that he is advanced for his age. Buying Finn a muffin and Graham a roll to suck on is now a standard part of our Sunday morning farmers' market routine. Here is a picture of Graham with his two favorite things.

Lastly but not leastly, we all managed to more or less swing simultaneously in four swings this weekend, and I managed to get some video. Since Graham likes swings so much, Finn is starting to come around.

Family Swing from Jonathan Fortney on Vimeo.

Oh, and here is Graham sucking down a root beer at that same park:

And May Went Where, Exactly?

Hi Kids! Happy Memorial Day! We spent a great day over at Ginny's parents' house in Los Altos. Steaks and fruit on the grill, beer and wine in the glass. Finn and Graham had a great time as well. All times outside are great times.

Although the weather has been moderately nice, it really hasn't been "Californian," as the winter wet season decided to extend itself until even this past week. The reservoirs are full now! Finn has enjoyed the opportunities to use his matching rain coat, boots, and umbrella. On Saturday afternoon, the day after the last rain (of the season?) there was one deep puddle left. Finn's *favorite* puddle. So we got all his gear on in the middle of the brilliant sunshine. And he went to town!


We also ate outside on Sunday night on our little deck. We had a nice time, although Finn was hard to handle. Probably it was too novel. Graham had a magnificent time, as you can probably tell. Note the two little teeth!

A few of their favorite things

Yesterday marked our fourth visit to Happy Hollow, and our third in as many weeks. As far as Finn's concerned, it's the happiest place on earth: animals, rides, animals, playgrounds, animals, theoretically a dragon, and animals, all only about 15 minutes from our front door. (I say "theoretically" because Danny the Dragon is currently closed for repairs, so all we're hearing about lately, at the park or at home, is about how Finn wants to see him.)
Finn's other intense focus lately is hermit crabs. They have two in the older kids' room at school, and he is always excited to see them when he's there, and always asking about them or asking to "go to the crabby store," aka PetCo, when he's home. We may end up getting some if they're still this exciting in August or so. They have rabbits at school, too, but that's not even on the table. Except when we order in especially fancy take out. Badum-ching!

Graham's interests these days, besides me and food, include baths, going outside, and toys. One of his absolute favorites is a drum that lights up and plays a noise when you hit it - perfect for a baby this age! (Thanks, Kim!) Another is this rattle, which was a prop for a shower game at Finn's baby shower way back in 2007. It makes noise, you can bite on it, and it's so low-tech your brother never steals it.
Both boys are pretty enamored of each other, and as of Saturday are going to bed in the same room at night. I think we're at a little over 50% success rate for Graham actually staying in there all night because he's been under the weather, but they both seem to like it. Finn especially enjoys when he wakes up and Graham is still there. Unfortunately, the height we initially had Graham's mattress at made a handy ladder for Mr. Finn, and when we went in there the first morning we found Finn in the crib squishing his brother. So changing the mattress height was the first order of business Sunday morning. Then there was more playing, like this, possibly one of my favorite videos ever.

Some days are giggly from Katie on Vimeo.
Also, Graham really REALLY likes bread. He's still too little to really be trusted with a teething biscuit, but with good supervision he's become very adept at rendering a nice crusty roll into a baby-friendly paste. Yum.

Busy busy!

Looks like Jonathan beat me to the blog tonight, but I'm going to post anyway - there's been too much going on to wait! Graham got his first tooth on Sunday, the day after he turned six months old. He now eats rice cereal, applesauce, bananas, and broccoli, and loves it all.
Finn, of course, had to get in on the action when he saw us attempting to take the photo above. He has many teeth, and will show them to you if you ask. Or, you know, if you don't.
My mom went home yesterday. Having her here was so wonderful - I almost didn't miss Jonathan at all! (Just kidding. But she does wash more dishes. Hint, hint.) We watched New Moon, and it was just as awful as I was expecting, so that was fun. Last Thursday we went to the newly reopened Happy Hollow, where Finn was very excited, after hearing about all the animals they have there (jaguar! lemurs!), to hear that he would get to see a DONKEY. Here he is feeding his new friend Maybelline.

Feeding the donkey from Katie on Vimeo.
And here's my mom with the boys, the best shot we got with these wiggly boys the one time we thought to get the camera.
Fortunately, things haven't descended into complete chaos because my friend Angie has come down for a few days to help out and squeeze my cute children. Yay help! More goodies at Flickr.

Graham is HUNGRY. Finn is hungry for consumer goods.

We were going to wait until closer to the six month mark to start Graham on solids because honestly, we just don't need any more moving pieces in our dinner routine. But I'd noticed him staring at Jonathan's pizza the other night, and then this happened:

Mmm, naan. from Katie on Vimeo.
Note how he grabs my hand to help guide it back to his mouth. Since then he's sampled some of the traditional first foods - rice cereal, mashed bananas. Jonathan also slipped him a bit of strawberry at the farmers market this morning. The rice cereal was not his favorite, possibly just because it does not go from bowl to belly FAST enough, but here he is giving it a shot:
And I've been meaning to mention that Finn has has become a big fan of online shopping. We let him pick out his next pair of shoes, and from hundreds of possibilities including fire trucks and muppets he was adamant in his selection of "the green scary ones." Thank you, Zappos, for your super speedy shipping.
Since then he has also selected a hat online, and thank goodness we had that option, because it was apparently very important that his new hat have "Buzz AND Woody" on it; one or the other simply would not do. His Uncle Allen and Aunt Keisha got him some Toy Story PJs for Christmas, and even though he hadn't seen the movie yet, they were an instant favorite. Now that he's seen Toy Story and Toy Story 2, he's become a pro at spotting the merchandise. And so it begins.

A messy month ahead

It is never easy to take care of both boys all by yourself. This is course falls upon Katie much more often than me. Part of my job involves travel from time to time, like going to give talks at other universities, or to exoplanet conferences. Since Finn was born I've definitely cut back on the conferences generally, but at the same time the number of invited talks I get is something that I'm judged on at tenure time, so I pretty much accept every direct invitation I get. Katie's job has no such requirements, so the travel is very one-sided. This month I had two 3-day trips to Boston and Tucson, and next month it is Minneapolis and Phoenix, with two five-day trips to Santa Barbara at the end of the month. Thankfully Katie's Mom is coming to town! It is hard to be away because my boys grow up so much in just a few days! And I know that they miss me so much. Katie is certainly building up a massive reserve of goodwill points.

One of the fun things about clothes recycling is that we can see all of our fun baby clothes again! Like this classic dress shirt onesie that Finn grew out of way too fast. Apparently your baby can't help but look like a suave man-about-town in it!

Last week, to celebrate a big award that I won, we went out for sushi. Finn was very well behaved and enjoyed several things. He wasn't a fan of tuna or salmon, but he did eat most all of a piece of unagi. (Which is eel.) He also liked the miso soup and they made him a special soup of rice and tofu. He used the chopsticks with limited success. Graham, mister happy, was a big hit with the staff as well.

Spaghetti and trains

What do you do when you have a really long to-do list? Avoid it, of course. Or maybe that's just if you're us. In any case, I've been ignoring my homework a little more than I ought to be lately and just having some good times with my guys, while we're still pretty able to get up and go with minimal planning.

Thursday we celebrated ... something... me teaching my first class? Me probably being done with the onsite portion of my internship until post-baby? Anyway, we went out to dinner at Old Spaghetti Factory, which we hadn't realized was actually a west coast based chain, not a Minneapolis/St. Paul one. We were worried Finn would have a hard time with the spaghetti, and he did, but it was great - it took all of his energy and attention through most of dinner so we could eat in peace. Good times. This video would be more fun if I could speed up the whole noodle-eating process, but my version of iMovie won't let me do that, so just be patient with him.

Spaghetti from Katie on Vimeo.

Then yesterday we wanted to get out of the heat and find something to do that would keep Finn entertained but let me spend a lot of time sitting around, and remembered that there's a train from up in the mountains down to the beach in Santa Cruz, and it fit the bill perfectly. Here we are soon after starting out.

On the train from Katie on Vimeo.

One hour on the train, then an hour down at the beach and boardwalk, then an hour back up the mountain to Roaring Camp Railroads in Felton. You can also stay down in Santa Cruz for four hours, but we weren't up for that. Here he is getting ready for the kiddie ride he was super excited for ("COPTER! COPTER!"), but then only liked for about 20 seconds once it started moving. He was the littlest one on it by far, and they stopped it to let him out.

Copter! from Katie on Vimeo.

We had a great time - there were big trees, a tunnel, a carousel at the boardwalk, and then just when we thought it was time to head home, there were ducks to feed! The beach train's not running too much longer this year, but we're definitely planning on going back. (Video of duck-feeding here.)

Plenty more pictures at Flickr.

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.

Happy Birthday To Me

I turned 31 yesterday. Woo.
Finn and I celebrated by going over to Jessica's to see Caitlin and Liam and eat cake, and by just generally taking it easy. Taking it easy meant that I arranged it so I didn't have to cook, wash dishes, or do laundry while Jonathan was out of town. It did not mean Finn was any less of a maniac. I didn't take any pictures there (part of "taking it easy," maybe), but here's one Jessica took last week of Finn telling Liam... something very important.


Here's one of our walk yesterday. Finn decided to walk half of the way to downtown instead of riding in the stroller. He looks kind of like a muppet when he runs - arms extended and bobbing randomly. But with more wandering. See where the sidewalk disappears in the background? He covered all that ground and then some.


And I don't have any of him eating cake yesterday, but here's a video from a week or two ago where Finn demonstrates his newly discovered love of rhubarb cake. He wouldn't even try the rhubarb custard pie I made, possibly because I was eating it for breakfast and I usually eat things like oatmeal for breakfast, which he won't touch. He did yell "cakaaaay" again yesterday in pretty much the same voice.

Cake from Katie on Vimeo.

Completing the video backlog (you can probably stop reading now if you're not a grandparent), here's a couple of Finn reading his favorite books. Normally everything else gets ignored when these come out, but apparently not even Head to Toe is a match for the video camera. As you can see, though, even with that on, he cannot resist the compulsion to do the required actions or animal noises. Eric Carle rocks his world.

Head to Toe from Katie on Vimeo.

The Very Busy Spider from Katie on Vimeo.

And the sweetest thing ever, from Mother's Day last month.

Happy. Mama. Day. from Katie on Vimeo.
Thanks boys!

This kid goes to eleven

Finn: My craziness levels all go to eleven. Look, right across the board, eleven, eleven, eleven and...
Me: Oh, I see. And most kids go up to ten?
Finn: Exactly.
Me: Does that mean you're crazier? Are you any louder?
Finn: Well, I'm one louder, aren't I? It's not ten. You see, most blokes, you know, will be playing at ten. You're on ten then, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you're on ten on your craziness. Where can you go from there? Where?
Me: I don't know.
Finn: Nowhere. Exactly. What I do is, if I need that extra push over the cliff, you know what I do?
Me: Put it up to eleven.
Finn: Eleven. Exactly. One louder.
Me: Why don't you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder?
Finn: [pause] I go to eleven.

Today we had quite a day. Farmer's market, with about a dozen dogs to poke/yell/growl at, then the grocery store, then a pool party at the Kearney Heidgerken's. Whatever level of rambunctiousness that had been attained at previous ages was surpassed today at the swimming pool. It was a grand time. You know, it is not possible to tell your son not to run around the edges of the pool when he doesn't (probably) understand the words "walk, run, fast," or "slow." You just hope for the best.

There was a strange, oh, inversion of sorts. He wouldn't get down off the top pool step (4 inches of water) for 20 minutes, but he thought it was the greatest to dunk his face into the water. I think for many kids, putting their face in is a hard step. For Finn, it was the first thing he did. Only later on did we actually go "swimming" which involved lots of kicking, splashing, and being tossed into the air, with maniacal laughter. He was on full display. He only went all the way under by accident twice, and only once was my fault. It was such a fun time that we didn't take any pictures. How could I when I was in the pool?

Katie is out of town for a few days, so it is just me and the little man. Yesterday and today it was HOT. 90+ degrees. We went to a park in San Jose yesterday at about 2 p.m. (smart), and the first thing Finn said when we got out of the car was "Hot-teh. hot-teh." And it WAS hot-teh. But the farm animals and decent playground equipment made up for it. Here we are cooling off in the car before going home. He enjoys the blinker stick.

Finn really likes black beans, which I think is maybe a little unusual. They are a good source of protein. But they really are a mess. But that is half the fun.

Today was yogurt in the hair, which yielded a bit of a "There's Something About Mary" effect until we washed it away in the pool. I has been interesting being fully in charge for 4 straight days. I actually think it will make it a bit easier for me the next time I have to leave for a conference. When it is just you taking care of him, it is just MORE of everything. Harder, but more fun, since you're his world, not just half of it. But now I don't feel like I'm leaving Katie will an impossible task when I leave. But at the same time, you really miss out on some cool stuff. So maybe it will be harder after all . . . .

Yelling and Weddings

When Finn gets excited about something he often says "Whooaw!" some sort of hybrid of whoa and wow. It's cute. Just last week he added "Oh boy!" to his repertoire, but it really comes out not quite right. I'm actually not even sure if he was that excited about Wallace and Gromit on the ipod, since he didn't seem too jazzed, except for the yelling.


Oh, bo! from Jonathan Fortney on Vimeo.


We're starting to get into some different eating habits, which I'm not yet excited about. Bread, once the ultimate in edibles, isn't interesting anymore. Finishing an entire banana in minutes merely leads to a desire for "more nana." I only got 1/2 a banana today because someone need 1 1/2. We'll have to do the banana vs. raspberry taste-off one day.

Here is a picture that my mom took of Jeanna and Craig's wedding. Top row, L to R: Jonathan, Finn, brother Justin, Dad Jon. Next row: Katie, Becky (Justin's wife), Jeanna, Craig, Mom Mary, Grandma Dolores, Grandpa Joe (Mary's parents). Next row: Jamie (Justin's daughter), Deja (Jeanna and Craig's daughter). The search for a picture of Finn's outfit, with shoes, continues....

Goats!

Yesterday we went on our much-anticipated trip to Harley Farms Goat Dairy with Rachel, Ross, Helen, and Arthur. As predicted, Finn had an absolute blast, from the moment we got out of the car. He wouldn't have even needed the tour - he'd have been happy yelling at goats from the parking lot.

Goat yelling in the parking lot from Katie on Vimeo.
The rest of us were very excited about the tour, though, which included learning about the farm, milling around in the pasture with goats and llamas, hanging out in the barn with the kids (the goat kids, that is), milking a goat (Helen went first - go Helen!), and sampling some delicious goat cheese. Here are a couple shots of Finn out in the pasture, communing with goats and trying to bend them to his will. I can't decide which is my favorite.

And here's a video of him in with the baby goats. I've got several more cute goat/Finn photos up at Flickr - including one with a llama!

Just another kid from Katie on Vimeo.

Then after the goats we all headed over to Ross and Rachel's to let the kids (human kids, no goats were abducted) chase each other around while we ate burritos with Jason, who was back in town for a limited one-day-only engagement.

In other news, bathtime is once again an occasion for splashing and being goofy instead of crying - apparently a couple days away from our tub cleared up whatever the problem was.

And last week Jonathan took off for a short trip to LA - just two mornings and one bedtime's worth. Finn and I did pretty well, except I had a big piece of homework due on Thursday, and ended up working on it right up until the midnight deadline. I haven't done that in ages, I didn't miss it, and I hope it never happens again. Jonathan started teaching again last Monday, which of course conveniently coincides with my semester ramping up towards finals and our CSA box starting up again so we have to actually COOK in the evenings.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the concept, we get a box of vegetables from a local farm every week for the whole summer (or in our case, April-November). We love that we eat healthier and try things we might not otherwise be brave enough for, but it can be a bit of work some weeks. Definitely worth it for the deliciousness, though. This week we got, among other things, carrots and radishes. I don't like carrots, and I have a somewhat irrational fear of radishes. But I found this great recipe for lemony rice salad with carrots and radishes that's just delicious, and I'm looking forward to similar adventures all summer. Once the semester ends I may even get around to reinstating the "What's on our table" sidebar... but probably not until then.

Also? Yesterday we got some DELICIOUS dark-red-up-to-the-stem strawberries at the farmers' market. Ah, California. (Sorry, midwestern folks, I did hear about yesterday's snow...)

Getting funner

Finn is a big boy now, 14 months. Almost ready to leave for college. He likes to do his own thing. Like last week, when I decided that I would check my email and let him amuse himself without my watchful eye. After perhaps a few minutes too long, I realized that things were a little too quiet. I found him in the kitchen. He'd opened a drawer and checked its contents. It happened to be the plastic bags/foil/wax paper drawer. Apparently most of these things were not interesting enough, and he'd carefully (maybe) put them into a little pile, until he found the box of sandwich bags. Much like a pop-up Kleenex box, removing a baggie only led to another! I walked in to find him grabbing the 2nd-to-last bag, and grabbed the camera. His face shows that this was just a normal day at the office.



He likes to make loud noises. This video is great. He also really likes to look at LCD screens.

Danger, cymbals! from Jonathan Fortney on Vimeo.

Have your cake and eat it too:

Graham cracker or cymbals? Both! from Jonathan Fortney on Vimeo.

A month's worth of videos

Apparently blogging, like flossing, is a habit I've lost. I'll try to regain both of them. For now, here are some videos, and a quick story from the "we're such great parents" chronicles. Finn sometimes will go to his high chair to let us know he's hungry, especially when we ask him if he wants something to eat. Apparently that wasn't getting our attention last night (I think we were reading about US Airways 1549), so he went to the kitchen, got into the cupboard, found some old baby food, and came into the living room and handed it to me. Pureed green beans, which I swear he's refused for months, so I didn't even know we had them. He ended up finishing that container and getting halfway through another. He's been sick this week, but I guess his appetite is officially back now.

And now the videos, from oldest to newest. They span a whole month, and I think you can see a big difference in his walking. The second and fifth ones are the giggliest.
Dancing to Christmas music
I'm sure everyone who has a child and a video camera is familiar with this problem, but we usually remember to get the camera out after he's been doing something for a while, right before he gets bored. Then the movie tends to be more of us trying to convince him to do it again. This is us trying to capture some of him rocking out to Christmas music last month.

Feliz Navidad from Katie on Vimeo.
Just Before Bedtime Punchiness
Finn and Jonathan being silly, with a sample at the end of his scary old man cough.

Back and forth, with giggling from Katie on Vimeo.
Christmasy Hijinks
Here's Finn playing with his cousin Jamie's tunnel, after we all attacked our presents, with a bonus shot of Deja at the beginning.

Tunnel from Katie on Vimeo.
I Have Serious Popping Responsibilities Here, People
This is towards the end of his solid half hour of popping last week.

Popping from Katie on Vimeo.
Where's Finn?
Here he is playing in his curtains, an almost daily occurrence, with a bit of investigating the video camera (with its flip around viewing screen) at the end.

Playing in the curtains from Katie on Vimeo.
Belly!
One night he got so filthy during dinner, in spite of his bib, that we just stripped him when we took him out of his high chair. I think soup was involved. It was reasonably warm, and bath time wasn't too far off. Lately when his shirt gets hiked up or taken off, he likes to play with his belly, but this is another one where we should have gotten the camera out a few minutes earlier. In the beginning when Jonathan's laughing at him, apparently he was investigating and pinching his belly button very thoroughly.

Belly from Katie on Vimeo.