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.

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.

No Frills Blog Post

Katie is in Chicago visiting her friend Nina and generally having a great relaxing time. Here at Camp Fortney, we Fortney boys have been to the farmers' market, San Francisco Zoo, Helen & Arthur's house, the park, the toy store, and a few other places. Here are some pics from the events:

You can't ride the real bears at the zoo, which is always a bummer. Since it was 90 degrees down in Los Gatos, going up to San Francisco, where the weather is usually crappy and cold (sorry!) was a nice change. The sun did come out after our 3rd hour at the zoo. Both boys also got to pet turtles and a bunny. Graham got very excited for the turtles.
Here is Finn modeling his "new hat." Which doubles as his current ball container. Speaking of balls, we picked up a basketball, soccer ball, and baseball bat and ball. He prefers baseball so far, as he should. ;)
Above, Mr. Cutes "rides" on this dolphin at the park. Finn was busy impressing a 3-year-old girl on the seahorse.
Yay double swing! Graham had a great time (See movie below!). Finn has a long-standing aversion to swings (He's more of a slide man) but spent a good 30 seconds on here before deciding that he was done. This park was up in Mountain View (Rengstorff) and Finn told me that we would be coming back.
Finn is laying on his stomach on the left. This is on the plaza at the farmers' market. A nearby yoga studio has kids classes, and they had one outside to drum up some business. Finn walked over and stared for quite awhile before they kindly invited him in. I was stuck under Graham, so he was entirely on his own. The women basically thought he was there without parents for 10 minutes. This was some sort of relaxation part. I'm not sure why he is the only one on his stomach. Also, he bypassed the standard downward dog with his own one-legged version, which left everyone impressed. Even though he's 18 months below their minimum age, they said they'd love to have him. :)

Baby swing!!

Baby Swing! from Jonathan Fortney on Vimeo.

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.

The 2X issue

One of the things I was worried about before Graham was born was how insane our life would get with two kids instead of one. I'd heard that life gets 2^2 times harder (i.e., 4 times) with two kids. That didn't seem to make any sense to me, because we had already greatly adjusted of life when Finn came along, and I couldn't see how we would have to make as dramatic a change (or more) for kid #2.

Well, at this point, I would say it is not nearly 4 times as hard. I think it isn't even 2 times (2^1) as hard. I'd say it's somewhere in between 2^(1/2) and 2^(1/sqrt(2)), which is 1.4 and 1.6, as you know. [I had to work twos in there somehow.] I mean, yeah, we have to get up a little earlier in the morning, and yeah, he wakes up at night 1-2 (sometimes 3) times, so we're getting a bit less sleep (especially Katie). But I think life is pretty similar to before. There is a certain amount of interference to run on Finn to make sure he doesn't lay on top of Graham, but if Graham wasn't there we'd still have to keep him from breaking something else.

I think it probably makes a difference as to when the "hard" kid comes. Graham is pretty laid back and jolly, so it doesn't take an incredible amount of effort to keep him happy. Also, Finn was sick from ages 3-6 months, which kept him from sleeping well, so hopefully that will not hit Graham.

Onto the cuteness: I'm blatantly stealing this pic from Katie. It shows Finn's incredibly cute frog rain gear. The photo somehow gives the feeling of ultra-preparedness. Like Finn is ready to take on anything, plus protect his little brother.

Both boys like the bed in Finn's room. Soon we'll have to start calling it Finn and Graham's room. I wonder how that will go over....

Tying up loose ends

Happy Birthday to Grandpa Jon!

I did not teach this summer, nor will I be teaching in the fall. As part of my job, I teach two quarters a year, and the other time is teaching-free, so that I can better concentrate on research and advising my students. It's a good mix. I have a number of projects that are "must finish" before baby number two comes. The completion of these projects were put in some doubt when I got to stay home with Finn for 3 days last week. But this week has been productive!

Finn really likes to be read to. Listening to books, and playing with Mr. Potato Head, are some of the few times when he is not rambunctious. One of his new favorites is "I Want to be Somebody New," by Robert Lopshire, from 1986. I'm not much of a fan. It features the passage:

You cannot sit in your old chair
Your new rear won't fit in there.
You're very big. You're very fat.
We do not care for you like that.

Now admittedly, the dog has just changed himself into an elephant, but I'm not a fan of the text.

Here is a fantastic photo I stole off of cousin Margaret's Facebook page. As we mentioned, he followed her around like a puppy at their wedding reception a few weeks back.

10 sentences about Finn

For Finn, Hop on Pop is not just a book, its a way of life.

He will eat raisins by the handful, avocados by the mouthful, and re-fried black beans by the giant spoonful.

Finn requests music of the Mamas and the Papas by name. "Papas."

He did his best Cool Hand Luke on Thursday by downing 3 1/2 hard boiled eggs in 10 minutes.

Finn sleeps for 11 hour stretches on top of his hippo Paula, who is approaching pancake dimensions.

Things that are bumpy are either "dumpy" or "bunty."

From the back seat of the car, he has a keen eye for garbage trucks, green lights, and bicycles.

When practicing "driving" in the front seat, he has no idea about the pedals, little use for the steering wheel, but concentrates much of his effort on the shifter "handle."

On Thursday Finn doubled his average nap with a record-shattering 2 h 35 min, which forced daddy to see if he was still breathing, twice.

He is a renewable energy source.

Finn knows there is a baby in mommy's tummy and he can say the name pretty well.

Fountain Finn from Jonathan Fortney on Vimeo.

Up the Creek

Yesterday it was painfully hot here. Today it is too. 100 or something, with no air conditioning. Katie was out of commission with overheating/sleepiness/terrible cold. Finn and I decided to head for the beach, so we left for Santa Cruz after his nap. The road was packed, because it was a popular destination. We came to standstill about 7 miles from the beach, and I guessed we had another hour ahead of us. Finn was already yelling "ou-side! ou-side!" so I had to think quickly to avoid a disaster. We made a quick exit out to the redwooded hills of Felton, just off of Hwy 17. I hadn't yet figured out what we were going to do, but there is a state park there. Maybe we could hike? As luck would have it, we noticed a little stream where others were playing, and we made our way down.
Activities included:
--walking in the water
--playing in the wet sand with our new beach toys
--throwing rocks
--sitting on logs
--more throwing of rocks
It was a good time, and we nearly had the river to ourselves. Some dogs and owners came by to catch and throw sticks. I don't think that Finn knew that dogs could swim, so that was cool. I didn't take many pictures, because I was in the water most of the time. At first he really liked just watching water ripples.

Some other hi/low-lights:
--Getting hit in arm with a rock. This 12-year-old who showed up was a BAD rock skipper. Ouch!
--After 2 hours down in the river, it was time to go home. I carried Finn and 3 bags up 40 feet of river bank, up to the bridge, to walk back to the car. I put Finn down to let him walk on the bridge. He peered between the bars to look down at the river. He then took off his Twins hat and sent it down into the water below. That boy! Sigh.... After thinking for a bit, I put down all of the bags, grabbed him again, and we made our way back down to fish out the hat. Ah, toddlers. The whole way down he repeated "hat" and "naughty."

Here he is on his new Rody. This is about 5 minutes after he got it. Note the strange monkey shrieks. He's taken to calling it his "gonkey."

A Rody for Finn! from Jonathan Fortney on Vimeo.

Always a good time

Finn really seems to enjoy putting things where they belong (when we ask him to do so). And he likes to help clean around the house, when he sees us doing it. In preparation for Katie's mom coming to town last week swept and swiffered the floors. Gotta make ourselves look like reasonable parents. Finn loved the swiffer and Katie noticed that one can rather easily take out the middle portion of the handle to make it Finn-sized. Action photo!

Now he uses it every day. Note that there is no swiffer towel on it. He totally flipped out into hysterics when we put the swiffer towel on. Screams, shrieks, the whole deal. It is unclear why. I'm sure we'll never know.
Just wait buddy, in anther year you'll also be on dishes, trash duty, bathrooms, you name it... Katie tells me that guys take up too much space by sitting with their legs far apart. It's true. I try to not do this on my vanpool to work every day. But it is just Finn in the back seat, so he is free to, ah, spread out.

Saturday was the 3rd birthday, observed, of Caitlin, and Jessica and Daren had another pool party. Finn was the life of the pool, as expected. Of the two hours we were there, I bet he was in the pool for 1:45. I was only in the pool for 1:44:55. How can that be? Shouldn't an adult be with Finn for every second, since he can't swim? Yeah, you'd think so. But a certain someone likes the pool so much that he climbed into the deep end by himself when I'd turned around to talk to Katie near the snack table!! He was actually fine. He was smiling at me, holding himself up with the pool ledge (doing a little pullup, of sorts), waiting for me to get back in. As near as we can figure, he must have got on all fours and moved his legs over the side while holding on. That kid! Here he is, Baywatch style, before getting in for the first time. Look out ladies!

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 . . . .

Funn Finn times with daddy

Katie is finishing her grueling 9 credit semester in the next two weeks. Right now she's sitting next to me trying to polish off a 20-page paper, so that she can get to the work that is actually due in the last week of class. This of course means that Finn is more my responsibility than usual. Yesterday went fine, and was fun. Today Finn broke his record for lateness before finally succumbing to his nap, at 1:45. His usual is around 11:30. My original try for a nap led to him yelling for 10 minutes, then quietly playing in his crib for another 25, before he decided that he was done. Part of our fun times yesterday was Finn eating an apple all by himself, like a big boy. Apple is also one of his favorite words.


Last Friday when he was kinda sick, but not really (the fever had broken earlier that day), we went to Vasona County Park, in our town of Los Gatos. It was our first time in this part of the park. What a good time! There is a rather famous "real" small-size train to ride around on, which probably holds around 100 people. Finn really only got excited enough to make some noise when the train whistle went off. Here is a pic of us on the train---note Finn's two-tone Twins hat.

In addition to normal playground equipment, they had an airplane that was there specifically for clambering on. There were a lot of bigger kids on it, but Finn held his own! When we're at the playground I try not follow him too closely, so that he can make his own way, meet some kids, etc. The pull is always there to keep him "safe" and follow 3 feet behind him the whole time, but I think the minuses way outweigh the pluses.

Oh, and one more thing. The cats have learned (or at least Mona has learned) how to get on the roof. Mona looked down at Katie 2 nights ago through the kitchen skylight. :)

At home with Mr. Fever

I was going to work from home yesterday, Thursday, since Katie is at home doing school work that day and Finn is at daycare. We were even going to go out for lunch! But then about 11 a.m. we got the dreaded "Finn is sick--come and get him" call. So there went our plans...except we still went out for lunch with Finn, after Finn's nap and his liquid Motrin. :) He's had a fever off and on, but today he's been feeling better. I stayed home with him again all day. I even had to cancel my lecture! It'd actually been awhile since we'd had a "Daddy Friday." Since September, probably.

Finn has a love/hate relationship with hats. Firstly, only baseball caps will do. All others are removed. I think it's because I wear that style of hat. But even caps get taken off after maybe a half-hour, then after that it is off and on every minute. You really gotta fight him. Katie ordered him this quite stylish Minnesota Twins hat which showed up at or door at 7 a.m. today. We tried it out this afternoon at the park, with positive results. Here you can see him showing it off while playing with a cat toy. I could tell he wasn't his normal self at the park: when given the options of going on the slide some more, or going home, he clearly favored calling it a day. (BTW: Ah, communication--it makes parenting easier.)

The Outdoorsy boys

If you know anything about our cats, you'll know that we've had terrible troubles with Murray peeing inappropriately around the house for about a year now. I wouldn't wish this problem and its associated stress on anyone. There have been many visits to the vet, many products have been purchased and used around the house (happy cat scent diffusers, anyone?), and many fliers were put up around town to try to entice someone to take him off of our hands. But alas, even the humane society wouldn't take him. It has been a mix of real medical problems (6+ months ago) and real annoying mental problems (the whole time). Alas, not even the "cat whisperer" we brought in could fix him.

We were at the end of our rope, and Murray was in all seriousness not long for this world. We had the final appointment made. The absolute last thing that we hadn't tried yet was just to kick him out of house and see how he did. Thanks for the suggestion, Sarah. In the past, we didn't want him to get lost and not come home, or get eaten by coyotes. But when it is that, or the other option, why the heck not? Well, after three weeks, things are going very well. Murray is outside now the vast majority of the day between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. and comes in to eat and sleep at night. When he's inside he is on his best behavior. He sticks to our yard or the one adjacent and spends a lot of time under the house. Katie snapped this picture below of Murray soaking up the sun. Anyway, so far, so good. Interesting, Mona shows no inclination to go outside. She likes having the house to herself.


Finn can now probably say about 15 words, include tough ones like raisin and apple. His favorites are still "hot" and "ball." He can point to his tummy and yours, or your nose, ears, and mouth. He has also taken a very personal interest in the cats and will follow them around the house or the yard, just yelling their names over and over. Maybe he thinks they're just ignoring him. I mean, they are, but what would he want them to do anyway? Now, the words Mona, Murray, momma, moo, and more, often sound quite similar, but the context helps. When he's outside yelling "Murr!" he sounds like he's got a Boston accent. (Murr! Murr! MUUURR!) Last week he also found this stick in the yard, and now it never leaves his side when he is out the door. The rainy season is past, so we are outside quite a bit now!

And he's started liking hats! I managed to convince him to be like daddy and wear his baseball cap last week, and since then he's really enjoyed it. And he looks SO CUTE!

A busy morning

Yesterday Finn had his 15-month doctor's appointment. Everything went well, and he took his shot like a champ. 15 seconds after it was done, he was all set. He's got a short memory. He's now around 75th percentile in height and weight. Previously he'd been middle of the pack in terms of height. Presumably he'll end up pretty tall, since Katie is 5'8" and I'm 6'2". You know that he's a big boy now because he got to stand on the real scale. They didn't lay him down in the baby scale. No sir!

That morning we drove Katie to work, went to a park, and then went out for fluffy restaurant-quality pancakes (at a restaurant). He is a big fan. Finn was popular at work. Here he is in Katie's cubicle. The shirt is "Germagnet.'

At the park there was a busload of 3/4-years olds, so for quite awhile he just stared in awe. Eventually "we" decided to just hang out in the little-kids side of the park, and we had a good time. He's never been a fan of swings, but he enjoyed this ride for almost a minute. Later on there was also a squirrel that took up a lot of his attention.

He's a swinger from Jonathan Fortney on Vimeo.

Raai-aai-aai-aai-aainn, I don't mind

Of course that's a lyric from The Beatles "Rain," the B-side to 1966's "Paperback Writer" single. But I'm not telling you anything that you didn't already know. (What a great song, by the way.)

It's supposed to rain here all week. I guess that's what we get for not having to shovel any snow. We decided that Finn needed some proper gear for the season, so we got him a raincoat and some hard-soled shoes. The raincoat is pretty much just a windbreaker, but it does the job. He is enjoying the shoes--they're good for stomping. Here we are before we ventured out to go to the farmer's market today:

He was the only little maniac kid there, as the market was a bit of a wet ghost town. But he had a great time running around and jumping in puddles. He also got mud all over his face, hands, and pants. I like to let him explore. I should have brought his boots, though. He was popular with the vendors, which garnered us a lot of free samples. He was furious when it was time to leave.

He is really is growning up fast. 15 months! What has surprised me the most lately is how aware he is of stuff he isn't supposed to do, and how fun it apparently is to try and get a rise out of us. Finn doesn't just bang on the window blinds. No, he'll touch them with one finger, and quickly look at us. Then he'll touch them with his whole hand, and look at us. Then he'll bang them really hard, and then look at us with a big smile! (He isn't supposed to touch them because they can detach and fall down on him.) If you just ignore him, then things escalate to banging more quickly! There are many examples involving the trash, the bookshelf, you name it. I guess I had thought this wasn't something that he would master til he was 2 or 3. I was wrong!

Also, we gave him his first hair cut last weekend, on the front steps. He was getting pretty shaggy along the sides and in back. I think that Katie did a nice job.

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.

Gulp, gulp. Air? Gulp?

Oh my. Well, things have been happening. I turned 32 today. Not a particularly interesting number. Finn turned 1. Yay! He's very good at using his pointer finger to show you what he wants you to do, but he won't hold it up to indicate his age. He won't copy me when I do it, either. He continues to be a maniac. I wonder how he'll do on the plane home for Christmas. Best not think about that yet. How about Halloween? Yes! Finn and I got all the guts out of our Half Moon Bay pumpkin.

Murray was at the vet for 3 DAYS after suffering a urinary blockage. He seems to be moving things well now, but he'll likely be on prescription food forever. Which means that Mona gets to be, too. So far they hate the food, so hopefully they'll lose a few pounds. Both of them have bulked up a bit since Finn was born--they just don't get played with as much.

It was great that my parents came to town over the weekend for Finn's birthday. We had a fun party! More details on that later. Here are the oldest Fortney men across 3 generations. Only one of us has a Mr. Silly t-shirt, but I'm still looking around. I can fit into a size 4T, right? Speaking of silly, in the past day Finn has started sticking his lips way out in some sort of Mick Jagger monkey face. And he can now "dance." Katie got a short video that she'll likely post.


Word to the wise: teaching a graduate course on a subject in which you are NOT an expert is quite difficult. I think by the 4th time I teach it, it'll be good. But it's not there yet and I doubt it will be next time. I can only learn the material so fast. And when the students decide to ask questions, then it's really hit and miss. Only a few more weeks til finals.... If only Mr. Finn could learn to sleep all through the night. I mean, it's been a year, kid!

Back from Bern, See More Chubs

Apparently Finn sleeps better when I'm home. Why that might be is not clear. Maybe I wear him out more, and he enjoys the peace of mind (not piece of mind) of having daddy at home. We're still not at "no wakeups," but a few nights recently his only wakeup was at 3 to 4 a.m. Of course, he woke up for the day at 5:45.

Bern, Switzerland, was . . . pleasant. A nice and pretty town, but not one of the jewels of Europe. It is on a river. It's old town is famously nearly unchanged since the 1300s. Below is the tallest building in town--a church. I went up about 2/3 of the way and got some nice shots.

The best part of the church were the fantastic stained glass windows. The sun came out when I was inside, and I got some great shots. This one below is my favorite.

Finn is pretty much a little maniac now. He can pull himself up on anything, sit back down, and do it again and again. He can move from chair to chair, and move across small gaps. A chubby little Spiderman? His excited noises range from loud squeals to loud Darth Vader breathing. He's trying to give up the army crawl for real crawling now, too. Also, his 5th tooth is coming in, so drooling is at its highest levels in 6 months. Katie brought him to his 9 month checkup recently. 48% height, 62% weight, 84% head circumference. Big noggin!

Back home backlog and privacy "issues"

Another good thing about being home is that I got see some of the old gang, or at least those that are left in town. We had a little get-together at my parents' house the night before we left town. Dave and Aleta's daughter Clara was there, who is now just past a year old. So was Zoe Schnell, but Sarah and Evan (her parents) weren't there. Anne and Dan brought her, but it was never properly explained to me where Evan was, while Zoe said that Sarah was in Kansas(!).



My brother Justin and his wife Becky live on 5 acres in western Wisconsin. I won't even tell you how many bedrooms the place has. Many. They have cute little Jamie, Finn's cousin, who is 2 (and sassy). Oh and they also have chickens.



One of the most fun, and surely the most annoying, events was when Finn, my mom, and I went to the YMCA outdoor swimming pool! Finn had never been in a pool. After some initial hesitation (too hungry to swim) he loved loved loved it, and splashed all around, and he liked looking at all the other kids. Certainly sounds like an afternoon that you'd like to catch on film, right? WRONG! Cameras and video recorders are not allowed at the YMCA pool. Why would that possibly be? As explained to us by our young lifeguard, there are "privacy issues" involving those that may not want to get their picture taken. Probably worries about who is taking pictures of kids is wrapped up in that.

Another issue tied to paranoia is that the kiddie pool has "safety breaks" every 30 minutes (maybe?) where everyone has to get out of the pool and sit and do nothing for 5-10 minutes. Wha? Another lifeguard told us that this gives the kids a chance to take a break if they need it, to make sure no one gets exhausted and into a dangerous situation. My mom and I have never rolled our eyes harder. It also encourages you to get bored and go home. Together with Finn not having the "proper" swimming diaper cover, the annoyances left a really bad taste in my mouth, from a place that I loved growing up and have probably visited 500 times. And then later in the week Katie and I read an article about "free play." Apparently it is not possible for kids to go out and play anymore. Who knows what might happen!? Activities are structured or parent supervised. Nor can kids walk to school by themselves anymore. Every day on my way to campus I see armies of parents walking their perfectly capable kids to school. Is this a trap that Katie and I will fall into? My God, I hope not. Will we be parental outcasts if we don't know where Finn is every second of every day? Maybe all kids will be under constant GPS parental monitoring by the time Finn starts school. At the pool, my mom did manage to get this picture, once we got inside. Amazing how privacy issues can change so dramatically on either side of a glass door.

Just me and the boy tonight!

First off, congrats to Ellen Carlson who gave the world boy #2, Abbott, 2 days ago. Yay Carlsons! Tonight Katie is staying at the Beyer/Mastrapa house; since Ross is out of town all week, Rachel could use some company. Tonight I put Finn to bed myself. Bath time was an epic splashfest, for the very first time! He was very awake and attentive during story time, which is his last thing before bed. Sometimes he sleeps right through it for Katie--never for me. In fact he was so awake he just stared and yelled at me when I set him into his crib at 7:15, 15 minutes later than usual. But after I shut the door, he went silent within 5 seconds. I can only imagine that he really knew it was time for bed. He really seems to like his bedtime routine. If only we had something similar for naptime...

I got him this balloon at the grocery store, and he's been a big fan. I think there is only a couple more days of helium left in it, though.