Merry 2012, Happy 2013

This is our second annual holiday blog update. We are delighted to report that almost nothing has changed since last year. We're all living in the same house, working at the same jobs or attending the same preschool (watching the same movies, eating the same foods, reading some of the same books...).

We're extraordinarily happy about this year of peace and calm. Honestly the biggest change in our lives since December 2011 is that Graham is potty trained. This is pretty cool for us, but probably not a huge deal for most of you.

Next year will be a year of big changes - a new job for Katie, kindergarten for Finn, and a new (used) car... but that's next year. Today we're looking back just being thankful...
For fun family roadtrips...

For the vibrant and robust health of our kids, even when it means they exhaust us...

For living somewhere beautiful and friendly...

For new friends and old friends, and lots of opportunities to see both kinds (even though we apparently can't be bothered to take pictures of most of them)...

For eating good food...

And for our family, near and far.

Wishing you love, joy, and PEACE,
Jonathan, Katie, Finn, and Graham

P.S. There are more photos (mostly of the kids) on Katie's Flickr page.

Nostalgia

Yesterday for Thanksgiving we got out Finn's old seersucker suit to see if it fit Graham.
Boy, did it ever.

And that made me want to find a picture of Finn wearing it. But then I remembered that we bought it for Elise and Paul's wedding, and Finn had a giant meltdown right before the ceremony and wouldn't wear the jacket or tie. We were lucky to get the shirt on him. Here we all are at the reception, with Finn in half the outfit, and Graham at about 7 months.

And whenever I think of dressing Finn up, I always think of this picture:

I don't think we ever put that one on Graham. Or the other schmancy vest outfit Finn wore when he was about two. Bad parents! Terrible, terrible missed opportunities, both in dress up and photography.

In preparation for future bouts of nostalgia, I made sure to take plenty of pictures at today's Christmas tree selection and cutting. This is our second year in a row at the same place, and it's a good one, so I'm ready to call it a tradition.
Cutting...

And hauling...

High of 72 here today, by the way.

Here are Jonathan and Finn, performing and supervising last year's cutting, respectively:

Last year we went on a busy day when they were out of carts. I remember the walk back to the car being much longer.

The jacket Finn's wearing in that picture fits Graham now. It's not as cute as the suit, but I'm not sure what would be.

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.

10 Things We Did on Memorial Day Weekend

1. Jonathan and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary, which was last Tuesday. After the boys went to bed, we went out for dinner at what is probably our favorite restaurant in town, then met some friends downtown for a treasure hunt. Yes, a treasure hunt. With clues, and a map, and counting paces, and pirates. And running. Too much running. We didn't win, but we beat a number of the whipper snapper college student teams, and then we watched Goonies, which was supposed to start at midnight but actually started later after prizes and things and OH MY GOD WE WERE SO TIRED. But good tired.

Here's Jonathan, at the theater, posing with for a quick photo with Jack Black. No action shots of the treasure hunt, because of all the running.

2. We slept in while the boys watched a movie - 3 days in a row. Usually this is a special treat reserved for Sundays, but did I mention about the movie-that-started-after-midnight? Yeah. No one got dressed before 9 all weekend, and 10 was not unusual. As a family that usually is out the door before 8, this is a big deal for us. Here they are today sometime after we clothed them:

3. We picked up half a pig worth of frozen pork from the meat locker on Saturday. We had ordered it from Windsor Family Farm a while back, and even went to visit the farm when my mom was here back in April. The boys had a blast that weekend. There were pigs, sheep, goats, chickens, rabbits... and a trampoline.
If you're in the Bay Area, I highly recommend you check it out. And if you're not, I still recommend finding a local farm to buy meat from (or vegetables, or cheese, or whatever): see what a quick search on Local Harvest shows in your neck of the woods.

Baby roosters, by the way? Hilarious. Not really big enough for either the feathers or the attitude they walk around with.

I'm not sure the boys get the connection between these pigs and the meat, but... we'll get there.

4. On Saturday, we grownups went to sleep the earliest we can remember - I think we were both in bed around 8, and frankly, I wasn't functioning all that well before that, even after napping with Graham in the afternoon. Putting recycling in the trash, trash in the recycling - it was madness. Did I mention the midnight movie?

5. We took the boys to see a movie on Sunday - Chimpanzee. It was... okay. A little more death and violence than I expected, but the boys were okay with it.

6. After nearly 2 years in our new house, we finally had a fire in the fireplace. And the living room kind of smells like wood smoke now. Yes, the flue works, but the fire didn't take on the first try and there was a lot of kindling involved.

7. We went to a baseball game. The San Jose Giants minor league team, known (at least at our house) for their giant orange gorilla mascot, Gigante. This is supposed to be the 3 guys watching the game, but Finn's cotton candy bag decided to grab a piece of the action.

And like last summer, there were plenty of inflatables.

We left early, but not before sampling some ice cream, churros, and lemonade - in addition to the cotton candy.

8. We made muffins. Finn would want me to tell you: he can crack an egg into a bowl without breaking the yolk.

9. We did yardwork. Jonathan dug up what's probably the biggest bamboo root I've ever seen. I weeded 'til I could hardly stand. The menfolk transplanted Finn's pumpkin plant from indoors to outdoors. And Finn and Graham picked our pea plants completely clean of snowpeas. And ate them all out in the yard. I think I snagged two.

10. And tonight - Mad Men!

Some April Shenanigans

Hello! We're still here! We've been keeping busy. For example, we dyed Easter eggs. And then we went on an Easter egg hunt, and ate a big delicious Easter dinner with family in Salinas.

The boys had spring break for a week, and Jonathan was supposed to have jury duty, but never got called in. So we took turns working, and one day we went to the zoo.

Also, we got a very exciting new box the last time we went to Costco, and that takes up a lot of our time. At least, when Mona's not using it as a cave or a sunbathing spot. (Finn would like to apologize for wearing tan socks in this photo instead of head-to-toe orange. He has since gotten three pairs of orange socks, and can camouflage himself pretty well in a crowd of Giants fans, or a really big produce display of carrots and citrus.)

Fortunately, when we're worn out after a long day filled with this sort of adventure, we can perk ourselves back up by getting the boys ready for bed in their matching PJs. Graham is finally big enough to wear the Woody ones (when he's not wearing his other favorite pajamas and being Tiny Batman, of course.)

Still, I'm worn out just talking about it all. Time for a nap, don't you think?

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!

Fortney Christmas/solstice/etc. letter 2011

Hello blog readers! If you want a normal Christmas letter, you can go read this first. All that is true of us.
Okay, now that that's out of the way, here are some Fortney family vital stats for those of you who've been out of the loop: Graham is 2, Finn is 4. Katie's a librarian and Jonathan's an astronomy professor. Now we'll do some fun facts. If anyone reading this knew all of these before reading this, come claim your raffle prize. We'll let Finn pick it out.

• Graham insists on wearing sweatpants nearly every day. Or, as he calls them, "sofpants."
• Jonathan got to go golfing this month. He shot a 40 on a par 30. It's been so long since he's golfed at home with his own clubs that we cannot figure out how long it's been (and we tried very hard for multiple minutes).
  
• Finn's favorite stuffed animal is teal and electric yellow shark he won at the Santa Cruz boardwalk, "beating" Jonathan in that game where you squirt in the clown's mouth. He calls it "Fishie." He will tell you (repeatedly) that it is not a shark.
  
• Katie tried to grow rhubarb this year, and failed. But the herb garden was fabulous. We still have parsley, sage, chives, and mint. So, so much mint. (Do you need any mint?)
  
• Mona the cat is NINE. She's gotten less picky about many things in her old age. For instance, she's not above Cheerios now.
• Finn knows his right from his left, and could probably navigate you from our house to his preschool on a good day. Of course, you might also end up in the ocean.
• Graham can say just about whatever pops into his head these days. Today, for instance, before 9 am we'd heard "I pooped at the movie," and "I found a knife for Finn."
• Despite having a chest freezer in the garage for most of the year, Katie has failed to follow through with her threats/promises to "buy half pigs with impunity."
• The Father's Day present Jonathan picked out for himself was a German-engineered 5" diameter hot pink high bounce ball. It's still living a happy cage-free life in the backyard.
  
• Speaking of the backyard, we have a tire swing.
• Our current family project is moving crap (books, staples, batteries, exacto knives, wrapping paper) out of our office/nap room/storage area to make it a better guest room. (Hint, hint).
  
• The boys' favorite books right now include Tiddler, 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, The Shy Little Kitten, and anything based on Cars 2.
• Katie recommends NurtureShock (Po Bronson), Dr. Thorne (Trollope), and Kelley Armstrong's YA novels (Darkest Powers trilogy). Jonathan recommends Bossypants (Tina Fey) and An Introduction to the Theory of Stellar Structure and Evolution (Dina Prialnik).
  
• We did our first whole-family movie outing in 2011, to The Muppets. The boys liked it, and ate most of the popcorn, but the grown-ups laughed more.
• The only movies J&K saw in the theaters without the kids in 2011 were Bridesmaids and Harry Potter 7.5. Bridesmaids FTW!
• 6 days after we write this, the four of us will be getting on a plane bound for MSP, and spending 6 days each in Minnesota and Iowa. We're dreaming of a white Christmas (that link is an oh-so-subtle plug for Katie's December project).
  

We hope to see many of you there, or back here after we get back, or somewhere else that 2012 deems fit if that's what works out. We're both fortunate and unfortunate in having so many amazing friends and family so many places. We wish we could see you more often and catch up on your daily trivia the way we've just caught you up on ours.

With love and silliness,
the Fortneys


P.S. No, we didn't order prints of that. We got the other one.

Happy 4th Birthday, Finn!

Four years into this adventure, Finn continues to surprise us.
We started out the day with some breakfast, hugs, and present opening, colored by excitement for this afternoon's party. The kid's been talking about this thing for months. ("My birthday party... is going to be SO. CRAZY.")
We finally had a party where we invited all of Finn's school friends, instead of his parents' friends, and we had it at a Place That Does Parties. A gymnastics place where Finn had been before, so he shouldn't be too crazy-fied by the new environment, but should also be free to run around like the little turbo-charged guy that he is. We were prepared for yelling, and running, and not following directions, and maybe having to insist on some quiet time to keep him from knocking over other kids. We were completely unprepared for sudden inexplicable leg injuries and shyness, which led to him spending most of the party off in a separate room or out in the car with his mom. Crying. Complaining that he didn't want anyone to look at him.
I tried everything in my very large bag of Finn-managing tricks, and the best we managed was bribing him with some early cake and getting him to sit *near* the action while the other kids did their last activity of the afternoon, the zip line.
He had an absolute blast during cake time.

Then he was sad and pained and panicked again, and wanted only to go straight home.
Where we opened presents, and he was mostly fine again. Until bath - again a mess. Apparently we have discovered "too much excitement for Finn" for the first time in at least 3 years. Or maybe this was one of the rare days he would have actually taken a nap. Who knows? Not me, I'm just his mom.
Oh, and this kid?
Had a blast. Was the star of the show. But wouldn't do the zip line.