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.

Back to the Pumpkin Farm

Yesterday afternoon (after grocery shopping, laundry, swimming lessons...) we headed up the coast to Half Moon Bay on our annual pumpkin farm visit. On the way there we passed this stretch of beach where there always seem to be at least a dozen people kitesurfing. Since this is less than 20 miles from my house, it is entirely possible that there are people I pass in the grocery store every week who own their own kitesurfing equipment and do this every weekend. Every time we drive by I have a surreal "wow, we really live in California" moment.

Up at the pumpkin farm, the first order of business is always the 2 acre hay maze. We've been doing this most years since 2005, even if I was 8 1/2 months pregnant, because we love a good maze. The first few years we carried/dragged the kids through the maze; this might be the first year they had even more fun than we did. There's a time after you first have kids where you stop doing a lot of the things you used to do, and start doing things you never would have done before (children's museums, anyone?). This is all fine and normal and all, but it's nowhere near as cool as doing things you used to do, going places you used to go, bringing your kids, and watching them have a blast.

 After the maze we all picked out our pumpkins - and took the obligatory pictures-of-boy(s)-in-field-of-pumpkins.
2008:

2010:

2012:

After we finished up at the pumpkin farm, we headed a few miles further up the coast for dinner at Cameron's. It's a family favorite. There are double decker buses, video games, TV screens, plenty of space, a pretty extensive kids menu, and a full bar. It's exciting enough for the kids that they stay entertained while we have a conversation, but familiar enough they don't forget to go to the bathroom. And I can get a whole plate of fried brussel sprouts.

Pictured: ice cream, not brussel sprouts. After dessert, we threw the boys in their PJs and headed for home, where we moved their sleeping selves from the car to their beds.
Good day, Fortney family!

Photo comparisons part 2

Hey, who's that kid?
That would be me on the left, in one of the great photos my mom just sent me, circa-I'm-not-sure-when. Photographic evidence that I probably deserve whatever's coming.
Second, here's a series we took of Finn back when he was about four months old.
As an experiment, we put Graham in the same outfit at about four and a half months.
The results speak for themselves, and do not surprise any of us. And just for fun, here's a short movie of Graham the other day, being his cheerful self.

Typical Graham from Katie on Vimeo.
For those of you who can't get enough, we also have recent videos of butterfly watching and of Finn checking out the baby chickens at the hardware store, and a few new photos over at Flickr.

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?

Ummm....

Just happened upon the upper photo at Brett Marty's awesome gallery of photos from the campaign trail. Is our boy destined for greatness?