Next Venus Transit is in 2117!

Our Eclipse Vacation went so well that we decided to view the transit of Venus. This time there was an excellent view right in town, so we headed to the west side of campus to take in the multi-hour event. Venus transits were first predicted by Kepler (the man) and viewed in 1639.  Here is the best pic that I got through a telescope using only my camera phone.  The white balance appeared to be confused.

Here are Graham and Katie.  This was Graham's first time looking through a telescope.  I'm not sure he could really see, but people had some nice projections onto paper, so he knew what was going on.

Finn looked through 3 different telescopes. He was quite excited.

Still very excited. This was after he got to look at the generator that was powering one of the telescopes.

I also drove up the coast 20 miles to see if I could view the transit at sunset, but there was mild cloud cover. It was still nice to be at a large windswept beach, nearly empty, as the Sun set over the Pacific.

Me and My Boys

Finn is getting more grown up every day! Even messier temper tantrums count as growing up, I guess. You gotta go through that before you can grow even more and never have temper tantrums. Right? Right?!

He is also really fun because he's a pretty good talker. Last weekend we went down to Santa Cruz to visit my office and to see the last of the monarch butterflies, down by the beach, on their migration. Finn: "Go see butterflies in Daddy's office." While at my office he got to see my 2-foot animatronic "Dancin' Shoutin' James Brown." Scary. Finn: "I don't like him." Finn a week later: "Daddy's office. I don't like him." Here is the crew on my office couch.

I have no reason to post this next picture, except for its extreme awesomeness. Pirates love spoons! Arg!

Graham has been testing our patience with his poor sleeping habits the past few weeks. But in the daytime he is irresistible.

Finn has been slowly mastering riding his Strider bike. He has not gone down to the farmers' market again, but he does like going on the driveway, and sometimes into the neighborhood. What a goof!

Bike riding with Daddy from Katie on Vimeo.

Graham smiles, and Finn talks A LOT.

Hey everybody!
My portfolio is due in less than two weeks, so I've been a bit too panicky to blog. I'm getting close, though, so I thought I'd take a moment to post a couple videos.
First, here's proof that Graham can smile, a movie taken about a week after the first smile, which was at about the 4 week mark.

First (week of) smiles from Katie on Vimeo.
And some photos Jonathan took at dinner tonight - looks like we may have another goofball in the family. (FYI, pumpkin bibs are still totally appropriate until at least Thanksgiving.)
And finally, a video of some of the other stuff he's up to these days - waving his limbs around, turning his head to look at sounds, and following objects around with his eyes. Also, being cute.

Graham kickin' around from Katie on Vimeo.
In Finn news, trick-or-treating was a good time (more photos soon, hopefully), and he's better at talking every day. The words are clearer, there's an astounding number of them, and the other night he busted out with a real sentence: "Read it again please," (or "Read it. Gen. Please." if you want to be picky) rather than his usual "READit! READit! READit!"
Tonight he helped me make pumpkin cookies. I measured out ingredients and he was in charge of "dumpin" them into the mixing bowl. Also slamming down the top part of the stand mixer, and occasionally turning it on. He later ate half a cookie, which I suppose means I'm responsible for the other two dozen. Here he is in the Safeway parking lot on Sunday, excited to be posing with the moon.

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 . . . .

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!

Sit and Play!

Finn is by now really good at sitting up. It really helps his attention span; we can leave him be for quite awhile with a pile of toys around him, and he'll be happy to be by himself.

His arms are also very strong so he can get in a position where he looks like he might be able to crawl. I've also seen him try to push himself up on his hands and knees to look up over the edge of his crib. At night he tends to move around in his crib by a foot or two over several hours, so he must be able to creep---but we haven't seen it in action.

We've had some problems with the solid food. He loved rice cereal and bananas, but then he didn't like sweet potatoes. After that we tried avocado, and that was a disaster. He actually looked really angry at me after his first bite of avocado. The avocado made Katie's mouth itch pretty bad, so we think that might have been the problem with Finn too. Since the avocado incident several days ago, he has refused all solid food, including rice cereal, oat cereal, and bananas! So we're going to take a break from it. Hopefully if we eat a lot in front of him this weekend he'll get interested again.

Tummy Times!

Tonight Katie has been working hard on her homework for a class for her Masters of Library and Information Science. Finn and I have been playing, bouncing, and "talking." We're trying to give him a good amount of tummy time so that his neck gets stronger. It helps if he gets propped up a little bit. If he's right on the ground he often ends up face down squealing for help. So he liked this pillow. Sometimes it helps if he can see the TV. Pretty moving light box!



I got a few pics of him smiling, but they turned out blurry, as he was bobbing around a bit. Notice the extra pillows around for when he rolls off.... "Daddy Friday" yesterday went very well. I think it was his best day ever! I even put him into the Ergo baby carrier and we took a half-hour walk in the woodsy park near our house. Yay Finn!

Playing and squeaking

This has been a pretty neat week.
First of all, we have a game now. We've always noticed that our boy is such a ferocious kicker that any blanket you put on him when he's on the ground soon ends up under his feet. A few days ago he decided it was fun if we started the top edge of the blanket over his head instead of under his chin. He flails around and kicks until we can see him again, and then he grins at us. It's pretty darn cute, and is still fun after about 200 repetitions, both for us and for him.
Second, he'd hardly been cooing at all, but apparently covering up his face made him think it was time - maybe he's letting us know he's still there when we ask him "Where'd the baby go?!" Sometimes he just lets out with a happy squeal for no apparent reason when I'm somewhere across the room, and it's hilarious. Tickles me pink. But even though he's talking a lot more now, it's still unpredictable, so I just got a tiny snippet on video. Also included are some hijinks with the blanket:

Also, he's getting better at controlling his arms - the past few days he's been sticking his hands in his mouth on purpose, rather than just by accident. Sometimes, at least.
And the other exciting thing is that we installed Skype for some folks back home while we were there over Christmas, so grandparents have been able to watch him live and kicking. We copied the idea from our friends Rachel and Ross, and I can't recommend it highly enough for those of you with the connection speed to make it work. It's very easy to use, and the sound and video have been better quality than I would have expected.
And now, for no particular reason, here are the boys in the kitchen last night as we made dinner. Aren't they cute?

Smiles

We're getting real smiles this past week. Here he is at home with me:
Pretty cute, huh? And you thought he just scowled and looked worried all the time.

Here's a real big one he saved for our midwife, Lin, when we went in for my follow-up appointment yesterday:
I suppose it's only fair, since she brought him into the world and all.
He's also starting to notice toys now, which is kind of fun. I hope to get a little footage of that posted later this week.