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.

And speaking of bribery...

A while back Finn somewhat suddenly stopped being a kid who always sleeps through the night. It generally wasn't anything he really needed us for - fixing his blankets, getting him a drink of water (there's a water bottle by his bed), or just saying hi. We were not pleased, as you can imagine. So when we were in Pismo Beach recently, we got ourselves a small and affordable seashell collection. Now, when the boys (i.e., Finn) make it through the whole night without waking up Mommy and Daddy, they get "seashell time" in the morning. Making it through the night is defined as from when we close the door at bedtime until the light-on-a-timer turns on at 6:10 am. Here are the boys during a recent seashell time.


Yes, that's a shell on Finn's head. It's not junk food like the cookies, extra trash like stickers, or expensive like the bike, but it works. This was the carrot; there was also a stick, which I could explain to interested parents, but it wasn't nearly as effective.
For those of you looking for a status update on the poop bribes, the bike chart is nearly full, and the bike is ready for weekend pickup. When we ran out of girl scout cookies we somehow got conned into single bites of ice cream. Sigh.

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.

A Real Toddler Now

Graham and Finn have really been enjoying their time at Happy Days, their daycare. Graham has been in the infant room up until now, but since he's 18 months he's moving up to the toddler room, known as the Ladybugs. Finn is nearing the end of his run in junior preschool (the Superstars) and will soon be off to the Busy Bees. Below is Graham sitting around the table after his first day with the Ladybugs. He loves sitting at a chair, like a big kid, rather than in a high chair. But he still has some baby qualities---the infant room teachers were really sad to see him go, because he is still very cuddly.

We came in while he was eating his afternoon snack, and instead of running to greet us like he's always done, but he just looked up at us and said, "no." He took his time to eat his last cracker, got up and put his napkin into the trash, and THEN he came over to give us hugs. He is a big kid, and big kids aren't in a hurry.

This one below was a nice one during a diaper change before bed. He likes toys.


And, just for fun, another one from when my mom was here. She came over to Happy Days to see their school.

Katie is leaving tonight for a 4-day stay in Philadelphia for the ACRL meeting. Have fun!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

...from these two goofballs, and their parents.

Daylight Savings?

Daylight savings always seemed really fun when I was a kid. It stays light later--what more could you ask for? Frankly they should have it year-round and for 2 extra hours in the summer! That's what I thought. But when you actually have little ones, you gotta keep them on the family's schedule, and that is tough to do when everything changes by an hour. But I think we've been doing pretty well by making manageable increments.

In other news, Graham likes bread. And he can say a few words. And he can dance a little bit. And he's REALLY cute.

Open the bread from Jonathan Fortney on Vimeo.

My Mom, Grandma Mary, came to town to visit us for 5 days. We had a great time in every way except that our little winery tour was ruined by every place we tried to visit being closed on Tuesdays, even though their web sites said they were open. :( The boys love their Grandparents and love to see them whenever they can, either in-person or via skype. My mom managed to push both boys around in the stroller, including up steep hills, even though their combined weight is now 70 pounds!

The rainy season is not over. Not even close. And I had such high hopes.... Not a problem for these two, of course.

Our table is one Finn unit in length. Finn is strangely fascinated with how tall people are, and how tall he and Graham will be. He has decided he will be as tall as me, but that Graham will only be as tall as Katie. He does remind me often that I'm not as tall is my Dad, though. And that Mona is the fastest in the family even though she is the smallest. And that racecars are faster than people. And that airplanes have tires. Actually, there are far more questions than definitive statements, but those are for another day.

Graham likes elephants, too

In the summer of 2009, when Finn was around the age Graham is right now, we went to the Oakland zoo. Mostly to see the elephants. Last weekend we went back, to see the elephants and to see our friends Bridget and Keith, who now live in Oakland. Keith took this picture for us.

Graham & elephants from Katie on Vimeo.
Graham's about as good at making elephant noises as Finn was. Still is for that matter. The main differences are that we were all more bundled up this trip, and I was decidedly less pregnant. Oh, also Graham breathes air now.

Jonathan is out of town for most of this week, returning tomorrow. We're getting along fine, especially now that Graham runs and says words and eats people food, but we all miss him. He's more fun than me - see?

P.S. More on Graham talking

Here's a short movie I took the other night of trying to get Graham to say some stuff. He was giving very decisive (and false!) "No!"s just before I turned the camera on. I'm sure all the parents are familiar with this - both the Nos and the camera effect.

Graham says some words from Katie on Vimeo.
Graham's other favorite word is "Boo." Sometimes as in "boots," but usually as in "Boo!", which he'll yell at you from under a blanket, around a corner, or when taking a stuffed animal out from hiding. It's a good word.
My two cents on Finn's talking - my favorite sentences this past week have been "My friends didn't seem to like it very much," and "Why you don't want Daddy to be fancy?" The first was about a book that he brought to share day, and I just like the phrasing. The second was when he and Graham were papering Jonathan's pants in Valentine's stickers the other night, and I attempted to intervene. He was both indignant and puzzled. Sorry, no photo of the fanciness.
But because I hate to do a post without a photo, here's a random one from a recent hike, back when we had nice weather. You know, in January. Not like today, when I foolishly decided to walk to work, and now my pants may not be dry before lunch. Anyway, that's the Pogonip, just a hop skip and a jump from our house. Neat, huh?

Two grown-up boys

Finn of course has his own wants and needs. (yogurt, The Incredibles movie, bike riding, Gorilla Munch cereal). But Graham, little chubba jolly Graham, alas, also has wants, besides just being squeezed and tickled by his parents. The cutest is his sassy "Nooooooo!" in his little squeaky voice, if he disagrees with you. He's remarkably good at making animal noises, and has a few actual human words he can pull out as needed. But yeah, he's starting to have his opinions. He also is quite willing to "attack" Finn if he wants to have some fun, but that basically never goes his way in the end, since Finn is big and not afraid to be the victor.

Lately we've been to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Happy Hollow zoo in San Jose, and to the beaches in Santa Cruz and in Pismo Beach, which is 3 hours south down the coast. (Hi to Sarah and Joel!) Being outside is certainly great for family sanity.

Finn is full of questions, as always. Lots about Mr. Incredible and the Incredible Hulk, which he certainly now knows are different people. We spent a considerable amount of time at the dinner table last night discussing how, often, big things can be faster than smaller things (horse vs. cat, say) but then something can be so big, that it can be slower than small thing (elephant vs. horse, say). I'm not sure that he bought it. Anyway, lots of active discussions, which can be repetitive, because he just won't care that we had the very same discussion the day (or minute) before.

Here is Graham at the aquarium last month. Both boys had a great time, although the Outer Bay tank is closed for refurbishment.

This is one from bath time just last night! Maybe a haircut for Finn this weekend? One thing that Graham can ask for (and does) is a bubble bath. "Bubbo!"

These last two are from on the beach in Santa Cruz. Finn spent most of his time under the boardwalk, while Graham preferred the open sand, after he finally woke up from his nap. It is about a 30-40 minute walk from our house to the beach, so that is a good weekend activity when the weather in nice. Finn even rides his bike all the way there. Coming back home uphill is a different story!

Christmas?

In what I think is a new record since we started the blog, it's been 25 days since our last post. I'm not sure we've been any busier than usual, although Jonathan is teaching this quarter and has this whole Kepler thing going on, and I continue to be surprised at how much fuller the weeks seems now that I'm working full time. I think the big difference is that the boys go to bed at EIGHT now, and we were so spoiled for so long with Finn going to bed at 7. Ah well.
Want to hear about our Christmas?
We went to a tree farm and picked out a tree. Finn helped cut it down and carry it to the car.
Then we decorated it.
We went to a lighted boat parade at the harbor. The boys' favorite entry was a fire-breathing dragon kayak.
We had great luck with weather flying back to the midwest, and both boys did great on the planes and in the car.
We celebrated in Iowa with my family, although apparently I did an even worse job than usual of documenting the event, and we have no pictures at all of any of my family. Here's some proof that we went to Iowa - Finn on Christmas morning in my mom's living room, with one of his favorite presents from Santa.

Christmas bugs from Katie on Vimeo.
We celebrated in Minnesota with Jonathan's family, and saw some of his friends as well.
Then we came home! We were asleep by 10pm on New Year's Eve, but since we had gotten up at 2am Pacific time, we figured that was okay.

Merry Christmas! :)