Lunch Date

Kathy, my former co-worker, came over for lunch today after a morning staff development meeting at school. We hadn't seen her since early January, so it was nice to catch up on all the school gossip and get her perspective on the district's budget deficit for next year. (not pretty) Aidan had a fantastic time playing with her and she introduced a new little finger game called "Baby Bumblebee" that he thinks is hilarious.

Not much on tap for this weekend. The varsity hockey team was supposed to have their first game of sections last night, but it was canceled due to the snow. (we got about 7 inches) The game was rescheduled for tonight, and if they win, they will play at noon tomorrow. Not much time to recuperate. I'm going to a health/wellness seminar at a local church on Sunday afternoon with Carrie . It sounds like we get to try a bunch of different fun stuff...yoga, tai chi, reiki, etc. All stuff I enjoy. Besides that, just hanging out around the house and enjoying the beautiful scenery. If it warms up at all I'm going to take Aidan outside to see if he likes sledding.

Mommy's Day Off

For the first time in 11 months, I was baby-free for almost 24 hours. Aidan had his first overnight at Grandpa and Grandma Finn's house on Monday night and then I celebrated Mardi Gras on Tuesday by indulging in a massage, facial, and pedicure at The Ivy in downtown Minneapolis. (my Christmas present from Mick and Michele) Ahhh...it was heaven. A huge thank you to Grandma Finn for spending the day with Aidan. I squashed the urge to call on Tuesday morning to see how the night had gone and if he was doing okay. After that it was smooth sailing. It's hard to think about anything when you're at the spa. I tried the spa's steam bath, then got out after 5 minutes because I felt like I was suffocating, but LOVED their Kohler shower. It had tons of different shower heads and felt wonderful.

After my treatments were done, I sat in their relaxation room sipping tea and tried to finish the book that I'm reading. (Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama) I just can't seem to read more than one or two chapters at a time before losing interest. The book is already overdue, but I feel like I should finish it. Unfortunately that didn't happen yesterday. It was getting close to rush hour and I didn't want to get stuck in traffic, so I slowly gathered up my stuff and headed home. It was a truly relaxing day.

Grandpa and Nana's Visit

My mom and dad (Grandpa and Nana) came into town for a visit this weekend. It wasn't quite as hectic as usual, but we still packed a lot of activity into 2 1/2 days.

Friday night we went out for dinner. We had to stay close to home because it was snowing and quite slippery. After Aidan went to bed we cracked open a bottle of wine and played euchre. You may recall me saying in an earlier post that Kyle is always awful at euchre and I need to remember not to be his partner. Well, I remembered and partnered with my mom instead. Big mistake. Kyle ended up having all the great hands and my dad and Kyle won what might be the shortest euchre game ever.

Saturday morning my mom and I went to Toys 'R Us while Aidan was napping. It was the last day of their buy 1 get 1 free Fisher Price sale. I wanted to get him the Little People Farm...what I didn't know was that only the infant Fisher Price toys were on sale. I ended up getting him a pop-up toy and a toy that looks like a gumball machine, but has regular sized balls that make the toy light up when they wind their way through.
Saturday afternoon we went to Kyle's varsity hockey game. My parents had never been to a hockey game before. They were really interested and had lots of questions for Kyle. He, of course, was in heaven answering all of their questions. I tend to tune him out when he talks about hockey, so having people genuinely interested in what he had to say was probably a nice change of pace. :)

On Sunday, Nana, Aidan, and I went to the Mall of America to look for a dress for Kali's wedding. Aidan LOVES watching all the people, but tends to get fussy the minute he crosses the threshold of a store. I think he sees the racks of clothes and knows what's coming next...him sitting in his stroller, no one fawning over him, while we look for clothes. All in all he handled the outing pretty well. Nana found a dress at Nordstroms, so the trip was a success. We dropped Aidan off at home for a nap and then headed to the local mall so I could find a new pair of glasses. I've been waiting since Christmas to get a new pair, but needed my mom's discerning eye to tell me what looked good and what didn't. She is always honest with me, so I know I can trust her judgement. Besides, it's not like I'm looking at myself when I'm wearing the glasses. I wanted to make sure another person thought they looked good. I found a pair at LensCrafters that I think I'll go back to buy.

Grandpa and Nana are on their way back to IL with a truckload of baby stuff. I've run out of room (already) and need more space to store Aidan's too-small clothes, toys, and other necessities. Good thing Grandpa and Nana have a huge basement. We can't wait to see them again in about a month for Aidan's 1st birthday party!

Old School

Do you remember back in the day when you had to "floss" your boyfriend's class ring so it would fit your finger? Yeah, that's what I sat and did last night. Granted, it was my husband's wedding ring and I wasn't painting the floss red or blue or some other garish color, but I still felt pretty silly. Kyle has lost so much weight that his ring flies off his finger whenever he moves his hand. He was going to get it sized for Valentine's Day, but since it's not gold they can't resize it. He still wants to lose another 20 lbs, so buying a ring now and then again several months from now doesn't make any sense. And that's how I ended up flossing Kyle's ring last night.

Aidan and I went to our first South Metro Moms & Tots group yesterday. There were 4 families there, all girls except for Aidan. Poor boy, I just can't find any males for him to play with! I'm sure he doesn't mind all that much. There were three 2 year olds in the group who are learning to share, which sounds like this: "MINE!" "NOOOOOO!!!" "MOMMY!!!" "MY DOLLY, MY DOLLY, MY DOLLY!!!" Um, not looking forward to the sharing phase.

On The Mend

Aidan is feeling better, although sleeping a LOT. (no complaining here about that) He's cheerful when awake, but is sleeping 12 hours at night and another 4-5 hours during the day. Clearly he is not back to 100% yet. Kyle finally feels better, 5 days after he got sick.

We had a fairly quiet weekend at home since both Kyle and Aidan weren't feeling well. Grandpa and Grandma Finn came over for dinner on Valentine's Day. Yes, we played Monopoly, and no, I did not win. In fact, I was the first one out. We quit before there was an actual winner, but the consensus was that Grandma Finn would have won in the end. She and Kyle were trading money back and forth, but she had more cash and better properties with hotels on them.

Our last early childhood (ECFE) class was on Friday and I did not sign up for the next session. There weren't any classes that caught my eye, and it runs into May. I figured (hoped?) that by then it will be getting nice outside and we can go to the parks and zoos to get out of the house. I did sign up for a Mom's Group here in the South Metro that I found on Meetup.com. It's free and there are Mom/Kid get-togethers/play dates once a week or so. I figured we could go to the ones close to us and meet some new people, and if we can't make it to them, I don't need too feel bad since it's free. Our first meetup is this Thursday...crossing my fingers that Aidan and I both enjoy ourselves.

Happy Valentine's Day

Life's gift to me this V-Day was a sick baby and a sick husband. Nothing romantic about that. Kyle has had a fever of 100+ degrees since Thursday, and Aidan has been sick since he woke up from his nap on Friday afternoon. I'm guessing Aidan has a fever too, but he won't hold still long enough for the rectal thermometer to work. (I don't blame him) He's had 4 doses of baby ibuprofen and Kyle has been eating ibuprofen like candy. Knock on wood, I still feel fine.

Not being one to lounge around or wallow in sickness, Kyle insisted that we use our tickets to go to the MN Gophers hockey game on Friday night. They played the University of Alaska-Anchorage. The game went into overtime, but neither team scored, so the final verdict was a tie, 2-2. Tonight Mick and Michele are coming over for dinner and game night. Kyle requested that we play Monopoly...maybe since he's sick his guard will be down and I can win. Doubtful.

Here's hoping that everyone out there is having a happy and healthier Valentine's Day than the Finns. :)

Say Ahh...

The camera comes out, Aidan tilts his head back and opens his mouth as wide as can be. What's up with that???

Spiderbaby

We're pretty sure that Aidan was bitten by a radioactive spider sometime recently and is Spiderman-in-training (hence the nickname Spiderbaby). He is crawling up on everything and walks up and down the hallway with just his fingertips touching the walls. Aidan has become a master stair climber. We're working on going down the stairs now (and getting down off the fireplace), which is not quite as easy as going up. Last night for the first time Aidan took several steps on his own between Kyle and I. Usually he just throws himself toward whichever one of us is waiting, but last night he was actually walking like a normal person. Soon...

Here is our master stair climber in action:

Parade of Babies

We've had a slew of babies born recently to friends and family. Instead of posting each pic separately, I thought I'd do a parade of cute babies.

Jackson

2/3/09
Proud parents: Eric and Krista

Sawyer
1/29/09
Proud parents: Kim and Jayson

Lincoln
(Sawyer's cousin)
1/22/09
Proud parents: Blake and DeAnne

Thomas
1/13/09
Proud parents: Jeff and Elizabeth

Linnea
12/27/08
Proud parents: Scott and Sara

There must have been something in the water last spring. Interesting that it's been all boys born so far in 2009.

Favorite Ads

Did anyone else notice the Super Bowl ads had two common themes? a) monsters/aliens and b) nature (bugs, plants, etc) I really only had two favorites; the Doritos commercial with the "crystal ball" (aka: snow globe that got chucked at the boss) and the E*trade baby commercial about golfing. I'm am going to do my utmost best to remember to use the term "shankopotamus" next time I am golfing. I forsee using it to describe Kyle. ;)

There may have been more ads that were funny, but when you have a mobile child you only get to watch snippets of tv. After Aidan went to bed, Kyle and I watched the 2nd half of the game. It was a good game, but Kyle was disappointed that AZ lost.