Big Boy Stuff

Aidan started "school" on Monday. By "school" I mean daycare. He absolutely.loves.it. Kyle and I were very anxious parents Monday afternoon and decided that we both needed to pick him up. (more to ease our curiosity than an actual need to both be there) We needn't have worried. Our little guy was outside playing with the cars and popping toys, having a good 'ole time. In fact, he started crying when we tried to take him home because he wasn't ready to stop playing! That made us both feel MUCH better.
Aidan's teacher told us they're working on using a spoon and drinking from a cup without a sippy. My sister warned me that Aidan would have to use a spoon in daycare because forks can be used as weapons. : ) Other fun things Aidan has done at school this week...watched a puppet show featuring "Mary had a little lamb", played outside in the Little Tike's Cars (going from one to the next for the entire time the class is outside), and eaten an enormous amount of food. He had a third helping of green beans on Tuesday, on top of the fruit and chicken/rice dish that he had already eaten. Maybe he'll finally make it past the 20th %-ile for weight at our next doctor's visit!

Family Visit

Uncle Kyle and Aunt Kali trekked up from Madison on Friday for a visit. We packed some fun action into the weekend. What's a visit to MN if you don't visit the MN Zoo? (especially when you're a member and it's free fun?) On Saturday we went to the University of MN vs. University of Illinois football game in our brand new stadium. Aidan stayed with Grandpa and Grandma Finn so the adults could actually enjoy the game, and enjoy it we did. It was such a beautiful day. Sitting in the sun, eating a hot dog, sipping on a fountain soda, and watching college football eleven rows up from the end zone...ahhh, it was great.

This leopard paced back and forth right in front of Aidan, but he didn't care in the slightest.
Aidan was too busy watching the other kids.

Aidan's personal chauffeur. aka: Uncle Kyle

Aunt Kali and Aidan watching the sting rays

Outside the stadium. Do you think we're related?

New stadium

It's a Girl!

Contrary to my motherly intuition and Kyle's predictions, we are having a baby girl! We had the 20 week ultrasound this morning and everything looks great. My due date is still March 24th, and it's looks like the Finn family will finally get a little pink bundle of joy. You would not believe how excited I am. Here's a picture a our little girl. She was moving non-stop, so we couldn't get a good picture of her. She's all smashed up against my insides with her hands tucked under her chin.

What Do Giraffes Say?

If you have a happy giraffe they might say trick-or-treat. But, if their mommy tells them they're going to see grandpa and grandma, and then tries to take pictures, they say boo-hoo.

Much happier after making it up to Grandpa and Grandma Finn's house

Obviously Aidan dressed as a giraffe this year. We worked on "trick-or-treat" but Aidan only said bye-bye after he got his candy. He sure knew how to take the candy and put it in his bag though. We went out for about an hour and made it to five houses in the neighborhood. Whew, what a slow process that was. I even carried him back down the street just to save some time.
After we got home I handed out candy to 30 little princesses and action heroes while Aidan sat in his highchair and ate his spoils. The people in our neighborhood were great! Instead of candy bars, they gave out mini-bags of teddy grahams, goldfish, and oreos. All things that Aidan can actually eat. He was entertained for close to 45 minutes just eating his "candy". Then I ran out of candy so I turned the light off, gave Aidan a bath, and enjoyed last week's Brothers and Sisters. Ah, what a nice Halloween.

Pumpkin Poser

Aidan has become such a poser for the camera. You'd think we take his picture all the time, which just isn't true. But, the minute he sees that camera come out, boom, cute pose and then he runs over to see himself on the display after the picture is snapped. It's really quite funny to witness. Here are our "posed" pictures from Grandpa Finn's 62nd birthday dinner on Friday night. Grandma was kind enough to chase Aidan around the house while the rest of us carved our pumpkins.

Posing with his trusty broom

Helping Grandpa blow out the candles

Aidan's pumpkin, before

Aidan's pumpkin, after

Note that mommy carved this pumpkin,
and then her own, which = sore hands!

Mine, Aidan's, Kyle's, Grandpa's

Yes, Kyle decided to carve a pumpkin sporting the Geico logo.

Did You Hear That?

Babycenter.com tells me that Baby #2 is starting to hear what's going in the outside world. I already figured that out because it kicks and rolls around whenever it hears Aidan laughing hysterically. I'm hoping that's a good sign and the baby LIKES hearing Aidan be his loud self. Baby #2 also gets wiggly during Aidan's bedtime when we're reading stories and signing lullabies. Could be that Aidan's sitting on the baby and squishing it, but I like to think it's responding to the stories and songs.

Another new development in baby land is the need for maternity clothes. I suppose it's that time. Next week I'll be halfway done with this pregnancy. I guess I should count myself lucky that I made it 19 weeks in regular pants. No more though. Even the Bella Band is getting uncomfortable. Time for over-the-belly maternity pants.

Ready or Not

Ready or not, here he comes. Aidan will be starting daycare part-time in November when Kyle starts hockey. I initially fought tooth and nail against this switch. Why pay for Aidan to nap? Do they even do fun learning activities in the afternoon? I know Aidan will love playing with other kids, but I have a mental block against daycare. Kyle made me realize that we don't have a whole lot of options, and it's only 15 hours a week from mid-November through the end of February, minus 2 weeks off at Christmas and any other days off that I have from school.

Kyle and Aidan visited our local KinderCare on Thursday afternoon during nap time to see how it works. This is the same center I visited last spring with Aidan when we were looking into daycare. The center was well-kept, clean, and bright. I was concerned Aidan wouldn't sleep and they would try to make him nap for 3 hours on a mat. For those of you that know him, he is not a quiet or inactive child. Kyle said when they were there a little boy wasn't napping and they had an adult quietly reading a story with him. That made me feel better. They also do not nap for 3 hours. More like an hour and a half to two hours. When they wake up, the kids that are only part-time get to do the crafts and stuff that the other kids did in the morning, and the morning kids get free choice time.

Okay, I'm starting to feel a little better about this. Aidan will be going 3 afternoons a week from 11am-4pm. The bonus is that Aidan's teacher is the mom of a goalie that Kyle has coached for several years. It must be fate. She knows Kyle, we'll see her at hockey games, she can't abuse my child, right? And, since we know someone that works there, we get 3 weeks free of daycare. Double bonus. (I asked Kyle if we could use those 3 weeks after the new baby arrives so I can transition from being a mommy of 1 to a mommy of 2) The downside is that Aidan is going to have a snotty nose all winter from the new germs he will be coming into contact with. Yuck.

Family Pics

We attended my cousin Kara's wedding this past weekend back in IL. It's rare that we're all together and looking nice, so we took advantage and snapped lots of great photos.

The Finn family

Kyle/Kali, Papa/Nana, Kyle/Aidan/Courtney

Aidan with Great-Grandma Mosher (she's 93!!!)

Great-Grandma, Nana, and Aidan (who was done taking pictures at this point)

18 Months

Aidan hit the 18 month mark last week. To celebrate, we went to the doctor and got more shots. Yay! (note sarcasm) All is well with Aidan, although the doctor did detect a faint heart murmur. Strange that it took 18 months to find it...but nothing to worry about and the doctor said it would go away on its own.

18 month stats:
Height: 34 inches---92%-ile
Weight: 23 lbs 8 oz---17 %-ile
Head: 19 3/4 inches---89 %-ile

Besides going to the doctor, we also visited the apple orchard last weekend. Aidan had a great time and was trying his best to say apple. Unfortunately his version of apple sounds a lot like baseball. "ba bol" We're still working on this talking thing. He's got about 17 or 18 words that he uses regularly, right in the normal range. He should be putting 2 words together now, which is he not doing yet. (Unless you count "Mama, Daddy" which he says all the time when we're all sitting in the same room together)

Here are some of the pictures from the apple orchard.

The best pic of the day

Trying to roll the pumpkin

Mommy and Aidan

Picking our apples (we picked a total of 2)

I like to call this one "Deer in the headlights"

Aidan's favorite thing to do: pick up rotten apples

Being cute in the hay pile

Four Months and Counting

"Four months and counting to what?", you may ask. Well, Baby Finn #2 is on its way. I am starting my 16th week, so I'm four months pregnant and counting. Now, you all may be slightly surprised...certainly not as surprised as Kyle and I were, but then again, maybe you're not surprised at all.

Kyle and I have known since July 10th. About a week after I got pregnant. How did I know so soon? I immediately got sick. Which is part of the reason I waited so long to tell people. If I had told any sooner, every single blog from July 10th until about 2 weeks ago would have been me complaining bitterly about how awful I felt. Now that I'm feeling better, I think the blogs will be a nice balance between Aidan's antics and awaiting this new bundle of joy.

So there you have it folks, the latest gossip from the Finn family. Baby #2 is due on March 24, 2010 and we will be finding out whether it's a boy or a girl on November 13th. (as long as the baby is cooperating) Grandma Michele is getting her second chance at a girl, but Kyle is positive that it's a boy. I have my motherly intuition, but I'm going to keep it to myself so I don't look stupid if it turns out the other way. Here are some ultrasound shots from week 12. The head is at the top, with the baby's arms/hands by its face, its torso, and then its knees tucked up to its tummy. The ultrasound tech was adamant that she could not tell if it was a boy or a girl. You can click on the picture to make it larger.