The Avison Family

Pantry Divers

2012-02-12T13:23:00.000-08:00

Most of our friends and family know know that JJ is an incredible chef. I say chef and not cook, because he really does create his own recipes, which is where I think the line between cook and chef is crossed.

I would say JJ and I share the cooking duties pretty evenly, but we are very different in the kitchen. I am a recipe follower to the letter (except when I get lazy and leave out steps, usually to the foods' detriment). JJ just makes things up as he goes. I think in our six years of marriage, I have seen him reading a cookbook less than five times and it's always for reference (Should I do the roast at 450 or 500? If I use baking soda instead of baking powder, how does that change the recipe? etc, etc).

I have often said that JJ should try out for "The Next Food Network Star." His POV (point of view) or show, would be called, "Pantry Divers." Basically, the idea would be that he and his team would randomly knock on someone's door and then create a meal from whatever is found in the pantry. Kind of like "Take Home Chef" but with no shopping ahead of time. He'd literally have to make something up from what he finds, which is essentially what he does every time he cooks dinner.

For example, after lunch today, this is what I found waiting to go out to the recycle bin:

1. Tomato Soup

2. Butternut Squash soup

3. Chipotle Salsa

I also found:

1. An empty Tupperware in the sink that I know recently held green beans

2. A wraper in the trash from a pound of ground beef from our newly purchased cow

Who knows what he made with all of these things? But I'm sure it was probably yummy.

My Fall

2012-02-05T06:50:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I took a pretty bad fall. It hurt. I cried. Finn cried. And today, I ache. A lot.

I was holding Finn and reached down to grab a catalog out of the mail. When I stood up, I took a step backwards, not realizing that Finn's wooden train was right behind us. As I started to fall, I instantly knew that Finn was going to take the brunt of it, so I twisted myself around so that I would hit the ground first.

It worked, Finn never touched the ground, but literally all my weight landed on the train. My main point of injury is my leg, which slammed into the bell on the top front of the train. The picture doesn't do it justice.

I am not a person who hurts themselves often and I hate it. I hope I feel better soon!

Sleeping In

2012-01-24T08:18:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Finn slept until 9am. It is 8:15am and he is still sound asleep. This is a kid who has woken up right around 6:45am every day of his little life.

He is fighting a cold, but I'm hoping that maybe this new trend will continue. I'm loving getting my workout in, checking Facebook and enjoying my coffee without any mommy-guilt that I should be paying better attention to him (because let's be honest, I usually do those things whether he's up or not).

At the Coast

2012-01-16T15:36:00.000-08:00

For MLK weekend, we went to Otter Crest, along with some great friends. We often go with the Kurtz and DeBacker families, but for this trip, we decided to invite along some newer friends, too: the Terpening and Wood Families.

Even with mucho kiddo sickness (projectile vomiting by a few, tons of snot from a few others), we had such a good time. While we were driving home, JJ and I were commenting how it was just a good mix of personalities and kids that got along.

On Saturday morning we went to the OSU Hatfield Aquatic Center. We had been there before, but not since Finn was born. It was really fun and the price was right (donate what you can).

After, we descended upon The Rogue Brewery across the street. Ten adults and nine kids can be quite a handful, but we were seated right away and the waitress was a gem, never once making us feel like an inconvenience.

The rest of the weekend, we laid low (remember...much kiddo sickness) watching football games, soaking in the kids hot tub, eating and just hanging out.

The bonus was this morning when we woke up to snow. So rare on the Oregon coast and even better that the roads were pretty easy for driving home.

A Sustaining Bond

2012-01-10T07:15:00.001-08:00

A couple weeks ago, my childhood friend Kersten Green, posted on FB that she was taking part in a project called A Sustaining Bond. She is a photographer in Portland and was approached about doing the project this winter. When she asked for nursing moms to take part, I immediately volunteered.

The project's goal is to focus on breaking breastfeeding stereotypes by photographing nursing mothers in their natural surroundings. I think there are lots and lots of myths about breastfeeding in the US, but the one that confronts me often right now is that you should stop nursing once your child is a toddler. I've left this decision totally up to Finn and I see nothing but positive benefits from our extended nursing relationship.

Yesterday, Kersten came to my house and did a quick photoshoot with Finn and I while he enjoyed some milkies. I think the pictures turned out beautifully, especially the one at the top of this post and wanted to share.

A Weekend in Bend

2012-01-08T15:46:00.000-08:00

This weekend we went to visit our friend Darlene in Bend. She and I taught together for seven or eight years. She has since retired, traveled the world and has now settled in Bend.

We had such a great visit. She is just the easiest person to be with. You know those friends that you can not talk to for months (or even years) and immediately pick up when you get together. She is one of those friends for me.

We also got to have breakfast with some friends from our birthing class way back when. We love this family, who relocated to Bend about a year ago and it was so fun to catch up and watch our now almost 2 YEAR OLDS play together.

On Saturday morning, Darlene took us to the High Desert Museum. She volunteers there and thought we would enjoy it. She was absolutely right. I kind of thought it might be difficult with Finn, but we all had such a great time. They have lots of exhibits geared towards kids, including things to climb on and animals to get close to. We wore him out and he took a 3 1/2 hour nap once we got back to Darlene's house.

Climbing on the rocks

Pretending to be a woodpecker

The lynx must have been hungry when he woke up because he came up close and personal looking for a toddler sized snack

A big fish

A really cool horse and calf made out of barbed wire

C'mon Mom

2012-01-01T22:41:00.000-08:00

I really love this picture. I took it to show Staci that Finn won't stop wearing the robe that was passed down from her kids. But look at the twinkle in his eyes and how his hands are straight down next to his sides. I can just imagine the voice in his head telling him he needs to stand still for the picture, but he's really ready to take off in his usual hyper fashion.

Frat Boy

2011-12-29T13:23:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I can just totally imagine what he's going to look like as a young adult in college. He's such a suave boy, in his hat and plaid backpack.

M & P Tomorrow

2011-12-27T21:15:00.001-08:00

Tomorrow I'm watching Maggie and Porter, so I decided to run to the store and pick up some supplies for a couple activities I've been wanting to do (and also a couple oldies, but goodies).

Mailbox

I've been wanting to do this one for awhile. I made a little mailbox and have paper, stickers, markers and envelopes. Porter and Finn will make "letters" for the different people in our family, drop them in the box and then we'll deliver them at Thursday night dinner at my parents. (I even wrote my parents' address on the other side of the box.)

Finger Painting

I actually haven't done a ton of finger painting with Finn. I did it once a couple months ago and he wasn't that into it. I thought I'd try it again and add some other tools besides just fingers. If nothing else, I think he'll like making a mess with the tools. Plus, Porter is an old pro at it, so he'll be able to model it to Finn. I may even let Maggie have a turn at this, with Maryanne's okay, of course.

Painting the Bath Tub

I did this one with the boys a few months ago and they LOVED it. It's easy and cheap and kills some time so I thought we'd give it a go again tomorrow.

Sugar Cookies

I'm only going to do this one if naps go poorly and I have many hours until MA gets off work. The boys love making and decorating them, but they really don't need all the sugar. Finn has been on a perma sugar high for the last two weeks and I really need to cool it with him. However, desperate times call for desperate measures and if all three are up at 2:00, cookies it is!

Odyssey 1

2011-12-25T06:58:00.000-08:00

For the few days before Christmas, our little family traveled up to Tacoma to visit a branch of JJ's family. We really had a great time hanging out with cousins, chasing cats (well, Finn enjoyed chasing the cats), watching and learning how to play with Thomas trains from 5 year old Max (again, that would be Finn), eating super yummy food and relaxing.

One afternoon after naps, a bunch of us (six littles in all), converged on a local kids' play area called Odyssey 1. It was the coolest place for kids. The only way I can think to explain it is this: tubes and balls. The main room was about the size of an elementary school gym and it was completely full of tubes to climb through, slides to descend and ball pits to jump in. At first I was afraid that it might be a little too much for Finn, but he loved it. Plus, the older cousins, Xander and Quentin in particular, took Finn up to the higher elements so he could go down the big slides.

We had a great time all three days and were so thankful for the hospitality of JJ's aunt, uncle and cousins. Merry Christmas!

I had to go in for a rescue one time :)

Finn's first ball pit....loved it!

They had this little slide that was perfect for Finn. He could climb up and slide down as many times as he wanted all by himself.

JJ had to try out the little kid scooter seats, which was rather hilarious.

A round peg in a square hole?

2011-12-15T12:57:00.000-08:00

I wonder what this says about Finn's personality?

He is really, really good at puzzles and the shape sorter. He looks at the shape and knows instantly where it should go. However, he won't usually put it where it should go. For example, with the shape sorter, he picks a piece up, looks at it and then immediately puts it in the hole where it belongs. However, he only puts it half way in to make sure he is right and then pulls it out and tries with all his might to shove it in a hole where it doesn't belong. He does this over and over, putting it quickly where it should go and then trying to shove it where it shouldn't go.

How will this personality trait show itself as he grows?

An Update

2011-12-07T15:55:00.000-08:00

Our lives have been busy! So here's a quick update:

1. My job was insane this fall. Things have slowed down and I'm much happier.

2. JJ's job is the same as ever. He has added a project of helping remodel one of his family's vacation condos and is enjoying that extra activity.

3. We are doing Weight Watchers again and are both feeling very motivated and good about our progress. I went to a cookie exchange and came home with about five dozen cookies. I ate one, JJ ate one and the rest were given away.

4. Finn is doing lots of what I call, "pre-talking." He doesn't say much on his own, but is repeating lots of what JJ and I say.

5. I can't believe we are well into December. It feels weird that it is almost Christmas break and pretty soon we'll be celebrating the big day (on a side note, we have a light-less tree at the moment because the one working set of lights that we had, stopped working yesterday and now I can't decide if it's really worth it to completely redecorate the whole thing.)

6. Finn is as cute and charming as ever. Below are a couple of recent photos.

In the Queue

2011-11-12T14:03:00.000-08:00

I downloaded all these books last night and just can't decide which one to dive into next. So excited!

The lost German Slave Girl- John Bailey
97 Orchard- Jane Ziegelman
The Alienist- Caleb Carr
My Name is Mary Sutter- Robin Oliveira
In the Sanctuary of Outcasts- Neil White
Once Upon a River- Bonnie Jo Campbell
In the Woods- Tana French
The Story of Beautiful Girl- Rachel Simon
The Distant Hours- Kate Morgan
Envious Casca- Georgette Heyer

On the Brink

2011-10-29T07:10:00.000-07:00

Our doctor is a fan of the common cold in children. Not that she likes to see Finn suffer or enjoys that we worry, but she says the common cold is an important part of development. She said that you will often see baby hit a big milestone after a really rough cold. Finn had a doozy recently and sure enough, his language has just flourished since then.

He isn't talking, but all of a sudden he is doing lots of animal sounds and trying to repeat many of the words that JJ and I say. For example, I was changing his icky diaper the other day and he said, "ih-ee." I also hear his babbling changing. He has always been a "talker," but now it's starting to sound like actual syllables.

It's funny because I'm so excited to start hearing words from him, but I know eventually, once he really gets going, I'm going to wish for peace and quiet again :)

Stress

2011-10-03T19:46:00.000-07:00

I've been fighting off a panic attack all day. I have an incredibly busy upcoming six weeks and right now I really don't know how I'm going to get it all done.

I have 18 pretty major things happening before November 10th. They range from relatively easy (Family Pictures) to huge and time consuming (Four days for work in Dallas, Texas without Finn). In between those two extremes I have six 2-day trainings that I'm running, 100 10th graders visiting Willamette University for 5 hours that I'm coordinating and two vacations that my parents are taking which messes up both my and Maryanne's childcare, which adds stress because we have to cover for each other.

What isn't on this list is all the little things: all three of us need haircuts, I have to meet with each of my 17 schools before the end of November, I have to meet with all five on my new administrators and I also have a doctors and dentist appointment thrown in there somewhere. Plus, I do want to continue to be a good wife, mom and friend.

My heart starts beating quickly and my chest feels tight everytime I think about it. To try and help myself not get too overwhelmed, I decided to make a list of all the biggies, so I can cross them off one by one. I'll be honest, right now that list is having the opposite effect and all I can think is, "How in the world am I going to do all this?" but I know that as I start crossing things off I'll feel better about it.

Pray for me!

Activities for the 1.5ish Crowd

2011-09-27T19:21:00.001-07:00

I try to do some sort of creative activity with Finn every day. My favorite time to do these is right after his nap. This is usually dead time around our house, because we are waiting for JJ to come home from work. On the days that I work, though, we do them first thing in the morning after breakfast.

These are all successful activities (Why post the unsuccessful ones, right? Wouldn't want to pass those ones on!) Some of these I found on Pinterest and some I just made up on my own, but all of them required Finn to think a little differently or learn a new skill.

Colored Water

I collected different types of bottles for about a week knowing I could do something cool with them eventually. A couple mornings ago I decided to fill them with water and food coloring and let him at 'em.

No exaggeration, we spent an hour playing with these. It was a little rainy that morning but this was most definitely an outside activity, so we went out to our side door bench that has a little cover over it.

At first Finn only wanted the "easy" one, the TJ's soap bottle where you could just squeeze and it would come out. Eventually he started pumping the hand soap pump and finally mastered the vitamin dropper. That one was by far the hardest and of course, he was the most proud to finally get that one down.

Quinoa Digging

I've been reading a lot about sensory activities and how important it is for kids to explore different textures in their hands. This was an easy one and didn't require much help from me once he got started.

I dumped about six cups of quinoa in a cake pan and gave him a couple "tools" (a plastic dish, a 1/2 cup measuring cup and a spoon). I set it down on the grass, laid down next to him and enjoyed the sunshine.

He played with it for a good half an hour before we needed to go run some errands. It's still sitting in the garage and he points and begs every time he sees it, so we've pulled it out a few times to enjoy again.

(By the way, I used quinoa instead of rice because rice puffs up in the grass and is bad for the birds to eat because it expands in their stomachs).

Pipecleaner Sculpture

We did this one this afternoon. Easy peasy. I stuck a bunch of pipecleaners in the holes of one of my strainers, set it on the ground and made dinner. Brilliant!

After pulling the pipecleaners out and putting them back in for about twenty minutes, I showed him how to make jewelry and then, of course, he wanted them all the way up his arms.
Picnic Painting

For this one, I set it all up during nap time and waited until Finn got curious. I read on a blog that a mom calls this, "The Invitation" which I thought was a great way to phrase it because I'm really just inviting Finn to have fun and explore. It's up to him if he's going to get into it or not.

Anyway, another very easy one that bought me about a half an hour to get things done around the kitchen. I taped wax paper to the table and squirted a dollop of ketchup and later another of mustard and gave him a paint brush. The mustard was almost gone and ready to be tossed, so I let him try to figure out how to squirt it out of the bottle. Of course, a little tasting had to happen as well!

Egg Carton Sort

I'm not kidding, this is the lamest little idea that I came up with one morning when we were both a little bored and it has been the biggest hit of all. We had this empty egg carton that he had been carrying around the house and I decided to put some random junk in each of the egg slots. I put things like a key, a golf ball, a screw and even our little iPod running chip.

I bet Finn has played with this for almost two hours if you combine all the times he has pulled it out again. At first he would just take things out and put them back in, but pretty soon he figured out that he could drop things through the hole on the lid and it was exciting to see where it lands.

One word of warning on this one, if you have littles around, you may not want to leave this one out. My niece Maggie was over yesterday and it was quickly clear that basically everything in there was a major choking hazard.

Bingo Painting

This is an activity that just came to me as I walked the rows at The Dollar Tree. Paper and a couple bingo dobbers. That's it. Done.

The Challenge

2011-09-24T20:09:00.001-07:00

I've been doing a lot of projects with Finn lately, so our little fam hit Walmart tonight to see if we could get a good deal on things like balloons and pipe-cleaners.

About five minutes into our trip, we came upon the big ball holder. You know, the kind that has the stretchy ties to hold them in. Finn freaked out and was so excited. So JJ gave him a challenge: we'll buy you the ball if you can hold it the whole time we shop.

And he did. He walked all around the store holding that huge ball in his arms.

He would set it down to look at things, but always picked it back up and followed along.

About thirty minutes later, Finn was the proud owner of a new ball!

The Weaning

2011-09-22T20:03:00.000-07:00

When Finn was a few months old, my friend Jen said something to the effect of "When you are in a retirement community some day, Finn is going to have to come visit you so he can still nurse. He'll tell people, 'My mom worked so hard to be successful at this and it's really important to her that I keep going.'"

Funny joke, but the reality is, I've really enjoyed nursing my toddler. It is such a great tool for helping him calm down and I feel good knowing that I'm giving him a little extra boost to his immune system.

Sunday he nursed like a champ. He'd been fighting a bit of a cold the week before and was nursing just as he usually did, five or so times a day. Sunday was no different. We were playing and he'd nurse for a few minutes and then go back to playing. That was pretty typical.

Then Monday morning he woke up really stuffy. When he went to nurse, he took about two swigs and then started coughing like crazy when he couldn't breath in through his nose. And it appears, the rest is history....

Since Monday I have tried to put him on multiple times each day and he will have nothing to do with it. He squirms and pushes away and just wants to do other things. Just now when I put him to bed, during the time would I would normally nurse him I tried, he wouldn't latch on and just rested his head on my breast, with the nipple right by his mouth but wouldn't open his mouth.

I've tried pumping a few times, thinking, maybe once his cold is gone he'll want to start up again, but I'm getting less than an ounce, so it kind of seems pointless. That seems so weird, though, because I feel so, so full. Especially when I try to nurse him. It's like my body knows what I want it to do, but when Finn won't go for it, I just hurt.

Anyway, I feel pretty okay about it. I have moments where I feel a little bit sad because I really wanted to make it to two years, but I also said that it was completely up to Finn to decide when he was ready to stop. Right now, he's ready. A week from now, if he wants to start again, we'll see what I can do about that, but for now, it's feeling pretty final.

I can see how this will be super emotional when it's my last baby.

Busy Boy

2011-09-10T14:22:00.001-07:00

Today we finally put bark in at our house. Finn loved "helping." We were out with the guys for about two hours and Finn was having such a blast. Rarely does his attention span last that long for anything, especially when he isn't getting tons of interaction (the guys were busy at work and not paying him much attention).

At about 10am, mom and I drove Porter and Finn to the Jefferson Safety Expo. We had no idea what we were getting into and it was the perfect morning activity. It was packed! They had all the different emergency and utility vehicles, a K9 Police Dog demonstration, a fire hose relay, lunch, and lots of free goodies. I love stumbling upon random events like this!

Finn wasn't so sure about his "fire-chief" hat until he put it on sideways...then he loved it.

By far, Finn's favorite thing was the long haul truck. He had fun running up and down the back of it, but when the guy let him climb upfront and pretend to drive, he was in heaven. He threw a massive fit when I finally made him leave, but was quickly distracted by one of the Search and Rescue horses.

The whole drive there, about 40 minutes, all Porter could do was talk about the helicopter. Once we were actually up to it, he wouldn't go near it. After some cajoling, we got him to explore it a bit. Finn was much more interested in his balloon than the helicopter.

Jamberry

2011-09-01T21:11:00.001-07:00

Finn is very, very into books right now. For a long time I felt like I'd failed as a former English teacher, because he was juts not really into anything besides turning the pages as fast as he could. But a couple months ago, the light switched on for him and he began to have some favorites that he would bring me over and over.

Over the last few weeks, I have read "Jamberry" by Bruce Degen about twenty times a day (for those of you that have parented toddlers, you know that I am not exaggerating.) At first I really didn't like it that much. The illustrations are pretty cute and the rhymes are fun, but I honestly couldn't figure out what was happening in the book.

Somewhere around the 100th time of reading it, I finally figured out that it's about a boy and a bear that are searching around for the perfect berries to make jam. They start out with blueberries, then strawberries, then blackberries and finally raspberries. Eventually they end up in this cascading slide of all the berries mixed together ("a jam jamboree").

Finn just loves it. The illustrations are really clever, like little birds in the trees and field mice in the bushes. In the strawberry section, there are three pages that have horses and lambs playing with the boy and the bear. Finn loves these pages so much. He turns to them over and over and points to the first page where they are coming down from the corner and the next page where they are frolicking together (see pic below) and then the third page where they are running away.
Finn just loves this book and I have so say, he is pretty cute. I'm loving watching him start to really like things and it'll be fun to watch his interests grow.

On a good run (of books, that is)

2011-08-17T19:53:00.000-07:00

After Finn was born, I didn't read for about six months. I just didn't have the energy. For those first months, he basically slept in my arms and so, when he was out, I usually just tried to get caught up on TV shows.

Once I started reading again, I just couldn't seem to get myself to dig into anything meaningful. I finished "The Hunger Game" series, but other than that it was pretty much Nora Roberts and the like for me. I did read a few parenting books (Ina May's Guide to Breastfeeding and Unconditional Parenting), but other than that, I wanted fluff.

About a month ago, I finally got excited about reading good books again. There were a couple movies that I wanted to watch, but really wanted to read their books first so I just decided to dive into some quality reading again.

I'm on a good run of books. Here have been my favorites:

Just about everyone is reading this and with good reason. It is so moving and, I think, an important read. I couldn't put it down and was so touched (and hurt) by some of the relationships in this book.

I had a few friends recommend this and I wanted to watch R.Pat in a non-Twilight role. If you don't know this book, it's about a traveling circus in the 1930s. I loved it (and also really enjoyed the movie). The descriptions of the era are so vivid and the story line is really intriguing and different. And I'm also a fan of a good love story that has an actual plot.

This one I picked from a one paragraph review out of People magazine. It is about a multi-generational family that owns a summer house in Maine. It is written from the point of view of four of the women in the family. This is my favorite format of story telling, where the narrator changes in each chapter. It is a lovely book about families and the traditions and hurts that come along with living life together.

I finished this book this afternoon (after only starting it yesterday). I don't want to give too much away, but this book is horrendous and wonderful and heartbreaking and hope-giving and saddening. It is truly a wonderful, quick read, that leaves you feeling hopeful that a good mother can bring a child through any situation if she tries hard enough. It also has the most wonderful extended-nursing relationship I have every seen in writing and reminded me why I believe so strongly about nursing until your child decides to stop, not the other way around (but that's a blog post for another time!).

Next up on my list is:

I'm hoping I'll like it and will read all three in the series.

My friend Cori recommended this book and I think I'll check it out.

2011-08-16T14:53:00.001-07:00

Our Saturday

2011-08-06T20:47:00.000-07:00

We had a very fun day today. It started out with a rare gift: Finn slept until 8:00 am. This is over an hour more than usual, so the day started out on a good note. Then we went to Max Kurtz' football game, which was super fun. I really am not wishing for Finn to grow up so quickly, but I can't help but think about how fun it will be to watch him out on the field someday.

After the game, we ran to a local nursery and to Lowes with the Kurtz fam. We picked up a bunch of flowers so that we could finally fill our planter pots that we've had for a couple weeks now. We have two by the front door and two by the garage. Once we get the deck built we hope to put two or three out there as well. I was so happy with how they turned out and I think the pop of color on the front of the house is wonderful.

It's now almost 9:00, Finn has been asleep for about an hour and I'm taking a little break from watching "Water for Elephants." I read the book while I was in San Diego and just loved it. I have to say, I'm relatively happy with the movie so far.

Here are some pictures of our pots:

Visit from Gramma

2011-07-23T19:28:00.001-07:00

This weekend JJ's mom came for a visit. She arrived just on time for Thursday night dinner with my family and then stayed with us for two nights. We had a lot of fun chatting, eating out, visiting JJ's office (because she hadn't seen it before) and watching movies.

As she usually does, she came bearing gifts. She bought Finn the Pottery Barn Kids little grocery cart and it's awesome. It's the absolute perfect size. I set it up after he went to bed on Thursday night and when he got up on Friday morning, he noticed it straight off. We always nurse for awhile on the couch in the mornings and the whole time he was trying to eat while bending his neck around to check it out. I finally just let him go and he was so happy to play with it.

I have been wanting brick blocks for Finn for awhile. It's a terrible picture below, but they are those blocks that we all used to have as kids that are made out of cardboard and look like bricks. I've been feeling like Finn is at the perfect stage for those. I haven't looked hard, but haven't noticed them at any of the usual places. Susan said we should try "The Learning Palace" and sure enough, they had them. They also had blocks by my favorite toy brand, "Green Toys." I had bought "Green Toys" stuff there before but had never noticed that they also made blocks (maybe they've just started carrying them). We got a pack of those too, which you can see inside the grocery cart in the picture above.

We had a great time and look forward to the next time she comes to visit.

Confident Kids

2011-07-15T12:19:00.001-07:00

My friend Laura posted this quote on FB today and I absolutely, whole-heartedly believe it is true. I had to share:

"What is the normal child like? Does he just eat and grow and smile sweetly? No, that is not what he is like. A normal child, if he has confidence in father and mother, pulls out all the stops. In the course of time, he tries out his power to disrupt, to destroy, to frighten, to wear down, to waste, to wrangle and to appropriate. Everything that takes people to courts (or to the asylums, for that matter) has its normal equivalent in infancy and early childhood." Dr. Michael Thompson, PhD

Busy Boy

2011-07-14T11:24:00.001-07:00

In the time it took me to make this lunch today (pita & hummus, grapes and blueberries):
Finn was able to accomplish this:
He even unrolled a big portion of the saran wrap. How he managed that is beyond me, since I have a hard time getting the end un-attached most of the time.

I fought the slide...and the slide won!

2011-07-09T12:51:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, JJ had a doctor's appointment in McMinnville. It was such a gorgeous day that Finn and I decided to ride along. We dropped JJ at his appointment and then hit one of the parks in the neighborhood. I had driven past it before and had been wanting to take Finn there.

The play structure is impressive and yes, that's Finn climbing up the wall:

I'm going to love to take Finn there...in about two years! I allow Finn to be really risky. I have no problem with him climbing up to the top of most play areas and climbing up the rock walls and ladders. I can already tell he's going to be a risk-taking kid and I like to give him opportunities to get adrenaline rushes. At least that's what I always told myself, until we encountered this play structure.

It is so high! There is this one slide at Bush Park that is probably eight feet tall and you get there by an open ladder. I have no problem with Finn climbing up it and going down the slide all by himself. This one, I just couldn't handle. I think the tallest slide was about eleven or twelve feet tall and there were tons of open areas that were probably ten feet tall. It's one thing to let my child risk a broken collarbone, but paralysis is out of the question :)

After my panic attack, we ended up having a great time anyway. We walked all around the park, which was amazing. It has a disc golf course, beautiful forest areas, a creek with a bridge. We walked and walked and walked for over an hour. A nice guy who was playing disc golf came up and asked if I wanted a picture of us and here with the result (or course, Finn wouldn't smile at some random stranger):

Dressing Finn

2011-07-06T07:20:00.000-07:00

When I was pregnant with Finn and found out that he was a boy, I have to say there was some small disappointment on my part. Not that he was a boy, but I was mourning all the cute clothes that are our there for baby girls.

Man, was I wrong. I love dressing Finn. I think boys clothes have come a long way, especially in the summer. I still can't stand all the "logo" tees that have stupid saying on them (ie, My Mom is Rad, Daddy's Right Hand Man, etc), but give me a pair of madras shorts, a polo and the new Pumas I bought him, and I could just stare at Finn for hours. Too cute!

Foot Traffic Half Marathon

2011-07-04T14:33:00.001-07:00

Today my dad, brother and I completed our first half marathon at Sauvie Island. AJ ran and finished about an hour and ten minutes ahead of us. Dad and I walked and were really pleased with our time.

They have "pacers" which are people that wear a sign on their backs saying how fast they are going. It helps keep you on track with your goal. When we started, we said that we wanted to finish between the 15 and 16 minute mile gals.

At around mile 6, we got out ahead of the 15 minute pacer and stayed ahead of her until about mile 10. At that point, I really hit the wall. I was just forcing myself to put one foot in front of the other for about two miles. Pretty soon, the 15 minute pacer passed us. I knew we were going a lot slower than our overall pace, but just couldn't find the energy to pick it up. Until the 16 minute pacer came along side of us, right before mile 12. As soon as I saw her, I thought to myself: "I'm not going to let her pass us. We said we'd finish between 15 and 16 minute miles and I can't let her get ahead of us."

At that point I just kicked it into gear and sped up. I told her that I wasn't going to let her beat us and so she kind of sped up a bit too, to make it more fun. It totally worked because that last mile and a quarter were probably the easiest of the whole race. I'm so glad she came along right when I needed her.

We finished in just under 3 hours and 25 minutes for an average pace of 15.37 minute miles- right where we wanted to be.

It was fun...tiring but fun. I'm not signing up for another anytime soon, but it's fun to say that I did it. And the training sure helped with my miles challenge (remember I'm shooting for walking at least 500 miles in 2011). Good times!

Dad, walking along.

It was a perfect day on the island. The water, fields and farmland were so beautiful.

When you walk for that long, you, for the most part, watch the backs of the same people for a few hours.

Dad and I going across the finish line. I'm so glad AJ took this picture, because that's our pacer lady right next to us! (Now that I think about it, she wasn't a very good pacer, because she finished way ahead of her 16 minute mile goal time).

2011-07-01T12:12:00.000-07:00

I heard this quote today that made me laugh so hard:

"I don't care what they say, the first guy who milked a cow and drank it was a massive pervert!"

Daddy's Helper

2011-06-30T19:11:00.000-07:00

About a year ago, we decided to add sprinklers to our yard. That turned into all new grass and landscaping, a deck, play area for Finn and now a new picket fence as well. It's been way more work than we thought it would be, but we are oh, so close.

Finn loves loves loves watching JJ work at just about anything, but he's been especially enjoying the yard work the last few weeks because the weather has been so nice. Tonight, he was "helping" JJ remove the fence posts and he also raked the dirt for a bit. I've never seen a cuter landscaper!

Doing the Dishes

2011-06-30T11:47:00.000-07:00

I've been getting a little down-time to myself lately. Finn has decided that he loves doing dishes! He will stand at the sink for a long time (10-15 minutes) moving around all the dishes and using the scrub brush. It has been great. I can check Facebook/blogs, pick up the living room, fold laundry, take out the recycling. He is just happy as a clam...until I try to take him down and then he screams and cries and tries to push the chair back over. Man, he can be stubborn sometimes. I wonder who he gets that from? (JJ!)

I can't totally take my eyes off him though, or I find the little rascal doing this:

Swimming

2011-06-29T11:54:00.000-07:00

(I don't have any pictures to add to this post, but I'm going for it anyway...)

We have been doing a lot of swimming lately. We joined the Kroc Center a few months ago and have been swimming at least weekly, sometimes more often. When Finn was about five months old, we took a mommy/tot class, but he was so young that he didn't really get anything out of it. Once we started going regularly though, he's been having much more fun.

There are some things I feel really strongly about and no water wings/vest/floaties is one of those things. Both my brother and I were swimming on our own from a very young age and have always been super comfortable because we had to learn how to do it correctly from the beginning. My other issue with floating devices is that I feel it gives kids a false sense of security, thinking they are better swimmers than they are. Maybe I'm not giving kids enough credit, but it's how I feel and JJ agrees so Finn is learning to float and go under like a "big boy" already. No offense, really, to anyone that uses them. It's just my personal opinion to handle swimming this way.

This weekend we went to Otter Crest with JJ's small group from church. It was five guys (including JJ) and their families. One of the moms has been teaching children's swim lessons for years at the Courthouse. She was telling us about her kids and how they could swim from mommy to daddy about ten feet apart by the time they were a year old and had a perfect breaststroke down by the time they were three. Her son could butterfly stroke by the time he was four. Her kids are going into first and third grade and you should see them in the pool. A-ma-zing!

We asked her for advice on next steps for Finn and she showed us how to get him swimming under water from JJ to me. It was crazy. He figured it out so fast. He still isn't kicking- he's mostly moving from our push- but he is holding his breath and putting his head down and closing his eyes. We count to three in the exact same way every time so that he knows that it's coming and by about the fourth time, he just dove right it.

It's awesome. I'm a super proud mommy. It makes me realize that I'm going to be like this for the rest of his life....a big cheerleader for every, little thing that he does. It's just so fun to watch him figure things out and I love that I get to be his encourager in it all.

Grand Floral Walk

2011-06-12T12:04:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, my family walked in the Grand Floral Walk, before the Grand Floral Parade at the Rose Festival. I didn't take many pictures, but we had a fun time. The weather was perfect, a little cool, but dry. Finn normally naps around 11:30 and the parade didn't even pass us until noon, but he did great. He had fun watching the bands, floats and horses. He fell asleep on the ride home and slept for three and half hours. I finally had to wake him up. He was one tired boy.

Starlight Run

2011-06-05T19:40:00.000-07:00

Last night, Christi, Christy, Maryanne and I ran the Starlight Run in downtown Portland. We had a blast. Christi wrote all about in on her blog (click here).

Big Ass Tractor

2011-06-04T10:54:00.000-07:00

(because, really, there is nothing else to call it)

JJ and Jeff are working on our yard all day today. They rented this huge earth mover from Home Depot and are getting everything ready for the sod.

Finn absolutely loved watching the guys work and sat, in one location or another, for about two hours just watching them. If you know Finn, you probably don't believe it, but honestly, he just sat there and watched them with very little movement or talking. He was entranced. I need one of those in my living room when I'm trying to make dinner :)

He also had a great time playing in and on it when they took a little break.

River Road Park

2011-05-23T13:10:00.000-07:00

This morning Finn and I spent a little over an hour hanging out at River Road Park. It is such a great park. This is the first time we've been there since Finn can really participate. Last summer he was either in the stroller or on a blanket.

He is Mr. Independent, let me tell you. It isn't like this is the first time I've noticed, but we were literally the only people there (which was crazy, because the weather was perfect!) so I basically just sat on this cement fish in the middle of the little kid play area and watched him do his thing. He would climb up the stairs (or attempt to climb up the slide or rock wall) and then walk all around the structure, climbing up and down the little stairs up high and play with all the knobs and wheels. He loved the big slide and would do it all on his own. It's crazy how he doesn't really have any baby left and is all toddler, now.

(side note: I am way behind the times, but just downloaded the Hipstmatic app on my phone and love it!)

2011-05-20T19:46:00.000-07:00

JJ left this afternoon for Men's Retreat with our church. He won't be back until Sunday. It was weird to have him leave. I go away fairly often for work, but I think in our whole marriage JJ has only been away from me one night and that was way back when he was working for Boys and Girls Club. When I came down stairs after putting Finn down, I found this note on my night stand.

Riverfront Park

2011-05-19T11:55:00.001-07:00

The last couple of days have been so nice. Christi, Maryanne and I decided to hit waterfront park this morning and enjoy the sunshine. We parked at Gibert House, walked over the pedestrian bridge, grabbed some Great Harvest and Jamba Juice, threw some rocks in the Willamette (or, if you're Finn, continually waded to his knees).

When we got back to the east side of the river, JJ, who knew we were spending the morning there, surprised us girls with three Sweet Teas and sat with us for awhile while the boys played around. It was such a nice preview to the summer when I won't have to work at all and we will have day after day of sunshine.

Finn really loved his Jamba Juice. Apparently he wasn't quite ready for it to be gone.

Hey, Good Lookin', What You Got Cookin'?

2011-05-11T00:14:00.001-07:00

It's 12:15 am and JJ and I are still up, because JJ just finished putting together Finn's new kitchen. It is seriously the cutest thing ever. I can't wait to see his face in the morning when he comes out of his room and sees this beauty waiting for him! He's going to love it.

My Little Goth

2011-05-10T15:04:00.001-07:00

This morning Finn was going through the cabinets and pulled out a jar of canned applesauce. He dropped it and even though those suckers are pretty thick, he must have hit it in just the right place because it shattered. I knew I wouldn't be able to clean it up with him walking around, so I threw him up to the table, grabbed a couple markers and a piece of construction paper and got to work. When I looked up, this is what I saw:

BBQ with the Alvarez Fam

2011-04-30T17:21:00.001-07:00

This afternoon, we spent some time with our friends, the Alvarez family, out on their farm. They have this great piece of property in Monmouth. They own about thirty acres and have lots of chickens, about a dozen cows and a goat.

The area is so gorgeous and their kids just run free and explore. We always leave a little bit jealous of their lifestyle....lots of work, but also lots of rewards. It's just such a great way to raise kids.

We had a fun time chatting, cooking and waging a major nerf gun war (that would be JJ and Erick-Joseph). Finn never really got a nap, so was pretty fussy, but Harmony loved him so much and I barely had to watch him at all. She's in 6th grade. Give her another two years or so and we unquestionably will have a great baby-sitter on our hands.

I didn't take too many pictures, just a couple of the kids taking Finn around to check out the property close to the house.

Finn was not too sure how he felt about the goat. He would be brave if Harmony or I would hold his hand, but he would not go over on his own.

Erick-Joseph and Harmony pushed Finn all over the farm. Man, those kids are in good shape.

There were so many fun things to see and do, but Finn's favorite thing was this old yellow broom he found leaning against the barn. He dragged that thing all over their property.

Exploring the grass

The boys did a little country-style BBQ chicken. It was fabulous!

Play Date with Milo and Christi

2011-04-26T11:46:00.000-07:00

This morning I had a last minute need for someone to watch Finn and luckily Christi was able to pop over while Max and Caden were at school. It worked out perfectly time-wise because I was only gone an hour and it was right after the boys were dropped off and before they needed to be picked up.

Milo is two and a half years older than Finn, but he plays really well with him. Luckily, Finn isn't too possessive about anything at this point, so it works out just fine.

They started out playing for awhile in the house.

Of course, Finn wanted to be held the whole time. (I'm so glad she took this picture so I can remember this stage forever. I see this look about a hundred times a day.)

They went exploring around the neighborhood. Apparently, Finn jogged the entire time. Too cute.

Thanks so much Christi for stepping in at the last minute. I appreciate it so much!

Are you an Oregonian?

2011-04-22T17:09:00.000-07:00

If someone in a Home Depot store offers you assistance and they don't work there, you live in Oregon.

If you've worn shorts, sandals and a parka at the same time, you live in Oregon.

If you've had a lengthy telephone conversation with someone who dialed the wrong number, you live in Oregon.

If you measure distance in hours, you live in Oregon.

If you know several people who have hit a deer more than once, you live in Oregon.

If you have switched from 'heat' to 'A/C' and back again in the same day, you live in Oregon.

If you install security lights on your house and garage but leave both doors unlocked, you live in Oregon.

If you design your kid's Halloween costume to fit over a 2 layers of clothes or under a raincoat, you live in Oregon.

If you know all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter, and road construction, you live in Oregon.

If you feel guilty throwing aluminum cans or paper in the trash, you live in Oregon.

If you know more than 10 ways to order coffee, you live in Oregon.

If you know more people who own boats than air conditioners, you live in Oregon.

If you stand on a deserted corner in the rain waiting for the "Walk" signal, you live in Oregon.

If you consider that if it has no snow or has not recently erupted, it is not a real mountain, you live in Oregon.

If you can taste the difference between Starbucks, Seattle's Best, and Dutch Bros, you live in Oregon.

If you know the difference between Chinook, Coho and Sockeye salmon, you live in Oregon.

If you know how to pronounce Sequim, Puyallup, Clatskanie, Issaquah, Umpqua, Yakima and Willamette, you live in Oregon.

If you consider swimming an indoor sport, you live in Oregon.

If you know that Boring is a city and not just a feeling, you live in Oregon.

If you can tell the difference between Japanese, Chinese and Thai food, you live in Oregon.

If you never go camping without waterproof matches and a poncho, you live in Oregon.

If you have actually used your mountain bike on a mountain, you live in Oregon.

If you think people who use umbrellas are either wimps or tourists, you live in Oregon.

If you buy new sunglasses every year, because you cannot find the old ones after such a long time, you live in Oregon.

Easter Basket

2011-04-21T22:34:00.000-07:00

I wasn't going to do an Easter basket for Finn. He is only 13 months old and really has no idea of the concept. However, Finn got a surprise Easter card with some money in it yesterday from JJ's mom, so I decided an Easter basket would be the perfect thing to spend it on.

I quickly learned that Easter goodies are essentially one of two things: candy and stuffed animals. We don't give Finn candy and he really couldn't care less about stuffed animals, so I decided to pretty much ditch the Easter theme and just stuffed the pail (which he'll probably love more than anything inside) with things he'll enjoy.

Finn's Easter basket has: a flap book (his fave), two toy cars, three bath toys and a dozen empty plastic eggs. The eggs are really the only thing Easter-y, but my mom has some out at her house and Finn plays with them constantly.

Even if it's a little non-traditional, I think it turned out pretty cute and I know he'll like everything that's in it and that's what's important.

Happy Passover

2011-04-18T20:05:00.000-07:00

This was on Conan tonight:

Tonight, President Obama is celebrating Passover, with a Passover Seder. After hearing this, Sarah Palin said, "Aha! He is a muslim."

Breastfeeding Friendly

2011-04-18T19:31:00.001-07:00

A few months ago I suggested to the "Broadway Coffeehouse" folks that they put up the Breastfeeding Friendly symbol. JJ, Finn and I walked there tonight to enjoy some yummy drinks and to my surprise, it was up! I've never seen this posted anywhere in Salem and was so proud to see that I'm helping to remind people to nurse in public because it's normal and not immodest to feed our babies the way nature intended. Good job Broadway Coffeehouse!

Busted!

2011-04-11T11:54:00.001-07:00

We have a home theater room in our basement. Finn has a toy chest in there and I often fold laundry while he plays. I almost always close the door when we're in there because the room is right next to the stairs and more often than not, Finn will start climbing up the stairs before I am done.

This morning I was folding cloth diapers while he puttered around. When I finished, I went to open the door and it was stuck. Completely stuck. I tried everything and could not get it to move.

I have a tiny bit of claustrophobia and started to panic pretty quickly. There are no windows in the room and it suddenly began to feel really hot. I sat down on the couch and had to talk myself off a ledge telling myself that Finn had just had a snack and really didn't need to eat for awhile. I had diapers. But no phone, no water, no toilet, no food.....I just freaked out.

I jumped up and literally rammed the door open. I slammed into with my shoulder and it budged a bit so I just kept pushing and pushing until we were free. I then called JJ and was laughing so hysterically that I could barely tell him the story. I'm sure he isn't going to be thrilled when he comes home and sees the damage, but I really couldn't care less.

Whew. That was scary.

After we escaped, Finn thought it was so fun to have a door that's just his size.

Exploring a Field

2011-04-11T11:53:00.000-07:00

You've Got to Move It, Move It

2011-04-10T20:23:00.000-07:00

I am currently training for two races. Let me tell you, I use the word "races" quite loosely. Yes, I'll be timed and technically competing against other people, but I'm only racing with myself to prove that I can do it.

The first race I'm running is the Starlight Run on June 4. It is a 5K that happens in Downtown Portland, right before the Starlight Parade. I've done many 5Ks in my life, but I've never totally run one before. The closest I've come is running the whole thing, with one about three minute walk in the middle. The Starlight Run is a great motivator because when you register in big letters, it says, "NO STROLLERS, DOGS OR WALKERS." I guess that tells me! I'm sure there won't be a walker police that will pull me from the race if I stop for one minute, but I'm not giving myself that out. I am going to run the whole thing.

I'm doing really well on my training for that and am right on track. I did the "Couch to 5K" plan for the first six weeks, which got me running for two ten minute periods with a two minute walk in between. The next week was supposed to go straight to a 20 minute run, but that felt a little aggressive for me, so I did 15 instead. I just finished three of those and will start 20 minute runs tomorrow. Right now I'm just working on time, getting to the place where I'm doing 30 minutes. Once I get there, I'll start looking at distance, because I really want to finish the run in under 30 minutes and I don't think I'm quite at that pace right now.

The second race I'm doing is a half marathon on July 4. This one I'm doing with my family (well, everyone but my mom who is watching the babies). We've just started training for this. We are just finishing week two. At this point it's pretty easy: two three mile walks and then a longer walk on the weekend. Yesterday it was five miles. Each weekend, we add a mile until we get to the place where we are ready for the 1/2 marathon.

The only thing that is a little bit hard is that I'm training for both of these things at the same time, meaning I'm doing the three long walks and three runs each week. A lot of days they end up overlapping, so I'll walk with Finn in the morning and then run by myself in the afternoon when JJ gets home from work.

It seems to be working pretty well and it's totally helping with my 500 mile challenge. For the challenge, you need to average 10 miles a week to make it by the end of the year and I'm way ahead. I've been doing more like 15-18 recently. I'm such a goal oriented person and I love seeing that number go up each week.

Otter Crest

2011-04-09T13:23:00.000-07:00

We are at the coast this weekend with our friends, Julie & Shane LoGreco and their daughter Wren, who is six weeks older than Finn. We are having a great time. We have swam, played on the beach and at the playground and had a wonderful dinner last night at a new restaurant on the Newport water front that we had never tried before.

In a few hours, after naps, we are heading to the aquarium. We took Finn there last August, but he was so little and wasn't too into it. We think that Wren and Finn will be at such a fun age to watch all the fish and sea animals. I'll post pictures of that later.

A Pet Peeve

2011-04-06T20:05:00.001-07:00

I hate when words that are supposed to start with a "c" are spelled with a "k." For example, "Kids Korner." Bleh.

A new place just opened up in Keizer called, "Krafter's Alley." Really? WHY???????? Why spell the word incorrectly when it doesn't even match it's partner word. Oh. Man. It. Bugs.

Finn Loves Sushi

2011-04-05T22:58:00.000-07:00

(Seriously. I think he ate as much as we did.)

Zzzzzz....

2011-03-30T22:28:00.000-07:00

Poor Finn. He'd been sleeping so well, but right around his first birthday, things started to change. First, he was having a lot of trouble going down for naps. I would put him down as usual, but then once I would put him in his crib, he would pop up and grab books and animals off his shelf and start playing. It was quite cute, but he would chatter away for as long as an hour. Then he would start screaming until I would come in and rock him to sleep. However, once he would go to sleep, he was sleeping around two hours in the morning and another two in the afternoon.

I could handle that. But then it started to affect the nights. He began waking up at random times totally screaming. I actually felt like he was having nightmares because he was crying so hard. We tried to bring him back to our bed, but as soon as we did, he thought it was playtime and would start laughing and crawling all over us. Not exactly the most fun thing for mommy and daddy at 4am.

It was all kind of pointing to one thing: the kid was getting too much sleep. I've had a few friends recently move their children to once a day naps and they all thought it was the greatest thing. I just really didn't want to give up that twice a day break. But a couple days ago, after spending an hour and a half up with him the previous night, I decided to give it a try.

We are still adjusting a bit. I think we've been doing the nap a little early because he is so exhausted around 5pm and it's been very hard to keep him up until 7 or 7:30. Last night he slept for about 12 hours. 12 hours! I think I can give up my double breaks for 12 hours of sleep :)

Finn's Birthday Party

2011-03-30T13:05:00.000-07:00

the GFV no more

2011-03-26T11:36:00.000-07:00

This morning I officially made the decision to just be GF (gluten free) and drop the V (vegetarian). I have really loved eating this way and have felt great. However, this week I had two medical appointments and, out of the blue, they both told me that with PCOS (poly cystic ovarian syndrome) that I really needed to be eating meat. Well, not really meat, but LOTS of protein, which they said is really difficult to do on a vegetarian diet, if you aren't eating tofu or beans for every single meal.

Apparently, with PCOS the body tends to struggle with insulin production (similarly to a diabetic) which is what causes most of the problems in the body. The ideal diet for someone with PCOS is no grains whatsoever, very little starchy vegetables and lots of protein (ie, meat for the most part). The only flour I should be eating is almond flour, which is packed full of protein.

So, I'm going to try it. I'm adding meat and dropping all grains (including GF flours and rice). Luckily, my friend Mindy already eats this way to help with some health issues that she has, so she passed on a great recipe website, as well as lots of advice. I will update the blog occasionally with posts on how it is going.

Finn's 1/2 Hour

2011-03-14T10:19:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Christi reminded me about her friend Lori's blog. I've read it before and just love her attitude and parenting style. She seems to have very similar values to me, so it's fun to see the things she's doing as a wife and mother with a child just a little older than mine.

I was reading through old posts because it's been awhile and came across a quick blip she wrote about giving Zoralee (her daughter) half an hour of uninterrupted time each day. I've heard this concept before, in fact, I think Christi and I talked about it not too long ago. But I guess yesterday was the day where the idea collided with my readiness.

Finn is at a tough stage. The kid has more energy than I know what to do with. For the last couple of weeks, he has spent most of his time doing one of two things: either destroying the house room by room or whining to be held. So my day feels like it consists of following him around cleaning up so that my house doesn't constantly look like a disaster zone or trying to clean up (or do laundry or wash dishes or cook dinner) with him either hanging on my leg or in my arms. I can't really put him in a sling, because he wants up, then down, then up, then down. It's exhausting. I know pretty much every mom has been there, but right now, I'm just plain tired.

To top it all off, I feel like I've been working a lot. I probably haven't actually been putting more hours in, I've just had a lot more structured work time, where I've had appointments and meetings, so I feel like I'm forced to be away as opposed to choosing when to be away. When Finn gets needy, my mind immediately goes to mommy-guilt and I think, "Oh, I've just been away from him so much. He must be feeling neglected." I have to constantly remind myself that this is a perfectly normal stage and it will pass.

Back to Lori's half an hour idea. I've made a commitment for the next month to give Finn an uninterrupted half hour of time every day. Here are my rules:

1. I sit on the floor with him.

2. All technology is off. No phone, no laptop. no radio. (We never watch TV, so that one is easy.)

3. I do not get up. I don't go to the bathroom. I don't refill my coffee. If I do, I'll get distracted and Finn won't get a whole half an hour.

4. He directs what we do. I don't read to him unless he brings a book over to me. I don't show him how things work. He decides what we play with and for how long.

I did it this morning for the first time. About five minutes in, I thought, "this is going to be a long half hour." It wasn't. I actually stayed down there for almost 45 minutes. We read a little when he brought over "Where is Baby's Bellybutton?". We threw a fabric block back and forth for awhile. For about ten minutes he stood behind me and pushed my back, over and over, laughing hysterically the whole time. It was fun. He had me 100%. I wasn't looking at Facebook or putting the pillows back on the couch. I was just hanging with my boy.

I'd love to say that once it was over, Finn felt like he had so much attention that he wasn't clingy the rest of the morning. Not the case. As soon as I stood up he reached his arms up and started whining. So I picked him up, took him downstairs, and folded some laundry while he was on my lap, then off, then on my lap, then off again....

the GFV: Corn Risotto

2011-03-13T18:42:00.000-07:00

(This was a perfect main entrée for me, but could easily be used as a side dish as well. Plus it was oh-so-easy to make.)

1 1/4 cup arborio rice

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon onion flakes (I used onion salt because it's what I had)

4 chopped cloves garlic

4 cups vegetable broth

16 oz package of frozen corn

dash of salt

1/4 cup heavy cream or half and half

1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese

Put the olive oil in the bottom of a dutch oven or large sauce pan. Swirl the rice and onion flakes in it. Chop the garlic and add, along with the salt. Add the frozen corn and broth.

Cover and cook on 2-3 heat for around an hour, stirring every 20 minutes or so. The dish is done when the liquid has absorbed and the rice is tender.

Turn off heat and mix in the cream and parmesan cheese. Serve when cheese is melted throughout.

Sunday Mornings

2011-03-13T11:19:00.001-07:00

Sundays morning have become one of my most favorite times of the week. About a month ago, JJ came up with the idea that I should get to sleep in on Sundays. We do church on Saturday nights now (I don't know how much you would have to pay to get me back to Sunday mornings....Saturday nights are the best!). We usually end up doing dinner with my family after.

Last night, we did church, I made home-made vegetable quinoa soup and everyone came back to our house. We put the boys down, my parents left and we watched a couple hours of TV with AJ and Maryanne (and Maggie, sleeping on her mama's shoulder). It was a fun, relaxing evening.

Oh, then comes Sunday morning! Finn woke up around 7:00, which felt like a big sleep in for him until I remembered the time change and realized he woke up exactly when he normally wakes up. I got up to nurse him and then we did the hand-off. JJ took him for the morning and I went back to bed. I got out of bed about a half an hour ago and Finn is still sleeping away, giving me some alone time. Wonderful.

I'm so thankful JJ thought of this glorious plan. It's been nice for me to have some relaxing mornings lately.

the GFV: Glazed Snow Peas with Rice

2011-03-11T19:16:00.001-08:00

(JJ, who has completely abandoned the GFV diet, ate this as a side dish with a lamb chop. As for me, this was my main dish and it was yummy...no steak needed. We drank a chianti with it. It was a great, tasty dinner. )

4 cups snow peas, trimmed, strings removed

3 tablespoons of water

1/3 cup balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon light brown sugar

1 tablespoon peanut oil (we didn't have any so I used olive)

2 large cloves garlic, finely chopped

1/2 tablespoon toasted (dark) sesame oil

salt and pepper, to taste

3 cups hot cooked rice

1/4 cup chopped peanuts (I used pecans, because everything is better with pecans)

Place the snow peas and water in a large skillet with a lid. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium and steam until crisp-tender, about two minutes. Drain well and dry skillet with a paper towel.

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, combine the vinegar and sugar and bring to a boil over medium heat. Boil until reduced to 2 tablespoons.

Heat the peanut oil in the dried nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook, stirring for one minute. Add the snow peas, vinegar mixture and sesame oil; cook, tossing until the snow peas are heated through and glazed, 2 to 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper . Serve at once, over the rice, garnished with the peanuts.

the GFV: the gluten-free vegetarian

2011-03-06T10:19:00.000-08:00

About a month ago, I made some big changes to my diet. I decided to go gluten-free and vegetarian. These are both diet choices that I have made in the past and was successful for about a year with each of them, but I've never done the two together. It has been quite the challenge.

JJ and I first started with going vegetarian again. We did this for 11 months, about a year before I was pregnant with Finn. We eventually added some fish back in and then it was a downhill slide from there. We made the choice to do this again now because it keeps us from going to fast food joints. There isn't a lot to get at McDonalds or Sonic when you're not eating meat.

As for the gluten free, that one was forced back on me. There is no question that I have a wheat allergy. When I eat wheat, I itch. like crazy. all the time. I ate GF for about seven of my ten months of pregnancy, but then when I was getting used to being a new mom, jumped back on to the wheat train. A few weeks ago my mom bought JJ and I challah bread from Great Harvest and I ate half the loaf in about two seconds (not literally, but I might as well have). When I got in the shower that morning, I looked down and from my neck to my belly button, I was completely covered in hives. Big ones. Big itchy ones. I called JJ over and said, "I'm done eating wheat right now." Haven't had any since.

JJ is kind of doing it with me. He didn't have any meat for over three weeks and I just can't get that guy to regularly take iron supplements, so he always ends up anemic. On Thursday night I thought he was going to literally pass out. He was weak and pale and shaky. He had a burger and about an hour later he was perfectly fine. I think his body just needs meat. When I cook, it'll be gluten-free veg, but when he's on his own, he's on his own.

As for me, I feel great. I've started running again in the evenings, plus walks with Finn in the morning, and with the new diet, have so much energy and enthusiasm. I'm loving finding great GFV recipes and am going to occasionally share them on my blog. I'll pick ones that are just plain good (who doesn't love black bean sour cream enchiladas- vegetarian or not!).

Consignment

2011-02-28T14:23:00.001-08:00

I have found a love of consignment shops since Finn has joined our lives. I got a little glimpse of the greatness when I was pregnant with Finn. I really like wooden toys and one afternoon JJ and I were in Keizer and had an hour to kill before we were meeting my parents, so we decided to stop in their little kids' consignment store. We stocked up on around $150 worth of wooden toys for about $60.

Since Finn has been born, I've found out how much I like them even more. I just rarely ever buy Finn new clothes. We have this huge consignment store fairly near our house that has an amazing selection of clothes. It's the best feeling ever to walk out of there with a huge bag of clothes and know that I only spent $23 (or whatever, but you get what I mean).

Once Upon a Child, the store I was talking about above, in my opinion, doesn't always have the best toys. They have lots of cheap, plastic crap (but I don't like cheap, plastic toys) some people probably think their selection is fine. But yesterday, I hit the jackpot. First I found this really cool, perfect condition wooden abacus. $4! I bought my clothes and the toy (for a total of $9) and was leaving the store, when I noticed a square wooden box with wheels up on a shelf.

I've been looking for a wooden push cart for months. I could just buy one, but they are around $60-$80 new and I just hate paying that for something that I know he is only going to like for a couple months. She pulled it down and it just wasn't what I wanted: cheap and flimsy. I told the lady I wasn't interested and she said, "Did you see that one?" (cue symphony music in my head).

This darling painted wooden push cart was up on another shelf. It was EXACTLY what I had been looking for. She pulled it down and not only was it functionally and looks-wise exactly what I wanted, but it had the coolest added bonus: the steps lift up to reveal secret compartments full of wooden, cloth and rubber blocks. It is just awesome! And the best part? $25.

(And yes, Finn has already fallen over the handle and I'm sure will many more times before he outgrows this awesome toy.)

I love consignment shops!

Letting Go

2011-02-19T09:15:00.001-08:00

Yesterday I started a new journey. For the first time in my life, I saw a counselor.

I had a really awful birthing experience. I'm not going to rehash it (it's here if you want to read it). It was pretty much the exact opposite of everything that I had hoped and planned for. Opposite in every way.

So here I am, 11 months later, still not able to let go. I replay the whole two days in my head over and over. "Maybe if I would have don't this....maybe if I wouldn't have done this..." over and over and over.

Right after Finn was born, as I was recovering from surgery and learning how to be a new mom, people would try to comfort me. I heard this over and over: well, you have a happy, healthy baby so that's all the matters. You know what? That isn't all that matters. I wasn't mourning the loss of a baby. I was (and am) mourning the loss of an experience.

I've now had one, 1-hour appointment with Dr. Elizabeth Hamilton (who is so amazing and I am so blessed to have a friend who pulled some strings to get me in, because she is full, full, full). Here are some things that I learned:

1. I suffered a trauma in my birth experience. It doesn't matter that women all over this country have a similar experience and come out just fine. It affected me in a different way.
2. I don't need to compare myself to the way others would react in a similar situation.
3. I need more chaos in my life. She said that most of her clients live in chaos and she tries to move them to a more organized and linear life. I am the epitome of organized and linear and she thinks I need to let go and allow a little more chaos in. She said we are going to go primal :)

This is what we are going to work on over the next couple of months:
1. I need to accept that it is okay to be sad about this. I'm constantly telling myself that is stupid to still be upset about this when every other woman I know who has had a c-section seems to be just fine with it.
2. We are going to explore what it is in my personality that makes me feel that if I do something that doesn't turn out 100% successfully in my eyes, that I have somehow failed (and am embarrassed about it).

I have absolutely no shame about going to counseling at all! The doctor that I'm seeing works at a very large counseling center in our town. I know three of the doctors who work there personally and saw someone I know in the lobby while I was waiting. Who cares.

I'll probably write about this journey ocassionally on the blog, because it helps me to process. And who knows, maybe there is someone else out there who is pretending to be just fine about their birth experience, who actually needs to deal with some pent up feelings. Even just spilling it all out one time and having someone validate the way I am feeling, has made a world of difference. I know I have more work to do, but I literally feel a little bit of the weight lifted already.

Full Contact Eater

2011-02-19T09:07:00.001-08:00

Finn loves to eat. He has zero desire for me to feed him anymore. If I even try to spoon him some puree or yogurt, he'll have nothing of it. I can ocassionally trick him into one or two bites, but then he is determined that he must hold the spoon and feed himself.

I like letting him play with his food. There are different theories on this, but I'm all about letting him throw it and mush it and smash it all over his face.

I think one of the great things about being a country that has plenty of food is that Americans really enjoy eating (to the detriment of most of our waistlines). I want Finn to enjoy meal time, to have fun sitting at the table with us eating away.

Right now, developmentally, he doesn't get it all (or even most of it) into his mouth, but he isn't going hungry. The funniest "feed himself" moment so far was a couple mornings ago when I let him feed himself oatmeal. Oh, he was so determined to get it out of the bowl, but I had made it a little on the thick side so his spoon would get completely stuck. He had the cutest look on his face trying to figure it out.

My goal when Finn started solids was for him to be 100% feeding himself by his first birthday and I have no question we are going to reach that goal. Finn is 11 months old today (and, by the way, has been taking lots of longer walking spells lately....he's getting close).

Nature vs. Nurture

2011-02-12T07:06:00.000-08:00

Over the last few weeks, Finn's personality has just been shining through. As I see these glimpses of who he is becoming, I can't help but start thinking about the nature vs. nurture debate.

JJ and I were talking about this with AJ and Maryanne the other night. We have raised Finn and Porter very similarly so far. Not the same obviously, but with a lot of the same views and values. And yet, the two boys could hardly be any different.

Porter is gentle and kind and even a little timid. Finn is, as Maryanne put it, "large and in charge." Finn is Mr. Confident. He enters a room and commands it: interacts with everyone, takes what he wants, making LOTS of noise the whole time. Part of this is their ages, but a lot of it is just who they are.

As happens often with me, when I'm thinking about something, I end up finding lots of things to read on the subject.

1. A couple days ago, out of the blue, JJ's cousin Emilia sent me a book by Peggy O'Mara, the editor of Mothering Magazine, who I pretty much consider the goddess of gentle and peaceful parenting. The book is a collection of essays she has written about parenting. I've only read the first one, but sure enough, it fit right in with what I've been thinking about. It was called, "A Good Parent" and was basically saying that we need to allow children to be who they are without imposing all of our ideas on to them all the time. She says that chaos is important for growth and we need to stop worrying about what the little old lady in church thinks or the business man who is glaring at us in the grocery store. If our children are free to explore and learn and basically, have some chaos, they will become who they are meant to be.

2. Then, this morning, I read this article on the Huffington Post. In a totally different vein, this mother is discussing gender roles and how she loves that her oldest son is into ballet and hates that her youngest daughter is too, because she didn't want her kids to fall into traditional gender roles. The real theme of the article was: your kids are going to be who they are going to be, so embrace it.

I've said this before on this blog, but I am so loving seeing who Finn is becoming. What I'm learning right now is that, while it's fun to see who he is becoming, it's also really fun to just see who he is.

Letters to Finn

2011-02-08T08:54:00.000-08:00

A couple months ago when Elizabeth Edwards died, I heard some commentators on TV talking about what the last couple years had been like for her, while she knew she didn't have much time left. One of the things that she did was write letters to her young children for the big milestones in their lives that she was going to miss. I think that is just the most amazing gift to those children.

Soon after hearing that, I decided to write letters to Finn. I don't mean to sound overly morbid or anything. The plan is for me to be there for all those milestones. But life throws things at us sometimes and if anything were to happen to me, I'd really want Finn to have some words from me to help him through the major transitions.

I have about ten started (and none finished. I haven't figured out how to finish them yet): first day of school, first date, off to college, wedding day, birth of his first child, etc. They aren't incredibly long, about 6-8 paragraphs.

I start each letter with a story about my life during that period of time, how I was feeling, what it was like for me to go through that particular phase. Then I write a couple paragraphs about what I hope for him during that time (for example, when he starts school I hope that he makes amazing friends and finds a love for learning, especially reading). I try to somewhere in the letter include some advice my parents gave me during that time. I am also putting a "remind daddy..." sentence that will show him how much JJ and I loved him and how we used to talk and plan about ways to make his life wonderful (for example, again for starting school "Remind daddy how important I think a good teacher is and if you get a bad one, he needs to fight to make sure you're with a teacher who appreciates you and wants to help you learn.")

I'm sure some people will read this and roll their eyes or think it's just incredibly morbid to think about these things. I feel like I am taking time to sit down and really think about what I hope for Finn's future. Again, the plan is obviously for me to be right by Finn's side as he moves through life, but if something were to happen to me, I am so glad to know he would at least have some stories about my life and read from my words how much I loved him.

Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails

2011-02-05T09:43:00.001-08:00

When JJ and I started talking about having kids, we only ever imagined we'd have girls. I can remember us saying, (and actually truly believing) that we'd have a whole brood of girls running around our house.

When I got pregnant, we immediately started calling the baby "she" and "her." In fact, after a few short weeks, we had her named Remy and were just completely convinced that we'd be having a girl.

As soon as I saw that baby swimming around inside me on the ultrasound, I instantly didn't care about gender anymore. I was so in love. JJ, on the other hand, still really had it in his head that we were having a girl. When it turned out that "she" was a "he" JJ moped around for about three days, not really sure what to do with himself. After that, he got on board with the boy and neither of us have ever looked back!

Now, I can't even imagine us having a girl. I will honestly be so shocked if our next baby is a girl. I have a name picked out for a boy and can just totally see Finn having a little brother. It's crazy how the perspective changes so much so quickly! Man, I love my little bruiser.

(I'm not pregnant, by the way...just thinking about the future)

This is SO my working life right now!

2011-02-03T19:42:00.000-08:00

Liquid Smoke

2011-01-25T18:24:00.000-08:00

Sometimes JJ makes me laugh so hard. A few days ago I was making a puree for Finn and JJ said he would finish up the steaming. It was edamame and he let the water all evaporate and the whole bottom of the pan burned.

The following day, he was feeding Finn the puree and took a bite himself. He looked at me and in total seriousness said, "Did you put liquid smoke in this?"

I just started laughing so hard. He honestly hadn't remembered that he totally added the smoke taste himself :)

Very Funny

2011-01-24T21:21:00.001-08:00

I just spent the last two hours reading this blog and laughing so hard:

www.stuffwhitepeoplelike.com

Ah, so funny!

A "Sweet and Sour" Day for Me

2011-01-23T08:14:00.000-08:00

Yesterday after Finn's morning nap (which turned out to be his only nap) we headed to the hospital to visit Miss Maggie. We ate at the YUMMY OHSU cafeteria and I had a sweet and sour chicken tempura which was excellent, like everything else I've eaten there this last week.

After eating, we headed up to the NICU for some snuggles with the babe. She's doing great: cooing, eating like a champ and is now intervention free. It's so wonderful that she is doing so much better and it was fun to finally hold her! They are going to keep observing her and she has a few little tests to pass, but hopefully will be heading home early this week.

After visiting, we headed to The Yellow House to hang out with JJ's family. We tried to put Finn down for an afternoon nap (no dice...he had cousins to play with!) so we took the kids to the park:

We then spent the evening playing a couple different games with James and Staci while the kids played and then watched a movie after Finn went to sleep. We also ate Chinese food and what did I have...sweet and sour chicken (which was completely different than what I have for lunch, but made me laugh when I realized I had doubled up).

Feeding Himself

2011-01-13T13:50:00.000-08:00

Finn's diet is now at, I'd estimate, 90% finger foods. He still gets 2 ounces of prune puree in the morning (that's a must to keep the little guy's digestive system intact) and I've been giving him spinach puree for dinner because it's such a healthy green that he really enjoys and I don't think he could chew it up quite yet, although I may try soon.

He is just so very happy feeding himself and I am so very happy to be able to make dinner while he's having a snack or unload the dishwasher while he's eating breakfast. He hasn't mastered the sippy cup quite yet, so he still requires some help from Mama at mealtimes, but other than that, he's on his own. (Don't worry, I don't leave the room. I know he could totally choke if I do.)

The only downside is the mess and man, can that kid make a mess. Because we don't use a traditional highchair, there is nothing to catch the fallers so the food gets all over my house. I actually found some under a chair in our living room the other day.

It's all worth it though. My goal from the beginning has been that by the time he turns one, I'm pretty much not feeding him at all, besides nursing. I can't believe he turns one in NINE WEEKS! That's just beyond my comprehension!

Finger Foods

2011-01-07T17:17:00.001-08:00

We are definitely moving away from purees with Finn. He will still eat them, but he is much happier feeding himself. The problem is I feel like most of the finger foods that we serve him are borderline junk. I mean we don't feed him candy or french fries or anything like that, but the majority of soft finger foods are carb based: cheerios, soft granola bars, rice, noodles, etc.

So lately I've been on a hunt for healthy finger foods. About a week ago I started giving him organic canned beans and sweet peas. I also give him chopped up peaches and mangoes. Today I decided to chop and steam some crunchier fruits and veggies for him to eat on his own. I made carrots, sweet potatoes, turnips and apples. I think he's going to enjoy them!

Mac N' Cheese

2011-01-06T12:40:00.000-08:00

I wonder why I don't feel so bad eating Mac N' Cheese when it's in the shell shape instead of the elbow shape? Like it's better for me or something. I am eating Annie's, so at least it's organic, right?

My Bad

2011-01-05T20:14:00.000-08:00

Finn is so active! I'm sure he is just a typical nine and a half month old boy, but some days he just wears me out. He gets into everything and right now his biggest joy is dumping things out: our bedroom drawers, all the cookbooks, the pots and pans, etc. I feel like I walk around all day cleaning up one mess after another. I'm really not complaining. He is so cute and always so happy. But I feel like I'm constantly saying "No, no, no." I do not want to be that mom that is constantly telling her kid "no" so I'm working on ways to say "yes." I'm trying to distract him and get him involved in safer and less messy activities and sometimes to just ignore the behaviors I don't love, even if that means my kitchen is a room full of empty drawers. My parents always said that their parenting strategy was to find ways to say "yes" so I'm practicing now in the littlest ways in hopes that it becomes a habit for when we have to start dealing with the big things.

11:11 on 1/1/11

2011-01-01T23:50:00.000-08:00

JJ came in and took a picture of me during my last evening snuggle-feed with Finn!

Farewell 2010

2011-01-01T06:36:00.001-08:00

2010 was easily the year that brought the most change to our lives. JJ and I welcomed our amazing Finn and life as we knew it will never be the same.

We started out the year like this, just the two of us (with Finn growing inside me):

As the year went on, it became more and more obvious that a baby was about to join our family:

Then, on March 19, we welcomed Finn Tokola Avison:

And now here we are, loving our active, chatty nine month old, who gets into everything, but still gives the best snuggles around:

We are so looking forward to 2011 and all the fun it will bring!

A Few of His Favorite Things

2010-12-31T09:07:00.000-08:00

This morning I decided to document some of Finn's favorite things to do around our house. I've been following him around singing "These Are a Few of My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music, snapping pictures as he entertains himself.

Finn's number one food of choice right now is hummus. I spread it on a chunky 12 grain bread and chop it into one inch squares. He scarfs it down. Really, he can't stuff it in his mouth fast enough. I have to dole it out piece by piece or he would fill his whole mouth before swallowing.

We usually leave the shade on our front door down, but about a week ago I found Finn standing inside it looking outside, so now I'm starting to pull it up each morning. He loves to stand there and watch the cars go by.

We have a mail slot on our house and the mail falls into a basket below it each day. If I don't sort the mail daily, Finn loves to do it for me :) And it's hard to tell from the angle of the picture, but Finn is standing on his own, not holding on to anything. He has been doing that more and more.

The nasal aspirator continues to be a big hit and has still never seen a nostril, so it's not too gross.

He loves to play with our iPhones. We don't let him have them on yet (same thing as watching TV in my book) but he'll hold onto it and stare at it for a long time. I think he sees us doing that all the time and wants to copy us.

Oh, Man, This Kid is Smart

2010-12-28T08:11:00.000-08:00

A lot of times when I need to move Finn from point A to point B quickly, I will just put my hands under his arm-pits and carry him across the room (Side bar: I don't like the word arm-pit. I'd much rather use under-arm, but I wanted you to have a clear picture of the way I carry him). Usually when I move him this way, I'm taking him away from something he likes to do, like chewing on the laptop cord, toward something he isn't that into, like sitting in the middle of the living room floor. The kid figured out that if he puts his hands straight up in the air he slides through and I can't move him anywhere. Jeesh. Isn't that something that three year olds do? Why is my nine month old already figuring out ways to out-smart me? I said he takes after his daddy, right?

Ah, Classic!

2010-12-19T09:52:00.001-08:00

Like Father, Like Son

2010-12-17T09:05:00.000-08:00

Photo Credit

I think one of the reasons I am so crazy in love with my son (one of many reasons, that is) is because he is just so much like JJ. When we got our family pictures taken, Maryanne pointed out their smiles in the picture above and how both of their jaws are jutting out and to the side. It's just too cute!

But it goes beyond the looks. They are both 90% the happiest, most outgoing people you'll ever meet and 10% frustrated and upset. There is rarely a calm, chilled out "middle mood" in either of my boys. I spend most of my life in that middle zone, not really up or down, and I love having these two to balance me out and am so happy that the large majority of the time that balance comes from the happy side.

They are also both into seeing how things work. I can already tell Finn has this side of his daddy's personality. At about nine months old, he will already sit for minutes and mess with this little toy that has gears and watch each side move. He opens and shuts every single cabinet we have, will watch our front loaders go around and around and will pull out the cookbooks and put them in some kind of order that probably makes sense in his little mind.

Bottom line: I am so madly in love with my boys. I was made to be a mom and wife to these guys and they were made to perfectly fit with me. I couldn't be happier!

Recent Developments

2010-12-16T06:32:00.001-08:00

Finn will be nine months old on Sunday and I thought it would be nice to have something to read back on years from now that lists some of the new tricks Finn has picked up between month eight and month nine.

Crawling: Finn is officially a crawler. Although he had been army crawling for about six weeks, in the last week or so that move has been completely forsaken for the regular, on your knees crawl. He is very fast and the gate to the stairs always has to be closed if I'm not right there with him.

Climbing: Finn loves to be up. He pulls himself up wherever he can: the couch, taller toys, the piano bench, our cookbook rack. His favorite climbing activity, though, is the stairs. He can get up both our large set and the smaller set that turns into the kitchen in less than a minute. He flies up them.

Food: Most days now it's a battle to get any purees down Finn. He just constantly wants to feed himself finger foods now. At this point I'm really working to still get him to eat some purees, but am also trying out lots of different finger foods. He loves shredded cheese, chopped peaches, pieces of banana, etc. I bought these toddler Earth's Best breakfast bars that I break into chunks. He devours those in about a second and a half. Where I'm falling behind is veggies (which is why I'm still pushing some purees) so if anyone has any advice of good veggie finger foods, I'd love some advice.

Toys: Finn has become very discerning regarding his toys. He knows what he likes and that is what he wants to play with. It's so cute because I've noticed recently that he can go to his toy basket and push things around until he finds what he wants. Right now his two favorite toys are a wooden maraca and a plastic nose aspirator (so weird, I know- he loves how the pointy part works perfectly as a handle- you will find him crawling all over the house with that thing in his hands).

Play: For at least a month, JJ has played a little game with Finn where he gets on his hands and knees and moves towards him saying "I'm gonna get you!" Finn has always squealed and giggled, but just recently has started "running" away from JJ. When JJ starts coming at him, Finn turns in the opposite direction and crawls away as fast as he can laughing his head off. Trust me. It's about the cutest thing ever.

Nursing: Our nursing frequency is WAY down. I've counted the last couple of days and he is now nursing seven times in a 24 hour period. For a lot of mama/baby teams that is pretty normal, maybe even a little high for a nine month old, but Finn was a very frequent nurser. Up until about a month ago he was nursing between 12-15 times a day. Now he is just so busy and distracted, he doesn't care as much about it. Pretty much all of our nursing is happening around sleep times: before and after a nap or bed. Very occasionally he will want to nurse during a random play time if he bumps his head or something like that, but for the most part, he has bigger and better things to do during our days now.

Sleep: Finn has, for the most part, slept through the night for about the last month. Every once in a while we'll hear a little peep from his room, but he usually puts himself back to sleep very quickly. In the last month, I have probably only had to go in less than five times. I still dream-feed him once before I go to bed (nursing him while he sleeps) between 10-11pm. I want him to get one more feeding in (for nutrition and immunity reasons) and it gives me time to snuggle up with him before our long stretch of sleep.

Gospel Christmas

2010-12-12T08:41:00.001-08:00

Last night we attended Oregon Symphony's "Gospel Christmas." This is my fifth time attending and wow! It is just so amazing.

We started out our evening at David and Jean's Holiday Party. It was fun to see all their friends that we see so infrequently (some we hadn't seen since our wedding five years ago). The food is always fabulous, too, and we were sorry to have to leave so early.

We dropped Finn off at the Yellow House and I'm pretty sure as JJ walked out the door Finn was thinking, "Don't let the door hit you on the way out!" He played with his cousins, aunt, uncle and grandma and the only tear he shed was when they put him to bed, most likely because they were forcing him to stop playing.

We arrived at the Schnitzer Theatre, which in my opinion is the prettiest venue in Oregon. It was perfect timing because we grabbed drinks and sat down just at the lights were starting to dim. And then it hit us.

Wham! The wave of sound comes at you all at once. 100+ amazing singers, accompanied by the Oregon Symphony, belting out gospel arranged Christmas music. You really can't describe it. It is wonderful.

At one point, I actually cried. It was about the third song in and they sang, "O Holy Night," which is one of my favorites. I put my head on JJ's shoulder and started thinking about how blessed we are: we love each other madly, have an amazingly gorgeous healthy child, family on both sides that we love and appreciate and who care for us in return, a beautiful house, jobs that are not only steady, but that we both enjoy. As I sat there listening to the music and looking around at the surroundings, tears started to roll.

After it was over, we went next door to the Heathman Hotel and had a drink up on the mezzanine. They had a nice jazz trio playing and it was very relaxing to chat and enjoy the atmosphere.

We picked Finn up and spent about an hour chatting with JJ's family. It was fun to catch up with them and I was so thankful that they had a good time with Finn. It's crazy that they only live about 40 minutes away, but we just don't see them very often. Life gets the better of us and it somehow just doesn't happen as often as we'd like. Every time we drive away, we tell each other that we need to come that direction more often.

From start to finish, we had a wonderful night. Gospel Christmas looks like it might be becoming a family tradition and I'm so looking forward to it again next year.

The Goals

2010-12-07T07:34:00.000-08:00

A couple weeks ago one of my FB friends from WAY back in my life, Kersten, pointed me towards this blog and I immediately signed up. I did the math and I think it is very do-able for me to complete 500 miles in one year. What I love about this challenge is that it doesn't have to be all running miles. You can run or walk and they even have conversion formulas for swimming and biking.

My dad and I are registered for the Foot Traffic Half Marathon on July 4, 2011. I've created a training schedule, which starts in late March, right around when Finn turns one.

I have six more pounds to lose until I hit my pre-pregnancy weight (although I'm already fitting in my clothes!) and setting some fitness goals (like a 1/2 marathon and 500 miles) always works well to get me moving. For example, before Finn was born I signed up for a 5K that was scheduled for eight weeks after his birth, which turned out to be more like 5 when all was said and done. It was tough to get myself moving again, but having that goal out there made it happen. It wasn't pretty or impressive, but I did it.

Here is the bigger goal and I'm putting it out there so that you all can hold me accountable if you see me trying to order chicken fingers or cheesecake: JJ and I have decided that we aren't going to try for baby #2 until I am 25 pounds lighter than I was when I got pregnant with Finn (that's 31 pounds more to lose for all you non-mathematicians out there).

This next pregnancy may likely be my last and I am so determined to get my home birth this time. The main thing that sent me to the hospital with Finn was high blood pressure and the best way to keep that down is by starting at a little lower weight and keeping up with a balanced diet and exercise while pregnant. I did great with the diet and exercise in my last pregnancy, but starting out a little over my ideal weight was out of my control once Finn was growing inside me.

So, there it is. My three goals for 2011: 500 miles, 1/2 marathon and lose 31 pounds. I usually hate new years' resolutions, but this year I am going for it!

(By the way, doesn't that silhouette up above look so 80s? I totally think she is wearing leg-warmers!)

New Textures

2010-12-06T09:10:00.001-08:00

Finn loves: rice, cheerios, green beans, smushy asparagus.

Finn hates: cottage cheese, bananas, avocado (which is weird because it was his first solid and he loved it in puree form but has since lost his affinity for it).

TBD (starting today): diced peaches, rice spirals.

The V Monologues

2010-12-04T19:47:00.000-08:00

I don't mean vagina, virgin or vasectomy. I'm talking vaccines.

Finn had his first vaccine yesterday. Yesterday. He was eight months and 15 days old. Why'd we wait so long?

First of all, I don't think vaccines are bunk or cause autism or are a plot from big pharm to make us all dependent upon them. I've done some research, but wouldn't call myself an expert in any way. The extent of my expertise is the Dr. Sears' Vaccine Book and lots of internet reading, most of which is very biased.

So why did we wait? Finn and I share a family doctor whom I trust basically without question. She is so supportive and has helped me through a high blood pressure pregnancy without screaming "pre-eclampsia" or putting me on drugs and supported me every inch of the way through my struggles with breastfeeding, always encouraging me to get off the formula but never, ever making me feel like a failure for the little we had to use. I trust her advice and at this point, I don't feel like she has ever steered me wrong.

Dr. Jessie is very cautious when it comes to vaccines. She isn't anti-vaccine. She encouraged us to get this one months ago. I would call her anti-blanket vaccines, meaning everyone getting the same thing at the same time.

When Finn was first born, she asked us about our vaccine plan. At that point, we were planning on waiting a year. Instead of saying "nice to meet you, find another doc" like so many other doctors do, she said that we should schedule an appointment when he turned three months and we would discuss our options. At that appointment, she spent an hour with us (what doctor ever spends an hour with you anymore?) and we went through every single vaccine, one by one, discussing the risks, what it protected from and evaluated Finn's risk for each disease or sickness.

At that time, she encouraged us to get the DTaP when Finn turned six months. That was the only vaccine-covered illness that she felt he was really at risk of catching. There are other scary illnesses out there, but as long as Finn was getting over half his calories from breastmilk, he was pretty well protected. Finn had a cold at his six month check up and she said she didn't want him to get the shot until he had been well for 2 weeks, which is why we just got it done yesterday.

We are set to re-evaluate his vaccine needs at his nine month appointment at the end of this month (is my baby really almost nine months?!?!) He is definitely nursing less, although I would still guess at least half of what he is getting is breastmilk. We may make the decision to get more or we may decide to hold off for awhile.

Saying all that, I pass absolutely no judgement upon parents who follow the traditional vaccine schedule. Millions of babies do and they are fine. It is a sticky topic that people get worked up about but I feel no need to try and push my opinion on others. Most of what I write on this blog is so that I can read back someday and remember the way I was feeling at a particular point in my life.

For us, this is our decision, for this time. Who knows? It may change with the next baby. I'm always prepared to see my foot in my mouth at some point. It happens so often :)

A Valuable Exercise

2010-12-01T08:32:00.000-08:00

About half way through this month of blogging, I was complaining that I didn't have anything interesting to blog about and my brother said, "You know, that's the point of the exercise, right? You have to figure out what to write about when you've covered the obvious."

I did it. It is December 1st and I was able to blog every day for the month of November. I tried not to make every single post about Finn, but obviously he is the biggest thing going on in my life right now, so the majority of posts were about him.

Now I have a record of the whole month of November 2010. If I ever want to know what we were doing when Finn was 7 months going on 8, I will have a reference. I think overall it was a valuable exercise.

PSU Rocks

2010-11-30T19:39:00.000-08:00

I attended a conference today at Portland State. I was so happy to see that they had private rooms attached to their women's restrooms for PUMPING! Wow.

The only issue was that they were locked with one of those code handles and it took me about fifteen minutes to track someone down that had the code. I asked why they would lock them if they expected them to get used and they said it was because they were finding homeless people asleep on the couches in there. Ah, urban life. Apparently the code never changes so women that need to get it only have to find it once.

So great!

A Breastfeeding PSA

2010-11-29T07:53:00.001-08:00

Jana & Finn's Public Service Announcement:

It still surprises me. Nine times out of ten, when a stranger in a store or restaurant sees how many teeth Finn has, I get some variation of this question: Not nursing anymore, eh?

Where did this myth start that we can't nurse our children after they cut teeth?

Here are my answers:

1. Oh yes, we are still nursing.

2. No, he doesn't bite me.

3. He did bite for about a week. He stopped.

4. Actually, the teeth made us a much better nursing team.

5. Once he got teeth, I had to be really deliberate about his latch, which actually helped with supply issues.

6. When I have trouble, I find help. I have a lactation consultant (Meg at Beyond Birth), two sisters-in-law (Staci and Maryanne), a cousin on each side (Sammie and Emilia) and the internet (Kelly Mom) that are all there to offer support and advice when I get frustrated.

7. The nutrients Finn gets from my milk are worth working through issues like this.

8. The easiest way for me to comfort my baby is with nursing. I want to have that tool when his little mouth is hurting so much.

9. When I decided to nurse, my goal was to make it to 2 years. I knew going in that he would have teeth before I reached that goal.

10. And finally, I worked too hard to breastfeed to give it up over something like this.

The Best Part of Vacation

2010-11-28T22:01:00.000-08:00

JJ always says the best part of vacation is coming home. I disagree. The best part is definitely the food. But in a close second place is looking at pictures after it's all over. These are my favorite images from our Thanksgiving vacation at Salishan.

Post-nap cuteness:

Watching the golf course:

Free Dance Dance Revolution:

Finn eating scrambled eggs for the first time:

Tokola Turkey Trot

2010-11-27T23:53:00.001-08:00

Last year we decided that we would do a post-Thanksgiving 5k during our weekend at Salishan. This year was just as fun as last. The weather was a little sketchy and Finn and I were a little late because of his nap, but overall we had a great time. This is such a fun family tradition!

This is everyone right before the race.

Here is a picture of us all eating after the race.

A Laundry Experience

2010-11-26T10:07:00.000-08:00

Today, JJ and I hit a laundromat in Lincoln City to wash Finn's cloth diapers. JJ and Finn walked over to Radio Shack while I watched the load. While they were gone, I got to talking with this woman who was sitting next to me, also waiting for her laundry to finish.

As we talked, she told me how the last couple of months have gone for her. At the end of September, after months of trying to stay above water, she and her husband lost their home. Most of her things were sold in auction and they moved into a trailer park.

Then on November 10th, just a little over a month after all this happened with their house, her husband died suddenly. He had diabetes, but was not particularly sick at the time. He just didn't wake up one morning.

Yesterday, their dog died. She said she felt like the dog died of a broken heart. After her husband passed, the dog stopped eating and drinking and basically just wasted away.

They never had any children and she doesn't have any family in the area. She has a few friends, but said it has been a really lonely season in her life.

When I left I told her I hoped that something really special happens to her in the next month that will bring some happiness into this holiday time.

I keep thinking about that lady's life in relation to mine. I feel so fortunate, not for material things, but for family and friends. I know that I have such a supportive network of people in my life. I have a wonderful family and great lifetime friends. I know if anything ever happened to JJ, I would still have his family in my life.

I have to say, when I walked in that laundromat, I was just expecting to walk out with some clean diapers, not with a reminder of how blessed I am.

Happy Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T19:19:00.000-08:00

Today we celebrated our first Thanksgiving with Finn. While I have so many things to be thankful for, the one topping my list right now is our darling little boy! I am so thankful that we were chosen to be Finn's parents!

What do you think?

2010-11-24T10:36:00.000-08:00

I think we may have a climber on our hands. Agreed?

Fire alarm? Evacuation?

2010-11-23T07:52:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I worked a very long day. I wanted to only put in one big long day on Monday and have the rest of the week off (yes, I love my job). When I just work a few hours, I can often get away without pumping, but that wasn't going to happen yesterday.

At about two o'clock I figured it was time to get it done again. I walked down to the bathroom and realized I had my phone with me. I have never been talented enough to do anything while I am pumping, so I set it on top of the toilet seat covers case. The hook was right above that, so I took off my badge and sweater and hung them up like I always do.

About three minutes in when I had just really gotten going, I heard this weird low growling sound over and over. It would go for about a second, then stop, then start again. It sounded like it was out in the hall. It was very strange, I don't know how to explain it.

I thought possibly it was the fire alarm, but looked up and the fire alarm box was within sight, had a light on it, and was not lit up. Then my mind started jumping to ridiculous conclusions: maybe that is an evacuation alarm. Maybe there is a shooter in the building and the low growling noise is the secret signal to everyone to get out. Maybe everyone is running out the side doors right now and I am in here pumping away, oblivious to what is happening. I am new to this office. I didn't know any emergency procedures.

I got so involved in my various scenarios, that before I knew it I was done. I finished up, washed my hands and started to make my way back to my office. I honestly peeked out kind of slowly to make sure everything was okay.

As I was walking I pressed my phone on and noticed someone had called when I was pumping. And then I just started laughing hysterically. That low growling noise? My phone vibrating against the metal seat cover holder.

Oh, man, I can not believe I just admitted that story to the world. I am such a dork!

Cloth Diapers

2010-11-22T06:59:00.000-08:00

When I was pregnant, I read a ton and did a lot of research (surprised?) on just about anything and everything pregnancy and newborn related. There were lots of things I wanted to do as a mother, but I had a big three:

1. Natural, out of hospital birth (to see how that turned out, read here)

2. Breastfeeding (to see how that went, read here, here and here)

3. Cloth Diapers (the one thing actually within my control!)

I love cloth diapering. It is really easy, will totally save me money in the long run and is so much better for the environment. And plus, I just think they are so cute! The only disposables I can even stand to look at are the Target polka-dot ones and the 7th Generation plain brown ones.

This morning I decided to take a picture of my "stash." I do a diaper wash about every three days, but I had no idea how many diapers I actually had. Turns out it is 23. I have a few things I need to fill in the gaps (I always run out of Grovia shells before I run out of the snap in inserts- on the left in the picture), but other than that, I'm in pretty good shape.

The first picture is of my diapers all spread out (except for the one Finn is wearing). I wasn't trying to get Finn in the picture, but he was so interested in what I was doing that he crawled in the shot.

The second picture is how I store them. I actually really shouldn't buy too many more because they fit in the drawer perfectly right now. These diapers should last through baby #2, but of course if we have a girl, I'm going to want to add to it all with pink and purples :)

Bad boys, bad boys....what you gonna do?

2010-11-21T08:55:00.000-08:00

Christi's sister Kaylene posted the funniest story on FB yesterday. Her husband, who is a rural mailman, ran into the gas station store and when he was coming out, a guy was stealing his ipod and wallet out of his car. Matt called him out on it, ran over, stopped the guy and even patted him down until he found his stuff and the police arrived. I guess the guy thought Matt was an off duty cop since he had his mail light on the top of his car. Why the idiot would steal out of a cop car, who knows. Funny story.

For some reason, when I was reading it, this story popped in my head of something that happened to me a few years ago. It was one of those beautiful fall afternoons, cool but sunny and nice. I was with my mom in her convertable and we had the top down (and the heater blasting). She needed to go to the bank (which used to be the Wamu in Keizer, which is now Chase). That parking lot is so poorly designed that it is always a zoo. She decided to run in instead of fighting the drive-through.

As I was sitting there waiting for her, I heard a screech and turned around to see this HUGE white truck totally cut off this little blue sadan. They both had their windows open and started screaming at each other. The screaming ended up with both of these guys getting out of their cars and in each others' faces about three feet from where I was sitting.

Before I could even think about what I was doing, I said, "You guys, knock it off. I teach middle school and my 12 year olds don't even act like that." I am not exaggerating. Those are the exact words that came out of my mouth. As soon as they left my lips, I was practically sucking to pull them back in. Here are these two road-raged crazy grown men and I am scolding them like they are children. What was I thinking?

But guess what? It totally worked. One glared at me. One scoffed. But they didn't say one more word to each other and both stomped off. Oh my word, I am so lucky that one of them wasn't truly crazy and carrying a gun or something.

I'm not sure why Matt and Kaylene's story reminded me of that situation that happened so long ago, but it did. Maybe it was the theme of an everyday person being a hero (I hope you read that with the sarcasm I intended!)

What a Difference a Week Makes

2010-11-20T07:50:00.001-08:00

About ten days ago I decided to see how Finn would do eating some of those Happy Baby melt away Os. He was always grabbing at our food and I figured he would enjoy feeding himself, but I was concerned that he wouldn't know how to chew because basically the only food that had ever gone in his mouth were purees. He has enough teeth (8!) that you would think I would chill, but apparently I don't know how to chill when it comes to my child :) I gave him one and he picked it up, but didn't have the coordination to actually pinch it with his fingers to get it in his mouth. He could only "fist" it and bring it to his face, without actually hitting the target. I took that as a sign that he wasn't ready.

Last night, JJ was holding him and eating this soft pumpkin cookie that my friend Tracey left at our house. Finn was eyeing that thing and really quickly pounced and took a big bite. He chewed it up and swallowed it before I even knew what was happening. We decided to grab the Os and he went to town. He loved them! He was smiling and laughing and stuffing his face. I guess he was ready.

This morning I dumped a few out on his tray and he nibbled away while I unloaded the dishwasher. I think there ended up being just as many on the seat of his chair as he got into his mouth, but he'll learn.

Who Needs Toys?

2010-11-19T08:07:00.000-08:00

Finn has quite a few toys. We have by no means gone crazy and much of what we have, we bought at consignment shops. I have easily spent twice the amount of money on books as I have on toys. (Side note, I was so happy this morning when I found him paging through an animal book, intent on looking at the pictures) Most of the toys that he does have just don't seem to keep his interest more than about fifteen seconds, which I know is his age, but is another reason why I'm just not willing to spend a bunch of money on them.

The only toys that he consistently plays with are some stacking cups that my friend Darlene gave us when we were visiting her in Bend and this wooden bead block thingy:

Who needs toys? Right now, these are Finn's favorite activities around our house:

He loves getting in to our closet drawers. This morning he was particularly interested in JJ's "work" drawer (the clothes he uses to work around the house and yard).

The dishwasher can provide fifteen or twenty minutes of entertainment (which feels like a lifetime to me on some days). I just have to make sure all knives are out of reach.

Even hanging on to the side of our bed is fun these days (especially is he can find the tag on the side of our top sheet...he loves tags!)

Hearts at Home Luncheon

2010-11-18T06:24:00.001-08:00

Today I am hosting a luncheon for all the girls in my Hearts at Home group. I've decorated the table in fall colors and am baking two quiches, as well as putting together my favorite salad (spinach, diced pears, Gorgonzola, candied almonds, with a raspberry vinaigrette dressing). Maryanne is bringing the best pumpkin muffins ever (recipe found here).

We also have a bunch of kids coming so I have assembled a mountain of grilled cheese sandwiches that are awaiting my panini maker and some grubby hands. We are slicing up apples and I have dipping caramel as well. I'm not going to decide if the caramel is coming out until I see how many kids are here. If they can all fit around my little kitchen table, then the caramel is all theirs. If they can't, there is no way I'm getting caramel drops all over my house.

I was so happy when my job changed so that I had the flexibility to go to Hearts at Home. It is so fun and meaningful to meet with a group of women who are in the same stage of life. We laugh, cry and offer support to each other in the hard times. Last week when JJ and I decided to let Finn cry it out and I was having such a hard time with the anticipation of it all, they prayed for me, sent me kind words and shared their experiences. It made the whole thing so easy to feel like I wasn't doing it on my own. One of the women, Shannon (who has six kids!) even offered to come over and do it for me since she knew how hard it was for me. Now, that's support from someone I've just met and a perfect example of why Hearts at Home is such an important place for me to be right now.

Last night when I was getting the house ready and food prepped, JJ asked me how I was going to do this luncheon all on my own. "It's going to be really hard to serve 20+ people all by yourself." I told him it just wasn't like that. Sure, I'm hosting, but I won't be doing it by myself. I know the girls will come alongside and help if I need it. That's just what we do for each other in our group.