storytime.

was a complete fail. storytime starts at 11:30 at the local public library. they let you in until 11:40. finley and i showed up at 11:42. yep, 2 min late. i even asked the ladies at the counter if i could go in, but they said no. awesome. apparently they don't have kids or they don't remember what it's like to get a 6 month old out of the house promptly. fin eats at 11 normally so i bumped it up to 10:45 today so we could be on time. all was going well until we were headed out the door and she had a poopy diaper. ooooooof course. so i changed that quickly, found the library (never been before), got an amazing parking spot and still was 2 min. late on top of the 10 min. late. sigh.... i guess we'll try next week.


also? i felt uber old b/c the library is on a community college campus. you know, with college aged kids. and there i am with my baby.

NY.

well what i really want to do it say "see erin's blog" b/c she documents things so well, but alas, i will do my best to recount fin's first vacation. our first family vacation! nanny and papa live in NY and hadn't met their 3rd grandchild yet so we thought we needed to make that happen. she's at a great age, the perfect time of year to visit up north and i just couldn't wait for them to meet. so we spend the 2nd week of october having a blast in cooler weather. early, early, early saturday morning we woke fin up and headed to the airport. checked in, got through security, grabbed breakfast and got to our gate at the perfect time. i was pretty anxious about the plane ride b/c i didn't want to be that mom, but i had to keep reminding myself 1. i'll never see these people again and 2. she's a baby. there's only so much you can do. needless to say, she did amazingly well. everyone around us was so nice and oohing and aahing over her. she had maybe just a few minutes of not being happy, but i don't blame her. i was ready to get off the plane too. she got a bottle going up (on both flights) but didn't need it for landing. her ears didn't seem to bother her at all thank goodness. when we landed mom, erin, grace and andrew were already there with nanny and papa. i was so excited for them to finally see finley in person! it was great. we gathered ALL the luggage (you should have seen how much 4 adults and 3 children need) and packed up 2 cars. one for the luggage and the other for all of us. erin and brandon installed 3 car seats perfectly and we were on our way. all 3 kiddos were angels while we were getting everything in order. of course we had a feast at nanny and papa's that night. wouldn't expect anything less. we spent the week going to parks, climbing mohonk, apple picking, shopping at woodstock, and pigging out (friendly's, dallas hot weiners, chinese food, pizza, and of course nanny's home cooked meals/desserts). it was so weird to take your own daughter (that's weird to say anyways) to the same parks you grew up going to.

chillin at the cleveland airport

love this pic of erin and grace napping

all packed up and ready to go!

by the end of the week we were pros at getting everyone out of the house in a timely manner. it actually wasn't that stressful. it helps that we were all on the same page with the importance of naps and keeping the kiddos happy. erin and i have the babies pretty much on the same schedule so that helped a ton. grace is an amazing little girl so she's the easiest one, just one of the gals. she grabs diapers for you, keeps the babies entertained, sings to them, plays with them, nicely reminds them to be gentle, she's just great. not to mention she's hilarious, polite, beautiful, witty, creative and just perfect. she's a great role model for finley.

we had an amazing week and i'm so thankful finley got to spend all that time with her great grandparents, great aunt and uncle, 2nd cousins, grandmother, aunt, cousins, mommy and daddy. she's one lucky little girl. i've got it pretty good too.

halloween.

we took fin "trick-or-treating" on halloween, but we did it a little different. clearly she can't eat candy, but i definitely wanted to show her off. i decided to do sort of a reverse trick or treating so i made some cookies and we delivered those. we dressed her up as a ladybug and went to 4 houses. really just the neighbors we talk to frequently that we thought would want to see her. they loved seeing her! the people directly next to us are really fun and they had a pumpkin pinata for the kids so we hung out with them for a little bit till fin was ready for bed. once finley was down for bed we took the monitor with us to the driveway and passed out candy from there. i'd call it a successful first halloween.

mirror.

for about a year now there has been a tall wall mirror with no home just hanging out against the wall in the living room. we finally have a use for it! well, finley does at least. she loooooves to stare at herself and try to play with the other baby. she'll stare, get excited and rock  back and forth, talk, scream, hit the mirror and look at me like "isn't this awesome??" we try to visit the mirror a few times a day, and stop by the mirrors in the bathroom as well.

6months.

happy half birthday finley! at half a year old she

*sits all by herself (started a couple weeks ago)
*starting to get frustrated on her tummy when there's a toy she can't reach
*rolls from back to tummy both ways
*still only rolls from tummy to back in her crib and not that often
*sleeps 7ish-7ish with no feedings (allelujia!), occasionally she'll have a little chat with herself around 3/4am, but usually goes to sleep quickly
*eats 6-7 oz of formula at 7am, 11, 3 and bedtime
*has a great laugh (likes when we roar at her)
*is fascinated with ruby
*puts herself to sleep for naps and nighttime
*would rather sit up than be on her tummy/back
*has tried sweet potato, avocado and carrots-- i guess she liked them kinda? carrots more than anything but they didn't really taste like much to me
*eats cereal/veggie twice a day
*went on her first plane ride! and did awesome
*"talks" up a storm, now moving her mouth up and down babbling, i think she picked it up from hanging out with drew for a week
*scoots around
*sleeps with a blankie at naptime
*takes 2-3 naps, just depends on how long they are
*still no teeth, but maybe see the bottom front 2 coming in
*loves grabbing her feet and eats them occasionally
*stays up about 2-2.5 hrs before needing a nap, we push that time to 3-3.5 hrs before bedtime
*has found her ear and head-- only with her right hand, hence singular ear :)
*gets on all 4s, but only in her crib
*loves her bath
*still has grayish/bluish eyes, but sometimes i see a hint of brown in them
*wakes at 7, naps 9-10:30/11, naps 1-2:30/3, sometimes takes at catnap around 4, bedtime at 6:45
*is the best....still.

veg.

the other night i was making dinner and we were going to be having mashed sweet potatoes so i thought i should keep some to the side and let finley have a try. so before i put the good stuff in them, i separated a few days worth for her and decided to give it a go.

she didn't mind too much at first, but as we went along she was kind of changing her mind. day 2 i think she liked them even less.

"daddy, help me"

we've started teaching her some sign language and she LOVES when we do "all done"

 

 

day 2. it looks like she's saying "no more" but really she was trying to grab the spoon.

pumpkin.

well fall is here and it actually kinda felt like it yesterday! it was the perfect day to go to dewberry farm to check out the pumpkins. we've never been before and it looks like it will be a ton of fun when finley gets older. we had a good time yesterday, but there were a lot of activities for older kids. there was a pumpkin patch you could get to by hay ride or walk--we walked, it's not that far and she doesn't care if we go on a hay ride.

ready to go! got the cow print diaper on to go to the farm!

trying to figure out what's so scratchy...

miss prissy pants doesn't like grass. although it was pretty crunchy here.

they also have a corn cannon, corn maze, huge slides, flower picking, go cart thingies, awesome trampoline thingy, playgrounds, and animals including pony rides. we went after fin's afternoon nap (3 hrs! she must have know the fun she was about to have and rested up for it) and it only took about 30 min. to get there. we walked to the pumpkin patch, took some pics, learned that fin HATES grass, checked out the flowers and baby animals, took some more pics, bought a little pumpkin for finley and headed home. she did a great job hanging out in her stroller and checking everything out. it was super crowded, but not obnoxious and the weather was warm, but waaaaay better than 100 degrees. really the only time she got upset was when she was sitting in the grass. we put a burp cloth under her legs, but she still didn't like it. we should have brought a blanket, but oh well. i've been so excited (like since i found out i was pregnant) to take her to the pumpkin patch so i was in love. it was the perfect day.

fin was distracted by the flowers.

she loved her perfect little pumpkin!

yea, she's crying. no excuses here. the grass was quite soft.

they'll both put anything in their mouths. see stroller strap above.