If you do that one more time....

No, we don't beat our kids. This particular bonk happened at our apartment. Poor kid had no way to have fun at that place without getting hurt. Lots of wood floors and furniture with sharp corners. Bad news for a wiggly boy. We'd warned him over and over that if he jumped on the couch he might fall and smack his head on the corner of the coffee table. And finally he did.

This, is the result of a "bumper" (one of those big balloons with an elastic on the end) hitting our new ceiling fan light. Again, after several warnings of, "Tate, don't hit that balloon in here. If you hit those lights they could break," it finally happened. Twice actually. The first time it smacked the light and part of the glass dome fell down. And then the next day, while the relief society president was visiting us with her little daughter, they were bouncing it (My bad this time. Why didn't I just throw the balloon away?) and it smacked a light bulb which exploded and glass showered us all. Shattered glass all over the room. Luckily no one was cut. Good times. Lessons learned. No more bumpers in this house. The ceilings are much lower than they were in our Houston house.

Picture Wednesday and a proud Daddy

Little Finn is, well, not so little anymore. I'm pretty sure he was a tiny newborn just yesterday and now look at him. 14 weeks old.

It happened so so fast. Even faster this time because I've been so preoccupied with other things and now that I'm finally getting settled and have more time and energy to spend loving him up, he's grown so much. In some ways I feel like I missed it.

He's still sleeping like a champ and smiling at anyone who looks his way. We're working on the giggles. He's given us some funny squeaks and beginnings of giggles but no rolling laughter yet. We'll keep working on that, of course. He's been just a delight this past week. Turns out when

we stay home all day and he gets solid, uninterrupted nap times in his own bed, he's much happier. Unfortunately for little babe, we're going to start getting out for more outings now. Hopefully we'll be able to figure out a schedule that works for all of us.

In other news, Glenn has found an 11 year old lacrosse team, through a friend of his, who are in need of a goalie coach. Glenn's been going to practices and scrimmages a couple times a week and even took Tate last Saturday. Tate came home talking about all the big boys playing lacrosse. We went to the park last night and Glenn and Tate spent some time playing together.

Of course, Tate has no idea what he's doing, but he looks like the big boys and he's pretty excited about that.

I'm pretty sure Glenn's a very proud papa too.

Moving Day!

It's been a very busy week. We signed papers on our new house last Thursday. Glenn left for a day to go to Oklahoma to do a little recruiting for his work. The Cluffs came to go house hunting and we were able to see them a bit. They even stayed with us Saturday and Sunday nights. We were reminded again how much we miss them. And we're super excited for them to move here. They are such good friends.

By the way, now that we're moved out of our apartment, here are a few pictures of it!

Aptly named the Glass House apartments, they have floor to ceiling windows in every room. Down that hallway we had 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.

It was very nice. It felt a little cramped sometimes, probably partially due to the fact that we had to take elevators to parking garages or through hallways and several doors to get to the outside world. But it was lovely, and we're SO grateful that Glenn's company takes such good care of us throughout this process.

And speaking of how good Newfield is to us, on Monday the movers drove this truck

up to this new house, (no, we don't have snow anymore. This picture was from a few weeks ago.)

and unloaded all our possessions. Oh this is SO the way to move. Tate loved it all. The big truck outside, the big strong guys walking around carrying boxes, all of our things coming into our new house. Each box was like a new surprise present!

He even found a cave and pretended to be a bear for a little while.

My new kitchen used to look like this:

Then Aunt Nancy came over and helped me dig it out from beneath the boxes. It's nice to have one room entirely unpacked. A few other rooms are still buried in boxes, the office is particularly full, but we're chipping away at it. I'm very happy to finally be in a permanent living situation! It's been months of waiting for the different temporaries to end and now they have, and we're in this beautiful home that will be quite cozy once all the boxes are gone, at which point I will post some "after" pictures.

The boys and I went for a jog around our neighborhood trail this morning. Dear me, these hills, while nothing compared to the New Hampshire hills my sister-in-law runs on, are absolutely killing me. It will get easier. Eventually. Right?

Picture Wednesday

Finn at 13 weeks old

Our morning jog and picture Wednesday

I figured I should probably document our lovely morning jog route as we'll only be able to use it for a few more days. We're closing on our new house tomorrow and moving in on Monday so we have precious little time left at our downtown apartment.

I started jogging again a few weeks ago. There have been a few days when it's been too cold to jog, especially with the kiddos, but not many. I've really enjoyed exercising outside again and I've been surprised that getting started again has not been too terrible. The double jogger is wonderful. Not crazy heavy like I expected and Tate loves it. When we first got it he'd just climb in and sit there, waiting for us to take him somewhere in his sweet new ride.

I can jog slowly for a while and only need to stop when my head hurts too much and then I walk for a minute or two. But that's another story entirely. Mind you, my pace is dismal, but I've never been fast, and I'm still at the point where I'm super proud of myself for exercising every day so I refuse to feel badly about how slow I am. I just won't do it. So here it is, pictures of my pleasant downtown morning jog:

Poor Finn spent much of the ride this morning doing this:

It was a very loud morning for this little man. And here's Tate's crazy stroller hair:

And picture Wednesday. Baby Finn, 12 weeks old.

Visit from Grandma and Grandpa

Grandma Heather and Grandpa Arthur came for a very quick visit last week. They came Sunday afternoon and were gone by Tuesday afternoon but we managed to cram a lot of fun into those two days. Finn was very happy to meet his Grandparents for the first time and shared lots of smiles. The boys had a little bonding time on Sunday watching African Cats together.
Tate had tons of fun playing with Grandpa. They played with cars and read many stories together. Monday morning we decided to check out Hammonds Candy factory and go on a little tour.

It's a fun little treasure just a few blocks from our apartment. We loved our special visitor's stickers.It was interesting watching them make and package all the candy. But I think I can safely say that everyone's favorite part was the store at the end of the tour. Tate was in heaven with all the candy canes and lollipops. After naps we spent the afternoon at the downtown aquarium. We had been to the aquarium in Houston, but this one takes the cake. It's easily three times the size of the one in Houston and very cool.

Sometimes Tate wanted to rush us along to show Grandma and Grandpa his favorite parts. But once in a while he just stopped to wonder...like the rest of us. The under water world is oh so cool. I think I could stare at sea turtles all day. Beautiful.

At the end there's a sting ray feeding pool. Tate even got in on the action this time. Well, he didn't end up feeding any, but he did hold the fish. He got a little nervous when the stingrays came close.

Grandpa Arthur certainly understood that feeling. Grandma got right in there but Grandpa needed a little encouraging...

It was a great little family bonding moment.

Eventually Grandpa warmed up to the little creatures. I think he just prefers to see them from about this distance.

On our last morning with the grandparents we went for a little drive to the Buffalo Bill Museum and gravesite. They had a neat museum with tons of artifacts and stories about his life and his Wild West Show. There was a little room where you could sit on a horse and try to rope a little calf. And then there were some western dress up clothes. Couldn't pass that up, now could we?

Thanks for the visit Gramma and Grampa. It was so wonderful to see you and we had so much fun playing with you. Next time stay longer!

Picture Wednesday

We had some crazy weather this past week. A few really cold days. A few really warm days. Aunt Nancy informs me that is normal for Denver winters. Fine with me! Luckily this hat we ordered came just in time for a few cold days.

Baby Finn, 11 weeks old

I love how goofy it looks. Finn slept for 10 hours straight last night. It was a dream come true. What a sweetheart. He knows how to make his momma happy! He's been a little ornery about naps this week. He'll sleep for about half an hour then wake up and need to be held for the next hour or so or he'll be pretty cranky. Hope that doesn't last long...and at the same time, when he "needs" to be held and I have the time, like during Tate's nap, I don't mind so much. Who would mind some snuggle time with this little guy?

Brainwashing

I may have brainwashed my child. The latest favorite soundtrack at our house is "Hello Dolly". It started with the few songs from WALL-E. Then I bought the soundtrack and listened to it in the car. Then this past week we watched the movie...several times. It was requested. And he pranced around the room or sat riveted to the TV during the musical numbers. It's the best. He loves musicals. I love that he loves musicals because then we get "nap times" with soundtracks like this:

These are a few of my favorite things

I love having a squishy baby!

Science Museum

We found out that most of the museums here have free days. Not as often as the ones in Houston, but awesome none the less! The science museum has a free day once every month or two and this past Monday was free so the boys and I weren't about to miss it. I was a little worried about how crowded it would be when we had a hard time finding a parking spot, but the museum was so huge that it didn't seem too busy at all. Tate was excited that we'd get to see some dinosaur bones, so the dino exhibit was the first stop. Well...almost. On our way to the elevator Tate saw this:

Figures. I bring Tate to the science museum and he wants to stare at the tractors on the wall announcing construction in that section of the museum.

So our second stop was the dinosaur exhibit. His face just lit up when we walked in the room with all the dinosaur skeletons. We talked about the different kinds and their different teeth and what they ate. We counted their toes and pointed out their long tails, necks, or pokeys on their backs. We looked at their eggs and babies. He could have wandered around that room all day long. Here he is showing his own dino claws.

And looking up at the brontosaurus head WAY up there. He was fascinated by how long his neck and tail were.

And then he spent the rest of the day pretending to be different dinosaurs...with narration, of course. "Mom, look at this dinosaur's long long neck! (sometimes he speaks in the third person) What is it? It's a brontosaurus of course!" "Mommy, the stegasaurus needs another drink of orange juice. He's sooo thirsty." "This pterodactyl doesn't want to eat his dinner."

Here he is showing me his "trunk" in front of the mammoth. This is the way he pretends to be an elephant. His trunk's a little backwards, but he makes it work.

We only had time for one more stop before we had to head home and feed the Finn-o, who by the way, was an angel all morning. He just slept in his stroller and made an occasional squeak. It's a tight schedule with a little brother. Tate wanted to see the snakes and lizards exhibit. At least he did in theory. Most of the snakes and lizards were all right but once in a while we'd see one that looked a little more creepy and he'd back away until I convinced him that this one was also behind glass. Then he'd tip toe closer and take a little peek. We sat through a little show about snakes and he curled up on my lap and listened. It was wonderful. Thanks Denver for the fun outing!