Auntie Mallo

Auntie Mallo came to visit last weekend.  It was way too short and went way too fast, as expected.  We made the most of every minute, however, and had a great time while she was here.  She stopped off on her way back East to live and find a job in the D.C. area.  She's really excited and we're really excited for her and SO glad we were able to see her, even if it was briefly, in between her African adventure, and her East Coast adventure.

We picked her up from the airport on Saturday morning and went straight to the zoo.  We walked around for hours until everyone was exhausted, then headed home for naps and lunch.  Here's Mallo and Tate, making his "smile for the camera" face, in front of the hippo enclosure.  Glenn got him this bag of popcorn and he carried it around and snacked out of it almost the whole time we were there.  He made a pretty good dent in the popcorn bag that was almost as big as he is.

 Yep, she really dresses this darling to get on an airplane.

 On Sunday we had the Garvins and my cousin Lindsey and her new husband Dan over for dinner.  We had a good time talking, telling stories, and playing card games.  Dan actually served his mission in the D.C. are so he had lots of helpful advice for Mal.  It was a really fun evening.

The next morning Mal went with me to take Tate to preschool.  He was excited to show her his classroom and his teacher.  Then Mal and I took Finn on a little jog.  Oh, I wish Mal lived close to me so we could jog together every day.  It went by SO much faster with someone to talk to who runs at my pace.  It was enjoyable instead of endurable.

After the kids woke up from naps we went downtown, picked Glenn up from work, and spent a couple hours at the aquarium.  Finn was in a very good mood.  He beamed at all the walls of fish and kicked his feet when he got really excited....usually when Auntie Mallo or Tate came near.

 Every time I'm with Mal I realize how similar we are.  I don't think we've always been, but we are now.  Everything from our taste in food, how small we like the chunks of cheese and veggies in our salads, the spots we get knots in our back.   It's awesome to have someone to talk to who has so much in common with me now.  We both also love to do little kid activities and had so much fun marveling at the animals at the zoo and aquarium.  Couldn't miss the panning for gold.

I love that she's so good with my boys.  She plays, wrestles, gets on their level, helps them get dressed, reads them stories, and plays right along with the most random make believe story lines.  She's wonderful and they both love her to pieces.

Some quotes from the weekend:

Me at bedtime: Okay Tate, I'm going downstairs now.  It's time to go to sleep.

Tate: Mom, could you just send Mallo up to snuggle me for a minute?

Tate, as he woke up Tuesday: Mom, is Auntie Mallo still here?

Me: No, honey.  She went on an airplane this morning.

Tate: Where did she go?

Me: She went to Virginia, really early before you woke up.

Tate: Maybe we could get on a plane like that and go there with her.  Huh, mom?  Maybe?

Me: Yeah, baby.  Maybe.

We spent a lot of time together this weekend and it still flew by and didn't seem like nearly enough.  There are still questions about her service in Uganda that I've been thinking of the last few days that I forgot to ask her.  Things I'm dying to share with her and talk to her about.  I ran some sprints this morning and wished she was with me.  I listened to Tim McGraw on my jog and remembered when we went to his concert together last year.  It's nice that she's back in the U.S. and I can call her whenever I want now.  But still, this move seemed different.  More permanent.  Bigger and further away somehow.  I don't know how often I will see her any more.  She no longer lives in Utah so a trip back home doesn't guarantee that I'll see her.  In fact, I usually won't.  I may only get to see her, run with her, stay up late talking with her, once a year or maybe more if I'm lucky.  I don't like that.  I don't like that at all.  Mallory and I haven't always been this close.  In fact, we were talking this weekend about how many years we didn't really get along or "get" each other at all.  And now, she's my best friend, besides my husband.  I could, and frequently do, talk to her for hours and never run out of things to say.  She's my therapist, my cheerleader, my idol, and my sister all rolled into one.  I'm going to miss her terribly but I am incredibly excited for her next big adventure.  I'm sure she'll find ways to change people's lives for good, the way she always does, and I'll get to hear about it every time we talk.  Good luck, Auntie Mallo.  We love you so much.  Thanks for stopping to see us!

And here's little Finn's picture Wednesday for the week.  Finn at 40 weeks old.

This was from our morning jog.  It was cold and we decided to try out his winter hat.  Gotta love those chubby faces sticking out of little knit hats.  I'm not excited about the winter, but I do love how cute my boys look all bundled up.

Picture Wednesday

Finn, 39 weeks old.

It's official.  This week Finn has been "out" as long as he was in.  Though, I must say, this side of his life has gone MUCH faster than the side when he was in my tummy with the constant vomiting.  I love this little squirt.  Of course "little" is a relative term.  He's a big boy.  This week he's started to really love "walking" while holding my hands.  He's just figuring out how to put one foot in front of the other and he gets this huge smile on his face and giggles like he's having the time of his life and he's SURE he looks just like Tate when he's "walking".  It's so funny watching him observe Tate and try to play with toys or walk, and do things just like his big brother.  I'm so glad my boys get to grow up with a brother.  They're pretty lucky.

And here's a picture of Tate this week.  Tate loves to play hide and seek.  He's usually too excited to stay in his spot very long and starts making animal noises or laughing really loudly, or just gets out and says "Here I am!" while we're still looking.  But on occasion he stays put.  This is where I found him a couple of days ago.

Where is Tate?  Such a good hiding spot!  Hilarious.

Picture Wednesday

Little Finn at 38 weeks old.

Checking out the cute baby in the glass.  He's been going up to this glass door all week and smacking his head into it.  He does it pretty softly, but I think it's pretty funny.  He just can't resist that darling baby in the window.

Finn now has two top teeth and two bottom teeth and I think he's working on a couple more on top.  Poor kid has been a bit of a mess the last couple of days as a result.  Slobbery, fussy, snotty, and such.  Of course, even when he's a bit of a mess, he's still pretty happy so it's really not all that bad.

He's starting to stress Tate out a little bit with all his mobility.  Sometimes Finn will grab something that Tate really wants.  Most of the time Tate is pretty good about giving Finn something else in exchange.  Not always, but most of the time.  Sometimes Finn will follow him down the hall when I ask Tate to go potty and for some reason it stresses Tate out that Finn is following him and I can't see him.  Yesterday he just stood there at the door of the bathroom watching Finn crawl toward him smiling and laughing while Tate threw a fit saying, "Look what's happening, Mom!  He's coming to the bathroom!  Mom, oh no!  He's going to come in the bathroom!"  It's fine, Tate.  I know.  He's not going to get hurt following you to the bathroom.

Finn still cannot get enough of his big brother.  Just being close to Tate brings a big smile to his face.  Sometimes Tate will get him laughing in the car and listening to them play in the back seat is just the sweetest thing.

Other goings on this week:

- Glenn has been gone for two days to recruit at UT.  We miss him.

- We hit our first Rockies game on Tuesday.  Glenn got free tix from a vendor at work so we went last minute.  It was really fun, except for the rain.  Tate ate a huge bag of kettle corn the whole time while Glenn tried to explain the game in as simple terms as possible.  Finn spit up all over us and had a great time.

- Tate was the special helper at preschool yesterday.  He got to bring the snack (which he then wouldn't eat...but what does he eat?), be the first in line, help with circle time, and introduce himself with a poster which, I am told, he was very excited to explain all by himself.  He had so much fun.

- I started 2 new piano students.  Now I have 3, which I am loving so far.  Just an hour and a half on Friday afternoons when Glenn is home from work and I get to keep up something that I love and make a little extra cash.  Win-win.

At the Race Track

Janelle and I gave our husbands a groupon deal for Father's Day and we finally got around to using them a week ago.  The deal was for a ride in a race car.  Bummer that you couldn't drive it, but both men said, after the fact, that they were glad they had a professional driving because they would never have had the guts to drive that fast.  We made a whole weekend of it.  The Cluffs came to stay with us on Friday.  We roasted s'mores.  (The outdoor mall by our house has a huge fire lit at night so we took advantage.  There's probably some mall rule against having flaming mallos on a stick in the middle of the little plaza...but we did it anyway and had fun.)  The next morning we went to this great park and splash pad for a while then packed up the kiddos and drove to Fountain, CO to the Pikes Peak International Raceway.  Stephen was a little more into it than Glenn, donning the entire race ensemble.

 I was so tempted to post the pictures of Glenn and Stephen awkwardly climbing into the car through the window...but I figured, if this were my mother's day present, I'd rather those pictures be left out, so I should probably offer them the same courtesy.
Here he is in the car.  The cute one with the white helmet.

Those cars were crazy fast.  Glenn wasn't terribly excited about the whole thing beforehand, but afterwards he was really glad that we did it.  He kept talking about how unbelievably fast they went and how it felt like the car should be sliding up the track on the corners because they were going so fast.  I'm glad he had a good time.

 Lucky number 7.

 

And here's Stephen next to the car after his ride.  

The kids had fun too.  I thought Tate would be more excited to be on a race track and see real race cars given his obsession with the Cars movies.  He was kind of dazed having just woken up from a very short nap in the car, but he still had a good time.

Yet another fun weekend with the Cluffs.  We're so glad that they moved here right after we did.  So convenient!  Happy Father's Day again, you two!

Picture Wednesday

Here's little Finn at 37 weeks old.

He's still growing way too fast, as usual.  Little Finn has spent this week pulling himself up to a standing position on anything that will hold still for a second.  Tonight I tried to walk past him in the kitchen and stopped in front of him to throw something in the garbage.  He latched onto my pants and started to pull himself up while I was paused by the trash can.  I had to detach him from my pants so I could keep moving and finish dinner.  He didn't like that one bit.  His little noggin has procured a few bonks this week because of his new skill.  Turns out, even when you're just a couple feet tall, when you tip over and hit your head it can still leave a pretty good mark.
Silly Finn thinks he's not a little baby anymore, but I keep telling him that he is.  He's still my little sunshine boy.  Happy and sweet as can be.  Just much more mobile now!