October happenings

October has flown by - here's what we've been up to, in brief:

Hanging out at home.  Finn is morphing even more into a mini-Toby, which makes me smile every day.  Here they are, with Finn wearing his "Mini Cooper" onesie. 

 

And a very frequent sight in our living room - Annie loving on Finn.  It usually involved some version of tackling, squashing, squeezing or otherwise putting Finn at risk for a minor head injury, but Annie sure loves hugging her brother.  She tells me that she will take care of him at school, and she likes to sit next to him and pat him while saying, "Awwww.  Its okay, Finn.  Your mommy will be here after naptime."  Finn's favorite thing in the world is watching his sister jump, dance, and otherwise act like a toddler.  He giggles at her, which makes my heart melt.

We went back to Gentry's farm this year.  Its quite the autumn tradition in these parts.  I have more cute pictures, just not the time to post them.

Finn is officially a big eater.  At his 4 month visit, the doctor said we could start him on oatmeal and then veggies.  The boy LOOOVES to eat and is already eating twice a day now.  He is going to go from large to huge between now and his 6 month visit.  Favorite foods:  oatmeal and squash.  Not too sure about peas, but he'll eat them.

And my favorite picture we've taken so far this fall - my little owls!  How on earth did we get both of them smiling?  This may be my favorite picture we have ever taken of them.

We attended Pumpkinfest on Saturday.  Annie had a great time on the giant inflatable slide...and I did, too. :)

Finn hung out in the front-pack, where he got a lot of snuggles from Daddy.

We met up with Annie's BFF, Nolan and shared some chicken tenders and bouncy fun.

My apologies for the short/missing posts lately.  Now that Finn is sleeping in the guestroom, which is where we keep the computer, I have zero access during the only times of day when I could actually compose a post.  This too shall pass. 

Spot the Difference

PS - just wanted to add (this is Dad by the way) this picture of someone else very special to our hearts, taken 27 months ago;

I think Krista and I will be out hunting for a nice double picture frame this weekend!

4 months and an even rougher week!

Well, the last 10 days or so have been so rotten that I don't even feel like recounting the drama.  The short version involves my return to work, an eye infection, having to go cold turkey on Finn's pacifier addiction, and Finn's hatred of daycare.  We are all better now, thank you very much. 

As evidence that we have made it through the worst of the drama and that Finn does not appear to be permanently traumatized, I present the following incredibly cute photos.

He was a trooper through his 4 month shots, even paci-less.  He is 16 pounds, 4 ounces, and 25 inches tall.  75th percentile for everything, except his head, which is a bit smaller (50th).  He LOOOVES eating oatmeal, which has been a different experience from Annie's introduction to food.  Did I mention that he is cute?

3 months and a rough week

Finn turned 3 months old last weekend!  I can't believe how fast time has flown.  He is looking more like Toby every day, I swear.  He has a very sweet personality, and loves watching his sister play.  She loves to love on him, too, which is wonderful.  We'll see if that lasts after he can move around and grab "her" toys. Toby took some pictures that are better than these, but they will give you an idea of his incredibly cuteness.

Annie insisted on "helping" and simultaneously wearing a tiger costume.  So, pretty much normal.

And sitting in the bumbo - such a big boy!  (No, we don't leave him on the bed or unsupervised in it.)

 

Our week deterioriated pretty quickly after we took these photos last weekend.  Annie didn't have school on Monday, and I kept both kids by myself for the first time.  The torrential all-day rain kept us from getting out, which is always disastrous at our house.  I finally took Annie to Chick-fil-a for lunch and playtime, bypassing my moral judgement of Chick-fil-a and my better judgement as a mom who likes to have healthy kids.  Annie seemed fine on Tuesday, but by Wednesday had come down with an awful croup-like virus, including a 3 day fever.  So she stayed home the rest of the week.  I'm too tired to explain exactly how it went, but you can imagine since I had both kids and was trying to keep Finn healthy while Annie coughed on everything.  Toby had to stay home from work on Friday.  Today Annie feels just well enough to run, run, run, then wail, wail, wail.  Then throw shoes.  On the doctor's recommendation, I gave her some Benadryl.  I don't know if the doctor really thinks Annie needs the Benadryl to break up and dry out the gunk in her chest, or if the doctor really thinks I need Annie to sleep for a long time.  Either way, she's napping now, and I'm off to collect Grandma and Grandpa from the airport.  They are officially forbidden from traveling anywhere ever again unless they hire backup grandparents to stay in town. 

Annie's first race!

Annie and Toby "ran" Annie's first race last weekend.  It was so cute from start to finish.  We started with high hopes and the joy that comes from planning to run a race with one of your best friends.  In our case, the ever-discussed Nolan.  Annie talks about him nonstop - if you've spent any time with us lately, you probably feel like you know him personally.

Here they are, getting Annie all pinned up.  She was a big fan of the fire truck in the background, but not a fan at all of the three giant mascots roaming around...a dog, a frog and a dragon.  She did not care for them at all. (Note to my husband:  when the child is scared of the mascots, don't tell her that the mascots may "warm the racers up" before the race.  I'm pretty sure that just terrified her, espcially since she doesn't know what "warming up" is, but does know that warm things can be hot and therefore dangerous. And now she keeps asking why the doggie didn't warm her up, which probably sounds unusual to her teachers.)

 

Annie and Nolan, making the best of having to wait for the race to begin. 

No, she isn't kicking him, and he isn't playing her like a guitar.  I'm pretty sure Annie started out trying to show different yoga poses and then got carried away.

After the above-mentioned mascot terror and then waiting for faaaar too long for the race to begin, this is what I saw run past me. Toby promises that Annie did run quite a lot, but both times I saw her, Toby was carrying her and she was crying.  I can't blame her for the second time, as they came towards the finish...I wouldn't run straight into a crowd of screaming strangers, either.

And post-race medals and happiness all around.  We celebrated with a "donup" and then headed off to Annie's first gymnastics class.  She loved it and the instructor declared her to have remarkable upper body strength, so I loved it too!

Nana and Grumps come to visit!

We had a fantastic visit from Nana and Grumps!  Despite rotten weather for probably half of the 10 day visit, we hit all the hot spots, including a trip to the zoo and a couple trips to the pool.  I never remembered to take my camera, but Nana and Grumps have promised to send along some photos, which I will share when I receive.  I took a few while we were home.

The Coopers were so sweet to bring lots of gifts for Annie, and she loved them all.  This one, however, takes the cake since she talked Nana into wearing the chef's outfit.

And Nana with sweet Finn and his omnipresent monkey.  I bought another one this week so as to stop living in fear that we might lose it.

And the Cooper boys hanging out on the couch.  If you look closely you might notice a family resemblence.  Or perhaps if you look quickly.  Or glance out of the corner of your eye. 

This post doesn't come anywhere at all close to expressing how happy we are that Nana and Grumps came to visit or how much fun we had.  (Just like those videos Nana took don't come close to showing the constant movement and exhaustion in our house...)  Our current lack of any kind of meaningful sleep is eroding my wit, along with my ability to remember recent events.  We very much look forward to the next visit!

Hannah, Travis and Tristan start school!

Kindergarten, watch out! With these three all in the same class, the year is sure to be an adventure!