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Even though Finn just finished up another round of antibiotics on Sunday and was given a clean bill of health Monday, when we visited the ENT today (Thursday) he had a raging double ear infection with one eardrum perforated. Boo hiss. Poor kid. 

So we have moved up a grade in antibiotics yet again, because apparently his infection may be antibiotic resistant, and we have a surgery date of December 3. 

Toby and I are being brave. That should hold out until about December 2...

Reflections on Halloween craziness

One year, our cute family of four will have a very sweet Halloween photo where nobody looks completely crazed and everybody is smiling nicely and looking in the same direction.  I will probably frame that photo and hang it on the wall, but it will also make me a touch sad for the "good old days."  Feel free to remind me that whatever image I have in my mind of the "old days" is a complete misrepresentation of the actual events. The photos below are the accurate representations...

2012

2013

Halloween Fun!

The forecast is for thunderstorms from 4-7 on Halloween, so I'm not sure how fun Halloween day is going to be this year.  Thank goodness we had enough pre-Halloween fun to make up for it!  Here are some cute photos from my firm's Halloween shindig at a partner's farm.

Annie was dressed as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz.  No, we have not let her see the movie.  No, that has not stopped her full-on obsession with being Dorothy.  She makes everybody call her Dorothy at school and wears a "Dorothy" name tag on the few days when her dress is too disgusting to wear to school.  She wears her ruby slippers to sleep every single night.  I let her watch a clip of the movie last night that involved the Wicked Witch of the West, and she told me later at bedtime that she thought she might wait until she is 4 to see the rest of the move.  Good call, sweetie. 

Anyway, since I love a good theme, I had to dress Finn as a Munchin - one of the Lollipop Guild, of course. He does not understand Halloween and could not care less what he wears, which is a bonus.  The costume is also super easy to make, which is even better!

Back to the party:

Upon arrival we were greeted by some of the resident dogs.  Finn LOVES dogs - almost as much as he loves birds.  He was enthralled by them the entire evening.

Annie loves bouncy houses almost as much as Finn loves animals.  She was the very first kid who got to bounce that night, which is quite a big deal to the average 3 year old.

She bounced right out of her braids pretty much immediately.

This bouncy house had the added bonus of a rope climb and slide.  Pure kid Heaven!

Finn with more dogs.  Gosh that kid is cute.

Our favorite teacher from school came to do face painting.  You will never guess what Annie wanted on her cheek.

Seriously you will never guess.  Oh, wait, something related to the Wizard of Oz?  Shocking!  You can't see it here, but look at some pictures below and you will see, like some weird cosmic irony, the Wicked Witch of the West. 

Finn with more dogs!  Okay, these are the same dogs, but now in costumes of their own.

Finn taking one bite of food before tripping (obviously) and falling into the plate, which went all over me.  Annie has the same look on her face that she always has at dinnertime.  WHAT is THAT? Answer - hamburgers and hot dogs.  Why must you look so disgusted?

What is better than one costume?  TWO costumes, of course!

 
Finn - I'm pretty sure he was looking at a dog.

Finn enjoying non-canines!  This horse's name is Honey, and indeed she was very sweet.

I love this picture of Toby and Finn. Toby is such an amazing daddy.

Annie riding Honey.  And as promised - note the cheek with the Wicked Witch of the West.

A big thanks to Mary Beth for another fun family outing at her farm!

Rock on, Annie!

One of Annie's classmates has a very rock-star daddy, and he brought some instruments to class last week.  I see expensive lessons in our future. 

 

We're Back!

It turns out that sometimes life gets WAY to complicated to keep up a blog.  That is a shame, because we have had so many milestones since my last post.  So I'm going to try to bring us all up to speed so that I can start fresh again with normal postings so that you can see our riculously cute kiddos as they grow.

So it looks like my last post was mid-July.  Since then:

In late July we took a great family trip to visit my aunt, uncle, cousins and their kids in Illinois.  I recall most vividly that the other parents were able to nap and read magazies because their kids were all school-aged and unlikely to self-destruct.  It gave me hope for the future.  I also vividly recall that Finn got stung by a bee and fell down some stairs (awesome parenting on my part) and Annie and I took her first boat ride and rode together on one of those big hot-dogs.  That part was awesome. 

In early August we decided to take a look at a new house.  Then we decided we must have that house, and we ended up with a contract to buy a new house without having started to get our old house ready to sell.  So we got our house ready in a hurry.  A big hurry. The kids got the new-school-year plague.

In late August I turned 35, we sold our house on the first day it was on the market, Finn got his first stitches, and I went to Tracey's bachelorette party in Miami! 

In September we had the usual school closings for Jewish holidays, packed our house, did lots of repairs, went to Tracey's incredibly awesome wedding, bought a house, sold a house, and started unpacking boxes. 

So far in October, Toby and I forgot to celebrate the anniversary of the day we met (we never miss this!), Toby turned 37, we continue to unpack boxes, and Finn got his second set of stitches.  I swear to you that I do actually keep a pretty close eye on this kid. 

Work has been insane.  My department currently has 3 attorneys out on maternity leave, so I have been working more than I have since I reduced my schedule after Annie was born.

Here are some cute photos we had taken in July when Bill and the triplets were in town.  We are really excited that they are all coming up (along with Bill's fabulous girlfriend Samantha) for Christmas!  I'm tired just thinking of it!


All of us!

They say that I will miss the ridiculous cheesy grin one day.  I'm not sure they are right.

Finn was too busy wailing to participate from this point onward.

Poor Hannah lost both top teeth at once. 

Finn stopped crying long enough to play with my glasses - then it was back to wailing.

We survived the photo shoot!  Even if just barely...

Whew!  I think you are now caught up, and I hope that you understand why we have been absent from the blogosphere.  I am making an early new year's resolution to stop the madness.  We'll see how that goes...

More!

If you have met Finn, you will not be shocked that he has already learned how to sign "more".  The kid loves to eat.  LOVES to eat.  And he is so impressed by the results he gets when signing "more" that he signs it the entire time he is eating!  Finished the fruit, but still have a full plate of other good stuff?  More!  Mom hands you more fruit despite the full plate?  More!  Concerned that eventually the plate might empty?  More!

The very same evening that he figured out "more" at dinner time, he used it when playing with a musical book.  Song still playing, but you realize it may end soon?  More!  He also used it to tell Toby to stop doing something by shaking his head and signing more at the same time.  Pure brilliance.

So now, as far as Finn's communication skills, we have:
~ More! (signing, and sometimes saying Mo)
~ Shaking head no
~ Uh-oh!
~ Crying.  Still lots of crying...

Besties!

Annie and her best friend Sammy G are truly more like sisters than friends.  They fight, they make up, they torture each other by witholding affection, they make up.  They have grown up together since they looked like this at about 7 months...

Then like this at about 17 months (with buddy Sofia)...

Then like this at about 2 1/2 (again with Sofia)

And now this!  Super big girls riding a bike together!

 

 I don't know what we're going to do when they have to go to separate kindergartens.  Move, perhaps.  I can't imagine Annie at school without Sammy.