"tacta"

We've been working with Finn on a few words recently. One is his name, the second is "stuck" and the third is "tractor". Since he loves tractors we thought he'd have this one down by now, but yesterday for the first time he said it...or whispered it. It came out like "tacta" in a very soft whisper. He won't say it out loud which makes it impossible to video but it's definitely an attempt at tractor.

We've also been working on kisses. For awhile now, a kiss would be sucking on the side of someone's face or even a little bite, but we've been trying to show him that he doesn't have suck on someone to give a kiss. We're not quite there yet. He now aims for the ear instead of the cheek and he blows. Maybe he gets more of a reaction from this. So, when he gets ready to give kisses I get ready for a hot breath of air blown into my ear. He doesn't like to give Matthew kisses though because his cheek is so rough. =)

Some bad bedhead the other morning. I thought it was so cute though that I had to take pictures. Now tell me that this little boy doesn't need a haircut. =)





These next few pictures and videos were taken at the church when we went to pick Matthew up after his mission's trip. It was a huge success and the kids really got the message of the week. Finn found a balloon in Matthew's office and he tried to catch that thing for the next 30 minutes.


In the nursery with tons of 'new' toys to play with.



Figuring out how to make the music start with this toy. When he figures this out on a new toy you will only hear the first note or two of the song because he keeps pressing it.

the haircut

Okay, take a deep breath and calm down. I didn't do it...yet. I've been getting a lot of...shall we say...feedback about me cutting Finn's hair for the first time. I know it's supposed to be a big milestone and all, but I would rather him look like a sharp little boy than walk around (which by the way won't be too long) with wings, curls and waves. If he were a girl, I would most likely leave it for awhile longer, but since he's not I must push forward with it and get that hair under control. I promise you'll like his new buzz cut!

i'm the water boy

Finn has gotten really good at saying please for food or his juice. He has trouble asking for help with anything else, but if it's food he has no problem asking nicely. Tonight Finn and I were in the backyard playing. He was walking around with his Tonka truck and I sitting on the sidewalk watching him. He saw me take a drink from my water bottle and said "please?" sweetly and pointed to me. So, I got up and let him take a drink. He thought it was hilarious that he barely kept any of it in his mouth and drooled the rest out onto his shirt and shorts. I gave him water until he pushed the bottle away. I sat back down. He went a few more steps with the truck and then pointed to me and said "please?" How could I resist? I got up again and let him drink from my water bottle until he pushed it away. I thought for sure this time he wasn't going to want anymore. I sat back down. He took a few more steps and then stopped, pointed and said, "please?" By this time, I knew I was just going to be the water boy for the evening. It must be hard work pushing the Tonka truck around. I learned my lesson and just walked behind him the rest of the evening and he drank (drooled) all of my water. Does he have me trained or what?

Here is my little climber. He was trying to make the switch from his walking toy to the stool without actually having to get off of either.


It didn't work. He ended up almost falling off. Mommy to the rescue!


In the pool today. Okay, I realize he probably shouldn't be swimming while fully dressed, but the sun was so strong today I just couldn't take his shirt off and risk getting that tender, baby skin burned. His arms and legs were shiny with 3 layers of sun screen.


Watching the neighbor kids playing in their pool...their much bigger pool.


The wave and curls. See, it's time to cut it!!!


The front? Not so long. I still say he has Grandpa Morken's hairline....or the lack thereof. =)


More of the long hair. Sometimes, it hangs over his collar and most of the time the sides are over his ears.


Finn likes to dance and clap to his jumperoo. It's not set up but sometimes he will try to climb in. Other times, if Matthew or I are on the floor with him, he will hold onto us and jump like he used to with the music.

Finn climbing again. This was taken right before he went to bed so he was very tired. He kept trying to climb onto the top of his walker toy, but he couldn't figure out how to do it...thankfully. He ended up getting frustrated and upset. Nothing else really to say about this video. He started pitching a fit, so I turned the camera off. No need for EVERYONE to see that. =)

more chicken dance

Here is another video of the chicken dance. Josh is making the duck dance toward Finn and he loves it.

Josh and Denae

Matthew headed down to Minneapolis for the week with the Jr. Highers for their missions trip. So, after church Finn and I went to Fargo to visit our friends, Josh and Denae. Josh and Finn were buddies for the day (thank you, Josh) so that Denae and I could get some sewing done. Denae and I had planned to make curtains for Finn's room using some John Deere material that went with the bumper pads in his crib. Denae insisted (still insists) that making curtains is easy. Six hours into it, I politely informed her that next time I was just going to go buy curtains. Some people are cut out for that kind of stuff. I am not. Eight hours later, we still weren't finished and decided to quit for the night and finish them on Thursday. Finn and I will be going back and spending the night at their house so we can finish the curtains.



Here is Denae and Finn playing at the park. We call her Aunt (pronounced "ant") Denae and Uncle Josh and Finn loves them both.





Here we are earlier in the day...about 3 hours into it. We still had smiles on our faces at this point.




Okay, I have to tell the story that goes along with this picture below. There is a girl that Denae works with who just recently had surgery to remove a cyst from her ovary. This cyst ended up being baseball size and consisted of hair, teeth and eyes...yes, there is really a cyst that can have all of the above in it--see dermoid cyst. All the girls at work were joking around about it and named the cyst "Charlie". Being such a great and crafty friend, Denae decided to make a "Charlie" pillow for this girl. This is the pillow below. She designed and put together this pillow in about 1 hour! It has Charlie's name sewn onto it with appliqued hairball, teeth and eyes. Every time I looked at the pillow I broke out laughing. Only Denae would think to quilt a "Charlie" pillow as a gift. It really was sweet of Denae to make this pillow for her friend. She could have just gone out and bought a card or a gift but this gift already means more because of the time spent on it...minus the hairball, teeth and eyes. =)



Josh and Denae have a duck that sings and dances to The Chicken Dance song and Finn loves it. He would get so excited when it would start singing. Denae and I started clapping with it and that made him even more excited! Here he is barely containing himself doing The Chicken Dance.

animal noises

I dedicate this video to those of you who've sat on the phone waiting patiently to hear the ever elusive animal noises. He starts out by meowing (the high-pitched squeals at the beginning of the movie), then he goes right into barking (Ba, Ba!--whole body barking) and then he ends with mooing like a cow (making the M sound then blowing air through his closed lips). See, I told you he could do it. =)

our game

This is the game that we play most often. Finn loves to be chased. You make a lot of noise behind him as you chase after him and then you make a loud noise when you catch him. He usually laughs and squeals in excitement when we do this. Today was no exception. =)

what a flirt

We went to GF tonight because Matthew had to finish up some work for the Jr. High missions trip. Finn and I went to Target while we were waiting for Matthew to finish up. On our way back to the church we were stopped at a red light. Out of the corner of my eye I could see a lot of movement coming from the SUV next to me. I couldn't help but look and what I saw were 2 guys waving like crazy at me...well, for a minute I thought they were waving at me. Apparently, Finn had caught their attention from the backseat and was leaning forward as far as he could waving and laughing at them. Whenever he would wave, they would wave back and then he would clap for them. I'm amazed that he can get grown men to act like idiots just to get a him to respond to them. I shouldn't be amazed though. Guys who don't usually like babies somehow connect with Finn.

Of course, we can't go to GF without going to Texas Roadhouse to eat. While there, Finn 'charmed' everyone around with his loud singing and yelling. I even covered his mouth a couple of times to try to tone the sound down. There was a baby girl about Finn's age (or at least Finn's size) that sat in the booth next to us. He tried to 'charm' her too but she didn't pay him any attention and I think that made it worse. Everyone he came in contact with got a huge, toothy grin from him and sometimes clapping. What a flirt!

Here are a few pictures to catch you up on the last few days.

Finley sleeping a couple of days ago. This was the first time I had seen him sleeping on his back and it was so cute.


Waking up from a nap. The flash was bright.


Ready to get out of the crib.


Finn loves to push the stroller through the yard. Usually when we get back from a walk, he wants to either push his stroller or his Tonka truck.


Still pushing the stroller.


Cute picture from this morning. I love his huge eyes and his innocent look...although he's usually up to no good.


Cute smile.


I FINALLY GOT SOME VIDEOS TO WORK!!! I don't know what I did differently or if I'll ever be able to do it again, so I'm adding as many as I can.

Here are a couple of videos of Finn pushing his Tonka truck. In the second video, he tries to say "stuck". When he was stuck he figured out how to pull the truck away from what he had run into and then walk around to the back of the truck and push it in the opposite direction.




I guess 2 videos was the limit...I'll try again soon.

guess who's walking!!!

Finn took his first steps tonight! What a special moment. I have been worried that Matthew or I or both of us would miss it, but we were both in his room playing with him. I had been organizing in his room while Finn was playing. He found the seat to his jumperoo so we turned the music on. His face lit up at the sound of it and he started jumping to it like he used to do when he was sitting in it. We were amazed because it's been quite awhile since we took his jumperoo apart. We didn't think he would remember it, but there he was jumping and dancing to the music. Finn started standing up on his own so Matthew called me back into his room to watch him stand. Matthew scooted back and Finn just took a step toward him. He did that 2 more times and then he took 2 steps toward him. After that, he got jelly legs and wouldn't stand up for us at all. I'm so glad Matthew and I got to witness this together. What a thrilling moment!

happy campers

Well, Finn and I made it to camp and back. Our primitive, little cabin with no running water or air conditioning ended up being a full cabin with our own bathroom, full kitchen, dining area, living room with a fireplace and two bedrooms. It was so nice and relaxing. Finn loved seeing all of the kids. Many of them came up and talked to him and played with him a little bit. Thursday morning, we arrived a little late to breakfast, and as soon as we walked in, there was a collective gasp and then an "awwwwww!" from all the girls at the first two tables. He ended up being the only child there this week (there are usually several more) and he got all of the attention.

Here is Finn looking out at the lake. It was just a few steps from the patio.


Playing around the coffee table in the living room. He was trying to get to me and I was "running away" from him.


Looking cool strolling through camp.


Playing in the grass and most likely looking for a good rock to eat.


Getting tired after playing hard all morning.


Daddy chasing Finn in the grass. One of their many games they play together.


Daddy chasing Finn. Matthew is such a good Daddy to Finn.


Thursday morning after breakfast, they had a leader challenge and Matthew was chosen from his group. He had to eat the "poopy" diaper and lick it clean then eat 3 powdered sugar donuts and drink a full glass of milk. The first one to finish got the most points. Here is a picture of Matthew stalling for more time. He kept asking questions hoping to delay it a few more seconds. He said as soon as he sat down he could smell it and all he could think of was Finn's poopy diapers. It was refried beans and corn in the diaper. You can imagine how real that looked to Matthew. Poor guy.


Here he is opening the diaper. This face is the "please don't make me do this" face. He actually dry heaved when he opened it up.


Then he bent down trying to work up the nerve.


And then dug in.


The girl behind him is pointing to Matthew and one other leader. It was between them to see who would win. Matthew got second place, but he did a really good job.


Here is our first picture of Finn standing on his own. He did it long enough for us to see what he was doing, for me to get up and get the camera and then take this picture. Then he slowly let himself down to the ground. He's such a smart little guy.


Finn with his buddy, Zach, the music director at out church.


Corey, the drummer, gave Finn his hat to wear. He says Finn is going to be a drummer because he bangs on everything.


Getting ready to go Friday morning.


Looking cute.


Our view from inside. I know it's not the greatest picture, but trust me, it was a nice view.


The living room and kitchen and dining area.

compared to grandma

I just put a load of laundry in the washing machine and was struck by the difference in how I wash a load of laundry to how my Grandma washes a load of laundry.

Grandma washes laundry when there are a few articles of clothing. I wait until there are so many whites to wash that I end up having to cram them all into 2 separate loads and even then I don't know if the top layer of clothes will even get agitated in the wash.

I haven't seen how Grandma adds her laundry detergent, but I'm sure she doesn't just poor it in the washing machine. She probably has a measuring cup in her laundry room to measure the detergent, softener and bleach. I just poor hoping that it's close enough to what it's supposed to be.

When the cycle starts and I see that the top half of the clothes aren't being agitated-because I've crammed them all in-I use my hand to push the top ones down. At least they'll get wet in the soapy water. I then wipe off my hand with one of the dirty towels lying on the floor. When Grandma adds a new article of clothing to the 3 articles of clothing already in the washing machine, she has the "Special Stick" to push the clothes down with. This "Special Stick" is smooth and has rounded edges so it doesn't get caught on any clothes and it is always kept in the laundry room because that is it's only purpose.

When I hear the washing machine stop, I may or may not have a chance to go down there and switch the clothes over. I've been known to go down to the basement to put a load in and see that there are already clothes left over from the last load I did 2 days ago. "That's where all the socks went!" If I do have a chance to put the clothes in the dryer, who knows how long they will sit in there waiting to be folded. Some days, I get dressed next to the dryer. It's like Christmas waiting to see what will come out next.

Oh yeah, the lint catcher. I'm sure Grandma empties that after each use. Some days I could clothe a small child with the cotton that's pulled out of that thing.

The only reason I am speaking out about my shameful laundry etiquette is because my small group that meets on Wednesdays has recently spoken out about its laziness too. We all agree that it is horrible and that we should change; however, I just pulled my shirt out of the dryer to wear this morning.

Oh, I wish I could be more like Grandma.

smarty pants

One of Finn's favorite things is to walk around the yard with his Tonka truck. He will push it across the yard until he hits a tree or a bush. I thought that would be the end of the game and he would need help to push it back to the middle of the yard so that he could keep going, but in the past, I have learned not to help him get anything unstuck. He would rather solve the problem on his own and will spend minutes trying to figure something out. So, I let him go and watched him figure it out. He pushed the Tonka truck a couple of times to make sure that it wouldn't move and then he pulled it away from the bush, walked around to the back of it and started pushing it in the direction he came from. Smarty pants...

Oh yeah, and I guess I sound like a dog when I say 'no' to Finn. I told him 'no' today and he started barking back at me and then clapping.

Matthew is at Jr. High camp this week, so we're on our own for a couple of days. Finn and I are going to meet him at camp Wednesday night and spend a couple of nights there. I've heard that we are staying in a cabin without running water. We might only be staying 1 night. Don't get me wrong, I love camping...in a tent, no less, but not with a 10-month-old baby. I may have some pretty exciting pictures when we get back.

Finn having fun trying to get the phone. He loves to push the buttons. One time, he was out at the farm playing with the phone and when Darlene looked at it he had pressed. 9*11. That was a close one...


Getting his legs stuck in the couch.


Happy now that he got the phone. Can't you just hear the belly laugh?


Pushing his Tonka truck. He does this in the evening before going in for his bath. And look at those legs!!!



Yeah....Matthew would be proud. This is Finn eating his first and only Oreo and no, mom, it didn't get on his clothes. =)

finn's first 4th

Finley's first 4th of July was packed full of food and fun. In the morning, we made caramel rolls for Jeramy and Danae's cookout that night. We went to the farm for lunch with Matthew's family and then that evening we went to Jeramy and Danae's house for the cookout and games. We then gathered at the dike in Grand Forks with hundreds of other people to watch the fireworks on the Red River.

We arrived about an hour and a half early for the fireworks to make sure we got a good spot to see everything. So we picked out spot, unloaded the babies, blankets, chairs and strollers and sat. The guys looked further down the river and said that we should move further down. We picked up the babies, blankets, chairs and strollers and moved 20 whole yards down. We sat. The guys decided to go for a walk to find out exactly where the fireworks were going to be set off. Someone, who shall remain nameless, unfortunately looked in the direction of the husbands and saw them waving us further down. So, we picked up the babies, blankets, chairs and strollers and moved another 20 yards down. We sat. By the end of the night, we had picked up and moved the babies, blankets, chairs and strollers 3 times. I have to say that our husbands did a very good job of finding the perfect spot to sit. Our whole group was arranged in between 2 huge oak trees. And right between them were the fireworks.

We couldn't possibly go out to the farm without checking on the cows!


#31, one of the nice cows.


Licking Finley's feet.


Finley seeing his first fireworks.


After the fireworks. It was 11 o'clock and 2 hours after his bedtime.