A spooky sneak peek

1) how did eddie get so big?

2) how did finney get so big?

3) does every mother feel like this practically every week?

4) i make insanely cute little boys.

5) halloween gets more fun every year!

12 weeks

Oh Finney Mac. You're 12 weeks old, and I've spent the better part of the week admiring you, wondering how you've gotten so big and marveling over your awesomeness. So often I find myself wondering how we're here already, creeping up on 3 months, while at the same time wondering how it is possible that you haven't been here for longer. It feels like we've been a family of four forever....you fit seamlessly into our lives and our hearts. I was so worried that I couldn't love you like I loved Eddie. I wondered how/if it was possible that my heart could explode twice with overwhelming love. And Finney? It has. Every morning when we wake up and your face lights up with a smile that goes from your lips to your eyes and your dimples come out, my heart literally explodes. Literally. Every morning, a teeny bit, my heart explodes, I die and you bring me back to life. Corney...yup. True...absolutely.

You've changed so much in the past couple weeks, grown into this little baby age that is completely my favorite ever. Your smile is insane - it starts small, with a little smirk starting at your top lip, growing to the right side of your mouth and then you just burst with joy that is so insanely adorable. You throw your hands up - your feet if you're laying down, too - and crunch your whole face up, close your eyes and smile from ear to ear. You have dimples, just like I knew you would, since your brother, your daddy and I all have huge dimples. I honestly have never seen a baby smile like you Finn, and it makes me love you that much more. You're coo-ing and talking more and more, and every once in a while, if we get you at just the right time, you get a little 'heh-heh-heh' that comes out and again, I die. Finney Goober, you are so cute.

And we've been waiting to even say it because both your Daddy and I are so confused, but you roll, Finn. You roll and you shouldn't be at that milestone for another month. The craziest part? You've been doing it for weeks now. And I'm not sure what that means for us in the future...your head control is amazing, you roll from your tummy to your back and OH MY GOD I'm so scared you're going to be an early crawler.

Also? I have to add that your brother is totally and completely over the moon for you. OVER THE MOON. Every morning when you're still comfy and snoozing next to me, Eddie runs in and gets about a half inch from your face and says "FFFFFIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNEYYYYYYYY!!!" and when you don't wake up that first time, he tries again. And again. And again. And when you finally, reluctantly open your eyes, he goes insane, happily announcing "FINN'S AWAKE!!!!!" like he's surprised. And no many how many times we tell him that he has to be quiet and leave you alone, it is the same thing every morning and to be honest, we're just accepting it as life. Sorry buddy, you're never going to be allowed to sleep in. Plus, I'm 90% sure that you're also going to have major issues with your personal space being invaded, and again, I'm sorry, but he just loves you so gosh darn much! Either you're going to get used to it or you're going to be scarred for life. Let's hope for the first option, mkay?

Finney Goober, Goober-Roo, Goo, Finney Mac, Finn-a-boo...you go by them all. In fact, the only time we call you Finnegan is when Daddy and I are talking to each other. We call you Beef-a-Roo still, when we're talking about how big you've gotten and how proud we are of you, mainly, I think, because it reminds us of your time in the NICU. You're always going to be our little fighter man, and we're always going to see that tiny baby with the bubble cpap, and when you're a teenager and I call you Beefy Roo, please just ignore me. Until then, let me call you every silly little name under the sun. Love you Finney man. I love you more than you know.

12 weeks. 12!

try try again

I've been trying for a week now to get pictures from our Lake Geneva trip on the blog, but we're having trouble with this computer now (OMG why can't anything work right in this house? why are we a computer-crapping black hole?) and it crashes anytime I try to upload too many pictures. Sigh. Coming soon, I promise. I won't give up! This is also why I've been posting mostly the cell phone pictures, but like I said, I'll keep trying to get this working....so many pictures to share!!

procrastination...

why is it when you have a million things to do you don't want to do any of them? we are having a little halloween party with the Turza cousins tomorrow, have a family party with frankie's other side of the family that evening and then I'm in training (cpr, etc) for coaching pretty much all day Sunday. I have to cook, scrub the house, do 5 million pounds of laundry, put together a baby gift...not to mention make dinner and then go coach tonight. It is 2:30, the house is half assed-ly picked up and I'm plopped on the couch and watching Private Practice. Eff me.

As a side note, I'm panicked about Sunday. Not about the training - that stuff has been ingrained into my head since I was 15 - but about being gone from Finn all day. I have to leave around 7:30am and probably won't be home until the evening and I have no idea when I'm going to pump. I'm terrified that Finn will have troubles with a bottle at each feeding pretty much all day, I'm scared Frank is going to be out of his mind. I'm scared that only pumping is going to tank my supply.

Also? I'm half assing the play date tomorrow. I was going to go crazy cute with decorations and cute food and Halloween inspired names for food.....instead I'm hoping the house will be decent, the baby won't be hysterical and that I'll remember to put breast pads in so I don't leak onto my shirt with guests around. Standards with a second baby? GONE. We're going for survival with a little bit of fun thrown in. Time for over the top decorations and labels and website worthy party crap? Gone. Time for sitting my ass during nap time, on the computer and watching Private Practice? Apparently tons. Go me.

Word vomit 101 today, folks.

Phone Dump

{click to enlarge}

{eddie showing off what was left of his honeycrisp apple. Yes, that's just the stem. FOR REAL he downed the whole thing and still won't confirm if he ate the seeds or not}

{baking pumpkin face cookies}

{playing with Finney}

{half playing half picking on Finney? notice the toy pulled down to Finn's head}

{Finney's Elvis smile}

{blue eyed goober!}

{Eddie and Finn ready for our town parade and festival}

{middle: Finney's a-dor-a-ble sink bath. With censor.}

Word of Warning

First, I have to say that I'll be back lots this week.....our computer is finally fixed!! I not only have fully functioning "a" and "s" keys, but the screen hinges are on and the screen is no longer propped up by the lamp! Hoorah!!!! (and yes, it really was as ghetto as it sounds)



And my word of warning:

Those cute movie trailers for Disney's "African Cats" that shows the Momma lion sweetly kissing the babies, the baby cheetahs frolicking in the tall grass? The movie that claimed to be "heartwarming". ANYTHING BUT! Jesus Christ, in the first 10 minutes babies were killed by hyenas, lions were injured and lots of animals were caught.

And while it doesn't actually show blood, Eddie knew what was going on when he asked "...but why is he taking him away from his family?" Nightmares, anyone? After he lost interest (thank god) I had it on while nursing Finn and my anxiety shot through the freaking roof. Families torn apart, more babies killed, Daddy lion killed, babies lost.....UGH. And while it was cool to show Eddie the animals (zebras, lions, cheetahs, turtles, crocodiles, antelope, etc) it was not worth the questions. Not at all! I stopped it with 20 minutes left so maybe it gets hearwarming at the end?

The wave and sneak

Yesterday was our town’s annual festival and we had a great time with Keith and Erin. I’m not sure who had more fun….the boys (Keith, Frankie and Eddie) running around the games or me and Erin watching them be ridiculous. 

(all photos by Erin!)

{my blue eyed boy}

{super hero Frank!}

{two of my favorites}

{crazy boys}

{i love this guy}

{...mainly because I can pick on him!}

{eddie is pro parade waver}

{our parade includes very important people. like the local tupperware lady.}

{wave wave wave}

{country lovin'}

{sneaky mister would hide and eat candy after I told him no more}

{the boys on the train. The best part was seeing them try to fit on one side! weirdos.}

Our little festival is so fun and Eddie enjoys it more each year. It really makes me appreciate how great our town is…if the drop in housing market didn’t kick it’s butt, it would be pretty close to the little idyllic farm town.

monday phone dump

(click to enlarge)

{10.10} monday phone dump:

{eddie in the pool, in october!!!}

{finn giving his "heeey" face}

{eddie and grandpa lakeside}

{finn swaddled and paci'd}

{bags with grandpa}

{toes with goober}

{blue suckers, well, suck}

sweet, crazy, funny

Are toddlers bipolar? Because honest to God, Eddie goes from awesome to crazy in .2 seconds. He cracks me up, drives me up the wall and is insanely sweet all in the blink of an eye.

And now for a picture game of “sweet, crazy, funny” below.

{sweet}

{half crazy, half funny}

{this picture is my 100% my life. out of focus, eddie running wild, dog hiding out of the way, Finn left in car seat because that poor child is dragged around more than Eddie's beloved blankies}

{oh, sweet as sugar, baby}

{funny!! this boy ws fascinted / terrified of the mantis}

I know that this is all part of the 3 year old thing, but oh my Jesus. Its tiring.  

2 months

{we have had beautiful weather lately! 70 degrees in October means we're outside, baby!}

Finney Goober, you turned 2 months old yesterday! You had your doctor’s appointment today and you weigh 11lb10oz and are 23 ¼ inches. You’re in the 50th percentile for everything, which means that not only are you perfect, but you’re much smaller than your monster big brother who was consistently in the 80 and 90’s. We figured this because we’re constantly surprised just how tiny your feet and hands are…and when we compared you to Eddie’s baby pictures he had much chunkier feet than yours!

Your eyes are still blue (we hope they stay that way!) and you use them all the time to follow the sound of voices. You love to smile when we whisper to you….you really seem to respond best to soft sounds – you startle easily and hate very noisy situations (like the party we threw last week). Your hair is still   a strawberry color, and your stork bite is still very prominent.  You recently started to kick and flail your arms around, which is so funny! Momma likes to pretend you’re dancing to “Party Rock”, mainly because she’s dork. You love your swing, rocking in the rocking chair and being held. Momma recently realized the way to get you to sleep on your own is to bundle you up – you hate being cold – and this keeps momma sane.

{your favorite view from the swing}

You hate the world from 7:00-9:00 every night. I’m not quite sure what made you hate the evening, but man, they wronged you somewhere along the way and you won’t let us forget it. Sometimes we can hit a magical combination of shushing, rocking, jobbling and side holding and you finally relax into sleep, and on those days momma thanks every God imaginable that the crying has stopped. Otherwise, we wait for 9:00pm to come and praise God then.

You continue to grow like a weed, and I can’t believe that you’re already 2 months old. Next thing I know you’ll be crawling after Eddie’s toy and talking and going to college. Slow down, Goober Man.

eff it.

Actually? FUCK IT.



Yup, I went there.



Eddie is happily watching Curious George, Finn is sleeping and every ounce of my body is telling me to write, so come hell or high water (or missing @ and $ in this case ) I’m writing. And two sentences in, I’m over it. But I’m doing it anyway. So what has been going on with us? Tons, of course.



Finney is 2 months old, and I have no idea where time went and what it did to my cushy little old man faced baby, but this new little guy who loves to coo and smile and swat t everything is pretty cute too. He has his 2 month appointment today, which I’m dreading, but such is life. I’ll post his stats later.
Eddie continues to love preschool, but I have noticed that he holds his thumb in his mouth (not sucking on it, but chewing on the side of it or biting the nail) some of the time that he’s there. Which, of course, has brought us a wonderful new world of germs and a nose that seems to have an endless amount of buggers, but again, such is life, right? Apparently this is my new motto with 2 kids.
We’ve had a fun week of visitors, with my most favorite sister-momma, Nicole, visiting from Germany. If you’re a long time reader of the blog you’ll remember that Nicole is my old neighbor whose husband joined the army and got stationed in Germany. And as much as I was excited for Nicole’s amazing adventure overseas, I missed her terribly. Thankfully, facebook has kept us completely up to date….we even laughed when she came over and asked for updates on the neighborhood and I couldn’t come up with something that she didn’t already know. I’ve posted the greatness of facebook before, but seriously, it has totally kept our friendship alive and seemingly normal! I’ll be sure to post pictures of our party in their honor later.


Finally, I got a job coaching swimming! I’m so excited. I happened to go to work out one morning when the swim team kids were there and I went out on a limb and asked the coach if they needed help. He directed me to the head coach to put in an application and I decided to go for it. I love, love being on the pool deck and am thrilled to get to coach not only for an awesome team, but so close to home! It will be an adventure to figure out how to do this with nursing Finn, but we’ll get there. Frankie’s mom is going to watch the boys if I have an earlier evening practice until Frankie gets home from work, which is awesome for everyone :)

Well, we got this far. Hopefully with this update I’ll be able to throw some pictures up later without feeling totally overwhelmed.

You guys. I’m having the hardest time without blogging. I have so many things I want to write about, but  typing like this and filling in the missing @ and $ is such a  pain in the @$$. So I’ll just keep filling up my notebook and hopefully type them up soon. I miss you….I really do!