A Beautiful Day

The last time we went to this park was November of 2008. Cam has a picture of Finners hanging on the parallel bars and she can barely reach them! She has grown so much since then. This is Mom's favorite park because there is very little chance of Finley getting hurt. She is obsessed with being outside and the slide at our house has ladder rungs that are about 5 feet apart. Of course, Finley still manages to climb them quickly when we're not paying enough attention, so this park is a relief! We had a wonderful time in the lovely 75 degree weather. Here's to many more days at the park :)

Finley Does the Dishes

Busy Finley

Here are just a couple of pics showing some of Finley's entertaining antics. A couple of weekends ago, we went to Uptown for our family pictures and spent the day walking around. We ate at Bar Abilene and Finley enjoyed her favorite meal - keputz. The server was very entertained. She has also been very busy organizing and moving things around. First she spent some time taking all of my pairs of shoes out of the closet and matching them up before she would put them back. And, I have found a GREAT way to entertain her - let her help put the dishes away! Let's hope she likes doing that as much in 13 years or so.

Mommy's 30th Birthday

Mommy's 30th birthday weekend was pretty good. On Friday, Cam and I went to the W Hotel and enjoyed a big person night out on the town. The hotel was super cool, very modern and right up my alley. We were on the 16th floor and overlooked downtown. After a day of shopping in the skyway, we dressed up, enjoyed some champagne in the room and then went to Manny's for dinner with Megan and Phil. The food was divine, of course. After we stuffed our faces, we met Kelley and Nate at Prohibition, the bar on the top floor of the Foshay. It was delightful, as well. When all the old people pooped out, we headed back to our room - only to find out that Tony and his girlfriend were at the first floor bar. So, we rallied up and met them for a couple more hours of fun. We closed down the bar and I DEFINITELY paid for it the next day. We went to Medford on our way to Waseca and bought ourselves some new running shoes - a pair for each of us - and then I proceeded to spend the rest of the day sleeping in the most comfortable bed in the world.

Happy THIRD Easter, Finley!

Easter Sunday was spent at Grandma and Grandpa Bernhardt's since the next day was also Mommy's big 3-O! Finley had a great day. After a rough night of thrashing sleep with Mommy, we woke up early and went to church. Finley got 3 Easter baskets all in one day and got to eat Dairy Queen cake twice. Our favorite part of the day was when she realized that the Robin's eggs made her teeth turn blue - funny since her mom and aunties used to use them as lipstick! Finley also got lots of puzzles from Easter Bunny Julie. She spent an hour tonight putting them together. She loves to play the game "This go here? Nooooo. Here? Noooooo." I stopped playing that game for awhile and got sucked into my tv show when all of a sudden I heard, "I did it!" She had put the hardest puzzle together all by herself. She also climbed the very dangerous ladder on the slide today all by herself. She is obsessed with the outdoors and never wants to come inside. She is currently very much hating her bath because it means she has to stop playing outside. This is going to be a very busy summer!

Finley's First Teenage Temper Tantrum

When Finley gets tired, you can always tell because she gets destructive. She must have been very tired after her night of tossing and turning (she woke up crying at 11pm last night and was so restless that I ended up sleeping in her bed while she took my spot in the big one!) because today, when we got home from school, she started by throwing her Cheerios on the floor as she looked at me with an "evil" (we all know she can't really look evil!) look in her eyes. Then, when Cam came home, she started moving her little table all over the living room. Then, she started throwing everything she could find that was on a higher surface on the floor. Then, instead of walking to the other side of her table to get the beads she wanted to throw, she crawled on top of the table to get them. I told her absolutely no and told her she had to clean up her mess. Similar to a story I've been told about myself and a coat in the entryway (I hear you laughing through the computer Mom and Dad!), I had to physically take Finley's hands and pick up the mess she made. She just kept on, so I put her in a time-out on the couch. Repeatedly, she got off the couch, so I put her in her bedroom and shut the door. She (fake) cried for awhile and then came out into the hallway, fake crying just enough so we would hear her come out of her room. I walked into the hallway and said, "Finley, you get back in your room," and she turned around, cried a little louder, and slammed the door behind her. It was pretty precocious - I guess we had a foretaste of the feast to come!

A Couple Cute Moments

I have no pictures to commemorate the occasions, but I wanted to share a couple cute stories. The other night, Cam and I were going through the nightly ritual with Finley in our attempt to get her to go to sleep (not much luck yet). We read Finley her books (Piggies her current favorite), maybe sing some songs, and say her prayers. After the regular "Lay Me Down..." we go through the "God bless's." Finley ALWAYS blesses Megan first, then Phil, then Sadie if she's lucky, but usually just Megan about 3 more times. Then, Cam and I help her with the rest of the list. One of the "tricks" we've been trying lately to get her to relax is to list as many things she's thankful for as we can think of in really soft voices after the "God Bless's". We'd been doing this a few nights, and Finley was really struggling a couple of nights ago. We started whispering things like teachers and full bellies and cozy beds and blankies, etc. We stopped after awhile and were just laying there quietly. Very quietly, I heard Finley whispering "keputz (ketchup) and lakes and duckies and MommyDaddy." I shed a little tear...

Then, last night, I was in the bath while Finley and Cam were out watching tv. As you all know, Cam has a slight addiction to Coke (the drink). On this rare occasion, we happen to have a case in our fridge but I only "allow" him one a day. He tries to sneak them by me, so when I heard (miraculously, no doubt, since I still can't hear out of my left ear) the can pop open, I shouted from the tub, "I heard that!" Finley yelled back from the living room, "What?" Then, "What?" again. When I didn't answer, she came to the door and said, "What, Cassie?" Cam came in a second later with an amazed look on his face and said, "I did NOT tell her to say that!" That stinker.

Grandma and Her Girls

Due to my facebook addiction, I am trying to catch up on the blogging I have been neglecting (by the lack of comments on this blog, though, I think we are all suffering from the same addiction!). These are from when Grandma, Megan, and Sadie came to visit me after my surgery. We had lots of fun being lazy while the girls drew and played together. Grandma got a good tickle session in, too. Before everyone got to the house, Finley and I spent the morning together relaxing and cleaning house. While I was in the kitchen, Finley cozied up in the laundry basket in the living room to watch her morning dose of Sesame Street.

P.S. Grandma's and Grandpa, Thanks for the help during surgery. I couldn't have made it through without you all - and neither could Finley!

Picasso Finley

I have no idea why this blog is not agreeing with me lately, but I did not post two pictures of the carpet art on purpose. But, as you can doubly see, Finley loves to do art where she's not supposed to. Just last night, in fact, she held the marker to the wall while I was cooking dinner. She looked at me with that "should I do it?" look and I looked back with the "don't even think about it" look. She turned right around and started moving in for the kill. I jumped over there really fast, but not fast enough because, once again!, we have her signature on the wall. (Thanks, Paige, for the really cool but REALLY dark markers). Finley has also been expressing her individuality through her clothes lately. One day when I was cleaning the closet and trying on spring/summer clothes to see what to donate and what to keep, Finley decided she needed to get her swimsuit on. She spent a good 15 minutes trying to put it on by herself. She ended up with 2 tops over her shirt and her bottoms over her pants - and of course the ever-present Lady Bug Boots had to be worn with the stylish ensemble.