Movie time!

Phin has an educational video set that teaches him his numbers, letters, sounds and animals who live in the rain forest, africa and the san diego zoo. I like to keep the little boy contained while he's watching said DVD series. (I prefer the rain forest to africa and the zoo) Usually, he's watching the DVD when I'm in the shower or getting ready to go here or there or maybe cooking in the kitchen.
When I went to get him today, he was hanging out, lounging in his chair. I found it to be adorable. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Kickin' the bell

As you probably know, Maggie is "bell trained." This means that she rings a bell when she needs to go outside to potty - of if she just wants to go outside to play on a nice day. The bell is attached to the bottom of the bakers rack and about a week ago Phin found said bell. He loves it. He loves to ring it and it really confuses Maggie.
The cat tried this as well in the past, but cat doesn't get a hall pass outside!
In this particular photo, phin is KICKING the bell.

I love my boy!

Project MOVE

I made an "obstacle course" for Phin with his toys. Then I let him go.
WATCH and see what happens.
I am scared!

THANK YOU Uncle David!

Uncle David used one of his many talents to make a swing set for Phin. It was ready last fall but we didn't get a chance to get it up here from the farm before it got cold outside. When Grandma Susie came to visit on her birthday weekend, she brought the swing set along and we got it all set up!

Grandma Susie and I stained and sealed the bench swing while Phin was napping.





Daddy worked hard to get the swing set put together.


After fetching, Maggie decided to relax.


Phin got the FIRST try on the swing!

Happy Birthday Grandma Susie!

Phin wanted in on Grandma's Fiesta Birthday Picture!


How nice that Daddy was willing to share his fiesta hat with Phin!

Grandma and Mommy had our hats too!

Phin's Easter Day

included a playdate!
Phin's friend, Mayah, came over for lunch and even brought an Easter Basket for my boy! It's funny to watch the two babies together. Phin just wants to watch and maybe touch her a little bit. Mayah looks back at Phin with a little bit of concern in her eyes - as he's so much BIGGER than she is!
We had burgers on the grill and a nice salad, of course.



Phin was quite excited by his Easter basket. Mostly, he wanted to EAT IT! :)

Phin's 8 months old today

and we are breaking out the 18month old clothes. I think we should stop calling him "Phin" and call him "Moose" instead!

Maggie is a good dog!

This was our weekend to cook for church. We had tested and decided on "Ninja Sauce, red potato & asparagus, french garlic bread and a dessert of Angel food cake with fresh strawberries and also, lemon bars. For this particular event, we cook for about thirty people. SO, you can imagine the moving food from our home to the church. It requires lists, *MY* cooking tools, crates of food and SOME items I cook ahead of time as there is a time the food is to be served!

We had the list, the signs for the food, the serving dishes, the crates of food ready to be prepared as well as the food that was made earlier in the morning.

But, being a parent, you should expect GLITCHES. Usually, I am pretty good about expectations for these glitches and systems around the glitches... but this one... I didn't expect. Dan was at the stove finishing some Italian sausage for the meal and I was pulling a comb through my hair. Phin was laying in his crib, in only a diaper (he has been freshly showered) rolling around and playing.

All of a sudden, I hear blood curdling screaming from my baby. This is QUITE unusual so I walk into his room and find his chubby little leg stuck in between the slats of the crib. I tried to work his leg out, but his fat rolls and bare skin weren't helping the situation. Phin was, obviously, quite upset and I was unable to help him so I yelled to the kitchen to get help from Daddy. Dan came but he was also unable to get the leg out. I ran to the kitchen and got some spray olive oil and sprayed his leg up and out it slipped.

I think that was the worst thing that ever happened to that little boy and he was quite inconsolable. We didn't expect this leg thing - and it put us behind on the clock... so as we tried to rush everything to the car to make it to church on time, one soldier got left behind. That soldier was - the lemon bars - which I got left on the kitchen floor. (they had been lined up with the crates of food going to the car but since they were cold and food was hot and the crates were full, they were in line on the floor waiting to go to the car.) I thought Dan had them, he thought I had them and once we realized what happened, we were a round trip - 1 hour from home and we had to mourn the loss of the lemon bars. We both understood that Maggie would certainly have eaten them - or at least destroyed them with her face or feet or something. I mean, Montana had once dug through Mary Ann's luggage from London to pull out a HUGE special dark chocolate bar of which she devoured most of it. Who's to think Maggie would leave these lemon bars alone?



But for whatever reason, she did not touch the lemon bars at all! My guess is she was sleeping on our bed - on MY pillow (which is one of her favorite things).

Phin's Cheer-I-O-s

Additionally, this was Phin's first try at the Cheerios. I decided that he needs to be able to start working on self feeding. He hasn't has a chance to put food in his own mouth lately - besides a rogue bottle here and there. The Pediatrician said he should not have fruit until he's able to pick it up and eat it himself. SO, before apples (that's a joke) comes a cheerio!











Feeding by Daddy, video by Mommy!

Phin's Big Day

This is a picture of Phin and Mommy!
Phin had a good morning hanging with Daddy while Mommy went out to hunt (deals) and gather (produce) at the local supermarket!


Mid-day, Phin wrapped himself up in his play pad! We love our silly boy!


In the evening, Mommy gave Phin his first "Trainer cup." He knew what to do with it straight away! Phin sipped while reclining on Daddy!

Goodbye Flowers

Phin is walking in his tot walker (as shown in pictures below). Phin is now good at walking TOWARDS things he wants to check out and THEN "playing" with what he's walked up to. Mama needs an extra set of eyes in the back of her heads!

Manatee from The Greats!

Great Grandma & Grandpa brought back some toys for Phin from Florida. So far, I have only given Phin access to one - the Manatee. Phin likes to play with it in his tot walker. As you can see, he kinda loves the Manatee...

Faces of Phin:

SEVEN

I love Tivo. With tivo, you tell the little box what things you want it to record and it just does it. I don't have to look up channels, times, days... tivo takes care of everything. When I am watching something on tivo, I can just fast forward through the advertisements and go right on to the rest of the program - saving time and my sanity! If I miss something on tivo, all I have to do is rewind and catch up. If I need to leave the room, I can put it on pause (for up to thirty minutes) and then it will start playing again on it's own. Sometimes I forget that tivo is just for the TV. When I am in the car listening to the radio and miss a date or place on an add and want to hit the rewind button on the tivo - but oh, this is radio so I can't.

I WISH tivo was a part of every day life. If it was, I would rewind for the last thirty minutes (maybe 'days' in tivo land) and then push the pause button. As it turns out, Phin is seven SEVEN months old and I just want to yell "STOP"! I need some catch up time!

Phin is doing cyclone rolling throughout the house. Phin is trying to crawl and is mimicking walking in his tot-rider. Phin is rolling here and there to move toward what he wants and away from what he doesn't. Phin knows that when we are in the car, it's "his time" to talk in long rambling sentences/(baby babble). He knows that when food on a spoon is headed toward his mouth, all he has to do is purse his lips together to keep said food out. All of these things are happening too quickly and I just need things to slow down a bit.

Phin is now teething as well. The teeth are not yet coming through, but he's in pain and he's chewing the all get out of my fingers, his fingers, his toys etc.

The fact that he's moving and rolling and playing and even teething - these are all GREAT THINGS. These things are happening as God intended. These things are the natural progression of growth and development and for that, I am grateful. I just, want to hold him in my arms when it's his nap time and bed time - because I know soon enough (too soon for me) Phin will be off on his own two feet and my baby will be a boy.

I guess I have just never had an opportunity to feel joy for progress and pain for the loss of dependence on me - all at the same time. This is the point when I have to suck it up and look towards the smile in my heart and say "grow Phin grow!"

All bets are off!

Phin was on his blanket with toys all around.
I was sitting at the mac in front of the coffee table.
... and I hear this... crinkling.
THAT was the moment that I understood that everything had changed.


I felt a BUMP at my foot and looked down and saw THIS.







I guess he's interested in learning about computers - like his daddy (this is the mac cord that he pulled out of the computer.)



Baby proofing will be finished TONIGHT!

Phin's shorts set

I usually go to the discount outlet and buy things on clearance with coupons for Phin's clothing. The other stuff, I try to make for him. My plan is to try to make him shorts for summer because, really, how hard can shorts be?
The last time we went to the outlet mall, I did "splurge" and buy him something that was not on clearance - and instead only on "discount."
It was this shorts outfit and it WON because - - - you guessed it! The elephant on the front!

So, today it was over seventy degrees outside and Phin wore his shorts. The biggest reason is because Phin needs to be making vitamin D. Phin needs approx 20 min. of sunlight to make that vitamin D. So, instead of his wearing fleece footed jammies, we put on those cute shorts and T-shirt and went outside!

So, I took Phin's exer-saucer outside and grabbed Maggie's tennis ball thrower and Phin and I went outside to play. Phin was very excited about watching Maggie run away and come back again. As you can see below - I am unable to get his attention for the picture because he's watching Maggie.








After a bit of time outside (we didn't spend the whole twenty - I believe he has to "work up to it" as he seems to have my fair skin tone) we came in and he played on the floor. :)

Baby Gate - Installed!

Phin is a cyclone.
I had ordered the baby gate online and was just waiting for it to appear.
In the meantime, Phin started rolling and rolling - making his way over to the staircase (never out of my view though) and I would move him back away to a safer region of the house.
Well, the gate is here and installed. It's actually really great! It has a remote control so when I have my hands full of baby and bags and STUFF, I can hit the button and it opens up for me to pass though. You do have to manually swing it closed again - but the ease of not having to jack with the child-proof opening has been HEAVEN!

This is just a picture of Phin - playing with Daddy's feet - off of his blanket where he was put down...

Phin and his Monkey:

65 degrees today!~

Since it was warm and since my baby is growing so quickly, I decided that TODAY was the day. Since it was "warmer" out, I put Phin's overall shorts on him. He will never be able to wear them again, but see, when I bought them, he was a newborn. I was looking at the shorts and thinking that nine months from his birthday would be MAY which would be a fine time to start wearing overall shorts...








Somehow, this pose reminds me of Conan OBrien!

Phin's new walker

It's not actually NEW, it's from Cousin Given and Auntie Annan - but it's Phin's first time to use it. He's actually very good as scooting backwards and I believe that in time, he'll start moving forward too!