Tough Love

NOTE: The following post is dripping with sarcasm.


There seems to be other babies who are meeting their milestones a little faster than Finn. Because we're good parents, that's not acceptable to us. We've developed a new outlook that requires some more effort on the part of Finn. If he succeeds, great, not only will he have accomplished something, but it'll build his self confidence - and it's never too early to start building self confidence. If he doesn't succeed...well, he's young, he'll have countless hours over the course of many days and weeks to keep practicing and to learn how to deal with failure. Below is a sequence of pictures to illustrate an example of how our new idea works. In this particular instance, Finn is being pressured encouraged to learn how to stand on his own.

Disclaimer: No babies were harmed or even upset during the making of this post.

Apple Fest 2007!

This is the third year now that we've gone to the Apple Festival at Circle K Orchard near River Falls. They have apple picking, great food, a petting zoo, and some extra games for the kids. Below are three pictures of Julia picking apples - the first from 2005 after just turning one, the second from 2006, when she was two, and the third one from yesterday, now three years old.

Finn wanted to get in on the apple picking action too.

Mandy and I got to pose with one child after we finished eating lunch (apple brats, buffalo burgers, corn on cob... Tasty!).

Julia really enjoyed going on a pony ride. When we left she waved a big good-bye to Bullet, the pony she rode on.

One of the games they had was one of those big air filled castles that kids can jump around in. Julia gave it a try and had fun. Here's a video of her experience. It's shot through mesh, so that's why it's a little funny looking.

School has started!

I've been meaning to write about this for over a week now... I guess that really means school is back in session now and life has gotten even busier!

Julia's preschool career at Rocky Branch Elementary has officially begun! She seems to be enjoying her time at school so far. The first morning of school was a little hectic though. I decided to take the day off and not accept substitute teaching jobs for the day, so that I could see my little girl get on the school bus for the very first time. Sounds lovely, doesn't it? Well, while we were eating breakfast, we got a phone call telling us that we missed the bus! Nice. The bus garage evidently told us the incorrect time for pick-up in the morning. Julia was so excited to ride the bus to school, then we had to come up with a reason why it wasn't going to take her to school on her first day. Not to mention my disappointment in realizing that I wasn't going to see Julia climb on the bus or be able to take that memorable photograph of the momentous occasion. Everything worked out though, as it always does! Finn and I drove Julia to school and took a few pictures of her there.


Because we still wanted that coveted "first time riding the bus picture," Torey took Julia to daycare the next morning in order to see her board the bus. Pretty cute pictures! I still really want to see her do it sometime though. Guess that's just the Mommy wanting to see the first things her babies do! The pictures are good for now though. Hope you enjoy them too!

My Sister, Attorney at Law

Ok, so it's not official until she gets sworn in, but my sister found out on Friday that she passed the Oregon State Bar exam! Here's the proof. Ember graduated from Willamette University College of Law with a J.D. in May and then took the bar exam in July. I'm extremely proud of her!

And, just in case anyone was hoping for a cute kid picture...here's one of Julia after we had gone to Art on the Kinni. The "J" on her face is the start of her name that she had painted on her cheek.

Princess Castle Camp Out!

For her birthday, Julia got a special pop-up princess castle. We told her that she could sleep in it some night in the living room. A few weekends ago we had an evening all planned out - I was going to sleep on the couch in the living room and Julia would sleep in her princess castle. But...the night before it was going to happen Julia had a number of major meltdowns and we threatened to not let her have her princess party the next night if she didn't shape up. The threat did not work and Julia found out it wasn't merely a threat. Fast forward to last weekend - we had been telling her that if she continued going to bed good that we could have the princess party in the living room. This time she came through and the party happened!
Besides just sleeping, Julia and I watched a very special princess movie that Julia had never seen: Beauty and the Beast. She got a little "nervous" (her word) a few times, but otherwise she thoroughly enjoyed herself, as did I. Mandy even made us a special treat of popcorn! Julia thought it was all very cool.
We both had a good night sleep, Julia in her princess castle and me on the couch.

Big boy food!

Finn had an exciting new experience after his nap today. We decided to have him taste some rice cereal! It didn't look like much more than a liquid - Julia thought that was pretty strange. She was VERY excited to help him out with his first "solid" meal. Finn did a pretty good job; we think he swallowed some of it! What do you think of Finn's new Bumbo chair?

Growing Fast!

Julia (and parents) are excited to see how grown up Finn is becoming. He is now able to play in Julia's old Exersaucer and really enjoys himself! He spins around in the chair and tries to play with the little toys. Very fun!


Julia and Finn both had their check-ups at the doctor yesterday. Happily, they are both continuing to grow as healthy children. Julia was excited to be part of the main focus again at a doctor's appointment. For the past year, she has been observing Mom at appointments to check on the progress of the pregnancy, then observing Finn get poked and prodded at his appointments. Julia has learned how to be a very well-mannered patient!

I'm sure that you're just dying to hear their stats! Here they are:

Julia surprised us with measurements of 39 1/2 pounds and 39 1/2 inches! That's an increase of 4 1/2 pounds and 3 3/4 inches over the course of one year. She continues to hold her status in the 97th and 95th percentiles!

Finn weighed in at an impressive 13 pounds 12 ounces and 25 inches! Over the past 2 months, he grew 1 1/2 pounds and 1 inch. That's a lot of growing! Interestingly, when Finn was born he was above the 95th percentile on the charts; however, his weight and height are now in the 30th and 50th percentiles respectively. Maybe his body misses all of the extra nutrition from inside Mom's belly and it's difficult to keep up with such a hefty stature in the outside world?!

Picnic

Yesterday we decided to take a walk to the UWRF campus and have a picnic. In a few days students would start returning, but for now, the place was pretty dead. We walked along some of the trails behind campus that cross over the South Fork of the Kinnickinnic River.
We ended up eating at some picnic tables outside of the new University Center. Afterwards, the kids wanted to look around a bit.

Finally, here's a video that Mandy shot of Finn jumping from one picnic table to another.

Birthday Girl!

This past Sunday, Julia turned 3 years old! We traveled to Wisconsin Rapids on Friday and had a party at Mandy's parents' house on Saturday. To keep the numbers down, we just had our parents, siblings, and grandparents over to the house. Julia has been talking about her birthday for many months and so she had plenty of time to make plans. And the plans were as follows: it would be a princess party, with pizza for the meal, and cupcakes for dessert. Oh, and the word "pink" was uttered a lot too.

So when the time came, Julia donned her princess dress, complete with crown and princess wand, and handed out princess necklaces to everyone as they arrived. Along with the necklace, everyone also received a princess blessing (To the unaware, a princess blessing consists of Julia shaking her wand and then lightly touching it to your forehead). To facilitate different tastes and to make it more fun, a little pizza bar was set up. Everyone could choose their toppings to put onto English muffin halves which were then baked for a few minutes. Ever the non-picky eater, Julia's consisted of olives, mushrooms, pepperoni, and cheese. The pink cupcakes for dessert were topped with pink frosting and fairy dust (clear sprinkles). But before we all had the cupcakes, Julia opened the preposterously plentiful pile of princess presents.
Julia did a great job on the presents, even with everyone watching her. Her new princess backpack will come in handy when she starts preschool this Fall. I spent some time over the past few months getting a special present ready for Julia. I commissioned an artist to create a digital image based on photos of Julia, her princess dress (including crown and wand), and her stuffed pal Teddy Bunny. I then got the art framed for her to hang in her room. Below is a picture of her after she opened it and then a picture of the original artwork. It was a really good weekend. Even the three hour drive wasn't bad - Finn actually slept a lot of it this time.

Let's get started with what people really want...

NOTE: Click on any of the pictures to open a new window with the full sized image.

Julia loves choosing and cooking recipes from her Sesame Street cookbook.

Even though they're small and few in number, she's always proud to see the bounty of vegetables from our little potted garden.

A family shot while in the butterfly garden at the Minnesota Zoo.

Julia likes Finn, but Finn really likes Julia. He'll stop fussing to listen to her sing and his eyes will follow her all around the room. Even though these pictures are posed, they're still pretty darn cute.

And sometimes Finn can occupy himself...even if it is with a finger in his mouth.