Tiny Adults

Both Aidan and Aubrey are talking almost constantly now. I admit, there are times when I look at them and just tell them to.stop.talking. Please, just two minutes of silence, that's all I ask. I might get thirty seconds, and sometimes that is enough to restore my sanity.

Here are a few funny favorites, or at least oft repeated phrases:

"Finn's win!" said every morning while Kyle and the kids race our neighbors to see who can get out of the house first

"I do it myself!" Repeated by Aubrey too many times to count

"Don't worry, Mom, you just do what you need to do." said by Aidan...and when you tell me not to worry, that's probably when I should worry.

"I'm going to sneak on the iPad"...Aidan is not going to be a ninja when he grows up

"I do it myself'"...oh wait, did I already write that? It's just that I hear it so often, every day, that it seems that's all Aubrey says..(or, "No! Mine!). That comes in a close second for most repetitive phrase in the Finn house.



Two and a half more weeks, and then, *cue the music*, School's Out For The Summer! No major plans, but I will have to figure out some "individual playtime" activities for the kids so we can continue to be a loving family.

Seriously Cute

First School Pictures...darn that glare!!!

Did You Know?

Did you notice that I updated my blog all of once during the month of April?  I did, but I just couldn't find the mental energy to write a post.  Good thing I don't make my living as a blogger.

Here's what you missed:

1) Kyle quit his part-time job, only to have his boss quit a week later.  Then Kyle was offered the full-time controller position.  So, he is now at work full-time and the kids are in day care full-time.

2) We helped our friend, K1, celebrate her birthday with a princess/pirate/prince themed party.  Aidan and Aubrey were dance partners and melted my heart.

3) Kyle's slow-pitch softball league started up again last week.  Many wives complain when their husband is gone, but I since his league is on Sunday nights, that means I get complete and total silence after the kids go to bed.  I love it.

4)  I ripped out the carpet in our basement due to water damage.

5) My parents came up this weekend to watch the kids while Kyle and I took a weekend trip to Duluth, just for the fun of it.

6) My dad painted the downstairs for us!!!  It looks awesome.  Now to get some carpet ordered, and we're in business.

7) Aidan had his last day of Sunday School and performed in the Spring Concert.

Here are a few photos from the month of April/beginning of May.

Dancing at K1's birthday party

Trying to be like big brother

Performing in the Sunday School concert

A visit to The Farm at the MN Zoo with Nana.

Split Rock Lighthouse in Two Harbors, MN

Gooseberry Falls

Me without make-up.  Yikes.

Aerial Lift Bridge in Duluth, MN

More Pictures?!?!?!

Aidan used to love to get his picture taken.  Now, it's like I've strapped him into an electric chair and I'm about to flip the switch.  He wiggles and he squirms and he makes every possible crazy face that he can think of.  Not that Aubrey is any better, but at least she sits in one place while she makes crazy faces.  

As I was going through the obligatory "Easter outfit" photos, I realized Aidan had made some pretty hilarious gestures with his hands.  Since he's only four, I'm going to believe that he has no idea that he was pretend shooting himself in the head or hanging himself.  I'm sure it's just my interpretation, right?  : )  After a stern talking to (which did nothing) and then the really serious threat of "no iPad time" (which did the trick) Aidan smiled like a civilized human being.  Now if I could just find something to threaten Aubrey with...

Happy Easter from the Finn's.  

Birthday Week Finale

What comes at the end of every March?  If you guessed Spring Break, you'd be right!  Oh, and Aidan and Aubrey's birthdays.  A whole lotta excitement packed into a one (or two) week period.  We continued the double-party tradition this year and invited friends and family over for a celebration the weekend before the actual birthdays.  I decided to take a walk on the wild side and have a painting wall.  One-, two-, three-, four-, and five-year-olds are really careful painters, right?  Well, these kids were.  Not a drop of paint on the floor or walls.  They were awesome little Picasso's.  I would definitely do it again.

Cousins

The birthday kids, plus mom and dad

Chocolate Cars cake and banana cupcakes

The beginning of the painting wall

Mid-point

The End

Ready for some cake!

Hmm, do I like it?  (the answer was "no")

Chow down

Rise and Shine

I've loved getting up this past week knowing that within a half hour the sun would be up and shining. With Kyle's new job came a new routine in the morning...I get up and get ready, then wake up the kids and dress them while Kyle makes breakfast. It's working so far, we'll see how this week goes now that it's going to be dark again.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about Daylight Savings Time. In fact, this is the first time I can remember being happy to "lose" an hour. Why? Because Aidan and Aubrey have been waking up anywhere between 5:30am-6:30am. Can't a girl catch a break?!? I just want a few extra hours of sleep on the weekends. Voila! Turning the clock ahead an hour this morning meant that the kids got up at 7:30am. Lovely, even if I didn't truly get any extra sleep.

Back to the Grind

Kyle decided that being a stay-at-home dad was just too easy.  Why should life be simple and enjoyable when it can be crazy and chaotic???  Enter the job search.  Kyle has been half-heartedly job hunting for the past few months.  He periodically sent out resumes when something interesting popped up on Craigslist.  Finding a job that was going to be flexible with the hockey season proved to be too much, but now that the season is over, it's time to get to work.  Kyle interviewed at, and was hired by, a small environmental company just a few miles from our house.  He will be handling their accounting and whatever else needs to be done at a small company.

I don't know who is more excited; Kyle because he gets to interact with adults, or Aidan, because he gets to go to daycare.  I'm thinking Aidan is more excited.  Aidan has been talking about daycare non-stop since Thursday.  He wakes up at 6:30am in the morning to tell Aubrey that daycare is only XX amount of days away.  He talks about it while we are grocery shopping, and it's the last thing he talks about before going to bed.  I hope it lives up to his expectations!

The bonus in this whole situation is that it requires minimal effort on my part.  I leave at 6:30am, so Kyle will be in charge of getting the kids up, ready to go, and transported to daycare.  The new job is currently 8am-1pm, so that means Kyle also gets to pick the kids up from daycare and get them down for naps when they get home.  I see this as a win-win for me.  Aidan and Aubrey (and Kyle) get intellectual stimulation and I don't have to do anything!

Ask me in a week if everything turns out like I am imagining.

Quick Trip

The kids and I packed our bags on Friday and hit the road down to Madison.  We spent a fun-filled 48 hours with Kali, Kyle, Reese, Nana, and Poppa.  As always, the Madison Children's Museum was a big hit.  So much more toddler-friendly than the giant children's museum here in the Twin Cities.  It is so much fun to watch the kids interact with each other.  Aidan and Reese are two peas-in-a-pod; constantly on the go, moving from one activity to the next.  Aubrey, on the other hand, gets immersed in one activity and is content to play for lengthy (in toddler time) periods of time.  Aubrey was fascinated with how everything worked at the museum and wanted to build and take apart.  Here are a few of my fave pics from the weekend.

Ball drop

Mad Scientist

Maybe she'll help me garden this summer?

Just out for a drive

Cousins

First time on skates this winter 

He's a natural

 

RSV is no f-u-n

The Finn family has spent the past week quarantined in the house while we have each battled colds. Turns out Aubrey had RSV, and that's why she couldn't breathe and ran a fever for 5 days straight. A trip to the doctor, some antibiotics (for a pesky ear infection on top of the RSV), and a brand new nebulizer...what a week.

The one thing I have taken away from this experience is that I am SO thankful that we didn't have to go through this 100 years ago (or present day in a poverty-stricken country). Imagine living in a small house, no electricity, it's the middle of winter, and your child has a high fever and can't breathe. I'm sure parents did/do the same thing that Kyle and I did, just sat up all night and rocked their sick child...but they didn't have a nebulizer, medicine, or a hospital five minutes away.

 Aubrey is on the mend, although still exhausted from the whole ordeal.  The one perk for her week at home has been the daily princess dress.  Since she doesn't have the energy to leave the house, we just slip a pretty princess dress on top of her pajama's and she's set for the day.  Style a la Courtney Love.

Stitches

Stitches seemed to be a theme in our house last week.  I spent a few hours getting crafty with the sewing machine and Aidan ended up with his eyebrow stitched together. Thankfully the two had nothing to do with each other.

Aidan was invited to a Chronicles of Narnia themed birthday party.  Boys were supposed to be kings and girls were supposed to be queens.  We've got a lot of princess gear in this house, but are short on king attire.  Thank you Joann Fabric for having a sale on felt last week.  For a grand total of $6.99 I bought a yard of red felt and fuzzy trim.  Then came the hard part.  I had to break out the sewing machine manual to figure out how to thread the darn thing.  Not that it was hard.  It had just been a long time.  In the end, the cape turned out nicely (although I doubt it will stand up to much rough housing).

The other stitches came on Tuesday.  I walk in the door after work to hear, "Mommy, I got stitches!"  Aidan sounded excited, so I guess cracking his head on a bookcase at the YMCA and spending a few hours in the ER wasn't traumatic.  Taking a band-aid off, on the other hand, brings tears and screaming.  You'd think that would be the least of his worries.  The stitches come out tomorrow.  I think we'll take the band-aid off before we get there to avoid all that commotion in the doctor's office.

King Aidan, stitched up from his most recent battle with the bookcase