Fintan turns THREE!

Today is Fintan's birthday! Yippee! He turned one-two-three! We had a quiet at-home celebration. (Daddy is sick and Mommy is still a bit jet-lagged.) We had dinner, opened presents, and tomorrow we'll go get GELATO! And then on Superbowl Sunday we'll go to Disneyland and ride the "fast train" (including, of course, Space Mountain).

I'm three and I'm cute as can be!

I like to "rip" - first you take off the bow - untie it like daddy's boots. Then you "rip!"


I got a few presents from Cardiff, Wales!


They are all Daleks and a few other Doctor Who toys. I like Daleks. They are cool.

This one even talks and rolls around on its own! Score! "I got da blue Dalek!!!"

Mama climbing the mountain!

I'm the special guest blogger once again while Ingrid is off doing good deeds and climbing Kilimanjaro. However, Fin was very sad when he saw Mama packing to go to the airport since he's been obsessed with "I want to go on airplane!" and "I want to go see grandpa and grandma in New York and go on the F train gelato cannoli." mumble mumble something." So we decided that if Mama was going to be away anyway, Fin and I would take a quick break to NY to see and do all the things he's been talking about for 2 months straight.

As a quick note of explanation, on a previous trip we got him a couple of books - ABC of NYC and 123 NYC which teach the alphabet and numbers with pictures of things in NY. He's been demanding that we read these EVERY night since he got them and has memorized them front to back, so this trip is all about taking him to see all the different things he's been reading about and obsessing over.

As an added bonus, it SNOWED in NY today - the first 'real' snow he's experienced as in falling from the sky snow. He had fun sliding around and trying to make snowballs to throw at Grandpa and has been very excited about everything.

Pictures to follow soon....

Getting Ready for the Big Bye-Bye

When I go to Africa in a couple days, poor Bunky will be without his Mama. He's done it for a week at a time three times before, but this is a little longer and he is a lot more conscientious of time passing now. For example, he understands the concept of "tomorrow" and "later." That might be old hat to some parents but for Bunky it's kind of new.

So I've been trying to spend more patient time with him, and sometimes that's just sitting next to him on the couch while he watches his favorite show, "The Wonderpets Save the Beetles" or some other thing, like "Imagination Movers," which I don't much like but can see the appeal. He doesn't seem to like "Super Why" any more - perhaps it's not challenging enough any more, though it would be if he truly understood the concept of words. Well he was a late talker and will probably surprise the heck out of us one day by really reading on his own. Right now it's memorization. And that's all right. He's not even three yet.

Anyway, his hair still pretty much looks the same, and if I weren't going away I would buzz it off. As it is, Daddy gets to be mortified in public (although he doesn't seem to care, since pretty much any parent would know instantly what had happened).