Our little adventurer

Finn has been an absolute joy lately. He is curious, talkative (we get sentences now!), loving and growing so fast. His sense of humor is developing and it is wickedly witty. There is nothing more deeply humorous and thrilling than being outwitted by a toddler who knows he just got the best of you by using his brains. We are going to have fun raising this boy!

Last week, we hired a nanny to help out during the week for the next couple of months until we go to Alaska. Marie is from Peru and is going to speak exclusively Spanish to Finn during her time with him. She recently married and Seattleite and moved here a few months ago so is really excited to explore the city with Finn during the day. She has lots of energy and perfect amount of love and boundaries. She spent Friday with us and Finn adores her. It should be a great fit for all of us.

Nick has been busy with Nick Hall Photography. In between shoots and traveling, he has been building a patio in our backyard and in general doing the labor to make a cottage garden of my dreams. I am really looking forward to this summer and spending time in our newly re-designed oasis in the city (when we get back from Alaska). Our chickens have started laying in full-production and I have vegetable seedlings growing on my window sill. The leaves are erupting on all of our decidious trees, which have been carefully planted to give us privacy in each window from spring until autumn (by the previous owner). Life feels good right now.

Olympic sculpture park

New words: 'oh, dear', bicycle, nose, out, down, diaper, alligator, cloud, dig, shovel, dirt

Finn and Daddy

At the bakery on Bainbridge Island this weekend.

It's almost Friday!

And on Fridays, we do this:

Here:

For $2.00 I take Finn (and little neighbor Haydee who we watch on Fridays) to the Toddler Gym at Magnussen Park. There are at least 50 ridable/driveable things with wheels, 6 blown-up air bouncy castles, 5 indoor slides, 4 child-sized homes and at least 1000 balls of all sizes. No joke.

I can depend on the best nap all week on Friday afternoons and I don't think I need to say why.

Two water stories

New words: helicopter, more, egg, chicks, no*

Story One
The other evening, while two sets of Grandparents were chatting in the living room and Nick was otherwise occupied, Finn was playing happily with his new Legos that Grandma bought. I was getting ready for a dinner party and had the shower running while I popped into the bedroom to grab something. I was out of the bathroom for no more than 3 seconds. Which was long enough, apparently, for my hydrophilic baby to sneak into the shower, clothes and all. He even managed to pull the shower curtain closed behind him.

Unknowing mother enters the bathroom, drops the towel and enters the shower only to find it already occupied with a clad little lad standing directly under the hotshower stream, head bent, seriously relaxing. Finn looks at me like I am ruining his shower, I mean come on, mom, what's your deal.**

Story Two
On Monday morning, I was getting ready to take another shower and Finn barges into the bathroom with his hey, what's going on in here, look as if he is the parent and I am the child. (And sometimes he has the power to make me agree, which is scary and another topic all together.)

So in this little dictator bursts, asking with intonations where he lacks the words, if we are taking a bath. No bath, I am taking a shower, I state. Oh, no no no no, Finn says shaking his head like I am a confused toddler. Bath, he says, grabbing his portable bathtub and placing it firmly under the shower stream, leaving no room for argument. So, now he gets his lovely bath and I am stuck dancing around the bath and getting indignant looks when shampoo suds fall in his water.

Nick comes in, sizes up the situation and asks, while already knowing the answer, how Finn was allowed to bring the bathtub into our shower. I tell him that some battles are better left unfought and this is one of them.

I see many more in the future.

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*I am going to start posting Finn's new words at the beginning of each post because I think they tell a story of what's happening behind the scenes. For example, this week can you tell that we bought new baby chicks and Finn cannot leave them alone?

**Nick has some pictures of the little mite in action, but unfortunately they are on his phone and his phone (and he) are up in the middle of nowhere in Alaska at the moment, hunting, ice fishing and generally enjoying gorgeous days of icy bliss while we suffer from hoof rot in the rain.