Meeting Luke...

Finley and I drove to Sisters yesterday with Aunt Becca, Sadie, Memaw, Aunt Gretchen and Griffin. We took up all of the seats in the Chase's van and fit just perfectly. It was such a pretty drive with all of the fall colors showing up along the road. It actually snowed on us just a bit as we went over the Pass. We went straight to the hospital in Bend to meet Baby Luke and to visit Mark & Robin.

Left to right, top to bottom: Memaw, Aunt Becca, Sadie, Finley, Katrina, Aunt Gretchen, Griffin, Robin, Luke.
Such a sweet little baby. So tiny and perfect! He slept nearly the entire time - even through being passed around, back & forth. Of course, Finn was more interested in playing with the balloon with his cousins. :) Before heading home, we stopped by Mark and Robin's house to see Ben & Ryan and Robin's parents. It was a quick trip, but so fun to meet Baby Luke.

BEFORE & AFTER

Here's some evidence that Finn got a haircut. I finally remembered to get a shot of his hair from behind. Memaw did a great job of evening out the back despite all of the squirming. Nice job!

I had to go back to the classroom this afternoon after I picked up Finn (I have a meeting tomorrow that I needed to get ready for). All of the kids were so excited to see him. I was able to let him crawl around and check out all of the toys and the other kids (with help from the other teachers). It was sweet to see the preschoolers interacting with a baby. Not many of the afternoon kids really know me and I don't think any of them remembered Finn, but they were so interested. It was fun. :)

Tonight is the 1 hour Season Premier of The Office! I love that show. It's so weird to have all of the shows starting up again. We barely had the TV on at all this summer. There was nothing to watch and we try not to have it on while Finn is awake. Now there are so many shows on that I don't know which ones we'll choose. So hard not to get hooked on too many. Luckily some of them get canceled and help to make the decision. But I hope they don't cancel Journeyman. We really like the actor and the show seems interesting too.

Finn's 1st french fry.

Finn was fed his first fry by one of the middle school girls this evening at the bowling alley. She asked me afterward if it was ok. I said that he hadn't had any before and that he probably shouldn't have any, but that I wanted to give him another one so that I could take a picture. :) But no more after that! I guess this photo is of his second fry...

Daddy would not approve...

I know it's fall, but we played like it was still summer. Finn loves water so much! I can always rely on it to make our time together a little more enjoyable. I probably should have just stripped him down to start with...but he didn't mind.


And of course, we would have been fine if I hadn't walked across the lawn to check on my plants. He crawled right after me through the freshly mowed lawn. His knees were covered in grass and dirt, but the fun had to end when I noticed he had a mouthful of dirt and rocks. Grandma Outi would have been horrified! :) I guess the fun didn't end...it just got moved to the tub! That was our Monday afternoon fun.

My latest inspiration...

I started scrapbooking a couple of months after Kenton and I got married. At that point, I decided that I would start with the wedding and not worry about anything that came before. After awhile, I moved the starting point back to our engagement and was fine with leaving our dating years and my first year of college out. But, I saw this great idea for an album that is just begging to be used for those early years of our relationship. Check this out! I love the idea of mixing 12x12 pages with 8.5x11 and 6x6, or whatever! It seems like a fun way to include special mementos from college or love letters (love emails in our case). :)

I'll probably have to wait until pay day to get this album, but I want it. I guess it gives me time to look at the photos that I have and decide if I need to print any more. All of those years were photographed with film. I haven't worked with photos from film much at all since I started scrapbooking. I need to plan in out. Fun fun!

Finn's 1st Haircut!

Finley got his first haircut today. He wasn't very excited. It doesn't help that I've traumatized him with the bulb syringe...now he's upset any time we hold him still. He kept wanting to turn around to see what Memaw was doing back there. He cried when we tried to keep his head still - traumatized - but my mom managed to finish the job and he didn't even seem phased by the whole operation. I call that a success!

And Yay for Laughing Planet! We went there for the first time on Friday night and were excited about the dinosaurs on the table. Finn was especially interested in dropping them over and over again. We ordered something for Finn for the first time. I guess I haven't ever ordered something off the menu that was specifically for him. But this time, I did - Black Beans! Yumm! He was excited and ate them up. We snuck in a chunk of onion to see if he'd react and he didn't even notice. Whose child is this?!

Can I do this?

I like the idea of keeping a journal so that I can look back on what my life was like, what I was thinking about, worrying about, excited about. But I am terrible at being consistent. I've never tried keeping a journal on the computer...maybe I'll be better at typing out my thoughts instead of writing them down. Who knows?! But for now, I'm excited to start keeping a record of my family's history. I want to be able to go back and look at what I said on a specific day - especially for scrapbooking! I think it will be a good way to keep family and friends updated. So I'll probably share my blog (my blog - sounds silly!).

Today Finn is 10 months, 2 weeks and 6 days old. Crawling like a maniac. Pulling up to standing. Cruising. Babbling. He says "Mamamama", "Dadadada", "Papa", "Naynay", "Meimei". Pretty cute. But he has a cold or a runny nose or is teething. I don't know. He's sad and sensitive. He has been traumatized by the bulb syringe and whines if I even pick it up. So sad. I had to suction out his nose by myself this morning. Not a pretty picture. Makes me feel horrible. He cries instantly and twists with all of his might to get away. I have to try and hold his head in one place, keep his hands away, all while avoiding his kicking feet, and then, ever so gently, insert the syringe into his tiny nostril. Not fun. But he can't breathe if I don't, so what can I do? I think we need to get a humidifier. I think it's supposed to help. I don't actually know. There's a lot that I don't actually know. That's what it is to be a parent, right? Always second guessing yourself.