We’ve had a fun week in the Armstrong house!  Tuesday was Griffin’s 18 month birthday! Wow. I can’t believe it. I thought it would be fun to do something to celebrate his half birthday so we made chocolate cupcakes together and then indulged in one before dinner 🙂 Finn taste tested the batter before baking, he approved with a “mmm”. Tractors are all the rage for Finn lately. He wakes up and first thing in the morning says “tak-tah” and wants to hold the one from his bookshelf (that isn’t a toy!). Kevin mowed the yard one evening and Finn just wanted to watch the entire time. He even went and retrieved his farm tractor with animals to have with him while he watched from the window.  Another of our family favorites is pizza, and this week was Slice of Columbus, held downtown at the Columbus Commons. It was a beautiful fall night to be outside and enjoy (way too much) pizza from many places around Columbus. The proceeds benefit Nationwide Children’s Hospital and this year there were TONS of people, though the lines moved fairly quickly all things considered! Finn also enjoyed dancing and riding the carousel.  Griffin’s 18 month checkup was on Friday, and he checked out great! He weights 23 pounds, 14.5 ounces (46th percentile), is 32.25″ tall (44th percentile), and his head circumference is 48 cm (68th percentile). His growth charts look super and he surpasses the targeted marks for development, walking, talking, and so on. He got one shot, which he watched, and didn’t even cry! To enjoy the day afterward, he and I headed to the Zoo for a brief visit. Of course, within an hour of the doctor mentioning the biggest area of concern for kids his age is safety  (as they do everything more – run faster, climb higher, etc) Finn got a nice bruise/scrape on his face during our afternoon adventure. He slipped off the running board of the Jeep that the kids can climb on in the Heart of Africa, all while I was holding his hand and standing right behind him.  Ugh! You’ll see he has a little shiner to show for it! But he’s a tough cookie and doesn’t seem bothered after the original incident.  He is beginning to adventure away from us and into crowds of kids. He kind of watches and observes what is going on and then after a short bit looks around to find us and usually walks over to check in before heading back. It’s cute!Saturday we headed to Lynd’s Fruit Farm for the second year to pick apples. Last year Kevin, Finn, and I headed out on a solo venture, this year we went with some friends in a play group. It was lots of fun, full of climbing on tall hills, riding the barrel train (twice for Finn, all by himself!), and a wagon ride around the apple farm. Then we picked more apples than we’ll know what to do with – I think it was a peck! I’m gonna be looking into making some applesauce I do believe! Next up we headed to Enon, where we had tasty pizza and cake at Brett & Missy’s to celebrate Pat’s birthday! We spent time outside and in their screened porch, it was such a nice afternoon! Finn, in particular, loved playing in the sand he found in the backyard. And the yellow ball, of course, was his favorite of the three he was playing with. Everything is “wellow”.  Sunday was the Family Fun Day at the New Albany Classic. We enjoyed a few hours after church walking around, petting the horses, donkeys, llama’s, and bunnys and watching a pig race. We watched the horse jumping for a short bit too, Finn wasn’t too interested in sitting for long. The plants that decorate the jumps (on the grass) are rented from Millcreek for the event – so I’m always curious how everything will look! I love watching the horses, and petting them too. Such majestic animals. 

On the remodeling front: our bathroom in nearing completion as Kevin hung the mirror and light fixture this week. We aren’t set on the light location or direction it is facing (we kind of like it facing downward better) so we are letting it ride to see how it wears on us. Brett did some fine detail work on the ceiling between the dining room and kitchen this week – it looks really great. This is our fix for having part of the downstairs with cabinet-colored trim and the remainder of the downstairs being oak trim. We’re thinking someday we may go to white/off-white woodwork rather than oak, but we aren’t ready to make that call just yet! The pull-out drawers for several of the cabinets came in this week too, as well as the final corner cabinet. It will all be finished soon. Our freezer for the pantry has arrived too, though it hasn’t been filled up just yet. 

Here are a few other shots from the week: Finn continues to talk and play with the dogs (especially Lily because she follows us around) all the time. First thing in the morning, last thing at night, “yeh-yee, yeh-yee, yeh-yee”. And he’s sporting his airplane PJ’s from Gisle. And we finally brought our houseplants back indoors, and Finn has found the “dirt”. Maybe working on a fix for that soon! Yikes.  And, since Sammy is potty training, Finn is sort of interested in the potty, so we sat him on it for the first time this week. No results, but he seemed to like trying and we’ve done it a couple of times since.