Finn is growing so fast and learning so many new things with each day. It brings a smile to my face, and also a tear to my eye, as our little baby is rapidly becoming a toddler.  Toward the end of last week he learned how to climb. Granted, he has climbed up onto the fireplace hearth for awhile, but now he is climbing on boxes and chairs and the couch! He loves to stand up tall on a free-standing object and look towards us with the cutest expression that says “look at me, I did it!”.  He’s got some pretty strong leg muscles – just look at that pull up!

He also loves to dance.  He raises his arms or shakes his shoulders if he’s sitting down.  But his newest moves involved stomping his feet – which I sort of captured, albeit with quite fuzzy photos, below. I think my photo “skills” are worsening!

He babbles so much and says a lot of words. He definitely knows what he is trying to say, but sometimes I have a bit of trouble understanding his words. He is excellent at repeating and mocking – especially the inflection in our voices. Or if he hears us cough or sneeze, he will imitate. And when he sees an animal in a book or at the zoo – he makes the a growling noise or a barking noise. So cute.  Playing hide and seek (aka “boo”) is also a pretty fun game for him. And he loves to be tickled, oftentimes saying “mo, mo, mo” when you stop. And he’s really enjoying having “pa pa” here often heading to the door in the family room to find him on the porch!

We emptied most of the kitchen cabinets on Saturday so we are living out of a crate on the kitchen table as well as a stack of glasses and coffee mugs on a towel that sits on the kitchen table.  I kept out several coffee mugs, one of which has three labradors on it (thanks, mom and dad!) and Finn loved it.  And he loved the dogs on the inside of the mug too. This morning he kept wanting to touch the mug, as it was warm, and then he would point to each of the dogs. Such an animal lover he is.

I must say, for being a plant person and a perennial grower I am less than pleased with how the veggies are growing!! The seeds I planted are doing the best (zucchini, snap peas, and watermelon). A few of the cantaloupe have withered away and the cucumbers seem to just be stuck!  The tomatoes and peppers look like they’ve grown ever so slightly and the basil, cilantro, and chives are doing pretty well. I think I’ll fertilize a bit more to push things along. I was just expecting everything to grow like crazy as the starter plants were so big and nice. Guess it will take me a season to get our system down!

Saturday evening Finn and I headed to Mansfield to surprise Dad for a belated birthday visit. We found him in the backyard collecting hosta leaves for the upcoming convention! So after a short walk around the yard and over the bridge we headed out to dinner together. Finn loves watering the plants (“wa wa” he calls it) so he helped grandpa water some seedlings and we had to convince him to leave the watering wands behind. He begrudgingly agreed. 

Sunday the boy cuzzies had some fun on the counter at church 🙂 Uncle KK did his best to wear out G & R for naptime by chasing them all through the halls and classrooms! 

On the remodeling front Kevin and his dad have made lots and lots of progress this week! And Brett and Missy joined in the fun on Friday as Brett helped determine if we would be able to remove the short wall in the kitchen that had the doors leading to the foyer. Initially the answer was, probably not, but then they determined it could be removed – and down it came! Yay! Kevin and Jim continued the demolition process, removing the wall behind the stove (you can watch the video below!), removing the soffit on the ceiling above the stove and above the jutting counter of the kitchen. The “corner” cabinet in the eating area was also removed. The drywall was finished in the pantry and storage closet as well as the ceiling of the new kitchen. And we now have 76 boxes of wood flooring in our front dining room. Thankfully the floor installers carried it all inside (shoo….as each box weighed 81 pounds!). And they were fast – each guy carried a single box – they didn’t even spread the load! They also removed the kitchen cabinets on Saturday and we were able to re purpose a couple of them above the laundry room sink. Eventually they will be painted white to match the others. Finn loves to help and see what all the noise is about. The orange level still seems to be his favorite toy.  Somehow he has been sleeping amazingly well during all of the construction and demolition – which is essentially directly below his room in some cases!