He's a tricky one.

Finn still loves to hug and cuddle. Here are Finn and Carolina, giving each other good hugs.

He does have a slightly tricky side though. At church the other day Finn's Sunday school teacher, Miss Katie, had a cookie that someone gave her. Finn asked for one and Miss Katie told him he'd have to ask me first. He went out in the hallway and pretended to have a conversation with me about the cookie, then came back into his classroom and told her I said it was okay to have a cookie. I think that is both smart and devious. I'll have to watch out for him!

Carolina walks!

Carolina started walking yesterday! And do you know what is weird? Two things: it is exactly the same age at which Maggie started walking (12 months, 3 weeks), and even weirder, it is the exact same day that her 8 1/2-month-old cousin, Charlie, started walking. Can you believe it?! Here is a little video of her from tonight. If I had twenty kids, the early days of walking would never cease to amaze me. It is so much fun to watch her learn and explore.

Harvest Time!

A few days ago I was playing with the children in the backyard and noticed I could see the shoulders of our carrots peeking out above the soil. I googled "when to harvest carrots" (can't you tell I'm a master gardener? ha) and it said when you could see the top of them and they seemed big enough, as they don't actually ripen. So I thought, why not? We planted an heirloom variety that came in various colors, such as purple, red, white, and, of course, orange. I don't know why but I absolutely love vegetables in unconventional colors. It just seems like more fun.
You can see Finn holding our very first full-sized carrot (a white one), below.
I scrubbed it, cut it up, and we ate it as a little appetizer before dinner. By the way, did you know you should avoid peeling your carrots? That's the most nutritious part so I try to always just give them a good scrub. We look forward to harvesting more carrots this week and I'll try to take a good photograph so you can see all of their beautiful colors.

Marathon Weekend One

Because every post is better with a photo, here are Finn and Carolina both sucking their thumbs at the same time. It cracks me up when I see this.A few posts ago I mentioned that Grant was going to be working even more than he usually does and I'm happy to report that we survived the first insane weekend without him. He does a lot of work for the country band Gloriana. They're actually pretty good - you can check out their website here, and here are links to some of the work Grant has done for them. This is one of my favorites. Also, I should warn you that he didn't do all of the videos on here and some of their older stuff is not good, so I would hate for you to think that my talented husband made those.

Anyway, he was with them working on a music video until 2AM last Thursday (missing dinner and bedtime) they were playing a show with the Wilmington (NC) Symphony and hired Grant to come along and produce and film some behind-the-scenes things as well as a music video, so he went on the bus with them last Friday around 5pm and didn't return until mid-day Sunday. It may seem silly or complaining but it's very challenging to be at home for a weekend with all three kids by myself. In case you've missed my multiple posts on Facebook about Finn waking up around 4:30AM daily, that was just the icing on the cake for being a single parent all weekend. I also locked us out of the house en route to a birthday party on Saturday. Smart one, huh? Luckily we got to spend a lot of time with family who took pity on us, and we actually had a pretty good time even though it was exhausting. So now we just have to make it through a busy week, next weekend where Grant will be making a short film all weekend for Andrew Osenga, followed by another busy week, and then Thanksgiving! I am so excited I can hardly wait. Oh - and this is out-of-character for me as I work hard to enjoy each moment of my life and not look forward to the next thing, but I am pretty overwhelmed with this particular month for some reason. So please don't tell me to stop and smell the roses! I'm trying.
Here is another funny double thumb-sucking photo for you. I can't exactly remember what we were doing or why it appears Carolina is lying on Finn and they are both in my lap. There's no telling, really.

Hippo Lovin'

Carolina has a little hippo toy that's almost like a soft washcloth with a hippo head on it. That sounds weirder in writing than it is in actuality. Anyway, if she doesn't fall asleep right away during naptime, she'll often pull toys into the crib with her from the toy bin next to her bed. The other day I went in to wake her up to pick Maggie up from school (which just feels wrong to wake her up) and she had the hippo on her face! It was so funny that I had to take photos of it from every possible angle. For your viewing pleasure:
Here's what I saw when opened the door.
Here's from the top.
Here's a close-up of her face.
Adorable.

Halloween 2011: It was INCREDIBLE!

Here are Finn, Carolina, and Maggie with cousins Lily Kate (SuperGirl) and Jack (Superman).
Last summer Maggie watched "The Incredibles" for the first time and absolutely fell in love with it. She loved it so much that it actually inspired her superhero birthday party that we had earlier in October (sorry, no photos yet...). When we were deciding what everyone would wear for Halloween it was quickly decided that there was no choice BUT The Incredibles. In case you've been living under a rock, The Incredibles is an animated movie about a family of superheroes. Each parent and the three children all possess some amazing super powers. It worked out pretty perfectly - there's even a baby Incredible! Okay, he is a boy named Jack-Jack, but it didn't really matter to me if Carolina went as a boy, baby superhero for Halloween. I lucked out by finding a little boy's Dash Incredible costume for a good price at Target, but I didn't want to spend a lot of money ordering costumes for the girls (shipping, etc.) Plus I thought I could make the costumes pretty easily. I simply bought red, long-sleeved t-shirts and red leggings for the girls, as well as a black mask for Maggie (I knew Carolina wouldn't wear one even if I could find one small enough for her!). I drew the Incredibles logo onto freezer paper and created a stencil for each shirt. I did have to paint some of it freehand because of the multiple colors on each on. For more on creating a freezer paper stencil, click here. Anyway, I did it all during a two-hour nap on Halloween, so you know it couldn't have been too difficult.
I'm pretty proud of the way they turned out! Also, it's pretty funny that Erin's kids were superheroes, too. That was completely coincidental, if you can believe it.
Here are Grant and Finn, enjoying Finn's favorite treat, a lollipop.
The last three years we've gone to my sister Erin's neighborhood to trick-or-treat because they have a little parade, a million kids, and Erin hosts a chili dinner afterwards. It's a really fun tradition for us now. Last year Finn didn't really get the whole "trick-or-treating" thing, but this year he had so much fun knocking on doors and picking out his candy. It was so fun to watch. And last year Carolina was a week old! This year she still had no idea what was going on but she really enjoyed being around everybody and all the commotion. Here she is in the stroller during the parade.Here's Finn, showing off his cuteness and muscles.
Finally, here I am with Carolina, wearing the tiny cape I made for her to wear at Maggie's superhero party.And if you're like me and love Halloween but hate all the candy and figuring out how to control it, you may want to check out this interesting blog post from a nutritionist/mom.

Pray for me

We have a challenging situation coming up because Grant is basically working nonstop for the next few weeks. It's crazy just how much he works. He has the work ethic of a worker bee, which is one of the many things I love about him, and he's doing it for the benefit of our family, but the next few weeks we will hardly have a break together. It will be tough with three little children. I need to pray for a good attitude and a supply of patience and energy that I've never had before.