What a Day

Finley turned 19 months old today, so I thought I would document as best I could what a typical Finley day is like.  After Finley woke up this morning, I got her dressed for the day.  An adorable print sundress, a matching hairbow (made by me) and flip flops, um, well maybe not.  She hated the flip flops.  I had gotten them on super sale and bought two pair, one for her to grow into.  I live in Havianas, how can she hate flip flops.  Wrigley tried her best to comfort her, but she was miserable.  I ended up putting her into her regular sandals and she was happy as a clam.
For breakfast, Finley feasted on blueberry pancakes with strawberries.  This was followed shortly thereafter by raiding the pantry for "Fish".  She is going through a Goldfish obsession right now, she cannot get enough of them.  She even feeds them to her Little People animals in their trough.  It is so adorable, she gets so upset if you take the animal's "Fish" away.  Little People have been her go to playtoy lately.  I will have to look into expanding her collection and bringing the airport out.
I went to the gym and Finley had the playroom all to herself.  After we got home, she had a lunch of banana bread, cheese, yogurt and a banana dipped into the yogurt.  We did a little more playing and then it was off to nap time.  Night, night!

Finley and I then did a little shopping to see if I could find a dress for my upcoming Las Vegas trip, I couldn't, but she was great in the shops.  She loved the music playing.  We picked up some drycleaning and headed home.  In our mailbox, was a present from Aunt Sharon.  She had made Finley a bag for coloring books with a special pocket for crayons.  Finley loved playing with the stickers in the Hello Kitty coloring books.  She  learned the words "bag" and "sticker", great job.  It was clear out the leftovers night, so Finley had three short rib empanadas, some grapes and applesauce for dinner.

After dinner, Finley was just hanging around before bed.

Ladybug Clip

 

My mom had found this adorable ladybug clip for Finley. It actually doesn't look too challenging to make, I don't think a glue gun would work for it though, I think you need glue that dries flatter than a glue gun dot will. Anyone have any experience with this? I have seen so many things you can make, like flowers and bugs, and I have no clue what glue will work best. I am guessing something like a superglue.

Finley has been obsessing over her word flash cards that she got from Miss Marianne and Joe. She has nearly every one memorized, which is amazing. Of course, car still is beep beep and cat is still meow, but she has it down pretty well.

Puzzles

Duck, Duck, Zoo!

The Hermann Park ducks are so friendly.  And Finley loves to feed ducks, whether at home or on vacation.  Sadly, for the ducks, we didn't have a single snack to share with them this morning.  We had headed for the zoo as soon as breakfast was finished in order to get there before it got too warm.  Those ducks would have loved some of the banana bread Finley and I had shared.  We will be sure not to forget them the next time we head to Hermann Park.
Finley donned her new Lincoln Park Zoo hat and until I fiddled with it to get a picture of it, she was happy to wear it.  Of course as soon as she realized that she was wearing a hat, she promptly took it off and threw it on the wet and muddy ground.  It got some dirt on it and after a couple more attempts for her to wear it, I gave up and attached it to her stroller.

We had a great morning at the zoo.  We took a different route than normal, which was a nice change.  We got to see the elephant's take a bath, which Finley showed no interest in whatsoever.  We also got to see the otter feeding, which she loved.  I think we have a new favorite animal at the zoo.  The otter was so cute running around like crazy trying to locate his food.  Finley was really taken with him.  The Natural Encounters exhibit is really neat, it actually reminded me of the Lincoln Park Zoo and all their awesome indoor exhibits.  Apparently, it is otter week at the zoo.  We have definitely be made aware of the very playful otters and I am sure we will visit them often.  Especially since they are indoors and it has been in the 90s.  I also braved the reptile house in order to cool off before the long walk home.  A lot of the animals weren't out yet (meerkats, bears, cougar), but the ones that we saw were quite active.  By 11am it had really warmed up, so the walk home was not so pleasant. 

Finley stayed in her stroller the whole time, she is not a morning person.  She usually wakes up late and we play after breakfast while we watch "Toodles" together.  Watch is not really the right word for it, it is more like background noise which prompts Finley to say "too-dals" whenever they say it, sometimes she will join in the hot dog dance, but she still really does not have much interest in television.  Finley was also really chewing on her sippy cup straw, I fear the molars are coming in next.  The final eye tooth is starting to break through, so we have at least crossed that hurdle.  Another milestone!

Chick-fil-a Habit

It was time to redeem my coupon for a free spicy chicken sandwich and Finley was a willing party to accompany me.  She loves chicken nuggets in any format, I now understand why chicken nuggets are the mainstay on any kids' menu at all restaurants.  The good news is the nuggets can come with milk and a fruit cup, the bad news is it costs nearly $5.  And the worse news is how good the sandwich is, which is compounded by the fact that I got two new coupons for free spicy chicken sandwiches.  Looks like Finley and I will have a couple more lunch dates at Chick-fil-a in our future.  If I work out in the morning, that negates the Chick-fil-a, right?

The customer service at CFA is always stellar.  Along with our coupons, Finley got a small stuffed cow to add to her stuffed animal menagerie.  She loves all her stuffed animals and has started to take an interest in getting a "baby" for her stroller.  She is currently driving around the porcelain doll that Aunt Joan and Uncle Larry got her, but I fear a broken  doll if there is ever a stroller accident. 

Big Girl Table

Finley has become less and less enamoured with her high chair.  She is much happier in a barstool, kitchen table and now the dining room table is in the mix.  She seems to really enjoy playing up there, who can blame her since the chairs are so comfy.  She even had lunch up there today.  The cutest part is that she demands that you "sit!" next to her when she is playing or eating.  She loves to serve the cake that she bakes in her play kitchen.  My guess is that there will be plenty of tea parties there in the future.

We had a playdate with Max this morning and Courtney was commenting on how she cannot believe how old they are getting, I totally agree!  Finley has so many opinions on everything now, it is really amazing watching her develop into a little girl with a personality all her own.  She loves to sort things, pick up and most importantly: EAT.  She can snack all day long, lucky for her she has a crazy fast metabolism.  Her favorite snacks right now are Goldfish (fish!) and blueberries (booboos).   Next week, her tastes will change for certain.  She obesses over food for awhile and then grows tired of it.

Presents from Chicago

Clifton and I spent the past weekend in Chicago for the wedding of Johnny and Marsha.  We had a fantastic time and brought home Finley some gifts from the Lincoln Park Zoo.  When we were at the zoo, we got caught in a hailstorm!  We brought Finley a zoo hat for her to wear whenever we visit the Houston Zoo.  There are all sorts of animals on her new hat, but no chin strap, so who knows how long she will ever leave it on for.  We also got her a couple of Lincoln Park Zoo plates, which she really seemed to like, though she misidentified the gorilla as a cow...too cute. 

I missed Finley SO much!

Dinosaurs!

Last week, the Houston Zoo unveiled their new DINOSAURS! exhibit with a special members preview.  We gathered up the family and headed over after Clifton got home from work on Thursday evening.  We met G-Ma, Aunt Rose and cousin Faith to see some dinosaurs.  It was a really neat exhibit and I recommend for any dinosaur lover.  Faith knows all her dinosaurs and I hope she passes down all her knowledge to Finley.  We wandered over to the petting zoo after walking through the dinosaur section, Finley loves to visit with the goats.

Park Playtime

Finley loves the park, because it is already getting so warm, we had playgroup in the park at 9am.  The Braeswood Park has a bunch of push toys and ride toys, it is a wonderful place to play with toddlers.  The best part of the park is that there is a fence all around, so Finley can run around to her heart's content and I don't have to chase her everywhere she runs.

I haven't figured out if Finley likes to swing or not.  Laurel loves to swing and Finley wants to be just like Laurel.  But sometimes, if she gets too high or goes to fast, I get and "OUT"

Playing in the Pool

It's Memorial Day weekend, so it is the perfect time for a pool party.  Samantha's house has such a lovely pool and there was even a baby pool for all the kids.  We spent most of the time in the big pool, which had been heated to the perfect temperature for lots of water time.  Finley was even brave enough to jump into the pool, she is getting so grown up.  She really loved the water.  Since our new house doesn't have a pool, I had decided to skip early swim lessons, but with as much as she loved it, I am going to have to sign her up for swim lessons this summer.  She had a blast floating around in her walrus float, but she most loved trying to swim all by herself (with some assistance from me).  It's great that our friends have pools to swim in this hot hot hot summer, especially since I am missing our old pool.

Sarah's!

Finley can say "Sarah."  I think for the entire drive to Sienna Plantation to visit Sarah, Ryan and Lilly she said "Sarah" about 100 times, at a minimum.  It sort of sounds like a cross between Syrup and Sarah, but it works! 

Finley had a great time playing in Ryan's super fantastic playroom, he had so many new and exciting toys to play with.  And he was really great about sharing them, something that Finley needs to learn from him.  Miss Lilly was content to hangout in the awesome Rainforest Bouncer, hearing the sounds and music it played really brought back memories of Finley's first few months.  She looks so different in the Rainforest Bouncer (click on the link if you haven't), well over a year ago.  I think she has really grown into her sweet nose.



Last visit to meet Lilly for the first time, Finley and Ryan shared the sweetest hug.  This was after they had each had their fair share of pushing.  Finley was the instigator, of course, we are still working on not pushing.  I think she might just have to grow out of it.  We tried to get Ryan and Finley to hug again, but they were not willing participants.  At least Finley wasn't, she had way too much house to explore. 

Colors with Daddy

Even with Clifton' best flower coloring skills, Finley still looks a little bored.  She is very selfish with her crayons, she really prefers to color everything herself, no assistance needed for such a master artist.

Peekaboo Giggles

Baking Brownies

Finley was a good brownie baker helper.  She helped stir the batter and licked the spoon.  I cannot wait for her to be older so that we can bake cakes and cutout cookies together.  Finley really enjoys helping, especially when the reward is brownie batter.  Finley is also loving sitting in the barstools.  We sometimes have breakfast together up there.  She is getting more and more frustrated with her high chair, tonight she was much happier eating dinner with us at the table.  Except that she only wanted to eat blueberries and not any of her real dinner, at least she has chosen a healthy thing to obsess over!

Sweet and Sassy

Go Astros!

Finley made it to her second Astros game of the season on Saturday night, thanks to cousin Faith's perfect attendance (free tickets!)  The Astros were taking on the best team in baseball, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.  I know that they are just "The Rays" now, but it is a habit.  They are having an amazing season, the exact opposite of the Astros year.  The Astros scored first, but went on to lose the game.  Finley did good in her chair for a bit, but she was much happier free.  We had a scary moment when she tried to sit on the chair back of the seat in front of us.  My quick reflexes (HA!) enabled me to grab her before she toppled over the seat back.  It was a tense moment there for a minute.  She loved to watch the train, especially when Lance Berkman hit a homerun and the train started moving.  She cheered and she booed, sometimes at the right time, sometimes not.  Her size 9 month onesie still fits, hopefully we can stretch it for this entire season.  I went to the gift shop and saw that the toddler Astros shirt and shorts were $46.  The three onesies she has now were $7 at Marshalls, so I have to keep my eye out for another good deal.  Most importantly, Finley wore the baseball bow I had made for her.  The ribbon was kindly given by Uncle Larry's Bearfax.

First Trip to Chick-fil-a

I love Chick-fil-a. Clifton hates Chick-fil-a. Grandad loves Chick-fil-a. Grammy hates Chick-fil-a. Finley loves Chick-fil-a! YAY!

After our trip to the Georgia Aquarium, I was famished and we were in Georgia, the home of Chick-fil-a, so it was meant to be.  Luckily, the kids meal has the option for a fruit cup and milk.  Finley has eaten Chick-fil-a nuggets before, at her first birthday party, they were a hit then (not as much as the cake) and she is still a big fan.  We already have a date set to sample a free spicy chicken sandwich there next week, Finley will stick with her kids meal and I may let her try some of the sandwich, depending on how spicy it is.