Baby Stella

We finally found a soft baby doll that has outfits to change into for Finley to stroll around with. Baby Stella, her pajamas set and toy bear arrived this week and Finley loves her already. We have changed her outfit several times, she gives her a pacifier and blanket when it is "night night" time and she feeds her all sorts of goodies from her kitchen.  Such a good baby mommy!

It is so fun to watch Finley's imagination at work.  Her play kitchen is her biggest source for it and now that she has found the Dairy Queen play food set, she is cooking all the more.  She warns you when things are hot out of the oven and is sure to give you a cold drink with your meal.  Her favorite things to serve are french fries and pizza.  She has also gotten good at making a hamburger with all the fixings.

Water Table Chaos

Joe's mom, aka Marianne, invited Finley over to have dinner and play with Joe and his friend Luca.  Finley loved his backyard with the giant swingset and exciting water table.  Joe's water table puts Finley's to shame, it is in the shape of a pirate ship and has so many neat toys to go along with it.  The kids eat a little bit of pizza, but the allure of the backyard was way to strong to contain them indoors for long.  Marianne filled up the water table and the "fun" began.  The boys had such a good time with the table, throwing water everywhere.  Finley was content moving her water from cup to cup, totally oblivious to the chaos around her.  The boys got her drenched.  Joe was by far the best splasher and Luca was loving getting splashed.  Finley couldn't understand what all the fuss was about, she had water moving to do.  It was so cute to watch them all play.  It is so much fun now that Finley is old enough to play with Joe.

Thank goodness Joe had a shirt for Finley to borrow.

Dancing Pig

Go USA!

No Toodles this morning after breakfast, we have FIFA World Cup Soccer to watch. Go USA, beat Algeria!

Finley is content to keep walking around the coffee table with her stroller, so cute.

Still Feverish

Poor Miss Finley Bug, she still has a fever, but doesn't seem to mind it at all.  Our pediatrician said to monitor it and keep aleternating Motrin and Tylenol, if she still has it tomorrow, we are going in for an appointment.  We have been stuck inside for the past two days, which has been no fun for Finley or me.  She loves to go go go and so do I.  She didn't wake up at all last night, so that is promising, but she was still feverish this morning when she woke up.  Thank goodness for the temporal thermometer, it has been so easy to grab her temperature easily.

Here are some pictures from playgroup last week and from playing with Clifton and I afterwards.  Clifton had put Finley's shoes on her Bear and she was loving it.  She bosses Bear around, telling him to eat, sit and she even tickles him.  If we are in the house, Bear is with her.  If I forget to take Bear up with her at naptime, she calls for him, it is absolutely adorable.  She cooks for him, feeds him pizza, takes him for walks around the dining room...she is good to her Bear friend.

Finley and Audrey

Finley and Sarah

Finley and Bear

Daddy's Day

We had a very low key Father's Day.  Finley and Clifton both had small breakfasts because I was making a big roast turkey lunch.  Finley wanted nothing to do with turkey, stuffing or green beans, but she loved the cranberry sauce. Weirdo.  After the big meal (for some of us at least), Finley took a long nap.

Finley gave her daddy four books for them to share:

Daddy and Me, by Karen Katz

Little Critter: Happy Father's Day, by Mercer Mayer

My Daddy and Me, by Tina MacNaughton

Daddy's Girl, by Garrison Keillor (who is a favorite of my daddy)

After all the good eating and resting, we decided to hit the toy store to look for a doll that wasn't plastic that you could change their clothes.  I had explained to Clifton that I had browsed at Target and hadn't seen anything, but we hit Toys R Us anyways.  Clifton and Finley could spend hours in the toy store, they both love it.  We did get Finley a Maclaren stroller for her doll (bear for now) to match mine and a new set of Little People Farm Blocks.   She is obsessed with the stroller, she woke up this morning asking for it and "tractor" from the Little People Farm. 


Finley had a fever last night, which explained her disinterest in eating yesterday.  She woke up at 3 am and 4:30 am (when I could give her medicine again)  This morning she is perky and happy, thank goodness!

Happy Father's Day!

Our Artiste

I found a paint coloring book in the Hobby Lobby clearance section this week. I also got a finger painting pad there, but I haven't been brave enough to break it out yet. I had totally forgotten about these books and they are perfect for a toddler. We are looking for indoor activities because it is way too hot for outdoor play, even when a water table is involved, but that may be more for my tolerance than Finley's.

The book is all about Winnie the Pooh and his friends, which is great since we have a character breakfast with Winnie the Pooh and his friends at the Crystal Palace in Walt Disney World. The bad part of this equation is Clifton has Finley saying "poop poop" when she points to a picture of Pooh...I can see it now, she spies "poop poop" and yells his name at breakfast. Appetizing.

Flashcard Fun

Finley knows all her First Words Flashcards, so now she is teaching them to her dolly

Happy Birthday, Mommy!

What a difference a year makes!  We went out for crablegs again this year at the Fish City Grill, yummy for me and Finley, not so yummy for Daddy.  Finley feasted on crab, andouille sausage, crackers and hush puppies.  She is a fiend for sausage, so much tastier than her dinner last year.  I cannot believe how much she has grown.  I am stuffed full of crab legs and I cannot wait for next year.

We had a big day today, I hosted our Thursday playgroup and I think everyone was in attendance.  Twelve toddlers and two newborns made for an awfully chaotic house.  It was like a tornado had swirled through and left remants of Cheerios, Goldfish crackers and animal crackers in its path. I also saw colored Goldfish for the first time as Idiscovered brigh green crumbs by our dining room table.  Maybe next time we will meet at the park, I kid, I kid (or do I?)   It is really fun to see Finley interact with her friends, she had everyone cooking up a storm in the play kitchen.  She was really showing off with her flash card knowledge, she knows them all so well.  I am constantly amazed at words she picks up on.  I was teaching her all day to say Happy Birthday.  She would say "happy" and "birthday", but couldn't string the two words together.  My favorite word moment was this week when we were going through the grocery store and she exclaimed "Juice" when I picked up the orange juice.  Finley only drinks water or milk, so this one really mystified me.

PS to all my buddies: al you can eat crablegs is back on Wednesday nights.  Expect an email from me soon!

Max!

Finley's favorite friend came over for a playdate this afternoon and they had a great time.  The neatest part is that Max will actually sit still and smile for the camera.  Finley has no interest in ever sitting still, let alone smiling for the camera.  She just wants to run run run everywhere she goes.  Long gone are the photo sessions when I would capture over one hundred images of her, now I am lucky to get ten and she is always doing something. 

Finley and Max "play" pretty well together.  It is so cute how they imitate one another.  The funniest part of the afternoon was when they were chasing each other around, then one would laugh, the other would laugh, one would drop to crawling and then the other one would drop to their knees.  It was so adorable.  The imitation continued even after Max had gone home for the day.  Max had brought a crocheted blanket with him for nap time.  Finley has a fantastic crocheted blanket that my dad's aunt Audrey had made for her.  After Max was gone, she crawled upstairs to pull it through her crib slats, dragged it downstairs and carried it around.

Aftermath

Finley had a big weekend with daddy and the house was total evidence of such.  I think every toy that Finley owned was all over our living room.  So yesterday, I just let her run with it and she loved it.  You can really tell how much spinning around and throwing in the air that went on.  She tries to spin all the time and she keeps asking to be carried, thinking that I might toss her up in the air, which is not going to happen.

Finley is loving the lion I got her at the MGM Grand, the site of my big win.  I asked her what his name was and she answered me with "FiFi".  This is the first animal that she has given a name to, other than just calling it what it is.  She has referred to it as FiFi ever since.  She can tell you her own name now as well, I cannot believe how much she is growing up.  We are working on learning her last name next.

I'm All In!

I got to enjoy a fabulous girls' weekend at Aria in Las Vegas this past weekend.  We had a gret trip, it was so nice for all my friends to get together and spend some time together without the little ones.  Naturally, we all missed our kiddos very much.  Max had Finley over for a little Vegas action of their own.  It's never too soon to learn poker.
I got knocked out of the poker tournament really early this year and was pretty much break even all weekend, until I hit the Wheel of Fortune slot, winning $1000!!!  The craziest part I wasn't the only one of our group to hit that big on slots.

Sticker!

The Hello Kitty coloring books that Aunt Sharon sent with the coloring book bag have stickers in them. Finley is loving the stickers! We are having to ration the stickers because I think she would end up covered from head to toe in Hello Kitty stickers if we let her have them. Maybe that isn't such an awful idea, because she would be pretty cute covered in Hello Kitty stickers. She likes to give me the stickers to put on my shirt, but then she wants them back as soon as she sticks them. She is super cute with her stickers.

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.