Running with Lance

We had a special surprise when we got to the Perry's house.  Lance and his fiance Barie were in town from New York City for the weekend.  Lance was so good with Finley, they had a blast running around the backyard.  Sadly, we didn't get to see them for very long, but I am so glad they got to meet Finley.  Finley loved having a big backyard to play in, no matter how hot it was outside.  No matter where we went, Finley wanted to play outside.  Even though it was 100+ degrees nearly every day we were in Maryland.  I though we might get a nice break from the Houston heat, turns out, it was worse in Maryland than it was back home in Texas.  Too bad the Perry's old rope swing wasn't still in the backyard, I am sure Finley would have had a blast with it.

Stampin' it Up!

After a crazy week of travelling, Finley has had a very easygoing day today.  She woke up super early this morning (7 am!) and she had two breakfasts, oatmeal in the early morning and then sausage, eggs and toast with Daddy a bit later.  She and I headed to the gym, lucky for Finley, Miss CiCi was there.  Finley adores her and I think the feeling is mutual.  Miss CiCi had brought in a Dora band-aid especially for Finley.  Finley has become borderline obsessed with wearing band-aids.  It was so sweet and Finley wore her band-aid on whatever "bug bite" was bothering her at the moment.  We headed home for lunch and then Finley took her first official nap in well over a week.  In Maryland, Finley took catnaps in the car, but never one in her crib.  Luckily, she didn't protest too much and went down without a struggle as long as I promised that she could play with her stamps when she woke up.  It was a deal!  I have really enjoyed our relaxed day today, especially since the craziness resumes tomorrow with gymnastics class.

Visiting with Grandad's Family

On Thursday, we headed to Olney to visit Aunt Audrey, Uncle Eddie, Nana and Uncle Tommy.  Aunt Audrey and Nana have been loyal followers of Finley's blog since the first post.  Aunt Audrey crocheted the pink blanket that Finley sleeps with every night, I know Finley was happy to meet her.  Nana's late husband made the cradle that Finley slept in for her first few months of life.  What a lovely family connection!  After a nice lunch where Finley ate fruit, chips and cupcakes (a toddler's dream!), we all sat around and shared pictures.  Finley loved playing with the Mah Jong tiles with Nana, she had so much fun setting them all up on the racks.  She also had a good time putting all of Aunt Audrey's beanie babies to sleep on their big pillow.  Thanks for the fantastic visit, we hope to be able to see all the family again soon.

The National Aquarium

On Monday, Grandad, Finley and I headed up to Baltimore to spend the day at the National Aquarium.  I hadn't been to the aquarium in years, possibly since elementary school.  The aquarium has tripled in size since I was last there.  They have added a dolphin presentation area and an Austrailian animal area.  Finley was very interested in the all the fish, especially looking for "Nemo", aka the clown fish.  She also loved running up and down the ramps in the reef area.  The dolphin show isn't running this summer, but we were lucky enough to happen to be there when they were doing a dress rehearsal of the show that is going to launch in the fall.  The dolphins did so many neat tricks and Finley really enjoyed watching them.  As you can tell, Finley was bright eyed when we headed out in the morning and was fast asleep on our drive home.  Strollers aren't allowed in the aquarium due to all the moving sidewalks and escalators, so Finley had done a ton of walking.

Visiting Aunt Sharon and Uncle "Owl"

We have been in Maryland for the last few days and I have a lot of posts to make.  Today, we headed up to Reisterstown to visit my Aunt Sharon and Uncle Al, or Uncle "Owl" as Finley calls him.  Aunt Sharon is waiting on hip replacement surgery, so we brought up a crabcake lunch from G&M.  Finley had a lot of fun exploring the backyard and playing with all the pebbles that Aunt Sharon's grandson, Mikey, had collected.  Finley has really been enjoying our trip, but I think she is getting super tired from all the skipped naps.  Hopefully, we can get her to bed early tonight because there is all you can eat crabs scheduled for tomorrow!

Lunch with Baby Caroline

Finley's swim lessons are in Pearland, which is a suburb of Houston that is only a 15 minute drive from our house.  Besides having fantastic swim instructors at the Houston Swim Club, Pearland is also home to my favorite pizza place, Center Court Pizza.  We were lucky to meet Miss Leslie and baby Caroline for lunch after swim lessons.  The late morning swim class schedule is perfect for having lunch afterwards.  Finley loves the pizza as much as I do, she eats three slices!  Finley has so much fun entertaining baby Caroline, they are so cute together.

Ice Cream Treat

Finley has been doing amazingly well with potty training, they really are right, when they are ready, they are ready.  We went to daddy's office to drop off a dessert and Finley had to use the potty.  I was caught without any lollipops or M&Ms to reward her with and since we had just dropped off some ice cream,  I decided to take her to get some ice cream as a treat. And what a treat it was, Finley loves her ice cream.  I think she got more chocolate ice cream all over her hands, arms and face...but not a single drop on her dress.  It is so nice to be able to share ice cream with Finley on a summer afternoon.  After her ice cream treat, we headed over to see Miss Maria to get Finley's hair cut.  She just trimmed the ends, her hair has really suffered from the chlorine in the pool.  Miss Maria said her bangs are almost all grown out, yay!

Swimming in Taylor Lake

Finley likes the boat, but she loves to swim.  Aunt Rose and cousin Faith joined us this weekend for an afternoon on the boat.  Faith even rode the tube, she is so brave.  Maybe next time she will wakeboard like Clifton does.  I still want to invest in a nice tube you can sit up in.  I saw several younger kids using similar set ups and I think maybe next year Finley could ride along with me in a two person tube.  Finley had so much fun swimming with Aunt Rose and Faith.  I know Aunt Rose and Faith took more pictures than I did, so once I get them from them, I will post more pictures. It is amazing how much Finley and Faith look alike, they could be sisters! Beautiful sisters =)

Gymnastics

Finley is enrolled in gymnastics class for the summer.  Her first class was a little over a month ago and it was pretty rough.  Finley wasn't excited about doing much of anything during class, she was especially frightened to the balance beam.  Now, she will do a somersault and cross the parallel bars by herself.  We originally had her in an afternoon class so that she could do the two week straight swimming session.  Her class was at maximum capacity and there was a little girl who enjoyed pulling Finley's hair, even though Finley asked her to stop numerous times.  It seemed like a good idea to switch her to a morning class and it was an even better idea when I learned there were only two other students in the class.  Finley has really blossomed and the gym is not nearly as chaotic.  Sorry for the fuzzy pictures, but like swimming, the parents are behind a two-way mirror.

Oh, I wish I were...

an Oscar Mayer weiner...

Visit to Plano

Last week, we made the four hour drive up to Plano to visit Neon and Noah.  Finley did fantastic on the drive up, we left right at nap time and she was asleep very quickly.  I think it helped that she was tired out from swim lessons in the morning.  The kids had so much fun playing together after we arrived.  Finley was so exhausted that she slept in to nearly 10 am the next morning.  We headed off to the neighborhood pool and splash pad.  Finley was really wary of the splash pad at first.  She climbed the stairs to go down the waterslide and when she reached the top, water starting gushing straight up.  It really frightened her, so she didn't make it down the slide.  Once she realized that water splashing was part of the deal, she got used to it and I couldn't stop her from going up and down the slide.  She must have gone at least 20 times.  And she even went down the big blue covered slide.  She had such a blast.  For the afternoon, we played in Neon's pool in their backyard.  Finley is a little fish and loved jumping off the side of the pool into the deep end.  She wasn't super sold on wearing water wings like Noah, but it made it much easier for all the jumping.  We headed back to Houston the next day after a morning of play in the pool.  I thought the pool would wear her out for the drive home, but she ended up being awake for most of the journey. Sorry that there aren't any swimming pics, but the splash pad was not conducive to photography. The kids control where the water sprays and I would have ended up with a soaked camera.

Dinner Date with Mommy

Clifton went to Colorado with his co-workers for a long weekend visit to Telluride.  He had left on Tuesday and by Friday night, I was ready to get out.  Luckily, Finley was also ready to go out.  We headed to Kam's for some Chinese food.  Finley loves to eat the pork from the dumplings, but isn't as enthusiastic about the wrappers.  She loves rice and even ate some shrimp.  Of course, her most favorite part was the fortune cookies that arrived at the end of the meal.  The waiter said she can have as many as she likes...I think I lost count of how many she actually ate.
On another note, I hope everyone has a fantastic Fourth of July.  We are headed down to the boat for the day and then we will return home to watch fireworks in Hermann Park with the Houston Symphony.  We were out ont he boat on Saturday and it was so nice to see the homes all decorated for the holiday.  There were flags and bunting all over the place.

Houston Astros at the San Diego Padres

I am finally getting everything transferred over to my new computer, including our vacation pictures to San Diego. On our last night in San Diego, we went to Petco Park to see the Houston Astros play the San Diego Padres. This was one of the best stadiums I have ever visited. The most amazing thing was how friendly everyone who worked there was. It got a bit chilly once the sun went down, but we had fun noneltheless.  They even had a giveaway for a Padres garden gnome.  We decked Finley out in her Astros dress, but her support wasn't enough. The Astros lost 3 to 6. Finley even got to meet the Padres mascot.

Sassy!

Best Friends

It has been so long since Finley and Max have hung out together.  Luckily, they were instantly back to there best friend ways during a playdate.  Everything Finley does, Max does.  Everything Max does, Finley does.  They are two peas in a pod.  Down to snacks.  Every snack Max asked for, Finley wanted the same.  Every snack Finley asked for, Max wanted the same. 

Happy Father's Day!

I hope everyone had a great Father's Day.  We had a very low key day here at the house.  Clifton went for a motorcycle ride in the morning and we all went to Molina's for a late lunch.  Finley made a very special "Daddy" card for him for Father's day.  We also did a lot of wallet shopping out in Pearland after swim lessons.  Clifton jumped in Taylor Lake with his wallet in his pocket, so a new wallet was in order.  And he wanted the exact same one.  Which wasn't the easiest thing to find.  Surprisingly, we found a nearly identical match.  Go Finley!

Last Day of Swim Lesson Boot Camp

The two weeks of swim lessons were grueling for me, but a total blast for Finley.  She absolutely adores swimming.  If you ask Finley to go on the boat, she is so-so about it, but if you ask her to go on the boat to swim in the lake, she is all about it.  She loves the water.  She passed her two week class and graduated from Guppy to Goldfish.  Her tasks were: comfort in the water, put their face in the water, breath control (blow bubbles), glide, kick with barbells, row-row arms, back float independently, roll over, turn and climb out of pool, and retrieve rings from floor of pool.  She did merit an "almost" in the back float, but she is nearly there. We sadly have to say goodbye to Mr. Chris because he only teaches the two week classes, which I totally understand since he is so amazing with the children.  We went from Finley crying nearly the entire first class to her being in love with swimming.  I credit Mr. Chris with a lot of that love.  He is so fantastic with the kids and you can tell how much he loves his job.  If anyone is looking for swim lessons, be sure to check out Houston Swim Club in Pearland.  Because Finley is such a little fish, I decided to have her take two swim classes every week until the summer is over.  Hopefully she likes Mr. Cameron as much as Mr. Chris, he has a tough act to follow.

Happy Birthday, Mommy!

When Finley woke up yesterday morning, I told her it was my birthday.  She asked first if there would be a party.  Then she wanted to know who would be there, I think she was a bit disappointed that it would only be me and Daddy to celebrate with.  She also requested a juice box and cake.  We all went out to dinner at Danton's and I had delicious Crab Balinese.  Finley dined on fried shrimp and some of Daddy's sausage, red beans and rice.  We all headed home for chocolate cake.  Finley sang a beautiful rendition of Happy Birthday and then told me to open my present.  She then told me what my present was, "Mommy's puter!"  She showed me the beautiful card she had made and we unwrapped the new computer together.  It was such a wonderful birthday.
A look back at the past two birthdays.  She has grown up so much.

The Not So Lazy Days of Summer

So sorry for the lack of posts lately, Finley has had swim lessons every day for two weeks straight.  It has made for a very busy couple of weeks.  So busy, that she asked to have her picture taken.  I guess she really does like having her picture made and was a bit sad that I haven't been so photo happy as I usually am.  I still have hundreds of pictures to sort through from our trip to California, so I hope to get through those this weekend.  In the meantime, Finley graduated from the Guppy Class to the Goldfish Class and she starts lessons only twice a week for the rest of the summer.

Swim Lessons

The first day of swim lessons was rough, Finley began to cry half way through the lesson. And the crying never stopped. She did all the things her teacher, Mr. Chris, asked her to, but she cried the entire time. Thank goodness swim lessons are every day for two weeks straight. Yesterday was her second lesson and she did great, her teacher even commented on her improvement. Today was her third day and she is absolutely loving it! She is going to be a fish in no time. She isn't scared of the water at all, which is just fantastic.