Ice Cream Social

The fantastic Bellaire Young Mothers group hosted an Ice Cream Social this morning which happened to fall during our regularly scheduled playgroup, perfect timing!  It was Finley's first visit with the ice cream man and she loved it.  She did fantastic with her popsicle until the very end, it started melting and all she was interested at that point was gnawing on the stick.  Her eye teeth are coming in and the popsicle stick seemed very comforting to her.  I pulled off the popsicle part that was left and let her go to town on the stick.  She was quite the mess when we got home, so we had some water table playtime, bathtime and now naptime.

Finley is ready to travel...

Finley takes her first ever plane ride next week to visit her Grammy and Grandad. I will be travelling alone with her, so can I get a bunch of good vibes next Wednesday around dinner time? I am really nervous about it, but I am hoping she will be okay. Her favorite toys are all the ones that make music, so those are out unless I really want to alienate all the people around us. I am going to bring her favorite stuffed animals and stacking cups, crossing my fingers that she will be tired enough to sleep.

As far as travel goes, Finley has really enjoyed going through our Italy travel book. She loves looking at the pictures, even if the book is upside down half the time.

Still Fighting It

One of my most favorite artists of all time is the incomparable Ben Folds.  The last time I got to see him live, he had just released Rockin' the Suburbs and he said he really wanted to tick off the audience by playing all new stuff.  This was quite fine by me, it was a fantastic show and included the amazing song Still Fighting It.  This is such a poignant song and so appropriate as Miss Finley Anne refused to sit in the chair with me again tonight for her bed time story.  She had to sit by herself and read it herself.

I am going to see Ben Folds this coming Saturday night at the House of Blues.
I sure hope he plays Still Fighting It and I sure hope that I don't cry.

Playing in Finley's Room

Finley has become very terratorial over her room and her toys.  She is fighting us all the time when it comes to sitting in "her" chair.  She is not a happy camper if you are sitting with her, which makes bedtime stories very hard.  Finley loves to sit on "her" chair and read her books.  It is the cutest thing ever, but it makes me sad that she no longer wants to read with us.  Let's hope that this phase is short lived!  She stills loves the three framed pictures of Clifton and I on her side table.  She will play with them for a good amount of time, all the while identifying "Dada" and "Mommy".

Bear friend is still her first love, doesn't she look so cute with him?  He is only a year old, but looks like he has been loved for years and years.
Finley loves playing peekaboo around her crib. She thinks she is super sneaky when she disappears from your line of sight.  She laughs hysterical when she sees me, camera or not. Her laugh is infectious. Finley is such a happy little girl.

Colors!

Finley loves to color, unfortunately she also enjoys eating the crayons, so she doesn't always get to color for as long as she likes.  Crayons cannot taste yummy, but she sure does like to eat them!

And I thought she was an original...

In Finley's Thursday playgroup there is another Finley!  What are the odds?  She is a Finley Faith and her name was selected from a baby book, instead of being named after her mom's favorite baseball player, Steve Finley.  Their names are where the similarities end, these two little girls are so opposite.  It was hysterical trying to get their pictures together.  Finley Faith just wanted to be held by her mom, Finley Anne wanted nothing to do with me (she had a stroller she was pushing around.)  Finley Anne couldn't get enough cake, Finley Faith was much more interested in a banana.  Finley Faith was wanting to stay in one place, Finley Anne was intent on running everywhere.

Back in the seventh grade when I decided I wanted my first little girl to be named Finley Anne, who knew that the name would be popular once I had a baby?  I blame Angie Harmon (Finley Faith), Daniel Baldwin (Finley Rae) and Lisa Marie Presley (Finley Presley).  But who can really blame them?  It is a fantastic name!

New TOY

On Monday, I Finley and I went to Costco.  I had my eye on the water table there and finally made the decision to buy it.  It was a good thing we went when we did, it was the second to last one at the store.  I panicked when we walked into the store because it had been on display near the front entrance, turns out they had moved it to the back (still without a price!)  I loaded it up on the cart and told Finley it was a new toy for the summer.  I carried it up to the third floor yesterday and told Finley again it was her toy.  My friend Kristina watched Finley this morning while I was at the dentist, she asked what the deal was with the big box on the third floor, Finley seemed really excited about it.  Best part, she learned another new word: TOY!

We played with the water table all afternoon, once I got it all put together.  She really loves it.  I am going to get some pea gravel for the sand portion part of it.  Sand+Water=Mud and not for me.  Sand isn't for Finley either, she tried the sand play area at Lupe Tortilla and wanted out instantly.  Not a fan of the dirt...phew.

Why do we have to stop playing with the Water Table?

Puzzling

Finley loves puzzles.  When I first brought out the puzzles (nicely stored in this rack, a fantastic birthday gift from Max), Finley was clueless.  We first worked together on getting the pieces somewhere near to where they belonged.  After lots of playing, Finley was able to manage to match nearly every piece of her puzzles. 
Sometimes there is confusion, but most of the time she figures it out.  It is so fun to watch her intently stare at the pieces to determine where they fit.  She is now working on getting the pieces to actually fit into the space where they belong.  She is better at it with the chunkier puzzles and the one that she has mastered is her dinosaur puzzle.  I always tell her the dinosaur names as she picks up the pieces, but I think we are a long way off from "Diplodocus"  and "Anklyosaurus" coming from her mouth.  I have always loved puzzles, so I am happy to see that Finley enjoys them as much as I do.  I can't wait for the day when we can complete our first jigsaw puzzle together.

Pony Rides!

We went over to the St Paul's School yesterday for their Spring Carnival. I had read there would be pony rides and since Finley didn't get to take one at the Rodeo this year, I figured that this would be her chance. She loved it! She could hold on and stay on the horse all by herself, such a natural. She was super curious about the petting zoo next door. They had ducks, a dear, a llama and baby goats. So cute!

Playgroup, Pizza and the Park

Finley and I went to playgroup on Friday and she had a blast in the ball pit, as per usual.  I would be all about a ball pit in our home, but for the fact that I would imagine that plastic balls would migrate all over our home.  For now, she can enjoy ball pits at friends' houses and at the museum.


After playgroup, we met Clifton out for some Luigi's pizza.  Finley loves pizza, she calls it "peez".  And afterwards, we treated her to some chocolate gelato.  She used two spoons for double the ice cream.  Pizza and ice cream is pretty much an ideal meal for Miss Finley Bug.

After dinner, we headed over to the park for some playtime before bedtime. Finley loved swinging with Clifton, climbing around and going down the slide.

 

Please Look After this Bear...Thank You

Miss Finley has taken to taking Paddington Bear with her wherever she goes.  Besides Bear Friend, Finley hasn't shown any loyalty to any of her stuffed animals.  Her animal friends are always around and whichever one happens to be close is usually her current favorite.  We shall see how long the attachment to Paddington lasts, my guess is she will be carrying something new tomorrow...