Cruisin' Jenness Pond

Finn's Nana and Papa just got a new electric pontoon boat. It is the nicest little boat for cruising around the pond. Finn, Sean, Lily and I got our first ride in it yesterday. Finn was a bit cranky after a weekend of tough sleep patterns, but he warmed up to it at the end. It was slightly windy at times, but otherwise a perfectly beautiful ride.

Here's Captain Papa. I was totally amazed that the steering is through a joystick:


Yep, I got to take the helm. It was a little strange, but really easy to maneuver:

Finn is still a little leary here, but content on Dad's lap:

Ah, now he is pointing out the sights with Nana:

Lily and Happy were in their element:

When it got a little windy, Lily cracked me up at the front of the boat with her ears flapping:

She really is just the cutest Labrador!

Towards the end of the ride, Sean threw a few casts out. Lily actually climbed through the door to get out on the frond end of the boat with Sean. She is the fish retriever! And, of course, she did jump in and end up swimming back to the dock.

The Cabbage Patch

We harvested our first cabbage today. I am such a dork, it made me so happy!

Helpful in the Kitchen

Making hummus, one of our favorite things.

Corn on the Cob

Mmmm...sweet NH corn grilled to perfection. Finn is a fan!

A Beach Trip and Dissertation Hope

I have written many times how we have been blessed with just about the best neighbors anyone can ask for. They are a big family and they seem to have encompassed us into it. It is absolutely wonderful. I think I have written about Art, who has amazing gardens and has shown me a lot about growing. Well, he and his wife, JoAnne, had 9 children; 7 boys and 2 girls. Art and JoAnne live with their daughter, JoAnne, and her husband, Jason, and their two children, Sarah (19) and Jake (16). JoAnne's sister, Carrie, married Jason's brother and so that family is quite intertwined. Most of Art's children and their children live in the area and thus their house is always filled with people coming and going and they always invite us to join in their get togethers. They are also a family of red heads and so they are thrilled to see Finn in all his ginger glory.

Well, JoAnne (junior? I don't know if you call a girl named after her mom junior) is a special education teacher and she is pretty much off for the summer. One day, I was lamenting to her about my complete and utter lack of progress on that *&!@$@ dissertation that I am supposedly working on. She was so sweet and offered to take care of Finn here and there through out the summer so that I could get some work done. This past Friday, she took him to the beach with a bunch of her nieces and nephews and I got a full 6 hours of work in. It was phenomenal for me. I actually got to think and write and come up with a plan to get back on the dissertation wagon. I really hope I can continue to follow through and get the flippin thing done. And, it seemed to work out well for Finn too. She said he had quite a good time. Here are some of the pictures that she took. She was amazed at how much he ate, so most of them are eating pictures:

They built sand castles:


Mmmm...watermelon:

A little sand and watermelon:

A little PB&J with his friend, Megan (JoAnne's niece):

It wasn't a fluke!

Woo Hoo... He peed in the potty again tonight!

First Pee in the Potty!

Before bath tonight, Finn peed in his potty for the first time! I know we have a long way to go, but it was very exciting, indeed!

Kale Chips

From what I understand, Finn is quite the eater compared to many toddlers. Frankly, at times, the kid seems a bottomless pit. And, his palate is highly diversified, enjoying a variety of fruits, vegetables and spices. However, the one thing he has turned away from every time is leafy greens. My good friend Jen, who happens to be a holistic health coach (and has a fabulous blog here) suggested that we try Kale Chips. Well, we just got a big bunch of kale from one of Sean's coworkers who was overwhelmed by his farm share. Tonight we made a version of this recipe and it was a HUGE hit! Instead of drizzling the olive oil, I put all the prepared kale in a bag and shook it with the olive oil, and instead of seasoned salt, I used parmesean cheese. It was phenomenal! I was surprised when Finn stuffed the first piece in his mouth. I was shocked when he immediately signed more and began to gobble it up. Honestly, Sean, Finn and I fought over it all until the entire bunch of kale was gone. If you have a toddler and have a tough time with the greens, run and try this recipe!

Growing Garden

I thought I would do a quick post on our garden as the last pictures I put up, we were still digging it. It is growing beautifully and we are already enjoying lots of veggies. These four plots are our vegetable gardens. We planted crook-neck squash and patty pan squash, brandywine tomatoes, cucumbers, bush beans, carrots, beets, dinosaur kale, spinach, black-seeded simpson lettuce, red cabbage and green cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower. Our spinach has bolted already and so we pulled it and put in some late peas, both edible pod and the shucking kind. These are just coming up. We have had a lot of spinach, more lettuce than we can keep up with and a bumper crop of swiss chard. We are watching our cucumbers grow and I imagine the first harvest of those will start in the next week. I plan to pick the first of the crook-neck squash tomorrow. Our tomatoes are flowering and we see little fruits starting. It is all very exciting. Finn "helps" me water everyday, which is to say he pummels the plants with water and then switches and waters me. In this heat wave, he has begun to enjoy running through the spray as I water the plants. He has tried to help me weed, but unfortunately, he doesn't really distinguish between weeds and veggies. Thus, I have a very weedy garden, but it seems to be doing just fine. Next year, I am definitely mulching or haying to try to keep the weeds at bay.


Here is Finn helping to harvest some swiss chard:

And this is our herb garden. I love it as we can see it right out of our back windows from the kitchen. We hung up a bunch of bird feeders and it is lovely to watch the birds. The garden is still looking a bit sparse, but it is growing and I imagine I will fill in the bare spots over the next few years. We planted some columbines from Colorado and we put in oregano, sage, tarragon, lavender, thyme, dill, cilantro, parsley and a ton of mammoth basil and regular basil because I love pesto. We have peppermint and chamomile for teas. We also planted some chocolate mint and regular mint (mojitos, anyone?) We put in a bunch of garlic and a cherry tomato plant. The garden lays right next to Sean's first apple tree and when everything is grown up, I know it will be beautiful.

Fancy a chat?

I have not been good about keeping up with Finn's monthly posts. For the record, he is now 20 months...WOW, we are in the twenties! He is growing and changing daily and I can barely keep up.

The most exciting development is a sudden burst of words. At our 18 month appointment, I could only confidently say that he had one word, HOT! This prompted our pediatrician to give this whole developmental questionaire and suggest that if we didn't see improvement that we should have Finn evalutated for speech. And while I was confident that Finn was just fine and would explore language when he was ready, it has been in the back of our minds.

Well, I can happily say that he now has 18 words and he is trying to add new ones daily. Here is our running list:

• Hot (first word, most often associated with food whether it is hot or not and followed by blowing)
• Mama
• Daddy (said with much emphasis DA-DEE)
• Truck (buck, and followed by a vrooming noise)
• Car (Ca, with proper Boston accent and absence of "R")
• Ball
• Bird (said with gusto as he looks out the window)
• Back Hoe (a word that every little boy needs)
• Dog
• Flower (Fla wa..my personal favorite)
• Nana
• Papa (Pa)
• Baboo (Ba bmm)
• Bubbles (Bu Bu)
• Bear (easily confused with bird, but often used when pointing at one of his bears)
• Boat (BO, also followed by vrooming noise)
• Water (wa wa)
• Star (ar, just added today)

He is also happy to sign: milk, more, please, all done. He shows no interest in verbalizing these, however. We will ask him to say them and he just signs.

He is also really into mimicking noises. He has his dad's ability to accurately mimic animal noises. For instance, when asked to quack like a duck, he doesn't say "quack", but gives a very believable quack that could bring the ducks in!

He also really likes to try to sing songs and do hand motions with those songs.

I am loving this stage and I am very excited for him to become even more expressive.

EDIT: I can't believe I forgot he can say "Baby", "Poop", and "Block" Oh, boy, 21 words and counting!

The Marshmallow

Introducing our new wheels...drum roll...its the marshmallow! Carrie adequately named our car and I love the description! It was a bit of an ordeal getting it as Sean was a suspected terrorist for a week and apparently, they cannot buy cars. But, alas, we cleared it all up and picked up our car last Friday. It is a 2009 Nissan Versa Hatchback with only 4,000 miles on it! It is uber white as you can see with a tan interior (good for yellow lab hair!). It is automatic transmission and has the power package with power windows, locks, cruise control, etc. It is actually more than we need, but it was too good a deal to pass up. Finn and I have been enjoying our new freedom while Sean is at work. We have been a one car family for almost 2 years now and while I don't want to impact the environment more than needed, I must say it is nice to have a second vehicle. Finn started swim lessons this week and we get to go to the beach in our new ride. We couldn't have done that with one car! Further, this is much more roomy than the Saturn. Sean can sit comfortably in the passenger seat even with the carseat installed right behind it. And Lily is very comfortable in the hatch portion. Good times!

Cherries, Raspberries, and Strawberries, OH MY!

Summer means fruit picking in NH. There are a lot of pick-your-own farms that are fantastic in the area. We really like Butternut farm and the whole gang got together for some picking yesterday.

First, the cherries were out of this world. These were Finn's first cherries and he took to them quite quickly.
Picking by the handful:
So sweet and juicy and don't ask me where the pits went?

Next up, raspberries. We actually had 7 kiddos in all. They loved it and probably ate as much as we took home.

Attack of the tickle monster down the rows of raspberries:

By the time we got to the strawberry fields, the kids were fired up. Here is Finn running with complete abandon through the rows:

Whew, gotta stop and eat some delicious berries:

Kiddos picking with Nana:

This one cracks me up. He looks like a little brute with his hat backwards eating a strawberry:

I hear the blueberries are just about ready so we will attack those soon!