Finny is 10 months

climbing the stairs

playing at the park

you can see a few top teeth

cruise walking

going from crawling to sitting

This past month has brought a lot of changes for Finn! He got four of this top teeth in all in a matter of three days. But now he's sleeping through the night again (THANK GOODNESS!). He has started crawling on all fours now the majority of the time. He pulls up onto anything and everything now and is just starting to cruise walk, and he loves to practice walking when holding onto our hands. With the pulling up came the climbing the stairs...

I believe I am in the running for the Mother of the Year Award... A week ago I was cleaning up in the kitchen when I thought the boys were being awfully quiet. Much to my surprise Cullen and Finn were nowhere to be found... until I went upstairs. Finn had climbed up seven stairs went across the landing and was on his third step on the 2nd set of stairs! Cullen was upstairs playing. Finn must have seen him go up the stairs and went up after him! (We have since put up a gate)

Some of my favorite firsts are his kisses. He'll now kiss you when you ask for them. :) He's also a point 'n grunt man. He points his little index finger at stuff and grunts for you to talk about it. We are also starting so see his humorous side. He's laughing a lot more (mostly at brother) and loves to play peek a boo. Thankfully it appears the Lord gave Finn-Finn a since of humor, he'll need it having Cullen as an older brother! Finn continues to be the calm amongst the craziness Cullen brings.

writing

Now that Cullen has been spelling his name out loud for several months, I've started working on having him write his name. He's doing pretty well. In fact, last night as I was cooking dinner Cullen went outside on the back stoop to play with chalk. I looked out to find him writing his name all by himself. When he was done, he was clearly very proud and immediately knocked on the door to show me. The above picture is what he did by himself and with nothing to look at to copy. (He wrote his name again below the original.)

The last month he's been noticing words (letters) on advertisements and TV, and he'll say I have a C in my name, or I have a L in my name. So today I'm getting lunch together for the boys, and Cullen says- "Mommy, Finn has a F in his name." I say, yes he does. Then he goes onto tell me he has a I and N in his name. I was taken back and asked him "Can you spell Finn's name? He said sure... and spelled it right! There was nothing in the kitchen with Finn's name on it, I was totally surprised. The only place, that I can think of, that he learned it is above Finn's crib I have his name spelled out.

While I'm on this "writing" note. Some of you may have or will be receiving letters in the mail from Cullen. He really enjoys drawing pictures and putting stickers on the envelopes. He proudly carries the letters to the mailbox to send to everyone, then asks "Did I get any mail today?"

our Hometown Hero

Sean was interviewed for Lou Dobb's Hometown Heroes back in April and it finally aired Friday night. No one told us when it was going to air, but one of Sean's friends from Fort Bragg called us Saturday to tell him he saw him on TV. I guess he was out eating at a restaurant and looked up at the TV to see Sean talking. Funny! I think it turned out pretty good, especially since he found out he had walking pneumonia that night...


Anyway, here's the link:

	Heroes: Captain Sean McCaffery*

vbs

Cullen and Isabella doing the actions to a song

with the bug hat he made

He made this alligator and named it Floppy.

Today was the last day of Vacation Bible School for Cullen. It was an amazing program, I'll definitely sign him up again next summer! A few of the days I'd sneak in a little early and watch them sing the songs and dance. Cullen was really into it, he'd tap (more like stomp) his foot and clap his hands with such intensity. I loved it! Most of the other preschoolers were nonchalant, but not Cullen, he was there to rock.

Today after VBS, we all attended Mass and then had a picnic. Much to my surprise, they had Cullen bring up the gifts during Mass along with a fifth grade boy. His teachers told me they were going to tell Cullen when it was his turn to go up... I thought they were having all the kids go up and be recognized or something. I was sweating bullets when I realized what was about to happen... Luckily, Cullen did great and Father gave him a high-five on his the way down the aisle. :)

We are really enjoying our time in Colorado Springs and it's really starting to feel like our home. The more things we are becoming involved in, the more we are starting to get to know other parents. Isabella was one of Cullen's preschool classmates at his Catholic School. Dillon, another boy in VBS, is in Little Gym with Cullen. And four of the high school boys helping to run VBS are the sons of a woman I worked with when we were stationed at Ft. Drum. I finally ran into her today and we talked for awhile. It was great to see her, she knew me before I had kids; and it was fun to introduce her to my boys. She was also a big help holding Finn for me during the VBS Finale. Unfortunately the Army called, and they will be moving Monday. But wow, what a small world!

Cullen's friend, Jeff

I think Cullen has an imaginary friend named Jeff. The past month he's been talking about Jeff, lately it's been several times a day! I'm not sure what to make of this, I never had an imaginary friend, so I keep telling myself he has a wonderful imagination! Or maybe he's some kind of genius... I think I read that once.... maybe, right?? ;)

This morning he has talked about Jeff two times. The first was FIRST thing this morning. After telling me "good morning" he said "Jeff got me some balls, want to see?" Then he pretended to pull something out of his pretend pocket and showed me his open palm. The second thing was when we were driving to Vacation Bible School. He told me "Jeff gave me a ride, and his car is waaaay over there" (as he points off into the distance). I asked what kind of car Jeff has and he told me "a white truck".

It's a good thing Cullen is our oldest, he's really breaking us in on his whole parenting thing!

j e l l o

What is childhood without jigglers? Cullen enjoys helping in the kitchen and was thrilled to make his own shapes in the jello. I have a feeling we'll do this a lot throughout the years.

I thought I'd share a funny story from today. The boys and I were driving in the car when Cullen said "Daddy's are at work. Mommy's are at home." This peaked my interest, so I asked "What do mommy's do?" His response was "I dunno, they pick up and put stuff away." I thought that was funny... if only that was all my "job" entailed.

Royal Gorge

Finn loved the carousel! He was squealing & moving his arms.

"Momma, why does the cat have a fish in it's mouth?"

View of the bridge from the aerial tram.

You can see the bridge in the background.

View of the Arkansas River from the bridge
(this doesn't do it justice to how high we were)

Sean by his birth state

me by my birth state

Cullen by his birth state

Finn by his birth state

We went to Canon City Sunday to see the Royal Gorge. It's the world's highest suspension bridge. It was breathtaking. I had been there before years ago, but it was fun to visit as an adult. We had a nice day for it, kind of cool, but REALLY windy! So windy, I was surprised the aerial tram was running... The aerial tram was cool (now, knowing we survived it), but about 100 feet into the ride, I realized that I didn't really like it. You know, about the time that I read that it was built in 1969 and it's the original tram. Then the conductor told us we are on the world's longest single-span aerial tram in the world (whatever that means) and we were hanging from cables 1,178 feet above the Arkansas River. Like I said, it's cool now... and I had the piece of mind knowing if we were going to crash 1,178 feet to our deaths; hey, we are all together as a family....

We ran into a lot of really nice people. The first couple in line ahead of us gave us a left over coupon, then as we entered the park we had to give our zip codes and wouldn't you know, theirs was 66617 (the zip code I grew up with)! Crazy, we talked with them for awhile. Then while waiting with the boys for Sean, a woman made small talk with Cullen. She asked me if she could give Cullen some of the funnel cake she was ordering. When I got back to Sean after changing Finn, they were sitting there eating 1/2 a funnel cake! That nice woman gave Cullen half. :) Sean was pleased that the employees in the gift shop didn't make him pay for the knick-knack he broke... I won't go into the kindness Cullen showed to others today... I'll just say we had a long talk about calling others "big and fat"....

t-ball

grounding the fielders

playing catch with Daddy

going, going...

gone

We have officially entered the world of sports... Cullen's got his game schedule for the summer. Cullen had his first t-ball practice Saturday. His practice went really well, he loves it. His team is the Giants and he's got the little hat and all. He's got it all figured out pretty well, just from playing at home with us- but we do need to work with him on running the bases.