Here he is!

Finley turned 7 months on January 12th, 2010 (still can't believe it's 2010) and is having an explosion of development right now. If you are able to zoom in on this first picture you may be able to see a hint of his first two teeth, which finally broke through a few days ago.

His personality is really starting to become apparent and while he's still very good-natured he now has preferences and opinions that sometimes conflict with ours. Can you guess what his opinion is in the picture below? With his newfound sense of self has come a bit of stranger anxiety as well. He will take a good 10 minutes to size someone up before cracking a smile, and letting them hold him might take a bit longer. It's made babysitting a bit of a challenge for our friends as well. We're making more of an effort to be social and get him the occasional babysitter to get him used to other people.


He has never liked tummy time but can no longer resist the urge to try to crawl. Currently he is able to scoot backwards, but since he's usually trying to go for an object in front of him he gets pretty frustrated.


At the same time he is making a go at learning to walk. He can stand by himself holding onto furniture for indefinite amounts of time and can now cruise a little from one location to another as long as he has a sturdy surface. His favorite thing to do is to hold on to the highchair legs or stand at the ottoman snd play with things on top of it.


This pastime has also led to some head bumps, the first of many I'm sure. You may be able to see the bruise above his right eye...


All of this means that he is sleeping like a newborn again, waking up every 2 to 3 hours--ouch! Apparently babies sleep poorly whenever they hit a new stage of development because they practice in their sleep. And, they sleep poorly when they have stranger anxiety. Add teething in there and it's not pretty (or at least I'm not). All of it is made worthwhile though by my favorite of the new things he does--hugs and kisses and other sweet displays of affection. Doesn't get better than that.

Big Sky, Big Fun

This September of 2009 we took our gnome back to MT, the mother (and father) land. It is always such a joy to cross over the Washington/Montana border and smell the sweet pine scent that seems to only come from the Rockies. This time we wanted Finley to get a taste, so we stopped at the top of Lookout pass and let him soak in his first bit of MT.

We headed to Missoula to spend some time with my Grandma Mabel who Finley sometimes looks like. We didn’t get a chance to get a picture of them together, but here’s one of a morning where Grandma busted out her keyboard for Chad and he accompanied her on the mandolin. She also painted this lovely picture of starlings, for the band The Starlings that Chad toured with last fall, which was very cool. Chad and Grandma have a lot in common with a talent for music and art.

We have a couple of friends in Missoula that just had babies within a month or two of Finley so we stopped and spent time with them. It was strange and so much fun to spend time with friends from our youth in our role as parents. We’ve all maintained our core personalities but have also mellowed and softened, and it’s such a thrill to see our own features and personalities reflected in that of our children. It’s unfortunately a little blurry but I had to post this picture of Jesse King and Chad because they completely spontaneously threw their feet up onto a bench so they could admire their boys side by side. Proud papas if I’ve ever seen ‘em and so thrilled for each other too. And we don't want to forget the mamas!

We moved on to Townsend where Chad painted the inside of his parents house. Finley loved spending time with his Grandparents and even got to stay with them alone while Chad and I had a lovely date night in Helena. He also got a taste of the farm life because Grandpa Hinman was hard at work combining wheat. Here’s a little video.

My sister Dana and her daughters Morgan and Taylor live in Belgrade, which is right near Bozeman where Chad’s Grandpa Ed is so we made a trip up there as well. I was slacking with the camera again at Dana’s so no photos but here are some of Grandpa Ed. His middle name is Wiley and he can be quite flirtatious so when Finley gives me a sly grin I call it his Wiley look. He definitely has Grandpa Ed’s ears and I think we might see in the future that he has his eyes (because Chad does) as well.

All in all a great trip that went much too quickly. We are looking forward to the next one where maybe we will even make it to the cabin in Glacier Park, a spot we absolutely love. We are excited to see many of the same people this Christmas in Las Vegas and show off Finley’s new skills. He’s growing so fast, cliché but true, so I’m glad we have the opportunity for family and friends to see him periodically and for him to see them, especially the wizened ones.

There's No Place Like Gnome--Part II

This is how I spent a lot of the summer. Although he makes a good travel gnome, Finley's not a huge fan of the carseat where snuggles and snacks are not readily available, so entertainment is crucial to making any progress.


In addition to going to Seattle we took Finley’s first trip to see the Pacific Ocean during a crazy heat wave (107 degrees in Portland!).


We planned to camp, but so did the thousands of other Portlanders that headed over. One park ranger told us he had turned away 300 people that day! Luckily we got the last room in a hotel.

Here we are at the beach. Finley was about 2 months old. (video)


We also headed over to Walla Walla, Washington for a friend’s wedding and a brief visit with Chad’s uncle Graham (aka. Ron). Finley got to wear his party shirt, woohoo!


Then in early September Finley and I went to visit Grandma Lorraine and Aunties Debi and Chelsea and family in Las Vegas. At 3 months he was a dream baby on the airplane, not even a hint of crying. (We’ll see how he does at 6 months when we head back to Vegas for Christmas.) Here he is with Auntie Debi.


We finished September, and the end of my precious maternity leave, by heading to MT, pics to come. What a great summer we had!

There's no place like gnome

This is our travel gnome. You know, like the Travelocity roaming gnome, except softer and less hairy. It started when he was 1 month old, with our first trip to Seattle. It took us 6 hours to make the 3-hour trip and we discovered what the advent of safe travel means to hungry babies. Lots and lots of stopping.

We went to see The Starlings cd release show and Moe Provencher accompanied by the lovely Aimee Zoe Tubbs. Chad has produced two of The Starlings albums and toured with them last October. It was great to hang with friends who cooked us up some deliciousness and good times. Turned out that Jack Quick, former member of Chad Hinman and the Never Was, also had a show the following night, so we were excited to check that out too.

The music was great...from what I heard. Turns out babies aren’t so popular at bars--we got kicked out of two. (Finley’s gonna be so cool when he tells that story in high school.)

So, Finley and I hung out in the company of two other fine mamas with another baby and a young artist, Sophia. But, we could see and hear the music through the open door, had plenty of visitors from the inside, and Sophia’s sidewalk chalk art entertained us and passersby.

And, I had to admit that one month after giving birth and with nursing during the night, I was just plain tired and couldn’t have hung with the band very long anyway. So, I had a great excuse to go to bed early and it worked out for the best in the end. Plus, we got our own private concert at the next day’s barbecue and Finley got to participate in his first song circle.

All in all a great first trip and one we hope to do again in the near future.

The life of a cowboy

Ok, these are old, from when Finley was only 4 weeks--now almost 4 months--but I couldn't help myself. We got some baby Ropers (those are cowboy boots for you city folk) as a gift and I got the hankering to take some pictures one day. Remember the post about our MT roots? Here's the first sign.


Ridin' the range.


Time for a nip o' sarsparilla.


Yeeeehaw, that makes a fellar want to dance a jig!


One too many 'rillas...


Go ahead, make my day.

Happy trails!

Playing Catch-up

Check out a recent photo of my handsome guys (from end of Sept '09)!

So, apparently you're supposed to blog weekly, if not daily. HAhahahaha! I know this blog is supposed to keep people updated on our lives and how Finley's doing, but I've gotta tell ya', I can barely keep up with all the changes that have occurred. Finley is already a sittin', walkin', talkin', charmin' little dude. He practically ran a marathon the other day! Ok, we were helping him, but still.

All of his 0-3mo clothes and diapers are packed away already and while I find myself excited for the things he will do, I already find myself reminiscing about when he was a tiny newborn. But, he is my constant little reminder to live in the present, a great lesson! From before the birth, he let me know not to get too attached to my plans, and even today when I was watching some of the videos we have made, he told me quite loudly that I should not dwell in the past. He said, "I'm right here now and you're missing it!" And I'm so happy to have him.

But, that said, I do want to share some of our summer. We traveled to Seattle, Walla Walla, the Pacific coast, Las Vegas and Montana, having a great time catching up with family and friends. I will add some of our activities in separate blogs so I can post lots of pics and videos. Stay tuned!

Face game

The shock from our rather crazy birth experience has worn off and I've realized two things: 1) I have tiny ankles, and 2) holy smokes, we have a baby! And it's a boy! My family is pretty much all women with Chad the designated lifter of heavy objects at holiday gatherings. Having a boy is like catching a shooting star in a butterfly net. Luckily I felt like he was a boy the whole pregnancy so by the time he arrived (nearly two weeks late) it seemed pretty natural. Chad wasn't so sure so he is getting used to the idea that there are some man things he'll be teaching his son in the future, things mamas aren't privvy to.

Like many new parents we have spent countless hours examining him or simply staring at him. (I've actually come up with a theory that alien abductions are really latent memories from being poked and prodded as a helpless baby. Think about it.) Inevitably we end up trying to determine who he looks like which hasn't been easy since Chad and I don't really look all that different. So we've dug up some photos of us in our younger days to see if it might help us pick out some distinguishing features. Finley is in the top two pictures at 4 weeks. Chad is the baby in the photo of the two boys. I'm in the poofy red dress. What do you think?

The beginning

Where to begin but the beginning. Finley is two weeks old today and all eyes are for him (because, what can we say, he's adorable), but it seems like we'd be overlooking something if we skipped over his parents and the place from which we came. It is, after all, a big part of our family and who he will be, even if he does grow up to be a hip urbanite with 42 piercings or whatever the newfangled trend is in 20 years.

We are country folk, born and raised--many generations of Montanans run through our veins. We've mostly lost our accents (put the groceries in this reusable beg please), don't eat much red meat these days (only hormone and antibiotic free), think it's cold when it gets down to 45 degrees (damn it if we have to scrape some frost of our windshield), and express emotions on occasion (we cried when we put our indoor cat to sleep). But we are still quiet people, not a lot of chit chat, and the sound and sight of irrigation sprinklers with the mountains in the background is like valium for our souls. Our lives move a little faster now, but we find as we get older that we return more and more to our roots. So keep an adoring eye out for a little bit of Montana in Finley. It'll be there.



Chad's excitement about pipe changing was barely containable...