Friday Night Pizza

We have a tradition at the Skertich house called Friday Night Pizza. Since what seems like 1846 we've been getting together on Friday nights to eat pizza and hang out. Well, tonight was Finley's first Friday Night Pizza and she took full advantage.

After two pieces of deep dish cheese and a few slices of thin crust sausage, Finley rubbed her belly, retired to food coma and asked Hannah to rock her to sleep, which Hannah promptly did.

For those of you that don't know, Hannah is Finley's cousin. Hannah is nine and got a double A+ in awesome classes every year since preschool. She has officially been awesome since she was in the womb and was recently asked by the NFA (National Federation of Awesomeness) to be a guestspeaker at the 14th annual Awesome Convention in Ibiza, Spain. She, of course, accepted.



Finley then moved on to Nana for a cameo.



In the meantime, Finley's two cousins - Eli and Sophie (also known as Soph-Dog) - were playing spoons in the dining room, though they were playing without a deck of cards. There was some biting, some crying and I think I even heard some cussing. Apparently Sophie won the game, but I did hear Eli walk out of the room mumbling softly, "That's bull$&@%, I had my hand on the *#&%@ spoon first." Apparently all is fair in love and cousinhood, and apparently Eli takes after his dad, Finley's Uncle Brian, when it comes to foul language.

Photos

OPERATION FIRST BATH!!!!

So for the first two weeks of Finley's life, she had that amazingly distinct, fresh newborn smell. You would just be snuggled by her head and the smell of her just brought a smile to your face.

And then it disappeared. It was replaced by an interesting odor mixture of spit up, eye leakage, and diaper lotion, among other things.
So Operation First Bath commenced this afternoon and overall it went very well.

They don't call them Grand for nothing

Grandparents... Grandpeople.

As we told you before, Finley's grandparents were visiting from Arapahoe so Friday night Mom and Dad's parents and Katherine and Casey all got together for a nice dinner

Finley, fresh from a nap and raring to go, sat at the table with the boys and delved into some good conversation. It all started with a discussion with Casey about the individual variations between liver genomes.

She switched gears to swap war stories with Grandpa Lammel. Grandpa begged her to no end, so she told him, yet again, about how her squadron came upon the 545th on the Ho Chi Minh and saved some Navy Seals in a fierce firefight

After some of Casey's amazing pie, she argued with Papa Skertich about the effects that rising medical malpractice jury verdicts are having on the middle class. They finally just agreed to disagree

Nana and Grandma finally interrupted and requested some photo opps... so here we go.

Pics Pics Pics

Enough of Dad's ramblings

Finley Meets Her Arapahoe Roots

So today Grandma Lammel got into town from the heartland and she'll be staying with us til Sunday; Granpda Lammel is set to arrive on Friday. For those of you that don't know, Grandma and Grandpa Lammel are from Arapahoe, Nebraska, where Sarah grew up.

Arapahoe is a town of about 900 people that is equidistant from Denver and Omaha, about a 4.5-hour drive from each. The Skertich family took a vacation there this past July 4, and had an absolutely fantastic time, though I'm not sure if the town ever wants them to come back.

The Lammels own a heating, air conditioning and plumbing store in Arapahoe, which you can see here below, that services Arapahoe and all the surrounding towns. As you might imagine, Grandpa Lammel is a little more handy than Finley's dad.

So back to today. According to Mom, Finley was awake most of the day (possibly a good sign that some sleep is on the way tonight) and had a great time hanging with Grandma Lammel. Grandma, well versed in the history of her hometown, explained to Finley that Arapahoe was founded in 1871 by a band of men whose dream it was to establish a town in the Republican River Valley. She continued on that the town was founded along the Muddy Creek, just west of Arapahoe.

Finley quickly interrupted Grandma Lammel and asked, "Wait, isn't the Muddy Creek that local tavern in town that makes a really stiff Whiskey and Coke but closes a bit too early on the weeknights?" Grandma Lammel had no response because Finley was absolutely correct on both counts. And in honor of Finley's surprising knowledge of the Arapahoe watering hole, I thought I'd post of a photo of the Muddy Creek Saloon in Arapahoe, Nebraska

Finley Meets Gram

So today we ventured out to Oak Lawn so Finley could meet the one and only Gram. Finley is Gram's 22nd great grandchild and she is loved from near to far by a whole slew of people that are too many to count.

Finley was right at home on Gram's lap, as so many before have been as well.

After Finley woke up, she and Gram had a good talk about the Great Depression and the effect it had on Gram's generation, followed by a heavy debate on Patron Saints and their place in the history of Christianity.

But before we left, we got a great shot of Mom and Finley. Mom is doing very well and Grandma and Grandpa Lammel are coming this week to stay with us and meet their newest grandchild.

Finley Meets Eli

So yesterday Dad needed to go to pick up his car and Finley's Uncle Brian was nice enough to spend about four hours in the car helping Dad get his car. But the trip was all worth it because today Finley got to meet one of her cousins for the first time. Eli (one year old) came by and was so nice to little Finley, patting her very gently on the belly and on the forehead. And his big smiles and giggles made it obvious to see that Finley and Eli are going to be good buds, though they did get in quite a heated discussion about the state of the economy and which candidate would better represent the United States in foreign affairs.

Finley's First Valentine's Day

So it was Finley's first Valentine's Day and fortunately Aunt Suzie and Aunt Tasha had gotten her a cute little outfit to wear to impress the boys at school. After school we looked over all the candy and hearts she got.

She said that though Carson and Ned tried to kiss her, she had to refuse their advances because her heart belongs to Benjamin. He gives her butterflies because "his hair has a laid back, never-been-combed look and his shoes are always neat and clean... and you can tell a lot by the way a guy keeps his shoes, dad."

Finley's First Piano Lesson

PIC #1: So I figured three days was plenty of time for Finley to get acclimated to this bright new world before giving her her first piano lesson.

PIC #2: To my surprise, it took only six minutes before she eloquently started playing the melody to "Fur Elise." And when I asked her for something a little less classical, she busted into Ray Charles' "Mess Around." Even said she could play this with her eyes closed, as you can see.

She also mentioned that she's currently writing a song titled, "The Color of My Last Poop," a gospel-based piece with a killer guitar hook that is written in 6/8 timing.