So this whole Easter thing is pretty cool. So there's this bunny, right, and he hides eggs for kids to find and... okay, you probably already know this by now. I was just kind of blown away by the whole thing.

Easter Sunday was a great day. We started off with a trip to church with Colin and Steph and then headed out to Nana's for the day. All my cousins were there and Nana had huge Easter baskets for all of us. I got lots of fun stuff. Anyway, I thought I'd show you some pictures from the day.

Here's me at the start of the day in my Easter dress.


Here's me laughing with Nana.

This is my cousin, Isaiah. Isaiah is four years old and he is also part of the Awesome Club, you know, the one that Hannah is president of. Isaiah is easily one of the coolest, most sweetest, bestest people you will ever meet. My Mom and Dad love to hang out with Isaiah as much as they can, and they told me that I will, too. On Easter Isaiah wanted to hold me and take a picture with me, so here you have it.

Okay, this might take us off course just a bit but there is one thing I forgot to mention - Mom took me to the doc the other day and I weighed in at 9.5, so I gained another pound, and 21.75 inches. Doc said I am smack dab at the 50th percentile in height and weight, so I'm literally perfect. Oh, and they measured my cool factor and I came in at a 9.94 out of 10.0, most of which was attributed to my hairdo - which you can see here.

And here is little old me at the end of the day on Easter Sunday.

Some People Call Me A Space Cowboy...

And some people just call me effective. It is no coincidence that my first NCAA Tournament of my life has resulted in a first round win for Marquette, their first tourney win since 2003. Yes, it came at the hands of my Uncle Brian's Kentucky Wildcats, but there are always casualties on the way to a National Championship, not my fault.

As you can see, I was wrapped up in my new Marquette blanket (courtesy of my favorite South Side Irish gal, Miss Gaelen Bell) and we brought home the victory. Marquette Coach Tom Crean and I talked on Wednesday about game strategy and I told him free throws could be a deciding factor, and it looks like he put the boys to work from the charity stripe this week.

Now it's time to bring down the Cardinal on Saturday night (sorry, Katherine and Casey, but we gotta do it). Go Marquette, Go, Go, Go, Go!

P.S. Yes, I'm a girl and that's a black Jordan beanie on my head... my dad is kind of strange sometimes.

Ohhhhhhhver In Kilarney

So here's the deal, I'm a mix of a lot of different nationalities from my mom and dad's side, which is pretty sweet because I can claim a lot of different holidays and national soccer teams. I mean, if the U.S., Croatia, Ireland, Italy, Norway or Germany win the World Cup in 2010, I can officially celebrate. I guess in that sense it might be nice if I was Brazilian, but oh well. (I even have some Native American Indian in me from a few generations back, though that really does me no good because they don't have a soccer team and I can't really recall a national holiday for them, either. Maybe I'll be good at making tee-pee's when I grow up and I'll look cool with feathers on my head. (That was not a negative ethnic remark, I'm dead serious.))

But as you all know, this past Monday was St. Paddy's Day - a day to celebrate my name and my Irish heritage. So Mom and I headed across the street to Grace O'Malleys to do what the Irish do best: drink whiskey and sing. In the picture below you can see that Mom caught me smack dab at the start of the chorus to "Over In Kilarney." What you can't see are two dudes I met - Seamus and Liam - who were fantastic at improvizing in third and fifth raised harmonies. I gotta say, we sounded pretty good. By closing time, after a few too many beers, we even talked about dropping out of day care and starting a band. Seamus said he'd like to name our trio Us Three (as opposed to U2). Personally I thought that was stupid but you just can't argue with Seamus when he's on the drink.

A huge thanks to Aunt Erica for the St. Paddys Day outfit and Laura and Gina for rounding it out with the leg warmers. Cuz you know these days if you ain't got leg warmers, you just ain't that cool.

In this last photo you can see I passed out in my car seat after Mom and I slammed down a couple El Famous burritos (don't worry, Mom was the designated driver).
Stay tuned for my post later this week about my new boyfriend, Jake Crotty.

Smile, It's The Weekend

Yep, We're Celebrating

Hey gang, Finley here. So I know it's only my one month birthday but screw it, we celebrated anyway. Dad came home, mom baked some brownies (not space cakes, for those of you wondering) and we lit up the candle and sang the old traditional happy birthday. Dad was a bit out of tune, but oh well, whatever. And I couldn't blow out my candle because, as you can see, I've got a binky in my mouth, so there's that.

Okay, so here we go with the bear. Each month mom is going to take a picture of me next to this bear and you guys will get to see how much I'm growing every month. It's kind of a neat idea, and I gotta admit it was mine, and it's better than those naked baby butt photos, to which I've protested. I mean, we don't go around when we're adults saying, "Hey, why don't you take your clothes off and lay on your stomach and I'll take a picture," so why the hell would I agree to that now?

So when mom brought up the butt photos, I said, "No chance, ma, but grab that bear over there and I'll sit in this chair and you can snap away." So next month, around the 10th of the month, we'll post this photo as well as a photo from the second month, and everyone can go, "Oh, wow, I can't believe how much she's growing," or "They grow up so fast, don't they?" and pretty much every other cliche in the book. As you can see, I didn't get my nap in today and I'm a little on edge. You'd be annoyed too if every time you ate someone had to slap you on the back for 28 minutes before you belched and spit up on yourself - I'll check in later this week.

Bluebirds, Giraffes and South Beach, Oh My!

It's been quite a weekend. Friday night mom and dad and I went out for the first time. We went to a restaurant called Bluebird on Damen in Bucktown. It was a restaurant mom had wanted to go to for quite some time, and she was able to have her first glass of wine in about 10 months. They were really fortunate because I slept the entire time we were in there. Mom and dad had an exit plan in case I started fussing but there was no need (I know, I'm good).

So Saturday we went out to visit Gram again and got a chance to meet Aunt Gini, Dad's aunt from Florida. She said I was the first baby she had held in many, many years. We just kicked it old school for a while. We rapped about South Beach and some of the hot nightclubs and she invited me down for a girls party weekend, which I think we're going to do in May, I'll keep ya posted.

I asked dad to put some pictures of me up from Saturday because I'm in my giraffe outfit and I look really, really cute. I'm sure I'll pack this outfit for my South Beach trip.




Yeah, and here's the Peanut Gallery checking me out while Aunt Suzy is holding me - these are the little munchkins I'll be hanging out with about 10-12 months from now when I can walk. Eli and the Soph Dog.

MUG SHOT!!!!!

Finley Ames Skertich, 3 weeks and 4 days, was arrested last night for aggravated lack of sleep against her parents, Patrick and Sarah Skertich, at their South Loop condo.

Witnesses say the noise was so deafening they thought an NHL hockey game broke out, one with lots of scoring. "Ya know that noise they make at Blackhawks games when the Hawks score a goal, that MAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH, yeah, that one," said Eunice, the Skertichs across-the-hall neighbor. "Well, that just went on for what seemed like hours. I just figured Patrick was watching a recording of the 92 Stanley Cup Finals when the Hawks got swept by the Penguins."

Patrick, 31, told Chicago Police, "I never saw it coming and then BAM, she hit me with an entire night and not an ounce of shut-eye." Sarah Skertich, 29, literally didn't see it coming, "I'm so tired I'm dizzy, I couldn't make it out, I thought it was a veggie burrito."

Finley, when reached for comment, simply replied, "I gave 'em nine months to get ready - NINE MONTHS. If they weren't ready for it by the time I brought the heat, shame on them." And then, while walking away, cried out, "There's more where that came from!"