Halloween

So ever since I was born my Dad has called me "Bug." He said it started because Finley Bug was a natural little nickname for me and then he dropped my actual name. So I'm nine months old and I don't really know my name yet because half the time I'm being called Bug.

So it was only fitting that I was going to be a bug for Halloween. So I won't go into a long drawn out blog post here because the pictures are what counts. But I did go to my Dad's Aunt Janet's house for a big Halloween party and all my cousins and second cousins were there. There were 17 of us in all and we had a lot of fun playing Halloween games on the porch in the back and just being dressed up for Halloween.

Here goes





And here is my friend Kacey. Dad babysat her every day over the summer when he was 17 years old and now she's getting to the age where she can babysit me. And her mom babysat my Dad and Nana babysat Kacey's mom, so this thing goes back quite a ways. Anyway, she was an awesome cowgirl for Halloween.

My New Friend

So after a long week moving and the last push on Thursday lasting 18 hours officially, we are finally out of our condo. I am now a temporary resident of Palos Park, living with Mom and Dad at Nana and Papa's. I gotta tell ya, it's nice having a lot more space (and carpeted floors... and no 40mph breeze coming through the windows) to crawl around.

Let me tell you, though, I have a new best friend now that I've moved into Nana's. He is Boss, Nana's dog. He's a black lab and I love to watch him everywhere he goes. I go outside and throw him the ball, he sits by me when I eat (just waiting for me to drop some food on the floor) and he always lays by me when I'm playing.

He also lets me tug on his fur and I love it when he kisses me because it tickles.

He's a little clip of the two of us hanging out. Man, he makes me laugh.

Eight Months - I'm Late!!!

So we took these pictures but Dad was so busy posting video (and watching the MLB Playoffs and working on his 6-1 fantasy football team) that he hasn't posted my eight month birthday photos yet.

Here we go, right off the bat, no commentary, no blah blah blah, no taking time to tell you that I'm now crawling at a pretty good pace (and forward this time). No taking even more time to tell you that we're moving, that we sold our place but don't have a house yet so we're moving in with Nana and Papa til we find a home of our own. And I'm not going to let you know that Mom is going to Madonna this Sunday night with Aunt Tasha and Katherine, either. And I'm surely not going to let you know that this Friday I'm going to be modeling for the FLOR catalog at a photo shoot. Yep, little ol' me is going to be front and center in a catalog that goes out to more than 6.2 million homes. Dad and Mom are going to be in the photos, too, but the photographer said he can either blur Dad's face so it's unrecognizable or just crop him out of the picture altogether, which I suggested. Nope, not gonna tell you any of that.

Wait, where were we? Oh yeah, 8-month photos.


Wait... hold on a second... is that a foot? Are those my piggies?

Where were we? Oh yeah, it's my birthday.

No, not YOUR birthday... it's MY birthday.

Oh, I'm sure you're sitting there thinking, "Wow, isn't that nice, she's finally out of the stage where she was constantly eating that bear." Um, no, let's be realistic here.
Ta ta for now, keep your eye out for some moving pics and some Halloween pictures, too.

Army Crawl, Soldier!

So for the longest time I was just up on my hands and knees rocking back and forth but I decided it was definitely time to get moving. This game is called "Throw the Blinking Duck and then Chase the Blinking Duck." I know, it's a long title for a game, but it's the translation for a game the kids all play in Azerbaijan.

In case you've been living in a cave, Azerbaijan is the largest and most populous country in the South Caucasus, partially in Eastern Europe and partially in Western Asia. It is bound by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the west and northwest, Armenia to the southwest, and Iran to the south... duh.

Hello

Here's some video of me waving hi for the first time. Don't mind Dad, he hasn't gone through puberty yet...

Weekend Getaway

We had a weekend planned with Colin and Steph for quite some time so off we went.

Saturday morning we went apple picking, which was a lot of fun. First you get an apple tasting - the dude cuts slices of each of the apples that they have there and you eat them one by one, and then he tells you where the ones are that you liked so you can go pick them. Now I didn't even know there were that many types of apples - Jonagolds, Cortlands, Gala, Fiji (and many more) - but each one had a distinct taste. And then off we went into the fields of trees...

Here's me snagging one off the tree...


... and admiring its beautiousness


And here's Mom with Colin and Steph


Now what you have to understand is that you put all the apples into just two bags, so you get home and have no idea what you're eating, but you don't even care. "Oh man, this Jonagold is amazing" is something you might hear out of mom or dad sitting on the couch eating an apple, but they really have no idea which type of apple they're eating. One thing I do know, though, is that Mom made a homemade apple crisp that was so good, let's just say I ate enough of it to keep the doctor away for a few months.

Oh, here's me just waking up from a nap.


After lunch I went shopping with Mom and Steph while Dad and Colin hit up the bar to feed their weekly addiction that is college football.

Later in the day we visited a winery, where we drank til the sun came up while listening to Garth Brooks on the jukebox and passed out on the winery floor at 6:30am. Well, not quite. We tasted a few wines and met some nice people and bought a couple bottles of wine and then headed back to the house we rented. We went to see the sunset to end the day and then it was home to bed for me.




The next morning we went to a State Park and walked a trail and went to the dunes/beach. As you can see, I got a little drowsy after a while.



All in all, a great trip, and one I would do again in a heartbeat.

Well, that's all for me, signing off.
Finley

So I went to New Hampshire last weekend and I have to say, we had a great trip! I'll start at the very beginning, it's a very good place to start... when you sing you begin with do-re-mi... oops, sorry, got a little off track there - that Sound of Music gets me every time.

Okay, so we flew to Manchester two Thursdays ago and Nonie and Aunt Deb picked us up at the airport and drove us to Peterborough, which is a quaint little town in New Hampshire where my Nonie lives. If you've never been there, you should go. Here are some pictures.

A river runs through it (but Robert Redford thankfully does not)

The town

On Thursday night for dinner Uncle Jim got us some really great lobsters and we had a massive feast.

This is Lennox the Lobster (not to be confused with Larry Lobster, who is Lennox's nephew).

We took a day to go for a drive and take in the foliage, even drove through Vermont - which became my SIXTH state. We probably missed the full bloom foliage by about 7-10 days but we still got to see the very start of it and it's like nothing I've ever seen.


It was windy and rainy, here's Aunt Deb's umbrella doing a reverse layup.

We also went to Kimballs, which is this fantastic little ice cream place where, as you can see, they serve in large portions.

The second night Nonie made her infamous spaghetti that Dad loves.

So blah blah blah, photos of trees, pictures of lobsters. This blog is supposed to be about me, so here are some photos of li'l old me:

Dad and I heading out for a walk in my new fleece that Mom bought me.

Dad and I having a great time with a stuffed dragon.

Here's Nonie, Dad and I in downtown Peterborough on a rainy day.

And this next photo I'm not actually in, but I'm taking the photo. This is Aunt Deb, Nonie and Mom. We went to the Peterborough Soup Fest, which was a lot of fun. Soupmakers from all around New Hampshire came to town and we went through and tasted them, and then dropped our favorite soupmakers names into a voting box before we left. Soup Fest was awesome.

Mom and I on the floor, I'm zonked.

And this is my bed head after I woke up.

You've heard of a milk mustache - this is called pumpkin beard.

Here's me candle pin bowling. I set a record for 7-month olds, knocked down 72 pins - believe it.

So it was a fantastic trip and one I hope to make again soon. Oh, and I also just set a record for the longest blog ever written by someone who is five days shy of eight months.

Just got back today from another trip, I'll write about it this week if I get a chance.