Finn is now a little over 14 months old. He has ten teeth and two more breaking through. New words are added to his vocabulary daily. Some of the newer words are; "hi", "cheese" (when posing for photos), "patience" (when we sign the word patience which he has little of..), "happy" (when wishing GiGi happy birthday today!), "doggie" (for when he sees a dog but also when searching for his favorite doggie blankie). He tries to meow like a cat when he sees one. Our little guy is trying so hard to express himself with words and becomes so frustrated when we don't know what he wants and needs. Soon enough, there will be more new words mastered. I don't ever want to forget how he sounds and looks and feels at this age. They way he runs towards me with his open arms, calling out "mommy, mommy" and hugs me so hard. The way his laugh sounds and how he loves to play peek-a-boo. The way he screams out loud when he disagrees with you, wines and squirms when he is on the changing table, hating to get dressed, undressed or his diaper changed. The way he places his head on your shoulder, holding onto his doggie blanket and lays down for bed without a sound. He is such an amazing little boy.

On Saturday before Halloween, Max and attended a party at Leo and Lily's house. Leo is a friend from Central Nursery School. We baked pumpkin-shaped cookies with black sugar sprinkles to bring to the party. The weather was amazing, Brenda and Lars' backyard looked great with all the decorations. We had a great time!

GiGi and PopPop visited with us earlier this month (October 20 through 23) to hang out with us and to celebrate Brent's birthday. Brent and Dom played golf at Wente. On Brent's birthday, we spent part of the day in Half Moon Bay at a pumpkin patch. We lucked out, since it was Friday, it was empty at the patches and no lines anywhere. The kids had such a blast! They visited a petting zoo, went pony riding and Max rode a big, huge slide. We also checked out the pumpkins, of course. We enjoyed lunch at Half Moon Bay brewery and went for a stroll on the beach. Thereafter, we drove to Santa Cruz to visit Scott, Amanda and Masao and Brent received his birthday gift which was hidden in Scott's garage. Brent loved his new surf board! I think he had a pretty good birthday. I have so many photos from our pumpkin patch visit and promise to upload some soon. If I can only choose a few..

Here are some photos from late September to early October including some of Max and his mohawk hair-do, Finn and his huge blue eyes and Brent installing our new wine fridge and cutting board station.

Finn in his new bib (referring to Uncle Todd!) - gift from GiGi & PopPop

Central Nursery School is the preschool that Max attends every day and has since he was two years old. A few months ago, Max began to wonder what happened to the kids as they turned five and left the school. I explained to him that they started Kindergarten at a different school. We talk about Kindergarten quite often. We talk about what he needs to know when he starts Kindergarten and how the boys and girls in Kindergarten do not take naps during the day and how going to bed earlier than 9pm will be important. Max knows that it will be beneficial to know his letters and numbers and how to read and write when starting school. While driving Max to pre-school today, he told me that we needed to practice reading words in preparation for Kindergarten. Then he added; "otherwise the police would come and get us!" Yikes..

Finn talks. A little. Mostly he says "Dada" all the time. Or "Papa". Either. Whatever. Not often does he say "Mama" but this morning, he made me really happy and said "Mama" several times! He also tries to say "Max" although he really only says "Mmmm". Finn got the word "titta" down. It means "look" in Swedish. He points (at anything and everything) while saying "titta!" He tries to say "ball" or maybe he is trying to say it in Swedish - "boll". We are not sure. He tries. And he is darn cute trying!