sunday evening and the weekend is just about gone.  it was a good one.  productive one too.  we started off saturday morning with a bike ride to peet's for coffee and treats.  after lunch and while finn napped, brent brought up lots of boxes from the basement and i spent a few hours going through them.  found a whole box of clothes and shoes that fit finn - now washed and put away.  a bag of clothes now set aside for cousin masao and several bags of stuff dropped off at salvation army.  max and i went to see disney's movie "planes".  it was great.  when we got home, we all went out for dinner at st. pedro square.  today, we took it easy.  luke came over to play with the boys for a few hours.  i took my car in to be washed.  brent got a work out in.  after dinner, the boys wanted to go to the park so we spent an hour at cahill where the boys played ball, climbed and went down the slides.  back home, it was time for bath and bed.  i think max fell asleep within minutes tonight.  finn wasn't far behind.  i'm hoping i will be out within the hour.  busy week ahead..    

sunny and 80 degrees outside.  friday afternoon and an enjoyable weekend awaits.  watching max assemble new lego figures, finn playing a game on the ipad and brent cooking dinner.  i have nothing to complain about.

max is doing well at school and enjoys being a first grader.  it is amazing to see how much he has changed since he started kindergarten last year.  he is much more confident and although max will always be on the shy side, he is becoming more outgoing each day.  he is forced to talk to adults and teachers at school, introduce himself and shake hands.  it is great for him.  it is so interesting to see how he interacts with the teachers and his friends at extended care when we pick him up.  he knows everyone, says hi and bye to friends around him and i am convinced we chose the best possible school and environment for our child.  max has become a great reader, does well in math, brings home lots of books about animals from the school library (seems the bigger and heavier the book the better..), learns spanish and music and art.  this morning, he got dressed in his khaki uniform shorts and gray polo shirt.  his dad helped him fix his hair just so.  my max - he looked so grown up.  he is so unbelievably handsome.

finn is doing great his second year of pre-school.  he loves going to school, spending time with his friends.  finn was moved up to become a "brave" (the middle group while the youngest is called "papoose" and the oldest "chiefs") in august with the rest of the 3-year olds and is very proud to be such a big boy!  finn is very opinionated and wants to do everything himself.  his favorite color is green, he likes to delay getting dressed for as long as possible every morning, isn't very fond of eating (bribing necessary) and loves to be center of attention and clowning around.  he wants to do everything his brother does and asks lots of questions.  just like his brother, he has been given the most beautiful and amazing eyes makes use of those baby blues to get what he wants any chance he gets...

my love for these boys cannot be measured.  they drive me crazy at times but i know most kids and their parents have their moments.. we are so blessed to have these perfect and beautiful kids.  i need to go and watch them sleep for a minute.  good night.

3-year checkup

finn and i went to see dr. nancy yesterday for his 3-year checkup.  finn has been to the doctor twice in the last year i think.  both times brent took him.  the first visit was last fall for a flu shot.  he felt big and proud and didn't have to sit in dad's lap, didn't flinch once and thanked the nurse when she was done giving him the immunization.  the second visit was to the emergency room after he fell into the sharp tile corner at the fire place while dancing.  he cried when it happened and i too wanted to cry too when i saw the swelling and the bleeding.  horrific.  at the hospital, brent said he did great and barely cared when the doctor cleaned the wound and super glued it together.  i didn't hesitate taking finn to dr. nancy to his 3-year checkup.  basically, it is just a check to ensure he is on the right track.  not a single shot scheduled at this visit.  finn and i arrived with plenty of time for him to check out the fish in the aquarium.  we got called in by a nurse who showed us where he was going to be weighed.  without shoes.  i bent down to help finn remove his shoes.  he wouldn't have any of it.  no.  the shoes were to stay put and he was not going to stand on the scale.  i got on the scale and showed finn how easy and fun (really..) it was.  didn't work. what happened to that easy-going kid who sat perfectly still when his dad took him to get a flu shot?  this nurse just wanted to get his weight!  we moved onto the measuring thing on the wall.  no interest in that either.  again, i showed him how easy it was and the nurse played along.  "now your turn, finn" in a chipper voice.  no dice.  so, i did what i had to.  i told finn (in swedish so the nurse couldn't understand) that if he let us weigh and measure him, he would be rewarded with m&m's.  it worked.  not like he jumped up on the scale all happy or stood up against the wall without me "helping him" along but still.  it worked.  situated in the exam room, the nurse asked some questions while finn happily looked at books.  she gave us a gown for him to wear after getting undressed.  right.  i got him undressed when she left and got the gown put on which lasted about 2 1/2 minutes.  not too bad.  the fact that the gown had pictures of that black cat (?) and the yellow little bird (tweetie?) and some other characters on it helped some.  as usual, finn didn't say two words to dr. nancy but she and i had a chance to catch up.  bottom line is that finn is doing great and all is looking good.  finn got a green lollypop and a truck sticker.  he was pretty happy about that.

stats from the visit are as follows:

Weight - 32 pounds / 14.5 kg (52% for age)
Height - 3 feet, 3 inches /  0.991 m (78% for age)

Max starts first grade

max has been back to school since late last week.  We were ready for school to start back up..  It isn't easy to keep a 6-year old busy and content over the entire summer between camps and vacation while mom and dad try to get all their work done.  I think max had pretty good summer overall but he too was ready to get back into the routine of school and to see his friends every day.  ms. pardini is his new teacher and max is really enjoying being a first grader.  The first couple of days, we walked him to the class room just as we did every day when he was in kindergarten.  However, as of first grade, the kids can be dropped off at the drop off area and that's what max wants us to do every day.  Just like the big kids.  he has home work every day and not monthly homework, as in kindergarten.  he has definitely been tired, especially this week, being the first full week back.  we are all happy it is friday and look forward to some extra sleep (wishful thinking..?) and an extra day off with monday being labor day.  needed!  

finn

finn turned 3 on august 9th, our last vacation day in sweden.  it was nice for my family to have a chance to celebrate his birthday with him.  we have lots of august birthdays in the family and celebrated finn, hampus (19) and sam (4) all in one day.  it was a beautiful day and finn was so excited when he woke up.  to finally be 3!  his cousins sam and maj came to see him and they played at the play ground.  after that, we headed to the beach and to lunch at marinan.  marinan has it down..they are settled right at the beach and has part of the beach built into their outdoor patio so the kids can play in the sand in between bites while the parents have a chance to enjoy their food/drinks.  genius.    

finn he had been waiting for sooooo long to turn 3 and talked about it for months!  several weeks ago, i came to pick up finn a little earlier than usual.  the kids were up from their nap and his group were sitting around the little table, enjoying a treat.  it was someone's birthday and the parents brought a treat for all the class mates.  they had just handed out the cake when i arrived.  i looked at finn and realized that he was crying and angrily pushing away the cake.  he didn't want it.  my kid - not wanting cake?  something i had never seen before.  after talking with his teacher to find out if she knew what was going on, we realized that he was upset and disappointed because it wasn't his birthday..  he was looking forward to it so much and knew it was "coming up".  so sad!

well, our little guy is now 3 and officially a big boy.  he wants to be just like his big brother.  he in fact copies pretty much everything max does.  this evening, he actually copied everything max said, sentence after sentence until it became just too annoying.

oh, and i called him a "big boy" the other day and he asked "am i a big boy now"?...followed by "can i have coffee now"?  not yet buddy!  one day.

...last photos from sweden...finn's 3rd birthday!

the birthday boy!



One of the favorite new toys..can't get enough of Lego stuff

Beautiful day



Fun lunch

Dinner with the whole family

On our way to enjoy dessert

Celebrating Finn turning 3, Hampus turning 19 and Sam turning 4!

Yum!

Silly birthday boys

Last night in Ystad

Back home and found a package with a firetruck from GiGi and PopPop waiting!