The countdown begins!

Finn has found a new favorite past-time. He lays down with Maile and reads his books. They are inseperable. "Maile" is the first thing out of Finn's mouth when he wakes up, well, after "HI!" that is. He insists on helping feed the dog and stands at the screen door yelling at her while she eats. I think he is trying to encourage her to hurry it up. He has been really good at not pulling off her diaper these days (she is in heat). The last time Maile had to wear her diaper, we had to safety pin it together because Finn would get ahold of the velcro tabs and yank it off.
Joanie and I took the kids to the Children't Museum yesterday. They had so much fun! Here are Finn and John sitting on the giant sofa chair. There was one melt down though. As we were walking through the town section of the museum Finn spotted the "TV station". The museum is set up so that one whole part of it is devoted to town life. It includes a grocery store where the kids can play checker or a police station complete with dress up or the court house where you can climb up to the judges seat and put on the robe and bang the gavel. Anyhow, Finn walked past the tv station and saw the TV. It was over at that point. He spent the next 20 minuets yelling at me to "wind!!" which means rewind. He wanted to watch his favorite video and he thought that we could just rewind it and he could see it. Crazy Kid. Eric and I have to unplug the TV these days because Finn just likes to have it on for some reason. He doesn't even need to be watching, it just needs to be on. He has almost sent our TV into retirement with all the button-pushing he has done. I remedied that with a little electrical tape coverage. It is truley amazing that out of sight really is out of mind.
Finn also really enjoyed being the bus driver. He sat and turned the steering wheel for quite a while. The museum was really great.

23 days and counting till we are back in Utah....

Livin' off the Sea!

This picture was taken this morning...can you see the pride in my husbands face? He loves spearfishing SO MUCH! From the looks of these fish, he is getting pretty good at it. Eric has also gotten really good at cooking the fish he catches. We are having the Missionaries and some friends from our ward over tomorrow so I am really looking forward to some parmesean herb parrot fish. Even though there are almost weekly sightings of sharks in the waters here, I guess if Eric brings home his limbs and the fish, I can overlook it.

Oh the places Finn will relax...

In the span of 3 days, we caught all these poses of Finn. In this first one, we had just come in from playing outside and Maile went straight to her cool resting place, the corner of the kitchen. Finn decided that he needed to cool down as well so he went to join her.
This one is upside down and a little nauseating. Sorry for that. Here Finn is lounging on the cement of our Lanai after playing in the pool. He took his towel and just went out to chill...we aren't sure why. The cement can't be THAT comfortable! What an odd little child he is. Notice the sippy cup next to him. I took 3 trips down to the neighbors house today to retrieve it. He has an obsession with chucking things down there and then crying when they are gone. He chucks whatever is near and then comes to me and asks for help.
Eric caught this shot the other day. Finn loves Maile!! For the most part, Maile loves him back...at least when he isn't chasing her down with his push cart. That, I assure you, she doesn't like since she always seems to express the nasty stuff out of her anal glands when he chases her. I have learned that dogs do that when they are scared. I would be scared too if a screaching toddler was charging toward me with a big plastic cart! I don't blame her for being terrified of Finn in those moments but I don't understand why she doesn't just go hide under a bed instead of spraying her stink in whatever room she happens to be in.

I guess it is a catch 6. I love the dog for how she keeps Finn constantly entertained but sometimes I want to sell her to the Korean ladies in ChinaTown because she stinks so bad!

New Underpants

Here Finn and I are on the day before he recieved his new underpants. Now, of course he had to be metro-sexual and get boxer briefs instead of just plain old briefs. My freind Kerilyn spent a year or so in Tiawan (sp?) and learned that the people there do not really use diapers on their children. Other places in the world don't either and the kids are potty trained by a little after a year old. How fabulous would that be!!??

So since Finn has taken to telling me "bum!" immediately after he poops, I thought that I would just simply introduce the potty chair to him and buy him some underpants.

We haven't actually had a successful pee in the potty yet, but we are looking forward to the day when that happens. For now, I am just satisfied with getting Finn to actually SIT on the potty. We have accomadated him as far as putting it in front of the TV for his peeing pleasure or we read books or whatever...anything to keep him sitting there for at least 2 min.

So here Finn is, modeling his stylish undergarments. Don't pay any mind to the fact that he is standing with his hands down his pants...

What does Eric do for fun?

This is Eric last night. I go into the bedroom and instead of turning off our lamp, he has taken MY pillow and is sleeping with it over his face like he so often does. He likes to make fun of me for having this pillow. As some of you may know, I take it where ever I go. I don't like to sleep on random pillows that may or may not smell. I like to have a familiar scent when I fall asleep. My freind Brinn often has given me a hard time over this pillow and pillowcase since I have had it for over 15 years ( the pillowcase, not the pillow). What can I say, I am attached. So anyway, Eric gives me a hard time about it as well but it seems like every time he goes to sleep in our bed and I am not there, he has to cuddle with this pillow. HE MUST LOVE IT AS MUCH AS I DO! :)
These are some of the fish that Eric has speared in the last week. Keep in mind that the glass dish measures 13x9. These are some really big fish. The blue one, the male, is probley the biggest that Eric has speared thus far in his spearfishing career. He is very proud of it. We plan on cooking all 3 of these fish up tomorrow. Eric has also become very skilled at cooking these Parrot fish. He uses coconut milk among other things and it is really very tasty.

Ode to the desert climate

My friend from high school, Mandy, just started her own blog and as I was looking at it I was bummed not to see a picture of her posted. I
realized that my blog consists of mostly pictures of Finn with a few of Eric and even fewer of me. So this post is dedicated to one of my favorite pictures of Finn and I.

The funny thing is that there really aren't many pictures of me anyhow...I am usually the one behind the camera making the funny noises to try and get Finn to look at me. He has a recent aversion to the camera. Add into that the fact that I don't seem to "get ready" as much as I used to...I live in the most homely, laid back state and the humidity attacks my hair the second I blow it dry. There really aren't many occasions these days for me to get all dolled up. So what I am saying is that when I do get all done up, I usually like to have a picture taken since most of the pics with me in them show me looking like I just rolled out of bed after a weeks worth of sleep.

This particular picture was taken of us on our last visit to Utah. Finn is looking at the Baby Einstein video on the TV. It was the best I could do. I can't wait to get back to the dry climate of the desert just so that I can have a decent hair day...even if it means that the rest of my body dries up and cracks!

John and Finn

What can I say about this picture? The smile says it all. Again we spent the afternoon outside in the pool. I decided to put this bandana on Finn's head so that maybe his hair wouldn't bleach out as much. It is getting too blonde!! Doesn't he look like he belongs on a Harley?
Either that, or a bad rendition of a Pioneer....
Here the boys are...John and Joanie Nelson came over to play today. John seemed to like the pool more than Finn today. He was splashing all around. Isn't he cute! This last picture of his scrunched up smile is great! He is such a sweet boy and is so good even when Finn is grabbing toys out of his hands. :)

Our Kiddie Pool

Today we went to WalMart and spoiled Finn. We couldn't resist buying this play pool since it has been unbarably hot here these last few days...85 degrees with 90% humidity and no trade winds. We are sweating to death. So we bought this pool and filled it with water and let it warm up while Finn was napping. We invited some new neighbors over for a swim. This first picture is of Tia and Finn filling their buckets and the following pictures tell the story of what they did with the water.
Finn loves to dump water on his head! He played in the pool for about an hour before he got too cold. So we went in and changed his diaper and warmed him up. Then we went back outside and he just played around for a while in the sun before he decided to get wet again. It's a little hard to see but this is the cute swim outfit that grandma Sharlene bought him when we were back in Utah.
Hopefully, we will have many more pictures of fun in the pool in the days that follow. Finn loved it, of course, since bathtime is his favorite part of the day. The strange thing is that he isn't much interested in the Ocean. He doesn't like the sand in his toes or the movement of the waves. I guess its a good thing we are coming back to Utah!