Sense of Impending Doom

Targhee and Jackson Hole were too fogged in for skiing but we still found other ways to have fun in Driggs: cooking, shopping, walking in the snow, playing competitive rounds of Blokus (and a cool-down round of Sequence), reading, relaxing...

Unfortunately, the roads were too treacherous for 2WD travel (with a baby) so we had to forgo our trip to Bozeman and head home early.

"Opening"

Merry Christmas!

It took Finn awhile to figure out the whole gift unwrapping thing, especially since he napped through Chris and I opening our gifts, but Hudson was more than willing to jump in and help show him the ropes.

Extreme Distaste

"I threw up in my mouth"Well, we tried mango today and were met with great disapproval. I've never seen Finn make such a face. Those DuRoss selective eater genes are showing through.

Christmas Break Has Officially Begun

Now I just need to make one trip to school to enter all my grades before we can truly relax and play.

Jingle Cats

This is for Selah...

Hold It

Another afternoon hanging out with the boys. The challenge was to get Hudson and Finn to sit still at the same time.

Bath Hippo

I had to have Chris grab the camera last night while I was giving Finn a bath. This is one of my favorite things to watch him do:

He traps the hippo with his legs

and draws it up to where he can grab it.

Then the hippo goes straight to the mouth.

DuRoss Heights

Profile of an American Town

DuRoss Heights, New Castle County, Delaware. A quaint little town, about 30 minutes southwest of Philly, nestled in between the river and the airport. Basketball is the theme here and a town friendly to misplaced travelers. Real estate is affordable, albeit slow (a quick check revealed zero properties for sale). Visit sometime if you take the wrong I-95 exit or are just looking for a slow town to stretch your legs, you won't regret it.

6 month Dr Appt Stats

In response to a comment by Amber I'm posting Finn's stats for the fun of seeing how he compares with his two 6 month cousins. It is always hard to get a good impression of his size in the photos. He's long and lean like his dad.

Height (in): 27.25 - 75th percentile
Weight (lb): 15.75 - 25th percentile
Head Circumference (cm): 44.5 - 75th percentile

Finn took an interest in my sunglasses as we came inside from a walk

Six Months!

Well, Finn didn't get a minivan for his half-birthday like his cousin Judah, but he still seemed pretty happy. So hard to believe that half a year has passed - I never believed folks when they said it would pass this quickly. In the video Erika talks briefly about her favorite parts of the last 6 months, but for me I think the giant smiles I receive each day when getting home from work are the most rewarding...that and seeing the way he interacts with (and loves!) his mom. The three of us sat down for an evening fireside interview, once again, I apologize for the outdated camera-video technology.

Doin' Laundry

Almost 10 pm and still wide awake! Here are a couple videos of Finn enjoying sitting up and finding new things to play with.

Such a lucky boy

Finn is so excited to get the extra daddy time now that Chris stays home with him Wednesday mornings. We are thrilled with our new nanny. She and her two year old daughter have so much fun with Finn: playing, going for walks, hitting the library and participating in music classes. The wait was totally worth the while. Many thanks to those friends that helped us out in the interim!!!!!

I Love Walking!

Hudson's enthusiasm for a walk this morning far outweighed Finn's, but after a few steps he was fully into it - talking and looking around. Of course he fell asleep by the end.

I Passed!

I had a dream last night that I received notification that I passed one of the two Geologist Licensing exams that I took last September, but that they forgot to send me notice about the second (harder) one. It has been an agonizing two months waiting for the test results - and early this morning when Hudson woke me up (out of that dream) to go out I realized we had never grabbed the mail yesterday (Sat.) - instantly thinking: I bet the letter is in there...but I didn't need potentially bad news that early in the morning. Sure enough - when Erika grabbed the mail later this morning the letter was there - and I passed (both) exams!

Milestones

This morning we awoke to a glistening white, hefty coating of snow out our window. The tree branches were laden and drooping as the giant flakes continued to fall throughout most of of the day.
This was the perfect backdrop for some quality time milling around the house together.

Of course, we couldn't spend the entire day indoors, so we took in some spectacular scenery hiking up Mill Creek's Desolation Trail.

Below is a photo of the grand finale for the day. Enthralled by the pattern on his pillow Finn reached and grasped to no avail. His persistence and balance were noteworthy but he couldn't seem to figure out how to pick up a frog. Soon I realized that he really didn't need me holding him as he continued to pursue the frogs with such concentration. Our boy is officially sitting tall!

Time to make another batch of food.

I have to laugh every time I make baby food. This just reminds me of the Playdough barbershop. Get out the scissors.
Finn's appetite is increasing. He goes through several "icecubes" of sweet potatoes or avocado in a single meal. He's a growing boy.

Wintery Weather

This morning we woke up to some long awaited winter weather - not that we didn't enjoy the 65-degree weather in mid-November!

Today is my morning with Finn; we might bundle up and head outside...or just relax and sip our coffee inside.

Precision

Finn is getting pretty accurate with his grab and everything goes straight to the mouth. There are about as many fun things to play with on Daddy's lap as there are on his new exersaucer.
Finn went to his first birthday party last night (Kaya's birthday) and came home with this dandy hunk of plastic. He loves it! Ah, the ability to stand and have access to a multitude of tactile temptations.

Is it Food Coma?

We've barely dented the leftovers but I think this is really a result of getting outside for a hike. Chris's crossfit workout for the day was stroller lunges up the switchbacks behind Red Butte Gardens.

What I'm Thankful For...

"What is your favorite memory of this past year?" Audrey asked over dinner.

Wow, how do I answer that one? My life has been turned upside-down this year - in the most amazing way!

As I turn 34 this thanksgiving day I am thankful for the passing of another fruitful year. Though it is hard to pinpoint my fondest memory, I can definitely say that the moments that stick out in the forefront of my mind revolve around Finn and Chris. I am thankful for Finn's birth and the milestones that each successive day brings. I love watching Chris interact with Finn, taking on the role of Daddy so naturally, and the smiles that spread across both of their faces when the other enters the room. I'm thankful to have had the opportunity to spend nearly the entire day in the kitchen with my mom preparing the Thanksgiving feast.

The time together was so special and the finished product was scrumptious! I'm thankful for all our family and friends near and far and so fortunate to have shared this day with a few of those of you we love.

Looking Back

First of all - sorry for not posting much in the last few days...but I'll make up for it with a long post.

Last weekend we did a lot of (never ending) house cleaning, had Chip and Audrey over for dinner, did some light shopping, and best of all - got outside to enjoy our unseasonably warm weather. We enjoyed hiking in Little Cottonwood canyon on Saturday and Big Cottonwood canyon (pictured below) on Sunday, even though Hudson had to stay behind (no dogs allowed in the Cottonwood canyons).


Speaking of looking back: We just can't believe how fast Finn is growing! The other day I looked back at the photos from shortly after his birth - and just couldn't believe it. Every day he seems to change a little - grabbing EVERYTHING, sitting up, smiling nonstop, and folding laundry (below).


OK, one more thing: last weekend I snuck away to climb with my good friend Josh. It had been quite a while since we had been out and we really enjoyed every minute. Friday night we headed out of town and arrived on the outskirts of Canyonlands National Park. Saturday we met up with some friends and climbed an amazing free-standing sandstone tower called "Moses." It was a pretty hard, long route, but we climbed well and stood on the kitchen-sized summit by early afternoon. That night we moved on to Indian Creek (about an hour south of Moab) and pushed ourselves to exhaustion on the clean, perfect cracks.

Washing it Down

Finn loves to drink little sips of water from the big glasses after eating his sweet potatoes. He does end up with a decent amount spilled on the front of his shirt.

Spoonin'

Well, Finn is getting the hang of eating with a spoon. We've also moved on to another favorite -

sweet potatoes!

He's five months today and just laughing away.

I Voted Early...

For Improving our Schools, Environmental Reform, and A Bond Measure to Promote More Avocado, Longer Naps, and Faster Diaper Changes.

Shortnin Bread

Mama's little baby loves
Short'nin', short'nin',
Mama's little baby loves
Short'nin' bread,
Mama's little baby loves
Short'nin', short'nin',
Mama's little baby loves
Short'nin' bread.

Of course I baked these mostly for Chris and his chocolate loving stomach bacteria.

Move over Nana, i'm eatin' my daily avocado too!

A curiosity of this strange fruit began a few weeks ago.

Things have gotten a little messier since........

I've begun making baby food. First I started with baking and pureeing the giant pumpkin from my garden. It was much too thick to carve for Halloween! The refrigerator and freezer are both inundated with cooked pumpkin. Today I moved on to avocado and sweet potato. So far Finn has sampled the avocado and it was an instant hit.

Another weekend of painting..........
Last night we moved everything out of the bedroom and began prepping again. Unfortunately, much of the work falls on Chris (since babies and paint fumes don't mix) but I have been popping in to help cut in trim while Finn naps. It looks like we're on track to finish up tomorrow.

Finn's First Halloween

Not sure what this turned out to be...cat or bat?

Hudson picking out a good fresh one.

Erika & Finn

Water's nice n' toasty.

Happy Halloween!

Some random, hyper Halloween dog pics from Flickr...enjoy.

Super dog

Yodog

????

A Day off to Relax

It was so nice to take some time to relax as a family in the park yesterday, after spending much of the weekend working on the house. It was a perfect day for shuffling our feet through fallen leaves on the sidewalk and lying in the grass amongst the crisp layer of golden yellows and browns.

Finn is now sitting upright in his stroller without the car seat adapter. I think he loves being able to look ahead to take in all the scenery. There is just so much to see in this big world!

Living Room 3.0

OK, so our living room was pretty bad: cracked plaster,
dirty-brown tinted yellow walls and ceiling(!). So this
last weekend we finally took charge and patched, primed,
and painted...either I'm getting less picky or more
efficient because we finished by sundown on Sunday.

Hudson admiring the mess - move-in day 9.2006

Wish that ceiling was just 2" higher.

Done...only a year or so later (10.2007). No more coal soot (finally)!

Now on to the bedroom (someday)...

Huevos DuRoss

The other day I was killing time and thought I'd see what comes up when searching for "duross" on flickr. Here are a couple of the results, both very different. I commented on both, but haven't received any responses.

Huevos Duross
I have no idea what they are, but they look good!

Duross House
Clearly one of the nicest places to stay when visiting Australia.