Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to ALL the mommies out there! I know quite a few who also celebrated their 1st Mother's Day today as well.
My first Mother's Day started off with bang...rather a spill... silly me turned my back on Finley for a few seconds this morning and he whipped my half-full coffee mug off our ottoman spilling it on the computer and himself. Thank goodness it was NOT hot... it had cooled down already and did not burn him at all. I learned my lesson... normally I would put my coffee up higher but I just forgot today?!
We headed down to Janesville to visit Nate's Mom and Grandma for Mother's Day. Pappy (Nate's grandpa) had knee surgery so they are currently staying with Nate's parents while he recovers and does his physical therapy. Nanny and Patti actually watched Finley for me for a bit while I ran out to look for the new car seat I want for him. I checked their Target in Janesville but nope, they didn't have the color I am looking for in the model. Let's just say black car seat + two dogs that ride in the car= no thanks for me. We are looking for the tan colored one... anyway. That's neither here nor there. We had a good first Mother's day. Finley was bit out of sorts but that is because those bottom teeth are finally making thier debue (I swear I am sure this time...). I am SO excited for him to get his first teeth because the poor guy has been gumming his food for the last 4 months!! Also, after we got home tonight and I was making his night-night bottle he was standing at the baby gate and saying what sounded a lot like Da Da? Could have been Ba-Ba (what we call his bottle). Only time will tell. Funny if he decided to say da-da on Mother's day, right? Of course I wouldn't care... I am thrilled to hear him say anything and I know it will be so exciting for Nate too.
I will reflect and say that I am happy to have joined forces with the Mother's of the world and be able to celebrate my first Mother's Day. Being a mom is the hardest yet most rewarding job and truely comes with new challenges and fun surprises each day!! Some days are tougher than others but it's all worth it. I really wish Nate had been here with us today but he did call me this morning and that was all I could ask for in our situation. I miss him a lot and sometimes the "special" days are a little tougher but we are strong and are thankful for the little things that we do have!!

Early Mother's Day

My Mom and Dad drove down to spend the day with Finley and I today. We were celebrating Mother's day a little early for myself and my Mom. We took Finley to Toy's R Us where Grandma and Grandpa would spoil him- he got 3 new toys! We then all went out for dinner at Johnny's Italian Steakhouse at Greenway. Finley was worn out enough from all the excitement at Toys R Us that he actually slept through the first half of dinner... bonus for me. I haven't enjoyed sitting and eating food at a restaurant for a long time! I think of it as his Mother's Day gift to me?? He was pretty good for the second half of dinner when he was awake and enjoyed tasting everyone's food. We had coffee and dessert back at our house and they headed out for home. A good start to the Mother's Day weekend for us.
(The outfit Finley has on in the pictures is his "German outfit", a gift from my aunt in Germany. Way to be global Finley)

Hanging on to my dad

With my mom at the restaurant


Enjoying his "steakhouse" dinner with one of his Finley bibs (see Collections by Tara Nicole to the right)

Friday at the Zoo

This morning I met up with my sister-in-law Heather, her two kids, Gavin and Olivia and the little boy she watches during the week, Alex, at the Henry Vilas Zoo here in Madison. I think I mentioned before that Henry Vilas is a free Zoo here about 10 minutes away from our house. They rely solely on donations and the money made from food/souvenir sales at the zoo to fund it. It's very cool having a free Zoo in town that we can go to any day we please. They recently have been making a lot of improvements to the zoo like a giant carousel, a huge kids play ground and lots of new animals and improved habitats for the existing family of Zoo of creatures. We really appreciate having this wonderful asset in our city! It's just one of the things that makes Madison a really great place to live. We just a had a short trip today and I didn't snap too many photos but I plan on taking Finley to the Zoo lots this summer and fall too- basically as long as the weather is nice. There's is always something to do or see there!!
After our short trip to the Zoo this morning Finley and I ran a few errands and then visited with our neighbors for a bit outside. I must have tired him out with all the fun because he pretty much passed out for three hours afterward. I actually decided today that instead of running around picking up things, cleaning, doing laundry or other chores while he naps that I would relax myself. I haven't laid on my couch and just vegged out in a long time (about 9 months :). It was nice to chill out and not feel guilty, though no little elves came out did my chores as I had hoped they would while I was relaxing? Darn! I have been meaning to train the dogs and cats to dust and mop but haven't gotten around to it? Oh well, another day maybe? Happy Friday!

Lounging and Lunch at the Zoo

New Swing

I bought Finley a swing for the backyard today at Target. I had looked on Craigslist for a used one but didn't have any luck so when I saw the Little Tykes swings at Target I just decided to pick it up. We played outside this evening and tried out the new swing. Finley liked it but I have a suspicion that swinging either makes him sleepy or a little sick? He starts out laughing and smiling and then just kind of gets spacey after swinging for a bit? Either way he enjoys sitting in his swing and having a new perspective watching the dogs play and run around the yard.

The blooming Lilac bush behind us smells so good!


Of course Howie has to be in the background of the picture

What?

Finley checking out an airplane (we must be in a common flight path of the airport because the planes are pretty low flying over us)


Ps- Nate? Aren't you glad you didn't get those laundry line poles out of the ground last year - they have a new purpose now!

Dancing Boy

Finley has started to "dance" to music as of about a week ago. He has always loved music and it has a somewhat calming effect on him and has since he was a tiny baby. He loves any music that I listen to mostly, though we have lots of "kid" music for him too. He will also dance to the music on his toys or on TV (commercials too?). I finally caught a little bit of it tonight. Every time I try to film him he gets more interested in the camera than dancing to the music! This is just a little clip and it's very funny when he dances while he's standing by something. He just bops along. Tonight after dinner we did a little blast from the past of Counting Crows. Finley seems to really like their music (as do I).



All danced out and ready for bed

Bedhead

Now that is some serious bedhead!!

A Walk to the Park

It was a beautiful day again today and with not a whole lot on our to do list I decided to take Finley for a walk down to a nearby park. It's about a mile from our house and actually part of my plan was to see how the walk was (there are some nice hills) and also to check out some of the other facilities around park for future use.
Actually, this was Finley's first playground and swing experience too. He has used indoor baby swings and has never been a huge fan of them but he seemed to enjoy outdoor swinging. I want to get one for the backyard but wanted to see how he liked it first. We played at two playgrounds, one little one and the "big" nice one. The bigger playground was quite crowded today but Finley enjoyed watching the other kids. It won't be long before he is playing and running around there on his own!

Side note about Nate: He made it safely into Kuwait...not sure exactly when but he dropped a quick email me this afternoon (midnight Kuwait time) just to let me know they arrived safely. He was headed off to try to shake the jet lag and get some sleep. He hopes to give me a call tomorrow if it permits. It's weird because though Nate has been gone for 2 months already he was still in the US where I could text him or call him if need be. We chatted on the phone at least once a day and I just felt the way I normally do when he's been away training or long drill weekends. Now it's a whole new feeling. One I am already familiar with from previous deployment overseas but for some reason it still kind of hit hard with me that this is the "real" deal now. He is overseas, in a foreign country and I guess it's a feeling of loss of control of the situation. I am sure Nate is experiencing similar feelings! The time difference also plays into this feeling. If we do get to chat it's got to be coordinated time wise. For those of you who don't know Iraq (and Kuwait) are an 8 hour difference from CST. Anyway, this too will sink in again and become normal, as sad as that sounds. It's what you have to do to get through deployments. You make routines out of what you can to gain that control back and have something to look forward to everyday. We will establish some sort of communication pattern that we can at least semi-count on. Till then I will feel like a piece of me is missing!!

Walking Behind A Toy and Nate Update

As of yesterday evening after dinner, little Mr. Finley can walk behind his push car. My parents actually bought this little car for him and brought it down more than a month ago but I had to hide it away from Finley in his room as he was "dangerous" with it at first. He tried to stand with it and could not take steps and ultimately would just roll it and fall forward! Well, that is not the case anymore. He is really getting to be a pro at "cruising" around the furniture lately so I decided to give him back his car and see what he could do. Turns out he does pretty well.... with still a few falls but he gets right back up. As you can hear in the video I am a little overexcited cheering him on LOL.
Go Finley!!
He also likes to ride on it to and pretend to steer while I push him around. A little driver already!













I also have an update on Nate for everyone. He actually left for Kuwait around 3:30am MST this morning. He didn't actually fly out till later in the morning but had to get up and get going at 3:30am - oh the Army cruelty. He called me from El Paso before he left this morning and then again this afternoon when they were in New Hampshire refueling. They were going to depart New Hampshire around 5:30pm EST time and be on their way to Shannon, Ireland for yet another refuel before flying into Kuwait. So, pretty much an entire day of flying...fun (not really)! Nate was not looking forward to the LONG trip today. Hopefully once he's in Kuwait he can contact me somehow- via email or phone, so I know everything is good. I don't think they are going to spend too much time in Kuwait before heading into Iraq, maybe less than 2 weeks? I will know more as the days go on. We really appreciate everyones thought's and support as this journey continues. I wished Nate safe and happy travels and hope to talk to him soon! All our love Nate- hope you can check this soon!