Cutting Corners

You know it is time for a hair cut when...

it looks like you have a rat tail coming out of the back of your head.

Or when you can turn said rat tail into an Alfalfa hair do.

This morning we decided to turn Finley's mullet into a more manly do.

For some reason I felt compelled to cut Finley's hair myself.

I felt like I should know how to do this since I am a stay at home mom. Or maybe my previous experience cutting David's hair gave me confidence to tackle Finley's head.
So we turned on Elmo, slicked his hair, and went to town.

I was very surprised at how still he was while I cut his hair.

I expected lots of resistance, but that kid was glued to the TV.

Which made my job easier...right?

First up, a little off the top.

Finley's bangs were starting to hang down into his eyes so they needed a bit of a trim.

Then we needed to show off his cute little ears.

The ears always give me problems.

The first one looked fine, but trimming around the second ear turned into a disaster.
I cut out too far from his ear and here is the result below.

Yeah. No way to fix that!

Now onto the rat tail.

Cutting this off made me realize just how much hair was back there!

No wonder people kept asking me how old SHE was.

In the end I think it turned out alright.

This is my 'good' side.

The back is a bit 'hairy' up close, but from a distance it looks ok.
I don't think I will attempt to cut his hair myself next time.

It is too stressful and I am sure someone else could do a much better job.

But for his first hair cut, it had to be done by the mama.

Love is all around us...

Despite being sick so much these past few weeks, we have been showing lots of love in this house (even if it is at a distance).

We broke out some sticker letters and hearts and made some Valentine's for our family.

Finley loves finding hearts!

It was fun to have an active participant in crafts this Valentine's Day.

He really got into make these hearts for everyone.

Mommy got into it too :).

We mailed off our hearts with lots of love to grandparents, great grandparents, and cousins!

We also broke out the mailboxes that we made last year. Everyday we wrote down things we love about each other or showed some love with nice thank you hearts.

I would ask Finley what he wanted to say to dada and here are some of my favorite responses of his:

A B C

Noonnole soup

No No

and Dada

I attempted to make some heart shaped pancakes this year too.

They turned out ok, but it was a lot harder than I thought it would be! Maybe I just should have cut them out of regular shaped pancakes after they cooked.

On Valentine's Day we headed to Chapel Hill for a fun date night. We had dinner at Squids with my parents and Donovan and Megan. Then after Finley went to bed we went to see my friend's younger brother perform, Darwin Deez. He is really good! It was a fun show combined with great music, dance breaks, and Darwin's mom dancing on stage. Here is my favorite song of theirs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQNJgVKE9UY

featuring Mishay and my sister Michelle dancing in it.

Hope your Valentine's was filled with lots of love too!

Finley Says...

Over the past several months Finley's vocabulary has really blossomed.

He is saying too many words to count and even using two word phrases like "big truck", "Sit down", "Help me", and "get up" on a regular basis.

Yesterday while he was standing at our front window Finley said his first real sentence.

He proudly declared "I see a dog." How appropriate that one of his first words was dog and his first sentence involved the very same subject. Well David, do you think we can get a dog now? :)

In addition to his word explosion he is also very good at identifying shapes and even a handful of letters. His favorite shape is an octagon (Octo) and his favorite letter 'F'.

With minimal help from David and I he can say his entire alphabet and count to 20!

This child never ceases to amaze me. I am convinced he is the smartest kid in the world! :)

Please forgive this proud mama from all her bragging.

Now if he could only learn his colors! (I swear this kid might be color blind!)