Thursday, May 31, 2012

Go Fish

It was a beautiful Memorial Day up at Mt. Baker.  The sun was shining, the place was crawling with families and the annual fishing tournament was in full swing.  It was a perfect time to take that Lightning McQueen fishing pole that Finn has been using to try to catch the cats out for some real action - not that catching cats isn't real action, they just don't taste very good and are really difficult to fillet, what with their claws and all.

It was a very productive weekend, with lots of Andy Griffith-style family time.  We all learned something.

  • Finn learned how to cast a line with a pointy hook on the end
  • Kitty and I learned to duck and cover our faces whenever he did
  • Finn learned about all of the different kinds of fish that you can catch in a pond
  • I learned that the only thing that Finn wants to know about the fish in the pond are whether there are any blue ones
  • Finn learned how to sit still and enjoy the peace and quiet of fishing
  • Uncle Rob and I learned that a four year old only enjoys the peace and quiet of fishing for about 3 minutes before trying to use all nearby fishing lines like limbo poles at a drunken Caribbean beach party

And we all (re)learned that fish don't jump at the opportunity to eat the first thing you throw in the water, particularly when they've been getting aggressively hunted all weekend by fifty 4-12 year olds screaming around a small pond.  Even when your bait is some sort of genetically engineered super-fish-food purchased at the local country store by four adults too lazy to dig for worms.

They also don't eat it the second through one hundred and seventy-third time you throw it in the water.  Whatever.  I'm pretty sure that I would've whimpered like a little girl if I had to unhook and/or clean an actual fish, given that I haven't actually caught/cleaned a fish since I was twelve years old, and that would not have impressed my son.  I'm going to have to practice with some live test fish before we go up again.

I hope they let me bring my pole into the grocery store.

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Tiny Tribe: Friends Forever

I don't think I could do anything to increase the cute quotient here, so I'm just going to repost this picture of Finn & John from Jena's blog and encourage you to follow the link below for even more from a clearly awesome hair day.

Tiny Tribe: Friends Forever: Story People by Brian Andreas  http://www.storypeople.com/ This is a dress-up box for the future & it's filled with stuff like courage...


Thursday, May 17, 2012

Grandma

When I think about my Grandma McCall, I think of three things:

  1. Fraggle Rock
  2. Little Caesar's pizza
  3. Laughter

She introduced me to the first two, and while she didn't exactly introduce me to laughter, she certainly filled the air with it.

Unfortunately, the air is going to be a little less laughter-filled, as Finn's Great-Grandmother Christine McCall passed away tonight.

I'm thankful that Finn was able to meet Grandma McCall, even if he probably won't remember it.  He will remember Fraggle Rock - since I make him watch it - and I know that his Grandma Parker will be passing along the laughter that her mother gave to her.

Rest in peace, Grandma.  We miss you.




Sunday, May 13, 2012

This One is for the Moms

I don't think I can say it any better than Finn did, so I'll just let this picture of his Mother's Day gift do the talking.



Kitty - And to think how much we loved you even BEFORE you developed this soup addiction.

To all the Moms out there, Happy Mother's Day!  Have a bowl of soup on us!


Thursday, May 10, 2012

Gone Fishing

The last couple of weeks have rated exceptionally high on the Scale of Ninja Cuteness.  In other words, he has been AWESOME.

This is both a blessing and a curse.  A blessing for Kitty and me, and a curse for the blog, because no one wants to read about how attentive and adorable a kid is, unless we're reading about how attentive and adorable he is while pooping on the floor.

I've got nothing like that.  The best I can offer is this picture of him fishing for catfish.

See what I did there?  It's our cat.  And he's got a fishing pole.

Ha!

I hope he poops on the floor soon, because I can't keep this level of comedic genius up.

During these dry times, here are some quotes that I gathered over the last couple of months for just a time like this:

On his future career:

Finn:  Daddy, I don't think we should be firefighters any more.  I think maybe we should be policemen.
Me:  Why?
Finn:  Because if you don't know where the fire is, you can't find it and you can't be a firefighter.
Me:   But someone will tell us where the fire is, like in Fireman Sam.
Finn:  Daddy, that's in a different country.

After being told that he can't watch TV any more because watching TV has a tendency to make him go a little bonkers, due to lack of activity:
Finn:  Daddy, can I watch TV?
Me:  No, TV is making you crazy.
Finn:  I know, some YouTube will settle me down.
Me:  No, that's the same thing.  You'll still get crazy.   If you want to watch something, I'll let you watch some basketball with me.  That'll get some energy out.
Finn:  What if I don't want to watch basketball?
Me:  Then we can go outside and play.
Finn:  I don't know.  I think I'd rather get crazy.