Away in the Manger

Well, I'm having some major technical difficulties so all I have to post today is this video of Finley singing Away in the Manger.  I'll try to find her singing Gloria since it's my personal favorite!

Happy Birthday, Beth!

Today is Beth's birthday and therefore one of my favorite days of the year!  I will take any day I can to celebrate her!  Beth is so much more than my best friend.  She is more than my sister even.  She's my person.  (If you watch Grey's Anatomy, you totally know what I mean by this....)  I never grew up wanting a sister the way that some girls do, but as I got into college, I definitely wished for a girlfriend to do life with and couldn't help but wish for a sister....  Someone to be my confidant, my accountability partner, my speaker of truth and love, my fashion guru... MY PERSON!  And I am so glad that God blessed me with one just when I needed it the most!  I love that she was my first spouse and don't know how I would survive without her and Devin in my life!!!! 

The only thing I really can't stand about her is that my kids seem to like her better than me.  So not cool!

So here is Finley singing to Aunt Beth... she may have missed a verse, but she sure loves her Aunt Beth! =)

Finley's Parableooza Performance

Today Finley had her first musical performance at church and she did such a great job!  She has been working so hard to learn the words to these two songs and then the motions as well!  We are so proud of her!

This is both first and second service so it's kind of long...  I think she did even better at the second service, but we were further away so the video quality wasn't as good.  Regardless, our little girl has no trouble performing in front of an audience! =)

Jesus, Mommy, Jesus!

When I went back to BSF after 3 weeks of maternity leave, I wondered if I was crazy.  Because I'm a leader this year, the time committment for BSF is quite a lot.  Doable? Yes.  Worthwhile? Absolutely.  Time-Consuming? Without a doubt!

On our way home that day several weeks ago, I asked Finley what I ask her everytime I leave her at Sunday School, MDO, or BSF... "Finley, what did you learn today?"  To which, I never receive a response.  So when I asked her and she said "Jesus!  Mommy!  Jesus!"  I knew that it was definitely worth all the sacrifice it took to get us there that morning.

Today, as I was putting her into her carseat after BSF, I asked her the normal question "Finley, what did you learn today?" and she quickly replied "Jesus!" and I said (because I knew what the Main Truth of the children's lesson was that day) "Did you learn that when God changes people, it shows how great God is?"

And she said "No, Mommy!  Finley learn Jesus come back alive!!!!!"

To which I started crying.  How can my 2 year old who can barely hold a spoon, can't tie her shoes, and has an inability to sit down for more than 5 seconds straight know such an amazingly important truth!?!  God's grace, of course!  And the dedication of her teachers to allow God to plant His seeds in the hearts of His children.

I have no idea on what level she understands... Does she know that Jesus came back alive after He was resurrected?  Or does she know that Jesus is coming back to rule during His 1,000 year reign?  Who knows?  Who cares?  Both are so fundamentally important!  But I lean towards the latter simply because that was the doctrine for today's passage (Isaiah 60)... Jesus' Millienial Rule!  Of course, we have also studied in previous chapters Isaiah's prediction of our Redeemer's death and burial so maybe she has latched onto that!  Either way...  it's exciting!  How amazing that she is learning this at such a young age!!!!  I am so thankful that she is able to attend BSF with me each week and understand some very difficult concepts on her level.

A lesson for me... I should never doubt God's power and ability to place His message in my heart and the hearts of those around me... no matter how impossible I might think it is, He is capable of far more than my limited brain can concieve!

F-I-N-L-E-Y

My first thought was "Oh, dear!  Beth and I are in TROUBLE!"  Afterall, our plan has always been to spell things out whenever our conversation wasn't designed for little ears.  We may have to move to plan B sooner than I expected. =)

Joking aside, I am so proud of my little girl!  So proud that she can spell her name!  I just love how quickly they absorb things at this age.  Though it is a bit scary, it is also so very exciting!

Dancing Queen

I took this video on my iphone at the end of October while we were in Stillwater for Homecoming.  Finley is definitely our Dancing Queen....  and she comes by it honestly....

Notice Song Choice (You may have to turn off my other music) that Finley so enjoyed dancing to...  It takes about 45 seconds for her to really get into it.

Notice Aunt Beth's shirt...

Apparently, she didn't necessarily get it from me or Devin.

We are Family...

We've been working on saying the names of our family members and here's a little video of it:







For the longest time, I would say "Say Mama" and she would say "Dada" instead! She can now say Beth and West when we don't put the Aunt and Uncle in front of them. It just cracks me up though when she so seriously says "No" to those two names, but comes up with something for the other names... even Grandpa Bill became "Papa!" She is such a cutie!

Yakety, YAK!

Here is just an example of the conversations we are currently having with Finley!  The quality of the video isn't very good for some reason, but it's still a very good representation of her talking to us.  She's pretty tired in this video which is why she sort of has a glazed look to her.

I'm so glad I finally captured a conversation on video.  It cracks me up how serious she is and how intent she is in responding.  I love when she nods her head!!!!!  It just makes me smile to see her communicating with us.

I didn't mention in her All About Finley post, but she's been adding words to her vocabulary including cup and PaPa.  She's very clear when she says "Up peas" and just loves being understood.  She says it ALL the time now!  She has also been saying Momma or Mommy all month which literally melts me!

I'm realizing that she understands WAY more than I knew.  Yesterday, I said "Finley, would you please go shut the closet door for me?" and she stood up, walked over, closed the door, and then looked at me like "What's next?"

I also asked her to sing me the ABC song and she did!  Well, her version of it.  It was the tune, but the letters weren't exactly clear.

Other random things...

You can pretty much ask her to get her doll, her teapot, her cup, her phone, etc. and she is able to obey.

Her word for phone sounds like her word for cat which I can't figure out at all.  Seriously, the word phone should be her clearest word of all as much as she loves it!

When I ask her to she tries to put her shoes on her feet though she isn't able to get them successfully on.

She will also try to brush her hair if you ask her too.

She is definitely figuring out that using her words (what few she has) has better and faster results than whining does!!!!!  I think I'll continue to work on this one for awhile, but I'm glad that thus far she's a quick study!

Wa-Wa-Wa-Walking

Disclaimer:  No child was harmed or abused in the making of this video despite the loud crying to the contrary.  (She was upset because she wanted my camera and I wouldn't let her have it. =)

Finley is making some major progress in walking these days.  It's really impressive how far she's able to walk now and how much more she initiates it.  She's also getting really good at dodging toys on the floor and can shuffle to the side!   The weekend before last, I would say she was walking about 30-40% of the time which was a major improvement and as of this past weekend, I would say she's walking closer to 70% of the time.  The main reason she isn't walking 100% of the time is because when she falls, she pulls up to her knees and begins walking on them instead of pulling herself to a full standing position.  She is capable, however, of going from her knees up to her feet so it's just a matter of time!!!!!  She seems like such a big girl when she's walking all around!

Everyone says that when babies are ready to walk, something just clicks and they take off.  I'm not sure that's really how it's been for Finley.  She was taking steps 4 months ago, but obviously, wasn't ready to walk.  She's also had weeks where I thought "Wow, she's definitely a walker now" to be followed by weeks of absolutely no walking!  It just goes to show that all babies are NOT the same!  Of course, I wouldn't trade my little pumpkin for anything!

Where's Finley's .....????

So here's a couple of new Finley videos!  The first video is long, but it definitely depicts my sweet girl's personality and my overabundance of patience in capturing her latest trick on video... Why is it that I have patience for this and none when it comes to pet hair on my floors? =)

This second video is much more to the point!

Head, Kisses, and Claps

"Finley, Where's Your Head?"

"Finley, Where's Your Kisses?"

So Finley is working on a new trick that's super cute, but I haven't been able to capture it on video yet.  In the meantime, I was able to capture her tried-and-true tricks today and since I'm super behind on blogging about our ski trip, I thought I would post a video instead! (Please ignore my middle school cheerleading tactics of getting her to clap at the end...)

Could she be any cuter? =)