I got my first shiner of the year last week at school on the playground. It was an accident -- I was running, stopped short and got pushed into the playground equipment. A***r, my parents have their eye on you. It better not happen again. You know my dada teaches taekwondo...

Shout out to my Canadian relatives with my Prince Edward Island dirt shirt!

The Byman boys came over for a visit, and we are such nerds and so "into school" that we all sat down and practiced letters and writing our names. Of course, we had just finished taking out every single car that I own and lined them up and down the stairs, so we were ready for a little quiet time.

Making faces at the camera.
Dada told funny stories and jokes to the boys.

Angus and his mini-me.

Cousin Peggy came down from Boston for a visit. She is a busy lady, so we were so glad to catch her on the fly by. She was very smitten with Finn -- Peggy loves a baby!

Finn was catching some zzzs in his tent, a gift from Ms. Leslie. It was perfect until "I" decided I needed to run around in it. Everyone was scared that I would squish poor Finn, so Peggy scooped me up to protect me!
Here I am dancing my jig in the tent. "Jig" was one of our words of the week at school, so I was just showing off my vocabulary skills.
My buddy Cal caught this shark at the beach. I thought it was really cool until I was told that this means those sharks are swimming in the same water I swim in. EEK!

Almost 5 weeks, and I'm hacked off because I can't get enough food in my belly and I've got baby acne.

So I'm back in school and mama is packing lunches in my laptop lunch box. I usually eat my veggies (carrots in ranch [little purple container] and tomatoes and fruit (strawberries) really well, but I don't like protein. So, mama has resorted to making shapes with my cheese in an effort to get me to eat it. First example, a ferry boat, with a truck in the back and a car in the front. Appetizing?

And here, a container vessel. Despite mama's efforts at cheese art, I ate the tofu, pretzels and apricots, and told her that the cheese boat was busy sailing.

We had a blast at the beach over Labor Day weekend. Dada took turns tossing Zoe and I into the sky.

Wee!
Go Zoe!
Leslie held on to Finn. Look at her guns!
There was a lot of fishing at the beach. Dada put out the polls for big red fishing.
Randy's girlfriend's son caught a big red, his first. This guy was so happy to catch this fish!
Finn and Ga spent some quality time catching up.
On Sunday we went to the Three Sister's Field Day at Luke and Davis' grandparents' house. I refused to play any games, even though mama practiced with me in advance and even showed me tug of war on the computer (monster truck versus school bus). I preferred to have dada chase me all over the big yard.
The infamous tug of war.
Even though our team didn't win, we have the most team spirit. Thanks for inviting us, and hopefully I'll participate next year!

Finn's first trip to the beach

Finn had been to the beach house, but not down to the water, so we packed up a huge bag of stuff, of which we used almost nothing, and let him enjoy some fresh air. He slept like, well, a baby.

Father and son, obviously. No doubt about it.

My new favorite activity at the beach is frog catching. Watch out all you little frogs, because I will find you and catch you and love you until you get so worn out that mama and papa make me let you go. I like to make little homes for my frogs out of Ga's tupperware containers and my little plastic pool.

Papa likes me to catch the frogs and put them in the shower so that they eat the mosquitos.
Happy frog catcher.

MY turn in the boppy! But just to sit. I am not interested in doing what Gummy does in here. When Gummy first came home from the hospital, I asked mama what he was doing when mama put him in the boppy. She said he was eating. I asked, "...sweet potatoes?" Mama and dada about fell out. Another night when Gummy was eating, I asked mama if she was "opening up her breasts for Gummy." Oh my.

Papa used to not hold his grandchildren until they were 6 months old, but I am so cute I got papa to hold me when I was only a couple weeks old. Papa loves Finnegan!

While mama's been home on maternity leave, we've done a lot more cooking. (note the crock pot in the background that has had more action in these past couple of weeks than it's entire life in this house). We really like to make brownies.

And I like to "clean up" the utensils after. Yum!

First day of school!

Today I started the four year old class at Second Baptist. I was excited and nervous. Check out my new kicks.
Loading up in the minivan. I am so proud of mama's minivan. I tell anyone that will listen how cool it is.
Tonight I had my first official homework. I had to write my name three times. I was not very excited about homework, but I did it and then I called Grandma and Grandpa to brag. They were very proud of me.
Gummy was pretty patient with waiting while mama focused on me during homework, but he did let out a scream when I got a popsicle and he did not.

Last Friday, Gummy turned 3 weeks. It's hard to believe that at the end of this week, he'll be 1 month old. Time is going by much faster with Gummy than with me, mama thinks.

Gummy makes some funny faces. Mama calls them Finn's faces. Like this kissy face...
or peaceful face...
chillin' face...
and smiley face....caught on camera!

We were all getting a little stir crazy, so we decided to take a trip to the beach. The beach cures all.

Ga and her new little man.
Me and Bear. I stayed down at the beach with Ga and Papa and had some special Grandparent time so that mama could try to get life in order in Katy (haha). Thanks Ga and Papa, for letting me stay and run it out.
Mama and Gummy came back down to the beach to get me and we all had good times.

More love from Grandma....and wrapped up in my blanket from Sarah. Cozy times.

Oh sleepy Gummy. All you seem to do is sleep. And eat. And cry. And poop.

See?
Gummy did "find" his thumb and suck on it for a while. Mama and dada are still holding out on the pacifier, but maybe not for much longer.
Mama thinks Gummy looks like the old munch-chi-chi toys in this picture. Anyone remember those?
Gummy, in a rare moment of being awake. He probably just had a bath, because his hair is all sticky up.
Mama and her boys.
All of mama's boys.