Finn Quotes

It's been a hot minute since I last shared some Finn quotes. Well, it's been a hot minute since I sat down and posted anything to this blog. Need to get better about that. Nonetheless, here's a bunch of things I've saved on my phone.

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Finn: "Oh man, I just had a sneaky pee."
Me: "What do you mean?"
"I didn't know I had to go and then I HAD to go!"

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"That's a lot of Legos I just carried. Beast Mode!"

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"Mom, do you know what you can do to make people happy?"
"What?"
"You can give them a smile"

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After pointing out a hole in his pants

"Well, it's a good thing I'm five and don't care about it"

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"Remember when you said, 'Miles Sebastian' and Daddy said, 'Oh snap, I'm in trouble!'?"

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sweet little Brit

"I love you mom"
"I love you too"
"And. . . you're lovely"

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Talking to the kids the night before I had a race

Me: "Are you guys going to be good for daddy tomorrow?
Finn: "Yeah"
"Oh good"
"That means we're just going to shut up!"

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such a humble one

"Uh, mom - why am I so smart?"

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sweet brother

"Mom, what happened to Cale's cord when he died?"
"Well it just didn't work the way it should and he couldn't breathe"
"Why didn't it work?"
"I don't know sweetie"
"Maybe it wasn't charged"

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Me: "Goodnight, I love you so much"
Finn: "I love you more than ever. And when you're old I'll take care of you"

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"Dad, instead of saying, 'boom, roasted!' you could just say like, 'I knew it!'"

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"Mom when you have another baby you should name him Trecko. Is that a good name?"
"Umm, I probably wouldn't pick it. Do you think I'm going to have another baby?"
"Yeah, if you find someone you want to marry."
"But I'm married to Daddy."
"Well now just marry someone else."

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arguing with Mary

"Stop! Mary Stop it please!"
Me: "Mary if he asked you to stop, leave him alone"
"She's just annoying me. I'm being nice and calm and she's being mean and rude."

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"I need to wash my face, it's very sticky."
Me: "Well we still need to take baths"
"Oh, that's perfect. It's even better than just washing my face!"

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"I think Max and I are best friends. Or are we soul mates?...[long pause]...well, whats a soul mate?"

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"Can I put new shoes on? I want to test how fast these babies go!"

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on symmetry

Miles: "That's a nice symmetric Lego you're building."
Finn: "Yeah, it's symmetrical, like a sand mandala"

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running up the stairs after getting home from school

"I'm getting changed so I can climb trees and do other cool tricks"

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Spreekt u Engels? Our Time in the Netherlands

Miles had an internship this summer working at Europol for about seven weeks. The headquarters is in The Hague, Netherlands so he left for that late June before Finn was out of school. Once school ended the kids and I joined him for the remainder of the internship which was a little over two weeks.

We were really fortunate to link up with the spouses of some of the people Miles was working with who also had kids which made for lots of great playdates and fun outings throughout our time there. We went to Madurodam, which is sorta like an amusement park - it has to scale miniatures of Holland attractions, but it actually is a war memorial for a George Maduro who was a Dutch resistance fighter and died at Dachau Concentration Camp. His family wanted to create something in his memory to showcase the beauty of Holland that he died fighting for. They wanted it to be happy and uplifting and it really is! We made it to the beach a few times (the North Sea is cold!), to a petting zoo, parks and playgrounds, etc. Miles and I got a date night in on a restaurant tram which was really neat and we got a day trip to Amsterdam to tour the Anne Frank House (we swapped kid watching to have Amsterdam be a kid free trip which was to right call given how busy and crazy it was!). I love how pedestrian and cyclist friendly the Netherlands is - the cars are SO cautious and aware. It felt like a really safe city to run in and not speaking Dutch was NEVER an issue as everyone speaks English! Dutch does seem like a funny hybrid of German and English though so there was a lot that made sense just based off phonetics. 

If it weren't for this internship we might not have made it to the Netherlands during our time abroad, but I'm so glad that we did and got to send a good amount of time there.

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Mary Quotes

I'm continually behind on keeping this poor blog up to date and will have lots of August travel recaps to share at the end of the month, but for now here are some cute things I've written down that Miss Mary has said recently.

We were baking cookies

Mary: "What is this?"

Me: Flour

"And what is this?"

Sugar

"Ohhh, those are my favorite things I ever wanted!"

Finn just stepped on a Lego (mwuahaha)

Me: Finn, that Lego really wrecked you.

Mary: "But it didn't wreck me or daddy!"

Mary putting in work on the potty.

Mary: "That poopy is for mommy."

Oh, you have one for daddy?

"Ok I will do one for you."

All done?

"No, still have one for Finn."

You all done now?

"I fink I still have one for. . . for Harry Potter."

Speaking of Harry Potter. After the London Marathon...

"Did you get your race medal from prince Harry Potter?"

Playing Hide and go seek

Me: where's my cute girl? Where is she hiding?

Mary: "Where's my cute mommy?"

Mary notices a baby sleeping in ergo

"Awe, look at that little baby."

Me: yes, he's sleeping, he must be tired.

"Yes, he's sleeping like when I was little and I sleeped in your backpack"

Miles is wrestling with kids before bed (per Finn's request). 

Mary: "Get off of my brotherrr!!" (As she jumps on top of Miles)

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London Marathon Recap

Tomorrow marks three months since I ran the London Marathon and I'm just now getting around to writing this - yikes! 

I ran for the charity Tommy's which funds research into stillbirth as well as provides services to families who lose a baby. Originally I was on a wait list to run with them, but was so happy when a slot opened up. I felt a little guilty about soliciting for donations since I've hit up the same generous pool of family and friends a few times, but as always, the people who made donations made me so grateful and humbled and just really proud that I could do something for Cale. Because of them Tommy's received almost £2,500!

The Marathon itself was incredible. There were literally spectators and supporters lining the streets the ENTIRE route. And they were at least three deep on either side. I was able to see Miles, his mom, and Finn around the halfway point (Mary was with Grandpa and I missed them, unfortunately). I wasn't racing this marathon - it was all about the experience and I'm so glad I didn't have a time pressure because the environment was just crazy and worth soaking up and not being stressed over my pace. 

Tommy's had two cheer stations along the course which was nice - to know that you would pass by a group that would be specifically cheering for you. I had put my name on my top and was glad I did, it definitely gives you a boost when you hear someone call your name and give you some encouragement. I saw several other Tommy's runners along the course which was nice too. I didn't expect it to be as emotional at times as it was. Which, in hindsight is silly, I'm a pretty emotional runner as is and this time I was running because of Cale. I guess what surprised me was just the ache I felt - it's like while I was grateful to get to run because of him and raise some money for a good cause, I also just really missed him. I kept thinking how I wished he was with Miles and I'd get to see his little face along the way and what a nice boost that would be for me. I really just felt this overwhelming sense of how much his presence was missed.

I didn't see any royalty though later learned they were out spectating around the mile seven mark and they handed up medals - in fact Princess Kate handed out a medal to a guy I remember running next to AT THE VERY END. He went in a different line (there were several at the finish) and I had stopped to take a picture of the finish line before crossing. I missed my chance to become BFFs with Kate - damn!

Nonetheless the race was amazing. I'm so, so grateful for the chance to have experienced it.

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Roman Baths

After the Ireland and Scotland visits, we took a day trip out to Bath in Somerset, England to tour the Roman Baths and walk around the city that I'm now anxious to get back to.  It also makes me want to re-read a lot of Jane Austen novels because of her (and her novels) connection to Bath. A lot of the tours we have gone on have the audio guides and thankfully have versions for kids. Finn enjoys following along, no telling how much he's actually absorbing, but he sure plays the part well.

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