You Gotta Crawl Before You Can Walk

Been a lotta new stuff happening at the Valentine compound. The boy is officially a crawler. As you can see above. He's a bit ungainly at times, but already more graceful than his old man. Anyway, it's a little emotional, but mostly it's just nerve wracking. Nothing is safe. Not even a video camera.

Seems like the little man's got a few things on his mind too. Finn's making an awful lot of chatter. Can't put too many complete thoughts together yet, but he can say one word that seems to aggravate his mama. See bad video with clear audio below.

First Mother's Day

Last year on Mother's Day I was five months pregnant. Spencer got me a lovely sapphire necklace, which was to be the baby's birthstone. But I was still antsy something would go wrong, so the necklace felt like it could be a jinx. So I made him take it back. Of course all went well, and we did have our September sapphire.

So this was my first Mother's Day. I hear many moms that just want to spend the day relaxing, alone. I just wanted to spend it with my boy. It was a beautiful day with brunch and mimosas at home, a few rides on the new baby swing and bocce in the park.


The day before we went to breakfast and the waitress wished me a Happy Mother's Day as we were leaving. I got a little choked up. No one had ever said that to me before. But Finnegan is such as sweet boy. He's taken to giving me big kisses when I get home from work. There really is nothing better!

But of course, he loves his dad too. Spencer puts a smile on his face like no one else can.

I just wish I had that necklace.

Parents' Day Out

For Spencer's birthday a couple of weeks ago, I got him (us) tickets to the Cubs/Cardinals game in Chicago. Northern Indiana boy is a Cubs fan. Southern Indiana girl is a Cardinals fan. We try to get to a rivalry game once a year. Usually in St. Louis because tickets are cheaper. But we made our first trip to Wrigley Field together.

An April game in Chicago was a gamble, but we lucked out and it was a beautiful day.
But it was a big day not only for the NL Central. It was our first night away from Finnegan since he was born. More than seven months. It's been a long time. Which resulted in lots of rounds of beer and the ultimate luxury of sleeping in. Before Finnegan came along, we loved to travel and be social. It was great to have that back, if only for one day.

Too bad the Cubs won.