Brace yourselves: Here comes Finn!

We're looking forward to seeing family folks over the next few weeks. Those of you who haven't seen Finn in a while, however, should prepare yourselves: He is a force of nature.

He talks nonstop, but requires a bit of patience. Most everything he says begins, "Hey guys," "Hey guys, guess what," or "Hey guys, do you know, guess what?" And it can take him a dozen or more starts to get the sentence out the way he intended. Like his mom, he can't just recover from a mistake and move on, he needs to start over and get it right, all the way through. And then, after all that, he's hard to understand. For giggles, ask him to say "toy." Sounds like Inspector Clouseau.

We just went to two Red Sox games in Oakland, and Finn had enough fuel from "root berry soda" and churros to stay in great spirits through the games. His loyalty turns on a dime, and like any little boy he enjoys a chance to taunt: "Let's go, Oak-a-land!" and "Let's go, A's!" to bother his dad, and "Let's go, Red Sox!" to tease the young A's fan in front of us. He loves "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," but cried both nights that he couldn't keep up with the singing fans during the seventh-inning stretch and didn't finish his song in time. His favorite players are Big Papi, "J.D. Poo" (J.D. Drew) and "Mookamiss" (Kevin Youkilis).

Daily routines include having an early-in-the-day mini-tantrum over the prospect of a nap later, and inevitably right around lunch time he declares he's tired and gets tucked happily into bed. But he still throws a preliminary fit every day.

He is drawing madly. Great crunches of color all over the paper. Er, papers. He goes through stacks at a time. First they were all roller coasters, and then they were rockets, and then they were octopi, and now they're pirates and dinosaurs and Daddy and race cars. Sunday night we made some improvements to the boys' room, including magnetic boards by their beds. Calvin put up a cool pirate pop-up card, and Finn wanted one too. So he sat down and drew this pirate, the first thing we've seen that wasn't a collection of lines and scribbles:

He's even holding a sword there on the right!

Finn recently saw Night at the Museum, which made a big impression. You might hear some talk of tablets, and other random things. Coming home from Palo Alto the other day, he studied a map of San Francisco and informed us, "We're over here... and there are Huns over there. A lot of Huns."

He's practicing going without diapers, which is a necessity if he's going to go to preschool at the end of August. He's making good progress, but there's a lot of work to be done. Please be understanding of all the potty talk, and pronouncements like: "Hey guys, doesn't my butt smell like butt?!"

His older brother tends toward an ambivalent attitude (usually shyness, sometimes grumpiness, sometimes genuine ambivalence), but Finn is pretty clear about where he stands. He's often helpful and cooperative, except when he isn't. He sticks to his position, right or wrong, fiercely. Yesterday he was verbally brawling with Calvin: "Sputnik was not the first satellite in space!"

He's very excited for the plane trip, and to see so many people and places, and to have some Dunkin' Donuts. We're pretty excited too. See you soon!