so maybe not father of the year

The other night we went to dinner at a friends house with just one of the boys. Finn was picked up by Papa and got some one on one time with my parents while we had Henry for the weekend. So off we went to dinner with Henry and he was great. Friendly and funny he was comfortable quickly. The only issue was he had clearly dropped a deuce early on in the night. I went to the car to find another diaper and we didn't have one so I brought him in the bathroom to see if we could just do a surface cleaning and keep the same diaper. He had been pretty solid lately so there was a chance but it was not to be. He had blown up the joint and that diaper had to go. So I took that diaper off and got him cleaned up and him and I went back out to join group. About 3 minutes later Henry had a wet spot on his pants that was growing by the second. Beautiful said she would take him home and get a new diaper and wondered how his diaper had filled so much that it was now leaking out. Funny story honey, he's not wearing a diaper. I didn't tell her that as she left but I told our dinner guests as soon as she was gone. Beautiful was gone for a bit and when she came back she was none to pleased with me. He didn't have a diaper on! What were you thinking? Why didn't you just bring him home before like I did? All valid points and hind sight is 20/20. Let's not squabble about who's to blame, let's just enjoy our night out. And yeah I am the stay-at-home parent.

i loooooove yooouuuuu

Last night after the boys had been in bed for about an hour they weren't asleep. They were talking to each other and Beautiful grabbed the camera and recorded a bit of it. There isn

t much to see in this video but turn up the volume and listen in. Finn tells Henry that he loves him and then Henry responds.

coming to a coffeehouse near you

he's a sensitive little crooner

On Monday or Thursdays we go to Posies Cafe in the Kenton Neighborhood in North Portland and listen to Mr. Ben play some kid songs. He changes up old mcdonald to old mick jagger had a band that made some rock roll, and in that band he had some drums that made some rock and roll, with a boom boom here.... you get the idea. Well Finn has been enthralled by it and asked for a guitar of his own. Yesterday while in Clatskanie Beautiful went into Calvin's, the local thrift store and the first thing she saw was this peach colored guitar in a pink case. She talked Calvin down to $5, really he talked himself down, and Finn now has his guitar. When he got home he asked Jesse to fix the strings for him and Jesse agreed. Jesse and Finn seem to have a different timeline on fixing those strings though. Finn thought he meant this minute while Jesse is leaning to sometime this weekend. They are in open negotiations still. Last night while we were sitting in the living room around the fire Finn was playing his guitar for us and boss us around. Commanding us to be quiet, even when no one was talking and then telling us to SING SING! Then he turned the guitar up and asked what it was. "Hey guys what's this, does anyone know?" Carly said it was a guitar and Finn said "That's right Carly! It's a guitar!" This is what Mr. Ben does at music time. Jesse showed him how to use a pic but I think Finn prefers the classical style, just using his fingers. He only has three strings now but anytime this weekend he will get all six and get busy composing.

introducing jack and keega

Beautiful made the boys new babies because she had a day off and had already made them wool pants and cool shirts, pictures to come. Finn named then Jack and Keega, not sure of the spelling of Kouga but this will work. They are true hipster babies with their skinny jeans and neck tie with a cardigan. Henry's baby, Keega, has a vest with some cool pockets. Neither baby has a mouth, I'm not sure why that is but Beautiful is probably making some sort of commentary on the empty social impact of generation of kids who are more interested in finding a band you have never heard of and drinking PBR on their bikes, but again I'm only guessing here.

beautiful's note

I'll be at Krakow; I'll be back at noon; I'll try to find a lovely, high paying job; I'll probably look at a lot of crafting blogs; I'll love you forever

4 of the best years of my life

We have been married 5 years now, it's official. My mom and dad took the boys for the weekend and with a sudden influx of cash thanks to both sets of parents Beautiful and I had a decadent weekend of Bed and Breakfast, thrift stores, and garage sales on the Oregon coast. It was a really great time for both of us and a lot of fun to walk into a garage sale with a couple twenties in your pocket itching for a deal. Beautiful had worked 21 days straight leading up to the weekend between her teaching, tutoring, and retail jobs. She is left with only the retail now and is getting back into looking for a full time job after a month of near frantic working. We are still surviving and still able to pay all the stuff we need to. No prospects for a full time job yet but we are still hopeful and are having a pretty good time as a family.

after - henry

Like I said there isn't much change on Henry. His hair is still wild and hip just slightly shorter and more spiky. He is the envy of the Alberta arts district and practically runs Mississippi Avenue. He gets free PBR where ever we go. Ok enough of the hipster jokes that are way too geographically specific to even be funny to anyone but me. Henry is cute and his hair is all kinds of awesome, that's really what I'm trying to say here.

after- finn

Not only did he get a haircut but he also aged 4 years. He is now 7. After he was finished shaking the hair and taking his shirt off he ran into the house to check himself out in the mirror. He ran back out and said "Now I look like Liam!" Liam is the kid at the end of the block and pretty much the coolest kid as far as Finn is concerned. Looking like Liam meant mommy did a great job on the haircut.

3 boys on the floor

Here are the boys pre-haircuts. They were getting a little shaggy in front and as I have written before Finn gets a little teenager angst when his bangs are too long. Henry is just a dirty hipster no matter how you cut his hair so his haircut was more from proximity then necessity. Ian didn't get a haircut but he is so freakin cute that he had to be in the photo too. The kid has his picture taking face down.

boys in a drawer

Parks, playgrounds, trains and walks

So I left my camera in AZ and my brother sent his with out a memory card. That was kinda helpful but not really. Like getting a jelly sandwich with no peanut butter. So there haven't been many pictures lately but when he sends my camera we will make up for it. The yellow boys got haircuts today and you'll have to take my word for it but they look great. We had to bribe them with tiny marshmallows and a taser but they came through. It has been so nice here lately so we have been getting out a bunch. We spent the other day at the park for a good part of the afternoon. Ian took a header off the slide and when I picked him up he had a face full of mulch. He was pretty pissed at me for letting him fall, more so then actually being hurt I think. We did the three swing cha cha keeping all three boys giggling and even made friends with another kid named Finn whom our Finn kept calling "she" even though he knew his name. We were the talk of the playground with the three kids and Ian and Henry being so close in age. One lady asked if they were twins and I said no, different moms. She nodded like she understood but didn't want to ask if the dads were the same, that would be nosey. Yesterday we walked to the library and took a meandering way home through the neighborhood. After dinner the yellow boys and I went to the bank on the train while Beautiful was at work. We didn't take a stroller and just walked at Henry's pace. It was a really great time and the boys were in rare form on the train. They were talking with everyone and brought so much joy to the rasta looking black man that he patted me on the back repeatedly and said, "you have good men there, good men!" He was laughing so hard as Henry talked to him about the train and trucks and his brother "feee". We stopped for a shake at Bugerville and even though it was still before 8 when we were almost home Finn thought they were out so late. They gave me no trouble at bed time because they thought they got to stay up so late. I have been really enjoying walking at their pace for a change. Stopping for cool looking rocks and cracks in the sidewalk. A variation on the smell the roses thing but it is true that if you take the time to enjoy a walk at that pace you really notice a lot more. We spent way too much time marveling over a slug crossing the sidewalk but it made all three of us smile.