His vocabulary is a daily explosion.  He loves to say things like “oh my” or “oh man” or “oh no”.  His penchant for expression is really something else.  If you raise your voice then he’ll quickly say “rude” followed by your name.  Talk about accountability.

Finn’s place in our family is no uncertain thing.  He has made himself heard since his birth.  He proved to be our most difficult baby and brought us deeper in many ways.  His high need baby self taught us grace and patience with one another at a whole new level.  We traded so many shifts in the night and wondered how we would ever make it.  In retrospect I feel like our marriage had a whole new layer of fortification built into it during that season.   Thinking on it today, I feel this great sense of awe that we made it and he’s two and he’s alive and well and so are we.

With each addition to our family we learn something.  We have a chance to learn selflessness and dependance (on the right things) in new ways.  The opportunity for children to teach grown ups abound and the ways they can serve as a fantastic filter for our own weakness’ is nothing short of amazing.  I’m fairly sure it was designed to work that way, even though some days I’d really like to pass on the lesson!

Finn had a bit of a cough so I stayed home from church with him on his birthday.  Kyler stayed back too so he’d have a buddy.  After playing inside a while Kyler, on his own accord entirely, decided to pack a “birthday picnic” for Finn and took him out to the porch for a little get together.  Totally darling.

We had home group that night so we just did a simple dessert and gave him a special cupcake with candles.  He couldn’t figure out how to blow them out and nearly burned his finger twice before I huffed them out in the hurry!

Happy second birthday Phineas – you are a treasured part of this family!