Scooting Backwards

Phineas is starting to get this whole crawling thing.  He has figured out that there are things he wants to get and that he has to move his body to get there.  He has succeeded in a wiggle that instead of moving him forward, sends him scooting back.  This video is a bit long but shows how far he gets from his original destination.

 

8 Months Old!

Phineas is 8 months old!  I can't believe another month has flown by.  These are some pictures from his birthday.  What a big boy!

 

Reading with a Friend

Phin's friend Aiden came over to play and was a great friend reading lots of books to Phin.  Here's a video of them reading together:

Here are some pictures from our night of hanging out:

Giving the baby a kiss. :)

Phineas thought Aiden rolling him over was pretty funny.

Flirting

Phin has a bit to learn about how to act when a girl is flirting with you.  This is his friend Lucy who just turned 1.  He seems a bit perplexed about the attention.

 

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This one is old and was taken with my phone so the quality is not great.  He was being kind of squirmy here, but Phin is on an airplane headed back to Chicago. 

Steak n' Shake

These pictures are for Grandpa (Jim).  When we were in Missouri, we picked up this souvenir from Steak 'n Shake.  Now he's ready to flip his first Steakburger and make his first milkshake! 

Showing off his silly side

Bear Bottom

Isn't it the cutest?

Playing with cats

This was not staged at all.  Phineas was on the floor and he happened to pick up Basil's favorite toy that was close by and start shaking it.  Basil was excited that someone was playing with him and Phin was very interested in watching the cat.  It was great.  We took a video that I might find time to post sometime in the future. 

 

Family Time

Phineas got a chance to see lots of family this past weekend.  I was bad about getting my camera out to take pictures but here are a few:

Getting kisses from Great-Nana

Hanging out with Grandpa and Great Uncle Tom

Talking to Uncle Lee

This is what an exhausted Phineas looked like after we got home.  He couldn't keep his eyes open... or apparently his tongue in.  Everybody slept very well the next day.

 

A Tribute to Grandpa Jack

This post is in memory of Grandpa (May 30, 1922  - July 3, 2013) and all that is quintessentially "Bouldin" in my mind.  He will be dearly missed by his children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and friends.  I am so happy that he was able to meet Phineas this past spring.

I was reflecting this week on what I am going to miss about Grandpa (and Grandma as well) and the list is long (and I know incomplete), but I wanted to share it.  I think it all started when I heard the cicadas starting up outside.  They make me think of camping, Missouri and the Ozarks, and of course Grandpa.  It makes me think of all of the wonderful summers we spent camping out at Big Bear Campground, roasting marshmallows, singing campfire songs, listening to Grandpa's many engaging stories, and sitting in the stillness under the stars all while being serenaded by the cicadas (or jar flies as I know some in my family call them).  Those memories then make me think of being out in the boat, fishing with Grandpa, and listening to past epic fishing tales involving my dad and Uncle Tom.  I remember Grandpa was always ready with a song that he knew all the words to.  There was a song for every occasion.  I swear I'll never be able to remember as many tunes as he did.  I admire his dedication his church and his faith that he lived out daily in his actions.  I will miss Grandpa's sense of humor that accompanied each of his stories and his fun-loving, light-hearted attitude that always got everybody to laugh.  He was a master craftsman and engineer, designing everything from gadgets around the house, to (I'm going to claim it) the very first pop-up camper, to even his own house.  I also learned from him how to perfectly seal a box for mailing, because packing tape was never enough.  You at least needed hot glue as well.  He deeply loved and cared about his family and always had a big hug ready when we arrived.  He is the first person that I remember finding after falling and splitting my knee open while camping in the Ozarks.  And that is a very comforting thought to me.

I am so glad that he and Grandma passed on so many of their wonderful qualities, interests, hard work, determination, and brains to the rest of the Bouldins so that none of these things that I am so grateful for in them are really gone, but they live on in the generations that he passed them on to.  I know that he is at peace and is back with Grandma where he belongs, because I can't really imagine one without the other. Just like a peanut butter sandwich is incomplete without the jelly, well... he was the jelly to her peanut butter sandwich.  

I'll remember Grandpa when the cicadas sing their song, when I'm fishing, when I eat a bowl of Golden Grahams, when I'm camping, when I hear a good story or an old tune or hymn sung just right, when I build a contraption (which happens way more often in this family then you'd think), and whenever I'm in the beautiful country of the Ozark Mountains.  I feel so blessed to have had such amazing grandparents and am so proud to be a Bouldin.  I love and will miss you Grandpa.

Matt's Sermon

Today Matt was given the honor of preaching at our church.  He did a wonderful job.  Our church, Church of the Redeemer, always posts sermons online as podcasts.  Feel free to listen: http://redeemernorthshore.org/podcast/archives/715
The text that he was preaching on was 2 Kings 5:1 - 14.  Enjoy! 

Disclaimer: A combination of being nervous, it being hot in the church, and leaving his water in the pew made for a very dry mouth which he said affected his speech.

Little Fan

Hopefully Phin will be done with his helmet in a week, so we decided to take some OSU pictures before it's gone.  O-H-I-O!!

He gets a buckeye leaf sticker each week that he has the helmet.  10 weeks so far! Below, for all non-Ohioans is what a real Buckeye helmet looks like for comparison.

 

I also had to include a few pictures of our first children as they are super cute as well.  It is hard to see in this picture but Cyril (the one against the window) was actually half in the open window sill and his brother Basil was using him as a pillow.