The Life & Times of Finnegan Buckley The terribly exciting and ever expanding world of me, myself

Last night I went over to Auntie Brett’s house for my first sleepover.  Mom and Daddy dropped me off around 5:30.  Mom has no idea what I did all night and I plan on keeping it all a big secret.  What happens at Auntie Brett’s house, stays at Auntie Brett’s house!

Everyone’s been so sick around my neighborhood, I’m going to have to take matters into my own hands.

For the past few weeks, we’ve had my buddy Isaac over one day each week.  He just had a baby brother (Elijah), and Mom thought Isaac’s Mom might need a little break.  But this week Mom decided she was going to bring us to the playground, and then to Chick-Fil-A for lunch, instead of just hanging out at home.

When we got to the playground everything was soaking wet, since it had rained the night before.  Mom went and got a blanket out of the car, and while she tried to dry off all the equipment (more like, swirled the water around on it actually), me and Isaac ran our trucks up and down the bleachers.  And actually, Isaac did a better job of drying everything off than Mom did because he got to the slide before she did and his pants soaked up most of the water.  Hey, thanks Dude!  He didn’t seem to mind one bit.

After a little while my neighbor Sean, and his Mom showed up.  They didn’t have anything to do this morning so they decided to join us.  We all did some swinging, went up the rock climbing wall, ran around on the soccer field, and went down the slide a bunch of times.  One time, when we were racing our cars along the bleachers, Isaac wiped out on the wet bench and fell down.  But he popped right back up and started yelling “Kiss It, Kiss It” at the top of his lungs.  I felt bad, but it was so funny that I couldn’t stop laughing.  Mom went running over, gave him a kiss and he was good as new.  That was certainly an easy fix.

So when we were done here, we went over to Chick-Fil-A which was right down the street.  We had a little lunch and ran around in the play area for a bit.  Man, Isaac’s the fastest dude I know.  He’s like lightning.  It wears me out just watching him.

Now comes the cooties part of the day.  That night, after I went to bed, Mom got a call from Sean’s Mommy saying that both Sean and his older brother Logan have the swine flu.  Oy.  Not good news.  Especially since we spent Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday with them.  Now I guess we just sit and wait and see what happens.

Sudsy mohawk

Me and Mom went to Auntie Brett’s house last night after dinner.  Dad was giving a speech at the Cameron Village library and wouldn’t be home until late, and Uncle Jamie was out of town too.  So we went to hang out with Auntie Brett, Cali (Buh-bee) an McKenna (Bubba) for a while.

And as luck would have it, McKenna had to take a tubbie, and she asked if I wanted to join her.  Well, yes, yes I would.  I love tubbie time.  And I love it even more when I have company.  So we got into Auntie Brett’s tub and had lots of fun dumping buckets of water over each other’s heads.  Then Buh-bee got in too, because she didn’t want to miss out on all the fun we were having.

Auntie Brett came in and told Buh-bee that she had to get in the shower, and actually get cleaned up, rather than just playing all night.  That was an opportunity I just could not pass up.  Standing up and getting clean simultaneously!!!!  Wow!  She gave me the squeegee and let me squeegee the glass while she washed up.  I made little windows that I waved at Bubba through, while she was still in the bathtub.

After bathtime was over we all brushed our teeth together.  I’m a good tooth brusher.  Mommy let’s me do it all the time.

Then we got under the covers in Buh-bee’s bed.  She’s got a really big bed, like Mommy & Daddy.  I was all ready to go to sleep but Auntie Brett said Buh-bee and Bubba had school tomorrow and so I couldn’t sleep over tonight.  But she said we could do it on Friday night if I wanted to.  Hooray!!!!  Only 3 more nights to go!

This afternoon was Clara’s 3rd birthday party.  She’s one of my next door neighbors, and she’s also one of my playgroup friends.  She had a wicked cool Halloweed themed party.  Everyone came in costumes.  Everyone, except for me, that is.  We had a little “issue” when I woke up from my nap, and it put me in no mood for fun.  Mom didn’t even think that I’d want to stay at the party.  She said we’d go, drop off Clara’s present, and then go home again.  But when I saw all the fun that was going on without me, I quickly changed my mind.

When we got to the party everyone was in the backyard.  All the adults were sitting around talking and the kids were playing on the swingset.  Clara’s mom brought out a pumpkin for me to decorate, and I got to do it all by myself.  Because now that I’m 2, I don’t need any help.  First I had to show everyone my “buh boo” though.  I held it up for everyone to see so they would know why I was using my left hand to paint my pumpkin, instead of my right one.  If you ask me though, it still came out pretty awesome!  See for yourself.

My masterpiece

After the pumpkin decorating was over we moved on to the really important stuff – cupcakes!  The cupcakes were decorated like brains and mummies…..so spoooooky.  And yummy too.  The eyeball donut holes were pretty good too, for that matter.  Don’t you just love parties.

Well we certainly didn’t waste any time going from crib to big boy bed.  One day I’m sleeping peacefully in my crib, the next day it’s converted to a toddler bed, a few days after that I’m in twin mattress on the floor.  And now I’m in my first, real bed.  Mom and Dad certainly didn’t waste any time did they?  I mean, really….where’s the fire?  Not that I mind or anything.  I actually think I could’ve gone straight from a crib to my big bed.  If I do say so myself.

We went and got the MDF for my bed on Saturday night and then Dad sanded and routed all the edges.   Next up Mom got all the pieces painted on Sunday afternoon when Dad and I were napping.  So when we got home from Noah and Truman’s house, later that night, Dad just nailed it all together and we’re good to go!

Now I’ve got an awesome bed, and a cool place to store my toys and books.  Check it out for yourself.

Today was Sean’s birthday party.  He’s my friend from the end of our cul-de-sac.  He turned 2 a few days ago.  The big party was down at the pavilion next to the Arbor Creek playground.  Mom and Dad let me drive my fire truck down to the party too, now that I’m an expert.  Ok, so maybe I’m not technically considered an expert because I can’t steer AND put my foot on the gas pedal at the same time.  But at least I look cool when I’m driving it.  I just wish Mom had let me wear my new red cowboy hat to the party.  It would’ve totally matched my fire truck.  But Mom said it makes me look like a gay cowboy, whatever that is.  Hmph.  Like she could even know that.

So, on another note, while we were driving to the party, an off-duty Holly Springs fireman pulled over to say ‘hi.’  He told Mom to bring me down to the fire station this week to check out the real fire trucks!!!!!!!  OMG!  And it’s not even my birthday!

We ended up checking out of the party early, so that we could head home for nap time.  Mom said it was important to go down for our nap on time time today because we had to head to Noah and Truman’s house after nap.  We were going for a cookout, and Mom made brownies to bring along.  Mmmmm….brownies.

Pumpkins

Today was big.  And when I say big, I means BIG.  We started with dad’s homemade blueberry pancakes, and ended by watching the end of Season 1 of The Office.  Now I’ll fill in the blanks for you.

After breakfast we got dressed and headed out to Ken’s Korny Corn Maze in Garner.  They had a totally awesome Monster Truck & Tractor wooden play structure, a rope maze, a straw maze, a gourd checkerboard and mini golf.   But the best part of all was the jumpy zone.  They gave me a smiley face hand stamp……Oooooo……that meant I could jump all day long if I wanted too.  See?

My smiley faces

We even got take a hayride through the farm.  We rounded the corn field, went way out back and saw the creepy Corn Maze Crypt that they use at Halloween, then rounded by the goats.  Really cool.

After the hayride we went back to play on the Monster Truck again for a while.   I know there’s got to be a way to get Daddy to make one of these in our back yard.  Hmmm…will have to give that idea some serious thought.

The only thing we didn’t do while we were there was the Corn Maze.  Apparently it takes quite a while to get through it and Mom and Dad didn’t think I was old enough to enjoy it.  So I guess we’ll just save that for next year!

Next we went home, had some lunch and took a nap.  Dad was the winner of the nap time award today, so he got to sleep with me.  Yeah Dad!

After we woke up we all took a ride to Home Depot to get some MDF to make my new bed.  Dad’s going to make me a platform bed with storage cubbies underneath, for all my toys and books.  Mom’s excited because she said she’s too old and creaky to be laying down on a mattress on the floor, when she lays down to snuggle me.

Dad started working on it as soon as we got home.  I thought this would be a good opportunity to take my Fire Truck out for a ride.  I hopped in, turned on the ignition and rammed it straight into the house.  Did I mention that this was my first solo driving expedition?  Mmmm….Dad started shrieking and grabbed the plant stand that was tipping over, with one hand, and grabbed the front end of the truck with the other hand.  All while I kept the gas pedal floored.   He kept screaming “Stop! Stop! Stop!”  No hablo Ingles.  Sorry dude.

That’s when Mom stepped in and steered me off toward the end of the cul-de-sac.  All my friends were out playing down there.  I swung by Sean’s house to pick him up and we cruised the loop for a while, waving at all the kids on the sidewalk who were watching with envy.

When it started to get dark we finally cruised on home for dinner.  Dad was still out sanding the edges of the pieces of my bed so me and Mom went inside and had dinner.  After dinner I snuck outside for one last, quick ride……Right Through Mom’s Garden.  This driving and steering stuff is much trickier than it looks.