Our Family Grew...by TWO!

Betcha thought I was pregnant, didn't you? Despite the fact that people are constantly asking us when baby #2 is coming, we are not pregnant and aren't planning on being pregnant for a while.  Instead, our family grew by two in the furry department!  We are now the proud owners of two almost one year old labradoodles, Anchor and Beacon!

Finn is absolutely obsessed with them and their patience with him constantly amazes me.  I am largely outnumbered by boys and if baby #2 ever does come, I am crossing all of my fingers and toes that it is a girl, but for now, we are all pretty smitten with these two furry guys.  Welcome to the chaos, Anchor and Beacon!

The Last Few Days

If you've been following along and made it this far, props to you.  It hasn't been consistent and it's probably been a little boring at times (just like our trip!), but it hopefully was interesting and the pictures were hopefully pretty! 

Our last few days weren't the most exciting or touristy.  The big highlight was stopping in Salt Lake City to see one of Mike's friends from high school. We also stopped in Boise, which is supposedly up and coming.  Unfortunately, we had spent all day driving and Finn was WIRED, so going out to dinner was a poor idea and we paid for it by having a child who refused to sit in a high chair.  Oh well.  I feel like I can't complain because he was such a good traveler for the majority of the trip.  Boise was cool though.  Such a good stop. 

One last Chick-fil-a (the closest one to us is at least a half hour away)

This was fun. 

We spent a lot of time in hotels and luckily one had a pool!! Finn and Mike went for a little dip :)

When we finally made it to Washington, we all let out a sigh of relief and I may or may not have cheered. Even though we still had a few hours to go, it was still pretty exciting.  Our GPS would say "welcome to (insert state)" every time we crossed a state border and this was definitely a well-received welcome!

Driving across country was an item on my bucket list and I didn't know if I'd actually ever be able to actually check it off. It was an incredible experience and it made me realize how beautiful our country is.  I also feel like I learned a ton about the people and the different cultures of our country (people in the south really are extremely friendly). There were definitely some things that got old (eating out, living hotels, the car), but at the same time, I feel like we could have spent an entire driving and stopping and still enjoyed the trip. It was such an amazing experience and I can't wait to do it again when we move back to the East Coast (fingers crossed!!).

Leaving Groton

Well, we made it to Washington!! It's been a whirlwind of a move, but we are here.   I'm going to recap the entire move, but let's just start with our departure from Connecticut.

The week before we left was busy.  We had all of the stuff that comes with moving out of a house, such as movers coming, move out inspections, and Mike's graduation.  On top of that, Finn decided that it was the perfect time to get sick with a fever and nasty cough.  Poor guy.

We booked the movers to come on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  Monday and Tuesday were designated as packing days and then the guys would come and load the truck on Wednesday. They ended up packing everything on Monday, so Tuesday we just sat amongst the boxes. #thatmovinglife

Finn was a HUGE help packing

Wednesday, Finn woke up with a fever, so he got to hang out with us and watch the movers load the truck.  I think it was his plan all along to stay home because his fever disappeared and he was in heaven watching all of the moving fun. The movers came and it ended up taking all day for them to load the truck.  We thought this would be the easy day, but we were wrong!

We moved into the Navy Lodge Wednesday night.  Finn seemed to be feeling better so we decided to send him to daycare for his last day on Thursday, especially since we had errands to run and things to do.  I dropped him off, ran some errands and met Mike at our house for our walk through with the rental agent.  Everything went well so Mike and I headed to the gym. We were only there for about 30 minutes before I got the call that Finn had puked and we needed to come get him.  Not quite the way I envisioned his last day of daycare, but what can ya do?  We brought him back to the hotel, gave him a quick bath and put him down for a nap.  I spent most of naptime freaking out about how we were going to move across country in 48 hours with a sick child, 

Friday was Mike's final day of SOAC (Submarine Officer Advanced Course) which was really just graduation.  Mike had to be there early, so Finn and I dropped him off and headed back to the hotel to hang, nap and pack a little before we headed back to the base for the ceremony.  Finn seemed to have rallied and really enjoyed singing the National Anthem and contributing to the Pledge of Allegiance. 

I love seeing Mike do his job.  So much of it is top secret that I get excited for any glimpse of his Navy life. The ceremony was small, but nice. The entire class did extremely well and worked hard, so they have lots to be proud of.  Finn and I are so proud of Mike and the rest of his class.  Way to go guys!

We all headed down to Mystic for lunch to celebrate and had a lot of fun.  It was the last time everyone got to hang out before people headed to their next duty station, so it was bittersweet. We really enjoyed our time in Groton and Mike's classmates were a great group.  We were sad to end this chapter, but were anxious to get on the road and get started on our chapter in Washington.  Thanks for a great six months Groton!

A Day in the Life

I did one of these in the fall before I began substituting and I have been meaning to do the same for a work day so that we can document what that looks like. Our day is filled with daycare, work and bed time routines and while sometimes it feels a little chaotic, I love that we all get some time apart and get to do something we can call our own. 

3:00am Finn wakes up for a feeding and I groggily go feed him. I can't complain since it's the first time he's woken up. 

6:15 My alarm goes off.  Usually Finn is waking up around then, but today he was still asleep so I hopped in the shower and Mike slowly woke up

6:30 I get out of the shower as Finn is waking up.  Mike goes and gets him out of his crib and hangs out with him while I get dressed.

6:40 Finn and I head downstairs while Mike showers. I make some oatmeal for myself and Finn eats a banana.  Usually he has oatmeal too, but we needed to eat the bananas.  Sorry buddy!

7:05 Head upstairs to get Finn dressed, blow dry my hair and do my makeup

7:25 Head back downstairs to pack up and load the car.  This is when I do things like fill bottles, fill my water bottle and put everything in the car.  Usually Finn is content playing with some sort of pot or tupperware, but every so often, he insists on being held, which was this morning. So, it takes a few more trips to the car than I would like, but that's life. 

7:30 Nurse Finn.  I like to do this as close to when we leave as possible so that our bottles last him throughout the day.  When he has oatmeal, he's usually too full to really nurse, but today he was a little more hungry.

7:45 Playtime!  We don't always have time for this depending on how the morning goes, but I like to have a few minutes before we rush out the door.  

7:50 Playtime gets interrupted by a poopy diaper, so upstairs we went for a diaper change. You didn't want to wait 15 minutes to go at daycare, bud?  Guess not. 

7:55 Continue playing

8:05 Head out for school and daycare

8:10 Drop Finn off at daycare.  I always end up spending 10ish minutes in there chatting with the teachers about Finn and about random other stuff.  The preschoolers had been learning about the Olympics and had done some makeshift curling the day before with brooms, so we chatted all about that. 

8:20 Leave daycare and head to school.  The school changes every day, but I pretty much rotate between three schools.  My favorite, Claude Chester, is the farthest, but is still only about ten minutes away.  Part of me wishes it was a little bit farther because I really enjoy listening to the news and having some peace and quiet.  It's the calm before the storm :)

8:30 Arrive at school and check in.  When I signed up for the job, it said the math specialist, but I had a feeling that would change.  Sure enough, I was going to be rotating between kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade, starting with 1st grade. I headed to the classroom, read over the sub plans and made sure I had everything figured out.  

8:55 Pick the kids up outside and get them situated.  We had morning meeting, watched the school news and got situated for reading.

9:30 Fire drill!!  How exciting for the kiddos and how chaotic for a substitute.  Luckily, I knew to grab the fire drill attendance list by the door and we headed out.  

9:45 Head back inside, get the kids calmed down and realize that we aren't going to have time for reading since we were already running behind even before the fire drill. Instead, we move on to SRBI (Scientific Research-Based Intervention). This is basically a time where students work on different activities to reinforce what they are learning in reading or math.  Today, they were working on a worksheet on differentiating between words that use OR vs. AR. For example, "horn" vs. "yarn."  A lot of students also get pulled by specialists to work on different needs.

10:45 The teacher returns and I head to second grade. The teacher gives me the run down on what they are going to to be doing.  It's a pretty easy couple of hours since they go to lunch at 12:00 and then go to art almost immediately afterwards, so I really just have an hour where they are with me. 

12:00 Drop the kids off at lunch. I go back to the classroom, lock the door and pump before heading to the teacher's lounge to eat lunch.  Usually I stay in the classroom and eat my lunch.  I am not trying to be anti social, but it's literally the only peace and quiet I get from the time I wake up until Finn goes to sleep, so I take it. Today, though, I knew the teacher might be coming back at some point, so I wanted to get out so she could have her classroom back.  Sure enough, I was right.  The teacher came back around 12:30.

12:50 Even though the teacher came back from her meeting, I was still in charge of picking the kids up from recess so that she could take her lunch.   We come back into the classroom to drop coats off.  They also do this thing called "calming breaths" where they breathe in and out and repeat some sayings about being in control of their actions and feelings.  It's really cute and actually does seem to calm them down after the chaos of recess.  

1:00 Drop the kids off at art, grab my stuff from the classroom and go to the teacher's lounge until it's time to head to kindergarten.

1:30 Head to Kindergarten. I've been in this class a bunch and was happy to be welcomed with lots of "Mrs. Hogan!!"  Once again, I got the plan for the rest of the afternoon.  It was going to be an easy afternoon since they go to special and then have one activity before they have "free choice" where they get to play with things like trains, legos, a kitchen, etc. 

3:30 The last kids head for their buses and I head to the office to check out before heading home. On my drive home, I call the appointment hotline for Finn because I'm pretty sure he has an ear infection.  Sadly, they have no appointments for tomorrow, but said to call back at 6:30 because they open up appointments day of.  Good thing my little alarm clock will make sure I'm awake then :) 

3:45 Stop at Stop and Shop on the way home to pick up a snack for tomorrow.  We are hosting Circle Time at our house and are in charge of snack.  Blueberries are buy one get one free!! Hooray!

4:00 Pick Finn up and head home

4:05 Come home, change clothes, and play with Finn.  I usually unpack the diaper bag, my lunch box, etc, but I think it goes smoother and there is less whining and wanting to be held if I just play with Finn and worry about unpacking after he goes to bed. 

4:30 Mike comes home!!  He needs to order new uniforms so he does that quickly before he hangs out with us.

.5:15 Start cooking dinner.  We are just having tacos, so it's a pretty quick prep, but this is the hardest part of the whole day.  Finn wants to be held by me and only me and of course I'm trying to cook dinner.  Mike can cook dinner, but I always feel bad that Finn doesn't want to be held by him.  

5:35 Nurse Finn with little luck.  I think he's beginning to wean himself because his interest in nursing these days is very small. 

6:00 Eat dinner 

6:15 Clean up dinner and do the dishes.  Our general rule is whoever cooks dinner doesn't have to do dishes, so 90% of the time Mike ends up doing dishes, but I always end up doing something like wiping down counters, bringing everything into the kitchen from the table, etc.  If it is later and closer to 6:30, we will leave the dishes until after Finn goes to bed. 

6:25 Mike and Finn head up for bath time while I put the last dishes away, wipe down the counters, and do some final cleaning.  

6:40 Bath time is over since Finn has now tried to climb out three times.  Sorry, dude, we have one rule for bath time and it's no standing in the tub. Therefore, we put on pajamas and crawl around for a few minutes. 

6:50 Read a story.  This usually just means Mike or I read a story while Finn fusses about being held and not being able to crawl around, but tonight's book had flaps he could grab, so we were set. 

6:55  Bed time for Finny!

7:00 Jeopardy!! We are obsessed. Mike is pretty good and I can usually get a few answers.  

7:30 We read, watch the Olympics, and just hang out.  I make my lunch for the next day if I'm working.  By this time in the day, I'm exhausted. I'd go to bed at like 9:00 if it were up to me, but usually we stay up until around 10:00

10:30 Adult bed time. What a day!

A few notes about today.  We don't always get to play in the morning.  In fact, it's a rare occasion that we do.  Today was a good day!

I definitely prefer to sub in one classroom all day, but lots of times, days look like today.  When I am in the same classroom all day, I get a 50 minute lunch break and then most days a 30 minute break while the kids are at special.  Today, I got an extra break since I was bouncing around, but it's not always that way.  Also, if I was the teacher, I would be doing a million things like lesson planning, calling/emailing parents, and making copies, so they definitely don't get a break. 

Working days are nonstop and I honestly don't feel like I get to sit down until after Finn goes to bed.  Sometimes I think about how I could have spent my time with Finn more wisely or more meaningfully and have a little bit of regret that we don't get more time together, but then I remember how bored and lonely I was when I wasn't working.  I just felt like I needed something of my own and something that forced me to use my brain for something other than mom stuff. Plus, the smile I get when I walk through the door at daycare makes it all worth it.  Someone once told me not to feel bad about not being around with Finn all day every day. They reminded me that Finn knew I loved him and that sending him to daycare just meant he was loved by more people (which is so true! The teachers were upset when he missed two days last week!) and what parent wouldn't want more love for their child?  When I heard that, I couldn't have agreed more and felt infinitely better about sending Finn to daycare. 

Anyways, that's a day in the life of the Hogans when everyone is heading to work and school.  Generally, this happens Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, but every so often, we will change our days depending on holidays and travel.  Hope you enjoyed getting a peak into our lives!

Finnegan: Ten Months

Happy Valentine's Day to one of my favorite valentines! He may not understand what Valentine's Day is all about, but I hope he knows how loved he is.  Mike and I are pretty crazy about this little guy and I am so lucky to call him mine.

Finn spent the whole month pulling himself up into standing position.  We moved the coffee table out of our family room area because he kept pulling himself up on it and grabbing anything and everything that was on it.  He had a visit from his Aunt Kelly which was fun, as well as a visit from the stomach flu and RSV, which was not. His laid back and happy demeanor made these illnesses bearable and we couldn't love our Finny more!

Eating: Watching Finn eat is one of my favorite things to do (you know you're a mom when watching your kid eat is something you enjoy).  He puts his whole fist in his mouth and only manages to get food in there about half the time.  It's actually impressive. He has completely transitioned to table food and is eating everything and anything we eat.  In fact, he gets kind of mad when you don't give him a taste and doesn't understand that he can't have things like sushi or nachos. Sorry, bud.  They started calling him Mr. Bougie at daycare because he refuses to eat baby food now and it cracks me up.  He definitely prefers table food over baby food, which is fine by me!

Sleeping: Ohhhh sleeping.  Finn spent most of the month waking up around 5:00am, which was not good for anyone.  Mike and I were not happy and Finn was exhausted. I think part of the problem is that he is kind of transitioning to waking up once to feed during the night (finally!), but that means that he is hungry and ready to eat again around five and won't go back to sleep.  He does seem to do better if he eats a big dinner, so we feed him a ton at dinner and just hope and pray it will hold him over.  I think the day that he sleeps through the night, I'll cry tears of joy.   He has started taking longer naps which is a reason for celebration!! His morning nap is almost always his better nap and is usually at least an hour long, but usually closer to an hour and a half. His afternoon nap is still between 45 minutes to an hour, but it's still longer than his naps used to be. 

Noises: Adadadadada is all we hear around here these days.  Finn loves to babble and everything is adadada.  Occasionally, we will get a "buh buh buh" but there's no sign of "mamamama"  yet.  He still loves to squeal when he gets excited which is so cute and is just one of the many ways his personality shines through.  

Milestones:  The biggest milestone is definitely pulling himself up to standing, which he is a pro at now.  He hasn't quite figured out how to move once he's up, but he likes being up.  He's definitely become more attached to me, which is endearing, but also a little frustrating at times.  He understands the word "No" which is used quite frequently now since he seems to get into everything and anything, including our electrical cords, cleaning supplies and the toilet.  He also is crawling on all fours and is moving everywhere quickly.   We also introduced the sippy cup this month, which is a huge hit, although I'm not sure how much actually makes it in his mouth and stays in there. We mainly use it for water, but he takes milk in it at daycare.  He can only get about half of it out, though, so we've got a ways to go, but he likes it!

Notice how he has the P for Patriots in his mouth.  He's definitely his father's son!

Likes and Dislikes: Like I said before, he loves real people food.  He'll tolerate the fruit purees from me every once and a while, but definitely prefers to feed himself. He loves to be held by me and is a little needy at times.  He has started whining, which is not so fun, but it's usually when he's pulled himself up onto something and then can't get down.  He loves to play in the bathroom and will come crawling from across the room if he sees the dishwasher or the refrigerator open.  Diaper changing has become a wrestling match, which is especially frustrating/disgusting when there is more to the diaper than just pee.  He still isn't a huge fan of the car, either, which makes me dread our cross-country trip, but he does pretty well around town or when there is someone sitting next to him, so there's hope!

Nicknames: Finn, Finny, Bud, Buddy Bear, Mr. Little Boy, Mr. Bougie

Clothing Size:  9-12 months, although his little belly sticks out of some of his sweaters so it might be time to upgrade 

Diaper Size: Size four

Weight: 19.5 lbs! He's put on a little winter weight 😀

Height: 27.5 inches

Travel: None!

Oh Finnegan, I look at you sometimes and see a budding little boy.  I love seeing your personality shine through and learning who you are becoming.  I miss the days of babyhood, but watching you grow is my greatest joy and there is nothing more that I could want than to be your mom.  I love you, sweet valentine!

This Week I'm...

It's been pretty quiet around here since we're in "get ready for the move" mode, but I figured I'd post SOMETHING and it's been a while since I did one of these kinds of posts.  I always like reading them on other people's blogs, so I hope this serves as a little entertainment for you guys.

reading The Rooster Bar and honestly I just can't get into it.  It was one that was recommended to me by multiple people and multiple blogs/lists, but I find it slow.  Hopefully that will change.

listening to Luke Bryan's song "Most People are Good."  Guys, this song is everything I believe. 

I believe most people are good
And most Mama's oughta qualify for sainthood
I believe most Friday nights look better under neon or stadium lights
I believe you love who you love
Ain't nothing you should ever be ashamed of
I believe this world ain't half as bad as it looks
I believe most people are good

YESSSS! This.  Every single word. 

planning anything and everything related to our big cross country move. Mainly how we are all not going to go crazy in the car if Finn decides to scream the whole way. We will take any and all suggestions! Also, any good podcasts or audiobooks we should listen to?

teaching I have my last substitute job scheduled for next Thursday at my favorite school.  This is the part of moving I'm most sad about I think.  I have LOVED substituting and it's been so refreshing to use my brain and have something to call my own. 

eating all of the food in our refrigerator. As part of the move preparation, we are trying to clean out our pantry.  That has both its benefits and drawbacks.  For example, I'm going to make banana bread with the frozen bananas, but it also means that we might be eating ribs for the rest of our time in Groton. 

doing I'm really trying to work out regularly, which means twice during the week and once on the weekend.  I really enjoy the 21 Day Fix from Beach Body and it's the perfect amount of time for a naptime workout. 

Finn and I are heading home to Virginia this weekend while Mike goes to Washington to scope out our new crib!! We can't wait to see it in person (or on video chat for me) and for Mike to explore our new neighborhood.  I think we are both getting excited for our move out there.  It's funny.  Neither of us were too excited about Bangor when we got the initial orders, but it's really grown on us and I think we're both going to enjoy it. 

Hanging with the Hogans: January 2018

In order to catch up on the blog, I figured I'd just do a little photo dump and catch you up on all of the little things we've been up to. 

 We started out the month with a visit to Burlington, VT to visit Poorna.  The plan was for Mike to go skiing, but the warmest day was 20 degrees and the coldest was -9 degrees, so the incentive was slim to none.  Instead, we spent lots of days like this....

Finn spent most of the day pulling the DVDs off of Poorna's shelf and teaching himself how to pull up on the TV stand.  He hasn't stopped since. 

Meanwhile, the adults did multiple runs to Trader Joe's and ate way too much junk food.  

On January 12th, Finn turned 39 weeks.  This meant that he had spent just as much time outside of me as in!!

We went to the basketball hall of fame in Massachussetts, where we measured Finn's wing span and tried to be as tall as Stephen Curry.  I think Curry has a few inches on them.

Finn graduated from the infant car seat to the big kid car seat.  He still hates the car, but every once in a while will realize how great it is to be able to look out the window.  

We bought a house (!!!) and celebrated the Eagles going to the Superbowl all in one night!

Finn started eating finger foods and they quickly became his favorites.  He definitely prefers it to the purees!

We battled and survived the stomach flu also known as Finn-bola.  We managed to infect five people from Mike's class, as well as spouses and friends. Somehow Mike managed to escape unscathed, but we are not ruling out the possibility that he is patient zero. 

Stomach flu 2018 survivors.

January was an eventful month around here.  After travelling for two weeks straight, we returned to Groton and really hunkered down.  It wasn't our strongest month as we (mainly poor Finny) have been battling illness after illness, but we've had a lot of great moments as well.  February is our last month here in Groton before our cross country move.  Hopefully our immune systems stay strong and we can truly enjoy our last few weeks in New England!