Halloween

So now that Jackson is 4 he has the nerve to actually have opinions of his own - including a very strong opinion about his Halloween costume. Jackson decided to be Batman and there was no swaying his resolve. So despite his mother's protest that there would be 6 hundred billion little Batmen this year we found ourselves walking about with our little cape crusader. Sigh. The bright side was that he was very proud of his super self.

Jackson's unwillingness to be bossed made me realize that this could very well be my last year without any input from Finn. He will be nearly 3 next Halloween and could possibly muster up the nerve to have his own opinion about which costume he shall don. I knew this was my last chance to stuff him into the most appallingly adorable costume I could lay my hands on ..... enter the peacock. First, let me say that it is the male peacock who is colorful in nature. Second, look how freaking cute he is. Plus, this costume had the added bonus of working for Thanksgiving. (He was the mascot.)

Seriously, look at his little peacock botto.

We went out Halloween night ready to hit the neighborhood, but Finn refused to leave the wagon for the first 1/2 block and Jackson far too quickly tired of both his mask and his cape. "I'm Batman - look at my pant legs!" Once Finn got the hang of it he became the most enthusiastic Trick or Treat-er by far, running from house to house pointing at his pumpkin and saying "pease, pease"

By the end of the night we had amassed a disgusting amount of candy, very little of which we will actually allow them to eat :)

August? Really?

I haven't posted since August? In the immortal words of one of my favorite assistant managers, "really? really."

Jackson Phelps

Mike and Jackson have been intensely watching the Olympic games and rooting for the USA and especially for Michael Phelps as he makes Olympic history.

"Are you going to be like Michael Phelps, Jackson?"

Jackson ponders this

"Do they allow you to wear floaties in the Olympics dad?"

"Yeah, baby, they'll let you wear your floaties."

"Oh. Then I WILL win."

The Dilleys Big Adventure

When you trek across the California desert you drive past this old diner whose only notoriety stems from the two giant dinosaurs outside. My sister and I have long been obsessed with this place mostly due to its appearance in the cult classic, dare I say, film Pee Wee's Big Adventure. Pee Wee eats at the dinosaur diner only to discover his wallet has gone missing and he is forced to wash dishes to pay for his supper. Pee Wee befriends the waitress and together they watch as the desert sun sets from the mouth of the Tyrannosaurus Rex. As children we used to plead with our parents to please please stop and let us eat at the dinosaur place. Our desperate pleas were to no avail. Now I am grown and I have a driver's license and a car and a job and if I want to eat at the dinosaur diner of my hopes and dreams I am well within my rights as an American. Michael is hesitant but willing to acquiesce for the sake of the children (a category in which he feels I'm included).

We parked our car and explored the amazing plaster monsters of the past. We then head into the diner to score some breakfast. I can already taste the pancakes and am so excited to sit on a shiny red swivel stool and meet my new best friend, the waitress.

Immediately upon entrance I sense something is amiss. The diner, i.e. dirty truck stop, is not silver and red and shiny, it is brown and wilting and dumpy. It has faded gold brown carpeting and every piece of paint a Buffalo by numbers "art" has a price tag dangling down onto the wood paneled wall. I think to myself, oh well truck stops and dives always have good breakfast - and you can't screw up breakfast, right? I shoot Mike a reassuring smile in response to the "this is all your fault" glare he's shooting me. We open our menus to find fairly typical breakfast fare but the twist is that eggs, hash browns and toast are $11 bucks. This isn't a resort people. Michael's irritation has risen with the prices but we order up our breakfast with the intention of eating quickly and finding our escape. I always try and be empathetic to restaurant staff when the place is packed and everyone is scrambling to to grab sides of ranch for each of their seven tables so I completely understand it taking 25 minutes to make scrambled eggs. The other table with people in it must have needed ketchup. When the food finally arrived it was possibly the worst breakfast I have ever not eaten. Mike had gone scrambled and you could make better eggs over the campfire out of powdered egg substitute. I went over easy and received yolks you could use as door stops. We both had toast that was completely soggy save the rock hard crusts. We signaled for the check and $47.82 later we were free of the diner's talons.

My children will now spend their childhood driving by the dinosaurs in the desert pleading from the backseat for mom and dad to please, please stop.

Never.

It seems like only yesterday.......

that it was July 8, 2004 and I was sitting alone in the dark of the movie theater not really watching Spiderman 2 and bawling my eyes out and rubbing my expanded middle as the knowledge that my first child would be born the next day washed over me.

July 9, 2004 5:47 pm all 6 pounds and 10 ounces of Jackson Cole Dilley joined the world and changed our lives forever. He was beautiful. Not at first, of course, with his bruised squished alien head; but he quickly became this little sweet creature with clear blue eyes and a heart shaped mouth. He was so pretty as a baby that dressed in blue from head to toe and carrying a blue blanket strangers would stop to remark about how pretty "she" was. He would lay in is little moses basket and coo like an angelic (disease-free) pigeon.

AND NOW MY BABY IS 4!!!!

Four years old just feels like such a big boy. I feel like the threshold of time has been crossed in a very poignant way and I find part of myself grieving for my son's baby/ toddlerhood. And with Finn crossing into toddlerhood from babyhood at the same time I long for time to slow down and reverse. When did my babies grow up? How did four years slip by me? And NO, it is NOT time for another baby. The night before his birthday I took my camera in his room and took a bunch of pictures of him. I wanted to capture his last moments as a 3 year old. I gave him a huge hug and a kiss and told my baby, "the next time I see you - you'll be four." I wanted to cry. He was thrilled.

Because his birthday was on the heels of our California vacation / Disneyland trip we ditched out on his birthday a little, but we do want to say a huge thanks to everyone who made his 4th of July/ Birthday/ Batman Barbeque such fun and also his wild Peter Piper Pizza extraveganza.

The happiest place on earth

We had an action packed summer vacation this year that included (naturally) a fun filled trek to the happiest place on earth - Disneyland. Jackson has had a few go rounds at Disney already, but this was Finn's first. (Honestly we would have ditched Finn if we could have but no volunteer babysitters were forthcoming and so we made the most of our family outing.) Jackson's very first ride ever was Pirates of the Caribbean and so he thought it should be Finn's as well. Finn sat very still with very large eyes - I don't think he quite knew what was going on. He got the gist rather quickly.

Jackson was big enough for a little more adventure this year, meeting the 32 inch height requirement, and he got his first taste of Star Tours and Splash Mountain. Jackson, who will tell you Splash Mountain is his favorite ride, had to ride Buzz Lightyear 3 times.

Finn's moment of glory came with the parade. I had accosted front curb seats right along the parade route and Finn in his stroller had never been witness to such amazement. He clapped and bounced and smiled through the whole thing. He was so excited he repeatedly forgot that he was chewing and let goldfish crackers simply fall from his open mouth.






I would like to tell you how we topped off the night with the amazing Fantasmic sky show and fireworks, but Mike made us leave.

Better late than never?

Death to the Goiter!

Finn underwent his second and final surgery at Phoenix Children's. His surgery was scheduled for 11 am with a check in time of 9 am and he would not be allowed to eat or drink after midnight preceding the day. I knew this was going to be tough - how do you explain to a 15 month old that he cannot have his morning "ba ba" or any thing to eat because he might asphyxiate during surgery? And seeing as he gets up at 6 am I knew I'd have 5 hours of one sad Finn. All of this was before the hospital called me the day before to inform us that Finn's surgery had been pushed back to 2 pm and that we should check in at noon. I asked the nurse how a 15 month old was supposed to cope without food for 8 hours she told me I could wake him up in the middle of the night and feed him as long as we were completely done by 3 am. Super, says I.

I decided to try and keep him up late and made sure he ate and drank as much as possible. I also woke him up at 2 am and brought him in my room with a DVD and a huge bottle of whole milk / half n half (I was going for calorically dense). Sweet little guy didn't know what was going on and he wasn't really in the mood to eat at 2 am but we did our best and he thought the whole ordeal was kinda funny. He was still up by 6:40 am and spent the morning as I had known he would crying on the kitchen floor in front of the pantry - it was really too pathetically sad for words. The silver lining was that his lack of sleep had him down for a nap by 9 and he was still asleep as we shoved him into the car and headed down to the hospital. He had fun in pre-op running around playing with a giant pit of toys. They gave him some extremely girly PJs and even better some Versed! The Versed was given to him orally and within 5 minutes Finn was completely and utterly stoned. He was glassy eyed, drooling, and smiling away. It took 2 minutes for him to register the nurse waving at him and to wave back. Can we get some of that for home?

The surgery itself was over 3 agonizing hours and again the worst part was handing my baby off to some nurse and watching him carried off down some hallway. I'm tearing up just typing that - wow. The procedure went very well and the micro surgeon came out and told us that he had removed a mass the size of a golf ball from Finn's neck and that it had been entwined with the nerve that gives him feeling to his earlobe, the nerve that allows him to raise and lower his shoulder, as well as his jugular vein. The micro surgeon likened it to cancer removal, but said that Finn did very well and that there should be no lasting damage.

They let Mike and I go back into recovery and I just rocked him and held him for an hour while he tried to shake off the anesthesia. Mike and I were both shocked by the size of the incision - but it was really tight and looked really good. Now I'm just telling myself that it will be a really sexy Indiana Jonesish jawline scar that the ladies will love.

Finn and I spent that night in the hospital and were able to return home the following day. His 1 and 6 week post surgical exams went well and (knock on wood) this is behind us.

Now if only those hospital bills were behind us.......sigh.......

Goiter Update

Michael took Finn to the micro surgeon yesterday and we are going to schedule a second (and hopefully) final surgery. The Dr. was hopeful that he could remove the entire mass of infection and tissue without any major nerve damage to his facial nerves. Due to the location of Finn's lump it's possible that he may lose feeling in the ear lobe on that side. There is a concern that the abscess could have damaged other more crucial facial nerves, but we are hoping that this is not the case.

Mostly we are grateful to see the light at the end of this gruelling experience. I am also grateful to be getting definitive advice from a physician who seems more confident than the last. The micro surgeon's opinion matches that of the Infectious Disease physician and feeling more sure of the correct course of action is extremely soothing to me. We will scheduling the surgery for approximately 4 weeks from now, so until then no news is good news. Oh yeah - he also believes we will only have to stay in the hospital for ONE night! Praise to God for his favors large and small.

Thanks for every one's concern and I'll try and get some posts on here soon.

Look Auntie Mandy

I Love a bean and cheeser pleaser too!!!!!

(And he said "cheese" for the first time)

Ode to Pancakes from a Can

Now while some scientists are whiling away in laboratories trying to come up with some brilliant cure for the virulent diseases of the world I must tip my hat to those focused on the important aspects in life - i.e. Pancakes in a can. Does that can say "organic" you ask - indeed. I ONLY eat organic pancakes from a can because the regular pancakes in a can just don't taste right - call me fussy if you must - I have standards.

I don't know about you, but as I'm trolling through the aisles of Costco when I spy a 3 pack of spray pancakes for the bargain price of $7.99 the first thought that enters my mind is......SOLD! A suckers bet? Could have been - but not today. These pancakes are FANTASTIC! I'm not kidding - they are a delight for the senses. They are so easy to make and you always have the amount you need and they come out like a perfect restaurant pancake each and every time. I'm never making batter again.

Screw cancer .....these guys are genius. Genius.

You look like sleeping beauty to me, mom

So Jackson does this super sweet (and yes a little, shall we say ...sassy?) thing where he fluffs my hair up all over the place and tells me that I'm a princess - namely Sleeping Beauty. Jackson, of course, is my prince (Valiant - not Charming). I have to pretend to be asleep so that Jackson can kiss me and say "wake up Sleeping Beauty" and when I awake from my blissful slumber he asks me to dance. Then we waltz around the house, with far more grace than any of the "stars". Today,as he was arranging my already insane bedhead into a not untumbleweed-like buffont, he looked at me and said "you look like Sleeping Beauty to me, Mom."
I love you Jackson.

15 minutes later he comes into the kitchen and shows me a broken piece of hanger.....
"I broke your hanger mama"
"Jackson, don't break our stuff!"
"I broke a lot of hangers, mom"
"Why Jackson?!!!! Why?!!"
"I broke one hanger and I decided to break the rest of them."
"JACKSON!"
"Just the ones without clothes on them, mom"

I go in my room to find at least 25 broken hangers pulled from my closet all with pieces snapped off and laying in a kuffuffle on my floor.

Boy is he lucky he said I was a princess this morning. (sigh)

wow! dream big!

Juno

I had been desperate to see Juno in the theaters but 2 kids later seeing the movies I want to see has become rather a challenge. Luckily, we got Juno at work. Enter 30 % off and Juno is mine. I had to watch it two days in a row I was laughing so hard. I really love this movie.

We just got the latest news on Finn and it's not good. After finally getting the "Avian TB" diagnosis we have our options:

Option 1: several months of heavy duty antibiotics that will probably not work and will definitely compromise his immune system. Least likely to succeed.

Option 2: Risky microsurgery to remove the remaining tissue (too risky for the ENT to perform because of the proximity to facial controlling muscles). Most likely to succeed.

Option 3: Return to the ENT's office for the next 8 months to 1 year so that his neck can be reopened and drained. May succeed - but will mean an open wound on his neck for the next year of his life.

After I cry I'm going to begin researching the necessary steps to acquire a second opinion from an infectious disease clinic.

A Wiggley Party!

Our family had a big night out on Saturday - to the Wiggles concert- oh yeah. Upon learning of the concert Michael responded by asking if my mom or my sister would like to go with me in his stead. My super mean sister rejected our Wigglicious night, but my mom loves us enough to watch 4 grown men in turtle necks sing "beep beep chugga chugga big red car".

The boys had such an amazing time! Jackson was insistent on having his own seat and got to have popcorn and a cookie the size of his head (thanks grandma). Finn was so excited to stand up and bebop that little botto up and down and up and down and up and down. I even found myself a little star struck when they first hit the stage, I was like "wow, it's really them!" then I remebered it was the Wiggles and tried to relax about it. Jackson who previously considered himself far beyond the wiggles, was mesmerized. Now every day he pulls out his program / sticker book and we have to name all of the wiggles (he likes Murray because he can "play the guitar with Murray") and we have to rehash our favorite parts. I told him my favorite part was twinkle twinkle little star and he told me, "no mom. say you like the ballerinas." "Okay Jackson, I like the ballerinas." "I like twinkle twinkle star mom." Finn got to run all over the hallways and spin and dance and he too was amazed by the twinkle star disco lights.

What a difference a week makes, Wednesday we're in the hospital - Saturday we're singing along to Fruit Salad, yummy, yummy. A HUGE HUGE thank you to Mandy and her always sweet Mama for sending the tickets our way - it was such a better and brighter way to end our week. We thank you, deeply, for the pick me up.

We're home!

We are home from the hospital - hooray! It has been a long couple days. Monday Finn was admitted into the hospital and placed on IV antibiotics. The IV was rough and he kept staring at Mike and I with these accusatory little pain-filled eyes, Why are you letting them hurt me mommy? It was pitiful and sad. He was completely pinned down and in pain and this nurse keeps shoving this singing Elmo doll in his face, it sings to the tune of the YMCA song only it's E -L-M-O ELMO oooh. Talk about making a rough moment worse. Oh gee, miss nursey pants he'll never feel the needle your shoving up his arm now that you put some weird red furry thing 2 inches in front of his nose. How soothing. Florence Nightingale is it? He doesn't even know who the **** Elmo is - but he sure won't like him now. I wanted to take Elmo and beat her over the head.

Our accommodations were a tiny room with a prison crib for Finn, complete with floor to ceiling metal bars, and the worlds most uncomfortable reclining chair for me to spend two nights in. I suspect this chair is a remnant from some Chinese torture lair that was dismantled after the Geneva Conference. I'm not sure which one of us was more miserable, honestly. Poor Finn is just not used to being cooped up, and then yesterday they wouldn't let him eat, so he was tied to wires, in jail, and starving.

His surgery took place at 1pm yesterday. We went down to pre-op and met with the doctor and anesthesiologist. We were surprised to find out that he would be under full anesthesia. I react poorly to general anesthesia and was extremely nervous that this was the case. He was in a little hospital gown with his IV arm and we had to carry him to the OR hallway where we had to hand him to one of the doctors and off they went. He started crying and reaching for us as they whisked him away through the double doors. I was crying immediately. It was so hard. We had to wait in a surgical waiting room where I cried for 34 of the 35 minutes. The doctor finally came out and told us that there had been a lot of drainage and that she removed a lot of dead tissue. The tissue would be sent to pathology in order to determine what has caused this whole thing. We were able to see Finn in recovery about 15 minutes later. He was sore and tired, but drank some pedialite and was able to return upstairs. They gave him some Demerol and some Tylenol and we had some wonderfully peaceful cuddle time (I guess because he was stoned). He perked up quickly and was able to eat some dinner. (Fish stars that were far more star than fish and green beans - yay hospital food). This morning they brought him 2 bowls of jello, a can of soda, grape juice, a popsicle and TWO packets of sugar. I wondered exactly which one of those items necessitated more sugar.

The remainder of yesterday and today was mostly about being cooped up in the room and wanting to get rid of the cords. His neck is much less swollen - although it currently contains a vile looking drain. They asked if we wanted to stay another day or go home and I told them our bags were packed and the car was running! The pathology results have not showed anything significant.

We have an 8 am appointment with the ENT, and are soooooo grateful to be home. Finn is doing well, and loving being able to run around. He's been amazingly good about not messing with his neck.

Thank you so much for every one's support through this difficult few days. This has reminded me how blessed we are to have such wonderful and healthy boys. So many families struggle through so much worse and I am truly grateful for my wonderful children and for our great family and friends.

Now we just have to make sure we don't go back...... :)

Revenge of the Goiter!

The Goiter has sensed that I have spoken ill of it and has now reached it's vengeful tentacles into our lives. Poor, sweet Finn will be admitted to Banner Desert hospital within the hour. He will be placed on IV antibiotics for 24 hours and at a 1pm tomorrow the ENT specialist will perform a minor surgery to drain his mump.

Wishes and prayers are appreciated.

Green Pancakes, no ham

Being Saturday, Jackson and I thought we would like to eat green pancakes for breakfast. Why green you ask? Why not. We ate them with fresh strawberries and pineapple and syrup.

At our house we call syrup "tree blood" because we want our sons to realize exactly what kind of environmental damage they reap with their selfish penchant for sweets.

Just kidding. That's twisted. What's wrong with you?

Happy Easter!

We had a great Easter holiday. Our neighborhood threw a huge Easter egg hunt with 10,000 eggs AND orange juice AND donuts. :)

Jackson (but really Finn) found the prize egg and won a huge basket filled with sports stuff - he was so proud.

Jackson insisted that we purchase carrots for the Easter Bunny and he left them beneath his little table before bed. The Easter Bunny forgot to set her alarm and woke up in a panic at 6:13 am. I dashed through the house placing baskets and eggs and then ran to the backyard to chuck eggs at the lawn. I crawled back in bed when I remembered that I hadn't eaten my carrots! I grabbed the carrots and replaced them with an egg and headed back to bed. Just as I closed my eyes I heard a creaking noise from down the hall. I kept waiting for Jackson to rush to my room in excitement, but I just heard little movements here and there. I finally had to call for him. He runs to my room stark naked and tells me "there's eggs all over the backyard! I must get them!" So we got dressed and collected all our Easter goodies. Their baskets contained some much needed swim trunks for the summer (thanks Easter Nonna) and some summer shoes too. Jackson got practice golf balls in his eggs and a few whopper eggs, Finn got no candy at all, but did get 101 Dalmations. All in all we had a nice family weekend.

Happy Birthday Baby Brother!!!

Your nephews miss you.

Lunchtime

"Please just sit down and try and be careful with your lunch, Jackson"

"I better eat naked."

Date night....

I took Jackson on a date last night to rent movies and then Amazing Jake's. Wow. I can't even talk about it. Wow.

The whole drive there I told him we were going on a love boat so we could smooch.
"NO MOM!!! I don't want to go on a love boat!" he wails from the back seat.

"If we don't go on a love boat, how am I going to get smooched?" I ask.

He gives this some thought, "Okay, maybe I give you ONE kiss at the movie store."

"No way, I want lots of kisses. The love boat it is."

"Noooo please mom, no love boat!!!"

"What if we did pizza and games then?"

"Oh! Piper Piper Pizza would really cheer me up, mama!"

Irresistible, my son.

The Goiter....

The MMR
Finn received his first MMR immunization 6 weeks ago and within 24 hours had a giant mump on his neck. His lymph node is so swollen he looks like Quasimodo after swallowing a golf ball. We promptly took him to a pediatric urgent care where we came home with absolutely no helpful diagnosis ("it's a reaction to the immunization") but we did come home with a vile case of the rota virus. We followed up with a pediatrician only to receive the same non-diagnosis "it's a mild reaction to the MMR". Flash forward 3 weeks and Finn still has a giant goiter. We returned to the pediatrician and Finn was placed on a diarrhea causing antibiotic that did nothing for the lump. We were also referred to the ENT specialist which is where we went this morning.

The ENT:
After waiting 2 1/2 weeks to be seen (and told we were lucky to get in that quickly) we finally arrived at the office this morning. I had, of course, diligently filled out the 7 pages of paperwork they had mailed to me so that our visit would not be unnecessarily prolonged. I turned in the 3 page medical history documenting Finn's tobacco, alcohol, and recreational drug use, as well as a complete history of every medical condition known to man. I tell the nurse, "we were unsure if we should check depression and claustrophobia, because it's really only mild and we didn't know if this meant 'clinical'." The nurse returns a look completely devoid of humor and replies, "you can go over that in depth with your doctor".
"He's 13 months old," I mutter, "bad joke,.. he's not claustrophobic... I'll just sit down...now."
I spend an hour in the waiting room begging Jackson to just "please sit down and watch the cartoon" while engaging in a WWE match with Finn fit for pay-per-view. Suddenly, a small girl enters my personal space .... and then invades it. Before I know what is going on this bowl-cut, pinched-faced, child is on my lap without a sound. Okay.....where's her mom? I'm sure any moment her mother will tell her that it's completely inappropriate to climb on strangers....... I look about the waiting room. Silence. I spend the next ten minutes reading to my children and my new adoptee wondering if someone will see if I push her.
When we finally see the doctor she enters wearing a full-blown surgical mask, and one of those old school headbands with the metal circle. I still have no idea what she looks like. She examines Finn for less than 10 minutes and sends us on our way with ANOTHER prescription for ANOTHER antibiotic (oh gee, I hope this one causes diarrhea) and tells us if he's not better in another 10 days we'll do a CT scan.
I can't believe I waited 2 1/2 weeks for this. And my son still has a giant Goiter. The other children will call him "mumpy" and he'll never have any friends.

Oh how I HATE that Max and Ruby!!!! Where in the world are their parents? Why is poor Ruby forced to take care of bratty little Max's every need? What about Ruby's needs? Maybe Ruby would like to just go play with her dolls or go to bunny scouts without being worried whether or not Max is trying to eat ice cream for breakfast. Why is Max's breakfast Ruby's problem? Was she the one who decided to have another kid? I think not! I am angry and resentful over Ruby's usurped childhood. I just hope her parents pony up for all the therapy she's going to need.

One year....

As we approach a new Easter I cannot believe a year has passed so quickly. My boys are growing before my eyes.

My Jackson is unbelievably grown in so many ways. His independence asserts itself in little ways ; he likes to wear his underwear backwards "so the transformers can be in the front" he says. "Knock yourself out" I say. He wanted the training wheels off his bike after the first ride. "I am the boss of brother" he insists proudly.

My always sweet Finn is beginning to display a stubborn streak that one would never suspect is lurking behind his cherubic smile - I'm nervous that it is a preview of moments to come. He is so vocal - so much that chatterbox Jackson tells him "brother, stop yelling! I'm sick of you yelling all the time!" Finn replies louder, "DA DA DA DA DA DA DA!" He thinks he's the big time when he gets to walk around by himself and he loves to get chased. Now if he would just stop putting stuff in his mouth........

Zoom in .....

On Jackson and I driving in the car sharing a veggie tray. Jackson takes a bite of a cherry tomato which promptly burts all over his shirt and blanket - he loses his cool completely.

"Jackson we will go home and wash your blanket. It will be fine."
"No mom! He's people!"
"Okay, Jackson, he's people."
"No mom, he's REAL people."
"Okay, Jackson, we will go home and put him in the washer."
(distressed) "People not go in the washer mom!"
"Okay, Jackson, we will go home and give him a bath."
(interested) "In the bath tub?"
(I picture myself trying to wring out a sopping blankie in the bathtub)
"No, Jackson, in the washer."
"Okay, mama"

The Dilley Boys

Jackson Cole Dilley
born: July 9, 2004
age: 3
Jackson is 34 pounds of boyish mischief. He is a boundless whirl of energy with a smile that could light the sun.


Finn Michael Dilley
born: January 28, 2007
age: 1
Finn is 22 pounds of complete squishy love. He brings to our home a sweet calmness that fills my heart with something far beyond joy and far sweeter than peace.