St. Patty's Day!

Well, I guess something is better than nothing.  We made a little video today to share on the blog, but wouldn't you know, my phone hiccuped during recording and the last half is all out of sync.  Figures.

Koen and I butted heads this morning over whether or not he would wear green today.  He is going through an "I-don't-want-to-participate-in-group-activities-or-do-anything-that-you-suggest-I-should-do" phase.  It's difficult.  He detests 'yoga' day at school and goes out of his way to sit on the floor with his shoes on while everyone else learns yoga poses in their bare feet.

So this morning, he told me several times that he was going to wear a BLUE shirt, rather than a green one. I finally won the battle by explaining the 'pinching' game to him.  I hadn't wanted to go there.  But I knew that if he ended up the only kid in his class that didn't get the 'wear green' memo, he would've felt really embarrassed.  So I brought up the pinching.

And wouldn't you know, he came home all smiles, telling me how all the kids were wearing green and how they all had fun talking about NOT pinching each other.  Whew!  I'm so glad he wore that darn shirt!  :)

Here's the video (use your best lip-reading skills at the end!):

Other stuff to mention:

Finn wants to do everything by himself.  He says, "DO it" (with great inflection on do).   This applies to everything from brushing his own teeth, to eating soup, to putting on his shoes, to zipping up his coat...and on and on.

Finn's latest discovery is the joy of spitting (you know, the tongue out, lips flapping kind?).  It's even more exciting for him when he does it with a mouthful of milk.  He also LOVES his morning smoothie and calls it a "siu-mee" (which is eerily similar to the way he says 'excuse me').  When he sees me making the ice cold treat, he starts to yell from his high-chair, "Siu-meee!"  And when I finally hand it to him, he sucks it down at the speed of light.  Yep, the poor guy has now been introduced to brain freeze!  The first time was the saddest.  He looked at me and cried, while he held his hands on his little head.  Owie!  I know the feeling, buddy!

Koen made his own peanut butter sandwich for lunch today...first time!  He said it tasted better than mine and enthusiastically gobbled it up.  I told him he had earned himself a new job.

Koen also has a minor sassy streak that he's testing out.  This morning when I said, "Koen, I have a challenge for you!  (he likes a challenge)  Go see how many seconds it takes you to get dressed and make your bed!"  His reply was, "Mom, I have a challenge for you!  Go see how many seconds it takes you to make breakfast for me!"  

Nice.

Finn-McGinn

New words!  Every day!  Finn is talking so much lately.  And with his growing confidence, his vocabulary is simply snowballing!  Seriously, I made this list two weeks ago:

tee-too   (thank you)

fie-fie   (fire fighter)

baa-paa   (back pack)

wuss   (horse)

Santa   (Darth Vader)

hap   (help)

But it has grown so much since then, I don't even know where to start!  I'll just share some of the cutest things, I guess.  Here are some even newer words:

seewee   (silly)
happy!   (said in a growling and enthusiastic voice)
Ah-koo   (Oscar)
kee     (kitty)
eee   (eggs, or eggies, as we call them)
faa!   (fast)

And surely there are so many that I'm leaving out, so I will attempt an ongoing list as I remember them.  Here's a little video we made the other night...just for fun.  (hint:  pause music to hear him talk)

One thing that is so precious lately is the fact that he is learning please, thank you, excuse me and sorry but he is still trying to figure out the intended context of each.  This morning he desperately wanted an orange wedge that sat on a plate just out of his reach.  He said to me, "Oween, sorry," rather than "Orange, please." When Koen and I cracked up laughing, we immediately felt bad because Finn was looking at us with confusion.  Poor guy.  I wouldn't want to learn the English language from scratch either.  Tough.

He thoroughly enjoys reading books now, and I find him sitting quietly with a book two or three times per hour.  The book that he most often brings to me to read is Dig Dig Digging.  It's a fun, rhyming story with colorful pictures so I don't mind reading it eight times per day.  :)

Finn's favorite song, currently, is "Backpack" by Recess Monkeys.  He always wants to put his little Batman backpack on and bounce around his room.  He sings out with the chorus, shouting, "Baa-paa!"  I can't help but giggle every time.

Finn loves...let me re-phrase that...Finn is obsessed with oranges, tomatoes, and eggs of any kind.  I'm also happy to report that despite his rocky start to eating solid foods (EVERYTHING was a challenge) he is now turning into a superb eater!  I can give him almost anything (save avocados which still induce instant gagging).  He willingly eats raw kale salad, sauteed chard, spinach, hiziki (sea vegetable), broccoli, cauliflower, beets, squash, tomato soup....literally anything I make!  I love it!  And mysteriously, while he loathes avocado, he guzzled an avocado smoothie the other day and then started whining for more!  Silly.

Love, love, love that little dude!

The funny things they say

Finnie's vocabulary has exploded lately. He's trying to repeat any and all words that he hears. But these are the most recognizable and regular so far:

Cow-ee = Koen (my favorite yet)

My-eee! = Mine! (my least favorite yet)

Fah = fall (something he's quite familiar with lately...we should also teach him to say 'bruise')

Meh = either Mom or Milk (are they really still synonymous?)

Buh-puh = pumpkin

Up-buh = apple

Fie (like 'eye') = High five (every time I give Koen a high five for something, Finn now holds up his little hand and says 'fie'. He wants one too.)

Sar-wee = sorry (usually to Oscar after he smacked him or poked his eye)

And finally, a seasonal addition to his budding vocabulary...San-sa (Santa). The boy loves the man, and he doesn't even know why or who he is? Curious.

***************************************************************************

Some hilarious things come out of Koen's mouth too, lately. Part of me wishes that he never out-grows them.

• When something is taking too long for his liking, he tells me it's been a 'long minute'.
• He inadvertently combines short expressions. Rather than saying, "in a little while" or "in a couple minutes"....Koen says, "in a couple while".
• And instead of "too much" or "enough", Koen has coined the phrase 'too-nuff'.
• Memory games are his favorite lately, but he calls them 'remember-y' games. Pretty logical if you ask me.
• The other night at dinner, our brussels sprouts, suddenly became 'special brouts' from a slip of Koen's tongue. We all had a good laugh at that one, and something tells me we will never call them by their rightful name again. :)

The Not-Its

Koen and I enjoyed a Mother-Son date a little while ago. We took the bus to the downtown public library to watch a kid's rock concert. We had soooo much fun together! Music was loud, space was limited, Top Pot donuts were free, and kids were singing, dancing and screaming. Complete blast.

The line-up was:

Caspar Babypants

The Board of Education

The Not-Its

Harmonica Pocket

Recess Monkey

If you have kids and you haven't checked out these bands...what are you waiting for? They are super fun. Koen said that his favorite band was 'the loud one'. I'm pretty sure he was talking about The Not-Its in the following picture. They are pretty cool, I have to admit. And the funniest thing to me was seeing droves of little pint-sized groupie girls, peppered throughout the crowd, dressed in black with hot pink tutus. Let's just say there were some serious fans there. :)

The venue was pretty rad, too. If you haven't visited the Seattle Public Library (Downtown), you should. One of my computer drafting projects at school was drafting a 3D replica of this modern building's architecture before it was ever constructed. So to be there and see it in the flesh (or steel and concrete, I guess) is always a fantastic treat for me. I especially love the sunlit 'living room' where the show was held under the expansive glass ceiling. Awesome!

The moment was even better shared with my little buddy. And yes, I gave him the royal treatment which included a sticky-icky blue sucker.

Finn speaks!

All in one day, Finn has said the following words for the first time!

Wah-wee = Water

Bee-bee = Baby

Owie! = While Koen was doing a bulldozer type move over him.

Hot = as in, 'the eggs I just shoveled into my mouth hurt my tongue.'

Bat = referring to the halloween head band I wore today....didn't even know that he knew this animal!

He has also started 'counting' with us. As we say '1...2...3...' Finn says 'fow...mah...ooo!' or 'woe...bye...hah!' or 'moo...nah...tai!' It's never the same, but nonetheless, he's counting in his own way.

Check out the Nubs

Finn has two bottom teeth. They arrived in early December, promptly at the age of 7 months, just as Koen's did. At first, I was sad to say goodbye to the huge gummy, toothless grin. But these little nubs are growing on me. As long as they don't bite me, I think we'll be fine. :)

Finn's favorite thing to do is clamp his jaw shut and force air through his teeth to make bubbles and a hissing sound. His other favorite sounds are 'th' (sharp and quick), and a soft p sound (as if to say 'puff' with out the 'ff'). When he does the latter, he lowers his head and gets very quiet like he's telling a secret. He'll hold your gaze until you notice or hear him. He then giggles and squirms with excitement when you acknowledge his efforts. So funny. I think we have a joker on our hands.

I'm afraid this kid looks a lot like Baby Erin in the next shot.

Am I right Mom, Dad?

Here is a little video I took yesterday to share...nothing more than some baby talk and smiles, but fun to see nonetheless.

Bed, Bath and Batman

Big story of the week: Koen graduated from the crib and moved into a Big Boy Bed!!!

I know, I know...he's almost 3 years old. But you must understand, Koen has never tried to escape the crib...not even once! He likes it in there. In fact, some mornings there is no place he'd rather be with a couple of books and his dog, Scruffy. The time has come, however, mostly because Finn has also far outgrown his bassinet. We've been talking about it for months now, but it's taken us about that long to find the right bed on craig's list!

Anyway, the bedding has yet to arrive, but it's functional and Koen absolutely loves it! Even after a week, he still gets giddy when we talk about going to bed or down for a nap. And, believe it or not, it took him seven days to realize that he can get out of bed by himself! Clay and I found it so funny the first morning he woke up in the bed and called out for us to come get him...his usual morning routine. We wondered how long we should wait before showing him how to crawl out on his own. This could be the end of our peaceful weekend mornings!

Here he is on the very first night. We made a HUGE deal about it, almost ceremonial. And he couldn't have hidden that smile if he'd tried.





And here's another first...Finn took his first bath in the blue tub tonight! Here we are again, way behind schedule. We've been bathing him in the sink until now but he's just getting so big. And now that he's kicking his feet around, he's super slippery and hard to hold! We tried a quick couple of baths in the big tub, as Koen does, but he wanted nothing to do with that. For some reason, it really freaked the little guy out. But tonight's bath was incredibly peaceful, just like it should be.

Happy tubbing little chub.




Apparently, while Clay was shopping at Target, a rogue pair of Batman jammies jumped into his shopping cart! He claims they were on sale and he couldn't resist. Koen is stoked. I'm not sure he even understands the superhero thing yet. But we told him he looked cool with a cape, and he agrees.







Tidbits:

Koen entered the kitchen for breakfast yesterday morning. On his way to his chair, he passed by Finn in the bouncy seat. He casually greeted him by saying, "Hi Chubbs" and then climbed up to the table. Pretty random...he's never called him that before. Crack up!

Koen has also pulled his very first joke on me, all by himself, totally unprovoked. He got me, too. At that moment, I got a brief glimpse into my future as the only female in a house full of jokers. Hmmmmm.

My favorite moment with Finn right now? When he first wakes me up in the morning. His soft little grunts and lip smacks are so sweet. I peer over the side of the bassinet, and the moment he sees me a huge smile spread across his face. He opens his arms straight out to his sides with his palms facing up (a gesture to say, 'pick me up, Mom'). And always, before picking up this happy little bundle, I can't resist putting my fingers in his palms. He quickly and firmly grips my fingers and his hands are a little bit cool and amazingly soft! Love it, love it!

Koen's phrases:

Koen recently learned how to make himself dizzy and he thinks it's pretty funny. When he does it he says, "Fink I'm busy!" This translates to "I think I'm dizzy". At first, I laughed thinking he was imitating me when I tell him he's 'busy'...usually when he's running around hardly taking a second to catch a breath. I agreed with him, of course, because he IS being busy. So when I found out what he was actually saying, I loved the connotation!

Beat the heat, again...

We went to the Children's Museum two days in a row this week! The reason? They have air conditioning. I packed a lunch, swimsuit and towel, and paid for a whole day of parking in the pay lot. We had no business going back home unless we HAD to! It was just way too hot in our house!

The first day we went by ourselves. We weren't the only ones with this brilliant idea, either. The place was a mad house of sweaty people looking for any sort of relief. Luckily, you have to have a child with you in order to enter. Otherwise every Tom, Dick and Harry would've been in there!

After a while, we braved the scorching heat (103 deg....Seattle all time record high!) for a run through the International Fountain (see my entry entitled 'Visit with Grandpa' for a picture of the fountain). As you can imagine, tons of people were there playing in the water. I've always wanted to do it, but never have until that day! How refreshing it was!! Yes, I played in the fountain with Finn strapped to me in the moby wrap. He was asleep, but I know he enjoyed it. I soaked his little hat and put it on him so we could all cool off together.

The next day, we met our friends at the museum. Here are some pictures of the kids playing. Koen really got into it this time, since it was all fresh in his memory. He drove the bus AND the fire engine, and even donned a firefighter hat...usually he refuses to put on any props.




He made a 'pretend' sandwich at the 'pretend' deli...and took a 'pretend' bite!



He took a spin through the mini-mart and filled his mini-cart with meats, milk, ice cream and avocados.



And here he is on his very first date at the Taqueria with Nina. They were so cute sitting at this little booth eating their plastic tacos and black beans! Neither of them could hide their smile.




On the way home, Koen fell asleep in the car. So I parked in some shade next to the only green grass left in our neighborhood (at a church). Finn and I played on the lawn while Koen snoozed. Here is a small difference between the two boys. Koen would never had allowed this. As a baby, he hated the feel of the grass on his legs, neck, any bare skin really! We would lay him down, and he'd immediately pull a sour face with his eyes squeezed shut, shrugging his shoulders and arching his back until we picked him up. If we didn't rescue him quickly, he'd cry. Too prickly?

But Finn, he just laid there with a curious look on his face at first, and soon began to smile.





A few tidbits:

Koen has recently been overcoming his fear of insects, flies, what have you. To help him better understand and describe his feelings, we have been asking him, "Are you 'scared of' it?" So as he began to feel more confident about each confrontation with a bug...he eventually started telling me, "Mommy, I'm bave (brave) of it"...naturally, if you're not scared of something anymore, you're brave of it!

He says 'fink' instead of 'think'.

When something 'sounds like a good idea'....it's a 'soundea'. (It took us a little while to figure that one out)

Koen has also made up an imaginary place that he likes to go when he's pretending (driving, riding, walking, mailing letters, etc.) This place is called 'Alfdrina' and he says his friends live there.

He's also been terribly sweet lately, almost sickly sweet. But it's nice for a change. He and I are getting along much better since I've decided to concede in the control war and focus more of my energy on just having fun (what a difference it has made!). Anyway, he's constantly giving me little unexpected hugs and saying, "You a good mommy, Mommy!" or "That was a good dinner, Mommy!" Such a crack up! But the other day he gave me a compliment I wasn't so sure about. As I crawled around on the floor after breakfast, wiping up his spilled cheerios and eggs, he patted me on the head and said, "You a good cleaner for me, Mommy!" Huh? O.k. Thanks, I guess?

Too hot for clothes

We've had some crazy hot weather here for the past week. It's both nice, and not so nice. When you don't have air conditioning, the afternoon of an 85 deg. and muggy, humid day can be brutal...especially in a brick oven/house. But we know what to expect after several years of this. We just have to rely on fans to move the air around and try to lay low during the evenings.

When you're a boy...you can just strip down to your underwear, or diapers...which ever suits your fancy. Since we have lots of boys in this house, we had lots of bare skin this evening! But what a great photo opportunity!










This morning I walked the kids and the dog over to a nearby park. What a sweaty mess we all were by the time we arrived. It was already blazing hot by 10 am. We luckily found there to be plenty of shade and Koen had the whole playground to himself! He enjoyed climbing up to the big kid slide and going down without any of the overcrowding we experience at the Greenlake playground. At point, while climbing up the spiral staircase, he noted that the steps looked like pizza slices. He said, "Whoa! They look like pizza, only steps, Mommy!" I smiled at how observant he is. Oh and I should also mention that all of his sentences begin with 'Whoa' or 'No'...I mean ALL of them!

Also, we are cherishing the last few weeks (or months) of the cute way Koen finishes the alphabet. In place of "Q R S T U V W X Y and Z" he says "Q R S T View B W X Y and Z". We absolutely love this!

Catch up...

This weekend, while attending a baby shower/party for some friends, Koen experienced his very first live band. He had the funniest look on his face at the beginning of their set. It was obvious that, until that very moment, he thought that music only came from radios, CD's and iPods....certainly not real people! After the initial shock and awe subsided, he began to dance, albeit gingerly. He was the only one dancing, taking small side steps around and around in a circle out on the dance floor. He brought smiles to many faces, and some people even joined him for a little while in his circular routine. It was funny and cute. After the fact, I started feeling like a bad parent though, having later noticed that all the other parents had promptly taken their small children with tender ear drums outside to play. I guess Koen got started on his lifelong hearing loss a tad early....darn, I hate that!

On Friday night, we drove over to the Kid's Quest Children's Museum which happens to be right near Clay's office building. So Clay came over to meet us after work, and Koen got to play with daddy at the museum. It was a fun, rather chaotic place. We were taking advantage of their Free Friday Nights event, along with the rest of the city! We stayed for a little while and then went out for some dinner. Here are some shots of the outing:




Then today, we had Isabel (Izzy) over to play. Koen absolutely loves his friend Izzy. From the minute I told him she was coming over until the moment she arrived, he talked about all the things he wanted to show her (Bucket the fish, his new dance moves, his newest library books, and Scruffy). We did many fun things with her. We danced, sang some songs, read some books, the kids colored a picture together, and played the 'roll game' (something Clay and Koen made up). Koen had such a blast that we made plans to see her again tomorrow!








A few funny things that Koen says/does lately:

He's very quick to request help these days for a runny nose...he'll call us into his room at night to say "Need a nosey wipe". I don't know why Clay and I think it's so cute...I guess it's the way his sweet voice sounds when he says it. He's also started going in to the bathroom to get tissues on his own. Sometimes he wipes his own nose and sometimes it's Scruffy that needs a 'nosey wipe'.

I tell ya, this boy has a serious funk factor awareness already. Today, as he was going down for his nap, he started wailing in his crib (I mean serious crying). I hurried in there to find him buried in his blankets, holding out his finger high in the air so I could see the booger stuck to it. He was trying to tell me (in between sobs) that this intruder had somehow come from his nose. He was completely horrified and after I had wiped his finger clean, he looked long and hard at it to make sure nothing remained. Wow! I'm not sure if I should laugh at this behavior, or be concerned.

He also has a coined phrase that he says often, when describing how he threw an object in the air, or jumped up high. He says, "way too high in the ky" (the last word being 'sky' without an 's'). It's so funny, because he says it very casually, as if the entire phrase is synonymous with the word 'high'. And one of my recent favorites is how he pronounces 'vitamin'. To him, it's a 'bite-a-vin'. Very close, as you can see.

And one more funny thing, he's inherited my old, broken, hot pink cell phone. Over the past few days, he's been making many imaginary phone calls, most of them to my mom. He'll come in with the phone to his ear and I say "Koen, who are you talking to?" He says, "Grammy Pat". And then he'll carry on an entire conversation with her, complete with pauses in the appropriate places. He'll ask her what she's doing, and tell her what he had for lunch, or about his favorite book, etc. Then he wraps it up with "Bye!" and snaps the phone shut.

The funniest part is when I sit next to him during one of these pretend phone calls. He'll hold the phone up to my face and say, "say 'hi' to Grammy Pat". But even, funnier is how he gives me the same direction that Clay and I always give him when talking to someone on the phone. He tells me what I should say, and then tells me to "say it loud" (just like we do when he starts to whisper into the receiver). I guess he's onto us, huh? Funny guy.

Uno, dos, tres

Yet another high chair performance from Koen. He's showing off his Spanish skills with pride.

You'll have to copy/paste again...still haven't figured out my link problem:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGXKOAi3_0M

Greenleaf Pizzaria

Tonight, we tried something new and interactive for dinner....pizza! Clay and I used to make it more often before Koen came around. But we thought it was time to introduce Koen to the art. Actually, after the first attempt at transferring the raw pizza to the pizza stone, I don't know if I can accurately use the word 'art'. It was a tense moment, but we got through it.

Koen donned his little apron that Nana made for him, washed his hands, and then really got into it. There was some serious pride on the kid's face as we pulled the bubbly masterpieces from the oven. He knew he'd done something cool. :) We made a total of four mini pizzas, and believe it or not, they were quite tasty!






Some Koen-isms to share:

noodle = 'noo-nole' (he also says this when we see the Space Needle down town...it's the Space Noo-nole)

Koen figures that when you have more than one football, you call them 'feetballs' (I love that one so much!)

And finally, last night we again talked about possible names for our new baby. He really surprised us when he suggested "asphalt paver"....no joke, that's what he said. He does have a book about heavy construction equipment that we read from time to time. That's the only place he could've gotten the idea. Hysterical! What do you think...Asphalt Paver Greenleaf.

Sunny day

We hitched a ride with our friends Barb and Drew, and went out to play this morning. She took us to a little bakery where we all sat and enjoyed a pastry or two (Barb and I threw our pregnancy diets out the window, momentarily). Koen gobbled up his very own Valentine cookie, and he was very serious about the matter. Drew devoured a heavenly little eclair.




Afterward, we made our way over to the Ballard Community Center for their toddler play rooms and outdoor playground. The sun was shining and making us desperately long for summertime. We knew we were infringing on the ever crucial nap time for both boys, but we didn't care. It was so warm outside and they were having such a great time.





I hope tomorrow is just as nice! We'll go out again!

I must also mention that Koen is talking even more than he used to (if you can believe that). He has happily dropped the New Year's stutter that appeared out of nowhere on Jan. 1. And now he is utterly determined to form the longest sentences he possibly can. It's cute and you can tell the little wheels are crankin' away up in his noggin. He'll start off with one of his typical short sentences. Then he pauses and adds several prepositional phrases to the end of it. Miraculously, he usually says the whole mouthful correctly. Then Clay and I just look at each other and laugh in disbelief. For example, rather than just saying "Let's go play basketball" (as he used to), he'll now say "Let's go play basketball with Daddy, in the living room, and Mommy and Oski can watch." Not bad, eh? It's terribly cute to see him figure out this wacky language we call English.

Naked basketball

It's a recent "tradition" lately for Koen to play naked basketball prior to getting in the bathtub. Clay started the game on the premise that Koen doesn't get enough free time in his birthday suit...and such a cute suit it is. So right after dinner, they go in and strip down (Koen, not Clay). Then the boy comes running out into the living room in all his glory and free as a bird. He shoots a couple of baskets, even making it occasionally. This rare feat is met with completely exaggerated "high-fives" from Mom and Dad. He likes the "high-fives" so much that he usually comes back for seconds. My favorite part about the whole event (aside from the sight of his little bare buns) is when he announces that he is "maked". So so cute!

For a minute, I thought about preserving my son's dignity and not posting the photo....but that minute quickly passed.


We spent the day at home today, packing for our big trip to Utah. We leave tomorrow and get to stay and play for 10 whole days! Yay! I hope our family doesn't get sick of us. Koen was very patient and did a good job entertaining himself while I organized our stuffed. He loves the new book that Uncle Devin gave him about the little monster that was "so mad". He walked around all evening saying, "I was SO MAD". And he says it in the cutest way, with his voice raising up an octave on the last two words. He even sits down in places (usually nearby one of us) and flips through the pages recounting the reasons that the monster was mad. Good fun. Thanks Uncle!

Hot weather + humidity = more curls

Check out these curls!  Ringlet style! 

It is unbearably hot here, and we have busted out the fans for official use.  Now I just have to keep K from sticking any objects into the blades, most importantly fingers!  Last night, I went into K's room to check on him only to find that he was drenched in sweat!  Poor little dude.  He looked as if he'd been swimming...literally that wet!  Our windows are open with little relief.  If it doesn't get better soon, we'll have to

 invest in a portable A/C unit (and then we can just huddle in one room with the door closed all summer).

I must admit, it was pretty darn cute watching K run around in just a diaper all day.  It's eerily reminiscent of our first days/months at our Salt Lake house...no air conditioning ...temperatures pushing 100 deg!  At least then it was dry, hot air.  Here it's not only hot, but it's muggy.  You just have to deal with your skin being moist and your clothes sticking to you all day.

By the way, K has started to count to 10.  He needs a little help when he gets to the number four, but he pretty much plows through the rest (he likes us to say each number after he does, however).  It presents a challenge when I'm attempting to discipline him by telling him I'm going to "count to three."  He just gets a big smile on his face, and bounces up and down as he counts to three with me.  Hmmm....

Same thing goes for "time outs."  I used to hold him tightly on my lap when he was really naughty (hitting, or throwing things) and count to ten...then ask him to apologize.  Now that counting to ten is a fun activity for him, we've progressed our "time outs" to the high chair, facing the wall, with a 90 second timer.  He doesn't like this much, so it works beautifully!