"Don't Let the Dinosaurs Bug You"

Ben:  Good night.  Sleep tight.
Finn: Don't let the dinosaurs bug you!

Potty training

It is a proud moment after a week of hard work potty training when Finn tells me he needs to go potty but I'm nursing Karsten at the time so I tell him he can go by himself. He runs off to the bathroom and I listen and next thing I know I hear him going Pee in the toilet, then I hear him put the toilet seat down and flush the toilet. I was so impressed. I hear him shout "I did it all by myself!" It takes a little while for him to come back out of the bathroom but when he does I see that he has tried to put his underwear back on by himself but he got both his legs through one leg hole and managed to pull it up around his waist. It was quite the sight. 

Finn taking care of mommy

I've been telling Finn that since I had baby Karsten, I'm a little bit sick and that I have owies which is why I can't take him to the park right now so this morning Finn found my breast pump and declared that the bottles were "medicine" and has been feeding it to me to make me all better. 

"It's nice to meet you"

Last night we were talking with Finn about names and Ben was telling him that his name was Daddy, but that his name was also "Ben."  As he said "My name is also Ben," Finn stuck out his hand to shake his Daddy's and said "It's nice to meet you."

Counting and other cute things

Finn has started to learn how to count to 10 and it is one of the cutest things I have ever seen. I love how he yells out the numbers that he is most confident about (3, 6 and 10), whispers the ones he isn't so sure of (5 and 7) and he never says 9.

He is learning about the concept of the bargain. So at breakfast when he says he's "done, done" after only a few bites of toast or yogurt and not touching his eggs, we tell him he has to eat one bite of egg and then he can be done. So he grabs up a big handful of egg and takes the tiniest little bite out of it. Its hard not to laugh as we tell him, "No, that wasn't enough."  Sometimes, when Finn wants to watch a video, Ben will tell him that he can watch it if he counts to 10 first (which he will promptly do perfectly, except for 9, of course). Today we were supposed to meet friends at the park to play, but Finn wouldn't go down for his nap, so I took a chance and told Finn that unless he napped right now, we would not go to the park to play.  He looked at me for a good minute as if sizing me up and must have decided I would make good on my threat (nope, I was bluffing) and went to sleep shortly thereafter!

Finn is using lots of 2-word sentences now and is even starting to break out with some 3-word phrases. My favorite is "Come on, Dadda!" He also says "I like park/zoo/Mama" and "Avo truck noisy" as he's banging it on the table. He's becoming a great mimic and is learning words quickly. Now, Ben and I don't swear at home but I do say things like "shoot" and "darn" and for some reason Finn latches on to these words and says them over and over, loudly.  And, unfortunately, "shoot" in the hands of a toddler comes out "shit." I'm not sure what my neighbors think of me as they hear Finn yelling "Oh, Shit" at the top of his lungs.

Alone

Ever since Aunt Lisa left a few days ago, Finn has been walking around saying "Alone" over and over again. This has been making me sad and wondering if he feel's lonely. Of course, I know that's silly since he can barely verbally express which toy he wants to play with, I know he couldn't possibly verbalize his emotions. But still, it does break my heart to see him play by himself while saying, "Alone," and I keep hoping he's really saying something else and I just don't understand what it is yet.

Today I solved the mystery.  He is in fact saying, "Alone." I discovered this as Finn was trying to pull the baby gate out from behind the couch and I absentmindedly said to him, "Leave that alone!" To which he started repeating, "Alone" over and over again. Apparently, "Leave that alone" has become my new "no, no, no" and just as he walked around saying "no" to everything 6 months ago, he now says "alone" to everything. That is, until I come up with a new way to suggest he refrain from tearing the house apart.

2 year check-up

It's been six months since Finn has been to the doctor and nearly a year since he last had shots and I had hoped that would be enough time for him to forget, but it was not. As soon as we walked back and tried to weight him, he started sobbing. We got it done though. He was 25.5 pounds and 35 inches. For weight that put him in the 20th percentile and for height he is in the 70th percentile. So, for the first time in a long time, his weight was not a concern at all! 

He started sobbing the minute the doctor came in but wouldn't let me hold him. He just stood at the door crying to get out.  Finally, he let me wipe his nose and then asked to be picked up. So I was able to hold him while the doctor and I talked which calmed him down. Then as it came time to examine him, he started to cry again. Fortunately their new office overlooks I-8 and so Finn and I stood at the window and looked at all the trucks, cars and motorcycles go by and this distracted him enough that he stopped crying and let the doctor do her exam. I think this is the first time she's been able to listen to his heart in well over a year. No shots this time, thank goodness, and we're good to go for another year.