Well, I got to call poison control for the first time yesterday. Sadly, I don't think it will be my last call to them, but one can hope. Finn woke up early from his nap and caught me working on a craft project. As I tried to clean up my mess (while fending off his grabby little hands), the glue stick I had been using must have rolled under a couch pillow. As I continued to clean, Finn stopped trying to grab everything out of my hands and became quiet. This is a lesson that I am still learning...When your toddler becomes quiet and stops annoying you it does not mean, breathe a sigh of relief because you can now finish your work in peace. No, it means, Drop everything, there is some serious mischief afoot. But in my naivete, I did the former and when I looked up from finishing my work in peace, I saw Finn holding the uncapped glue stick and making his I-just-tasted-something-yucky face.
I managed to fish about 1/8 of a teaspoon of purple glue out of his mouth. That amount seemed consistent with the bite marks in the glue stick, so I felt he didn't swallow much, if any. I gave him some water and set him back down to play.
And that is the crazy part. I didn't freak out. My initial reaction was actually, "Meh, kids eat glue all the time. He'll be fine." I didn't think to call poison control until about an hour after the incident. And the very nice gentleman that I spoke with just told me, "Clean all the glue out of his mouth, give him some water and wait an hour to see if he gets sick." Done, done, and done!
I feel this is a sign that I am gaining some ground in mastering the art of motherhood. I have long been envious of that blissful nonchalance, that "he'll be fine" attitude that second time mothers have. Maybe I am starting to hit my stride as a mother. Maybe I have learned that age old wisdom - There is a time for everything - A time to freak out and a time to say "Meh, he'll be fine."
In other news, we have been going to the park a lot lately. I read in one blog on sleep, that if your child is having sleep issues, you should make sure they get enough outdoor time. The example she gave was that if your child is only playing outside for 2 hours a day, then try to see that they get 4 hours outdoors to see if that helps the them sleep. 4 hours? Most days Finn's only outdoor time is the walk from the house to the car and back again. So I felt that I needed to kick it up a notch. After all, I live in San Diego and I really have no excuse to forgo outdoor playtime. (Actually, I have a lot of excuses, not the least of which is that putting sunscreen on a wiggling 15 month old is one of the worst chores ever.) Fortunately, we have a park near our house with a nice play structure, sand and swings. Finn likes the swings, but he never seems to laugh-out-loud enjoy himself. That is until I started pretending that he was kicking me in the face with each swing. This he finds hilarious and actually throws his head back with laughter. Should I be worried that he finds violence so funny? Or is this just further evidence that he is all boy?
Although, it is not evident to everyone that he is a boy. He has been called a girl by some stranger every day this week. And for once, it wasn't just old people. The only colors he wears are blue, green, orange and brown. There really should be no question. Maybe I need to cut his hair. But, he still has so little of it, I don't think I could bring myself to do it yet.
Lately, Finn has been pulling my broom out from behind the fridge and dragging it all over the house. So today I got him his own little broom. He LOVES it. He literally spent hours today just pushing it around the kitchen floor. He even managed to push some crumbs under the stove. Works for me. He gets mad and screams when he gets the broom on the carpet and it doesn't move as smoothly. Now, if only I could find him a little vacuum that actually worked, I'd be set!
Thursday, November 14, 2013
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Our silly little boy
I don't know how it is possible that Ben and I, who are generally pretty serious, no-nonsense people, could have a little boy who is all about the silliness.
So, we have been fake sneezing at Finn for pretty much his entire life since he finds it so consistently hilarious. [Wow, that was a dreadful sentence, but since I can't figure out how to punctuate it or make it better and still say what I want, I'm going to leave it.] Anyway, our fake sneezing routines have gotten quite elaborate as Finn's sense of humor has evolved. Well, a couple days ago at breakfast, Finn started noisily sucking in air through his vocal chords and then making a soft, whispery "shufflebubble" sound. It took us a while, but we figured out that he was fake sneezing at us! The sucking in air noise was the "ahh" part and the whisper noise was the "choo." It was just too funny and it felt so good to laugh that hard. I really need to get a video of it the next time he does it.
For some reason, when Finn was first born, I decided that I was going to need A LOT of Q-tips in my day-to-day care of him. So I went out and bought a big tub of them and to date, I have used 2. Its mostly been used as a distraction for Finn while he's on the changing table. But yesterday he brought it out of the bathroom and started playing with it and managed to get the top off. At first he would just pull out one at at time, which I thought was pretty cute, but apparently he was just making enough room so he could get his entire fist in there and pull them out by the handful and throw them in the air. Yes, it was a lot less cute when I had 298 Q-tips strewn across my living room floor. So I thought I'd try to make a teachable moment out of the situation and show him how to put the Q-tips back in the tub. And I succeeded, sort of. He did actually start putting Q-tips back in the tub, but apparently 2 was the maximum number that could occupy the tub before the urge to throw them in the air overtook him again.
Ben and I took Finn to a new park this weekend. It's small park but it has lots of green space and trees and a nice children's playground. Once we got into the park we put Finn down and he just took off. Ben wanted to wait and see how long it took him to notice that we weren't with him. He never did. Didn't even give us a backward glance. Finally, we decided we'd better catch up with us before someone called Child Protective Services about the baby wandering around the park alone! I think it's safe to say that he's an independent little guy (in the daylight, at least).
We've been trying to teach Finn to play "Where's your nose?" for a long time now. I actually read in a magazine that babies can/should be able to do this by 5 months. At the time I took that as gospel and promptly set about teaching my son this simple game. Here I am 10 months later and I now wonder in what alternate universe are 5 month old babies able to do this?! So, I decided to switch things up a bit and play "Where's your belly button?" instead, since we were going nowhere fast with the nose. Just like with "Where's your nose?" I would ask the question, point out his belly button, ask the question again, wait, when nothing happened (no surprise there) I decided to ask where Mommy's belly button was and show him. This he finds hilarious, so when I ask him where his belly button is, he lifts up my shirt and sticks his finger in my belly button. Success, sort of. I still can't get him to acknowledge that he has any body parts to point to, but its a start.
I don't know if I've written about Finn's breastfeeding acrobatics before, but he's has recently taken them to new heights...literally. For a long time he enjoyed nursing in a position best described as downward facing dog - head pressed into the bed, butt up in the air, legs straight. He had to carefully coordinate his breathing while he nursed in this position, because if he didn't, milk would come shooting out his nose. You would think this would deter him, but it didn't. From there he tried to progress to nursing in that same position, but with only one leg supporting him on the bed and the other leg and one arm raised straight up in the air, however he wasn't able to maintain the latch in that position and he gave up. But he has apparently started feeling creative again and somehow got his feet up on top of me while he was nursing so that he was essentially in a head stand position with his torso straight up in the air. I do not know how it is even possible that he could stay latched, much less swallow in this position, but he managed it quite nicely for some time.
So, we have been fake sneezing at Finn for pretty much his entire life since he finds it so consistently hilarious. [Wow, that was a dreadful sentence, but since I can't figure out how to punctuate it or make it better and still say what I want, I'm going to leave it.] Anyway, our fake sneezing routines have gotten quite elaborate as Finn's sense of humor has evolved. Well, a couple days ago at breakfast, Finn started noisily sucking in air through his vocal chords and then making a soft, whispery "shufflebubble" sound. It took us a while, but we figured out that he was fake sneezing at us! The sucking in air noise was the "ahh" part and the whisper noise was the "choo." It was just too funny and it felt so good to laugh that hard. I really need to get a video of it the next time he does it.
For some reason, when Finn was first born, I decided that I was going to need A LOT of Q-tips in my day-to-day care of him. So I went out and bought a big tub of them and to date, I have used 2. Its mostly been used as a distraction for Finn while he's on the changing table. But yesterday he brought it out of the bathroom and started playing with it and managed to get the top off. At first he would just pull out one at at time, which I thought was pretty cute, but apparently he was just making enough room so he could get his entire fist in there and pull them out by the handful and throw them in the air. Yes, it was a lot less cute when I had 298 Q-tips strewn across my living room floor. So I thought I'd try to make a teachable moment out of the situation and show him how to put the Q-tips back in the tub. And I succeeded, sort of. He did actually start putting Q-tips back in the tub, but apparently 2 was the maximum number that could occupy the tub before the urge to throw them in the air overtook him again.
Ben and I took Finn to a new park this weekend. It's small park but it has lots of green space and trees and a nice children's playground. Once we got into the park we put Finn down and he just took off. Ben wanted to wait and see how long it took him to notice that we weren't with him. He never did. Didn't even give us a backward glance. Finally, we decided we'd better catch up with us before someone called Child Protective Services about the baby wandering around the park alone! I think it's safe to say that he's an independent little guy (in the daylight, at least).
We've been trying to teach Finn to play "Where's your nose?" for a long time now. I actually read in a magazine that babies can/should be able to do this by 5 months. At the time I took that as gospel and promptly set about teaching my son this simple game. Here I am 10 months later and I now wonder in what alternate universe are 5 month old babies able to do this?! So, I decided to switch things up a bit and play "Where's your belly button?" instead, since we were going nowhere fast with the nose. Just like with "Where's your nose?" I would ask the question, point out his belly button, ask the question again, wait, when nothing happened (no surprise there) I decided to ask where Mommy's belly button was and show him. This he finds hilarious, so when I ask him where his belly button is, he lifts up my shirt and sticks his finger in my belly button. Success, sort of. I still can't get him to acknowledge that he has any body parts to point to, but its a start.
I don't know if I've written about Finn's breastfeeding acrobatics before, but he's has recently taken them to new heights...literally. For a long time he enjoyed nursing in a position best described as downward facing dog - head pressed into the bed, butt up in the air, legs straight. He had to carefully coordinate his breathing while he nursed in this position, because if he didn't, milk would come shooting out his nose. You would think this would deter him, but it didn't. From there he tried to progress to nursing in that same position, but with only one leg supporting him on the bed and the other leg and one arm raised straight up in the air, however he wasn't able to maintain the latch in that position and he gave up. But he has apparently started feeling creative again and somehow got his feet up on top of me while he was nursing so that he was essentially in a head stand position with his torso straight up in the air. I do not know how it is even possible that he could stay latched, much less swallow in this position, but he managed it quite nicely for some time.
Friday, November 8, 2013
15 Month Doctor's Appointment
Oh, how I hate Finn's doctor's appointments anymore. Before 6 months, they were great. His doctor would tell me how smart, how beautiful, how perfect he was and how I was doing a wonderful job. It was an all around ego boost. Then we started having issues with his weight (well, actually the issue was with the weight chart, but the result was that I felt like I was somehow inadvertently starving my child), and somehow I always managed to schedule his appointments in the middle of nap-time (granted its pretty difficult to guess when he is going to be napping 3 months in advance), so he would be completely falling apart.
This appointment we finally didn't have any troubles with his weight. According to their 2000 CDC chart he has finally settled on the 20th percentile (according to my 2009 WHO chart he is, and has always been, in the 35th percentile), so for once I didn't get "the talk" about his weight. No, this time, even though I got lucky and we were between naps, he fell apart as I laid him down on the baby scale. That's the first thing we do. He wailed, screamed and shrieked for the entire rest of the appointment (which took an hour because he was so uncooperative).
It was such a disaster, it was almost comical. Since he wouldn't lay down on the baby scale, the nurse decided to weigh me holding him and then just weigh me and subtract. This was fine until I had to be weighed alone. He wouldn't let the nurse hold him so I had to put him down on the floor, stark naked, while I stepped on the scale. Sadly, there was no denying that the screaming, naked little boy running around the main hallway of the doctor's office was mine.
The nurse was never able to get his head circumference or check his pulse and the doctor was never able to listen to his heart and I had to hold him down in order for her to perform just a cursory exam. So, hopefully nothing's wrong with him, because there was no way that anyone was going to be able to find it. The doctor and I could barely hear each other over his wails. I ended up nursing him 3 times in my attempt to calm him down.
This was all before the shots! The nurse and I could barely restrain him. We probably could have used a third person. Its amazing how incredibly strong little toddlers can be when they're upset. I half wonder if Finn didn't remember the shots he had the last time he was at the doctors office and that's why he got so upset so early on in the appointment.
But there were good things too! Apparently, by 15 months they are supposed to be able to say at least 3 words. Since Finn can say Mama, Dada (Daddy), baby, no, and hi, we were good there. Its even more impressive since Ben speaks so much Norwegian to him. His doctor told me that speaking 2 languages in the home can delay language milestones by as much as 6 months. She recommended that to get the most benefit from the second language that I should try speaking it as much as possible as well. So today I got out my old Norwegian 101 book and began reading it to Finn and getting a refresher course on grammar and vocabulary in the process. At dinner Ben and I tried to speak only in Norwegian. I did pretty well, considering its been nearly 10 years since I last took a class!
I discovered that Finn is a very confident walker, because according to his doctor, toddlers don't usually start walking backward until 18 months, and he just started walking backward this week. He looks like he's doing a Michael Jackson dance move and it is just one of the cutest things to watch. Its nice to know his gross motor skills are ahead of the curve!
I, of course, told the doctor that we were still breastfeeding a lot. For some reason, I expected to get chewed out and told that I needed to get him weaned, but I didn't. In fact, she complimented me on doing such an amazing job with breastfeeding. It was nice to hear, since I have doubts all the time about whether or not I'm doing the right thing by continuing. Maybe "right" isn't what I mean. I wonder whether I'm doing the appropriate thing. At some point breasts in the presence of a little boy becomes unacceptable. I just don't know what that point is. I wonder if I would be this worried about the appropriateness of long-term breastfeeding if I had a daughter?
And finally, when I told her about our new sleeping arrangement, she complimented me and Ben on our gentle approach to transitions with Finn. This was also appreciated since I am sure some people (our friends included) think us crazy - at best - for how we have chosen to parent Finn.
So, even though I am still not looking forward to his 18 month appointment and no one said he was smart, beautiful or perfect, I think we got enough positive feedback to make it worth all the drama of the day!
This appointment we finally didn't have any troubles with his weight. According to their 2000 CDC chart he has finally settled on the 20th percentile (according to my 2009 WHO chart he is, and has always been, in the 35th percentile), so for once I didn't get "the talk" about his weight. No, this time, even though I got lucky and we were between naps, he fell apart as I laid him down on the baby scale. That's the first thing we do. He wailed, screamed and shrieked for the entire rest of the appointment (which took an hour because he was so uncooperative).
It was such a disaster, it was almost comical. Since he wouldn't lay down on the baby scale, the nurse decided to weigh me holding him and then just weigh me and subtract. This was fine until I had to be weighed alone. He wouldn't let the nurse hold him so I had to put him down on the floor, stark naked, while I stepped on the scale. Sadly, there was no denying that the screaming, naked little boy running around the main hallway of the doctor's office was mine.
The nurse was never able to get his head circumference or check his pulse and the doctor was never able to listen to his heart and I had to hold him down in order for her to perform just a cursory exam. So, hopefully nothing's wrong with him, because there was no way that anyone was going to be able to find it. The doctor and I could barely hear each other over his wails. I ended up nursing him 3 times in my attempt to calm him down.
This was all before the shots! The nurse and I could barely restrain him. We probably could have used a third person. Its amazing how incredibly strong little toddlers can be when they're upset. I half wonder if Finn didn't remember the shots he had the last time he was at the doctors office and that's why he got so upset so early on in the appointment.
But there were good things too! Apparently, by 15 months they are supposed to be able to say at least 3 words. Since Finn can say Mama, Dada (Daddy), baby, no, and hi, we were good there. Its even more impressive since Ben speaks so much Norwegian to him. His doctor told me that speaking 2 languages in the home can delay language milestones by as much as 6 months. She recommended that to get the most benefit from the second language that I should try speaking it as much as possible as well. So today I got out my old Norwegian 101 book and began reading it to Finn and getting a refresher course on grammar and vocabulary in the process. At dinner Ben and I tried to speak only in Norwegian. I did pretty well, considering its been nearly 10 years since I last took a class!
I discovered that Finn is a very confident walker, because according to his doctor, toddlers don't usually start walking backward until 18 months, and he just started walking backward this week. He looks like he's doing a Michael Jackson dance move and it is just one of the cutest things to watch. Its nice to know his gross motor skills are ahead of the curve!
I, of course, told the doctor that we were still breastfeeding a lot. For some reason, I expected to get chewed out and told that I needed to get him weaned, but I didn't. In fact, she complimented me on doing such an amazing job with breastfeeding. It was nice to hear, since I have doubts all the time about whether or not I'm doing the right thing by continuing. Maybe "right" isn't what I mean. I wonder whether I'm doing the appropriate thing. At some point breasts in the presence of a little boy becomes unacceptable. I just don't know what that point is. I wonder if I would be this worried about the appropriateness of long-term breastfeeding if I had a daughter?
And finally, when I told her about our new sleeping arrangement, she complimented me and Ben on our gentle approach to transitions with Finn. This was also appreciated since I am sure some people (our friends included) think us crazy - at best - for how we have chosen to parent Finn.
So, even though I am still not looking forward to his 18 month appointment and no one said he was smart, beautiful or perfect, I think we got enough positive feedback to make it worth all the drama of the day!
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
"No!"
It has arrived. Finn has started to say "no." He and I went out to lunch just the two of us yesterday. He's not a very attentive date. I was trying to pop food into his mouth as his head was whipping around every which way, trying to look at all the other diners simultaneously. I was trying to get one more bite in him and his mouth was evading me. I said, "Do you want one more bite?" He shook his head "no." "No?" I asked. He continued to shake his head and said, "No!" <sigh> I can't say as I'm looking forward to this phase.
I think he is understanding more and more of what we say, but that only means that he is becoming increasingly frustrated when he can't communicate what he wants. This evening he was pointing straight at me while he was in his highchair. I offered him several things, each of which was met with a shake of his head and a frustrated whine. Finally I said, "I don't understand what you want." To which Finn responded with violent head shakes and a scream. This boy needs to learn to speak in full sentences quickly!
I was giving him a bath this evening. Usually, Ben prepares the bath while I prepare the boy, but this evening it was just me, so I started the water, got the boy naked and then let him run around the bathroom while I made sure the water was an even temperature. Then suddenly, SPLASH! Finn threw the bathroom scale into the tub from behind me. He thought that was great fun, despite my stern admonishment. Just wait, soon I will be fishing things out of the toilet!
We have been trying to get Finn to clap for months. He likes to watch us clap, have us clap his hands, even clap our hands for us, but he will not clap his own hands. Of course this is one of those major developmental milestones that, even though I know there is nothing wrong with him, annoys me that he hasn't done it "on time." This evening, Ben was sliding packages of diapers across the floor to smack into other packages of diapers, which Finn was finding truly exciting. I was sitting on the couch and clapping and Finn started waving both hands at me and then brought them together once. I got all excited and started clapping for everything. Finn would wave at me every time I clapped (kind of like the had wave that deaf people use as the sign for applause). And one time during all that clapping and hand waving I saw him bring his hands together several times. Finally! I think I'm going to call it good and say that he now can clap. Nothing to worry about now until the 18-24 month milestones!
I think he is understanding more and more of what we say, but that only means that he is becoming increasingly frustrated when he can't communicate what he wants. This evening he was pointing straight at me while he was in his highchair. I offered him several things, each of which was met with a shake of his head and a frustrated whine. Finally I said, "I don't understand what you want." To which Finn responded with violent head shakes and a scream. This boy needs to learn to speak in full sentences quickly!
I was giving him a bath this evening. Usually, Ben prepares the bath while I prepare the boy, but this evening it was just me, so I started the water, got the boy naked and then let him run around the bathroom while I made sure the water was an even temperature. Then suddenly, SPLASH! Finn threw the bathroom scale into the tub from behind me. He thought that was great fun, despite my stern admonishment. Just wait, soon I will be fishing things out of the toilet!
We have been trying to get Finn to clap for months. He likes to watch us clap, have us clap his hands, even clap our hands for us, but he will not clap his own hands. Of course this is one of those major developmental milestones that, even though I know there is nothing wrong with him, annoys me that he hasn't done it "on time." This evening, Ben was sliding packages of diapers across the floor to smack into other packages of diapers, which Finn was finding truly exciting. I was sitting on the couch and clapping and Finn started waving both hands at me and then brought them together once. I got all excited and started clapping for everything. Finn would wave at me every time I clapped (kind of like the had wave that deaf people use as the sign for applause). And one time during all that clapping and hand waving I saw him bring his hands together several times. Finally! I think I'm going to call it good and say that he now can clap. Nothing to worry about now until the 18-24 month milestones!
Friday, November 1, 2013
Seasons
A friend and I were talking about how our marriages were different now that we had babies - not bad-different, just different. She called it a "season." I really liked that idea - its much better than "this-thing-we're-going-through-right-now," which is how I usually thought of it.
This got me thinking about my life and my marriage in terms of seasons and it has given me some perspective.
Ben and I definitely started out with a long, lovely summer, living in a beautiful Rocky Mountain community, both of us enjoying our work, traveling internationally nearly every year, spending time with friends and family and engaging in plenty of activities that brought us joy and satisfaction.
Then came a time of change when we decided we were ready to have a baby. What should have been a peaceful autumn, quickly turned into a long winter as we dealt with infertility, a pregnancy that ended with a miscarriage, a move to a large city where we knew no one and had to work long hours at stressful - and in my case, miserable - jobs just to make ends meet, followed by more infertility.
Then we had new life in our home and I thought the long winter was finally over and spring had arrived at last. I had this beautiful baby boy, who was the realization of years of longing, and I felt that I should have been basking in the warmth and beauty of this new season, but I wasn't. It still felt like winter to me and every day was a struggle.
But I think I had forgotten what spring in the Rocky Mountains really means. Its nothing like spring in children's story books. In Montana, spring is just winter in its death throes. It is piles of old dirty snow and naked, lifeless trees. It means snow and rain and hail and sun all in the same day. There are 60 degree temperature swings within a few hours. And when you are coming out of a long winter, spring can feel like it will never end. But then one day you wake up and the snow and the mud have been replaced by a shimmering veil of green. And you realize that all through that seemingly endless picture of desolation, beneath the snow and the decaying leaves, life was struggling and fighting its way back to the surface.
Somehow, seeing this time in my life from this perspective makes me feel better. Spring isn't always sunshine and flowers and bunnies and rainbows. Sometimes its the slow casting off of a long winter. Layer by layer, the cold and the ugliness melt away and life and beauty patiently struggle up through the heavy burden of winter. And in the end, it is worth it.
Summer is coming, I can feel it. But for now, I'm going to be present for this season of my life and take it for what it is. I will likely have more summers, autumns, and even winters, but spring may never come again. If all goes well, I will only have one more baby in my lifetime. After that all the challenging and wonderful things about spring will come to an end. And I expect I shall be a jumble of happy and sad. Which is seems appropriate. Spring is warm and cold, gentle and fierce, happy and sad.
This got me thinking about my life and my marriage in terms of seasons and it has given me some perspective.
Ben and I definitely started out with a long, lovely summer, living in a beautiful Rocky Mountain community, both of us enjoying our work, traveling internationally nearly every year, spending time with friends and family and engaging in plenty of activities that brought us joy and satisfaction.
Then came a time of change when we decided we were ready to have a baby. What should have been a peaceful autumn, quickly turned into a long winter as we dealt with infertility, a pregnancy that ended with a miscarriage, a move to a large city where we knew no one and had to work long hours at stressful - and in my case, miserable - jobs just to make ends meet, followed by more infertility.
Then we had new life in our home and I thought the long winter was finally over and spring had arrived at last. I had this beautiful baby boy, who was the realization of years of longing, and I felt that I should have been basking in the warmth and beauty of this new season, but I wasn't. It still felt like winter to me and every day was a struggle.
But I think I had forgotten what spring in the Rocky Mountains really means. Its nothing like spring in children's story books. In Montana, spring is just winter in its death throes. It is piles of old dirty snow and naked, lifeless trees. It means snow and rain and hail and sun all in the same day. There are 60 degree temperature swings within a few hours. And when you are coming out of a long winter, spring can feel like it will never end. But then one day you wake up and the snow and the mud have been replaced by a shimmering veil of green. And you realize that all through that seemingly endless picture of desolation, beneath the snow and the decaying leaves, life was struggling and fighting its way back to the surface.
Somehow, seeing this time in my life from this perspective makes me feel better. Spring isn't always sunshine and flowers and bunnies and rainbows. Sometimes its the slow casting off of a long winter. Layer by layer, the cold and the ugliness melt away and life and beauty patiently struggle up through the heavy burden of winter. And in the end, it is worth it.
Summer is coming, I can feel it. But for now, I'm going to be present for this season of my life and take it for what it is. I will likely have more summers, autumns, and even winters, but spring may never come again. If all goes well, I will only have one more baby in my lifetime. After that all the challenging and wonderful things about spring will come to an end. And I expect I shall be a jumble of happy and sad. Which is seems appropriate. Spring is warm and cold, gentle and fierce, happy and sad.
All kinds of randomness
Today Finn went into the spare bedroom and started growling at the vacuum cleaner. He still gives it a wide berth, but he's getting more comfortable with it, so long as its not on. I'm not sure if he was growling to intimidate the vacuum, or mimicking the noise the vacuum makes, but it was really cute either way. Too bad he didn't growl last night when he had his Monster costume on.
He is jabbering more and more these days. I think some words are just around the corner. Today as I was changing his diaper, I commented that he was a "messy boy." Finn thought this was funny, so I repeated myself several times. A couple times while I was saying "messy boy" I heard him putting "m" and "s" sounds together. This is going to get fun!
After the diaper change, he spotted the IPad. He was looking at it very intently, but it was off, so I think what he saw was his reflection. Then all of the sudden he went in for a kiss. Yes, that's right, he started repeatedly kissing his reflection in the IPad screen. Since he seems to have the kiss down, I'll have to start trying to get him to kiss Mommy and Daddy, so that by Christmas it will be one big Kiss-fest for Grandma and Grandpa!
Later he accomplished the feat of climbing onto the couch unassisted by starting in his toy box, climbing on to the piano bench and then crawling onto the couch. There he sat, quite pleased with himself for 10 minutes while playing with the remotes. This would have been just fine, but then he decided to take his climbing skills to the next level and tried to climb onto the piano and since it is a short trip from there to falling out the window, I had to holler at him, remove him from the situation, and deal with the temper tantrum that followed.
After lunch we went to Mission Bay for a walk (I even ran full out 4 times for a minute or less, which was actually pretty exhilarating for me and I'm pretty sure Finn thought he was flying at warp speed) and then when were were all done, we went and played on the playground. For Finn this means walking around on the pavement and completely ignoring the play equipment, but he'll figure it out eventually. I did finally take him over to one set-up that was just his size with no stairs but a ramp instead that he could run up and down. I think he enjoyed it because when I tried to take him back to the car, he threw a fit.
Since he wasn't too tired out after our playtime, we went to Costco and there he got called a girl and a snob by the old man who walks up and down Moraga Ave with his wife 12 times a day. I'm not sure why he thought Finn was a girl, but apparently, because Finn was trying to hide from the old man and not looking at him, that made Finn a snob. I'm discovering that old people and babies are an awkward combination.
He is jabbering more and more these days. I think some words are just around the corner. Today as I was changing his diaper, I commented that he was a "messy boy." Finn thought this was funny, so I repeated myself several times. A couple times while I was saying "messy boy" I heard him putting "m" and "s" sounds together. This is going to get fun!
After the diaper change, he spotted the IPad. He was looking at it very intently, but it was off, so I think what he saw was his reflection. Then all of the sudden he went in for a kiss. Yes, that's right, he started repeatedly kissing his reflection in the IPad screen. Since he seems to have the kiss down, I'll have to start trying to get him to kiss Mommy and Daddy, so that by Christmas it will be one big Kiss-fest for Grandma and Grandpa!
Later he accomplished the feat of climbing onto the couch unassisted by starting in his toy box, climbing on to the piano bench and then crawling onto the couch. There he sat, quite pleased with himself for 10 minutes while playing with the remotes. This would have been just fine, but then he decided to take his climbing skills to the next level and tried to climb onto the piano and since it is a short trip from there to falling out the window, I had to holler at him, remove him from the situation, and deal with the temper tantrum that followed.
After lunch we went to Mission Bay for a walk (I even ran full out 4 times for a minute or less, which was actually pretty exhilarating for me and I'm pretty sure Finn thought he was flying at warp speed) and then when were were all done, we went and played on the playground. For Finn this means walking around on the pavement and completely ignoring the play equipment, but he'll figure it out eventually. I did finally take him over to one set-up that was just his size with no stairs but a ramp instead that he could run up and down. I think he enjoyed it because when I tried to take him back to the car, he threw a fit.
Since he wasn't too tired out after our playtime, we went to Costco and there he got called a girl and a snob by the old man who walks up and down Moraga Ave with his wife 12 times a day. I'm not sure why he thought Finn was a girl, but apparently, because Finn was trying to hide from the old man and not looking at him, that made Finn a snob. I'm discovering that old people and babies are an awkward combination.
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