Author: The Notorious M.O.M.

Finno is working *so* hard on talking these days, and is making new sounds all the time. Yesterday he picked up “Neh” for “Neigh” when we were looking at pictures of horses, and we could’ve sworn tonight we heard him say “Leo” when we put him to bed with his little lion-blankie-buddy we call Leo.
Probably the most fun verbal development by far was when Finn walked into the kitchen today, looked at Carol, and said “Nack!” while gesturing towards his high chair. We took this to mean “snack”, since that’s where he sits to eat his goldfish crackers, “(ba)nanas”, and the like :-). The boy does love his “nacks”.
[The funny thing is that for years my friends have laughed when they search for my name in the company directory and get back the hours for the company snack bar. Now Finny is getting in on that action. 🙂 –J.]

Mr. Finn’s been working awfully hard at saying words these past couple of weeks, and we’re happy to report that he’s starting to make some progress! Here is his current vocab list:

• Down!: where Finny looks longingly after he drops his food over the side of his chair.
• Yeah: in response to anything that sounds like a question. (Undoubtedly this will switch to “No” at some point all too soon!)
• Good-a-Good-a-Good-a-Good: not really associated with anything specific, but he sure likes to say it!
• Duck, Moo, Arf Arf Arf, and Roar!

[And hey, let’s not forget “Da Da!” He’s much more purposeful in saying it, and other day he greeted me with a simple and direct “Dad!!” How terrific is that? 🙂 –J.]

Finny is definitely a physical little boy! He’s so intrigued by mastering new skills, and so observant of adults as we go about our business. For instance, Finn wants to walk up the stairs big-guy style–just one foot in front of the other, hoisting himself up the stairs while standing the whole time…no crawling and belly-flopping for this guy! I think he sees us go up the stairs and thinks “I can do that, too!”. So John and I hold his hands and help lift him to the next step once he gets his foot planted.
He’s also decided to master clapping this week. Just out-of-the-blue started clapping all by himself! And he’s also mastered his “seafood casino” toy–which entails pushing a big purple button to get little spinners (covered with fish illustrations) rolling–something that takes quite a bit of coordination and has heretofore stymied our boy.
Probably the most fun thing he’s been doing is self-initiated peek-a-boo. Tonight he repeatedly positioned himself behind the door frame, slowly peeked around the edge so dad could get a look at him, then slowly edged back behind the wall again. Quite the little show!

This is our first Valentine’s Day with Finnegan, and we both agree that he really puts the L-O-V-E into the day. And speaking of first Valentine’s Days, our good friends Alex and Bryan Hughes welcomed their son Miles into the world this morning at 12:17a.m., making this V.D. the best one ever for the Hughes family :D. We are going to the hospital this afternoon to meet little Miles and bring some treats to Alex (who labored throughout the day yesterday, and into the night) and Bryan to celebrate.
So it’s a big, happy, love-filled, heartwarming day all around. Finn’s enjoying the cards and little gifts he’s received from Auntie Laura & Family, and both sets of grandparents. We (Mom and Dad, that is) have a dinner date tonight, so Carol will babysit her young Valentine while we go out. Much love to you and yours!
[Update: Here are some photos (one, two, and three) of darling little Miles. We had a great time visiting with the new fam yesterday & fortifying them with brownies. –J.]
[Update two: And Here’s me with Miles. 🙂

Big news today–Finn’s going to have a little brother! We had our 18-week ultrasound this afternoon, and got to see our little guy for the first time. We’re super-excited, of course, and can’t wait to meet him in July! Now comes the hard part–thinking of a name! It took us quite a while to come up with, and then settle on Finnegan, so we’ve got another big challenge on our hands.
Here are some shots of El Segundo (HTML), who looks perfect and healthy, and who’s currently weighing in at about 1/2 lb. He’s got a long way to go to catch up to his (ever-bigger) big brother, who just hit the 26.5 lb. mark.
[Oh man, it’s all too wonderful. 😀 I can’t believe that we can watch our little bambino just hanging out, doing the backstroke, hiccuping, and more. Man, and to think that a year ago our wild, romping, cackling Finnster was not too different! Excuse me while my heart just explodes…! <:-) --Dad]

Another weekend, another swim class for Mr. Finn. This week, no-holds barred head underwater dunking!
We’ve been making baby steps towards a full-face dunk each week, getting him used to splashing, then getting mouth and nose wet, and finally a few quick dunks underwater. He did great! To get the babies comfortable with the whole situation, the parents go underwater first then pop up and smile, and when it’s the babies’ turn, we sing a song, swish them back and forth (heads up, of course), then a quick blow of air on their faces and under they go. The breath on their face startles them a bit and they suck in their breath right before going under. There was only one instance where Finny swallowed some water and spit it right back out like a cherub from a baroque fountain. He seemed to enjoy himself even more this week than in the past, so we think swim class was definitely a good move.
The rest of the weekend was spent charming the guests at our friends’ baby shower, and then wrapping things up with tons of Dad-led horseplay and what John likes to call “inversion therapy” (flipping a chortling Finn upside down).

I won’t go into great detail, but I will say we are currently struggling our way through our first Nack family Norovirus siege. I think Finny and I must’ve picked up a bug when we were at the doctor’s office the other day for his ears, because yesterday we awoke to find that Finn had thrown up in his crib (blaaaaargh) sometime in the night. We mopped him up and everything seemed fine, no further issues.
Until last night, that is. That’s when it got really ugly around here. Both John and I started feeling awful around 9:30pm, and from then on it was a race to either the bathroom or the kitchen sink. All. Night. Long. Thankfully John kept it together long enough to race to Walgreens and get Gatorade and Pepto Bismol. We got very little sleep and have felt awful all day long. Finn slept through the whole ordeal and seemed to be doing fine until about 3 p.m. today, when he barfed himself awake from his nap :(. We’ve spent the rest of the evening trying to keep him cleaned up and drinking Pedialyte (he could not be less interested). Right now he’s in bed, and fingers crossed, we’ll have an uneventful evening. But I’m not counting on it.
Yeesh. We’re looking forward to getting over this bug! I’m buying stock in Clorox and Tide.

We now have official confirmation that Finno is an Advanced Super Baby(TM)! I took him to the pediatrician today, because I was worried he might have an ear infection. He’s been tugging on his left ear a lot, and sticking his finger way back into his mouth and chewing on it. All the nurses and Dr. S were shocked to see our man toddling around on his own at only 10 months. The doc said it was the earliest she’d seen a little boy walk! She was also pretty impressed with his pointing and waving skills.
In addition, turns out he doesn’t have an ear infection: he’s teething again, this time on his 1-year molars! The doc said he’s super early on molars as well as walking! And he’s doing even more proto-speaking, so we expect to be filling out college applications in the next month or so (KIDDING! Only kidding!).

I think we’ve mentioned that Finn’s starting to recognize words and phrases, and we’re having a lot of fun asking him to “kiss” his stuffed animals. For Finny, a “kiss” is really just leaning into the stuffed animal with mouth agape and pressing his face against it. It’s very sweet to watch, even though he hasn’t really mastered the pucker yet :).
He hasn’t really started saying words, although the one thing he will say, much to my chagrin, over and over, is “Dada!” or “da da DADADADA!!!” I ask him to say “Mama”, but he won’t really go for it…But even though Finn may not humor me by saying “Mama” very often (ok, *ever*), today he did something even better! We were playing around with his stuffed penguin, and after I asked him to kiss it, I said “Will Finny kiss Mommy?” And reader, he DID! Right on the cheek! Woohoo!!! He did it twice in a row (second time on my shoulder, not my face, but hey–beggars can’t be choosers, knowwhati’msaying?).
Pretty great stuff. It totally made my day! I am really looking forward to more Finny smooches.Oh, and maybe the best part is that when John asked Finny for a smooch, it was no dice ;-} (heh heh).

For the past several weeks, Finn has been less and less interested in, and more and more distracted while, nursing. It was starting to seem like he wasn’t getting very much to drink, and I was concerned that in addition, my supply was starting to dwindle due to his reduced demand. I have also heard that pregnancy can affect the amount of milk your body can produce, and that it can also change the flavor, so your nursing baby may not like the taste anymore.
So, since Finny seemed to be starting the weaning process, I decided that we might as well go all the way, and transition him to formula for the few remaining months prior to his first birthday, when we’ll transition him to plain ol’ milk.
I was worried that the weaning process would be difficult, painful, and depressing. Thankfully it has not really been any of those things. We took it slow, over about 3 weeks. It went remarkably well for both Finny and me, and I have only had a couple painful episodes. Finn took a few days to warm up to formula, but now he’s pretty darn excited when he sees the bottle coming his way. Oh, and neither of us seems very depressed at all :D.
In fact, I sort of feel emancipated, in a weird way. Being able to share bottle duty with John is great. Now I get to read the bedtime stories while John holds Finn and the bottle! Being able to wear whatever shirts I want, without having to consider how well they’ll accommodate nursing, is also pretty terrific. It’s also far less emotional to give Finn bottles (in a good way, as trying to nurse a distracted/uninterested baby was a total drag). I think my body will appreciate the break between babies, as I do plan to nurse #2 as long as possible when he or she arrives. Maybe now I’ll have a little more horsepower to give to the bun in the oven!

Our little cowpoke’s spurs have been jinglin’ and janglin’. This week has been all about walking, walking, and more walking. Carol (our nanny) and I have been doing Squirrel relays with Finn walking back and forth between us independently–up to 15 or 20 steps at a time!
He’s also been pushing his little walking Radio Flyer wagon around the dining room and kitchen. He lapped the kitchen several times this afternoon while I made cookies and tried to avoid getting traumatic ankle injuries from the wagon. The wagon is great because it gives Finno something stable to hang onto, but enables him to walk around on his own–a real blessing to our lower backs. This means fewer wipeouts as Finn toddles around the house–always a good thing.
He’ll be motoring around 100% independently any day now, so it’s a good thing we’ve got all the baby gates up in advance!
[Click the image above for a larger version. –J. (the Photoshopper-in-Chief) ] Update: Thanks to Mark Beckelman for a little P-shop assist.