Dad and Finn have been trying to get to the barber for a haircut for two Saturdays now, but between swim lessons, meals, and nap time, it’s hard to get to the shop before closing time at 4 p.m. Both Finn and Dad were getting pretty weedy so we were really hoping to get it taken care of today! We thought we’d missed the boat again this afternoon, since Finn didn’t finish his post-nap bottle until 4:10, but we decided to go ahead and go out for a walk, a cup of frozen yogurt our goal instead of haircuts.
The great thing about having a neighborhood barber is that if you’re lucky, they just might be hanging out by the front door chatting with some passers-by after closing time. So by the time we rolled by at about 4:30, Tom the Barber was still there, and we asked him if we could get Finny’s haircut (oh, and Dad’s too). He was super nice about it, and so both my guys got trimmed up.
Finn sat on my lap, and was very calm during his haircut–he was interested in the snipping sounds and someone tugging at his locks, but he didn’t freak out at all. He even got a little “First Haircut” certificate to take home. He got a little freaked watching Tom go after Dad with the clippers and scissors, but soon figured out that Dad wasn’t in peril! Here are a few pics (HTML) from our trip to the tonsorial parlor. Our thanks to Tom for staying open late to take on a couple of scrappy-looking guys!
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Finnegan y Las Muchachas
Our friends Tom and Sarah are expecting a little girl in March, and Tom has made it very clear that Finn (and the forthcoming little Miles Hughes) better watch his step around the little lady. No funny business or gettin’ fresh, if you catch my drift!
The three of us attended Tom and Sarah’s baby shower last weekend, and we just happened to find the perfect little T-shirt for Finny to sport to the party. It was only available in Spanish, so we had to translate…it says “Lock up Your Daughters.” (Here’s a bigger version.) With Finn’s big blue eyes and killer dimple, we think Tom’s the one who should mind his daughter…Finn’s going to have to fend off her inevitable advances :-).
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Oh Brother, Here Art Thou!
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]
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Going to Eleven
Today marks Finno’s 11-month birthday! Which means we only have one more month until his
He is such a happy tot, and gives us plenty of reasons to smile. Three cheers for taking it to 11!
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20,000 Microns Under the Sea
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).
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Mo’ Betta Babyslang
In our continued efforts to make ourselves intelligible to the outside world, Margot and I have rounded up & explained some of the recent nonsense we’ve coined:
- PEP — Paternal Exhaustion Plan: Describes the now-nightly roughhousing Finn and I do before bathtime & bed. Gotta get that little sucker good and tired!
- SCS — Second-Chance Snax: Finn is our little goat, scavenging all manner of fallen Cheerios and other chow-shrapnel from the area under his high chair.
- Queso al Suelo — Literally “Floor Cheese,” but doesn’t it sound more sophisticated?
- Bobs — Short for “bottles”. Can be used as a verb, as in “Do you want to bob-up Finn?”
- Greet’ems — As in, “Finny’s awake. Do you want to do greet’ems?” It’s a corruption of “Greedums,” which I sometimes label Margot when she’s not sharing food, etc. (“I’m never greedy! You’re the greedy one!” she protests.)
- Dirty Dipes (Done Dirt Cheap) — Kinda self-explanatory, and sung to an AC/DC riff
- Finny Scent: Closely related to the previous item, and a play on the name of the rapper 50 Cent (“Fitty Cent”).
- Kickandalo — Our fake-Spanish way of saying “Kickin’ it,” aka “Partying”
Q. What’s more fun than bath time?
A. Not too much! 🙂
We recently snapped a few frames of our little trio partying in the tub (HTML). The only problem is that Finno is a little too fond of gulping down the suds. (You can see him planting his face into a pile on Mom’s hand.)
On a related note, Finn has really been enjoying the tub toys his Nack GrandP’s brought out at Christmas, and during their visit we captured him taking them for a swim:
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The Mom n’ Finn Splashdown
Yesterday was swim class #2 (actually #3, but we missed last week’s due to illness) with our Finno the Minnow. This time I got to get in the pool with the Squirrel and splash around. Man, that pool is nothing if not warm and relaxing. Finn was kind of getting tired before we even got there, and all that warm water got him super relaxed. He was totally mellow and kind of limp in the pool, so I did most of the work! I think swim class is more strenuous for the parent than for the kid, but totally fun nonetheless. By the time we dried off and got home, Finn was a major space cadet, and ended up sleeping for more than 2 hours.
Here’s a little gallery (HTML) from our afternoon.
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“Oh Oh Oh!”
What a day for our little Finnster–and all of us–to be alive. 🙂 The small guy watched this morning’s proceedings with Margot and me, waving (rather randomly) at the crowds on TV.
Lately he’s been more and more vocal, saying “Ooh Ooh Ooh!” when we point out the monkey among his little jungle pals, and exclaiming “Oh!” pretty much constantly. We tried today to get him to say “BaMa,” figuring we could then get “Oh BaMa” from him–but it wasn’t to be. But hey, we’re still working on “MaMa,” and right now Finn calls both me and Margot “DaDa.” I now refer to her as “Lady DaDa.” 😉
Oh, and I almost forgot to mention: Today Finn learned to high-five! He must have picked it up from us, as we were doing it constantly.
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Nacks Are Back!
(sung to the tune of “Back In Black”)
I’m pleased to say that all three of us are back in fighting trim (or in Finn’s case, chattering/laughing trim)! Despite all the nastiness of Thursday and Friday, our little dude was a great patient, never becoming a pill or a pain–and this despite teething. Poor Margot got the worst of the bug, I think, still feeling bad until this morning, but she too is better.
Friends with kids tell us, “Get used to it,” and I’m sure they’re right. The irony here is that if we hadn’t been concerned about Finn’s ear (teething), we would’ve skipped the doctor visit and thus maybe the whole ordeal! Ah well; it certainly renews one’s appreciation for good health, and for a groovy kid who can roll with the punches.
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Vesuvian Stylings
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.
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Sunday in the Park with Jim
My dad & I accompanied Finno to the park near our house during their visit for a little quality time with the swings, not to mention the *delicious* woodchips :-). Here’s The Swinging Nut-Quest:
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The Rapscallion Stallion!
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!).
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Finno the Minnow
Well, maybe not a minnow…Today was Finn’s first swim lesson, and he’s in the youngest age group, the Polliwogs. I had a feeling Finn would enjoy being in the pool since he likes the bath so much, and he sure did. John was on pool-buddy duty since I need to scare up a maternity suit, and both my guys had a lot of fun. Finn got to try out floating, kicking, paddling with arms, and getting swooped around in different directions in the water. Here’s a little gallery (HTML) of pics from our afternoon.
There were about 5 other kid/parent combos in the class and all the tots really seemed to be enjoying themselves. Of course, there were at least 5 parents (and maybe some grandparents) with me on the sidelines, taking videos and pictures. We were all bowled over by the high degree of cuteness emanating from the pool 😀
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Finnysmooch!
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).
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Penguin-upon-Mouth
Finn now recognizes the word “penguin” (an important skill around our house), and he’s been having a ball with a new little stuffed buddy. In this video clip, Finno forcefully answers Grandpa’s question of whether he’s still sticking everything into his mouth. 🙂
Finn turned 10 months old on Friday, Jan 2. In honor of this milestone, we present the following top 10 list.
10. A budding imagination!
9. Dancing to music
8. Light fixture symphonies courtesy of our chandeliers, a pencil or spoon handle, and Dad
7. Recognizing words and phrases
6. Saying Da Da Da Da!
5. Walking walking walking
4. Laughing uncontrollably while being flipped upside down by Dad
3. Laughing in response to Mom and Dad making stuffed animals “talk”
2. Emptying containers of all kinds–drawers, toy bins, the Goldfish cracker container
1. Remembering where Mom hid the aforementioned container of Goldfish crackers!
Happy New Year, everyone! We took a little hiatus from blogging while my folks were in town from New Year’s Eve ’til today. They’d originally planned to come out on Dec. 26th, but their flight from Chicago was grounded by bad weather. Undeterred, they trekked out a couple of days later with a big bag of loot for the Finnmaster.
We all had a ball together, and as you can see in the photo gallery* (HTML), we played some hide-and-seek, showed Finn himself (and the Dalai Lama!), partied in the tub, went back to the farm, and more. It was terrific to have a couple seasoned pairs of eyes helping look after the little guy & giving Margot & me the chance to have a few nights out to ourselves. Sometimes it’s nice to say, “Oh, wait, we’re not just parents!” 🙂
We recorded a few video clips, too, so I hope to post a short highlight reel soon.
* Because the gallery is a bit bigger than usual, I had to use numerals instead of thumbnail images at the bottom. As usual you can move to the next image by hitting the “+” icon at right, and/or press the little triangular button to start the slideshow.
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Finny Farm
Needing some fresh air today, Margot and I decided to help Finn get a tiny bit closer to his Illinois roots, visiting a little farm and getting (but not eating) some dirt under his fingernails. (We can’t have him thinking that there’s no more to farms than Fisher Price!)
Unfortunately the farm was closed on Mondays, but we had fun bombing around the grounds and looking at the animals through/over the fence. Weather has delayed my folks’ visit, so maybe we can return with them for some more hands-on time with the sheep, cows, and other creatures. In the meantime, here’s a little gallery (HTML) from today’s adventure.
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Charge of the Light Brigade
A couple of months ago, Finn got waaay into checking out light fixtures around the house. Each morning we’d reach for him in the crib, and his first move would be to look up, up, up at the bulbs in his room. After maybe a week of this, he lost interest.
Now, however, he’s rekindled the crazy passion, in a huge sort of way. Not only does he start the day by looking and pointing at the lights; that’s how he finishes, too. He’s constantly begging to be lifted to check out the lights at closer range, and his little circuits of downstairs seem like luminary tours.
I’ve discovered that tapping the various fixtures produces all kinds of different tones, much like playing half-full wine glasses (who knew??), so Finn and I now like to tap them together. I was impressed that after I used a camera lens cap to do some tapping, he later reached for the same cap and gestured upwards.
Boy, as I write all this, I keep thinking, “Man have we turned into navel-gazing parents or what?? This must be the most boring topic ever!” Yet the whole thing really is kind of bizarrely fascinating. 🙂 Check out this mini gallery (HTML) that Margot snapped today.