We never know what’s really going to tickle Finn’s funnybone. In this video, turns out that fake yawning and tugs-of-war over a plastic donut were just the ticket!
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Ponch n’ Mom
Thanks to the generosity of our pals Adolfo & Romina from Buenos Aires + a recent cold snap here, Finnegan is one guapo gaucho these days, cutting a rakish little figure in the handsome poncho Romina’s mom knit for him. Tonight he posed for a few shots with Mom (HTML) before going on another walking spree. In some of the later shots I think he looks pretty serious, like some kind of Jedi knight (see side-by-side comparison) trying to use the Force on ol’ Dad. (“Those *are* the Cheerios you’re looking for…”.)
If you click through to the end you’ll get a preview of another hand-knit marvel–but that deserves an entry and gallery of its own. 🙂
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Adventures In Thanksgiving
We sure had a lot of fun this Thanksgiving weekend! My folks (the Jeeps L) were in town to pay a visit to our man Finny. As you can see in the accompanying photos (HTML), good times were had by all. Finn gave a hearty thumbs up to all the Thanksgiving fare–he’s a big fan of the stuffing, mashed potatoes, turkey, and especially the pumpkin pie. He actually got a bit huffy when Grandpa or I was a little slow on delivering the spoonfuls of delicious pie to his mouth.
In addition to tons of smiles, laughs, and general good times, the Jeeps were lucky enough to witness Finny’s first unassisted steps! On Saturday and Sunday he had a few short sprints of three to six steps all on his own. Very impressive, and he met our bet that he’d be walking by 9 months.
Finn’s quite a charmer when it comes to his grandparents, and we can’t wait for him to see his other set of Jeeps (the Nacks) when they come after Christmas.
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El Segundo
We have happy news–we are expecting baby #2 in early July! We visited the doc last week for an ultrasound, which helped pinpoint exactly how far along I am. I’m now 8 and a half weeks along, and the estimated due date is July 7, 2009. So Finn’s got a sibling on the way, and we could not be happier!
Little Finno makes it easy to imagine another addition to our family–we love him so much and have such good times together, we can’t wait to have another kiddo to share in the fun. While my folks were here, my dad coined the phrase “El Segundo” for baby #2, so until we know our baby’s gender and start tossing around names, El Segundo it is :).
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Fab Five Finny!
Tonight there’s gonna be a jailbreak
Somewhere in this house…
The Finnfatha is officially on the move! Our little guy didn’t settle for taking just a “first step.” (Nah, that weak sauce is for *babies*! ;-)) On Wednesday he let rip with a full five steps in a row, right in front of his newly arrived “Jeeps” (the G(rand)P(arent)s Liggett). While I wouldn’t say he’s walking, exactly, he’s flying around the house at high speed, one-handing it with whatever parent/grandparent happens to be in tow. Finnegan Nack is officially a Squirrel Rampant!
So far his movements have been too fleeting to be caught on flim, so in the meantime I’ve uploaded evidence of his other new passion: mass consumption of Cheerios. Here’s a small gallery (HTML) Margot snapped the other day as Finno helped me power through a bowl.
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You Say Hello…
Every day with Finn brings new accomplishments. Just this morning, Finno started waving to us! John was waking him around the house, and when he saw me, I said “hi” and started waving, and Finn started waving back! It’s like a switch got flipped, because now he’s an unstoppable waver–waving hello at every opportunity. It’s a super cool new way of communicating!
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Finny the Scootcher
Finn is moving and grooving all over the house these days. He’s an avid scootcher, crawler, and cruising enthusiast. He’s mastered the ability to flip himself over from a sitting position to crawling mode, then he just takes off, scooting his way across the living/dining room. Once he reaches a parent, he’s all about grabbing on, hoisting his patoot up into the air, straightening his legs, and getting a little support to stand. Once he’s up, he’s off to the races–holding on one-handed to one of us, or cruising along the couch or coffee table. I think it’s officially time to get those baby gates up…independent locomotion can’t be far away!
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Mr. Dent
In Douglas Adams’ Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, protagonist Arthur Dent finds out he can fly, but he can only stay aloft as long as he’s not thinking about flying. The minute he realizes he’s flying and starts thinking that it’s impossible, that he shouldn’t be able to fly, etc., he comes crashing back to earth.
We’ve been calling Finny “Mr. Dent” this week because he’s in a very similar situation when it comes to standing up unassisted. If he’s focused on manipulating a toy in his hands, or is paying attention to someone nearby, he effortlessly stands still on his own for up to a few minutes…but as soon as he realizes what’s going on, he starts to wobble and teeter, ultimately landing on his (well padded) bottom. Every day he stands longer and longer, and has attempted to take unassisted steps. We think he’s thisclose to walking on his own!
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Bubble Beard
Finn’s bath tonight turned out inadvertantly super-sudsy. I must’ve gotten distracted while I was squirting in the soap! Our boy quickly turned into a snowy, sudsy-bearded baby as he started picking up the bubbles and trying to eat them. Hilarity, of course, ensued. 🙂
[He’s the C. Everett Koop of babies! –J.]
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Sunday in the Park with Clare
Last Sunday our pal Clare accompanied the three of us to the neighborhood park. In addition to helping squire Finno around, she put her pro photography skills to use, snapping some great shots. When we got home, she captured the Finnfatha enjoying a story with Mom (and wielding his hair brush like a mic). Here’s our gallery (HTML).
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The Return of Smilin’ Finn
I’m happy to report that Smilin’ Finn Nack is back in town. He’s been working really hard at crawling this week, and he’s graduated from constant frustration and immobility to happy, excited attempts at crawling across the room. I got some rubber floor mats that snap together, because I thought it would help him get some traction–the wood floor is too slippery! Apparently that did the trick–Finn’s been much more willing to flip over on his tummy and start scooching and crawling towards his toys or us.
It’s terrific to see him smile and get excited as he inches closer and closer. He has made such incredible progress this week! One nice side benefit is that he’s been working so hard he just wears himself out and sleeps like the dead during naps and at night.
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Tiny Bubbles
We recently let our living room go the way of Lawrence Welk, blowing bubbles everywhere. Bubble Boy Finn seemed to approve. 🙂
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Finnegan Nack, Male Model
I am
too darling for for my bib
too darling for for my bib
so darling in my crib…
Fashion icon Finn has been sporting all kinds of great duds lately. In our latest gallery (HTML), he starts out wearing a pair of shirts (one dinos, one lightning) given to Dad by a Web/clothing designer in San Francisco. He finishes up clad in the beautiful hand-knit sweater created by Great Aunt Judy.
Coming soon: Finn in an Argentine poncho. 🙂
We refer to our friend Maria as “Maria-upon-Hallmark” due to her employer (and to distinguish her from my boss Maria). As you might imagine, Maria (-upon-Hallmark) is a master card-sender, and she recently sent Finn a Candy Corn-infused greeting. I snapped a few frames of him opening it (HTML), while Margot captured him trying to feed it to me (one of his new tricks). A careful observer can see how much gnawing he’d done by that point. 🙂
Meanwhile Mom captured our flightless-but-cute buddy going on his very own March of the Penguin on Halloween:
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Get Up, Stand Up…
Our usual chuckling, happy-go-lucky Finn is on hiatus this week, replaced by serious, furrowed-brow working man Finn. He’s putting all of his energy into trying to crawl/walk. Yes, he’s trying to do both at the same time. Or maybe he’s really just trying to walk and we keep encouraging him to crawl. In any case, he’s none too happy about any of it. He has figured out how to push himself up (with a little boost from me, Dad, or the nanny) to standing, and therefore gets really angry if we refuse to play along and instead encourage him to try scooting on hands and knees.
In addition to working on physical skills, he’s mastered several new styles of what I call “advertisement crying.” This is the type of crying that isn’t really crying, it’s complaining, or trying to get your attention, or indicating that any further activity will be postponed until he gets a chance to boost himself up on you and then walk around. The histrionics are wearing us all a little thin, to be honest. Every day he gets a little closer to independent mobility, and every day he gets more frustrated that he’s not there yet. We know he’ll figure it out, we just wish he’d start crawling already!
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The Big Ocho
Today marks Der Finnster’s 8-month birthday. To celebrate (well, mostly coincidentally), he balanced on his feet unassisted for the first time! I had him up and tottering for a couple of seconds this morning, and this evening he was up for even longer. (I’d like to think it was for 8 seconds, a la bull riding. ;-))
In miscellaneous news, we’ve coined more Finn argot lately (building on the first installment from earlier in the year):
- Up up up, up up up…: Finn has lately discovered the concept of “Up,” and he’s waaaay into our fascinating light fixtures. Every morning when Margot gets him out of the crib, his eyes make a beeline for the lights (even when they’re off). I feel like this should all be in some book–Their Eyes Were Watching GE or something.
- ICAS: I’ve dubbed Finn’s little hooded PJ’s the “In-Crib Adventure Suit.”
- DipeCon: You know how the military has five DEFCON levels to denote the current security situation? We’ve implemented a “DipeCon” system to inform each other of… well, the condition of our friend’s pants. Probably enough said. (Call it “Threat Condition Brown.”)
- TEAR IT APART: This is what Finn will try to do with anything he can get into his clutches/mouth these days. He’s all about grabbing things (strings, leaves, napkins) and yanking them in opposite directions, ideally while holding them over his head. Where possible he lands some vicious blows with his 7 sharp teeth–great for ripping up little bits of rug while dad gets distracted. I keep imagining him saying, “Hey, that’s a great phone charger, Dad. Mind if I TEAR IT APART??”
- Toro Leg: Now that he’s found his feet, our buddy likes to paw at things (grass, fringe on carpet, etc.) before putting any weight on them.
P.S. We can now add another “ocho” to The Big Ocho. Another tooth, his 8th, just broke through. –Notorious M.O.M.
Today marks Finn’s first Halloween! Though he’s too young for candy, he’s definitely up for sporting a cute penguin costume and being strolled around town by his parents. All the shops along our neighborhood’s main street take part in a big Halloween trick-or-treat event, so we got Finn suited up and ready to show off. Margot strolled him down to Lincoln Ave., where they were met by at least a few thousand parents and their costumed children.
The orange Bob made a perfect penguinmobile, and they wove their way through sidewalks choked with pirates, Elmos, ladybugs, princesses, monkeys, lions, tigers, and bears–oh my! (There were even a couple of Dorothys and Scarecrows.) Our Finny was the only penguin on parade and got many compliments on his soft, fuzzy outfit. Margot and Finn ran into our friends Mira & Anja (dressed as a strawberry), and Heidi & Liam (a sock monkey). Here are some pics (HTML) from the day.
Soon we’ll be facing the onslaught of trick-or-treaters that descend on our neighborhood every year. We’re stocked with 400 pieces of candy, so hopefully no one will go home empty-handed!
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Stats for Enormo-Boy
From pediatrics.about.com:
“At 8 months: your child is 22.5 pounds, and that is at the 97th percentile for weight.
your child is 30 inches, and that is at greater than the 97th percentile for height.
your child has a head circumference of 18 inches, and that is at the 93th percentile for head circumference.”
RAAAWR!
“He is a two-and-a-half-foot, seven-toothed man-mountain,” says Dad, shaking his fist slowly with delight. 🙂
Meanwhile, and probably not coincidentally, Finn has taken to trying to climb up me while I hold him. Seeing him kicking at a bee today in the stroller, I was reminded of the mighty Kong swatting at planes!
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Let Me Stand Next To Your Squire
Loving wordplay as I do, I sometimes (okay, often) morph Finn’s nickname “squirrel” into “squire,” making him our little Squire. The other day I decided to learn what, exactly, a squire is and does (or did). According to Wikipedia, “The typical duties of a squire [i.e. things Dad will now expect of Finn] included:
- Carrying the knight’s dad’s armor, shield, and sword,
- Holding any prisoners the knight dad takes,
- Rescuing the knight dad should the knight dad be taken prisoner,
- Taking the knight dad to safety should the knight dad be injured,
- Replacing the knight’s dad’s sword if it broke or was dropped,
- Replacing the knight’s dad’s horse with a new horse or the squire’s should the horse be injured or killed,
- Dressing the knight dad in his armor,
- Carrying the knight’s dad’s flag,
- And protecting the knight dad if needed.”
Alright! I think I’m really going to get into having my own squire. 🙂
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Finn’s New Friends
This weekend, Finn made some new friends. John’s friend Abbas, from Adobe in Toronto, is in town with his wife Kaniz and their super-adorable daughter Samarah. Samarah was born 20 days after the Finnfatha, and Abbas is an avid blogger, so while Finn and I have seen Samarah and her parents in many pictures online, we hadn’t met them in the flesh! It was so fun for both families to meet–it was like a mutual admiration society of cute kids and their obsessive parental photo bloggers.
As you’ll see in the accompanying gallery (HTML), everyone was feeling a little feisty after lunch! Samarah makes the same “baby monster” growls that Finn does; they just come out a little cuter and pinker :). She also enjoys chomping on Abbas’s nose when it’s nearby. Abbas and Finn were also cracking each other up. Between the two of them it was a dimple jamboree!