Finn's First Christmas ... in photos

On this New Year's Eve, here's a little video of our Christmas week (guest starring Nana, Grandma and Grandpa Barber, Aunt Heather, Cousins Bridget, Gigi and Ella, Beth, Emily and Paul, Great-Great Aunt Ruth, Great Aunts Jean, Susan and Shirley and Great Uncles Jeff and Jim).

[Apologies for the length to anyone that is not a grandparent! I'm uh, still working on my editing skills and will try to improve the resolution, too... I was just antsy to post this.]

Happy 2009, all.

new toy

YAY SOMETHING NEW TO CHEW!

provenance of the cheeks?

I love this picture of Andrew with his Great Uncle Bob Barber. This was taken while the family lived in Aberdeen, MD from July until the weekend before Thanksgiving 1972. Guessing from his size and amount of hair, it looks to me like he's just about Finn's age. It's always so fun trying to figure out who Finn looks like, since he sort of wavers between our two families (who look eerily similar) based on his expressions and moods. But it seems like his cheeks and nose are pretty Barber-esque...

We didn't take a photo of Finn eating his FIRST RICE CEREAL today -- mostly because I don't really get too excited about photos of babies eating but also because he at it so fast there was no time for messing around with any camera. Although he's a week shy of 5 months and the American Academy of blah blah blah recommends waiting til 6 months for solid food, we sort of figured after he started eating a kleenex yesterday that it was time for solids. Maybe between his new exercise routine (photos of jumparoo to come) and diet he'll start napping regularly? Ha!

oh sweet, sweet nap

We have so many great photos from Christmas to share that it will take me a couple of days to sort and post (we are probably heading back to New Haven tomorrow, so I'll get around to it Monday or so) but in the meantime, this photo of Finn asleep in Grandma's fluffy white robe should give you an idea of how relaxing our holiday has been!

merry christmas!

Mmm, bows! And ornaments! We are so excited for Finn's first Christmas and wanted to wish you a wonderful day with friends and family. Love to all of you from all of us.

snow day

Finn and Nana watching the snow come down down down.

little paratrooper

Our friend Emmeline gave us this jumper to borrow and Finn is almost big enough to recognize the awesome freedom that comes from springing off of the ground. We put him in it for the first time and the whole "jumping" thing didn't quite register, although our enthusiastic applause and laughter convinced him that he was doing something right. By mid-January i'm predicting that this will be his favorite activity.

kevin was here

Our totes awes friend, Kevin visited from nyc this week and I know that he won't talk to me anymore unless his photo goes up on the blog, so here it is (haha). It was super fun to see him and Finn was totally taken with his hair! It's sort of hard to see the onesie that Finn has on but it has a monkey on it and looks really nice with his eyes. Thanks again, Kev!

We have had a lot of activity this week so I need to get up to speed and post some more photos. I have no excuse as we've been snowed in for a second day now ... yesterday we got like a foot of snow and it was fun to watch Finn looking out the window. We hope that it's a little bit warmer tomorrow so that we can put his snowsuit on and go make tiny snow angels in the park.

4-month checkup

Today we went to see Dr. Dorfman for Finn's checkup. I wasn't quite sure what to expect when we put him on the scale, but was still surprised to learn that at 15 lbs. 5 oz. he's still in the 50th percentile. He's almost 26" long so his length and head circumference are both in the 75th percentile. Of course we think he's just about perfect. I'm attaching another more recent bathtub photo to demonstrate how he's almost grown out of his blue bathtub. Could one of you recommend what we should do next to accommodate his bathtime? I'm considering buying this ... I really have no idea.

Finn sleeps through the night like a champ but wavers between waking up at 5:30 and 7:30 am. One just never knows. At least even at 5:30 am he's all smiles, which makes it a lot easier to get out of bed.

Nana (my mom) arrived tonight and we're looking forward to having her with us for the next few weeks. How is it possible that Christmas is a week from tomorrow?

more fun visitors!

Our friends Christian and Chong-Lim visited from Brooklyn this weekend. Although I was negligent in taking photos of them, Christian took these awesome videos anyway. He's a pretty skilled dude, that Christian.

I mean seriously - how cute is that.
This second one is also adorable. Andrew looks a little glum but I think he was just super hungry.


Thanks again for visiting us, you two!
PS. Sorry I don't know how to edit HTML!

this week

That's Finn in the brown pants. His friend Elliott is in blue.

Finn with his friend Emelia

This week has been so busy, I'm not sure where the time went! One day, Finn slept til 7 AM and then took 3 decent naps so I was able to wrap Christmas presents. That was fun. We are still trying to get the nap routine down, as well as learn to roll over before leaving for Waverly in a week and a half. Nana arrives next week so perhaps she will be able to assist with that effort.

These photos are from my friend Kate, taken at our last yoga class. We miss yoga! But we're looking forward to the holidays and seeing a bunch more friends and relatives in the next few weeks.

push-ups

HEY, THIS IS PRETTY COOL

I'M EXHAUSTED!

Grandma Barber sent this nifty toy with a mirror (above) that Finn can look at when he does his tummy time/push-ups (he's getting better every day!) No sign of any turning over yet, though. After approx. 3 minutes of exercise he flops down and gets back to the all-important business of hand-eating.

brrrrrr!

Yesterday, we woke up to this!

... so I was really glad that Finn had a fleece hat WITH EARS all ready to wear! 

(thanks again, Marna!)

Granddad visits!

My dad was here from Nebraska this weekend to meet Finn and discover the joys of Connecticut, and we had a great time! (As is witnessed by Finn's big smile). We went to some great restaurants and did a little bit of shopping but mostly just hung out, which was awesome. Thanks for visiting, Granddad - we are looking forward to seeing you this spring in the Midwest!

more on the nap front.

Finn and I did a lot of running around today ... took a walk and got coffee with Marna (he napped) and then ran to several stores to do some holiday shopping -- during which Finn drank a bottle in the parking lot of a store called Vinny's Garden Center and Holiday Wonderland, which is certainly not the type of establishment we typically patronize. We also went to Target, which Finn knows so well by now, he probably thinks it's our weekend home. 

(He also napped on the ride home! And he's napping now! 3 wee naps in 1 day, after he slept from 8 pm to 7 am this morning. I think that's good.)

Now that we're not getting as much Vitamin D as we did a few weeks ago, we're supposed to give Finn a vitamin supplement. So I bought the stuff at CVS and intended to give his first dose today, until I opened the bottle and smelled the stuff. It looks like a tonic that would have been applied to a wound in the 1940s. I took a small taste and it was totally disgusting. How on earth is one supposed to get babies to swallow this stuff? Or is this bottle from a bad batch? The expiration date is "MARCH10" but maybe that means "March 1910", or "March 10, 1990". If anyone knows about baby vitamins and has advice, I welcome your thoughts.

Meanwhile, this is a photo of Finn from last week after his walk with Grandma, as we've just been too darn busy getting ready for Christmas to take any new photos this week! For shame, I know. Especially since that getting ready for Christmas part is a lie. My dad arrives from Nebraska tomorrow so we'll have some good photo ops this weekend. 

finn and uncle chuck

They say that Andrew bears some resemblance to his Uncle Chuck, so it's hardly any surprise that Finn looks related too, no? Chuck seemed to have the magic touch last week when he stopped by and rocked Finn to sleep ... as you know, that doesn't happen very often during the day!