Christmas!

Stockings hung by the chimney...

Oh Santa, I've been soooo good!

Just a little bit excited about his new Ikea kitchen!
(which he has spotted and is running toward...)

New bike=also awesome.

Giving a cuddle to Mr. Foster, his beautiful sock monkey from Auntie Ann.

So many things to cook, where to begin?!

Not fully understanding that the dog-shaped vacuum isn't actually a dog.
(We should have just bought him a little dustbuster!)

Finn LOVES his new bell ornament!

All dressed up for Christmas dinner (yum!)

Finn and Daddy relaxing before dinner.
What a great day! Thank you everyone for the beautiful presents :)

holiday bath

If you're checking Finn's blog you are most likely waiting for me to post some holiday photos, which I will do - promise - as soon as I've finished editing them!! In the meantime, please enjoy this moment of bathtub zen. Our new/old bathtub is the BEST.

Christmas Eve Eve

new truck from cousin Massi!!
(spotted on my way to find the wrapping paper...)

PHEW!

It has been quite a week.

We are now settling into our new house in Corning. Today was our first real day here after the first night at home, and we made the most of it. Finn and I found a great play center that only costs $1 per visit, is basically a big room full of toys and nice people and a 4 minute drive from our house. Finn had SO much fun as a matter of fact, that he fell asleep on the ride home and then napped for two more hours. We all went to Wegmans for dinner tonight which was fun, too (except Santa was there AGAIN and he is totally terrifying, as we know). So we're hoping for another early bedtime and a good night of sleep in anticipation of a day full of fun with our extended family tomorrow ... and now that we have internet, no excuses for so few blog updates --
ps. the photos were taken from my computer as no cameras were handy and Finn is currently in a very photo-happy mood; he likes to include others, as you may be able to tell.

first night

As I've told a couple of friends, if anyone had mentioned to me a couple of years ago that we'd go sixteen months without being apart from our baby boy I'd have said, YOU CRAZY. But here we are, December 15, 2009 and it is only now happening. For the past couple of days Andrew's parents and their friends the Kinneys ("Auntie Ann" of cookie fame) were here helping us pack and PHEW. They were amazing. And this morning they departed for New York with Finn in tow ... funny how he took it in stride while I stood behind all weepy, and continued to stand in the kitchen for a good 'nother 5-10 minutes after watching them drive away feeling like I was missing a limb.

After a nap, a shower and a few more minutes of packing I went to the movies (alone! bliss!) and am now back home waiting for Andrew to return from meetings in the city. My friend Marna sent me this photo taken a few weeks ago of Finn playing with her daughter Pippi and friend at Bethesda Playground - he was so thrilled that day to have their attention. If you can't tell he's smiling from ear to ear in this picture.

We have tomorrow to finish packing then our movers come on Thursday morning so Finn has some quality time at Grandma & Grandpa's house, and we'll be able to see some friends and pack at our own pace. Then ... off to New York, for good! See ya, state that elects Joe Lieberman to the Senate!

santa at the trolley museum

Continuing the theme of using our weekends to do new stuff before leaving town, we hit the Shore Line Trolley Museum on Saturday to ride a historic trolley car and see Santa. I had my doubts that Finn - despite his relative openness to strangers - would actually sit on Santa's lap, but it was worse than that. From the moment he set his EYES on Santa he was clawing onto Andrew as if his life depended on it. Below is the best photo from the trolley ride and the best photo with Santa - uh, maybe next year will be better!

the downstairs neighbors are really going to miss us

Friday 8:30 a.m.

catching up

It has been a busy few days here and as much as I'd like to blame my lapse in posting on packing for our move, it's been more of a general malaise on my part [as in, when there's so much to do, I can't manage to do any of it] AFTER a boatload of very thoughtful visitors ... in any case, here's a random grab-bag of fun stuff we've been doing since Thanksgiving.

Last Sunday, Pam & John came for a quick visit and it was SO great to see them. Finn was happy to see Pam as always, but he seemed *really* interested in John, whom he hadn't met before (thanks again for coming up!)

After his nap that day, Finn was helping Heather in the kitchen, although let's be honest. She really didn't need his help. I mean, look what she made! MMMMM. Vanilla buttercream cupcakes with gingerbread cookies on top. Look out, Martha.

We had a little holiday open house that evening
(thank you AGAIN Heather for all of your help with everything, not only the cupcakes.)
Here's Finn and Quinn hangin' in the playpen.

The next day we went to a park in Hamden to wear ourselves out. Burrrr it was cold!
BTW Finn's new word today was COLD! He'll be using it a lot growing up in Corning.

Today our friends Lucy, Jillian and Emilia (and Brenna, Marla and Annie) came over to play and finish off the baked goods so that I don't finish them in one sitting. In many tries, I managed to get ONE shot of them all looking. Smiles were apparently too much to ask! But they had a lot of fun.

more cute turkey pics

A bag of Finn!

Grandpa, Finn & Andrew recreating an old Barber photo at the State Line offices.

A few moments of Finn *not* in perpetual motion caught on film.

Grandma is not sure how she would have finished her vacuuming without Finn's help!

Looking pretty pleased with himself and his new truck sippy cup

(and - ahem - his golden hair starting to grow in...)

this is how everyone felt

... however, only the very young (and very old, perhaps), are given the leeway to actually FALL ASLEEP in their chairs. Thanksgiving is one of our favorite meals of the year, and I've been looking forward to it for weeks and telling Finn how awesome it was going to be, but poor guy - after missing his nap due to general holiday excitement, Finn just could not keep his eyes open through dinner. After every bite his eyes got a little bit heavier and his chewing got a little slower until ... zzzz. He slept while we ate, and woke up in time for some pumpkin pie, and it was all perfect.

play date

Today my friends Annie and Marla came over with their girls Emilia and Jillian, respectively - we all needed to blow off some steam on this overcast day, as well as finish the most delicious apple crisp I've ever made before I finished it alone. Toward the end of play time, the little girls were both VERY interested in Finn's playpen, so we put them all in there. And then we laughed a lot while they looked at us like we were crazy.

self-portrait

After Finn fell at the park yesterday and bumped his noggin, we drove to Walgreens so that Andrew could run inside for some neosporin. I tried to entertain a disgruntled Finn in the car with the electronics at my disposal - like most kids his age, he's obsessed with them all. Sigh. Although he has dropped my blackberry enough times to crack it open, I'm still short-sighted enough to allow him use of the digital camera every once in a while and have to admit, this photo is pretty cool, right? Plus it shows off his pearly whites. And the fact that he was no longer sad about his forehead.

seeing the sights

Once again, we ran around New Haven all weekend trying to take advantage of the mild weather and see everything we need to see before leaving. It's hard to believe that after we return from Thanksgiving, we'll only have two weeks left here. Time to plan a going-away party! In the meantime...


Checking out Long Island Sound from Lighthouse Point Park. Finn could hardly believe that we were so near the water.


On Sunday we went to the Eli Whitney Museum. There wasn't much to see today because the holiday train doesn't start until Friday, but he was impressed with the nearby reservoir.


We love this photo because it shows how excited Finn was about the covered bridge! It was taken about 15 seconds before he fell and bumped his head on some gravel, and suddenly it was time to leave (very sad). Here's hoping that he won't have a big goose-egg on his forehead for Turkey Day!!

Aunt Heather's visit

Heather came for a visit this week on the train, and it was lots of fun. Finn is always so happy to see his awesome relatives, especially when they take his photo and play with him for hours!

With his favorite turtle in East Rock Park ...

So happy!

Chasing his friend Lucy.

The swings!

Music class was great this week.

Le Choix du Roi

I read a pretentious book about by the pretentious writer Adam Gopnik a few years ago, the subject of which was the few years he pretentiously spent in Paris with his family. Most of it has skipped my mind, except for when they found out the sex of their second child and upon hearing, their Parisian friends would sigh and exclaim, "ah, le choix du roi!"

Which apparently means, to have a boy first (the heir) and then a girl (to marry off).

So the one thing that I carried away after reading this book many years ago was that oh, it would be nice to have a baby boy followed by a baby girl, and...

Andrew and I went to Yale today for the anatomy ultrasound as I'm almost 19 weeks along, and found out that Finn will have a little sister in April. She is growing nicely, already weighting just about 7 oz, which is sort of a relief as although I'm not exactly a maternity model I haven't gained near what I had by this point with Finn. I was going to upload the photo of the sonogram but it's pretty blurry so you'll just have to take my word for it: she's cute! Looks just like Finn did, actually. And 99% of other babies at this stage. We are really excited and looking forward to a lot of activity in the next few months - a big move, settling in and then preparing for little peanut part 2 to bless us with her presence.

sunny weekend

With the knowledge that we may be leaving New Haven in a few weeks, we set out last weekend to check a few things off of our list of places we'd like to check out before moving. On Saturday we drove to the top of East Rock Park - awesome views, but chilly - and then Sunday we took advantage of the beautiful weather to take a little hike at Sleeping Giant. Loads of fun!

Finn was impressed with the top of East Rock and

unlike his parents, didn't seem bothered by vertigo.

Making friends at Sleeping Giant.
Friend = person who gives Finn a pinecone.

"I love nature!"

"But man, walking 10 feet is exhausting."
(This is literally 50' feet from the parking lot.)

Dad & Finn

thank goodness for "bah"

It's been a looooong week over here, as Finn has been a little under the weather with a head cold since Saturday. The days are ok, but the nights are very touch and go, since Finn's cough wakes him up every few hours and poor little guy, he just doesn't know what to do. Andrew and I are slowly figuring it out ourselves. Last night was better (after a VERY rough day involving a trip to the pediatrician, a flu and H1N1 shot) as we put a new elephant-shaped humidifier in his room and doctored him up with some vapor bath, baby rub, and a little bit of Benadryl. All that he wants to do is walk around the apartment with his blanket ("bah") or eat knox blocks or Auntie Ann's shortbread cookies. How am I to deny him? Forget it!!

cute bath

This photo of Finn in the bathtub last night makes me feel incredibly warm and fuzzy, so there you have it.

15 months

This past weekend we have a big group of fun visitors from Brooklyn, including Siobhan and Andrew Roth and Tanya and Kim and Adrian, the latter two with their 4-month old baby Mason in tow. It was great to see everyone and for Finn to hang out with a baby for a while (since he'll have to start getting used to that.) Here are a few photos of them together, although we couldn't get them looking at the same time, and I also didn't get a shot of Finn trying to share his current favorite object - a bottle of lotion - with Mason.

Yesterday we went in for his 15-month checkup and his stats have gone up up up! He gained 1" in height and THREE lbs since his 12-month visit. Guess those cupcakes and crossiants are no joke.

Stats: 30.25" (25%) tall, just shy of 24 lbs (30%, up from 15% last time!) and 46 cm head circumference, which i'm not sure about percentage-wise but am guessing is a pretty good-sized noggin.