haha, mommy

It has been a little sticky in our apartment lately so I've been putting Finn down for his nap in just a diaper. Since I think that a sleeping baby in a diaper is one of the cutest sights in the world, I wanted to take a photo of him today. SO a half hour after putting him down I snuck (or so i thought) into his room with my camera.

Suffice to say, he loves to surprise me...



We are going to lower the crib in the next couple of days as he figured out this morning how to stand up. Uh oh.

the elusive tooth

You'll have to believe me, that the top tooth is there. I tried to get him to show me this morning and NOPE. Not happening! In the meantime we did get some fun playing-in-laundry-basket shots. Apparently there are few things that are more fun than trying to escape from the laundry basket these days. He's almost got it.

yoga pals

Lucy, Jillian, Emilia, Finn and Natalie

Every week we try to get together with the friends we made in baby yoga class. Of course it's usually every 2 or 3 or 4 weeks before we see everyone and are always amazed at how fast they've all grown. Jillian and Natalie both turned one earlier this summer while Emilia and Finn will celebrate their birthdays together in a couple of weeks, and Lucy a few weeks after that. We love our yoga friends (the moms too)!

big front tooth

At two weeks shy of his first birthday, Finn's GIGANTIC (relative to the rest of his teeth) front tooth, [singular] is coming in. Andrew has been calling him Cletus now for a couple of days. It's a cute tooth but we're sort of wondering when the pair will be complete. It's funny that Finn is really not at all used to having something in that gum area, but he's making the most of it by eating large breakfasts of two-egg omelets, toast and ham.

He has been saying some cute words lately too ... he's just aching to speak in complete sentences. He says MAMA all the time, although I'm starting to think that one could substitute HEY for Mama and have the same effect. I hear him in the living room when I'm making coffee saying "mama mama mama" and he really might as well be saying "hey hey hey hey" just like that far side cartoon with the barking dog. He still asks for Grandma (mmmm-ma) a lot, and almost says water (waaa-ah) and ball (baah). I'm telling you, he's going to be a talker. Not a big surprise, if you know his dad.

PS Thanks to Marna for the pic; I hope that Finn's ISR teacher doesn't see this post, since he's not supposed to be in floaties! It was only for the photo op, Jody!

how big is Finn?

This pretty much never gets old (for real).

Incidentally, he is distracted at the end of the video because he sees me bringing his food.

house full of toys

Finn probably doesn't understand why on earth we spend any money at all on toys, when our apartment is literally full of fun stuff to play with. For example, drawers. The drawers in his room, the kitchen and living room are a source of endless fascination. And for this reason, we'll be going to Babies R Us today to buy devices that prevent him from opening them and slamming them shut on his fingers.

It's really amazing how fast Finn moves just by scooting around on his belly and rolling around. He's not trying to pull himself up just yet but will be in the near future. Every week he seems to get bigger and faster and more aware of everything around him; it's so much fun to watch ... a little scary, but fun.

favorite new pics

These are from Finn's photo session with Brie last week. It's actually impossible to choose only one. There are so many good ones.

trip highlights

A few more photos from our trip to Waverly last week ... we had a great time.

Ella and Finn in the warm and delightful baby pool.

Ella and Finn, so cute together.

Finn went with Grandpa to watch cousin Paul moving the barn.

Really. Paul was helping Uncle Jeff move a BARN.
We have video of this that I need to post.

Ella at the Farmland Animal Park.
Finn was super tired that day but he enjoyed the pygmy goat.

We got super close to the baby bunnies, which are just to the right of that tree.

Finn loves it when Grandma plays piano.
He is really good at helping with the pedals.

While Grandpa was on a conference call, Finn practiced standing up some more.

there's this toy i'm obsessed with

"...and it's called my activity table. well, it's really Ella's

(or her new baby brother's) but it's MINE NOW."

I (mama) also love the activity table because all of this practicing/standing totally wears him out and he's taking two solid naps a day. Can you believe it? Standing!

Andrew in the media

In the face of my laziness about uploading new Finn photos - they're coming! I promise - here are a couple of links in which Andrew has been quoted this week. If you'd like to know what he's talking about, you'll have to go straight to the source, as I do not know.

From TIME mag online (Dad, will you let us know if this is in the print ed.?)

And the lesser-read Investment News ...

11 month pics

Last Saturday at the cabin, our friend Brie managed to snap a few great pics of Finn before the biblical floods started. No thanks to the rain, we didn't get to spend as much time in front of the camera as usual; however, she was able to catch Finn's sweet expressions and the beautiful light anyway. She has posted a few on her blog here and will be adding more in the next few days.

vacation week

Phew! We were so busy all weekend with family reunion activity. Finn met LOTS of relatives from his Grandma's side of the family (and thankfully, he likes people, and parties, maybe even more than his parents do). While I was too lazy to download photos, Heather was kind enough to send this clip of Finn enjoying the swings at Uncle Chuck's cabin yesterday.

boat ride

Getting ready to go.

A spin around the pond with Grandma and Grandpa.

That was fun!

Finn had his first boat ride this week. He loved being out on the water and despite the bulky life jacket, he almost fell asleep. Despite his limited vocabulary, he was able to express the sentiment "Why did I have to take those swimming lessons when these nifty life jackets exist?" with his eyes.

this is where we are.

earning his keep

We arrived on Friday just in time for Finn to mow Grandma & Grandpa's yard! Ok, not really. But he did think it was pretty fun to sit on the tractor.

He's been pointing a lot lately, at things that he wants or things that interest him. Often he will accompany the pointed finger with an insistent or curious "Ba!" or "Ba?" In any case, there are enough bunnies, deer, fish, trees and ants, etc etc around to keep him pointing during most of his waking hours. The good news is that observation must also be tiring as he's been napping and sleeping well for the past couple of days. Fresh air and sunshine help all of us sleep well!

4th of July!

We had a nice 4th in Waverly at the family picnic! We swam in Uncle Jeff and Aunt Jean's pool, ate lots of delicious food and listened to fireworks going off until very late. The weather is just about perfect so we're looking forward to our week here.

graduation from floating school

Finn was up last night from 10:30 to 12:30. I can't remember the last time he didn't sleep through the night (!), so it was sort of disconcerting. This morning it occurred to me that perhaps he was nervous for his floating test, which was at 9:15!! The good news is: he did GREAT. As you'll see, he had to do the "flip over and float" fully clothed as to simulate falling in with his clothes on. When I first gave him to Jody, he didn't realize that he'd have to swim - after all, he had clothes on, right?! Then it slowly dawned on him ... his expressions are priceless. Anyway, he's done with floating lessons until next year, when he learns the swim sequence. Bring on the pools!