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.

more halloween

Finn's Charlie Brown costume was perfect. He pulled it off with grace and charm, scoring some good candy in the process. I hope that next year we'll be able to think of another similarly-comfy costume if it's almost 70 degrees wherever we are!

walkin'

This is how I spend most of Finn's waking hours ... following him around the house while he carries around his favorite objects of the hour. After watching this clip, you may ask, "Is Finn carrying around styrofoam from a dustbuster box and a piece of a wooden puzzle?" and I would say, "Yes. Yes, he is."