34 wks

Feet? Oh, fee-ee-eet. Feet! I know you're down there somewhere. Oh, ok. I see you.

What with all of the excitement that goes along with chasing Finn around all day I've been neglecting to update this blog about the baby girl set to arrive in 6+ weeks. All of a sudden it went from feeling like "really far away" to "just around the corner" ... good thing I'm a fairly organized person so all that's left to do is hmm, let's see. Find a pediatrician, decorate the nursery, buy a new infant carrier, finish organizing Finn's room, go through all of his old clothes to figure out which ones are gender-neutral ... and all of this needs to happen during the two hours that he's asleep each afternoon or after he goes to bed. No problemo!!

I'm now seeing the midwife in Elmira every two weeks and then every week for the last four leading up to my due date. I'm getting a little bit concerned that she'll decide to arrive on April 15 which would be a slightly inauspicious birthday (at least in the US) but hey, there's no point in fretting about things that are out of our control.

I hear the little monkey waking from his nap so will go bundle him up and try to get some good photos of him playing in the snow.

many morning faces

Finn is in a good mood this morning (he usually is) and entertaining himself with his empty-medicine-bottle collection ... is it bad that he recognizes the Motrin bottle and calls it Mote? It's the only thing that helps on bad molar-teething days, alas.

Happy Birthday Aunt Heather! He is wearing his Je T'aime Brooklyn t-shirt in your honor!!

letters and words

This video is a bit lengthy as I wanted to provide (for his granddad mostly) a sample of what Finn is up to these days ... he's like a little sponge! Aside from reading all of his books every morning and afternoon he's also really into stacking his blocks, organizing cheerios into little piles and pouring water from his sippy cup into a real cup and then slurping it down as fast as possible.

loves him some cars

Here are a few belated photos of Finn in his Valentines finery (since I won't be able to dress him this way forever, we're enjoying it now...) He's sitting in his tiny rocking chair at Grandma and Grandpa's looking at his favorite new toy, a calendar full of cars.

"CAR! CAR! CAR!" That's what it's like driving with Finn in the back seat lately. His quality of life has changed ten-fold since we turned his car seat around!

little boy blue

With his blue eyes, Finn is irresistible in blue sweaters! He's so handsome in this beautiful new sweater knitted by Grandma.

Today we were blessed (HA) with a few more inches of snow, but we ventured out to gymnastics anyway. I'm so glad we did because it was his best day there yet - he's really getting comfortable with the instructors and did several somersalts and a handstand - assisted, of course. This afternoon at home he wanted to do all of it over again, which I suppose is an unfortunate side-effect of gymnastics class ... in all seriousness, it was a lot of fun and obviously a good "workout" since he fell asleep 5 minutes from home and slept for the next two hours!

morning routine

"Listen, I really can't have this conversation til after
I've finished my first cup of diluted OJ."

Checking out the Kohl's ads for their pajama sales.

I thought these photos would brighten anyone's morning ... especially the morning of Finn's Grandma Mary Ellen on her BIRTHDAY!! Happy Birthday!! We love you (and hope to see you later if you're feeling up to it).

gymnastics!

Let's check out these monkey rings.

For the past few weeks, I've been taking Finn to a gymnastics class on Tuesday mornings so that he has a new activity and place to run around. At first he was very tentative but after three weeks now he seems to be more into it and even lets the instructors (a very cute couple who incidentally is also expecting their second child - she's 21 weeks pregnant and you can't even tell!) take him on the trampoline for JUMPING!! It's really cute even though I'm totally worn out by the end of class. And that's just from running around after him.

We also had Finn's 18 month checkup this week with his new pediatrician. Thankfully we have six months to find a new one - that's all I'll say on that matter. But as far as stats - well, he's grown. He's now 32" tall, 27 lbs and 49 cm head circumference - which is 50th pct on height and weight and (of course) 75th pct in noggin size!

ABCs

Our little monkey is spending the night with his grandparents tonight so that they can spend some quality time together and we can get some stuff done around the house (and I'm attending a cooking class tomorrow down the street - can't wait!) Anyway, I'm always anxious to see what he has learned after spending time with "Papa and Mimi" as they are now known. Thanks to our near-constant book-reading and occasional Sesame Street-watching, Finn is starting to pick up new letters - it seems like almost a new one every day. He has B, D, E, G, K, O, S, T, and W down which is very cool - if not confusing that he starts chanting his version of "w, w, w, w, w" every time we pass Walgreens. Our parents claim that Andrew was an early talker and I an early reader, so it will be interesting to see how soon Finn starts stringing words together ... probably won't be long.

first collection

These are my favorite bottles.

As you can see, I'm very proud of the way I've set them up.

Ta-daaaa!

Although I really do love the bubbles...

...I'm rather partial to the lotion bottle.
I have three or four of them scattered throughout our house.