saturday in the park

McKinney Park is a very cute playground not far from our house that we ventured to this morning for some serious sliding-down-slides and leaf-picking-off-the-ground activity. It was so much fun to run around (or waddle, as the case may be for certain parties) and enjoy the 60-degree weather!!

Checking out the equipment.

Methodically examining each leaf.

It's very important to pick up the perfect leaf.

Posing with Dada (in his vintage Norwich t-shirt,
the same one Dada wore approx. 35 years ago!)

'Happy'

We kept wondering why Finn would say "happy" and then take these 3 specific blocks to a corner of the living room to make this specific shape. Then a couple of days ago, Andrew was watching the military channel (shocking I know) and Finn pointed at the old airplanes and said, "happy!" So there you go.

St. Patty's Day

Yesterday was definitely one of those days. I dressed Finn in this adorable Irish-appropriate outfit but every picture I took turned out like this.


Or this.

Then we met up with Andrew for dinner and Finn was in a much happier mood. His Great Aunts Mary Frances and Judy brought this rugby shirt from Ireland last year. I remember thinking that it looked so huge so was delighted when it fit him so well this year. A perfect addition to his spring wardrobe!

Mall carousel

the mall carousel

Yesterday we went to the mall to see Auntie Ann's granddaughter perform Irish dancing (and she was so cute, and I forgot my camera) but I managed to snap this photo of Finn on his New Favorite Thing at the Mall, the food court carousel. I wonder if he'll remember that it's there every time I try to sneak in for a quick trip to Baby Gap?

St. Patrick's Day photos to come, do not worry...

scrub & spell

Finn is spending the night with his Papa & Mimi tonight and yeah, obviously we're a little biased but we both completely melted when we saw these photos of him in the bathtub with his new FOAM LETTERS that must have made his day. I left him off around 1 pm and found out that he took a 3 1/2-hour nap shortly thereafter (a record), hence the sleepy face in the bottom photo.

It's wonderful to have a night off to straighten the house, return phone calls and have date night and yet we're already looking forward to smelling his little baby-fresh head tomorrow afternoon!

organizing

Bottles in one spot, bowls in another.

It's pretty common for toddlers this age to sort and stack their favorite objects but it still amazes me to watch Finn - his preferred media right now are his blocks (he loves to "build" cars and tractors) and the tupperware/Finn drawer, which he unloads and organizes on the kitchen floor pretty much every morning while I'm making breakfast. Then he'll carry some stuff over to HIS kitchen and stack over there too. One of these days we're going to work on putting everything away, but for now he is providing our daily quotient of amusement.

ELMO LIVE!

Finn had a very special day today with his Papa and Mimi at Sesame Street Live in Elmira. We tried to explain to him the significance of the occasion but he didn't really get it ahead of time. However, it's my understanding that upon their arrival at the Clemens Center, Finn was pretty much ecstatic to meet the characters and see them sing! And dance! Here are a few pics that capture his excitement pretty darn well.

Quite possibly one of the HIGHLIGHTS OF HIS LIFE so far
(and to think that I was worried he'd be freaked out by 6'-tall Elmo and Abby?)

Gotta get to our seats fast!!

Finn and his Papa (yes, there's some resemblance?!)

Toward the end, Finn was a little tired and wanted to sit on Mimi's lap
but he still mustered up the strength to applaud.

snowy photo op

We got about a foot of snow over the weekend so wanted to take some photos outside. By the time we got bundled up yesterday the wind had picked up so it was a little chilly to play, but Finn was still fascinated by the big piles of snow Andrew has been scooping.

I will be so sad when he outgrows his blue jester hat.

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.

bday greetings

Proving that it doesn't take much to please Finn in the way of music, my mom and I were trying desperately to get him to say my sister Katy's name in honor of her birthday tomorrow (he kept saying TACO, but no KATY). He really enjoyed the singing, hence the "more! more!" whenever we finished. I understand completely, those of you who are unwilling to hear the birthday song three times in a row. But in any case, we send lots of lovely greetings down to Miami Beach today and wish we were there to celebrate with you. And get facials. And drink champagne. And thaw.

But for now, we sing.

crocs

I bought Finn some fleece-lined crocs a couple of weeks ago knowing that they were too large (he wears a 5, they're a 6/7) but he spotted them "hidden" - not very well, clearly - in his closet today and didn't take them off for most of the evening. Except of course when we went out to dinner and he refused to leave them on. I think he has definite opinions about his clothing and shoe options, which is hilarious and fun and a little bit scary all at the same time!

mon cheri

Maybe not the best picture but it was so hilarious yesterday when Finn found my new beret that I had to get him on film; unfortunately, it's not on video otherwise you'd be able to see him walking around the kitchen chanting "hat! hat! hat!" He certainly does have an eye for style, I have to give him that. (Unless this hat is actually not in style at all and I just don't know any better since my Vogue subscription ran out last March.)

house

Some of you have been asking for photos of our new house, so I'm posting them here. As you'll see we're a bit light on furniture in a few rooms and hope to fill them up a little bit in the next few weeks! As soon as we finish unpacking. Oh, and then buying nursery furniture. Oh, and then having another baby.

front hallway

i have big plans for the living room

view from our porch to the b&b across the street

our spotless kitchen (haha)

the french doors in the dining room are my favorite.

family room-slash-guest room

some recent obsessions

Don't look too closely or you'll notice that all of these photos were taken in the same general location (our family room on the 2nd floor where we have spend a LOT of time these past few chilly days...) Here are halfway-decent pics of Finn and his favorite things of late, along with my vow to start being more interesting.

Monkey slippers. Need I say more?

A balloon. The subject of intense focus for three full days.

And - just when I thought we might have escaped the Elmo bug, it hit! He now only wants to watch Elmo, Elmo, Elmo. I ordered a stuffed Elmo which arrived today and COMPLETELY made Finn's day. Hasn't left his side in an hour.

the happiest

We love this photo that Aunt Heather took of Finn last week. When he's wearing an article of clothing that he really likes you can totally tell - in this case, it's his State Line hat, which looks awfully spiffy with his (sadly too small) fleece. I can't look at his smile without cracking one myself!

toiletries

If you have spent time with Finn lately then you may know he is mildly obsessed with bottles of all types, especially bottles of his "products". This week his favorite toy is his bottle of Johnson's baby lotion, which must be kept in plain view at all times as to avoid any drama. As shown in the top two photos, he likes to take Lotion for drives in his car as well as feed it and give it water (not shown). I keep most of Finn's skin care products in the top drawer of his dresser, a situation I'll have to remedy after turning my back for 30 seconds today and then noticing that he was cleaning his ears with baby swabs. Funny thing is that he actually did a good job, but I'm not delusional enough to know that giving a toddler q-tips is a bad idea. Especially since they went straight into his mouth as soon as he was done.

This afternoon we went to our first music class at 171 Cedar Arts, a big arts center right down the street from home. It was fun and nice to get out and meet some other kids and moms, but of course it wasn't the same as going to our old music class where all of my friends in New Haven go -- it will take some time to get to know people and this was a good start!