I have a few videos of Finn being silly and strange, but they don't seem to fit into any sensible post or update... so instead of waiting until they fit into something that makes sense, I thought I would just go ahead and share them all for no good reason...
:)
Enjoy!
First up, is Finn dancing. Again. I know I already did a video of this, but this one is just so funny! Because he starts dancing and keeps going... and going... and going... (this video isn't even all of it! It actually went on for nearly another minute!)
AND it's to weird music from Turkmenistan, which makes it all the better.
Next we have James carrying him around in the Tesco shopping basket... He put him in there to be silly but Finn just sat still like it was no big deal. Which of course made it that much sillier!
Finn's new ability to pull himself up and climb on things is very good - but Finn thinks he's better at it than he actually is, and often attempts to climb up, onto, or over things that are obviously not going to work. Case in point, after he gets undressed, he doesn't want you to put him in the bath - he wants to climb in himself. And looks ridiculous in the process.
(Warning! Nudity!)
Lastly we highlight both his standing and singing skills at the same time! Here he is improvising a duet with James.
And while I'm on the subject of music - here are some pictures of Finn enjoying music.
On Tuesday we went to the Horniman museum. It's a nice museum, but I like it there for two main things.
1) the aquarium
2) they have a very cool "Sound Garden" which has lots of very robust instruments for kids to play on. I really enjoy it and you can imagine how much Finn likes it! The noise!
It was excellent watching him figure each bit out though. He just watched James do it a couple times, and then took over straight away. These pictures show some of this intense concentration - followed by delight!
It was a nice day, so we took some pictures in their garden as well - here are some of my favourites:
The 2nd of August has come and gone, meaning Finn is now 10 months old. So here is your monthly update post!
Here are his pictures side-by-side. Personally I think he looks older and bigger in the 9 months one, but that might just be how he's sitting...
9 months old
10 months old
The drop-in we go to to get him weighed and ask our questions etc is currently closed for the Olympics - so I don't know exactly how much he weighs. But he has always followed a very definite curve right between the 50th and 75th percentiles so I can predict that:
He currently weighs around:
9.5 kilos
or 21 lbs
or 1 and a half stones
depending on your preference.
I don't know how long he is, either - but then I haven't for a few months now so I don't know why I keep mentioning it.
He's had one more tooth come through, bringing the total to eight (four up, four down). I was hoping that this would give us a bit of a break on teething - but he's currently shoving things way in the back of his mouth to chew on them, so I think there might be some molar action. I can't feel anything though, so I'm hoping we're wrong.
His teeth have resulted in one of the least pleasant things about him - he bites. I think he thinks he's being affectionate, but when he's crawling into your lap he will put his head down and bite your arm at the same time. Well - I say 'your' but I mean 'my.' He has never bitten anyone else. Only me. My arms have a smattering of tiny little blood blisters and bruises and James is completely fine. The trouble is that everything I do to try and stop the biting, he thinks is funny. It's not that I'm inconsistent - every time he does it I put on my sternest face and my most emphatic and serious NO - and he just laughs at me. I stop playing and take him off my lap each time he does it and he just plays with something else. He thinks my gasps of pain are a game. I really don't know what else to do, but keep at it until the message gets through. I think part of the problem is that we used to give him lots of play 'love-bites' ie: pretend to chomp his arm etc... because he always thought it was hilarious... I guess he was paying attention! I have obviously now instigated an absolute ban on any pretend biting whatsoever.
While I'm on the subject of him being affectionate and crawling into my lap - here's a video of his reaction when I come into the room in the morning. Finn wakes up around 5:45/6:00ish at which point James take over (I do the whole night shift - which is still SEVERAL times a night). They eat breakfast and play etc until around 8:00 when I come through... and Finn goes a bit crazy realising that he hasn't seen me for a whole TWO HOURS! If only everyone reacted like this when I walked into the room :)
Other updates:
His hair is the same old story - he still looks bald (but isn't!).
Our last visit to the Health Visitor I expressed concern that he still wasn't able to sit up properly. He could do it, but I couldn't walk away or anything because he would always topple over within 5 minutes. As always with these big milestones, he waits until the VERY last minute when everyone starts giving the look of 'hmm, maybe we should be worried' and then BAM he sits just fine and when I seem surprised he just rolls his eyes with a sigh of 'whatever, I could always do it - I just like making you WAIT.' (Which I really should have expected from the child who came two weeks after we thought he would) Here are some pictures of him sitting up (but still with pillows! I'm not tempting fate...) and exploring one of his boxes. He has two boxes that are full of random stuff. When he gets bored of one, we close it up and get out the other which, after being hidden for a bit, is all new again! He can spend ages just pulling stuff out and looking at it, one at a time.
He's also a big fan of boxes in general - well, containers really. His bowl has been a long standing favourite. But he also has an empty ice-cream tub, a small metal bowl, a couple baskets etc. Strange child. He's got a bunch of wooden blocks, but for the most part he dumps them all out to play with the basket they are stored in.... like so:
It was during this playing-with-the-basket that we got a video of him singing. I LOVE his singing - it's so funny. It's usually in conjunction with some sort of musical instrument (he sings while playing his guitar) but every now and then we just have a little singing session... like so:
And here's one of my new all time favourite pictures of him playing his guitar and singing:
This picture came from a series I took to show his other new skill - he can pull himself to standing now! And crawl UP things. We don't have any stairs for him to practice on, but if we take the cushion off the chair and put it in front, it serves the same purpose. And so this is from when he crawled all the way up onto the chair and then proceeded to carry on and stand up... doesn't he look so nonchalant?
He is leaning on the back of the chair, but he's getting better at doing it with other things. Like the coffee table... or the washing machine:
And while I'm thinking about major milestones, I don't think I've ever put a video up of his excellent version of crawling - so here it is:
What else?
He's started to say 'mama.' Still a bit unsure if he actually means it as 'mama' but he seems to only use it when he wants me, so he might be. He never says it if he's happy though! Only if he's sleepy or hungry or wants me to hold him or something... then he starts crawling to me with a whiny mamamamama. Soooo, he probably means me... but it might also just be his new go-to unhappy noise. Who knows?!
He's still not sleeping well, but we're working on it. Slowly but surely it's getting better. So we'll have him sleeping through the night by the time he's 12 at least :)
He still eats well, but he's getting pickier. And in weird ways. Mostly it's the fact that he LOVES to use his spoon. So sometimes he will refuse to eat anything unless it's on his spoon. I made some nice roasted butternut squash the other day and cut it up into nice Finn-sized pieces - and he wouldn't touch it. We then got his spoon and (in front of him - we weren't even being sneaky) scooped off a bit. Lo and behold he couldn't get enough of it. But only on his spoon. We showed him that they were the same, and that he could hold it and eat it that way but no. Absolutely no. On the spoon or nothin'. Strange child.
He can also be picky about what he eats and just because he likes something one day (or one way) doesn't mean he will the next day (or a different way). He thinks scrambled eggs are disgusting and will actually spit them out. But he's fine with a hard boiled egg yolk (not the white - no WAY). Strange child. The only foods that he consistently loves are bananas, hummus, and cheerios. He could eat cheerios all day long if we let him. He is a master of the 'pincer grip.' That being said, however, sometimes he decides he wants to eat his cheerios a different way... he will poke his finger at each one until one sticks and then slowly and carefully put it in his mouth. (Have I mentioned he's a strange child?). I've tried to get a picture of this multiple times because it's very funny - but they never turn out well. Here's the best I've got (though the cheerio is usually on the other side of his finger!)...
So, needless to say we are not at all worried about his development in 'fine motor skills.' He's NEVER been behind in that category. Big things: lifting his head, sitting up, crawling etc. he takes forever to master. But small things: hand-eye coordination, pincer grip, using his two hands to do two separate things at the same time etc. he is off the charts. It's all a matter of balance I guess.
Well that's all I can think of at the moment - so I'll leave you with three more nice pictures. Two of them are him sitting on the spinny office chair (that I just re-covered! Isn't it nice?!).
And the last is of Finn while we were watching the Olympics opening ceremony. We decided to dress him in his 'National Costume' which consisted of the wonky shoes that I am crocheting him, the too-small hat that I was unravelling to make the shoes, and a special medal that James made just for the 'winner' which is obviously Finn.
