Finn's First 'Word' (and other stuff)

A simple blog this time: a few videos of the sorts of thing Finn will get up to in a day, some recent reports from nursery, and then a couple of "firsts"...


Some videos of Finn's day

Firstly, a rather silly video of the sort of thing I have to put up with when I take a shower:

This video is clearly taken when Finn was in a good mood - when he's in a bad mood, he won't let me have a shower at all. (In contrast, he is happy to sit in a chair and play with a toy whenever James wants to shower!)

Secondly, a video of Finn having fun, this time with one of his new favourite toys, the "Brâncuși Tower":

We imagine that we might come to rue having taught him to knock things down quite so eagerly!

Finally, there is the old chestnut of the washing machine, which still clearly causes glee in Finn:




Some recent reports from nursery that we particularly like

Monday 8th October
Finn has loved participating in the baby activity, involving lights and tunnels. He particularly liked holding a big torch.

Monday 15th October
Finn has loved playing and investigating musical instruments today. He seemed to really enjoy exploring the drums, climbing on and banging them!

Wednesday 17th October
Finn enjoyed exploring flour. He crawled around in it and felt the texture with his hands and feet. He also enjoyed dancing to music.

Thursday 18th October
Finn enjoyed playing with water and bubbles, feeling and splashing. He also discovered that he can climb on the chairs!

A couple of "firsts"

First up is a video which some might have seen on Facebook already - one of the cutest videos of Finn yet!

We are unsure whether "Uh-oh" really counts as a word, but it is in the dictionary!
Regardless, other words seem not far away - he now tries to say "hello" into mobile phones (or any mobile-phone-sized-object, including blocks, lids and remote controls!) and James claims that he's said "up" when being lifted (but that's yet to be repeated).
(Please also note the fine throwing in this video - Finn amazed us by starting a game of throwing a ball back and forth in the kitchen last weekend!)
However, you shouldn't be fooled by Finn's apparent fluency of the "Uh-oh" in this video - there is still a lot of sound-experimentation going on, as this previous attempt to get a good video of his speaking shows!


The other "first" is that Finn has finally started to wave!
Last Saturday at Dad's Club James was waving to Finn and his friend Lily from across the room and they both waved back. The nursery told us that on the Monday following this Finn was smiling and waving to everyone all day!
The wave, though, is a little weird if you as me!

Birthday pictures!

Finn was born on a Sunday but his birthday fell on a Tuesday. This baffled me briefly until I remembered that it was a leap year. Anyway, Tuesdays aren't really 'party' days, so we decided that his actual birthday would be a family one and we would have a 'party' the following weekend.   Because we only know two other babies, we opted for a more grown-up affair... I booked an area in a nearby pub for the Saturday afternoon and we just hung out! It was really low key but I really enjoyed it. A lot of relaxed catching up with friends, Finn and the other babies had some fun stuff to explore, there was food if people wanted it, drinks if people wanted them, overall a very relaxed happy experience. And Finn was loving the attention! We were a bit worried he would get tired or bored but he had loads of fun with all the people and new toys and snacks.  I made a cake for him and everyone sang - which he obviously loved! And he loved the cake as well :) I wasn't too sure he would - I gave him a cupcake on his actual birthday and he just poked it with his spoon a couple times before he picked it up and flung it to the floor... And that was the end of that! But the next day he got a fever and threw up at nursery so I think maybe he just wasn't feeling well. Because the second-cake-attempt was a big hit! Not as much smashing as you would think but lots of happy smiles a big eyed reaching for more.  Even a couple knee-bob-dances in enjoyment :)

Other than the cake dislike, his actual birthday was a good day as well. The nursery had to shut because the water company needed to do repairs and had to cut off the water supply to the whole area. So James took the day off and he and Finn went to a stay-and-play and had a lovely time. Again, Finn got a kick out of everyone singing to him!  Then when I got home we opened presents, took some pictures in the back garden, had a lovely special birthday dinner and cupcakes and then Finn went to bed.  And James and I opened a bottle of champagne - because we deserve to celebrate the successful completion of a year just as much as Finn does!


I'm going to put up all my favourite pictures from his two birthdays (there are a LOT!), but first I thought we should do a recap (this was actually my Dad's idea - but I liked it so I'm stealing it!)

And here it is in a super condensed version :)

42 weeks, 1 week, 1 year

On to the birthdays!
October 2nd:

And October 6th:

12 months old! (that's one whole year!)

Finn is now one year old, and I can barely believe it.  We've had a lovely time over his birthday so in a few days I'm going to devote an entire post just to that... but I wanted to do a general monthly update first.  So here it is!  First up, his photos side-by-side (and yes, he is holding a glue stick. He had decided that he desperately loved it and was carrying it around and I wasn't about to take it off him... don't judge me.)

11 months old

12 months old

A couple outtakes:

He got weighed when we went to see the allergist a couple weeks ago (all previous problems are now gone! yay!) and he was bang on target for around the 65th percentile - which would put him now at

10.2 kilos
or 22 lbs7 oz
or 1 stone and 8 pounds
depending on your preference.

He also had his other measurements done and he was around the 80th percentile for length which would put him now at
78 cm
or 2 and a half feet
depending on your preference.

So all pretty normal - but his head?  His head was above the 91st percentile!  47.75 cm around (or 1 and a half feet).  We've always joked about his big head, but now it's been confirmed.  He has a BIG head.  It's just all the brains...

What else?
He's got all four of his 'first molars' now bringing the teeth total to 12! Here you can kind of see them:

He's still very musical and now includes the harmonica in his instrument repertoire:

And you will often find him "singing."  LOUDLY!

We still have the keyboard out and it is a very useful distraction when trying to get things done... like cooking dinner.  (And yes, those are carrot peelings all over the floor - he was also finding those very entertaining! Don't judge me!).

He only commando crawls now if he needs to get somewhere fast - otherwise it is the normal sort of crawling:

(This is from the photos we took on his birthday... more to come in a few days but here's one of my favourites:)

He spends a lot of the time standing up and using the furniture to move about.  There have been quite a few instances where he thinks he can walk and will let go - but he can't walk.  And he falls.  And cries.  Siiigh - one of these days it will work!  He loves walking about though.  Here are some pictures from when James' Manx mates, David and Leanne came to stay with us for a week.  We had lots of London fun! (Please note, I did NOT choose his outfit.  This is clearly a James created ensemble. Feel free to judge.)

My parents got Finn a bike seat for his birthday and we've been getting lots of good use out of it!  I love it, Finn loves it, James loves it - and Finn just looks so CUTE in that helmet!  I can barely stand it.

Nursery is still going really well, though Finn has been ill off and on over the past month so hasn't done a full week in a while.  But he seems to really enjoy it, and loves the people there - which has its downside.  When I go to collect him in the afternoon, I don't say hello straight away.  Because he wants to be picked up immediately, I quietly go in and make sure I've got the sling on and everything sorted before I go over to wherever he is.  And today when I arrived I could hear him crying.  I then watched as Sharon, his key-worker, came to him.  He immediately reached up to her and she picked him up.  He rested his head on her shoulder and stopped crying.  Of course, when I went over he wanted to come to me but there was something about watching him ask for comfort from someone else that bit into me with jealousy.  I'm also so so happy to have seen how much he likes Sharon and how well looked after he is... but it was a hard truth to see, I must admit.
Apparently today he was in a particularly joyful mood.  He found a toy with buttons that played animal sounds when you pressed them.  He found one that was a monkey noise and seemed to find it hilarious!  He kept pressing it and laughing until he was laughing so hard he had to lay down! And then Sharon kept pressing it because he was just being so funny :)
Stories like that make me feel so much better about leaving him all day - though again it's hard to not be a little jealous that I didn't get to see it...

Anyway! Nothing left but the obligatory 'extra photos that I just really like!'
Enjoy!