Christmas in the Isle of Man

A lot has happened since the last post so instead of trying to do too much in one go, this post will just be about Christmas in the Isle of Man. Hopefully we will come back to the other exciting happenings later...
Before we headed off to the Isle of Man, we had our own little Christmas in London, when we opened some of the presents that were too large or heavy to fly across the Irish Sea, including a number of wheeled things that Finn currently adores.

In fact, this obsession with cars got so strong when we were in the Isle of Man that he even came to think that they were better than everything else, including spoons...

On the island, Finn had a great time in the flat that his grandmother kindly let us stay in. A large part of this was due to the fantastic supply of new toys:

And chief amongst these new toys, of course, were the trucks that he was able to ride or push up and down the long corridor:

In fact, Finn inevitably liked them so much that he would even make a dash from the bath to go and ride on it again, much to James' annoyance!

It was lovely to relax and have some good time on our hands in order to have lots of fun with Finn in the flat.

We were glad to be over on the island so far ahead of Christmas Day as it meant that Finn was able to hang out a lot with Jake when the twins were in school. Finn enjoyed this immensely, especially as Jake was so much fun to play with...

Jake was even eager to team up with Finn to form a rather fantastic-sounding band:

And Jake was kind enough to invite us all to his nativity play at nursery, in which he was an excellent inn keeper (and Finn was an excellent, if slightly messy, mince pie eater!)

It was also amazing to hang out with Jake's two older brothers, Thomase and Oliver:

Finn had a lot of fun with the three of them, all of whom were great play-mates for Finn. They were really inspiring for Finn as he was soon copying everything they did and chasing them around the house shouting away happily!

In fact, Finn had rather too much fun with the Morris Mob, as he was distraught when it came time to go home to bed. It was the first time ever that Finn wailed going to bed not because he didn't want to go through to process of going to sleep, but simply because he wanted to be awake and playing with his cousins! Very touching, but a little difficult at times - as was the fact that he gave up eating his evening meal when they were around, so excited was he that he wouldn't be brought down to the mundane business of sitting at a table and eating!
But at least the Morris' did a very good job of tiring him out:

Oh wait, no, that's a picture of Finn pooing, sorry! Sometimes he will just go into that position and lie still for a moment concentrating, before running off again. Generally the smell wafts over shortly afterwards!
This is a picture of Finn snoozing merrily on the floor, having fallen asleep where he played one afternoon after his cousins had been around (note the car close by, which tumbled from his grip only after he'd fallen asleep!):

Finn also, of course, really enjoyed Christmas itself. By the end of it he had mastered the skill of unwrapping presents (though he was generally not so fussed when he opened our presents and didn't find a wheeled thing within!):

Another skill he learnt in the island was to adore mince pies a little too much. This got to such an extreme that he even recognised them at a distance at the checkout of a supermarket when they were still in their packet. He then wailed all the way home without break until we got in and we were able to open up the packet and finally give him a pie. Painful! But here is a picture of a rather more relaxed eating of the treat, this time on Christmas morning, in his rather fetching Christmassy-looking pyjamas (with a car in his hand!):

Finn came on a long way in his babbling and his standing up in the island. The first one we managed to get in a short video, the latter we have in a picture as he stands at his favourite window overlooking the bay:

The other big news is that Finn took his first steps in the Isle of Man, as his Grannie will testify. But they were literally only a step of two, and so we are yet to get a video of it, though he has become a lot better at it over the week or two since then.

Overall, we had a lovely time in the Isle of Man. Thanks everyone there who made it so wonderful! We only have left an apology for leaving the flat inevitably rather more messy than we would have liked, which we can certainly in part blame on Finn:

And finally, a picture of Finn wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and thanking everyone for such a great time!