Sickness and Health

[James here again, writing this as a break from working at home...]

Our bosses at work must be feeling rather annoyed at us both as we've been off for most of the week, either being ill ourselves or else tending to to a poorly Finn.

It all began last Thursday when Cori brought Finn into my new workplace (where I'm seconded for only two months) to drop him off before going off on a work night out to Secret Cinema. After being a little upset and shouting a lot at all of my nice new workmates, Finn then vomited in the lobby as we were about to leave. He vomited again as I walked to the bus stop (making for a smelly journey home in a rather damp shirt!), before promptly falling asleep and remaining pretty much comatosed for all of Friday with Cori on the sofa.

He vomited again on Sunday morning (waking us up rather horrifically as he was in our bed, as per usual in the mornings!), but other than that he was mostly ok all weekend, which was very good, as I had him alone during Cori's weekend at work. In fact, we had quite an active weekend, with the two highlights being going swimming with Jevon in the local pool (it's a lot easier to toss Finn in from the side when there's someone there to catch him) and chasing Mogadishu the cat around Ayden and Louise's (where Finn showed that he was finally done and wanted to go home by climbing onto my lap and waving bye bye to Louise).

But the sickness baton was then passed to Cori (on Sunday night) and then me (on Tuesday). Having had Finn go into nursery only briefly on Monday only to have him sent home because of diarrhoea, it was Finn's turn to tend us, sort of. He seemed to rather enjoy having both of his parents lying on the floor near him and seemingly not trying to get away to something else (or else to move, at all). It meant that it was rather easy to keep him happy, even if still wanted to earth to swallow us up in our sickness misery.

[Here is photographic evidence of both Finn's happiness and Cori's desire to be swallowed up by the earth (try and see through her sham facade of a smile)]

Finn was (very gladly for us) back in nursery yesterday, where, by all accounts, he teared about happily, going through all his spare clothes in a reckless abandon of play. This brightened our spirits somewhat when he returned home looking rather more Red Neck that Sick Head:

Yes, they are tights he is wearing there, under those star-spangled shorts. With his nappy on underneath this made him look very Shakespearean (and silly) as he undressed for the bath:

Such wonderful sights must have brought some health back to Cori and I as we are both reasonably well today again, even if we have rather tender tummies. It is just a shame that Finn developed a ranging fever in the night and he has been running a temperature of 102 throughout the day, again at home. But at least Cori's being around has meant that he's been able to sleep through most of it (and Cori's been able to DVD-watch and snooze through that), and I've been around to replenish glasses of water and toast crumpets as I work from home instead of endangering my office with whatever it is we have all have. It's been pretty miserable today, but not as miserable as it could have been.

Let's hope Finn (and the rest of us) get over it soon...

16 months old

Here it is ladies and gentlemen!  Your monthly update!  (woooo!)

Finn is now 16 months old.  Here are his pictures side by side:

15 months old

16 months old

Pretty bad, as usual - so here are the obligatory outtakes:

I don't know any of his essential stats at the moment, other than that he feels pretty heavy and looks pretty tall!

Also, he has gone and got more teeth.  He now has 16.  So he managed to carry on getting around a tooth a month!  He had 4 at 4 months, 12 and 12 and now 16 at 16!
Anyway, we are hugely thankful for it, because it means we can lay off the teething for a while - or at least I hope!  The only teeth he hasn't got are the very back molars which I think come a lot later.  But I could also be jinxing it...

So that's the bare essentials down.  Other stuff of interest:
Hi still isn't really walking with confidence.  The last update mentioned that he had taken a few steps, but that's still where we are.  He can go a bit farther and is very very good if he's holding a hand to steady him.  The main problem is that it's only been in the last week that he's managed to stand up off the floor. And even then, it's only really happened a few times.  So he can't really walk until he can stand up.  But by the time he figures the standing thing, I think he'll take to it pretty quick.  I think he is the only baby of all the ones we know that still isn't walking!
He does however have some very good dance moves:


We're not entirely sure why he does that stomping thing - he can be convinced to do, but he will also just randomly start doing it when he's excited.  And it usually involves panting at the same time (hence why I'm making that odd noise)...


He's talking a lot and has lots of new words.  A current favourite (of his and ours) is WOW!  Most often said as "wow wow wow!"  It's very silly the things he decides to favour with a wow so it continues to amuse us (for example, showing him the shirt you want him to put on - "wow!" umm... not quite sure how to interpret that).  He also can count to three, which is fun.  Buuuut like everything it's not quite there.  And no one other than James and I would know what he's saying.  It sounds a bit French as well - "Un, Do, AH!"  I should explain the 'three' - I realised that we often count to three when we're doing something fun, and therefore the three is an excited higher pitch.  So he doesn't say the word, just the high-pitch sound... I'll try and get a video of it, it's pretty funny.
He also says Dada, Mama, uh oh, hiya (his previous ones) and his new words include hot, all done, bye bye, shoes, cheese, and this. Like all babies, he understands a lot more than he says and has recently (as in, on Wednesday) started pointing out things in books (much to our excitement!). So you can ask him where the 'dog' is or the 'car' etc.  And if it's an animal he'll point and do the noise.  Just today he learnt to hiss like a snake.  Again, it's pretty funny (that's a reoccurring theme).
Also, he communicates very well even without speaking.  I'm sure all parents go through the same sort of things but it's like he's worked out a sort of code.  I've always wondered how parents were always so certain of what their toddler was trying to tell them.  And now I know.  When you spend so much time together you DO understand them.  Half of it is words that don't make sense unless you know what he's trying to say (un-do-AH) and half of it is code.  So when he's thirsty, he points to the sink and say 'this.'  When he's hungry he crawls over and points at his highchair.  And when he wants to go outside he goes and finds his carrier or his shoes and gives them to you.  As mundane as it sounds, it is rather amazing how much you can communicate with someone who knows literally twelve words!
Here's an excellent video of him being very clear, without speaking (and it's pretty funny as well, of course):



We've discovered that he is very good at putting things together and have gotten him some puzzles that he really enjoys.  He gets a bit bored with the ones that are simply shapes that you match up and much prefers the pieces that snap together.  He has a train set that he LOVES.  And a large part of that is laying the track.  He's a lot quicker now than in this video, but this was taken (I think) the day after he picked up the pieces for the first time.  Clever boy:



His other favourite thing to do is to be under things.  We often make sheet forts and tunnels and things like that and he thinks they are amazing things.  This last video is lovely just for the glee on his face.  I brought home a giant white sheet that we use parachute-style at work (it needed a wash), and Finn and I had some fun before I took it back:



What else?  I can't think of much more.  We didn't seem to take very many pictures in January seemingly. And James already did a post with some of them.  Here are some new ones though - we had a big snowstorm!  This was when Finn was ill (I think James mentioned that in his post) so we didn't get him out to play in it, but we all enjoyed the walk around to see the other people playing. 

And here are some pictures of Finn supporting his two favourite teams, the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Tottenham Hotspurs!

And lastly, here are two pretty spectacular faces from the toddler-of-a-thousand-expressions :)

Venice and London

Whoops - I've let a long time pass!  Sorry!  I only realised it when James mentioned that we needed to take Finn's monthly update picture.  So I've got his monthly update ready and it's going to be full of pictures and videos but I'm going to wait a couple days because I didn't want to leave out the stuff from my Mum and Aunt's visit.  So this is going to also be a lot of pictures!

For a bit of background, my Mum and Aunt came to visit us from the 27th of December to the 3rd of January.  In that time we saw lots of London, and also went on a three day trip to Venice, which was excellent.  This was all hindered slightly by the fact that my Mum fractured her ankle on the flight over (long story, the short version of which is that she fell in the airplane toilet and in the tiny space her foot got caught behind the toilet and twisted/broke her ankle).  So she went straight from the airplane to the hospital where they put her in a plaster cast and gave her some crutches.  Luckily, we managed to find a place that rented out wheelchairs and they were able to deliver one to our flat the next day - so we still got to do loads of the fun stuff we had planned.  It's amazing - my Mum was in a wheelchair with a broken ankle, the airline lost their luggage, in the confusion I lost my phone, Air Canada said she wasn't allowed to fly anymore, I got an email saying that our flat buying had fallen through, etc etc - it was a VERY bad start to a trip.  And yet?  and YET - we had an absolutely fantastic time and made the most of every minute!  Everything worked itself out in the end - we got a wheelchair, the luggage was delivered to the flat a couple days later, the flight to Venice was low enough that she was allowed to fly with the cast, (we were able to get it removed for the flight home and she got another one put back on in America), we managed to explore most of London and Venice with just a few creative roundabout wheelchair accessible detours, Finn LOVED sitting on my Mum's lap when she was getting pushed around so they got lots of cuddle time, we got in for FREE at a lot of places because we were 'caring' for a person with 'additional needs' (score!), Mum and I got to spend lots of one-on-one chatting time while waiting for doctors... etc.
All in all, it was incredible.  It's a lesson to be learnt that even things that look horrible on the surface find a way of being something fantastic if you let them.  Keep a good sense of humour and an open mind and everything else sorts itself out.
But enough of my gushing about how much fun it was!  Here are some pictures.  Since this blog is about Finn, after all, I've tried to restrain myself in sharing loads and loads of general pictures (I have a lot!).  So here is a Finn-focused recap.

I don't have many pictures of the London tourism, so I've stolen some of my Aunt's...
These are one from a great day of walking around - Finn seemed to think that Mum in her wheelchair was like a super comfy pushchair and he would settle in and happily ride around.  (For anyone who's met Finn recently, you'll realise that this is indeed surprising.  He does NOT like to be held by other people...)

This was also nice because we kept Finn in the wrap most of the time.  Although it was actually pretty easy to manage a wheelchair, I didn't want to attempt a wheelchair AND a buggy, especially on the buses etc.  So whenever we were tired of carrying him we could just plop him on Mum's lap!  Brilliant! He even fell asleep like that a few times...

(Mum is covering his ears because the bells of Westminster were ringing very loudly at that moment!  Really fun to experience!)

We ended as the sun was going down over Buckingham Palace

We then went to a (very old) cozy pub for a pint and some sticky toffee pudding

Another evening we went into China Town for dinner - and Finn was being rather silly!
Finding a seat...

Ordering...

Relaxin'...

Having a fortune cookie...

What a goof ball!


I have a LOT more pictures of Venice.  Basically, it was beautiful.

But as I mentioned, this is about Finn - so no more pictures without Finn in them...

Our flight had been delayed and we had no way of getting a message to the B&B owner to say that we were running late... so when we arrived we were a bit unsure what to do - so we hung out and took pictures of course!

Of course, it all sorted itself out in the end and we had a lovely stay in a lovely place... on the third floor...
So, I lied - this picture doesn't have Finn in it... but it's funny!  Mum had to sit her way up and down the steps every time!  The B&B owner (Paulo) was horrified when he saw the wheelchair, but we assured him it would all be fine - I think he approved :)

We did lots of walking around and saw many beautiful things...

We got around by water bus (Vaporetto) and even though it was crowded and a BOAT the people were so helpful with the wheelchair and it was no problem at all

Finn did amazingly well considering he never really got a chance to run around or anything.  But he was really happy in his carrier and would play silly games with the people around him (sometimes people he knew... sometimes not!) or sleep when he needed to.

He is such a good traveller!!

We had lots of amazing food, starting with the breakfast in our rooms
(I'm mostly just including this photo to get back at James for posting the unflattering one of me last week... check out his morning hair!)

And lovely restaurants

Even the street food was amazing (and that's saying something because we were eating it OUTSIDE!  In DECEMBER!)

(another one without Finn... but... YUM!)

But the highlight was the gondola ride.
We all held our breath as Mum was lifted/hopped/dropped down into the boat but once she was in and we were all in, it was a memory to last a lifetime.
Finn wasn't toooooo sure about it at first:

But within 5 minutes he was giggling and smiling and waving at the other boats and all-in-all having as great a time as the rest of us.

It's true - Venice is an amazing city:

I had such a great time and I'm so lucky I got to share it with such great people.  It was so said to see them head off back home, but we packed a lot of fun, love, and memories into a few short days.