Much like this one:
Thursday 25 April 2013
Hand, Foot, and Mouth...
Finn, and nearly Finn's entire nursery all have hand, foot and mouth disease. Luckily, because they ALL have it, everyone is still allowed to come in and we haven't had to stay home with him at all. This is particularly good as he doesn't seem affected by it. Some of the kids have had fevers or been unwell, but Finn has been mostly fine. A bit off his food (though not his cake and custard) and a bit unsettled at night but otherwise totally fine. The only symptom is an awful, nasty, gross scab-fest of a face.
Much like this one:
Much like this one:
Sunday 7 April 2013
18 months old
Yay! A monthly update almost actually close to the monthly birthday!
Patting myself on the back.
Unfortunately there isn't too much to tell. The big news of the month was James and Finn's trip to the Isle of Man - but he covered that already... so this will just be a bunch of photos with very little stories to go with them. We've still been in the thralls of illness after illness and, as James mentioned, Finn is hard-core teething. He's getting his very back molars now - which don't usually come until closer to two years old, but that's our Finn - he may not be the brightest knife in the shed but boy can he grow teeth!
Anyway, it is making him MISERABLE and we haven't made it out to do much fun stuff as a result.
But anyway - update!
I'm going to break with tradition and show you the update outtakes FIRST. These are the pictures we tried to take on the 2nd. They didn't work. He would not. sit. down. But they are still pretty cute and give you an idea about how tall he is now.
I should note though - he looks like he's standing on his own. He isn't. He's leaning against the wall. Here they are:
What else?
I think I mentioned last time that his sleep is getting much better. That is still true. Amazing what a difference it makes! When his teeth are really bad, we're still up with him a few times a night but he can (and does) sleep through the night and get himself back to sleep if he wakes up. Which is so nice. Partly this is down to James' "sleep training" which is simply an absolute refusal to take him out of the cot in the night. If he's in pain or ill we do, of course, but luckily it's easy enough to tell the difference in his crying. This training started while I was away in York for a couple days for work. I came home late at night to find this on the bedroom door:
And was instructed to sleep in the living room. This went on for about a week in preparation for James to be on his own in the Isle of Man. The main thing was weaning Finn off of me in the night. He'd been 'weaned' off of milk in the night for ages of course, but if he knew I was there he still wanted me in the form of a cuddle or a kiss... and I will be the first to admit that I gave in. A lot. So I was banished from the bedroom in order to take the temptation to step in away and thereby spoil all the work that had gone in. Also that fact that Finn somehow just KNOWS when I'm nearby... even in the dark!
And as much as I still hate it - if we ignore him he now usually goes back to sleep on his own eventually. It's the 10 minutes of screaming that I can't handle though. But he only does that if he knows I'm in the room - if I'm sleeping in the living room (or in a different country!) then he is fine. So I'm hoping that this new place where Finn gets his own room will help out with that.
But anyway!
What else?
Finn does have a few new words - in addition to 'choo choo' and 'ne naw' he has: ball, bus, car, and cheers (said while clinking cups together! He learnt that one from his friend Lily). I think that's it... he knows a LOT of new animal noises though, so that's fun. The monkey is my favourite. And he can identify a lot of things that he can't say. Always surprising when you are reading story and say 'elephant' and he points straight to it! I particularly like it when he imitates us by putting on a 'funny voice' - we do it a lot when we make his toys talk and his version of it is hilarious!
Other than words, he recognises songs and the motions that go with them.
Speaking of songs - although we don't have a TV, we do watch things on the computer from time to time and Finn's new favourite show is Bob the Builder. Which I'm ok with because it's pretty good, and only 10 minutes an episode! Lately he's taken to pointing at the computer and asking for 'Balla Biller' which is pretty funny.
He loves the theme song though and gets excited and dances when it starts. My favourite thing is the fact that he waves back to the characters on the screen as they are introduced and wave. James got a bit of it on video - it's usually more enthusiastic (when Finn's not distracted by a camera) but it gives you an idea of the cuteness.
Patting myself on the back.
Unfortunately there isn't too much to tell. The big news of the month was James and Finn's trip to the Isle of Man - but he covered that already... so this will just be a bunch of photos with very little stories to go with them. We've still been in the thralls of illness after illness and, as James mentioned, Finn is hard-core teething. He's getting his very back molars now - which don't usually come until closer to two years old, but that's our Finn - he may not be the brightest knife in the shed but boy can he grow teeth!
Anyway, it is making him MISERABLE and we haven't made it out to do much fun stuff as a result.
But anyway - update!
I'm going to break with tradition and show you the update outtakes FIRST. These are the pictures we tried to take on the 2nd. They didn't work. He would not. sit. down. But they are still pretty cute and give you an idea about how tall he is now.
I should note though - he looks like he's standing on his own. He isn't. He's leaning against the wall. Here they are:
But a couple days later we tried again and got an official update pic. So here they are side by side.
 |
| 17 months old |
 |
| 18 months old |
The reason it is in a new location is because we are in the process of moving to a new flat. That being said we've been "in the process" since November - it's a very long 'process.' But we're hoping it will happen fairly soon. The place we're moving to is unfurnished (unlike where we are now) so we have started collecting some furniture etc. That means that we now have TWO tables in our tiny flat, EIGHT chairs... etc. And we got this giant sideboard thing... it's huge. I got it off of freecycle and didn't really check the measurements first. Ah well. So it's taking up another large chunk of the living room. At least Finn thinks it's fun!
As I mentioned before, he still isn't walking. I'm not sure when you should start to worry about that sort of thing... but nearly all the other babies in his nursery are walking, including some who are much younger. He doesn't crawl much though - he just makes you hold his hands everywhere. And he doesn't seem to have any interest in doing it on his own whatsoever. None. He will practise if you make him, but for the most part it just gets in his way of getting whatever or wherever he wants. And if you simply refuse then he complains for a bit and then will just crawl off - no attempt to stand or anything. Maybe he is just the laziest of lazy babies. Which is another thing - he really isn't a baby anymore. He's a toddler. But he doesn't TODDLE... soooo... what do you call him eh? A pretoddler, I suppose :)
What else?
I think I mentioned last time that his sleep is getting much better. That is still true. Amazing what a difference it makes! When his teeth are really bad, we're still up with him a few times a night but he can (and does) sleep through the night and get himself back to sleep if he wakes up. Which is so nice. Partly this is down to James' "sleep training" which is simply an absolute refusal to take him out of the cot in the night. If he's in pain or ill we do, of course, but luckily it's easy enough to tell the difference in his crying. This training started while I was away in York for a couple days for work. I came home late at night to find this on the bedroom door:
And was instructed to sleep in the living room. This went on for about a week in preparation for James to be on his own in the Isle of Man. The main thing was weaning Finn off of me in the night. He'd been 'weaned' off of milk in the night for ages of course, but if he knew I was there he still wanted me in the form of a cuddle or a kiss... and I will be the first to admit that I gave in. A lot. So I was banished from the bedroom in order to take the temptation to step in away and thereby spoil all the work that had gone in. Also that fact that Finn somehow just KNOWS when I'm nearby... even in the dark!
And as much as I still hate it - if we ignore him he now usually goes back to sleep on his own eventually. It's the 10 minutes of screaming that I can't handle though. But he only does that if he knows I'm in the room - if I'm sleeping in the living room (or in a different country!) then he is fine. So I'm hoping that this new place where Finn gets his own room will help out with that.
But anyway!
What else?
Finn does have a few new words - in addition to 'choo choo' and 'ne naw' he has: ball, bus, car, and cheers (said while clinking cups together! He learnt that one from his friend Lily). I think that's it... he knows a LOT of new animal noises though, so that's fun. The monkey is my favourite. And he can identify a lot of things that he can't say. Always surprising when you are reading story and say 'elephant' and he points straight to it! I particularly like it when he imitates us by putting on a 'funny voice' - we do it a lot when we make his toys talk and his version of it is hilarious!
Other than words, he recognises songs and the motions that go with them.
Speaking of songs - although we don't have a TV, we do watch things on the computer from time to time and Finn's new favourite show is Bob the Builder. Which I'm ok with because it's pretty good, and only 10 minutes an episode! Lately he's taken to pointing at the computer and asking for 'Balla Biller' which is pretty funny.
He loves the theme song though and gets excited and dances when it starts. My favourite thing is the fact that he waves back to the characters on the screen as they are introduced and wave. James got a bit of it on video - it's usually more enthusiastic (when Finn's not distracted by a camera) but it gives you an idea of the cuteness.
I think that's all for stories, so here are some more pictures. It's been six months since we last did 'family' pictures and it was a nice warm day (for once) so we went out back and tried to take some. Finn was entirely uncooperative!
The pictures consisted mostly of him insisting on wearing his hat and then making funny faces...
Or getting bored and walking away...
Or being just in general fed up and determined to do something more fun somewhere else... but it's awfully hard to storm off in a huff when you need someone's help to do the storming. Especially when that someone responds by making faces right back at you!
So they may not be the best pictures in the world... but at least they are a fairly accurate portrait of Finn and his demanding, wilful ways!
Friday 5 April 2013
Manx Moods Missing Mum
Finn and I went to the Isle of Man over the Easter weekend, without Cori, so I suspect that it's reasonable that it's me who writes it up (and it will give us some more time to try and pin Finn down for his monthly picture!)
The Boy Trip was planned long in advance: knowing that Cori had to work and that nursery was to be closed on the Friday and Monday, we thought that it would be reasonable for me to spend the time looking after Finn on the island with help from his granny and nephews instead of kicking our heels around the flat for four days. This sounded great to us all in advance - Cori getting a rest, me getting to the Isle of Man, Finn not being bored at home - but when the time came we were all a little apprehensive or sorry to part.
Things would have been all super, were it not for Finn's teething (or something to the same effect) that had him in an inconsolable wailing mood for nearly three of the four days we were on the island!
Things were quite terrible at times - such as in the mornings when he was in a grump from waking up, or towards evenings, and certainly at dinner time - but he was ok when he was out of the house, and especially around his cousins. So he still had a lot of fun, even if he would weep and wail without respite at other times!
Unfortunately Finn's granny saw most of the misery, as we were staying there instead of the flat, but at least she got to see the beam of sunshine which was Finn's good mood on the final day, when a final forlorn dose of Calpol had the almost miraculous effect of restoring him to top mood within minutes! (So I'm hoping that we might be allowed back at some time...)
Unfortunately, because there weren't two of us, and there was one needy Finn, there aren't as many pictures as I would have liked, but there are some that tell some of the tale of our four Manx days...
Finn was delighted to find that granny's house also stocked his
favourite cereals... but he was distraught two days later when it ran out
(not pictured):
Finn had a whole new set of cars and trucks to push around, such as this
very manly green rubbish truck (just out of shot is the pink and purple animal rescue van, complete
with baby giraffe with a bandages on its knee):
You might also note in that last picture that Finn was making his fart-like noise that
sometimes accompanies truck-pushing, although nursery today reports that
everything received a "nee naw" fire engine noise from Finn today -
just one of the many skills his granny taught him in the Isle of Man. Cori was most impressed to hear his new noises when he returned, and especially the "choo choo" for anything train-like, which was another of granny's introductions. (I don't know why he took up those words from her when he generally just stares blankly at us when we try words on him - it must be all the chocolate she gives him!)
Finn was also introduced to Lego for the first time, which was quite something (although he did mainly just like the cars and bikes!):
We were also very excited to go to the Auldyn School playing fields to see some top-level football courtesy of Finn's excellent footballing cousins. Action shots of Oliver, Thomase and Jake include the following (I suspect that Jake is here working on his goal celebrations!):
Finn also got to hang out with his cousins at their house. There he would be found shouting his way happily up the stairs in order to thrown himself into Jake or the twins' toy boxes with joyous abandon. Unfortunately I used such times, with Finn finally occupied with something, in order to slip away and drink more than just a sip of tea, and so there are very few pictures. But there is this nice one of Finn and Thomase (with the original "nee naw" -ing vehicles within sight (as is a suspiciously Calpol-looking box on the table behind!)):
If anyone was in doubt about the root of Finn's mood over the weekend, this otherwise lovely picture of him and his granny shows how mouth-conscious he was, shoving his hand into his mouth like this almost constantly:
Other than that, we went swimming in Douglas, to the Wildlife Park in Ballaugh (where we rode on a miniature steam train!), to the gate of Peel Castle (but not in, as it was closed due to the snow), to the Peel 'House of Manannan' museum, on a nice long walk around Maughold Head, and through 8-foot-high snow drifts south of Kirk Michael. - Lots of exciting things to keep Finn from feeling too much of his misery!... It's just shame that I don't have more pictures.
(And, since some might be wondering, Finn also had two perfect plane journeys: sleeping throughout on the way over without even a shout, and happily playing or looking out the window on the way back to London).
But I do have one last picture of Finn looking nice in his Ohio State top, probably wishing that his mum was there with him to hear him say "choo-choo"!
The Boy Trip was planned long in advance: knowing that Cori had to work and that nursery was to be closed on the Friday and Monday, we thought that it would be reasonable for me to spend the time looking after Finn on the island with help from his granny and nephews instead of kicking our heels around the flat for four days. This sounded great to us all in advance - Cori getting a rest, me getting to the Isle of Man, Finn not being bored at home - but when the time came we were all a little apprehensive or sorry to part.
Things would have been all super, were it not for Finn's teething (or something to the same effect) that had him in an inconsolable wailing mood for nearly three of the four days we were on the island!
Things were quite terrible at times - such as in the mornings when he was in a grump from waking up, or towards evenings, and certainly at dinner time - but he was ok when he was out of the house, and especially around his cousins. So he still had a lot of fun, even if he would weep and wail without respite at other times!
Unfortunately Finn's granny saw most of the misery, as we were staying there instead of the flat, but at least she got to see the beam of sunshine which was Finn's good mood on the final day, when a final forlorn dose of Calpol had the almost miraculous effect of restoring him to top mood within minutes! (So I'm hoping that we might be allowed back at some time...)
Unfortunately, because there weren't two of us, and there was one needy Finn, there aren't as many pictures as I would have liked, but there are some that tell some of the tale of our four Manx days...
 |
 |
Finn was also introduced to Lego for the first time, which was quite something (although he did mainly just like the cars and bikes!):
We were also very excited to go to the Auldyn School playing fields to see some top-level football courtesy of Finn's excellent footballing cousins. Action shots of Oliver, Thomase and Jake include the following (I suspect that Jake is here working on his goal celebrations!):
Finn also got to hang out with his cousins at their house. There he would be found shouting his way happily up the stairs in order to thrown himself into Jake or the twins' toy boxes with joyous abandon. Unfortunately I used such times, with Finn finally occupied with something, in order to slip away and drink more than just a sip of tea, and so there are very few pictures. But there is this nice one of Finn and Thomase (with the original "nee naw" -ing vehicles within sight (as is a suspiciously Calpol-looking box on the table behind!)):
If anyone was in doubt about the root of Finn's mood over the weekend, this otherwise lovely picture of him and his granny shows how mouth-conscious he was, shoving his hand into his mouth like this almost constantly:
Other than that, we went swimming in Douglas, to the Wildlife Park in Ballaugh (where we rode on a miniature steam train!), to the gate of Peel Castle (but not in, as it was closed due to the snow), to the Peel 'House of Manannan' museum, on a nice long walk around Maughold Head, and through 8-foot-high snow drifts south of Kirk Michael. - Lots of exciting things to keep Finn from feeling too much of his misery!... It's just shame that I don't have more pictures.
(And, since some might be wondering, Finn also had two perfect plane journeys: sleeping throughout on the way over without even a shout, and happily playing or looking out the window on the way back to London).
But I do have one last picture of Finn looking nice in his Ohio State top, probably wishing that his mum was there with him to hear him say "choo-choo"!
- James
Finn's "dubha dubha dubha" a month ago
This video is from over a month ago, back at the end of February. It should have been uploaded then, but we were having problems getting it off the camera. Sorry!
It's a nice video of Finn speaking though, even if it's in a style we've not heard in a while, so it's probably worth our posting:
It's a nice video of Finn speaking though, even if it's in a style we've not heard in a while, so it's probably worth our posting:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)