The Tate and a Day in Drawing

With Cori working all day, it was up to me to entertain Finn all of Saturday a few weeks ago. I was particularly happy, therefore, when I got a message from Lily's parents to see if we wanted to join them on a family day at the Tate Britain art gallery.

We had an awful lot of fun there. In fact, perhaps too much fun, for an art gallery like that - I have the suspicion that some were rather less than impressed that anyone would bring their children there to have fun. God forbid that art galleries should ever be fun!
However, having said that, I don't know if Finn looked at a picture on the wall even once, so busy was he shouting and running around with Lily, so I guess that the art was as good as irrelevant to his experience. And even when it was a part of the fun, it was probably inappropriately so - such as pointing out the "trucks" and "fireworks" and "sleeping" people in an installation video that included an audio track of racial prejudice and visuals of the Vietnam War. We left that one before the end, but only once Finn and Lily went up and started to dance in the projection light and someone from the anonymity of the dark room told us to get out!... Perhaps they had a point, though I will probably just choose a different gallery to go to next time, rather than not go at all to any.

The day started with a walk and then a very fun trip across London on a (tube) "train", before we sat happily on a bench outside the gallery and ate our sandwiches. Finn sat perfectly contented for over 30 minutes there on the bench, happily eating his cheese and then jam sandwiches (from which I was passed each mangled and gnawed soggy crust). It was lovely and peaceful there, watching tourists come and go (some of whom thought Finn sufficiently cute to take a picture of him!), pointing at the pigeons limping around us, and then pointing at the planes that would cross the sky every couple of minutes or so. Very relaxing.

Then we did some exploring of things near the Tate, including the "tunnels":

Then Lily and her parents arrived and the real fun began as they were let lose, running and shouting, into one of Britain's most important (and stodgy) art galleries. Lily's mum, Yu-Chen, took a few pictures which show some of the fun:

Lots of fun, from start to finish. The only sore point was when we parted ways on the tube on the way home and Finn had a weeping fit when Lily and her parents left us!

However, when we got home, I managed to entertain Finn for the 30 minutes or so before Cori got home by drawing with him. This is a relatively new thing to do with him and it normally entails him pointing at the paper and demanding that we draw him a "Car! Car! Car!" or a "Train! Train! Train!" etc. But (after a few sheets of cars and trucks and diggers and tractors) I was glad to get his full and quiet attention for ten minutes or so as I drew our day out for him, speaking him through it as I did so. He sat quietly watching and then would point out to me everyone and everything that I'd drawn - "Lily. Dee-dah. You. Andro. Yu-Chen. Train. Bird"etc. ("You" is, frustratingly but sensibly enough, his word for him - seemingly he's picked up on our pointing to pictures of him and saying "You" as we point to him - "You" he will say, as he points to a picture of himself, before pointing his finger at his own belly).

He also demanded that I draw in Cori at the end, disappointed that "Mama" didn't appear anywhere in the picture, which made sense as a good ending to the narrative picture as the drawing was then interrupted as Cori came through the door. But then, after a quick hug, Finn returned to get the picture so that he could take it over to Cori to then sit down and explain to her piece by piece - "Lily. Dee-dah. You. Andro. Yu-Chen. Train. Bird"etc.

We were really impressed by this. Both by his concentration in the process and his interest in it and retention of the elements after it was done. It was as if it had dawned on him that pictures could mean/represent something; as if they suddenly had potential to do something.

In celebration, here is a picture of the rather masterly rending of our trip to the Tate that Finn was so keen to show off to Cori:

25 months old

November is long upon us, so it's high time we have the October review and the month's pictures...

24 months old

25 months old

Now that the flat is in a livable condition, we've been getting out and doing things more. This is mostly driven by Finn, who really enjoys others' company. We set about trying to do something out and about every weekend, and we pretty much did so during October.

One weekend we went to the Transport Museum, again, but this time with Finn's friend Lily S. Unfortunately, as wonderful and as long-lasting as Transport Museum trips are, it is very dark in there and so very few presentable images emerge. The best we have to show for ourselves this time around is this one of Lily looking pretty cool on a tube train, and Finn on his way to disembark:

Finn and I also had a very fun Friday afternoon one week. (Cori collects him from nursery at 3.30 four days a week, but I collect him one day - it's normally a Friday, Cori's work-depending, which means that it's now referred to as "Finn Fridays" at my work!). I collected him on the bike and we then cycled for 20 minutes back into town, past St. Paul's and over the Millennium Bridge to the Tate Modern. The intention was to go into the gallery, but Finn was too interested in the river and the bridge etc. So we spent about an hour and a half walking up and down the Southbank: listening to buskers, shouting at birds, pointing at boats as they went under the bridges, spotting planes, clambering up and down the steps, strolling out along little jetties etc. - It was nice to have fun with Finn there; it felt like London was his playground, literally. Passing by tourists for whom this walk along the Thames might be a lifetime dream, it really struck me how lucky Finn is, perhaps, to be able to call it home.

Another fun family trip was to the Geoffrey Museum near where we used to live in Haggerston, Hackney. It's questionable how much fun Finn had on this trip, but at least we got out, and he got to each sandwiches on a bench outside, which he always loves to do! And it also allowed us to get some nice pictures...

The thing which we always tend to do after a weekend afternoon nap, before dinner etc., is to take a walk around the block. The round trip will tend to take about an hour or so, with the highlight being the "Train Park" on the way. The park is lovely and close, and a good size to just pop by:

But it is not really the park itself that is the attraction for Finn - it is the view over the wall to the train tracks below! Hence the name we have given to the park. Normally Finn can take or leave the park itself, but is very excited about seeing the trains. This is especially so when we have to pass over a bridge to get there where we can hear but not see the trains passing beneath us. At this point Finn tends to begin to run to the park! And when we get there, we spend a long long time looking, and waiting, and listening, and then seeing Trains! Trains! Trains!

Another trip out, on another James-pick-up day, was to go and visit Lily (S-W) in her house. We were even treated to dinner, which was lovely (especially when Finn actually ate it!). There isn't much to report from the trip, other than that it was lovely to see them, and to see Finn and Lily getting on so well and being so silly together:

October has also seen Finn move up from the baby group at nursery. Now that he is two, he takes part in the older children activities. However, at the moment, the report sheets pretty much remain the same - "Finn enjoyed playing with cars" etc. But there were two very nice variations on this theme:

8th October
Finn enjoyed taking part in What's In The Bag. He was able to name objects that he took out of the bag. He was happy when he took out a train and a car.

No surprises there then! We imagine that Finn probably had a good root around in the bag until he found the train and car. In fact, he was probably meant to only take one, but he has two hands after all! Then he probably didn't partake in the rest of the game, simply scampering off with his booty.

11th October
Finn really enjoyed role play transport songs. He joined in with all of the actions and some of the words. He also played outside on bikes.

This was actually the children sat in rows on their seats as the staff flapped sheets over them as an aeroplane. Finn, apparently, loved that immensely!

Picking up on the transport obsession theme, I was trying to get him to engage with the heap of wooden blocks that we have. I expected him to build houses, or towers etc. But, no. Of course, he jabbed his finger at them and demanded "Car! Car! Car!" I don't know if other boys are as obsessed as Finn is - and we certainly don't encourage it more than normal acceptance of his liking it - but driving his Fire Engine around the roads of a giant car made out of blocks made for a new high in vehicle fetishism!

When I tried to make actual constructions from the blocks, Finn was certainly impressed to have been able to watch a train take shape. But he was rather nonplussed when it did not perform as vehicles obviously should when you push them:

Something odd that Finn has taken on during October or so is impersonating things. For example, one of his new favourite things is being a "Robot". This began, for some reason that I now forget, with him putting the bag for one of his toys over his head and making the funny Robot Beep Beep noise.

Another of his favourite games has always been to have "Bear" be a part of our playing. So, when he leaps into our bed in the morning to say 'Ello to us repeatedly with his forehead pressed up against ours, he will also demand that Bear is there also to say 'Ello to. This has recently taken a new twist by Cori's having Bear wear a pretend pair of glasses and then she will pretend the Bear is me. Finn, of course, finds that very funny!


Another brilliant role-play impersonation game for Finn is his identifying us in all of his books. So, when the train driven by the monkey drives through the snowy landscape, one penguin will be Mama, one Dee-dah, another Finn. In another book, where the frog is trying to find a friend to hop with, the final page always is of Finn as the frog and Lily as the hopping rabbit. Etc. It's all rather strange and brilliant, as it's not everything that is identified as someone - only certain pages of certain books. But the strangest one is the one that started it all off - for no apparent reason, and without any prompting from us, Finn saw one particular picture of a train in his Thomas the Tank Engine book as a picture of me. Every time we came to it, he would see it, get excited, jab it with his finger saying "Dee-dah" and then point at me. The picture, you can see for yourself, isn't really like me in the slightest:

It won't come as a surprise that Cori and I then started to prompt Finn to call the funny-looking chicken, or the fat pig "Mamma" or "Dee-Dah"!

We don't really know what this impersonating or role-playing game is all about. It is probably just a normal part of a toddler's development, but it is still very impressive. He seems to be still at the stage of understanding the world itself, which makes pretending that the world is not as it seems pretty amazing, if you ask me!

To finish off with, here is an unusually lovely picture of Finn, with Fire Engine (whose nee-nor by this time was slurring into a battery dying "nuuuuuur-nuuuuuughhhh"), and looking pretty amazing...

And here are two videos from his birthday, when he got some cards that played music.  He LOVES these sorts of cards and we keep them all on hand until the batteries die (we only just got rid of the one his Grandma gave him for his 1st birthday!).  My sister sent one to me a while back that sings "unforgettable" and Finn thinks it's hilarious to join in the singing with a "ahhh-ahhhh" in all the right places.  But mostly he just likes to boogie, with his trademark arms a-rolling dance.  Enjoy:

Two Years Old!

Finn is two years old!
(... Well, actually, he was two years old now a month and a half ago, but let's ignore that, ok)

This is what a two-year-old looks like (next to what a one-year-and-eleven-month-year-old):

23 months old

24 months old

And here is all of it all together! (click on them to make it bigger...)

 

It's been a long year which, looking back on it, went very quickly. It's hard to imagine our lives twelve months ago when everything was all so very different.

Back then Finn couldn't walk, talk, sleep through the night, be near Cori without demanding to be breast-fed etc. But now, a year later, none of this applies and he is, quite clearly, a little boy.
It struck us, at around the two-year mark, just how much and how quickly he is growing up. He is becoming, each day, more and more like a little boy. And, because of that, he is becoming more and more fun to be around. And this was perhaps especially so around his birthday...

The 2nd of October was a work-day for us, and so Finn was in nursery most of the day. But he did get to wear his, by now, three-birthday-old onesie, with "Happy Birthday Mum Dad Finn!" written across it - classy! Here is Finn obscuring the witticism by hugging "mama" before breakfast:

After nursery, with me (James) sadly working late at a lecture, Finn was given unheard of treats: First, a doughnut...

And then, secondly, a TV dinner!

Because of his turning two mid-week, the rest of the celebrations had to wait until the weekend. Then, on the Saturday morning, of course the first thing we did was to try and recreate the lovely pictures of last year. Sadly, they didn't work out so well...

But we persisted, until we broke through resistance into boredom... it was the best we could hope for!

In fact, this shiney new "nee-naw" with ladders on top (the inspiration behind one of the new things Finn loves to spot on vans when we're now out walking) is evidence that this picture was taken after his party, because this beloved new vehicle was given to Finn by his nursery friend, Conrad.

Last year we were able to go to the pub, but because Finn and friends are so mobile now, it would have been far from appreciated or appropriate to have gone again this year. So, knowing that Finn loves to hang out with his friends, and that going anywhere else would just be a distraction from this for him, we decided just to have a few friends round. And we were blessed to have Conrad, Annie and Lily around for the afternoon. (It doesn't sound like a lot, but when you add in their Responsible Adults, it gave us a full house - the first one ever in our new flat!).

We had been telling Finn that Conrad was coming round all that morning, as well as the night before, but he didn't really seem to understand. When we pushed the point, he asked if we were going to go out to nursery. We explained that Conrad was coming to our home, but then he just looked baffled (with his distinctive wrinkled-brow frown). - It seemed that friends were people we met outside of the house; they are not at all the sort of thing that could be inside our home. How foolish or incomprehensible an idea!
So, when the door bell rang and we told Finn that it was Conrad, he was incredulous. Not quite believing it to be possible, let alone true, he ran out onto the landing outside of the flat and waited at the top of the stairs as Conrad's mother carried him up. As he came around the corner, Finn went bonkers with excitement, smiling and shouting out "Conrad! Conrad! Conrad!" and pointing at him. Conrad leapt out of his mother's grasp and they were off into the house shouting. - The party had begun!

They same sort of excitement was repeated as both of Annie and then Lily arrived. It was as if Finn was constantly being amazed that all of these brilliant and fantastic people were coming to his house. Brilliant!

So Finn and the gang were darting around shouting and having fun from room to room, causing a ruckus and making a mess, as the grown-ups were happily content chatting in the lounge and sipping tea/coffee/juice. I was on guardian duty though, with Finn and the gang, but I really enjoyed myself - I always do when Finn is having as much fun as that, and also with all of his friends, all of whom are ace!

Here are a series of three pictures to give an idea of the mayhem. They are not the best pictures we've ever taken, but they do show the anarchic fun (and also the admirable boyishness of the boys and the girlishness of the girl!):

(Note Conrad's gift firmly gripped in Finn's hand!)

Although the Fire Engine was unquestionably the only one Finn cared for on the day, he's since come to also really enjoy the things that Annie and Lily got for him. We were surprised to realise when Finn unwrapped the gifts that they were the first real "educational" games that Finn had; a number-matching puzzle, and a clock with a number book.

I don't think that we'd really grasped that Finn was of an age to be able enjoy and make the most of educational things like these, so we'd not really thought to try them out on him. But once he started on them over the next few days, he got really stuck into them and he was fantastic at them. We were amazed and delighted, for example, when he matched up the one apple card with the one apple, and then the number one card with the number one, and then the two trees card with the two trees etc. all the way up to ten, and hardly any help from us whatsoever. Amazing! ... Although, we did have to admit defeat when it came to four - "mine" Finn would say when we pointed at the image of four cars for him to put the card down on. We had to complete the rest of the game with Finn quietly clutching his four cars card and every now and then taking a look at it!

As for any good party, there was good old home-made cake:

And, of course, some great blowing out of candles (which, as the pictures might show, required some amount of excitement from the grown-ups in order to get the little 'uns going!):

(Note the Fire Engine grasped in Finn's left hand behind Cori here!)

You'll also see here our inventive solution to the too-many-people/not-enough-chairs problem. We called it An Indoor Picnic and pretended it was the sort of quirky thing we parents do all the time!

The earlier arrivals - Conrad and Annie - left shortly after the cake. I have to admit to feeling rather pleased with our good work when they both started crying and putting up a fight at being taken away so soon when so much fun was yet to be had. - A sign of a good party, I though, even if it was slightly painful on their parents as they took them away for their overdue naps!

Left alone without distraction, Lily and Finn settled in for some celebratory after-party smooching, encouraged, of course, by Finn's mother who thought it sufficiently cute to take pictures of it:

But it was unclear whether Finn was elated or... something else... with his first two-year-old kiss:

(And, if you were wondering, the Fire Engine is still there in Finn's left hand, just in shot).

Once the last of the partiers had gone, Finn took a long and well-deserved nap. And the rest of the day, once he was up again, was taken up, as is often the case on the weekends, with a walk around the block. This time, however, it was particularly fun for Finn because he had a brand new and much-loved Fire Engine to hold...

Let's hope that there are many more such lovely days to come for Finn and friends, especially now that our new flat was christened as ready for visitors by the party. Long may she sail... or something like that...

Happy birthday, Finn!