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| 28 months old |
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| 29 months old |
And it's been a while since I've shown you some outtakes, so here are a couple:
But almost immediately after Chinese New Year, I went off on a trip to Amsterdam and left Finn and James behind. So James has written his own update on that time:
James:
Through a series of chance circumstances, Cori found herself invited on three-day trip with the Museum's Director and a hand-picked cast of the Museum's lead players. Being, in reality, quite a few rungs beneath the Director level of Museum management, Cori was very excited to go. And, since she'd been having Wanderlust for the past few months, we scraped some pennies together so that she could stay on an extra couple of days in the Netherlands.
... All of which meant that I had Finn to look after from Wednesday morning through to Sunday afternoon...
Things didn't start very well as Finn was ill - Cori had actually gone through and slept beside him to get him through the night on Tuesday, but I still hoped to get him into nursery on Wednesday morning. Sadly it didn't happen though. By the time we arrived on the bike to nursery Finn was clinging to me and weeping inconsolably. "He doesn't have a temperature!" I appealed, but they wouldn't take him. Needless to say, Finn ran out of the nursery very happy once he knew that he was going home!
Once we got in we played for a little bit and then he played slower and slower until this happened:
One of the most peaceful put-downs of recent months!
Things went well from then on: we cooked together, he ate his food (enchiladas, if I remember correctly), he had a nice bath, we read quietly, and he was asleep by 7.30pm. Brilliant!
We had been having some troubles, growing through January into February, with Finn waking up in the night and needing to be calmed. This meant that Cori (for some reason only Cori) would have to go through to him once almost every night. Not good.
I was frightened of this in Cori's absence, but he didn't put any real effort into crying me awake that first night; just a 20-second blast and then, rather humorously, an annoyed shout of "Dee-dah!", and then nothing more - he'd gone back to sleep without any more to-do.
By Thursday night he barely woke, and that was the end of Finn's wakings in the night!
I think that this was a part of the theme of my five or so days alone with Finn; that it proved to be a lot easier to deal with him without Cori around.
I would like to think that it's me being a better parent than Cori, but sadly I suspect not. There are studies that show that toddlers push boundaries with people that they feel closest or safest around. Inevitably this means Cori rather than me. Which is, I suppose, very flattering for Cori. However, it does mean that she gets the brunt of any sort of "playing up". So, if you take her out of the equation, such as for her Dutch visit, Finn is suddenly a lot easier to deal with and is a lot more fun to be around. Which is nice!
That's not to say that there weren't tantrums; there were, but they didn't last very long and nothing too much came of them - we just picked up where we left off.
So, we had a very nice time all-in-all. We got up to stuff every day: stay-&-play sessions, long walks home from nursery, Dad's Club etc. and it felt like a were mates, just hanging out and doing stuff. It was fun!
The supermarket thing is probably worth an explanation, as it is (at the moment anyway) a legitimate entertainment for Finn to go to the supermarket and lead the way around the aisles. For me at least, he will do this often with singing and dancing, but also darting off to the item that's been assigned for him. And this is, of course, interspersed with chatting to the old ladies and employees who stop to chat to Finn. It's all rather fun. And at the end of it he's rewarded by being allowed to sit in the Thomas the Tank Engine, Ice Cream Van and Noddy car rides outside. These he will sit in happily for around 20 minutes as we take a breather and watch other kids come and go. Then he'll be ready (without crying - hence being there 20 minutes!) to go and we can make it the 10 minutes walk home without too much fuss. - And all that without actually putting any money in the rides!
So Cori's time away went very quickly and rather enjoyably. But it was still a delight to have her back... even if it did mean that Finn then shouted "No, go away, Dee-dah!" whenever I tried to go into the same room as them! But, like I said, Cori always gets the painful end of Finn's affections!
Cori again:
So here's the sum up from the rest of February:
More museums, the British Museum this time:
More visiting with Lily:
Some interesting things about Finn at this age -
Whenever he walks backwards, he beeps, like trucks do. It's really very funny and he takes it very seriously. There have even been times when he was having a tantrum about something and crying but when he tried to back away from me he was crying and beeping at the same time! He sometimes does it for other people as well - if he sees someone walking backwards he starts beeping for them. Pretty funny.
He's now taken to announcing his emotions and those of people around him. He doesn't have the full range of emotions. They mostly include happy, sad, hurt, crying, angry, poorly and tired. But as he switches between them he lets you know. It's quite adorable how often he will look up while he's playing and get your attention - "Mama! Mama!" "What?" "Finn happy!" And it's also a bit hilarious when he gets upset and has to let you know (as if it wasn't obvious) that he's crying. And if you ask him if he's tired or anything else while he's crying he will stop to tell you that no, he's not tired, he's crying. And don't even think of crying yourself - "no you crying! FINN crying!" Or if you're not feeling well and try to explain that you're a bit poorly, he will insist that you are not, and that you are in fact happy. And will keep repeating "no, Mama HAPPY" until you give up and agree and go play. Sometimes when I explain to him that I'm not happy because he's not listening or something he will get upset, often start listening and then spend the next 20 minutes questioning me - "Mama happy?" So it does have it's benefits. But the other thing is how quickly he will switch between emotions. So if you've said no or something he will throw himself on you and tell you that he's crying, keep at it for about a minute or so and then say "happy now!" and be done with it!
One thing that certainly makes him happy is bubbles. He LOVES bubbles and has now learned how to blow them himself, with a little bit of help to keep it in the right place...
And every now and then he is allowed to watch some Thomas the Tank Engine or the Frosty the Snowman film (I have no idea why he loves this film so so so much but he does!). Sometimes he gets really into what he's watching:
Speaking of watching, this is an old photo but a funny one. Finn is still no where close to being potty trained. He doesn't seem to know that he is the one doing the poo in his nappy - just is surprised to see there's poo in there! We don't know exactly what do to about that... give it a bit more time I suppose. But he won't even sit on a potty or the toilet even just for fun. One thing he will do is watch us on the toilet! And there was a time when he would get excited and pull up his stool and peer into the gap between the toilet seat and the toilet. Very very off putting! Thankfully he doesn't do it anymore...
He still loves books. so much so that he sometimes wants to carry on reading during breakfast.
He also loves libraries. A LOT. Because I pick Finn up at 3.30 every day there is plenty of time to do fun stuff before we need to be back for dinner. So I ask Finn what he wants to do each day. There was a while when it was very varied. Swimming, the park, the farm, play groups, museums, etc. But now it is the library. And only the library. All he ever wants to do every single day is go to the library. Which is all very nice but it really gets tiring after a while! When we're constantly reading to him at home going somewhere else to read is not that exciting. I've been able to spread it out a bit now - so we only go to the library two or three times and it's 'closed' the other times. Although there are three different libraries and if I say it's closed he just asks to go to the 'other' library. Clever boy. But all this book reading has had an impact - Finn now knows all his letters (mostly) which I hear is pretty good for his age. He doesn't know them as their names but by their sounds. And the list we have to help him identify them is very unique to him, based on his friends names and things he likes etc. So sometimes he will 'read' a word by saying the words which is pretty funny. Sounds like a code. So when he reads out 'Finn' he will follow along and say 'Finn, Isle of Man, Nursery Nursery'
It's quite an odd list as alphabets go, so I will leave you with Finn's full alphabet:
A for Annie
B for Bear
C for Conrad
D for Dee-dah
E for Emin (which is sometimes E for Baby Emin)
F for Finn
G for Gordon
H for Hedgehog
I for Isle of Man
J for Jaimie
K for Kick
L for Lily
M for Mama
N for Nursery
O for Oliver
P for Percy
Q for Quick
R for Rabbit
S for Snake
T for Thomas
U for Umbrella
V for (we haven't figured this one out yet...)
W for Water
X for (or this one...)
Y for Yu-Chen
Z for Zebra
