Wednesday 21 May 2014
Two vids: what it's like to hang out with Finn
Although the photos that we put up here are lovely, if you can't see Finn's chattering, his odd turns of intensity or his weird sense of Normal, you don't really get an idea of what he's like to hang out with.
In April we also also took a couple of videos of Finn just hanging out - one inside drawing round his hand, and another in the park. They are not too special in and of themselves, but they do show what it's like to hang out with him!
Wednesday 14 May 2014
Hair, Seaside and the Mob
The required monthlies:
Lots happened in April, let's start with the most momentous:
Cutting Finn's hair
Until April we had never cut Finn's hair (except for one tuft!). We had tried to, but he always put up a fight when we suggested turning the trimmers on him as well as on my beard. But it didn't really matter, as Finn's hair wasn't too long and where it was getting unruly, we could fool ourselves that it was just angelic golden curls (and not simply a mess).
This was, obviously, rather amazing for a lot of our friends, who have been cutting their children's hair for over a year already. But Finn... well... he's special, I guess!
But the longer hair at the back of Finn's head had been annoying me for some time and so when he was in the bath and in good mood, I tried to snip off some of the worst bits. When he complained, I showed him what I'd chopped off and he seemed interested in it, so I lay it along the edge of the bath and he was happy to let me go on with the job. I was amazed that it was going so well, and I certainly wasn't going to miss the opportunity, but I did feel bad that Cori was out and missing it.
(The first chopping of a child's hair is a Big Deal in America, I'm told, with photos being taken in the barber etc.)
So, after a very fruitful ten minutes Finn looked like this:
When Cori arrived back just as he was getting out of the bath she gave him a hug, immediately noted his chopped hair, and started to cry. "You look like a little boy!"
I felt a bit guilty about that!
I'm glad it's done though - he looks a lot better now. I just wish that he'd grow some more hair towards the top & front of his head!
(When Finn's granny was over recently from the Isle of Man she agreed with Cori that I shouldn't chop his "beautiful golden locks" again but let them flow... we'll see...!)
Buses, Cars, Trains
It won't come as a surprise that Finn is a big fan of all things vehicular. It wouldn't be worth a mention in itself, but I realise in going through the nice pictures for April that a great many of them involve buses, cars, trains etc.
Such as this one of Finn's new favourite bench at the park:
Or this one in a return trip to the ever-popular Transport Museum:
Or this place where far too long is spent during my Dad's Club mornings every other week (imagine this with Finn directing me to "Come on!" and get inside to make train noises, then directing me out open the doors, and close the doors, and fix the wheels, and take the tickets, and make train noises again, and again, and again!):
Or this another Dad's Club favourite - the little cars. Note here how Finn has the car and Lily and Annie are left with the mere trolley-things. Such is life (around Finn). But at least he lets them fill up the petrol for him!
Or, when not out and about with exciting options, there's always the train at home to sit in (sometimes as a Fire Fighter):
Corram's Fields
Now that the weather is turning to the good, and now that Lily's dad has invested in a bike, we've made the first of what I hope to be a number of joint adventures to have fun in places further afield.
We had been to Corram's Fields back in November or so, but it was a miserable failure - dark, rain, cold etc. This time when we went it was entirely different: warm, sun, fun etc. The only difficulty was prying them from the fun to the bikes to return home!
Seaside & Artside
We also got to spend a lovely day-trip with Team Lily - out to Southend-On-Sea, like good Londoners!
We had a day that was a Finn-Delight, for obvious reasons: train-ride (with Thomas books, Lily (and access to Lily's packed treats!)), fish & chip lunch within sight of boats, sandy beach for digging with a digger, fun with Lily with lots of adoring adults around to chat to (and a great art exhibition, courtesy of Lily's dad, which Finn and Lily had a lot of fun admiring). Brilliant fun!
Drawing lines
Finn is an avid reader. We go to the library with him normally twice a week and we generally have to read a book before he leaves his room of the morning, and between breakfast and leaving the house, and sporadically throughout the day, and for 30 or so minutes before bed. Lots of reading.
(We don't tend to see it as anything but normal, but we're reminded of how odd it is whenever others come to stay - such as grandparents, who are rather worn out by all the reading!)
This means that Finn tends to show very little interest in other forms of book activity, such as drawing. But we were delighted the other day when he went quiet in the corridor and we went out to find him peacefully drawing in one of his drawing books. And we were amazed by how good his following of the lines was! (This is not to show off about it, but we are just amazed at how good it was, especially as we can't get him to draw otherwise)
Ambulance Trip and Rastamouse
One of the more exciting events in April was that Finn and I had to take a trip to the hospital in an ambulance!
In fact it was a rather painful and annoying event. Finn was ill with a fever and vomiting (not that unusual), but he didn't have a high temperature, instead he had a very low one (almost unheard of in the nursery!). I went to collect him and the nursery people suggested I phone the NHS helpline to make sure that anything wasn't too amiss. Frustratingly the call didn't go very well and their questions drove me into a "yes" or "no" answer that I gave the wrong answer to!
"Is he unusually unresponsive?" "Err, well, no, he's normally this unresponsive when he's ill - it's normal; but he is unusually unresponsive to his usual healthy self - but that's just because he's ill!" "Yes, or no?" "Eh?" "Is he unusually unresponsive: yes or no?" "Yes?" "Ok, because you've said that he's being abnormally unresponsive, I have to call an ambulance" "Oh."
Normally this would be an exciting thing for Finn - getting a ride in an ambulance - but he was too poorly to care. He was just whining to go home all the way. But then when we got to the hospital he found the heap of books in the children's A&E and we were good from then until we were discharged (after a very long time hoping for a urine sample as Finn intermittently whined to have his trousers back on - it's difficult to get a urine sample from a child who's not potty trained!).
The after-effect of of this terrible day was a week or two of an unsettled stomach etc. (read that "etc." with all due weighting!). A part of this meant terrible nappy-rash and very little room in which to let it clear up. As a solution, we introduced Nappy Free Time on a towel. But the only way to keep him on the towel was to either give him food...
...or to let him watch the new DVD that Yvonne had sent through. Rastamouse is now a firm favourite, for obvious reasons:
... And that's about it for April. There's probably more, but this has gone on quite long enough as it is!
 |
| 30 months (start of April) |
 |
| 31 months (start of May) |
Cutting Finn's hair
Until April we had never cut Finn's hair (except for one tuft!). We had tried to, but he always put up a fight when we suggested turning the trimmers on him as well as on my beard. But it didn't really matter, as Finn's hair wasn't too long and where it was getting unruly, we could fool ourselves that it was just angelic golden curls (and not simply a mess).
This was, obviously, rather amazing for a lot of our friends, who have been cutting their children's hair for over a year already. But Finn... well... he's special, I guess!
But the longer hair at the back of Finn's head had been annoying me for some time and so when he was in the bath and in good mood, I tried to snip off some of the worst bits. When he complained, I showed him what I'd chopped off and he seemed interested in it, so I lay it along the edge of the bath and he was happy to let me go on with the job. I was amazed that it was going so well, and I certainly wasn't going to miss the opportunity, but I did feel bad that Cori was out and missing it.
(The first chopping of a child's hair is a Big Deal in America, I'm told, with photos being taken in the barber etc.)
So, after a very fruitful ten minutes Finn looked like this:
When Cori arrived back just as he was getting out of the bath she gave him a hug, immediately noted his chopped hair, and started to cry. "You look like a little boy!"
I felt a bit guilty about that!
I'm glad it's done though - he looks a lot better now. I just wish that he'd grow some more hair towards the top & front of his head!
(When Finn's granny was over recently from the Isle of Man she agreed with Cori that I shouldn't chop his "beautiful golden locks" again but let them flow... we'll see...!)
Buses, Cars, Trains
It won't come as a surprise that Finn is a big fan of all things vehicular. It wouldn't be worth a mention in itself, but I realise in going through the nice pictures for April that a great many of them involve buses, cars, trains etc.
Such as this one of Finn's new favourite bench at the park:
Or this place where far too long is spent during my Dad's Club mornings every other week (imagine this with Finn directing me to "Come on!" and get inside to make train noises, then directing me out open the doors, and close the doors, and fix the wheels, and take the tickets, and make train noises again, and again, and again!):
Or this another Dad's Club favourite - the little cars. Note here how Finn has the car and Lily and Annie are left with the mere trolley-things. Such is life (around Finn). But at least he lets them fill up the petrol for him!
Or, when not out and about with exciting options, there's always the train at home to sit in (sometimes as a Fire Fighter):
Corram's Fields
Now that the weather is turning to the good, and now that Lily's dad has invested in a bike, we've made the first of what I hope to be a number of joint adventures to have fun in places further afield.
We had been to Corram's Fields back in November or so, but it was a miserable failure - dark, rain, cold etc. This time when we went it was entirely different: warm, sun, fun etc. The only difficulty was prying them from the fun to the bikes to return home!
Seaside & Artside
We also got to spend a lovely day-trip with Team Lily - out to Southend-On-Sea, like good Londoners!
We had a day that was a Finn-Delight, for obvious reasons: train-ride (with Thomas books, Lily (and access to Lily's packed treats!)), fish & chip lunch within sight of boats, sandy beach for digging with a digger, fun with Lily with lots of adoring adults around to chat to (and a great art exhibition, courtesy of Lily's dad, which Finn and Lily had a lot of fun admiring). Brilliant fun!
Drawing lines
Finn is an avid reader. We go to the library with him normally twice a week and we generally have to read a book before he leaves his room of the morning, and between breakfast and leaving the house, and sporadically throughout the day, and for 30 or so minutes before bed. Lots of reading.
(We don't tend to see it as anything but normal, but we're reminded of how odd it is whenever others come to stay - such as grandparents, who are rather worn out by all the reading!)
This means that Finn tends to show very little interest in other forms of book activity, such as drawing. But we were delighted the other day when he went quiet in the corridor and we went out to find him peacefully drawing in one of his drawing books. And we were amazed by how good his following of the lines was! (This is not to show off about it, but we are just amazed at how good it was, especially as we can't get him to draw otherwise)
Ambulance Trip and Rastamouse
One of the more exciting events in April was that Finn and I had to take a trip to the hospital in an ambulance!
In fact it was a rather painful and annoying event. Finn was ill with a fever and vomiting (not that unusual), but he didn't have a high temperature, instead he had a very low one (almost unheard of in the nursery!). I went to collect him and the nursery people suggested I phone the NHS helpline to make sure that anything wasn't too amiss. Frustratingly the call didn't go very well and their questions drove me into a "yes" or "no" answer that I gave the wrong answer to!
"Is he unusually unresponsive?" "Err, well, no, he's normally this unresponsive when he's ill - it's normal; but he is unusually unresponsive to his usual healthy self - but that's just because he's ill!" "Yes, or no?" "Eh?" "Is he unusually unresponsive: yes or no?" "Yes?" "Ok, because you've said that he's being abnormally unresponsive, I have to call an ambulance" "Oh."
Normally this would be an exciting thing for Finn - getting a ride in an ambulance - but he was too poorly to care. He was just whining to go home all the way. But then when we got to the hospital he found the heap of books in the children's A&E and we were good from then until we were discharged (after a very long time hoping for a urine sample as Finn intermittently whined to have his trousers back on - it's difficult to get a urine sample from a child who's not potty trained!).
The after-effect of of this terrible day was a week or two of an unsettled stomach etc. (read that "etc." with all due weighting!). A part of this meant terrible nappy-rash and very little room in which to let it clear up. As a solution, we introduced Nappy Free Time on a towel. But the only way to keep him on the towel was to either give him food...
...or to let him watch the new DVD that Yvonne had sent through. Rastamouse is now a firm favourite, for obvious reasons:
He liked these Rastamouse sessions that much that he took up saying that he had pooed every five minutes, clearly in the hope of being allowed to lie about watching more Rastamouse.
... In fact, things evidently imprinted themselves on his mind so well that a week or so after the end of the nappy-rash problems, we watched Rastamouse just as a treat, at which point Finn insisted on taking off his trousers! He cried when we told him that he didn't have to have his trousers off to watch Rastamouse... we're obviously cruel parents, but at least our child won't insist on taking his trousers off should he ever watch TV at a friend's house!
Family Mob
However, even in a month with so much other exciting stuff going on, quite clearly the most exciting thing in Household Finn was the Franklin Family Visitors. These came thick and fast across one great weekend.
Firstly, Finn's grandad and gran came to stay, which was great. Finn got lots of reading and playing done with them, as well as being in a brilliant mood from wake-up till put down - he would wake up and ask immediately for "grandad and gran?", hoping that he'd be allowed to go in and wake them up, and then he'd leap around joyously when they did emerge (later than 6am, understandably!); though the only problem was putting him finally to bed when he had to stop hanging out with them!
But this was added to even more when Auntie Heidi and Uncle Dean came with their mob: Thomase, Oliver and Jake. Finn could hardly believe that they were in his house - amazing! It was the first time that they'd made the trip up from their grandparents in South London, and it was great to have them! Finn was almost giddy with excitement. He even allowed everyone to play with his toys without fighting!
To celebrate the occasion, we even took some family photos, which were, for the most part, more silly than serious...
Then we headed out for a (very cold!) picnic in Highbury Fields, where the sibling set was completed by a rare appearance in North London of Uncle Andrew - much to our pleasure and joy!
(We didn't get a picture of the full family group though. Sorry, Andrew... you'll have to come back soon to make up for it!)
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