Baby Brother...

Finn's long-awaited Baby Brother arrived yesterday at about 6:16pm - Wednesday the 29th of October. Cori is still in hospital with the li'l fella, but I'm back at home to sort Finn this evening before returning to the hospital after Finn's in nursery tomorrow morning. So I use this time to give just a quick (and rather tired) update...
Before all else, here is a picture of the new arrival:

The birth was straightforward, "easy" and very quick.
In short, the run of events (for me) was:

1. Get the phone call from Cori at c. 2.30, with her still hedging her bets with "I think this is it, so you better come, just in case."
2. Through the usual rainy misery of London traffic I get buses to collect Finn from nursery and then home, arriving maybe at 4:15.
3. As Finn rolls about on the carpet with Anna (Cori's heroic friend whom Finn adores) we pack the last few things in the bags and faff about in all haste.
4. We phone the taxi company, knowing that we'd been told to come in as soon as we were in labour. Wait for taxi, wait, wait... Phone another taxi company, wait, receive Kafkaesque phone-calls, wait, wait, find taxi parked in the wrong place.
5. Endure taxi ride to hospital.
6. Report to antenatal check-up place, where the midwife/nurse-person calmly checks Cori and then walks us up to the delivery rooms.
7. Stroll around the room as they begin to run the birthing pool. Lean on the edge of the tub when the contractions come.
8. Stop filling the tub. Unable to move from leaning on the edge of the tub.
9. Baby is born (standing up), at about 6:16pm

It all happened very quickly, especially the hospital bit. This is probably best illustrated by the fact that parts 4, 5, and 6-to-9 were all of about the same length in time.

The contractions lessened in the taxi, but as soon as we got in the hospital they were immediately serious and every two minutes.

It all went very well, and the swiftness of it all meant that it was much easier to get through, without the exhaustion or fear creeping over us all. It was still terrifying and painful and epic etc., but, relatively, so much easier than Finn's birth, and even that was very straightforward when compared to others.

The amazing ease of it showed in Cori being able to (very tentatively and precariously) walk about the room only shortly after 7pm or so. Amazing!

Unlike for Finn, I was able to spend the night (on the floor), and also unlike last time, the new-born slept soundly and perfectly, even needing to be woken to feed.

This left us this morning (relatively) well rested and able to enjoy the baby...

We were also able to discuss the name, and we think we've come to a decision. On the train back from York a few weeks ago we fought it out to pretty much the only first name we could agree on, even though it was neither of our favourites (I don't think). We have had no better ideas, and we're not going to do much more thinking on it, so it is unlikely to change from what we have now:

Orry Franklin

'Orry' because it's a nice name and Manx and unusual. (It comes from "King Orry", whose name comes up in many ways all over the Isle of Man).

It was also chosen as it was easy to pronounce... but it transpires that it's not so for anyone America. Even Cori...

For we Brits it's "O" as in "Orange"; but for Americans it's seemingly clearly an "O" as in "Oar". Making the the name either rhyme with "Sorry" or "Story".

I don't know what we're going to do about that, but at least I can put my claim down first, that it absolutely should be "Orry" to rhyme with "Sorry"!

We did not have a middle name at all, and we didn't come close to one in our discussions about the first name, so we landed on one which we both quite like, but which I wouldn't want to have as a first name:

Orry Oscar Franklin

My sister gave a laugh at the name, my father asked if we were joking... we see that it is a bit silly, but we think that it will grow into being a good name. - Either that or we need to come up with something better very very quickly!
... But we think that Orry is going to be a goer for him though:

Unfortunately, because of the swiftness of the birth, the hospital are keen to monitor the baby for longer, so Orry will need to be there for five days. So I will be visiting daily around looking after Finn. We started today, when left the hospital to go and collected Finn from nursery and return with him to meet his new baby brother:

Finn was very good with him and he took it all very much in his stride. He was interested and pleased to see Orry, and very ready to kiss him hello and goodbye etc. when prompted. It seemed like a very good start to Finn accepting his family as expanding into four, but we will see how it goes when we're all home. Hopefully that won't be long...

Finn's birthday and October so far

(NOTE: Apparently there was some confusion in my 35 months old post, so I wanted to clarify. This quote:
 "We recently realised that with all of the excitement about posting the fun things we got up to in August in the Isle of Man, we forgot the regular monthly update! So it is long overdue (especially as the next one is due in a week!)" 
is referring to the fact that the next monthly update was due in a week, not the next child. So I am not massively overdue at this point, in fact I'm not yet even "due." Officially my due date is Friday the 24th October. Sorry if that confused and/or worried people!)

So I've only just done the September update - which makes it a bit tricky to think about what is different for October!
(PS. In case you missed it, I've done two posts. TWO!  Check me out. So if you haven't already, check the post below this one first as it might be new to you as well...)

So I'll do my best to talk about what is very currently on our minds first briefly and then get into the lovely pictures from his birthday!

So firstly, I don't know why everyone complains about the terrible twos - the twos were completely fine and we had a lovely lovely little boy. And then he turned three. And he has become a nightmare. Tantrums out the whazoo. He's learned that he can lay himself flat on the ground and there is very little I can do about it. So sometimes he will just flatten himself on the way home and scream. It makes me want to cry. His favourite words at the moment are "my not like it" (even though we are trying desperately to correct his grammar). It applies to EVERYTHING. Nothing that he previously enjoyed even 5 minutes before is out of bounds. He doesn't like eating, baths, going to nursery, staying home, playing games, reading more than one book at a time, reading only one book at a time, waking up, going to sleep, etc etc etc.  He just doesn't like it and it makes him cry. A lot. It kills me. Some days are worse than others of course, but still - it's a revelation to finally understand what could possibly be 'terrible' about a toddler.  Not the best timing, clearly - since there is another demanding child rapidly threatening to appear, but what can you do?! Finger's crossed it's a phase that passes quickly and in the meantime I'm developing extreme skills at blocking out screaming.

Another 'typical' thing he's into is "why?" CONSTANTLY. I'm sure I don't need to elaborate on how fun that is.

The other aspect is babies. He went through a time when he was actually frightened of them. It was very strange. He's fine when we talk about his baby brother. He's looking forward to it (well, not anymore. I think he's tired of being asked if he's excited. So his reaction is now an entirely grumpy one of NO! My not like BABIES!). But then we had a baby come round to our house (Emin). He's not even that babyish - in fact he just turned one last weekend. And Finn was weirdly freaked out by him - didn't want him anywhere near him and got upset when Emin tried to touch him. It was like a baby was some sort of wild animal.  He did eventually get over it after we'd asked him to help in various ways. At one point Emin had fallen asleep on the living room floor so I asked Finn to put a blanket on him. He very slowly walked up to him and sort of dropped/threw the blanket at him and then ran off. But he was so pleased with himself that he seemed to think Emin was ok. When he woke up later Finn had been checking on him and ran into the kitchen to tell us - "He's awake!! He's awake!!" That's partly why I have no idea how he is going to actually respond to this baby. If he is as loving to the actual baby as he is to my tummy and to the thought of his baby brother than we'll be completely fine. But if he reacts like he does to other babies we've come across than it's an entirely different story.  Guess we'll find out soon!!

So! His birthday!
One of the best things about this birthday is that Finn actually knew it was his birthday! He's starting to understand what a birthday is and he'd been to a few parties and knew that it was going to be his special day.  We were also able to build it up a little bit. He's starting to get the concept of things happening in the future and being 'patient' (As a side story, we've been working on being 'patient' and now he finally gets it, one of his favourite things is to throw it back at us. When I ask him to hurry up with something he likes to give me this pointed look and sternly say "Mama. Be patient. That means waiting nicely." It's quite something having your own words coming back at you - but a good reminder as well!!). Anyway, understanding that exciting things happen in the future meant we could talk about his birthday and what was coming a bit more.
So I could ask him what he wanted to do for his party and he only had three requests: yellow and brown balloons, Kairon (his best friend from nursery), and Lily with the yellow hair. That was it.  Later he remembered he wanted cake, but the one thing that NEVER changed was yellow and brown balloons. It's not a birthday without balloons and yellow and brown are his favourite colours (always together as well). I had to order them online as it's unsurprisingly hard to find brown balloons. But we got them. And he loved them.

So, his birthday morning.
We lied a little bit. His actual birthday was on the Thursday - but we weren't going to be able to sort much out for Thursday, particularly at his nursery. So we treated Thursday as a normal day - and said it was his birthday on the Friday. We didn't take any pictures on the morning as we needed to get him off to nursery (I was actually working that day - doing a handover with the person taking over my role). They made a big deal about his birthday at nursery and he was loving feeling special. They got all the kids together to make him a birthday cake and he was apparently super excited. So it all got mixed up and they put it in the oven to cook. And Finn was so excited he was running around telling everyone. And he ran outside and some of the children on the playground sang happy birthday to him and he was just SO SO SO excited - that he fell down. Quite dramatically. He ended up with two massive bumps and grazes smack on his forehead. Poor boy.

He falls down a lot and heals quickly but still. It's a shame he had to go from so thrilled to so hurt.  He did get better with it and we didn't have to come and pick him up or anything, though we were on standby. But he did end up eating his cake and having a good day anyway. After he came home, we did presents.

He loves his bike - he hasn't really ridden it much outside (it's been raining a lot!) but he rides it around the house constantly (and a bit annoyingly) and makes sure it is safely parked before he goes to sleep.  At one point he looked at it and just proclaimed "Mama, my bike is beautiful" which is a lovely thing to hear. Especially when he pronounces it bootyfull. My heart swells :)

He also got some extra train track pieces which allows him (and us) to create more and more elaborate tracks...

Pretty impressive!

And the next day was his party!
It was raining in the morning so he only got a little ride on his bike in the morning on the way to Dad's Club and then I met him after with his raincoat and wellies and we splashed in some puddles and came home to yellow and brown balloons!

And yellow and brown cupcakes!

He had a great time with all his best friends there (we were quite selective in invitations. I know you're supposed to invite EVERYONE - but I was no way up to having that many people round. So it was five friends invited and four who could come (Kairon, Annie, Lily with the yellow hair, and Solve). Still. Even with not that many kids - the carnage was delightful!

Finn had a GREAT time and loved being the centre of attention - though it wore him out a bit.

All and all a success, I'd say!

Finn's other birthday gift was for the three of us to go on a special outing that was all about Finn, before the baby gets here. We went up to York for the Railway Museum.  Our pictures are pretty awful, but hopefully you get some sense of the fun and excitement he had being there. I've done enough typing I think so here are just a series of pics:

Riding the Japanese Bullet Train!

They were watching a demonstration of the turntable, turning a huge engine all the way around

The viewing platform where the museum overlooks the actual train station - great idea!

It was a great day out and we all enjoyed it thoroughly. It's a shame it is so far away - it would be a great place to go back to again and again. But I'm glad we at least got to go there this time.

And I think that's all! I've written a LOT! So I'm going to leave it with a few more pictures. Finn's special birthday pictures.

And, just for fun, here's one of them all together.

And with that I'll leave you! Keep us all in your thoughts!

36 months old! (ie: THREE!)

We are all eagerly anticipating the arrival of Baby Brother (no, still no name decided! I think Finn might carry on calling him baby brother for a while...). I'm not due until end of next week but still, hopefully soon enough we'll be putting up baby pictures and the like... so I thought it best to get a couple updates up now while there's still time.
Firstly, Finn's 36 month update on what we got up to in September.
And secondly (hopefully tomorrow) I'll try to cover October (so far): how his birthday went and what he's up to at the moment.

First things first, here are his photos side by side:

35 months old

36 months old

So what has carried on through September?
First things first, STOP THE PRESSES! He woke up one morning and declared that he was no longer Little Turtle!  He is now "only just Finn." Phew :) I thought the day would never come!

What else?
 He is still super super creative. I love it! He makes up some amazing stories. It's great fun just observing him playing on his own as he talks through whatever is carrying on in his mind. The conversations he has between his toys and the situations they get into are sometimes bizarre but always entertaining!  It's not just when he's playing though - he also likes to sing songs that go on and on and are based mostly on what he sees around him. It's pretty funny.

And if you ask him questions the answers can tend to... drift... But I love it!
On the walk home we pass a church. On the wall of the building is a statue of Jesus with his arms outstretched. One day when we were walking he asked me who that was on the wall. I said "it's Jesus." Finn asked what he was doing and I replied that he was holding his arms out kind of like giving a hug so that people would know they could go into that church if they wanted to.  Finn replied "no. That's not right."
"Ok" I said -" what do you think he's doing?"
"He's telling all the children to go away."
"What?"
And Finn launches into an explanation all about the fact that Jesus was actually holding his arms out and saying "shoo" to all the children because there were so many of them and he wanted them to go away. Not only that, but then he told all the children that they should be going to work and they weren't going to work so Jesus was getting angry... it went on for awhile but that was the gist of it! So hard not to just laugh at him sometimes!!

Here's a couple pictures of us playing pretend. He LOVES to do this in the bed most of all, where the duvet becomes a cave, or mud, or a tent or a multitude of other things.
(and in case you're wondering, Bear is a firefighter and is wearing a mask that will help him breathe in the smoke...

I'm not quite sure WHAT is happening in this picture, but I'm sure it made sense at the time :)

And of course, Finn still loves reading. Anywhere and everywhere (including arranging my clothes into a bed)

He loves to look out the window and tell us the state of the Shard - whether it is hiding because it is 'froggy' or if it's got its lights on because it's dark. There were a few days when he needed to go and see it every night before bed. He decided that what he could see was 'the city' and he really wanted to go see the city sometime. So one Saturday we decided to go and see the city!  Our first stop was the Shard, of course, and getting a good look at it up close. But then we went to see some of the other London landmarks that he has in his books and proclaims as 'the city' and 'London' (which is different from where we live of course. When we came back from the Isle of Man he got upset because we had said that we were going to London. And he cried because we didn't go to London, we "only just went home!") So we set off to show him some London and had a great day out.

The Shard

The Thames and HMS Belfast

There was a random city farm event thing set up on the Southbank that we happened upon as well...

Tower Bridge

When we were crossing Tower Bridge I took a picture and commented that it reminded me of an image I had seen at the museum where I work. Later I discovered that it was in EXACTLY the same place!  Here's both of them...

We then went to see the Tower of London which has a very cool art installation on at the moment. They are planting ceramic poppies, 888,246 of them - one for British military fatality.  It was a pretty impressive sight!  We had our lunch there and then got back on the bus to come home.

Overall a lovely day in the city!

The other big trip out we took was to go out to Woking and meet Finn's new cousin, Georgina (Georgie). She is lovely and beautiful and gorgeous of course. And also, of course, Finn was more impressed with the train journey there (we got him some binoculars for looking at the Shard and he brought them with him) and playing in the back garden...

The other updates for September are that Finn has magically turned into the pickiest of picky eaters, out of nowhere and now refuses to eat ANY 'vegiballs.'  Some I thought for sure he wouldn't even notice were there but if there's a single one, he finds it and refuses to eat it.  Which is annoying.

He's also not potty trained but had declared that two is 'still little' and he would use the toilet 'when he was three.' So we let it slide until his birthday (next post) and made a big deal about how he was now three and now ready for the toilet.  He thought for a minute and said "No. Later. When I'm fou...FIVE!" To which we said nope. Three.  This coming weekend we're going cold turkey on the nappies.... I'll let you know how it goes!

James also has a little note here to put in the update that Finn now has some Lego... I'm not quite sure why that's an update except perhaps that James seems to be really happy with that development and loves that they can 'play Lego' together!  Finn can't really get the pieces to stick but he can direct and build as long as you do the snapping... and James can make some pretty grand designs by request - you should have seen the airplane and helicopter (and control tower!). Epic.  That's probably what I was supposed to mention :)

Lastly, I'll leave you with a final picture.  Finn is allowed to choose a toy at night to take to bed with him. Usually it's a car or small train or something, but it can be anything. The past couple of nights he's asked to take his triangle - he doesn't play it or anything, it just stays in bed with him!  But I really liked this night, when he decided he wanted his dump truck. We asked repeatedly if he was sure and he said yes - and loo and behold, he fell asleep quite quickly and contentendly with his trusty dump truck by his side :)
Enjoy!