On the way back from America Finn was invited into the cockpit on the flight home! He decided it was important to tell the pilot two things. 1) he had his new backpack on and 2) he was going to London. I'm hoping the pilot already knew 2) but clearly 1) was exciting information!
They even offered to let him sit in the driver's seat but he wouldn't. He took it seriously when the pilot asked if he wanted to be the pilot and said that he couldn't because he didn't know how. How much do I love this boy!?
James mentioned finding my way around having two of them on my own all day and that getting a bit easier - but it is certainly easier if we do fun things!
Things like going to museums:
The London Transport Museum (aka"the Bus Museum")
The Natural History Museum (aka "the Dinosaur Museum"):
The Science Museum (aka "the Museum With the Trains and Rockets and Cars"):
(Others not pictured include the Canal Museum, the Museum of London, the Tate, etc... we go to museums a LOT).
Taking walks:
on this trip we went into a cafe for lunch and some stranger gave Finn a giant stuffed bee... it was weird...
And meeting friends:
This is my friend Michelle and her boy Michael - he's 2 months older than Orry but I think they are going to be good friends (at least if their Mum's have anything to do with it! :)
You will note that Orry is looking very... "healthy" here. When Cori took him in to be weighed officially, we learnt that Orry was 18 lbs and now at the 98% for weight for babies his age (meaning if you lined up 100 babies of the same age, only 2 of them would be bigger than Orry). Here is some evidence of the accuracy of that assessment:
This is apparently a trait from babies on Cori's side, we're told. I can't but feel a bit aggrieved that our Orry is only the 98% - since we've come this close, why can't he be top?!
Anyway, Orry's chubbiness is very cute and humorous, but it does present problems when it comes to baths & trying to get into all the folds (and folds within folds) of fat. Take, for instance, Orry's knee:
It gets almost impossible around the neck. Bathing him has now become a two-person job - one to be a fold-defolder and one a cleaner. It sounds a little extreme, but we learnt the hard way by discovering valleys of grime that we'd failed to discover!
But perhaps I've gone on about it too long - our "healthy" baby seems less than impressed...
We settled back into life back from Ohio quickly enough, though we would have liked to have been in America a little longer, so that we could have seen Ohio State win the National Championship. Finn and Orry, at least, showed their allegiance from afar:
We also brought home a game, inspired by our watching of Frozen with his cousins. If you don't know the film, the final scene has Anna turn to ice just as she leaps in to save her sister from getting hit with a sword, blocking the blow with her frozen hand, before unfreezing when her sister hugs her. Finn enjoyed the film a lot, but evidently some of the nuance of it went over his head, since this is the version of the final scene that he made up in the game...
It was in January that I took out both Finn and Orry on my own, and here is the pictorial proof:
It was a rainy sort of day - hence Finn's umbrella (handed to his dad to carry about five metres down the road!) and wellies - and we went to take out the recycling and play in the local park. Not very exciting - but very exciting for Cori to get some time without both of them for the first time since around about the 29th of October...!
I hadn't taken them both out earlier because Orry needed feeding often but irregularly before, and it was only at this time that we were confident of the power of the carrier/wrap to make him sleep (which it did here, for an hour or so).
Here is a picture of Orry in a rare moment of sleep on the couch - it probably lasted for about as long as it took to get up and get the camera!
November was very difficult in having a new baby, December was relatively easy with the American family on hand, but January was where things began to get really difficult.
Finn was out of his nursery and transferred into a nursery/school (more on that later). But he was only able to be in for two and a half days a week, because they don't have room for him for more. So Cori has him and Orry, on her own, for two and a half days a week. In addition to this, she also has them for one or two evenings a week also, as I have to be at the College's evening lectures with my work.
Orry gets unmanageably cryey at around 6.00pm, at which point Cori needs to put him to bed (with a feed). This means that, with me not there, she will have to make dinner while Orry cries, feed Orry at the dinner table until Finn is done, and then somehow put on pyjamas/brush teeth/read to Finn while still holding Orry, or else have Finn play on his own as she puts down Orry. As Orry can wake easily and can take 30 minutes or more to actually put down, and as Finn is not one for entertaining himself, things don't always go to plan. As it was a trial and error discovery of how things worked, it meant that the first weeks were horrific. (If you are trying to imagine it, imagine crying, lots of it, from everyone!)
As well as the night-times, there are the very long hours of the day to fill in on those two and a half days. This is particularly difficult when Orry couldn't sit up on his own and wasn't entertained for very long by lying on the floor watching playing. So there was a lot of playing with Finn with one hand as she held Orry with the other. Patience with playing with toddlers reached new heights!
The change from Before Orry was felt by Finn, certainly, and he began to not make things particularly easy on Cori (and us). But he has not ever focussed it on Orry; only just "playing up" and getting in a mood. So he will strop easily, or be determined to get upset and cry, demanding our attention (away from or as well as Orry). This, at least, is a form of blessing; in never having what others experience, in having the older child take a dislike or an antagonism towards the younger. Finn still really likes Orry; but he just wishes he had more time and attention with/from us. - It is just this which makes it hard for us; having to say "not now" or "be patient", when he's just crying for affection from us. Sadness.
But January was the hump, I think, and we are emerging out now with a new equilibrium; a new normal of how much attention we can give Finn, and what Finn can or cannot expect of us. Phew!
But the January "hump," although very difficult, did make for some really lovely time hanging out together when it was working well. Finn (and Orry) clearly really thrived when we were able to do things together meaningfully...
... such as driving about on chairs down the corridor:
(I don't really know how that started - it was almost certainly my fault, being in a silly work after coming home from work one evening. Probably not our downstairs-neighbours' favourite game!)
What has made things a lot easier is when there was something to do or, more easily (because what can you meaningfully and easily do with a toddler and a baby?), some visitors. This has been a real delight now that there are two. It is lovely to see Finn showing off (or protecting) his baby brother, and also to see the interest in him that he receives from Finn's younger friends.
In January we were very happy to be able to go and see Emin, and to have Brin come here. It was great to have such meetings-up so that both Orry and Finn can be a part of it. They can go on for hours and everyone is happy and all is lovely - a rare joy these days!
Here is evidence of Orry's attention and interest at a visitor (here, Brin, with great hair!):
Some of the most exciting visitors were Grandad & Gran, who were meeting Orry for the first time!
It was only as we were taking the photo that we realised how much after his grandad Orry was taking already - just look at the outfits! And the hairlines!
We had a great time with them here: we took a trip to the Southbank, but the main joy was just hanging out here in the flat and relaxing. This was greatly helped by the addition of cake (good old grandparent decadence!):
It also gave us the excuse to go out for a "proper" meal. Having just read about a restaurant round the corner being the best affordable Turkish food in London, we thought we'd give it a try. It was life-changing! Never eaten better! If only we didn't have children to look after, and buckets of money - we'd eat there nightly!... Which is probably not very interesting to read about, but it is quite remarkable for us, who have not eaten out at a proper restaurant for, literally, years, I would think.
Finn and Orry came with us, of course, but it was easy enough when there were four of us. More of that, please!
We forgot to post this picture in November - it's the picture that Finn made to welcome Cori & Orry home from the hospital. It now lives on our wardrobe door and I love to see it; every day it makes me happy to be reminded of that time when Finn and I were together preparing and excited for those two to come home. And, also, it is a pretty ace picture:
Finn continues to not really be an art sort of child. It there is an art/drawing thing going on, Finn will be the first one to Not Care. Such is life. At least he's really interested in music... oh, wait - he's not at all interested in that either. He doesn't really let me play my guitar at all these days. (Orry enjoys it for a minute or so, but no more). I guess it's just cars and trains for Finn for now. Oh well...
But at least he's still very much into stories. I was worried when he went through a period of falling asleep during the reading of stories at night-time. It did make things a lot easier, as I could just stop reading and go, but was worrying to see the dip in the attention that stories would get from him. However, this passed soon enough and after only a couple of weeks, we were back to his usual complete attention.
He has actually extended the appearance of stories in his day now, by introducing their being told in the bathroom. This began as a bribe to have him sit quietly not hanging around Cori as I took a shower, but it somehow extended into also telling him a story when he had a poo! Cori blames me entirely for setting the precedent on the Poo Stories, and she's probably right that it was me who started it, though I can't really remember.
The stories began as relatively fun things, where Finn would sit and listen quietly as we told our own story. They were sometimes classic ones, but more often made up. Sometimes there were a combination of the two. Here are a couple of stories that I remember telling (by me, and by Cori):
Golidcar
A car was told to be careful by its mother but it didn’t listen and wandered into the woods. It grew tired and looked for somewhere to rest. Saw a large house, went inside and found three petrol pumps. The big, middle and small. He tried the large one but it was too hot, the middle was too cold, and the little was just right and he used it all up. Then he saw three bridges. The big one was too high, the middle one was too wide, the small one was just right, but in going over it he broke it. Then he wanted to rest. He found the three garages. The big one was too big, the middle one was too noisy, and the small one was just right. He went into the small garage and fell asleep. Then three trucks came home and discovered the car’s doings until they came to him in the small garage. The car woke up shocked and drove home as quickly as possible and then listened to his mother from then on.
The Crocodiles in the Little River
A family of crocodiles lived in a very small river. Because the river was so small, the crocodiles all have to live close together; they ate together, they played together, they slept together etc. The little crocodile asked his bigger crocodiles why they lived in such a small river when there were much larger rivers nearby. So they moved to a larger river. But the larger river was still a bit small; they still ate together and played together. The little crocodile complained again and they moved to a larger river. But that river was still too small to not have to play together. The little crocodile complained and they moved to a large river, where they didn’t even need to play together. They didn’t eat together, they didn’t sleep together, they didn’t play together. Then they began to grow lonely. The little crocodile went and ate with the middle crocodile, and the went to play with the big crocodile, who came to them to sleep together. Soon they were doing everything together. The little crocodile wondered what they were doing in such a big river when they only used a bit of it. They decided that the little crocodile was right and so they went back to live in the little river and they were much happier for it.
These have recently deteriorated thanks to Finn demanding that stories be made up to his specification, but we can update you on the more recent stories in the next update. It is almost a pleasure to look back at the naivete with which I initially enjoyed Finn's demand for stories - now it comes with dread when he interrupts his poo to say "Tell me a story, Deedah."
We haven't had any pictures for a while, so here are some of Finn being silly having raided the baking drawer:
And here's a silly one of Orry, to compliment his brother's silliness (or, at least, his parents'):
And here are some pictures of Orry looking slightly more composed...
(Cori would like to point out that these are the jeans she bought for Orry while she was in labour with him. Untrusting that she was actually in labour, or probably more accurately aware that she was in labour with uncompleted jobs on her to-do-before-the-baby-comes list, she dropped off a load of stuff to the charity shop and picked up these jeans while she was in there... pausing for breath between contractions presumably! Mad.)
And how did we manage to keep Finn otherwise occupied to get some nice pictures of jolly Orry? - It was thanks to train magazines and toy train catalogues, as you do...
During this same period of photo-taking, we tried to get a nice picture of them together, but Finn didn't really get what we meant when we asked him to kiss Orry...
We weren't really thinking of kissing his belly. So I show him what we meant, but Finn still managed to find an off way of following our instructions!
But we got there in the end:
There are few pictures of the two of them together, so these are a rare treat. As is this rather odd picture of them both up on the kitchen top, for some reason:
Probably one of the other main things that should be recorded of Orry is his annoying ability to poo up his back more than in his own nappies:
It really is quite amazing, especially when you compare how little is actually in the nappy to how much is on the shirt
[WARNING: graphic images of baby poo...]
Note how hard it would be (and is!) to get a baby out of a shirt like that without getting poo everywhere... which means that poo gets everywhere!
We have no idea how he manages, as it cannot really be explained by our holding him in an unusual or particular way. Cori's theory is that it thanks to a particularly pronounced bum-crack (which she calls The Flume), but I just think she's being a bit pseudo-science/weird.
Because Orry is a baby that does this regularly, it is ominous when we hear him kick into action. Lots of gruesome squelching and squeezing, often at loud volumes... This is probably what I'm frightened of, and Orry is blissfully indifferent to in this picture:
... That was all a bit gruesome, so here is a picture of Finn to take your mind off it:
The only thing left now is the usual Finn-as-cameraman family pictures... proceeded by a Finn-as-cameraman self-portrait from extreme close-up...
It seems that Orry is here trying to remain aloof of those fools who claim him a family. It's probably for the best!
We will update on February's happenings soon...
