May was a very exciting month, mainly filled with visitors: family from American immediately followed by friends from the Isle of Man. But we'll deal with them in a separate post, since there's plenty to update about besides those interlopers into our world!
But let's start with the monthly side-by-sides:
But let's start with the monthly side-by-sides:
 |
| 6 months |
 |
| 7 months |
 |
| 43 months old (3 years 7 months) |
 |
| 44 months old (3 years 8 months) |
There's a lot that went on in May, so perhaps it will be easier to break it down into updates for each boy and them some other stuff afterwards...
Orry updates:
Having had the A&E trip towards the end of April, things were on the right track with Orry's skin. We had discovered that he had a dairy allergy and we knew what we had to do: no milk etc. for Orry and no milk etc. for Cori. Unfortunately for us (i.e. Orry), it took us a while to work out how to navigate most people's vagueness about what "dairy" is or what "counts" as an amount of dairy significant to tell us about (in bread etc.). This meant that Orry's skin lumbered on in a non-ideal state:
This was, miserably, related to Orry's poos, which were improving (for all of us), but we'd certainly know it when dairy had crept in:
It was towards the end of the month that we also worked out that Orry's skin was also related to peanuts - which were cut out of Cori's diet. It was also at the end of the month that we got some serious cream to throw off the skin problems. But this was only June that this really took effect...
Orry's top teeth came out very clearly in May, arriving even sooner than Finn's did. Swiftly followed by the nubbins of three more. 7 teeth by 7 months!
We tried him in the door-hanger bouncer. All children love these things, apparently, but Finn didn't. We never understood why, because it seems obvious that it should be fun. Orry, disappointingly for everyone, enjoyed it as much as his brother did:
Orry loves him mum, as you do. He shows his affection by returning her kisses in large baby slobbery engagements with her face at random. "Slobbery-kisses." They are very lovely, but very slobbery. They always require Cori to wipe off the slobbery with a grimace. Although not a mid-slobber picture, here is a pre-slobber picture, which is probably the cuter:
Orry is enjoying eating, a lot. He wasn't up to the "pincer grip" (picking things up between his finger and thumb and getting them into his mouth) in May, which made things a little frustrating for him, but he does love his food:
The only real down-side for us is the mess. I will now be committed to about an hour's cleaning in the kitchen every night to clear up the mess (especially when Finn has been home all day too):
It was in May that we got Orry a new high-chair, in replacement of the awkward attach-to-the-table chair which wasn't working very well with the table here (unlike in our last flat where it worked well with Finn). We initially got entirely the wrong one on Gumtree (it didn't look that enormous in the pictures), before getting a green one to match the one we'd got for Finn also:
Also in May, Orry mastered the art of rolling both ways. He isn't very good at it, and he tends to go one way until something gets in his way, before moaning and going back a roll. It all looks like it's a great deal of effort for him.
The only real down-side for us is the mess. I will now be committed to about an hour's cleaning in the kitchen every night to clear up the mess (especially when Finn has been home all day too):
It was in May that we got Orry a new high-chair, in replacement of the awkward attach-to-the-table chair which wasn't working very well with the table here (unlike in our last flat where it worked well with Finn). We initially got entirely the wrong one on Gumtree (it didn't look that enormous in the pictures), before getting a green one to match the one we'd got for Finn also:
Also in May, Orry mastered the art of rolling both ways. He isn't very good at it, and he tends to go one way until something gets in his way, before moaning and going back a roll. It all looks like it's a great deal of effort for him.
There's certainly no sign of crawling. He's not sitting up on his own even. Maybe next month...
Finn updates:
Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, Finn can run very fast. Or, at least, that's what we tell him... Or, rather, that's what we confirm to him when he tells us that he's running really fast (as we walk quickly beside him)!
It wasn't that long ago that we would worry about him when he would being to really run, knowing that a fall was going to be around the corner. Not so now. He still trips every now and again, but only at the frequency of other toddlers. He is now sufficiently coordinated to not need warnings to slow down of be careful all the time, which is nice.
One of the funny ways in which he runs is to stop and bend his head towards his feet, and put his hands out behind him - to get "power in his feet," he reports:
Then... whoosh!
We were all delighted that, after the misery of Tantrums in April, it was effectively all gone in May. The only thing left were conventional toddler tantrums. They are still a misery, and not at all easy to deal with, but they are a different thing entirely to what we had in April. We are very thankful to be out of that dark dark place.
One of the strange-but-lovely things that emerged in the aftermath of the short-lived Tantrum Era was Finn going away on his own when he would be upset about things. "I need to go away for a minute," he would announce when, for example, he wasn't allowed a chocolate, or wasn't allowed to watch a programme on the computer etc., and he would then quietly go off into his room. He would sit there frowning for about 30 seconds or a minute and then come dashing out smiling, often dashing out to hug one of us. "You ok now?" we'd ask. "Yep!" Sometime, if he was really upset, we would go in to see if he wasn't coming out after a minute. "Go away," he'd frown at us. But he'd still come out in another minute or so.
... We don't have a picture of Finn's quietly sitting, but here is one of his apparently looking pensive (actually, concentrating as he tries to get the camera with his play fishing rod):
Finn also has developed the habit of collecting rocks or sticks when he is out. So there would always be a new twig or handful of stones in the pram, or on the bookshelf at the end of every day. These would have to be quietly moved somewhere out of sight, in case he asked for them later, and then put back into their natural habitats (i.e. a bush somewhere on the way to work) when he had obviously forgotten them. - It is strange to have to throw a stick or a stone into a bush on the way to work every morning!
Here is Finn finding a prime stone on the beach near Port St. Mary in the Isle of Man (later in May):
Stones were also tried out as a way to encourage Finn to behave and be good in May. At the suggestion of Cori's school-teacher sister, we started rewarding Finn for good behaviour by allowing him to put a stone in a jar... Just that: put a stone in a jar. Very exciting, we know! Admittedly, there was a promise of some gift or something special when the jar was full of stones, but it was quite a big jar and it was taking weeks, so we all kind of lost interest and stopped remembering to do it. But it was good while it lasted, and certainly a help to shift away from the Mega-Tantrums. Here is a picture of Finn producing the stone container which replaced the stone jar after it was dropped and shattered to terrifying effect (no one got hurt):
Nothing else to report on Finn specifically, other than his continuing to be silly - playing at fishing when dressed (momentarily) as a robot, being a dude (undoubtedly encouraged by Cori or I), and hanging out with me in the kitchen:
Friends:
May had Finn (and Orry) spending lots of good time with friends. Sophie, of course, was a one, with whom Finn made some delicious Mud Pies:
Finn also got to have the dubious pleasure of being the oldest at the party when Cori met up with her old workmates from the Science Museum. Here Finn is with Emin and Matilda (and some kid who Finn befriended in the park and who didn't get that he wasn't really wanted in the picture!):
Meeting with the Science Museum friends went on in a new park for us, at the Princess Diana Gardens in Hyde Park. The place was great fun, for everyone. Finn enjoyed it immensely and had great careless fun scaring Cori by climbing right up to the very top of a play Pirate Ship's mast with the help of Finn's Maternity Episode Friend, Anna. It was very scary to watch, and very hard to hold in the shouts of "Be careful!" that wanted to come out, but it was great to see him so confident and brave, and even greater to have him safely on the ground again!
Another friend we saw relatively a lot of in May was the friend who we've not see since - Annie. Our friend from Dad's Club, and also from nursery, for the past two years, Annie has emigrated with her Dad and (Australian) Mum to Australia. Although Finn didn't really get the idea of emigration etc., I was really sorry to see her and her Dad go. We have been good friends at Dad's Club ever since Finn began there and I have really enjoyed Annie all of that time (and her younger brother too, more recently). And Annie's Dad, also, I feel like we have shared our fatherhoods in some way, by his being one of the very few people who I have shared it with openly and on a regular basis over the past couple of years. Seeing them go was very sad and it really felt... almost unfair that they weren't going to be a part of our lives from now on. Sigh! But, regardless, here is a picture of the last three kids standing (or, rather, standing of the edge of a tantrum which their parents weren't wise enough to have averted with an earlier departure!), on the legendary train in the legendary "Choo Choo" Park near nursery - Annie, Sophie and Finn:
(Apologies for the picture - taken on a mobile!)
Other Happenings and Doings:
A very sad happening in May was the shattering of the horse's head:
Finn loves that horse, even if he doesn't use it often. And we love it eve more!
Cori was trying to fight the boxes of Orry clothes (which is always a problems, since he's passing through sizes so quickly) and she rested one on the chest of drawers as she shifted others in the wardrobe for a moment. The box slipped off, straight onto the horse below and smashed it completely. Luckily, Finn wasn't there to see it and get upset. Phew! But he has been there admiring Cori's good work in painstakingly glueing it back together, piece by piece. It is just about there now (at the end of June as I write this), but we're still wondering whether we shouldn't fill the head in some way before we do the final glueing...
A continued Doing is Finn enjoying sitting in the ride vehicles outside Sainsbury's in Dalston as one of us shops. He can quite happily sit and play there for 20 minutes or so - and he still hasn't clocked that parents can put money in the things!
The end of May saw the first really hot day, in which Finn was able to wear shorts and T-shirt. He was very excited about this and has been delighted ever since at the novelty whenever it's warm enough. We were a bit miffed that he's not outgrown the exact same shirts that he was in a year ago - he is much smaller than his friends at nursery. But it does mean that we get to enjoy some of our favourite clothes on him again (and I get to go overboard on Pixlr effects on the pictures I took on my phone!):
A strange happening was coming into the kitchen amidst house-cleaning, and finding Finn carrying out his own branch of the cleaning - with our floor-cleaner, on the kitchen cabinets, precariously!
A newly-established happening is the way in which baths are now taken in our house. Having already established that Finn goes to sleep in our bed, and is only later carried into his own bed to finished the night's sleep, it is now a universally accepted fact that baths are taken in twos or threes these days. Generally this is Cori and the two boys. It is much easier to bathe with Orry than to try and contain the complaining and slidely lumper from the outside, and that makes Finn want to join in. Orry loves his brother to join him, always, and at least it is a good way to ensure that the two of them get a bath, even if it does mean that there is no rest from the playing:
Getting out of the bath is tricky, when I'm not around (generally in the kitchen washing up or cooking etc.). It generally means putting Orry in his towel on the bouncy chair and drying off as quickly as possible before Orry cries the house down, before dealing with Orry, at which point Finn is normally shouting to be got out also, etc, Sigh.
Leaving aside the Very Exciting visitors for a separate post (hopefully very soon), there only other thing to do is to leave you with some nice smiley family photos:
Here is Finn finding a prime stone on the beach near Port St. Mary in the Isle of Man (later in May):
Stones were also tried out as a way to encourage Finn to behave and be good in May. At the suggestion of Cori's school-teacher sister, we started rewarding Finn for good behaviour by allowing him to put a stone in a jar... Just that: put a stone in a jar. Very exciting, we know! Admittedly, there was a promise of some gift or something special when the jar was full of stones, but it was quite a big jar and it was taking weeks, so we all kind of lost interest and stopped remembering to do it. But it was good while it lasted, and certainly a help to shift away from the Mega-Tantrums. Here is a picture of Finn producing the stone container which replaced the stone jar after it was dropped and shattered to terrifying effect (no one got hurt):
Nothing else to report on Finn specifically, other than his continuing to be silly - playing at fishing when dressed (momentarily) as a robot, being a dude (undoubtedly encouraged by Cori or I), and hanging out with me in the kitchen:
Friends:
May had Finn (and Orry) spending lots of good time with friends. Sophie, of course, was a one, with whom Finn made some delicious Mud Pies:
Finn also got to have the dubious pleasure of being the oldest at the party when Cori met up with her old workmates from the Science Museum. Here Finn is with Emin and Matilda (and some kid who Finn befriended in the park and who didn't get that he wasn't really wanted in the picture!):
Meeting with the Science Museum friends went on in a new park for us, at the Princess Diana Gardens in Hyde Park. The place was great fun, for everyone. Finn enjoyed it immensely and had great careless fun scaring Cori by climbing right up to the very top of a play Pirate Ship's mast with the help of Finn's Maternity Episode Friend, Anna. It was very scary to watch, and very hard to hold in the shouts of "Be careful!" that wanted to come out, but it was great to see him so confident and brave, and even greater to have him safely on the ground again!
Another friend we saw relatively a lot of in May was the friend who we've not see since - Annie. Our friend from Dad's Club, and also from nursery, for the past two years, Annie has emigrated with her Dad and (Australian) Mum to Australia. Although Finn didn't really get the idea of emigration etc., I was really sorry to see her and her Dad go. We have been good friends at Dad's Club ever since Finn began there and I have really enjoyed Annie all of that time (and her younger brother too, more recently). And Annie's Dad, also, I feel like we have shared our fatherhoods in some way, by his being one of the very few people who I have shared it with openly and on a regular basis over the past couple of years. Seeing them go was very sad and it really felt... almost unfair that they weren't going to be a part of our lives from now on. Sigh! But, regardless, here is a picture of the last three kids standing (or, rather, standing of the edge of a tantrum which their parents weren't wise enough to have averted with an earlier departure!), on the legendary train in the legendary "Choo Choo" Park near nursery - Annie, Sophie and Finn:
(Apologies for the picture - taken on a mobile!)
Other Happenings and Doings:
A very sad happening in May was the shattering of the horse's head:
Finn loves that horse, even if he doesn't use it often. And we love it eve more!
Cori was trying to fight the boxes of Orry clothes (which is always a problems, since he's passing through sizes so quickly) and she rested one on the chest of drawers as she shifted others in the wardrobe for a moment. The box slipped off, straight onto the horse below and smashed it completely. Luckily, Finn wasn't there to see it and get upset. Phew! But he has been there admiring Cori's good work in painstakingly glueing it back together, piece by piece. It is just about there now (at the end of June as I write this), but we're still wondering whether we shouldn't fill the head in some way before we do the final glueing...
A continued Doing is Finn enjoying sitting in the ride vehicles outside Sainsbury's in Dalston as one of us shops. He can quite happily sit and play there for 20 minutes or so - and he still hasn't clocked that parents can put money in the things!
The end of May saw the first really hot day, in which Finn was able to wear shorts and T-shirt. He was very excited about this and has been delighted ever since at the novelty whenever it's warm enough. We were a bit miffed that he's not outgrown the exact same shirts that he was in a year ago - he is much smaller than his friends at nursery. But it does mean that we get to enjoy some of our favourite clothes on him again (and I get to go overboard on Pixlr effects on the pictures I took on my phone!):
A strange happening was coming into the kitchen amidst house-cleaning, and finding Finn carrying out his own branch of the cleaning - with our floor-cleaner, on the kitchen cabinets, precariously!
A newly-established happening is the way in which baths are now taken in our house. Having already established that Finn goes to sleep in our bed, and is only later carried into his own bed to finished the night's sleep, it is now a universally accepted fact that baths are taken in twos or threes these days. Generally this is Cori and the two boys. It is much easier to bathe with Orry than to try and contain the complaining and slidely lumper from the outside, and that makes Finn want to join in. Orry loves his brother to join him, always, and at least it is a good way to ensure that the two of them get a bath, even if it does mean that there is no rest from the playing:
Getting out of the bath is tricky, when I'm not around (generally in the kitchen washing up or cooking etc.). It generally means putting Orry in his towel on the bouncy chair and drying off as quickly as possible before Orry cries the house down, before dealing with Orry, at which point Finn is normally shouting to be got out also, etc, Sigh.
Leaving aside the Very Exciting visitors for a separate post (hopefully very soon), there only other thing to do is to leave you with some nice smiley family photos:
And one of the happiest videos of a tape measure you've ever seen:
