August: First Words, Sore Tummies and Going to a Show etc.

Cori returned to London with the kids towards the end of August and then followed one of the best dealings with jet-lag that we've ever had. Having one of us correctly adjusted to the time-zone makes things very easy to deal with! It was also relatively easy to play with them for hours as Cori slept, as all the toys were new again, and they were even so happy with them that they could fall asleep peacefully beside them... well, Finn anyway...

It was good to have them all back, especially since the break made everyone appreciate each other's company more and make everyone happier. Which, funnily enough, leads into some pretty pictures...

There isn't really a narrative to these few weeks at the end of August, but merely an assortment of random updates and pictures-with-stories...
But first the side by sides:

9 months old

10 months old

46 months (3 years 10 months) old

47 months (3 years 11 months) old

Orry's Massiveness

We had Orry weighed when he returned from America. Having dropped off the 98+% for size before he left, he came back up to the top of the chart again. He now weighs 27lbs (12.4kg). To give you some idea of what this means, to compares very impressively against Finn's weight, which is currently 35lbs (16kg). So, Orry now weighs more than 3/4s of Finn's weight, which is pretty impressive for a 1-year-old against a 4-year-old.

At the weigh-in, Cori was chastised for feeding Orry at night, which was how they thought he was keeping his weight up so. But it is the best way to keep him asleep. Sigh.

Here are some pictures of Orry in all his chubby glory:

The Rocket

I was excited for Finn's return because I had been waiting for weeks to make something with the very large box that I had brought home from work. (Getting it home on the bus at 5.30 or so was very contentious - no one else on the bus seemed to appreciate it... except for the two young girls who were thus trapped in their seats by me and then found it very funny to complain about being in jail!).

As one of our activities a few days into everyone's return we decided to make something from the box. We got out some paper to plan it on and a rocket was decided on, and thus it was:

Please note the excellent doors, door handles, window/port-holes and controls/air-conditioning inside. But, behold, there is a storage compartment in the point/roof!

This was, obviously, very useful for storing everything that one might need in space. That evening when we came to tidy up, after the rocket had been tipped on its side, we found that Finn wanted to take a lot of (very heavy) things into space:

In actual fact, the rocket was only a rocket for about 30 minutes after completion. Than Finn, true to his nature, turned it on its side and declared it a vehicle. Because he was inspired by his American adventure and wanted to make a home of the thing, he decided that it was a campervan, but because of the point, obviously, it was also a snow-plough. Thus it was declared a Snow Plough Campervan. And a very comfortable one it was too!

You should also admire those lovely cushions that Finn is sat upon. These covers were what Cori whipped up as Finn and I created the rocket. Very nice and all, but not a rocket/snow-plough-campervan. Although, the cushions are still going strong, and the cardboard greatness died within a week of its creation (and was smuggled out of the house during one of our absences without Finn's noticing!)


Radio 1

We have always listened to the BBC's classical music station, Radio 3, at all meals (due to me - Cori would prefer silence, mysteriously). However, Finn recently discovered the lead pop/dance station, Radio 1, on the dial and it has revolutionised his life.

The first time he turned it over he spent the entire meal in a daze and dancing or otherwise nodding his head between bites. He didn't join in the conversation or otherwise pay us any attention, but was just soaking up the music. I was very impressed.

The effect has worn off somewhat now, and so the music is background again, but now the generic pop-songs about Clubs, women, and money. Humph. But we have negotiated him down to having Radio 3 at breakfast and dinner, and Radio 1 at lunch (when I'm not around!). A decent compromise.

However, to be fair, perhaps we had spent too long on Radio 3 to the exclusion of others, as could be derived from Finn's initial reaction to Radio 1: "This is music with singing!" as if the idea was revolutionary to him!

We don't have a picture of Finn bopping or of our dancing around the kitchen after we finished eating, but we do have a picture of Finn close to the radio, in his usual seat at the table (hence his being in control of the thing). This is a picture of one of Cori's whimsical treats for Finn - the purchase of cocktail umbrellas, so that Finn could make his drinks (inevitably lemonade, after his American experience of it) fabulous!

Dressing Up

Fresh back to London, Finn had an unusual period of wanting to use his costumes and dress up. It only lasted a few days, but it we good while it lasted:

That was, of course, a crocodile (or was it a dragon?), and this Finn as a police officer and, rather excellently, is a sailor in a boat (or was a fisherman in a boat?):

Like all the most serious of sailors, Finn was rather lost (or is that "at sea"?) when not in his boat:

I'm not sure that it's really dressing up, but the application of a headband probably also fits here, especially when it looks good, on both Finn and Orry:

Voicings

Orry is beginning to sound words and communicate by word-like soundings. Big deal!

First, here is a video of him practising his sounds and echoing us brilliantly, albeit in a rather unusual sound:

His words are terribly vague, but in August he said what we (perhaps alone!) would count as his first words:

"Got it" and, joined shortly afterwards with, "Uh-oh!"

You can imagine where these words come in hands - lots of that oh-so-fun game of drop/throw a thing and have the grown-up return it, on repeat...

His version of the words is rather vague though. So "Got it!" is actually rendered as "Geddid!" and "Uh-oh!" I more of a vague two-pitch sound. Hence my saying that others probably wouldn't accept them as words at all, but words they are, we promise!

We don't have the words on video (or, at least, not satisfactorily so), so instead you get a video from the high-point of a few days of irritation for Cori when Orry that all important gh/ch/ll sound (depending on which Gaelic nation your spelling it in):

Sore Tummy

You will feel our pain to know that Finn still has a sore tummy. However, it normally only appears when we want him to do something, like tidying up, listen to what we're telling him, say sorry, hurry up, give Orry's toy back etc. Very annoying.

It is annoying especially when it is combined with Finn's habit of repeating the same thing over and over, without listening to what we're saying to him. So, one of these exchanges can run thus:

Me: "Finn, can you pick that up, please."
Finn: "Urrgh, I got a sore tummy."
Me; "Finn, can you pick that up, please."
Finn: "I got a sore tuuummmmy!"
Me: "Ok, but there's nothing we can do about that. Can you pick that up, please."
Finn: "Ah, I got - ah! - sore - ah! - tuuummyyy!"
Me: "Finn, are you listening to me?"
Finn: "What?"
Me: "Are you listening to me?"
Finn: "What did you say?"
Me: "I asked you to pick that up."
Finn: "I got a sore tummy!"
etc.

Variants, when in a good mood, include our suggesting that we chop his tummy off and get a new one, or pretending to fix it with magic, or offering various dubious concoctions as cures. Variants when in a bad mood tend towards tears. Either way, things tend not to go our way!

These are not pictures of Finn with a sore tummy... but so what!

Push-Ups

Orry returned from America a lot further along on the path towards crawling. Or, rather, he came back in the first stage of crawling: getting up fully on his arms, and then rocking back and forth, as if assuming that that would take him forwards. There is still a long way to go, but we are delighted to see him very happily achieving this step towards the crawl:

It does have the negative side effect that he again tries to get up on his knees in the night time, interrupting his sleep again. Cori, therefore, was less excited about Orry's master of the push-up then she might have been!


Food

Orry's allergy clinics are still in the future, so there is nothing BIG to report on food. They both eat well enough. Finn refuses most vegetables, but we at least get him to eat some, and he tries most. He's not the worst toddler out there. A silly thing worth mentioning (because there is a picture of it!) is his grape-eating. Probably encouraged by us, he now eats them by shoving as many as he can in his cheeks and then shouts for us to admire his face and prod his cheeks as he giggles. It looks a bit like this:

Orry is silly generally, and a predictably messy eater. We tend not to bother with plates, since they only offer him the opportunity to dump food on the floor en masse as oppose to piecemeal. Cleaning up the kitchen (as Cori finishes off getting Orry to sleep) will generally take an hour these days. As well as the expected dish washing up and table clearing, a hint of the extra cleaning is given by this photo (note where Orry's chosen to rest his right hand!):

Going to A Show

In chatting to a friend, Cori got a glowing recommendation for children's theatre up in Archway, so she decided to go. We had been to the panto in the Isle of Man before, and Finn had been to a play at as a friend's birthday party, but that was about it, so it was going to be something very special for Finn.

The show was excellently produced. It was three stories played out on stage: Little Red Riding Hood, The Mouse who wanted a Wife, and Hans who was not Afraid. But they were linked together by its being as if a group of animals was having the stories read to them. But it took it to the next level but our being welcomed to the theatre by the animals (i.e. the actors in costume doing their animal thing), with whom we hung out with in a downstairs room for 20 minutes or so until everything was ready to be led up the stairs into the magical world of the theatre above. All very well thought out and lovely. (There was also some good acting and some good presentations of the stories to boot).

And, in reaction to all this, Finn cried... He had fallen down not long before arriving and the two rabbits who met them at the door hadn't been seen on the approach and so they effectively jumped out at Finn and scared the life out of him. He then clung to Cori throughout the pre-event and refused to leave her side during the show itself.

But, after all that, he was quite mesmerised by it and he came away raving about it to me when I got home. Cori was very impressed by it all, and I was jealous, so we decided to go again on the weekend. All the way we were speaking about the animals, and Finn was telling us that he wasn't afraid of anything and that he wasn't going to cry etc. And when were walking down the street towards the theatre, about 50 metres away, the rabbits looked out the door and waved at us, and Finn burst into tears and buried his head in my neck for the next 15 minutes. Humph.

Again, Finn enjoyed it in the end though, though he still wouldn't go close to any of the actors. Orry, on the other hand, was mesmerised by it all and liked hanging out with them, as this picture shows.

The picture probably also shows why some might side with Finn on the fear thing.


Showers and cleanliness

Perhaps like most boys, Finn hates cleaning his hands after he goes to the loo. But Cori brought back from America something that was the trick to make him excited about washing his hands: baby soap!

This was a favour/gift that Cori had received at her cousin's baby shower, which she thought was very cute but a little bit creepy. (The idea of man-handling a tiny foetus-sized baby until they wear away was obviously unusual for her!). Finn, however, thought that it was great. He was excited to get off the loo so that he could pull over his stool and wash his hands with "the baby."

Telling Finn stories as we shower is becoming less and less frequent these days. Orry does not allow us to leave him on his own, and so one of us will be with him whenever the other takes a shower. Therefore Finn finds it more fun to hang out with Orry and the other grown-up and so is less likely to come in and sit on the toilet seat for a story now. However, one time he did do it in August produced quite a good story, I think:

Regaby (everyone in Finn's stories is called Regaby. Everyone.) lived in Laxey, close to the Laxey Wheel. He was once out on a walk and got lost in the woods. When he emerged on the far side, he found himself close to a large hill with a cave in the side. Regaby went inside and found large rooms with large furniture in. When he got to the bedroom he found a giant sleeping, so he turned around and left. But on the way he saw a small toy car. Seeing how small it was, he thought that the giant wouldn't miss it at all and so he took it. He was clutching it happily to him when he got home to Laxey and went to bed.
When the giant woke up, he immediately knew that something was wrong. He went straight through to where he kept the small toy car and saw that it was missing. Very angry he stormed off through the woods to try and find out who had taken it. At the top of Laxey glen he went up to the first house, tore the roof off and shouted in at the frightened people, "Have you got it!" But the people didn't know what he was talking about and the giant just smashed their house. He did this at every house as he moved down the valley closer and closer to Regaby's house.
Regaby woke up, heard the smashing and shouting and he knew that the giant was after his car. Regaby thought that if he ran away then no one would know what he had done. But then he heard all of the other people crying and so he knew that he should own up.
He went to the giant and said sorry, and that he had taken his car. The giant was very glad to get his car back and he immediately ceased to be angry. Once he stopped shouting, he heard all of the crying that everyone was doing over their broken houses and he realised how upset he had made people. Regaby was sorry too for having caused it.
So both Regaby and the giant said sorry to everyone and then they worked together to put it right again. Once they had fixed everything everyone was much happier.

Orry continues to enjoy his bath and he is staying in them longer and longer now, even beginning to cry (if he's not too tired) when you take him out. After America we also managed to kick the need to have one of us in the bath with them. Now the two boys will go in on their own with one of us (generally Cori) on hand beside the tub to clean them etc. Here is photographic evidence of all of this, including Orry's love of baths:

Outings

Even though the boys were not in London for much of August, there were still some good outings, although mostly when I was at work. For instance there was the outing to the Dalston Curve Garden to see Brin, which was a lot of fun, despite the weather trying to mess things up:

There was also the trip to the Museum of London Docklands, which both of the boys enjoyed immensely (the interactive children's gallery, at least):

Then there was also a trip to meet up with a friend in Trafalgar Square... which is not very remarkable but for the fact that Finn and I happened to be wearing effectively the same outfit, which Cori enjoyed immensely.

Cuteness deserving of a picture

When we were in Trafalgar Square, we had to wait a little while for our friends, so Cori and Orry sat down in the middle and got something to play with as Finn and I went off to investigate the lions and the murals on Nelson's Column etc. When we came back we were discussing how miffed we were that no one had taken a picture of our cute baby - he was surely just as cute as Finn was, and Finn used to have loads of pictures taken of him by random people! But then an American lady came over and told us that we had a very cute baby and that she just had to take his picture. We felt vindicated.

We don't have any pictures of Orry's specific cutesness that day, but here are some of the general cuteness, to give you some idea:

... There were a lot of pictures there - hopefully not too many... can you have too much cute baby?!



Alien Attack!

There is no specific story to this. Cori was just feeling silly one day after lunch and so showed Finn a new trick, which he inevitably loved. (In case you don't know it, it's where you tuck one hand into an empty sleeve so it looks like you're just holding hands in front of you - then you use your inside hand to come out the neck...):

Mates

Orry adores Finn. This has now developed into wanting whatever Finn has, no matter what it is. This, understandably, is not ideal for Finn. Sometimes they therefore squabble, especially when they (and we!) are tired or bored.

However, they also really like each other and their company at times. Cori will sometimes catch Finn when he clearly thinks she's not watching and he will quietly give Orry a hug or some such. Finn will even suggest their having pictures taken together at times, which is a whole new level. Admittedly, perhaps it is partly Finn's muscling in on Orry's pictures, but it is lovely nonetheless, and a sign a good things to come.

So, to finish on, here are some pictures of Finn and Orry being mates:

(Please note Orry's crossed legs in that last picture - Cori's favourite trait of the lumper - he always crosses his feet when he's playing).