Finn has always enjoyed using our camera, and we've always been keen that he should find a way to record our Family Adventures for himself. Together, we thought that this probably justified the £10-15 you need to get a small digital camera for on Ebay. So, towards the end of February, we got him one.
The first results were... well... something that Finn was delighted about:
In the fine now-established tradition of Adventure Tick Sheets, we thought that we could have a get-out-of-the-house walk on the Sunday afternoon, justified to Finn as being a task of taking photos of a series of things. This was the task:
You will note that bench, wires and ambulance are later additions to the sheet - showing what a success we had of things - Finn loved the game. And especially the results:
Note the fine trick of turning the camera to get all of the spire in! - Finn's mum showed him that one. And she was the one tall enough to take a picture of the speeding train over the wall, prompted when Finn heard the noise of shouted for Cori to get to it!
Cori was also responsible for (a) this action shot of the maestro in action:
(b) helping Finn sometimes get the thing in the frame:
and (c) teaching him how to zoom!
The list was deliberately written to get us to his nursery, which is shown in the second picture here:
And the nursery is conveniently placed close to the shop, where we got the bread we needed and then headed home, past the final thing on his list: lights!
The camera also allowed Finn to take a picture of the "family of traffic cones" outside our flats (a sunken manhole cover, which no one seems to bothered about fixing):
And here is the new photographer himself, whose work you can look forward to seeing in future posts!
February 2016 - the month in which Orry began to walk...!
But, before that, here are the monthly side-by-sides:
15 months
16 months
52 months
53 months
Orry has been taking the odd step for a long time - since Christmas or so - so walking has been a long time coming. But on about the 5th of February, Orry did his first real not-looking-to-drop-onto-him-bum walking. It looked a lot like this:
Doesn't it look great!
I remember when Finn began walking, I was very pleased (and a little bit relieved!) to tick off that milestone so that we could move onto the next thing and get going with things. With Orry, though, it is rather different. This time around, I was not at all nervous of milestones, and not too bothered about The Next Thing To Learn; this time around, I was just delighted for Orry to be a walker!
What a difference it will make to him, and it will make things so much more enjoyable for him; to be able to run around after his brother, to join in easier, to begin investigating the neighbourhood properly etc. I am just really excited for him, and I am just delighted about it. When he did it, I wanted to tell everyone about it - not because it was unusual or amazing, but just because of how exciting it was that Orry can now walk. I realised that I don't think that I've ever been prouder of someone - that's how pleased I was about it!
But, having said that, Orry's still not a Walker, as he's not really walking very often at the moment - it's just that he has done his first bit of walking, which he can repeat when required. In no way, however, does he really do walking; he can walk, but he does not. We will have to wait longer for him to work out that walking can pay off for him.
It is also perhaps worth noting how odd it is to see Orry walking or standing - it's not something we're used to or prepared for. He looks so much older!
If you were looking very closely in the video, you might have seen that the flat was not perfectly clean. This was because Cori was to do an event the following morning, and so had brought home her family-engaging archaeology activity home, complete with artefacts (real and artificial) and pretend soil. It is the latter of these which can go towards making a horrendous mess:
I especially like that the picnic rug thingy was thought to be put down - as if that was going to make a difference!
You will be able to admire in this picture the artificial artefacts that Cori made - medieval tiles to be pieced together to make various nonsensical beasts (they happen to be mostly upside-down here, unfortunately!).
Finn was very pleased to have the real artefacts in the house, especially the bones. He took great delight when I got home to show me the elephant tooth, the whale vertebra, the (Roman) dog skull etc... Finn still likes bones. He was very disappointed that Cori took them away the next day.
We happen to have a few pictures of the two of them in something silly, so it might as well put them all together...
It's not often that Finn puts on one of his real costumes, but he does look good in them. (Thank you, Jake, for the excellent Batman costume!).
It is often that Orry is silly, though infrequently with an empty cereal packet on his head (that is normally thrown upon the floor immediately!):
Orry can also look cool as well as foolish, such as when wearing sun glasses:
This raiding to the pot cabinet is how Orry entertains himself as Cori cooks, though not normally looking as cool as this!
Finn too can look pretty cool, in a sailor sort of way...
This was at the Maritime Museum at Greenwich, where we went on a Whole Family Adventure Day.
This last one I'm not sure really counts as "dressing up"... does matching pyjamas count as dressing up?
Having just mentioned it, our visit to the Maritime Museum was inspiration behind the picture which accompanied Finn's Valentine's picture for his mother. (I think it's a bit weird for even four-year-olds to make Valentine's cards for their mothers, but American-Cori made it clear that that was a not-allowed position in the household!). In the morning, before Cori got up with Orry, Finn dictated the following Valentine's letter:
It is, as you will probably have guessed, verbatim. ("Oie Vie" is the Manx for "Good night", which is one of the few bits of Manx spoken in this household).
Accompanying the letter came this lovely picture...
... Or, it would have been lovely, were it actually of a flower. In fact, it's of a propeller, the one he'd seen in the Maritime Museum the day before, which is still very lovely, though perhaps less Valentinesy!
February was also the month in which Orry discovered his nose. "Nose!" we'd all say and we and Orry touch our noses, much like this:
This was at the lunch table, complete with Avocado, hummus and breadstick:
And, in case the mess was too much for you, here is a cleaner version of the nose-touching, complete with the from-his-older-brother-learnt apparent blowing of the nose:
In actual fact, this was when we were making a concerted effort to teach Finn to use tissues. He had been in the practice, but he'd drifted back to using his sleeve, or else his hands, which he'd then wipe down his thighs. Not very pleasant!
(This is, by the way, the first time Orry was in the new shirt bought for him by his grandfather whilst in Northern Ireland - thanks, Grandad!).
A curious, and annoying, thing that happened in February was that Orry began to absolutely refuse to put his socks and shoes on. He began to scream and dart away whenever the putting-on-of-shoes came about; it became a two-person task. And even when they were on, he sometimes took it upon himself to despise them and want them off. Luckily for us, this only lasted a week or so, and then we returned to happier times:
One of the most exciting things that Finn got up to in February was that he went on a Nursery Adventure Day.
The nursery occasionally might take a trip out into the local area - to the library, or the shop etc. - but we've not known then to take a real trip before. But they amazingly decided to take a troupe of six or so children to China Town in Soho during the Chinese New Year celebrations.
It sounded like an amazing trip: a select troupe of older children, taking a bus to Soho; getting off outside the Fire Station and finding the doors open, and then being invited in to try on the has and sit in the Fire Engine (Finn liked that a lot); taking a look at China Town, with hanging decorations, lanterns and other such stuff; going for a taste of Chinese food (which Finn doesn't like, sadly); getting a paper dragon from a shop; and taking the bus home.
Finn sounded like he had a great time, and all of the grown-ups came back raving about how much they and everyone else enjoyed it. We were rather sorry not to have had a chance to admire them all on the bus chattering away or tramping around Soho - it would have been a lovely thing to have seen.
Finn, however, remains convinced that he's been to China (rather than China Town) - there's no convincing him otherwise.
There are, of course, no pictures of that, so here is a picture of Finn looking cute:
Not one to be out-done, here is Orry looking his best:
Here is Orry doing something which he enjoys and gets to do whenever his parents are caught out without a toy to otherwise distract him - emptying out a wallet:
Things are still the same with sleeping arrangements these days, with Orry in his cot only as a bed-extension in our room. It was what we ended up with with Finn in order to cope, and it's not anything we ever tried to get away from with Orry. The time is coming when we'll want to shift him away from Cori for the nighttime (if nothing else than to lessen his frequent waking), but not yet...
With Cori being with Orry for his put-downs (as frequently as they come), it means that Finn will often go to sleep also in our bed when I'm off at work in the evening. Even if he's not sleepy, he will wander in with them and sit there "reading" happily to himself by a light, which looks a little epic at times for Cori:
There was a lot of this co-sleeping and getting-through when I went away to the Isle of Man on my own for four days. A play of mine was being produced, which took me over, and was a good opportunity to get a few Manx things done. Great for me! Less great for Cori.
These are the not-so-glorious pictures which she posted on Facebook in the end of Saturday:
The pictures do not lie: midday pyjamas, unwashed hair, a cut/scratch on the toddler's face from a fall, crazed hoarding of random objects (here, DVD's, which happened to be close to his older brother) and accompanying crazed shouting of "Mine! Mine! Mine!"
Orry hasn't been the most pleasant of people to be around in February. In fact, he's been quiet "difficult"; a real misery of a child to look after. Very little heed-taking of anything we said, shouting when frustrated in his desires, full of desires normally driven by spite or greed etc.
It was strange to have an Orry thus. We'd grown used to having a lovely, smiley, joy of a baby, so it caught us by surprise when we realised that we were sorry to be meeting friends when Orry was in his then-present mood of spite and anger. It made everything very difficult where he was concerned. Everything. This was aggravated by the fact that he was in need of us (and especially Cori) as his emotional-crutch or go-to, even as he wanted us not-there, or wanted to shout at us or to spite or anger us. A lot of mixed emotions and explosive moods. Sigh.
We had been reminiscing on how I had taken Finn to the Isle of Man on my own for the first time at Easter at this point three years ago. It was the thought that I might do so again with the two of them. No way! Just the idea of it was a joke with the way he was being in February. And Cori experienced the brunt of his when I was away in the Isle of Man, which made it very impressive that she managed to get out on an Adventure on the Sunday - to the "Jungle":
In fact, this jungle is the Observatory at the Barbican. But, in calling it a "Jungle", it is immediately very exciting for Finn, and Cori has been with them all a few times now. With an easy bus-ride, and a good packed lunch by the lake, it seems to be an easy win.
This time round, there was the added excitement in that they wandered through the City when they were setting up to do some filming. Evidently it was a film set in New York City:
Yellow taxis? - Finn was very excited about that!
The blue stuffed toy of Finn's which went to the jungle with him was something he and Cori had made days before. In was something that was billed as a children's activity on the box, but it ended up being an across-many-evenings sewing and stitching session for Cori to get the damn thing done. Finn seemed to like him though, and avidly for a week or so.
Cori did quite a bit of this stuffed toy making in February, prompted by making a whale for a friend's new baby. Having seen it, Finn determined that he absolutely had to have one. Cori asked whether he wouldn't want something else instead (knowing that a whale would not be fun for him), to which he replied that he wanted a whale and a robot. To her credit, Cori managed it though, with impressive results:
You will note that they are all here at breakfast... though one of the eggs doesn't seem too delighted about that!
In contrast to those grand successes of craft/creativity with Cori, this is something which didn't quite work out as planned:
That's right: a bathtub full and clogged with brown-dyed foam. Of course!
This was a work thing: hoping to be able to create a cheap and light alternative to the faux-soil, made of rubber, which Finn and Orry were sat in in an earlier picture. It worked very well in terms of the foam which came out at the far end. However, it did clog our bath completely. With dye involved, this was not a good thing. It took Cori two days or so to really clear it up. Not very enjoyable, though it did at least offer the excitement of having to get a winder-coil thing to get down into the drain to pull out the gut-wrenching thing that was a combination or hair, goo and very brown foam. We were glad to get that out of lives!
Something which was going right in February was the football, with Spurs creeping up into second place and conversations beginning about how they could go all the way. Finn is often, therefore, in his Spurs shirt, despite being completely ignorant of what it's all about (which is a bit embarrassing at Dad's Club when people ask him about Tottenham/Spurs and he stares at them in bafflement!). He is willing to pretend that he knows what's going on though, for the sake of a photo:
Having earlier said how torrid Orry has been in February, it's probably good to also show a video of him being a joy - washing himself during a "cloth bath" after dinner one evening:
Now, with most things said, is probably a good time for some pictures of me and Orry fooling about which I quite like. The second couple were when Finn got into the remote control of the thing:
And here are three of Finn working out something or other...
There was one other excitement from February, which was the purchasing of a camera for Finn, but that telling will require a lot of pictures, so it would probably justify it's own post. Instead, we might sign off with a couple of good pictures of each of the boys (well, perhaps the first one isn't "good" per se...):
