But first, the monthly side-by-sides:
Orry was dressed yellow that day - because I thought it would be kind of funny. Finn was grey. Finn was also just a bit weird...!
The first piece of excitement in the month was Granny coming to stay from the Isle of Man for a couple of days. Finn was very excited about this and he could barely wait to see her, and to tell her all about what he'd been up to, and to show her all of his toys and creations. In fact she arrived after Finn's bedtime, as the plane was delayed, but Finn valiantly stayed up to see her into the house, and, bleary-eyed, welcomed to the flat with lots of hugs and stories.
The first piece of excitement in the month was Granny coming to stay from the Isle of Man for a couple of days. Finn was very excited about this and he could barely wait to see her, and to tell her all about what he'd been up to, and to show her all of his toys and creations. In fact she arrived after Finn's bedtime, as the plane was delayed, but Finn valiantly stayed up to see her into the house, and, bleary-eyed, welcomed to the flat with lots of hugs and stories.
On the one day we had all together we began with Borough Market - inevitably buying far too much food for our lunch (!) - and taking it onto HMS Belfast, which is a WWII boat moored on the Thames between London Bridge and Tower Bridge. Cori had been once before with the two of them, but it was the first time for me, so I was quite excited about it, though, on reflection, I'm not sure why. It was, after all, a boat, and a military boat too, so I ended up being quite bored by it all - perhaps even more so than Cori! But, regardless, a great time was certainly had by Finn and Orry:
Finn also used the trip to practice his smile (no idea what's going on here):
You will note the shocking volume of guns behind Finn - not our usual thing to bring Finn & Orry into contact with. Finn was speaking about guns and explosions for days afterwards, about which we were not very comfortable. Here is Finn's illustrations (presumably looking down onto the ship from above, with the "canons" pointing out sidewards):
Finn's favourite place was the engine room (which seemed to go on for miles!):
At the bridge they got to try on the hats, which was, certainly for the grown-ups, the highlight of the trip!
It was great to have the boys' granny here, even if just for a day and a bit. It was lovely to see Finn adore her and really enjoy being around her, and to see Orry warm up to recognise her as someone special to be around. It was especially lovely to leave Granny to go and read with Finn, which he was very excited about as it meant that he got to show her his favourite books, including the Body Book which we've been reading off-and-on since Christmas. Granny was most impressed to hear how much he knew about the five senses, the gluteus maximus and the way valves work in arteries etc. He even did some pictures of some of these things for her in his notebook:
These are, of course, pictures of the heart and lungs (complete with ribs), and of the inside of the heart... We are rather proud of Finn doing these pictures of his own accord.
We were all very impressed by another picture that he did, under granny's direction, but entirely on his own:
Amazing! - It was pretty much a fluke though - he's not capable of repeating something quite so well drawn again.
After we said goodbye to Granny (who was off to visit her other English grandchild), we got ready for Finn's first party of the year, and his first of a friend from his new nursery. This was for his best friend at nursery, Orlando, who had a great Space-themed party, for which we figured that a robot was close enough:
The party was at our nursery, which they'd hired out, which was rather convenient for us. It also meant that Orry was delighted to be able to rush about in the part of the nursery out-of-bounds for the smaller children during the week:
It was nice to have a party for Finn with his new nursery friends. This means, of course, that it brought entirely new nursery parent friends for us. It is strange to do the make-new-friends and feel-a-bit-awkward-at-the-party at our age, but it is always nice to meet new nice people, and to confirm that everyone is as nice as they appear to be from just the meet-them-in-the-corridor "Hi!" sort of exchange that we have each morning or afternoon. It is nice to chat to other Islington parents and realise what nice people we're bringing up our children alongside - we're in the right Borough, and the right nursery!
March saw Finn continue to enjoy his camera, taking many pictures... many. Indeed, he even took pictures of the computer as we looked at February's pictures!
Some of the other pictures he took are worth putting here, for the nice idea that they give of life at home:
This last picture is quite a nice illustration of how Orry has emerged from being a shouting, throwing misery into being a joy to be around. It will probably change again in a week or so, but this month he's been lovely to be around. Jolly, fun, laughing, engaged, friendly (without being needy), enjoying our company, loving hanging out with his brother, enjoying laughing, finding everything funny. Just, in short, a lovely baby/toddler to be around.
Here are some pictures that might get some of that across:
This last picture is (to us) obviously Orry saying "cheese!" for the camera.
There is also this bunch of photos of Orry enjoying hanging out with his brother. This includes his favourite game at the end of the month, which was following Finn onto a bed (or put-down futon) and sitting on his head. Very funny. Finn found it funnier when he sat on it other than on his head though... Orry just found it all hilarious, especially when he fell off!
Long may Orry's great mood and general loveliness continue!
A lot of these pictures show Orry with a book, which makes sense as that has grown into being one of Orry's great loves. The hour or two when one of us might have him on our own as the other catches up on sleep has been almost entirely full of reading at times this month with Orry. He can enjoy his favourite books five or so times through in a row, and he will then run off to find the other parent to repeat the readings immediately afterwards. He seems to enjoy both of our readings, which is nice. He also very much likes to sit down with Finn and read on his own, if Finn is doing the same thing, which is a lovely thing to see:
In fact, we got a video of Orry and Finn having fun together, leaping about on the bed - probably showing how much being confident on his feet is enabling Orry to emulate his brother more and get much more involved in the fun:
Having already seen some of Finn's Representative Art earlier, with the heart and lungs and the snail etc., now is probably a good time to return to show off some of the creative stuff he's done in March. The first of it was at our inspiration (instructed by nursery to work on his cutting skills):
What impressed me most about the lampshade addition was how lovely it really looked - like some excited Kurt Schwitter addition or something - but what was great about his cut-out figures was his excellent drawing of their faces all on his own (but for the every other one that I did - we took it in turns):
Something that he brought home from nursery was this picture of a story, complete with cloud and rain and hail, which I think is a beautiful thing indeed:
But what has been really impressed and sometimes shocked us is when he does something quietly on his own and it comes out to be something as intricate and involved (and beautiful) as these sorts of things:
The only problem with these creations is that we all live in fear of Orry destroying them - Finn for the sake of the thing itself, us for fear of the throes of misery and woe into which Finn will be thrown should the destruction happen. Orry, to be fair, laughs at everything regardless, so he doesn't mind whatever happens!
Having seen some of Finn's brilliant building skills, Orry also is very good at his puzzles. Without having really worked with him on it at all, Orry can do block puzzles quite easily (when his mind's on it), and he's beginning to work out how jigsaws work and how the pieces fit together. We were very impressed by him.
Here's a little video of the toddler puzzle expert in action:
The hat comes from his nursery at Easter, when he was in to help make it as one of their activities. Orry loved that hat! He brought it home and would merrily go and don it repeatedly over the next week or so, squealing whenever we tried to take it off him (Orry squeals to have us stop something - very effective!).
This is him in all his Easter Hat majestic glory:
But this is quite long enough, so I might leave Easter proper until Part II. But I will finish on a wordy bit, since there is not too much of that here otherwise.
Cori made a list at the end of the month, of all the words that Orry can manage:
Here are some pictures that might get some of that across:
This last picture is (to us) obviously Orry saying "cheese!" for the camera.
There is also this bunch of photos of Orry enjoying hanging out with his brother. This includes his favourite game at the end of the month, which was following Finn onto a bed (or put-down futon) and sitting on his head. Very funny. Finn found it funnier when he sat on it other than on his head though... Orry just found it all hilarious, especially when he fell off!
Long may Orry's great mood and general loveliness continue!
A lot of these pictures show Orry with a book, which makes sense as that has grown into being one of Orry's great loves. The hour or two when one of us might have him on our own as the other catches up on sleep has been almost entirely full of reading at times this month with Orry. He can enjoy his favourite books five or so times through in a row, and he will then run off to find the other parent to repeat the readings immediately afterwards. He seems to enjoy both of our readings, which is nice. He also very much likes to sit down with Finn and read on his own, if Finn is doing the same thing, which is a lovely thing to see:
In fact, we got a video of Orry and Finn having fun together, leaping about on the bed - probably showing how much being confident on his feet is enabling Orry to emulate his brother more and get much more involved in the fun:
Having already seen some of Finn's Representative Art earlier, with the heart and lungs and the snail etc., now is probably a good time to return to show off some of the creative stuff he's done in March. The first of it was at our inspiration (instructed by nursery to work on his cutting skills):
What impressed me most about the lampshade addition was how lovely it really looked - like some excited Kurt Schwitter addition or something - but what was great about his cut-out figures was his excellent drawing of their faces all on his own (but for the every other one that I did - we took it in turns):
Something that he brought home from nursery was this picture of a story, complete with cloud and rain and hail, which I think is a beautiful thing indeed:
But what has been really impressed and sometimes shocked us is when he does something quietly on his own and it comes out to be something as intricate and involved (and beautiful) as these sorts of things:
The only problem with these creations is that we all live in fear of Orry destroying them - Finn for the sake of the thing itself, us for fear of the throes of misery and woe into which Finn will be thrown should the destruction happen. Orry, to be fair, laughs at everything regardless, so he doesn't mind whatever happens!
Having seen some of Finn's brilliant building skills, Orry also is very good at his puzzles. Without having really worked with him on it at all, Orry can do block puzzles quite easily (when his mind's on it), and he's beginning to work out how jigsaws work and how the pieces fit together. We were very impressed by him.
Here's a little video of the toddler puzzle expert in action:
The hat comes from his nursery at Easter, when he was in to help make it as one of their activities. Orry loved that hat! He brought it home and would merrily go and don it repeatedly over the next week or so, squealing whenever we tried to take it off him (Orry squeals to have us stop something - very effective!).
This is him in all his Easter Hat majestic glory:
But this is quite long enough, so I might leave Easter proper until Part II. But I will finish on a wordy bit, since there is not too much of that here otherwise.
Cori made a list at the end of the month, of all the words that Orry can manage:
- Up
- Thank you
- Please
- Choo choo
- Box
- Ball
- Dinosaur
- Finn
- Mama
- Monkey
- Dada
- Shoe
- More
- All done
- Down
- Book
- Baby
- Poo poo
- Apple
- Banana
- Ouch
- Peepo
- Bye bye
- Eye
- Get it
- Mine
- Grandma
- Cheese!
- Tissue
- Fish
- Hot
- Wow!
- Hat
- Bus
- Boat
- Chicken
- Turtle
This is forty or so, excluding the noises for animals - "cock-a-doodle-doo", "baa baa", "woof woof" etc. - and also the names of his friends at nursery.
We believe that forty is pretty good for 17 months. However, a lot of these would only be recognised by us, his loving parents. Some are pretty much just noises, which we know are imitations of real words. But this just makes them all the more adorable.
...I don't know if I've ever used the word "adorable" before, but this is the right word, as these videos might show:
Orry talks a lot when in a good mood.
One of our favourite words for Orry is that "Finn", or, rather, as it is in Orry's mouth, "Feen." As it is normally said in delight or excitement, this makes it all the more lovely:
As a final sign-off, I'll leave you with a picture of Orry's first introduction to Hungry Hippos, and a picture a piece of the two of them looking nice:
The second part of the March update will come soon...
No comments:
Post a Comment