But first, the monthly photos.
But first, a confession.
We missed a month. Somehow. I'm not entirely sure how we did it but I think it was because we went out and took the nice yearly photos to show them at 5 years old and 2 years old. So in my head we'd taken the photos. But then it turns out that we DIDN'T take the sitting in the chair photos. Which is annoying. For Finn, this is the first month we've missed for 5 years! But we missed it. I thought about taking a pretend one (they were due for a haircut so I figured I could do a before haircut and after haircut one) but figured it would be better to just fess up. So here I am fessing up. We missed a month. :(
So here's what we've got:
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| 23 months old |
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| 25 months old |
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| 60 months (5 years) old |
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| 62 months (5 years and 2 months) old |
And as we missed it last month, here is Orry's yearly side by side.
It's also worth seeing another side by side - Orry and Finn at 25 and 24 months respectively. I didn't mean to make them match! But had a smile when I realised that they did so I wanted to share :)
And finally, we used to show the outtakes from Finn's shots but stopped once he started being sensible. Orry is not sensible.
November started out with a bang, quite literally! The 5th of November was Bonfire Night which is celebrated with a (as you might have guessed) big bonfire and lots of fireworks. Living in London I'd only once managed to get out to an actual bonfire - instead mostly just watching the fireworks from a window. But in Peel the bonfire was being held on the beach, a short walk from our house - so there was no reason not to go. We bundled up nice and warm and went to have a look. And it was fantastic! It was a HUGE bonfire! We were all suitably impressed. And then we stuck around for the fireworks which were also very good. I thought Orry might be a bit frightened, especially because they were literally right above our heads, having been fired off just from the breakwater - but he loved them! He kept shouting 'look! popping stars!!' and naming all the colours as he saw them. It really was a lovely night. But also especially lovely living so near - so when it was finished we walked Finn's friend Alfie back home (his mum and brother Salvador had returned to their home when Sal got too scared so we said Alfie could stay with us) and walked ourselves back home and were warm and happy before some people made it out of the carpark. That's the way to do fireworks :)
There was another bonfire and fireworks show the following night (Peel for some reason did theirs on Friday the 4th) at Maughold which was a much smaller affair but was lovely in its own right for being so small and community driven. This was the one where our guy was being burnt but we didn't arrive in time to see it go up in flames as they had lit the bonfire a bit early to get it going and the guy was very quickly burnt up. I think that was probably for the best though... Another lovely showing of fireworks and then into the church hall for hotdogs and tea before the kids fell asleep in the car on the way home. Overall a really fun holiday that I'm quite partial to :)
The weather is definitely getting colder though - towards the end of the month it was even getting a bit frosty in the morning when James takes Finn to school.
The cold weather also means I finally got around to making the boys new viking hats (they were lost somehow) which are just as ace as they ever are! Makes it hard for Orry to hide though... not that he's ever been the best at hiding anyway :)
That hats do make some interesting after effects though - some impressive hairdos!
Finn is loving school though and getting along quite well with it. He goes to see the ducks sometimes in the morning on his way in (if they have time). We had our first parent's evening as well which went really well. His teacher is pleased with his progress and all is on track. We went across to the park for a bit while we waited our turn - and I realised I'd forgotten Orry's coat! So he was in mine and I loved the look (though it was slightly creepy)
He is doing very well socially as well. I was talking to one of his friend's mums after the parent's evening and she said she had asked who her daughter was friends with. When she said that she often mentions Finn, Finn's teacher said "oh yes Finn! Everyone loves Finn!" which is always really nice to hear. He seems to get along better with the girls than the boys but that may partially be because there are only 5 boys out of 13 in his class... He's been to some good birthday parties though. Including one at a farm where he got to ride a pony, feed the chickens, collect eggs, hold the piglets etc. This sort of thing has never really been Finn's sort of "thing" but he was all a buzz after and talked about it for quite some time! I've also included the card he did for another friend's birthday because it illustrates his new drawing style that I think is pretty fantastic! Especially with all the fingers!!
It's also worth noting that his school got a bit of international acclaim by being chosen as the introduction to what's coming next on Channel 4. There was lots of excitement when the film crew came. As they are Channel 4, they only wanted the kids from year 4 - so Finn is unfortunately not in it (much to his dismay) but it is still quite fun and makes you proud to be a part of something so unique. We are sort of in it though, as I tell Finn. He and I were waiting at the bus stop out front as they were doing their drone shots. So the tiny us are in there somewhere, you just can't see us :)
We took a few outings as a family as well. One of the best ones was to Cregneash (mentioned last month as the traditional farming place that did the turnip carving). There was no one around so we mostly just had a stroll through the village and a picnic lunch but it was a nice outing with a look at some of the Loaghtan sheep and a very friendly Manx cat.
On the way there Orry kept inexplicably jumping up and landing on his bum. He does this quite a lot on the beds at home but who knows why he decided to do it on the hard stony ground! Each time he would do it then sit there and say 'ouch' but then 2 minutes later he would do it again. Strange child.
James also took the boys on a couple walks without me to great success - including up Peel hill. Which is actually a rather far way to go - but everyone enjoyed it!
Orry and I have also had our fair share of walks. With all the moving and moving again and shifting of beds and new beds and old beds in different places etc, Orry's nap routine was completely shot. He also doesn't think he NEEDS to nap anymore (but oh he definitely does!) so the easiest thing to do was to put him in the carrier and walk around until he fell asleep. It's now become our daily routine and after lunch we take a long stroll around. He not only gets him to sleep but it's also really good to get out of the house for a gauranteed bit every day. It may not be the best sleep crutch, nor the most sustainable (sakes alive that boy is heavy!) but it does mean that I get to look at views like this every day, which isn't too bad.
Some windy days we go and watch the waves crashing for a bit as well which is always fun and Orry quite enjoys.
Speaking of nice views but apropos of nothing really - here are a couple photos from when we were driving home from somewhere and had to pull over and take a picture because it was just too beautiful!
Orry is a funny sort - he's a really good mimic and can imitate people speaking very well. He gets the nuances and inflections as well - but I'm not sure it knows what he's saying a lot of the time, just mimicking. For example, we've mentioned before Finn's habit of asking us to keep things "in your memory" for him. Orry has picked up on it and will now hold up bits of food or whatever and say "in mem-ry?" before moving off with it. It's annoying enough when it's coming from one child let alone two! He can count to 10 but I'm not sure he know's he's counting - I think he's just repeating what he's heard. He loves singing songs though - songs he's heard before (he loves practicing Jingle Bells at the moment) or ones that he makes up for himself. He may have been a very late walker but he's got this communication thing DOWN! He is sometimes very odd though. For some strange reason, if you look at him very close he says his own name. NO idea why. But it's funny :)
Also funny is the day Orry got to choose his own clothes and ended up with swim trunks over leggings and a batman shirt... why not?!
We've had lot's of fun playing around generally as well. Finn and Orry play really well together and are equally silly sometimes.
I caught them once playing REALLY closely. Not sure what brought it about but it was pretty funny.
Finn is also really into creating things. Here is an airplane that he created all on his own.
And here are some boxes that he wanted for his forklift. I helped make the boxes but he got to choose what was in them... I think he made some great choices!!
Towards the end of November was Thanksgiving. We decided to have a very small Thanksgiving with just the four of us this year, mainly because our oven is broken. It was nice though and we enjoyed the family feast. We talked about what we were thankful for as well - though some responses were better than others!
I had told Finn that we would set up our Christmas tree "after Thanksgiving" as he was really really eager. He took me literally. He assumed that we were setting it up the DAY after Thanksgiving. And I didn't want to crush his excitement so I agreed. We've now had the tree up for a very long time but ah well :) Finn was so very excited. Orry was rather more... Orry.
It meant we had it up in time for the turning on of the lights in Peel though. They had been working hard to set up all the lights that straddle the street in the weeks leading up to it - including lights directly outside our window! And then the weekend had a big turnout for everyone to come along for them to be officially turned on. It was quite a fun atmosphere with fake snow and a Father Christmas and brass band, mulled wine, mince pies etc. Seemed like the whole town turned out! And we of course didn't have far to get home after since it was on the street we live.
And at the end I'll leave you with a very fantastic photo of Finn, from school. I didn't think they would be able to get a real grin out of him and not his normal cheese smile - but they did! I love it :)
