I have a few videos of Finn being silly and strange, but they don't seem to fit into any sensible post or update... so instead of waiting until they fit into something that makes sense, I thought I would just go ahead and share them all for no good reason...
:)
Enjoy!
First up, is Finn dancing. Again. I know I already did a video of this, but this one is just so funny! Because he starts dancing and keeps going... and going... and going... (this video isn't even all of it! It actually went on for nearly another minute!)
AND it's to weird music from Turkmenistan, which makes it all the better.
Next we have James carrying him around in the Tesco shopping basket... He put him in there to be silly but Finn just sat still like it was no big deal. Which of course made it that much sillier!
Finn's new ability to pull himself up and climb on things is very good - but Finn thinks he's better at it than he actually is, and often attempts to climb up, onto, or over things that are obviously not going to work. Case in point, after he gets undressed, he doesn't want you to put him in the bath - he wants to climb in himself. And looks ridiculous in the process.
(Warning! Nudity!)
Lastly we highlight both his standing and singing skills at the same time! Here he is improvising a duet with James.
And while I'm on the subject of music - here are some pictures of Finn enjoying music.
On Tuesday we went to the Horniman museum. It's a nice museum, but I like it there for two main things.
1) the aquarium
2) they have a very cool "Sound Garden" which has lots of very robust instruments for kids to play on. I really enjoy it and you can imagine how much Finn likes it! The noise!
It was excellent watching him figure each bit out though. He just watched James do it a couple times, and then took over straight away. These pictures show some of this intense concentration - followed by delight!
It was a nice day, so we took some pictures in their garden as well - here are some of my favourites:
The 2nd of August has come and gone, meaning Finn is now 10 months old. So here is your monthly update post!
Here are his pictures side-by-side. Personally I think he looks older and bigger in the 9 months one, but that might just be how he's sitting...
9 months old
10 months old
The drop-in we go to to get him weighed and ask our questions etc is currently closed for the Olympics - so I don't know exactly how much he weighs. But he has always followed a very definite curve right between the 50th and 75th percentiles so I can predict that:
He currently weighs around:
9.5 kilos
or 21 lbs
or 1 and a half stones
depending on your preference.
I don't know how long he is, either - but then I haven't for a few months now so I don't know why I keep mentioning it.
He's had one more tooth come through, bringing the total to eight (four up, four down). I was hoping that this would give us a bit of a break on teething - but he's currently shoving things way in the back of his mouth to chew on them, so I think there might be some molar action. I can't feel anything though, so I'm hoping we're wrong.
His teeth have resulted in one of the least pleasant things about him - he bites. I think he thinks he's being affectionate, but when he's crawling into your lap he will put his head down and bite your arm at the same time. Well - I say 'your' but I mean 'my.' He has never bitten anyone else. Only me. My arms have a smattering of tiny little blood blisters and bruises and James is completely fine. The trouble is that everything I do to try and stop the biting, he thinks is funny. It's not that I'm inconsistent - every time he does it I put on my sternest face and my most emphatic and serious NO - and he just laughs at me. I stop playing and take him off my lap each time he does it and he just plays with something else. He thinks my gasps of pain are a game. I really don't know what else to do, but keep at it until the message gets through. I think part of the problem is that we used to give him lots of play 'love-bites' ie: pretend to chomp his arm etc... because he always thought it was hilarious... I guess he was paying attention! I have obviously now instigated an absolute ban on any pretend biting whatsoever.
While I'm on the subject of him being affectionate and crawling into my lap - here's a video of his reaction when I come into the room in the morning. Finn wakes up around 5:45/6:00ish at which point James take over (I do the whole night shift - which is still SEVERAL times a night). They eat breakfast and play etc until around 8:00 when I come through... and Finn goes a bit crazy realising that he hasn't seen me for a whole TWO HOURS! If only everyone reacted like this when I walked into the room :)
Other updates:
His hair is the same old story - he still looks bald (but isn't!).
Our last visit to the Health Visitor I expressed concern that he still wasn't able to sit up properly. He could do it, but I couldn't walk away or anything because he would always topple over within 5 minutes. As always with these big milestones, he waits until the VERY last minute when everyone starts giving the look of 'hmm, maybe we should be worried' and then BAM he sits just fine and when I seem surprised he just rolls his eyes with a sigh of 'whatever, I could always do it - I just like making you WAIT.' (Which I really should have expected from the child who came two weeks after we thought he would) Here are some pictures of him sitting up (but still with pillows! I'm not tempting fate...) and exploring one of his boxes. He has two boxes that are full of random stuff. When he gets bored of one, we close it up and get out the other which, after being hidden for a bit, is all new again! He can spend ages just pulling stuff out and looking at it, one at a time.
He's also a big fan of boxes in general - well, containers really. His bowl has been a long standing favourite. But he also has an empty ice-cream tub, a small metal bowl, a couple baskets etc. Strange child. He's got a bunch of wooden blocks, but for the most part he dumps them all out to play with the basket they are stored in.... like so:
It was during this playing-with-the-basket that we got a video of him singing. I LOVE his singing - it's so funny. It's usually in conjunction with some sort of musical instrument (he sings while playing his guitar) but every now and then we just have a little singing session... like so:
And here's one of my new all time favourite pictures of him playing his guitar and singing:
This picture came from a series I took to show his other new skill - he can pull himself to standing now! And crawl UP things. We don't have any stairs for him to practice on, but if we take the cushion off the chair and put it in front, it serves the same purpose. And so this is from when he crawled all the way up onto the chair and then proceeded to carry on and stand up... doesn't he look so nonchalant?
He is leaning on the back of the chair, but he's getting better at doing it with other things. Like the coffee table... or the washing machine:
And while I'm thinking about major milestones, I don't think I've ever put a video up of his excellent version of crawling - so here it is:
What else?
He's started to say 'mama.' Still a bit unsure if he actually means it as 'mama' but he seems to only use it when he wants me, so he might be. He never says it if he's happy though! Only if he's sleepy or hungry or wants me to hold him or something... then he starts crawling to me with a whiny mamamamama. Soooo, he probably means me... but it might also just be his new go-to unhappy noise. Who knows?!
He's still not sleeping well, but we're working on it. Slowly but surely it's getting better. So we'll have him sleeping through the night by the time he's 12 at least :)
He still eats well, but he's getting pickier. And in weird ways. Mostly it's the fact that he LOVES to use his spoon. So sometimes he will refuse to eat anything unless it's on his spoon. I made some nice roasted butternut squash the other day and cut it up into nice Finn-sized pieces - and he wouldn't touch it. We then got his spoon and (in front of him - we weren't even being sneaky) scooped off a bit. Lo and behold he couldn't get enough of it. But only on his spoon. We showed him that they were the same, and that he could hold it and eat it that way but no. Absolutely no. On the spoon or nothin'. Strange child.
He can also be picky about what he eats and just because he likes something one day (or one way) doesn't mean he will the next day (or a different way). He thinks scrambled eggs are disgusting and will actually spit them out. But he's fine with a hard boiled egg yolk (not the white - no WAY). Strange child. The only foods that he consistently loves are bananas, hummus, and cheerios. He could eat cheerios all day long if we let him. He is a master of the 'pincer grip.' That being said, however, sometimes he decides he wants to eat his cheerios a different way... he will poke his finger at each one until one sticks and then slowly and carefully put it in his mouth. (Have I mentioned he's a strange child?). I've tried to get a picture of this multiple times because it's very funny - but they never turn out well. Here's the best I've got (though the cheerio is usually on the other side of his finger!)...
So, needless to say we are not at all worried about his development in 'fine motor skills.' He's NEVER been behind in that category. Big things: lifting his head, sitting up, crawling etc. he takes forever to master. But small things: hand-eye coordination, pincer grip, using his two hands to do two separate things at the same time etc. he is off the charts. It's all a matter of balance I guess.
Well that's all I can think of at the moment - so I'll leave you with three more nice pictures. Two of them are him sitting on the spinny office chair (that I just re-covered! Isn't it nice?!).
And the last is of Finn while we were watching the Olympics opening ceremony. We decided to dress him in his 'National Costume' which consisted of the wonky shoes that I am crocheting him, the too-small hat that I was unravelling to make the shoes, and a special medal that James made just for the 'winner' which is obviously Finn.
Hello all,
Just thought I'd do another quick post to let you know that Finn is feeling much better now, thank you!
And I've got lots of videos to prove it.
But first, here is sick Finn - we don't watch a lot of TV in this house, but Baby Einstein is a winner when we do! It certainly keeps Finn still and engaged - enough to take his temperature!
Also, James feels it's important to have videos to help us remember everything - not just the good things. So he insisted on a video of sick Finn. It's a bit heartbreaking to watch - I dare anyone to watch it and not want to jump in and make it all better. A bit of explanation though - this was in the night, and we were giving him some medicine when he started reaching for food - he seemed to have maybe got his appetite back, so we were offering him some of his favourite foods to see if he would eat anything. (it is not, however, a wotsit (or a cheese puff) - it is a baby-corn-carrot-puff-thingy... we don't give Finn wotsits!) And he was trying to eat them - but was so miserable that it wasn't going well. Poor poor Finn - but this is an example of what we were dealing with for about three days straight.
Now after that, how about some nice videos, eh?!
Two of him in the bath, being silly and one of him with his cherished bowl...
We're back safe and sound from Berlin. Finn did brilliantly on the flights, as always, and we all had a really excellent time.
Unfortunately, since we've been back I caught a nasty virus with stomach cramps and raging fever. It has since gone away, but it is clear that Finn now has the exact same thing. We're doing all we can to manage his fever, but he's simply miserable and my heart goes out to him. It must be so hard to feel so awful and not know why, or why no one is fixing it. And to top it all off, he's got a tooth currently breaking its way through - so even nursing, which always helps to calm him down, is just causing him more pain and that's upsetting him even more.
Poor, poor baby.
Anyway, we've got our hands full trying to help him stay calm, get some sleep, drink as many fluids as he can etc etc. So in the meantime, I thought I would post a link to our Berlin photo album that I put up on facebook. Have a look at the fantastic fun times we had. And send lots of get-better-soon thoughts to our wee unhappy baby.
First up - the hair. I went in during his bath today with the hopes that the wetness would show off his hair better, and it definitely did. You can see all his super-fine-fuzz (and his gorgeous, gorgeous blue eyes). And you can see some of the colour debate - it looks a bit red in the top photo, but very blond in the bottom...
So here it is, ladies and gentlemen, Finn's hair - it really does exist!
Secondly, we tried very hard yesterday to get video of him clapping and we managed not one - but two! Finn claps randomly while hanging out on the couch and then again when he was playing with the "other baby."
Enjoy!
Lastly, I thought I would throw in a little montage (just click on it to make it bigger) that explains how hard it is to get photos and videos of a baby that thinks cameras are the coolest THINGS EVER!!!
It has been ages since an update. I'm sorry. My best friend from home came to visit me for a couple weeks and it became a bit all-encompassing. I actually wrote a blog post in advance so that I could just post it while she and her husband were here, but even that didn't happen. (I'm still saving it...). I was just all over the place quite literally. And to top it off I've got a job interview, we're headed to Berlin next week, I was trying to find a nursery place for Finn... etc. etc. life. etc. Oh, and did I mention that the football was on? It was time for Euro 2012 - and the football is an extremely important part of life that shall not be interrupted. By anything. Including bath time.
ANYWAY! I'll make up for my long delay with lots of photos and videos, shall I?
On the 2nd of July, Finn turned 9 months old! I tried very hard to get a good picture of him but as he gets more and more active, he is less and less inclined to sit in the chair. Soooo it's not the best - but here they are side by side anyway!
8 months old
9 months old
And here are a couple of the outtakes :o)
As for the updates -
He currently weighs:
9.13 kilos
or 20 lbs 1 oz
or 1 stone 6 lbs
depending on your preference.
I don't know how long he is, I didn't check.
As always in these monthly updates I have MORE teeth to report. He now has SEVEN! Yup. Seven. He seems to be holding at seven though, which is odd - normally the matching one comes only a couple days after the first (as in two on the top, two on the bottom, the two next to the two on the top) but he's only got three on the bottom and no sign of the fourth. Who knows. Strangely though, it feels like he's about to get two more on the top - which are supposed to be some of the last to come in... but since when have Finn's teeth cared?
So, yeah, lots of teeth.
His hair is at least an inch long, but you still wouldn't know it to look at him... Janet swore it was red though - so I'll take her word for it! You can see it a bit better when it gets wet, or when he wakes up from a nap and it's all fuzzy all over. This picture sort of shows it...
He doesn't zombie crawl anymore - it's now a full on commando crawl. The trouble is that he's so good at it (and FAST) he doesn't seem to be at ALL interested in normal crawling - no big worry though because he gets around just fine. And I know that he can get up onto his hands and knees because he likes to crawl on top of things. Particularly James' guitar. And, when he's doing that he will even get up on his hands and feet! Like so:
He also REALLY likes to stand up. He's pretty strong and can't hold all his weight if you balance him. And he also likes if you help him 'walk' around. Then James introduced him to 'running' and it's now one of his favourite things to do. No more walking now that he's learned about running. Luckily James is happy to oblige:
Speaking of guitars, he is getting super skilled at playing his. He can strum! Yup, that's my baby - can't crawl, can't sit up, but boy can he strum a guitar. And grow teeth. Those are two things he can do.
Just to prove it though, here's a video of him playing his guitar:
Other things that need updating...
We thought that he had learned to shake his head "no" because I had seen him do it at one point. So we kept trying to get him to do it again and mimic us saying "no" but he wouldn't. Turns out, we were wrong. He carried on doing it but only when he wanted to. Eventually I made the connection that he was only doing it if he heard music... yup - he thinks he's dancing. Apparently you dance by shaking your head back and forth. And he will start dancing any time he hears music. Or "music" - because he also dances to the beeping of a truck backing up, or the rattling of a shopping cart, or the thumping of the washing machine. Now, some may say that he doesn't know what music is - I say he finds music in all things!
Here are a couple examples of him dancing - one from when James started playing his guitar and the other when he heard his favourite toy 'Scout' the musical dog...
Apparently he also knows how to clap - but again, he won't do it "for" us. He does it on his own while he's playing. If you try and clap and get him to clap back he looks at you like you are crazy. So we thought he just didn't understand. Imagine my bafflement when I woke up in the middle of the night to him lying in his crib clapping to himself... Of course this means we have no video of him clapping. Sorry. I'll keep trying though.
He has discovered his index finger and loves to touch things. It's really funny to watch! He's always loved different 'stuff' and textures but now he will spend ages reading a 'touchy-feely' board book carefully stroking each page with one finger... very very odd to watch and strangely endearing. It's only not pleasant when he decides to do the same to explore your face and those two interesting holes under your nose... Here's him investigating a flower:
We finally found a table chair that fits over our table skirt and we love it! It has the added benefit of fitting on nearly any kind of table (except glass) and we have since tried it out many places. Different restaurants, pubs, picnic tables. Brilliant. I almost love it a lot except for one thing - it's hand wash only. WHAT?! Who makes a seat for babies to EAT in hand wash only?! Silly. So I've sewn a couple covers out of James' old work shirts that can be tossed in the wash. Looks a bit scruffy, but not as bad as a bunch of gross caked on food. Because believe me, this boy makes a MESS!
He's recently discovered a new trick though - we put a chair underneath his seat because... well... I don't know really - lack of a better place to store it? Anyway, he's learnt that he can use it to stand up. And sometimes he finds this the most entertaining thing to do during dinner. Luckily, if we get too fed up, we just take the chair away. But most of the time it's just funny (and probably good practice - standing in general I mean, not standing during meals per say).
(PS - you will be reassured to hear that he went on to eat the entire apricot and many others after that. All his best foods start out with a horrible face of some sort!)
I think that's all the major updates. As I mentioned, he still can't sit up without pillows around him because he topples over - I reckon it's just all those teeth weighing him down :) either that or his great big clever brain.
So I guess I'll leave you with the pictures from some of our tourism trips out with Janet and Marcus. We did loads and loads of stuff!
We explored the city - Piccadilly Circus and Buckingham Palace
We got a car and went out to see Stonehenge
(I LOVE Finn's new sling by the way - it makes traveling around so much simpler and quicker! And I can hide him when he's sleeping...)
We visited a castle
And when we went to Big Ben, Finn was himself the tourist attraction! That's right, my baby is so cute that people stopped us on the street to take his picture. One woman even asked to hold him so she could have a picture taken WITH him. So weird. But, let's face it - he IS pretty darn cute! (and thank you to Marcus for the pictures!)
