We now have internet again!! Sorry for the long delay, it was nothing we could change... But we're back and be ready for a load of posts in a row with a few months of info :) Now I just have to write them...

20 months old

This one is the most extremely late one ever.  But I've just started a new job and refurbishing the flat is a lot more time and work then I anticipated.  It has all been a bit overwhelming and stressful.  So I'm very sorry to everyone whose birthdays we've missed and invitations to come around we've ignored.  It will all settle down soon I hope.
But now there's the actual packing and moving to think of... and unpacking... and buying furniture...
siiiiigh.

Anyway!  Finn is now 20 months old!

Here are his pictures side by side:

19 months old

20 months old

We did lots of stuff in May.
We finally got the keys to our new flat.  Here's us arriving at OUR place for the first time:

We all had a good look around.

I quite like the view:

But it's nothing compared to the other view we saw.  James' Mum came to visit us for a few days and we went up the Shard (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shard) (which you can see in the distance above) to see the view.  It was incredible!!

Finn enjoyed it for a bit, pointing out the 'water' and the 'bus'es.  But then he didn't really care anymore.  He much preferred his Cheerios.

Finn had a great time with Granny and he made sure that she was well aware anytime there was a boat or a duck or a bus or water or an airplane etc.

We even got to ride on an actual bus!

Finn is a HUGE fan of pointing and naming things.  And he will keep going until you acknowledge that you've seen what he's trying to show you.  Walks with him nowadays tend to sound a bit like this:
bus.  bus.  bus... BUS.  BUS!!!  'yes, I see the bus' ... car.  car.  car.  bus.  CAR!  BUS!  'yes!  A car and a bus!  Thank you.'  ...bus.  bus.  BUS!  BUS! BUS!

His range of what he can identify is getting much bigger.  I think we're the only ones that understand him most of the time but he now knows things like: flower, bee, slide, park, bath, bear, quack, cat, bowl, ball, baby etc etc.  It always impresses me when he just comes out with something new!  His current favourites however are most definitely car, bus, airplane, and water.

He's also been spending more time with his friend Lily. The other day I was working so James and Finn went to visit Lily and her dad and they decided to play some ping pong... ( I love Lily's face when Finn is about to leave!). 

I think this is the real reason we love play dates:

Lily also came round to ours for a bit while her parent's were packing to move house. I love this picture of them having a snack - it just sums them up to a tee!  Lily is politely breaking her cracker into small pieces and eating them and Finn is... not...

I think the biggest thing about Finn these days is that he has a definite personality.  And VERY definite ideas of what he wants and how things should work.  He doesn't like when things aren't the way they should be and he can be very very bossy when he tries to sort stuff out.  At nursery they are always reporting back that he doesn't like to take part in any sort of messy play (paint or play dough etc) but that he very much enjoys egging the other children on to get as messy as possible!  Apparently pointing to the paint in front of another child and saying 'yeah! yeah! yeah!' until she put her hand in it and then laughing hysterically.  But he refuses to touch the paint himself.  They did a special activity to try and encourage him where they used cars to run through the paint and then run across the paper.  He was fine running the car across the paper but each time it needed more paint he would give it to his key worker and indicate that she should do that bit instead.

But Finn is a multifaceted young man... I have no idea why he hates paint so much.  Because at home he does things like this:

The worst was the other day when he and I were eating dinner (beans on toast) on the kitchen floor.  I don't quite remember why, but we were.  Everything was going well. He doesn't really wear a bib anymore because he is very good with his spoon and eats quite cleanly.  All was fine so I got up and went to the toilet.  I was only gone maybe a minute and I came back to see that he had decided to scoop the beans up with his hands and rub them all in his hair!  The damage was done so I did what any parent would do next - let him carry on and take pictures.

A few days later he did a similar thing to James with his soup.

There's something about their textures that he seems to enjoy smearing all over.  And yet he won't touch paint.  Odd odd child.

Other odd things about Finn...

He has become very particular in what he wants to wear.  He will choose something and insist that you put it on and he will go insane if you try and take it off him.  Most of the time we can accommodate and it's fine.  But his main love is having a car or cars on his shirt (see monthly picture above) and he didn't have many of them (we have since rectified that situation and now have MANY potential car tops). But recently when James and he were home together, he got something on his car top and it had to be taken off, and there were no more car tops around.  Finn was inconsolable.  Until James came up with a quick thinking solution.  It involved a plain white undershirt and a sharpie.  Finn loves his new shirt and will often check to make sure the car is still there... then point to it and make sure everyone around him is aware that there is a car! car! car!!

There have also been a couple instances when what he's insisted on wearing is so strange that you just have to go with it... one Saturday he insisted on wearing one of my jumpers for the entire day....
what can you do!?

He also LOVES to wear my rings:

One of his favourite things to do (when we let him) is to watch youtube videos.

I'll give you three guesses what they have to be of...

yup, cars.
This is him dancing and 'wowing' to a car commercial that we watch on repeat.  Midway through he also kindly points out that the car is driving past some 'water' ... just in case you missed it.


aaaaand this is what happens when you decide he's had enough!  My favourite thing is the ending where he seems to clue in that Mum is saying no... so I'll try Dad...


Another odd thing is that his second favourite video to watch after the car commercial above is the video of himself watching the car commercial.  He loves to watch it and imitate himself dancing and repeat all of the 'wow's and 'water's etc.  So strange.

But mostly he just does very very odd things sometimes and we have no idea why.  Here is a video where he was playing with his jar of rocks (we have really posh toys around here) and for some reason started rubbing them on his legs.  I haven't the faintest idea why he's doing it or where he saw it... so it's just really really strange!



And lastly, here is his new super strange 'smile' that he likes to break out when a camera is around.
Enjoy!

Finn walking

We mentioned in the last post how Finn's now walking, but we didn't actually put up a video. Here it is:


Of course, he began taking steps over five months ago, and he's now been walking fully for over two weeks, so Finn's already quite reliable on his feet. This video, however, is only perhaps a week into his walking, so he is rather more precarious. It's amazing that he isn't falling over walking like this!

We'll be back with the full update hopefully on time at the end of next week...

19 months old!

Hello all!

This has been an extremely busy and stressful time lately.  I've been interviewing for and been offered a new job and James and I have been finishing off the process to finally purchase our own flat (which we now have!  Woo!).  Sooo... we didn't do much in the month of April.  But we've done a LOT already in May.  But the stuff we've done in May belongs in his 20 month update, so this one may be a bit sparse.  Although I think I always say that and it ends up being long anyway :)

First off, here are his pictures side by side:

18 months old

19 months old

And, as a first - there are no outtakes!  For once, he climbed into the seat himself and hung out there and enjoyed himself smiling and having fun.  Partly because he LOVES his new tiger shirt.  So instead of outtakes, here are two more good ones!

First up.  Here is a photo that shows us as the worst parents in the entire world.

Finn is sitting on a counter.  Next to a knife.  And a hot stove.  Wearing a borrowed jumper because we forgot to bring one when we went out.
I can hear people dialling child services.
It IS a bit staged though, to be fair.  We DID forget his jumper and need to borrow one. And Finn LOVES to sit on this section of the counter.  I don't know exactly why, but it might have something to do with the fact that his snacks are kept in that red bin.  And we do cook while he sits there.
BUT - there is always someone standing right next to him whenever he is there (assuming they aren't quickly ducking away for the sake of the photo).
So it's not really all that bad, but I thought the photo was pretty funny!

Other stuff we do.  Finn loves to chat on Skype to his Grandma.  We usually do it on Sundays right after he wakes up from his nap.  Here's a fun series from a recent online chat.

We also love going to the park now.  We go nearly every day on the way home from nursery and are blessed that there is a great park just outside our front door.  Finn's favourite is definitely the slide.  He loves the slide.  And now that he's getting more mobile, he can go down by himself!  He still needs help getting up the steps though, but yesterday he managed to climb up the slide all the way to the top.  I was hovering right behind him in case he slipped but he didn't - I was very impressed!  That kid is stronger than he looks (he was walking up and holding on to the sides). He also loves pointing out every. single. car. siiiigh.

 

The biggest news is, of course, that he's really fully walking with confide

nce now.  The first time he properly did it (as in refusing to hold our hands and running off on his own) was in Ikea.  As thrilled as we were for his new found independence, I'm not sure I recommend Ikea as the ideal situation in which to find it.  Exhausting.
What I find amazing though is how much his walking has given him confidence in other areas.  He has always been extremely clingy to me and not liked it when I moved too far away from him.  But now he seems to know that if I go too far, he can come and get me, so it's fine.  Yesterday we went to the library and he sat down to read some books in the kids section and I was able to go to the other side of the room and look elsewhere.  It sounds like no big deal, but in our world this is HUGE!  He would keep checking I was still there, but was fine.  After a while, he stood up and brought his book over to ask me to read it with him, which we did for a bit.  But then when he was bored of that book he walked himself back over to the baby section without me.  It really was amazing for me.  I know walking brings its troubles as well but so far it's been nothing but fantastic.  A couple days ago we were on the couch Skyping with my Mum when Finn asked for some water.  I told him to go get it from daddy who was in the kitchen.  And Finn stood up, walked into the kitchen, asked for water, got it and brought it back to the couch.  These sorts of things blow my mind.  He certainly is no longer a baby.

His communication is definitely getting better as well.  I'm not sure if the rest of the world can understand him, but James and I certainly know what he is saying!  It's amazing how clear he can be even with minimal words.  And putting them together to make himself understood.  I was trying to distract him with his train set when I wanted to get dinner ready and he very clearly said "no.  bye-bye choo choo."  He said it with such a stern face as well it was hard not to laugh!
I think my favourite word of his, though, is thank you.  It's a bit like 'dah do' but the inflection is clearly 'thank you' and I find it very sweet.
So I leave you with a video of him saying thank you...
Enjoy!