Congrats to Auntie Jeanna!

Jeanna and Craig are getting married! March 28, 2009! Yay you guys! They live in DC but are coming to Minnesota to get married. It'll be a good time.

In Finn news, we're past 2 1/2 months and the crud is still with him. He seemed to be getting better, but then he caught my cold, we think. His chest x-ray came back normal, which is good. Katie is going to try altering her diet (no milk and soy) to see if that helps him, too.

He wheezes, coughs, smiles, and giggles all through the day, and wheezes, coughs, cries and whines all through the night. Yeah.... We're going to Boston/Harvard for 11 days in mid/late May, and we HOPE he is in better shape by then.

Here we are on Finn's first hike, from about 10 days ago. We went to the Montalvo Arts Center in nearby Saratoga. An old-timey California senator left his hilly vacation home and grounds to be used as a center for the arts. In a break in the forest there are great views of Silicon Valley.

Mr. Hygiene

Finn has recently decided he has two favorite places to put his hands while getting his diaper changed:

1. His mouth
2. His crotch

and not necessarily in that order.

Oh yeah. Good times.

New stroller, and other excitement

New Gear
You know how we keep saying how huge he's getting? It finally hit us a week or two ago that that meant more than outgrowing his clothes - he's approaching the weight limit on his car seat! Convertible car seats researched; car seat ordered; arriving today. Check!

Up to now, our car seat (+ a handy frame) has also been our stroller, so we had to get a new stroller, too. Again with the research, again with the shopping, and we're now the proud owners of two shockingly neon colored baby transport devices. There's a bright orange very basic folding one we're keeping in the car for short walks on smooth surfaces like the floor of Target until he gets big enough to sit up well in the cart, and then there's this awesome monster:

It's not the clearest photo, but it seems to be the best wide-angle shot I have so far. More glamour shots of the new ride, including one where you can see how much Finn likes it, at Flickr.

I love it. Since we go for multiple-hour-long walks 2 to 5 days a week over bumpy urban terrain, we (I?) decided we needed something a little more robust than little plastic wheels, and these 12" inflated ones make for a much smoother ride than the old stroller. It's like going over sidewalk cracks on a bike instead of roller skates. The only drawbacks are that this has a smaller storage bin (how am I supposed to go grocery shopping?) and not-too-great sun protection, so the first accessory we purchased was the sun cover. Also, it makes me wish we had a garage to stick it in. But you know what's cool? You can stick a second seat on the back. Or the front, actually.

New Skills
We're getting closer and closer to sitting up. He does great at it, actually, as long as I put toys by his feet so he leans forward instead of back, and sit behind him to serve as a bumper for the inevitable falling over.

Not that he minds the falling over. Apparently it's hilarious to suddenly find yourself lying back on the Boppy. But then, so many things are hilarious when you're Finn.

Finn also thinks he's ready to branch out from breastmilk. He's been eyeing our food pretty intently, especially my morning oatmeal, and likes to try and grab for my glass when I get a drink of water. I've let him try to drink from the glass a couple times, but that just gets drool in my water and water on his clothes. So actually this is more of an "interest" than a "skill" at this point. We're waiting for the six month mark to officially start on other foods, which is just a few short weeks away. Should be interesting.

Same Old Cough

Dr. Lee finally resorted to antibiotics to try and help Finn get rid of his... whatever it is that is/was causing his coughing and mucus issues (cold? sinus infection? asthma?). The primary and immediate result of this was diarrhea (silly antibiotics, killing off good bacteria with the bad), which led to the worst diaper rash EVER, which led to our first disposable diaper purchase in months because you're not supposed to get creams all over the wicking layer of our cloth ones. Happy Earth Day!

I'm not sure about the cough. He's definitely less mucus-y, but he still coughs more and sounds kinda thicker than I think he ought to, or than I remember from what he was like when this started two months ago. So we'll see.

More Grandma Visits

My mom gets here Thursday afternoon and will be here for nearly a week. I'm looking forward to getting caught up on homework and taking some serious naps. And guess what? I'm getting LASIK on Friday. Whee!

The minister of chub (and cuteness)

We're been getting a lot of good use out of the Bumbo chair. He fits in it better than he did a couple months ago. Finn likes to watch us do dishes and make dinner. When its time to pull him out his chubby legs get caught in the leg holes. Like his shirt? He also sat in his Bumbo when we did Skype with Grandma and Grandpa Fortney. This was the first time he's seen Grandma since she came to visit, and I actually think he remembered her and was confused by her face on the screen.

Katie and I (mostly Katie) have been training Finn to sit up on his own. He's mostly terrible at and just rolls over backwards. When he falls back onto his boppy pillow he usually gives us a giggle, which couldn't be cuter!

My visit to St. Louis was uneventful. As far as I know, I have no scientific travel plans (without taking the family) til September. Although IF we didn't have Finn, I know I'd have been going to London and Scotland this summer. Baby giggles vs. Scotland, baby giggles vs. Scotland.... The giggles win!

(Second) Longest. Night. Ever.*

Jonathan out of town + unseasonably warm weather + baby who won't sleep unless swaddled (and has a cold)
=
1 very tired Katie

If you see my husband, please send him home. I'm so bleary-eyed I may not recognize him, but if some guy shows up to watch the baby and tells me to sleep, I'll assume that's him.

Finn and I did have a lot of fun during daylight hours, out shopping, at the park, and making cookies. Today my goals are simpler: bath; making it to bedtime.

*the longest night ever was the first night home from the hospital.

Interaction & Distraction

I'm often asked how I manage school, work, and a baby. The answer is that sometimes I don't, which is how Jonathan got in two posts since my last one. I realize that's hardly the end of the world, but I try do to make this a priority since our loved ones are so spread out. It's been a full couple weeks around here, and things are only going to get busier.

Finn turns 5 months old in a week, and he's definitely growing more interested and knowledgeable about the world around him. Whereas before his reactions seemed mostly categorizable into "pretty!" "bright!" and "face!" he's become much more discerning. Some objects (like brightly colored toys) are more interesting than others; people are generally more interesting than objects; and cats are more interesting than people. He's differentiating among different people more, too: he can be in a perfectly good, smiley mood with Jonathan or Mary while I'm off getting homework done, and then I walk in the room and he sees me and just overloads, at least smiling, but several times smiling briefly and then dissolving into tears - often tears mixed with laughter. Fortunately the tears can usually be stemmed by feeding him or taking him to wherever Mona is. Murray just sits around sometimes and is apparently boring, but Mona is rarely still, and has even let Finn grab her ears. It was a big hit.
Here's a video of Finn playing, taking a break to admire Mona across the room, and then going back to what he was doing. It's a little hard to see his face at this size, so I tried uploading it to Google Video as well, where it appears to be pretty pixelated, and therefore not much better. Obviously this is something I need to look into a little more. Anyway, there you go.
"Toys... kitty!... hey, look, a star thing... kitty!... yawn...kitty!..."


Mostly his increased interest in the world around him is a good thing, but there is at least one drawback. My boy, who has always been a champion eater, now usually has to have something draped over his head to nurse. Otherwise Jonathan's or my voice, the sound of my spoon against my oatmeal bowl, or nothing at all, can cause him to pop off and turn to see what's going on. Sometimes he'll take a long break to tell me what's on his mind before he resumes his meal. It's adorable, but can be a bit frustrating. Here he is on one of his meal breaks.
He's got really good torso strength these days, and I feel like it won't be too long before he's sitting up. He hasn't yet repeated his rolling over feat, but he's getting closer. He also still has the cough that started in mid-February, which means none of us are getting a ton of sleep; some nights I don't get more than 90 minutes at a stretch. Before the cough I think 3 or 4 hours at a time was not unusual. We've been to see Dr. Lee a few times, and we're sure eventually he'll kick it. In the meantime, the Children's Benadryl got us a couple nights with five or six hour stretches (now he's apparently Benadryl-resistant), and now we're trying a special baby inhaler three times a day which he just LOVES, as I'm sure you can imagine.

More photos, including some cute Bumbo shots, at Flickr.

Yay Grandma!

Grandma Mary (my mom) was in town for 5 days to soak up the love and affection from our little man! Finn enjoyed the nonstop kisses and attention. He also got to see much of town, as grandma took him on two walks a day. One thing that grandma does not lack is energy.

Katie and I took *2* opportunities to leave Finn with his loving grandma so that we could take some time for ourselves, like the real couple that we are. Night one we hit an upscale lounge and a downscale pub. Night two we have a nice meal at Nick's on Main, which just opened up. The place it so tiny, you'd think you were in Manhattan. Chef Nick was a nice guy. He even took over being our server after she imploded due to an embarrassing broken cork, which then led to two table water miscues, and then she disappeared for the rest of the night.

It's sad that Finn isn't going to see grandma and grandpa again til (likely) sometime this summer. The difficulty of being far from family increases quite a bit when little ones get born into the family. One positive is that we've been doing well at keeping up our Skype dates to see the family back in Minnesota, especially Finn's cousin Jamie. We miss you grandma!