Happy Thanksgiving

Just a day late. Here's Finn in his fancy Thanksgiving duds, giving thanks for our finally completed new driveway.

As of this week, Finn can:

• clap
• walk backwards (and pull doors shut behind him - watch those fingers!)
• dance at least 3 different ways
• sleep over 10 hours at a stretch (he's done this twice)
• make us think he's saying things like "ball" and "okay" when he apparently isn't really

Also, tooth #6 has officially arrived, and he seems to be working on #7.  I don't know about you, but I'm exhausted!

Sleeping through the night?

I don't believe it! I don't be-lieve it! He made it through the night! First time ever, at age 54 weeks. We only even heard a little peep from him at 10 pm, and then at 5:40 a.m. the whining started, but since we get up at 6, this counts as making it! It'd be pretty sweet if we could assume that he'll stay asleep, so that we could go to bed at 10 often, instead of, say, 9. Also, at daycare today he napped for 1:45. Only my Mom has ever got him to sleep longer than that. He apparently wakes up calmly and looks around, rather than screaming bloody murder. Strange. So maybe we need a napping mat at home, too.

Finn was in good shape for his 1-year checkup with Dr. Lee. Finn was a little afraid of him, though. 65% weight, 55% height, and 84% head. So, he's slimming down a bit, and the height and large head are tracking about the same. Seems good to me.

When my parents were out for his birthday we made a little trek out to a neighborhood park that has swings on a couple of slides. He'd never done either one. Both were fun, but his favorite was the slide. We'd just set him up there, and he'd decide when he wanted to go down--he did the slight inching forward by himself. It was really interesting to see him make the decision (time and time again) to throw caution to the wind to throw himself down the slide. He LOVED it. It strikes me as a very different decision than, "I want to eat this," or "I'm going to walk over there." It was very cool to see.

One more photo link

Jon & Mary's pictures from their visit, including Finn's first time on a swing.

More birthday footage

#1 Thomas has posted his photos from last Saturday, like this one showcasing Finn's criminal mastermind face. There are some real winners in that set. Thanks, Thomas!#2 I may have taken the liberty of putting the rest of Laura's up over at Shutterfly so you could see them. Ahem.

#3 Here's Finn dancing to the musical birthday card he got from his Aunt Keisha, Uncle Allen, and cousins Brandon and Jacob. He's more or less demolished the card since then, but it had a good run.

Boogie wonderland from Katie on Vimeo.
I would like to point out that this isn't his usual dancing; we've never seen this Flashdance stuff before. Normally he just sits on the floor and bounces to something resembling a beat.

Birthday recap

I'm all scrambly and incoherent as the end of the semester draws near (threeweeksthreeweeksthreeweeks), so I'm mostly going to just throw some photos and videos at you. Less than ideal for those of you who like to skim this at work, but trust me, the grandmas eat it up.

Birthday (for realz)
On Thursday Finn opened some presents (video camera battery died - sorry, no video), went out for a pancake birthday lunch, and then played in the fountains in the park. Pancake photo:
Fountain video (hooray for Thomas and Amy loaning us their camera!):

Walking in the fountains from Katie on Vimeo.
He eventually went right through the middle, got thoroughly soaked, was knocked over several times, and had his diaper hanging practically around his knees. I let him go until his was clammy and starting to turn the corner from pink to purple, then dragged him off screaming to change to clean dry clothes.
More photos, of course, at Flickr.

Birthday (observed)
On Saturday we threw Finn a little party. At least, it sounded little when we planned it. But it was big enough to be one of those things where I tried to talk to everyone at least a little and ended up feeling like I hadn't gotten to talk to anybody - don' t you hate when that happens? Maybe it's just a function of our house being a succession of small cells and focusing my energies on trying to keep Finn from eating shoes. Anyway, Finn had a pretty good time once he got over the strangeness of actually having a bigger audience than he required, and, surprise surprise, he loves cake. He also likes new toys, but still requires a designated unwrapper (thank you, Helen) to get at them.

We didn't take any photos, but Thomas and Laura both did, and they have fancier cameras and better skillz than us anyway. I'll put up a link if they post them, and here's one of Laura's to tide you over. We also didn't take any video, but luckily Jonathan's cousin Colin spied our lonely video camera on the table and took some for us - yay Colin! I promised him extra cake to thank him for rendering that valuable service, but Jonathan keeps forgetting to take it to work, so... sorry, Colin. We ate all the banana by Sunday night anyway.
This means you can watch up to ten minutes of cake time - just like being there, only harder to tune out our rambling and peer around us at the cute baby. It's not really HD, but it is suitable for full-screen viewing, so it may take a bit to load.
Cake part 1 from Katie on Vimeo.

Cake part 2 from Jonathan Fortney on Vimeo.
I also have videos of dancing and his new monkey face, but uploading video from the video camera actually has, like, steps, so that may not happen for a few more days. Bear with us.

Oh, and we had his 1-year checkup today! So pester Jonathan to post about that. Must sleep now.

Gulp, gulp. Air? Gulp?

Oh my. Well, things have been happening. I turned 32 today. Not a particularly interesting number. Finn turned 1. Yay! He's very good at using his pointer finger to show you what he wants you to do, but he won't hold it up to indicate his age. He won't copy me when I do it, either. He continues to be a maniac. I wonder how he'll do on the plane home for Christmas. Best not think about that yet. How about Halloween? Yes! Finn and I got all the guts out of our Half Moon Bay pumpkin.

Murray was at the vet for 3 DAYS after suffering a urinary blockage. He seems to be moving things well now, but he'll likely be on prescription food forever. Which means that Mona gets to be, too. So far they hate the food, so hopefully they'll lose a few pounds. Both of them have bulked up a bit since Finn was born--they just don't get played with as much.

It was great that my parents came to town over the weekend for Finn's birthday. We had a fun party! More details on that later. Here are the oldest Fortney men across 3 generations. Only one of us has a Mr. Silly t-shirt, but I'm still looking around. I can fit into a size 4T, right? Speaking of silly, in the past day Finn has started sticking his lips way out in some sort of Mick Jagger monkey face. And he can now "dance." Katie got a short video that she'll likely post.


Word to the wise: teaching a graduate course on a subject in which you are NOT an expert is quite difficult. I think by the 4th time I teach it, it'll be good. But it's not there yet and I doubt it will be next time. I can only learn the material so fast. And when the students decide to ask questions, then it's really hit and miss. Only a few more weeks til finals.... If only Mr. Finn could learn to sleep all through the night. I mean, it's been a year, kid!

Happy Birthday, little boy

Finn is one today. A year ago we had no idea what to expect, and now we have this little guy with Jonathan's eyebrows, my cheeks, and more silliness than both of us combined. Squared. He walks. He feeds himself. He dances. He squinches up his eyes when he grins hello. And sometimes it's hard to remember what life was like before he was here. Happy birthday, Finn! We love you.

It's strange to me that things like going over to Grandma's on the weekend aren't a part of Finn's life like they were mine (at least not right now), and this one-way communication is a poor substitute for seeing family and friends that we wish we could spend more time with. But with as hectic as our lives are these days, this blog has been a way to make ourselves slow down and be in the moment during times when it would be all too easy to just focus on getting through the week. So thank you all for reading it.

My camera is broken and it's his BIRTHDAY Thursday!

Sad, sad times. For instance, Thursday we were at the park and he was running all in and out of the fountains, inching at them with his little index finger fully extended, hoping that pointing would eventually equal contact, simultaneously drawn to and afraid of the spray, freezing his little butt off, and then screaming his head off when I grabbed him to dry off and change clothes. But do you get to see that? No, you have to use your imagination, because my camera is in a box on its way to New Jersey, where they will hopefully tell me it is cheaper to repair than replace. But! before I shipped it off, Tuesday night we took thisat Alex & Laura's election night party, and a few others that are over at Flickr. Finn was excited with the rest of us when the Ohio results came in, but then he went to bed... only to be rudely awakened an hour later by the mad screams, jumping, clapping, and all around hell-breaking-looseness that occurred when CNN called the election at 8.

Also, we still have the video camera (still working on how to export as the proper aspect ratio, though). So here's a little 13-second clip from yesterday showing how matter of fact he is about walking now. Apparently he rarely sits down at school anymore.

More walking from Katie on Vimeo.
He just has so much PERSONALITY these days. I wish you all could come see. "But Katie," you say, "hasn't he always been full of personality?" Well yes. But check out what he's up to lately:

• When he gets bored in his high chair (before he reaches the stage of brushing everything onto the floor), he tries to feed us his dinner. And then giggles when we eat the piece of tomato/grape/macaroni from his grubby little hand. "For Finn," we tell him. "Daddy has his own dinner." "Whatever, eat this," he gestures.
• He walks behind the corner of his dresser, watching us slyly, and waits for us to ask "Where's Finn?" Then he'll peek around and smile, and we say "boo!" or "there he is!" and he goes back and does it again. And again. And again.
• He likes photos, and has favorites. For instance, in the Trick or Treat photo, he'll point repeatedly (and forcefully) at the smiley Finn, but never at the grumpy Finn. In our living room is a picture of me & my brother Allen from Allen's wedding, and he LOVES it. "Look, it's like Mama, but thinner and wearing makeup - pretty!"

Grandma and Grandpa Fortney are coming this weekend, and Finn gets cake - woohoo! We'll take video, and probably some stills with - gasp - Jonathan's old camera that served us perfectly adequately for Finn's first month. Anybody wanna place bets on the ratio of cake that ends up on the floor vs. in his mouth?

A few pleas

1. Finn and the cats, please get on board with daylight savings time. I realize I may have been getting spoiled lately, but the other drivers on my commute would really appreciate it if I got more than 5-6 hours of sleep a night.

2. Please go out and vote today if you haven't already.

• On the off chance that you're both a) persuadable and b) reading this while you still have time to go vote, I urge you to vote for Obama. The Economist and Colin Powell say it more calmly, thoroughly, and persuasively than I could. If you're already an Obama supporter, don't get lazy. Get your butt out there. Lines may be long - take a book or a video game or some knitting or something.
  
• If you live in California, please vote no on Proposition 8. Voting yes writes discrimination into our state constitution. Voting no does absolutely nothing - the law tomorrow will be the same as it was yesterday. It does not tax churches. It does not make schools teach kids about marriage.

3. Send your thoughts, hopes, prayers - whatever you've got - to my little nephew Jacob. He's not having a good week. Please get well soon, buddy. [UPDATE - Allen called me this morning. Jacob started eating during the night and will likely be discharged today. Yay!]

Finn's a dinosaur!

Maybe Yoshi. Maybe Godzilla.He seemed to like the costume, at least this part. The giant dino-feet slippers were a big no since he learned to walk, and the hat is EVIL GET IT OFF. We were going to get some full-outfit pics anyway, but it was pretty grey out this weekend, and my camera is... ill. No flash photos for us for a while. If you don't mind turning your head sideways, here's a movie. I know we have software to rotate it somewhere, but I figured you'd rather watch it this year.

Sideways Finnzilla from Katie on Vimeo.

And here's me and Jonathan as Mario and Luigi on Friday night. Yay babysitters!

We saw 3 other Marios at the party, but no other Luigis. Did you know that when you buy overalls on Amazon (at least in late September), it helpfully tells you that other customers purchasing overalls also bought red newsboy caps, white gloves, and fake mustaches? So we weren't too surprised that there were others.
I showed up at day care in the costume and Finn was absolutely terrified. Then I took off the mustache, and he looked at his teacher, and back at me, and grinned. "That's my mama! Did you know she was here? What a clever ruse." He also consented to wear my hat for nearly five minutes.
HIS hat, not so much, and now he's thinking about declaring war on his hair. It just will not come off, but he hasn't gotten too upset about it yet, and only yanks at it a couple times a day when he re-discovers that it's up there.

More at Flickr.