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?