The Little G

Help me, Obi-Chub Kenobi; you're my only hope.

So what to make of Graham? He's a really jolly fellow. He smiles a lot. He giggles. He likes to watch is brother. He REALLY loves his momma. When he gets really excited (which is often) he flails his arms vigorously. Below he and his momma are watching Finn play in the fountain.

Grammy is getting more interested in moving around and standing up. I think in the next few weeks he'll start scooting around a little bit on his tummy. He's been standing up with couch or parent assistance for a while now too. Here is a little video from last Friday.

Kinda Standing from Jonathan Fortney on Vimeo.

Is it just me, or does something look wrong with this bath water? Aunt Keisha and Uncle Allen gave Finn some Crayola Color Dropz which can color the bathwater a variety of colors. It you put two dropz in, you get a very impressive color. Fortunately, the boys don't come out blue (or orange, or red). Notice Graham's awesome new bath chair.

Videos of standing and making noises

For those of you who wanted more than percentiles, Finn's stats from his last checkup, when he was 9 1/2 months old, are: weight, 21 lbs 11.8 oz; height, 28.5 inches; head circumference, 47 cm. Why that last one's in metric, I have no idea.

Our doctor asked whether Finn was pulling himself up to stand yet, and I said "yeeees, he HAS pulled himself up." He'd first done it nearly a month earlier, but now, as Jonathan mentioned, he does it constantly. He's also good at sitting himself up from a lying down position, and spinning around, and scooting, and standing on his hands and knees, and cruising. Last week he'd been standing, sitting, standing, sitting, standing, over and over again, so I went to get the camera, and got this instead:


Standing and being goofy from Katie on Vimeo.

It's a good example of his "omygod this is the coolest thing ever" face that usually accompanies the Darth Vader breathing that he does about light bulb packaging, pieces of bread, and other extraordinary objects. I've watched it about a hundred times so far. This one, from a few minutes later, actually shows him pulling himself up:

Standing, squeaking, and growling from Katie on Vimeo.

It's also got him shrieking and a bit of him making his weird growly noise. He growls A LOT. We're always expecting him to bust out with "THERE IS NO BABY ONLY ZUUL." Is this normal?

Bonus video - putting the balls in the ball drop toy:

Showing off for Mama from Katie on Vimeo.
I don't really have any new photos - just some cabbage and my cubicle at my internship. Maybe next week?

Back from Bern, See More Chubs

Apparently Finn sleeps better when I'm home. Why that might be is not clear. Maybe I wear him out more, and he enjoys the peace of mind (not piece of mind) of having daddy at home. We're still not at "no wakeups," but a few nights recently his only wakeup was at 3 to 4 a.m. Of course, he woke up for the day at 5:45.

Bern, Switzerland, was . . . pleasant. A nice and pretty town, but not one of the jewels of Europe. It is on a river. It's old town is famously nearly unchanged since the 1300s. Below is the tallest building in town--a church. I went up about 2/3 of the way and got some nice shots.

The best part of the church were the fantastic stained glass windows. The sun came out when I was inside, and I got some great shots. This one below is my favorite.

Finn is pretty much a little maniac now. He can pull himself up on anything, sit back down, and do it again and again. He can move from chair to chair, and move across small gaps. A chubby little Spiderman? His excited noises range from loud squeals to loud Darth Vader breathing. He's trying to give up the army crawl for real crawling now, too. Also, his 5th tooth is coming in, so drooling is at its highest levels in 6 months. Katie brought him to his 9 month checkup recently. 48% height, 62% weight, 84% head circumference. Big noggin!

We're back!

Finn starts his first week of four-days-a-week daycare this week, instead of two. He doesn't know yet, and I'm curious to see how much he notices the change. I just started my new semester, had a one-hour online class session tonight, have my internship all day tomorrow, and have a four-hour in-person session once a month. It's going to be an interesting fall, and Jonathan leaves for Switzerland Saturday morning. Whee!

Hey, anybody have Labor Day plans? 'Cause Finn and I don't.

Here's my new favorite picture of Finn, who decided the other day that the spray bottle I use for cat discipline and pie-crust-making is the awesomest thing ever. He thought it was hilarious when Jonathan squirted him in the tummy and hair. He also seems to think it's delicious. He drinks out of his sippy cup much better if there's a little juice in the water, but apparently high velocity also improves the water's flavor.
He's gotten much faster at scooting than he was pre-vacation, so we're finally doing that whole baby-proofing thing, starting with Finn's room. Yes, it took us this long. We needed the storage space, I guess.

He's also getting reasonably good at cruising, and I wouldn't be shocked if he was walking by 10 months. I also wouldn't be shocked if he wasn't. He's getting more adept at pushing himself up on short objects, like suitcases. Tonight he tried to use his high chair, but we didn't have the brakes on at first. Ooops. He likes to lean against the glass sliding door in his room, too - and lick it while he stands there. Good times.

Favorite new toy: the music/motor piece of his mobile, which hasn't been on the crib in months. It looks more or less like a hockey puck with a little knob and small plastic hook, and when I wind it up to the play the Winnie the Pooh song, he holds on to it with both hands like it's a little treasure, and shakes it and smiles at the music.

Favorite new habit: when he's nursing, especially if he's tired, he's taken to either stroking his luxurious locks or pulling on his ear. This is both cuter and less painful than the old practice of digging his tiny little thumbnail into the space between wrist tendons and wiggling it, so I'm a fan.

More pictures at Flickr, and Jonathan should have some up sometime this week, too.

We have forward motion!

I wouldn't call it crawling, more like scooting. But it works. When he remembers he can do it. Footage:

Scooting from Katie on Vimeo.

At first he mostly just seemed to think of it as an extra stretch, and was just as likely to give up as he was to scoot. But apparently this morning he crossed six feet of rug to go for Jonathan's shoes, so there you go. The house will never be the same again. First order of business after we get back from vacation is child-proofing, or else we're going to be wrestling a lot of dusty old Nintendo controllers out of his hands.

I was going to get this up on Thursday, when it happened, but I think our craziness level is slightly higher than usual right now. We leave for 10 days in Minnesota and Iowa on Friday (here we come, family, friends, and Iowa State Fair!). Friends are moving out of town. Out-of-town friends are visiting. Finals have arrived for the summer class that I'm taking. And I'm worried about Murray.

You may already have heard or gathered that although Finn loves the cats, it's not exactly mutual. Recently I've had to start facing the fact that although Murray's been part of our family for four years, he really hasn't been very happy since we brought Finn home, and that he might actually be better off without us. We've tried extra affection, drugs, sprays, diffusers... everything we can think of. If you know of any childless homes that might need a really loving, snuggly kitty, let me know, and we'll talk. When Jonathan took him to the vet recently, he jumped right up on the table in the exam room to meet her and give her a sniff, and she said that had never happened in all her years of practicing; he's a special guy. [okay, stopping the crying now].

In happier news, Finn continues to excel at standing up, loves his new xylophone, babbles more (and more strangely) all the time, and ate Cheerios yesterday for the first time. Eating Cheerios is really hard work if the look on his face was any indication. He wouldn't put any in his own mouth, but kept opening up for Jonathan to give him another. It was very "I have people for that."

I'm overdue for updating Flickr, and will try to get it done before we leave town. Did I mention the crazy?

Standing and smashing and reading and sleeping

Hey, look at Finn!
Tuesday (and part of today) the only way he was happy was standing, so the only way I could get anything done was to get out his play pen and prop him up. Then he stood while I did dishes, until he fell over, and then he'd play for a while, until he got bored, and then I'd have to stand him up again.

Speaking of playing, for the most part Finn interacts with his toys one way: smashing! Smashing them into the floor, his lap, or his favorite, another toy. It's best if this makes a good noise, like smashing a maraca into a tambourine, or a rattle into ... something hard. Like my head.

There's also chewing, but mostly it's all smash around here these days. A few things escape the smash. First there's a balloon Jonathan bought him a few days ago ("he promised me he'd be really good all week if I bought it for him") - too floaty. But he did do the smashing motion with the balloon string, and there's a two-minute video of that and him demonstrating how he doesn't know how to crawl yet at Vimeo if you want to watch it.

The other non-smasher (usually) is his books. He LOVES fun textures, like the thick corduroy of our couch or the fuzzy throw pillow that's on it, so he loves his That's Not My Monster book (thanks Jessica, Daren, and Caitlin!). He'll paw studiously at its pages ("Its paws are too bumpy" "Its eyebrows are too hairy") for surprisingly long stretches of time. So of course we bought him That's Not My Dragon, but so far have resisted the temptation to get That's Not My Robot, That's Not My Monkey, or any of the other Touchy Feely titles. Now he feels the pages of all his books, and seems mildly confused and disappointed when they're just flat.

You may have already noticed, but the crib cam linked over on the right is now the living room rug cam. Finn's usually there at least a little while every morning and evening, and doing more interesting things than sleeping. If we forget to turn it off, you may see Murray or Mona wander by. Did I mention they both may have urinary tract infections? Yeah, so that's fun.

Oooh, and our other exciting news: we managed to go to the Beyer/Mastrapas' last night for dinner and a gathering of out-of-town friends and put Finn to bed in his play pen. This was a first for us (the previous attempt was a giant FAIL), and may open up all sorts of exciting possibilities. Not that I mind staying home for dinner usually - I'm actually kind of a decent cook these days. You should stop by sometime. :)

Growing up

Our friends Ross and Rachel have two kids, Helen (age 3 1/2 years) and Arthur (age 3 1/2 months). We stopped by on Saturday to drop off a few baby things that they had loaned us. Arthur is a large boy and nearly as big as Finn! Arthur enjoyed the exersaucer that Finn had been using for several months--which is rightfully Arthur's. Finn kept playing with his favorite toy, the spinning clear plastic globe. (He enjoys all clear plastic things with smaller plastic things inside that roll around or rattle.) Unfortunately he got a bit too into it and smacked his two new top teeth. But on the way back down from daddy he saw his friend Arthur and said hi one of the only ways he knows how.


Making Friends from Jonathan Fortney on Vimeo.

Lately Finn has been most happy when he's standing up. Especially today. The only problem is that he CAN'T stand up, at least not by himself. He has terrible balance, but he can hold himself up on the couch or the pack 'n' play. But he still can't pull himself up on anything, and I think crawling is still a few weeks away. He's just now starting to get up on all fours, rather than just doing baby push-ups. Loyal reader, in the picture below he's subtlety leaning against the mattress to give you the impression that he can stand. But we know better.

Wow does he have a big head!

Mama's home... and Happy 4th of July!

I made it to and from Anaheim safe and sound. It was a great trip - I met some neat people, saw some interesting talks, got some free books, and had a wonderful time with Nina, my Mom, and Teri (yay Disneyland!). By Monday I was really looking forward to going home, though, and on Tuesday I ended up flying standby and getting a much earlier flight so I could be home before Finn's bedtime.

Here's my mom at the conference trying out the Wii Fit, getting hit on the head with a soccer cleat. Good times. Yes, this was part of the conference.

Mom on the Wii Fit from Katie on Vimeo.
And here's Finn's reaction to seeing me at the airport. He may have thought I was never coming back.

Reunion from Katie on Vimeo.

Finn got a crazy cold while I was gone, and has basically been a big snot ball for days. I don't know how we'd survive without our Nosefrida, or how that much snot comes out of that little nose. Eeew. He even finally got so sick it affected his moods; Christine and Dereck were visiting from New Jersey the other day and got to meet Finn for the first time, and I don't know if they believe that he smiles. But we turned a corner yesterday, and despite the snot and the new teeth and the weather, he's our little grinner again.

Oh! And yesterday while sitting in a little wagon at Jason & Gwen's 4th of July barbeque, he pulled himself up to standing, and then sat back down. I missed it, but Jonathan was there. Soon he'll be running all over, I'm sure, but in the meantime he can still only crawl in his head.
Also, he LOVES plums - thanks Jason & Gwen!

Happy 4th from Finn! More at my and Jonathan's Flickr sites.

Finny and the Cats. (Finnay! Finnay!)

Finn is very interested in the cats. I think that he likes that they're low to the ground, like him. He tries to pet them when he gets the chance, but he has very little coordination, so he often ends up smacking them on the head or back. Sometimes he is gentler, and rubs their fur, but then he clenches his first and get a big fur handful. Surprisingly, Mona has been more patient with him than Murray. She is pretty smart, and knows that she can't treat him like an annoying adult, who might get swiped at. Probably Murray feels a bit replaced by Finn. And he wouldn't be wrong, I suppose. Finn mostly only "pets" Mona, because Murray scurries off too quickly. Which makes this pic odd and funny:


Murray just walked up and laid down next to Finn. He even got kicked by Finn's little legs, but he wasn't going anywhere. I guess he wanted to feel included. Then Mona came by to say hi. It was like a little party!

Finn is getting better at maybe almost crawling, and he's pretty good at standing when he can hold on to the couch or a table. I liked this movie because it shows him trying to stand and trying to grab at Mona; Mona gives Katie and the camera good looks. She tries to get away from him without actually giving up her spot. He usually does a better job standing, but he was getting too excited. :)

Back from Massachusetts!

There's going to be some overlap with Jonathan here, because I see he just posted as I was writing, but I'll put in more pictures. :D

Boston, Part 2

Because I can't have a post called "Boston part 1" and then never have a part 2. It'd be weird. Friday we went to the zoo. Finn liked it pretty well (particularly the gorillas, the leopard, and THE FISH), but not as much as the aquarium. The animals were farther away and often not moving, so he didn't really notice them. He did get very excited about the enclosure railings, though. Whee.

Saturday we left Boston to go spend Memorial Day weekend with Ben and Martha. They have a labradoodle, Barcelona, and Finn wasn't quite sure to make of her - definitely interesting, but bigger than the cats and a much faster mover. He seemed to enjoy getting his hands licked, but not so much on the face. Saturday night I caught an awful cold - a send-Jonathan-to-the-drugstore-at-2am-for-cough-drops-and-Nyquil cold. Suddenly all the fun stuff we had planned for Sunday seemed (like "leaving the house" and "walking around") seemed way too ambitious, so everybody else went for a picnic while I napped. The worst of it was over within 24 hours and it was nice to just hang out with them and catch up for a while.

Monday we headed back to Boston and spent another night with Anne and Troy, who grilled us another lovely dinner. We were all set to leave for the airport the next morning (almost half an hour ahead of schedule!) when I picked Finn up and noticed that there was Poop Everywhere. Ugh. That was the third blowout of the trip, I think, and definitely the worst. We just took him to Anne & Troy's tub and hosed him down. He thought it was all great fun. We caught our plane with some time to spare, and Anne and Troy can probably enter their bathroom without a hazmat suit by now (thanks guys!).

Lots of people have asked how Finn is at traveling; it's a mixed bag.

• Finn has the opposite of stranger anxiety. He gets bored of being in the same place with the same people for too long, but if someone at the next table, or in the next row of the plane, starts making faces at him, he'll sometimes snap out of a bad mood. He loves making new friends. He had a pretty good time at the airport.
• Six hours is a LONG flight. Finn did pretty well. We entertainted him as best we could (yay free magazines for ripping!). I nursed him a lot and was very careful to keep him sleeping once he got that way. Jonathan kept him for most of the time he was awake, and did all the diaper changes (with no changing table. yikes.).
• Hotel cribs are not cool. Finn needs his own room. More sleep would have been better. On the bright side, we did keep him more or less on Pacific time, so we were able to go out to dinner and sleep in some.
• Hotel rooms get very boring very fast. But walks are always good.

So that's our trip. Many many photos on Flickr, plus ones from yesterday's trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium with Bridget, Keith, Tanya, Kiley, Sasha, and Tanya's parents.

Sleeping

Finn goes to bed these days around 6:30 and sleeps until 6 or 7 (or 8 on Saturday, or 4:30 Sunday - we're still working out the kinks). He's been getting up about 3 times, usually once before we go to bed and twice after. It's not ideal, but it's pretty workable, especially the long stretch at the beginning of the evening. We have nice, baby-scream-free dinners now, and Saturday night Gwen came over for dinner & the first stretch of sleep and Jonathan and I went to a movie. Like real people. This makes Gwen just about the awesomest person ever.

Getting older

The teeth are bigger. The sleep is better. The sitting and rolling skills continue to improve. He's a VERY strong lurcher. And he's getting more self-entertaining. I can definitely get more dishes washed/laundry folded/showers taken than I used to, which is nice. He's "talking" more, although instead of the "ba" or "da" type of sounds that books and websites claim are typical, his two favorite words seem to be "bvvvvvv" and "ghkehhhhhhhi." Jonathan's been standing him at the coffee table, which is pretty cool to see. He LOVES eating, not that that's new, but the cereal and bananas both are, and both have been a big hit. He only had half as much milk as usual at day care last Wednesday, and Ms. Lourdes said she fed him a whole bowl of rice cereal and he wanted MORE, and was not really interested in his bottle. This week we're trying avocados and sweet potatoes. His hair is getting thicker and darker.

Also? Cuter every day. I think that's mostly it for now.

Back to our regularly scheduled life

The photo above is from Poet's Seat, in Greenfield, MA. (Hi Ben and Martha!) Well, we're back and getting adjusted to life again. To those who may have been wondering, Finn got over "the crud" several days before we left for Boston, and he was fine while we were there. Katie got a cold when we got back to California, and it seems like Finn may have that now...but he's certainly better than he was in say, April.

Finn is getting better at sitting and standing. Sitting up is no problem, and he can even steady himself sometimes when he starts to fall. In the past couple of days I've been letting him stand up next to the coffee table, and he can hold himself up and even grab at stuff on the table. Any movement left or right and he loses it, though. We took a little movie which we'll post very soon.

Yesterday we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium with some of Katie's NYU Law School friends. As expected, Finn loved it. His favorites were the silvery anchovies and the pink and orange jellyfish. He tries to grab them and even bonks his head on the glass.

Hey, it's June?! Yikes.

Giggly multimedia blitz

In case we hadn't made this clear yet, Finn is HUGE! I think "what a big baby" is the comment we get most these days. Comments from Finn himself are mostly limited to squeaks and "gaaahhhh." He is "talking" more and more, and sometimes looks like he's trying intently to get something really important across, so we do our best to listen.
We just got back from Easter down in Salinas with the Reeves-Fortney clan, and I'll try to get some of those pictures up this week, but I thought I'd throw down some videos I've been sitting on before I headed for bed. First up is a record I made for Jonathan while he was out of town of how Finn is now much more interested in sticking things in his mouth than he is in standing. He's still not great at managing the coordination to stick things (like toys) in his mouth, but he is excellent at putting his mouth on things. Heads are easier to steer than hands, I guess.

Second, an extended and more recent giggling/tickling video. Sorry I couldn't get my big head out of the light more. His giggle sounds completely unlike any other noise he makes. Isn't it awesome?

Also from the category of "been meaning to put these on the internets," the St. Patrick's Day photo posted last Monday was one of a couple dozen we took last Sunday, and some of my other favorites from that morning in the park are now up on Flickr.
Happy Easter, everybody! Hope yours was as nice as ours. Did anybody else get rhubarb custard pie?