Queen Vicki's Weekend

Our May long weekend was a busy one.  James and his dad cleared out our office so that James could pull up the carpet and put down the laminate flooring in that room.  This will also become part playroom for Finn. By Saturday night the flooring was finished (I think, how terrible is it that I already can't remember specifics?!).  On Sunday we decided to paint the office/playroom 'Frail Violet' (what my neighbour calls a moody purple) and by Monday night we had a brand new room - our very own version of Trading Spaces.

In the meantime, Finn was busy tasting his first food....

   avocado!  (which he took like a champ and seems to really enjoy)

Getting his first tight spiral curl in the ridiculous heat......

....and having his first swim (or sit) in his baby pool....

He wasn't entirely sure what to think of the baby pool.  Poor little guy.  I bought the pool earlier in the week and got it into my head that I was going to set it up and get him into it and he was going to have fun - whether he liked it or not! ;)  Since I've been on maternity leave I've been finding that once I get an idea into my head I almost obsess over it until I've seen it through to completion (is this because I feel a bit like my brain is going to mush???).  Whether it's researching car seats online or setting up a baby pool, I feel compelled to do whatever it is until it's DONE!  Even when it's not entirely logical....you know, since Finn can't actually sit on his own at this point it's kind of difficult for him to enjoy a baby pool (hence the Bumbo chair).  We tried letting him lay down in the water (since it was nice and shallow) but that just ended in tears.  By the time we're up at the cottage it will be perfect.  In the meantime, I will try to resist setting it up for him even though he is starting to sit independently for a few seconds at a time. :)

Mr. Crankpot

Last week was a looooong week.  This picture pretty much sums it up:

           (even if it was taken when he was less than 3 weeks old!)

Finn was cranky the entire week.  Every-breath-ending-in-a-whine kind of cranky.  Let's-get-out-of-the-house-or-I-might-just-go-crazy kind of cranky.  The good news is...the storm cloud has lifted and our baby boy is back to his regular cheery self.  Well, for the most part.  Finn has now decided that he doesn't really like to fall asleep.  As in he flails and cries and screams at us while we're trying to put him to sleep.  We're not entirely sure why this has suddenly happened - is it teething?  Is it because he is learning so much and is so much more aware that he doesn't want to miss out on anything?  Is it because he doesn't think he's tired and doesn't want to go to sleep?  Who knows.  We're not really big fans of this phase but it IS getting better.  The last two nights he's gone to sleep without screaming at us....HOORAY!  Although last night we did have a middle of the night cry-fest, here's hoping that tonight we make it through without any kind of crying - fingers crossed!!!

Mother's Day

With all of the busy-ness with Finn's surgery and the craziness of the weeks since, I haven't had a chance to post about my first real (not just pregnant, not dog related) Mother's Day.  As I started to think about Mother's Day, I was reminded of last year....

Last year I remember being sick and spending most of the day in bed watching movies.  I can't remember if it was 'morning' sickness (which lasted all day and throughout my entire pregnancy) or if I was also sick with a cold as well.  The smart people at the W Network decided to play 'Stepmom'.  A movie I had never seen and, OH. MY.  If you are a woman and have seen the movie then you have probably cried.  Now imagine being newly pregnant full of crazy hormones while watching it.  Poor James found me sobbing in bed.  I'm not sure that he really knew what to do.  He came in to give me a hug and I remember saying, "It's (sniff sniff sob) just (sob sob) so (sob sob sob) saaaaad (sob sob sob)!".  And it wasn't just the movie making me cry, it was that darn Hallmark commercial where the daughter records a message for her mom.  The mom opens the card and I believe it says, "You rock!".  Tears, tears and more tears.  Oh so ridiculous!  At least I was able to laugh at my sobbing self.

This year was a little different.  Okay, a lot different!  James took Oscar and Finn out for a walk before I even knew that Finn was awake....sleeping in is such a simple (but oh so sweet) little pleasure!  Finnybean woke me up with a beautiful card and a smile to melt your heart.  It was the smile he gives me when he hasn't seen me for awhile - if I've been out for a couple of hours or he's been hanging out with James.  It's the I'm-so-happy-to-see-you smile.  The Oh-there-you-are-I-missed-you smile.  The smile that is really gift enough!  Our Finn is so talented he recorded his voice on the card - something that is apparently pure coincidence since James does not remember the commercial that made me cry a year ago.  It will be such a treasure as he grows up and loses his baby voice.  We had my favourite breakfast - waffles and blueberry sauce - and he napped long enough for us to get ready to go to the Henderson's for lunch. Oh yes, and Finn looked very dashing in his little lumberjack outfit. For this reason (and this reason only) I'm glad the weather was cold and yucky that day....otherwise, I'm not sure when we would have seen him in his very mature-looking plaid shirt!

"And for my next trick...."

Finn decided that he would start rolling over from his back to his front yesterday. And here I was, trying to keep the day uneventful and make sure he wasn't doing anything too tiring....HA!



So as you can see, Finn is doing just fine after his surgery - hooray!

A New Bum

Yesterday Finn had his surgery....and what a superstar he was!  After all of the stress about the likelihood of him being hungry (since he couldn't eat after 530 a.m. and the surgery wasn't until 1130 a.m.) he hardly even whined the entire morning.  Thank goodness for Daddy James who held and entertained Finn the entire time we were waiting for Finn to be taken down to the OR.  My job was to stay out of Finn's line of vision and not talk so that he didn't know that food was nearby.  My one regret of the entire day is that we didn't bring our camera to the hospital.  There were some incredibly cute moments as James was holding Finn and showing him the very cool animal stickers on the walls....and when Finn was wearing his little hospital gown (absolutely adorable!).

The surgery was much shorter than we thought and before we knew it we were in recovery with our little man.  The Children's Hospital has truly done an incredible job at making a potentially scary place as kid-friendly as possible.  From a plethora of toys in the waiting room (including 2 Wii's, and XBox 360, a big train set and everything from baby toys to teen games) to kid-friendly pictures painted above the beds in recovery and designs painted on the ceiling tiles to the availability of movies to watch while waiting to be discharged.....of course Finn is too young to appreciate all of these efforts but James and I thought it was all pretty incredible (and hopefully Finn doesn't ever have the opportunity to appreciate these efforts!).

The longest part of our day was waiting to talk to the surgeon.  She said that the infection was very superficial and she got all of the puss out - WOO HOO!  And the likelihood of the infection coming back is teeny-tiny.  We will go back to see Dr. Scott in a month but she thinks everything will be just fine.


In our neighbour Becky's family, they were given a bravery gift if they ever had to go through surgery or stay in the hospital.  James and I thought that Finn has been very brave through all of this abscess business so we bought him 'Splish' for all of his efforts.



Here is our little man all passed out after we got home.....socks on hands and Baby Legs on arms since our furnace isn't working properly and it's been a little chilly in our house.  :(

And a couple of little war wounds - bruises on each hand from IV lines....check out the chub on his wrists!

Oh yes, and for the record Finn weighed in at 18 lbs yesterday.  I'm thinking that Aunt Debbie, Uncle Jonathan, Big Cousin Mia and Big Cousin Charlotte had better start lifting weights if they're going to hold him when we visit this summer!

Finn is In!

On Wednesday night I was scouring our house attempting to find some pamphlets that were given to us at our appointment with Dr. Leslie Scott, Finn's pediatric surgeon.  I just felt like we were going to need them soon and they were no where to be found.  It is very unlike me to lose important information like this so I was feeling a little frustrated and anxious about it all.

Yesterday I called the pediatric surgeon's office as I hadn't heard from them about a date for Finn's fistulotomy.  We had been told it would be about a month before he got in for surgery and it has been over a month at this point.  The admin assistant seemed a little annoyed that I had called.  She told me that there is limited OR time and even the extra OR time that they have booked has been going to emergencies and kids with cancer.  Wow.  This certainly put things in perspective.  While our baby boy has an annoying abscess that fills with puss every few days and then drains again, and which may or may not cause him pain (it did at the beginning but he seems to be used to it now), he most certainly does not have a life threatening illness.  Please pray for the families who need the OR time more urgently than we do.

This afternoon as I was changing Finn's diaper I heard my cell phone ringing.  After we were finished I went to see who had called.  It was Dr. Leslie Scott's office calling to say that they could fit Finn in on Tuesday if we were available.  YES, we're available!  While I am still not happy about the fact that Finn has to have surgery and go under general anesthetic, I will be incredibly happy when our abscess-fistula journey is over.  Please keep Finn in your thoughts and prayers as he has his surgery on Tuesday.

So yes, we did end up needing those pamphlets this week.  The good news is - everything we needed to know the admin assistant told us over the phone.  Phew!

Growth Update

On Tuesday, Finn weighed in at 16 lbs 13.5 oz and was 27.25 inches long.  Seeing as how he ate almost every hour on the hour on Wednesday I'm guessing that he is already over 17 lbs.  Grow Finny grow!

Five Months of Fun

Finn had his 5 month birthday yesterday.  Every month I try to get pictures of him on his birthday.  And pretty well every month it does not go well.  If I were to attempt to take pictures on any other day I think it would turn out well, but not on his 'birthday'.  Yesterday when Finn woke up he was in a great mood - chatty, giggly - so I quickly got him changed into some clothes and thought we would head outside since it was a beautiful sunny morning.  Mistake #1 - it WAS a beautiful sunny morning....perhaps a bit TOO sunny for Finn's liking...as you can see here

Then I decided that we would move things inside and well...you can see how well that went

                                   (Really Mom?  Aren't we done yet?!)

James may have captured the best pictures of the day after our Finnybean finally fell asleep

                (brings back memories of when he was a newborn)

...and of course the crazy curl.  Sigh.  I love his crazy curls....but I'm thinking we will have some interesting mornings on our hands attempting to tame those curls as he gets older!  Happy 5 month birthday Finnybean!  Maybe next month we'll have a happier photo shoot.

Birthday Party Fun

My niece, Emily, turns 13 this week so on Sunday we had her birthday party.  It's hard to believe that I have a niece AND a nephew who are both teenagers already....maybe it's because I was still a teenager when they were born??!  It's always fun to have everyone at our house for a big meal (and a big bowl of marshmallow salad for Emily and my dad) and some fun.  So while Oma and Finn played patta-cake

                                   and read 'Good Night Vancouver'

                                 everyone else was busy playing cards

I think everyone is looking forward to July when we will all be together with Aunt Debbie, Uncle Jonathan, big cousin Charlotte and big cousin Mia in Vancouver - we really miss having them here in Ontario!

Fire's Burning, Fire's Burning...

Finn attended his first ever campfire on Saturday night. James was all set to finish putting down laminate flooring on our stairs (see A Little Dash of Cuteness, the mess behind the cuteness). While he gave the risers one last coat of paint I took the Doodle and Finn for a walk.....and decided that it was the perfect night for a fire. So James put his aspirations aside and off to the fire pit we went Wow, that sounds so much easier than it was.  I was ready to go (changed, drinks packed, sweatshirt located and ready for transport, stroller in the garage ready and waiting) when Finn decided he was hungry.  I'm feeding Finn and Oscar is running around whining because he's so excited and doesn't want to be left out of the fire fun.  Finn is finished eating and we're ready to go again - I open the door to the garage so I can put Finn in the stroller and Oscar runs out in front of us (and the big garage door is open to the neighbourhood - doh!), unable to contain his excitement....I call him back and he runs out again...4 times.  I yell out to James that I'm sending Oscar out.  After Oscar had bounded across the backyard I realized I had not put a collar on him so there was nothing to attach his lead to...poor James brought Oscar back and found a collar.  I loaded up Finn and we were finally off...phew!

So it was our first fire of the season and Finn's first ever. Little does Finn know that this is one of our favourite things to do in the spring/summer/fall. It was so impromptu that Becky (one of our neighbours) and I didn't even have all of the fixin's for Smores (which is almost unheard of since Becky and I are the best Smores makers ever!). We both had not-so-fresh marshmallows and I had graham crackers. Neither of us had chocolate so we improvised with chocolate chips - and really, you can never go wrong with Smores, it doesn't matter if you're using semi-sweet chocolate chips or the richest chocolate money can buy. Smores are always yummy! Unfortunately for Finn he will have to wait until next year's campfire season to indulge in Smores.

I can't wait until you.....no, wait!

James and I are finding it so exciting to watch Finn grow and develop and learn new things. I swear my heart feels like it's going to burst every time he learns something new. And sometimes they're really silly things - like the first time he ever pulled the handle on the frog toy on his bouncy chair I was pretty close to tears....and then I thought I was going crazy! Sometimes I start to wish that Finn will soon be able to do things like sit up or roll over (consistently, that is...he has definitely rolled over a bunch of times but it comes and goes) but then at the same time every time he learns something new it reminds me that he's growing up. James gets a little sad when he sees Finn in his Jolly Jumper. It makes him think that Finn is already standing and walking around. While we are far from standing and walking days, we both know that our days with our 'Little Bit' are numbered so we're trying to treasure every minute!

Try, try again....

Aren't Feet the Greatest?

Someone has discovered feet.  Finn first noticed his feet back in March but didn't really seem to care that feet existed.....that is, until this week.  Now it's all about grabbing legs and feet all the time!