Happy Daddy Day!

Yes, this is a little late, but oh well!  It was James' first official Father's Day this year (other than to a dog or baby-not-yet-born) so we showered him with traditional Father's Day type gifts - these very fun Fire Wire BBQ Skewers and a much needed new electric razor.  James ordered up some blueberry muffins for breakfast so I made said muffins and instead of streusel topping I used apple crisp topping - a worthy (and TASTY) change I assure  you!


Finn and I also made him a cake and sang Happy Daddy Day - something I am sure will become tradition in this family due to James' sweet tooth!

Just because....

....he's so darn cute!

First...Swing at the Park

Yesterday Finn had a massive nap that lasted until after 7 p.m.  I was seriously considering waking him up but kept hearing, "Never wake a sleeping baby!" in my head.  So I let him sleep....but then we needed something fun to do so we went to the park so that he could swing.  We started in the very luxurious swing...

                                             (which James tried too)

....and then headed over to the other baby swing....and were pleasantly surprised to find that it wasn't nearly as dangerous as it looked from afar.  For quite some time we've been thinking that Finn would be too small for these swings.  I thought he would fall right through the holes and James thought Finn would tip over backwards.  Both wrong.  It was perfect.

And just in case you didn't know, it's very important to hang on tight!

                               (and have some fun with your dad)

Who can resist....

....the baby bum in the air?

This was the first time we'd ever found Finn sleeping on his tummy.  And since it had taken some considerable effort to get him to sleep that night we decided we would leave him like that...he was on his back when he called for his 3 a.m. feeding....phew!

A Place to Play

As you know, over the May long weekend we (mostly James!) re-did the office flooring and added in a paint job just for fun.  We haven't moved everything back into the office yet, but we were quickly able to move most of Finn's paraphernalia into his new play space.  You know the types of things - exersaucer, jolly jumper, play mat and all of the other fun things that babies come with.  I think it's safe to say that Finn approves of his new playroom....'Frail Violet' and all.

And he's enjoying the new set-up for batting at things.

His play mat was getting a little small for him.  Once he would roll onto his tummy he would get all tangled up in the arms that held up the toys and it was just plain frustrating for everyone.  This way he can still bat at things and put them in his mouth but when he rolls he has a little more space.  We've even got his music worked into the new set-up (white triangle thing with blue straps on the blue mat) so it feels just like home. :)

Six Month Milestone

On Finn's six month birthday we decided it was time to measure him on the door.

Being a whole half a year old is pretty monumental so we figured it was time...especially since the little guy likes to try and stand these days.  Apparently our measurement was pretty accurate since the public health nurse said he's about 27.75 inches this week!

And just for the record...I'm pretty sure I could be a public health nurse at the well-baby clinics.  The idea is that you can come with all of your questions and the nurse will answer said questions as well as weigh and measure your baby.  My experience has been that the nurse simply agrees with whatever I think the answer might be.  So if I say, "We're having trouble breastfeeding.  He starts crying and pulling off and arching his back.  I think maybe he's angry because the flow is too strong."  She would agree.  If I then said, "Or maybe my milk supply is low."  She would say, "Oh, yeah, that could be...."  Then I might say, "Or maybe he's not really hungry and I'm trying to feed him."  She would say, "That's a very good possibility, it's so hard to know."  Really?!  I think I could say, "I think the sky is blue because my baby's eyes are blue", and she would agree with me.  Soooooooo not helpful!  I gave her one more chance this week.  I had lots of questions about poo.  No good answers or ideas coming from the nurse.  They are officially on weigh and measure duty only.  No more questions!

Busy Bees!

I've been thinking about how I haven't posted much lately.  And then yesterday Finn and I had the day to ourselves.  The ENTIRE day.  I started thinking how absolutely wonderful it felt...and how it felt like I couldn't remember the last time we had a whole day with nothing scheduled.  I looked at our calendar and this is what I saw:

You will notice that so far in June there is writing on every single day [except last Sunday when James worked on the flooring with the help of his wonderful father and I worked on the garden with the help of his wonderful mother who watched Finn for us!] until yesterday.  Who scheduled THAT?!  I'm thinking we'll be a little more cautious in our scheduling from now on because the last few weeks have been pure craziness!  It's not that I want to stay home all day, every day.  Certainly not.  I just like having days where nothing is scheduled and we're free to do our own thing if we want to.  It was getting to the point that I wasn't looking forward to certain things - like meeting up with other moms and babes for a walk started to feel like a chore when that is usually one of my favourite things!  So from now on - a little less scheduling, a little more relaxing and a whole lot of enjoying this precious time with the Finnopotamus.

Nail in the Eye!

After spending the weekend in Leamington (Finn and I managed to sleep through the tornado), I decided it was time to cut Finn's nails.  He and James were snuggled up on our bed so it seemed like good timing....baby entertained, another adult to help hold the flailing hands....clip, clip, clip, clip - CRRRRRRYYYYYY!  I thought I must have cut his finger but when I looked, his finger was fine.  Hmmmm....as I continued cutting the remaining nails (and Finn continued crying) we noticed that Finn wouldn't open his eyes.  And his left eye had tears coming out of his little closed lid. :(  When he finally did open his eye - there it was.  A stray nail clipping.  Oh the panic!  What can you do???!  You can't exactly stick your finger in his eye to get it out...   As he blinked it started to move to the corner of his eye and I was convinced it was going to somehow go behind his eye or somewhere where we couldn't see it.  Deciding that flushing his eye was his best option, James held Finn over the sink while I poured water in his eye.  After the flushing it appeared as though the nail clipping was gone.  Of course, I was still freaked out and thought it had somehow migrated behind an eyelid or something so I did what any other freaked out Ontarian mother would do and called Telehealth.  The nurse was incredibly kind and calm - 'It's just one of those crazy things.  You can't exactly avoid cutting his nails can you?'.  She, of course, suggested that we go to the hospital to get his eye checked out, because that's what the computer suggests when something 'sharp' goes in your kid's eye.  James promptly asked me what they were going to do at the hospital - 'Look at his eyes with special baby eye instruments?'.  Hmmmm....point taken.  So we stayed home - even though it was incredibly hard to resist the urge to rush him down to the hospital.  An hour later the incredible urge had past and I just looked at James and said, 'That was really scary.'  James replied with a very wise, 'He's probably going to have a few things like that in his life.'  Oh dear.  How very, very true.

Our Little Connoisseur

Last night we tried to get Finn to sleep for about an hour and a half.  He had been fed and changed, cuddled in our bed, left to try to sleep in his own crib, rocked and walked and sung to, given Advil (in case his teeth were bugging him), changed again, all with a precious soother in his mouth.....finally he spit out his soother.  It landed on the floor so I reached for the clean one on his change table.  The instant the 'new' (clean) soother was in his mouth his eyes closed and he was asleep.  Apparently the Mam brand soother that we have doesn't cut it.  He is an Avent man through and through.  An hour and a half all for a stinking soother.  Sigh.  It was just so ridiculous I had to laugh.