Hives

Yes, hives.  Yuck.

On Monday morning Finn woke up from a nap with what I thought was a bug bite on his temple.  No biggie.  The kid had bug bites at the Lake and was fine, they usually disappeared within a couple of hours.  This one stuck around all morning.  And then when he woke up from his nap.....BAM!

All of the sudden they were everywhere!  I hurried down to the office and Google'd 'hives' and found pictures that looked exactly like Finn's skin.  Of course, I called the doctor's office but by 2:30 in the afternoon they didn't have any appointments left.  The nurse recommended that we come into the walk-in that night but magically the hives suddenly started to disappear (which prompted much picture taking on my part, just in case we ended up at the doctor's office with a hive-less kid).  We decided not to go to the walk-in since Finn was suddenly hive-less, only to have them re-appear around the time the walk-in opened.  Since he was a little cranky (apparently cutting two teeth and having hives will do that to a kid) we decided not to wait the long wait at the walk-in and get him some Benadryl instead.

So what caused the hives?  Your guess is as good as mine.  At this point we have it narrowed down to about 4 things.

1)  I had fed him yogurt for the first time on Sunday afternoon.  I hadn't really worried about it because he'd already had cheese and Baby Mum-Mum's have skim milk powder in them so I was pretty sure we were safe with dairy.

2)  Then on Monday morning I gave him a new cereal recipe.  I'd been searching for something inspiring to feed our picky eater on Sunday night and came up with this oh-so-simple Banana Mash recipe - 1/2 banana, 3 Tbsp oatmeal cereal, 1 tsp molasses, 2 Tbsp water.  Sounds yummy, right?  Finn would beg to differ.  He did ingest a couple of bites and molasses was something he hadn't ever had, but again, didn't really worry about it....because what are the odds that something wonky will happen with stinkin' molasses?!

3)  When I was talking to the pharmacist on Monday night, she asked if he had been on any new medications recently.  Why yes, he had - amoxicillan.  Her opinion was that the hives were most likely a delayed reaction to the antibiotics.  So even though he had finished the antibiotics on Saturday, it was still quite probable that he was reacting to them.  Our family doctor disagreed with this theory when we saw her on Tuesday (after the hives magically reappeared Tuesday morning) but agreed that we would be careful if we ever had to give him amoxicillan again.

4)  A friend of Finn's came down with a respiratory infection and had hives.  He was mouthing all of her toys just a couple of days before she had hives.  Therefore, I wouldn't be entirely surprised if he picked up her germs and got himself infected.  I've since had others tell me that their own kids have had hives with different viruses.

So who knows???  It's anybody's guess as to why the poor little man had them.  We will definitely be more careful as we continue to introduce new foods but hopefully that's the last we'll ever see of them!

Sick, sick and more sick!

At 2:13 a.m. last Monday morning I heard Finn sneeze.  And I knew.  I knew that he was sick.  It wasn't his regular little sneeze.  Sure enough all day his nose just oozed and every time he sneezed it was, well, gross.  He also had thrush....again.  For the second time in a month.  Bah.  Tuesday, the grossness continued along with a fever and by Wednesday we decided it was time to take him to the doctor.  I fully expected to leave the doctor's office that night hearing that he had a virus and it needed to run its course.  Nope, he had an ear infection as well as thrush AND a yeast infection in his belly button AND a potentially yeasty diaper rash (not to mention the cough and congestion that was still hanging around).  The poor little guy!  And of course, through it all he remained relatively happy.  He was not a fan of tummy time or going to sleep lying down but otherwise he was still full of purpley grins.  He is still on antibiotics and not completely himself, but he is most definitely on the mend.  In the meantime, we're pretty sure that he is working on a tooth or two.  Why not?

A Few of Finn's Favourite Things

Finn has always had preferences about a few things - toys and books he likes, books he doesn't like.

Here is our current list of his top 5:

#1.  His soother (well, any of the Avent soothers that we own) - this one definitely belongs at the absolute TOP of the list.  We don't leave home without it.  But for Finn, it's not only a soother - as in that thing you suck on to soothe yourself - but also a toy.  He stuffs it under blankets and pulls it out again.  He throws it away from himself and then he leans over to reach it or gets up on all fours to try and get it back again.  He shares it with us (which he thinks is hilarious) and Oscar (which we do not think is hilarious) and more recently, other babies (instead of them attempting to steal it).

#2.  A close second is probably the soother strap.  You know, the thing that connects the soother to a baby's clothes so that it doesn't hit the floor when it pops out of his mouth when you're out in public?  As soon as he sees it he gets excited - smiling, arms waving, grabbing at it, crying when we won't let him hold onto it.  Again, it's not just a soother strap for Finn.  He loves to try and pull it off of his clothes (and is often successful) and then wave it around in the air.  The only problem with this game is when he hits himself in the head with the metal part that clamps onto clothes....that only ever ends in tears.

#3.  The book 'Totty'.  This is a book that one of my nieces picked out for Finn.  It's about a baby turtle digging up through the sand and making his way down to the sea.  It has been a favourite of his since he was a newborn.  Initially I was convinced it was because all of the turtles have really big eyes that are black and white.  While he is well past the point of only looking at black and white things this book is still sure to put a smile on his face.

#4.  The drumsticks from his Bee Bop Band set.  It doesn't really matter which one, and again, this is a thing he has loved for months now.  He loves to wave it around in the air or tap it on the floor.  It sounds best when it hits hard flooring....just in case you didn't already know.  ;)

#5.  A pair of Joe Fresh pajamas.  Finn and I were perusing the baby boy clothing section at the Superstore when I saw a pair of pj's that looked awfully cute.  They have all different trucks on them and there kind of a funky texture - like velour, but not really (because velour kind of icks me out).  Finn loved them at the store and I thought that since he needed some pj's in the next size up anyway, we might as well buy them.  When we got home I hung them on the doorknob of the linen closet in the hall outside of his room (not sure about the logic, but nevermind!).  For the next few days, every time we walked past (which is quite a few times between diaper changes and naps) he would see the pajamas, smile and reach for them.  Now they're in our bedroom to be used as a toy when we need him to be entertained while we are getting dressed or brushing our teeth.  A pair of pajamas.  Who needs real toys???

Cheerios

We are currently in the stage of life where we find Cheerios everywhere.  Not just in the high chair after meals or the occasional Cheerio on the floor (Oscar is not a real dog and does not seem have the greatest sense of smell), I'm talking ev.ery.where.  Finn and I were at the doctor's office a couple of weeks ago and as we were waiting I suddenly noticed a Cheerio on the floor of the waiting room.  Hmmmmm....the other baby was just two months old so I was 99.9% sure that he didn't bring Cheerios into the office.  No, it was Finn.  A couple of rogue Cheerios had found their way into his onesie and they were now finding their way out.  First one Cheerio, then another.  Slightly embarrassing and amusing all at the same time.  And despite the fact that it means mushed up Cheerio on my kitchen floor from time to time - I love it.

I love that he loves Cheerios.  I love that he quickly figured out how to feed himself Cheerios (literally one minute I'm having to put them into his mouth and 3 minutes later I look and he's popping them in, one after the other).  I love that he recognizes the box and gets the biggest smile when he sees it.  And I love that it isn't necessarily about the fact that he is hungry so much as it is about something he can do for himself.  Our Baby Bean's first little glimmer of independence.

A Summer Full of Firsts

I realize that the title may sound a little redundant given that it is Finn's first summer, but it felt like he had a LOT of firsts.  To name just a few:

First plane ride (and first trip to Vancouver)

First time meeting his cousins Charlotte 

and Mia (and Uncle Jon...but we don't seem to have a picture of Finn and Uncle Jon together...oops!)

First two teeth!

(this is one of the only pictures we have where you can see just one tooth)

First time swimming in a pool

First time at the top of a mountain

First time on the Capilano Suspension Bridge

(okay, so this pic isn't actually us on the suspension bridge because that would be crazy to try to get a picture of, but it is on the 'Treetop Adventure' which is on the other side of the bridge)

First time with all of his Konrad cousins in one place

First boat ride (and trip to the cottage)

(surprisingly happy after a 10 hour trip in the van!)

First time swimming in a lake (and not just any lake...THE lake!)

First time meeting Uncle Donnie

First time dressing up as a pirate 

First time meeting Great Grandma...

....and her dolls!

(just a few of the 400+ dolls in this room at Great Grandma's house!)

I know there are probably more firsts that I haven't captured here....but you can't always be behind the camera!

I have to say that once again Finn was a super trooper through everything.  Two plane rides, being dragged all over Vancouver/Whistler/Vancouver, two 10 hour van rides (to the cottage and back), sleeping in numerous beds and houses that were unfamiliar, constantly getting in and out of a life jacket (there is no road access on our lake which means that any time you leave the cottage you are in a boat), swimming in the Lake (and actually seeming to enjoy it!)....he did amazingly well.  Every time we were ready to leave on another trek I would start to wonder how long we would be able to push our luck.  I figured that at some point Finn would give us a bit of a freak out after being toted around from province to province (Ontario-British Columbia-Ontario-Quebec-Ontario), especially considering that we weren't even home from Vancouver for a full week by the time we packed up and headed to the cottage.  But we never did get the major freak out.  Granted, he wasn't terribly impressed about the lengthy van ride home from the cottage...mostly he was hungry every two hours so we needed to stop so that I could feed him.  I had forgotten to pack him solid food (other than Baby Mum-Mums) as I am still getting used to the fact that he is eating solids on a regular basis.  After six hours of driving, Oscar and I traded places.  This meant that I could entertain Finn (and hopefully stretch out the time in between stops) and Oscar got (a) a bird's eye view of the highway and (b) some pets from James. I think everyone was happier!

And now we are home.  It was lovely to spend a month at the cottage.  We've never been able to do it (well, together that is...James did it all the time as a kid!) and it was incredibly relaxing to be there and not really have to think about when we were leaving.  At the same time, it is also wonderful to be home.  I walked in the door and thought, "I really love our house!".  It's nice to be in our own space and to be getting caught up on things that need doing.  We're pretty sure that Finn didn't even remember our house which is a little bit crazy (a month is a long time in an 8 month old's life!).  We would take him around and he kept looking at everything as though he had never seen it before....which was actually really interesting to watch.  It was fun to watch him rediscover his home - the family room, the playroom, HIS room.  And fun to see that the things he loved before are the things he loves now - the lamps in our bedroom (black & white with a fun pattern, perfect for babies!), the decals on his bedroom walls (animals), the mirrors...to name a few.  

So we're back, unpacked and pretty much settled back into life here at home.  Now Finn and I are looking into the fall to see what we will do to keep busy over the next couple of months - a membership at Vesta, getting together with the great group of moms and babes we met through our Just Beginnings 'class' and oh yes, getting a move on with the 30 day shred with Jillian!