Finn's Fall Frolic

Last Friday, the weather was absolutely beautiful.  So Finn and I made the spontaneous decision to go out to Springwater Conservation Area for a photo shoot.  It was something I had wanted to do and I figured that the weather really couldn't get much better - warm and sunny with a gentle breeze.

Finn wasn't quite sure to make of the leaves at first....

 but after the initial 'ick' factor he decided he quite liked them! :)

practicing his crawling!

While we were there, we drank in the deliciousness of fall.  That fall smell that is a combination of leaves and cool, crisp air and campfire.  We watched as leaves fluttered to the ground.  Finn kicked around and waved leaves in the air.  I told Finn how this is the best season of all.  Because how can you resist the beauty of the colours and the feel of fresh air on your face?  It's always been my favourite.  And Springwater is probably one of my favourite places to go this time of year.  One of my favourite places with one of my favourite people.  It doesn't get much better than this!   

Finn's Solution to Teething

As we were attempting to clean up a couple of weekends ago, we came across this little massager that James got as a gift from one of his students last June (bizarre, right?).  Finn thought it was great fun - first for chasing Oscar...(please ignore our Saturday morning pajama attire!)...

...and later for giving some relief to some sore gums...

The current count is four, yes count 'em, FOUR teeth coming in right now.  And who knows?  There could be an additional two making their way in, but the little man won't let me look at the right side of his mouth

Dear Finn...

Dear Finn,
Today you did so many new and interesting things that I thought I should write you a letter.

This morning I was changing you diaper and as usual, we were talking about the lion on the wall and how he says, "roooooar".  You love it when I point to the lion, the monkey and the elephant and tell you what sounds they make.  All of the sudden you got a little smile on your face and YOU started to make a little, "rrrrrrrr" sound!  I roared back at you and you roared at me and we smiled and giggled together.  This is officially your first animal sound.

Next we went to buy groceries and when we came home I brought in all of the groceries while you hung out in your car seat and watched.  When I brought you into the house you were really interested in the baby giraffe toy that you had left on the living room floor.  I put you down so you could play with it and when I was leaving the room (to put away the groceries) you kept looking at the ADT alarm box on the wall and then at me.  I think you know that when we come home I need to disarm the alarm.  You little smarty-party.

After your big nap I thought you might like to do some Jolly Jumping.  As I was getting you set up you let out a little, "YAY!".  We've been hearing you say what sounds like, "Yeah" sometimes, but this was your first big YAY.  HOORAY!

And then, while you were Jolly Jumping I was sitting over by the computer and singing to you.  I started to sing The Duck Song.  Your eyes were jumping back and forth between me and the computer so fast it was like you were watching a tennis match in super fast forward.  Usually when you hear The Duck Song you get to watch the video on YouTube.  I guess you were expecting the video to accompany my singing.....you are just so very, very smart.  (You also like The Duck Song 2 and 3 but I think we both agree that the first one is the best.)

Later on we were playing and your soother fell out of your mouth.  I picked it up for you and said, "Do you want your soother?".  Then you made a sound like, "Ooodah".  I was really starting to think I was hearing things but it was just so clear.

On top of all of this, you are finally figuring out how to crawl.  You can't move very far as of yet, but you are definitely able to move forward by a couple of wiggles before you fall on your belly.  It's taking you awhile to figure out all of this crawling business, but the reality is that you are very easy to please.  If you start to move towards a toy that you see and you realize that you can't get to it, you simply decide to play with something else.  It is only within the last 4 days or so that you have started to get annoyed about not being able to get where you want to go.  Soon enough you'll get there, my baby.

Last but not least, at dinner tonight you tried some chicken.  More specifically, it was the same chicken that Daddy and I had to eat.  This is a first.  You really didn't like the pureed chicken that I gave you awhile ago but you REALLY seemed to like this stuff.  The other night you had our potato soup and loved it.  Maybe you've been picky about what you've been eating because it hasn't been interesting enough.  We're going to try hard to give you more grown-up things to eat.  We just have to be careful because sometimes your body doesn't like certain foods and we want to make sure we know which things it doesn't like!  I'm so proud of you for eating all of that chicken tonight.  It makes me so happy to see you eat big people food and actually enjoy it.

Daddy and I love watching you learn and grow.  We can't wait to see what you're going to do next!

Love Mommy

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.