Firsts for everything

Last night we reached a milestone. While playing on the bed, he rolled over. If not for his arm getting him stuck, he would have been 100% on his belly. I tried to help but he hated it - haha.

Last night we reached a pseudostone. While playing and rolling over, he blew raspberries. He's done this before - since very young in fact - but this was different, very deliberate and playful. We took turns blowing raspberries at each other. It was so cute that I died laughing when I videotaped it.

I'll try to get those videos up this weekend.

Last night he slept through the night. Out at 11, up at 5:45. Perfect timing!

Today he held his bottle on his own, got it into his mouth, slipped out, got it back in. Has a little trouble holding it high enough to get the water out (this is a 2oz bottle I use for water while feeding him solids - tonight's menu: applesauce!). It was amazing, fun, and frustrating at the same time.

I love my child. :)

I should add that he's about to push himself out of his neglectomatic so... gotta go!!!

It's not easy being 18 (weeks)

Here is my little mastermind.
Watch out - you never know what he is plotting next!

A weekend filled with OMI!!!

Hello new world! ... New washer, new dryer, new jogging stroller (hey, Fin picked it, not me). No more louder-than-a-Gaelic-football-match laundry days! No more free plastic trash stroller!

So, you guessed it, Omi was here for the weekend. She stayed at our house while Mark and I went to the Ritz (using Omi & Opi's abandoned room there) in Pasadena and spent the night. It was kind of relaxing - the bed was great. However, being away from Finny was tough, and some other stresses eating me up kept me from truly sleeping. It was great, though.

On Sunday we met Binky & Brian & Aisling at the farmer's market. Aisling is soooooooooo tiny compared to Fin. Well, she's half his age, and appropriately half his size. So fragile - I can hardly remember Fin being so fragile. I guess because he was always able to hold his head up to some degree. Anyway, that was a fun visit.

COOOOOOTIEEEES!!!!!

Yesterday (Memorial day) we took Finny for a hike at our Tree People park in his new jogging stroller. It was easy to get up and down the stairs to the trails, and you'd think the big bike tires would cushion the bounce a bit but it didn't. Fin seemed to enjoy it until he got hungry, and then he discovered his thumb again (did I mention he started sucking his thumb last week? more like chewing on it) and quieted down.

All in all it was a very fun weekend, I love when Omi visits although this time I barely spent any time with her, and she spent a lot of time keeping Fintan so occupied and entertained that he konked out early each night. But we managed, and today he seemed to be his usual happy self. Oh, and another thing, he snores.

Solids &Sizes

Today I woke up with a horrible kink in my neck, so bad I could not turn my head left at all nor tilt it. This makes it difficult to do things like... feed your child... and look over your shoulder to change lanes on the highway which you must do 7 times to safely arrive at the chirpractor's office. Whew! So I stayed home hoping to get there this morning but in fact I stayed home all day. The kink is mostly out the but muscles and stuff are still really stiff and sore. But I can turn my head.

While in Woodland Hills at the chiro, I stopped into the Carters store. Let me back up a bit. Isabel came downstairs with the kid this morning and pointed out how his 6-month clothing was too small, and I realized he was wearing a 9-month outfit. Ugh! So I bought him a few 12-month items, including some cute pajamas. I hope he can wear all this stuff in Michigan. I call his PJs the supersuits, because they are form-fitting. They'll be good for our warm nights.

As for solids, well, he's eating a lot of solids now. I bought some baby's first peas, apples, sweet potato, and ... one other. We'll try those in addition to the rice meal and bananas he's been having. He is adorable when he eats solids - his mouth doesn't quite get it yet. But he's getting better at it.

Just checking in.

These are pictures of Gina & Fin on Saturday. Gina is one of my friends from Pepperdine. It's been fun hanging together on Saturdays and she is very fond of Finny and he seems to like her a lot too. We were trying to feed him gruel but he was only spitting it out.

Today when I got home, Fintan successfully held his own bottle (for about 30 seconds). Once he gets it in his mouth he gets lazy and lets his arms relax, pulling the bottle down and out. But it sure was cute.

Fin is getting big. He can touch head and heel on the sides of the crib. He has about two inches to spare top and bottom on the changing table. I'm getting more practice changing him on my bed.

Well, that's all. I'm looking forward to Omi and Opi coming this weekend, and also to our trip to Michigan in August, and some other fun stuff coming up in my future.

Tomorrow is the first day of a new life for mommy. But more on that later.

Happy 4-Months, Fintan!

Click any photo to see a larger version.

Today we celebrated the 4-month mark of our beloved child with our usual morning sleeping in, a walk to get our whole grain no sugar honey wheat bread from the French guy at the farmer's market, and then a walk in the park.

Not just any park - located at the top of the hill where Studio City butts up against Beverly Hills, at the junction of Mulholland and Coldwater Canyon - there is a park with trails that double as fire breaks and a lovely view of the Valley. The park is maintained, I believe, by the Tree People (treepeople.org) with such sponsors as Steve Martin, Johnny Carson, and other gnarly Hollywooders.

Fintan seemed to really enjoy the hike. The day was overcast, as we are apparently expecting a rainstorm tonight, and visibility could have been better, but as such it was not too hot nor too cool, and not too sunny to be blinding or hot or skin-burning. Needless to say I kept a blanket around him to take the edge off the breeze and block any overdose of UV that might make it through the clouds.

On the way home he passed out, has been sleeping almost the entire afternoon, with brief eating moments (and moments to suck on my hand, wrist, watch, finger, his burp cloth, whatever...) as if night and day were reversed. He's been listless and cranky, but no fever or anything. Right now he is watching Edmonton beat the Ducks, though he seems to cry whenever the Oilers do something good.

Yesterday Gina came over and we went to Babies-R-Us, and later we had a hockey game and then all the baby-families went to Chicken Cafe for dinner :) It was fun.

I'm going to make him some solids and get ready for bed, because, well, frankly, I'm bushed.

:) Happy happy, Finny...... I wonder what milestones await us this month!
.

Nothing to report

I think I did have something to report at one point, but I can't remember what it was. Mark's out getting food and I just want to go to bed. Fintan is already asleep. That means 3 feedings. Ugh.

Here are some adorable photos off Mark's camera when he was I think 13 weeks old. Enjoy. :)

How we spent my first Mother's Day

Mothers Day started out nicely with a massage from Dad and an overabundance of cuteness from the Kid.

Mark was busy teaching Fin how to wrestle. The big yellow bear was teaching him to moonsault. Fin was good at kicking out when pinned.


I caught some evidence of Mark doing "dad" things on the way to the Farmers Market.


Fin sports his new sunglasses which are about one millimeter too big for him.


Here we are walking to the Farmers Market. We parked a ways off to avoid the crowds and to ensure we had a good walk.


This is Fin at the Farmers Market before demanding to be held. I didn't get a pic of it, but he loved being held so he could look around. Unfortunately the UV factor today was something like 1, and we didn't want him (or me) to fry.


We got home, put on some fresh clothes, and got ready for hockey. This Dino shorts/overalls suit is very lightweight and was a gift from Saxs and Maja whose first son is due in July.




At the rink there are a variety of "moms" who show up now and then. This was an early game so everyone was there. We have lots of brand new babies on the team, and thus Fin never seems to be without one of his "hockey aunties" to look after him while I play.


What would my day be without a little love from Mini Goon!


And then, of course, there's a little love from Baby Goon!
(I came off the ice so I'm sweaty and icky... he's thinking, "Whew, Mom, what's that awful smell!?!?!"

Then we came home and Mark ordered me a nice dinner from Gaucho Grille. I had a very tender and juicy steak with a mild peppercorn jus. YUM!

And now I am going to bed.

Don't talk with your mouth full!

Bad hair day..................................Mohawk!

FOUR NEW VIDEOS!
Just click the "Fintan Videos" link to the right -->
Look for them by date, or the ones ending in "_15wks"

Fintan seems to like his high chair. He likes just about anything that makes him feel like a "big boy" - which is pretty much anything where he can sit up. The high chair is pretty slick.

Today's theme is "don't talk with your mouth full."Why? Because he seems to do the most talking lately when he's got something in his mouth. He's pretty quiet otherwise. Doesn't matter if it's his fist, his cloth, a toy... if it's in his mouth he's talking, and if it's not, he's not. He's even tried to talk through some bottles. What a little weirdo.

And I'm not talking about just blah blah, the kid is screeching, gurgling, singing, whatever... it's a real racket. But it's also really cute. (The videos demonstrate this.)

I put a little cereal mush on his lips today, he sort of ate it but was quite purplexed. I then continued to dilute it and fed him through the bottle as usual. I will wait just a couple more weeks. The one downside of the high chair is that he's very strapped in, and if he were to choke it would be an ordeal to get him out of the chair quickly. Hopefully with "solids" he'll inhale less of it than he does with the milk.

Rice cereal not working

At the suggestion of my mother, I have been putting a little rice cereal in his just-before-bedtime bottle, hoping it helps him sleep a little longer.

It's not helping.

He is, however, sleeping in a semi-regular pattern -- goes to bed between 8 and 10 p.m. -- but it seems he still always wakes up between 3 and 4 a.m. I stopped the Ferber thing because, well, we get more sleep if I spend 15 minutes feeding him than if we let him cry for hours, etc. I think it's better for all of us. He's only 3 months old!! (Even if he does look like he's 10 months.)

The pediatricians and online literature all suggest starting solids at 4 months - with his size I don't think a few weeks early is going to kill him. I'm not giving him real solids; the rice flakes dissolve in the milk. Perhaps I should try something a little more solid, but we're not at "eating with a spoon" stage yet and I'm not really sure what to do. (This is all new to me.)

I will note that he is very active and much more controlled with his hands lately, and if not for pulling down on the bottle, he could almost hold it himself. It's pretty funny to watch him grab it and pull it toward his mouth (with some guidance) but miss and jab his forehead with the nipple. So I continue to hold it up for him while he holds on to the sides. Even Isabel noted that he is starting to want to do it himself.

All this just in time for the arrival of the latest baby-gadget in the household... Our HIGH CHAIR arrived yesterday. It's pretty cool and has, much to my relief, shoulder straps. Now we can strap him in and he can watch hockey on his own - one more neglect-o-device! hahahaha just kidding. Anyway now I can see about the whole "eating with a spoon" thing, maybe try it out in the next week or two.

What a happy kid.

Well, this has been a truly wonderful weekend. Omi was here for a little bit, I got some new jeans, played 1 of 2 games of hockey, and Fintan has been a dream.

It's funny - right now he's going NUTS on the Leapfrog learning activity musical chair thingy because he deliberately reaches out and grabs and whacks the pedals now. Sometimes he won't let go so all you hear is "Red bird!" "Red bird!" "Red bird!" "Red bird!" "Red bird!" "Red bird!" "Yellow---" "Red bird!" "Red bird!" "Red bird!" "Red bird!" "Red bird!" It's pretty funny, and he seems to be enjoying it. At this particular moment as I write, his hand is still grasping the red bird pedal, and he is completely still... looks like he might be dozing off. Can't have that!

The picture above is of us out shopping today. It's our first excursion with the Baby Bjorn and he seems to like it. Mark and I went to Fry's Electronics later on and he liked it then, too. He can look around and see the world now... The sunglasses were a tad too big, so he only wore them for the picture, but like his fishing hat, he'll probably outgrow it before he gets to wear them.

The picture below is just him being him. :) He was probably doing something adorable and then realized there was a camera nearby...

Been so tired... Fin so CUTE

Well Omi and Opi (above) were here last night to relieve Isabel and this morning again to let us sleep in. Boy did I need it! I could use another 4 hours.

Apparently he was a stubborn temper tantrum from hell last night with them. Hey, it's not just me!

That's about all I have to report. He's cute, what more do I need to say? :)

Farty face

Wed. - More Pics & Videos

Sorry, not much to say today. Tired. Must go to bed. Played for two hours in crib when I got home. My back is tired.

Above picture is of Fintan pulling an Ozzy Osbourn and biting the body parts off a stuffed bird. And the picture below is him on the ground sporting his fleece snow suit. It actually fits him now... almost too small!

FOUR NEW VIDEOS
posted today...
See LINK on sidebar -->

Fintan sports his cool outfit.
(this used to be WAY too big.)

Monday - very special!

Aisling is 4 weeks old. No longer a newborn. Congrats, young lady! As Fin was falling asleep this evening (on schedule) I told him a story of a young princess named Aisling and how she found the magical toad that turned into Prince Fintan, and how they became friends and played in their treehouse in the forest. It knocked him out. I think he's not into girls yet.

Today was great. Not only did I come home to a clean house and a happy baby, but he stayed happy. All evening. And awake, too. Toward the end I put him in his crib to play, which he loves to do. I've read up to Week 12 (essentially 12-19) in The Wonder Weeks, which has been more like "I wonder when he's going to act like all these perfectly timed babies described in this book." Anyway, it gives you a general idea of what to expect at Baby's various milestones, and it says to place toys within reach during supervised play. So while in the crib, I moved some of his attach-toys to either side of him just to give him plenty to stare at.

First, a quick diversion. This morning when Isabel arrived, she gave him a teddy bear and he actually hugged it and clung to it, which is a first. He has been especially clutchy with his burp cloth (his size "blanky") lately, I've noticed. He definitely seems to have better control over his little catapult arms these days. It's quite amusing.

So where am I going? Oh yes. So I was doing something and I heard some funky noises coming from the crib. Aside from seeing his feet up in the air (he has great ab muscles!) I could see he was playing with one of the toy things - one that he has never paid attention to before, much less reached for. So for the next 45 minutes I proceded to encourage him to play with it more. He was trying to grab one of the flowery things with his right hand. He inched himself closer to it and eventually was able to grab the butterfly thing by the string.

And of course, he immediately reeled his prize into his mouth. Or as close as it would go... which he found a bit frustrating. But he kept trying.

Eventually I had to take the toy away because it was time to go to sleep, and he wasn't too happy about it. He had discovered a whole new kind of crib fun and he wanted more! But now he's asleep and the toy out of reach and we'll save it for some more play time tomorrow.

(I got some video but Dad is on my computer and I can't upload the videos and pics. So I'll try to do that tomorrow.)