Hello from New York City

Greetings, Fin-fans. We're in New York... hometown of Fin's wonderful father.

Today we went to the Bronx Zoo. It's pretty nice, very big but felt like there was a lot of empty space. Like you can walk between exhibits for 10-20 minutes and not see anything but squirrels and peacocks. Seems kind of inefficient, but that space is probably used for other stuff.

Fin was very much interested in seeing the animals. The Siberian tiger we saw, Alexis, came within a few inches of his face, stopped, stared at him (probably thinking what a great morsel he would make), and then moved on... she walked by the glass a lot and although he was having fun playing with the exhibit gadgets he would look up when she came by. We also saw an enrichment demonstration, it was not impressive if you've ever been around animal trainers, but I can see where "normal" people would find it immensely entertaining. We are just not those people. I mean I've had a Bengal tiger lean her head on my knee and it nearly knocked me over. But it's always good to see kitties having fun. During the demo Mark was holding Fin up to see over the crowd, and he was saying "ow, ow" which is his imitation of "meow" which is great, because it means he's making the connection that this is a gato (cat) of some sort, even if he doesn't quite get that this gato grande is of the deadly, wild variety.

We also saw a bunch of other fun things - snow leopards, polar bear, grizzly bears, cheetahs, giraffes, African wild (painted) dogs, bison, lots of herd animals, some kind of baboon (Gelana? something like that), lots of birds which he enjoyed seeing up-close, and a lion. We kind of skipped the gorillas in favor of tiger enrichment so we'll have to go back some day.

Generally Fin has been to the park on Roosevelt Island a few times, and on the tramway and train a couple times, and so on. Nothing overly interesting. I took him for a real walk (where he does the walking) and we ended up near the park, where some boys were playing basketball, and he watched eagerly, picked up one of their balls, and tossed it onto the court, and went chasing after it, with me chasing after him in a desperate attempt to keep him from being smashed by these bigger boys, who didn't seem to notice us at all. He also had fun going up and down and up and down the sloped grass. He likes slopes. We did make it back to the park and met a nice 22-m-o Russian boy named Andrew, who liked to follow Fin around and also to pose me in particular spots in the park... and I mean particular... not here, just here, okay don't move! :) It was very cute. Then on the way home Fin stopped to pick up all the twigs off the sidewalk and put them in the tree beds... (sigh) so we barely made it back in time for dinner.

Speaking of dinner this kid can eat! Loves noodles. Has eaten everything we've given him, from curried beef to Chinese noodles (all home made by Mark's mom), and of course, peas. What is it about peas? He had the raspberries off my raspberry chocolate truffle cake thing (for my birthday) and dad gave him a TINY bite of chocolate from it. But we don't usually give him that sugary stuff (nor did I need it!).

So far it's been a great trip and we're all having a nice, relaxing time for once...

PHOTOS coming soon, I don't have my camera and Mark's battery died after four pics at the zoo today, so we don't have much to show. Sorry!

Bunky Update... 14 months!

As Fintan's energy increases day by day, and mine wanes at about the same rate during the day, I have become oh-so-neglectful of this blog. It's not that I don't care about it any more, it's just that the novelty of being pregnant and of having a baby has worn off. Now the blog is kind of a secondary thing, at least until I become pregnant again (Mark willing), in which case it'll be a whole new set of experiences and a whole new thing to write up and share.

So if these updates are far and few between, don't give up. Just nag me a little bit, and check in weekly, and if there is an "RSS" update option, use it, and you'll always know when the updates occur.

SO..... WHAT IS FIN UP TO THESE DAYS?

He's about 2'8" - and about 26.4 lbs. His growth rate has definitly taken a more horizontal shift on the graph - for those of you who are not visual-math inclined, let's just say he's not growing as fast as the first year. Thank goodness! I could go broke buying him new clothes and shoes every week.

He's doing the following things, for better or worse:

• naps are difficult to get into his busy schedule, so they are often neglected
• in exchage we get a full night's rest, usually 10-11 hours for him, and 7-8 for us
  
• he's copying everything we do - if we jump, he tries to jump; if we make faces, he tries to make faces; if we cough, burp, or sneeze, he tries to imitate the sound; if we play "blow raspberries on mamma's belly fat"... well, you get the picture
• he is trying to talk using actual words; the only word he has down pat seems to be "gato" ("cat" in Spanish) which he'll call out if a cat, usually Ike, walks into the room; he also says Mamma, Daddy, touch-it, and some words that, in context, can be recognized as: again, you do it, bottle, shoes, duck, dog, help me, "I do it myseff!", kitty-cat, meow, and bowow.
• he really loves to imitate meowing when the cats, usually Peeper, pipes up with the lovely, high-pitched trill or peep that Maine Coons are so prone to do
• he growls a lot, usually in play
• airplanes in the sky! look, Mamma, airplane!!!
• eats pretty much any solid food; we've found he's not fond of mashed potatoes and in the past few days he's not fond of any mushy foods; if he can't at least try to eat it with his own fork, he's not really interested; but for the most part, no food goes untried, and no food has really ever been rejected, though some are more prone to ending up on the floor than others; and lastly in this category, he definitely chooses what he wants to eat, so you had better ask him before you prepare it
• today he spent a lot of time running into his room and slamming the door - just for fun; once he caught Peeper in there and with his squealing in delight and her panicked, high-pitched cries of terror, you would have thought a handful of choir boys were in there murdering each other for fun
• he plays very nicely in the morning in his crib, for at least an hour if necessary
• he doesn't like being put into his stroller, car seat, or even the little red car we bought him that he loved so dearly last month - no, he would rather walk!
• he goes down the slide by himself - climbs up the gym, sits down at the top, grabs onto the sides with both hands, scoots forward until he's ready, and then wheeeee! and then turns around and tries to climb back up the slide
• loves to swing
• loves to dance - at the mall he walked up to a giant video screen showing a recruiting video for the Sheriff's Dept. or something, and it was playing music, and he walked up to it and started dancing up a storm
• plays nicely with his toys, books, etc., but has begun to get possessive of things like playground items (steering wheels, etc.) so he puts his hand in another kid's face and pushes them away - it's cute and embarassing at the same time
• he is always happy, except when he's mad, sad, or hungry (the four emotional states of boys), in which case it's a full-on-throw-yourself-on-the-floor-head-between-your-feet-cry-miserably-and-throw-any-consolation-toy-away-to-express-your-feelings kind of behavior - both amusing and upsetting at the same time
• is starting to run, and is navigating slopes much better now; however, he has stopped waiting for help going down stairs or off of 3-foot-high gym platforms at the park - instead, he'll just take a giant, smiling step right off and you had better be there to catch him!

Photos coming soon, I can't find my camera to download them. His hair is amazingly 80s right now, very curly in the back, and long - needs a trim but I love the style on him, it's so cute and matches his giant blue-gray-green eyes!