Fintan has begun to take his own photos using Mommy's little pocket camera. Won't be long before this little tyke is closing down airports to make his movies... it's only one click away on this camera, you know...
HIS VERY FIRST PHOTO
HIS FIRST SELF PORTRAIT
Not a bad shot of Mommy! Well, I mean, considering how bad I look.
Oooh, the ugly kitchen light... he does like that light...
Over the shoulder shot of Mommy...
GREAT SHOT! Daddy looks great! (Okay he had a LITTLE help holding the camera, but he did it himself!)
SIGNING OFF... this is Fintan Bunkoolio Reilly Extraordinaire... photojournalist of the future
Smart as a whip and clever as a fox - demanding and talkative as his mother - persistent and handsome as his father. Healthy, cheerful, perpetually on the move, excellent communicator, speaks a new word or phrase every day. Climbed up the slide by himself for the first time today. Ah he's cute.
From the days when I thought I couldn't hack it... to this, when things are relatively peaceful and delightful and curious... I definitely thing this mothering thing is going to work out all right.
Here are some photos from the past couple of weeks. I'm going to try to get some professional photos taken soon of our little mini-person. Actually these are from the end of June, mostly... but you get the picture. (hahah)
Little fins in the pool (get it? haha)
Fin with "g'pag" and my godfather, Robert ("Bobby Jim") Moon
Driving...... I'm driving! I'm DRIVING!!!!!!!! Okay, release the handbrake...
Papa takes Fin for a ride...
Grandma carries the deadweight...
Found Uncle Ethan's guitar!!! Woohoo!!!
Great-Aunt Lana knows how to tickle-torture pretty good...
The Four Generation Photo... (I wish the photo with Albert and Erik as a baby was digitized.)
I don't know the first thing about being a good parent. In three days I'll have been one for a year and a half. And I haven't a clue.
Most parents feel this way, according to my informal survey of friends and family members who are parents. Some say it takes 20 years to get the hang of it, and by then you're burnt out.
HAHAHA!!
Well, when Bunky climbs into a kitchen drawer and pretends it's his personal space ship, we don't discourage it. I imagine - perhaps incorrectly - that most parents would be appalled. But Bunky tends toward the kinetic and analytical - an engineering mind. Stories, TV, cartoon characters ... he could care less about the "imagination-inspiring" creative type stuff. So this kind of self-absorbed role-play seems like a good option for self-expression.
Bunky is such a character, and such a sweet, happy little guy. I don't see any reason to discourage him from doing things that (a) show a little creativity, which is not his strong suit, and (b) don't appear to cause any harm to himself or anything/one around him. Sure, sitting in the drawer is... weird... but it's also adorable. Admit it!
At least he's not putting the cat in the drawer. Wait another year or two, I hear you say.
We want Bunky to be a happy, well-adjusted kid who can grow up into a happy, well-adjusted adult. As a result, we encourage play and laughter, family time and sometimes individual parent time.
And of course, we like to take him places. He's been on 19 airplanes, for goodness sake! He's traveled farther and more often than most U.S. citizens have in their entire lives. To help him be worldly and well-adjusted and open-minded, we like to expose him to new places and events and people (and babies).
Here he is meeting young Caleb at Stuma's 4th of July party in Tarzana. Caleb couldn't walk yet but it was probably for the better... Stew's house is on a cliff... chasing two of these tykes around would have exhausted us. But it was good for him to see and climb around on, because we learned he's not afraid of heights or anything. But, as always, we spent a great deal of effort ensuring his safety.
Like most travel, road trips are good for the soul. Here we stretch Bunky's perception of the world by exposing him to long bouts of boredom and endless monotonous scenery. Sadly, he was trapped in the car seat for over 1100 miles over four days - 23 hours on the road total. And to think we didn't have car seats when we were little... However, he endured it like a champ and had a great attitude. See? Well-adjusted.
Sure, sure. Binky had her pics up before me. What do you expect these days. Hey, don't complain too much - you get FIFTEEN PHOTOS and a video in this post!!! That should make up for my, uh, lack of entries lately...
This blog entry will have a bit of a story. It IS about Disneyland, after all... Others, as you know, are mostly photos for no good reason. Well, there's always a reason. It's called BUNKY. :)
Once upon a time, a little bunklehead went to Disneyland with his family. As he passed under the arch, he entered the happiest place on Earth. It took a while for that to sink in.
Happiness is usually a phone booth with a germy handset. When Bunky caught sight of one of these, he made a bee-line straight for it. "Wow! A real Disneyland phone booth!!! And no line!"
When that was over, he went on his first ride - Winny the Pooh. "Wow" he said, wondering what the hell drugs his mother had given him.
One ride, and Aisling declared it was time for lunch. Well, that's not entirely true. Both babies were traumatized in The Haunted Mansion first. That really worked up Aisling's appetite. Fintan, on the other hand, wasn't interested in eating. He wanted to run around all over the restaurant and terrorize the guests, just like the ghosts he had just seen! Aisling, however, put him in his place. "You sit there and shut up," she said.
It was hot, so we decided to get wet with some Pirates!!! Mommy and Daddy had fun looking for Captain Jack Sparrow in the "new" version of this favorite ride, and Bunky clung like mad to Mommy's shirt. The back row of the boat was a pool of water that we all had to sit in, except Bunky, who sat on Mom's lap. The first big drop was fine, except for the wet pants part, but the second, smaller drop was in pitch blackness and Bunky got a little spooked. I don't think he's ready to face real pirates yet.
After lunch and a diaper change, the family posed for a classic photo in front of the Castle. Unfortunately, there was a really big wave that tipped everyone over! Lucky for Bunky, the brakes were on.
Mom, Dad, Jenny and Brian were drawn by the overwhelming call of the Force to see the Younglings begin their training at the Jedi Training Academy. These tiny Padawans fought valiantly against Darth Vader and the very scary Darth Maul, and none of them turned to the Dark Side. Not even the teeny weeny little blonde girl in the very front of the stage (or so she had us all fooled).
As mommies and daddies everywhere pined for the day their own Younglings would join the Academy, Fin & Ais concentrated really really hard to try to help Darth Vader convert a few of them to the Dark Side. However, succumbing to the greatness of their own power, they... uh... failed.
So instead of an intergalactic cruise in my virtual space yacht, we all went on a Jungle Cruise to see hippos and elephants and lions and tigers - oh my!
"See my teeth? Just like the tiger!" said Fin. "More like the baboon," said Mommy.
Mommy insisted on getting Bunky his first very own embroidered Mouse Ears - a tradition in our family for generations! However, Bunky hates hats, and the indignity of the mouse ears really made him mad. So we went over to California Adventure instead.
"There must be a phone booth around here somewhere!" said the little Dickensian street urchin.
Ais wanted to take us all on the Monsters Inc ride (Mike & Solly Save the... Day or something like that), at which point Bunky finally "got it." "OH! I'm supposed to see all this cool stuff and it's just there to be silly!" he realized. The taxi ride was a blast. Afterward, the babes posed for pictures in the photo taxi. I won't go into detail about how Fin realized he was in the car with a girl and how he could sidle up to her, pretend to stretch, throw his arm around her, and smack her a fat one on the cheek. Oh wait I just told you. Anyway... it really is as if he has "been here before."
Alas the day was over, and a weary Mom & Dad took the Bunkinator on a tram ride back to the parking lot. This, it turns out, was one of the best rides of all!
We ended the day with a long car ride to Sunland to visit our favorite Thai restauranteers. However, as joyous as it was to find them open after 8 months, we found out that "Dad" had passed away from lung cancer, something he had not known he had and that was diagnosed originally as back problems. He died 9 weeks later. Their son, Scott, pictured here, is now running the restaurant with his mom, Nun, the best cook in So Cal. Scott, as you may recall, made the food and Fin's excellent Snoopy hockey cake for the baby shower two years ago.
OOH!! I stole this video of Aisling's blog. It's hilarious!!!
Neglected children everywhere will one day get to say, "My mom wrote a novel." Fintan is no exception.
He'll also get to say "My mom climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro when there was still snow on it." I'm so proud of him!
HIS FIRST SELF PORTRAIT
Not a bad shot of Mommy!
Oooh, the ugly kitchen light... he does like that light...
Over the shoulder shot of Mommy...
GREAT SHOT! Daddy looks great!
SIGNING OFF... this is Fintan Bunkoolio Reilly Extraordinaire...
Neglected children everywhere will one day get to say, "My mom wrote a novel." Fintan is no exception.
He'll also get to say "My mom climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro when there was still snow on it." I'm so proud of him!