Finn the Builder

We are adding on to our house right now and just had to get a picture of Finn in the Bobcat before it left. Doesn't he look proud?!

With cousin Caroline at Thanksgiving. They loved these dancing and singing snowmen!

With Mommy at Thanksgiving. Finn loves his race car.

Climbing in Mommy's suitcase. Yes -- we've been living out of a suitcase for several weeks. VERY ready to move back home!

WHAT did she do to my hair?!?

Stats

**Warning -- this one is l-o-n-g! I'm journaling so I can remember all the details. :)

It's been awhile and I never even got around to writing down Finn's 1 yr. doctor's appointment stats & all of his new "stuff".

At his 1 year appointment:

~15% for weight @ 21.5 lbs

~50% for length

Long and lean the nurse said....Other than that, he got some shots and they said he was looking great!

Here's more of what he can do/up to:

Words he can sign are: more, all done, milk, water, eat, cracker, banana, cereal (as of today). We're currently working on his manners with the signs for please & thank you.

Words he can say: balloon, ball, banana, bath, door, down, mama, dada, more, water,bye-bye

It's crazy - he could do a couple of signs before he turned one & say a couple of words as well -- but it's all taken off over the past month.

Daily Schedule: He wakes at 7ish and then has milk and breakfast. Naptime is around 9. After nap we play or run around until lunch which is around noon. He typically goes down for his afternoon nap around 2 but it can vary any time between 1 and 3. Every now and then we'll skip his morning nap but he typically takes two still (yea!). Both naps are around 2 hours. He has milk and a snack after his nap. Dinner is at 6:30 and then he's off to bed between 7:30 and 8. His bedtime milk is still in a bottle (because he's still my baby!). We'll switch to a sippy sometime.... :)

What Finn likes to do:

~Crawl - he's a crawling machine. He's all over the place -- and fast too! No walking yet - crawling is much faster. Finn will take steps while holding on to something but he's still not quite ready.

~Blow kisses and wave at people.

~Playing with the velcro on his shoes (yes! Pace finally let me buy shoes after every other kid in the church nursery was wearing them but Finn.)

~Play with his push and ride race car. He likes to ride it and push it around. He also likes to open the seat and put things in & then take them out over and over again.

~Reading books. His fav's are: Brown Bear, Brown Bear..., 5 Little Monkey's, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, The Going to Bed Book, Pajama Time, Moo, Baa, La La La.

~Hugging - He'll lay his head on something (usually something soft) and we'll say "aaawwww!" So cute!

~Push toy cars & his turtle on wheels around the house.

~Crawling into the underneath part of his exersaucer.

~Riding in his wagon.

~Crawling over the rungs of his high chair -- his own made up jungle gym!

~Open and shut doors

~sing songs & dance

~clap

~Playing with balls

~taking stuff out of cabinets and drawers

His 3rd tooth is coming in up top off to the side. Not one of the middle two which I though was weird...

He continues to be a happy, happy, fun-loving baby. He is constantly making me say "You are SO cute!" "Ahhhh!" (that's my mommy sigh)

First Haircut

Finn got his first haircut the Wednesday before his birthday. We didn't want him looking sloppy for the big day! (I know it was a while back but I still wanted to post. )
No crying, but he had a 'What's going on?' look on his face the whole time.
What a handsome boy!

Pumpkin House

Forgot to include this one of the Pumpkin House. How cute is it?!

Pumpkins!

After having 2 weeks of cloudy, rainy weather we finally had a beautiful day. So, Finn and I along with my friend and her daughter went to the Arboretum to see all the pumpkins, flowers, and to have a picnic lunch. Finn loved climbing all over the pumpkins.

Party Decorations

We got sports beach balls and bubbles as party favors

I displayed his monthly frog pictures

close up

Pictures from Pace's and my first birthday.

(You can't tell, but my baby pics look just like Finn)

We also had streamers and balloons around the house. His giant #1 balloon is still inflated and Finn loves pointing to it and saying "barrrooon!"

Party!

Finn had a great 1st birthday! We started off the morning with balloons in his room. He LOVES balloons. It's his only word as of now and he calls everything a "bbboooroon".

For breakfast he had a Waffle Man which was an idea I got from a friend. Finn loved it and ate the whole thing.

The party started around 5 and we had family & close friends over. There were about 5 other kiddos there for Finn to play with. He got a ball pit from his Granna so they had lots of fun playing in that.

We grilled out brats and hot dogs for dinner and then had a yummy cake that my friend Tiffany made. She even made Finn a little smash cake of his own.

Such fun times!

More party pics to come soon!

1 YEAR!!!

Finneas is one today! Yea! We are so happy to celebrate his birthday & are so thankful for this past year. Finn is a wonderful baby and fills our lives with joy every day. We're so lucky that his 1st birthday fell on a Saturday so we get to celebrate on the actual day. Family and close friends will be coming over for a sports themed party. I'll post those pics soon.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY FINN! MOMMY & DADDY LOVE YOU SO MUCH!

First Word??

Hi all! In the picture above if you look closely, you can kind of see Finn's 1st 2 teeth. They're not fully in yet so they're still pretty tiny. I'll try to get a good teeth picture soon.

You'll also notice his shaggy, shaggy hair. It's the new look, didn't you know? We're waiting to get his 1st haircut right before his 1st birthday. So excuse the disheveled look.

We went to our NEW Babies R Us they just put in 5 minutes from our house (we're so excited!!) and they were giving away balloons. So Finn & I were standing in line for a balloon & I said we'll get your balloon in a minute. Well, right out of his mouth popped "boon". Then he kept staring at the balloon arch they had at the entrance & said "boon" a couple more times. We think he said it a couple more times since we've been home too & boy, have pace & I said "balloon" lots too! It's funny because we had a yellow balloon around the house for awhile that he loved to play with & I swear that about a month or so ago he said "boon" then. But it wasn't consistent so...wasn't sure if I should count it as a first word. So, I guess we're now thinking that "boon" is the first word. So much for "mama"!

11 Months

Our little man is now 11 months old. Only 1 month 'til the big 01! He's crawling around so fast now it's hard to keep up with him. He's all over the house - usually after Gracie. He's pulling up to standing lots now too. He's also taken a few steps while doing so. He's in the midst of cutting his 1st 2 teeth. You can see them just starting to poke through his bottom gums. Teething though has given him a yucky runny nose - poor guy! He's also started really being able to wave 'bye-bye'. According to the bathroom scale, he's about 20 lbs. now. Chunky Monkey!
He's quite a big eater now too. For breakfast he eats 10 scoops of rice or oatmeal cereal with 3 spoonfuls of applesauce mixed in, fruit pieces, a few cheerios & puffs, and about 1/4 of my waffle. He eats more for breakfast than I do! For lunch he usually has macaroni & cheese, or some other pasta, or 1/2 a grilled cheese sandwich or a ham & cheese panini (no crusts), pieces of fruit, oyster crackers, some pieces of meat (if we have some leftover), and pureed veggies (it's practically the only way he'll eat his veggies!), and water to drink -- he can now drink his water out of a regular cup with a straw ( i hold it of course)
For dinner, similar to lunch, it's usually most of what we're having for dinner. He's really tried lots of food at this point. He LOVES to eat!
He still gets 3 6-7oz. bottles of formula a day. His afternoon bottle switched to a sippy cup a couple of months ago. Today we've switched to 2 sippys. His night time formula will still be in a bottle.
Lots of details! I want to remember these things for later!

First Plane Ride

Cincinnati Famous Chili
(you eat it on top of spaghetti noodles w/ shredded cheese on top)

Finn had his first plane ride at the end of July. We went to Ohio for my mother in law's family reunion. What great weather! Finn did great on the plane. We had 2 lay overs so he actually had 4 plane rides. He did a good job and was only a little fussy. It's hard to be held so much when you're just wanting to crawl all over the place!

1st plane ride! A little sleepy still. Our flight was at 7 am so we woke up so early.

I let him stand up for awhile.

In the bounce house at the reunion with Caroline.




More stuff - Here at home

Finn kept climbing all over his mattress as I was trying to put his sheets on it.

Pulled himself to standing while playing with his new favorite toy!

His other new favorite thing - looking out the kitchen window.

And...Finn in a box. ;)
So cute!

10 months

Here's our big boy at 10 months. It's hard to believe that he's less than 2 months away from being a 1 year old! Man, time flies! Finn is crawling all over the place - usually all over mommy or following me around the house. He's also started pulling up to standing. He'll be walking before we know it!

July Fun

Here are some things we've been up to in the last couple of weeks. I've been bad about taking pictures for a while so there's just a few. Enjoy!

We went to Shreveport for the 4th and Finn got to go swimming with cousin Caroline twice. So fun! They got to ride in a wagon on their way to the neighborhood pool.

In Caroline's float. She shared with us!

"Daddy wrapped me up like a mummy after my swim!"

Finn fell asleep folded in half so I just had to get a picture.
(Don't worry-I unfolded him after I took the pic.)

9 Months

We had Finn's check up today. The doctor said he looks great! He got 2 shots that hurt a lot. Ouch!
Stats/What's up:
~weight-17.8 lbs. - 6%
~height-26 1/2 -5%
~head-17 1/4 - 15%
~crawling (he's been kinda crawling for a few days but really did it today!!)
~likes to play with his bottom lip and make noise (he'll imitate us doing it)
~has been eating more finger foods: puffs, cheerios, fruit (doctor said to add even more)
~loves hearing "The Going to Bed Book" and "Brown Bear..."
~sleeping from 7:30/8:00 - 6:30/7:00 --i don't go get him until after 7 though ;)
~2 naps: one at 9 and another around 2 (they're flexible though and Finn does well with being flexible)
That's all I can think of for now.
Later.

New Stuff

Here are some things we've been up to lately.

Sitting in his big boy high chair about to eat. (we used a little booster seat thing before)

My college roommate Corinne came in town to visit & we went to the Aquarium. Finn enjoyed watching the fish and the penguins.

Hangin' out in his new Johnny Jump Up.

Chillin' with Daddy after our picnic at the Arboretum.

First Swim! We went over and swam with Pappy. He did a really good job of kicking with his legs and moving himself around.



These are from a cookout at Andy & Erin's house. We got together when Corinne, David, & Ciara came in town to visit.

Laying on Parker like he's a lazyboy recliner.

Parker kept trying to eat Finn -- particularly his ear!

Two cute boys! My college friend Andy is Parker's daddy.


Pace was taking Finn's outfit off and being silly! :)

And....


Happy Early Father's Day Daddy!!