Well, it occurs to me that I haven't posted in a while. I haven't taken any pictures in a while. Will our fan base leave us??? In hopes that you all don't give up on Finding Finley, I figured I'd write a bit about Finley's latest antics. He's quite a guy and I want to remember all the funny and quirky things that make him him before he officially turns 2 next month. A random compilation, but here goes:
1. Finley LOVES music. He loves listening to music, playing music on his guitar, and singing on his own. For a week he'll adore one particular song and want to hear it on repeat in the car and just when I think I'll swerve off the road, he'll move on to a new one to spice things up and keep me awake. After going around and around the Wee Sing CD for months, I downloaded some classic Raffi tunes from my childhood and Finley has taken to many of them! Baby Beluga is a fav and he can sing along a bit now which is adorable. My little sister used to call it "Baby Luga" but Finley's coined it "Googa" thus far. This song has always had a special place in my heart and I just smile when he singings along to the line "Goodnight, little whale, goodnight." He also likes Raffi's version of "Octopus' Garden" and "We're Going to the Zoo." It's funny to see what lyrics he'll pick up on and sing after hearing a tune enough times. "Hot Potato" is a family favorite since it comes with dance moves and I've ben trying in vain to capture Finley rocking out to it, but the perfect opportunity has yet to appear. Finley has more hip favorites, too, like Katie Perry's "Last Friday Night" and LMFAO's "Party Rock Anthem" (once he can understand the lyrics, these probably wouldn't be appropriate parental options). His guitar can play Queen's "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and while it has lots of other song buttons, this one gets the most attention. Dan played him the real version and he totally missed it, right over his little head. The funniest music preference he has came from some car rides with Dan where he found some Reggae on the radio and jammed to it. The other night, I came upstairs to some odd, island sounding music and discovered that the boys had tuned the shower radio to some Reggae for bath time. Ha!
2. Finley is a sports fanatic. He can throw a frisbee backhand (lefty) pretty impressively. In fact, we can't let him throw inside anymore since our living room lamp almost bit the dust after a nice toss. His beloved "yeh-bo balls" are two tennis balls (his attempt at saying yellow balls) that he likes to throw around, ask Dan to juggle with, slam dunk in the basketball hoop, and hold onto while riding in the car. However, the yellow balls have recently found a new place to play and that is in our street. Since Finley's a good rule abiding citizen and always goes to sit on the curb or stand in the driveway when a car is coming, we have taken to playing with him in the street. He likes to carry his little lacrosse stick down and toss the tennis balls around and chase them. Dan and I know zero about lacrosse so hopefully he won't want to further his skills beyond throwing the ball backwards over his shoulder. He can dribble a soccer ball with minimal trips/falls and can throw a football in the air yelling "touchdown!" Sadly, he still has a weird throwing motion for round balls and refuses to learn how to catch anything, but I suspect this will change in time. He likes watching the Giants on TV on Sundays (for 10 minutes or so anyways) and when he sees the players doing something he'll call out "runnin" "frowing" "fall down" "clappin"--a future in commentating perhaps! He also likes to wear his NYY foam finger and yell, "Yeah, Yankees!" It's nice to have a 3rd sports fan in the house :)
3. Unlike his father, Finley is great with names. He remembers kids and adults names well for his age (I think) and often surprises us when he blurts them out. He's very good as associating kids' names with their parents' names. If he went somewhere or did something memorable with someone, he'll say their name and then name the activity. That association will remain until it is replaced with a more current one. Sometimes after we put him to bed, he'll be talking to himself and often people's names come up. Like the other night he was talking about Dave and Charlotte, then Mike and his Prius, and Henry and his dog, Kiki. He also knows my name is Allison and his daddy's name is Dan, but also calls us "Babe" from time to time if we aren't paying attention to him...wonder where he got that from...
4. Finley is enjoying the Friday night tradition of Shabbat. A couple months ago we started trying to do candles and such each week so that Finley would learn the routine (but also so that he wouldn't think all candles meant birthdays and cake). He took to it from the start! He loved watching the candles get lit and listening to his parents sing together. Last night, he finished my song for me by saying "Shabbat" right on cue! Even the Good Shabbos kiss from me makes his smile. The blessing over the challah is always hard to wait for, but he manages and then loves getting the first slice of the braided bread. For those that don't know, I converted to Judaism before we got married since the Jewish culture and family traditions are so important to Dan and his family. Watching Dan watch Finley light up during our Shabbat dinners is a very fulfilling experience and makes me proud of the decisions we made for our family. Finley will be psyched during Hanukkah when we'll light candles and sing for 8 nights in a row!!
5. His bedtime routine has been pretty similar for a long time now, but he's beginning to work the system by requesting additional books before we read The Going to Bed Book. Finley's a good talker with an excellent vocabulary but doesn't link too many words together just yet so last night after reading a book, he went over to his shelf and said "one more" which we couldn't turn down. While it's not exactly a sentence, it seemed much more mature than just "more." However, the best addition to his before bed ritual has been the Forseter family tree. After we read him his "night night book" (as mentioned above), we have always said, "Goodnight, Finley Forseter" and a month ago or so he echoed "seter" and we explained that it was our last name (in toddler friendly words). We also told him who else has that last name so now after we say "Finley Forseter" each night, he'll list off all the other people and we'll say "Forseter" after each one: Daddy, Mommy, Owly and Fanta (his loveys), GG, Geeka, and Ellie (for now!). There are a handful of other Forseters that he knows and perhaps after our trip to LA for a Forseter wedding in November these extended family members will make the list!
6. Pretend play is a good developmental milestone that Finley passed many months back but never fails to make me laugh with. His trucks and trains all do very realistic things (except for if they fall/crash they get kisses on their boo-boos) and he cooks like a pro in his kitchen. There's always line at the gas station in his garage and he almost always makes sure they pay before filling up. He shares his snacks and water with his stuffed animals and even wants to put diapers on them. He knows doctors are for "check ups" and loves playing with his friend, Charlotte's doctor's kit: giving shots, using the stethoscope, etc. When I took him to pick up my contacts the other day at the eye doctor, he liked seeing the people in the waiting room get called in to see the doctor. He'd yell "check up!" for each one. Hopefully he'll show the same enthusiasm for his own 2-year-appointment next month, though I doubt it...
7. Just so I'm not sugarcoating everything, Finley does have a less flexible side to him that's worth noting. He's very particular about certain things and can cry at something as silly as which bowl his Special K is put in or which water cup is available. I'm sorry, my son, that anal retentiveness comes from me. We may give him too many options or not enough, or simply be way off the mark. Like most toddlers he's torn between wanting his parents close, but not wanting to do everything they say. Overall, he's a very gentle, funny, sweet, and polite little dude who just doesn't want to have his socks, shoes, and jacket put on after being awake for only 10 minutes on a school day--well, can you blame him? Thankfully, the older he gets the more reason/logic we can work into the equation. He'll keep asking "why" during the conversation, but I think he understands more than he lets on!
That's probably enough and I suspect only Grandparents may have read down this far...but with my sister in town this weekend and our trip to Florida next week, something tells me I'll have some great photos soon! Stay tuned :)
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