Mommy Goes Back to School

Yep--Finley and I both survived (and may have enjoyed) our first full week with him at daycare and me at work. Phew! It was a bit dicey since we switched Finley to a new family daycare on Monday (after being dissatisfied at our original spot), but all the stress was worth it: Beth's house is great! Finley's there roughly 7:3o to 2pm each day and he's been napping like a champ, eating everything in his lunchbox, and by day #3, he was gulping down the bottle of milk I'd packed as well. Hooray! Also, he's around kiddos his own size--learning the ins and outs of having to share toys and attention (reality check!). Apparently one boy, Carter, and Finley are often interested in the same toys/stuff and Finley will push/pull up on Carter to get somewhere or to something, but when Carter tries to use Finley similarly for leverage, Finley makes a sad face and sometimes cries...hopefully he'll realize the give and take involved in friendship soon.

The first day, Beth (and Finley) made this collage for us. Boy am I a sucker for my child's artwork! I wasn't expecting it this young, so it was a lovely surprise.

Here are a couple close ups:

He really does look happy here and I love that Hannah's got her arm around Finley's waist (an experienced big sister!). I know we'll have this piece hung up for a long time and then store it away to show Finley someday.

But...I won't lie, after 9 total days of daycare (4 at our old place and 5 at the new), it's still tearful for me at drop off. Finley's been teary himself a few times, but I'm pretty sure he hasn't totally figured out what's happening (which is probably better). On the flip side, it's always exciting to pick him up after school, I feel thought I literally jump out of the car and race in the side door of Beth's house--sometimes Finley's there playing and immediately crawls over happily squealing as he gets closer and other times he's still snoozing when I get there (which of course is a good thing, but means I have to wait even longer to get my hands on him!).

My new job has gotten off to a good start and I think it's a great fit for me at this point in my teaching and personal life. All the families are very kind and it's a wonderfully supportive community to be a part of. I'm sure the realities of being a part time teacher and full time mom (yes, those are the labels I've chosen for myself) haven't quite set in, I'm proud of how we've made it through this HUGE transition. While I have pretty good hours and get plenty of time with Finley in the afternoon, it's certainly been an adjustment to do try and do everything each day. Dan's been very supportive and while he's not exactly volunteering to cook more or take over the laundry situation, I think he would if I asked :) Okay...maybe that's a stretch, but a gal can dream, can't she?

Thanks to everyone who's been thinking of us as this changed approached and sent kind thoughts our way the past couple of weeks!

10 Months Old, woo-hoo!

10 months ago this morning...yeah, yeah--you know the story so I'll cut to the chase, here's Finley at 10 months. I think he officially looks like a little boy and not a baby...sniff, sniff.

Finley's been keeping himself (and us) quite busy these past few weeks. He's a crawling machine and attempts to go up stairs whenever he comes across them (though that's not all too often). He can pull up on just about anything and "cruises" across our coffee table, entertainment center, and couch with ease. He's taken some good tumbles and gotten a few minor bruises, but he seems to be pretty resilient and determined. His current favorite activity is pulling himself up on one of us while we're sitting on the floor and then letting go so that he's standing on his own. We think 25 or 30 seconds is his record. I'm not sure whether he likes standing or falling onto us better, but it's fun all around. Here's what he looks like as he's about to do his favorite trick.

Now here's the trick on video. Usually he can stand for longer, but I think he anticipates the falling part with such joy that he wants to just do that. Make sure your volume is on because there are some adorable baby giggles!

I took this next video before dinner tonight and I think it's quite indicative of his skill set at 10 months: crawling, pulling up, exploring, laughing, babbling, smiling, and...maybe some things that aren't quite as impressive (but hysterical) like a foot fetish :)

Happy Double-Digit Birthday, Finley! We love you!

Happy 5771!

Yep! It's hard to believe, but 5770 is just a memory now and we are into the year 5771. It has a nice ring to it, huh? We traveled down to NY to be with Dan's parents and other family types for Rosh Hashanah last week. Two days of great food, lots of family time, and services at Temple Israel Center. Finley's been to temple before, both in Boston and in NY, but this might have been the first time he was awake and aware of his surroundings. He enjoyed listening to his Aunt Ellie sing and hearing the shofar being blown towards the end of the services. He also REALLY enjoyed checking out all the other babies that were around; he got to meet Henry, Isabell, and Jude (all 2009 babies of family friends). Finley's really become quite interested in his fellow tikes, making cute squeaky noises, cooing, and smiling at them. We also ran into some other babies that we didn't really know, but made friends with quickly. Including one little guy who was just a week younger than Fin and was wearing a suit! I kid you not, he had on a grey suit (with pink pinstripes), a button down pink shirt (tucked in), AND a gray patterned tie!! I think Finley looked a bit underdressed in comparison since I failed to pack shoes or socks and he was at temple barefoot, oops. Dan was proud that our boy was dressed much more laid back (collared short sleeve shirt and corduroys), but perhaps we should invest in a couple pieces for future formal occasions...

We had dinner at Dan's parents house the first night and at Finley's "Aunt" Linda's house the second night: both evenings he got to hang out during the appetizer portion and went to sleep before dinner started. The second night, we put him to sleep upstairs at Linda's, enjoyed our meal, and then got him back to sleep at Dan's parents house. We'd never done such a transfer and were pleased how easily it all went! Finley was clearly surprised to be up in the middle of the night, but not upset and went back to sleep quite peacefully 20 minutes later. Perhaps we can do this transfer more often and get to go to our friends' houses for dinner instead of always having them at our place. Sweet!

I failed to take any pictures until right before we got in the car to go home. Bad Mommy. The truth is, now that Finley's more mobile and keep us on our toes, I don't seem to ever have my camera at the ready (since I often need both hands free to catch our very brave, but not always coordinated son). Here are some photos from our photo shoot in Dan's parents' front yard:

Oh and two more pictures to share from the trip home. As we drove, we heard a slurping noise from the backseat and I peered over (with my well rested camera).

Yep--he was sucking on his big toe! Busted :) We caught him in the act! In the next picture, I feel like he was saying, "See how fun it is back here! We've got toys and toes to play with, come on back!"

Note to self: wash Finley's feet more often (and more thoroughly) and bring socks/shoes to all religious holidays.

Finley Plays 9 Holes

Okay, technically 8 since the cannon doesn't count...but Finley, Dan, some Tufts friends, and I played some frisbee golf over Labor Day weekend. It was a shout out to our college days when Dan used to play many, many rounds. We took Finley to share the fun! It was a GORGEOUS day and Finley got to wear one of the rarest things in his wardrobe, something his dad picked out and had to buy!

My boys are looking good! First, they had to ro-sham (rock paper scissors) to figure out the playing order.

Finley had fun crawling around in the grass while we moved from hole to hole. That is, he had fun after realizing that the grass was edible and everywhere! Yikes!

After completing the round, we went to have lunch. We had packed Finley some food and not only did he inhale it all, but he enjoyed just sitting in his highchair and hanging out. Hooray for grown ups getting to eat with two hands for the entire meal :)

These pictures show Finley with his beloved hedgehog teething toy. He LOVES this guy and it is our go-to toy in the car, at the doctor's office, etc. He will hold onto it throughout the entire supermarket trip if necessary, pretty impressive. After lunch, we went home for a nice nap (Dan and I napped, too!). Many more rounds of frolf are in Finley's future, so it's nice that he enjoyed it so much.

A few other random photos from the long weekend:

Finley helping Dan pick out a new pillow at Bed, Bath, and Beyond.

This turtle swam right over when Finley was near the glass!

Maybe next time, we'll skip the zoo and just go to the pet store...

Out with the Old, In with the Luxurious!

Well, after many, many months...it was time for Finley to graduate from his bucket car seat and get him into an upgrade. Here's an old photo from the first day Finley rode in the bucket, taken in our hospital room.

Oh man, he was so tiny!! And here he is last week before we took it out of the car to put away in the attic. What a difference almost 10 months makes!

We inherited two identical new seats (one for each car) from Mina and Vivi Brown, thanks girls! I was sad to say goodbye to the bucket since it easily clips in and out of the car so bringing a sleeping Finley into house was a snap, but I knew we couldn't stuff him into it any longer. While he wasn't at the weight limit, he was over the height limit by at least 1/2 an inch. See his feet hanging off the end? Well, comfort takes over with the new seat--I would equate it to going from a wooden chair to a lazy boy :)

Enjoy it buddy, you'll be in it for a while!

Zootastic!

What's a lovely long weekend without a field trip? Boring! So, on Sunday we went to a nearby zoo. The reality is, while Finley likes being toted around just about anywhere--it's hard to reason paying to do so when there are so many free places to walk--my solution: pay 1/2 price! Thank you Groupon! We drove the 20 minutes over to the Stone Zoo and attempted something new: putting Finley in the beco like a backpack, instead of a front pack. Dan's been dying to try this and I finally gave in and we found a good time/place to test it out. I'd been resisting because I just love carrying Finley around in the front, we can chat and I can smother him with hugs and kisses like all good mothers do :) Anyways...Dan got the carrier on and we put Finley in.

He seemed happy enough, but thought he needed little extra support so he grabbed hold!

How adorable is that? Off we went into the zoo and Dan quickly got the hang of turning so Finley could see all the animals. Though I thought it was more entertaining that Finley was often craning his neck not to look at the animals, but to find me!

After seeing a lynx, a bald eagle, and a hedgehog, we came to the black bears. Conveniently, the smaller of the two bears was very interested in us. It paced back and forth in front of the glass and Finley got a great view. It was really neat to watch him follow the bear with his eyes and reach out with his hand.

We continued through the zoo and saw a jaguar, some monkeys, flamingos, and other critters.

One of the last close encounters we had was with a very cute otter. He (or she) was perched up on a rock, just checking out the scenery. Dan walked Finley over and a short staring contest ensued

What a great way to end our visit (well, we did attempt to see the snow leopard, but it was sleeping behind a rock). Finley seemed happy as a clam in the beco backpack and it was nice to know that we have yet another way to cart around our little guy.

Action Movie

It's been a while since we've taped the little guy crawling and he's quite agile now. One of our (okay, my) favorite games is to leave Finley in one room and go sit in another so he can come find me. I'll just call his name and encourage him a bit, but he doesn't need much and I just love the look on his face when he realizes he's close to the prize (me!).

Apologies for the near choking/coughing incident at the end, I guess Finley was saving a piece of bread from his afternoon snack for later...but don't worry, he was fine :) I did try to tape another version of our game so I wouldn't have to publish the first, but this one ended up being the best...thanks for looking past it!

Small life update: Finley's first two days at day care were ok and my first two days of work were good. Honestly, I think I'm pretty shell-shocked about the whole thing and while I suspect he's not, it's hard just the same. Oh, that sounded so awful...but I feel like I should only post the truth---if you can't trust a baby blog, what's next?