Double the Aunts, Double the Fun!

Finley slept wonderfully in his closet paradise and after breakfast and a nap, we headed over to the Central Park Zoo to meet Ellie.

None of us had ever been there and it turned out to be a nicely laid out, interesting place to walk around. We saw sea lions, a polar bear, snow monkeys, too many bats, a snow leopard, and a variety of birds. Finley and I especially enjoyed the penguin exhibit and seeing the red panda (remember the panda hold from Fin's newborn days?).

With our zoo ticket, we also go to go into the Children's Zoo, which was a big petting zoo across the way. Finley liked the sheep and alpacas the best, but I was a little too nervous to put a piece of food in his hand to feed them, but maybe next year!

This next picture is just awesome, aren't Finley's Aunts cute?

After zooing it, we walked over to get lunch at Serendipity, but sadly the restaurant not only had a wait but didn't allow strollers in (tight space). Ah well, Patsy's Pizza was just across the street and Caitlin had heard good things. They welcomed us (and our stroller) and we had a delicious thin crust pizza. Finley ate his lunch in his high chair, but wanted to get out and have some fun with his Aunts, too.

We got the check and skipped dessert since our next destination was just across the street, Dylan's Candy Bar!! Candy as far as the eye can see, and then a little bit farther. Multiple floors filled with both classic and innovative treats. Finley rode in the beco since it was fairly tight getting around all the other candy connoisseurs and candy displays. We must have spent at least forty-five minutes walking all around and filling our little bags with sweets for ourselves and our respective significant others. Even the stairwell was full of candy!

While the weather was gorgeous, we'd done a lot of walking and needed to take a break indoors. So we walked over to Caitlin's new apartment to hang out for a while. Caitlin has 2 cats and Finley was enthralled by them! He sat there and let them check him out and was soon smiling and squeaking happily at them. The cats, however, were less impressed--in fact they were FREAKED OUT!! Their hair was all spiked up on their backs and their tails puffed out like Caitlin had never seen. Finley didn't get their vibe and continued to "play" with them, which really amounted to crawling towards them and cornering them.

We felt bad for the cats, but I was impressed that Finley was being so brave, I didn't have the heart to pick him up. The cats would growl or hiss a bit, but that didn't deter Finley at all. Our baby, the cat bully! Oh and Finley enjoyed tasting Caitlin's new employer's frisbee.

We walked back to the Hilton and Finley had some more quality time with his two aunts.

Soon he had to said goodbye to his Aunt Ellie, who had to catch a train to NJ, and then we headed back out for one more activity before dinner. Caitlin and I are both still kids at heart so with a baby in tow, a giant toy store was on our must do list of the weekend. Hello, FAO Schwartz! We toured the whole place (3 giant, packed floors) and picked out a wooden fire truck for Finley (it is his 9 month birthday tomorrow after all). Not surprisingly, a few blocks into our trek back to the hotel, Finley conked out.

We had a relaxing evening: Finley went to bed, Caitlin picked up Chinese food, we watched the Yankees beat the Royals while playing cards, and then we went to bed. Not as flashy as the Radio City Music Hall show the night before, but just as enjoyable :)

Times Square and Home At Last

Sunday morning we got out of bed around 8, since our little man decided he couldn't go the distance and got up at 5:30am to eat (and a fresh diaper and sleep sack--he was SOAKED) before going back to sleep. After breakfast, I thought we should take one more spin around the city and skip the morning nap. We walked to Times Square and since it was only around 9:30, the place was surprisingly calm and not crowded--rather enjoyable! All the souvenir shops were open but nothing caught our eyes, except in a joking fashion, and we headed to the much anticipated PopTart World that just opened. Sadly, it was closed and not opening until 11am (they clearly didn't get the memo about NYC being open 24 hrs a day), so we peeked in the windows and moved along. We did go into the M&M store though and boy, was there a lot to look at! I'm not sure who was more overstimulated, me or Finley. He was a good sport and let us put on some yellow M&M antennas on him.

Before we headed back to the hotel to pack up, Caitlin snapped this photo of us. What a great way to end our weekend.

We checked out, got the car, dropped Caitlin off near her apartment and headed back north. Without his morning nap, Finley was more than ready for a snooze which made the ride quite enjoyable. We made good time and while I was exhausted when we got home, Finley wasted no time in tearing into all his toys and books...

...and discovering the underside of his jumper.

Phew! What a wild, fun weekend! It was great to hang out with Caitlin and Ellie and it made me feel very loved to have such a special surprise all done just for me. Love you, ladies!

Summer League, Baby

A big part of our summers since graduating from Tufts has been playing summer league with our Tufts alumni friends. I didn't play last year since pregnant women are quite a liability on the field and am not playing this year since Finley's bedtime and game time are basically one in the same. However, the past few weeks the games have been really, really close to our house so we've opted to go hang out for the first half with Finley. The first week, I forgot my camera so I was sure to bring it the second time.

Finley only has mini-frisbees to play with and chew on at home, so he wasted no time getting to this gigantic one. He also enjoyed just lounging around in the grass with his dad.

Here are a couple of cute father-son shots from the sideline. It sure was hard to get both my boys to smile and keep their eyes open, we'll have to keep working on that!

Next year summer league will be much more exciting since hopefully Dan and I will both be playing and Finley will have to be tethered to a nearby tree so we don't lose him!

We're not dog people, really

It's true, neither Dan or myself are dog fans. In fact, you might call us dog-haters (and me actually having a fear of many dogs). While there have been a few exceptions to this rule (Annemarie's pup, Murphy), in general we steer clear of dogs. We're hoping that Finley, too, will develop a cautious, stand-offish relationship with most four-legged-barking-furballs. However, when I showed Dan the following set of pictures he commented that perhaps I do like dogs, since I was playing fetch with our son.

Hm. I guess I did roll a ball across the room, say "go get the ball, go get the ball" and Finley crawled over to it (and I said, "good boy!"). What does this say about me as a mom and a cynophobic? Yes--it means someone with an abnormal fear of dogs. But whatever it means, I promise to play more species-appropriate games with my son from now on :)

Hey, That's My Mommy!

Finley may whine from time to time, but he rarely cries to the point of shedding actual tears. However on Sunday, he did due to a bit of a face plant on the carpet while playing with Sangwha and baby Eliot. Sangwha scooped him up and attempted to comfort our pitiful guy, but suddenly Eliot realized her mommy was giving another baby some love and she wasn't going to stand for that!

Sangwha and I were both laughing at this spectacle and while Finley wasn't quite pleased, being climbed on by Eliot certainly distracted him from being too upset from his fall. What are friends (and their moms) for?

Week in Review

Nothing terribly exciting going on chez Finley this week, Fin is just continuing to work on crawling, picking up finger foods, and reading (after all, his mom is a teacher!).

Here's a video from this morning, it's tough to capture Finley showing off his true crawling chops when I'm home alone because as soon as I sit on the ground he usually comes right towards me (ruins camera angle) or just sits and pouts (making me crawl towards him instead, what a smarty pants).

He's working on his pulling up skills, too. He looks so innocent...and seems to find things that haven't even been opened yet!

Finley is a lot of fun to feed these days because he'll pretty much eat whatever you offer him. Recently, he's tried some pureed turkey, yogurt, and a personal favorite to watch: broccoli.

He tries really hard to pick up food himself, which is mildly successful most days.

He still LOVES drinking water when the meal is over and now he can tip the cup himself, which is pretty cool.

I love books and so does Finley. Plus--now he can read them all by himself! He'll just crawl over the bookshelf and pull one out or find one on the floor. Sometimes he just chews on it, but sometimes he really looks like he's enjoying the story!

A final little tidbit: For my birthday, Finley gave me a video baby monitor. It was something we resisted getting in the beginning, but as Finley has become more active (rolling over, sitting up, pulling up, etc.) it's been hard to know what is going on in his crib at night if he wakes up crying. We have tended to follow a tough love strategy if he cries before it's time to eat or get up, but I have been worrying about his getting "stuck" in odd positions that he might need to be rescued from.

Last night, we set up the camera and got to try it out. Finley went to bed by 7 as usual and we didn't hear a peep, but did turn on the monitor to see how our little nuglet was snoozing (first on his back, then on his belly with his toosh in the air). When we got into bed at 10, we heard a little squeak from him, so we flipped on the screen and he was squirming around. He began to cry a bit and rotated himself around and then began to crawl--right towards his owl lovey!! In the dark, he managed to find his way to his lovey and he pulled it right under his face and nuzzled it until he fell asleep. We were watching with big smiles on our faces, what a sight! It was seriously one of the most adorable and amazing things I've seen him do on his own (this week anyways!). Good to know he can comfort himself :) So far, video monitor--awesome!

Discovering the Discovery Museum

After such large field trips across the Atlantic and south of the Mason-Dixon line, it was time for a local adventure. This afternoon, Finley and I tried out the Acton Discovery Museum, which is only 25 minutes away. The low-key, baby and toddler friendly museum is a three story house fitted out into a labyrinth of themed rooms to explore. Now that Finley is mobile (slow going, but improving), it will be more fun to go places like this. With my teacher's card, I got in for free (saved $10.50!) and Finley is under a year, so he was free, too--how awesome is that?

There were so many rooms to explore, we first walked through the whole house to see which rooms might be best for us. Then, it was time to play! We started in the sensory room which was full of neat things to touch, push, and crawl towards.

Then it was off to the duplo/fort room...we focused on the duplos and not so much on the fort.

Next, into the play restaurant that had an infant corner...I dare say, it was too babyish for our grown up little guy, but it was a good spot for him to practice pulling himself up.

The third floor is fit out like a big ship and didn't seem too interesting to Fin, aside from a good full length mirror. So, we went back downstairs and found the rainbow room and Finley showed off his great skills crawling back and forth through the rainbow tunnel. He seemed quite happy under there and I got to just sit and watch him explore. Okay...I played a little bit, too (see block structure).

The rain forest room was painted with a beautiful mural and had jungle sounds playing in it. We sat down to play with the stuffed animals on the floor and had fun with one of the monkeys. (be sure your volume is up!)

Our final stop was the water table room, but Finley much preferred to chew on the edge of the table than to play with the water in it...so we didn't stay long! On the way out, we passed through the balls/ramps room and Finley was quite taken with the golf balls as they went on the ramps and through the tunnels. Granted, he just wanted to eat the balls when they finally came out, but that's to be expected!

All in all, it was a fun (and frugal) afternoon! I can't wait to see what Finley will be able to do the next time we go :)