Toys and the Stairs, plus a creche crashing!

After his birthday and Hanukkah, Finley was pretty sure he was the luckiest kid in town. His luck continued as the little Jewish boy got to celebrate yet another present-filled occasion, Merry Christmas, Finley!

But before any of the presents were even opened, Finley was in hog heaven. My parents have a wonderful collection of toys that Finley dove into each morning. His favorite, by far, was a little writing desk that had a bench with a lid.

He basically opened and closed this thing a million times, though that's a conservative estimate. He put little toys into it and then pulled them out. He put his cracker in there to save for later. He liked it when someone would say "open" and "closed" as he flipped the lid up and down. It was quite entertaining to watch. Eventually, he tired of this (after day four or five) and discovered he could climb on top of it. I wasn't a fan of that activity as much, but he finally figured out how to get back down so it turned out to be alright.

When it was time to open presents, Finley was ready!

However, the neatest thing Finley "got" this visit was that he's officially not afraid of climbing stairs anymore! He used to go up a couple and then want to turn around to give up or he'd slip on one and then pout to be picked up. No more! My parents have a front and a back staircase that he scaled with ease many times and we had to hook up the gates that my folks had in reserve since Finley became obsessed with them!

Not so skilled at going down, but we'll work on that. While he wasn't fearful of stairs, he still wanted someone "spotting" him so he would walk over and perhaps climb the first step before calling out to one of us to come over and go up with him. No official words for this, but a little "ah ah" while he waited for us to give in. He does this more and more now whether it's to spot him on the stairs or just come with him into a different room, very cute and quite effective.

This new stairs accomplishment caused a little embarrassment on Christmas Eve, though. We accompanied my mom to church for the children's service so Finley could see all the kids dressed up for the nativity and he could meet some of my mom's many church friends. He enjoyed seeing all the kids in costumes and frequently approached the 3 Kings to check out what they were bringing to the soon-to-arrive Baby Jesus. He smiled and made friends with just about everyone and enjoyed walking up and down the main aisle as the pews were filling up with congregants. When the service started, Finley LOVED all the singing and "sang" along with my mom--nothing more adorable than that. Soon it was time for all the costumed kids to gather at the altar near the manger scene. When all the "friendly beasts" were invited up, Finley took that as his cue and leapt from my arms and began down the aisle. Eek. So I followed behind, but that wasn't the embarrassing part. Lots of "oohs" and "ahs" came from the crowd and I figured maybe this wasn't so bad :) We got to the end and I had Fin sit on my lap to listen to the rector tell the rest of the manger story. However, Finley wanted to be part of the action and he soon spotted the three steps at the base of the altar. He freed himself from my grasp and crawled up through the well-trained, seated kids and into the "stable" at the top of the stairs. Yikes! I bolted up and snatched him before he tipped over the manger and snacked on some hay. Yes, all of this in front of a few hundred people. We then made our not-so-smooth exit down the side aisle and back to our seats. Phew.

My mom later said how cute everyone told her Finley was and how funny it was that he crawled right into the scene. Never in his life had he been so bold and daring, it really took me by surprise. Who knows what he'll do next!