Children's Museum, take 2

Last week, Aunt Caitlin accompanied us to the Children's Museum downtown before she hopped on her Bolt bus back to the Big Apple. I took Finley once before months ago and longed for a slightly older kiddo who would be able to explore the place more fully. Well, he was a lot more independent this time, so that was excellent...maybe another few months and he'll have the run of the place!

Finley really loved the giant ducks in one of the playrooms and while he was licking it, he also enjoyed leaning back and forth on it (as intended).

We spent most of our time in the crawlers only room (we didn't have to heart to keep our pre-crawling guy out of it on account of semantics).

Dan thought maybe he'd be encouraged to crawl on the bumpy mat, so we tried that. No luck, but he did find his-adorable-self in the mirror!

After all the hard work he'd done, he just wanted to lay around which made for some spectacular close ups!

Then, we headed out to look around at the rest of the museum since neither Caitlin or Dan had ever been there before. Jackpot, the construction zone! A father and son moment :)

Aunt Caitlin wanted to get in on the fun, so off she went!

Before we left this exhibit, we thought Finley might need a drink (the kid does love water). Not sure he fully understood what was going on, but he did get a mouth (and nose) full of water!

On our way out, we went back in the Bubble Room because Dan was eager to try and get into the bubble tower.

He got it up to about his waist before it popped, not bad!

Thanks for visiting, Aunt Caitlin! See you in August!

A Cool Weekend

Not only was our weekend down in White Plains with my in-laws cool in a fun way, but also in a central air conditioning type way :) Despite how globetrotting our family of three has been and will continue to be, we couldn't resist a quick trip to NY so we got in the car Friday afternoon.

As soon as we arrived, Finley discovered why kitchens are so much fun. He was able to pull himself up and find all the tupperware treasures inside!

We had a delicious Shabbat dinner for five: me, Dan, GG, GM, and Aunt Ellie while Finley was in bed. We got to watch an exciting Yankees game on TV (too bad I fell asleep before the exciting 9th inning) and then slept wonderfully.

On Saturday afternoon, as the temperature rose close to 90, we drove over to Bella and Benny's house to enjoy a BBQ lunch and a swim in their pool. The timing worked out so that about 10 minutes after our arrival, we put Finley down for a nap in his trusty travel crib in a spare bedroom. Bella encouraged Dan and I to take advantage of a sleeping baby and get in the pool before lunch. What an experienced Grandma! She was right on and we had fun swimming around sans baby. Lunch was great--steak, chicken, hot dogs, asparagus, salad, etc.--and we were able to enjoy it from start to finish since Finley continued to snooze away. As we cleared the table, we thought maybe it was time to wake up Fin so he'd have a chance to swim since he's already been sleeping for nearly 2 hours. We peeked in on him and saw our little guy sleeping curled up on his side tightly hugging his owl lovey aka Owly. Adorable! We thought we'd give him a little more time and about 20 minutes later, he was up and ready to get wet.

This was Finley's fourth swimming adventure in a big pool and each time he's gotten more and more comfortable but not quite to the point of completely enjoying himself. This time was different! He didn't need to be eased in and didn't have a death grip on us while in the water. We passed him back and forth between us and to his GG, no problem. He even splashed with his hands quite a bit. He enjoyed being on his tummy in the pool and it was hard to keep his face out of the water because he kept trying to drink it!

The water temperature was excellent and the pool had plenty of semi-shallow space to walk and bounce around in. Finley was so much more "into it" than any of our other pool adventures and it made Dan and me really happy to know that we'll have lots of water adventures in our family's future. Phew! It had been well over an hour when I realized, hm--how long should we keep him in the water? I knew he was having fun, but I suspected he was also getting pretty worn out. We pulled him out and let him air dry in the warm sun. I spotted his very pruny feet and realized it was probably a good idea we got him out!

GG and I sat with him in the sun and he was occupied not only by his own feet, but his GG's as well.

He kept a close eye on the pool, though, probably wondering why anyone would have such a gigantic bathtub outside :)

When the sun got to be too much, we moved Finley into the shade and he got to sit in Bella's very nice patio chair. We were keeping our eye on him, so he wouldn't fall off the chair, but we didn't expect him to try to climb up and out!

Finley may not be crawling yet, but he certainly is mobile!

It was a wonderful, dare I say perfect, afternoon full of great friends, tasty food, and fantastic swimming! Thank you to Bella and Benny for hosting us!

Cheerio Experiment

While this video is already outdated, since Finley now seems to adore eating Cheerios, I thought I'd post the link anyway. I'm sure this will be one that Finley himself will love watching in a couple years :)

Click the video screen to watch it at youtube.com in the full size or click play to watch it here.

8 Months!

At 7am, 8 months ago, Finley was born! It's been the most amazing 8 months and while we don't have anything wildly exciting to report, here are a few updates:

1. Finley continues to sit up like a champ and has pushed himself into a sitting position from a crawling position a couple times this week.

2. No official crawling just yet, only backwards pushing and belly flopping...but I think he's gonna get it soon! However, he's shown a lot more interest (and strength) in pulling himself up to stand. He can do it on the blue toy box in his room and we're looking around the house for other pieces of furniture at the right height for him to practice.

3. Lots of babbling (when he's in the talkative mood) and we hope to post a short, chatty video soon.

4. His night sleeping habits have improved dramatically since our arrival home from Prague--last night he went to bed at 7, cried for a bit around 1am, but then went back to sleep until 7am this morning!! We'll count that as truly "sleeping through the night"!! A couple other nights, he got up at 5am or 6am which is still pretty sweet.

5. He's moving onto Stage 2 foods and eating some chunks of food-like cheerios and bananas. His pincer grasp isn't quite there yet, so he can't feed himself, but it's neat to see him try. We took a video of a cheerio eating endeavor this morning, he makes the funniest faces and mouth shapes when trying to chew! But...blogspot refused to upload this video, so stay tuned for a youtube link!

6. His independent playing skills continue to blossom, he's particularly fond of tipping over the toy box, pulling toys out, putting them in his mouth and then casting them aside for something else. No new toys for his 8 month milestone this morning, but he seemed just as happy with all his old ones!

Happy 8 Month Birthday, little buddy!

Aunt Caitlin Joins the Family

Caitlin has gotten to see both the exciting parts of our home life as well as the more mundane ones this week.

First, the exciting: candlepin bowling! Due to inclement weather and cabin fever after two naps, we got a lane at Lanes and Games (boo hoo, Sacco's was booked up) and Finley was more than willing to hang out in his car seat bucket for the first few frames.

But soon he wanted to be part of the action and we all took turns entertaining him when it wasn't our turn to bowl.

I know Finley's Granddad would be proud that his first bowling experience came before he even turned one! Dan bowled well, but Caits and I certainly underperformed...arg. At least now we know we can go bowling with Finley again in the near future, he seemed to like all the action and it was fun to do something we used to do often before his arrival :)

Second, the mundane: a trip to Home Depot and Costco. We got a new lightbulb for our kitchen fixture and Caitlin got her apartment keys duplicated at Home Depot. Then, we were hoping to score an array of free samples at Costco since it was right around lunchtime. No dice, all we got was some hummus on naan bread. Which while delicious, wasn't all that filling. We did get a good laugh, though, when Dan attempted to take a bite and lost his hummus on the floor! Clean up on aisle 5!

We strolled around cruising for free goodies, but came up empty :( So Dan got a box of taquitos, his favorite toaster-friendly snack, and handed it to Finley who was more than happy to carry it for his dad.

This outing would make his Grandpa (GM) proud, who doesn't love a bulk bargain?

Third, neither boring or wildy exciting, but somewhere in between: a reading of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. This story was a favorite in Caitlin and I's childhood, known then as The Hungy Pillar.

Finley loves being read to and while he used to just want to eat the books while you read, more recently he's been patient enough for the story to be over before trying to getting his hands on it. A welcome development!

We have Caitlin for just one more afternoon, so we're devising a plan to make it more than worth her while--stay tuned!

Super Duper Playground

My sister arrived yesterday and after letting Finley snooze, we got in the car and drove to Harvard Square to check out one of the more famous playgrounds we know of. The Cambridge Common playground is a really neat spot near the Harvard campus that has a little bit of everything: climbing structures, a cargo net, swings, sand galore, a merry go round, tree house/fort, a wooden pirate ship, and an interesting water table. Finley's still a bit small to enjoy most of these activities, but I think it'll pay off to know all the ins and out of our local playgrounds when the times comes for him to fully take advantage of them.

On our way to the baby swings, Dan couldn't resist hopping onto the ergonomic, organic looking seesaw. Caitlin was kind enough to help us by taking photos and passing Finley back and forth. Our first arrangement of Dan and Finley on one side and me on the other didn't make sense, so Caitlin brought Fin over to me for a more balanced situation :)

Then it was time for the bucket swings, Finley just loves flying through the air and it was great for Caitlin to get to see him laughing and smiling away.

Next stop, giant swing (I tried to come up with a better name for this contraption, but no luck). Dan climbed in and Caitlin passed Finley over, who was not quite sure what to make of it at first.

He did enjoy himself though!

And he enjoyed his shoe :)

While Dan crawled out of the swing/hammock thing, Caitlin took Finley over to the picnic table for some standing and walking.

He preferred to squish his Aunt Caitlin's face instead!

Our final stop was at the science museumesque water table. Here's a picture from the city's web site, so you can get a sense of it.

Caitlin held onto Fin while Dan cranked the water wheel (and confused a little boy there who didn't seem to grasp the idea of getting the water to come out of the tap). Here they are waiting for the water:

The water finally came rushing down!

Hands down, best picture of the afternoon! After all this fun, we wandered into Harvard Square for some delicious Lizzy's Ice Cream. Not a bad way to cool off! Oh, and a fashion note: check out Finley's new mesh soccer tank top that his dad picked out earlier in the week. Doesn't he look like a little jock? Wait till you see his red mesh football shorts....

Beating the Heat, Poolside

It's pretty tough to beat the heat when you don't have central AC, but we're sure trying! I bought Finley a kiddie pool a month ago when he showed us he could sit up on his own, but for one reason or another we had yet to try it out. Hot days are often followed by thunderstorms around here so my pooling plans have often foiled by rain, but not yesterday (it didn't rain until after bedtime)!

Dan filled up the pool earlier in the day and pushed it into the sun so the water would be a good temperature and we decided that putting Finley in just a swim diaper was perfect, then we dropped him in. Since a kiddie pool is closer to a tub than a full sized swimming pool, the little guy was happy as a clam!

But he soon realized he could scoot himself to the edge and then he tried to get out!

He was easily persuaded to get back in though as he really loves having water poured on him from our watering can.

Finley was quickly turning into a prune, so Dan decided to introduce him to the backstroke before it was time to get out.

I think he had more fun than his facial expression is showing here :) Hopefully we'll get back in the pool this afternoon because it was quite refreshing for all of us!