Happy 7 Month Birthday!

Hard to believe that 7 months ago today, we got up in the middle of the night, packed a bag, rushed to the hospital and got to meet Finley 3 weeks earlier than anticipated!

I feel like Finley's grown up a lot between his 6 and 7 month birthdays, let's see...

1. He can sit on his own now and he's close to crawling (gets up on his hands and knees at will). I won't be modest, I take a lot of the credit for his upright skills--I was relentless!

2. He is sleeping MUCH better at night (one feeding between 3 and 4am, then gets up for the day between 7 and 8am) and his marathon napping continues (3 hours this afternoon!!). We love how easily Finley puts himself to sleep--just put him in his sleep sack and then into his crib, hand him one of his two loveys, and he'll roll to his side, suck his thumb and pass out. Bliss!

3. He's much chattier these days and makes the most adorable sounds. He talks a lot more while I carry him around in the Beco front pack, which is really fun, although this week he realized he could play with my hair in that position...not as fun!

4. We're pretty sure he's ticklish and he laughs quite easily and often--sometimes at songs, funny sounds we make, running our fingers up and down his belly, or seemingly at nothing at all. He usually gives himself the hiccups after an intense bout of laughter, but it still seems worth it to him!

5. He knows us well and can't help but break into a huge smile when he sees either one of us up close or across the room. Now that he can sit, I may leave him in the living room to go to do something in the kitchen but whenever I pop my head in to check on him, he always looks up with a big grin. What more could a mom ask for?

6. He has obvious favorites: books (Chicka Chicka ABC, If I Were a Cow...), songs (Open-Shut Them, The Noble Duke of York (it's an odd one)), and toys (squishy elephant, Sophie). It's funny to see what things he'll love for a short period of time and others that he never tires of.

7. Despite having favorite toys, Finley does tend to latch onto just about anything of ours that isn't a toy such as a bottle of saline drops, my camera case, my wallet and phone, empty or full water bottles, the tightening strap on his car seat, and his most recent fav -- an empty travel case of q-tips. Note to self--forget birthday presents in November, first just look in the trash or recycle bin!

Perfect--7 things for 7 months :) I'll stop here. Well, here's one more picture of something we got in the mail today. It wasn't intended to be a birthday present, but it turned out that way. We ordered Finley a rain jacket from LLBean to take with us overseas, when I opened the package I couldn't believe how adorable it was!! Then I put it on him...

What will the next month bring?

Happy Birthday, Buddy!

A Few Firsts

Finley tried on his first pair of shoes today. Up until now, I wasn't really sure about the necessity of babies his age wearing shoes, but as we begin to think about what to pack for our HUGE trip to Prague in July, it occurred to me that it might be time. While he's far from walking, his feet will be all over the place: planes, airports, buses, hotels, grass fields, etc. It would probably be nice to put something on his feet aside from socks (that are easily kicked off). Dan's cousin Julie gave Finley an adorable pair of shoes and they are for babies 6-12 months, so I figured we better get our use out of them ASAP as Fin nears his 7 month birthday. They fit him well and hopefully he can wear them with and without socks, depending on the weather. Here he is trying them out:

Aren't these just awesome? We then made sure they were further field-tested:

Check and check! Thanks, Julie, these shoes are just perfect!

Another first for today, Finley woke up from his wonderfully long afternoon nap with bedhead! Before now I don't think he's had enough hair to get this adorably funny look :) Check out the spikes on the right side of his noggin.

These next two pictures don't really fit into the category of "firsts," but they do show who's at the top of the food chain in our living room: not Sophie the giraffe and not the UVA lion!

It's Finley!!

Finley checks out Fenway

Well, not up close or anything--but we did venture down to Kenmore Square today to have lunch with a friend of mine from high school. Christy was in town to see the Phillies play the Sox and we met up with her at a local pub. Not surprisingly, such a fine establishment did not have a high chair so our plan of testing Finley's new sitting skills was foiled. No worries, Finley quickly occupied himself with the tasty menu. Thank goodness for plastic sheet protectors :)

After a nice lunch, we said goodbye to my friend and walked back to the car and saw this perfectly named restaurant across the street. We tried to get a good photo for a while, but there were police officers on motorcycles that monopolized Finley's attention. After they made a noisy departure we tried again, here's the best we could get :)

Dan's hoping that this sign is fate and Finley will become adventurous enough of an eater to enjoy such places. With my picky palate, I'm sure he could go either way...

New Ways to Play

Now that Finley can sit reliably, he's discovering that there's more to life. Well, not that much more--but it's something :)

(Thank you GG and Grandpa for this fun toy!)

It does surprise me that when Finley falls over, as long as he didn't drop whatever he was chewing on, he doesn't get upset.

We had Eliot, her parents, and Lisa over for take out and US soccer tonight. Just a week ago, Finley watched longingly as Eliot sat up and crawled around. Today, he met her at her level and they both enjoyed some bubbles in the playroom.

But truth be told, the little guy still likes being on his back or belly despite his new upright skill set. How else can you chew on such delicious things like tags and have strange things bonking you in the face in all directions??

For the First Time on Film

I know this is my one millionth post about Finley sitting up (or not sitting up), but hey--I stare at the kid all day so put yourself in my shoes and you'll become OCD about something, trust me!

Since it seems that Finley sits better in our mom/tot Caterpillar class than anywhere, I decided to try and replicate the environment. I can't bring 10 little kids and 10 singing moms over, but I can get some foam squares (on sale @ amazon) to sit on and I can blow lots of bubbles. A couple days ago, I thought I'd captured the most wonderful video of Finley sitting up tall trying to pop the bubbles I was blowing, laughing, and smiling...but when I went to press the "stop" button, I saw that I'd never pressed the "start" button. I was CRUSHED and Finley was all done playing with the bubbles so there was no Take Two.

Here he is on one of the foam squares chewing on his favorite squishy toy (it's an elephant) this afternoon just sitting away like he's been doing it his whole life...

...and yes, Finley proceeded to tip over right after the video ended and managed to just barely miss the coffee table (note to self, babies can and will tip over in all directions not just where you expect to catch them!). I'm going to keep trying to get a video of Finley with the bubbles because it was just adorable and probably video camera proof...arg! Looks like we're on the right track for sitting, practice may not make perfect but it certainly does make better :)

Finley is attacked by an octopus, for science!

Today we ventured downtown to participate in an infant study for 7 month olds (eek, he's a week short but I already feel like he's growing up too fast). We parked in a most poorly designed parking garage and made our way to the Children's Hospital research building. We met Eliza who was conducting the project and learned all about the study. Ours was about how infants process faces, specifically in terms of gender. I filled out a form about how much time Finley spends just with me, just with Dan, or with both of us during his waking hours. Kinda shocking that he's only awake 8-10 hours a day with his night sleep and naps--how can he still wear me out to the point of madness??

Anyway, once I signed the paperwork, saw the "hat" Finley would wear to monitor his brain waves, and fed him--it was time to get the lab rat into the maze, so to speak. Eliza warned me that sometimes babies just can't handle wearing the hat, so she has to cancel the session and they can be "all done." I gulped since Finley has been a bit irritable lately...and told Eliza that we'd hope for the best!

Her partner got the hat ready while Finley sat on my lap and Eliza gave him a super cool toy phone to play with (we don't have anything as fancy and flashy, so he was certainly smitten with it). The hat is hard to describe, so I'll just show you the picture they took of him once it was on. He remained happy as a clam chewing on the phone despite the hat needing several adjustments. He smiled on cue once the digital camera appeared, poor thing is like a trained seal!

We got the picture in the magnetic frame after we were done, what a nice souvenir!

Finley sat on my lap while watching images of men and women flash on a screen. I thought he was quite distracted and more interested in Eliza who was sitting next to us than the screen, but when we were done--they had recorded him watching the first 75 pictures before he started to look elsewhere--apparently, that's very good! Then, they took the hat off and Finley's head was covered in little octopus bites from all the suction cups. I wish I'd gotten a picture of that, too. He got some playing time before the second part of the study which tracked his eye movements when shown a pair of faces. No hat for this one, phew!

The second part only took about 5 minutes and then we were done. Eliza was pleased with Finley's participation and told us the best part was next because it was time to pick a toy. She showed us to a closet that was PACKED with all sorts of neat stuff, some items we already had but many we'd never seen! Thankfully, Finley would have been happy with anything handed to him so I selected a bag of bath squirters and he happily chewed on the packaging. Eliza also gave us $10 for our travel expenses (they pay for parking, too) and a cute snack box for our little neuroscientist. Not a bad haul, huh? All in the name of science :) I'll be sure to tuck the $10 into his piggy bank and not spend it on half a pedicure...

We walked back to the garage and Finley was already beginning to nod off, but he managed to keep his eyes open until just before got back onto Storrow Drive (a 10 minute feat!).

I was SO proud of him since we'd had a crankypants morning and I just didn't know how he'd respond to all of this work. Phew! We get to go back for two appointments next week to participate in a similar study that is about processing emotion through faces and facial expressions. When the studies are completed, all participants will get a copy of the report which I know will be fun to read. It's neat to live in such a bustling medical and educational community!

Sit Finley Sit--please!

Yes, our sitting boot camp continues here at casa de Forseter. I'm officially convinced that Finley can sit on his own, but that he'd rather not. Arg. Unlucky for him, I won't give up and the little bugger WILL be sitting up on his own (without complaint) before we fly to Prague in July. Or else...

I've found that if he's distracted enough with a toy or something/someone to look at, he'll sit for longer and he won't tip over until he realizes what's going on. He's sometimes using his free hand to support himself on the side which has helped, but the falling back is really tough since there's only me to catch him and I won't be there forever...ok, I will, but ideally not just to prevent head injuries!

Here are some quality sitting poses from the last week:

He would lick our remote for hours if allowed, but I only let him play with it during sitting lessons. My beloved boppy pillow is good for getting him centered when we are practicing.

He grabbed the saline bottle out of the basket near his changing table and had fun with it for quite a while afterwards. Forget all the fancy toys, right?

(that black tub isn't supporting him, I promise! it was just there!)

Good thing I still wear a super-cheap, slobber-resistant watch.

Baby Eliot was over this morning showing off her upright skills, Finley enjoyed gazing up at her but wasn't tempted to meet her at her level...oh well! I know he'll get the sitting thing soon, pretty sure it's a hard skill to skip altogether--though he does seem to prefer doing push ups!

Tonight, we tried out the Euro tub that Fin's friend Henry lent us. It's a good size to move into from our infant tub before Finley (and I) are ready for the actual tub. I know Dan hates naked babies publicly displayed, so I did some cropping and Finley conveniently used his new boats to shield himself! I think this tub is perfect for bathing and sitting practice, thanks Henry!