9 Months

Hot Off The Presses!

Finn is 9 months old

July 14th marked the ninth month of young Finnegan's life. Over the course of these momentus four weeks, events took place that would change the young boys life as he knew it forever. Amid the explosions of fireworks and the din of innumerable parties the little lad discovered the advantages of becoming bipedal and all the new vista's this position allowed him to enjoy. Terrestrial locomotion in a bipedal form has still evaded the young explorer but his adventuous spirit and determination will soon remedy this set-back. He entertained many with his original compositions on the piano, and just recently began accompaning his beautiful ballads with original lyrics, reminicent of the spontaneity and vitality of the improvisational Jazz Movement.  All who have wittnessed his Mozart like talent will be eager to follow his early musical carreer. Independence has been an underlying theme leading up to the culmination of Finnegan's ninth month of life. Parade's were held and attended, fireworks were enjoyed while sitting atop the roof with good friends, beer festivals were graced with his presence and enjoyed by all healthy enough and of legal drinking age to drink and Finnegan perfected the task of self feeding while trying out new flavors and textures. He would like to report that he most decidedly did not like chicken tenders or kiwi fruit, but sweet potatoes and quinoa are two favorites. Finnegan looks forward to a fun filled and prosperous month 10 and hopes to be able to spend most of it in the company of good friends and family.

Enjoying Yogurt for the first time...yum, yum!



It's Pizza Friday!

Matt and I eat pizza every Friday...I know this is not the healthiest of habits but it makes the question "what's for dinner?" really easy to answer every Friday. We always get Papa Murphy's pizza so it isn't dripping with grease and if you order the cheese pizza you can put your own topping on and save a ton of money (not that a Papa Murphy pizza is all that expensive). Eventually I would like to get my act together enough to make our own pizza every Friday from scratch...I know, I know, it isn't difficult and doesn't take that long, but you tell that to the grabby 7 month old that wants to touch and put everything in his mouth. Long story short, we like pizza on Friday's (no matter where it comes from or who made it) and now Finn is joining us in our little family tradition.

Do any of you have Family traditions that you have passed down to your children? Or maybe you have started new traditions with your family? Please share with us!

Growing Up

Oh my little boy is growing up so fast...but to tell the truth, I don't really missing the past. I loved being able to hold him snuggled up to my chest and not have to worry about him ripping my earrings out, or being able to set him down on the ground and know he will be in that exact spot when I got back. As nice as all these things are and were I am loving the new things even more.

I love that he will see me or Matt from across a ball field and squeal with delight.

I love that he can crawl to me (more on that later) and then hold his hands up in indication that he wants to be lifted.

I love that when he smiles I see two perfect little teeth.

I love that his personality is starting to come through.

I love all these things so much and I am positive that when he starts walking I'll love that, and when he starts talking endlessly I love that. These things are all the things I imagined parenthood to be, and to be able to experience them first hand is pretty amazing.

Not to leave you on a cliff hanger with the "more on that" comment above, I had a wonderful video of Finn taking his first crawling steps in his room. It was a precious moment and a pretty funny video, and I deleted it! Yup, that's right, the daughter of an IT Director, an employee of a company that touts the importance of backing up your data, did not back up her data and accidentally deleted the video with no way of recovering it! UGGGH! So I have been meaning to get a new video of Finn crawling but life got in the way and a few days after learning how to crawl he learned how to pull himself up, so I am posting a video of him pulling himself up instead. The little bugger is already standing and cruising along anything that will support him.  I'm going to have to re-think my baby proofing strategy in our house.

Choo Choo

A couple months ago Finn got to go for a ride on a real working steam train with his Aunt Laura and Uncle Dusty. He is practicing for their Big Day when he will be in charge of their rings while attempting to walk/crawl/be carried down the aisle.

Six months and all growed up

Today Finn is six months and to celebrate this milestone he is dressing in his Sunday best.  To tell you the truth I had picked out this awesome vintage sailor suit that my cousin Campbell had given to Finn, but he decided he didn't want to wear it and threw-up all over it.  I know that I only have a small window of time where Finn will sit still long enough to be photographed and be pleasant and I was getting dangerously close to the end of that time so in a split second decision I grabbed his Easter suit and stuffed him in it.

After two head plants onto the hardwood and some serious silly faces and noises on my behalf to keep the smiles coming Finn let me know that he had enough.

"Mom...stop...seriously!"

Month five has been a busy month for Finn.  He is sitting up on his own, he has learned to take the lid of a pot to see what I have hidden on the inside, he has rolled over on his own and to top the stupid baby tricks list he can feed himself with a spoon, although I'm not a big fan of him doing that on a regular basis.  Take a look for yourself

Although it looks like Finn started on his side, I just couldn't get the camera on fast enough to catch the initial roll to the side.  He started on his back in the film. (I apologize for my high squeaky voice)

Notice the fun little confetti pieces of green all over Finn, the Bumbo, the table and the remote.  That is Matt's signature calling card right there.

Here is to new adventures in month six!

hard at work

Would you like that with a side of Raspberries?

Yesterday was Matt's first softball game of the season and Finn and I came out to cheer the team on.  Softball is so exciting with the big bright lights, the shrill ring of a ball pinging off a metal bat.  The dust cloud of someone sliding into home and all the new and exciting people to meet and make raspberries at.  Raspberries are Finn's most favorite thing to do these days and to be perfectly honest it is my favorite thing to watch these days as well!

See for yourself and you will know what I mean

PHHHFFFFFFF!

Stupid Baby Tricks

"I can suck on my bottom lip, what can you do?"

"I can ride a horsey, can you?"

"I can play pinball.  Okay...I can watch pinball."

But if you come over I'll let you play pinball with me!

Conversations with a light

A New Year

Finn brought in his first New Year's at Scopazzi's restaurant in Boulder Creek.  He heard the event was going to be cocktail attire so he donned his tuxedo shirt, smuggled in a few bottles of milk and celebrated with the best of them.

 not wanting to miss any of the action, Finn stayed awake even after being fed.

the happy family (someone looks a little milk drunk) 

Grandma's spiffy date

Bringing in the new year with fresh air and big trees

On a different note, Finn had his first run in with another baby.  My friend Mari had her baby girl Xiola in September and we were finally able to hook-up and have them meet each other.  Although Xiola is a full month older than Finn he was almost twice her size, but she was much more advanced in the hand sucking department and graciously taught Finn how to do it himself. 



 



Merry Christmas to all

So you would think that with Matt home for the holidays I would have more free time to blog, but instead we kept busy going on hikes when the weather was nice and going out and about on the town, so in short I am just getting around to posting our Christmas and New Years pictures.

In order to celebrate Finn's first Christmas with both families we had an early Christmas with the O'Briens and then headed up to Placerville to celebrate with the Winkler clan.

Showing off his Christmas outfit for Auntie Laura

Christmas ornaments from Sally; two Roosters for Matt and I and Tiger for Finn according to the Chinese Zodiac

From his Mommy and Daddy Finn got some Mad Scientist wooden blocks: X is for x-ray gun, R is for robot, and I just couldn't help buying the Star Wars ABC book for him as well.  As you can see he doesn't seem too into Star Wars yet...all in good time, all in good time. 

From his Nana and Papa and also his Auntie Laura and Uncle Dusty he got these cool tin robots, a blue and silver one to help decorate his robot themed nursery.  When I finally get the room finished I will post photos.

Finally, it wouldn't be a Christmas without some embarrassing outfit so here is my blue nightmare!

We found out that Finn liked being in the carrier that faced out so he could see what was going on.

Here is a scene from Christmas morning

and another scene from Christmas night...The Lorax is Finn's favorite book, look how into it he is!

Giving Thanks

We all enjoyed a great Thanksgiving dinner with the Cali side of the O'Brien clan.  The food was delish but was a little bittersweet without Grandpa Pat at the head of the table.  Finn dressed up in his holiday best for Thanksgiving this year and as you can see in the photo below, we was not completely excited to be in his holiday best...

...but once he was put at the dinner table and got to sit next to Auntie Laura he perked right up.

He was probably just so excited to show her that he finally fit into the "big boy" shoes he got from her and Dusty.

Speaking of being a big boy, Finn is starting to drink from a bottle and his Daddy got to take over one of the night feeding for the first time over the Holiday Weekend.  Just look at the focus on both of their faces!

And while we are on the subject of faces I am starting to see more and more of Matt in Finn's face, but I'll let you decided for yourself

like father like son?

We met up with Finn's Nana and Papa in San Francisco the weekend after Thanksgiving, thanks to my Dad securing hotel rooms for us so we could spend the night.  I didn't feel like packing up the Pack n' Play so Finn got to sleep in a suitcase for the evening.



After only an hour of driving around Union Square we found a parking spot so that we could all get out and look at the holiday lights.

in front of th tree

 Papa & Nana

and our friend Soroush dropped in to meet Finn as well

And I will wrap up this post with a little friendly bet...what color eyes do you think Finn is going to end up with?

1 Month old

My baby is one month old! 

Things started out pretty easy for us in month one, Finn would go to sleep right after eating and he was sleeping in 4 hour increments.  Month two seems to be a different story.  At night he wants to stay up and be held for several hours before drifting off to sleep and has switched to a two hour eating schedule.  Lucky for us his Papa (Danielle's Dad) got him a swing with all the cool bells and whistles and this magical chair helps send little Finnegan right off to dreamland.

Another new development for our little boy is the introduction of the Binky.  I was a little nervous introducing the Binky because you hear all the warnings about nipple confusion and using it as a crutch, but this thing has been the best calming agent for the little man not to mention the cute factor...I mean look at that mug!  So adorable!

I originally bought the 12 month old pacifier (who knew there were different sizes?) you can see that the top of the Binky would push up his nose as he sucked, which I though upped the cute factor, but Finn wasn't so impressed.  I had to go back and get the correct size so he now can breath and suck at the same time.

I leave you all with some of my favorite faces of Finn

Expectant

Happy

Huh, huh, huh

Curious

Milk drunk