He's a handy man.

Finley found his hands. He loves them so much. He will put his little hands together and use one to push the other to his mouth. He gets really excited about it--it's super cute. Just thought I should tell you.




Oh, and also, his foot. It's completely corrected on the horizontal direction, but still needs some more flexibility in the vertical direction. (I forget the fancy medical words... dorsi flexion? Something?) They are going to do a few more casts to see if they can stretch it and avoid surgery. The surgery cuts his heel cord and lets it heal back a little longer. We'd love some prayers that we can avoid Finley going under the knife. But his foot has healed so much--its amazing what babies can do. I realized I don't have a great "before" picture... but you can kind of see the difference. The top leg in the first picture shows his little foot hooked inward and upward--now its a normal foot! Good job, Finn, your bones are like jello.

Boston!

We spent the weekend catching up with just about everyone we love in Boston--there's never enough time to spend with everyone! We decided to drive rather than fly, and Finley was a champ on the way up. He slept for almost the whole way, continued to sleep through the night and through a good part of the next day! The return trip was not quite as lovely, he was awake for a good portion of it. My arm got very tired from shaking a rattle to try to distract him. He was still a good baby, just a little more active. And he liked to scream a little more.

While in Boston, we got to see my students graduate from 8th grade (words can't do justice to the debacle that is the Dearborn graduation... there needs to be a separate blog post to try to explain it). It was so fun to see all the kids and teachers again. I got a lot of hugs and made a lot of awkward conversation. Middle schoolers aren't all that articulate. And I got to hang out with my favorite educators.



We also made a brief stop at Logan airport to see Heidi y Alex off to Croatia. It was the only way we could steal a few minutes with them. We've eaten at a lot of restaurants with those guys over the years, and now we can cross Terminal E off the list.



Sol played basketball with the boys while Kate, Bryce and I hung out at the park. Laura made the trip up from Providence to go to a barbecue with our friends from church. We were so thrilled to see the Brills and get a preview of where Finley will be in a short time. Apparently, kids grow pretty fast. I didn't do a great job of getting pictures of all the small groupers, but if you are reading this, I love you just as much as Sherri and Ashley, my baby was just extra cute when Sherri had him and it made me remember to take a picture.


Finley had about had it by the barbecue and had a minor meltdown toward the end. It's neat to watch him develop preferences for things--at times he really just wanted to be put down and have some "Finley Time".

On the way back, we stopped in Connect-i-cut to see the Arners and their little Evangeline! We had tasty Asian food and got to celebrate Neil and Sol's foray into fatherhood. They seem to both be adjusting well.


We miss Boston and all our lovely friends there so much! Hopefully Finley grows up with a little bit of Boston in him.

8 weeks!

We had Finley's 8 week check-up yesterday, and he's doing great. Here are his stats:

Height: 23 inches (75th %tile)
Weight: 13 lbs (95th %tile)
Head: 15.5 inches (50th %tile)

So he's a big boy. He also got some shots which was a little sad. Because of all his casting, I'm used to seeing doctors make him sad so it wasn't too bad for me. He cried a little and was a bit fussy yesterday. But today...

He puked all over me. He was eating very nicely, started to cough, then puked all over me. And my first thought was, "Hurray! Something interesting to blog about!" Then I called the doctor, because I'm a good mom. He seems fine now, a little fussy and clingy but not too bad. And he has two cool tazmanian devil band-aids. Poor little boy. But as soon as he puked he must have felt better because this is what he looked like.


Also, we gave him a bath because he had a day with no cast. And he was cute.

It's a first.

Today I did something I had never done before.

I mowed the lawn.



How I have made it this far in my life without mowing the yard is a mystery and a feat I am quite proud of. Once I had to weed-eat my parents' lawn. This was a punishment because my boyfriend came over to the house when my parents weren't home. So they made me weed-whatever the lawn. Because my boyfriend came over... to DUMP ME. That's right, my 15 year old self got dumped then had to do lawn work. AND, I wasn't technically breaking any rules because we stayed OUTside and I wasn't allowed to have boys INside. I have cruel parents.

But then my mom gave me FIVE different kinds of M&Ms so it wasn't so bad.

Anyway, I had never mowed the lawn, until today.

I got back from a run and the yard looked like a jungle, and my poor husband went to work at 5 this morning and probably won't get back until 8... so I mowed. And Finley mowed. And Copper tried to stop us.



But you can't stop us! We were on a mission to mow!

Do you know what our yard used to look like? This.

And now it looks like this!

Also, thanks to these people who traveled so far and spent a whole day whipping it into shape.



The lawn has come so far, and I couldn't stand in its way. I sacrificed my non-mowing streak for the greater good. But I'm not planning on making a habit of it. It wasn't all that fun.

The Goal

This is the goal.

Every day, my goal is to collect as many of these sweet little smiles as I can.

Often when Finley's fussy, just laying him on the changing table makes him happy. I'm not sure why he loves it so much, but he could lay on the changing table for quite a while. Because I was tired of standing beside him to make sure he doesn't fling himself off, I stuck books in beside him to act like a guardrail. I'm not sure why he likes the changing table so much. In fact, sometimes he cries when we pick up him back up from laying down. It makes me a little sad that sometimes he'd rather play alone than be held by me...



We bought a little play gym for him since he likes to occasionally play alone. He loves it (as far as I can tell). He'll lay and look at the toys for a good amount of time. He starting rolling to the left and right so that he can see all the toys. And today he scooted himself in a quarter of a circle so he could look at himself in the mirror. It's so neat to watch him figure stuff out and to see him gain interest in his surroundings.

I still like him a lot.

Things I Love

First off, Finley really loves me. In fact, he loves me so much that he doesn't want to sleep unless I am holding him. However, at this moment he has been sleeping for fourteen minutes and a different room! Magic! I don't mind holding him while he sleeps--he's an angel--but there is significantly less blog updating, dish washing and house/Rachel cleaning that occurs when he needs to be held to sleep. Let's see how much longer he sleeps...

I love Goldfish Crackers. I love them so much. So much. I am on my 3rd gallon size box of them since he was born. That's a lot of fishies. And I love them because the name of the fish on the box is also Finn. Clearly, Finn the human is excited about Finn the snack. Please forgive the way I look in the next two pictures. Finley doesn't allow me to look my awesomest.

I love sleeping with my baby. He is so cuddly now and likely won't let me cuddle him forever. Sol snuck up on me in my sleeping beauty and took this picture. Finley really likes my face, so much that he had to grab it while we slept.

I love that Finley changes a little at a time. We got him to hold this rattle and its pretty cute. I don't think he knows he's holding it, or realizes that it makes a sound, but we can pretend.

I love that his little foot is healing. It's better every time we go in--a few more casts and then they will decide if he needs a minor surgery to lengthen his Achilles tendon. We're hoping not, but the doctor told us that the surgery takes less time than the explanation of the surgery, so that is good news.

And I love this little face.




But most of all.... I love that he's still asleep! It's been like 22 minutes! What should I do with all this free time? I'll probably go watch Big Love. Peace.

3 to 1

I'm outnumbered. And they seem to be forming some sort of cabal to plot against me. Don't they look mischievous? Too many boys...

We got a Wii Fit and made a Mii for Finley. It's really funny looking, I should have taken a picture. Pretty much its a short, skinny, bald headed figure. And this is Sol doing the balance portion of the Fitness test for him. According to the Wii, Finley has the balancing skills of a 4 year old. He's quite advanced.

Also, thanks to Heidi and Alex for his Cod outfit and to Lili for his legwarmers. He's the coolest baby around.