A day at the office

Finn got a jumpstart on his career, in fact he was only 9 months old when he started "going to the office". We were in Canada at the time, and after breakfast Finn would sit down at his little desk and get to work. His job description included assembling, taking apart, sorting, throwing and - not the least - tasting of various kinds of wooden and plastic contraptions. Often Finn would call on his dad to have in-depth engineer conversations about the qualities of certain products (see picture).
These days Finn is quite busy, too. For his birthday he got a "Laugh and Learn Home" from his German grandparents - a door with a gazillion fun functions to discover. It plays music, teaches words and sentences. Finn can sort shapes, push buttons, open a mailbox, turn the hands on a clock, throw balls down an eaves drop and much more. Finn loves that toy and although the songs can become repetitive I love it, too! It is so nice to sit on the couch with my feet up while Finn is playing on the floor instead of climbing all over me.
His other passion is looking at books and being read to. Since Finn insists on turning the pages (at his speed and in all directions) the stories come out quite funny. We just invent them as we go along.
Finn also loves his new wooden farm animals puzzle. Neil and I showed him how to do it a few times, naming the animals and making the appropriate sounds. (By the way, Neil is GREAT at making those sounds - I just about die laughing time and time again. Next time you see Neil ask him for his turkey imitation.) Anyway, the other day I put all the pieces on the floor (there are 10 or so) and asked Finn where the cow was. I was amazed when he actually pointed it out to me (going "mmmmooo"). I then asked him for one animal after the other and he handed them to me without fail! THE KID IS A GENIUS! :-) It made me realize just how much he already understands even though he can't talk yet. Don't underestimate the little ones!