Update on Finn at 16 months

Since most of you haven’t seen Finn in quite a while I thought I’d give you an update on what he can do already. This might be long, so get some coffee :-) .

Let me start out by saying that – I am not biased of course – Finn really is the cutest, smartest, most charming little boy I have ever met! And here are the details:

At 16 months Finn is approx. 78-80 cm tall (32 in.), weighs about 10 kg (22 pds.) and has 16 teeth already – all except the 4 two-year-molars. We are VERY happy about that and hope he will not be teething again for a while. He has been walking for 4 months and loves to move. We regularly walk down the street to visit the rabbits, ducks and chickens. Being confined in a car seat or stroller is definitely NOT what he likes right now. He loves to climb on things and has learned how to get off the couch or bed safely. He loves to push things like the little wagon he got for Christmas. Finn can throw a ball and is working on kicking one, too. He climbs up stairs and we are teaching him how to go down backwards. (I don’t like to practice much in our house, since our stairs are all marble. I hope he will NEVER fall down those.) Finn really likes to go swimming with us. With his water wings he paddles around like a puppy. He can help brush his teeth and hair and has his own little plastic sink which attaches to the bath tub. In the morning he climbs up on a little step and washes up in his sink. (Well, I wash him up while he plays with the water.)

Finn is an animal lover. In his books he mostly just looks for the animals, pages with only trucks or people are boring and quickly turned over. His favourite book right now is his “Franklin treasury” from Uncle Karl. The pictures are great and Finn gets all excited when he looks at them, shouting “DA! DA!” (“there!”) and pointing out fish, frogs and such. The smaller the animals the more fun he has discovering them. By the way, Finn is really careful with books. He has his board books, of course, but he also leafs through real books (even with just printing) and never tears the pages. He loves looking at mommy’s horse training books, because they have lots of pictures. Finn knows a LOT of animals, points them out in his books when asked and can imitate about 20 (!) animal sounds. (Like dog, cat, cow, horse, donkey, duck, rooster, pig, bear, owl, crow, monkey, goat, sheep – to name a few.) And he still misses our cat Aimee – somehow we just can’t make him understand that the kitty is NOT down in the basement somewhere.

He says some real words, too: papa, mama, m-pa (“Opa” = grandpa), m-ma (“Oma” = grandma), Jana (his friend), hallo (often sounding more like “ha-ya” since he sometimes still has trouble with the o and l sounds), alle (“all gone” in German), da (“there” in German), ba (“ball”), baby, Lily, mjam-mjam (food / drink), hugg-a (“hug”). The other day I asked him to say “I love you” and he bent forward and kissed my lips. I guess I must have said that and kissed him a few (hundred) times :-) . That was so sweet! He can also identify a few body parts on himself and others: hair, eyes, ears, mouth, nose, chin, hands, fingers, feet, knees, tummy and belly button.

Finn follows simple commands (so far in English only) like “put this on the table / in the toy box”, “give this to…”, “take of your hat / scarf”, “go get your boots”, “march RIGHT out!” (when he got in trouble in the office or kitchen for example). When he has done something he knows we don’t like he says “uh-oh” and shakes his finger at himself, like his Papa does. It is so hard not to laugh at that! We are trying to teach him wrong from right, like NOT throwing his food around or making puddles on the floor with his drink, but for Finn everything is a game. He knows what “no” means, but obeying is a whole different story.

As for eating, he likes fruit, yoghurt, crackers, dried fruit and fruit bars, cheese toast, pickles, red bell peppers, cooked carrots and beans, sandwiches with liver wurst (very German), pancakes with maple syrup (very Canadian), some jarred baby foods and of course cookies, icecream and such. He will also try bites of our food, but often spits the meat back out. In the morning he gets lactose free whole milk with instant oats mixed in. I stopped nursing him about 2 months ago, and he seems to tolerate the lactose free milk better than regular cow’s milk.

All in all we are very happy with our little boy! He is a sensitive child and very alert and clever (other people have said that, too), but crowds of children or even just one other pushy child intimidate him. I take him to play group often so that he can get used to playing with other kids. And if he sometimes is clingy that is okay with me. We will give him all the time and security he needs in order to be able to stand his ground.

Here we are in 2007!

We hope you all had good holidays and a great start into the new year! We certainly did and even still have internet, although our current connection is so slow that I won’t even try and post any photos for now. I’ll do that as soon as things are working properly.

Our Christmas holidays were fun. My parents and grandma came here on the 23rd, my sister on the 24th. They all stayed for almost a week. Finn had the time of his life with so many people to play with. The days with my family were spent eating (I look about twice as pregnant as two weeks ago and it is NOT all baby), playing games, going for walks and just generally enjoying each other’s company. We also had a four-generations-picture taken at a photo studio.

On the 24th we set up our tree, which was waiting on our patio. We had planned to cut it ourselves, but ended up just plain buying it. In Germany your tree is not usually up before Christmas and the gifts are either brought by Santa Claus himself on Christmas Eve or put under the tree just before you open them. So after church on Christmas Eve we started with putting Finn’s gifts under the tree first, lit some candles, put on Christmas music and took Finn into the living room. He got really nice toys, his favourite being a little wooden wagon from my parents. As soon as he spotted the wagon he walked up to it and started pushing it around. He LOVES to push things, so it is the perfect gift. There is a little seat in the front where he can put a stuffed animal or even sit down himself, and it has room for toys to transport. We take it for walks and Finn also plays with it inside. The rest of us received really nice presents, too.

Neil, Finn and I spent New Year’s Eve at friends’ from church. They live on the edge of our little town and we figured it would be more quiet there than at our place. We live right across the school, where the kids like to hang out. Since anyone can buy fireworks here (not like in nice, quiet Canada J), New Year’s is a LOUD and colorful night in Germany. Our friends have 3 kids, and their two sons (10 and 16 years old) were home. We had a delicious, lengthy “Raclette” supper together, which even Finn enjoyed. Raclette is originally a French meal of boiled potatoes and melted flavourful cheese. The popular German version consists of those plus all kinds of thinly sliced meats, mushrooms, onions, peppers, corn and so on. There is a hot grill in the middle of the table (for cooking your meat on) and underneath the grill there is room for little pans you can fill with potatoes, cheese and whatever else you like. One usually ends up filling those little pans over and over and needing a schnapps in the end… So we all just ate away and had a good time. After we put Finn to bed upstairs we played board games and talked until midnight, when we had champagne and went outside to start some fireworks. Most of the stuff we had wasn’t too loud and the neighbourhood was relatively quiet, too, so Finn just slept on until 8:30am the next morning. (Except for when his mommy wanted to check on him after all the banging outside and snuck into his room quiet as a mouse. UP went his little head immediately, but he fell right back asleep. Go figure!) After breakfast the next morning our little family went home.

We really enjoyed Neil’s days off (3 weeks to be exact). We took Finn outside every day to walk to the rabbits and ducks and chickens down the street. Winter somehow hasn’t arrived yet, so temperatures are relatively high. (Around 10°C most days.) We also went to the mall and took Finn swimming twice. He absolutely loves to be in the water, especially with his Papa. Finn has water wings and they work great for him. Neil and Finn even went down the big slide together a few times. Neil also went wall-climbing with friends one afternoon, which he much enjoyed, although his arms hurt a bit the next day. All in all, we had great holidays at home. It is nice to spend time together in our own home, where we can work around Finn’s schedule and still do lots of fun stuff. Finn really, really enjoys having his Papa home with him. He is just a happy little boy most of the time, eats well and sleeps great. When Neil is working I can really tell the difference. Finn sometimes has a harder time letting go of us at night and often doesn’t nap well. So we really cherish the time we can spend as a family, but we can’t live on air and love alone. I am thankful that we can afford that I stay home!