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.