December 12, 2007
You have been here in my life for just over two months now and I cannot imagine how I ever lived without you.
Some glimpses of you in your very early, early days.
Baby Bird Face—During your first month or so of life, when you were hungry, you would make the cutest little motion with you mouth, to show you wanted to eat. You looked like a baby bird waiting for its mom to drop food into its mouth. You also used to make the cutest little squeaking noise when you ate, like you were sucking in air because you couldn’t get food fast enough. It was such an identifiable little noise that if your grandma called, she could tell you were eating just by hearing you over the phone.
A, E, I, O, U—Around six weeks or so you began cooing in the most adorable way. To encourage your talking, Jason would sit with you and say “aaaaaa, eeeee, iiiii, ooooo, uuuuuu” over and over again.
Going to bed—You have been an amazingly easy baby, yet getting you to go to sleep is still a stressful everyday event. Some days you go to bed at night literally without a peep. Other nights your papa or I would have to pick you up and soothe you and lay you down again several times over before you’d finally nod off. Sometimes we’d have to let you cry yourself to sleep. One particular night when you were crying I came into your room to help you calm down and leaned over your crib, putting my face real close to yours. I put my hand on your tummy and talked to you for just a moment. Amazingly, that calmed you and you felt right to sleep.
Nicknames—I have so many nicknames for you, I’m constantly calling you something new; you probably wonder what the heck your real name is. Lately I most often call you “potato” which comes from “sweet potato,” my own version of “sweet pea.” I call you “sweetie pie,” once in a while “tootsie roll,” “Finn Man,” and “cutie pututie,” or “goo boy,” “drool boy,” etc. Your papa is less varied and most often calls you “Finn” or “Finny Boy” or “Little Man.”
December 19, 2007
We spent the day today at your grandma and grampa’s house, making Christmas cookies. And you were just a happy, smiley boy! You smile so much and so big that it almost seems like you’re laughing. And you make a little sound that is a cross between a laugh and a cough.
January 1, 2008
Last night you celebrated your first New Year’s Eve. You slept through a lot of the evening, probably recovering from the trip home from Sanibel. So your papa and I enjoyed some Thai food and a movie. Then, we woke you up at 11:00 to eat, and at 11:30 instead of being tired and ready to go to bed for the night, you were wide awake. So, you rang in the new year with us. We used your rattles as noisemakers, counted down when the ball dropped and cheered and yelled “Happy New Year” with you!
January 6, 2008
The last few days you have been rubbing your eyes. Very cute! I’m not sure if it means you’re tired or something is in your eye or maybe you’re just continuing to explore the use of your hands. You sometimes do it when you’ve just woken up, like you’re trying to wipe the sleep out of your eyes. You are so, so adorable when you’re waking up in general. I sometimes wake you up from a nap in your vibrating chair, in order to feed you. I turn off the vibrating and your eyes pop open, then your little arms reach up above your head and you stretch. When I pick you up you’re still in stretching mode and your little legs are still crunched up to your stomach as I pick you up. I put you on my shoulder and you snuggle in, turning your head back and forth, rubbing your face against my shoulder. So sweet.
January 7, 2008
The cube that your grandparents gave you for Christmas is your favorite toy by far. It bumped the octopus to take over first place. You seem to love the panda on one side of the cube. You stare at her and smile and talk to her. The cube is also excellent for helping you practice your grabbing skills. You are getting really good at grabbing onto the rings and handles on the sides of the cube.
February 5, 2008
I am feeling sad today…Yesterday was your first day of day care. You now spend your days, from 7:30 until 4:00 with Margie instead of Mommy. All the rationale adds up to tell your Papa and me that putting you in day care is the right decision. But it is really going to take me a while to get used to the idea of you smiling and laughing with someone else all day. I am your mom and yet I don’t know what you are doing from moment to moment each and every day. I am your mom and yet I don’t get to hug and kiss you all day long. It is terrible of me to admit it, but I worry that you’ll have more fun with Margie than with Papa and me, that you’ll like her better than us. A juvenile fear, I know. I still can’t get over the fact that we brought you, a perfect being, into the world, and then to think that I am leaving you every day. OK, enough. You are happy and healthy and that is the most important thing.
In the last few weeks you seem to be changing dramatically. You rolled over for the first time and are now sitting by yourself for a few moments at a time. You have started to babble a bit, adding “ha” and lots of vowels to your usual “a-goo” and “gee.” We have conversations with you, taking turns talking back and forth. Also, you continue to try to bring everything up to your mouth—you're teething. You love to grab onto my hand and pull my finger to chew on. You love music. We sing and dance and you smile!
April 16, 2008
You are a happy baby boy. I now know that we made the right decision with me working and you spending your days at Margie’s house. You have been going through a burst of development lately—sitting up by yourself, squirming around on your tummy trying to crawl, “ba, ba, baing” away. Looking at you this evening, sitting on the play room floor with you reaching for your drum and Jason’s shirt and everything near you, I was stunned to realize you are becoming a little person.
September 8, 2008
Finn is eleven months old today. How did that happen? When did he go from cooing in my arms to being such a wiggle worm that I can sometimes barely hold him? I’ve written down the dates, the milestones that mark the passing of time through all the stages of his first year, but where did each little day go?
Jason and I laugh out loud so often with Finn around. He is a natural comedian or else all babies are motivated to act in accordance with their parents’ laughter. His latest “trick” (I know he’s not a puppy dog) was perfected at dinner last week. We were working on pointing at things, identifying things in the kitchen. Jason or I would say, “Finn, where are the pictures?” and he would point to the framed photographs on the wall. If we asked him where mama or papa was he would smile and point. He can identify Calvert, bananas, outside, maybe even the door. Then, we finally asked him, “Where is Finn?” and he responded by throwing his arms up in the air with a huge smile as if to say, “Here I am! It’s me!”
--JAK
