Mom Edition: March Madness

Okay, so March is already over with for more than a week, but we just had to update you on a few of Finn's antics. None of them involve college basketball. As usual, we've been staying busy. In between Kevin and I working and Finn going to daycare, we've had the chance to visit friends and family with only one little side trip to ER.

Matt used to spend a lot of time in Sacramento and would stay over at our house. We called the guest room Matt's room, but then Finn moved in and changed all of that. Matt lives in San Jose, and Finn got to take a nap in his room for a change.

This is Farhad, Kevin's college buddy from the Cornell Daily Sun. He's holding his son who was born just 3 months after Finn. Finn taught Khalil's parents what it's like to have a crawler over to visit.

Finn met his great, great Aunt Jean Hirning from Rapid City, SD. She has several great grandchildren, but Finn is her first great grandnephew!

One rainy day, Finn and I went with Andrew's mom and sister to the California Railroad Museum in old town. The big trains were cool, but the highlight was playing with the toys!

It's a bit hard to see, but Finn's cut on the right eyelid (not the scratch on his forehead) was glued shut by the ER doc. Finn created this gash by crawling full speed into the edge of the living room bookshelf. We're happy to report that he's healing nicely. We'll be keeping some superglue around for future events.

Mom Edition: What's up doc?

Finn had his most recent doctor's visit a few days ago. Everything checked out. He's hovering right around the 50th percentile for weight (20 lb 6 oz) and height (28 and 3/4 in). But on the cuteness scale, we all know that he's rocketed right off the charts. The medical assistant even took several photos to capture just the right shot for Finn's "After Visit Summary" handout (see below) that we get during each visit. The next checkup will be when our baby turns one year old. Unbelievable!

Mom Edition: Spring Training!

Finn went to Arizona the first weekend of March and took his first plane ride to get there. We had a lot of fun going to two spring training games, swimming in the pool at the hotel and going on a little hike among the cacti. Overall it was a great trip, and Finn did great on the plane, sleeping during the flights both ways. Here are a few photos of Finn's adventures in Phoenix.

Sleeping beauty

It's dry out here.

Enjoying the A's play Giants at Phoenix Muni. (Giants lost.)

Pool time

Finn cheers on the Giants in Scottsdale. (Giants win.)

Family shot


Finn gets his own seat on the way home.

I'm 3/4 years old

I'm no longer content just sitting next to Sock Monkey.

I made it to nine months! That means I've been in the outside world as long as I was in mommy's tummy. This fresh air has sure been nice.

A ton has happened in the last few weeks. In just that short period, I went from sitting to crawling to crawling all over the place. Then I started pulling myself up while on my knees, and now I'm trying to stand as much as possible. It scares my parents sometimes because I haven't fully figured out the balance thing, but I'm getting there.

Now that I'm upright, I plan to run a marathon this fall.

The crawling has been fun. I often crawl around to find my parents (except when they're in the kitchen, because they put a gate up that I can't get past). At school, I often crawl after other kids. And when my parents come to pick me up, I crawl to the door to greet them.

Mom Edition: Wunderkind

We started taking music classes through Kindermusik in February. It's been a lot of fun. We get to play with balls, hoops and scarves. We also dance, sing and play different instruments like egg shakers and drums. There's usually some puppet time or a story, too.

Finn loves to make some noise.

Finn wants to play with all of the toys.

This story was really good!

Mom Edition: Our little science experiment

Last week Finn participated in two studies for the UC Davis Infant Cognition Lab. We thought it would be a good idea to expose Finn to the scientific process early on in life. Though he does show a natural aptitude for experimenting on his own. He loves to test gravity by dropping food and utensils from the high chair or throwing some of his toys around the living room. He is also likes to examine the world with all of his senses, especially taste. An avid explorer, Finn is interested in every nook and cranny of the house now since he can pretty much get anywhere he wants by crawling now.

Here are a few photos from the lab day:

Finn wears a cornea tracker to record what infants are focusing on while I'm blindfolded.

In this study Finn looks at different objects on a screen to understand how babies learn about their surroundings.

Mom Edition: Finn's 8 months old!

Finn turned 8 months old on February 2nd. He's really rolling, scooting and moving around these days, and it's hard to get a good snapshot of him laying still. We'll see how many more months these sock monkey photos will last. Here's the latest installment:

Finn's not content to let sock monkey just lay around anymore.

Grandma Emi's friend Nancy knitted Finn this cool sock monkey hat.

Also in the past month Finn has been starting to crawl (this means we really need to start babyproofing) and to really enjoy playing with (i.e. making a mess of) all of his toys...

He's gotten to visit with his friend Brooke in Davis who was born just a few days after he was. She seems amused by Finn's antics...

We've also taken a trip to the Sacramento Zoo. Though we've been bogged down in a lot of fog this past month, we've also had some sunny days when we can get outside and enjoy the warmth. The zoo animals and Finn seemed to like the nice weather...