Halloween 2012

We decided to take C trick-or-treating this year.  Every time I showed him costumes and asked what he wanted to be, he picked Spider Man.  I am not sure why, he didn't and probably still doesn't have any idea who he is, but I went with it.  Fintan was hobo-ish, I just found some stuff we had around the house so he could participate even though he stayed in the stroller while Cian went door-to-door.  At first C was pretty good about saying trick-or-treat, thank you, and Happy Halloween (I didn't tell him to say that, he did it on his own), but by the end he kept forgetting, or was just too caught up in the excitement.  He really had a fun time!

The Fair

We went to the fair this summer.  Nothing particularly remarkable happened, we just had a nice time mostly looking at the animals.  They were handing out the cowboy hats for free so we snagged a couple.  The picture of Cian with the turkey is the only one where he is looking at the camera and not at the animal, or I would have picked one where he seemed like he was having a good time.

Chuck E Cheese

The boys also got their first taste of Chuck E Cheese's this summer for their twin cousins' birthday.  I thought Cian would freak out, but he couldn't get enough of that mouse.  Fintan didn't seem to care one way or the other, but at least he didn't scream and cry.  Then again I didn't make him get close, that may have had something to do with it.

Fintan's First Haircut

Fintan has stick-straight hair, so he needed a haircut much sooner than Cian did.  By the time I forced myself to take him in, he had something dangerously close to a mullet.  He behaved better than I thought he would, but did not want to sit down once she got started so I only got one picture.  It seemed more important to hold him so he didn't go flying out of the little Jeep chair.  Apparently I did not take any after pictures once we got home, unfortunately.

Summertime

These pictures show what we did pretty much all summer...

 

Lots of playing in the backyard and splashing in the water!

Three Years Old!

Cian turned three a week after Fintan's first birthday.  He understands parties now so it's even more fun.  He was excited ahead of time this year, trying to tell strangers about his birthday.  He gasped every time he opened a present and was enthusiastic about his cupcakes.  He says funny things (that I have neglected to keep track of here), and can actually carry on a conversation so that's been interesting.  Although he already ignores us when we ask him a question sometimes, so that gets tiring.  He is still a pretty picky eater, he will sometimes eat a little bit of banana and once I got him to eat some green beans because those fried onions were served with them.  Otherwise it's all carbs and other not-as-healthy stuff.  His newest trick is winking, he figured that one out not too long ago.  In the first picture below, he's enjoying his chocolate cupcake at his party.  The second picture was taken on his actual birthday.

One Year Old!

It's hard to believe Fintan is a year old now!  At his one year checkup, he weighed 23 lbs 8 oz (50-75%), was 29 inches tall (25-50%), and had a head circumference of 47 1/2 cm (75-90%).  We were able to switch to whole milk instead of formula, hooray!  But we have not gotten rid of bottles yet, boo.  He is constantly into everything, as you'd expect.  He points and asks about things he sees now.  He also recently began waving.  And the variety of foods he can eat is increasing, which is nice.  We had a joint birthday party for him and Cian, and he enjoyed the presents, but didn't understand what the big deal was about the cake.  Maybe he would have been more into it without an audience.  He did like the Dairy Queen we got for his actual birthday though.  In the first picture below, he's enjoying the drum set we gave him.  The second picture was also taken on his birthday, apparently mom used to make that face too.

We miss you, Bowser

On the morning of Fintan's birthday, we very suddenly and unexpectedly lost Bowser to heart failure.  He was only four, so we had looked forward to many more years with him.  His one floppy ear was his trademark, as was his tendency to believe that licking solved everything.  He was a good boy and we are so sad that he's gone already.  This is one of my favorite pictures of him.

Eleven Months

So, hopefully I get all this right since 11 months is practically a distant memory... Fintan started walking pretty much exclusively right after he turned 11 months old.  We had another checkup at Seattle Children's around that time, and they seemed surprised that he was walking already.  At 11 months, he says mom, dad, doggie, grandma, grandpa, and uh oh (and maybe one or two other things I'm not remembering).  We're trying to get him to give up bottles without a whole lot of luck.  He is pretty good at sleeping through the night, but gets up early most days.  Not ideal, but it could be a whole lot worse.  He did not have a checkup with his regular pediatrician this month so I don't have his weight and measurements handy.  He's definitely getting bigger though, we need to switch out his carrier for a real car seat!

First Haircut

Cian got his first haircut yesterday.  I put it off for a long time, partly because I like his curls, and partly because I was dreading the crying I was sure would ensue.  But I figured since I've had a couple people ask if he's a girl or boy, and it takes what seems like forever to comb it out every night, I could endure a trip to the local kid's salon.  Below are the before and after pictures.  He did very well, the fit that I was expecting didn't happen - no crying at all.  I'm very proud of him!

10 Months



It's hard to believe we are only a couple months away from the big one year milestone!  If you look closely at the picture you can see a bruise on his forehead, but all the hard work is paying off, since he can take several steps on his own now.  He babbles a lot, using da, ma, ba, ooh, doo, ow, and probably some that I'm forgetting.  He also pitches himself backwards when he doesn't get his way.  We recently started letting him bathe with Cian every night too.  They like to splash each other.  I'm trying to get him to start using sippy cups, because he always seems highly interested when he finds his brother's on the floor, but I haven't had much luck yet.

Nine Months

I thought it was time to update, since my memories of the nine month timeframe are starting to blur.  At his nine month well check, Fintan weighed 21 lbs 12 oz (70%), was 27 3/4 inches tall (33%), and had a head circumference of 46 1/2 cm (83%).  He can walk holding just one of our hands now, and wants to do it constantly!  We've started feeding him Cheerios and Gerber puffs.  He also finally has one tooth on the bottom.  And, we took another plane ride for the next visit to Seattle Children's, where they said he seems to be doing well.  

8 Months



Our little guy turned eight months old on Christmas Day.  Not a lot of obvious things have changed since I last posted.  He can crawl on hands and knees, but usually defaults pretty quickly to the army crawl because he is a lot faster at that.  He is also still babbling a lot and working on being able to walk.  Often he gets pretty upset when I try to sit him down, because he wants to keep walking around.

My back will be so happy when he can do this on his own!  One of his other favorite things to do these days is follow the vacuum around, like big brother.  In a couple weeks he has his nine month well check, so we'll find out then how much he's grown.  Probably somewhere around then I'll also start offering Cheerios and stuff like that.  The time is really flying!

Cian's Jeep



Cian got a Jeep for Christmas.  He hasn't been able to use it much, because it is definitely an outdoor toy, but he sometimes likes to put on his sunglasses and hard hat, sit in the driver's seat, and rock out (there is a button you can push to play music).  Hopefully he and Fintan can have some fun with it this summer!