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!