First steps and a "mom" haircut

July & August have turned out to be months for major advancement for Finley. During June & July he fully mastered speed crawling and pulling himself up and standing next to furniture (and people-and the DOG!) and walking along the edge to get where he wanted. He learned how to crawl up stairs and that grass is itchy and scratchy so he drab-walks when on the grass or scratchy floor. he is such a BOY-he gets so dirty playing with everything and could care less. he is just the happiest little guy.

We have a play cottage on our deck that he loves to go into and open/closer the shittuers and door. Recently he started throwing a ball out the window of the cottage then going back out to get and again and again.

Finley is a very musical little guy and he dances and "rocks out" all the time. Whenever he hears music with a beat or people start clapping he shakes his little body and jiggles and "dances". he presses the drum sounds on his baby computer from uncle ron and aunt B just to hear the music wirth a beat so he can do a lttle dance. Also we got a tip from our friends the Kennedy's (Grace & Gemma's parents) on the joy fo a toy called the fridge farm (singing, magnetic barn with little anima magnet puzzle pieces). they said it was the twins fav toy and had allowed countless hours of entertainment for the girls and peace for Annie while preparing food in the kitchen. AND indeed-the fridge farm has been a wonder! Finley loves it so much he dances with the music and opushes the magnets on the firdge and throws the pieces and squeels and discusses baby things with the magnets and stands next to the fridge danceing with the tpoys in his hands. and the best part is-the tpy is portable so it can come in the car or to gma & gpas-wonderful toy.

Finley has learned to wave at school-it is so cute. he came home doing it one day about a month ago and has nto stopped since. He often waves hi/bye with both hands, he waves bye to the kitty when they run away from him. he waves bye to his messy food when we clean up after dinnner. he waves to everyione at the food store. it is just so dam endearing.

He also loves to play/roll/jump/dance on the couch. he thinks it is just so fun-much mroe fun than the floor. of course this is potentially dangerous so mom or dad must be nearby during couch time and that is also why he likes it. We are still letting him watch about a half hour of TV a day-either teletubbies or thomas the train or kipper the dog. of course he dances with the theme music for these shows-very cute. also he recently transitiojned to enjoy these shows much more-before he really only liiked to watch the teletubbies and hated when the kids/real people came on. now he loves the parts with the little kids and sometimes gets mad or frustrated with the teletubbies and yells at them. He is now more interactive with the TV shows and will "talk" to them as he watches and plays.

Finley has also started to reveal the willful side of his fioesty little peronality-we have been expecting this (not sure why tho:)). He gives us an immense struggle at almost every diaper change. writhgin and twistign and sometimes screaming and hating any restraint at all. Of course this can get a bit messy when there is poop involved. basically it almost always takes 2 people to do a change or you are guaranteed to have a mess. he is also giving us a buig struggle to get into his carseat. this is really not good and we are trying to figure out what to do about it. he twists and arches his back and goes stiff and he is so dam string that it takes 2 people to wrangle him into the carseat. you have to push and pull his little legs and body the wehiole tyime he is screaming and turning red with frustration. not good at all. We may need to get a differnt carseat-maybe that is the problem????

Finley took his first un-aided, self-motivated steps this weekend. He has been standing freely next to something (furniture, fridge, toybox) for about 2 or 3 weeks-he would hold a toy in both hands and not even realize that he was standing but if he wanted to go somewhere else he would always sit down first then crawl. also for about a month or so he has been able to push the ride-on cars and walker-type toys both forward from behind the car and side-stepping by standing and pushing from the side of the car.

This weekend at my parents we were all sitting on the grass and he crawled off the blanket to get his ball that had rolled away. he did not like the feel of the scratchy grass so he stood right up (from a squat-such strong legs!), clapped his hands and yelled (triumphantly) then took about 2 or 3 steps toward the balls before he reluictantly dropped to his knees the rest fo the way. it was amazing and he even seemed to realize that eh had done something special and different b/c after that he would tentatively try it again every once in a while. Last night he did the same thing between the couch and the ottoman (about 4 steps). We have done very little specifically encourage or discourage walking (frankly life is easier if he is crawling) but we knew he was very close b/c he is so strong and determined and he has great balance and kinesthetic sense for such a little guy. We had a feeeling that he would suddenly just decide to start walking instead of crawling.

So we installed a big baby gate at the bottom of the stairs and we need to get another for the top. he can hardly be contained any other way. he figured out how to break out of the "ottoman empire" barricade that we had been using to contain him in our living room.

Finley has had many other milestones and developments during the past few weeks. He is saying dada and nana-mumum (mom) and yaya (Kaia and maybe also the kitties) and jaja (georgia) consistently and intentionally. it is pretty amazing. He is very vocal and yells and squeels and babbles and speaks baby german ("nein" followed by head shaking and fists) and wooky and other such nonsense. he is starting to understand "no" and sometimes shakes his head back at us. Is starting to say uh-oh but says it more like uh-ah? we have been doing as much baby sign language as possible. there are a few signs we consistently use (milk, food, cereal, juice, water, no, please, wash, bedtime, dog, cat, more) and he seems to understand several of these (milk, food, juice, more, etc) but he has only signed back a few (milk, food) and not yet regularly.

As far as Fin's eating habits go, he is pretty much exclusively eating cut/chopped/baby bite-size pieces of everything from veggies to fruits, to bread and pasta, cereal, oatmeal, yogurt, hummus, (icecream when he is very lucky). He is still a vegetarian tho. He no longer really likes the mushy baby food so we stopped giving it to him and transitioned to home-made baby foods and mixtures that I prepare in big batches and freeze. this has turned out to be really convenient and he loves it b/c I add a little seasoning (pepper, garlic, cinnamon) and he gobbles it all up. we usually let him feed himself b/c he far prefers this and is messy but washable!!! he is still breastfeeding at night and in the evenings and earlly morning but during the day he drinks formula from bottles (usually 12-16 oz during the day). he is taking juice and water from a sippy cup very well and has learned how to drink from straws and sports-type water bottles. We all eat together as a family with Fin in his high chair, poulled close to the table. We believe this si very importnant and we want him to be part of the meal time conversation and activity as much as possible.

Finley now has pretty reguklar beditme schedule-we usually go for a walk or play outside on the deck for about an hour then he gets a bath or a bedtime story and then I nurse him and thehn lay him in his crib sometime between 8:30-9:30 depending on the day and he goes to sleep with very little protest or crying. he usually wakes uop again around midnight or 2am. and depending on whether I am already asleep we either bring him upstairs into our bed or I nurse him agian and puty him back to sleep in his crib. then he usually wakes aroun 6a for an early morning feeding and then goes back to sleep until about 8a. This has worked out great for everyone. Some nights he skips the midnight/2am wake-up and just sleeps thru to about 5 or 6a.

We went on a Burns family vacation to Pentwater Michigan last week and it was really awesome to have everyone in the same house in such a beautiful place. The weather was perfect and everyone got along well. We went to the beach everyday and walked around the town and played mini golf and had relaxing evenings hanging out. it was really nice. fiunley learned how to throw a ball/play ball with someone else from his cousins, Landon & Logan. Before the vaca, Fin would usually throw the ball straight up or up over his head behind himself and then not know where it went-very counter-productive. So Landon & Logan taught Finley to throw or bounce the ball in the direction of the person playing in front of him-so now he wants to do this al the time.

Finley really loves the beach and playing in the shallow water at the shore edge. he is not so into swimming yet (and that is fine with me b/c I don't do it much now since I still look like a disaster in a bikini). He goes crazy in the sand and could play in it for hours without getting bored or noticing that he is tired or hungry. i think we will be getting him some sort of sandbox for his bday.

So much has been going o0n the past few weeks at work and with our family and friends that I ahve hardly had time to be selfish but finally I made a hair and pedicure appt. I basically told my stylist that I wanted something shorter and that she could do whatever she wanted with my hair-so she DID! she cut off about 9 inches (AAUGH) and gave me a choppy layered short, hip haircut with 2 colors (highlights). I have gotten many many compliemtns on it and I am happy with the change even tho I am not very good at styling it yet. Altho when I was on the phone with Ellen the other night she asked if it was a "mom" haircut-and yes I think it might be a "mom" haircut but I don;'t care b/c I am a MOM!!!! I needed the change and now I feel much cooler which I needed b/c I was really starting to feel "old" and boring and out of touch with coolness.

This weekend we are heading out to Seattle-yes it will be Fin's first plane ride and a big triop for all fo us. We are so excited to see K&K and their life in the city. We are a little wary and concerned about the plane ride with Finley. We could nto afford to get himhis own seat sop he will be on our laps. this could get very tiresome since he is so active at this age and wants to crawl and wiggle all the time. We have had much advice from friends about how to contain and entertain this age child on a plane so we will be employing all the tricks if necessary. The flight is in the evening and he will ahve been at daycare all day so hopefully eh will sleep for a good portion (but I have a bad feeling he won't). Either way we'll get there somehow and we are so excited to see the pacific northweat. Bill & i have bee all of the country but we have never been to that northwest corner so it has been a long tinme coming and we are ready and Finley eeds to continue learning to be a traveler.