March

My heart operation went very smoothly. Finn is getting really good at grabbing his toys. He seems to like standing up. Still drooling a ton, we had to dig out some bibs. He puts the giraffe's feet in his mouth often, I think the teeth may be coming soon. More little laughs. He is starting to get distracted when he nurses, if his brother is talking he'll stop to look around. He's often strapped onto mama asleep when I come home, but wakes up and looks for me at the sound of my voice.

Oliver is doing great. Loving preschool. He's picking up letters pretty quickly all of a sudden. He did fine with the upheaval of the heart stuff. Probably jinx ourselves but he's been doing really well with sleeping through the night and we've started working on going to sleep more autonomously. We are pleased to see that our gentle approach has worked out.

So everything's going well. Now that we're passed the operation thing we have the mental energy to pay attention to big picture stuff again.

Hope all of you are doing well.

Update

Finn got a vaccine the other day and REALLY didn't like it. Very primal the way the little ones scream. But he's alright now. But we're thinking we're going to let them poke him twice next time to get it over with faster. We're wondering how we're gonna get any more shots into Oliver now that he's big enough to understand what's coming. Finn's almost able to sit up, when he's propped up he lists to the side like a drunk til he falls over, but very slowly. He rolled over the other day, from his front to his back. Lots of sucking, sucking on his hand, sucking on his blanket. He's grabbing the toys hanging down from his bouncy seat also. He's been a little fussy about nursing, we got him a pacifier in case like Oliver he wants to suck without drinking, but he hasn't shown interest.

Oliver is doing well, he's started preschool and is loving it, super excited to go every day. He seems to be going through a testing phase. When he gets upset he says "I want to be mean" and tries to hit us, or throw things at us. It's a little worrisome but Amanda went through it a month ago so we are thinking it's a phase. Trying to figure out the best way to help him through it.

I have the stupid heart procedur next week. Not looking forwards to it. Oh well.

Francesca got an Opinion piece published in the local paper, yay!

January 2011 videos

Everyone's healthy right now. Finn is drooling a ton, teeth must be coming, but he doesn't seem bothered by it.

Vaccines, drool, smiles

First Vaccination for Finn last Friday, when he got it sounded like a little wild animal. He slept all day, or was fussy when he wasn't sleeping. But by the next day was back to normal. Very drooley lately, like a little spitty bug, maybe he's teething. Whenever I hold him in the sling he winds up slobbering my arm, and he likes to put a toy giraffe in his mouth too. He's still really smiley, he looks up into your face and just breaks into one smile after another. We had him sitting up on the couch and he was entranced with his big brother bounding all over the room. I sat him up on the couch and he "talked" a lot, just like he was having a conversation. Francesca said yesterday he was in the bouncy chair while she was making dinner and Oliver held his hand and talked to him and he was happy. He's getting really strong, his little hands cling tightly to mine, or my clothes. He caught a little cold, he keeps getting very distressed that he can't breathe, he hasn't figured out that he can breathe through his mouth yet.

Hand to Mouth

Finn is getting pretty good at finding his hand with his mouth, even getting his thumb sometimes, but the downside is he's wacking himself in the head more. When I start talking to him, once he clue's in that I'm there and looks at me, I usually get a big grin. They're golden. Just pure joy shining out of this little soul. Of course 2 minutes later I get a funny frown, so maybe I shouldn't read emotions into testing the facial muscles. Smiles sure are nice for me though.

It's hard that I get to hold him so little. When I get home from work Oliver needs attention and Mama needs a little break to catch her breath. So Oliver gets most of my attention, I'll hold Finn a little bit, but pretty quickly I need my hands to play, or we need to eat dinner, or Finn is needing to nurse. When it's added up, it's not very much time at all that I'm holding him. I'm more relaxed about this then I was with Oliver, I think the perspective of having gone through it once I'm more confident that when Finn is bigger and a little more independent from Mama he'll find me more, they only recently became two seperate organisms. Still, I was proud of myself for getting him back to sleep twice last night when he was fussy.

First vaccine at the end of the week. I want to be there for Finn, because it's my place. But I'm betting that I'll need to be there to run interference on Oliver so he doesn't get worried about his brother. And if this one does bother Finn (Oliver was pissed when he got shots this small) Finn will just want his Mama's milk to reassure him that the mean scary bugs are done biting him. (Speaking of, Oliver was recently telling us that we are as mean as small barky dogs (which he has direcct experience of them being mean)). Oliver is still doing well with Finn, if I'm paying attention to Finn Oliver often comes up and tries to hug him and pets his head and says "I love you" to him.

Squeeze Box

Seems like Finn's diaper always has a little poop in it, as soon as we change it and sit back down on the couch he fills it again. Sometimes it seems like if his legs bend a little fart squeezes out, just like a squeezebox. Otherwise doing well, chunky rolls. Starting to laugh in his sleep, not awake yet. Looking around more and more. Still sweet sweet smiles. Accidentally got dumped out of his bouncy seat the other day, but slept through it. So much easier having been through it once. But came across a quote recently the resonates; "to have a child is to give fate a hostage"

Chunky

Finn's getting chunky. Lots of smiles, no laughing yet, but pretty easy to go into smiles when he's awake, and they're so sweet, just makes you happy seeing them. But when he gets mad he scrunches his face up so tight it goes white and pink like your palm when you make a fist. Oliver is still doing amazing with him, very happy about having a little brother and wanting to take care of him. Oliver learned to ride his tricycle this week, in like 2 sessions, much faster then expected, still needs a little practice with steering and pedaling at the same time, but doing really well. We've been just us 4 for a little bit now and that helps to restore a little sanity, I think it's easier for Oliver to not have constant stimulation (though he really relishes it when he has it.) But Francesca and I are still kind of on alternating days showering we're so busy running around after the 2. Fun fun :)