Christmas!

I love Christmas! And Christmas ornaments. In fact, my very awesome friend sells some amazingly adorable/nerdy plush ornaments that anyone who actually reads this should check out. They are seriously too cute. You can buy them at her etsy shop.

10 Months

This sweet little guy is 10 months old. (Okay, well he was when I started this post, I forgot to publish it). Gah, I just can't stand how dang cute he is! Chase and I just can't get enough of him.

So what's he been up to lately? Well... about 2 weeks ago, he started WALKING! 

It has been so fun watching him learn to balance and then see the big smug grin on his face when he realizes he's actually walking all by himself. He's also just as scoundrely as ever. Scoundrely is the new word I made up, inspired by Finn, by the way. Start using it for anything or anyone who is constantly getting into trouble and then getting back out of it by being really, really, really ridiculously adorable.

Also, Finn met Santa at our ward party the other day. He loved it. 

And just because I love old man sweaters, behold my spiffy looking baby:

NOM NOM NOM

Watch out, or my little shark "fin" will eat you up.

9 Months

Right, so I'm kind of in denial about this. How can my perfect, sweet little baby boy already be 9 months old?! It feels like a very silly joke someone is playing on me. He's just my baby, not a soon-to-be walking toddler... Right? Please? Anyone?

But really. I cry. Anywho, here are some recent-ish photos of my handsome fellow. And yes, I admit to having an addiction to taking pictures of my little guy. Sorry for the overload.








Okay, okay. I know I have to accept it. But it's so bitter-sweet. I love that he is learning and growing and enjoying life more as he becomes so much more aware. In fact, there are things I am so glad he is doing that he never did as a "baby" baby. Like, when he's asleep in his car seat, he lets me pick him up and he'll lay his head on my shoulder and snuggle into my neck as I carry him to his crib. Best thing ever ever. And he is getting into that stranger-anxiety phase... He LOVES other people who smile and talk to him - he's the biggest, cheesiest flirt to them. But once he spots me and realizes I am not holding him, he'll pout and whine until he gets into my arms. Which is both super sweet and slightly inconvenient, haha. But I am just cherishing these moments when he desperately wants to be close to his mama. When else will he ever, REALLY, want to be with me at all times? So for now, even if it's inconvenient sometimes, I'll happily pick up my sweet boy when his arms are stretched out for me.

Anyway, as far as his 9 months stats, he weighs 17 lbs, 13 ounces and is 28 inches long. So he didn't gain much since his 6 month appointment, but the doctor said that is totally normal since he's been crawling and running all over the place. He still only has two teeth.

So lately, Finn has been liking some new things:

• I think this photo says it all:
  
  
  
• This toy, that some random stranger gave us for free when we were walking out of a consignment store, has become his most favorite thing ever! It even beats out RVCA's dog toys. I'm not surprised - I'd think walking would be pretty bomb too if all I'd ever done was crawl or sit or lay on my back. We usually walk down our one long hallway from one end of the house to the other at least 20 times a day. He'd do it all day long if his mama didn't get tired from turning him every time he ran into something. Anyway, Chase and I think there is nothing much cuter than watching this proud little boy waddle behind his walker. Behold, the cuteness:
  
  
  
  
  
  
• In case Finn hasn't told you, a day is not really counted as a good day at all unless he makes at least one mad dash for RVCA's water bowl, which involves me realizing that he's not around and hearing him pitter-pattering into the laundry room, then me jumping up and running across the kitchen yelling "FINNERS, FINNERS, FINNERS!" and him turning to see me coming, giggling, and continuing as fast as he can to get to that water bowl and splash it all over himself. I usually beat him to it, but when I don't, that boy has the smuggest little grin on his face.
  
  
• We've discovered mum-mums finally, and he's a fan. I love them too because he can kind of feed himself instead of me constantly popping puffs into his mouth.
  
  
  
• I bought Finn some suspenders, so I had to make a new tie to go with them. This is one of his Grandpa Child's ties. I love my cheesy boy. :)
  
  
  
  And also, on an extremely-unrelated-to-Finn-being-9-months-old note, I made this dress with the help of my awesome mama and I like it very much, if I do say so. Only cost me $6!
  
  
  
  
• Finn may have picked up some of his daddy's musical talents. He's got rhythm:
  
  
  
  
• He also thinks it's kind of funny to feed RVCA yogurt melts:
  
  
  
  
• And last but not least, my son makes rude noises using my knee:
  
  
  

Punkin Patch (kind of)

So this weekend we went with my mom and dad and brother and his family to some stables where there was a petting zoo, hay maze, and pumpkin patch. We went because they had 2-for-1 coupons on Groupon. Anyway, we unknowingly picked the hottest day of October (97 degrees) and went at probably the hottest time of the day. We were pretty sweaty the whole time and slightly disappointed when we realized their idea of a pumpkin patch was about 20 pumpkins stacked on some hay. But we still had fun getting all hot and dusty! Although next time I will check the weather a little more thoroughly - dang am I jealous of all you cold-weather people right now.










Finn loves his grandma and grandpa Payne, they always make him grin from ear to ear. And I love Fall - even if it feels like summer still!

Time for another haircut.

Lately, this little boy has been looking quite shaggy. Evidence:




So he had a haircut. His fifth haircut in less than 9 months. I swear his hair grows half an inch a week, it's ridiculous. But he's much happier now that he can see! :)

Tag, Finn's it.

So I have this baby. And he's a clutz.

Finn has been crawling and walking around furniture for a while now and this new mobility really presents a lot more opportunities for him to get hurt. Two nights ago he was in the living room happily munching on some little puffs while walking around the coffee table when he tripped, fell and bumped his chin. After a few seconds his mouth filled with blood and started streaming all over his face and hands. So to preface, this has happened before. He fell and his mouth started bleeding in the same spot, then stopped after several minutes. So we were trying not to panic too much. Anyway, he had smeared the blood all over his face and hair so we stripped him down and put him in a tub. We thought the bleeding stopped, but it was just lighter. So we cleaned him up and put some jammie-jams on him and let him sit on his papa's lap and drink some cold water. He was still bleeding and the water he was drinking quickly turned red.


He seemed happy in the bath and drinking his water, so we decided to feed him some baby food and he ate a lot but was still bleeding a little. After he ate we let him play in his jumper while we finished making dinner. We found him in the jumper with more blood on his face and hands. It seemed like he kept putting his hands in his mouth which made him bleed more.


He started acting tired so I put him in his swing. Once he fell asleep I went to go move him into his room and found him with a puddle of blood on his jammies and blood dripping and coagulating on his lips.


Chase and I were really starting to worry and panic at this point - it was so scary to see him that way and realize he was bleeding more than we thought. I made some phone calls (and sent picture texts) to some nursing and dental friends and they said not to worry unless the bleeding persisted into the next day. After we wiped his mouth (he was still asleep) the bleeding finally stopped once he stayed asleep. In the end, I'm so glad we didn't go to the ER over this, but I have to say we were very, very close when we saw him like that picture above.

Needless to say, we were more traumatized than he was. Our poor baby didn't really know what was going on or what the yucky tasting stuff was that he kept swallowing or why his mouth was aching. The next morning his diaper was tar black from swallowing so much blood. :(

Anyway, his first big owie was a fantastic success.

Toothbrush

Finn loves our toothbrushes - he gets so excited that he pants, in fact.

My Little Trouble Maker

Firstly, here are some pic-sirs that we took with my new early Christmas gift from Chase - a new lens for our camera! I won't pretend we know very much about photography, but we had at least decided it might be nice to get a different lens than just the one that came with our camera. I'm liking it so far but still learning! Anyway, I think it will be fun to have as we try and capture memories of our little family.





Secondly, Finn is the silliest baby ever and I love it. Every night he gets into this giggly crazy shrieking mood. He becomes hysterical to the point that if you even look at him or start to come near him in an attitude that implies you might tickle him, he shrieks and giggles before you even touch him!



In other news, there is a growing list of things that Finn likes to make trouble out of:

1. RVCA's water bowl. If we don't shut the door and I turn my head for 5 seconds I hear little splish-splashes and shrieks echoing from the laundry room.
2. The recycle bin. It's just a little metal trashcan from Ikea that we put bottles and boxes in, but anytime he's near it he can't resist trying to turn it over.
3. The spice rack. We have a little microwave stand in the corner of our kitchen and underneath it is our spice rack. He likes to pull out the bottles and try and eat them.
4. Dog toys. Because baby toys are just lame, in case you haven't heard.
5. RVCA's bed. Absolutely every single time - without fail - that he is in our bedroom he speed-crawls to her bed in the corner, flops onto it, then turns sideways to look at us. It's so dang cute.
   
   
   
   

So basically what I'm trying to say is, I still have a lot of baby proofing to do. :)

Also, Finn loves baths as much as ever - as soon as he hears that tub running he will do everything in his power (including steamrolling you) to get to it, even if his buns are out there for all to see. And I just like his hair in the last picture - it just fell like that.

Teeth & Crawling

Finner-Finner-Chicken-Dinner is 7 months old! Which is really messed up, I'm so not ready for my little man to grow up. It's bitter-sweet because each day he is changing so much and I just love him more and more as he grows, but at the same time I'm dreading the day when I'll look back and miss all these perfect moments with him - maybe I never will because I'll just be so wrapped up in loving him at whatever stage he's at? Anyway, he is the sweetest, cutest, silliest, most wonderful little boy in the world and Chase and I cannot get enough of him.

So three new things: He has two teeth (as of yesterday), is crawling all over the place and (also as of yesterday) is pulling himself up to furniture to stand! Seriously kid, you can just stop now and give your parents a breather. So many changes means he it is a lot more difficult to keep him from getting into trouble, but also means he has that many more ways to show off his adorableness.

So he started crawling about a week and a half ago. He had been rocking on his hands and knees for what seemed like a month and then finally figured out how to move. Here's a video of the first day he started officially crawling. He's a lot faster now... unfortunately. :)



So now that he crawls, he is SO not interested in any toys unless they are RVCA's. If he sees her bone he'll lunge after it and I have to race to him before he sticks it in his mouth. The only other thing he's interested in - other than crawling anywhere he can, pulling up on furniture and bumping his head on things - is our phones and our computers. We're trying to be very strict about not ever letting him play with our phones at this point, but he wants them sooo bad. He'll do just about anything to get his hands on them or our laptops. This morning I had my computer out on the floor and it was like some kind of crazy-mad-baby switch went off in his brain. His eyes got big, his mouth opened into a manic grin, and he propelled himself at it faster than I've ever seen him move. So for the next 10 minutes I slid my laptop around me in a circle on the carpet and Finn just chased after it relentlessly while I laughed my head off. He does this cute thing when he crawls where he pops his little baby bum up between each "step" and it just melts me. I finally was laughing too hard and he was too quick and smeared all his lovely drool on the keyboard so I thought it was time to stop, or else I think he'd have kept going all day!

I almost forgot - he also loves door stoppers. You know the boingy ones that are like a springs sticking out from the wall? He just sits there on his tummy and pulls them back and forth so they boing really loud. Also, my computer is telling me boing is not actually a word, but I refuse to believe it.

RVCA loves the new-and-improved crawling Finn more than anyone. For some reason he's a lot more fun when he is right at her level. They get a hoot out of each other, as you can see:

They are basically best buds. :)

As for teeth, here's the first one (you can see it better if you click to view the full-size photo):

Also for an update on us, life is so good! Chase got a raise at work and I've been keeping busy with my web design job. Casey and Aubrey - some of our best friends from our BYU days - are moving down here and we are so excited to get to hang out with them again! And I'm finally getting around to decorating - I'm almost done with our bedroom, I just need to paint the lamps we got from a thrift store. Finn's room is almost done too. Next on the list is refinishing a sweet mid-century desk that our good friends Adam and Amanda were too kind to give us because they couldn't take it with them to law school.

Chase is almost done writing a new song. He's trying to play and record his music more, which makes me so happy. He is so ridiculously talented with music. Hopefully Finn takes after him.

We're pretty boring, so I'll talk more about Finn:

• He loves yogurt melts. He starts grunting and shaking his arms when he sees me opening the bag.
• He thinks RVCA sneezing is the funniest thing in the world.
• He loves to eat our noses:
  
  
  
  
• He is so happy all the time. He's such a good sport about everything and just loves to laugh and grin and be tickled, it seems.
• He's had 4 haircuts so far, and a BIG bald patch on the back of his head that is mostly covered by the hair above it (read: comb-over). It's growing back in, but for now he's rockin the bowl-cut look.
• He's started making more advanced sounds, like babababa. Except he only does them when he's crawling, haha.
• He has a big stuffed soccer ball from Ikea that he LOVES. Which is good, because I'm gonna raise him to be a soccer star! Well, only if he doesn't have my bad knees.
  
• He goes down for naps and bedtime wide awake most of the time and falls asleep quickly, but he's still waking up once a night. I still don't know why he does it considering up until 4 months he was sleeping 11 hours every night, but I don't have the heart to do anything CIO-related. I'm just cherishing the extra cuddles!

Annnd I can't think of anything else to write about. So I'll post pictures instead!