A Few Months Past Two

It's been a while since I've done an update that's just about what Finn is doing these days.  He's growing and changing so much, I really need to start scheduling these so I'll do them more often.  It's so fun to go back and see what he was doing this time last year, or even just a few months ago, I hate that I haven't done more. So indulge me while I ramble about how fun my kid is, please.  And rambling it is - there's been no effort to make this into any sort of coherent post, but I wanted to get it out before he changes again and I forget some of these little stories.

Finn's language skills have just skyrocketed in the past few months.  He always has a lot to say, and does so in full paragraphs.  I don't always understand exactly what he's saying, and that's started to really annoy him, which is hilarious.  A few days ago he started asking me for something while we were driving.  "I want the goff, Mommy."  "The golf?" "No.  The goff."  "The goff? I don't know what that is."  "GOFF. The GOFF.  Do you hear me, Mommy?"  "The goff - the sock??" "Mommy, do you HEAR me? The GOFF!"  Suddenly I remembered that Sophie the Giraffe was on the floor of the car.  "The giraffe?" "Yee-a-ah!  The gir-offe!"  Sign language has made a come back, as he's realized that he can use signs (both known and made up) to make himself more clear.  It's fun to see him rediscover the signs he used to rely on, and makes me hope he'll enjoy using them again when Chimi is old enough to start learning them.

He loves his bubble gun

He has a hard time with F's at the beginning of words.  For a while they came out as a mix of a D and T.  Now they come out as "sh".  Like a lot of toddlers, Finn refers to himself in the 3rd person.  So we end up with sentences like the one we heard a lot this week, after we found a frog in our backyard.  "Shinn look for Shroggy Shrog."  "Where did Shroggy Shrogg, go?"  We went on a walk last week and Finn had to stop and tell several of the neighbors that we were on a quest to find Shroggy Shrog.  For about a week his favorite word when something didn't go right was "Shoot."  The first few times it was, "Shhhhhhhhhhhhhoot," leading to a few heart stopping seconds when I thought he was about to say something else.  Now his favorite word is, "Phooey."  At least that's what I think it is, as what he says is, "Shooey."  He uses this for when he drops something, for when I tell him he can't do something, or any time he's disappointed.  It's hilariously cute.

Nanny M has been taking Finn on Sunday mornings the past few weeks, so I can get in a good 4-5 solid hours of studying.  She gets him before 9 and takes him with her to church.  He goes to children's church, then they come back here for a little playtime and lunch, then he's down for his nap by 1230.  I come home then and get a little more studying done before he wakes up.  It works great, but Finn hates it.  He cries when Nanny M walks in the door, and cries when he gets in her car, and is just so pitiful.  I hate it, too, but it must be done.  Last Saturday I was pushing Finn on the swing when he suddenly said, "Finn go study.  Mommy go to church and cry for Finn."  And then the next day when I was passing him to Nanny M, he looked at me with his sad little face and said, "I want to go to Disney World."  He now frequently talks about Finn going to go study, while Mommy goes somewhere and cries for Finn.  Funny, but makes my heart hurt just a little bit.

While he talks nonstop, he also moves nonstop.  He loves to shake his booty.  He loves naked time.  Shaking his booty at naked time usually leads to a giggle and, "that tickles my wee wee!"

Finn is fascinated by the idea of a baby in my tummy.  He sometimes will coming running up to me and ask for the baby.  I pretend to hand it to him, and he carries it around in his hand, going down the slide with it, or pushing it around in his grocery cart, until he decides the baby is crying, and he brings the baby back to me.  Sometimes all it needs is a kiss, but other times he says it's time for the baby to go back into my tummy.  He's stopped asking for a baby sister, but he's not quite sure what he thinks about the idea of a baby brother.  Now he says, "I want a baby...baby.  Finn wants a baby." "Finn wants to see it.  Finn want to touch it."  He loves saying that he wants to touch new things - whenever he's actually given the choice to touch, sometimes he does, sometimes he doesn't.

Love his sense of style

We went to the grocery store today, one of his favorite errands.  His favorite cart, the one that has a steering wheel, wasn't available, but there was one of the little carts. As we only had a few things to pick up, I suggested he push that cart around.  He helped me pick out all the groceries, he led the way to each part of the store (after I pointed him in the right direction) and he got lots of attention from other shoppers.  He was in heaven.  He pushed the cart right up to the checkout, and then put every thing on the counter for the cashier.  When that was done, I waited for him to come around to where I was paying, but instead, he was going around the other side of the checkout line, pushing the cart.  He put it back where we got it from, being careful to be sure it was parked straight, and then came back, beaming from ear to ear.  I should mention that he did all this while wearing underwear instead of a diaper.  (A potty training post is in the works!)

Grocery shopping

Finally, his eating.  This kid eats just about anything.  I worked hard to make sure he wouldn't be picky - I never make a big deal about what he eats or doesn't.  The only rule is that if he wants more of something, he has to have tried everything else on his plate, and he has to have eaten all the stuff on his plate I know he likes.  If he decides he doesn't like something, I never make him eat more, but I do offer it to him again.  I'd like to say that this is responsible for his good eating, but I think it's really just who he is (and he definitely didn't inherit that from me!)  Just to give an example, for dinner tonight he ate rotisserie chicken, avocado, cucumber, tomatoes, feta cheese, strawberries and watermelon.  He LOVES feta cheese.  And just about every other cheese on the planet.

Why let a wrapper keep you from cheese?