Down Under

Greetings from down under! I don't have the ability to post pictures at the moment, but those will come soon! Maybe some videos too.

We made it safe and sound to Australia and all of us are loving life at the moment. I am more relaxed than I have been in ages, Finn is loving the beach and swimming in the water and Nick is getting some good shots and enjoying his relaxed and happy family. The plane trip here was an incredible, intense 40 hour journey wherein Finn was a wreak and tantrum-toddler every minute we were in the airports (4 of them) and an angel on the planes (21 hours of flying). Luckily, right before our longest leg from LA to Sydney, Finn befriended a lovely woman from Equador (by befriended, i mean that he ran up to her and hugged her legs and then opened his arms upwards to be picked up by her). She was on her way to australia to meet her one year old grandson for the first time and was thrilled for some 'practice' with Finn. It was the first time he was calm in LA and I eagerly told Grandma Equador that she is welcome to keep him for the entire flight if she wants. She laughed and said she would love to sit with Finn! Funnily enough, she and her husband were actually sitting right next to us on the plane, and Finn sat on their laps almost the whole time he was awake and it couldn't have been an easier trip.

We have been staying at our friend's beach house 45 minutes south from Adelaide with my parents and brothers. Our days have ben filled with long walks on the beach, swimming and napping. Nick, Finn and I spent a day exploring the Adelaide hills and visited an animal reserve (Finn patted a koala, played with a baby kangaroo and fed some of the weirdest looking ducks and waterfowl I have ever seen).

Unfortunately, Finn has come down with a pretty bad cold in the past couple of days and we had tickets to visit Carlos and Sophie in Sydney. Sadly, we made the decision that Finn is not up for travel, so I am staying in Adelaide and Nick just left for a few days in Sydney.

Merry Christmas to all!

Wearing mummy's scarf, just like she does.

Finn is really into wearing our accessories these days. We will find him roaming the living room with Daddy's hat on his head. Or wrapped in my scarf. Or trying to put one of our shoes on his little feet. He loves to put on Nan's silver bracelet that she lets him wear when she visits and Racing Tiger's big burley motorcycle watch. These things dwarf his little arm, but he will hold that arm up high so everyone can see what he has. Adorable.

Doing big boy things. Like helping Mummy cook.

Finn has started tugging on my clothes and whining while I cook lately. At first I just thought he wanted attention and would bend down to talk to him for a few minutes before resuming the task at hand. But the tugging, whining, weaving-through-legs only increased. So, I started putting a chair next to the counter and giving Finn similar things I was using and asking for his help. Bless his sweet little self, he will stand on that chair for an hour 'helping' me cook. I have been deliberate about giving him 'dangerous' things like glass bowls and butter knives and telling him to be really careful with them and he is. He takes his role so seriously and I have a little helper in the kitchen every night!

The Bubble Man

Morning Drawing Lessons

I'm serious about music

Bananas

How does one tiny piece of banana turn into so many other tiny pieces and make their way in to every room in the house?

Finn meets Father Christmas

It was sorta scary, sorta fun. Father Christmas rang these really loud bells and in a swirl of big-red-soft-white-face-kindness swooped in, propped on lap, snap-snap-snap and a candy cane on the way out the door. Two seconds later, running up the big kid's jungle gym and sliding down the slide all on his own and it was all a dream.

Except for the evidence.

Who are you calling?

Finn hearts Haydee

This is Finn's friend, Haydee. She is 4 months old and comes and hangs out with us on Fridays and Finn really loves her. He tells her all sorts of stories and hugs her and pats her little hands and tries to take off her socks (because he hates having socks on) and pushes her in the swing. He is going to make a great big brother some day.

Beach

Ed and Kerri are visiting us from London so we decided to make a day trip to the coast. Unfortunately, it was raining and windy and rather miserable, so we ended up spending a lot of time in the car and not too long at the beach. Finn had a blast, though. Water and sand are two of his favorite elements and there was plenty of both!

I miss mumma bear and baby bear

Heading to DC today for meetings and missing my little family. This picture was taken a few days ago on a shopping outing in Seattle.

The words he speaks

Finn on a walk in the arboretum (he walks himself now!)

My brothers came over to give Finn a big hug and kiss and we told them a story about a new word Finn learned today. Ben asked what words Finn can say these days and Nick and I started listing them off. He is in a real mimic phase and will repeat a lot of what we say, if he is in the right mood. Then there are a few words that he says a lot that we are not exactly sure the meaning of. Doh is one of those words and he says it and points outside usually.

But these are the words he says frequently:

Car, cold, hot, Dadda, Mumma, numnum (bottle or dummy to me only), Ninn (Finn), truck, sit down, Inca, airplane, nahnah (bottle or dummy, to Nick only), book, boat, ball, down, hi, ha, cha-kin (a variation of chicken), doggie, wow and oh-wow.

Pretty good list for a barely one year old?

This morning was busy.

We all woke up a little later than we planned and were rushing around trying to get our projects done. Nick went straight to his office to make a bunch of calls to the Eastcoast and I tried to get Finn and myself ready while picking up the kitchen. Finn was in an especially good mood and gave me lots of hugs and kisses before I put him in his highchair for breakfast.

The little daredevil loves to stand up in his highchair, perched precariously high above the kitchen floor, looking us straight in the eye. This morning was no different. 'Sit down' I say in my meanest mummy voice. He does. Then I turn around and he is at it again. 'Sit down' and he sits. Then the third time I say it, moving towards him with my maddest mummy look and Finn looks me straight in the eye and says 'sit down' clear as a whistle. The he sits himself down and laughs.

I keep thinking I am hearing real words when Finn talks to himself in his own language, and now I know that I heard 'dats mine' and 'inca go out'. And he was talking about cars and trucks yesterday in the car with Auntie Chrissie and Daddy. I am really excited to be entering the stage where he can communicate with us verbally. He has been a real little talker since he was born and I look forward to hearing all of his little thoughts.

interrupting the birthday news

We will be posting more birthday pictures over the next couple of days, but in the meantime, we have some more Baja shots to share. I love this series because it epitomizes how incredibly, indelibly, blissfully happy I am as a mother. Finn rocked my world one year and one day ago, and continues to do so every moment.

Finn's First Birthday

Finn has had a weekend of birthday celebrations and there is still more to come! For example, that cute Monkey cake that I posted about below? We still haven't lit the candle and given it to him yet (too much sugar for the end of the day, especially for those certain little people that raided the Halloween candy when we weren't looking).

After a busy weekend on Bainbridge where we celebrated Finn's birthday with some of his favorite people, we spent his actual birthday with Daddy (who just came home from a last-minute photo assignment), Inca and a long walk in Discovery Park. Then we came home to a procession of trick-or-treaters, the Sunday paper and new birthday toys.

Monkey Birthday

Baby on a rock

Morningtime

This is what we did in the mornings:

Wake up.
Ask really nicely to please come into Mummy and Daddy's bed by only making a soft squeak.
Squeak a little louder because they didn't hear the first squeak.
Squeak really loud, because they didn't hear the first or the second squeak.
Mummy and Daddy both jump up at the same time and say Shhhh, Finn! Which makes me laugh.
Then they look at each other and Mummy says, oh, ok Finn, you can come up.
And I do.
And we are all happy.

The End.

Mummy's big sun hat

Baja

We tried to get Finn to take a nap next to the pool with us, but he was not having any of it. Why the heck would I sleep when there is a pool to be swimming in? he would say with his dark eyes. Besides, Dad gets to.

Baja

It was our first day in Mexico and the first thing we did (after taking a dip in the pool and starting book number one) was go to a local taqueria for some fresh fish tacos and local beer. Finn flirted with the meseras, tried on his Auntie's glasses and had a sip with Dad. It was a good first day.

Baby in the kale patch

This Sunday we spent the day at our dear friends Lana and Scott's organic farm in Sequim. We pressed apples, ate fresh-picked fruit and veggies, played with some babies our age and frolicked in the kale patch.



Finn is a decided hater-of-shoes. So much so that if he cannot remove them, he would prefer to crawl, thankyouverymuch...


Now the games begin! Finn was playing hide-and-seek in the kale patch with us... can you spy the baby?


What about now?


And now?


It was a magical day that made me want to move my little family to the countryside where we would spend our time with wonderful friends, eating amazing food and letting babies play at our feet. Or in the fields...