Sunday, June 26, 2011

UPDATE FROM ALASKA: Finn and his village

Finn and I have been in Alaska for over 3 weeks now and the time is flying by! Finn loves it up here, although I know he misses his Dada. We have lots of Dada pictures that we look at daily, but his favorite are the ones where Dada is holding Finn. This morning Finn had his first 'real' conversation with Dada-- he took the phone from me and said 'Dada?' and then got a HUGE smile on his face.

Finn has a fulltime nanny up here, Martha from Colombia. She takes him on lots of trips, which he loves. His going-out-the-door routine is to grab the keys, give me a kiss and wave while he walks out the door and says 'Bu-bye, Mama!'.  And they're off. To the park, to the library, to the swimming pool or a walk on the tundra.

In addition to Martha, Finn has a whole village helping to raise him. Kyle and AJ, our two shore support guys take him on the forklift or do 'danger' (his word for dangerous) things with him like let him open boxes with 'sharp cut'  (his words) knives. And my friend Lana and little brother Nick's girlfriend Casi are always up for some Finn fun. 'Papa' (Grandfather Greg) and he play in the evenings together when Mama has some last minute work to finish up and Nanna (the name he made up for my mom) is always a good substitute for me when I am too busy to engage with him.