Crazy Hair

After Finley's bath one night:

Are we mean parents for taking advantage of this photographic opportunity?

Jessie in HK & A Sick Baby

Nate's cousin Jessie came to visit us last week on her way from Australia back to the States. She was doing a masters program there, but is now moving home (and is going to get married this summer!). Here are a few of her photos I took off Facebook.

View from the Peak

Dim Sum- Yum Yum!

Swinging at our Apartment

One of the Local Markets

Repulse Bay Temple

Poor Finley has had a rough week this week. On Monday, he got a bad cold and cough. (Goodbye happy baby, and goodbye sleep.) By Wednesday, I also got the cold and Finley wasn't showing any signs of getting better. By Friday morning, he didn't want to eat and just cried all the time, which was loads of fun for both of us. I took him to the doctor, and she said it was likely his cold had turned into a secondary infection, probably walking pneumonia. So now Finley is on an antibiotic to clear up the infection, probiotics to try to help his tummy deal with the antibiotics, fever reducers when needed, etc etc. The good news is he is already starting to perk up a little after 24 hours of being on the antibiotic. He actually ate a decent amount of breakfast this morning (Saturday AM). The bad news is the doctor said things like this often take 3-4 days to improve significantly. I'm just glad it's the weekend now and Nate is here to help for the next 2 days! Hoping we're all back to our healthy selves soon....

13 Months Old

Here's a link to a quick video showing what Finley is up to at 13 months old. Click here. Finley can wave, shake hands, point (with his whole hand, not one finger), shake his head no, and loves to clap all the time. He can also follow some commands, if he's in the mood to be compliant, such as "Give Mommy the block," or "Throw the ball to Daddy."

Finley gets up and down from standing quickly and easily now, without holding on to anything. He just walks around the apartment like he owns the place! He can stop, go, and turn around as he pleases. Finley currently loves to carry around his wooden blocks, one in each hand and one in his mouth, and throw them down on the wood floor. (I'm sure our downstairs neighbors appreciate this.) He also enjoys looking under furniture for toys, crumbs, etc. In fact, he purposefully tries to throw toys under the furniture just so he has an excuse to wedge himself under there to get it!

Happy Belated Mother's Day!

Happy belated Mother's Day to all you moms, mums, mamas, etc out there! We had a lovely day here. Nate cooked breakfast and dinner and surprised me with little signs around the house that had photos of me with Finley and reasons that I'm a great mom on them. It was really sweet. Plus, he gave me these lovely flowers. I feel very blessed to be a mom and to have a family who appreciates me!

And let's not forget Nate's and my wonderful mothers. Happy Mother's Day to you! We love you!

(Jane, Nate's mom)

(Marcia, Nate's stepmom)

(Cynthia, my mom)

Dinner time

Things get a little crazy at dinner time around here.

What, am I not feeding him enough? Or maybe he's just practicing yoga poses.

Finley is basically walking all by himself now, though he sometimes likes to hold my hand so he can walk faster. His favorite thing to do other than walking is testing gravity. He thoroughly enjoys throwing all his toys. Lucky for us, he usually throws them down instead of at us. Finley is definitely going through a clingy phase right now, which commonly happens around the time babies learn to walk, from what I read. They want to be independent, but they don't want to be independent. Finley has great fine motor skills- he can pick up the tiniest crumbs off the ground. (So everyone, make sure your house is clean when we come home this summer, or else Finley's going to be eating all the old food, bits of string, dust balls, etc. off your floor!)

Quirky fact about Finley: He loves to poop standing up in his crib. If we put him in there for a few minutes, 8 times out of 10 he will poop. Guess we know what to do if he ever gets constipated.

Finley has 8 teeth, and is an okay eater. He's a bit picky, but his pickiness makes no sense to me. For example, he ate salmon the other day, but he refused fruit. Or, he'll eat cheese one day and refuse it the next. Some of his current favorite foods are bagels, seaweed, peanut butter, beans (lima, black, edamame, whatever!), peas, chicken, yoghurt, applesauce, and Cheerios.

Wondering how I had time to write all this today? It's because I finished all my work for this semester! Now I have a month before starting summer classes to catch up on things like this, or submitting our receipts for our insurance, cooking, etc.

Another Video

Here's another video from last week. Don't get spoiled with all these videos, now. :) This is a good one, too, if you ask me. Finley's showing off his dancing and walking skills, and even his pearly whites! Click on the link below to watch the video. The file was too big for me to put it directly in the blog like I normally do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dsr9ODxho8s

Sadly, Finley's not been feeling so hot today. Well, he's literally feeling hot to the touch, but not figuratively. Poor guy must have picked up a little virus. Not surprising since everything, everywhere, all the time goes straight into his mouth.