17 Months Video

Click here for our video and get ready to giggle!

Ch-ch-changes

Change is in the air at the Dennison house (er, apartment). Finley is so big he has surpassed the weight limit for having his car seat backwards, so we were forced to turn it around. This is a pretty great change, if you ask me, because it means I've moved back to the front seat after over 17 months of riding in the back with him!

I've also started tutoring a little, as well as some half-day substitute teaching. And I'm helping to lead the mom's Bible study at our church this year. All this is in addition to working on my masters. So that means more time away from the little man than I'm accustomed to. The beauty of it is that all those things are flexible, and I'm in control of my schedule. I can always be there when Finley needs me, which is probably more comforting for me than Finley. Finley, meanwhile, is having lots of playdates and trying to learn how to play and coexist with other toddlers. Finley will be 18 months old next week, so I'll give you more of an update on him then!

Boursin & Bath Hair

Nate and I were eating Boursin cheese and crackers a few nights ago, and Finley wanted to get in on the action.

He basically just licked all the Boursin off the cracker.

Then he started playing peek-a-boo with his Boursin-covered hands all over his face.

Luckily, it was almost bath time when this happened.

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Finley had not had a hair cut in two months, and it was getting pretty long.

Daddy decided to make a mohawk in the bath.

You'll have to wait for more photos to see the hair cut I gave Finley on Monday. Will it be a mohawk like this...
...or something more traditional?

15 Minutes of Tourism

Often when you live in a place, you take for granted the interesting sights around you. We had a long weekend a couple of weeks ago, and the holiday spirit inspired me to be a tourist in HK, even if it was for just 15 minutes. Here are the results-- photos of the wet market in Shau Kei Wan. It's important to locals to have very fresh food, so most people go shopping at a market such as this everyday.

You can get an anatomy lesson going to a wet market. Check out all the different parts of animals you can buy.

The fish are so fresh some are trying to jump out of the styrofoam containers.

Our Little Reader

Finley loves to read! He usually wants us to read to him, but this weekend he just grabbed a book, climbed up on the couch, and started "reading" all on his own.

Sweet boy.

First Stitches

Finley got his first stitches last week. What a milestone! Finley is in the process of learning to run, but doesn't always pick his feet up enough when he's wearing shoes. As you can imagine, this results in falls. The incident in question was a nice little face-plant outside on the tile. Finley hardly cried at all, but he split his lower lip bad enough that I figured we better take him to the emergency room (it was after hours). Turned out he needed a couple of stitches, and they wanted the plastic surgeon to do them because of the location on his face.
Stitches for a strong, active, scared, NOT sedated 16-month-old are terrible. We wrapped him up in a sheet, then it took me, Nate, a nurse, and the surgeon to hold him down. He was crying hysterically and trying to shout at us while the doctor cleaned him, shot him up with lidocaine, and then gave him stitches. I don't know how that doctor did it.
The next morning, when Finley was eating breakfast, I noticed there was string sticking out of his lip. Turns out Finley's top stitch had come untied, and it soon fell out completely. (Guess that's what happens when you're putting stitches in a squirmy, hysterical toddler.) Since he only had two stitches to begin with, and it had only been about 12 hours, I called the hospital, who called the doctor, who told us to come in. The thought of having to put that stitch back in AGAIN did not make me happy.
When we got to the doctor's office, Finley clearly recognized the doctor from the night before and didn't want to be anywhere near him. The doctor said the stitch that came out was the least important one, and his lip was starting to heal enough that we didn't have to put it back in. Thank goodness!
Finley went in this weekend to get the remaining stitch removed. His lip isn't healed yet, but it's getting there. Here's hoping there are no more trips to the hospital anytime soon!


Completely unrelated, here is a photo of a yummy Thai beef salad we made for dinner last week, and a photo of Finley's crazy bed head after his nap one day.

He's a Cutie!

Just a few cute things Finley is doing now:

• Refining his dance moves. For the first 15 months of his life, Finley had one bouncy dance move. However, just in the last month, he has added about 4 other moves!
• Getting so excited about music. When we turn on some of his favorite songs, Finley will go over to the speakers with his mouth wide open, in a super surprised/excited expression.
• Sleeping with his washcloths. Finley has shown no interest in any sort of stuffed animal or blanket until the last month. Now he's really liking his washcloths (which we use for bath and meal clean-ups) and has even taken to sleeping with one. I am encouraging this habit, as toddlers benefit from comfort objects. Washcloths are a great choice, because they're light and easy to travel with, and we have at least 10 of them! I give him a different one every time so he doesn't get super attached to a certain color.
• Giving Mommy and Daddy lots of kisses. Mind you, they're somewhat open-mouthed, wet kisses, but we still love it!

And now for the video.....Click Here!