The Beach

We made it to the States about a week and a half ago to officially begin our summer vacation! We had a bit of a scare the day we flew. Finley woke up with a fever of 102. (He never wakes up with a fever; it always comes later in the morning. And 102 was a bit too high for our liking.) We were pretty sure the fever was a result of the vaccinations he had gotten a few days earlier, but of course we were worried about if something happened and he got even worse when we were stuck on the airplane. We kept him loaded with fever reducers the entire flight. He felt terrible, but he survived and we survived.

We went to the beach in SC last week with my family and had a great time! By the end of the week, Finley was a regular beach bum. His absolute favorite part was the hammock. We literally had to pry his fingers off the strings to get him out. He laid in it like a cute little frog.

The beach seemed to make Finley very hungry. He constantly snacked on the beach. He's eating some of his current favorites in this photo: blueberries.

Flying high over lovely blue skies.

Getting ready to...
...SPLASH!

Playing with Daddy and Aunt Jessica in the sand.

We still haven't quite mastered the shovel yet, but it's fun to try! Thanks to Alice, Jacob & Lindsay for the great bucket and shovels!

Cuddle time with Mommy after some serious playing.

So proud for drinking out of a bottle of water (with help).

Laughing at Granddaddy pouring water on him.

I don't always mind the clinginess. It can be pretty darn cute.

Reading a book with his grandmommy (whose grandparent name is yet to be determined).

While Hong Kong is very green and lush, we don't have much grass at all. It's a lot of tropical trees, plants, and flowers. My parents' house was Finley's first real chance to play in a yard of (real) grass. He especially loved playing with sticks! (Notice he's carrying around the same stick in all the photos.)

Happy Father's Day!

So this is a little early, but we'll be traveling this weekend...

Finley asked that I post the following on his behalf:

Dear Daddy,

Happy (early) Father's Day! I made you a list of some of the great things you do for me.

Thank you for loving me.

Thank you for helping me fly.

Thank you for taking me to your favorite vacation spot (MI).

Thank you for feeding me.

Thank you for taking me to strange and exotic places and helping me get lots of stamps in my passport.

Thank you for being silly and making me laugh.

Thank you for playing with me.

Thank you for dressing me (even if you do accidentally put both legs in one side of the pants).

Thank you for lugging me around, even when the stairs are many.

Thank you for partying with me.

Thank you for teaching me how to play the guitar.

Love,

Finley

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Happy Father's Day to our dads, too! We love you and can't wait to see you very soon!

(Amanda's Dad, Randy)

(Nate's Dad, Tim)

Videos!

Nate and I tried using the iPhone to take a couple of videos. They're unedited, but they still get the job done.

The first video is from today. Maya (the principal) gave us an electronic drum set that her kids have outgrown. Finley loves it already! Click here to watch.

The second video is from last weekend. We were just playing around on one of the playgrounds at school. Click here to watch.

14 Months

Happy 14 months to Finley as of yesterday! I don't have time to type a lot, as my summer classes began yesterday. You'll have to settle for a few early morning bed head photos.

And this photo demonstrates Finley's newest talent. He's recently discovered that he has two holes in his nose, which are conveniently the perfect size for his fingers!

Laugh Attack

If you like to hear Finley laugh, click here. There's a short video of Finley playing one of his favorite games, where he crawls and tries to get us to come after him and tickle him. We love to hear the little man laugh!

HK Park

We have had a beautiful (but hot) weekend. On Saturday, we went to Hong Kong Park downtown. It's a lovely park, complete with fountains, ponds, aviary, museum, playgrounds, etc. A fun family outing!

It's been so hot that we've been going swimming each afternoon. Tried to snag a quick photo of Finley in his reusable swim diaper, which looks kind of like a baby Speedo. So cute! He's still been wearing his swim suit from last year (size 6-12 months and getting a bit snug), but it was so warm this weekend we just put him in the swim diaper.

Tantrums & Talking

Things are getting exciting with Finley these days. It's like the moment the clock struck 11:37am on April 13th and he turned one, he felt obligated to start acting like a real, tantrum-throwing toddler. Seriously-- the tantrums started within a couple of days of his birthday. Lucky for us, these tantrums are mini-tantrums, i.e. throwing his head back, arching his body, and loud crying. So far no holding his breath, throwing things, pounding the floor, or kicking, thank goodness!

One of Finley's best tantrums so far was at the pool this week. Of course, it just so happened to be the most crowded day ever. Finley wanted to crawl all over the pool deck and look for unsafe and unclean items to put in his mouth, but I picked him up to bring him back into the pool instead. The Meltdown ensued immediately! The problem was (other than my embarrassment) that Finley best gets over his tantrums if I lay him down, step a couple of feet away, and pretend to ignore him. The concrete pool deck, however, wasn't a particularly safe place to do that, so I tried to hold him and comfort him. Big mistake. I learned very quickly to stick with what works. So while hold a 23 lb toddler who was trying his best to arch his way out of my arms, I attempted to grab our things, keep my swimsuit on (not easy with a flailing toddler), and get into the changing room, where I promptly sat our things and Finley down on a rubber mat on the floor. Somewhat gross, but necessary.

Just in Finley's defense, though, he is actually a very fun and happy baby, er, toddler, 90% of the time. Finley's talking is finally starting to take off, which is so exciting. Other people probably have no idea what he's saying, but I've figured out that he can say car ("ca"), dada, yeah, oh no ("oh!"), yaya (what he calls the helper- it's the Tagalog word for nanny), and I think he's working on bye-bye. He says so many other things, I just haven't figured out what they are yet.

I'll end with a nice photo of guitar time with Finley and Daddy. Finley still loves the guitar!