The Heffron Family: December 2011

Oops! Can’t believe it’s been so long since I’ve written or posted pictures. It’s been a busy couple of months! The boys are doing great – funny most of the time, challenging some of the time. Finn turned 3 on Wednesday! Hard to believe my baby is getting so big so fast. And I swear, in the last week, he’s started growing right out of his clothes! Pants he was wearing 2 weeks ago are now way too short on him! He’s giving us a glimpse of the terrible 3s, which I’ve heard can be worse than the 2s. A few problems with listening and being too rough at school (and at home), but seems to be doing a little better the last few days. We started doing a behavior plan at home that I made up called “A Pirate Treaty”. He can earn rewards/treats/treasures for getting caught in the act of good behavior (e.g. sharing with Mitch, helping us with a job/chore/cleaning up, playing nicely/gently with Mitch). It has worked wonders, when we’re consistent with it. Most of the time, though, he is as silly and funny as ever. Here are some of his latest one-liners. I posted these on facebook, but wanted to keep them documented here too. These are all from the fall:

This morning I told him that the rules at school are the same even though it's his bday. When I asked what the rules are, he said "no power washing".

Finn: "who sings this song?" Me: "the Beatles." Next song comes on. Finn: "and who sings this one? Some mosquitoes?" :)

Finn to me as we were walking out of daycare just now: "where did you park your car, you doofus?

Finn's best idea of the day: "Mom, we should get a new house because our house is dirty."

"Finn, stop spitting. It's gross and it's really bad manners" Finn: "But mom, it's a part of nature!"

On the way to daycare this morning: "Mom, when we go to the air show, if you get scared I can hug you. Just don't freak out, okay? Do we have a deal?"

Other funny Finn-isms: Instead of “thanks” he says “wanks”, which cracks me up every time. At bedtime, I have to sing “This Old Man” and scratch his back. He calls this “sing and scratch”. Before I start singing, he warns me repeatedly not to forget “sticks” (the line where this old man plays six on my sticks) because it’s his favorite. Sometimes I have to repeat this line twice if he didn’t hear it clearly the first time around. At the end of the song, I slow down so he knows it’s almost over and he sings along for the last line really slow in a low voice “this old man caaaaaammmmmme rooooooooollllllliiiiiiinnnnnggggg hooooooooooooommmmme.” Then he says, “wank you, wank you, wank you very much!” Like he’s thanking his audience for their applause. This routine happens EXACTLY the same way every night. Before This Old Man, I have to tell him a story. I usually just tell him about something that happened to me when I was a kid, or something that’s happened to him recently. I start by saying, “Once upon a time there was a little girl….” And he springs up in his bed, saying “was it you mom? Was it you?” or “Once upon a time there was a little boy…” And he’ll say “OH! Was it me? Was it? Was it mom?” Before I can even start the story. And every morning when he wakes up, or when he wakes up from naps, he says in a groggy voice, “is it a school day?”

Instead of “after”, he says “aster”. He pronounces b in the middle of a word as a v. Examples: Joanne Favrics, mayve (maybe), livary (library). He calls a screwdriver a “scoopdiver”. He is REALLY into fishing. It’s all he wants to do. He uses Grandpa Jim’s old fishing rod and loves taking it down to fish in the creek. He hasn’t caught anything yet, could be because he’s not allowed to have a hook, J but it doesn’t seem to bother him.

For his birthday, he brought pirate cookies (sugar cookies I decorated by drawing a skull and crossbones on top – they looked terrible, but he was thrilled) to school along with his book and CD called Portside Pirates. It’s a really cute book that goes along with a song. We gave him his new toy cash register after school and took him to Malley’s for ice cream. A great day! Then, on Friday, the family came over for cake and ice cream. He LOVES his new gifts. I think he and Mitch were definitely due for some new toys. They just didn’t have a whole lot of age appropriate toys and were getting a little bored. Some favorite gifts: the remote control jeep from Grandma and the Flip the Frog game from Papa and Yaya. He’s also quite fond of his new tackle box from the Gilbrides (he slept with it that night) and his new Cars sleeping bag from Mitch and Megan and the boys. He and Mitch were cuddled up on it in the living room this morning!

The boys are just starting to really play together, which is so fun and can be so hard too. They are so rough with each other and someone is constantly getting hurt. They take things from each other too, so there’s a lot of screaming and yelling too. The last two days, they’ve been racing the new remote control cars together in the kitchen and really having fun. It’s so sweet to hear them laughing together. They are so different personality-wise. Finn is a lot more analytical and cautious. He likes to check out a situation before just jumping in and participating. He acts silly and crazy when he’s nervous (in a crowd, or around new people). Mitch is a doer. He’s a motor skill powerhouse – climbing, jumping, tackling, running. He gets on his little bike and can push so fast with his feet that he can be halfway down the street before you notice he's gone. He is so strong and can easily take Finn down to the ground without even trying. He is a little problem solver and will spend a good part of the day taking out all of our mugs and water bottles, trying to figure out which top goes on which bottle. He has absolutely no fear – he’ll stand on the top step and say “JUMP!” and you had better be ready because it means he’s going jump off the step whether you’re looking or not. Finn won’t go into the basement alone, even in broad daylight. But Mitch will go down there in the dark without hesitation. When Finn wants to play down there, he’ll hold the door open and yell for Mitch to come and go first down the stairs. Mitch will go down on command and turn the light for Finn J .

For a couple of months, Mitch didn’t seem to be talking a lot or babbling. I was starting to get worried because it was right at 17-18 months, when babies really start developing their language skills and he had a nasty sinus and ear infection all through September and early October. I mentioned it to the doctor and we took him in to get his hearing tested. He tested out totally fine, and by the time I brought him in for the test, I had already noticed that he was talking so much more! Now, he’s talking up a storm. It’s still mostly one word at a time, and his speech isn’t very clear, but he makes sure he’s understood! He says “peeeeee!” for please and asks for “mo peeeee!” when he wants more of something or “up peeeee!” when he wants you to pick him up. His word of the moment is definitely “NO!” and he says it constantly. The other day, as I was pulling into the boys’ daycare, I sang “here we go to school….here we go!” and Mitch chimed in with “cha cha cha!” from the backseat. I couldn’t believe it! Then I realized that without even noticing, I sing that to them all the time when we’re going somewhere: “here we go to grandma’s here we go!” and I guess at the end, I say “cha cha cha!” because Mitch sings it with me all the time now! It’s so funny that kids pick things up from you that you don’t even notice you’re doing! Other words he knows: umbrella, airplane, outside, boat, shoes, and lawnmower. These are his own versions of the words, of course, but we all know what he means. He's getting good at telling us what noise the different animals make, and can point to a lot of body parts when you ask him (hair, feet, eyes, nose, mouth). At night or before nap, he gets really silly and loses all control of himself. Sometimes, he starts biting me when I’m holding him because he’s so tired he doesn’t know what to do with himself. When I bring him up to his room, he likes to turn the lights off himself, but I like to mess with him a little bit while he does it. I carry him over to the lights and as he’s reaching out to hit the switch, I pull him away at the last minute so he can’t do it. This sends him into hysterics, he’s laughing so hard. It’s one of my favorite parts of my day. He laughs so hard that he can’t control himself enough to reach for the switch again. He likes to read before bed and brings a book into his crib to look at while he’s falling asleep. His favorite books are the ones with photographs of other babies in them. I love peeking in at him in his crib, just flipping through the pages of his book. So cute. When Mitch wakes up from his nap or in the morning, he could easily spend an hour playing in his crib by himself. He never cries for us to come and get him. It’s so funny that he can entertain himself so well in there. He’s always been that way. A good sleeper and a happy baby. He’s been a bit of a challenge though in the evenings. He gets so tired by dinner time (especially after being at daycare) that he often screams and cries all the way through dinner. Bath time usually cheers him up again for a bit and then he’s ready for bed by 7 (sometimes earlier). He naps really well every day, but is still so exhausted at this time of day. He’s been moved up to the “toddler” room at daycare and now takes his nap on a cot instead of in a crib. I can’t believe they get any of these babies to sleep that way, but they say he naps well there too! He loves going to school and never cries when I drop him off. Breakfast is usually enough of a distraction to keep him happy as I leave for work! J

With dad at the nature center. This is usually the point where Finn gives up and says he can't go up anymore steps.

With dad at Edgewater Park. I had to go to work an extra day a couple of weeks ago and Drew took a vacation day to stay with the boys. They went to the botanical gardens and stopped at Edgewater on the way home! Love this pic!