Fall Adventures

Finn has finally learned how to crawl!  After months of trying (and falling on his face), he finally got the hang of it last weekend and is all over the place now!  It's so fun to watch him and he gets faster every day!  He's into everything and does a sinister-sounding laugh as he crawls toward something he knows he's not allowed to have (the cord to the lamp, dad's guitar, etc.).  I can be in the other room and I'll hear this little villain laugh and I know exactly what he's going for.  He's still doing lots of dancing when any music is playing (Jack playing his drums, really quiet Britney Spears song playing when we were just out to dinner) - it's so funny.  He's also starting to phase out the baby food in favor of whatever we're eating (pizza, lasagna, grilled cheese have been some new favorites...hmmm...all made of cheese, pasta, and bread with no vegetables.  uh oh).  Another new development is that he knows how to play catch!  I bought him a bouncy baseball and we can sit for 20 minutes throwing it back and forth - it's amazing how good he is for being so little and how long his attention span is for playing!  He loves his books and sits on my lap turning the pages one at a time to look at the pictures.  His favorites are pop-up books or ones that have things that move on the pages.  Haven't been too good with taking pictures lately, so I'll get some new ones up soon.  Video of the little guy crawling is coming too!

Angela Drive Block Party

We had a great time at our block party!  Finn got to ride on the fire truck and the police motor cycle!

Other Pictures

Some more recent pictures:

Taking a sink bath

Finn at Ohio State

Doing some reading on the way to Columbus

Finn, Mallie, and Annie in the pack and play at our block party

At the Fairview football game:

Stomp

Here's Jack, Mallie, and Finn's version of Stomp, complete with a homemade drum set and a dancing diva.

Labor Day Camping Trip

Finn is 9 months old!  He's got a few new tricks too.  He's been doing a lot of waving, although it usually doesn't mean "hello" or "goodbye".  He just tries to see how many people he can get to wave back at him.  He was thrilled when Grandma Heffron came for dinner last night so there were three people waving back instead of just two!  He has also started imitating dogs barking.  He gets a really serious look on his face and looks around when he hears our neighbor's dog and then he lets out his own little "woof woof!"  He also tries to imitate us when we whistle by making his mouth into a little "o" and doing some high-pitched screeching.  Finn's favorite toys right are his whisk and a golf ball.  He could play with them for hours, banging the whisk on his head (and looking like a total doofus while he's doing it) and batting his golf ball around the floor. He's been trying all kinds of new foods and two new favorites are pizza and rice and beans.  Still no crawling, but he does manage to scoot around so he can grab everything he's not supposed to touch.  Lately, he's really been enjoying scooting and pushing the dining room chairs around in front of him!  Here are some recent pictures:

One day, some vigorous backwards scooting landed him right under our bed!

Playing tug-of-war with dad's suspenders.

Being a silly guy in the kitchen with his toys.

Playing with Uncle Max.

Heffron Cousin bath time at Uncle Mitch and Aunt Megan's!

Camping with mom and dad for their anniversary:

Trying for a BIG drink of water after a long bike ride in the trailer.

Growing and Changing!

Finn is almost 9 months old!  It's hard to believe how much he's grown and changed since he was born.  He has such a distinct personality and it's very fun to watch him make his presence known in the world around him (he's really noisy, so his presence is usually pretty hard to miss!).   Some new things - he just started clapping and imitating mouth noises recently, which is very entertaining.  He also loves to read books, especially ones with photographs of kids and babies. Whenever we turn to a page with a picture of a kid on it, he gets really excited and laughs.  He has always been so interested in watching other kids (either his cousins or the kids at the baby sitter's  house) and I think he learns so much from them.  He's SO close to crawling, but just doesn't seem to want to make that final little move to hands and knees (probably because every time he tries, he ends up doing a face plant on the floor).  I see him getting more and more frustrated by the fact that he's not mobile, especially when there's an interesting toy just out of reach!  Hopefully this will be all the motivation he needs to start scooting around!  He's starting to eat "big boy" food at most meals now - favorites are watermelon, bananas, peas, and broccoli.  He's doing lots of puckering his lips and chewing...we're assuming this means that some teeth are on the way!

Pucker Face

The Children's Garden

We took a trip to the Children's Garden at the Cleveland Botanical Gardens this week.  It was such a cool place for kids to explore (although there's only so much exploring one can do from inside a stroller - but when he's bigger, I'm sure Finn will love this place even more!).  Here are some of the pictures from the day and from a recent visit with Finn's cousin Mallie and a trip to the park.