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| Painting his first picture with fruit. |
Around the 6-month mark (right after we moved to NFLD), Finley changed drastically. He became less clingy and more independent. This was a huge mental and physical relief for us because up until then, either Dan or I had been carrying Finley around on our chest for the majority of the day. If Finley wasn't on our chest in the Baby Bjorn, then he would get upset and cry if we weren't by his side. Obviously, this made for stressful days. Anyways, things are on the "up".
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| Nanny and Grumpy made a trip to NFLD to visit our little man last month! |
Finley can do so many more things now. He can sit-up on his own unassisted (which he loves because he can better see his surroundings); he can stand while leaning against a chair or couch; he reaches for things all around him; he flips back-to-front and front-to-back all the time; he walks while holding our hands; he throws things; he holds his own bottle (he hasn't quite mastered feeding himself the bottle though); and so much more! Because Finley can do all of these things, it makes play time a lot more fun. We often sit with Finley on the floor or couch, give him a couple of toys, and he stays easily amused for a while. He loves when we tickle him, blow on his stomach and hair, sing rap-songs, and make funny sounds like "Rrrrrrrroar". I love hearing his precious little giggle. It melts my heart.
I've been taking Finley out for short stroller runs lately, and it seems like he really enjoys getting the fresh air and taking in all of the sights around him. We live on a subdivision, so there are lots of houses, people, dogs, and cars to look at as we're running. While running, I usually try to interact with him by grabbing his toes or fingers, or "chatting" with him. Usually Finley will babble and coo back when I talk to him. I love looking down and see his face light up and smile at me. It makes the run that much easier to get through.
We've been trying him with a bunch of pureed foods, but it seems like he might be a picky eater. Finley doesn't really like many fruits besides apples and pears, which I boiled with cinnamon and then puree. He likes a few vegetables like sweet potato, butternut squash, and corn, but his all-time favourite is avocados. It could easily down a half of an avocado. When he eats, he makes really cute "yummmmmm" noises and smacks his lips. Right now, apples and avocados are his favourite foods. Luckily, they're really easy to puree in the baby bullet. On top of the solid foods, Finley is obviously still drinking his bottle. He usually eats 5-6 times a day, but the amount of formula varies each time —sometimes he'll eat 6 oz but other times he'll only eat 2-3 oz. It's really unpredictable at this point. Oh yeah, Finley tried a little lick of ice cream the other night and loved it... just like his mom and dad. He was unimpressed by the photos we tried to take of him though ;)
We have this little popsicle thing that we put frozen fruit in and Finley had a blast with it this morning. Can you guess which fruit was in it?!
In terms of sleep, the past three weeks have been really rough. I'm not sure what was going on, but Finley was waking up multiple times each night —sometimes 5-6 times. I'm going to go ahead and blame it on teething, but who knows... it seems like everything gets blamed on teething. Anyways, the past few nights have been much better. We do our little bedtime routine (bath every other night, bottle, books), then Finley goes to sleep around 7:30 pm. Dan has been "dream-feeding" him a bottle before he turns in for the night (usually around 10:30-11:00 pm), and then I feed him around 2:30 am. Finley tends to get up around 6:30-7:00 am, but this can certainly vary from day-to-day. Fingers crossed his sleep patterns continue to improve.
Nap time has been ah-mazing!! haha Finley has been having two 1.5-2 hour naps (early morning, early afternoon), and a short 30-40 minute nap before supper. This is so much better than 30-40 minute cat-naps here and there. For the past three weeks, we have been super consistent with putting Finley down in his crib for all of his naps. I think this consistency has helped get him into a good nap-time routine. It's really nice that he naps in his crib (as opposed to in the baby carrier) because it gives me more freedom to do things during nap-time.
What else? Well, over the past week, Finley has started being more 'vocal'... he yells and makes little noises. I'm pretty sure he's saying "moooooommm" and "mama" —although sometimes it sounds like yummmmmm, so who knows. I like to think he can say "mom".
Recently, Finley discovered that his hand is comprised of fingers, so he's starting to develop his fine motor skills. We took out a couple of wood puzzles that we received at our baby shower for Finley to play with. He seems to really like taking out the pieces, but mostly, he just chews on them.
Finley is sllllowly getting the hang of crawling I think. He can twist and turn himself around on his playmat and stretch out to reach things, but he can't really crawl yet. He does pick up his playmat and pull it around on his rug haha It's really quite cute.
Finley loves having 'no pants parties', especially at night time when he gets a bit fussy before bed. Once we take off his pants, he cheers right up! Weird, eh? He also loves to bust a move when we sing to him.
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