baby

A birthday boy (and girl)

brad — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 16:27:00 +0200

We hit a milestone on saturday, Finley turned 1 year. Mandy started the build up with a blow by blow account starting on the 30 November (although, her dedication was not 100%, since she didn't wake me up at 1am). We threw a party out at Alex and Ed's (and Rupa and Jasmin) house, since it is a very beautiful, hand made, cob house, outside of town. Rupa and Finley missed sharing a birth day by a few hours, but Alex and Mandy did share a 1am water breaking (not sure of what the appropriate name is). The day was lovely, and I will let the pictures speak for the event (Kyle claims pictures speak a thousand words, so this post is a ten-thousand-and-some-change word post). But first, here is a picture of Fin at 7:30am on his birthday, with the lovely push car thing that Anne gave Fin. And now, the rest of the party (in no particular order): And, finally, both the families, in one picture:

The boy like the summer

brad — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 09:10:47 +0200

Yesterday Amanda and Fin visited Auntie Leela, with Auntie Kiran, and the boy did his usual cute tricks. Mandy said there was a five minute period between when they arrived (and Fin was dressed in a cute button up top), and when he was drenched with water from the newly emptied bird bath, and subsequently naked. We now have a boy in our lives. He hits things with sticks, he loves playing with mud and sand, and expresses sheer delight when he makes a mess. Yesterday morning it was lovely and warm, so we busted out the inflatable pool. While I was filling it Fin sat next to it, splashing the growing puddle of water on to himself (shrieking with laughter as he wet his clothes). If I splashed him with the hose he would burst out laughing. He has become so playful lately, and he spent the weekend laughing so much, playing silly games, and generally being gas. Highlights included playing peek-a-boo with the bedside lamp (who thought a lamp could hide behind a book your dad was holding?), and attacking Mandy for ages, with big slobbery kisses while laughing till he coughed.

Finley in the compulsory baby wearing oversized sunglasses photo

brad — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 08:18:53 +0200

I did muck around with the colours, some of me says it looks a bit weird, some of me not. After some amount of peer pressure, I have decided to come clean and publish an overly saturated recropped version of the image, where Taryn is visible.

Mornings

amanda — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 15:00:12 +0200

I guess we are quite lucky that Finley wakes up some time between 6.30 and 7.00 in the morning. Sometimes he even sleeps in until 7.30. The other parents we know tell us that they get woken up between 5.00 and 6.00am, some even before that! But this morning, Finley was sitting up in bed slapping my arm/head/back trying to get my attention at 5.06am (probably due to the fact that he missed his afternoon nap yesterday and went to bed super early). I tried hiding under the pillow/duvet, but he's too clever for that game. When he started pulling hair and pinching the soft sensitive skin on my ear lobe, I relented and 'woke up', giving him desired attention. I'm still feeling quite fluey and headachey and I'm starting to wonder whether I have the same bug as Fin since he seemed to get over his cold in a few days and only really had one bad night of crying and feeling miserable. I, on the other hand, seem to have day after day of crying and feeling miserable. Checking my mail in bed, I was cheered up by a really nice and unexpected mail from Elizabeth Pantley. I had forwarded on a mail from the GPN (Grahamstown Parents Network) onto various mums I know and had included Elizabeth on the list. The email I sent was about reflecting on the amazing job that all moms do everyday: "admiration for the greatness of what you are building when no one sees". In her email she said "As a mom of 3 teens and a second-grader -- Thank you Amanda - I need this today". I had the same feeling then that I used to have when Finley was a small baby and I would constantly find myself awake in the middle of the night, breastfeeding this little person in the dark and quiet. Everyone else around sleeping, except for all the other moms like me in the world, with their newborns in their arms or lying next to them, silently suckling. Its a sense of solidarity, of knowing you aren't alone, no matter who you are - a first-time stay at home mom in Grahamstown, South Africa or a parenting expert, bestselling author and mom of four in Washington, USA. As many of you may already know, Finley loves showering. But it has only been in the last week or so that he has started to actively seek it out instead of waiting for us to undress him and take him to the bathroom. The boy is determined. So every morning when Brad goes to shower, Finley promptly stops playing with the empty box/wet wipes packet/stuffed animal that has interested him, crawls to the end of the bed, turns around to climb off the bed (our mattress is on the floor so it isn't such a big climb), and with a peculiar fervour makes a beeline to the bathroom where he can hear that the shower has already been turned on. Once there, he shrieks with delight as his well-thought-out plan is being realised and pulls himself up to a standing position on the side of the bath. The next few minutes are spent pleading with dad to lift him up and share the shower with him, when that fails, he resorts to playing a wild game of peekaboo with the shower curtain and indirectly spraying himself and the bathroom floor with water.

Finley discovers inflatable pools at Lily's party

brad — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 11:41:10 +0200

Over the weekend we went to Lily Mae Bowker's Birthday party, on the family farm in Thornkloof (about 40 minutes outside of Grahamstown). It started out as a very nice day, blue sky, etc. At the party, among other things, was an inflatable, and brightly coloured, pool. Finley spent 60% of the party in the hand deep water, splashing, laughing, and attacking anyone trying to take photos of him. By the end of it he was freezing cold, but cried every time we took him out, or he caught a glimpse of the pool. For reference, this is what Lily Mae looks like (photo taken at Morrigan's party last weekend): And this is what the road looked like on the way back from the farm:

Finley 'The Cutest' Whittington

amanda — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 10:31:02 +0200

We normally spend mornings in our courtyard having breakfast, taking in some vitamin D (when the weather permits, of course). This morning, Finley is especially cute with his Just Woken Up look, apple in hand, head resting on ball.

A glut of Finley: Around the Bartholomew house

brad — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 07:58:36 +0200

The second in the series of Photo gluts, here are some lovely pictures of dear Finley round about the Bartholomew house (in nearly no particular order): Finley points at a dandylion flower, fascinated by how it disappears when Amanda blows on it. Mandy covers Finley's head with his t-shirt, rendering him into an auntie. Finley spies out the camera as he plays his favourite game in the guest room - Opening and closing the door. Finley puts on his best Granddad Richard face for the camera. Amanda's activity at the washing machine outside distracts Finley from his smearing-kiwi-in-the-carpet game. The aftermath of Finley's smearing-kiwi-in-the-carpet game. Finley joins Bradley for his new favourite water sport - Showering. Amanda pushes Finley's ample hair into a mowhawk during a shower. After shower fuzz afflicts Finley's hair, as he plays naked in the courtyard at Bartholomew street. P.S. If you do not see the images in your feed reader then you will need to visit the website. This is a glitch I am aware of, and I will sort it out as soon as I can.

A glut of Finley: Durban trip, September 2007

brad — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 09:23:51 +0200

I present to you a glut of photos of Finley from our trip to Durban in September, 2007. Chronologically (roughly): Finley yawning at us in Bailey Road, Durban.

Finley eating grass in front of a wall of Jasmin flowers, on the Freeman's farm near Melmouth.

Amanda and Finley enjoying a day at the beach near "Pebble Beach" cottage, South Coast, KwaZulu-Natal.

Finley sits on Amanda's lap, bemused after playing with his cousin Maya, "Pebble Beach" cottage, South Coast, KwaZulu-Natal.

Bathing Fin while he plays with his new lego blocks (courtesy of HBelle), "Pebble Beach" cottage, South Coast, KwaZulu-Natal.

Finley the crawler

brad — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 11:56:33 +0200

Amanda is in Durban at the moment, visiting family (read showing off Finley). Just before we left for Durban on August 20th Finley had started get the hang of starting to crawl, well, he could "step" forward like three steps and then sit on his bum, while moaning and complaining continuously. After a few days in Durban (I think it is the warm air) he was really getting the hang of it (so much so that we could leave him on the floor with toys splayed around, and he would amuse himself). The realisation of the impact of a crawling child dawned on us when we were trying to put him down for a nap one time (when possible me and Mandy lie on either side of him while she feeds him to sleep, this is the result of his separation anxiety phase which he is currently moving through). As we were trying to get him to sleep he kept rolling over, pushing himself onto his hands and knees, and crawling to the edge of the bed. Mandy described the situation quite nicely in an email she sent me last night:

BUT. It took me about 10 minutes to change his nappy tonight. Once I take his dirty nappy off, before I can put the new nappy on, he flips onto his tummy, gets onto hands and knees and crawls away laughing. He does it really quickly and I can see that changing nappies is never going to be the same again. He can also sit up from lying down on his back without rolling onto his tummy first. Which means putting him to sleep has become increasingly difficult. He just sits up and does what he wants to. His crawling speed has also accelerated. So if you can, please try and do some childproofing before we get home.

I am a bit scared. Mandy also took Finley to uShaka Marine World and said "Then we went to the Aquarium and he was quite sleepy and was a little frightened by the fish at first, but soon warmed up to them. He especially like the huge sea turtles.". It is quite nice to hear he is warming up to stuff a lot quicker, our week in durban bombarded him with people, places, and plenty of new things, most of which he did not have an immediate appreciation for: