NOT QUITE A SPRING IN OUR STEP

We went to our local state park to hike the bluffs and realized how out of shape we both are! I guess it's time for us to revisit our exercise plans. That means daily runs with Finley for me and more ping-pong for Brad (that's about all the exercise he has time for). We were trying to fool ourselves into thinking that it was warm enough to take little chubba hiking. And for the most part it was except the last 10 minutes when the wind picked up and her little hands got cold. But she didn't complain much.

Listen to how fantastic Brad's parents neighbor is in Naperville. She is The Best Garage Sale Shopper Ever. Actually that's her official title. She is always finding the most amazing things, in fact she found us this hiking back-pack. She has great taste and knows us too well! This was our first time trying it out and Finley seemed to love it. Here's to a summer filled with more outside activities. Can't wait!

LIKE A LITTLE PUPPY

I probably shouldn't post two videos in a row, but what can you do? Finley has a few dilemmas in her life. One being: how does she follow me around the house but bring her toys with her? Well she figured it out a few weeks ago. She loves playing with her silver shoes (because they are shiny!) and they are light enough to carry in her mouth while she crawls. Problem solved! She doesn't even mind that it makes her look like a puppy. Actually that might be my favorite part, shhhh don't tell anyone.

LAUGHING

We've had our Flip camera for about a year and I've never gotten around to trying to load something on to our blog. This was my attempt at getting Finley's silent laugh on camera but of course she just wasn't being a professional so I settled for a regular old laugh. She's totally not getting her paycheck today.

But I guess she's pretty cute anyway. I love how excited she gets! Why is baby laughter especially infectious? Have you seen this video? Finley used to do that exact same thing too. Parenting would be much more difficult if babies weren't so dang adorable.

PS - It's grainy because of bad lighting not because our camera doesn't rock, because it does. We love it.

THE CHICKEN MIRACLE

(Finley at three months with Chicken)

So Finley's favorite toy is a stuffed bird named Monsieur Chicken or Chicken for short. Okay I'll be honest. He may not be her favorite but he was the first toy that she played with. He has ribbons for a tail and at about three months she became fascinated with them to the point that they are completely threadbare. And even pre-raggedy tail he's nothing fancy, in fact he was a hand me down toy from Brad's sister. Regardless, Chicken has always been attached to Finley's car seat and he's gone with us everywhere. He's seen a lot and has been loved a lot.

So it was only natural when I went to Utah last month that Chicken would come along. The first day we were there we took a trip to Ikea which happened to be Finley's first experience riding in a shopping cart. I attached Chicken to the handle so she would have something to play with, and what do you know? Later that day after a thorough search of the car I realized we had LEFT CHICKEN ATTACHED TO THE CART IN THE PARKING LOT. Cue devastation and traumatic images of abandonment! So we went back the next day to try our chances with a kind soul possibly turning it in to lost and found. But when I asked an employee to direct me to lost and found she radio-ed up and they told her nothing like our beloved Chicken was there.

I tried to move on, but that night we happened to watch Toy Story 3, my very first viewing. Have you seen it? UMM! That was the wrong movie to watch after someone has just lost their child's first toy. It was like watching Steel Magnolias and Schindler's List simultaneously. Okay that may be over the top, but you get the idea. So after imagining Chicken breaking out of Ikea's evil day care center trying to make his way back to Finley I was determined to find him. A few days later we went past Ikea again and I went in to find him, even if it meant looking through their lost and found myself. This time they let me go up to the lost and found office in person. I described Chicken to the employee, she typed it in to their database and went back to find him. A few seconds later she came around the corner with Monsieur Chicken looking very relieved to see me! They run a tight ship there, everything was categorized and shelved according to date and description. I was very impressed and very grateful.

(Finley at four months with Chicken - and her other pal Javier the bumblebee)

Moral of the story #1: Don't get attached to insignificant things. It can cause undue trauma.

Moral #2: If you find something that appears insignificant turn it in to the lost and found. You just might be a part of a crazy person's miracle.

Moral #3: Keep track to your stuff.

NINE MONTHS IN & NINE MONTHS OUT

In honor of Finley's ninth month here are my nine words of wisdom for pregnancy & motherhood from an inexperienced mother (because believe me I make no pretense about having it all figured out!).

1. Everyone said time would fly by, but for me the first two months felt like eternity and then the following 7 were a total blur.
2. My own child's bodily fluids and functions do not gross me out, but other people's kids? Yes absolutely and that's okay.
3. Remember you have your whole life to clean and cook, but you will never get back those small quiet moments with your first newborn
4. (Possible TMI alert - you were warned) Before giving birth I could not fathom why or how women ENJOYED breastfeeding and it didn't seem like anyone could give me a straight answer. So I was apprehensive beforehand, but it magically happened to me too, and I can't explain it either. I'll be honest - getting past the first two weeks was extremely difficult. Breastfeeding was time consuming, painful, and frustrating, but after about three weeks the thought of NOT breastfeeding made me panic. I have learned to love the relaxing snuggle time when we are both still and silent especially now that it is such a rarity.
5. No one told me the extent to which labor recovery hurts. I was injured, injured bad.
6. Desitin smells disgusting. That is all.
7. Make one goal a day then whatever you accomplish beyond that is gravy.
8. The best advice I got about mothering is this: You are the mother, no one knows your baby more than you, always trust your instincts even if occasionally that means other people think you are crazy.
9. And the biggest lesson I've learned: you can not judge other mothers because they know their babies more than you, if you think she is crazy you might just be catching her in one of those moments.


And here are Finley's nine recent advancements.

1. She can successfully pull herself in to the standing position but she has not yet mastered shuffling from one item to the next. She can also finally sit down after standing because until recently after standing she'd hang on for dear life until she fell over or we rescued her.
2. She's got the pincher action down and can feed herself snacks. Hooray!
3. She can drink from a sippy cup but finds more enjoyment in playing with it then actually taking a drink.
4. Outside of baby food and baby snacks she has tried baby sized portions of chili, strawberries, hummus, rice, cheerios, oranges, bread... so far her favorite flavor appears to be banana.
5. She has always had this funny silent laugh where she open her mouth as wide as possible and then breathes through her nose. But lately she started scrunching her face so it adds a new level of hilarity. Whenever she does it Brad and I start laughing and then she gets confused and stops.
6. Her new favorite thing is to take all the cards out of our wallets. I'm excited to lose track of our credit cards. Not.
7. She was loving bath time but suddenly she has started getting really anxious to get out as soon as we put her in - I'm not sure what that's about and hopefully it ends soon.
8. Separation anxiety is in full force when other people are around, but when we are home alone she is totally comfortable with crawling away from me as fast as possible.
9. And the cutest thing she does now is communicate. She mimics us when we say "teeth" and says "t-th," apropos considering she's a dental student's daughter. She is also learning to wave and clap. And she says "mama" and "dad," but I'm sure she doesn't really associate the words with us yet since she says them all day long.

In conclusion: I've got to say that 9 months of pregnancy felt a million times longer than the past 9 months.

PS - After reading this post I make it sound like I'm a single parent. I promise Brad exists! He's been extremely busy with school and research and I meant for this to be a mother/daughter post anyway... I promise a father/daughter post will come soon so the dad can get some credit too!

WEARING ME OUT

Lately this little chicken has been moving a mile a minute, getting in to everything and putting even more in her mouth. We are constantly on high alert - Is she chewing something? WHAT is in her mouth? Brad can you come pin her down while I pry open her jaw? And she doesn't discriminate. Yesterday she was casually munching on a large piece of red onion that I had unknowingly dropped on the floor while cooking. I should probably be more diligent, what if I had dropped raw chicken? ACK. So we've started calling her Houdini which is fun because for some reason she finds the word hilarious. If I can just catch her cracking up on video having a kid might actually start paying off.

Otherwise we finally started baby-proofing. I know we're a little behind, but I think we were in denial. Or maybe just lazy. Goodbye easily accessible power strips and electrical cords. Hello baby gate. Which by the way I hate, but it's a necessary evil. She loves to make a run for it while I'm cooking and then stuffs as many stray particles into her mouth as possible. And as much as I love a good game of "please don't bite my finger" while I try to retrieve non-edible items from her , I've found keeping little Houdini contained a whole lot easier.