Bringing Home Baby

Finley Mae is growing like a weed.  If you’ve lost track, she’s now 7 1/2 months old!  She uttered her first words several weeks ago.  Yep, you guessed it.  Dada.  It’s very cute.  Of course, I must be everywhere then since she says dada whether she’s looking right at me or playing with a toy monkey while I’m at work.  She’ll also make the “b” sound, but so far no ma-ma.  Jen spends hours a day trying to teach her to say it, but she’s just not into it.  Ok, maybe that’s an exaggeration.  To be honest, Finley is becoming somewhat of a momma’s girl.  Whenever Jen’s in the room, her eyes will follow her wherever she goes.  She’ll also cry sometimes when Jen leaves her sight.  I guess she knows who has the food, right? 

It’s so interesting to see how babies continually develop and how they’re little minds are expanding each day.  You never know what they’re going to do next.  She’s also just days away from crawling.  Boy, is our life going to be different!  Hello baby proofing the house.  Might want to get on that!  She’ll get up on her knees and push forward and then kind of collapse.  Oh so close.  We’re having so much fun with her, it’s hard to believe it’s been as long as it has.

Mike

Finley Mae is now 6-and-a-half months old.  Time really does fly when you’re having fun - and are we sure having fun lately.  Finley has started dabbling in baby cereal.  Well, she’s mostly dabbling a little on her left cheek and then dabbling a little more on her chin and then dabbling a little on the floor.  Every once in a while she does manage to actually keep some in her mouth.  

She is such a happy baby!  She is always giving off these huge toothless grins.

 Speaking of teeth…while she still doesn’t have any, we are bracing ourselves for one to pop through any day.  She has all the signs of teething.  Drool EVERYWHERE.  Minor fever.  Unusually fussy at times. Chewing on anything she can get her hands on.  Runny diapers.  (to much info???)  

But still no tooth.  

Another first this month:  her first big belly laugh.  Katelin has this talent of being able to get Finley to laugh SO loud.  I’m working on uploading some video so you can see for yourself, so check back for that soon.

Oh and a quick update, remember that one long hair I told you about last month?  It fell out!  I was so sad when I noticed.  It lasted 5 months and 3 days.  Now she’s just bald and beautiful.

Here’s one more pic that I took of both the girls.

 Have I mentioned lately that life is good?!

Katelin and Finley (June, 2009)

Finley recently turned 5 months old, and yep, she’s still a butterball.  Jen and I love her rolls though, you just want to eat them up.  Finley is also one of the happiest babies.  She’s smiliing nearly all the time and responds to our smiles with an even bigger grin.  It’s priceless.  We recently went to 3 Brewer/White Sox games at Miller Park in Milwaukee with Finley.  Jen still doesn’t feel comfortable leaving her for an extended period of time so we took her to the games.  She actually did really well at the first two, the third game was a bit more of a challenge.

Now that she’s starting to grow into herself, we’ve been getting all sorts of opinions on who she looks like.  Some say, “oh, she’s the spitting image of Jen” or “she looks exactly like Katelin.”  Some even say she looks like me! (not what Jen wants to hear).  I’m curious, who do you think she looks like?  Give us your thoughts and enjoy the new pictures.

Finley Mae, 5-months-old

Have you ever heard the term “balder than a babies butt?”  Well at first glance at my nearly 5-month-old little butterball, you might think her head is actually balder than her butt. 

But you would be wrong.

Look closer…

closer…

even closer… 

See it?!?!?

Finley Mae has one alfalfa sprout of hair towering above the other fuzz that is starting to come in.  She was born with this one long hair and I thought for sure it would fall out immediately.  When it was still there after a month - I took a picture of it thinking it would be a matter of days before her scalp let go of the grip it had hold on it.  But it seems this hair is here to stay.  (actually, my brother-in-law Pat almost plucked it off her the other day and I nearly tackled him!!!)

It’s funny, I’ve grown quite attached to this little lock of love.  It’s the one thing that hasn’t changed (at least not that much) since she was born.  It’s my hold on her infancy.  My baby is growing bigger right before my eyes and it makes me both happy and sad.  I can’t wait at all the fun times that are ahead of us…but at the same time I am so sad that my baby is getting so big.

My advice to all of you first time parents…take nothing for granted.  Everyone tells you that it goes by so quickly…but I am here to say - it really does.  Before you know it they’ll be grown and gone.  Just like I know that one day I will wake up and that two-inch hair will have fallen out.  *sniffle sniffle*

How many times have you said that in your household?  I knew having two children would be different than one, but boy did I underestimate.  I still don’t know how single parents or parents with multiple children do it!  

There’s not a dull moment in the Thompson household these days, and by dull, I mean there’s really no down time.  It’s been quite an adjustment with me and Jen back at work full-time.  Jen obviously leaves for work early in the morning, then it’s time for me to take over with Finley. Sometimes that means 5:30am or sometimes later, it just depends on what kind of night she’s having. Then, at about 7:00am, it’s time to get our other daughter Katelin up and going.  I have to help her get breakfast and get Finley fed a bottle. Then, it’s on to helping Katelin get dressed and ready for the day (although she’s become a pretty self-sufficient 7 year old), load up the two girls (and sometimes the dog too) and head off to school.  After dropping Katelin off at school, it’s back home to keep Finley happy and entertained.

Oh, she’s finally down for a nap, yeah, I’ll have a little bit of time to take a nap myself.  Nope. The pile of dishes in the sink is staring at me, there’s cleaning that needs to be done all over the house and the grass looks like it hasn’t been mowed in two weeks.  Jen arrives home between 12:30 and 1:00pm.  We get to spend a little bit of time together, maybe have lunch, but then I have to start getting ready for work.  I head off to work at 2:30pm, while Jen is spending time with Finley (the piles of laundry and the growing weeds in the garden are staring at Jen).  At 3:00pm, Jen has to load up Finley and go pick up Katelin from school.  At 4:30, it’s time for Jen and the girls to get ready for Katelin’s swim lesson or some other after school function. They all head off to the “Y”, sometimes Finley is a doll, sometimes not. They arrive home a little after 6 o’clock and Jen realizes, oh no, I haven’t thought about dinner. She tries to be super mom and is grilling burgers outside while cooking mushrooms on the stove inside, Finley is over on her playmat fussing because she’s hungry and Katelin is yelling “I don’t want a burger for dinner.”  At about 7:00pm, I arrive home for my dinner break.  I try and relieve Jen for a little bit with Finley, but then it’s time for us all to eat. I spend a little bit of time with the girls before it’s time to start getting Katelin ready for bed, while Jen is feeding Finley again.  I get Katelin down to bed and have to head back into work, while Jen tries to get Finley and herself down for the night.  And then it starts all over…

This is a typical day in the Thompson household, but add in haircut and doctor appointments, work obligations outside of your normal hours and sleep deprivation and there’s definitely not enough time in the day!  I can’t complain though, I have three wonderful girls in my life and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.