Bringing Home Baby

“Actually, she’s a girl.”  I find myself correcting people a lot lately.  What I have come to discover is…people don’t look at the clothes a baby is in…they look at the top of the head.  So no matter how pink and frilly the outfit - Finley Mae’s bald head leads people to say “look how big HE’S getting.”  For the record, she probably does have the baldest head you’ve ever seen on a little girl.  And to be clear, it doesn’t bother me at all when people make the mistake because I have actually done that to other people’s babies!!

Finley or Lex Luther??

By the way - HELLO AGAIN!!  I know it has been a very long time since we have posted anything new.  I was convinced that no one was really interested in our blog anymore.  But a few of you have e-mailed me recently, wondering what happened to the updates, so I thought I would post a few pictures and catch you up on life in the Thompson household lately.

Finley Mae

Finley is now 10-months-old and my, oh my, do we have our hands full!!  It’s amazing how fast they can get around when they become mobile.  She isn’t walking yet, but she is crawling at a lightning fast pace.  One second she’s right in front of me, the next…she’s trying to put her hand in the toilet water.  Don’t laugh - that actually happened.  (since then we have invested in toilet lid locks - so no worries)  She loves to crawl to the patio door and look out the window and every once in awhile…a familiar looking baby will come to visit that she’ll try and kiss.

Finley kissing her "friend"

In addition to the crawling, she is also pulling herself up and walking around all of the furniture.  Now and again she will lose her balance and come crashing down, resulting in a lip quiver - or worse…a bruise.

Finley has also shown she has the ability to curl her tongue.

Apparently it is a genetic thing.   Either you can or can’t do it - and she can…all…the…time.  Seriously, half the day the girl crawls around with her tongue out.  It prompted Mike to say the other day “maybe her tongue is too long for her mouth…”

Also, it is amazing how vocal she has become.  I wish I had the ability to understand baby talk.  I often wonder what is going on inside that little head of hers as she is yelling at the top of her lungs, “Da bah da na na da.”  Huh?  “Bah ba da na na ma.”  Gotcha.

She is eating a lot of people food now.  She was recently introduced to mandarin oranges and gobbles them up faster than I can get them on the tray.  (Did your kids have a favorite food?  I would love to get her some variety, so let me know if you have a suggestion.)

Katelin Rae continues to be the greatest big sister ever.

My beautiful Katelin Rae

She loves to pick up Finley and carry her around.  Katelin can still make Finley laugh louder than anyone else.  They had a blast on their first Halloween together.

Our little Butterfly

I’m sorry it’s been so long since I posted anything.  Leave a comment if you are still interested in these updates.  I’ll post more often if I know there are people out there that still want to follow along in our baby adventure.

Thanks for checkin’ in and here’s a few more pics…

Jennifer

Sisters

Katelin Rae, Oct. '09

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*