Phineas Taylor (Finn) Robbins: April 2009

It has been frustrating with no camera and no computer. But the new camera arrived and thankfully I can use Todd’s computer until I get a new one. Some of these pictures are way overexposed because I was using an old camera. Plus, Todd doesn’t have Photoshop on his computer so I can’t even clean them up and/or take red eye out.

Here’s what we’ve been up to the past few weeks.

I am now working for the World Science Festival which has me at work from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM. It’s not as bad a I originally thought it would be, being gone all day long. Finn wakes up between 5:30 and 6:30 AM. We let Todd sleep in while Finn and I walk Joey, go get coffee, eat breakfast, and play. I put him down for his morning nap (with a usually still sleeping Todd) and leave for work by 9:45. Todd and Finn then usually get up around 11:30 or 12:00. Todd gives him lunch, they play, they walk Joey again. I come home for lunch at 2:00 and hang out with them until 3:00. At which point Finn takes his afternoon nap until 4:30 or 5:00, I’m home by 6:15 and take him to the playground or just out and about, dinner, bath and he’s in bed by 8:00PM. So although not every day goes off swimmingly, it really is working out better than I thought.

He is A LOT less clingy (maybe because I’m gone now during the day, or maybe the age). He will sit and really play with his toys for long periods of time. I can go to the bathroom with out him falling to pieces. He still will, at times, follow me around the apartment and pull himself up on my legs - but he’s definitely better about it.

He is SO close to walking. He pulls himself up on everything and each day he gets a little stronger and will let go for a little longer. He has not gone more than 10 seconds of standing but there are times that I am barely holding on to him and he’s pretty damn steady.
I think he’s says Dad and Daddy but I’m not sure. He’s a mimicker. Todd has taught him where his head and his nose are. If you ask him where his head is, he pats his head. The nose is hit or miss.
If he picks up his hat, he’ll hold it up to his head. If he picks up his shoe he’ll try to put it on his foot (this is my favorite thing, EVER! - Cracks me up that he knows that).
He has the tips of his two bottom teeth sticking out but those two damn teeth just WILL NOT commit to being teeth. He has the slowest growing teeth.

His three favorite things in the world are.
1) Joey - He goes after her 100 times a day. At first we would panic the second she would growl and then we started backing off more and more. Now when he goes near her she makes the most hideous pit bull sounding noise but has never bitten him (admittedly she’s down to like 4 teeth left). Finn thinks this is the funniest thing. The more she growls viciously, the harder he laughs. We’re actually more concerned about Joey having a heart attach then about Finn being bitten.
2) Joey’s Water Bowl. – The second we put him down he makes a bee line for her water. If he gets there before us he puts his hand in it and then looks up at us knowing he’s about to be told ‘No!’ before we take the water away. If for some reason he gets to the water without us realizing, he will pick it up and dump it.
*So not only may Joey have a heart attack but she’ll be dehydrated at the time*

3) Shoes – If there is no Joey and no Joey’s water he immediately looks for our shoes. I know this doesn’t sound like that big of a deal – but you know, New York City . . . we walk everywhere . . I’d rather he not lick our shoes, you know?

He really likes sitting on things. He sits on Joey's stool (and by stool I mean the stool she uses to get up on the couch) and yesterday he was sitting on his box of wipes. I think the next step is to go buy him a little chair. He also loves putting things in to things. So he'll pile his blocks into an empty wipes container (very versatile those empty wipes containers) and then take them out and put other toys in there. And he hands us everything. He'll eat a bite of banana and then give me a bite. He'll pick up his sippy cup and then hand it to me, then take it back, then hand it to me, then take it back, then hand it to me and then take it . . . . .

Last but not least , and look, I know how obnoxiously, obnoxious this is, really, I do. I totally don’t want to be that chic that is like, “Whelll, my child was reading when he was 3 months old.” But interestingly, We’ve been approached twice now by “baby agents”. This second time (which happened last week) I think we may follow through with. We just keep thinking what a terrible field to be in. I sure as hell can’t deal with stage mommies. I would kill them, really. I mean, your kids are cute and all but calm down ladies. We’ll see. I’m sure it’s because we live in mid-town Manhattan where there are photographers, agents, managers and publishers every seven feet.

So here are some pics from the past few weeks.

I get pictures and little updates through out the day from Todd. Here are two . . . . (the cigar is a magic prop)

He has started giving me this look when I tell him no. I'm like, really? You're giving me a dirty look at the age of 11 months? This can't wait a few years?

Feeding the ducks at Central Park

We went on the Carousel in Central Park. It was fun. He was a little troubled by what was going on but he was a trouper. And by the way, the carousel goes way faster than I remember.

His first mouthfull of dirt, which as I tried to get out of his mouth, of course turned in to his first mouthful of mud. Todd was not so much amused.

The soap opera and love/hate relationship that is Joey and Finn

He is a crawling fool these days and LOVES when we get out of the apartment and he can just go go go.

Note the dead, dried worm that I grabbed out of his hand about three seconds after this was taken. At least it didn't make it to his mouth . . .right?

This was at the Pier at 43rd Street. We were sitting in from of the Intrepid. He was fasinated by all the ships and their horns, and the grass and the warm weather. It was just a lovely afternoon.

I debated about taking him to Gymboree, especially since this one was on the Upper West Side. I kept thinking . . .one of these people just isn't going to belong . . . and that person is going to me. But everyone was pretty much nice and actually just ignored us rather than being snotty, which is fine. He loved Gymboree so much I can't even begin to tell you. The only problem is when we got home that night the realized he could climb, having learned that at Gymboree and then promptly tried climbing up the back of the couch

Since he and Todd have been playing the piano together every day for 11 months there are days that Finn is just over the piano (while other days it's his favorite thing).

This paticular day was a none piano day.

Todd and Finn eating lunch in the park

Todd decided to show Finn that Joey's water bowl was a "No, No".

Ummmmm . . . . .Finn did not agree.
These pictures are really bad quality but he looks pretty cute in them so I'll add them anyway. This was in Virginia