On the Run

As any parent knows, watching your child develop is pretty amazing. From the moment they 

breathe that first stinging breath, their little sponge brains are soaking up everything around them. I remember – when I was awake – holding this tiny girl and wondering what it would be like to see her walk and talk and become a person.

Well, I can tell you this… As wonderful as it is, it’s also tiring.

I know this is old news you seasoned parents, but this is truly a case of being careful what you wish for. I have to state out front that I’m not really complaining, rather pointing out a few things I’m realizing as Finley becomes a full-on toddler. She’s a great and amazing kid and I really wouldn’t have it any other way.

We thought it was pretty cool when she started rolling around. Crawling was a lot of fun and standing was impressive. But the world changes immensely when a kid learns to walk. Ditto for the mom and dad.

Obviously, more and more things have to be moved out of reach. Doors to bathrooms and entries to kitchens have to be shut and/or blocked. Because an upright and mobile child is also a curious and explorative child.

In the few months that Finley has become a walking and running toddler, I have learned two important tips… Wear tennis shoes and do back stretches. It’s amazing how fast she can go in just a few short feet. Depending on where we are and the safety factor of the surroundings, a Finley sprint is usually followed by the patented Daddy “Run-and-Scoop” (Which is why you need the back stretches).

And when she’s not running to get somewhere, she’s taking her sweet time looking at everything… usually when you need to get going. And then you have to chase her down when it’s time to go. (See “Run-and-Scoop” above).

This is always fun in the morning when it’s time to go to school. She thinks it’s pretty funny to go back and forth from her room while the Momma is loading up her bags and purses. And when we finally corral the little filly, Momma is so loaded down with luggage and a baby, I expect a Sherpa to pop out of the woodwork to help her to her car.

But it’s not always about chasing her down. The evolution of the child takes them from the ground, up… and when you reach the walking stage, the next step is climbing. I’m pretty sure she gets her monkey gene from me. I was quite the climber as a kid… To the point that my parents ended up putting me in a harness with a leash. It’s not actually a bad idea.

Finley has always been a little dare devil. She likes to stand on her toys or a box or anything she can climb on. She’ll pull herself onto a chair and slowly get to a standing position and look at us like she’s an acrobat in the circus, expecting us to applaud.

As much as I like seeing her perfecting her balancing skills, I know she’s going to take a tumble one of these days. In fact, we’re not so sure she won’t try to climb out of her crib. So, to be safe, we picked up a crib tent. It’s a pretty ingenious device that covers the top of the crib and not only prevents her from climbing up and out, but keeps her from tossing toys or blankets on to the baseboard heater.

But there’s only so much these preventative devices can do. They key is to keep an eye on her. And even though we try our best, we know she’s going to crash and burn one day. But as I’ve mentioned before, that’s the world of the toddler. You really can’t make it out of the toddler phase without a few skinned knees along the way.

And as far as the chasing goes... I really don’t mind. I just want her to get her speed up. Not so she can join the track team. No, I want her to get nice and fast for when those boys come around. No “Run-and-Scoop” lessons for them!

E-Z Reader

At 16 months old, it’s fairly easy for Finley to get excited about pretty much anything. She’s 

excited to see us when we come get her in the morning. She’s excited when we head out the door for daycare. She loves waking through the door to the toddler room and plopping down for breakfast. And, when we pick her up at the end of the day, she literally drops everything to come running over to us.

The excitement continues when we reach home and she wriggles out of our grasp to get to the stairs that lead to our condo. With our help she scales the fourteen steps and impatiently waits for us to unlock the door so she can burst into her toy box we call home.

But before she runs over to the bins packed to the brim with stuffed animals and all the battery-operated noise makers you could ever want, she stops at her bookshelf and pulls down every book available.  Books are her favorite things, right now. There’s no doubt that we spend more time reading to her than playing with any of her toys, and that is more than fine with me.

The really good thing about her voracious reading habit is that she doesn’t have just one favorite that we read over and over again. She has four or five that she clings to, but changes favorites every few days or so. This makes every book seem new to her and, therefore, exciting.

The best part is how she goes about her business. She’s got quite the routine when it comes to reading. The first thing she does is dump out all the books from the shelf and on to the floor. She then spots the book she’s looking for and for the last week or so, it’s one of two books; both of which are nearly as heavy as she is. It takes quite the effort for her to drag it over and drop it in front of us.

If you’re sitting on the ground, she’ll turn around and back herself into place and plop her little tush onto your lap. If you’re on the couch, she’ll reach up with both hands, pleading for a lift up. Once in place, she makes sure to help you lift the book into position. And that’s the last time you’ll have control of the book and the pages.

She loves turning the pages and pointing at the pictures. Most of the time she has something – in her own language – to say about everything. But she also wants us to either tell us what it is she’s pointing at or make the sound that animal makes. Most of the time, we’ll make it through each book. On other occasions, she may be in the mood for volume rather than quality.

There are two things I really like about her approach to reading. The first is how much she enjoys it. She’s having fun reading. It’s not a chore. Hopefully, this will help her transition into reading words and sentences.

The other thing I like is how important it is to her to sit with us and read together. She’s very good at going through the books and “reading” on her own, but she’d rather sit with one of us and read together. I hope that never stops.

It’s encouraging to see her get excited every time she grabs a book. Reading really is the first step to a whole new world of learning. It’s amazing to think how much our world changes once we learn to read and how it affects pretty much every aspect of our education moving forward.

I’m hoping that she takes this excitement for books to the next level as letters turn into words and words turn into sentences. Then, maybe she’ll learn how to see new worlds and visit far away times and places. Maybe she’ll find out all about the past and discover futures yet to be. Just by opening a book. That gets ME excited.

Water Baby

One thing we learned about our little Princess early on was how much she loved the water. 

Even her earliest baths were not that scary for her. I’m sure some doctor somewhere has figured out that a bath reminds babies of the womb – all warm and wet.
But other than the tub routine, Finley never got to experience a big bunch of water until we went to Mexico in November. After a dabble of dunks in the hotel pool, we strapped her into her personal water craft (PWC) – a small, inflatable tube – and guided her down the resort’s lazy river. She was in mermaid heaven.
So, when we got back from Mexico, we would take a day on the occasional weekend and go up the hill from our place to the local high school pool. As time went by, it was inevitable that she would get tired of the PWC and want to experience a little more freedom. Well, freedom in the form of being held by Momma or Poppa.

That need to be free has since spilled over into the tub. We used to have this little seat that attached to the side of the tub and basically forced her to stay sitting up while her bottom half was under water. And as she’s grown, the seat and her patience got smaller.
We’ve since moved on to a very secure tub traction mat and fill the tub just a little bit. This has not only increased her desire to splash a heck of a lot more, but we have to keep her from wanting to stand up all the time. She really doesn’t slip – we’re more afraid of a quick loss of balance.

So, this weekend, as we headed up to visit with Nana (Heather’s mom), we brought up a new part of Finley’s world… her very first kiddy pool! We don’t have the kind of space (we actually don’t have a yard) to keep one, so we borrowed Nana’s front grass for a few hours and watched our little otter pop go to town.
Of course, splashing was the number one on the list of things to do. And not just sitting in the pool and splashing with her hands. No, she was into the whole full-body splash… Laying on her tummy and flailing like a beached whale.
The other thing she liked was being able to climb in and out of the pool at will. The way in was always punctuated with a splash, of course. She found her biggest splash was whenever she sat down as hard as she could. This was followed by looking around at us for approval.
Needless to say, Finley is pretty much peaked out on happiness when her fingers and toes start to resemble prunes. Does this mean we’ll be watching the swimming competitions at the Olympics with a little more interest? Will I be building a 10m platform for her to dive? Probably not. Besides, a 3m springboard would be a little easier to make.

But first things, first. We need to get her swimming lessons as soon as possible… Especially while she’s really enjoying being in the water. Her diving career wouldn’t last too long if she just knifed into the water and didn’t come up! So, that’s the next thing on our list. I want to make sure she’s not afraid of water and – more importantly – a bit respectful of water and the danger that is around, even when you’re having fun.

For now, her pool may not be quite Olympic size, but I’ll bet you all the tea in China (or smog in China, for that matter) that she’s having just as much, if not more fun than all the Michael Phelpses and Leslie Joneses going for the gold. Besides, Finley would rather have a binky around her neck than a silly medal.

Shake, Rattle and Roll

As wonderful as Heather is, there is one little, tiny thing that separates us… Keeps us from being truly united (Well, I could probably name a few, but for this purpose and to keep from being beaten, we’ll just go with this one thing). What could it be? What could be this one thing that tears us apart? Roller coasters.

You see I LOVE roller coasters. Can’t get enough of them. The faster, windier, loopier the better. Heather on the other hand… not so much. She’s a fan of keeping her feet on the ground.

So, I know that as Finley gets older and the fact that theme parks are in our near future, I have some training to do. That’s right. Either I start getting Finley ready for thrill rides or I’ll be going solo.

To that extent, I have slowly been introducing Finley to the elements of speed, turbulence and g-forces…. As safely as possible, of course. And since we don’t have quite the training facility that NASA has, I have to use the tools available to simulate a ride. In fact, the closest thing to simulating everything NASA has can be found on the local playground.

You’ve got your g-force simulator in the merry-go-round, re-entry simulation in the slide and an acceleration simulator on the swings. The swings just happen to be Finley’s favorite. She loves getting as high as she can and zooming through the air with the wind in her face. She could swing all day, if she had the choice. So, now that we’re getting her used to the height and the speed, it’s time to introduce a little turbulence.

This past weekend, we hooked up the kid bike trailer and went for a little 11-mile jaunt on the Burke-Gilman bike trail, here on the east side. I have to say that despite my best efforts, it was a bit bumpy, but Finley took it in stride and was even able to sneak in a nap during the trip. She’s not a big fan of the helmet, but like anything, the more we do it, the more she’ll get used to it.

So, now my little astronaut is on her way to finding the seat next to mine on a roller coaster in just a few years. But there might actually be a downside to creating all this courage in the little one.

Every once in a while we’ll find her climbing on her toys and standing to balance without using her hands. Sometimes she’ll find her way to the top of the coffee table or flip herself over her little couch. Sometimes she’ll climb into her toy bins. And none of these compare with the nightly acrobats she performs in her crib. But more recently, her little daring dos wind up giving her a few bumps and bruises.

Just like a typical toddler, she’ll find her way to smack her head into a table leg or fall over during one of her couch vaults. In fact at daycare today, she was trying to ride a tricycle – her feet can’t even touch the ground when she sits on it – when she took a bit of a tumble and scratched her face.

But, as I’ve always said, these are just the first of many scrapes and tumbles to come. I know that Heather and I have many days ahead of us of boo-boos, band-aids and bruises. I know there will be heads to rub and fingers to kiss better. But, to borrow from a recent film, “we fall so we can learn to pick ourselves up.”

So, hopefully, after every time she bonks her head or scrapes her knee, Finley will learn to avoid the things that get her hurt. Well, the more obvious things, anyway. Because as much as we want to, Momma and Poppa won’t always be there to kiss it better. She’ll have to learn to dust herself off and keep going, no matter how tough it may seem. At the very least, I can cheer her up with a fun ride on a roller coaster!

Musically Inclined

Parents, especially new parents, tend to dream big for their kids. I’ve got a few friends who’s kids are pretty much going to Washington State. There are parents out there who are trying to groom the next Albert Einstein. And, there are plenty of kids out there who are getting more than a little pressure to become the next Tiger Woods or Kristi Yamaguchi.

Inasmuch as I’d love to see Finley take interest in a sport or two, my real desire for her is to discover and enjoy music. I’m not saying I want her to be a violin prodigy or have a string of sellout rock shows, I’m just hoping she can learn to understand the beauty of it and maybe even learn to make her own music.

A few weeks ago, quite on her own, she surprised Heather and me with a little solo. We didn’t even know she new any songs, but sure enough she was, in her baby language, singing a little tune. Heather thought it sounded a bit like “Itsy Bitsy Spider” and we started singing it to her.

Immediately, her eyes turned to saucers and she began clapping. We had connected with her on the musical level. And we’ve continued to connect in the time sense.

It’s not hard to deduce that she’s probably getting a ton of musical exposure at daycare, but as I began to think about it, I realized there’s a little more going on at our house than you might expect.

We really noticed her ability to sing while we were in Pennsylvania. She would walk around Mama and Bompa’s house singing the tune to “Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star” (which also happens to be the tune to the ABC song). It’s definitely her favorite tune of the moment and she sings it whenever she remembers.

It started to dawn on me that her ability to know this song made a ton of sense. Because of all of her musical toys, I would say a good 90% have that tune playing on them. She has an “Aquarium” that hangs on the side of her crib – it’s a lit-up music box – and the first song that plays to her at night is Twinkle Twinkle. Her piano, her musical frog, one of her pull cars – all Twinkle Twinkle. She’s just figured out how to copy it.

But it’s much more than basic recognition. She really enjoys music. Especially when we sing to her. It’s becoming the sound to soothe the savage baby. She loves it when we sing, clapping her hands and grinning a big toothy smile.

In fact, the Finley top three is “Twinkle/ABC,” “Itsy Bitsy Spider” and “The Wheels on the Bus.”

I’m just glad her recognition of the songs comes with a big smile. And if the song ends before she wants it to… she’ll let you know. She’s a big fan of repetition, but at that age, they all are.

So, maybe this is just the beginning of a very musical life and maybe she’s just happy that Momma and Poppa know the songs she knows. Either way, music makes her smile, which is what it’s supposed to do. And that’s all I can ask.

Finley Tour 2008

One of the things you learn very quickly as a parent – especially when the kids are very young – is that you are basically just the road managers and chaperones for this little rock star.

It’s true. You may have created this little wonder and may even be slightly responsible for all the little cute things she does, but when it gets down to it, you’re left off stage to watch the show from the wings.

It doesn’t matter who you’re going to visit or what relationship you have with them, even your own mother will knock you down to get to the kid. All you can do is make sure they are cleaned up and dressed well. Once you’ve arrived at the gig, you might as well just check out the food.

But that’s okay. Soon enough, the kid won’t be quite as cute or endearing and fall from the charts as the next baby boy band pulls for everyone’s attention. If you’re lucky you’ll get to see relatives every two or three years and get a little attention. But that’s what reunion tours are all about.

We just went through the rock star experience on a trip to Pennsylvania to visit Heather’s side of the family. Finley Tour 2008 – The East Coast leg – kicked off on a VERY long Saturday of flying from Seattle to Erie, PA. It’s a long story, but in a nutshell, we had one airline push us back for mechanical difficulties and we spent a few more hours in Philadelphia – because of weather – than we wanted.

And before we had time to recover from jet lag, the following day found us celebrating Father’s Day showing off the Diva to Pennsylvania kin. You’d think they’d never seen a baby before. Then again, we were hanging out at Heather’s grandparent’s house in Spring Creek Township (pop. 872), with most folks coming from the nearby metropolis of Corry (pop. 7,000). At any rate, the Finley show was in full effect and our little star did not disappoint.

I wasn’t too sure how well she would do with so many people giving her so much attention, but she was able to put together some moves I had never seen before, including a few little dance moves that had the crowd rolling. Then it was “Good night, Spring Creek” (around 7:30pm) and the starlet was whisked off stage to her private pack-n-play.

Of course, after such a busy start to the week, she settled in to life in the country, warming up to her great grandparents and her aunt and cousins who couldn’t get enough. She was in a good mood all week and was even able to say a few words including “Mama” and “Bompa” – the pet names for Heather’s grandparents.

All in all, we had a relaxing trip and after a few tears and another weather delay in Detroit, we were on the final 4-1/2 hour leg of the tour. After entertaining much of the last few rows of the plane, the Finley entourage returned home, safely.

So, as we re-adjust to West Coast time and settle back in to our quiet little life, far from the white-hot spotlight of Spring Creek we know we’re just energizing our batteries for the next trip the big cities of Montesano or Oak Harbor – and all stops in between. And as long as she has Momma and Poppa as her roadies, I’m pretty sure our little rock star will continue to shine for quite some time.

Finley’s Turn

Those two people who think they are in charge are too busy having a cold and getting ready to go on a vacation, so I decided to take over this blog thing for this week. It really isn’t that hard. I see my daddy pushing buttons on the computer thingy all the time, so I figured I could give it a shot.

They keep telling me that this week I will be 15 months old, whatever that means. Why can’t I be a year or a year and a half? What’s this obsession with counting every week and month until I’m two? All that time figuring out how old I am takes away from time that could be spent making my food.

The lady – we’ll call her “mommy” – is a pretty good cook. I especially like anything that is cut small enough for me to shove every single piece of it into my mouth. I just like the way she acts when I do it. I have to keep those people on their toes. I have to remind them how easy they really have it. So, every once in a while I’ll throw a piece of food on the floor or cover my body in yogurt. It’s funny watching their faces… and it’s supposed to be good for my skin, anyway.

So far this place isn’t too bad. I have a lot of toys that keep me pretty interested and if I get too stinky, they clean me up pretty good. That’s another place I have to keep them on their toes. There’s no fun in just laying there, letting them change me. I have to wriggle around. It let’s me see how good they really are.

Sometimes I get to visit other people. I don’t know them too well, so I don’t get overly friendly. That is, unless they have something to give me. Just last weekend I went and visited my daddy’s mommy and she had this dolly stroller. That was pretty neat. I went all over the whole house as fast as I could. Then all these other people showed up and kept trying to talk to me. I think they all need to learn to talk a little better. I couldn’t understand a word they said. It’s like when I go visit my mommy’s mommy. So many people trying to talk to me. At least there, some of them are closer to my height.

When we’re not going to visit big people, I get to go to school. It’s lots of fun there. I get to run around and get dirty. There are other people my size who like to run around and get dirty with me. They like to feed me and give me clean pants too. It’s just like being at home, but there’s a lot more noise. But, by the end of the day, I get pretty tired of those other kids and when I see my mommy or daddy come to pick me up, I’m ready to go home. Mostly because I know they will give me more food.

I like my home because it all belongs to me and I can do whatever I want. Mommy and daddy like to try to keep me from doing certain things, but I know this: I will figure out how to do those things eventually, and I mainly do it to make them chase after me. It’s lots of fun.

I think I’m training them pretty well. They feed me regularly, keep me clean and they kiss me all the time! They’re finally starting to figure out how to play, too. The daddy one makes funny voices when we read books and the mommy one tickles me, so I think I’ll keep them around for a little while.

I know that soon they will figure out what I’m trying to say. It’s so hard to get them to understand me. Usually, I just want some food or juice. But a lot of the time I’m trying to tell them thank you for all their hard work. The truth is that even though they are new at taking care of me, they are doing a pretty good job. I can’t wait till they figure out that most of the time I’m saying “I love you.” Because I do.

Alright, I have to go. I haven’t heard from them in a while. I’d better cry or something and maybe I’ll get another kiss. Bye!