Thanksgiving!

Finn had a great first Thanksgiving holiday in Maryland with his cousin Claire and Aunt Isabel and Uncle Chris and last but not least, Westie Lucky, who enjoyed inspecting Finns ears every day- hey we all have our vices. He even saw his Grandmaman again and met his Grand-dad in Annapolis for the first time. We also visited Maggie and Riley in Virginia, thankfully Riley didn't mind sharing his cool toys.
During this week, Finn asked for "Milk" in sign language for the first time while having lunch with Grandmaman, he pushed himself into a sitting position from his stomach, and started doing a push-up/crawl forward to get a toy. We discovered that he loves grapefruit, (even though he made the face of someone eating four sour apple jawbreakers). He loved playing peekaboo with Aunt Isabel and gives her the most winning smiles ever. And despite coming down with a cold and cough, he /we all had a marvellous time.
Here are some highlights:

Finn and Claire

Finn with the 'rents

Talking to Maggie and new buddy Riley

Bathtime!

Hanging out with Uncle Chris

Thanks for the turkey Aunt Isabel...whats everyone else eating?

Lucky making sure Finn's ears are nice and clean

Breakfast with Aunt Isabel and Claire

Sign of the times

For a few months now, I've been signing with Finn. Mainly the most significant day to day objects or ideas like "Milk",
"More", "Up", "Water" etc. and since Maisie is such a big part of our family (and usually hovering nearby at mealtimes,) I'm often doing the sign for "Dog", which is like snapping your fingers twice and then doing a gun shape with the same hand. Well yesterday, I was here at the computer, Finn was playing on the floor and Maisie was lying close by. I heard Finn suddenly start babbling with a tone of importance so I looked over; he is looking at Maisie and holding out his hand to her and rubbing his thumb against his index and middle finger! I'm sure in sign language this is the verbal equivalent of babbling, but altogether it was a huge leap and terribly exciting.

In other news, Finn is now 9 months and in the 75th percentile for weight and height, and fine all round. Still no crawling but doing pullups on anything he can-bathtub sides, crib walls, furniture. And still scooting around on his butt.

He also SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT for the first time last night ( I should've written this first) from 7pm til 7am.
Miracles never cease.

Oh for more on signing with babies, go to www.handspeak.com and look at the baby signing bit. I've seen it in action with friends and their babies and its completely amazing.

See my tooth?

Well, maybe you can't see it. But its there! On the bottom right,....really!
Its about time...Finn will be 9 months old November 4th.
(Mama took lots of pictures of me today since I won't have gummy smiles for much longer).