For the Love of Thumb

I was going through our pictures this weekend and realized that we had an awful lot of pictures of Finn sucking his thumb. That and pictures of him eating, which he also does quite often. Since Finn discovered his thumb at around month tres, they have been inseparable. Yes, I have been forewarned of the many dangers of thumb-sucking and understand that we will likely put the orthodontists' kids through the Ivy League school of their choice; however, I am OK with that because of the following very important reasons:

1. It will never go missing in the middle of the night forcing me to get up and go locate it so that he will go back to sleep

2. I won't have to do pseudo-gymnastics in order to reach an errant pacifier that has gotten lodged in a hard-to-reach place.

3. I'll save tons of money not buying 100s of replacements, like maybe a whole $25!

4. See reason #1

That being said, I am certainly not against pacifiers. For the record, I think they are awesome too and I tried to get Finn to take one, but he wasn't having it. It was thumb or bust. So, as long as he gives it up before high school, I think we'll be okay. So here's a photo montage of Finn doing . . . what else? Let's call it A Thumb for All Seasons.

Approved!

I went to Greenville, SC this past weekend to visit my dear friend Valerie. She got engaged recently and I decided a visit was in order so that I could meet the lucky man to make sure he was in fact good enough to marry my friend. We had a great weekend and it was so much fun catching up with Valerie and spending time with the future Mr. Bush, who I am quite the fan of because A). he loves dogs B). he asked for more bread at the fancy-pants restaurant so that I wouldn't have to and C). he loves Val! I can't wait for their wedding in November. It just so happened that our friend Kriya and her entourage of Beau and Wade and their traveling amusement park were also in town visiting family and friends, so of course we had to meet up. It was just like old times in Charleston. 

The Ladies and the Ladies' Man, Wade Benich

The Baby Borrowers, Brian and Valerie

*Photos courtesy of Kriya Benich because I never have my camera

Back at the homestead, Finn and his dad enjoyed a mom-free weekend o' fun. I'm not even sure what all they did and frankly, not sure I really want to know. Finn did manage to score a brand-new keyboard which makes LOTS of noise, courtesy of his dad, that he likes to bang on repeatedly. I'm thinking Finn and I will take said keyboard and go pay his dad a visit at the office one day soon.  

El maestro in action

You Want Fries with That?

You all know how I feel about the liquid meat that Mark insists on feeding Finn. I don't get it, but I guess he has his reasons. Doctors know best, right? Well, today I tell you that I will be feeding him one jar of "fancy feast" each day. That's right people, I lost the bet. I told Mark that I would only feed him that stuff if he proved it fit for human consumption. And he did. I watched him shovel one jar of Gerber Turkey and Turkey Gravy into his mouth in a record 6.4 seconds. He said, "not bad, it tastes like meat yogurt." So for the record, I will eat my words and Finn will eat his cat food. Gobble Gobble.

My budding journalist. The next Walter Cronkite or Perez Hilton? You decide for yourself. Secretly, I'm thrilled that he prefers my celebrity gossip magazine over Mark's science magazine, even if it is only the taste of it.

Fancy Feast Fit for a King

I think baby food companies hold secret contests to discover the absolute worst combinations of baby food possible. I think I may have found the winner yesterday at the grocery store. . . banana, prune, and brown rice. I kid you not, it's made by Earth's Best. There is no way that I could possibly subject Finn to that. I mean, I couldn't even subject Lily to that and she has been known to eat poop (just once and isn't wasn't her own, if it makes any difference). Anywho, Finn is a big eater as you can probably tell from his Buddha belly. There isn't much he doesn't like. But we draw the line at mixing brown rice and bananas with anything prune.

Mark has been on this protein kick lately where he eats an entire package of turkey in one sitting. Ewww. He also feels very strongly that Finn should also be getting lots of protein. He feels the best way to accomplish this is by feeding him jars of pureed meats. Have you ever seen the baby food version of meat? Even worse, have you ever smelled the jarred meat? I'll save you from having to sample it for yourself. It smells like cat food. Not even the gourmet stuff like Fancy Feast, more like the stuff that's on sale, 20 cans for $1, or something like that. Granted, I'm a dog person, not a cat person, so maybe I'm a tad biased. But still, it's gross. Rest assured that whenever Mark is feeding Finn, Lily takes one whiff and comes running. I think it's because she smells that "cat food" and is afraid that the neighbor's cat has scaled the fence and somehow managed to unlock the door and is playing with her toys or eating her food. Trespasser. 

Mark says that I'm making a big deal out of nothing. Being the reasonable person that I am, I think we can compromise. If Mark agrees to eat just one jar of the liquid meat, then he can continue to feed it to Finn. I'll keep you all posted.

In the meantime, here are a few pictures of Finn enjoying one of his favorite pastimes . . . eating!

Prunes--You can't tell by this picture, but he wasn't a huge fan.

For some reason, everything tastes better with a hint of thumb

One of my favorite pictures. He loves sweet potatoes.

Green peas . . . not so much.

On the other hand, he is a BIG fan of cake icing.

Yes, he is nekkid (southern version of naked) for most meals. You can probably see why.

Pool Party

Finn threw himself a pool party this weekend. He invited his mom, dad and Lily to come, but unfortunately, Lily couldn't attend. She already had plans to play with pheasant and raccoon. He had a great time playing in the big pool, especially with his friend turtle float. He thought the baby pool was for wimps. He practiced his backstroke and perfected his cannonball. He served milk and rice crackers for refreshments. Finn proved to be an excellent host and everyone had a great time. He'll probably throw another one soon. Here are some pictures . . .

 

Guest of honor arrives in style

Splashing himself while sitting in his turtle float

Fun with dad

Taking a break from the action with mom

Ready for more action

That's more like it! Look, I'm flying

Trying not to eat that gigantic booger hanging out of my nose

Chowing down on my airplane pool toy