Seals - Sweet! Leopards - Awesome! Monkeys - Not so much...

The last couple of weeks has been a flurry of packing and getting ready for our big move to our new house this Friday. Saturday we spent much of our day in Home Depot. So today I decided to take Finn to the Lincoln Park Zoo, so we could have some fun and not think about moving for a few hours. It was the first trip where he really saw the animals and reacted to them. It was so awesome seeing him watch and laugh every time the seals swam by. Then we went to the Lion House and he LOVED it. There were lots of leopards walking around and he would point to them, say "cat", and make his "rowr" sound. We were having a blast! So much so that I decided to take him on the carousel - another hit! So after that I decided to take him to my favorite place in the zoo - the primate house. First "house" we come to had a big baboon in it. He's just sitting there checking everyone out. Soon there is a good sized gathering of people checking him out too. I guess we were boring him, because he opens up his mouth and gives us a big yawn, which TERRIFIES Finn. He started SCREAMING! Literally screaming and crying. I tried to tell him that he was just yawning, it was alright, but Finn was not having it. And that experience tainted the rest of the monkeys, apes, gorillas etc. Every time we got to a window with a new "monkey" in it, he would just turn his head and say "bye bye." His indication that it was time to move on. I tried and tried to calm him down, show him how the monkeys were playing and jumping around on the ropes, how the glass between us meant they couldn't get to us - Finn was not having it. Each time I tried, I got a "bye bye" monkey. During one of my monkey pep talks to Finn, the woman next to us turned and said - "is he the kid who screamed at the baboon." After I admitted he was, she said "that was hilarious." Not hilarious for the mom who won't be visiting the gorillas again for some time. Bummer.

Gymboree!

Finn goes to a Gymboree play and learn class every Saturday morning at 9 a.m. (ouch!) He's in level 3 right now, which is for kids 10-16 months old. Since at this point he is getting ready to transition to level 4, he is tearing up all the activities. Here are a few pictures of him crawling up inclines, through tunnels and walking across bridges - all while holding his favorite toy, his ball!

I'll never look at grapes the same way

Friday after work was a bit trying. Joe was working late. Finn hadn't taken an afternoon nap and was in, shall I say, an emotionally fragile state. So the smallest thing - like me making dinner - brought on a wave a tears. But after dinner, things started to turn around. Finn had a good time coloring and as I was cleaning up the crayons, I told him to go get his choo choo so that we could continue playing. As an aside - he actually calls it his "choo choo" now - too cute. But when I looked up to see if he had gotten the train, I instead saw him putting a handful of something in his mouth. Since I hadn't given him anything to eat, I asked him what he had. In response to my question, he put a bunch of grapes in my hand. I was stupefied at first. We hadn't had grapes for dinner and these grapes seemed dirty. Then I looked down at Finn's legs and it was clear he'd had a diaper blowout. A DIAPER BLOWOUT FULL OF HALF DIGESTED GRAPES. Needless to say - I ran to wash the poop covered grapes off my hand and then quickly undressed Finn and put him in the bath. He then got a vigorous tooth and tongue brushing. Finn quickly recovered and seemed none the worse for the incident. I, on the other hand, am now drinking a glass of wine and trying to erase that visual from my mind. Dangit! Joe just pointed out that wine was made from grapes. Grossed out all over again!

My Two Men

Finn's godfather Jon came over on Friday to visit and have some pizza and beer. When Finn and I got a bit tired, dad and Jon decided to have a couple more at a nearby bar and didn't get back until late. So after getting up at 8 to go to Gymboree the next morning, dad was just as ready for some shut-eye as Finn was. I had to snap a couple pictures of the two because they just looked too darned cute. The two loves of my life crashed out together for a nap.