18 Months

Finn turned 18 months old today.  That child is such a joy to our family.  If only he wouldn't wake up with the roosters, I think he would be perfect.  He is now walking.  I was about to say "finally" but I don't want to make him feel bad when he reads this someday.  Yes, he is a little on the older side for walking, but that's okay.  John said that the longer he crawls the better hand-eye coordination he'll have as he grows up.  The way he's going, looks like he might be a football player.  We're counting on him to bring in the big bucks someday.

I think my parents have enjoyed having him around.  He is much more comfortable with them now that he sees them every day.  Whenever we walk in the house, the first thing he does is reach towards the kitchen to see if either of my parents are around and shouts "HI!" while waving one or both hands wildly.

Finn loves music and his body starts moving to a beat when he's not even thinking about it.  There is a particular song that whenever I turn it on, he involuntarily starts bouncing up and down and then sticks out his elbow and moves his hand in a manner that can only be described as "soggy-bottom-boys-ish".  Super cool.

Some of the words he says are "MOM!" (at least 9,000 times per day), "Dad", "Grace" (Grayy), "Addie" (A-ee), "Andre" (Dray), "Grandma" (mama), "bottle" (pronounced perfectly, even the "l" sound but often accompanied by dottle as in "Mom! bottle dottle!"), "touch", "no", "Go!", "car", "cracker", "cookie", "hi","ball", "hello", "ow", "please", "more", "bath", and our newest favorite "love you" (luuu zhu). He will also mimic almost any word we say at his leisure.  We will stop and say, "did you hear that?" and we'll ask him to repeat it.  But he usually won't.

I adore this child more than words can say.  Thank you, Heavenly Father, for allowing me to be his mother.  Please help me to do a good job.

(Thanks for the photos, Deedle.  On your camera days you usually use at least 2/3 of the camera memory on your baby brother.)