**okay – three videos included – read on! **

As you can see Finn had a grand time riding his first carousel at the New Albany Classic on Sunday! He grabbed the pole all by himself, no staging there! It is a fun family event held in New Albany and it features tons of things for kids to do, including a games, a petting zoo, rides, etc. There was a really cool dog agility area where we watched probably 10 dogs go through the course. It was pretty neat. The event began 16 years ago as an Equestrian event that helps raise money for domestic violence programs. The foundation “rents” plants from Millcreek to decorate the horse jumps. It was nice to go and see how they use everything first hand, not to mention we got to see some beautiful horses from pretty good seats! Amy, Andy. and the kids went too – though we only spent part of the time together as we watched most of the horse event and the boys were more excited to be in the fun area, duh! Thanks to my mom I was able to spruce up the patio planters with some nice fall mums…looking much better!Finn got in plenty of play time with the girls this week. Hailey is pretty spunky lately as I’ve been giving her some medicine for an ear infection in both ears. I think it is working pretty well and giving her a bit more spunk! 

New this week is Finn doing all sorts of silly things with his tongue. Sticking it out like a lizard, rubbing it on his gums (still no teeth yet) and so on. It’s cute. You’ll want to watch the video (which I know is long, but kind of funny toward the end) to see some of his new faces.

He is also in the beginning stages of using his knees and legs to crawl. And he is getting into a stance where he is up on one knee, and the other foot is flat on the ground, like this:

 

Here you can see his leg work 🙂

This slight nose crinkle when smiling is new too…

And he enjoys multi-tasking; here he is running his feet up and down the wood pieces while using his hands to play with and eat the cone.

He isn’t yet pulling himself up on his own completely, but he can get his upper body, up to his hips, off the floor with no problem. I stood him up here to play with his toy and after 5 full minutes I sat him down – he didn’t even give up!  The first picture was toward the end of the 5 minutes! He is super strong and has some serious torque. Friday Tricia was playing with him in the bumbo and he twisted himself out of it! No worries, he was fine and was on the carpet, but he has some serious power. He is getting pretty difficult to change lately as he constantly wants to turn over and gets MAD when you hold him so he can’t!

I took Finn with me to the grocery the other night. He thought it was pretty cool to ride in the cart and help pick out his first foods. Haven’t given him any just yet as we are wanting to do it early in the day and when we are both around  – but so far that hasn’t happened! So, hopefully this week.

We love bath time around here. Daddy was being silly with Finn’s hair. 

We arrived home to a package from Grandma and Grandpa Armstrong – a big Elmo! Finn loved it, though here we hadn’t put the batteries in just yet. He talks and sings and gives hugs!

On Friday I had the day off so Finn and I enjoyed a nice walk and some time outdoors. Then we went and picked up daddy so we could have dinner together. Vik and Soli came too. Finn loved all of the attention 🙂

This was a week of milestones!

On Sunday, Griffin got up on all fours and started rocking back and forth! He can certainly get around, although he isn’t doing an official crawl just yet. You can see in some photos that he often launches himself forward. Forgive the fuzziness, but I thought they captured his process pretty well!

Monday was Griffin’s 6 month well check with the pediatrician. He did really well, he had 2 shots and an oral vaccine – he was a trooper. He checked in at 15 pounds 5 ounces (11 percentile), 26 3/4 inches long (56 percentile) and 42.5 cm head circumference (25 percentile).  For his 6 month photo I sat him up in front of the car – and he held there for about 45 seconds! Here is some video:

Tuesday was yet another milestone, for me! I lowered Griffin’s crib one notch!  As you could see in the first photos in this post he is getting pretty mobile and is able to get himself into various positions. Kevin loves to stand Finn up in his crib, and Tricia does too! So, I thought, better safe than sorry as he will one day out of the blue likely pull himself up unexpectedly.  Here is a photo from Tricia of Finn in his lowered diggs!

Wednesday night we went to Slice of Columbus, down at Columbus Commons downtown. It’s a nice fundraiser that benefits Nationwide Children’s Hospital – you purchase a ticket and then can sample pizza from over 20 local and chain pizza shops! Yummers! It was a beautiful fall night and Finn and I enjoyed going down to visit daddy for a few hours. And Wednesday night I lowered Finn’s crib! He loves to stand and he was pretty tall in his crib with the mattress at the newborn height. I figure it is only a matter of time (and not much) before he can pull himself up – so I lowered it one notch!  Growing up fast!

Thursday I headed to Mansfield with Finn to visit with my parents. They were hosting some friends, Bob & Nancy, from North Carolina. I worked for them at their Hosta nursery in 1997 (or was it ’96?!). We had a fun time and Finn got lots of love – however, I forgot to take photos!

Saturday my parents came for a brief visit. Dad and Kevin watched part of the Buckeye game together while Finn was napping. My mom and I hung out and I was working on putting together the NPC Nursery schedule for the remainder of the year. We ended the evening with a lovely dinner with Kevin’s parents, brother Brett and his fiancée, Missy, downtown at Milestone 229. We were all able to celebrate Pat’s birthday. During dinner Griffin had his “first” restaurant high chair experience. He did really well, you can see we had to put the Skip Hop behind him so he didn’t fall backwards. He did great and loved being in it all by himself. His grandma also gave him a quick taste of the chocolate cake!

And here are some other shots of our week – all in all a busy and fun week!

On Friday, Finn was playing on the floor of his room and I was putting away some of his clothes. He was getting tired and was kind of fussy.  Next thing I knew, I looked down and he had made his way to the car in his room, and was attempting to pull himself up – check it out, he has a bit of air here!