Movin' and Shakin'

Our little Finny isn't so little any more. At his one year check-up, he was 32 inches tall - in the 90th% for his height (up from 25% - unbelievable). His weight was in the 40th% and his head was 95th% (oh yeah, I always knew he had a big ol' noggin!) He's had quite the summer, doing all kinds of new activities. Here's a snapshot of some of his summer activities and acquired skills.

He has figured out how to open all kinds of things. He loves getting the lids off of things he can eat.


And he's developed quite the sweet tooth. Here he is with a classic strawberry milkshake mustache - I think he would be a good candidate for the "Got Milk?" commercials.


Our little buckaroo has also been to TWO rodeos this summer. Most recently, we went to the Caldwell Night Rodeo with our friend Anna. Here's Finny in his cowboy boots and jeans, enjoying the action.


He loved people watching

There was quite a crowd there - Fin couldn't decide between people-watching and watching the events

He was a happy camper for the entire rodeo

He would clap to the music and cheer when everyone else was cheering

This is the only shot I got of the events - here are the cowboys headed down the arena for team calf roping

Fin also switched to his big boy foward-facing car seat! He LOVES being able to see out the windows and I love being able to check on him in the rearview mirror.

Finny also took his first trip to the zoo. Zoo Boise is a nice little zoo; it was sweltering hot the day we went, but we still had fun.

We saw lots of animals - some of them Fin wasn't too sure about - check out his apprehensive face here....cute.

The tigers were out, which was neat

And this was a giant tortoise that I thought was a statue - nope, he moved.

They had a little petting zoo - here were some hungry goats

Fin was terrified and clung to my hip the whole time

Getting braver...

Now he's at least waving at them

Ah, his favorite part of any day...SNACK TIME

Then it was off to see the giraffes - we got pretty good views of them

Fin liked the fact that they were pretty far away

He was so exhausted that he conked out immediately on the car ride home

And when we got him home and into bed, this is how we found him when we went to check on him. Tired little bug!

Fin's also got the art of walking down. At first, he only walked well with a musical walking machine that our friends Rick, Lorena and Hannah got him for his 1st B-day - he got exceptionally good at walking with it, dancing at the same time, and navigating corners. Here's a little video.

Then he wanted to walk on his own. At first, it was a very awkward walk with his hands held straight up in the air. Dru called him "Franken-Fin" because it looked so much like Frankenstein. Here's a video of that.

Then he got to a point where he could walk and drink from his cup at the same time.


Then things got really impressive - he has a plastic recorder that he's figured out how to play, and here he's playing it AND walking at the same time. Boo-ya!


And now, he's running. Here's a very cute video of him playing with Dru - he loves to be chased and Dru is happy to oblige.