Happy New Year

I am supposed to be deep in research right now, but writing this blog is more fun. It's the first day of 2009 and we had a lazy day of cooking. It's cold outside (-7 C), but we still managed a trip to the grocery store with Finn in the Ergo carrier (thanks Renate and Walt!).

The last few months have been a hectic time here in Queens, not least because of our little Finn and trying to stay on top of work. However, I thought it would be fun to try and sum up a few of Finnegan's personality traits for 2008:

1) Loves travel: the one sure-fire thing that will calm the little guy down is to carry him around the apartment;

2) Loves art: he stares and stares and Gord's, D'Arcy's, and Blackwood's paintings;

3) Pouts just like Veronica (you could shelter a whole family under that lower lip);

4) Has a bright smile that makes his eyes into little slits, which makes him a funny mix of Veronica and Bri (see double chin!).

Another fun little development is that Veronica has begun to pump (thanks Lee and Bri!), which means I get to feed Finn once in a while. It's satisfying for us both, and Veronica gets a break!

The most exciting recent developments have been that Finnegan has started to make eye contact and really recognize us. Seems like a small thing, but when it happened the first time it was easily the biggest rush of my life. And just in the last couple of weeks, Finn has begun to make speech-like noises and even to laugh. It is truly incredible. Here's a little video that illustrates what I mean: