12 Months of Photos

A closer look at the pictures I took of Fin every month for his first year. It now hangs in Fin's room, and it's a fun little keepsake.I put it in an old window frame that we had from our wedding and just stuck each picture on with washi tape.

Finley is ONE!

Fin's first birthday was last month and we had a big party with both of our families. It was so much fun to celebrate with him!

Fin loves ALL animals, so we decided to have an animal party. I got dollar store animals and made little party hats for them as our decorations, had a few balloons, and I made a little backdrop for his cake smash. We had a pinata and did balloon animals for the kids, and we all had a great time.

One of my favorite decorations were these pictures of Fin in the same chair every month. It is so cute to see how he progressed over his first year and now it's hanging in his room.

Our decorations were animals wearing party hats or carrying presents. (Also, Morgan's stache?)

We printed off our favorite pictures of Fin and hung them on string with clothespins.

Hal and Whit made balloon animals for the kids in keeping with the theme of the party.

Fin and his two grandmas. They're just the best!

And we had a pinata! Horse, of course.

Kissing Cousins

Riley definitely seems more excited about the barn than Fin. That's all Riley ever asked for for birthdays or Christmas growing up; "horse barn", so we thought we'd just go ahead and get one for Fin. 

Sitting in his new chair that matches Covey's

Cake

Cupcakes for the kids. It was so hot that day the frosting melted! They didn't care though.

I love that he crosses his little feet every time he gets in his highchair or car seat.

These cousins wanted to be in the picture...

Really into pointing these days

Once he was done with the cake, he started dancing. He loved being the center of attention.

Only got one picture with mom and dad, and by this time he was DONE. It was too much fun!

 I made mason jars favors with animal lids filled with animal crackers for the little cousins and cookie favors for the adults. They were "1" cookies decorated with royal icing because I'm really into those right now, but of course I forgot to take a picture of them! And they were the most time consuming part!

In the background, we played a little video we made for his birthday of videos we took during his first year. It doesn't even begin to make a dent in all of the videos we took. He's just the best thing that ever happened to us!

And because Fin's actual birthday was on a Sunday, I took a couple of shots of him in his crib before church. He was ready for a nap, if you can't tell.

 I can't believe our baby isn't a baby anymore! This year went by so fast, but it was easily the best year of both mine and Riley's lives (and probably Fin's life too...)

6 Months

Finner turned 6 months on Valentine's Day. He is such a sweet. happy boy! Some new things:

He is very social and loves all people, but especially girls.

Rolls from his stomach to back (no more tummy time for him!) A while ago - almost 2 months now - he rolled from his back to his tummy like 5 times in a day! And he hasn't done it since.

Can sit up on his own really well and now he hates laying on his back. He's always doing a "crunch" because he wants to be sitting up.

Started solids and like most of them, except for peaches, green beans, and meat. He gagged on bananas at first (of course, because they're gross), but likes them now.

Drinking water from a straw is his favorite thing. He can't suck up through the straw yet, but we hold the water in the straw and then drop it in his mouth.

Really hates when we wipe his face off after he eats.

Likes to be outside and now that the weather is nice we go on a walk every day. He just looks at everything and giggles when we go over bumpy ground.

Plays peek-a-boo and pulls the blanket down to find you if you're hiding behind it.

Loves his mom and his dad, but some days prefers mom, which Riley isn't too happy about. The last time it happened he was like, "That's it! I'm taking him to mutual with me!" Haha totally fine with me. 

Recently refuses to take his bottle. Crap.

Sleeps in his own crib and doesn't get out for 12 hours. He doesn't sleep 12 hours straight (but we night weaned him, so that's been awesome), he usually wakes up to play around 3 am and 6 am, but goes back to bed eventually. 

He got another tooth TODAY! And #4 is on it's way in. I swear, I had no idea he was teething with the first two and same with these ones! He's such a good baby.

At his appointment this last week he weighed 19 lbs and was 27 inches long.

On Being a Mom

It was one of those nights when your baby is asleep so you look through pictures of him on your phone and just cry because he's growing up so fast...and he's only 6 months old.

Crap.

I have to deal with this for 18 (probably more) years.

I realized that everything I've posted about on social media these last 6 months has to do with Fin. He's the main thing Riley and I talk about too. He is our entire world. Riley and I are the typical new mom and dad who think their baby is actually the cutest human on the planet and is developing well ahead of all other babies. At least we know we're like this, right?

I love being a mom. I absolutely love it. I love the way that it's changed me in the 6 short months since Finley was born. Before I became a mom, I wasn't excited about having a life of toys everywhere, dirty diapers, crying all night, but I feel like I was meant for this. It makes me happier than I could have ever known. I love how much Fin needs me, and being a mom has been so rewarding. Not everything about motherhood is perfect, but I wouldn't change anything about it. The hard times have made me appreciate even more the heart exploding happiness I feel.

I was so scared to have kids. I always wanted them, but once Riley and I got married and it was a real possibility I was not excited about it. I had seen how babies changed people's lives--I thought-- for the worse... No sleep, no freedom to go out whenever you want, changing diapers, and all of the money they cost! I was selfishly holding onto the idea of just me and Riley, because we had a good, fun life and I loved being able to do what we wanted to do. When we finally, hesitantly at first, started trying and couldn't get pregnant, I became obsessed with the idea of being a mom. I think Heavenly Father made us wait over a year to get pregnant so that I would be genuinely excited about having a baby, instead of scared out of my mind about how my body would handle pregnancy, how bad labor would be, and what I was missing out on having a baby. I was just so thrilled that I could finally get pregnant that I didn't care how hard it would be to be a parent. (Riley wanted us to have a baby from day one, so of course he was just over the moon about it...even more than me).

Finley is a pretty good baby. I think. I don't really know anything else, but he has always been a good eater and has been able to sleep for 5 hours at night since he was 6 weeks old (yeah....5 hours is the max he sleeps. We're still working on that). He's not the best best baby, but he is generally easily soothed when he's ornery or upset, which is really nice, and maybe the reason I feel like the transition to being a mom was easy for me.

I read an article when Fin was just a few weeks old about how this phase of life doesn't last long. One day when your kids are all grown up, you'll wish that you had a baby again to keep you up in the night. I have really tried to think about this as I go about my days and nights with Fin. I still have moments of 'what is wrong with you!?' when there's nothing that will soothe him (man, that kid is loud! He is definitely not a wimpy crier), but I mostly love the moments I still have getting up with him in the night. And the fact that he's just so cute makes it easier too.

Milestones

Last week was a pretty big week in the Lyman household.

On Monday, Finley rolled from back to front four times! He hasn't done it again for 10 days.... So I guess he's just over it. We try to recreate the setting where it happened the first time (laying on the ground and trying to get to his car seat and Downton Abbey DVDs), but he's never interested enough to roll again. Oh well. He will someday. And I kind of don't mind that he's not mobile yet because we can still lay him on our bed.

Over the weekend (a week and a half ago) Fin was super drooly. He doesn't usually drool out of control like that and we felt to see if he was teething. We couldn't tell. On Sunday and Monday night, he slept horribly! Like waking up every hour or so. NOT fun for anyone. Then Tuesday morning I checked his little mouth and a bottom tooth had popped up! It was so fast! He was ever cranky during the day,never had a fever or flushed checks, so we didn't think it was teething, but it was! And a few days later, the second bottom tooth came through. And he's back to sleeping better at night! I Know I'm such a mom but they're the cutest little teeth I've ever seen.

On Sunday morning, we were playing with Fin and we sat him up. He always used to just fall over with no support, but this time his eyes locked in on his toes and sat by himself! He falls forward when he tries to grab his toes but he is sitting up by himself. 

Drooly Kid

Sucking on middle fingers like his mama

Tiny tooth barely popping through

Sitting up like a big kid and playing in the water

Cousin time

He just turned 5 months and has been wearing 6 month clothes for almost 2 months now