Fin at fifteen weeks

He continues to do well. He has been diagnosed as having a mild torticollis. Be careful in consulting Dr. Google about this as there are some pretty scary things out there under the name. There is every reason to believe that he will overcome this completely. Many kids have them (it is basically the shortening of one of the muscles in the neck - his is on the left side, so he favours looking right) and physical therapy usually does the trick. He has been referred to a very experienced and respected PT and she visited this week and gave us some exercises to start on.
He is cooing a lot more (we call it singing). And he is sleeping about 8 hours through the night now.
Here are a bunch of pictures and video.
Love,
15-week-old Fin and the others

Finley at the beach

We had a great two days in Nags Head at the beach. Finley got to meet his Uncle Joel and Aunt Karen and got his first look at the ocean. He had one of the best naps of his life in his stroller on the beach... about 3 hours of solid shut-eye in the ocean breeze.
The trip was about 3.5 hours, so it was something of a test for how he will be on long trips. The jury is still out. He didn't sleep quite as much as Mommy and Daddy thought he would.

Fin's first flight

We had a great trip to New York City last week. Finley did great on both flights (although we're not sure how many other people were sensing the effects of his full diaper for the last 20 minutes of the flight up there) and slept at all the right times. He was a bit out of sorts our first day there, but got back to being himself.
The highlight of the trip was meeting his girlfriend, Becca Kalafatas, for the very first time. As you will see in the pictures, there was some real chemistry... yeah, chemistry... between them right from the start. Karen and John and Becca live in Brooklyn and were fantastic hosts.
We head east tomorrow for a couple of days at the beach... another first for Finley! We will have pictures and stories to tell, no doubt.
The biggest news is that Finley is now doing pretty okay at sleeping through the night. He had one night this week that he went from about 11:30 to 7:00. I think he will have it down to a science soon. He is still eating great and gaining lots of weight. We will get a weigh-in next week and have some numbers to report, but estimates are 15 lbs or more.
Love to all,
Flying Fin and the gang

12 weeks old

Finley is doing great. He has had a couple of good nights of sleep and is generally seeming more content these days. He is eating well and getting more active by the day. He had his first motorboat ride (Daddy got to waterskiing!) this weekend. And he will have his first plane ride this week when we go on Wednesday for three days to New York City. Daddy has a conference at Columbia University and we are all really looking forward to seeing Karen and John Kalafatas and their daughter (Fin's girlfriend) Becca.
We continue to have the time of our lives and are so thankful for him every day.
Love,
Finley et al

Finley's first Fourth

Finley slept through most of the fireworks in Kenan Stadium for his first Fourth of July, but he had a great time. Daddy had to plug Fin's ears for most of it because it was very loud, but it didn't seem to bother him.
He continues to do great. He is eating well most of the time and sleeping well most of the time. The developmental people spent three hours with us on Tuesday morning. He scored in the "normal" range on most of the tests and they are not overly concerned with anything that he is doing or not doing at this point. He will be enrolled in their program and will have his progress monitored over the coming months.
We continue to get more smiles by the day and he is really locking eyes with us now and loves watching Tasman.
He is 11 weeks old and doing great.
Lots of love,
Yankee Doodle Fin and the rest of the doodles

Happy Canada Day!!

Finley is now drug-free. Well, technically the drug will need a couple of days to completely clear his system, but we are counting it. He seems to be doing fine. We continue to struggle with not really knowing what odd little things he does are normal baby stuff and what might be cause for concern, but he appears to be just fine. We are so thankful. 10 weeks ago from tonight we were completely terrified of where we would be right now. It seems almost like a dream that we are here celebrating his first Canada Day with nothing but joy.
His outfit today came courtesy of Uncle Craig, Aunt Tamah, Michaela, and Caden. Oh Canada!!
Love to all,
The Canadian Carolinians