And Now You Are Eight

Dear Finn,
Today at 10:58am EST, you turned eight years old. It's hard to believe! I bet I'll still be writing that when you're 16...

When Declan turned eight, he seemed so grown up. To me, you are still so young--probably the difference between the first born and the "baby." Although you'd slug me if you heard me call you that.

Unlike your brother, who burst into the world upside down and two weeks early, you were perfectly content to hang out until week 40 when the doctor finally had to bring you out forcibly! It was a sign that you were going to be an amiable kid and a great sleeper. I rarely got to rock you to sleep--you conked out so quickly, no rocking was necessary. When you could walk, when you were tired and ready to sleep, you went right to your crib and stood there until we put you in.


Your Birth Day: Your big brother was so curious about you!

Your hair wasn't curly right away. It was very lightly red and the curls started showing up when you were about 8 months old.


You could spit up like nobody's business.

As you got older, you got curlier. People came up to me in the grocery store and touched your hair. When you were old enough to realize what was happening, you were a little freaked out.

As I looked back through my files for pictures for this post, there were so many that just made me smile or even laugh out loud. You were so YOU from the very beginning. As I look at pictures of you over the years, I still see so much of the same you.

Some of my favorites:




You smiled ALL the time. We called it the Finn Grin. This was your first haircut.







Some of them crack me up just because YOU'RE cracking up. Like you're years older and laughing at some inside joke that only you know about.






And then other times, you're just adorable. Can I still call you adorable?


This picture is so totally you. Still.


I love your gusto.



It seems like you've barely changed. But of course you have. As of this birthday, you have lived more than half of your life in Colorado. It's hard for me to imagine that you don't really remember Ohio and your first three years and 10 months there.

And today you are eight. Eight is great.






You are funny, smart, impatient, energetic, curious, sometimes a stinker, sometimes a little teaser and instigator, imaginative, loving (but I dare not try and give you a smooch!), and you can make me go from ready to strangle you to wanting to hug you in a single bound.

You are The Mighty Finn--a superhero in your right.



You are eight. And it is so lovely.

Rocky Mountain Moms

Hey! Check me out! I'm blogging over here today!

Thanks to Jill for letting me know about this opportunity!

How Sweet It Is: The Mighty Finn is 7

Birthdays are exciting. . .when you're a kid. When you tip over a certain age, maybe not so much.

Today is Finn's 7th birthday. It was fun this last week to see and hear him so excited about it because let's face it, his birthdays haven't always been so much fun.

But this year, it's all about the fun!

Tuesday, October 22, 2002

Happy Birth Day!


October 22, 2003--Age 1

Celebrating with scones and clotted cream in Cornwall, England.


October 22, 2004--Age 2

On chemo, getting ready to start delayed intensification and 3 weeks of steroids.


October 22, 2005--Age 3

No steroids! Giving his all to blowing out the candles.


October 22, 2006--Age 4

First birthday in Colorado. On steroids and hair a little thin. This was about the only smile of the day. We celebrated again a week later to make up for it.


October 22, 2007--Age 5

Chemo finished! Celebrating Finn's 5th birthday in England. In the hills above Ullswater, the Lake District.


October 22, 2008--Age 6

Home all week because of the "incidents" going on at school, he vomited up his birthday dinner and pie in the middle of the night.


October 22, 2009--Age 7

At last! Your big day is here! Enjoy it, Kid. You've earned it.

Still at Home

I'm here to report that there's nothing to report. Finn and Declan both are home from school today. What the?

First, as you know, Finn has been home all week because of The Final Straw with his former teacher. What happened was that on Sunday, Eamonn and Finn both ate some chicken that had been in the refrigerator too long. Only neither of them was sick yet by the time the boys went to school Monday morning. Over the course of the morning at school, Finn began complaining to his teacher that his stomach hurt. Soon he was crying and saying he needed to throw up. Apparently the teacher didn't think that a child who has vomited more times in 3 1/2 years than most people will in a lifetime could actually know that he needed to throw up. So the teacher refused to let Finn go to the bathroom or go to the nurse's office saying, "I don't believe you." Finn kept crying and saying he needed to be sick and eventually he threw up all over his table. I can't imagine--sitting there with that feeling that you're about to throw up and not being allowed to leave the room. This was the first time that I felt totally irrational about Finn's situation and felt like going over to the school and confronting the teacher and just screaming at him. But I didn't.

As I was driving home from Utah, I got a call from the school that someone needed to pick Finn up. Fortunately Eamonn was still close to home and went to get Finn. After I got home I was talking to Finn about getting sick at school and asking why he didn't go to the bathroom and the whole story came out. That was when Eamonn and I agreed that Finn wouldn't go back to school until the situation was resolved.

Finn spent the rest of the day in a great deal of discomfort--a lot of stomach cramping and vomiting. He couldn't even keep small sips of liquid down. And then Eamonn's vomiting kicked in. There is a bug going around school, but we're pretty convinced that it was a mild case of food poisoning because Eamonn and Finn ate the chicken and Declan didn't. And Eamonn is one of those people who never gets sick. The last time he was sick was in 2001 when he had shingles. Seriously. Declan has shown no signs of being sick and now, I haven't either, even after being in very close proximity to the offending bodily fluids.

So Tuesday was spent recuperating. Finn really didn't eat much that day--mostly crackers and a baked potato.

Yesterday Finn's eating was pretty much business as usual. It was his birthday and because he wasn't starting in his new room until Thursday, he was still home. He ate mostly normal food and requested McDonald's for his birthday lunch. I drove through the first snow of the year to take him and all seemed well.

In the late afternoon, we went over to school and met with Finn's new teacher. We briefed her on Finn's background and she went over the schedule with him. He spends time in her room four days a week and he seemed comfortable in there.

We came home and ate Finn's birthday dinner--his favorite tortellini--and "chocolate pie" which he had requested as his birthday cake.

Everything was fine at bedtime. The boys asked to sleep together in Finn's bed, which they usually only do on weekends, but we said it was OK because it was Finn's birthday.

At 2am, Finn woke up screaming and vomiting. I have to confess, I haven't seen vomit like that since the chemo days. I forgot how much that kid can project. It took us two hours to get everyone cleaned up, settled down and back to sleep. The dirty laundry generated is still in progress.

So Finn is home for obvious reasons. Declan is home because he's exhausted and has huge circles under his eyes.

I'm counting down the minutes until we all take naps.

Progress

Tonight we got the word: On Thursday Finn will start in a new classroom.

Whew.

Let the new angst begin. Because I've always got to have a littlst angst going on somewhere apparently.

So we told Finn at bedtime that he would be moving to a new classroom and he was really excited. It isn't Mrs. Angel's classroom, however. Our OT, after spending time in three classrooms on Monday, made a different recommendation based on several factors, one of which is the mix of kids already in each room. Mrs. Angel has some really challenging kids, three of whom the OT suspects are undiagnosed sensory kids, and is very concerned that putting Finn into the mix will be like dropping a match into a powder keg. No good.

The room the OT chose for Finn is a room where he already goes each day for reading so he has a relationship with this teacher already. According to the OT, this teacher, we'll call her Miss P, has a very caring attitude towards the kids, but also has a lot of structure, which Finn seems to crave. She is a mentor teacher at the school and so has a lot of experience under her belt. She was also the school's teacher of the year last year.

And ironically, a few weeks ago, Finn asked out of the blue, "Why can't I be in Miss P's class?" So he already had her on the brain and felt connected with her.

I have already exchanged e-mails with Miss P and we will be going to visit her room tomorrow evening so that Finn can spend some time with her one on one to prepare him for his first day in the class on Thursday.

I'm happy to have him at home another day. Tomorrow is his 6th birthday and I'm surprised he isn't already downstairs asking to open presents. We told him he had to stay in bed until 6:45am!

We feel good about the direction we're heading. Time will tell if this will be a good fit or not, but we felt we wanted to give it a try. If it doesn't work for some reason, it tells us that we probably need to consider something more non-traditional for Finn at this point, but we have high hopes that Miss P and her teaching experience will help us salvage Finn's kindergarten year.

And now it's time to wrap presents.