18 MONTHS

I am getting later and later at posting these monthly updates of Phin...mostly because he has figured out how to turn the computer off this month.  He seems to sense that I am distracted and touches one little button so that I will  focus all of my attention on him...smart little boy.

Phin weighs 26 pounds 14 ounces and is 34 inches tall.  That puts him in the 64th percentile for weight and the 91st percentile for height.  He has learned many new skills this month...he is a master at emptying things out and scattering things around...including leaves.

He has also become quite a problem solver.  He carries his little chair around to use as a step stool when he can't quite reach something.  I will be honest...we have had to put his little chairs into time out a time or two.  Most nights Phin can be found standing on a chair next to the sink while we do dishes.  He has also become a pretty good helper when I am cooking and wants to be up on his chair in the midst of the action.

His favorite thing to cook with me is cookies of course.  One day I had the cookies cooling on a rack at the edge of the counter...the next thing I knew a whole row of cookies was gone.  Phin hasn't learned to get rid of the evidence yet and he had chocolate all over his face.

He loves cars and he loves watching people...so he was delighted when we spent a night watching the Pine Wood Derby cars that the Young Men and Young Women were racing.

He continues to have a major sweet tooth and knows exactly where our candy drawer is.  One day he pulled a little box over and tried to use it as a step to get up into the drawer.  If Seth or I open this drawer at the end of dinner Phin is instantly done with dinner and ready for dessert.

We have had to start hiding all of our writing utensils since Phin found some crayons and decided to create a masterpiece on our white cabinet.

He discovered a serious love for Oreos this month.  Here he is sitting back on our chaise lounger and enjoying one.  He especially loves mint dipped Oreos.

We got to spend quite a bit of time with family this last month.  Cousin Eliza came over on her parent's anniversary and these two decided the armchair was just right for the two of them.

Phin continues to be a great sleeper unless he is teething or not feeling well.  Most mornings he can be found with his little bum up in the air or on his back with his arms up like he is surrendering.

We made Jello for Thanksgiving and Phin discovered he was a big fan.

Phin also got to go on his first scooter ride around the parking lot of our apartment complex.  He had been climbing up on Seth's scooter for weeks hoping for a ride.

Phin loves when Seth is home and when he can climb up on his back for a Daddy ride.

He also loves when Daddy is willing to share ice cream.

Phin and I both caught hand, foot and mouth disease over Thanksgiving break...it was awful.  I thought he was just teething but then he started to get marks all over his hands, mouth and feet.  Luckily his case was not as bad as mine.  I was covered in blisters for almost a week.  I counted 16 blisters on one thumb.  Not fun...I should have gotten a picture of the two of us... but I missed the opportunity.  Seth did take a picture of me at my worst...this picture seriously does not do it justice.  I wouldn't wish hand, foot and mouth on my worst enemy.

I was watching a story on KSL the other day about a mom that realized she was missing from most of the family photos...she solved the problem by using the self timer on her cameras.  I think my new years resolution next year may be to try that out and get myself into a few more pictures with Phin...wish me luck. 

DERBY TIME

Back in November the Young Men and Young Women held a Pinewood Derby with no official rules.  Seth couldn't resist getting in on the action and carved his car down to hold a five pound weight and several rolls of pennies.  

He blew the competition away in the first race.  His car had so much speed at the end of the track that it kept going and collided pretty hard with one of the walls in the cultural hall.

The collision ended up tweeking one of the wheels pretty bad so he wasn't the overall winner at the end of the night but he did take home the award for the most creative car.

International Gaming Days

We were pretty excited a couple months back when we heard that SALT CON had two gaming days organized in November to celebrate International Games Day.  The first one was at the Weber State University Library.  We had Phin in tow and he did better than we expected.  We were able to play a couple of games with our friend Matt while he was on a break from the Boy Scout training that was conveniently being held on campus that day.  Scott also came up to join us for a game. 

TSURO

This was a really quick game to learn and was played well with 2 players although it can handle up to 8 players.  We took turns placing tiles and would then move our token to the end of the path.  The goal of the game was to keep your token on the board longer than all of the other players.

HIVE

Hive is another quick game for 2 players.  Each player has eleven pieces and each moves differently according to the symbol on the piece.  The goal of the game is to completely surround your opponents queen bee.

COCONUTS

This game is pretty much as light as a game can get.  It is a simple children's dexterity game where you try to launch your coconuts and land them in the cups in the middle of the group.  If a coconut lands in a cup you get to keep the cup and you are trying to collect 6 so that you can build a small pyramid of coconuts.  

KING OF TOKYO

Matt showed up around this time and we wanted to teach him one of our favorite games.  We played King of Tokyo for the first time at SALT CON last March and ended up buying it back in September.  The goal of this game is to be the last monster alive or to get the 20 victory points.  We like this game because it is quick to teach, easy for everyone to play and also has many paths to victory.

PICK A PIG

Matt chose our next game which was a simple card game.  We were each given a starting card and then had to choose a card from all of the cards on the table that differed by just one attribute and continue in that pattern until all of the cards were gone or no more matches could be made.  The person with the most cards at the end of the game was the winner. 

RICOCHET ROBOTS

Seth chose our next game which was Ricochet Robots.  When I looked up other reviews on this game it described it more as a puzzle than as a game.  Basically you have a board that has various symbols on it and four colored robots.  At the beginning of a turn you randomly choose a token from a bag and then you have to get the corresponding colored robot to that symbol.  The tricky thing is that the robots slide until they hit a wall or another robot.  You count the number of moves it takes to get to the target and then shout out that number.  If nobody else can come up with a shorter route in a minute then you win the token.  The person with the most tokens at the game wins.  Needless to say I didn't win a single token...my brain doesn't work that way.

LA HAVRE

Scott showed up and picked the last game of the night which was La Havre.  I don't know much about this game because Phin was pretty much DONE at this point.  I took him on a few walks and tried to get him to fall asleep as Scott and Seth read the rules and learned how to play.  As far as I could tell they liked the game...they didn't love reading the rules.  Scott thinks that all game publishers should include a DVD with games that teachers you how to play.

The following week the game day was held at the new West Jordan Library.  We dropped Phin off at Nona's and picked up Max and Benny.  They were great sports and played every game without complaint.  

RAMPAGE/TERROR IN MEEPLE CITY

The first game of the day was Rampage...which has now been renamed Terror in Meeple City...do you remember that Nintendo game with the name Rampage?  Well apparently there is some kind of trademark dispute going on.  In this game each person is a monster that is trying to cause the most damage and eat the most meeples.

CINQUE TERRE

While we played Rampage I read the rules for Cinque Terre so we would be ready for our next game.  I have visited the real Cinque Terre in Italy so I was intrigued by this game.  In this game you act as farmers and sell produce to the five villages along the coast.  The produce is worth different amounts in different cities...but you are also trying to complete a starting order card as well as other order cards that are on the table.  It has some elements that are similar to Ticket to Ride.  I really liked this game and have already made sure it will be under our Christmas tree in a few weeks.




TETRIS LINK

Max and Benny played Tetris Link next.  We scored this summer when we found this game at Savers.  It plays a lot like the old videogame.  You roll a dice and it tells you what shape you have to play.  You try to link your pieces together to get points while blocking your opponent.

GET BIT

Beth and Eliza joined us for this game and the next.  We bought this game last Spring and think it is a fun game with kids.  Each player was given a swimmer and a deck of cards from 1 to 7.  We laid our swimmers down in front of a shark and then played our cards.  If you played a 1 then your swimmer swam to the front of the line first, if you played a 2 your swimmer swam to the front of the line second, etc.  If someone played the same card as you then you did not swim forward.  If you were the swimmer at the end of the line at the end of the turn then the shark bit you and you lost a limb.  The limbs literally pull of the swimmers which adds to the fun of this game.  We played until a swimmer lost all of the limbs at which point the swimmer at the front of the line won.

ZOOLORETTO

The next game we played was Zooloretto.  Seth had started to read the instructions for this game the week before but this time one of the game hosts offered to teach us.  This was a great game with kids.  We took turns picking animals and placing them on trucks.  At anytime you could choose to take a truck and place those animals in your zoo enclosures but that also ended your turn for the round.  The goal was to get the most points and to fill the enclosures...the only catch was that only one type of animal could be in each zoo enclosure...so when you ran out of space you started to get negative points for animals.  The boys really did well with this game.  Each turn you had just three options for moves...place an animal on a truck, buy something or take a truck...so they picked up on it quickly.  This is definitely a game we would like to add to our collection.

DON'T ROCK THE BOAT

This was another dexterity game.  It is a lot like spill the beans but instead of a barrel there was a boat and instead of beans there were dolphins.  This would be a great game for developing fine motor skills in kids.

BATTLE SHEEP

This was another very kid friendly game.  Basically you choose a starting point with your stack of sheep and then you take turns moving part of your stack or all of your stack (except one) as far as you can in a straight line.  The board starts to fill up and some sheep are stuck in corners and unable to claim more pasture  The person with the most sheep placed on the pastures at the end of the game wins.

We also played COCONUTS again which the boys LOVED.  

As we were leaving and really throughout the day we played WEYKICK which is basically a tabletop Foosball table.  

We like it better than Foosball because there are no sticks to poke kids and it can easily be folded and stored away.

While I am talking about games I'll mention a few more games that we played back in October at a gaming day.  We played GOBLIN'S BREAKFAST a card game where you are trying to feed your Goblins and BRING OUT YER DEAD a board game where you are trying to get the best burial plots in a graveyard...sounds twisted but it really isn't that bad.  Both GOBLIN'S BREAKFAST and BRING OUT YER DEAD were on Kickstarter.  The game designers taught the games to us and were able to talk to them about the designing processes.  I find the whole kickstarter phenomenon fascinating. We also learned to play TAKENOKO that day.

TAKENOKO

The premise of this game is that an Emperor was given a panda as a symbol of peace but that Emperor also loves his gardens so you have to feed the Panda bamboo and keep the gardens growing. It was an easy game to learn, visually stunning and just fun.  We have also made plans to have this game under our tree this year.

17 MONTHS

Phin hit the 17 month mark a few weeks ago.  I have been slow to get this post up because I was pretty sick for almost two weeks.  Thankfully Phin did not get what I had and he was really a pretty good boy while I was stuck lying on the couch.  We both prefer to be out and about and get stir crazy when we are at home.  

Phin is getting quite good at expressing his likes and dislikes.  He likes being outside...he dislikes having his diaper changed.  He likes anything with sugar in it...he dislikes meat (for the most part).  His likes and dislikes can change pretty quickly sometimes the food he loved one day he doesn't want anything to do with the next day.  When he likes something he is quick to sign more...he also has a cute little bird chirp of "mo mo mo" that accompanies the signing.  Something he is having no more of is breast-milk...he is now completely weaned.  I thought giving up that last feeding would be rough but he was a trooper...I think it was much harder on me to admit that my baby is growing up.

He is a pretty good sleeper most of the time.  When he is tired he pretty much falls asleep as soon as he holds still.  I can often be found carrying him into the house asleep when we are finishing up errands.

We cherish all the sleepy hugs that we get.

He loves rocks, sticks and anything dirty that can be found outside.  He has started to thrown whatever he has in his hands in the hopes that I will set him down on the ground so he can pick it up.

He loves to explore and is not content to play with his toys...he often wants the toys mommy is playing with.  When I am cooking he can often be found next to me in the kitchen with an empty bowl and some kind of utensil.

He sticks his tongue out quite a lot which reminds me of Seth...because he always sticks his tongue out when he is in a playful teasing mood.  

He is obsessed with phones.  He chit chatters away when he picks one up and we can't help but wonder who he is talking to.

He loves hats and can as long as he can decide when they are put on and when they are taken off.  He has two fireman hats that he carries around our house and a construction worker hat at Nona's that he adores.

He is watching us!  One day I turned around and he had pulled a rag out a drawer and was wiping the floor down like I often do.  We hope he enjoys being this helpful when he gets older.

He continues to be our little monkey.  He climbs like a monkey...and most mornings he eats a banana for breakfast.

This month he started putting things down his pajama pants...and then he would walk around with those objects clunking together.  In the picture below he was smuggling about 10 hot wheel cars.

He loves to feed himself.  We have started to give him a little scoop of ice cream in a bowl.  He may get a little messy...but it takes him a lot longer to get the ice cream to his mouth...which means that he eats less of it in the end.

Other facts about Phin...he now has nine teeth.  He continues to wear size 4 diapers but they are getting a little snug.  He is wearing 18-24 month clothes.  He is starting to outgrow his size 5 shoes...this kid is going to be tall like his daddy.