Bruiser

The alert Fussy Ninja readers (Hi Mom!) have no doubt picked up on the new additions here on the blog. For those of you reading the email updates, the Ninja has sold out and we now have ads. That future Adderall addiction isn't going to pay for itself. Of course, the ads only make money if people visit the site and that's just not going to happen if I'm only posting once every 10-days.

Since it's been so long, I've actually got stuff to report. First off, the fever I alluded to way back when turned out to have been the result of an ear infection that we let fester in the little guy's skull for days without treating. It turns out that he's only fussy for non-important stuff. If a disease is eating away his ear canal, it just makes him a little sleepy. We didn't want to get the "first-time parent" side-eye from the doctor, so we just kept him home until he eventually stopped eating. That'll learn us. Now I'm the only one in the family not on antibiotics. I feel so left out.

Grandma Parker also stopped by to spend a week with us. In addition to helping with the cooking, cleaning and daycare she decided to toughen up Finny and gave him his first black eye. If you look closely at the picture above, you can barely make out the remnants of it over his right eye. He's the one on the left.

Truthfully, it wasn't G'ma's fault. We had been talking up how good Finn was at going down stairs and how cautious he is in general. In fact, he's so cautious that he's been known to walk downhill backwards and he'll get on his knees and turn around to descend a 3-in. step. I take no credit for this - it's all Kitty's doing. If it were up to me, the only skills we'd be practicing would be couch jumping, Ninja tossing and CSI-watching. Mommy, however, chose to focus on the productive skills and as such, Finn can almost be trusted around open staircases completely unassisted.

Almost.

Turns out that his depth perception still isn't that great, particularly when the stairs out behind our house are all painted the same color and there are lots of things to distract him. Turn your back for one second and he's introducing his eyebrows to each step as he rolls down.

I think G'ma was more traumatized than Finn. To make up for it, she continued making dinner and providing free daycare for the remainder of the week.

I think Finn and I are going to have to practice this fall down the stairs thing some more before MeMa Finn gets here in August.