Hug

The fact that Finn spends every waking second of every day talking is no surprise if you've met his mother. His compulsion to narrate his every move - or sometimes to narrate the fact that he is not moving at all - has earned him the nickname Rain Man at home.

Turns out they're calling him that at daycare too. Check this video, which finds our little savant playing basketball by himself, announcing the color and size of each ball as he places it in the basket. This is pretty typical and is also applied generously to each type of vehicle on the road, each type of object in the sky and each sound in the neighborhood. This kid can hear - and announce - a firetruck in Tacoma from West Seattle.

He has also developed the insufferable tendency of referring to himself in the third person, but of course he offsets that with gallons of cute daily, like when he screws up his pronouns and asks us to "help you" when he means "help me." Or when he eats week-old raisins off the floor. Adorable.

All of his new words have enabled him to take his manipulation up a level. Whereas it used to be all about the targeted, strategic crying fits, he's now pulling out the big guns. We weren't ready for it the first time - so it actually worked - but we're wise now.

Pay attention: the next time that you're babysitting Finn (and you should be offering to babysit Finn, slacker) and he starts crying because you've asked him to brush his teeth/put on his pajamas/stop hitting you with the toy car, don't fall for it when he turns to you with his face all scrunched up sad, puts on those puppy dog eyes and asks:

"Hug?"

Trust me, you're getting played. Stick to your guns and know that he'll get over whatever is bothering him in two minutes when he gets distracted.

If you need to hustle it along, just look for some old raisins on the floor.

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Footnote on Key West: I forgot to mention that we ended our trip like real Broward County locals, by giving Finn a ride in a South Florida car seat - i.e., my lap in the back of the cab of the pickup truck that was our "shuttle" from the RV rental joint to the airport.

All I can say is that I'm glad we got off the road before this lady got on. I don't think I'm ready to have to explain that to Finn just yet.