First post of the New Year and first proper post in donkey’s!

The last two or three weeks have seen to ‘first proper’ events for Finn. To begin with, this was his first proper Christmas; that is to say, the first Christmas that he’s really been aware of what’s going on though he didn’t really understand all of it.

He knows who Santa is, for example, and will point him out when he sees a picture of him or someone dressed as him (or if he sees a polar bear, for some inexplicable reason). He’ll also tell him that Santa says ‘ho ho’ if you ask. But I don’t think he quite grasps the concept of Santa as a bringer of presents. Before we opened the sitting room door on Christmas morning, Áine and I told him that we could hear Santa trying to get back up the chimney. Finn got a bit frightened when we said this so we had to hold his hands while we opened the door for him and lead him into the room.

His reaction to his presents was funny; his main gift from Santa was a bike and he got a few other knick-knacks such as a ‘Roary the Racing Car’ racetrack, some books, a Fisher Price Noah’s Ark and so on. Santa had quite helpfully unpacked everything and set it up before heading off, leaving the bike at the front of the pile. Áine and I felt a bit relieved when we saw Finn race over and grab his bike – we had, after all, written his letter on his behalf. Imagine our dismay then when he pushed it out of the way so that he could get to Roary! The bike hasn’t had a look-in but that’s probably the weather. Right?

The other ‘first proper’ for Finn this year was snow. Last time he was too young to go out in it (and couldn’t walk anyway) so this year we brought him out for a few minutes. It had started to thaw so we couldn’t build him a snowman but he enjoyed stomping about in it. He wasn’t too impressed when he tried to pick some up and discovered how cold it can be though!