The squirrel-man and his buddy Leo are a pretty inseparable pair. Lately we’ve had a little fun tossing Leo onto Finn’s (and everyone else’s) head as a hat. Here’s a little gallery (HTML) from the goings-on. 🙂
Month: May 2009
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Finn Answers the Iron (er, Milk)
Who needs a fancy new Elmo Phone when you’ve got a sippy cup? “Hehwo?” 🙂 (Click the image for a larger view.)
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Afternoon Delight
I’ll tell ya, I’m a lucky guy to get to come home & romp around with Finny. Here are a couple of shots I snagged with my phone as he celebrated the resurrection of our neighbor’s bee-attracting fountain (“BEE!”). (Click the image for a larger view.)
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Bok! Bok! Bok!
Big adventures this Memorial Day with Finny. FIrst up was brunch at the Pawligers’ house, and some quality playtime with their son Adam, and another little friend, Lazlo. All three piled into the backyard hammock for some R&R after chowtime. After Finn’s afternoon nap, we pit stopped for some frozen yogurt at the neighborhood yogurt hut, then we headed out to the Emma Prusch Farm Park.
The park is a city park not far from us. It used to be a working dairy farm, bequeathed to the city from the woman who owned it in the first half of the 20th century. We’d heard that there are all kinds of farm animals roaming around, a nice playground, and even a large vegetable garden and orchard. Needless to say, we thought Finn would love seeing and hearing the *real* animals that he sees in books.
As soon as we got out of the car we heard the “cock-a-doodle-doo” of roosters, which were wandering around the parking lot! Finn had a great time, and was fascinated by the chickens and goats. Here’s a little gallery (HTML) of our adventures from the day, including the roosters, goats, and Finn’s excited *squeeeeeezing* of some weird fruit from the orchard. We wrapped up the day with some sweeping in the backyard, and some goofando in the bathtub.
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Latest Finnovation: Sentences (!?)
Okay, okay, I might be overselling it a little, but today Finn strung together words for the first time I’ve heard. His first sentence was (drumroll please)…
I tend to grab a can in the morning while getting milk for Finn’s AM bottle (with him riding shotgun on my hip), but this morning I struck out. I muttered something to that effect, to which Finn replied “No Coke.”
At lunchtime, he followed up with a second, more insistent pair of words:
I don’t know what I’ll do with it (new logo, maybe?), but I have to say I like the sound of “No Coke, Mo’ Gok.” 🙂
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Super Mama, PMP
{{ We interrupt our regularly scheduled Finncast with breaking news about our own MLN }}
I’m delighted to report that the little guy and I now share a home with Margot L. Nack, Project Management Professional! Despite much squirrel-chasing and pregnancy-induced fatigue, Margot has been devoting many hours over the last few months to studying for this exam, and today she passed! This certification should be a great help when she returns to the job hunt after El Segundo arrives.
Way to go, hon!! We’re so proud of you.
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Mucha Lucha!
Margot and I have a weird soft spot for “Lucha Libre,” aka masked Mexican wrestling. Knowing this, our friend Hughes’s mom Eileen got Finn both a tiny “luchador” mask and a whole calendar of luchador portraits. We have lots of fun putting the little mask onto a ceramic penguin, as well as going through the calendar to see “Los Matematicos” and more. (Well, it’s fun until the 700th or so time, at which point one of us has to hide the calendar under the couch.) Here’s a little gallery (HTML) of the goings-on.
On a related note, I think Finn may grow up with a warped sense of what the term “doctor” means. A few months ago he started checking out our little portrait of the wrestler “Dr. Wagner,” saying “DAK-dah!” I wonder whether he’ll think that “doctor” = masked wrestler, and if so, what he’ll think when we say we’re going to the doctor’s office. 🙂
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Babyslang, Volume 6
Join us, won’t you, for another installment of What The Heck Are John & Margot Talking About??
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Who’s Your Daddy? (No, *Seriously*, Finn…)
A couple of weeks ago, the three of us cruised up to see our friends Bryan, Alex, and little Miles Hughes at their home in the nearby Santa Cruz mountains. We’ve uploaded some photos (HTML) showing a little (metal) goat-riding, corn-launching, mooning over Miles, and more.
During the course of our great little cook-out, Finn–who normally sticks to Dad like glue–was rather taken with Hughes. He’d protest whenever Hughes would walk inside, and he’d track this other daddy’s every move.
Finally it started to dawn on me: I wonder whether he thinks that’s his daddy. We put the idea to the test. Finding a picture of himself with me in the desert, Hughes pointed at me and said, “Who’s that, Finn?” No response. And then the moment of truth: I pointed at the picture of Hughes and said, “Who’s that, Finn?” “Da-Da!” was the immediate response. 😛
Since then, I’ve discovered that Finn now uses the term “Da-Da” fairly generically to refer to dad-like men, including our friend Tom & various characters in books. I feel a bit better now. 🙂
PS–Thanks to Hughes & Alex for the hospitality, and to Hughes for the great photos. The Papa-razzi strike again!
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Avuncular Stylings
Now that we’re past our blog’s technical difficulties, we have some catching up to do!
Last week, Finn’s Uncle James was in town for his long-awaited first meeting with our little squirrel. James was traveling for business, and was spending a day in Menlo Park, a town nearby. It was a perfect opportunity to pit stop at Casa de Nack for some Cinco de Mayo tacos, beer, and goofing around with a cute 1-year old. The guys got along great, and we snapped a couple photos (HTML) to commemorate the occasion. We were so excited he came by and got to meet his nephew.
And speaking of nephews, today is our nephew Charlie’s 4th birthday! Happy Birthday Chooch! (James’ visit also enabled us to send Charlie’s present home with his dad.)
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Finn Tweets!
Who’s a trendy baby, then? ;-P
I know, I know–I’m setting myself up for endless (and justified) teasing from Margot, Hughes, and probably everyone else, but I couldn’t resist setting up Finny (and El Segundo!) on Twitter. Now the boys have their own little stream called “Micronaxx”, and you can view updates right on this blog: look to the right on the main page.
We don’t intend A) to have Twitter replace the blog, or B) to ask anyone to do anything extra. Instead, it’s just a supplemental way to capture & share little bits of info. For example, we might be at the park and want to share a photo and/or little quip. Twitter makes it easy to compose a message on the phone, then upload it with or without a photo. Just look to the sidebar for these bits.
[Update: Hmm, it seems this service is a little flaky, and the list of messages from Twitter may not show up sometimes (when lots of people are trying to access the site). Hopefully it’ll show up more often than not.]
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MegaSqueeze!
Clearly Dad was having a little fun with the ol’ Adobe products this weekend. Mom was on hand to art-direct. 🙂
Finn spontaneously performs this squeezing gesture every time he sees any kind of work truck (white pickups, box trucks, or just about any truck with a light on top). He knows they’re somehow related to trash cans (i.e. the things the garbage truck *squeeeezes* with its big gripper arm).
Apparently this morning I missed some big adventures with a backhoe, Bobcat, and jackhammers. Mom and Finn were on the scene. Childhood curiosity rocks!
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“NOK-a-DAH!!”
Grandma Nack: Guffaws requested
West Coast Naxx: Guffaws *DELIVERED*!
Our little squire loves to romp around saying “NOK-a-DAH!,” aka “Knock you *Down*!”–and of course we’re only too happy to oblige. 😀
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Easter 2.0
Our pal Bryan recently shared with us the photos he took during our Easter visit to his folks’ house in Carmel. The bubble-blowing pipes in Finn’s Easter basket provided all sorts of entertainment for the little guy & dad, and both Finn and Grace–a dog literally 4 times his weight!–did great together. Here’s our gallery (HTML).
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Blog woes
Yeesh–we’re so used to the most crazy, complex technology working without a hitch, and yet of course it can fail. Our blog server has been acting up, so we haven’t been able to post any news (or approve comments) in a few days. In fact, we’ve had to hide comments temporarily. To quote Finn, “*Bleaugh!*”
Anyway, we’re working to get the problem fixed, especially as we have lots of fun photos we’re waiting to share.
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“*Bleaugh*!!”
Over the last couple of weeks, Finn has gotten really, *really* interested in All Things Stinky. He loves to go to the back door and say, “Bleaugh, bleaugh!”–as in, “Take me to the garbage cans immediately!” Wednesdays (trash days) are a real hit, with Finn checking out the garbage trucks and saying “Beep beep beep… bleaugh!”
The whole ritual has gotten quite elaborate lately, involving trips to the neighbor’s yard where they let weird lemon-like fruit fall and rot. Finn grabs each piece of fruit, at which point we walk it several doors down to another neighbor’s where he theatrically fires it into their garbage can. I don’t know whether people think we’re insane, charming, or both. 🙂
Here’s a little documentary evidence of our activities:
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A Tiny Bite of Domendite!
Finny really knows how to bring on the hilarity! Every day it’s something new and totally unpredictable.
We’ve known that Finn is very into toes (touching them, purposefully stepping on our feet, “sweeping” them with a paintbrush), but today he added an entirely new angle to his repetoire. One of his current favorite books is Dr. Seuss’s Hop On Pop. His favorite page in the book is “HE ME. He is After Me!” wherein a goofy tiger/lionish looking creature with big teeth is biting an equally goofy-looking kid on the toe (see image).
As he and I were goofing around, barefoot, on the couch this afternoon, he spontaneously leaned over, bit my big toe, and growled, knowing that the appropriate response would be to holler “No!”, which is what we say when we read the book. I delivered a good yelp of “No!”, and started laughing hysterically because it was so unexpected. This encouraged Finny to bite the toe several times and wait for my soap-operatic reaction. He was super surprised when I grabbed his toe and did the same thing!
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F-14: Finnster Fourteen
“BeeBeardBoo, LightDogPolka…” Walking after Finn outside today, I found myself reciting little mnemonics, trying to make sure I could remember (and report) all his little goings-on. At exactly fourteen months of age, he’s one busy dude.
Recent stylings:
- For Easter Grandma Nack gave Finn an animation-packed “Bee & Me” book, and now he can’t wait to get me across the street to our neighbor’s bee-infested fountain. He’s always pointing out the front window saying, “Bee!” (I’m a little worried he’ll get too friendly with the bees & at least one of us will learn a painful lesson, but there’s only so much I can do to prevent it.)
- One bonus of visiting the fountain is the way we set off the neighbors’ dogs. Three of them start flipping out on command as we approach the driveway. Thus Finn often points out the window and says, “Ruff ruff ruff… Bee!”
- For whatever reason, “Pat the Bunny” has re-entered our book rotation. Coincidentally, I’ve been slacking in the shaving department, and now after the “feel Daddy’s scratchy face” page, Finn comes over and strokes my stubble.
- The small guy gets more & more into hide and seek, now loving to circle the dining room table and yell “Boo!” every time he emerges to make eye contact. We kind of love this game as it tires him out while letting us remain still.
- Over the last few months, Finn has gone through phases of loving to touch light fixtures all around the house. Now he’s suddenly back in that game, but with a twist: he imitates the high-pitched “ding” produced by tapping the bulbs, and he wants to use specific objects (such as Leo) to do the tapping. Each day this week has started with him appearing in the bed with me, saying, “Leo… ding ding ding!”
- From early on our boy has enjoyed playing “Tear it apart!”, zealously destroying paper towels, wrapping paper, etc. Now he’s into “SQUEEZE The Crap Out Of It!,” a new “game” that involves, well, squeezing the crap out of whatever’s available (e.g. Dad’s fingers). The hilarious part is the look of total concentrated effort–plus smiles–that comes over Finn’s face. He reminds us of Tarmo Mitt & other strongman competitors.
- To my amazement, Finn seems to have figured out what polka dots are. We’ve been reading about Polkabats lately, and on a trip to the basement he pointed at a polka dot-painted trunk and said “Poka!” Later, looking at a spotted leopard in a book, he started saying “Poka” again. Harvard, we’re ready for that admissions form now. ;-P
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The Invisible Hand of the Toddler
Yesterday morning, I found myself in the kitchen with Finn (doing his typical let’s-grab-grownup-knees thing) while Margot was in the living room seeking some Kleenex. “Finny,” I said, handing him a box of tissues, “Bring to mama? Give to mom?” And off he toddled, bringing her the box.
I was delighted (having freed my knees & gotten out of the task myself), and I said to Margot, “This marks my first use of Finn as an economic implement!” Way to go, kiddo, contributing to family welfare. (Just let’s make sure Kathy Lee Gifford doesn’t read this post & start recruiting him as a future sweatshop employee!)