We had some snowy delights with the lads today in Galena’s Grant Park. More (pics/vids as well as sledding) to follow soon! 🙂
Author: The Nack Daddy
I’m delighted to say that the will-they won’t-they saga of our trying to ride Chicago’s Holiday Lights El Train ended in success last night!
Our friend Samantha had told us about the train a couple of months ago, and ever since then we were hoping we could catch it with the guys. It runs only on certain days, and the CTA doesn’t publish the exact times it runs until a few days ahead of time. We’d hoped to catch the train after our visit to the Murrays yesterday, but Henry got sick & we had to leave early. We thought our plans might be toast, but fortunately within a couple of hours he recuperated enough that we could drive to a different station & try again. We were all set to catch the 6:32 train (the last one of the night!), but then trains came & went with no sign of it. We were just about to give up hope when a nice family appeared alongside us & said that the train was running half an hour late. Thus we held our ground, and you can see the results below. 🙂
Off we go to the actual snow! Chicago & “Big G.,” here we come. 🙂
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MicroCivics
Glimpsed at Pasitos the other day, it appears that the class has been learning about voting through the power of breakfast crackers. It looks like the boys abstained from voting; had they not, the Ritz victory would have been even more commanding!
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The Darn Cohaagens
Brutalizing!
Brutalando!
Brutalini!
A few months ago, the boys started smothering me in blankets. Maybe it was the lack of oxygen to my brain, but I thought of an Arnold Schwarzenegger line in Total Recall: “Come on, Cohaagen [the villain], you have what you want, now give the people air!!”—or as people like to render his accent, “Give deez people ehyar!!” From inside the stifling blanket pile I blurted out (in cheesy accent), “Come on, you little Cohaagens, give the Dad-O air!!” Man was that a hit!
Ever since then, the lads have been requesting “brutalizing” (or as they Spanglify it, “brutalando,” or in faux-Italian, “brutalini”), insisting that they be the Darn Cohaagens while I play Ahnuld. I try to get into the bathroom to turn on the fan (y’know, to give deez people ehyar), and they race around turning it off, then re-burying me in blankets. Ja, good times! 🙂
You spin me right ’round, baby, like a record…
We had a (surprisingly non-puke-inducing) ball taking the lads on all manner of rides at San Jose’s Christmas In The Park carnival. I’ve said it before, but man, what a godsend that Hen’s finally tall enough to accompany Finn, bombing through all sorts of pirate ships, cartoon houses, and more. Check it out:
We spent a delightful day at the Oakland (or as Henry kept calling it, “Oklahoma”) Zoo, checking out lions, learning more than we might’ve wanted about elephants’ pooping (“He must have a really large large intestine!” noted Hen), and hanging out with the Wiggii. We all braved the semi-fearsome Tiger Coaster, as you can see here:
What started small a few weeks back is quickly becoming an addiction, and the guys are clamoring to check out the rides of the San Jose Winter Carnival tonight. Wish us luck!
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Higher on the Squire
When it comes to PJ pants, Finn makes me think of Sly & The Family Stone: “I wanna, I wanna take ya high-er!!” 🙂
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Ant-tastic!
A few weeks back on my work blog, I shared the intriguing work of Dr. Walter Tschinkel, a Florida “entomologist and myrmecologist” (i.e. bug-studier) who makes fascinating sculptures by pouring hot metal down anthills. The boys really enjoyed watching the video about his techniques:
Independently the guys have enjoyed being superheroes, giving themselves new names each day (“I’m Rain Man!” “I’m Bat-Saber, and I defend bats!”). I suppose it was inevitable that these worlds would collide. “My name is Dr. Ant Colony,” announced Finn the other day, “Y’know, like that Walter Tschinkel.” 🙂 He & Henry then began debating whether ants poop & pee.
Well, this being a small world, I asked the actual Walter Tschinkel! He was charmed to hear about his local fame, and he sent the boys a bunch of info & photos. “Adult ants only eat liquids,” he reports, “so their poop is kind of gooey and wet.” I’ll spare you the other gross (i.e. kid-delighting) details we learned.
Oh, and one more thing. A few days later, we had the following exchange:
Finn: “How are pipes made?”
Me: “Well, I suppose someone melts metal, then forms it into shapes.”
Finn (proudly): “You know who’d do that? Walter Tschinkel! He uses an old garbage can!”
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Froggy Double Shot!
I might adopt Audi-style nomenclature for Henry, dubbing him the “H3L” (as in, “Extra Long Edition”). His finally having breached the 3′ mark lets us at last enjoy things like Happy Hollow’s “Froggy Double Shot” (our mash-up of its real name, “The Frog Hopper,” with that of the enormous Beach Boardwalk “Double Shot”). Here our guys fly around with the little Wiggii:
Wow, talk about brilliant timing: No sooner did new rain boots arrive for the guys & Mom-O than we got our first really big rains of the year. So, are we going to let the weather keep us cooped up all weekend? Heck no! We suited up & got our splash on, with Finn taking particular interest in “dam breaking” (aka removing leaves from drains) with Mom-O. The guys enjoyed hearing about how Grandpa Nack had raced newspaper boats down the gutters of Galena, and they liked watching various “boats” (notable leaves) head for the drains. Check out a little gallery from this morning’s mayhem.
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Tranquility, with a side of puke
Oh man… It’s 12:47am the night (morning?) after who-knows-how-many days of little Henry doing his best impression of a two-ended Mt. Vesuvius. Actually it’s not quite that bad: it’s been just a few days, but having just scraped up another night’s load of barf from his bed, I’m a little spent (yet now too wired to sleep).
Earlier in the week Henry acquired a cute little panda we named Peter. As Hen sleeps on his big n’ beloved Panda Bear, he’s decided that Peter is Panda Bear’s kid, “and the Ollies are the moms.” Just now when I dashed into his room, I found that everyone had gotten pretty yucky. Hen was distraught: “I puked on Peter’s parents!!”
Ah, but that’s the thing of it: “When I puke it feels like not fun,” Henry said in the kitchen (as I scrubbed off the animals), and yet these little moments can have their charm. We love the lads so much, and we can bond through a little humor & enjoy pulling through the rough patches together. And now, having said that, let’s get past these bugs and get some sleep!
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Thanksgiving Leftovers
The Liggetts took off this morning after a nice weekend full of “sword” fights, tree-decorating, and Team TALB. Check it out.
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GrandpaCycle!
Finnster & Mr. L. enjoyed some most unusual “bicycling” (and more) this morning. Check out their antics below. (It kinda reminds me of “Grandpa vs. Dr. Chaos,” aka the far chubbier 1-year-old Finn.)
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Glovin’ from the Oven
Our scissors-wielding lads have been cutting up a storm—and cutting, and cutting, and cutting; they’re now well acquainted with the terms “confetti” and “sweeping.” I always worry that they’ll blind or stab someone, so we try to enforce smart scissors-handling, requiring the guys to carry them blades-down (or by the blades). I guess that wasn’t quite enough for Finn, though: the other day he popped onto the back porch, gripping his scissors in Mom-O’s oven mitt, as you can see here. “Dad-O!” he proudly announced, “Now I can run around with scissors!!” Well, something like that, son. 🙂
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Boastin’ some coastin’
At long last Henry has surpassed the all-important 36-inch mark. Why all-important? Because that’s when a guy gets eligible for a whole lot of rides!
Hen had been patiently waiting for his chance to ride the fancy Pacific Fruit Express Family Roller Coaster at Happy Hollow. Despite being a bit peevish in general, he’s always done well with this kind of mayhem. For example, when he was two we took the boys on the Monster Kool Bus, and Henry wrapped up the ride by saying, “I crying, ‘Do it again!'”
Today we found that Henry’s tall enough to ride the coaster with a grown-up, and Finn’s old enough to ride by himself. Let the wild coasting begin!
For comparison/retro fun, here’s how Finny handled his first ride some 18 months earlier:
- “Dad-O,” says Finn out of the blue, “I think New Yorkers speak a language called ‘New.'” Cue discussion of ‘fuhgeddaboudit,’ ‘badabing,’ etc.
- “Dad-O,” whispers an excitedly conspiratorial Finn, “when it’s just boys around, let’s say ‘buttcheeks,’—just not when Mom-O’s here.” (“Yeah, buttcheeks!!” adds Henry.)
- Half asleep on his feet, Henry uses the bathroom & says “Auf Wiedersehen, pee pee.” Endlessly surprising, these guys…
- “Dad-O, why is it a sewage treatment ‘plant’?” asks Finn. I explain that auto plants make autos, etc. “Oh,” he says, “so the sewage plant makes poop!”
- Homophonic fun with the big guy: “‘Dye’? Does it go into your clothes and make the grayness, like, die off?” Well yeah, kinda!
- Finn claims the sitter let them watch “Pee-pee-est Kids.” Took me a sec to decode: ah, “PBS Kids”!
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Found art with G-Man
Henry ambles past an unintended (?) dribble-painting in Oakland last Saturday:
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The New Western Canon
Finn’s recently taken an interest in “writing books,” his at-school technique of stapling together a few sheets of paper, then scribbling down some random marks. The other night he took me on a tour of his oeuvre:
“This one,” he said, pointing at a blob-covered set of sheets, “is called ‘Donde Estan Los Dots?’ And this one”—a bunch of lines—”is called ‘Donde Esta El Sharp Thing?’ And this one,” he said with great pride, pointing at yet more randomness, “is called ‘The Terrifying Pig That Split Me In Half With A Cross-Tie.'” I’ll admit, I did not see that last bit coming. 🙂
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The Hen Crows At Midnight
As I left my cab & ascended the stairs at 9pm tonight, I was shocked to see a little face peering out at me:
To my surprise, Henry didn’t come out to see me. I entered his room & found him behind the blinds, coolly maintaining his vigil.
“Hi, buddy. Er, what are you doing?”
“I’m just looking out my window. I’m watching some cats.”
“Oh, okay…”
“And some bikes. One went by before you got home.”
“Gotcha, gotcha… So, are you going to get some sleep at some point?”
“No, I already got some.”
Henry Nack: Keepin’ His Own Counsel Since 2009 🙂
