We had a blast taking the boys on the Leadville, Colorado, & Southern Railroad as it climbed high above the Arkansas River valley. Check out our visits to the engine, caboose, & more!
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Author: The Nack Daddy
From the Rocky Mountain Dept. of Wildlife:
- The Liggetts’ neighbor has a ratty wooden trailer hand-painted with the words “Green Wolf Recycling.” Whenever it’s missing we tell the boys that it’s off to pick up some cans. “Yeah, and some green wolves!” notes Finn.
- Years ago in Death Valley, a salty old guy with the voice of Sling Blade told us about bighorn sheep in the area. My friend, struggling to understand, asked, “Did you say, ‘Big Orange Sheep’?” As we see sheep-crossing signs in this area, we love to stay on the lookout for “big orange sheep”!
- With the boys having started Spanish immersion, we’ve been trying to imagine how their animal buddies Leo & Ollie would sound in Spanish. We’ve jokingly decided they’d say “El roar!” and “El hoo!” Patrick & Charlie got a kick out of this, but they really loved helping coin “El beaver!,” the “Spanish” utterance of their stuffed otter. Now imagine four little dudes running around and randomly yelling “El beaver!!,” totally cracking one another up. As Patrick says, “It’s laughing gas!”
Bonus animal bit: Today on the train Finn informed me out of the blue, “Dad-O, if a we had a monkey who liked chips, he’d be a chip-monk!” Right on, little guy. 🙂
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High-altitude happiness
After a smooth journey to Colorado, we arrived in Leadville on Sunday evening. The modes of conveyance have been hits: Finn was so jazzed that “We’re going to fly on a Boeing Constrictor!,” and both guys keep talking about “the rental car” that we’ve dubbed “the eep” (see photo for explanation). I was pretty concerned that the altitude here would ruin their sleep, but happily* I was the only one tossing and turning all night. I keep encouraging the boys to drink plenty of liquids, leading to Finn’s rather sickening mountain hydration plan: “I’ll drink some water [saliva] out of Leo [the lion blankie]’s tail!”
Monday featured Leadville’s charming little Fourth of July parade, followed by a tour of the fire station, free barbecue in an aircraft hangar (“Welcome to North America’s highest airport!”), and backyard s’mores. The cousins are playing together beautifully (so cool to see!), and I’ve captured a gallery showing the proceedings.
*It’s all relative, right?
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Happy July 4th!
Hi, everyone–greetings from 10,000ft (Leadville, CO). I’m typing fast as we’re scrambling around with the guys, having a ball checking out the Independence Day parade, the fire station, free chow at the tiny airport, and more. Despite Henry’s claims on the plane that “I freakin’ out! I like crying, Dad-O!,” both guys were mobile superstars. Here’s just a quick shot of Finny at the airport.
Okay, Henry is climbing the ottoman, preparing to stage dive onto my computer. Bye! 🙂
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James Bond Nano
“Nack… Hen Nack.” 🙂 (compare to the original)
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Monster Kool Bus!
To celebrate Finn & Henry’s first day of preschool, we grabbed burgers & headed to Lowe’s to check out play equipment. Little did we expect to see–and get to ride–the 13-foot-high, 19,000 pound Monster Kool Bus. It’s a 1956 school bus atop huge tires with 25-inch rims. Check out our wild ride!
You can see Finn start to beam, and amazingly the only upset was when Henry realized the ride was over. Now when he sees the video he says, “I crying, ‘Do it again!'”
Our in-bus video doesn’t give a complete sense of the crazy spinning sensation we got. Here’s another video (from a different location) taken by someone else:
We capped off the adventure by getting the each guy one little monster school bus toy. They’ve been popping wheelies ever since!
Oh, and parents, the bus will be at Lowe’s through July 6th, 2011 (weekdays 4-9pm, weekends 10am-9pm); 5 bucks per person.
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My Inner Child
Yesterday the Finnfatha & I tried a little “Freaky Friday”-style role reversal: as I tried to get him to nap a bit (okay, to let me nap, too), we decided that he was the dad-o & I was the kid. As I laid on the couch he relished bringing me blankets: “I’m putting them onto your chest & stuffing them under your chin, like a bib!” When he eventually laid down at the other end of the couch, he noticed that his “Looen” Leo was MIA.
“Kid!” he said. “Your looen is missing! I think he’s in the basement!” (meaning I’d need to get up and open the safety gate)
“Oh Dad-O,” I said in falsetto, “It’s okay. I don’t need my looen right now.”
“Yes you do, kid!” he insisted. “If you don’t have him you’ll cry and cry!”
Oh boy. So up I got, opened the gate, laid back down & shut my eyes. Soon, through the floor, I could hear Finn cackling to himself. Up the stairs he came, laughing all the way. As he came to the doorway he said, “Ki-iiiid, I have a surprise for yo-oou!!”
With my eyes still shut, and with some nervousness, I asked, “Um… is it a looen?”
“It’s NOT a looen,” he declared triumphantly, “It’s a DIPE!!” And running over, he placed a (thankfully unused!) diaper on my chest (and thankfully not elsewhere!).
[PS: As I was finishing this post, Henry spied me Googling for pictures of diapers. Now he’s convinced that this crazy diaper-helmet kid is Finny. “It’s *not* Finny!” protests his bro, to no avail. –J.]
Not to be left out, G-Man’s contributed some fun bits lately:
- Language:
- Henry has taken to answering yes-or-no questions (e.g. “Do you want a snack, yes or no?”) with “Yes or no!”
- Unfamiliar with shorts, Henry tugs desperately at his hems: “Close down… my pants!!”
- Henry greeted me rubbing his face: “Seagull… broke my eyeball.” And later: “I’m a goofy ball!” (meaning goofball).
- “Dad-O may you sit with you, Dad-O?” asks Henry. Quasi-palindromes from a tiny man.
- A toddler + the word “actually” = A parent-correcting bonanza. (“Watch out for the car, Henry,” I say. “*Jeep*, actually,” he replies.)
- Henry munches a brown M&M, eyeing the bag’s wooden shelf: “How bout… orange one? Cut it down… from the tree!” Â (We’ve consequently dubbed the shelf “The Tree.”)
- As I’m changing Henry’s diaper, he grabs my passport, shoves it between his toes, and says, “Readin’ the Dad-O book!”
- Henry sees me shirtless post-workout & runs screaming “No, no!” He later asks, “Dad-O go to Pilates?” Dang, boy, I can take a hint…
- Apple might describe the little guy’s slap-footed form of locomotion as “I Pad, Shuffle.”
We enjoy using Twitter to capture fun little bits involving the boys. We used to put tweets alongside the blog, but a few months ago we hit a technical glitch I haven’t been able to resolve. Therefore I thought I’d pull together some good recent bits from the Finnster (Henry to follow!).
- Meat-loving Finn, learning of Dirt Devil vacuums, reports, “I’m a Bacon Devil! I like to suck up bacon!!”
- I taught Finn about deodorant this morning. “Is it Dennis the Mennen?” he asks.
- Safety First: From his Cozy Coupe Finn announces, “I’m locking the door so no bad dudes named Henry get in!”
- Food:
- Finn’s turned “Edna St. Vincent Millay” into “Edna Wasabi Sushi Magoo.” #poetaster
- Beyonce perplexes Finn: “What are ‘Almond Single Ladies?'”
- Came across Finn dropping yellow & black sawhorse beams into toilet paper tubes. “I’m making a good soup of bananas & chocolate” he reports.
- We’ve somehow made a 3-year-old who loves, and asks for, “artisanal bread.” Oh my.
- Baseball:
- We’re at the SJ Giants game (Finn’s first ballgame!). “Are they part of They Might Be Giants?” he asks.
- A ballgame stunt involved chipping golf balls into a kiddie pool. Relaying this to Mom later Finn said “They were using a cat pool!” (“kiddie”->”kitty”)
- “I’m drawing you an American Eagle,” Finn reports. “Is the ‘FUselage’ where the FUel goes?” (Yes, my proto-plane nerd, yes!)
- Baño:
- Finn, with a fistful of pull-up, says, “Stay down, regular pants: I’ll pull you up in a minute.”
- He’s started using the epithet “You *shy bladder*!” to yell at things. (I’m already saving for therapy.)
- “This is a broken-down BMW,” announces Finn, disassembling a toy car. “Now it’s a BM!!”
- “Someone’s strummin’ on the old baño!” announces Finn. Fiddle-ee-i-oh!
- Casually filling a garbage bag with his belongings, Finn announces, “I like living in boxcars. I’m a hobo!”
- As Finn tucked my iPhone under his blanket tonight, I heard him whisper, “Shh, I love you…“
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Li’l Luchador
“I’m a big weirdo, Dad-O,” announces our caped crusader. Yes, son, and we couldn’t be happier about that. 🙂
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Finnegan Nack, Jedi Vocalist
Both guys have been singing up a storm these days. I’ll often hear Henry bust out fragments of the ABC song (“A B C D… play with me”–talk about concise!), and I’ll frequently catch Finn making weird little mash-ups (“Bob the Builder, done dirt cheap!!”).
Now Finn has, just like his nutty parents, started spicing up his dialog with little song fragments. Both boys love Fireman Sam, the theme song to which includes the line, “Keeps it cool & calm.” Yesterday as I chased Finn through his room threatening to gobble him up, he wheeled around, threw up his hands like a Jedi knight projecting the Force, and declared, “Keep it coooool & caaaalm!!” It was such a genuine little moment of laugh-panic, I was floored (literally) and haven’t stopped chuckling since.
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Target, Land of Enchantment
Boy, I guess we must go to Target more than I imagined: Henry’s lately started volunteering the opinion that things–anything!–could be gotten at that store. Reading some Richard Scarry tales the other day, he noted–in his halting, weirdly William Shatneresque way–“Dude’s hat… popping off… Got it… at Target.” And later, when Mommy Cat burned up Pa’s shirt with her iron, Hen suggested, “Get another one… at Target.”
Target execs, if you need a sub-3ft pitchman, you know where to reach us (presumably at Target!).
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Keepin’ cool with Goofy Magoo
Finn’s become quite adept at wielding a hose & ladle. The rest is wet, wet history:
(Incidentally, the video would make you think we’ve been enjoying warm weather, instead of endless unseasonable gloom. I mean, I do enjoy a good cashmere sweater, but I probably shouldn’t be able to wear it in CA in June!)
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Finnyvision
Last week I took Finny to the optometrist for his first eye exam. He didn’t seem to see so well when the nurse at the pediatrician’s office tested him, so they recommended that we see an eye doctor to get a full assessment.
I decided to take Finny to my eye doc, Dr. Feldman. My friend Tara took her twins there and said they did fine, and Dr. Feldman’s got 4 kids of his own, so I figured Finny would do well, too. I spent some time talking to Finny a few days in advance about why we were going, what he could expect, and why we needed to get the exam done. I told him about Dr. Feldman’s office, the fact that he’s my doctor too, and the sorts of things Dr. Feldman would be asking him to do (shining little lights in his eyes, making him look at shapes and letters, stuff like that.)
Once we were at the doctor’s office, Finny was very calm and composed. He followed all Dr. Feldman’s instructions, answered all his questions, and was even quite chatty with the doc. It was really cute to watch him in action–telling Dr. Feldman about the toy trucks he brought, the hat he was wearing, and what we might have for lunch after the exam.
We met Dad-o for lunch at the deli across the plaza from Dr. Feldman’s office, and while we waited, Finny and I debriefed on the whole experience. I asked him what he thought of the little flashlights, the computer, colors and shapes. Finny explained that his favorite part was, and I quote: Â “when Feldman asked me to pinch the little animals on the page.” (Which was a cool 3-D vision test to find out if his eyes are working well in tandem, complete with 3-D glasses!). I loved that he referred to the doc as “Feldman”, like they’ve played basketball together at the gym for years! Sometimes I swear he is 3 going on 30. (Happily, his eyesight is also fine, by the way.)
I also love that out of all the toys in the doctor’s post-exam “toybox”, Finny went straight for the goofy green groucho glasses. The kid’s got a real appreciation for prop-based comedy!
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Now bring us the friggy pudding…
What’s the old line about little pitchers…?
Somewhere (we have our theories where), Finn picked up the, ah, charming adjective “friggin’.” It’s hard to know quite how to react to his using what’s not a real curse word but not very polite, either. An example scene:
The boys & I walked to nearby Hummingbird Park for some post-dinner R&R the other evening, and Finn insisted on towing a small wagon laden with all kinds of toys. (Amazingly, and to his credit, he was careful & didn’t lose any.) At the park Henry grew naturally curious & made a move for the wagon.
“Hey!!” shouted Finn. “Dad-O, he’s going to grab my friggin’ wagon!”
Oh boy, I thought, not knowing whether to laugh or apply the brakes. Not wanting to make a stink (and maybe raise the word’s scandalous appeal), I ignored the language & calmly assured him that Henry wouldn’t take the wagon.
“Yeah,” said Finn,” but then he’s gonna grab my friggin’ police car, my friggin’ pirate ship, my friggin’ ice cream truck…”
Man oh man–what to friggin’ do? 😉
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Memorial Day BBQ
We had a ball celebrating Memorial Day with a ton of pals, both tall & small, in our backyard barbecue. Thanks to everyone who came, contributed food, and kept the little guys from singing their faces off on the grill! Here’s our little gallery. (Thanks to friends Tara & Tom for contributing some shots.)
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3 going on 13
How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child. — King Lear
“You know what I was thinking today?” asked Finn as we walked away from our first baseball game.
“Uh, what?” I asked, kind of taken aback. (I’d never heard him initiate that kind of question.)
“You say too much silly stuff, Dad-O. It’s a bunch of jibber jabber.”
Now I was really surprised. “Well, I’m just trying to be funny, bud. You don’t like it?”
“I like it,” Finn replied, trying to humor me, “but… it’s just not cool to listen to.”
And thus a very small fist landed in my solar plexus.
Later in the tub, I broached the issue again.
“You don’t like it when we joke around, Finny?”
“No,” he shook his head. “It’s just too nonsense-y.”
Now, I’m sure that anyone who has kids older than 3 will say that this is about the mildest rejection/rebuke one could experience at the hands of one’s child. Still, though, “the first cut is the deepest,” and it’s hard to hear of one’s uncoolness–especially from such a young guy!
Not to worry, though: Finn’s with me in the gazebo now, firing off streams of jibberish and proudly declaring, “That’s Spanish! I’m talking like a baby speaking Spanish!” There is no escape from the old man’s weird undertow. 🙂
From very early on Margot & I have noticed Henry being a weirdly strong little kid, giving powerful hugs & often trying to climb up things like sinks. Now he’s taken a shine to pulling wagons–often alongside Finn, but just as often containing Finn. One recent evening each one grabbed a wagon & hauled them all the way to the park (nearly half a mile away), and the other day Henry managed to pull Finn some chunk of that distance on his own. Check out the brawny man in action:
If you’re going to drive hundreds of miles with small children, then lie in bed for hours while one jumps excitedly on each of your outstretched arms… well, you could pick a far worse destination than redwood-rich Northern California.
Our trip up to Fortuna, CA saw us…
- stopping off to drive through the colossal Chandelier Tree
- picking up a toy ice cream & VW for the boys (“Like… Jose’s Beetle!” says Hen)
- stopping for lunch beside a monster truck school bus, where the guys climbed onto a forklift (“Driving Guido!” from Cars)
- losing the ice cream truck at a gas station (big freak-out!!)
- amazingly, finding the truck at the same station the next day!!*
- listening to Henry narrate the Avenue of the Giants (“Tree tipped over, Dad-O. Scooper [garbage] truck did it.”)
Without further ado, check out the gallery!
* Finn recounted the experience rather breathlessly to Mom-O: “I was just so excited about it, I couldn’t even give the truck a smooch!!”
We all had a ball cruising the Avenue of the Giants following Margot’s half marathon, just listening to Henry’s mind being blown as he tried to count redwoods: “3! 2! 6! 10!… 3!!” We’ll have more photos to share soon, but in the meantime, behold Margot’s surgical piloting of a large German car through an even larger redwood: