Our man Finno is a born wheelman–at least when it comes to holiday carnival rides. Little Henry has to put on some inches before joining in the action, but boy will he be ready when the time comes. The video below combines two rides–one at the Zoo Lights in Oakland, the other at the SJ winter festival. Enjoy!
Author: The Nack Daddy
Okay, I have to admit two things up front:
- One, this video could easily appear in a collection called “Portraits in Unwatchability” or “Experiments in Motion Sickness.”
- Two, despite all the spinning, not all that much really happens.
So, you can’t say you weren’t warned. 😉 The other night we took advantage of some (rare) clear weather & took the lads to San Jose’s Christmas in the Park, a little set of carnival rides & holiday displays. The guys remain too little for ferris wheel rides, giving Finn a chance to practice his “glower” face, but we had a good time on some carousels, “bumpy cars,” and the spinning ballon-car ride you see here. Hen was a cool customer as usual, and Finn did well until then end when, Margot reports, he remarked “I hope it’ll be stopping soon!”
“Neither rain nor cold nor gloom of night will stay these cherubic buddies from the swift enjoyment of their date with the zoo…”
After our first attempt got rained out a week earlier, on Sunday evening the Nack Pack rallied & met up with pals Bettie, Quade, and their folks Tara and Andy at the Oakland Zoo. Here you can see us enjoying the groovy nighttime zoo train, sighting a wallaby & a Macy’s-float-sized Henry face. 🙂
Our picture-taking time has been a bit limited lately, but we’ve gathered together some good odds & ends into a little gallery (HTML). And check out Finn making a literal “holy cow”!
Categories
A Crunk Car & its rider
Nice: Playing Gulliver to a pair of Lilliputians.
Nicer: Getting a smooch from one of them. 🙂
(A crunk car, by the way, is a little Dr. Seuss vehicle. Historic bonus: Finn riding on my back around the same age.)
Categories
Four-on-one: Dominic vs. Henry
At our little neighbor Charlotte’s birthday party on Saturday, Charlotte’s four-year-old little bro Dominic had fun romping around with Henry. Let the good-natured scaring begin! 🙂
Categories
Little guys & great heights
Our guys are working on sharing, and inevitably we hit some bumps in the road. Earlier today they were in the sandbox, and after filling up a bucket, Finn lifted it onto a flat spot on our grill–near head height for him. Henry made a beeline for it, and when I attempted to help him reach it, Finn said, “No! I put it up there so that little guys wouldn’t get it!”
Later in the day, Finn was playing with Margot’s curling iron–a practice she’s nixed as he’s liable to break something. I explained the situation, and thinking I’d cleverly reference the earlier bit, I said, “I’m putting the curling iron up high so that little guys can’t reach it.” Finn shot right back, “But I can reach it very easy!!”
Categories
Slow-Mo Basement Destruction!
Okay, little Knievels, time to smash, right about… hang on… wait for it… now!! 🙂
Like a good zombie, our Halloween pix just won’t stay buried. 🙂
We’ve uploaded just a handful of photos (HTML) plus a little video showing our trip to the huge pumpkin patch at nearby Uesugi Farms. Note Finnbeard trying to master how to “glower,” later turning Henry’s felt candy bucket into a makeshift fez.
Categories
The Areas of My Expertise
Just now in the basement, Finn asked me to tell the same story (about how Grandpa Liggett had sealed up the cat’s old escape hatch) again and again and again.
“I’m a little tired of talking, buddy,” I said. “How about you tell the story?”
“No, you have to do it. I’m not the storyteller!” he protested.
“But why not?” I asked.
“I’m not the expert!!”
Update: Later in the evening, he spied me getting set to push Henry around the basement in a little wagon & said, “Can I do it?? I’m the expert!”–before proceeding to bonk the little guy (gently) into a wall. Apparently expertise is a fairly vague concept. 😉
Categories
Geronimo!!
We’ve been hard at work upgrading our unfinished basement, with the goal of turning it into a super-fun rainy-day playground for the guys. We bought some big cardboard blocks that are good for building into towers and smashing into with a Big Wheel (or just a toddler running full-steam into them), and we’ve got all the Thomas train tracks set up.
The most exciting addition is the inflatable “Jump-O-Lene.” It’s a toddler-sized trampoline/bounce house/demolition derby ring where the guys can get their ya-yas out with gusto. To wit, the following video! Good times abound!
[The vid finishes with a duet of sorts between me and Finn, singing our custom version of Thin Lizzy’s “Jailbreak.” We sing about a “stroob (strawberry) break,” where in “The dad & Finn & little G-Man are gonna run around.” –J.]
Categories
Not entirely clear on the concept
Lately Finn’s been throwing around some more advanced words (e.g. out of the blue: “I’m not going to have a meltdown today”), and I’m kind of charmed when he doesn’t completely grasp the details. A couple of recent examples:
- “Safekeeping”: Finn likes to hide important objects (particularly Leo) in obscure, often dicey spots, ostensibly for “safekeeping.” Combinations of fragility & precariousness (right by the front door, etc.) are especially popular. “I’m putting your iPad in the sink for safekeeping, Dad-O!,” he proudly declares.
- “I wouldn’t mind…”: The little guy is so kind & patient as to “not mind” if you were to do just what he wants/asks. “I wouldn’t mind if you made me a bunch of bacon, Dad-O,” he says. What an accommodating fella. 😉
Categories
Paging Tiny Dr. Vandi
Finn-O & Mrs. Vandi from our dentist’s office have a long-distance mutual admiration thing going on. She gets a kick out of the blog, and for a long time he’s enjoyed pretending to go to Dr. Vandi’s office, bringing them sandwiches (bits of blue electrical tape), etc.
Recently we kicked things up a big notch, as Dr. & Mrs. V sent home a treasure trove of floss, toothbrushes, and–oh yeah–little surgical masks! Check out our aspiring dentist-in-training as he gives me a cleaning (“You’ve got some dirty teeth, Dad-O!”; thanks for noticing, bud ;-P) in this little gallery (HTML).
Categories
Random goings-on, Facebook edition
It’s sort of belatedly occurred to me that our parents, not being Facebook users, haven’t gotten to see the random “Mobile Ephemera” that we’ve been uploading on the go over the last year & change. So, Mom(s) and Dad(s), if you’re up for seeing some fun bits (everything from Finn modeling Mom-O’s boots to chubby-legged Henry meeting dinos at the doc’s), check this out. (You don’t need a password or anything.)
For our Facebook-enabled friends, as Gilda Radner would say, “Never mind.” 🙂
Categories
Animal hat
Heh–seeing this little cartoon, I had to think of G-Man:
The boy gets an endless kick out of putting progressively more enormous things (e.g. a new panda pillow that’s bigger than his torso) upon his head, looking at us with a smile, and proudly declaring simply, “Hat!” 🙂
Categories
Area Tot Achieves Nirvana
Detecting “the Fruit of the Tollhouse” on my breath this AM, a bear-laden Henry started saying, “Cookie, cookie!!” As Margot says, “Double-fisting with bears, eating a cookie, and being held by Dad-O: it’s like a little guy delight sandwich!”
Here’s our happy fella moments ago:
Categories
“Vaya con Leos”
With rainy weather setting in, we’re spending a lot more time in our semi-finished basement. Gazing up at various pipes yesterday, Finn asked, “Did Jason the Mason [a bricklaying pig from Richard Scarry’s world] build this house?”
“No,” I told him, “I think it was a bunch of Nicaraguan dudes.”
Finn paused for a second to think. “Did they drink the agua out of jars–pickle jars?”
“Uh, what do you mean, buddy?” I asked. “What jars?”
“Pickle-agua jars!”
I laughed my head off. Now Nicaragua will forever be the land of pickle agua, full of thirsty workmen slugging back jars of briny water. Maybe they’re big fans of “Delicious Pocket,” Finn’s phonetic rendering of neighborhood restaurant “Tlaquepaque.” And now that Henry has started imitating Finn & refers to his own Leo-style blankie as “Leo,” the Pickleaguans might with the boys a hearty “Vaya con Leos!” 😉
Categories
Beeeooooww… BeBot!
Both Finn and Henry are big fans of the iPhone/iPad app BeBot–a simple little synthesizer that shows a little robot pitching back and forth as you drag your finger around, causing him to “sing.” Henry has taken to carrying me the iPad while saying, “Bebop, Bebop!!” Anyway, this morning Finn decided to be the BeBot, requesting that we play his cheeks to make him whistle:
[Hat tip to fellow dad Matt Strauss for turning us on to BeBot in the first place]
Categories
Micronaxx Geographic
Apropos of nothing, our boys decided to experiment with a little techno-body modification on Saturday morning. (This is why Mom-O shouldn’t leave us alone together. :-))
Categories
Marley Gras
Want to get a team of toddlers eating out of the palm of your hand? (Figuratively, I mean; they’re all too willing to do it literally.) Get ’em some Mardi Gras beads!
Finn, and Henry in particular, were so enamored of little Harper Hogarty’s bead collection that I started calling him “Jacob Marley” after the chain-dragging ghost in A Christmas Carol. Check it out:
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to capture shots of the three tots running a racetrack pattern, with Finn popping out to startle the little ones (“Surprise!”) and Henry trying to keep up (“Prise!”). It was high-speed hilarity. [Photo courtesy of Harper’s dad, “Papa Hog” Tom]