Author: The Nack Daddy

It bears repeating: Man, how great is the Internet? Mom-O is off in Hamburg, Germany, this week, and I woke this morning to a little travelogue she’d written to share with our guys:

After arriving at work, the entire team took a tour of the Hamburg harbor by boat. I think I might’ve seen Captain Salty [A Richard Scarry character –J.] on the dock getting ready to get on board and steer us around. We got to see bridges, huge cargo ships, cranes, and other vehicles moving cargo around. We also got to see several tugboats and barges making their way towards various piers. There was a huge cruise ship in drydock being repaired, and lots of little passenger ferry boats going back and forth across the harbor.

Best part: After the cruise, we walked over to a big round building with a dome that is the entrance to a car & pedestrian tunnel that goes under the harbor! The cars drive onto a special elevator that takes them down to the tunnel entrance, and then they drive through to the other side, onto another elevator that takes them back up to the surface. Pedestrians/bicyclists take a smaller elevator and walk on the sidewalk alongside the cars going through. It was very very cool.

Finn was enthralled, wanting me to repeat the story. Then he asked, “Can we see the tunnel?” I had no idea, as Margot hadn’t been carrying a camera, but after about 30 seconds searching YouTube, we got our own little tour:

How cool, right? When Finn sees the lady walk by, he says, “There goes Mom-O! I see some curly hair!”

Ooh–maybe I can use Google Earth to give the guys a tour of the Port of Hamburg. And a-Googling I go… [Update: Here it is!]

I know, I know: Soon enough, the lads will be really independent, to the point of wanting nothing to do with their lame parents. In the meantime, though, boy can they be clingy. Now when either of us (but particularly Dad-O) leaves the room, the dudes start wigging out a bit. If I even go around the corner for a moment, Finn starts asking “Where is Dad-O? Dad-O, where are you??”–while Henry starts yowling. This pair of photos puts the experience into a nutshell. First, here we have Henry:

Aaaand, here we are a moment later:

As Finny (and now Henry!) would say, “Oh Jeez!” ;-P

A somewhat encouraging little postscript, though: I took the guys out to eat at Aqui last night as Mom-O was out of town, and they actually stayed put (without fussing!) as I had to disappear around the corner a couple of times to grab our food, utensils, etc. Not bad in a crowded, noisy restaurant!

Hmm… it’s getting harder to pull the wool over Finn’s eyes. Last night he was poking at a little plastic locomotive he’d dug out of his closet–one that I predicted (correctly, it turns out) would make a horrible racket if armed with batteries. He’s been asking about the train for a few days (“Check out the little speaker, Dad-O! How does it work?”), and last night I tried to give him more run-around:

Dad-O: “Well, we’d need some batteries.”
Finn: “They’re in the drawer over there!”
D: “Oh, okay. Well, it looks like we also need a screwdriver…”
F: “There’s one in the closet in the kitchen!”
D: “Yeah, but I need a tiny one…”
F: “It is a tiny one!” [proceeds to prove it]
D: “Oh, uh… really?”
F: “I knew that! I know everything!”

…and modest, too! ;->

“Buffer ’em, Bert!”

Finn’s evidently been listening closely to his Thomas videos. According to Margot,

The other day he rolled Henry’s little shopping cart over to the wall and parked it, then rolled the little walking wagon over towards the shopping cart and said “I’m going to buffer up the wagon to the cart”, which he then proceeded to do. Once the cart and wagon were “buffered up” nicely, he started pushing the conjoined cart and wagon backwards towards the couch so they’d remain buffered until he was done moving them. Cute, huh?

I’m inclined to agree. 🙂