Author: The Nack Daddy

Photos

Henry Hilarity

This weekend our pals Maria and Alex dropped by for a quick overnight visit, arriving in time to get an eyeful of our nature-boy elder son (“Finny a nudist!”) cavorting in the sprinkler. Having taught him to match my water-spitting ways means more chuckles–and more wet shirts–for me.

Meanwhile Henry was his chipper self, exploring (the very patient) Alex’s beard (“pull cord for service”?) before guffawing with Dad-O. Finn & Alex also disappeared for a bit to do some drawing, showing Maria’s Kansas City house being sucked up and (as he’d hope) carried to SF via tornado. Thanks largely to Maria, here’s a little gallery (HTML) of the hijinks.

Photos

“Sir, there appears to be a lion on your head…”

Post author By The Nack Daddy
Post date June 4, 2010
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Apropos of nothing… 🙂

Leo, Tom, and Finn on Memorial Day

Photos

Nackyard Party!

Just because we fail to plan ahead each Memorial Day does not mean we are planning to fail! It seems the official kickoff to summer always catches us by surprise, and we usually end up bemoaning the fact that we haven’t gone anywhere or planned anything exciting.

This year, however, we decided to celebrate Memorial Day in our own “Nackyard.” We invited a bunch of friends over for a barbeque and plenty of kid-based tomfoolery. It was a gorgeous afternoon, unbelievably welcome after the wettest spring in memory, so we got out the sprinkler mat, the swimsuits, hotdogs and hamburgers, and had a really good time.

Here’s a little gallery (HTML) of the proceedings–including pals Tom, Sarah, and Harper; Bruce, Mira, and Anya; Chris, Devorah, Dominic, and Charlotte; and our own intrepid ringleader Finny and his sidekick Henry (both sporting their new Harley Davidson shirts!).

Miscellaneous

A tiny little fish story

Finn is playgroup pals with twins Bettie & Quade, subjects of their own great baby blog. Their mom Tara reports that Quade was recently checking out a fish and referring to its “hand.” Tara pointed out that fish have fins. “And Henrys,” Quade prompted observed. 🙂

Photos Yosemite

Exploring Yosemite, Part 2

Without further ado, here’s our second installment (HTML) of Yosemite park photos. I hope the ghost of Ansel Adams will forgive my hammy black & white attempts!

In addition to the photos we took, we’re really eager to see some shots from the pro photographer Margot commissioned to snap some family portraits. She captured Henry exploring some flowers, plus Finn hanging out in his beloved “meedgit hole” (more on that later, maybe), Leo getting to know Patrick’s Pup, and more.

Photos Yosemite

Exploring Yosemite

“Not to denigrate your photography skills,” Margot said last week, “but it’s kinda hard to take a bad picture around here.” She’s right: Yosemite is ridiculously picturesque & I was snapping away like mad, just trying to take in the good stuff. Sure, every one of these sites has been documented six ways to Sunday–but not with the eyeball-melting cuteness of our little dudes in the foreground. 😉

Trying not to wear out anyone’s eyeballs, we’re breaking our shots into a few galleries & spreading them out a bit. Here’s one (HTML) we hope you enjoy. It depicts the crew shortly before & after getting doused at Bridalveil Falls; us visiting the “Dad-O Falls & Goonie Falls;” and Finn modeling his ubiquitous “acorn hat.”

Videos

Bedtime Berserker

Finn-O isn’t the only little Nack who flips out over changes to his sleeping setup: check out Henry making his crib a cackle-rich environment (with an obligatory pause for light inspection):

Videos Yosemite

“Goonie Falls”

One of the highlights of our visit to Yosemite this week was seeing all the tremendous, thundering waterfalls in Yosemite Valley. As we made our way to Yosemite Falls, which consists of the upper and lower falls, Finny proclaimed the upper falls “Dad-o Falls”, and the lower falls “Goonie Falls” since they were smaller than their parent falls up above. We all had a good chuckle at Finny’s observation and nomenclature while we walked through the mist coming off the falls.

Videos

Return of the Light Brigade

Post author By The Nack Daddy
Post date May 19, 2010
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We continue to have a ball here in Yosemite, where the weather has gone from cold/rainy to lovely to downright spectacular. While we work through a growing backlog of photos to share, here’s a video from last week. Henry is following in his brother’s footsteps, falling in love with light fixtures just as Finn did at this age. Here’s a little video of our electrical inspection/isometric shoulder workout regime:

Photos Yosemite

Greetings from Yosemite!

Today marks our first full day in the famous wilds of northern California, just a couple miles from the south entrance of Yosemite National Park. We are here celebrating my Mom and Dad’s (a.k.a. Grandma & Grampa Liggett!) 50th anniversary, so the whole Liggett clan is here–me, John and our boys; my sister Laura, her husband, and their two boys, and of course Mom and Dad. Finny and Henry were total champs on the car ride out from San Jose yesterday, alternately snoozing and happily chattering in their carseats.

Today was cold and rainy, but that didn’t stop us from having a really good time. This morning we took a ride on a steam train that was formerly used for logging, which was great fun. Finny was fascinated by the huge, steaming, chuffing engine and the wooden passenger cars we rode in. He sported his Thomas sweatshirt and his acorn hat–both very appropriate to our setting out here in the forest. Henry was happy to be snuggled into the sling and ended up dozing for about half the trip–periodically woken by the steam whistle on the engine. Check out the gallery (HTML).

This afternoon, after a cozy nap in front of the fireplace in our cottage, Finny and Dad-o headed towards the indoor pool at the main lodge for an afternoon of splashing. Henry and I hung out with my folks, sister, and her kids. Then Grampa Liggett, Henry and I sojourned to the grocery store to pick up provisions for dinner in the cottage with the fam.

Tomorrow we’re off to the park itself to ogle the giant sequoia trees, waterfalls, mountains, and other natural wonders. We can’t wait!

Videos

Tilting at Windmills

Some months ago, Finn started taking a real shine to windmills (“Make it turn-turn-turn!!”), even seeing them in any cross-shaped object (e.g. looking at the lights hanging above the Safeway produce stands, “That a bunch of windmills up there!”). Around the same time, Adobe HQ was being outfitted with a bank of new Windspire windmills. Finn has been eyeing them from the freeway, and on Friday the whole family got a chance to see them up close.

Fascinating as the windmills were, I like how Finn keeps his priorities straight at the end. 🙂

Miscellaneous

An eventful evening

Henry can officially sit up! With Mom-O at the store, Finn & I put the little guy down for the evening–or so we thought. He fussed pretty hard, and while Finny & I watched via the “Gooniecam,” the wee man sat up (twice) in his crib. Way to go, buddy!

Putting a pair of sippy cups at the end of his bed tonight, Finn dubbed them “Cousins! That one Patrick & that one Charlie! Patrick the leche. Gotta drink some of that Patrick… now drink some Charlie (agua).”

For the first time I noticed Henry helping to get his shirt on and off. Not to be outdone, Finn grabbed Henry’s discarded shirt and put it over his head unaided. After we squeezed him into it fully, he kicked up the insanity by donning my used black dress socks–thus pairing a crop-top doggie tee with knee-high leggings. As Finn might say, “That a weird lookin’ boy right there!”

Photos

The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Dad-O

Post author By The Nack Daddy
Post date May 12, 2010
3 Comments on The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Dad-O

After foregoing all work travel for more than a year, I got back in the saddle last week, flying off to Seattle with fellow dad-o “Hoot.” The Finnfatha took my absence in stride, but I like this slightly wistful shot of him amidst my travel paraphernalia:

Milestones

Henry 2.0

“Where is the G-Man and what have you done with him??” –J.

John was up in Seattle for a few days this week, and upon spending some time with Henry when he returned, he asked me whether I’d swapped Henry out for a new model! Our littlest dude has undergone some major internal and external development this week. Even I noticed it. He’s much more tuned in to what’s going on around him, he smiles more readily, he’s getting really absorbed in the toys he’s playing with, and even his face looks different…older and more like a little boy than a baby. Oh, and he’s babbling a lot more! He definitely knows who “da da” is, and I swear he tried saying “banana” tonight as I was feeding him one. He said “na na” a couple of times as I was talking to him about it.

These are truly welcome changes. He went through a really rough phase for the past couple months–very clingy and fussy and averse to changes in his environment. But happily, those days are over and he’s really quite a pleasure to be around and to observe. He saw his brother making “fish lips” the other day at the dinner table and made them right back! He also seems to understand when something is silly and laughs right along with the rest of us. And his demeanor, which is far calmer than it was before, is fantastic. It’s just so nice to see him fiddling with toys and keeping himself contented with far less intervention necessary from Mom-o and Dad-o.

Oh, and last but not least, today was the first day that Henry has not tried to eat the book I’m trying to read him–he was actually interested in looking at and turning the pages himself!

Photos

American Crawler

These days Henry’s activities are less locomotion, more frustration–but boy, the little guy is trying hard. He’s kind of at odds & ends all the time, not yet having figured out how to crawl, not content to sit still, and not able to stand unaided. He bobs and weaves like crazy, often tipping onto his face (with a predictable reaction). I snapped a few pics (HTML) of him working like mad to get that butt up in the air. Soon enough, I’m sure, we’ll be chasing both dudes.

Bonus photo: Henry was chanting “CoCoCoCo!”–right up until I started trying to record him with my phone, naturally.

Videos

Swingin’ for Leo

In addition to taking some great pix during their visit, our friend Adolfo captured a video of me plus our three boys in the park. Note Finn & Henry’s subtle but impassioned battle for control of the lion-buddy. 🙂

Audio Clips

“Gahweetawings & Salutations”

Post author By The Nack Daddy
Post date April 29, 2010
2 Comments on “Gahweetawings & Salutations”

Our local “Finnish dialect” is evolving, with our big guy getting better able to pronounce things–not to mention more apt to deliberately contort them. (“Lion” is “Looen” this week. (“What’s that looen doin’??”) Here’s the Finnster from a few weeks ago:
[audio:http://www.jnack.com/micronaxx/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Gahweetawings.mp3|titles=Gahweetawings]

And here he is talking earlier this week:
[audio:http://www.jnack.com/micronaxx/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Greetings-Salutations.mp3|titles=Greetings & Salutations]

Off to practice “Constantinople & Timbuktu” (from Hop on Pop),
J.

Miscellaneous

Dept. of Corrections

Finn has taken to “correcting” my pronunciations of various words, carefully and patiently sounding them out so I can hear the “right” way. Examples:

I say “Carousel;” he says “CARROT-sell!”
I say “Lanterns;” he says “LAMP-turns!”

More as Dad-O’s education proceeds. 😉

Haircuts Photos

Happy Haircut Henry

Yesterday all the Nack boys big and small took a trip to “Tom the Barber” for haircuts. It was Henry’s first trim, and he dealt pretty well with all the strange new sensations while sitting in Dad-o’s lap. Finn was an old pro, seeming very relaxed and self-assured as Tom gave his locks a much-needed chippity-chop. Here is a fun little gallery of the proceedings. Dad-o was the last to go, and since Tom had to run his kid’s baseball glove to him at Little League, Dad-o got trimmed up by Tom’s brother while Mom-o and the guys headed home for some lunch.

All three dudes look neat, clean, and handsome as ever. We even got a little “First Haircut” certificate and keepsake lock of Henry’s hair to take with us.

Miscellaneous

Solo with the Sea-Moose

Dateline San Jose: I’m pleased to report that Dad-O and the boys remain alive and well during our first Mom-free weekend!

Yesterday we took Margot to the airport so that she could join her pals in Seattle for a jazz fest & some good times. Finn is convinced she’s off to see “Pilates ladies” plus “Hip Cat and Minnie,” jazz-loving characters from one of his books.

The passage of time was helped immeasurably by the presence of our pals Adolfo, Romina, and 18-month-old Bruno, visiting from Buenos Aires. The weather being perfect, we enjoyed a park picnic with “Meat Hut” sandwiches and later a trip to our favorite pizza place. Bruno was bowled over by all the Thomas paraphernalia at our house, the park, and Target, waving like a little madman at the trains. He dubbed Finn’s chocolate milk bottle “Coca (Cola),” so Finn & I have been playing “Coca, coca!” for the last 24 hours. The three boys even got special fireman sticker-badges from the crew who backed their big red rig up to the sandwich shop.

Adolfo & Romina are the South American Margot & me when it comes to playing with words, and they always refer to Henry as “Henry Seamus”–though not knowing Irish pronunciations (how would they?), they’ve been pronouncing the latter “Sea-Moose.” Conjures up quite a visual, doesn’t it? And when I I told them that “Seamus” means “James,” they had big fun dubbing the little guy “Enrique Jaime,” saying the name makes him a shoo-in to star on a Mexican telenovela. 🙂

In any case, the boys are just stirring from their naps, and Margot should be touching down in a few hours. We can’t wait to see & share all the photos Adolfo snapped.