Author: The Nack Daddy

We’re having big fun with Finno’s imagination these days:

• Lately he’s taken a shine to Richard Scarry’s What Do People Do All Day? At one point in the book, Farmer Alfalfa (a goat) deposits his money at the bank (run by a pig, naturally). Up in our bathroom last night, Finn spied some coins on top of the little dresser & started forcing them into a slot. “Finny goin’ to the bank!” he said. “Givin’ money to the pig!”
• Several months ago he accompanied Margot on a visit to her dentist, Dr. Vandi, where he was entertained by the kind Mrs. Vandi. In the basement today he spied a manilla office and said, “Dr. Vandi’s office!” From there we were off to the races, with Finn trucking back and forth: “Finny goin’ to see Dr. Vandi and Mrs. Vandi!” I’m pleased to report that Leo’s teeth got very clean. 🙂 “Thank you Dr. Vandi!”

Last year, Grandpa & Grandma Liggett gave us a great Advent calendar. It’s a large box containing numerous drawers, each containing a tiny ornament, a bit of story, and instructions to sing and/or a figure to the crèche. Finn’s really been enjoying the process this year, though he’s gotten a couple of wires crossed. This morning he was looking at a cast of Margot’s belly when it contained him:
“Mom-O tummy!” he declared.
“That’s right, Finny,” I said. “And who was in her tummy?”
“Baby!”
“Right–and who was the baby?”
“Goonie.”
“Uh-huh. And what other baby was in there?”
“Jesus!”
Oh my. 🙂 We sorted out the confusion, and now Finn’s back to talking about how he went “POP!” out of the tummy. Meanwhile, no word on whether he’s connected the dots in determining that the same Mary who appears atop the Golden Dome in his Notre Dame picture book is the same one that appears in the Nativity scene.

We’ve been a tad light on picture & video-taking lately, but there’ve been no end of little developments with our big(ger) guy. Random news from the Finn front:

• Language fun: Finn’s learning to conjugate verbs, adding “-ing” to the end of many (for example, “Finny achoo-ing!”). I’m especially fond of his onomatopoeia. He says, “Turn on the vaporizer. More ‘hwwwoo‘-ing!”
• In a similar vein, he’s learning to make things plural, adding “s” to the end. Unintentionally funny stuff often results as he lays it on a little thick–“Gobots-es,” “green beans-es,” etc.
• Birdman Sings The Hits: The little guy gleefully recites the bits of popular songs I sometimes warble to him. Current fun includes Usher’s “Yeah!” (Finny: “Yeah, yeah!… Rea-dy to go!”), Soundgarden’s “Spoonman” (“(S)’poonman… save me!”), Rick James’s “Cold Blooded” (“Dad-O cold blooded!”), and Fatboy Slim’s “Rockafella Skank” (“Funk soul brutha!!”).
• With a chill now in the air, our breath condenses visibly. Pointing to my mouth during yesterday’s AM garbage can run, Finn said, “(S)’moke! ‘Moke coming out!” He was a little too psyched out to try making his own.
• It seems that despite all our blogging, we’ve somehow neglected to talk about “The Meedgit House,” an innovation my dad used to apply to me–trapping a little kid by crossing one’s legs, then holding the kid prisoner while he delightedly tries to wriggle free. Finn took a shine to the idea right away, often trapping things in his own meedgit house (“Leo meedgit house! Squash!!”). Now Margot has added some Aztec flair, making “Meedgit Tacos.” The recipe consists of one (1) giant floor pillow and one (1) fast-moving lad. Delicious! 🙂
• Speaking of Mexican chow, Finn greeted me last night saying, “Horchata, horchata!” He’s kind of a sweet rice milk junkie, so we trundled off to grab drinks & tacos. En route, we talked about different animals and the noises they make. “Who makes bubbles, Finny?” I asked. “Fish,” he replied, then added, “Goonie!”

This morning, Laurie was talking about her young granddaughter Chloe learning to speak, saying that Chloe likes to say “Dog.” And just as Laurie finished saying “Dog…,” Finn jumped in with “…Goneit!!“ Rad. 🙂
Later, Margot and the big guy were eating some popcorn. “Mmm,” she said. Finn shouted, “Delicious corn!!” He’s up to eight cylinders–er, syllables–in a row. Right on, big guy.
In other news, Henry’s new leg-locking technology affords us the chance to do a little “Danger Management,” as we did with Finny. Videos and, I’m sure, chuckling hilarity to follow!

Heh–I got a kick out of this article from the satirical paper The Onion:

ATLANTA–A Zogby poll of 1,542 American grandparents published Monday found that grandsons were described as “very” to “extremely” talented by 1,542 of the respondents. “Participants in the poll were emphatic in their descriptions of the talents of grandsons in fields as diverse as advertising and sales, choral performance, baseball, talking, crawling, making their beds, video games, and instructing their elders on proper cell-phone use,” pollster Tom Waterton said… Sources at Zogby admitted that the survey was incomplete, as several hundred pollsters are still unable to get their assigned grandparents off the phone.

🙂

Finn is talking up a storm, but even we struggle to understand him some of the time. This plus his increasing grasp on useful little phrases led to a funny exchange the other day:

“Boo* book,” he said–possibly gesturing at a coloring pad–“Boo book!”
“Uh, boo book?” I asked with some hesitation.
“Uh Huuh” he chirped. But reading my hesitation, he added, “Might be.”
“Might be?,” I repeated.
“Uh huh,” he said. And then after a beat, “Maybe not…”
* Halloween has gotten him hooked on ghosts, and he loves his “Boo shirt,” saying boo (“Scare Mom-O!”), and even calling himself “BooMan.”