Author: The Nack Daddy

It’s getting really fun to see and hear Finn string concepts & words together. Lately he’s been enjoying watching our neighbor Steve building a treehouse for his boys in their back yard.
Finn narrates the goings-on in staccato bursts: “Steeb! Saw! *Cut*!” He got a little confused when I tried to explain that Steve is a daddy, too: Finn started patting my chest, reassuring me (and himself) by saying “Dad-o!” (In fact, we get into a nice little call & response flow, with me patting his chest and saying “Finny,” and him replying with some pats on “Dad-o.”)
There’s also been some confusion with Stevie, the blind and moronic dog that lives over our other neighbors’ fence. Stevie howls when we enter our back yard, giving Finn a chance to do his killer coyote impression. Things get funny when Finn confuses the two names: “Steebie! T(r)eehouse!” and “Steeb! Yawwowooo!” I enjoy the image of grown man Steve & blind dog Stevie howling & operating power tools together.

Finnegan Ascendant! The young guy is getting serious about climbing things, all on his own (if you’ll let him). Just today he completed the first-ever San Jose Invitational Bi-Level Traversal (i.e. he climbed all the stairs up from basement). At lunch outside, he learned to pull himself up onto curbs using an overhead railing, and afterwards he decided to inaugurate his toilet-scaling practice.
Hey, great ideas, Finny: I was just saying how bored we’d be with a new baby in the house; good thing you’ve added a whole new dimension to your mobility! 😉
PS–Later in the evening he started trying to climb our stepped tonsu chest. The kid is becoming the human fly!

“The system goes on-line August 4th, 1997. Human decisions are removed from strategic defense. Skynet begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 AM Eastern time, August 29th…” — Terminator 2

6:48 PM Pacific time, June 15th: “Binny!” — smiles — “Binny! Binny! Binny! Binny! Binny!!” — The Finnster, earlier this evening
Yep, our little guy is now (essentially) saying his own name–with extreme gusto. Fortunately, unlike the artificial villain in the Terminator series, he has yet to unleash nuclear war on us. 🙂

• Hughes: “So, has Finn wrapped his head around the whole ‘new baby’ thing?”
• Me: “Well, he very sweetly hugs Margot’s belly and says ‘baby,’ but I don’t know how much he gets it. It’s like him seeing the Corn Flakes box and saying ‘cock-a-doodle-doo.'”
• Hughes: “Yeah, if you pulled a live chicken out of there, he’d probably freak out!”

Big adventures this Memorial Day with Finny. FIrst up was brunch at the Pawligers’ house, and some quality playtime with their son Adam, and another little friend, Lazlo. All three piled into the backyard hammock for some R&R after chowtime. After Finn’s afternoon nap, we pit stopped for some frozen yogurt at the neighborhood yogurt hut, then we headed out to the Emma Prusch Farm Park.
The park is a city park not far from us. It used to be a working dairy farm, bequeathed to the city from the woman who owned it in the first half of the 20th century. We’d heard that there are all kinds of farm animals roaming around, a nice playground, and even a large vegetable garden and orchard. Needless to say, we thought Finn would love seeing and hearing the *real* animals that he sees in books.
As soon as we got out of the car we heard the “cock-a-doodle-doo” of roosters, which were wandering around the parking lot! Finn had a great time, and was fascinated by the chickens and goats. Here’s a little gallery (HTML) of our adventures from the day, including the roosters, goats, and Finn’s excited *squeeeeeezing* of some weird fruit from the orchard. We wrapped up the day with some sweeping in the backyard, and some goofando in the bathtub.

Okay, okay, I might be overselling it a little, but today Finn strung together words for the first time I’ve heard. His first sentence was (drumroll please)…

“No Coke.”
I tend to grab a can in the morning while getting milk for Finn’s AM bottle (with him riding shotgun on my hip), but this morning I struck out. I muttered something to that effect, to which Finn replied “No Coke.”
At lunchtime, he followed up with a second, more insistent pair of words:
“Mo’ Gok” (translation: “More Guac(amole)”)
I don’t know what I’ll do with it (new logo, maybe?), but I have to say I like the sound of “No Coke, Mo’ Gok.” 🙂

{{ We interrupt our regularly scheduled Finncast with breaking news about our own MLN }}

I’m delighted to report that the little guy and I now share a home with Margot L. Nack, Project Management Professional! Despite much squirrel-chasing and pregnancy-induced fatigue, Margot has been devoting many hours over the last few months to studying for this exam, and today she passed! This certification should be a great help when she returns to the job hunt after El Segundo arrives.
Way to go, hon!! We’re so proud of you.

Who’s a trendy baby, then? ;-P
I know, I know–I’m setting myself up for endless (and justified) teasing from Margot, Hughes, and probably everyone else, but I couldn’t resist setting up Finny (and El Segundo!) on Twitter. Now the boys have their own little stream called “Micronaxx”, and you can view updates right on this blog: look to the right on the main page.
We don’t intend A) to have Twitter replace the blog, or B) to ask anyone to do anything extra. Instead, it’s just a supplemental way to capture & share little bits of info. For example, we might be at the park and want to share a photo and/or little quip. Twitter makes it easy to compose a message on the phone, then upload it with or without a photo. Just look to the sidebar for these bits.
[Update: Hmm, it seems this service is a little flaky, and the list of messages from Twitter may not show up sometimes (when lots of people are trying to access the site). Hopefully it’ll show up more often than not.]

Clearly Dad was having a little fun with the ol’ Adobe products this weekend. Mom was on hand to art-direct. 🙂
Finn spontaneously performs this squeezing gesture every time he sees any kind of work truck (white pickups, box trucks, or just about any truck with a light on top). He knows they’re somehow related to trash cans (i.e. the things the garbage truck *squeeeezes* with its big gripper arm).
Apparently this morning I missed some big adventures with a backhoe, Bobcat, and jackhammers. Mom and Finn were on the scene. Childhood curiosity rocks!

Grandma Nack: Guffaws requested
West Coast Naxx: Guffaws *DELIVERED*!
Our little squire loves to romp around saying “NOK-a-DAH!,” aka “Knock you *Down*!”–and of course we’re only too happy to oblige. 😀