Author: The Notorious M.O.M.

When I greet Finny in the morning, I usually ask him something like “How was your night, did you have good sleep?” or “Did you have sweet dreams?”. Sometimes the answer is “Yes, hi Mom-o,” but lately the answer has been “No. It was a baaaaad night,” which is accompanied with a twinkle in Finny’s eye. Then we launch into the following routine:

M: “A bad night, huh? What happened?”
F: “Leo…broke the ceiling again!”
M: “Broke the ceiling?! Oh my goodness! That sounds horrible! What did he do?”
F: “Well he climbed up there, and started hammering the ceiling until it was all broken. I think he had a jackhammer. He broke it into big pieces, and then he threw the pieces in the garbage.”
M: “Wow! But now it’s all fixed! Did he do that, too? Did it keep you awake, all that noise?”
F: “Yeah. It was really noisy. But I helped him fix it and then we went back to sleep [pronounced “sweep”].”

Don’t ask me how we got started on that tangent, because I don’t remember, but clearly it’s something that’s stuck with Finny. He gets a real kick out of bringing it up and riffing on it. We haven’t specifically discussed how Leo gets up there, but I’m guessing jetpack. And it’s always fun to make up stories where Leo is up to mischievous activities. Now that it’s become a regular story, we like to add our own embellishments (which he loves) like “oh yeah, I thought I saw Leo’s head poking up through the floor last night” (our bedroom is right above Finny’s).

[For my part, Finn greeted me after yesterday’s nap by announcing, “I’m a little crossing bell at a train track,” of the sort that swing back and forth. Off to look for his shoes, he noted, “I have to get my dirt”–because in what else would a crossing bell be anchored? –J.]

A few days ago, morning snack-time hit while John was minding the boys (I was marooned upstairs with the stomach flu). He asked Finny what he’d like for a snack, and Finny replied “Cinnamon toast!”, which is currently one of his favorites (much like his Grandpa Liggett). The nanny and I make it for him quite frequently so he’s seen the procedure many times, but John, a self-proclaimed non-cook, was a bit stumped.

Lucky Dad-o has a tiny coach was who was able to talk him through it. He explained to Dad-o that “First you put the bread in the toaster, then when it comes out you put the cinnamon and butter on it, cut it up, and give it to us!” I believe he even helped Dad-o locate the container of cinnamon sugar in the cabinet. Thankfully Dad-o knew that the butter had to go on first, then the sprinkles of cinnamon sugar. I don’t know if Finny and Dad-o discussed the pros and cons of cutting the toast into triangles or squares, as we usually do, but I do know that the toast was summarily inhaled by both Henry and Finny. As Finny might say, “Good job, Dad-o! You get a sticker, a star, and a treat!” (Rewards-based motivational training can be applied to parents!)

Tonight it was my turn to be the recipient of a spontaneous, unexpected love-bomb shower from Finny. We’d just done our story and were lying in bed (at his request) for a few minutes to do “talk a little bit.” All of a sudden he reached over, gave me a big hug around the neck and said “I love you so much, Toad!” (Toad is one of the characters in the Thomas vids). He continued, “I really really love you a lot” and then proceeded to snuggle up and lay on the smooches and more hugs. Yowza! Talk about a terrific feeling. Rainbows and shooting stars! I of course returned all that affection with even more hugs and smooches, and then bid him sweet dreams. I think my dreams will be pretty sweet, too.

The constant brotherly grappling over toys has officially begun. Now that Henry’s mobile, more coordinated, and can talk a little bit, he is making the most of these new skills by trying to wrestle toys away from his big bro, or destroying Finny’s works-in-progress. To wit, every time Finny’s building something with his legos, or putting together a puzzle, Henry’s right there in Demolition Man mode, doing his best to tear everything apart. To his credit, Finny gives as good as he gets. Clearly Finny’s far too old for Henry’s “baby” toys, and tends to take over the button-pressing, horn honking, shaking, and stacking that G-Man’s still trying to coordinate.

So we’ve got big bro steamrolling little bro, and little bro destroying big bro’s creations. Then the whining and grabbing kick in. But not for long–luckily they’re both fairly receptive to parental intervention and the idea of waiting turns and/or sharing. The one thing they both agree on is looking at books together and watching Wallace and Gromit shorts on the iPad. Honestly, though, the boys tend to play very well together, and usually Henry’s off doing something on his own without a lot of pestering from Finny. We both enjoy watching them hang out and enjoy each other’s company.

Henry hit the 15-month mark on Saturday, which he celebrated by smearing chocolate chip cookies all over his face. Not to worry, though, he ingested plenty of chocolate, too. (Like father like son :D)

We went to visit Dr. S. this morning for his 15-month checkup, and here are the stats: 26 lbs. 3 oz, 31.5 inches tall, 49 cm. head circumference. In a nutshell, he’s a bit on the short side, but he’s holding his own when it comes to his weight (to wit, the aforementioned cookies) and cranium size! The doc was impressed with both his mobility and his chattiness. We estimate that the G-man’s got about 50 words under his belt, which wowed the doctor. I think she may have forgotten how many words Finny had at the same age! She got to hear him talking about his two favorite things: buses (a toy we brought) and doggies, which is what Henry was calling the dinosaur wall decals.

He was a total champ when it came to his vaccinations and only squawked for a couple seconds afterwards. He’s not a huge fan of being poked and prodded by the doc, but cooled out once I held him in my lap so while she listened with the stethoscope and looked into his ears.

Our little Henry is growing and changing so fast these days! John and I have been talking about how he’s entering the “Henry 2.0” phase–walking, talking, playing independently, goofing around with his brother, and sporting quite a little personality. He’s really coming into his own, and we couldn’t be more thrilled.

Verbally, G-man is learning to say a few new words a day. Recently he’s added the following to his growing vocabulary: cheese, gato, milk, agua, “do that”, this, brother, shoes, nose, toes, doggie, block, and  “toot toot”. He’s also getting quite comfortable ambling about the house on his own, and we often find him busying himself with his toys, or tours of the pantry, or a quick stroll behind the living room bookshelf. He’s working on his fork- and spoon-handling skills, too. These days we need a fork for Henry to wield and “practice” with while one of us feeds him with another fork.

He loves to do “turtleando” with his brother on the big bed. (This entails pointing to the turtle on the wall hanging and then getting tossed around on the bed by Dad-o while laughing hysterically.) He’s also started taking to several of his books and pays rapt attention while we read, especially if there are sound effects involved! He’s a big fan of fire engines and trains, and loves to say “oo oo ooh!” when he sees the monkey in his peek-a-boo book.  All in all he’s becoming lots more fun and interesting to be around, and Finny seems to be enjoying his little bro a lot more now that he’s more interactive.

[As Henry’s mind develops, Finn is starting to discover the fun of messing with it. He gets a kick out of Henry calling any & every vehicle “bus,” so yesterday he started pointing at various cars and saying absurd things like, “That’s a yellow bus, Goonie! That one’s a green teddy bear!” My boy. 🙂 –J.]

…thank God A’mighty our lower backs are free at last! Henry Seamus Nack broke free last Friday and started walking around on his own! No more (ok, well, significantly less) stooping over and trailing him while he pulls us along. In prior weeks he’d been taking a few steps at a time, but nothing worth calling walking.

We are thrilled that he’s finally independently mobile, but our little G-Man doesn’t fully trust it yet. He still spends quite a bit of time grasping one of our fingers for assurance while he tools around. Here’s a little shot of our littlest man-on-the-go!

Edgar and Victor were brothers who grew up on Bear Island, which was in the middle of the sea. Bears like to eat fish, and their island was surrounded by delicious fish, which they would eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  One day, while they were out fishing in their little boat, pulling in one fish after another, they both looked up and noticed a big ship on the horizon. “Wow!” said Edgar, “I’ve never seen a boat that big before. And look, it has a big black flag flying from the top of the mast.” “I think that means it’s a pirate ship, Edgar,” said Victor. “We ought to be careful.” But Edgar was such a nice bear, he thought that if the big ship was full of other bears they hadn’t met, they should row their boat over, say hello, and tell the bears where to find the best fishing. Victor agreed, because all bears were friends, and they wouldn’t want a big ship full of bears going hungry if they didn’t help them out.

So, they rowed their little boat over to the big ship. They looked up, and they looked down, and when they looked up again, they saw Pirates(!) on the deck of the ship! The pirates said “Why hello little bears! What fine fish you have. We’re going to steal your boat and your fish, and you’re going to tell us where to find more of them so we can sell the fish for lots of money!”

“Oh no!” cried Victor and Edgar, as two big hooks were lowered from the pirate ship and hooked onto their boat, which was then lifted up up up and over onto the deck of the ship. Edgar and Victor wouldn’t tell the pirates where they found the fish, and that made the pirates mad. They said “we’re going to lock you up in a little room until you tell us where we can find more fish!” But the brothers still wouldn’t tell, and were locked away. Meanwhile, the ship was pulling into the Hamburg harbor because the pirates needed to sell the stolen fish. The bears saw that the ship was pulling into a pier, and slowing down, so they decided to escape. They found a black pirate shirt and used it as a disguise. They hid under the shirt and snuck off the ship unnoticed, because no one would expect to see a pirate shirt escaping from a big ship.

Once they reached the pier and peeked out from their disguise, they noticed that they were standing right next to Mom-o! She looked down and said “Hey, guys, what are you doing?” They told her their story, and said they had no idea how to get back to Bear Island since they were so far from home. They said they were looking for a nice family to take care of them and be their friends. Mom-o was so thrilled, she told them that she had two boys, Henry and Finny, who would love to be their friends and feed them as much fish as they liked. She carefully put them (and the pirate shirt) into two nice, big, comfy cardboard boxes so they could travel safely back with her on the plane.

Author’s note: The dark brown bear is Edgar, and the lighter one is Victor. The pirate shirt is the symbol of one of Hamburg’s football (soccer) teams, St. Pauli. On the flight home from Germany I worked long and hard to come up with a good story about how the Steiff bears and the shirt made their way  home with me, and when I presented the boys with their presents, I spun the tale of the bears to a rapt Finny, who has made me recount it over and over to him while he clutches Edgar.