Who’s got four thumbs and loves their T-ball trophies? These guuuuuys. 🙂
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Category: Photos
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Bros Behold Lowe’s
Awesome parenting technique:
- Take dudes to In-n-Out Burger.
- Take their calorie-amped little bods to Lowe’s to burn off energy.
- Delight them by buying four bucks’ worth of “treats” (e.g. paint funnel, bucket).
Witness the results!
“Punch it, Dad-O!”
“Watch That Child”? I’d rather not. :-p
Portrait of Hannibal Lecter as a Young Man.
No tears in a bucket…
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School-sanctioned Mothers Day Goofiness
This is what happens when your first grader’s class invites moms to come in for a Mother’s Day breakfast & pictures. 🙂
Yesterday I sprung the guys a bit early from school so that they could enjoy Google’s spring carnival, an outing full of bouncy houses, carnival rides, and free food. In this little gallery you can see them going head-to-head on a bungee-cord race & sliding down the “Epic Journey,” plus Henry “defeating” my teammate Clement on the blow-up obstacle course.
Here’s a quick video of the shenanigans:
After the festivities, the guys swung by my office to visit their kid-app-making pals in the Imaginarium. Even though the kids’ lab was locked, Henry made an immediate bee line & squeezed in through a hole in the wall! Later he left a little message to Googlers: “Hola, nerds.” 🙂
The boys delighted in doing tons of reading with Grandma Nack during her visit last week, chewing through all of How to Eat Fried Worms plus big chunks of other books. Here’s a glimpse of them cackling at some Frog & Toad:
The boys & I recently had a ball attending Google’s Take Your Child To Work Day. I’ll hopefully have more photos to share soon, but in the meantime here’s a peek at Finn holding forth with some friends who were seeking his & Henry’s input on a new app for kids. I left a meeting expecting to find them quietly buried in Legos in the kids’ lab, but instead they were recording presentations in front of a whiteboard. Are they my boys or what? 🙂
[YouTube]
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When life gives you snow…
…make a snowman. That’s what our G-Man did during our snow-extended stay in Leadville. Special thanks go to Auntie Laura for furnishing the great snowman-decorating kit! I’m just a tad surprised that the boys didn’t fashion a gory snow-scene after enjoying similar ones in Calvin & Hobbes. 😛 Here’s a handful of pics.
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The Hen from Snowy River
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Vanilla Icicle
Frozen Finny rawks out with the giant icicles he pried from Leadville eaves:
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Today’s Tom Sawyer
Amidst our snowy explorations on Thursday, Margot & I took Henry out for a restorative donut. While chowing down he noticed a lady shoveling out front. Luckily I caught his expression of bonkers delight the moment I suggested that he could join her. (Here’s the tiny gallery.) Back on went the boots & out he went. I told the owner that like Tom Sawyer’s friends whitewashing his fence, Henry would likely pay her for the chore privilege!
As it happens the bakery sits adjacent to the town newspaper, and upon hearing our story (San Jose Shorty Slings Snow?), the editor said that she might find a way to feature Henry in print. Stay tuned for the late edition!
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Leadvillans 2015
We arrived in Leadville yesterday to find amazingly warm weather yet enough patches of snow to keep the guys constantly entertained. In this gallery you can see them drawing with Grandma, firing snowballs at me & Grandpa, enjoying some root beer floats, and horsing around in rusty old mining equipment (“I didn’t get lockjaw!!” declares Henry with great pride 🙂 ).
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The Cat in the Hat
Finn’s been reading up a storm lately, and the other day I heard him, Margot, and Henry cackling as he blazed through an out-loud reading of The Cat In The Hat. Naturally as soon as I tried to take a video he clammed up & they boys started clowning around, but I was able to capture a few shots of the proceedings.
I never quite got around to posting this footage last summer after we enjoyed a thrilling ride in a vintage powerboat own by our friend Pauline’s friend John. Now, courtesy of the video-making technology I’ve been working on at Google, here’s a brief peek at Micronaxx on the waves:
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Throwback Tuesday: Hearts Aflutter
From the days when El Finnster didn’t fight off a good smooch. 🙂
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Choco-boca
Glug glug glug glug. — Son #1 🙂
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Leprechaun Traps!
In advance of St. Paddy’s day today, the boys explained that they wanted to try and trap some leprechauns. This is not something John or I had done as kids, but apparently building leprechaun traps is a new practice for kids these days.
Finn explained how the traps were supposed to work, and we did some online research to see examples before we started building our own. Critical trap components include Lucky Charms, which Dad-O & Henry ran out to get, fake rainbows, clouds, and of course, the trap.  Finn and I stayed home during the bait run to devise cereal bowl and Lego-based traps. You’ll see in the gallery what we came up with – paper rainbow entrances with Lucky Charms and fake cotton ball “clouds” to lure the leprechauns into leaving gold at the end of each rainbow, before the cereal bowl trap fell onto them.
We set the traps out on the back steps before bedtime and listened for suspicious rustling on the back porch. John thinks he might’ve heard something but was too sleepy to go out and check. This morning, as soon as the boys awoke, the first words out of Henry’s mouth were:Â “Dad-O, could you shut off the burglar alarm so we can go out & see whether we captured any?”
Lo and behold, our traps worked! Well, partially… Although the little bootprints left at the scene indicated the leprechauns eventually escaped, they did leave a pile of gold coins (old Mexican pesos), and chocolate coins under each trap. The boys were ecstatic! Henry exclaimed “Now I know that leprechauns are REAL!”
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Ancient Hibernian Greetings
Erin Go Bragh, 2009-style! 🙂 (See previous St. Paddy’s images & videos.)
What happens when the Micronaxx take some Macronaxx to the Children’s Discovery Museum for some celebrations of the lunar new year? Why, a little trip through Saigon, of course. (More pics to come soon, I hope.)
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Hams by the Sea
Well someone is excited to visit the cliffs of Santa Cruz. 🙂
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Play Ball!
Yesterday marked the exciting first day of Little League season. We signed the boys up for T-ball this spring, to give them an opportunity to try something new, learn how to play a team sport, and do a lot of running around. Since neither guy has ever played ball before, we are starting with T-ball so they can learn the fundamentals without any pressure. They’ve been really excited about going to practice with their fellow Mets (inexplicably represented by the letter “B” and a cartoon bumblebee).
Prior to yesterday’s opening ceremony and first game, shown in this gallery, they’ve been learning base running, “base position”, catching, batting, and throwing. They’re both catching on pretty fast, and they are really enjoying themselves. Henry is actually pretty fast on his feet when he’s focused enough to remember to run! And Finn has a pretty good arm!
They had a blast yesterday, playing their first game against the Dragons, and are looking forward to Saturday match-ups with the Scrappers, Tin Caps, and Sea Dogs. We had an equally great time cheering on all the players and watching the constant tangle of outfielders, all trying to get the ball and throw it back to first base.
