“Dad-O, I hope you make a lot of new friends at Google,” Henry told me every day my first week. I shall try indeed, my son. Meanwhile, here’s the little guy rocking the crazy propellerhead “Noogler” (as in, New Googler) beanie I was issued:
Bonus, via our neighbor Chris:
G-Man, as seen through Mom’s-Eye View at Target this afternoon. 🙂 (Amazingly he maintained his deep nap from car to cart.)
Is it still a conspiracy theory if you know they’re out to get you?
The boys have started to delight in (hilariously loudly) whispering little plots to one another, generally having to do with some pending attack on Dad-O or gambit to score forbidden treats. Here, after they’d twisted my arm into buying them some Taco Bell schlock, I overheard Finn whispering, “Hey Henry, let’s pour fiery sauce into Dad-O’s brain to make him go bananas!” In a similar vein they’ve taken to attacking my “six” (aka butt—”six” being fighter pilot shorthand for one’s six-o’clock position). Most amusingly, when I bust them (to their delight), they invariably claim, “Oh, we’re just talking about gummi bears & tasty snacks.” Snacks, my butt! 😉
Early morning scene: Mom-O & her eyeliner getting Finn suited up for Crazy Mustache Day at school. 🙂
🙂
Hey, there’s something to this temporary quasi-unemployment thing. 🙂
We had fun exploring the driftwood-laden New Brighton Beach (which we’d somehow missed all these years) with the boys’ preschool buddy Clark & his dad Alex a couple of weeks back. Here you can get a glimpse of them constructing a “Beach ranger station” and burying their amigo. 🙂
Beach ranger station:
“Dad-O, I’m making Henry into a superhero,” says Finn, attaching a garbage bag “cape” to his bro. “He’s Trash Man!” 🙂
A boy & his flyin’ lion.
🙂
What a day! Here’s our little chronicle of following Bixby Creek down to the sea, digging innumerable holes, frolicking with Bruce’s dog, and just generally cooling the heck out. 🙂
When Grandpa Liggett would pout as a boy, his parents would warn him, “Watch out, or [farmer neighbor] Nicholson’s cows will come sit on that lip!” I know few kids poutier than Henry, so the cows have quickly become a central piece of family lore. In the shot below I was teasing grumpy Henry at a bowling lane in Colorado, combining ball-as-cow imagery with memories of Jesus Quintana from The Big Lebowski. Enjoy. 🙂
Mr. Spielberg, you know where to call. 🙂
Not only is today Christmas Day, today is the day we publish our thousandth Micronaxx blog post! What?!? Wow! We can’t even believe we’ve cranked out so many posts about our boys in the past 5+ years, but we already know there will be many more posts to come.
We are having a wonderful, relaxing Christmas with the extended Liggett clan – Grandma and Grandpa Liggett, Laura (Liggett) Lingle and her family, we four Nacks, and the Lingle boys grandma Margaret Lingle. We arrived last night, just in time for stocking hanging, spreading reindeer food on the driveway, and reading ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas with Grandpa. After Santa visited, all the big people went to bed because we knew we’d be up early.
After a Christmas Eve sleepover at the Lingles, all four cousins were up and at ’em early this morning tearing through their stockings — oohing and aahing over new toys, stuffed animals, candy, and treats. By the time John and I arrived from our hotel at 8:30, they were raring to go on the big gifts. As you’ll see from the gallery, there were lots of gleeful smiles as the packages were opened — even from the adults!
Then we were off to the park across the street for a bit of running around in the bright Colorado sunshine in new hats and mittens, courtesy of Auntie Laura’s handiwork. The boys are now back inside, playing with their new toys and waiting for Christmas dinner to begin.
Lions and Owls and Cones Oh My!
This year, since we’re heading to Colorado for Christmas, we decided to let the boys open their “big” gifts a few days early. Finny continues to be obsessed with lions – so his gift was kind of easy. I was walking through Costco the other day and they had these enormous animal beanbag chairs, one of which was a lion. Done and DONE! I knew I’d regret it if I didn’t get him the chair because it is such a colossal feline.
As for Henry, his latest fascination (in addition to owls) is traffic cones. Whenever he sees them, he’s like a moth to a flame. He cannot walk by a construction site, or a playground with cones on it without stopping and moving the cones around in an effort to “block things off for safety.” John had the fantastic idea to buy Henry his own real, construction-and-traffic-control grade cones. I logged into Amazon, and wouldn’t you know it, they had many sizes, weights, and styles of cone to choose from. We knew Henry would go absolutely mental when he opened the cones, and as you can see from the gallery, he did not disappoint. He was also pretty pleased about the owl pajamas I made him, and is thrilled when bedtime rolls around and he can lounge in his owl peej before hitting the sack.
You know that moment near the end of a very long flight, where your plane is floating over the runway & you want nothing more for it just to touch down so you can get on with your life, and yet it seems to hover endlessly? That’s how putting the boys down for the night can feel: So close to relief, yet so far away.
Thus the other night I was right at the proverbial finish line, having deflected the boys back into bed for the last time, when Finn announced, “Wait, Dad-O! I have songs, with hand gestures!!” He was so excited to show off his moves for the upcoming holiday celebration at school, and though the timing of his reveal was pretty terrible, he put on a heck of a late-night, top-bunk show for Henry & me.
Here you can check out the whole class singing Christmas & Hanukkah songs in English & Spanish. Fair warning: It’s one of those stereotypically terrible parental videos, shot from the back of a crowded room in which one can barely see the kid. Look for Finn on the right-hand side right by the wall. (Full-screen viewing recommended. Hit the little button in the lower-right corner of the video, Mom & Dad. :-))
For a much more personal performance, check out Finn’s reenactment by our Christmas tree:
Finn has been keenly interested in learning more about sewing, after having witnessed me make his Halloween costumes the past couple of years. I told him that a man who sews things for a living is a seamster, and he’s now decided that he wants to be a seamster! He’d been begging me for a sewing lesson for about a week now. Unfortunately, my old sewing machine (which I’ve had since I was 17) bit the dust the other day as I was finishing up Henry’s Christmas PJ’s, so I couldn’t give Finny the “sewing lesson” he’d been asking for.
Luckily, Amazon saved the day with a screaming deal on a basic sewing machine and 2-day shipping. So tonight after dinner, I broke out the new machine and Finny and I sat down to sew. Even little Henry was interested and came over to watch, too. I showed them how to wind the bobbin, thread the machine, and pick different types of stitches. I showed them how the foot pedal works, how to pin fabric together and then how to sew. I made a little bag out of scrap fabric to show them how it all comes together, and they were super excited to see the finished result.
Then it was time to really deliver – after letting Finny wind the bobbin, I quickly stitched up a couple of little “disguises” for the boys’ new teddy bears out of felt scraps left over from Halloween. Of course, Finn’s got a lion disguise, and Henry’s got an owl disguise. Here’s little gallery of the evening’s proceedings.
Saturday night was unusually warm, making for a perfect outing to ride the little train in nearby Los Gatos. As has become something of a tradition (starting in 2010 at the Oakland Zoo, and continuing in Los Gatos a year later), our little friends Bettie & Quade joined us for the ride, this time with their little sister Juliette. Check out the action below, and in this little gallery of photos.
Last night the lads received a surprise pre-Christmas gift from the Geeps (Grandma and Grandpa Liggett): a popcorn ball decorating kit! They were extremely excited to check out all the various candies and frosting for decoration, and got right to work.
Hen, of course, snuck a couple of Tootsie rolls that were initially headed for his popcorn ball but detoured into his mouth. Finn was busily sticking Smarties, gumdrops, crackers, and candy corn onto his creation. We got in on the fun, too, and decorated our own. It was a blast and of course, the fun wouldn’t be complete without a few tastes of corn after the decorating was done. Here’s a little gallery of the corniness.
When life gives you small, highly animated, pre-6am lemons, you can try making this sort of lemonade. 🙂
For some reason the guys arose insanely early the other day, and Henry was inspired to build quite an elaborate setup for Thomas & friends. Here’s what we whipped up before school (and amazingly, it’s still standing today!).
