Well, we’ve had no real news from our little amigo-to-be, but Margot went in for acupuncture today, hoping to get the show on the road. Apparently this approach worked for our friend Alex, and Margot reports getting a few good kicks during the goings on. Largely, though, the wait continues.
Meanwhile, Finny and I found some “baby fruit” during a walk through the neighbors’ yard. We took home one “little guy” plus one “little bitty guy,” both of which you can see us holding (HTML). We look forward to introducing our little guy to our little bitty guy soon enough!
Well, our nation’s birthday came and went without becoming El Segundo’s birthday, so we can’t report any fireworks on that front. We did have a lovely day with the Finnster, however, including:
Here’s our little gallery (HTML) from the day.
July 2, 2009: Finn turns 16 months old! Hard to believe, and even harder to believe that El Segundo’s arrival could be any day now. We keep waiting for “Gundo” and he keeps teasing me with phony contractions, but has made no definitive moves towards his big entrance.
Meanwhile, Finny keeps picking up new words every day. New ones include “handle”, “eagle”, “hanger”, “ice”, “antenna”, and “Beetle” (re: our neighbor’s vintage VW bug). He’s decided he likes watermelon, and he tried a dill pickle today and surprisingly, liked it a great deal. He really hammed it up when he made his “pickle face,” but kept on asking for more!
Yesterday, Finn went on a bender about “BrokenHam!”, careening around saying it over and over, and cracking up in the process. He and Dad would take turns shouting “BrokenHam!” and giggling. Turns out, he was referring to Dr. Seuss’s Green Eggs and Ham, which he’s been enjoying. How it became broken, I do not know, but it’s hilarious nonetheless.
The sprinkler and garden hose antics continue. Finn has gone through a couple outfits per day due to his interest in the garden hose and the new spray nozzle we got for it. He basically points it at his face and tries to get a drink from it, so you can imagine how quickly he gets soaked from head to toe. He’s also taken to hosing down the Cozy Coupe–gotta keep your ride clean, man!
Here’s a little compendium of photos (HTML) from the past week or two–including piggy-back rides, attempts at jumping, visits from friends, and neighborhood expeditions.
Man, those swim lessons may have deeply affected young Finny, turning him into a true water lover. This morning he started crowing about “Hose, hose!,” so I obligingly turned on the tap–with predictable results. I didn’t anticipate the sheer volume of water he ingested, but at play group a couple of hours later, it all came back to me, so to speak. 😉
In any case, here’s the aqua-man in action (HTML), including a few weekend sprinkler photos. As you can see, Dad-o wasn’t shy about getting in on the action, and Mom-o was a quick pro with the camera.
It is outrageously hot here this weekend–97 degrees yesterday afternoon, and we are expected to hit 101 today. Making it bearable is our shady backyard plus the fun fishy sprinkler mat that Finn’s Liggett grandparents bought for him. We set it up yesterday, got Finn into his swimtrunks, and let the splashing commence! As you can see (HTML), a good time was had by all, and the cool water had us all feeling a little less oppressed in the hot afternoon.
Lately the Squirrelmaster has gotten quite mobile in the tub (kind of a nervewracking development). His latest trick is to flop onto his belly & then to face-plant into the suds (“Bubbo!”). He pops up gasping and grinning like a madman. 🙂 Here are some shots I captured (HTML) of the proceedings.
Lately the Finn-man has gotten waaay into playing hide and seek with us. Well, it’s a very simple form of the game: he takes one of us firmly by the hand, leads us to a spot, and then deposits us there, sometimes commanding “Down!” From there he’s off to the races, disappearing around a corner or the end of the car, only to come back moment later and shout “Boo!”
I find his commitment to the craft hilarious. He’s very clear about walking me to the end of the car in particular, then dropping me off–and getting a little miffed if I stray from my post! I mean, does Dad think this is child’s play or what??
Naturally photos are hard to come by during the goings-on, but I managed to snap a handful with my phone during a weekend garage session. Here they are (HTML).
Yesterday we returned to the farm park for our Sunday adventure. Finn wore his chicken shirt in order to more fully bond with the wandering fowl. We even packed a picnic lunch with chicken in it (a little weird if you think too long about it), so between lunch, the shirt, and the actual chickens, there was lots of “bok bok bok”ing and “dok-a-dah!” (cock-a-doodle-doo!) from the Squirrel.
Here’s a little gallery (HTML) of our afternoon. We visited the billy goats and cows, too, so they didn’t feel left out.
[PS–During the livestock feeding, Finnster loved talking about the cow’s “beak!” Apparently goats also feature beaks. (I was really glad Barbra Streisand didn’t walk by just then.) –J.]
“Ga-TO!” 🙂
Our neighbors’ cat d’Artagnan (aka Tuxstein, Tuxy, or just “you fat dumpling”) has been a good sport lately as Finny becomes more comfortable petting creatures, ascending the neighbors’ steps, and generally exploring the world. More pix to follow.
We’ve fallen a bit behind in sharing some photos of the fam in action, so I’ve rounded up a gallery (HTML) of miscellaneous Finndustry. The gallery includes:
Our little fighter had his 15-month check-up today with Dr. S. Once again, he blows away the competition and has gone through quite a growth spurt, to boot! He is 33 inches tall, weighs 28 lbs 12 oz, and his head is 48cm around. He clocks in at the 90-95th percentile on all counts.
Dr. S was astounded when I told her how many words Finn can say (we’ve counted about 75) and that he can even understand abstract concepts (for instance, he says “Leo!” when we’re trying to be sneaky and say “his buddy” or “Finn’s little pal”). She says that for boys, the average at 15 months is more like 15 words! Unfortunately he was dozey and not too talkative during our appointment, so she didn’t get a sampling of his skills. She did, however, get to meet Leo :-).
While we were waiting for the nurse to come in with the vaccination shots, I started whistling little tunes to keep Finny entertained, which he really enjoyed. As soon as I would stop he’d look up at me, pucker up, and start blowing through his lips to get me to start going again! (A mom can only sing the short lyrics to “Pony Boy” so many times…so whistling is a good alternative, and fascinating for Finn.)
Last night we had a little impromptu taco night with our pals Tom & Sarah, their daughter Harper (11 weeks), Huez* & Alex, and their son Miles (3.5 mos). Here is a little gallery (HTML) of shots from the evening, starting with the touchdown of the cute tots in our backyard. Finn was mad for guacamole and chips, so many thanks to Alex for letting us keep the leftovers!
* Pronounced by Finn as “Oot!”
The squirrel-man and his buddy Leo are a pretty inseparable pair. Lately we’ve had a little fun tossing Leo onto Finn’s (and everyone else’s) head as a hat. Here’s a little gallery (HTML) from the goings-on. 🙂
Who needs a fancy new Elmo Phone when you’ve got a sippy cup? “Hehwo?” 🙂 (Click the image for a larger view.)
I’ll tell ya, I’m a lucky guy to get to come home & romp around with Finny. Here are a couple of shots I snagged with my phone as he celebrated the resurrection of our neighbor’s bee-attracting fountain (“BEE!”). (Click the image for a larger view.)
Margot and I have a weird soft spot for “Lucha Libre,” aka masked Mexican wrestling. Knowing this, our friend Hughes’s mom Eileen got Finn both a tiny “luchador” mask and a whole calendar of luchador portraits. We have lots of fun putting the little mask onto a ceramic penguin, as well as going through the calendar to see “Los Matematicos” and more. (Well, it’s fun until the 700th or so time, at which point one of us has to hide the calendar under the couch.) Here’s a little gallery of the goings-on.
On a related note, I think Finn may grow up with a warped sense of what the term “doctor” means. A few months ago he started checking out our little portrait of the wrestler “Dr. Wagner,” saying “DAK-dah!” I wonder whether he’ll think that “doctor” = masked wrestler, and if so, what he’ll think when we say we’re going to the doctor’s office. 🙂
A couple of weeks ago, the three of us cruised up to see our friends Bryan, Alex, and little Miles Hughes at their home in the nearby Santa Cruz mountains. We’ve uploaded some photos (HTML) showing a little (metal) goat-riding, corn-launching, mooning over Miles, and more.
During the course of our great little cook-out, Finn–who normally sticks to Dad like glue–was rather taken with Hughes. He’d protest whenever Hughes would walk inside, and he’d track this other daddy’s every move.
Finally it started to dawn on me: I wonder whether he thinks that’s his daddy. We put the idea to the test. Finding a picture of himself with me in the desert, Hughes pointed at me and said, “Who’s that, Finn?” No response. And then the moment of truth: I pointed at the picture of Hughes and said, “Who’s that, Finn?” “Da-Da!” was the immediate response. 😛
Since then, I’ve discovered that Finn now uses the term “Da-Da” fairly generically to refer to dad-like men, including our friend Tom & various characters in books. I feel a bit better now. 🙂
PS–Thanks to Hughes & Alex for the hospitality, and to Hughes for the great photos. The Papa-razzi strike again!
Now that we’re past our blog’s technical difficulties, we have some catching up to do!
Last week, Finn’s Uncle James was in town for his long-awaited first meeting with our little squirrel. James was traveling for business, and was spending a day in Menlo Park, a town nearby. It was a perfect opportunity to pit stop at Casa de Nack for some Cinco de Mayo tacos, beer, and goofing around with a cute 1-year old. The guys got along great, and we snapped a couple photos (HTML) to commemorate the occasion. We were so excited he came by and got to meet his nephew.
And speaking of nephews, today is our nephew Charlie’s 4th birthday! Happy Birthday Chooch! (James’ visit also enabled us to send Charlie’s present home with his dad.)
Our pal Bryan recently shared with us the photos he took during our Easter visit to his folks’ house in Carmel. The bubble-blowing pipes in Finn’s Easter basket provided all sorts of entertainment for the little guy & dad, and both Finn and Grace–a dog literally 4 times his weight!–did great together. Here’s our gallery (HTML).
The Finnster (our little Mexican wrestling enthusiast–more on that later) had a great time meeting his Southern Hemispherical counterpart, little Bruno “El Pompín” Rozenfeld. Our pal/Brunito’s dad Adolfo snapped this little gallery (HTML) plus a short video of the boys playing together. (Okay, at this age “playing together” mainly consists of Finn trying to sweep Bruno’s head with a paintbrush while Bruno works to master sitting… but hey, it’s a start!)