Category: Miscellaneous

• Cave System Discovered In Mom & Dad’s Bed; Spelunking Missions Planned (“KindaDEEP!”)
• Driveway Closed 3pm-3:14pm For Dirt-Blasting
• Choco Overwhelms Area Toddler’s Boca
• “Gato MooGeek” Still Tops Music Charts
• Leonine Blankie Retains “Most Favored Buddy” Status; Duke The Raccoon Strong #2
• Wiggle-Smile Index Skyrockets on Local Playmat
• “Boogie-Sucker” Deployed To Area Infant’s Nose
• “Nut-Byyuck” Assails Driveway
• Mom Invests Heavily in Oxy-Clean Corp., Citing Childrens’ Future

Stay tuned for word from the Delmas Nack-Intelligencer 😉

When I was a very little kid (3-5, let’s say), I overheard my mom talking on the phone about how a nice older lady named Kay had gotten bumped in a fender-bender. At some point later (in mixed company, I’m guessing), I loudly announced, “KAY GOT BOMBED!” (that is, drunk). For years this poor innocent lady was then known as “Kay-got-bombed.”
I mention this because on Saturday, as I was giving Finn his morning milk on my lap, his overnight diaper leaked through onto my shorts. Getting up and seeing the spot, he said, “Dad-O peed!!” I protested that noooo Dad-O didn’t pee, but my & Margot’s laughter sealed the deal: Every time he’s repeat his claim, we’d laugh, and now it’s become established fact that, yep, Dad-O peed & had to change into the space monkey shorts.
It may take a while, but what goes around does, in fact, eventually come around. 🙂

Last night Henry really had me freaking out. The little guy went to sleep at 5:30 p.m., having eaten at four o’clock. I figured, like every night, he would wake up around 6:30 p.m., eat again (at least once!) and then hit the sack for the night around eight or nine.
Well, he stayed asleep until, get this, ONE THIRTY A.M.!!! That’s eight hours, people!! And the only reason he roused at one thirty was because I was convinced he was either in a coma or so hungry that he was too weak to move…I just couldn’t believe he would sleep that long in one stretch, so I fed him and then popped him back in the crib.
I’m not going to kid myself into thinking this is a trend, but wow. My only regret is that I was so freaked out I couldn’t take advantage of that full eight hours and pack in a ton of sleep myself!

Oh my, I’m sad to report that our little Henry is losing his nice mop of hair. He’s got a couple of bald patches on each side where his head rubs on the bed, and they are getting bigger and less hirsute by the hour. The same thing happened to Finn, and it was an awkward several months until his hair grew back and started looking normal. I was really hoping that he’d keep it and increase its ranks, but that doesn’t seem to be in the cards. On the other hand, we can be sporting about it and start taking bets on what color his new hair will eventually be when it grows in.
I won’t embarrass the poor lad by posting photographic evidence!

Yesterday, Finn and Henry got a little box of gifts from our friends Paco and Betty Podmore. Finn got a collection of small, plastic squirting animals for the bathtub: an elephant, a monkey, and a raccoon. Our nanny Carol was talking with Finn and asking him what he might want to name his raccoon. She was suggesting names like Joe, Mike, etc. when all of a sudden, Finn burst out “Duke!”. So henceforth, he is “Duketheraccoon!”. This marks the first time Finny has named one of his toys!
John and I speculate that “Duke” could actually be spelled “Dook”, after the sound effects John makes when he is pretending to drink out of a cup or Coke can. He and Finn have conversations when John grabs a Coke out of the fridge, and Finn says “Dad-o dook dook!”, John says “Yep, Dad-o dook dook.” Then Finn says “Finny dook dook?” and John says “No, Coke’s not for Finny. No dook dook.” We also “dook dook” out of the garden hose when we’re playing in the backyard.

Finn has lately taken a big shine to identifying pairs of things. For example, he’ll point at one faucet, then another, and say “Two faucet!” Charmingly, on the way back from dropping off my folks at the airport, he volunteered, “Grampa Nack… Grampa LEE-gett… Two grampa!” And as noted at right, Finn thinks that he & Henry are both “(H)appy kid.”
He’s also started saying deliberately crazy things for the sake of getting a laugh. After he tried to orally decapitate an apple the other day, we told him not to eat the stem. “Eat the stem, eat the stem!!” he shouted, and we’ve made it a little game: “Should Hoot eat the stem?” “Nooo!” (big smile) “Should *Milos* eat the stem?” “Nooo!””
Even better, while sitting on the dipetorium the other day, he grabbed the little safety buckle and announced “Buckle poopy!” The buckle is, mind you, one of the few things that hasn’t actually gotten poopy while up there (unlike Leo, Finn’s hammer, his hands, etc…). I was kind of shocked. “Did the buckle get poopy?” I asked, genuinely curious. “Nooo!” he replied, breaking into a mischievous smile. As you’d guess, our lives now involve hearing many claims about innocent things getting poopy.
And on that note, hats off to our boy for officially discovering that adding the suffix “poopy” makes just about anything funnier. May this knowledge serve you well for years to come, son. 🙂

Courtesy of Merriam-Webster, The Word of the Day for August 5 is:
philoprogenitive \fill-uh-proh-JEN-uh-tiv\ adjective
*1 : tending to produce offspring : prolific
2 : of, relating to, or characterized by love of offspring
Correct on both counts!

After another sleepless day and night with little Henry, we paid a visit to Dr. S. this morning to see what is going on. I was unable to tell if it was gas, or the antibiotic, or reflux, or something I was eating that was bothering his intestines and tummy after nursing. All I knew is that pretty much like clockwork, about 20 minutes after nursing, Henry would start screaming and writhing, and was unable to stay asleep for any length of time.
I guess not surprisingly, the doc checked Henry out and diagnosed him with reflux, just like Finny had as an infant. She said his throat is just raw and red and it was no wonder he was screaming and not sleeping. So…the good news is we know what to do and the condition is treatable with the infamous “veg pillow” and Zantac. The bad news is that it’ll take a few days for the meds to kick in and his throat to heal, and then we’re on the Zantac wagon for the next 6 months, 3 times a day. As Finny would say, “poorguy!”.

Finn has been having all sorts of fun this week with his Liggett grandparents. Yesterday he was treated to a dramatic reading of “Three Billy Goats Gruff” by grandma, a chicken taco lunch with grandpa, and lots of time outdoors touring the neighborhood and playing in the sprinklers. He busy was making big strides in feeding himself with a spoon and actually getting the food into his mouth (as opposed to unintentionally dumping it into his lap on the way up). Both grandpa and I were thrilled to see Finny predominantly using his left hand, only sometimes switching to right to see if he could make it work any better (answer: no).
Henry is going through his 3-week growth spurt and is eating all the time, which is great for him but not so fun for me. He has been having bouts of gas and tummy aches and has been quite fussy and not very sleepy for a couple nights in a row. We broke the cycle last night–slept for a 4-hour stretch, then a couple of 3-hour stretches, and did not have any intermittent spit ups or howling due to gas pains. Whew. We both needed the rest!

Great moments in human development:

• In 2001: A Space Odyssey, primitive man discovers how to use bones as tools.
• In 2009, young Finn discovers how to use Dad’s toes as levers for operating Henry’s little swingy chair.

Our young man is very directive these days. He’ll walk right up to my shoe saying “Do-MAHN, Do-MAHN,” and begin untying it, even if I’m in the middle of push-ups. Once he’s exposed my foot, he’ll grab a toe and begin trying to drag it up to switch on the swing’s music (“Moo-geek!”), grunting with effort and satisfaction. I find it all hilarious enough to indulge, at least for the time being.

Dad and Finn like to recap the events of the day, or even the events of many days ago. One of Finn’s favorite conversations, from about 2 weeks ago, follows. “The ladies” are the housecleaners, who remain guilty as charged for throwing away Finn’s favorite paper towel tube:


F: “La-dees!”
J: “Oh yeah, did the ladies throw away our tube?”
F: “Darn-eet!”
J: “But then did someone bring us a new one?”
F: “CoCo!”
J: “And now what do we do?”
F: “I like to moo-bat moo-bat… Keeck it now, keeds!”
…and subtle variations on that theme. 🙂
The paper tubes we rescued from our neighbor Long’s garbage cans are a favorite topic (“Broken! Cut! No Pat No!”), as is the shopping cart that fell off the park maintenance truck (“Dump!!”), the cherry-picker baskets on the cable trucks parked outside on the street (“Up up!”), and Hoot and pickles for lunch (“Hoot! Peecoles! Monday!”).

Our visit to Dr. S. on Tuesday resulted in some positive news. All is well with our little guy overall. Dr. S. thinks that the hydronephrosis (fluid on the kidney) issue is mild enough that it will most likely resolve itself in the next several months.
While the pediatrician at the hospital felt that further testing would be necessary (involving catheters and radioactive dye–yeesh!), Dr. S. thinks that is too much to pursue given the small degree of fluid shown in the ultrasound we had at the hospital. Her recommendation is to continue the antibiotic dose as a preventive measure, and do another ultrasound at 6 months to see how he’s doing.
We are to be alert for any high fevers, as they might indicate a kidney or urinary tract infection. Knowing that, we’ll be super conservative if/when he gets a fever, and get him checked out accordingly. The best news is that we don’t have to subject our tiny guy to a bunch of unpleasant procedures that would likely result in no further action from the doctor.

…when you arrange for one of you to call the other on his cell phone–while in the house–in case of needed baby-assistance. 🙂
I cannot overstate what an amazing job Margot (let’s call her Cool Hand Peanut*) is doing with little Henry. In order to let me save up strength for nonstop daytime Finn patrols, we’ve agreed to have me sleep downstairs in the TV room, out of earshot of the little guy’s nighttime cries. I’m more than happy to pop up and assist if needed, so we’ve arranged to have Margot call my cellphone as necessary. It’s kind of absurd, we know, but as they say, “Whatever gets you through the night/It’s alright, it’s alright…” 🙂
* Incidentally, human parrot Finn overheard me call out to “Peanut” the other day, and now he seems to relish saying, “Mom-O! Peanut!” That’s my boy.

I know I’m supposed to rest when the baby rests, but now is one of those instances where I’m absolutely wide awake, and it’s too warm to sleep, so it’s just not going to happen. Thankfully Henry afforded me a couple of really decent naps today so I am not as desperately tired as I could be. And John is doing a wonderful job with Finny–they are pretty much keeping their own schedule and Henry and I drop in for a visit as often as we can (when we’re not napping, or he’s not nursing). Right now John’s got Henry snoozing on his lap.
Finn’s starting to relax about Dad-o having some Henry time. He’s not bursting into instant tears or whining every time he sees Dad holding the baby, and we are trying to explain that Henry gets to spend time with *all* of us, not just Mom-o. He’ll get there in time.
We visit Dr. S. tomorrow for our first check-up. We’ll also talk to her about the results of Henry’s kidney ultrasound, which showed a bit too much fluid on his left kidney. This means we have to take him in for some additional tests, because the risk is urinary or kidney infection if the duct from his kidney is not working properly. There are degrees of seriousness to the condition–it may resolve itself, or it may require surgical intervention to place a stent in the duct. We’ll know more in the coming weeks. Right now he is on a preventative dose of antibiotics to fend off any potential infection.
We are extremely fortunate to be getting meals delivered every night from the Moms’ group I’m in. It is wonderful to have hot, delicious food available with no effort–I would strongly recommend a second pregnancy to any of the moms in the group! So far we’re 4 for 4 on getting brownies for dessert 🙂

1. The Happy Lion by Louise Fatio and Roger Duvoisin. We read this book several times a day, at Finn’s urging. He just starts saying “Happy! Happy!” until we get the picture. Thanks to Anne Nack for giving us this terrific book!
2. “Dak-oh-Dahs” (Corn Flakes) for breakfast. This is Finn’s way of saying “cock-a-doodle-doo!” when he sees the cereal box.
3. Hooks of all sorts. He sees them on the drawings of tow trucks in our Richard Scarry books, and has found a few in the back of our neighbor’s truck. He refers to them as “No Pat No,” recalling a cactus-sitting character in Hop on Pop.
4. Tubes. Paper towel tubes, toilet paper tubes, straws, anything tube-like that Finn can stick objects in.
5. Stroobs (our name for strawberries). He really enjoys eating and talking about them.
6. “Peek!” He loves to hide behind chairs or other objects and slooooowly peek around the edge, then shout “PEEK!” when we see him.
7. Pow-wow walking. When he’s being silly, he kind of crouches down and takes lots of little bitty steps, which makes me think of the Native American dances you see at pow-wows.
8. Daddy blowing bubbles in the bathtub water. Finn grabs John’s head and pulls it down towards the tub until John starts blowing bubbles. It looks a bit strange, but Finny absolutely loves it.
9. “Ham and DumDum”, a.k.a. our neighbor Kim and her dog Samson.
10. His Chicken Shirt, which, when putting it on for the day, inspires our boy to start saying “bok bok bok!”

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!

Yesterday after Finn got up from his morning nap, he was very focused on obtaining one thing, and one thing only: “Maca!” (macaroni and cheese) He started saying it the minute he got up, and kept saying it as we walked into the kitchen for our post-nap snack. I figured we’d dispense with mere snacking and go all the way to an early lunch, complete with Maca.
As I put Finn into his hopper and started boiling the water, measuring out the milk, etc., I was explaining to him that the Maca was coming soon. He was watching with some interest as I drained, dumped, and stirred.
Once the macaroni & cheese was made, I spooned some into a bowl for him, turned around, and said “Here it is!”. The sight of the piping hot Maca knocked our boy right off his horse! “Binny” became “Finny” as the scales fell from his eyes, and he exclaimed breathlessly and excitedly, “MACAAAAA!”. It was as if he had witnessed a miracle, and he was smiling from ear to ear.

Our little hombre is able to get more and more specific about what he likes/dislikes, and what he would prefer to be doing at any given time. He’s taken to grabbing my (or John’s) hand and leading us around while providing other clues about what he’d like.
For instance, this morning after breakfast we were playing in Finn’s room, and he started saying “Hat! Hat!”. He took my hand, led me to the kitchen, and pointed to the basket where we keep our sunhats (a requirement for going outside these days). Then he pointed to the back door. We put our hats on, but since I was still in my PJs, we went upstairs so I could put some clothes on. Believe me, at this point in my pregnancy, walking around outside in my PJs is not something any of the neighbors need to see…
We then went outside and did the usual rounds–a stop off at Richard’s fountain for some splashing and gato viewing, then a walk up and down the block to explore fence gates, ants, and plants. Thank goodness he didn’t poop out until 2 houses away from home, at which point he turned to me, raised his arms and said “UP!”. Once inside, he started saying “mo mos, mo mos!” (code for pretzel bits with cream cheese…he loves them and just says “more more more!”). So we were off to the kitchen for a few pre-nap mo mos. I’m sure he would have been content sitting there stuffing his face for an hour, but Leo was getting sleepy, so I packed them both off to the crib for a rest.
Once he’s up from his nap, I will await further instruction 🙂