Category: Miscellaneous

At some point months ago, the guys & I were playing with Matchbox cars, and when they talked about a Ferrari’s engine being under the hood, I explained, “Actually that’s a mid-engine car. See, the engine goes behind the seats; you can tell by these vents here on the sides.”

They were intrigued and asked, “Why don’t we have a mid-engine car?” I chuckled and, not wanting to get into why Dad-O can’t afford a Ferrari, said “Well, those cars tend to be small inside. They’re better for guys with no kids.”

Wouldn’t you know it, this little factoid keeps popping out at the oddest moments:

• One night Finn was mad at me for making him get ready for bed. He flopped onto the bedroom floor and most piteously said, “Dad-O, I just want you to step on me! I want there to be no more Finny, and then you’d get a mid-engine car!”
• Henry spotted a young couple out for dinner the other day & said, “They don’t have any kids. They must have a mid-engine car.”
• We explained recently that before we had kids, instead of the Ocho we had a Jetta. “Oh,” observed Finny, “I guess it was mid-engine.”

Despite my attempts to clarify the situation, the real info just isn’t taking. Ah well: I’ll just settle in for a life of cheerfully misinforming the boys, a la Calvin’s dad. 🙂

I think my iPhone pretty much nailed this suggestion, don’t you? 🙂

Our boys love music. Especially songs where they can goof on the lyrics (gee, I wonder who they learned that from, Dad-o!). We’ve incorporated many variations of songs into our daily routine, such as:

• Tricky – Run DMC (they chant this as they walk up the slides at the playground)
• Rock Candy Mountain (when candy is near)
• Personal Penguin (and myriad variations) – this is a bedtime tradition from waaaaay back.
• Buds In The Car (to the tune of “pants on the ground”)
• Fa Fa Americano (aka Wip Bip Bip Yeow, often sung while chasing each other/us)

And then there are songs that we listen to in the car that the kids really get a kick out of:

• Diamonds on the Soles of her Shoes (aka Dinos on a Skateboard)
• Another One Bites the Dust (by famous singer Freddy Markery)
• Ring of Fire, Rusty Cage, and A Boy Named Sue (Finny loves the bit about “cut off a piece of my ear”)
• Peter and the Wolf
• Buds in the Car (sung to the tune of “Pants On The Ground”)
• Moves Like Jagger, aka “Moose Like Jacket”
• Graceland
• The Fast Cheap and Out Of Control Soundtrack aka “Elephant Music” (listen to it and you’ll understand)
• Lovely Rita Meter Maid
• Big River by the Beat Farmers
• Party Rockin’ by LMFAO

When Yvonne (our new nanny) and the guys got home from the park this afternoon, she told John and me that Finny told her he was planning on finding a wife, and would therefore need some “date nights.” She mentioned that he might want to start out by first finding a girlfriend. When I was chatting with Finny one-on-one a few minutes later, I asked him about his date night idea:

M: “Yvonne tells me that you need a date night.”

F: “Yeah, but first I need a girlfriend.”

M: “Oh, you do? Where will you find one?”

F: “I’ll look for one on my computer when I get older.”

M: “Oh, ok, that sounds like a good idea. In the meantime, maybe you could find one at school?”

F: “Well, I like Jordan, but she’s big and going to kindergarten, so she won’t be at school anymore.”

M: “Oh, I see. Well, what about Cosita [a 3-year-old at school]?”

F: {furrows brow, looks at me skeptically.}

M: “Oh, too small?”

F: “Yeah, too small.”

M: “Well, when you find one, where will you take her on a date?”

F: “To see a movie. I would like that.”

And so we have a plan for Finny’s first date night.

[Finn tells me, “I’m going to name my wife ‘Off-Of-It.'” When pressed as to why, he tells me, “Well, she’s always going off of things.” Go figure! ;-p See also from last year, “The Marrying Men.” –J.]

Self-proclaimed “bacon devil” Finn & his little bro have a Jack Spratt-style arrangement when it comes to meat: Finn grabs the protein while Henry carbo-loads via buns. This works especially well on “meat hut” sandwiches as Hen quite willingly (and amazingly) parts with his bacon; brotherly sharing at its finest!

In any event, I saw this image and thought of our big guy. (Click to get the full-size version.) Maybe it could make even Henry see the greasy, greasy light. 🙂

Over the weekend I showed Finn a little bird-puppet animation, after which we had a little career chat:

• Me: I would like to work with Adobe guys to make things like that.
• Finn: Oh yeah–like a dung beetle?
• Me: Well… maybe…
• Finn: Is this with Nemhauser or the new boss?
• Me: The new one.
• Finn: Oh. I would like the new one to be named “Pretzel.” (Dad-O, can I have some pretzels?)

And here’s the crazier part: I subsequently shared this with one of my new colleagues who asked, “Does he know that my dog is named Pretzel?” I guess I know who (or what) I’ll now be reporting to!

Finn’s explaining some grim tales to Henry regarding their “family” of plastic dump trucks:

The mom died last summer. The dad will probably die on a trip, so they’ll have to live with the grandma & grandpa. Instead of blood coming out, it’d be oil and gas. She went to Moffett Field when they were working on that big hangar, and it still had the skin on, and she got some bad chemicals. She ate a lot of chemicals, like fuzz & grass and stuff. Probably people will find her & make her a mummy & toss her in the air, then put her in a hole to bury her up. And the kids will say, “Waaaah, where’s our mommy??”

This isn’t the first time mortality has come up. A few months back poor Finny got tearful talking about death. Things got pretty heavy until he blurted, “A-a-and, we won’t get to eat any dinosaur meat!”

Who needs biology books when one has a body to observe?

Poor Finn can be predictably clumsy as he grows, and lately his feet have borne a rain of terror. A few months back he dropped a Mater toy on his big toe, producing a big red bruise under the nail. He was fascinated to learn that the “hurty” would slowly migrate off the end of the toe, “like a little conveyor belt.” We were almost to the end of that race—but dang it, down fell more metal objects!

Now Finn offers tours of his foot-wounds, kind of like a historian would show the rings of a giant sequoia: “Yeah, that’s where Mater got me, and then that’s where the iPad fell, and over on this foot you can see where I dropped the WD-40 can…”

Tangential business idea: Steel-toed Crocs!

A brief anecdote from Grandma Nack:

When I was with the boys, I spelled their names, including their last name. Then I told them I had another name than Grandma, which was Pat. Finn looked at Henry and said, “Her last name is Grandma.” 🙂

In possibly related news, alongside “Sweaty,” “Nonsense,” and the other firemen, Finn now deploys Fireman Jim Nack. Go figure.

Delmas Avenue, 7am: A beaming Finn just ran into the TV room where Margot and I were sitting. “Hey, I have four things to tell you dudes!” he announced.

“One is, ‘Jeez Louise, Fillmore’s eating cheese!’
One is, Stegosaurus eggasaurus.
One is, Rhino vyno.
And one is, Brontosaurus applesaurus!
I made those up while I was sleeping!”

So now you know. 🙂

John never uses simple words to describe things to the boys. That would be far too boring. He always chooses exciting-sounding words to describe things that are otherwise kind of dull. For instance, instead of learning new “skills”, the boys learn “new techniques,” such as jumping and spinning, putting Legos together in new ways, or playing new games. We frequently hear “Mom-o, Dad-o, check out my new technique!”

Well, it’s only Tuesday night and already this week the boys are working on several new techniques! Just this evening, Finny did a few somersaults, something he’s never done before! And starting yesterday, he and I started working on learning to read. He expressed a keen interest in understanding what words look like, so I told him we could work on a couple new ones each day so that he could put together the various sounds that letters make when you combine them into words. We’re working on easy ones that look like they sound, so we can sound them out: dog, up, go, big, boat. I’m so excited that he wants to learn more!

Henry’s working on a new technique as well, big-guy style. When I got back from my trip to Seattle last week, the first thing he told me was that he’d peed in the potty! He was so proud of himself. I’ve asked him a few times since then if he’d like to give it another try, and he’s agreed to try it a couple times.  Tonight, another successful “potty shot,” so I think we’ll start encouraging him more (and bribing him with stickers. Oh, and now that Henry’s getting potty shot stickers, Finny wants to get stickers, too. So Finny gets “word” stickers when he sounds out words successfully).

Finny and Henry may not be card-carrying members of the Justice League, but they do have some freakish superpowers.

First, Henry:

• Infantile super-strength: This is where it all started. For a little baby, his pushing and kicking strength was unbelievable! I got more than a few fat lips from that guy!
• Choco-location: His uncanny ability to locate chocolate that has not been mentioned nor seen (by him) before
• “There’s another one after this:” His innate knowledge that the (previously-unseen) video we’re watching will be ending within a few minutes, followed by him presumptively talking about the show we’ll watch next

Now Finny:

• The Sandman: If Finn gets anywhere near sand (beach, sandbox, the park) he is somehow able to sequester enormous amounts of it in his clothing and then lay down a fine layer of grit ALL OVER the house. And this is AFTER we shake his shoes and clothes out before we walk in the door!
• The Drunken Master: Finn is able to walk mere millimeters in front of you AT ALL TIMES, thereby preventing you from freely moving about. Regardless of whether he knows your final destination, he somehow manages to be completely in your way the entire time you’re trying to get somewhere.

Oddly enough, both Margot & work with German dudes named Patrick, and we’ve had them over for dinner during recent visits. Finn (logically enough, I suppose) asked, “Is our cousin Patrick a German?” This made me devise a little back-and-forth that delights Finn to no end:

• Finn (character): “Patrick, are you a German?”
• Patrick (in cartoonishly thick, Col. Klink accent): “Nooo, I am not! Nein nein nein!”
• Finn, in disbelief: “W-wait, you said ‘nein’; you are German!”
• Patrick: “Nooo, I am American! Moin moin!”
• Finn: “Wait, you said ‘moin,’ too! You’re German!!”
• Patrick: “Nooo! I ride with Auntie Laura in an Abschleppwagen.”
• Finn: “What?? Auntie Laura drives a mouse van [minivan], not an abschleppwagen–you crazy German!”

…and so on. 🙂

We celebrated the final days of John’s sabbatical with a President’s Day long weekend at the beach in Capitola. We found a last-minute condo rental, packed our beach gear, and headed out for some fun in the unseasonably warm sunshine.

We all had an absolute ball. The boys spent 90% of their waking hours playing in the sand (the percentage would have been higher had they not awoken at 5a.m. – too dark and cold to go to the beach!). We made sand soup, sand castles, we threw rocks into the waves, walked along beached logs, lazed on our beach blanket, and almost sacrificed wee Crocs to the quicksand. We were even accompanied by a 50-person ukelele concert on Sunday morning! Here’s a little gallery of the proceedings.

From the Micronaxx basement to your table… 🙂

You know what’s a pretty great thing to come home to? This! 🙂

Our feelings can be summed up by this classic from our archives:

Many of you already know that John’s on sabbatical in Guatemala right now. The boys and I are entering Week 2 of being without Dad-o, and so far everyone’s holding up really well. This is in no small part due to my sister (a.k.a. Auntie Laura) staying with us during Week 1. She arrived last Saturday, the day after John left for his trip, and stayed with us the entire week – lucky Mom-o and lucky Micronaxx!

Laura loves her little nephews to bits, and they had a blast hanging out during the day while I was working. She took them to Happy Hollow and the Children’s Discovery Museum, among other destinations, and she also took them to preschool on Wednesday. Since the boys are in bilingual preschool, Laura got to practice her Spanish quite a bit, which was fun for her. She taught them all kinds of words – their favorites being “uvas” (grapes), and “calabasitos” (pumpkins).

When they weren’t out and about, the guys were spending tons of time playing in the backyard, sandbox, and making art in the basement. They were also playing in their new pirate tent (also courtesy of Laura!), which they love. We had pajama parties on Laura’s bed in the TV room, which was perfectly situated for watching Mighty Machines and Thomas videos. Henry, in particular, couldn’t get enough of hanging out on Laura’s bed. Every night he asked if he could sleep in there (presumably, to watch more TV!). And every morning Henry would ask, excitedly, “Is Auntie Laura still here?” then go running to look for her.

And Laura was a big help to me, providing great company – helping me run the household & wrangle toddlers into the car, baths, pajamas, beds, and play clothes. We all had such a good time with her here, we plan on making it an annual event if we can! 🙂

Our friend Maria snapped some fun shots of me & the guys in Santa Cruz during her visit in November (the same day G-Man tried to induce butterflies to get into his mouth :-)). Thanks, Maria!

We can’t take any credit for it, but this image was too funny not to share. 🙂

From our family to you & yours, we wish you great peace & love.