Having gotten Finn into pickles last summer, we thought we’d see how his little bro likes ’em. During Saturday’s sojourn to the “Meat Hut,” Pickle Lady saw our wagon rolling up and intercepted us with a fistful of pickles. For a kid who makes some crazy faces & who spits out just about everything these days*, I thought Henry handled it well:
During her visit last fall, Auntie Laura taught Finn a crazy little “Peel Peel Bananas” song–an event we captured on video. As it happens, our friend Tara took a shine to the video & taught the song to her twins, Bettie & Quade. On Saturday Tara, the twins, and their dad Andy came over for a barbecue that turned into an impromptu banana-jam:
On a related note, Finn & Quade enjoyed some two-man driving of a little wooden wagon from my cousin Anne. (Here’s a picture.) Yesterday Finn sat down on the wagon, paused, and said, “I don’t have a little buddy to ride with me. Those guys aren’t coming over this day.” After a little reflection, though, he noted, “Maybe we could get that little Billy Goat [Henry] to come ride.”
Finn-O isn’t the only little Nack who flips out over changes to his sleeping setup: check out Henry making his crib a cackle-rich environment (with an obligatory pause for light inspection):
One of the highlights of our visit to Yosemite this week was seeing all the tremendous, thundering waterfalls in Yosemite Valley. As we made our way to Yosemite Falls, which consists of the upper and lower falls, Finny proclaimed the upper falls “Dad-o Falls”, and the lower falls “Goonie Falls” since they were smaller than their parent falls up above. We all had a good chuckle at Finny’s observation and nomenclature while we walked through the mist coming off the falls.
We continue to have a ball here in Yosemite, where the weather has gone from cold/rainy to lovely to downright spectacular. While we work through a growing backlog of photos to share, here’s a video from last week. Henry is following in his brother’s footsteps, falling in love with light fixtures just as Finn did at this age. Here’s a little video of our electrical inspection/isometric shoulder workout regime:
Some months ago, Finn started taking a real shine to windmills (“Make it turn-turn-turn!!”), even seeing them in any cross-shaped object (e.g. looking at the lights hanging above the Safeway produce stands, “That a bunch of windmills up there!”). Around the same time, Adobe HQ was being outfitted with a bank of new Windspire windmills. Finn has been eyeing them from the freeway, and on Friday the whole family got a chance to see them up close.
Fascinating as the windmills were, I like how Finn keeps his priorities straight at the end. 🙂
In addition to taking some great pix during their visit, our friend Adolfo captured a video of me plus our three boys in the park. Note Finn & Henry’s subtle but impassioned battle for control of the lion-buddy. 🙂
The big day has finally come…time to set up Finn’s “big boy bed”! Grandpa Liggett has given Finny the bed from his childhood, although the bed itself is probably older than the Civil War (purchased at a farm sale waaaaay back when by my grandpa). It’s a beautiful big wooden bed. All we had to do was get a new mattress for it, since nobody really wants to sleep on one that dates to the 19th century.
In addition to the new, super-comfy foam mattress, we got giraffe sheets, a monkey pillow, and bed rails so our guy doesn’t tumble out in his sleep. I got the whole shebang set up this afternoon before Finny’s nap, so he could check it out and start taking some practice runs. The accompanying video is a pretty good summation of his excitement about the new bed, although for now he has chosen to continue sleeping in the crib (which is still set up in his room).
[On that note, I was pretty sure that “Bedlam” was going to turn into “Bed-lam,” with the Finnster going on the lam! Mom-O made it clear, though: Leaving the bed meant heading to the crib–an offer he accepted. –Dad-O]
Finn has been really into giraffes lately, loving to watch all kinds of YouTube clips about them. He especially loves how their super-long tongues can scrape leaves off of “beating sticks” on trees. This has led to lots of horse–er, giraffe–play involving the zookeeper (Dad-O) and the strings of his hoodie sweatshirt:
Henry, having decided that blowing raspberries with just his mouth is passé, kicks things up a notch by blasting Mom-O’s bicep. Big bro Finn cheers him on. 🙂
The video is a little slow to get going as Henry makes a noble attempt at proto-crawling. Soon enough, though, big brother Finn offers his frank assessment of what to do with the G-Man once the little guy is of age. 🙂
Man, this is what I get for slacking off on the gym: My physique has deteriorated to the point where Finn believes he can tear my arm off & is willing to give it the ol’ college try!
Join us again, won’t you, for another trip through the Not-So-Secret Nack Family Decoder Ring! Recent additions to our weirdo canon:
Meat Cigars: Finn & Mom-O have devised a new snack consisting of rolled-up turkey slices that hide a delicious cream cheese payload. These double at fun–and completely ineffective–telescopes. Fair warning, though: that usage tends to result in a toddler with a case of Cheesy Eyeball.
Beating Sticks: Oh, this one will be hard to explain in mixed company someday. On weekends, Finny & Dad-O like to go to “Traintrack Park,” grab fallen tree branches, and chase each other around with them. My playful threats to “beat that butt!” have led Finn to ask for “Mo’ beating sticks!”
Dipit Cheese: Pretzels being “dipits,” cream cheese (into which they’re dipped) is now “dipit cheese.”
Delicious Pocket: That’s how the big guy says “Tlaquepaque,” the name of the Mexican restaurant down the street. Now we can’t drive by without him pointing out, “Delicious Pocket sign! Delicious Pocket wagon!”
Bonk: Finn-ese for “Cheers,” as he noted during our Thanksgiving toast.
OhJeez: Over Christmas break, Finn grabbed some toilet paper and started tearing it with gusto. “Dad-O say ‘Oh Jeez!,'” he was delighted to report. From there it was “Do mo’ OhJeez; Mo’ OhJeez in the crib!” It was all fun and paper-pulverizing games until Mom-O found a shredded pile stashed beneath his bed.
GatoDipes: Not to be left out entirely, little Henry has upgraded to new, heavy-duty “GatoDipes”–the better to contain his newly crib-wasting bladder!
Bonus: Here’s a little taste of OhJeez. (No real mystery about Margot’s lack of enthusiasm for the practice. ;-))
We’re rarely content to call things by their right names, so why should “domendites” (er, toes) be any exception? Henry’s new discovery down there coincides with his big bro (almost) mastering our family’s version of This Little Piggy. Check it out: