- Finn’s stuffed, but he swears he’ll find room for a donut: “My tummy has a garbage truck crusher-blade in it!”
- “Dad-O, when we grow up, we’re only going to eat pasta, bacon, and Nutella!” I’m way ahead of you, boys—way ahead! #livingthedream
- I guess we can forget about the boys getting that big Crest endorsement deal: “This tastes like being electrocuted!!”
- Henry eyes a giant tank of horchata (super sugary rice milk), then presents me with a batting helmet: “Fill this up with it!” Best/worst idea ever.
- “Krispies are for closers!!” — me, trying to bribe the boys into finishing their sandwiches
- Finn befouls our sheets with crumbs, sucks them up: “I’m a street sweeper!” First time I’ve kicked someone out of bed for eating crackers.
- We call our food-distended tummies “food babies.” Henry pats his: “I’ve got a whole food preschool in mine!”
- “You’ve gotta lay off that Coke, Dad-O,” Finn informs me. “You’re gonna end up allergic to water!”
- “I’m not making a mess,” explains Henry, sprinkling Oat Squares on the carpet. “I’m making dinner for the ghost in the basement.”
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Little Kahunas
Heh heh—check out this totally fun Photoshop work from my friend Michael Jahn:
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The Good, The Bad, and the Tiny
“Dad-O, why am I so tall?” asked shadow-gazing Henry in the driveway. “I look like a 10-year-old!!”
Last Thursday was Finny’s official first day of Kindergarten. He was definitely prepared: new backpack and lunchbag (with water bottle!), new school clothes (Willow Glen Elementary is a uniform school, which makes getting dressed in the morning a breeze!), and a very positive attitude. We had visited the school the day before for a 90-minute orientation with the teachers and helpers, so he already knew where to find the classroom, his teacher, and the daycare room.
Henry and I dropped him off with a big hug and smooch and wished him a great day. I then proceeded with the low-grade, all-day fretting that must be typical of all parents of a freshly minted Kindergartner: “I hope he’s ok, he doesn’t know anyone, I hope he remembers to go to the bathroom and eat his lunch, I hope he’s being polite, etc. etc…”
Well, turns out I had nothing to worry about. When I picked him up from after school care and asked him how his day went, he looked me straight in the eye, pumped his fist, and said “AWESOME!!! I LOVE KINDERGARTEN!” Phew! That couldn’t have gone any better! I remember loving my first day of Kindergarten, too. I guess it runs in the family :).
[We’re lucky that way, as it apparently doesn’t run in every family: Finn’s been telling us about a kid named “Ruffy” (go figure) who keeps getting yellow warning cards to the point he’s been dubbed “Señor Amarillo.” He was sent to the principal’s office on the first day, and according to Finn, “they decapitated him!!” He likes to elaborate that “just the head hopped back into the room,” and that later Ruffy got reassembled. Rough indeed! :-p –J.]
- Mischievous Henry starts edging out of the crosswalk: “Dad-O, I’m ‘Break-in’-the-laaaaw, break-in’-the-laaaaw!!'” (Judas Priest, Age 4. :-))
- The Barenaked Ladies come on the radio. “This is a dork singing!” declares Henry.
- “I don’t think these guys are Talking Heads, Dad-O,” says Finn. “I think they’re just Talking Scalps.”
- Finn: “Why are they called ‘U2’?”
Me: “Well, I dunno. The U2 was a cool airplane…”
Finn: “Was Bono homeless & did he sleep in the airplane?” - Listening to “Baby Did A Bad Bad Thing” with the boys. “Why did the baby do that, Dad-O? Why is he so naughty?”
- Finn’s singing Styx’s “Renegade”: “The meter maid, who had it made…” #misheardlyrics
- The lads are listening to The Clash:
Finn: “Henry, the casbah is a desert castle, and the jet fighters rock it with bullets.”
Henry: “Yeah, from their lungs!” - Finn’s relating to “I Shot The Sheriff”: “It’s like when Jacobo attacks me at school & I kick him in the face. That’s self-defense for me!”
- On an airplane: “Dad-O, I thought I saw Johnny Cash out on the wing,” reports Finn, “but it was just the winglet.”
- Listening to the boys’ a cappella duet of “Crazy Train” as they play Lego trains, I feel kinda great about my parenting. 🙂
- Finn’s morning musical request: “How about the banana song by Barry Elefante?”
- Blasting “Sledgehammer” while your 3yo jumps around, “dancing” & randomly hammering things, is a terrific morning kickoff.
- The boys keep donning underwear outside their regular clothes. I explain that’s only for crazy old ladies, like Madonna.
- The boys have renamed themselves “Lynyrd Skynyrd” & “Billy Idol.” In related news, I really need to expose them to better music!
The last leg of our summer vacation in Southern California was a trip to the San Diego Zoo. We arrived bright and early in the morning, with strollers, camera, and snacks in tow. We had already discussed the various animal exhibits at the zoo with the boys, and unsurprisingly, our man Henry decided we should see the panda bears first. So, off we went to Panda Canyon. Henry could barely contain himself! We got to see two panda brothers eating their bamboo breakfast, and we heard the zookeeper mention that there was a third, one-year-old panda lounging at the top of a pine tree. That little guy was only visible from the sky gondolas, so after we spent some close-up time with the big guys, we hit the sky ride to view the little one from above.
We spent the rest of the day wandering around the beautiful zoo, checking out almost all of the other exhibits (minus the reptile house, which none of us were too excited about). We definitely got our fill of elephants, big cats, birds, hippos, giraffes, koala bears, and native Californian species (including the human spectators!). Here’s a gallery from our day.
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A Teriyaki Salami Carnival
Little G-Man’s been taking his vocab to new levels lately, but not without hitting some rather amusing potholes. Recent developments:
- The boys have learned about omnivores, herbivores, and carnivores at Pasitos lately. Now when Henry sees a temporary gathering of rides & attractions, he says, “Look, Dad-O, a carnivore! [carnival]”
- They’ve heard that our friend Juliana is a talented singer. “Dad-O, I think she’d be good at singing teriyaki [karaoke].”
- Near the beach the guys note warning signs that explain how to flee a giant wave. “See, this is the way we’d go to evacuate from a salami! [tsunami]”
Last week’s main event was a 2-day trip to Legoland, which strategically coincided with John’s birthday. I think Dad-O was even more excited than the boys about our visit! We went all out and stayed at the Legoland hotel, which, as you’ll see, was great fun and perfectly suited to families with young kids. Our pirate-themed room came with bunkbeds for the dudes, a bucket of Legos to play with, a treasure chest whose combination we had to determine via a scavenger hunt, and a view of the park entrance. The hotel lobby contained several “Lego pits,” a giant Lego castle to play in, Lego sculptures, and an entrance to the park. The 3 Nack men were in heaven!
The park itself was phenomenal, and perfectly designed for families and kids under 12. While parents stood in line at various rides, there were play areas chock full of Legos for the kids to play with until their turn on the ride was up. There were rides of all sorts – rollercoasters, ride-on vehicles, boats, pedal cars, squirting cannons, firetruck races, and a pirate ship ride with water cannons. We spent an entire day just taking advantage of the water attractions in the pirate area and the Lego water park! [Poor Henry found the “lazy river” not so relaxing as he slipped through my hands, through our double inner tube, and completely under the water! Fortunately he recovered & excitedly joined me in collecting the giant rubber Legos that floated alongside us. –J.]
There were also tons and tons of Lego sculptures of all sorts — life-sized Darth Vader & Chewie, the biggest Lego-model ever created (of a Star Wars X-Wing fighter), tons of miniature scenes from Star Wars movies, and miniature Lego cities like Las Vegas, Washington DC, San Francisco, and New Orleans. Henry enjoyed the miniature cities the most – and returned over and over again to observe all the little moving Lego vehicles, boats, trains, animals, etc.
Here are some vids and a gallery of pictures of all the things we got to see and do!
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Hola from the Cone Zone
The dudes (now happily slumbering) are having a ball so far. 🙂 More news to come, but first we’re off to Legoland!
Family Adventure Week has begun! This week we are planning visits to California Adventure at Disneyland, Legoland (for Dad-o’s birthday), and the San Diego Zoo. We’ll also be tucking in visits to various beaches and even the La Brea Tar Pits (thanks to pal Samantha for that suggestion!).
We set out for Los Angeles yesterday morning, and after a not-too-long car ride, we arrived at Santa Monica around 5pm. We figured after a day in the car, the guys would appreciate some good beach time. And boy, did they ever! Braving the gusty and cool conditions, the guys horsed around in the sand and surf until we tore them away for some dinner and a car trip to our hotel in Anaheim. Here are some fun shots of their antics plus a little video at the bottom:
Boy, it’s been ages since I updated this category. Without further ado, here’s the first of several installments of the lads’ sayings from the last year (!) or so.
- Animals:
- “Dad-O, I’m a new superhero called Bat Saber—like a bat lightsaber! He crushes old people who don’t like bats!” (Henry adds, “Yeah, and I’m Rain Man!!” #VerySpecialPowers)
- “Dad-O, do pirates sometimes have to get blasted by otters?” Um, otters? Took me a while to realize he meant SEALs (specifically, Navy ones).
- “Dad-O, those cats want to fill up our sandbox with poop,” says Finn, “which I call ‘butt presents.'”
- I dreamt that our boys—like bats—navigate by echolocation. They were ceaselessly repeating “Mom-O, Dad-O! Mom-O, Dad-O! Mom-O, Dad-O!”
- I let the boys watch nature videos unattended on YouTube this morning. It’s all fun ’til a croc bites off an antelope’s hoof!
- Legos
- Finn describes his birthday wish: “Well, it’s a really expensive Lego set for teenagers…” He tells me that to save up, “stop buying food”!
- In the fall Lego time spontaneously turned political: “Dad-O, this is Obama. ‘Come here, Romney, gimme your butt cheeks to kick!'” (Unprompted!)
- I offer Henry some Lego-ing help. “No, I can do it,” he says. “It’s a little be complicated for dads, but not for kids.” (Maybe true!)
- “Dad-O, this is my Lego chase truck. It was chasing a bird, which turned out to be Henry’s hand, which made off with a Lego sailor hat…”
- “The hand-bird was carrying the hat on its thumb.” Good to know!
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Stomp: Micronaxx Edition
Two very small slices of life, featuring our very small percussion enthusiasts working unusual instruments today:
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Dancing Eyeball Theater
Clearly G-Man finds miso soup very stimulating. 🙂 A random snippet from our sushi outing last night:
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Ridin’ with KOBI
“It takes a village,” they say—specifically, a village of mischievous dads planting ever-so-slightly bad ideas in kids’ heads. 🙂
On Sunday our motorcycle-riding neighbor Chris had just returned from the racetrack & invited the lads to sit astride his sport bike—and even give the throttle a loud rev! Having long been dubbed KOBI (King Of Bad Ideas), and with Margot safely out of the country, I thought it great to plant this seed in them now. (Seriously, though, Chris made the boys be super careful around the hot tailpipe, and they were quite respectful & well behaved.) A few pics:
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Looen Dancing
Back in March the boys (especially Finn) got a huge kick out of a performance of traditional Chinese “lion dancing.” Somehow I never managed to post the videos, but we got a second chance a couple of weekends ago at San Jose’s History Park. Sorry that this very short vid is a bit glitchy. Maybe someday the Micronaxx can be a two-man lion team of their own!
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The “Henry Face”
Our boy Henry has become well known amongst our friends for the “Henry Face.” He’s reliably grumpy about something or another when we’re out having a good time – like at birthday parties, the pool, holiday celebrations, you name it. In fact, our friend Shay’s daughter Tegan started making The Face herself after watching Henry melt down at his brother’s preschool graduation ceremony (“No one is playing with me, Mom-o! No one is paying attention to me!”). Our friends love to snap photos of Henry grumping out at parties. Here’s a prime example: 
John always remarks, truthfully, that Henry was born frowning:
We recently had some family photos taken, and as Henry was getting grumpier and more short-tempered about the length of the photo shoot, we decided to go for broke with The Henry Face, family-style. Because when you can’t beat ’em, join ’em!
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A Brontowhatnow?
Following a little outing yesterday to see mechanical dinosaurs, the lads watched some Dinosaur Train & got into sidewalk chalk with Mom-O. Watch as Finny questions her grasp of dino species. 🙂
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Training Days
As Margot detailed the other day, we had a ball traveling to Sacramento by train with my folks. Here’s a gallery from the excursion, showing off the deservedly famous California State Railroad Museum.
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Of Pride & Protein-ous
Just like their human master, Finny’s lion pride is blonde & meat-lovin’. As Henry would conclude the ABCs song, “…next time won’t you sing with meat.”
“Equal parts grumpy old man and delightful, snuggly, hilarious kid,” says Margot of Henry*, and I fully agree. Amazingly it’s been a full four years since our crazy little “El Segundo” barnstormed into town. What a crazy ride…
We’re a bit pooped from taking the lads out for some celebratory sushi, but here’s a little gallery of the terrific party we had on the Fourth with our wonderful pals, plus some delightful present-opening with my folks & then this morning.
And from memory lane:
* She also says this about me 😉