Micronaxx

Why hello there, Henry. 🙂

Will there come a time when the sight of any construction activity doesn’t hold our boys in its total thrall? Yeah, and much sooner than we’d like, I’m sure. For now, though, they remain transfixed by things like our neighbors Long & Suzanne getting a new lawn put in. It provided a whole weekend’s worth of entertainment, as you can glimpse below:

This past Sunday, the four of us headed out to Santa Cruz to experience something called “Al Smith Day” at the Swanton Pacific Ranch. Our acquaintance from the San Jose History Park, Motorman Erik, hipped us to this special event. Once a year, the Swanton Pacific Railroad, which runs through the ranch (both owned by Cal Poly University), is opened to the public for train rides, tours, live music, and BBQ. As soon as Erik told us about it, we knew we couldn’t pass it up. (Turns out Al Smith is the Cal Poly alum who gave the ranch to the school & created the railroad.)

The train & tracks are small-scale, like what you’d expect in a mine. They have both steam and diesel engines at work, and have built a really cute little yellow train station where you board. Cal Poly’s got a very active group of train enthusiasts who refurbish engines, and maintain the cars, roundhouse, and sheds. These guys range in age from 13 to late 80’s. They were all happy to talk our ears off about the various engines, track machinery, and assorted gear. Needless to say, the boys were fascinated. We spent lots of time in the round house checking things out (including a tiny ore car!) before heading out on the actual train ride.

Finn and Henry had a blast playing “conductor” and “snack man” in our little enclosed car during the ride. After the ride, we watched some guys from the Cal Poly logging program chop wood with various sharp implements. We also toured some parked full-scale cabooses, listened to the live bluegrass music, and enjoyed our BBQ in the beautiful sunshine. It was a great day, and we were thrilled to get in on the secret! Here’s a little gallery of our train-tastic adventure.

Saturday unfortunately marked the guys’ last swim lessons with their instructors at the San Jose State Aquatic Center. We signed up for a 4-week session, and were hoping to sign up again, but it sounds like the pool will be closed this summer for repairs.

You’ll see from the pictures that Finny has been making great strides on learning what to do with his legs and arms, putting his head underwater, doing some assisted floating, and generally enjoying himself in the pool. I think he’s going to be quite the little fish!

And our Henry has made strides in his own way…meaning that once he actually gets in the pool, he usually has a good time. It’s the getting in that takes forever and meets with a lot of resistance. He is incredibly slow to warm up to getting into the pool – he hems and haws and stalls to no end, and he usually needs a lot of cajoling from us and/or his super-nice instructor Kiyomi.

This week we showed up 20 minutes early to get Henry warmed up and in the water so we didn’t have to waste a bunch of his lesson time doing it. I sat with him on the edge of the pool, we stuck our feet in, we stood on the step, we splashed around a little, and I even got him to step down so most of his legs were in the water by the time Kiyomi came over. I figured he was ready to go, so when she came, I left to go use the ladies’ room. When I came out of the bathroom, I witnessed a hilarious low-speed chase, with Henry trying to outwalk Kiyomi around the edge of the pool, and Kiyomi trying to catch him and convince him to get back into the water. Henry kept looking over his shoulder and sped up a bit, heading for my lounge chair. He tried to hide behind it, then decided he would drag the chair behind him in an effort to convince us he would be happy just sitting in the chair near the pool. I laughed and redirected him back towards Kiyomi, who got him back into the pool in short order, where he proceeded to have a great time during his lesson.

Here’s the gallery of the guys in action.

Here’s wishing a very happy fifth birthday to our pal Cyrus Wiggin! (And yes, Cyrus, Dad-O is wondering whether he can come over and play with the cool Iron Man Lego we got you. ;-))

I’m pleased to announce that the Finnster officially takes after his parents, and particularly his old man, in really liking to snap photos! I came across one of my old iPhones, and he now loves snapping shots of random things (e.g. an extreme close-up of unsuspecting Henry; bikini-clad mannequins at the mall). The only downside is that, like me, he now brings walks to an abrupt halt, pausing out of the blue to line up a shot. Hoisted by my own petard! 🙂

I’ll try to share some Finnyfotos soon. Meanwhile, here you can see him showing Henry around Dad-O’s big cam. As my friend Scott Valentine captioned it, “And the peanut butter goes riiiight here…”!

I asked Henry to quote me his hourly rate. “Sixty bucks!” he replied. In fairness, it’s not every 3-year-old who can confidently manhandle a length of fence like that. 😉

Oh my—it seems that a looen & owl have invaded our kitchen!

Recently the lads had an epic 7-hour outing to Happy Hollow with Yvonne, returning happy, tired, and crusty-faced thanks to a face painter. Henry really got into playing his part: “Dad-O, he was ‘hoo-ing’ for, like, an hour!” reported a slightly exasperated Finn. The boys even rocked their new look to the mall & Lego Store that evening. Boy was it tough explaining that we had to wash faces before bedtime…

Here’s a little gallery featuring our Beasts of the Northern Not-So-Wild. 🙂

Whether it’s the warm air or something in the proverbial water, our lads have taken a real shine to shedding their shirts and putting on “muscle shows.” Finn’s been captaining the “fighter team” of preschool superheroes, with G-Man as his able lieutenant. The other evening they asked whether they could do a muscle show involving some tug-of-war the back yard. When I asked whether Finn was sure he could compete with me, he was quick to retort, “Hey! I’m the boss of the fighter team! I do this every day of my life!” :-p Enjoy the pics.

I’m kinda charmed that the lads remain just as enamored of all things construction-related as they ever were. Yesterday Henry decided to try jousting me with a pair of tiny orange safety cones, declaring, “These are my hand-not-getting-hurt-ers, Dad-O.”

As for Finny, we dig him the most. 😉

Ironic “facial hair,” age 3. 🙂

Downside: A blizzard leaves you flightless & stuck in Denver for an extra day.
Upside: Bonus trampoline mayhem with cousins!! 🙂

Here’s a little gallery.