- G-Man:
- “‘Steely Dan?'” Henry’s incredulous. “What do they steal?”
Me: “No, ‘steel,’ like metal.”
H: “Why do they steal metal??” - Hen, on hearing some hip hop: “Rap music?! Turn that off!!” He then cries ’til we give in & turn on Johnny Cash.
- Henry is mashing up “Peanuts” with Peter Gabriel. “Shock the Lucy to-night!” he sings.
- Henry’s midday requests: Some soup, Dave Brubeck, and a nap. #MyBoy
- Henry asks me to explain a Taylor Swift breakup song.
Me: “You’ll understand when you’re older.”
H: “Maybe I won’t want to understand…”
- “‘Steely Dan?'” Henry’s incredulous. “What do they steal?”
- Finnster:
- “I can easily make this girl’s voice with my body,” says Finn of Ellie Goulding. “I can’t make that Axl Rose stuff, though.”
- From deep within a pile of Lego forest police loot, Finn’s begun to sing: “Police Navidad!”
- Finn’s singing his bizarre version of Rudolph: “…You might even say it blows!” (He calls the character “The Ol’ ‘Dolph.)
- “Dad-O, when i grow up I want to be a policeman who acts like a ninja,” Finn tells me, “but not a bad cop like that Sheriff John Brown.” [from I Shot The Sheriff]
- I hear Finn singing: “‘…so call me maybe.’ Oh Dad-O, that song gets stuck in my head! I sing it at preschool, I sing it everywhere!!“
- The boys on “Dirty Deeds”: “AC/DC sound like pirates!” Of the Ramones’ “Sheena”: “These guys are old warriors! They’re berserkers!”
- I imagine our always-underfoot kids singing like the Scorpions’ “Rock You Like A Hurricane”: “HERE I am!! (bom, bomp) FORM a human bar-i-cade!!”
- The boys are becoming a bit “pants-optional.” I now sing to them some modified Beatles: “Hey! You’ve Got To Hide Your Butt Away.”
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OSHenanigans
aka, That Moment Right Before You Get Kicked Out Of The Hardware Store 🙂
Fortunately the patient staff at our local Orchard Supply Hardware (OSH) are super good sports, and they let the boys & me kill plenty of time “horseando” (horsing around) with all manner of plungers, pipes, and more. Here’s a little gallery of our silliness from the other evening.
(Hat tip to our friend Tara for coining the term “OSHenanigans”)
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Tails from the Beach
“Look at my tail, Dad-O! I’m an awesome lion!!” 🙂
- Language:
- “Dad-O, why is ‘Leonard’ part ‘nerd’?” asks Finn.”
Yeah,” adds Henry, “and is ‘Peter’ made of poop? ‘Pee-turd!'” - “Ah-froot-erzayn, Dad-O,” Henry tells me. “That’s how fruit says Auf Wiedersehen.”
- Finn: “What’s the English word for guacamole?”
Margot: “Guacamole.”
Finn: “What’s the Spanish word, then?”
Margot: “Guacamole.”
This is blowing his mind. 🙂 - Finn explained family slang to his teacher today: “My dad calls me ‘sucka,’ and I enjoy it!”
- “‘Damn,'” says Henry, quoting his mom, then explains: “She’s talking about a little wall that holds back water.”
- Henry: “Dad-O, let’s give that road a hit!”
Me: “…?”
Finn, translating: “He means ‘Let’s hit the road!'” - The human bod:
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- I’m not sure the boys drew the right lessons from “The Little Engine That Could.” “Dad-O, we’ll grab those mean engines & pee in their funnels!”
- Henry spies me from the bathroom, his eyes twinkling: “I’m gonna use my large intestine!” Thanks for sharing, buddy :-P!
- We got an eyeful of elephant anatomy at the Oakland Zoo. “That guy must have a *really* big large intestine!” observes Henry.
- Finn’s resisting independence: “I’m not gonna poop by myself at kindergarten, or in high school, or even in *college*!”
- “I’m pretty sure I popped out of Mom-O as a 3-year-old,” says Finn, “’cause I don’t remember being a 1- or 2-year-old.”
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Gone Baby Gone!
Without any forewarning and without any fanfare whatsoever, Finny lost two of his lower incisors today while biting into a Rice Krispie Treat at a birthday party! Check it out below!
[I had no warning from Finny (no mentions of teeth wiggling, pain, etc.), so I was quite shocked at the party. In retrospect, I’d noticed earlier in the day that one of his teeth seemed to be turned, but I didn’t give it a lot of thought. (I mean, how much does one stare into other people’s mouths, anyway?) The teeth were utterly gone, leading me to think that Finn had simply eaten them, but later he reported, “I though they were hard Krispies, so I threw them into the grass!” Yeesh.
Now we have to figure out the going rate for teeth these days. (Half dollars like my parents got me are hard to come by at 9pm on a Sunday night.) We just don’t want to overpay lest the boys get any terrible ideas!
Oh, and Finn’s kinda fascinated by his new relationship with Leo, the lion blankie who’s always clenched his mouth. “You know what’s weird, Mom-O? Now that my teeth are gone, I can just pull Leo out of my mouth without opening it! He comes right through the hole!” –J.]
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Brotherly Negotiations
The guys continue to negotiate the finer points of sharing their toys with each other. Most of the time, sharing is still a pretty contentious topic with lots of grabbing, pointing fingers, pint-sized threats, and pouting.
However, there are a few golden moments when they are being super nice and polite to each other, saying please and thank you, happily exchanging toys. In those moments, I think what we’re trying to teach them is actually sinking in.
I also like to imagine Finn and Henry singing a little song like this: {sung to the tune of “Happy Together” by the Turtles}
Imagine me and you, I do
We share our toys day and night, and night and day
We play with matchbox cars, and Thomas too
We’re sharing together
Cars and blocks, and trucks and tools
We share together so nicely
The only pal for me is you, and you for me
We’re sharing together
I can’t see me sharing with no-one but you
yeah all our toys
When we’re playing, brother i’ll be so nice to you
yeah all our toys
Ba-ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba-ba
Ba-ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba-ba
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Can you spare a brother some bamboo?
‘Cause I’ve got a little panda to feed. 🙂
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Of Prides and Parliaments
The boys rooms are slowly turning into wildlife refuge areas (of the faux-fur, stuffed variety, that is). As you know, our man Finny is a big lion fan. He has amassed several leonine amigos, in addition to his standbys Leo and Leomaran. Friends and family have cottoned on to his love of all things lion. His growing pride now consists of those two, plus Cuttely Buttey, Whiskery Fellow, Rar Rar, Tiny Lion, and Lion Pillow.
Henry is doing his part to build an avian sanctuary. His love for owls started with his little blankie buddies Ollie and Catamaran, and has now expanded to include Blanca, Watchful Owl, Hoo Hoo, Big Owl, Roy, an owl-to-be-named later given to him by his grandma, and Owl Pillow. Having heard that his brother’s group of lions is called a “pride,” he asked what a group of owls is called. So, we looked it up and found out that groups of owls are referred to as “parliaments.” I think this must make Henry the Minister of Strigidae.
[While Googling just now for an appropriate illustration, I came across the story of a lady with an 18,000-item collection of owl paraphernalia. Yeesh—I think G-Man may be on his way to becoming a Crazy Owl Lady! –J.]
You know what’s pretty great? A Christmas Eve visit from Santa Claus himself!
It happens that a certain Detective John Fahrney can pull some strings with the big guy (going back to solving the big eggnog heist of ’88, I think), and with his help we got a very surprising knock on the door. (I love Finn’s body language in the first photo.) Cousin Jenna was a bit apprehensive, but the Micronaxx took right to Santa, enjoying the cookies he brought, showing him to the Christmas tree, and reviewing the wish lists they’d sent him. Check out our little gallery from the occasion.
So, our guys have at last experienced snow!
Galena was blessed with a great mixture of snow (let’s say 8-9″ plus periodic reinforcements throughout the week) and freezing-but-not-freezing temperatures that kept things clean & fluffy throughout our stay. Thanks to our old neighbor Christy, the boys were outfitted with snowpants & boots, and they relished helping Grandpa shovel & helping me craft a snowman (“Beardo,” Finn dubbed him). We tore up the hills, too, packing in three separate sledding trips. Check out the frosty gallery!
We spent the first couple of days of our holiday travels in Chicago – to do a little sightseeing, and visit with family before heading west towards “Big G” (Galena, IL) to visit John’s folks. We managed to pack in quite a bit in under 48 hours!
We started with an L train ride from Lincoln Park out to Skokie (past Wrigley field, among other things) – a big hit with our train-loving dudes. In Skokie, we got to hang out and visit with several of John’s aunts, uncles, cousins, and their kids (gotta love the Irish, cocktails and beer available at 11:30 a.m.!). Poor Henry was feverish with a cold, and conked out in one of aunt Jane’s bedrooms, but managed to rally enough to be strolled around downtown Chicago. We got to see the famous “bean,” and the beautiful lions at the Art Institute, both of which they’d read about in the I Love Chicago board book Grandma Nack sent us before the trip. We even caught a glimpse of the Zamboni on the ice before the skaters hit the rink!
And last but not least, after triangulating and re-triangulating our location and the time of day with the CTA Holiday Lights Train schedule, and then waiting and waiting at the station for the famous Holiday L train that was running about 30 minutes late, we saw, boarded, and rode the Holiday Lights Train! The guys were beside themselves – and the train was fantastic – decorated and lit inside and out, with Christmas music on the P.A., an elfish conductor handing out candy canes, and Santa himself in his sleigh, riding on a decorated flatbed car. It was worth the wait and all the effort John put in to figure out where we needed to be and when in order to catch it.
Before we headed west, we went to Lincoln Park Zoo and saw lions, red pandas, owls, sea lions, wolves, bears, and pumas. The lioness roared and roared for quite some time, which was a big thrill for Mr. Finny, our resident lion enthusiast. It was a totally great way to start our trip – and here’s the requisite gallery illustrating our adventures.
We had some snowy delights with the lads today in Galena’s Grant Park. More (pics/vids as well as sledding) to follow soon! 🙂
I’m delighted to say that the will-they won’t-they saga of our trying to ride Chicago’s Holiday Lights El Train ended in success last night!
Our friend Samantha had told us about the train a couple of months ago, and ever since then we were hoping we could catch it with the guys. It runs only on certain days, and the CTA doesn’t publish the exact times it runs until a few days ahead of time. We’d hoped to catch the train after our visit to the Murrays yesterday, but Henry got sick & we had to leave early. We thought our plans might be toast, but fortunately within a couple of hours he recuperated enough that we could drive to a different station & try again. We were all set to catch the 6:32 train (the last one of the night!), but then trains came & went with no sign of it. We were just about to give up hope when a nice family appeared alongside us & said that the train was running half an hour late. Thus we held our ground, and you can see the results below. 🙂
Off we go to the actual snow! Chicago & “Big G.,” here we come. 🙂
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MicroCivics
Glimpsed at Pasitos the other day, it appears that the class has been learning about voting through the power of breakfast crackers. It looks like the boys abstained from voting; had they not, the Ritz victory would have been even more commanding!
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The Darn Cohaagens
Brutalizing!
Brutalando!
Brutalini!
A few months ago, the boys started smothering me in blankets. Maybe it was the lack of oxygen to my brain, but I thought of an Arnold Schwarzenegger line in Total Recall: “Come on, Cohaagen [the villain], you have what you want, now give the people air!!”—or as people like to render his accent, “Give deez people ehyar!!” From inside the stifling blanket pile I blurted out (in cheesy accent), “Come on, you little Cohaagens, give the Dad-O air!!” Man was that a hit!
Ever since then, the lads have been requesting “brutalizing” (or as they Spanglify it, “brutalando,” or in faux-Italian, “brutalini”), insisting that they be the Darn Cohaagens while I play Ahnuld. I try to get into the bathroom to turn on the fan (y’know, to give deez people ehyar), and they race around turning it off, then re-burying me in blankets. Ja, good times! 🙂
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Seeing Clearly Now
Finny had an unexpected visit to Dr. Feldman, our optometrist, last week. Recently, we’d noticed that his right eye had started to turn too far inward when he was focusing on near objects – like while he was drawing, or watching videos, or playing with Legos. He’d been to Feldman for a check-up in the spring, and everything checked out fine, so we thought it’d be a good idea to have him checked again to figure out what was going on with the eye.
Turns out Finny is farsighted, and after a few quick tests that indicated the issue, Dr. Feldman performed a more extensive exam to confirm it. Finny’s brain and eyes were working really hard to compensate for his inability to focus at certain distances, which is what was causing his eye to turn inward. The doc told me that Finny should be fitted with glasses, and he’d need to wear them pretty much full-time – the only exception being outdoor physical play where he is not focusing on near objects.
So, Finny tried on several little pairs of frames, and we picked the ones that looked and fit the best (and ordered two pair since one will inevitably meet a destructive end at the hands of a 4-year-old). A couple of days later, we were back at Feldman’s to get the completed specs fitted to Finny’s face, and then he was off to the races. Ever since we picked them up, he’s been super-cooperative about wearing them, and trying to remember to put them into their little case at the end of the day. He’s working on taking them on and off without stretching or torquing the frames, as well as how to clean them with his little lens cloth. I think his easygoing nature is helping make the transition pretty easy, and I also think the specs make enough difference in his vision that he can’t argue with the fact that he’s seeing more clearly. We think our bug guy looks pretty cute in his new frames, and we’re happy we got his vision sorted out!
An interesting side effect of Finny getting glasses is that he and I have established a noticeably tighter bond with each other. I think because I wear glasses, and I was working really hard to make sure he was comfortable (and even excited) about getting his own pair, he’s been especially affectionate toward me. I’m hearing lots more frequent “I love you, Mom-o”s, and he’s even bestowed one of his favorite stuffed lions on me to cuddle with while I sleep. It’s very sweet, and I’ll take as much as I can get!
You spin me right ’round, baby, like a record…
We had a (surprisingly non-puke-inducing) ball taking the lads on all manner of rides at San Jose’s Christmas In The Park carnival. I’ve said it before, but man, what a godsend that Hen’s finally tall enough to accompany Finn, bombing through all sorts of pirate ships, cartoon houses, and more. Check it out:
We spent a delightful day at the Oakland (or as Henry kept calling it, “Oklahoma”) Zoo, checking out lions, learning more than we might’ve wanted about elephants’ pooping (“He must have a really large large intestine!” noted Hen), and hanging out with the Wiggii. We all braved the semi-fearsome Tiger Coaster, as you can see here:
What started small a few weeks back is quickly becoming an addiction, and the guys are clamoring to check out the rides of the San Jose Winter Carnival tonight. Wish us luck!
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Higher on the Squire
When it comes to PJ pants, Finn makes me think of Sly & The Family Stone: “I wanna, I wanna take ya high-er!!” 🙂
