Henry Seamus, I’m so proud: when Dad-O, forgetting the date, inadvertently dressed the G-Man in a “London, England” t-shirt, the wee Irishman promptly puked all over it. Aww, shucks. 🙂
The Green Beings & I were glad to spend a bit of the day helping friend Harper Hogarty ring in her third birthday, with Finno ensconced in his cool new “Finn” ballcap (a birthday gift from his Liggett GPs). Here’s a handful of photos from the day. (See also St. Patrick’s gone by.)
“The amazing thing about parenthood,” I’ve heard it said, “isn’t that adults make children, but that children make adults.” How true that is as I watch our lads slowly tear apart the beautiful, beautiful Lego kits they’ve gotten. Remember that awesome Lego helicopter from Christmas? Now, through the magic of sharing with one’s brother, the chopper’s chopped:
I know it’s all part of the process, and I couldn’t be happier to see Finn creating new vehicles daily. (Some kids just play with assembled Legos as if they were simply regular vehicles–just really fragile ones.) Still… oh, kids, it’s hard on old dad–but I’m growing up. 🙂
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:
…and so on. 🙂
My folks & the guys had a literal ball–or three–playing together in the back yard. After scoring a few big bouncy balls at Walgreens, my mom regaled the boys with tales of her illustrious basketball career, and the boys showed off their antics with the “Long Arm” (basically walking together while holding a stick, ending with a pratfall from Finn). We were charmed that the big guy picked up on my parents having actual names besides “Grandma/Grandpa,” and he started cheekily prefacing every toss to Grandpa by saying, “Time for Jim to have a turn!”
Here’s a little gallery of photos, plus a short clip:
We feel so happy & lucky to have gotten to celebrate the Finnster’s Fourth with so many excellent pals (both large & small), and with my folks who trekked all the way from Illinois. We couldn’t have asked for more gorgeous weather–72 with not a cloud in the sky (rather different from last year’s slightly shivery fun). Everyone seemed to enjoy packing away greasy pizza & Margot’s brilliant fire truck cake before taking a whack at the piñata. Thankfully neighborhood “big kids” Dom & Charlotte were able to liberate the candy at last.
Thanks so much to everyone for coming out and partying with us! Here’s a little gallery from the festivities.
Happy B-day to our Fantastic Four-Year-Old!! We’ve had a great day celebrating the Finnster’s cumpleaños with his Nack grandparents, and we can’t wait to dive into tomorrow’s party, piñata, and fire truck cake. He was so excited about his Lego birthday present that he literally spun out of control, doing a donut by the couch! 😀 We’ll share more photos and videos soon; for now, here’s that moment of ecstasy (click it for larger):
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.
To put a nice cherry on the end of Dad-O’s long & fruitful sabbatical, we cruised over the mountains to nearby Capitola & are enjoying a few days of sand and (meager) sun. We’ll have more pics & vids to share soon, but meanwhile here are a couple of images from today’s trip to Marianne’s Ice Cream in Santa Cruz. I’ve captioned the first, “Sweet inside, sour outside.” 😉
On Sunday the boys enjoyed meeting both a ferret (Silvio!) and a parrot (Solomon!) at Happy Hollow. During that night’s T.A.L.B., we spooled up some related craziness (complete with inexplicable accent), then hit “record.” Press the little arrow below to give it a listen:
(Here’s the direct link in case your phone/computer doesn’t support Flash.)
From the Micronaxx basement to your table… 🙂
We haven’t done a wrap-up like this since October (!), so here’s a belated round-up of the guys’ little sayings since then.
I was delighted to score the fam a bunch of good presents during my time in Guatemala. I’ve never seen a country more into owls, making it a perfect place to get “Oswaldo,” an owl bank who now hangs out with Henry’s guys Ollie & Catamaran. Finny got a rooster (from our bedtime stories), and each guy got a typical Guatemalan vehicle–a “chicken bus” for Hen (<--appropriate? :-)) and a "tuk tuk" scooter for Finn. Now our "T.A.L.B." is a nonstop story of "bad dudes" stealing tuk-tuks & getting chased by a Guatemalan guy named Hubert (a real person!), etc. And not to be left out, Margot is enjoying some freshly picked coffee, chocolate-covered nuts & pineapple, and a new necklace. Check out the guys meeting their new buddies.
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. 🙂
