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. 🙂
Another exciting milestone for the Micronaxx: G-Man is now the proud occupant of his own big boy bed–and a bunk bed at that!
Margot did most of the assembly last weekend (with me contributing my usual strong-back/weak-mind stuff), and the dudes are suitably enthralled. They love the presence of “the trundle” that hides underneath the lower bed, though they were a bit disappointed that it’s no good for the requested “zooming around the room.” The plan is to keep the guys in their separate rooms/beds for the foreseeable future, but the bunk gives us nice options for the future.
I grabbed a few reaction videos that we might get to share soon; for now, though, check out the young pirates in their new “ship.“
We get a huge kick out of our boys’ verbal stylings. Sometimes, they simply can’t quite pronounce a word correctly, and the results are pretty funny. But other times, (thanks to their goofy Mom-o and Dad-o) they’ve picked up the tendency to play around with language and create a lot of their own words. Here’s a little sampling of both sorts:
Confibian: a vehicle that operates on both land and in water
Deppity: The sheriff’s right hand man
Trankalizer: what you shoot into the butt of a rampaging dinosaur
Toothpoke: what Dad-o likes to use on his teeth after a meal
Constructions: what you have to read in order to build Lego helicopters
Hasta Moo-Lego: Micronaxx interpretation of “hasta luego”
Q. What’s better than going to a party, getting fed warm homemade tofu, and getting to “threaten” partygoers with promises of “causing mayhem”?
A. Doing all those things and then getting to try on a real firefighter’s helmet!
Thanks to Mom-O’s friend Sue & her husband (the SJFD veteran) for their hospitality.
Our guys are pretty physically cautious. Whereas their little buddies bomb around on Strider bikes & swing from monkey bars, our guys tend to creep along.
That’s why I was so pleased to see how much they took to “giant bouncy land” on Saturday night. Both dudes threw themselves into the fun–literally–and kept charging up and down the big slides. Finn decided he was Han Solo riding a tauntaun, making me a ferocious wampa. Here’s a rough little clip of me chasing him. Would you believe that Henry not only followed in Finn’s footsteps, but solo-bombed the big slide himself?
Long before we had the lads, I started eyeing our long driveway and (cue chin-stroke) planning. What better landing pad for The Big Guy & his team? I just had to wait a few years to put my plans in action!
On Christmas Eve the boys put out a big bowl full of Cheerios to feed the reindeer. After they hit the sack, Margot & I got busy carving a potato into a hoof-shaped stamp. I grabbed the guys’ water-soluble* brown paint from downstairs, dunked the stamp, and got busy stamping away, then drawing some sleigh marks for good measure.
The next morning we trekked outside for a little “CSI” (“Christmas Scene Investigation”). Here are a few shots of the scene we discovered.
*(We hope!)
Here’s to a delightfully bizarre 2012. 🙂
On a brighter note, Happy New Year from Finny & Party Hat Leo (plus Mom-O, Dad-O, and G-Man)!
An inexplicably mustachioed Finnster got wistful realizing that our present-stash had been fully depleted. (And boy, the poor guy cried today while Mom-O started packing away the Christmas decorations.)
In today’s little gallery, you can see the covetous Finnster admiring some red velvet cake; the guys building Lincoln Logs with Grandpa; goosestepping Henry being “Dr. Bucketfoot;” the guys enjoying “Emergency kit” puzzles from Auntie Laura; and more.
We’ve had a spectacular Christmas week with the boys, from making our traditional Red Velvet Cake (and licking the beater!), to opening and playing with new toys.
Santa delivered exactly what the boys asked for – Thomas engines, trucks, and more Legos. Needless to say, there have been many derailments, traffic jams, pile-ups, and modified vehicles. For instance, Tow Mater was turned into a Christmas tree-trimming truck! The guys also scored a set of Lincoln Logs, and are keen on learning how to build a top-notch log cabin (following the lead of their resident expert, Grandpa). Here’s our first little gallery of the Christmas proceedings.