As Beldar Conehead would say, “We will honor your Halloween ritual by paying homage to the symbolic vegetable orb!” 🙂
We’ve had fun taking the lads to the pumpkin patch with their Pasitos amigos, and then over to Casa de Wiggin for their first pumpkin carving. Check it out!
Henry despises having his hair washed. He hollers, cries, squirms and complains about getting his hair washed Every. Single. Time. We’ve had him watch his brother stay calm and cool during the whole process, hoping he’d observe and learn. We’ve tried all sorts of techniques to make the hairwashing more pleasant. We’ve even tried to wash his hair as infrequently as possible, but he’s a little boy, and the grime builds up fast!
Finally, we came up with a bribe (a chocolate-covered raisin) and an accompanying chant (a bathtime chanty?) that goes a little something like this: “Calm and cool and you get a RAI-sin!” We sing it over and over while we wash Henry’s hair, to remind him that he can stay cool, and also to try and distract him from the proceedings. Finny even sings along with us. The phrasing is based on one of the guys’ favorite cartoon characters, Fireman Sam, whose theme song admonishes listeners to stay “cool and calm” when they hear that fire alarm. The little song actually seems to work for little Hen, who tries very hard to settle down, knowing that the coveted raisin is coming!
We find that we’re advising the guys–and ourselves–to stay cool and calm quite a bit these days. Two-year old Henry, who already has his Master of Histrionics degree, and Finny the three-and-a-half year old who’s struggling for total independence, tend to lose their cool more frequently than we’d like. There are many reminders to “use your words” instead of going from zero to instant hollering/whining, reminders to share, reminders to ask for things nicely instead of grabbing and snatching, and reminders to stay cool and calm in order to achieve one’s desired results.
Every once in awhile, we can see our hard work paying off. Last night, as Finny erupted into a fit about something at the dinner table, I calmly & coolly told him his options were to chill out and stay at the table, or go to his room until he could be nice to be around. He of course chafed at his options and began to reload the barrels of his whine cannon, until I gave him The Look (you know the one, the “I mean business” look). At which point, he hopped off his chair and retreated to his room without another word. John and I looked at each other in amazement. We may have even high-fived! And when Finny came back a couple minutes later, cool and calm prevailed.
John nudged me and whispered, “I think we deserve a raisin!”
Poor Calvin’s dad. Growing up I never understood why, when asked over & over to read Hamster Huey & the Gooey Kablooie, he’d groan & roll his eyes. I get it now.
For the last several weeks (months? millennia?), Henry’s insisted that I “tell the Mater story,” recounting Rescue Squad Mater (see below) from memory. I’m a pretty transparent guy, and I guess I must’ve muttered some complaint after the thousandth telling. Today as I put him down for a nap, I thought I’d gotten away clean–until from the darkness I heard “I would like the Mater story, Dad-O!” As I was busy palming my face and heading back into his room, Henry added gleefully “…again and again!” Busted! ;-P
Ah well; someday, I know, the last thing the guys’ll want is to hear stories from the old man. For now I try to enjoy it, again and again.
Q. What do twelve bucks & an idle Friday night get you at Goodwill?
A. Pinktastic threads!
Today we helped little friend Charlotte celebrate her third birthday at a pink-themed party, so last night we did a quick run to the store and got a few fun accessories. Henry kept disappearing in his lid, and I felt like cutting holes in the top so that he could look through it (a la that kid from Fat Albert ;-)).
Yesterday we took the lads to an apple orchard for some apple picking with a few of our (and their) friends.
We drove over towards Watsonville, and as we arrived, the sun broke through the clouds and set us up for a perfect day. Everyone had a blast. Finny was excitedly counting the apples in his special green apple bag, and at the bottom of the (very steep) hill, there were cute horsey tire swings for the kids to ride, and a shady spot for the parents to rest. Here’s a little gallery of the proceedings.
After our orchard adventure, we drove over to Moss Landing and picnicked on tacos and burritos in a cute little park. The park was next to a terrific little art gallery, where the artist had built all sorts of fantastic play houses for kids, including a submarine turret, caboose, and lighthouse. Needless to say, the kids loved clambering around and acting as lookouts from the top of the sub.
We took a bunch of our small apples to preschool today to share with the class, and we made apple crisp out of some of the bigger apples. Finny and Henry enjoyed sampling the goods as they transferred them into the cooking pot! It was a terrific way to wrap up the weekend.
Update: Here’s a little video from the outing, wherein Finn makes a special beverage suggestion. 😉
As Finny might say, “Ay Dios mio!” A couple of weeks ago at “pre cool”, Henry lost his beloved little owl blankie, better known as Ollie. When John arrived at Pasitos to pick the boys up at the end of the day, Henry immediately told him about his missing buddy. None of the maestras had been able to find him after searching high and low. John told Henry that perhaps Ollie had decided to fly home and would meet Henry there. And after a quick, surreptitious text message to me, I grabbed one of our spare Ollies and had him ready and waiting!
Henry, of course, was none the wiser, and was amazed that Ollie had “flown” home on his own! Now, John and I were slightly worried that the original Ollie might show up at preschool again, and we were hoping the maestras would be savvy enough to hide him if they found him, so we could stick with the idea that there was only one buddy.
The following week, the boys went to school with buddies in tow. This time, when Dad-o arrived to pick them up, he was in for a big surprise…He walked in the door and was met by an ecstatic Henry, who exclaimed “Two Ollies!” Turns out Henry found Ollie #1 tangled up amongst his nap gear (mat, sheet, blanket), and of course he was already cuddling Ollie #2. We’re not sure if he came up with this on his own, or if one of the maestras planted the seed, but Henry came to the conclusion that the two Ollies were brothers, and that one of them had flown to preschool during the lunch break. And rather than being confused about double Ollies, he was joyful! Now he had two buddies to snuggle – what could be better?!
Ever since, Hen’s been vigilant about having both Ollies around for naptime, playtime, and bedtime. Of course, that means that we now have yet another buddy to keep track of, but it’s worth it. It is absolutely adorable to watch him cuddle both guys wearing an ear-to-ear grin.
At risk of burning you out on these things, here are a few more Henry-isms gathered over the last several months:
The Finnfatha continues to try stretching his verbal muscles. I’m totally charmed by his sometimes goofy-sounding attempts at sophistication:
Good times over the last few months with the big guy:
We keep collecting random Micronaxx bits via Twitter, and I realize I haven’t shared any in months. Here, then, is a sample set from the G-Man:
*I learned later that Margot had responded to the peeing with a sarcastic, “Oh, that’s awesome.”
“How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child.” — Shakespeare
“How sharp are G-Man’s teeth under that blanket??” — Dad-O
Clearly I brought it on myself. 😉
At lunch yesterday my friend Iván, father of a 1-year-old girl, remarked on how she’s uncannily similar to him in her mannerisms–things she hasn’t been taught & almost couldn’t have observed. When his mom sees her granddaughter pout or make certain faces, Iván says, she says “It’s you!!”
Our guys can be similar. I’ll sometimes catch Henry chewing on his knuckles or forearm. “I’m not eating my arm!” he’ll declare, but guess what? It’s just like my weird habit (which I caught myself doing while writing this post!)–and my dad’s for that matter.
Finny, meanwhile, has taken a keen interest in his often banged-up feet. “Check out my blood toes!” he’ll crow. Taking off his Crocs he declares, “A flock of blood toes is on the loose!” Offered some itch-busting eczema lotion, he shakes his head: “I’ll just play with my blood toes.” Let’s just say, the old man can relate. 🙂
When I asked Margot if she thought the boys mirrored any of her mannerisms, she had to think about it for a minute. “Oh yeah,” she said, “Finny’s definitely inherited the ‘I’m ready to go home now’ declaration from me.” (A rather well-known story about 2-year-old Margot concerns her wandering out into the middle of a grown-up Christmas party with her mom’s purse, finding her mom, and very definitively indicating she was ready to leave. NOW.)
Oh yeah, and there’s the stubbornness that both boys evince pretty frequently. We have no idea where they get that…!
Dad-o and I work pretty hard to come up with new, exciting experiences for the guys. The world’s a big place and there’s lots to see and do, so we’re trying to take advantage of as much of it as we can (and as is age-appropriate)! This past Sunday, we headed north to San Francisco for a boat tour of the SF Bay. They guys were pretty excited about the idea of a boat ride, having read about all kinds of ships in various books, and having seen a ton of them at lake Tahoe last month. Turns our our good friend Reen, a San Francisco resident of many years, had never taken a boat tour of the bay either! So we picked her up on our way to pier, and off we went to embark on our mini-adventure.
We totally lucked out on the weather. It was a gorgeous, sunny day without a cloud in the sky. As we left the pier, we spied the big floppy sea lions sunning themselves on the docks. As we motored past Alcatraz we told the boys that’s where “bad dudes” get sent to jail. “I’m not a bad dude!” exclaimed Henry. The most exciting part of the tour was when we cruised underneath the majestic Golden Gate Bridge – a new perspective on such an impressive landmark! Finny was fascinated by all the small sailboats that were practically tipped completely over in the stiff winds coming off the ocean.
Now, I won’t claim it was a photographically brilliant outing: trying to corral the constantly running G-Man as he swerved across the gently pitching deck, always eager to do a header down some staircase or other, kept Dad-O largely off the camera. Still, here’s a little gallery. Everyone had a ball, and our little sailors can’t wait to do it again! (The strangers in one of the photos were some kids doing a photo scavenger hunt on Fisherman’s Wharf.)
Despite our clear wishes, Finn loves shoving bits of fuzz up his nose–or should I say, he loves having Leo do it. For months now Finn’s claimed to be our ally, advising us, “I keep telling that crazy Looen not to keep shoving stuff up there, but he just really likes to do it!”
Meanwhile Leo has become fast friends with Menace (short for “Bushy-Tailed Menace”), Finn’s little chipmunk from Colorado. Leo drives Finn’s “Massive Crane” while Menace sits in the operator’s cab. As they’re a really professional crew, Finn tells us “They even have little [company] jackets.” (I’ve gotta get to work in Photoshop making those happen!)
Anyway, long ago we used to have big fun passing little objects through a knothole in Finn’s floor, sending them down to the basement & then back up. Finn’s big-guy bed ended up over the hole, so it’s been long forgotten. During a bedtime story the other night, I said that Menace had flown up in the air, gone down a crack, and ended up in a mysterious area: Under the bed! In the story Leo & Finn headed to the rescue and discovered (cue dramatic music) the hole!
“Raarh,” said Leo. “That looks like a great hole for stuffing things into! It’s like a nostril in the floor!!”
And do you think it was “game on”? Because oh yes, it was on. 🙂 Ever since then Finn (or rather, Team Leo) has been enthusiastically driving the crane under the bed, then lowering its hook down into the basement. I came home yesterday to discover that Finn had arranged a step stool to facilitate hooking on cargo, and that now a fuzzy toy chicken was swinging freely around the basement! “Mom-O asked if this was a chicken-swinging factory,” he reports, “and it is!!”
When I went to capture the action on video, I told the guys that Grandma & Grandpa would love to see it. As you can hear in the clip, Henry was sure we’d see G&G on the camera itself, so afterwards we fired up the iPad for some quick video chatting with my folks. What a neat way to show them a little slice of the guys’ lives!
PS–As the story continues, Leo & Menace stuff tons of popcorn down the hole. When they go to the basement to see the resulting “corn cone,” the neighbor cats scratch at the window, then *burst* through and spray corn everywhere. The boys then each grab a gato (Finn taking the fatty, Hen the smaller one), flip them upside down, and sweep with them like feather dusters. They kickstart the cats’ “motors” via their tails, then use them to suck up all the corn. Vrooooom!!
And now may we present The Sheer Joy of a Very Young Boy Blasting Himself in the Face with a Hose. 🙂 Here’s the gallery.
G-Man tries on some warm-looking headwear at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk yesterday. (We had a blast playing in the sand & sea, but boy it can be unexpectedly chilly over there.)
File under “Things That’s Embarrass the Guys in a Few Years.”
Lately we’ve been spending a good bit of time with our friends the Wiggins, and I’ve advised dad Michael: Hide your ladies!
Recently Margot walked by Finn’s room and heard him singing in his bed, crooning what sounded like “The Ju-li-aaaan-a Song.” When asked to repeat it, he turned a little sheepish. Later, though, he grew more bold: “Mom-O,” he announced, “I’m going to marry Juliana!” Margot explained that Juliana is already married to Michael, but Finn was unfazed. “That’s okay,” he said, “In a week or so, when I’m a man, I’ll marry Juliana.” (Knowing this “marrying” stuff–whatever it is–gets a laugh, he now claims he’ll marry Michael, marry his brother, etc.)
Henry’s a little more realistic, setting his sights on little Hazel. He and I had a fun little exchange a few weeks ago as I entered his bedroom:
Henry, waking, greets me: “Who is it? Is it ladies?”
Me: “No, it’s Dad-O.”
H: “Oh. I was dreaming… of ladies… ladies in my crib.”
🙂
Random bonus: My German colleagues sometimes say “Mach’ keine Fisimatenten,” meaning don’t do anything stupid/any nonsense that could lead to harm. Apparently the phrase dates back to when occupying French soldiers would call out to German fräuleins, inviting them to “Visite ma tente” (visit my tent). Thus German parents told them not to do any “Fisimatenten”. I thought of this phrase when Henry was showing Hazel the tent that’s set up in the basement. No fisimatenten, little lady!
Oh, Henry: Might you ever get a haircut *without* becoming a hysterical bucking bronco? The little guy keeps flipping out (almost literally) in the barber’s chair: “I don’t like the bee!” (buzzing clippers). Ah well: at least he finally wore himself out yesterday, making his post-chop sucker all the sweeter.
