It’s sort of belatedly occurred to me that our parents, not being Facebook users, haven’t gotten to see the random “Mobile Ephemera” that we’ve been uploading on the go over the last year & change. So, Mom(s) and Dad(s), if you’re up for seeing some fun bits (everything from Finn modeling Mom-O’s boots to chubby-legged Henry meeting dinos at the doc’s), check this out. (You don’t need a password or anything.)
For our Facebook-enabled friends, as Gilda Radner would say, “Never mind.” 🙂
Heh–seeing this little cartoon, I had to think of G-Man:
The boy gets an endless kick out of putting progressively more enormous things (e.g. a new panda pillow that’s bigger than his torso) upon his head, looking at us with a smile, and proudly declaring simply, “Hat!” 🙂
Detecting “the Fruit of the Tollhouse” on my breath this AM, a bear-laden Henry started saying, “Cookie, cookie!!” As Margot says, “Double-fisting with bears, eating a cookie, and being held by Dad-O: it’s like a little guy delight sandwich!”
Here’s our happy fella moments ago:
With rainy weather setting in, we’re spending a lot more time in our semi-finished basement. Gazing up at various pipes yesterday, Finn asked, “Did Jason the Mason [a bricklaying pig from Richard Scarry’s world] build this house?”
“No,” I told him, “I think it was a bunch of Nicaraguan dudes.”
Finn paused for a second to think. “Did they drink the agua out of jars–pickle jars?”
“Uh, what do you mean, buddy?” I asked. “What jars?”
“Pickle-agua jars!”
I laughed my head off. Now Nicaragua will forever be the land of pickle agua, full of thirsty workmen slugging back jars of briny water. Maybe they’re big fans of “Delicious Pocket,” Finn’s phonetic rendering of neighborhood restaurant “Tlaquepaque.” And now that Henry has started imitating Finn & refers to his own Leo-style blankie as “Leo,” the Pickleaguans might with the boys a hearty “Vaya con Leos!” 😉
Both Finn and Henry are big fans of the iPhone/iPad app BeBot–a simple little synthesizer that shows a little robot pitching back and forth as you drag your finger around, causing him to “sing.” Henry has taken to carrying me the iPad while saying, “Bebop, Bebop!!” Anyway, this morning Finn decided to be the BeBot, requesting that we play his cheeks to make him whistle:
[Hat tip to fellow dad Matt Strauss for turning us on to BeBot in the first place]
Courtesy of our neighbors Scott and Karen, who set up a Halloween photobooth on their front porch for all the trick-or-treaters. The guys were already coming down from their treat-induced sugar high!
Apropos of nothing, our boys decided to experiment with a little techno-body modification on Saturday morning. (This is why Mom-O shouldn’t leave us alone together. :-))
Here’s a fun shot of our G-man dressed up in his Halloween costume. He makes a handsome little fireman, doesn’t he?
Finny is trying really hard to be a “bad pirate” but darn it, he’s too cute to be a believable scallywag! Â Especially when “Arrrr!” is pronounced “Owww!” Â (click each photo for a larger version)
[Update from playgroup: Mom Ariel Kurtze reports, “”We had a very cute pirate at playgroup this morning! And a very sharing one too, he let Sabrina play with his scimitar :)” –J.]
Want to get a team of toddlers eating out of the palm of your hand? (Figuratively, I mean; they’re all too willing to do it literally.) Get ’em some Mardi Gras beads!
Finn, and Henry in particular, were so enamored of little Harper Hogarty’s bead collection that I started calling him “Jacob Marley” after the chain-dragging ghost in A Christmas Carol. Check it out:
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to capture shots of the three tots running a racetrack pattern, with Finn popping out to startle the little ones (“Surprise!”) and Henry trying to keep up (“Prise!”). It was high-speed hilarity. [Photo courtesy of Harper’s dad, “Papa Hog” Tom]
Later today we’re off to see our friends Tom and Sarah, their daughter Harper (a few months older than Henry), and their own little “El Segundo” who remains in utero. Wanting to jog Finn’s memory about Tom, I said, “You know, he’s the guy with that big beard” (see below). Finny replied, “Is the baby gonna pop out with a little beard?” We shall see, buddy! 🙂
Yesterday morning, the boys were enjoying some sliced banana when Finn grabbed a little toy construction cone, flipped it over, and inserted a banana wedge. “Now it’s an ice cream cone!” he proudly declared. He even made one for his little bro. 🙂
The constant brotherly grappling over toys has officially begun. Now that Henry’s mobile, more coordinated, and can talk a little bit, he is making the most of these new skills by trying to wrestle toys away from his big bro, or destroying Finny’s works-in-progress. To wit, every time Finny’s building something with his legos, or putting together a puzzle, Henry’s right there in Demolition Man mode, doing his best to tear everything apart. To his credit, Finny gives as good as he gets. Clearly Finny’s far too old for Henry’s “baby” toys, and tends to take over the button-pressing, horn honking, shaking, and stacking that G-Man’s still trying to coordinate.
So we’ve got big bro steamrolling little bro, and little bro destroying big bro’s creations. Then the whining and grabbing kick in. But not for long–luckily they’re both fairly receptive to parental intervention and the idea of waiting turns and/or sharing. The one thing they both agree on is looking at books together and watching Wallace and Gromit shorts on the iPad. Honestly, though, the boys tend to play very well together, and usually Henry’s off doing something on his own without a lot of pestering from Finny. We both enjoy watching them hang out and enjoy each other’s company.
It was great to reintroduce Finn to his big Uncle Ted (given that I doubt he remembers their first meeting), and Ted had good fun playing the role of “Uncle Troll.” Check out a few pics (HTML) and a video:
Breaker breaker, 1-9… we got us a CONVOY…
Okay, not quite, but we did get a fun ride with Uncle Ted in his bobtail rig, heading from “Big G” through Scales Mound, on our way up to the truck lot in Shullsburg. We all had a great time, and maybe in the future we can get Ted a bumper sticker that says, “LEO is My Co-Pilot.”
Heh heh–perhaps, according to the NY Times, Henry’s perpetual brow-knitting is just a sign that he’s interested in things:
“‘When babies are interested in something, they tend to do a furrowed brow,’ he continued; parents should understand that babble may be ‘an acoustic version of furrowing one’s brow.'”
Henry hit the 15-month mark on Saturday, which he celebrated by smearing chocolate chip cookies all over his face. Not to worry, though, he ingested plenty of chocolate, too. (Like father like son :D)
We went to visit Dr. S. this morning for his 15-month checkup, and here are the stats: 26 lbs. 3 oz, 31.5 inches tall, 49 cm. head circumference. In a nutshell, he’s a bit on the short side, but he’s holding his own when it comes to his weight (to wit, the aforementioned cookies) and cranium size! The doc was impressed with both his mobility and his chattiness. We estimate that the G-man’s got about 50 words under his belt, which wowed the doctor. I think she may have forgotten how many words Finny had at the same age! She got to hear him talking about his two favorite things: buses (a toy we brought) and doggies, which is what Henry was calling the dinosaur wall decals.
He was a total champ when it came to his vaccinations and only squawked for a couple seconds afterwards. He’s not a huge fan of being poked and prodded by the doc, but cooled out once I held him in my lap so while she listened with the stethoscope and looked into his ears.
While we were in Illinois for Ted’s wedding, we were able to pay a visit to my Uncle Lyman and Aunt Brenda. It was a lot of fun for them to see the guys and how big they’ve both become!
Finn and Henry were thrilled about the Harley parked in the garage, and were excited to climb aboard and play motorcycle. Henry, in fact, was having so much fun he did not want to get down, as evidenced in his scowling face. Either that, or he’s practicing his Harley-rider intimidation skills!The boys also had a blast roaming around the big backyard and playing with the itsy-bitsy dog.
My cousin Kristan also made it out to the house so we could see her, too. We all had a great time and hopefully brought a little extra sunshine to my aunt and uncle’s day!  Here’s the gallery (HTML) of their adventures.
Laughing grandmas + babies = Instant good times. 🙂
It’s really cool to see the Finnster start interacting more with other kids, and during our time in Galena, he had a ball racing cars with little neighbor girl Isabella. Packing his lion-buddy into the back of a truck, he proudly (and sort of inexplicably) declared, “This is called, ‘Leo the M&M’!” From there they were off to the races:
(Click any of the images for a larger version.)
