Last weekend the Nack Pack went back to The Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad in nearby Los Gatos (“Wild gatos!,” says Finn). Check it out!
Just for fun, here’s our vid from the same railroad back when Finn was 11 months old:
We explained that Henry technically had ridden these rails back then, but that from inside Mom-O’s tummy the view was limited. 🙂
The little guy can’t let the big guy hog all the limelight, now can he? 🙂
Thanks to our photographer-friend Maria for the photo. Click for a slightly larger version.
This summer has been a vehicle bonanza for the Micronaxx. Our garage is starting to look like a very small car lot. Henry got a little Tonka ride-on tractor for his birthday, and our nannies Coco and Tiffy bestowed a large Radio Flyer all-terrain wagon and a Harley Davidson Big Wheel on the boys as gifts. The boys absolutely love riding in the big wagon on their way to the barbershop, park, or to visit the newest neighborhood attaction, “the little crocodile in the spiky bush!” (Don’t worry, the crocodile is yard-art  made of cement.)
Finny has gotten super-excited about the Harley, and has really gotten the hang of pedaling himself around. (Steering is another story.) The Harley has lots of fun features, like ticking turn signals, a horn, and engine sounds. It also a “radio” that plays music–this might be his favorite feature, since he ceases pedaling and pauses to rock out, waggling arms akimbo and bouncing around in the seat. It’s the cutest thing ever, as I hope you’ll agree when you watch the video that accompanies the gallery of photos (HTML) of the dudes and their wheels.
COME, my pink-cheeked children,
Follow well in order.
O you youths, western youths,
So impatient, full of action, full of smallguy pride and friendship,
Have the elder races halted?
Do they droop and kvetch, wearied, bent by G-Man’s “walking”…?
[This post brought to you by Walt Whitman & a Cuisinart. ;-)]
Ladies, in about 20 years, it’s all over for ya. You’ve been warned. 🙂
[Update: Seeing this post, the subject says, “That’s Finny up there… bein’ a nudist.”]
Having gotten Finn into pickles last summer, we thought we’d see how his little bro likes ’em. During Saturday’s sojourn to the “Meat Hut,” Pickle Lady saw our wagon rolling up and intercepted us with a fistful of pickles. For a kid who makes some crazy faces & who spits out just about everything these days*, I thought Henry handled it well:
* We call him our resident ruminant.
The resale value of a used iPhone, it turns out, is next to nil. That makes it easier to justify turning retired phones into iPods, and Finn is the beneficiary of my recent upgrade. Now he approaches me and says, “Where are those white headphones? I want a little ‘Funk Soul Brother!'”
Oddly, “Funk Soul Brother” is the one nickname we haven’t given to Goonie G-Man Little Billy Goat Henry, and Finn’s referring to a certain Fatboy Slim track. Here’s his rendition (click on the little gray triangle below the photo to play):[audio:http://www.jnack.com/micronaxx/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/FunkSoul1.mp3|titles=Funk Soul Brother]
Just now as I sat in the gazebo, Finn squeezed in next to me carrying a handful of Gobots.
“Hi, Dad-O.
“Hi, Finny.”
“I’m writing.”
“You’re… writing?”
“Uh-huh.”
“What are you writing?”
“Poems.”
“Poems…? Really? What are the poems about?”
“Hearts.”
“Hearts?… What kind of hearts?”
“Poop hearts… I like talking about poop with you, Dad-O.”
Aaaand, Scene.
Time to fire up the Nack Family Secret Decoder Ring…
“Buffer ’em, Bert!”
Finn’s evidently been listening closely to his Thomas videos. According to Margot,
The other day he rolled Henry’s little shopping cart over to the wall and parked it, then rolled the little walking wagon over towards the shopping cart and said “I’m going to buffer up the wagon to the cart”, which he then proceeded to do. Once the cart and wagon were “buffered up” nicely, he started pushing the conjoined cart and wagon backwards towards the couch so they’d remain buffered until he was done moving them. Cute, huh?
I’m inclined to agree. 🙂
After weeks of anticipation, yesterday we departed for the Island of Sodor (er, the nearby mountain town of Felton) to ride the rails with our big buddy Thomas the Tank Engine! Finn & I had come over last year with Grandma & Grandpa Nack, but he was too little to remember it, and Henry & Margot were attending for the first time. (Last year we somehow weren’t up for taking a 2-week-old on a steam train.) As you’d imagine, we had a ball, and with the brief exception of bath time, Finn has yet to relinquish his special Thomas souvenir badge.
We even got to meet Sir Topham Hatt (“that plut’,” Finn says–short for “plutocrat”), whom Finn wanted to offer some goldfish until realizing that “his boca doesn’t move.” I think Henry may make an even better Churchill/Hatt figure, as you may see in the a gallery of good times (HTML). Plus, here’s a bit of video:
Oh, and though my dad couldn’t join us in person this year, he was certainly there in spirit. 🙂
On Wednesday, Finny & I snuck off to the wilds of Ben Lomond, CA–the small nearby mountain town that’s home to Hoot, Milos, Alex, and–it turns out–some enormous horses. Despite his concerns, Finn was not eaten by a horse, and he proved more interested in eating sliced apples himself than feeding them to the big guys. Highlights included seeing big Nick (the white horse) drop what his owner called “road apples” (think we’ve been singing about just that ever since? right you are!); seeing those carted off in a wheelbarrow; and watching the giant horses roll around in the dust (what Finn called their “play area”).
Here’s a little gallery (HTML), as well as a video:
Finny has recently become obsessed with Raggs, a big blue dog with his own song and dance show on PBS. He insists on being called a dog, not a boy, and he won’t answer to Finny–only Raggs*! Thank goodness we already have a pair of blue doggy-themed PJ’s, which have become the ensemble of choice for our young canine amigo.
In other animal news, Raggs has decided that his little brother is a billy goat. We’re not exactly sure why he decided to classify his brother as a goat, but it was prescient, given Henry’s proclivity to try and climb anything and everything he can get tiny feet (hooves?) on.
If anyone had told me a few years back that I’d now be coming home to a big blue dog and a billy goat, I never would have believed them. But, you know, they make cute pets!
[* She’s not kidding! The other day at Aqui, I was trying to order us dinner with Finn on my arm. It went something like this:
— Me (to lady): Hi–do you guys have any kid-sized lemonades?
— Finn (er, Raggs): I’m a dog!
— Me: Okay, do you guys have dog-sized lemonades?
— Lady: Sure.
— Me: Great–and we’d like a kids’ taco bowl with–
— Raggs: I’m a dog!!
And so on. 🙂 –Dad-O]
During her visit last fall, Auntie Laura taught Finn a crazy little “Peel Peel Bananas” song–an event we captured on video. As it happens, our friend Tara took a shine to the video & taught the song to her twins, Bettie & Quade. On Saturday Tara, the twins, and their dad Andy came over for a barbecue that turned into an impromptu banana-jam:
On a related note, Finn & Quade enjoyed some two-man driving of a little wooden wagon from my cousin Anne. (Here’s a picture.) Yesterday Finn sat down on the wagon, paused, and said, “I don’t have a little buddy to ride with me. Those guys aren’t coming over this day.” After a little reflection, though, he noted, “Maybe we could get that little Billy Goat [Henry] to come ride.”
During my folks’ recent visit, Finn took quite a shine to helping with some gardening tasks, to the point that I now have to keep him from “weeding” the lawn bare. Even little Henry got in on the action, brandishing his own tools.
Finn and Grandma Nack teamed up to stuff his new giraffe (whom he curiously dubbed “The Badaff”) full of cotton balls, and he and both GPs enjoyed lots of quality storytime. In particular Grandpa Nack invited Finn to the gazebo for some thrilling readings from my childhood copies of Babar books. I can’t tell you how great it was to see the two of them delighting in tales of mermaids, lost monkey princesses, kleptomanical crocs (“bad dudes!”), crude dummies, and more. Here’s the customary little gallery (HTML).
We’re a bit behind in sharing a gallery from my folks’ recent visit. In the meantime, here are Grandpa Nack & Finny getting their hair blown back in a session of “Kindasteep“:
(Here’s a larger version.)
We’ve been having some really fun times with “the Dudes” lately. So much to report, and not sure where to start, so I’ll just start here:
Dad-o was out of town on Friday and Saturday for a business trip, so I got to spend lots of solo time with the guys. I decided it would be fun to fill up the wading pool on Saturday morning since the weather promised to be sweltering. I figured we’d fill it up but wait to dive in until lunchtime when the sun had warmed up the water. Well, the Dudes did not want to wait, so it was clothes off, dipes off, and into the pool! Finn was busy dropping all kinds of toys and other items into the pool, including a pinecone he picked up out of the mud by the gazebo. As the pinecone went in and the mud bits sank down towards the bottom, Finny mumbled something that I didn’t quite hear. I asked him what he said, and he said “Pinecone Jam.” It took me a second, but then I said, “Oh, like toe jam?” And he nodded and smiled.
In Henry news, our little guy had his 1-year checkup, and clocked in at 24 1/2 pounds, 29 inches long, and 48cm. head circumference. He’s only in the 25th percentile for height, but 75th for weight, so we’re expecting a growth spurt soon that should stretch out that spare tire! He’s got a total of 13 teeth, 4 of which have arrived in the past week or so, and he is crawling like he’s trying to set land speed records. Tonight I walked to the kitchen to get him a pre-bedtime bottle of milk, and I heard him crawling toward me saying “mama mama mama” over and over. My heart melted. He continues to be fascinated with his brother’s toes, utensils, and sippy cups, to which Finn usually responds “no Goonie, don’t touch my (insert posession/body part here).”
Someday, technology will allow us to jump a few seconds back in time (TiVo-style) to record marvelous moments that have just transpired. And given that by then we’ll also have time machines (right?), I’ll return to last week & capture one of my favorite Finny moments ever.
Last week the boys and I, together with Grandma & Grandpa Nack, headed over to Happy Hollow, the nearby park & petting zoo. This time I came loaded with quarters, all set to buy handfuls of snacks for the various goats, sheep, and donkeys on hand. Everything went great until the end, when instead of a mere handful of food, I gave Finn a whole Ziploc bag. The horned amigos made a beeline for the big guy, prompted him to start panicking, “Oh no, oh nooo, don’t EAT me, goats!!”
I put down my cam and quickly broke up the pack, knocking the chow to the ground & drawing the goats away from Finn. Poor dude–but he recovered fast, and ever since we’ve been laughing it up about those hungry, hungry goats. Here’s our gallery (HTML).
(cue old-timey radio announcer voice)
Starring…
Grandpa Nack!
and
G-Man!
in a bone-chilling adventure battling the sinister forces of Nack family light fixtures!!
No Henrys were harmed in the making of this motion picture. 🙂 (Click for a larger version.)
What a nice birthday party we had with our little buddy Henry! A posse of niños, including Harper, Charlotte, Dominic, Ken, Julian, and Madison, along with their respective parents & of course Grandma & Grandpa Nack, were on hand to help us celebrate. Carrot cake, juice boxes, and other treats were flowing near the guys’ new sandbox. Mom-O & Dad-O remain kind of bushed, so without further ado, here’s our gallery (HTML).
By the way, with the Flash galleries, if you happen to be using a large monitor and like high-def images, try pressing the little square in the lower-right corner to get a full-screen display. Press the ESC key to exit when finished.
