Sing it with me: Dah, DAH dun dah DAH, dah dah dah… 
…Super Henry!!
That’s it; nothing more to report at the moment. 🙂
(Click the image for an even larger version.)
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Join us again, won’t you, for another trip through the Not-So-Secret Nack Family Decoder Ring! Recent additions to our weirdo canon:
- Meat Cigars: Finn & Mom-O have devised a new snack consisting of rolled-up turkey slices that hide a delicious cream cheese payload. These double at fun–and completely ineffective–telescopes. Fair warning, though: that usage tends to result in a toddler with a case of Cheesy Eyeball.
- Beating Sticks: Oh, this one will be hard to explain in mixed company someday. On weekends, Finny & Dad-O like to go to “Traintrack Park,” grab fallen tree branches, and chase each other around with them. My playful threats to “beat that butt!” have led Finn to ask for “Mo’ beating sticks!”
- Dipit Cheese: Pretzels being “dipits,” cream cheese (into which they’re dipped) is now “dipit cheese.”
- Delicious Pocket: That’s how the big guy says “Tlaquepaque,” the name of the Mexican restaurant down the street. Now we can’t drive by without him pointing out, “Delicious Pocket sign! Delicious Pocket wagon!”
- Bonk: Finn-ese for “Cheers,” as he noted during our Thanksgiving toast.
- OhJeez: Over Christmas break, Finn grabbed some toilet paper and started tearing it with gusto. “Dad-O say ‘Oh Jeez!,'” he was delighted to report. From there it was “Do mo’ OhJeez; Mo’ OhJeez in the crib!” It was all fun and paper-pulverizing games until Mom-O found a shredded pile stashed beneath his bed.
- GatoDipes: Not to be left out entirely, little Henry has upgraded to new, heavy-duty “GatoDipes”–the better to contain his newly crib-wasting bladder!
Bonus: Here’s a little taste of OhJeez. (No real mystery about Margot’s lack of enthusiasm for the practice. ;-))
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In the Blink of an Eye
The past week has been a big one in terms of developmental leaps for both boys. It’s so fascinating to watch both of them do things that they couldn’t, or hadn’t, just days ago. In the blink of an eye, so many things have changed!
Henry: Has started supporting himself in a sitting position! He’s working so hard to keep his little back straight and his head held high. He’s also very aware of when he is being left alone, even for a few seconds. He protests quite audibly when he sees his companion(s) exiting the room, and he has his eyes trained on us when we’re moving around or talking. He’s started eating some veggies in addition to his gruel–I mean cereal. We joke with Finn that if he could talk, Henry might say “More peas, please!”. His wakeful periods between naps are lengthening out, and we’re no longer doing four shortie naps per day, we’re down to either 2 or 3 almost-decent ones! If he’s like his mom, the full tummy definitely helps with sleeping.
Finn: Instead of “Finny the Carpenter” or “Finny the Engineer” we have started calling him “Mr. Independent Play.” This is such a wonderful and sudden development. Almost literally overnight, Finn went from needing constant playtime participation and companionship by one of us, to venturing out completely on his own and having his own private adventures. We realized something significant had changed when we were able to eat brunch and chat with our friends for almost an hour while Finn kept himself completely entertained with their son’s selection of toys! And all week he has been making up stories and things to do all by himself. Sometimes he requests that one of us be in the same room that he’s in, but we don’t necessarily have to do anything. It’s very freeing for us, and also fun to observe what our little guy comes up with to entertain himself. His imagination is on fire!
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Finny The Carpenter
Finn has taken on many personas lately as his imagination has kicked in with a vengeance. One of his current favorites is “Finny the Carpenter” thanks to his terrific red toolbox and play tools (thanks Uncle James!), and a book about building a house, loaned to Finn by our friends the Pawligers.
Yesterday, we received an assembly-required cedar chest to store John’s sweaters. Do I need to mention how excited Finny was when he saw the box pieces, the box of screws, and my drill? He went completely bananas and immediately grabbed his toolbox. “Tape measure! Hammer! Screwdriver! Finny the Carpenter building a box!” Here are a couple of pics from his carpentry adventures. We played with the box for a good three hours! (Finn’s Tournament of Roses shirt courtesy of Auntie Laura and Uncle James.)
(Click images for larger versions.)
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The Brothers Domendite
We’re rarely content to call things by their right names, so why should “domendites” (er, toes) be any exception? Henry’s new discovery down there coincides with his big bro (almost) mastering our family’s version of This Little Piggy. Check it out:
Historical bonus: Compare this bit to Finny & Grandma Nack doing the routine back in August.
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The Frumious Bandersnatch
Several weeks ago, Finn & I were playing in the park when some little girls came by and asked to borrow our trucks. That was cool, and Finny & I actually went off a little distance while the girls played in the sand. After a few minutes, the littlest girl popped out of the bushes and called to us, “Hey!,” then rattled off a stream of gibberish.
At that point Finn & I enjoyed a kind of magical moment: We looked at each other and exchanged a look of bemused bewilderment: What is that girl talking about?? In that moment we smiled and shook our heads at the craziness of the world.
Pretty soon the story solidified as, Q. “What was that girl talking about?” A. “Hey, Bot de BAH!” This morning I poked my head into Finn’s dark room and said, “Bot de BAH!” “What that girl talkin’ about??” he immediately responded. Here’s a sample of our conversation:
[audio:http://www.jnack.com/micronaxx/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Bot-de-Bah.mp3|titles=Bot de Bah!]
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Bugs in the crib!
A few weeks ago, Finn was fascinated to learn about how birds eat bugs off the backs of alligators, hippos, and other big beasts–many of which decorate his crib & room. He got a big kick out of my “circling and circling” his head with my hands (birds), pecking bugs off him. “Binny clean, alligator clean!” he’d declare. And naturally, of course, he got into “haaup!!-ing” the bugs off the gators himself. Here’s a small taste of the show:
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Henry Weighs In
Big Henry is just that! At six months, he clocks in at 19 lbs. 7 oz, 25 and 3/4 inches long, with a head circumference of 45 cm. This means he’s a little chubby for his height, but I’m guessing a growth spurt is coming on since he hasn’t stretched out much from his 4-month measurements. Compared to Finn at 6 months, Henry is 1/2 pound lighter and a little over an inch shorter, but his noggin is slightly bigger.
He was an absolute dream at Dr. S’s office and was quite flirty with the cute nurses. He only squawked for a second after his shots, then we sailed home in the Ocho so he could load up on cereal and milk. Dr. S. thinks we can start weaning him off the Zantac now, and start offering him water in a sippy cup after he eats solids. We’re still waiting for an appt. with the pediatric urologist so we’ll keep him on the antibiotics until we know more.
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Mr. Brown is Out of Town
Let’s be honest: there are certain things that no one–even grandparents–wants to hear too much about, and potty training details must be at the top of that list. Therefore let’s be mercifully brief and just note that the Finnster has turned a big corner, putting his potty chair to good use. He really digs us reading Time to Pee! as we all, uh, wait out the proceedings.
Here you can hear the “Proud Pooper” (as he calls himself) give his thoughts on the subject; click the little arrow to play:
[audio:http://www.jnack.com/micronaxx/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Pooping.mp3|titles=Pooping!]Oh, I do have to note that as I walked out of his room tonight, I heard a little voice in the dark remark with some wonder, “Poop is brown!” 🙂
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Colander Helmets, ho!
The Tinmen Cometh. 🙂
[Click for a larger view.]
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A Half-Year of Henry
Mr. Henry Seamus Nack turned six months old today. We can hardly believe it! Time has flown since he’s arrived on the scene. He’s gotten so big, and just lately he is so much more animated and alert than even a month ago. We love his giggles, his mischievous little grin and sparkling eyes, and his wonderful talent at sleeping through the night. He has started making a lot of sounds, prompting his big bro to say “What’s Goonie talkin’ about? Crazy baby!”
We go in for his official check-up with Dr. S. on Monday, so we’ll post his stats then. He’s growing like a weed, and is a big fan of his rice cereal. He cannot keep his hands off the spoon when it nears his mouth. And boy does he have a strong grip! If he’s this excited about cereal, I can only imagine his enthusiastic reaction to other, far tastier foods in the near future. So Happy Half-Year, Henry! And we’ll lift a teensy baby-spoon to the next six months!
[Click the image for a larger version.]
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Area Baby Discovers Feet
He seems pretty excited about his new discovery, no?
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King of the Beasts
Man oh man, has Finn’s imagination taken flight upon reading Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak (“Beast Book!”). Today he decided that he wanted to wear a crown just like Max’s “Beast King” crown in the book. He remembered that he had the blue fuzzy crown from his first birthday, and was very specifically asking me to look for it so he could wear it. I found it, and he proceeded to wear the “Beast Crown” all morning, including our outing to “big playgroup”. He wore it until I suggested he take it off for nap time. It was kinda fun explaining the crown to the other moms.
Later this afternoon, he donned the crown again and decided to set sail on the ottoman and climbed aboard: “This is the boat! Sailing to the island! Island over there! (pointing at the kitchen) Have a rumpus!”
When he arrived at the rumpus, I asked him if he was going to swing from the trees like Max does in the book. He walked to the baby gate on the kitchen doorway and started grabbing onto the bars: “This is the tree! Swinging! Bursting!” When he later heard me telling Dad-O about it, he said, “Mom-O opened the tree!” (Mom-O needed to get to the kitchen to get the Beast King some dinner.)
Faaaaaaantastic.
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American Birdman
As I mentioned a few weeks ago, the Finnster and I like doing lots of crazy little duets based on my murdering of popular music. Recently we’ve turned The Guess Who’s “American Woman” into “American Birdman.” Now when I poke my head into his darkened room in the morning, I can say simply, “Do dee doo doo doo, dee doo!” And up from the crib comes a wavering little falsetto: “‘Mer-i-can Boo-man!” It’s pretty fantastic. Here’s a sample of our routine:
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My pacifier goes “Reeka-Reeka-Reeka…”
Fair warning: This is one of those Videos Where Nothing Happens, but we find it kind of charming anyway. Henry is a real innovator when it comes to his pacifier, treating it like a sandwich. Behold the noisy, Nutcracker-tinged munching:
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Sack of Potatoes
Grandpa Liggett gets in some good, impromptu weightlifting courtesy of one jubilant sack of potatoes:
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Some new blogging mojo
Do not attempt to adjust your computer monitors! 🙂
We’re making some adjustments to the appearance of the blog–formerly “Finnegan Wakes,” with the new official title to be determined; we want our man Henry to feel welcome, too! The new blog address is http://www.jnack.com/micronaxx in case you want to update your bookmarks, though we’ve set up an automatic forward from http://www.jnack.com/finnegan. It may take a little time for things to settle down, but hopefully you won’t run into any problems. If you have any trouble or see things that look wrong, please let us know.
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Local Engineer Survives Monkey Attack!
To say that Grandma & Grandpa Liggett’s gifts of a Thomas the Tank Engine play hut and sock-monkey slippers are a hit is just a wee bit of an understatement. Finn now more or less insists on being addressed as/referring to himself as “Engineer,” and he wakes up talking about “Monkey shoe attack!” Check out a typical session:
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Snackin’ with Henry Nack
The time has come, the time is now…Henry’s on the cusp of turning 6 months old, so now’s the time to start him on solid food. Today he dined on the always popular but not very delicious rice cereal. He’s definitely interested in getting it into his mouth, but not yet very good at keeping it there. Here’s a little
gallery (HTML) of his epicurean antics.
And just for old times sake, here’s Finny’s foray into solids from August ’08.
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Creepy Mousy II: Finnegan’s Revenge!
Perhaps you recall our little friend Creepy Mousy, teaser of all ticklish little locals. Well now the creepee has become the creeper! Check it out: