Categories
Milestones

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.]

Categories
Milestones

Area Baby Discovers Feet

He seems pretty excited about his new discovery, no?

Categories
Miscellaneous

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.

Categories
Videos

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:

Categories
Videos

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:

Categories
Videos

Sack of Potatoes

Grandpa Liggett gets in some good, impromptu weightlifting courtesy of one jubilant sack of potatoes:

Categories
Miscellaneous

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.

Categories
Videos

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:

Categories
Photos

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.

Categories
Videos

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:

Categories
Videos

“AhBluhBluhBluhBluh!”

Dad-O’s gibberish + some background Bocelli = Christmasy good times on the play mat. 🙂

Categories
Christmas Photos

Christmas ’09

We’ve had a ball this Christmas having Margot’s folks in town. We’re still busy chasing the lads & fighting the flu (as Finn would say, “Byyuck!”), so I’ll keep things brief for now. Here’s a little gallery (HTML). In it you can see the terrific Thomas the Tank Engine play hut & monkey slippers that Grandma & Grandpa Liggett got for the Finnster; some balls & “Luchador keys” from MrsW; and the righteous “SQRL POD” license plate Mom-O got for the bike trailer!

Categories
Photos

Ho Ho Henry

Look at this little package I found under the tree. 🙂



(Click each image for a larger version.)

Categories
Photos

Coyote Pants


Our man Finny is fascinated with the National Geographic Desert Pop-up book that Dad-o got him in Death Valley. A particular favorite is a jumping coyote who is pursuing a “fat squirrel”. Soon Dad-o and Finny were making up all kinds of coyote attack scenarios using Dad-o’s pinched thumb and forefinger as the coyote (or “guy-o-dee” as pronounced by Finn). The “coyote” sneaks through cracks between the mattress and crib bumper, appears below small holes where a young lad’s finger might wiggle through, and nibbles on various toddler appendages like earlobes and exposed toes. And since Dad-o likes to greet Finny each morning with a new kooky gimmick, the coyote makes lots of early morning appearances.
So, as I was out Christmas shopping the other night at Target, when I saw a rack of coyote-print flannel PJ pants out of the corner of my eye, I literally did a double-take and shouted “OH MY GOD! COYOTE PANTS! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!”. At least several dozen shoppers must’ve thought I had just escaped from the local nuthatch as I pawed through the pants, looking for the right size. That particular store did *not* have the right size, so I hopped in the car and drove to a different Target, where I successfully found my prey and took it home with me.
John then became the immediate recipient of the “Best Pre-Christmas, Could Not Have Planned Something This Great Gift”. Here is a larger version of the photo featuring the pants. Needless to say, John was as excited about them as I was, and could not *wait* to wear them in to greet Finn in the morning. And happily, Finn’s response was just what we expected. When Dad-o walked in, the first thing he shouted was “COYOTE PANTS!!!”

Categories
Christmas Photos

The Nack Family, Christmas ’09

As I mentioned the other day, getting our little guys to sit still for a family Christmas photo has been no easy deal! Fortunately, however, Margot’s fellow Madre Veronica was able to catch the dudes at a peaceful moment:


(Here’s a larger version.) Many thanks, Veronica.

Categories
Videos

“No Eh-SCAH-pay, Goonie!”

Categories
Miscellaneous

Of Banking & Dentistry

We’re having big fun with Finno’s imagination these days:

  • Lately he’s taken a shine to Richard Scarry’s What Do People Do All Day? At one point in the book, Farmer Alfalfa (a goat) deposits his money at the bank (run by a pig, naturally). Up in our bathroom last night, Finn spied some coins on top of the little dresser & started forcing them into a slot. “Finny goin’ to the bank!” he said. “Givin’ money to the pig!”
  • Several months ago he accompanied Margot on a visit to her dentist, Dr. Vandi, where he was entertained by the kind Mrs. Vandi. In the basement today he spied a manilla office and said, “Dr. Vandi’s office!” From there we were off to the races, with Finn trucking back and forth: “Finny goin’ to see Dr. Vandi and Mrs. Vandi!” I’m pleased to report that Leo’s teeth got very clean. 🙂 “Thank you Dr. Vandi!”
Categories
Photos

C is for Cookie

Finn has become intimately familiar with Cookie Monster and the “C is for Cookie” song, thanks to YouTube’s vast collection of Sesame Street clips. He is also very adept with the Play-Doh these days, and really digs rolling out the Doh and using the little plastic “cookie cutters” that came in the Play-Doh kit. So imagine his delight when I told him we were going to roll out, cut, and decorate Christmas cookies today!
Here are a few pics (HTML) from our adventure, plus some other recent goings-on. Needless to say, Finn enjoyed the raw dough, the cooked dough, watching me put the food coloring into the icing, and shaking on the sprinkles and colored sugar. Against my better judgement, but in the spirit of not being a Grinch, I let him eat far too many cookies. All evening he was requesting “mo’ cookies!”.
In other news, Henry’s turning a corner on napping and is becoming more alert, smiley, and active each day. We’ve included a few recent pics of our little big man in action. We got him a little sleep sack, which is like a blanket he can wear. He’s moving around a lot in the crib so using a regular blanket is now out of the question, but he sure likes feeling warm and snuggly. John likes to call it the “sleep bag”, and I like to call it the nap extender. I have no idea if it actually contributed to his much improved napping over the last few days, but I’m not going to stop using it to find out if there’s a difference!

Categories
Miscellaneous

A little Yuletide oddity

Last year, Grandpa & Grandma Liggett gave us a great Advent calendar. It’s a large box containing numerous drawers, each containing a tiny ornament, a bit of story, and instructions to sing and/or a figure to the crèche. Finn’s really been enjoying the process this year, though he’s gotten a couple of wires crossed. This morning he was looking at a cast of Margot’s belly when it contained him:
“Mom-O tummy!” he declared.
“That’s right, Finny,” I said. “And who was in her tummy?”
“Baby!”
“Right–and who was the baby?”
“Goonie.”
“Uh-huh. And what other baby was in there?”
“Jesus!”
Oh my. 🙂 We sorted out the confusion, and now Finn’s back to talking about how he went “POP!” out of the tummy. Meanwhile, no word on whether he’s connected the dots in determining that the same Mary who appears atop the Golden Dome in his Notre Dame picture book is the same one that appears in the Nativity scene.

Categories
Milestones

Henry The Fifth

Today “little” Henry turned five months old! To celebrate, he napped for 1.5 continuous hours, then accompanied Finn and I to “tiny playgroup” at our friend Tara’s house. The rest of the day was spent doing tricks in the crib (rolling over) instead of sleeping. He is so amazed at his own rolling skills that he absolutely refuses to stay on his tummy during playtime. He just instantly lurches to one side and flips over.
He’s following in his big brother’s footsteps and is becoming totally fascinated with lights and light fixtures. He marvels at the Christmas tree and I catch him gazing up at the lamps in the living room quite a bit. He’s also every bit as big as Finny was at 5 months–he’s already sporting his six- to nine-month wardrobe! His little thighs look like turkey drumsticks!