Categories
Audio Clips

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!]
Categories
Videos

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:

Categories
Milestones

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.

Categories
Audio Clips

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!” 🙂

Categories
Photos

Colander Helmets, ho!

The Tinmen Cometh. 🙂

[Click for a larger view.]

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.