The lads were excited to suit up & get down to candy-eating & crafts at their friend Ella’s house this weekend. Here are a few pics of the whole gang, including ma in her kerchief & I in my too-tight cap.
Author: The Nack Daddy
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We Are The Champions
…of biking in circles around Hummingbird Park, anyway. 🙂 Onward & upward for bike-meister Finn.
Boy did I have a high opinion of myself in autumns growing up: Every year “I” would win a prize for having the best costume (headless horseman, knight, California Raisin, etc.). Little did I realize, of course, that the honors should go to my tirelessly creative mom, wielder of felt, glue, papier-mâché, and more.
Now Margot has taken up the proud mantle & is making excellent costumes for young Nacks. Check out her latest handiwork! 🙂
When I came downstairs yesterday, Henry popped out from behind a door in full owl regalia. After wildly “hoo”-ing at me for a few seconds, he thoughtfully lifted up his mask and said, “Don’t worry, it’s just me, Henry—not a real owl.” 🙂
On Sunday we had a ball taking the lads to San Francisco’s beautifully redesigned & relocated Exploratorium. Here’s a little taste of the goings-on (minus the live cow-eyeball dissection or microscopic peeks inside termite guts!):
Who doesn’t love a Slinky?
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Roaring Campers
The lads & I had a ball on Saturday as we took their pal Magdalena over to the harvest festival at Roaring Camp Railroad. We got to build & stuff our own scarecrows (which lie disintegrating on our driveway now; oy, gotta do something about that), ride the railroad, and get pumpkins at the top of Bear Mountain. Check out the gang in action!
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Hams in the Tub, 2013
I’m pleased to report that our guys remain as goofy & playful as they ever were in the tub—maybe even more so now. Here’s a tiny gallery of the non-tiny dudes enjoying some mohawk action.
Crazy haircuts & beards aren’t just for punks & ZZ Top. Bubble bath helps our guys get stylish in the tub:
Meanwhile Finny has been singing the ABCs in Spanish incessantly, in a variety of crazy accents. Here he does his impression of “Chris Cornell” from Soundgarden:
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Ma Belle
Tonight as Margot was enjoying a girls’ night out, I heard the lads rustling around in the TV room. Henry was bumping the remote, trying to “accidentally” turn on the TV. As he & Finn pondered how its little screen would light up, I heard Finn getting frustrated & asked what was the matter.
“Well Dad-O,” he said, “there are a bunch of numbers on it, and I pressed 408-444-2565, but it’s not calling Mom-O!”
I chuckled, complimented him on actually knowing her number, and then showed him how to dial the number on an actual telephone. Surprises never cease. 🙂
…is for Happily Hiding Henry. 🙂
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Los Meses del Año
El Finnster shows off some new vocab, singing, and pronunciation skills:
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Field of Bizarre Dreams
…or is it screams? 🙂
Our colleague Steve Ross ran into Henry at Pasitos the other day & sent us this report:
When he saw me, he started up a conversation in which he remarked on how Finn is enjoying kindergarten. He then told me how, that same morning, he and the other Pasitos kids had gone to a park. This wasn’t just any park, however, he explained. This park apparently had a dead baseball player buried in it. Henry proceeded to tell me that were I to go there, with some magic powder, and then sprinkle it on the grave, the baseball player would rise up and be alive again, ready to play ball! This stuff is amazing! He then completely switched it up, turned to an older lady (someone’s grandma?) standing next to me and told her that he had a bunch of smoked salmon at home.
You keep it weird out there, little buddy. 🙂
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A Muscular Green Thumb
Plant-digging Finn doesn’t know his own strength. 🙂
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‘Stachetastic
The boys model some fetching party favors they scored at pals’ Dante & Vienna’s birthday party.
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Echoes of Personal Greatness
In the movie Goodfellas, a minor character is named “Jimmy Two-Times” because he always says things two times—for example, “I’m gonna get the papers (get the papers).”
I’ve thought of Jimmy a bunch lately as Finn’s clearly been enjoying his own lines—to the point that he’ll often immediately repeat them in a whisper. While recounting some anecdote he might say, “…so I told Magdalena, ‘I’m the dad!’ (‘I’m the dad!’)”
I don’t think he knows we hear it, and he just clearly enjoys mastering language, conversation, and social conventions. We’ll have to see how long it goes on. (Margot might say, “Probably forever, given the way you repeat jokes just to make sure I heard your cleverness.” ;-))
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“I can’t brutalize with my glasses!”
Here’s an entirely random slice of life captured by our friend Bruce a couple of weeks ago. We were testing his new camera’s video capabilities, but the resulting clip ends up being some fun boy-meets-older-woman (or dog, or two dogs; I dunno, you figure out what they’re talking about!) 🙂
I love Bruce’s quizzical, “Do you guys want a… ball, or something?”
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Weekend fun with Grandma
It’s a blessing & a treat to have Grandma Nack in town while Margot is on the road this week, and we’ve been having a bunch of fun this weekend. She’s an indefatigable gardener, so we’ve been running back and forth among stores to look at plants, etc. with the boys (who don’t mind at all). And, of course, there’s been a *lot* of story-reading. Here are a few shots from our days so far.
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“Bring Your Luchador To Work” Day
Once again Finny gets rowdy with “Davewerner” while visiting Adobe. 🙂
Just kidding—he’s the same colorful little grump as always! ;-p
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Monterey Cookie-Toss
The boys didn’t actually puke during our Monday trip to Dennis the Menace Park—but it wasn’t for lack of trying!
We enjoyed another great trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, getting up close and… personal? (gelatinous?) with the jellyfish:
During our recent SoCal sojourn, we spent a peaceful day noodling around LA, exploring local landmarks:
- (Pre-)Historically the La Brea Tar Pits (a sticky slick of naturally occurring asphalt) were great at ensnaring all kinds of ice-age animals, and over the years they’ve yielded hundreds of tons of fossilized remains. The boys loved exploring the museum, getting to watch scientists & volunteers carefully working to unearth & restore what’s been dug up. They were delighted to come away with two stuffed sabertooth tigers that they quickly named “Sabertooth” and “Snuggletooth.” (You’d kind of think “Saber-maran,” right?) In subsequent “T.A.L.B.” editions, these railroading Tooth Brothers turned out to be good at shoveling coal with their “steak knives.”
- Right next door is Los Angeles County Museum of Art, aka LACMA. We lucked out & came across volunteers who were letting kids make their own African arts & crafts. Of the clay “memory boards” Finn said, “They’re like iPads,” and they each crafted staffs with pictures of Mom-O at the top. They had a ball exploring the large outdoor art pieces, then were fascinated by the Metropolis II kinetic sculpture (see video below).
- Later we wound our way up to the famous Griffith Park Observatory (you might remember it from Rebel Without A Cause), exploring the grounds & watching their giant Tesla coil in action.
Here’s a little gallery from the adventure.