Dubuque’s National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium gave G-Man some face time with quite the startling face:
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Category: Videos
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Get in my mouth, butterflies!
From today’s visit to the Santa Cruz butterfly sanctuary, pure Goonie-being-Goonie, as unprompted as it is bizarre and endearing :-):
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Farm boys, giant toys
What–if this is even possible–is better than playing with a fleet of toy farm vehicles? How about playing with the real vehicles?
On Sunday Uncle Ted escorted us to visit his friend Tommy Moser’s farm. Our guys were delighted to explore a couple of big tractors (turns out Finn’s an Allis-Chalmers man) plus a truly massive combine. Our visit to the chicken coop yielded a bucket of eggs we’ve been enjoying every day since, and Henry got a little freaked out regarding “mad cows” (as in “angry,” not as in “Bovine spongiform encephalopathy”!).
Here’s a gallery of photos, plus a video showing the egg-grabbing good times:
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18-Wheelin’ with Uncle Ted!
Breaker breaker 1-9, this here’s Rubber Duck and… well, I’ve already exhausted about 90% of my CB/trucker lingo. In any case, we really put the “N” in “TNT” (Ted Nack Trucking) yesterday: the boys & I spent the day on Uncle Ted’s big rig, traveling through Iowa to collect a trailer & then heading on to “The World’s Largest Truck Stop.” Here’s a little gallery of photos. I’ve also boiled our 7-hour adventure down to two minutes:
As a little bonus, here’s how Henry & I passed a few miles on Uncle Ted’s sleeper. I’d apologize for the jiggly camera work, but even this doesn’t capture quite how loud & shaky it is inside a truck!
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Farm toys, delighted boys
Greetings from “Big G”! We arrived in Galena on Saturday after a journey on which the boys did great. (Well, check that: on the plane I pretended to call Grandpa Nack and tell him that the boys hadn’t fussed at all, but Henry interrupted: “I did some fussing!” Not much, though.)
We’ve had a ball so far, meeting baby cousin Jenna, visiting Tommy Moser’s farm (much more on that soon), and especially playing with Uncle Ted’s old farm toys. The lads are in seventh heaven learning about hay balers, manure spreaders, and more. (Parental bonus: I’ve never seen them so self-entertaining! They keep making a beeline to the sun porch–er, “crop area”–and barely note whether we’re there.) Here’s a brief glimpse of the action:
Know many dentists where your child would be greeted with a family bear hug from the dentist and his wife? Me neither–but I’m happy to know one. 🙂
Yesterday Finn accompanied me to Dr. Vandi’s office for his first official checkup & cleaning. You might remember that the Doc has been a figure of some intrigue for ages: at 18 months Finn liked to pretend to visit Dr. Vandi, and a year ago he got big mileage from playing with dentist’s masks sent by the Vandis. The boys are equally famous around the office, with Mrs. Vandi following their adventures via the blog & Facebook.
Long story short, Finn nailed the visit! He was a champ about getting his teeth X-rayed, biting down as the camera whirled past. He was even a little annoyed with my explanations: “I know it’s an X-ray, Dad-O. It’s like the Curious George story, where George swallowed a puzzle piece…” Finn (and Leo) particularly liked getting a tour of dental implements from hygienist Charles (who, it turns out, hails from a country where real lions live in the forest; hat tip to Ghana!)
Check out our little gallery, plus a couple of clips of our boy in action. Now, here’s hoping Henry stays cool & calm (sans chocolate raisin) during his visit tomorrow!
Yesterday we took the lads to an apple orchard for some apple picking with a few of our (and their) friends.
We drove over towards Watsonville, and as we arrived, the sun broke through the clouds and set us up for a perfect day. Everyone had a blast. Finny was excitedly counting the apples in his special green apple bag, and at the bottom of the (very steep) hill, there were cute horsey tire swings for the kids to ride, and a shady spot for the parents to rest. Here’s a little gallery of the proceedings.
After our orchard adventure, we drove over to Moss Landing and picnicked on tacos and burritos in a cute little park. The park was next to a terrific little art gallery, where the artist had built all sorts of fantastic play houses for kids, including a submarine turret, caboose, and lighthouse. Needless to say, the kids loved clambering around and acting as lookouts from the top of the sub.
We took a bunch of our small apples to preschool today to share with the class, and we made apple crisp out of some of the bigger apples. Finny and Henry enjoyed sampling the goods as they transferred them into the cooking pot! It was a terrific way to wrap up the weekend.
Update: Here’s a little video from the outing, wherein Finn makes a special beverage suggestion. 😉
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Blanketeers!
“How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child.” — Shakespeare
“How sharp are G-Man’s teeth under that blanket??” — Dad-O
Clearly I brought it on myself. 😉
Despite our clear wishes, Finn loves shoving bits of fuzz up his nose–or should I say, he loves having Leo do it. For months now Finn’s claimed to be our ally, advising us, “I keep telling that crazy Looen not to keep shoving stuff up there, but he just really likes to do it!”
Meanwhile Leo has become fast friends with Menace (short for “Bushy-Tailed Menace”), Finn’s little chipmunk from Colorado. Leo drives Finn’s “Massive Crane” while Menace sits in the operator’s cab. As they’re a really professional crew, Finn tells us “They even have little [company] jackets.” (I’ve gotta get to work in Photoshop making those happen!)
Anyway, long ago we used to have big fun passing little objects through a knothole in Finn’s floor, sending them down to the basement & then back up. Finn’s big-guy bed ended up over the hole, so it’s been long forgotten. During a bedtime story the other night, I said that Menace had flown up in the air, gone down a crack, and ended up in a mysterious area: Under the bed! In the story Leo & Finn headed to the rescue and discovered (cue dramatic music) the hole!
“Raarh,” said Leo. “That looks like a great hole for stuffing things into! It’s like a nostril in the floor!!”
And do you think it was “game on”? Because oh yes, it was on. 🙂 Ever since then Finn (or rather, Team Leo) has been enthusiastically driving the crane under the bed, then lowering its hook down into the basement. I came home yesterday to discover that Finn had arranged a step stool to facilitate hooking on cargo, and that now a fuzzy toy chicken was swinging freely around the basement! “Mom-O asked if this was a chicken-swinging factory,” he reports, “and it is!!”
When I went to capture the action on video, I told the guys that Grandma & Grandpa would love to see it. As you can hear in the clip, Henry was sure we’d see G&G on the camera itself, so afterwards we fired up the iPad for some quick video chatting with my folks. What a neat way to show them a little slice of the guys’ lives!
PS–As the story continues, Leo & Menace stuff tons of popcorn down the hole. When they go to the basement to see the resulting “corn cone,” the neighbor cats scratch at the window, then *burst* through and spray corn everywhere. The boys then each grab a gato (Finn taking the fatty, Hen the smaller one), flip them upside down, and sweep with them like feather dusters. They kickstart the cats’ “motors” via their tails, then use them to suck up all the corn. Vrooooom!!
On Saturday the lads & I got down & (very) dirty at Rancho San Antonio, checking out old vehicles (“Not zooming,” notes Henry; “Non-zooming,” corrects Finn), trails, and animals. Having learned where bacon comes from, Finn dubbed a pair of hogs “Makin'” and “Fakin’.”
A wiser, more discreet father would’ve probably edited out the middle section of the clip above; unfortunately you’re stuck with The Nack Daddy & his inner 3-year-old. ;-p
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Stomp: The *Very* Early Years
You know the famous dance troupe Stomp, the guys who make music with all kinds of trash cans, buckets, etc.? We think Henry is auditioning. 🙂 (For some reason Finn gets an almost insane kick out of this clip, asking to watch it over and over again.)
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Big Fish, Big Fun
Today the dudes & I enjoyed our first “Tiny Trek” adventure. Mom-O & Finn had a blast at their session last week, but poor Henry cried his head off when he was left home (as we’d figured he was too young to join). He spent all week saying, “I want to hike!” and–when he heard that his participation required a fee–“I want to pay!” So pay we did, and today off we went.
We bombed around nearby Hakone Gardens (although I suppose “bombing around” isn’t really the idea in a tranquil Japanese retreat), exploring with pal Dillon (whose mom Finn’s dubbed “Jodi Coyote”), making origami dogs, painting paper fish, and filling out a scavenger hunt sheet (“Let’s find those turtles!”). The unquestionable hit, though, was getting to feed the giant koi fish. As you can see, keeping two kids & a camera from getting submerged/eaten is no easy task, and Henry capitalized by “eating the profits”!
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Goonie wanna cracker?
In cleaning out my phone* today, I stumbled across some old photos & videos I’d neglected to share. Here’s kind of a nice, quiet post-bath moment with Henry from a few months ago, wherein he explores a bubbly little truck and does his best impression of a parrot.
* What a weird concept, isn’t it? Who knew that telephones would eventually need to be cleaned out (of data) & not just off?
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Motorcars a go-go!
What’s even cooler than riding a cliff-hugging train at 10,000ft? Discovering a pack of vintage railroad motorcars and getting to climb on them!
On the train we happened to sit next to a nice older couple from Nebraska who mentioned that they were in town to drive their motorcar–a retired RR maintenance machine–up the track with a bunch of other enthusiasts. We followed them off the train & got to clamber around their little ride! They told us to come back for the big gathering the next day, so we brought back Patrick & Charlie. The drivers couldn’t have been nicer to all the kids, and we even got to scramble around on a full-sized locomotive. Check out the gallery and little video!
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Alpine Diesel Delights
We had a blast taking the boys on the Leadville, Colorado, & Southern Railroad as it climbed high above the Arkansas River valley. Check out our visits to the engine, caboose, & more!
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Happy Birthday to Hen!
A birthday wouldn’t be complete without singing and (cup)cake, so thanks to nephew Patrick for documenting the proceedings:
We neglected to mention that just before the festivities, Henry had been forcibly awakened from an epic nap (lest he be up all night). That left him pretty lethargic & unsure what to make of all this fuss. (In the previous gallery you can really see the effect of the cupcake sugar hitting his bloodstream!) It’s also funny to observe Finn’s oversight of the candle-blowing operation. He really had to work at not jumping in and doing the honors himself!
Nostalgic bonus roundup:
- El Segundo Es Uno (notes on Henry at age 1)
- Pics from Hen’s first birthday party
- Hello, Henry!: Pictures from the G-Man’s first days of life
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Monster Kool Bus!
To celebrate Finn & Henry’s first day of preschool, we grabbed burgers & headed to Lowe’s to check out play equipment. Little did we expect to see–and get to ride–the 13-foot-high, 19,000 pound Monster Kool Bus. It’s a 1956 school bus atop huge tires with 25-inch rims. Check out our wild ride!
You can see Finn start to beam, and amazingly the only upset was when Henry realized the ride was over. Now when he sees the video he says, “I crying, ‘Do it again!'”
Our in-bus video doesn’t give a complete sense of the crazy spinning sensation we got. Here’s another video (from a different location) taken by someone else:
We capped off the adventure by getting the each guy one little monster school bus toy. They’ve been popping wheelies ever since!
Oh, and parents, the bus will be at Lowe’s through July 6th, 2011 (weekdays 4-9pm, weekends 10am-9pm); 5 bucks per person.
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¡Escuela de Verano!
Yesterday was the boys’ first day of preschool at Pasitos! Clearly our soft-pitch sales job this past week worked, because they were up earlier than usual this morning and raring to get to school. Bags and lunches were packed, paperwork was in hand, hats were donned, buddies were grabbed, and we were off by 8a.m.
I had planned on 2 things today: 1. Hanging around the classroom for quite awhile this morning to ease the guys’ transition from home to school and downplay the drama, and 2. receiving one or more phone calls that Henry or Finny were crying inconsolably and one of us needed to come get them (we were warned this is fairly common during the transition period). What a surprise that neither plan came to fruition!
As I finished up the paperwork and stashed the boys’ belongings in the appropriate cubbies, both boys were already very busy playing and chatting with the teacher. I stuck around for maybe 10 more minutes, then gave each boy a smooch and took off–it was clear they were doing just fine! The phone never rang with a call from Pasitos, so we figured the day must have gone well. I think John and I were actually more nervous/worried about school than the boys!
When we arrived to pick them up, they were playing outside, and Finny ran to the gate, so excited to see us. His voice wavered quite a bit when he said “I’m so happy to see you!” It was a thin line between crying and smiling, but I think he was just really overwhelmed with how relieved he was when he saw us. Henry was holding Ollie and playing ball, and was also very happy to see Dad-o strolling in.
The teacher assured us the boys had a good day. Both had napped and played well. She also remarked that Henry didn’t like having his diaper changed (no surprise to me, I guess I should’ve mentioned that!), and that he ate a lot (I guess he really took advantage of snacktime!). At some point Henry started crying pretty hard for Ollie (we tried to talk him into only having Ollie at nap time, but I guess he didn’t want to give him up upon waking). Finny stepped in and told the teachers what Henry wanted, and once they handed Ollie to him, he was fine. “Ollie saved the day,” she said.
So all in all, a very good first day of school, and I think the boys are looking forward to going back. Just now as I was putting Finny to bed, he said “I don’t understand Spanish yet. I think I will learn Spanish when I grow up to be a man. In about a week or so, I’ll be grown up and will learn it then.”
Update: Here’s our little video recap with the lads:
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Keepin’ cool with Goofy Magoo
Finn’s become quite adept at wielding a hose & ladle. The rest is wet, wet history:
(Incidentally, the video would make you think we’ve been enjoying warm weather, instead of endless unseasonable gloom. I mean, I do enjoy a good cashmere sweater, but I probably shouldn’t be able to wear it in CA in June!)
From very early on Margot & I have noticed Henry being a weirdly strong little kid, giving powerful hugs & often trying to climb up things like sinks. Now he’s taken a shine to pulling wagons–often alongside Finn, but just as often containing Finn. One recent evening each one grabbed a wagon & hauled them all the way to the park (nearly half a mile away), and the other day Henry managed to pull Finn some chunk of that distance on his own. Check out the brawny man in action:
