At our little neighbor Charlotte’s birthday party on Saturday, Charlotte’s four-year-old little bro Dominic had fun romping around with Henry. Let the good-natured scaring begin! 🙂
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Category: Videos
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Slow-Mo Basement Destruction!
Okay, little Knievels, time to smash, right about… hang on… wait for it… now!! 🙂
Like a good zombie, our Halloween pix just won’t stay buried. 🙂
We’ve uploaded just a handful of photos (HTML) plus a little video showing our trip to the huge pumpkin patch at nearby Uesugi Farms. Note Finnbeard trying to master how to “glower,” later turning Henry’s felt candy bucket into a makeshift fez.
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Geronimo!!
We’ve been hard at work upgrading our unfinished basement, with the goal of turning it into a super-fun rainy-day playground for the guys. We bought some big cardboard blocks that are good for building into towers and smashing into with a Big Wheel (or just a toddler running full-steam into them), and we’ve got all the Thomas train tracks set up.
The most exciting addition is the inflatable “Jump-O-Lene.” It’s a toddler-sized trampoline/bounce house/demolition derby ring where the guys can get their ya-yas out with gusto. To wit, the following video! Good times abound!
[The vid finishes with a duet of sorts between me and Finn, singing our custom version of Thin Lizzy’s “Jailbreak.” We sing about a “stroob (strawberry) break,” where in “The dad & Finn & little G-Man are gonna run around.” –J.]
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Beeeooooww… BeBot!
Both Finn and Henry are big fans of the iPhone/iPad app BeBot–a simple little synthesizer that shows a little robot pitching back and forth as you drag your finger around, causing him to “sing.” Henry has taken to carrying me the iPad while saying, “Bebop, Bebop!!” Anyway, this morning Finn decided to be the BeBot, requesting that we play his cheeks to make him whistle:
[Hat tip to fellow dad Matt Strauss for turning us on to BeBot in the first place]
It was great to reintroduce Finn to his big Uncle Ted (given that I doubt he remembers their first meeting), and Ted had good fun playing the role of “Uncle Troll.” Check out a few pics (HTML) and a video:
Breaker breaker, 1-9… we got us a CONVOY…
Okay, not quite, but we did get a fun ride with Uncle Ted in his bobtail rig, heading from “Big G” through Scales Mound, on our way up to the truck lot in Shullsburg. We all had a great time, and maybe in the future we can get Ted a bumper sticker that says, “LEO is My Co-Pilot.”
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Grandma Nack & G-Man
Laughing grandmas + babies = Instant good times. 🙂
It’s really cool to see the Finnster start interacting more with other kids, and during our time in Galena, he had a ball racing cars with little neighbor girl Isabella. Packing his lion-buddy into the back of a truck, he proudly (and sort of inexplicably) declared, “This is called, ‘Leo the M&M’!” From there they were off to the races:
(Click any of the images for a larger version.)
In one of my favorite early memories, I’m alternately astride a huge grown-up, trying to pummel him into submission, and then running like mad as he chased me around the house. Said grown-up is my cousin John “The Doctor of Doom and Destruction” Huber, and at our family brunch on Sunday, he introduce young Finn to the power of “The Claw”! Check it out (HTML). 🙂
Okay, I know it’s like pitching one scoreless inning & then claiming a perfect game, but our little compadres have been great travelers so far. We’re in Big G. & the dudes are napping nicely after some walnut gathering (“Grandpa’s got a robot arm!”), golf cart driving, and snack ingesting. Yesterday we stopped by Margot’s Uncle Lyman & Aunt Brenda’s house in Rock Falls, getting to see them and their daughter Kristan. It was great seeing everyone, and later we made it to Galena just in time to see a steamroller & paver (driven by my sister-in-law-to-be’s aunt) resurfacing Grandma & Grandpa’s street; score!
I’m typing fast before the guys wake up, but for now here’s a video of Uncle Ted, a volunteer ambulance driver, rolling up in his big rig. I just regret that I stopped recording before driver Finn explained that “Goonie’s leg is all goofed up. It broke off, and now we have to take him to the doctor!”
Later at the ambulance garage, he was *fascinated* by the fact that when the ambulance is plugged into the wall, turning the key causes the plug to go shooting off lest one drive away with it still attached.
Cable TV is stuffed (pardon the pun) with shows about people who cram their homes with more & more stuff. Our cheeky guys have a similar, albeit much cuter & less debilitating, tendency. Here we see Henry at the sushi joint, packing his jowls with tofu for winter:
And then of course there’s The Original Squirrel (he of the airbag cheeks), seen here going college-kids-in-a-phone-booth with a faceful of grapes:
Finn popped up from his nap on Saturday saying, “Let’s! Go! See! Those! Ponies!!” And so we did, heading down to Gilroy (south of SJ) to meet up with a whole herd of playgroup pals & their parents. We joked about meeting up with “Dr. Ponyowner” and getting to ride his ponies. We grabbed a picnic lunch (Finn’s *way* into cornbread–who knew?), and short order our big cowpoke was astride pony Tux, circling the corral. Afterwards we introduced “little billy goat” Henry to some actual billy goats, plus at 25lb. “Flemish Giant” bunny. Here’s our little gallery (HTML) plus a short vid:
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Turtle Power!
Our little G-Man is so eager to talk & walk, and he’s getting closer on each front. Lately we’ve taken to roughhousing in Finn’s big-guy bed, a process Henry requests by saying, “Turtle, turtle!” in reference to the animal blanket on the wall. He’ll often start whispering it while in another room, then get louder and louder as he beelines to Finn’s room. Now the two guys tend to get their turtling on while the bath water runs (getting stripped down) and just after toweling off (reversing the process). Check out a recent occurrence. [Update: If you have trouble seeing the video below, please let me know and check out the vid on YouTube.]
(Oh, and in case you’re wondering, Finn being named “Edna” is connected to our reading A Penguin Story.)
The Naxx micro and macro took a little field trip on Sunday to a fantastic park we’ve heard about from several sets of friends: Dennis The Menace Park in Monterey. Twins Bettie & Quade had a great time visiting with their folks recently, and Finn’s buddy Hoot grew up going to that park.
Suffice it to say, we all had a great time. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a park this terrific! There’s a huge, real steam locomotive (decommissioned, much to Engineer Finny’s dismay) for kids to climb all over, a hedge maze, an incredibly long “rolly slide”, a wobbly suspension bridge, and all sorts of other things. We will certainly have to come back since we only got a small taste of its offerings. Check out the video, above, and note Finn immediately exclaiming, “I want to do it again!!” following each trip down the slide. Little Hen’, on the other hand, was comparatively stoic. He was more amped about the little-guy jungle gym with its own G-man-sized attractions. He inadvertantly took his first independent steps when he was storming over to the slide faster than I could keep up! (As soon as he realized he wasn’t holding on, though, the jig was up!) And now, for the requisite gallery (HTML). Enjoy!
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Wildcattin’ Brothers
Last weekend the Nack Pack went back to The Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad in nearby Los Gatos (“Wild gatos!,” says Finn). Check it out!
Just for fun, here’s our vid from the same railroad back when Finn was 11 months old:
We explained that Henry technically had ridden these rails back then, but that from inside Mom-O’s tummy the view was limited. 🙂
This summer has been a vehicle bonanza for the Micronaxx. Our garage is starting to look like a very small car lot. Henry got a little Tonka ride-on tractor for his birthday, and our nannies Coco and Tiffy bestowed a large Radio Flyer all-terrain wagon and a Harley Davidson Big Wheel on the boys as gifts. The boys absolutely love riding in the big wagon on their way to the barbershop, park, or to visit the newest neighborhood attaction, “the little crocodile in the spiky bush!” (Don’t worry, the crocodile is yard-art  made of cement.)
Finny has gotten super-excited about the Harley, and has really gotten the hang of pedaling himself around. (Steering is another story.) The Harley has lots of fun features, like ticking turn signals, a horn, and engine sounds. It also a “radio” that plays music–this might be his favorite feature, since he ceases pedaling and pauses to rock out, waggling arms akimbo and bouncing around in the seat. It’s the cutest thing ever, as I hope you’ll agree when you watch the video that accompanies the gallery of photos (HTML) of the dudes and their wheels.
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Wagoneers! O Wagoneers!
COME, my pink-cheeked children,
Follow well in order.
O you youths, western youths,
So impatient, full of action, full of smallguy pride and friendship,
Have the elder races halted?
Do they droop and kvetch, wearied, bent by G-Man’s “walking”…?
[This post brought to you by Walt Whitman & a Cuisinart. ;-)]
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Henry’s First Pickle
Having gotten Finn into pickles last summer, we thought we’d see how his little bro likes ’em. During Saturday’s sojourn to the “Meat Hut,” Pickle Lady saw our wagon rolling up and intercepted us with a fistful of pickles. For a kid who makes some crazy faces & who spits out just about everything these days*, I thought Henry handled it well:
* We call him our resident ruminant.
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Bananas Unite!
During her visit last fall, Auntie Laura taught Finn a crazy little “Peel Peel Bananas” song–an event we captured on video. As it happens, our friend Tara took a shine to the video & taught the song to her twins, Bettie & Quade. On Saturday Tara, the twins, and their dad Andy came over for a barbecue that turned into an impromptu banana-jam:
On a related note, Finn & Quade enjoyed some two-man driving of a little wooden wagon from my cousin Anne. (Here’s a picture.) Yesterday Finn sat down on the wagon, paused, and said, “I don’t have a little buddy to ride with me. Those guys aren’t coming over this day.” After a little reflection, though, he noted, “Maybe we could get that little Billy Goat [Henry] to come ride.”
