Well, the posts are getting fewer and further between but they still keep coming. Hadden has had lots of fun since we got back from Zurich. Various family activities, parties, etc. have kept him busy including his new trike. He loves bicycles ("BI-YEEK!") and, by association, trikes. He's pretty stoked to be riding his own trike (even though he doesn't peddal). We got one that has a removable handle and a free-wheeling drive wheel so we can push him about town. 
We also geared him up for winter at REI (new jacket, fleece, gloves, pants). Do All the stuff from last winter was too small. these things ever stop growing? Let's see...new skills since last time:
- Words, words, words. He knows bunches and bunches and a good chunk in Spanish thanks to Angela's help. Some of the better ones: "ah-ti-tee" for "excavator" and the array of Spanish animals (rana, oso, leon, mono, buho, ante, elephante, vaca, gallina, etc.).
- Jumping. Not quite yet. HE thinks he can jump ("salta" in Spanish) but still really no official air time.
- Dancing. Not yet ready to list this as a "skill". More like an "interest". He certainly goes crazy with just about any music.
- Watching baseball/football. He knows that the TV room is where we watch baseball/football. "Watch bee-ball?" he says.
We have become the snobby yuppies that teach their child a foreign language when he's one year old. The other day at REI he was whining for water by, of course, saying "auga, auga, auga..." when the cashier noticed (while ringing up over $100 worth of Hadden clothes) and asked, "Is he saying 'agua'?" (rather surprised). So, pretty annoying (uppity couple spending bucks on a 18 month old anglo kid who speaks Spanish). In defense of his "normaldom" he also likes french fries, running around the TV room with a waste paper basket over his head, and screaming "FOOTBALL!" when I turn the TV on to a football game.
Hadden has also started "Zoom" (http://www.zoomlanguage.com/) Spanish language classes twice a week (1 hour each) at a local place. Basically a bunch of toddlers run around singing and dancing in Spanish. Not bad. Wendy believes he is the cutest and smartest kid in the class - not an unlikely conclusion for a grandmother. Angela also believes it - again, not an unlikely conclusion for a nanny. Hadden seems to enjoy the class so at this rate he will have had more foreign language training than me by the time he hits 3 years old. Good for Hadden.
Grandpa reads about CAT heavy machinery. Awesome!
This last week my Dad, known to Hadden as "grandma" despite our best efforts to get him to pronounce "grandpa", was in town for 2 Husky games and to see Hadden. Hadden had lots of fun playing with "grandma". We went to a pumpkin patch/petting farm, UW women's volleyball game, out to breakfast and read loads of books and learned bunches about everything from dump trucks to how to rake leaves in a chicken costume. We also went trick-or-treating on Greenwood Avenue near our house on Saturday when all the local businesses were giving out candy. It didn't take Hadden long to understand that every place he went there was someone who wanted to give him something. He didn't really know it was candy but that didn't stop him from returning to the same person over and over again. "No Hadden, only one..." had no meaning to him. He was pretty stoked to wear the costume - especially the orange tights, which we called "big socks". He's really into categorizing the size of everything he sees. Unfortunately, he's really only got two categories: big and tiny. There is no small, extra large, medium or anything else.
Amazing Chicken feat #1: gets candy handouts for Halloween!
Amazing chicken feat #2: flies! (sort of)
Amazing chicken feat #3: rakes leaves?
Lastly, we bought a couple of pumpkins over the last couple of weeks. Once at the supermarket and one at the pumpkin patch/petting farm in Lynnwood. Hadden LOVES pumpkins - we have to stop at every display and categorize them by size. Also, any pumpkin on the ground warrants an "uh-oh". At the pumpkin patch there were lots of "uh-oh"s. I'll include a pumpkin photo next time.
steve
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