Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

So, another month has come and gone and we had a great Thanksgiving dinner at our house with Nona and Donald over. We went a bit non-traditional with pork for Thanksgiving and it was great. Mostly Wendy and Yvonne made the food but, as you see below, Hadden helped too with Wendy's now-famous rolls. For those of you familiar with Hadden (or any two-year old boy) we made sure that he kept is hands out of his pants while cooking for others. That's pretty much a hard-and-fast cooking rule but it's rarely stated.

Hadden making rolls with Nona

Clara is growing up so quickly - almost 6 months old already. Yvonne's been back to work for over a month now and everything seems to be working at home and at work. Angela even got her driver's license this past weekend. Yipee! You should see her cool car. So a brief recounting of new skills:

• Clara: rolling over. I've not seen it but reliable reports have her rolling from tummy to back at least once.
• Hadden: putting on his own shoes. He often insists on doing it. In the interest of full disclosure, they are velcro shoes. He gets them on the correct feet about 50% of the time, which, statistically, is about what should happen if it's totally random.
• Clara: ba-ba-ba-ba. Now, Hadden doesn't think that's such an accomplishment but Clara's starting to make noises with her mouth shape (I'm sure there's some correct scientific term for it).
• Hadden: Peeing by himself. Granted, it's only happened once or twice but it's quite thrilling to have Hadden walk into the kitchen and claim (correctly) that he went into the bathroom, removed his diaper and peed in the poddy. Pretty good. Again, in the interest of full disclosure he did enter the kitchen without pants. So, lots of credit but not full credit.

Clara's now big enough to fit into the old sweater and hat that Steve (that's right, Steve) used to wear when he was a baby (mom made it for me). I think an earlier blog has a picture of Hadden in the outfit. Cute. Also, I've included another picture of Clara in her dress-from-a-vintage-T-shirt. Really cute. She's got a great smile and uses it all the time.

Clara in Steve's old garb

Clara happy!

Thanksgiving weekend we got out of the house a bought a tree. It was a nice local little tree place and was almost entirely fenced in so Hadden could run wild. Lots of fun. Later that day we visited the local nusery (yes, a plant place...you don't do tranditional nusery visits at Christmas?) and luckily they had a live reindeer, a live Santa Claus and a model train set. Trifecta for Hadden. Jingle, the reindeer, was posing for pictures. Hadden was content to watch him from close by - didn't want to get into the fake sleigh for a picture. That night we decorated the tree. We THOUGHT it would be a wonderful family moment but mostly Yvonne and I decorated the tree and Hadden made a huge mess and wrecked stuff. Whatever. We did capture one moment that perhaps years later will be what remains.

Hadden decorates the tree

Finally, I thought I should include this photo. We were at University Village (hoity-toity mall near UW) and Darth Vader, 3 stormtroopers and an imperial guard walked by us. Hadden totally noticed them but has no prior Star Wars knowledge. "Who's the scary guys?" he says. He was especially struck by Lord Vader, which he called "the black guy" (probably because he's dressed in all black and not because he was originally voiced by James Earl Jones). We followed them into...Barns and Noble (where else would they go?) and tracked them down in the second floor where he met a stormtrooper who asked him what he wanted for Christmas (don't they all ask that?). Got a quick picture with the stormtrooper - he even let Hadden hold his "sprayer" (that's what he calls all guns - thinks they all spray water - cute). Notice Hadden's expression; he's not quite sure if this trooper is totally trustworthy - especially behind him. Those of you who remember Brian Reid will recognize the pained look on Hadden's face. Total ringer for Brian. He'd be proud.

Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas.

Yvonne's back at work

Well,
Clara is closing in on 5 months old and that means Yvonne is going back to work at Microsoft. Today was her second day and all of us are doing well despite it. Clara's going great - she already weighs 18.5 lbs and is on track to be as huge as her brother was. A random list of recently acquired skills:

• Hadden: declaring something and then adding, "...but not really" to indicate that what he just said is totally untrue.
• Clara: laughing. Sometimes even at funny stuff.
• Hadden: singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star when he hears Clara crying to try and get her to stop. It often works...even though he really can't carry a tune.
• Clara: drinking from a bottle. It's all still Mom's stuff but now some comes in a convenient bottle form. I think she's waiting for the new wide pour aluminum can.
• Hadden: watching Cars and Kung Fu Panda. Wait, that's not a skill...unless you're a parent out of ideas on how to entertain your kid.

In September we went camping with Sara/Dan and Beth at Lake Chelan. The family did great on the drive over (translation: they slept). We did, however stop at a park with a jungle gym so "we" could get out a let off some steam. At the Lake, Hadden drive Dan's boat (see picture below). He was pretty happy about that one as you can see in the picture. Note the responsible boating life jacket.

On the drive back we did not fair as well. If one child wasn't crying the other was or was fixin' to. We stopped at two parks with jungle gyms, a Safeway, Blewett Pass and, I think, one other place. I think when you get directions on Google Maps (pardon me, Microsoft Bing Maps or whatever that service is nows called) there should be a radio button to click that says "with kids" - it adds 2 hours to the calculated travel time.

Went "hiking" a couple of weeks ago with the family. Actually, we walked around a trail in the Arboretum near UW. The round trip was 2 miles and Hadden made it about 1.99 miles. I walked the last bit to get the car while he had cheese sticks. Not a bad deal for Hadden. Clara (as you can see below) spent the hike in her backpack.


The "hike" took us through the parking lot of the Museum of History and Industry (what, you don't hike there? We USED to do hikes in the high dessert of Utah) and Hadden dug the 5-inch gun there (see below).


Hadden also helped me bake a cake for the family. Most importantly, the chef gets first crack at licking anything that got batter on it. Don't worry, it's still an Yvonne-style cake - it's got 3 zuchinnis in it.

Halloween over again and everyone had fun. This year Hadden got all fired up about being a tiger for Halloween even though we didn't have a costume for a long time. Needless to say, that really applied the pressure. I went to something like 5 stores the weekend before Halloween and finally found a tiger costume at Old Navy...ON SALE! Sweet. Clara got to be a pumpkin as all baby's get to. We went up and down Greenwood Ave. in the afternoon when the businesses had the typical Trick-or-Treat deal. After a while Hadden got smart and started cherry picking the lollipops out of their baskets rather than wasting time with a bunch of stuff that wasn't as good.

Clara the starttled pumpkin

Hadden the tiger.

Taking a short pit stop during candy collection.

Sharing candy with Mom.

That's it...ta ta for now,

Steve

Clara Hiakus (5-7-5 if you forgot)

Snotty nose of mine
I want someone to hold me
I love the nipple

Breast milk is so great
On, off, I sleep in mid suck
Dribbling down my chin

I give Clara kiss
still fingering my nose hole
be careful Hadden

Carry me right now
Gaining weight every day
Is your arm still sore?


Please contribute your own...

August 2009 - Hawaii

Hi all,

It's been about 2 months since Clara was born so we decided to push the envelope again and take a trip to Hawaii to visit the Muench family (Dad, Mom, Nana and Uncle Mike) and a good chunk of the Sasson family (Michelle, Kash and Haze...and Marley the dog). We also brought with us Leslie (Yvonne's sister), Karl (Leslie's husband - arrived a day after us), their son Cole, Wendy (Leslie and Yvonne's mom) and Angela (Clara and Hadden's nanny). Quite a pack. We all stayed at the Sasson residence because (1) it was the only place that could accommodate us all, and (2) it's completely fabulous. You should know it's for sale; if you want to make an offer check here.

So, we were in Hawaii for a week and staying at a fabulous place with 5 kids: ages 0 (Clara's 2 months), 1, 2, 3 and 4. As a group we are closing in on the Von Trapp family although none of the five knows any Sound of Music tunes. However, Hadden does sing the ABC song, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and several Spanish songs (although I must admit he doesn't even know all the words - like me trying to sing a Cheryl Crow song). It was an absolute zoo but it seems like they all loved their time together (even though there was a lot of "mine" and "he took my car" and "I wanted to play with that" kind of stuff).

Clara was introduced to the Muench family and behaved wonderfully (apart from some gas, a few belches and a poop or two). It was great to have other people hold her for extended periods of time - not that we don't love her. Right now, Clara is 2 months old and has achieved the following milestones (hey, they're milestones for a 2-month old):

• Has taken the GRE (but scored poorly)
• Can hold her head up
• Can "stand" with support for balance (not really a bid deal)
• Can smile (a big deal)
• Does a bunch of cooing and other baby noises that aren't crying (that's nice for mom and dad)

Uncle Mike is still running insane distance races (e.g., 100 miles) and has now written 3 books (1 novel and 2 collections of short stories). I intend to read them this year. Nana is doing well and was happy to see her latest great-grandchild (she has 4 now). Mom and Dad are doing well and the mango margharitas are great at the Muench house. We even managed to sneak in a dinner at Alan Wong's restaurant without the kids (fabulous). Also, we did one Mai Tai at Pinky's near the Marine Base (becoming a "must" Hawaii activity for us these days).

Hadden is also doing well and returned to the location of his "finger incident" and did just fine. He was more interested in playing with the toy car and soccer ball in the back yard. He also wanted a mango margharita but we were out of mix so he settled for a mango smoothie.

Well, now we're back in Seattle and the weather is still great but it's not Hawaii so I'll leave you with a few images from the islands taken by our official vacation photographer (Wendy).

Clara sports her new sassy Hawaii hat

Hadden finally does the Slip-n-slide
(only after we turned all the water off - he's wouldn't go otherwise).

Cole: "Hi Hadden, want some sand?"

Kash looking super cool riding his Spiderman bicycle.

Haze the future heartbreaker.

Kash doing the slip-n-slide (by Whamo) standing up!

Cole swimming with the hlep of inflatables and mom. Okay so he's not really swimming.

Well that's it...

TTFN, Steve

Clara Isabelle Muench

We have a new family member as of Wednesday. Everyone is doing well. Here are the vitals:

Name: Clara Isabelle Muench

Born: Wednesday, June 17th, 2009 at 1:23 p.m.

Height: 19 inches

Weight: 8 lbs. 3.7 ozs.

Clara after her required hospital "bath" in the delivery room bassinet

Clara a few hours old on my Flip video camera

Clara sleeping tonight as I begin writing this

More details (if you don't need birth details skip this)

Here's the birth story. Hadden was a C-section and Yvonne wanted very much to try a VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean). She was a good candidate for this (you can ask her detials about this if you like) so off we went. Clara was "due" (as near as we can guess) on June 13th (Saturday). No baby so instead I played softball that evening. On Tuesday evening, during the movie that we got to see (thanks Angela) - "The Hangover" - Braxton-Hicks contractions seemed to change, which was a good sign. I woke up at about 6:15a.m. and Yvonne said she was in labor since 3am. It got progressively better (or worse, depending upon what your goal is) and the Doula came over at about 1oam (she had 2 births the previous night). Water broke at about 11:30am and we were off to the hospital at 11:45am with Yvonne working not to push (we had passed the "transition" phase). Perhaps we left a bit late. After 15 minutes in the car with Yvonne hoping not to deliver in the versatile (but not as versatile as a hospital delivery room for this sort of thing) Element we made it to the Swedish emergency entrance. In the wheelchair and up directly into a birthing suit. Yvonne (or Clara, depending upon how you look at it) was far enough along that we skipped the triage room and all the admitance paperwork (nice!). About an hour and 15 minutes later Clara was born. Things were going quickly enough that the doctor sprinted over from their office and asked, "You wanted this to be natural, right?" Good thing we did because there wasn't much time for much else. This time around our "birth plan" for Clara consisted of fishing out the old one for Hadden from our files while Yvonne was in labor and crossing out "him" and replacing it with "her" in a few locations. Didn't matter though, the birth plan stayed with all our stuff in the car that was now illegally parked in the emergency room ambulence turn-around zone. The hospital and Doula moved our cars (the Doula drove separately) so everything worked out.

Clara came out OP (facing up rather than down), which supposedly made the birth harder. No matter, she came right out. Everyone is doing fine (Yvonne, Clara...and me). Hadden says there is no more baby inside mommy. He's right.

During the birth the only camera I had was the really crappy one on my mobile phone so no pictures from immediately after birth - no big deal. Our friend Sandy from two doors down came by at 4pm that day and did a full birth photo shoot. Turned out great - Wendy (Yvonne's mom), Angela and Hadden all stopped by with Sandy at 4pm. We moved into the post-partum room at around 6pm and were discharged for home the next day at 1:30pm: a total in-and-out process. For comparison:

Total time in labor:

Clara = 10 hours, 20 minutes (occurred naturally)

Hadden = 36 hours (induced)

Amount of equipment used in the delivery room:

Clara = IV (required for VBAC), fetal heart monitor, mommy heart monitor

Hadden = everything (actually I don't remember turning on the TV so maybe not everything)

Total time in hospital:

Clara = 24 hours

Hadden = 90 hours plus

About her name:

Muench = obvious

Clara = Yvonne had a great-aunt named Clara and it's also my grandmother's original middle name - so it has meaning to both of us

Isabelle = name of Yvonne's cat while growing up. True story. Better hers than the Muench cat my sister had while growing up - Muffins. Cara Muffins Muench would not have worked.

More to come I'm sure...

steve

Spring 2009

Hi all,


One last post before the arrival of "baby sister" in June. No increadibly wild adventures to post since spring break but Hadden continues to grow. He's been going to the zoo a lot the past few months as the weather has warmed up and the rain has calmed down. Typically he's at the zoo at least twice a week. It sure is convenient to have it so close by.

We finally went to a Mariners game this year. I told Hadden that we would go after his nap and then I left for the hardware store. That kind of freaked him out because he thought I was leaving for the game without him. As it turned out, he got up from his nap about 30 minutes after the game started so we headed down late. That day, of all days, was the day the game was over in only 2 hours and 2 minutes. So we got to see about 4.5 innings. Actually, that was fine. Saw Beltre hit a HR and Ichiro make a nice catch. Hadden clapped for Ardsma when he got the save. He had a great time although I'm not sure he really knew what was going on.

Hadden and me enjoying the game - we both brought our Mariner hats

After the game but still at the stadium

Also, I recently made a sandbox for Hadden. Not because he asked or anything, just because I thought it was a project that I could actually do (it's a 12 inch deep box - not too difficult). Also, Hadden does really enjoy the sandbox at the park. So I looked around on the internet for sandbox plans and ideas for a week (don't ask me why - it's a box). I spent even more time researching sand to put in the box because I was convinced that the regular "play sand" you buy at Home Depot wasn't good enough. Growing up in Hawaii has made me a "sand snob". So I looked around and the best I could find was "safe sand" that comes from the Bay Area. A quick calculation showed that it would cost us about $1,200 for just the sand in Hadden's sandbox. Turns out Home Depot "play sand" isn't that bad after all. That's what we have. We built the box over two days and Hadden helped lots. Mostly he liked to direct me on what tools to use: "You use the drill daddy". This is okay until you actually need to use the circular saw. We got it done and, without the least prompting he said, "Thankyou my sandbox daddy". Worth it.

Making the sandbox

Next post: Clara.

steve

Spring Break 2009

Well, it's been the requisite 2 months so another post here. Since Christmas we've been speeding along the development path (both us and Hadden - and I guess the unborn sister - are developing). We have been doing the zoo a lot and we traveled to Phoenix to visit both Uncle Ron's (my brother and my mom's brother) and do what turned out to be a mini Kingma family reunion (my mom's family).

Spring Break in Scottsdale, AZ

We spent 4 days in the FireSky Resort in Scottsdale. It's where my brother works so we got a good deal. For anyone going to that part of the work, I recommend it...even though Ron works there. They've got two pools, one of which has a wading area next to a small "beach". Pretty easy to just roll out there in the morning and stay out there as Hadden plays in the sand for about 4 hours. My parents also came and stayed in the room next to ours. Also, my mom's brother Ron lives near Phoenix and her sister (Jean) and her husband (Harry) flew down from Spokane.

Hadden at the "beach" at FireSky

We did two spring training games (Giants-Mariners in Scottsdale and Dodgers-Mariners in Glenndale) and Hadden had lots of fun at both. He didn't really watch the game but running around in a new venue is always fun.

Hadden taking a reading break at the Giants game.

The Muench family TRYING to pose for a picture

This time we bought and took a portable DVD player on the plane with us. Good choice. It's like hypnotizing Hadden. He's totally engrossed in whatever movie he's watching. Kept him silent on both flights. Although, on the flight back we forgot to change his diaper before getting on the plane and didn't do so until they gave the standard "sit down and turn off electronic devices" about 20 minutes out of Seattle. At that point I realized that pee had soaked through Hadden's diaper and onto my lap. Can't get up to change him, can't clean up my jeans. Bad parents.

We went for a walk around "Old Scottsdale" - it's kind of a topaz jewelery tourist trap but it does look nice. We stopped to see the caballo (horse) that was pulling a carriage there but as Hadden and Yvonne got close Hadden decided the horse was, in fact, quite big and a bit intimidating. Splashing around in the water feature of the nearby park was much more to Hadden's liking.

Not sure I want to get any closer to the caballo.

Hadden did his first hike in Phoenix. Uncle Ron (the elder) took us to Lost Dutchman State Park where the big group did a 2.5 mile hike. Hadden, Yvonne and I did about 1 mile of it then we turned back so Hadden wouldn't fall apart. He did great. He also learned the saying "touch a cactus, owie on my finger" although this series of events never happened. Also, if you see Hadden, ask him what he saw on the hike. He saw a burro and a caballo. Trust me, he'll tell you this. He told us about 50 times that day and the next. Of course he may get confused and tell you what he sees at the zoo at least twice a week - "I saw a daddy Gorilla...BIG" or some variation.

Hadden hiking with the group and doing what he really wanted to do on this hike - pick up as many rocks as he could.

All in all, quite a fun trip. We did Scottsdale in 2008 and had fun too. This may be an annual event. Who knows. I just got back from Scottsdale again. Went down there from 17-19 April to see the Subway Fresh Fit 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup race in Avondale, AZ (just outside of Phoenix). Good fun. Don't laugh at a NASCAR race until you've been to one.

steve

The Holidays and the New Year

Well, lots has happened since the last post (typical introduction). But really, we've had Thanskgiving, Christmas, the New Year and a bit of an accident over Christmas that eventually turned out alright.

We did Thanksgiving with a small mob at Cory's place in Seattle. It was a small condo place but Cory managed to fit in something like 18 people comfortably and make everyone feel at home. Hadden had a blast as there were several other kids there and we brought a few toys. Lots of fun.

Christmas

Christmas was in Hawaii this year - courtesy of my parents and Andrew/Michelle/Kash/Haze. We did a week at my sister's newly constructed place on the beach in Kailua. It's about two blocks from my parents' house so it was really convenient as we shuttled back and forth between the houses. Hadden loves Kash and Haze and loved following them all over and trying to do what they were doing. Unfortunately, Kash is now 4 and Haze is 2.5 so Hadden sometimes can't do what they are doing, which is a bit frustrating.

Haze, Hadden and Kash at the kids' table (note that the red chair is unoffically the "Spiderman Chair, while the green chairs are unoffically the "Green Goblin Chairs" - this is VERY important)

It was a bit windy and overcast for the first couple of days but on Sunday it was sunny so everyone treked down to the beach, which thanks to the house, was only about 100 ft.

Hadden, Kash and Haze enjoy the sand.

Later on in the day my brother Ron taught Hadden the finer points of nerf football in the back yard. Actually, it's now a "Poof" football as Nerf has chosen to concentrate on guns that shoot nerf things. Too bad.

"Hadden, I have the ball, it's first-and-ten. You try and tackle me. Set...HUT! (offsides)"

Unfortunately, Sunday night (December 21st) Hadden was walking around and, I guess (nobody remembers exactly), tried to climb up on a glass coffee table at my parents' house. The table surface is not attached to the base so it slipped over and the edge landed on Hadden's left ring and middle finger. SPOILER ALERT - if you don't like grossness, skip to the next paragraph. Nothing shattered or cracked but it appears the weight of the table surface over such a small area cut into the two fingers rather deeply about 1/2 way up on the nail. We had to go to the emergency room and luckily a hand specialist lived in Lanikai (not too far from Castle Hospital) and came in at night to sew Haddens fingers back together (one was 70% amputated!). So, for the rest of the time in Hawaii, Hadden had to wear a big bandage on his left had to keep the fingers dry and to keep him from picking at the bandage. All is well now and Hadden's fingers are fine. But...a bit of drama there for a couple of days as we wondered if his fingers would be fine.

Hadden playing in the sand with his bandaged hand in a zip-loc bag. He's a trooper. Didn't seem to bother him much at all. His expression, for some reason, reminds me very much of Brian Reid.

Again, Hadden is fine now. Fingers are okay and fingernails are now growing back in. Yea for Hadden! One side effect is that he now loves to play with Ace bandage and wrap is fingers, legs, arms or whatever. "Daddy/Mommy fix fingers?" is a common request. We still got in lots of beach time but Hadden didn't get to go swimming for the last week in Hawaii, which was a bummer. However, like I said, he still enjoyed himself a ton. (see below)

Hadden on "Daddy's shoulders" on Kailua Beach

Also, Obama and family were staying about 2 miles down the beach (on Kailua Beach) very near where Yvonne used to live when she was stationed in Hawaii. On his last trip to Oahu he and his kids stopped by my favorite Shave Ice place (Island Snow) in Kailua and were photographed eating shave ice. I saw the photo in the store (obviously) but also saw it in DC about 3 weeks later when I was reading a Washington DC Magazine in my hotel room. Kind of cool that the president has Hawaii ties and eats shave ice. He's gotta be good just based on that.

Christmas itself was a blast. I don't think Hadden really knew what was going on but he still enjoyed it. Opening stuff and making a mess is always fun. At least Kash and Haze, who are older, pointed him in the right direction.

Kash, Hadden and Haze at a childrens' sermon at Church on Xmas eve. Kash and Haze, being Jewish, are true gamers here showing some serious sportsmanship.

Hadden gets carried away with affection for Haze. He was hugging her and they fell over. Hadden didn't let go and just jumped on top of her and continued the hug. Haze is signaling to her mom (my sister Michelle) that she's done with the hug.

2009
After Hawaii, it was back to cold Seattle. We've been up sleding twice to Snoqualmie Pass. He's a bit tentative going down in the sled with Dad but he loves to pick up chunks of snow and move them.

We've been doing well here. Hadden is talking more and more in sentences (sort ones at least). We can understand about 50%. Here are some of his favorites:

• "Nona on the ferry boat comes" (Nona, Yvonne's mom Wendy, comes over on the ferry boat from Bainbridge Island every Monday to take care of Hadden - he LOVES her)
• "Daddy fix the fingers" - in reference to his finger accident.
• "No whacking (fill in name here)". We'd like it if he wouldn't hit, or whack, his friends, nanny, parents, relatives, etc.
• "Watch dumptrucks/Dash/Nemo/Mike Wizow..." in reference to watching DVDs.
• "I'm hungry mommy." Obvious where this one works.
• "Close the door please!" He used to hide in the unfinished cabinet in our kitchen and would ask us to close the door so he could leap out and "surprise" us.
• "Hadden cook the pancakes." Obvious too.

You might be able to recognize one or two of these sentences as actual English but we are experts on Hadden-ese just as any parent is an expert in their kids' babble. I used to think he was gifted but the "Nona on the ferry boat comes" obviously has the verb in the wrong place for English. Ugh. Remedial English here we come. Although I will balance that with the fact that he knows all the parts of a Caterpillar hydraulic excavator (cab, engine, boom, stick, bucket, tracks, bogey). Perhaps there's a gifted class for 2-year olds who know construction equipment?

All for now,

steve