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