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.
