Thanksgiving in Seattle

It has been a while since the last post: July - November. That's a long time I suppose. Here is the update from then until now: we went to Hawaii at the end of July, came back and experienced the abbreviated Seattle summer of 2010, football season started (Huskies decidedly average, which is an improvement), Halloween, a quick snow in November and then Thanksgiving.

• Clara: 17 months now and can walk and "jog" wonderfully. 
• Clara: Has many words now but many sound similar. Noted recent words: daddy (good diction), baby (great diction), mommy (great diction) and others like football (I taught her that one), bye-bye, kitty, doggy, bottle (the "tt" comes out like a "th"). Still, many things are "eehhhh!".
• Hadden: Can do a somersault. He started gymnastics in September (once a week for 45 minutes).  
• Hadden: excellent at being difficult. 

Hawaii

Went to Hawaii and stayed with the gang at the end of July-beginning of August. Lots of fun. Everyone got along well (especially considering they are kids of 1, 3, 4, and 5). Lots of fun at the beach. Went to the Kailua tidepools (by the boat ramp for those in the know) and saw a few fish - even caught a couple. Saw a dead puffer fish (cool) and a live turtle (in the water swimming nearby). 

Starlettes avoid the paparazzi near the pool.

Fun in a big hole at the beach.

Look what Auntie Michelle has in the bucket (a small fish).

What was left of the Seattle summer

It's a la Nina year so summer was short, colder than normal and wet. Such are the hazards of living in Seattle. In August we went to the Evergreen State Fair in Monroe. Lots of fun seeing the animals and rides. Everyone got to pet the animals and Hadden got to go on a ride ($8 for about 3 minutes of fun). Afterwards the kids sacked out on the way home (see photos). 

Petting the goat in the kids farm area.

Baby pigs in the kids farm.

Hadden the Chiquita banana.

Kids have had enough for the day.

Dad came in September for 2 Husky games. Uncle Ron came for the second one against Nebraska. No pictures of that game as there was nothing that needed to be preserved in anyone's memory as the Huskies got trounced. Ugh.

Here's Clara at the Burke Museum (being such a cultural family, we often take our kids to University museums such as the Burke) for the Bug exhibit. Pretty cool. I've no idea what they're looking at.

At one time, we considered mailing the kids to a relative as a joke (and also to get some rest). Turns out they both fit in one shipping box with room for food. USPS will mail this for one flat rate.

Clara loves to feed herself. She even gets some yogurt into her mouth...although I'm not sure it's much. At least she's happy about it. Dad cleaned this one up but figured it was at least worthy of a photo. Please see the Noodle video (below) for more messiness.

Movie night in the kids room. Hadden and Clara are in the same room now at night. I set up the projector in the room along with an old-school slide screen and we watched Kung Fu Panda from my laptop. Yvonne was traveling so video entertainment was at the top of my list.

Halloween
This year Hadden was a firefighter and Clara was a cow (Clarabelle the Cow - get it?). The firefighter costume is a real winner. Hadden wears it several times a week and we have to convince him that he can actually wear other clothes. We did the usual Greenwood Avenue trick-or-treat on Saturday morning (October 30th) but it was pouring rain. The following night the weather was great and we did an abbreviated half-block walk in our neighborhood. They all loved it and Hadden was very sweet waiting for his little sister and making sure she didn't get behind.

Clarabelle the Cow

The firefighter

Going to the mall in a firefighter costume some time in November.

Some Snow
The week of Thanksgiving it snowed on Monday and stuck around until Thursday. Even snowed a bit more on Thursday morning. This made us realize that despite all the clothes the kids do have, they don't have any warm winter clothes that fit. Had to buy them but managed to take advantage of stores jumping the gun on Black Friday. We played outside in the snow on Tuesday morning and Thursday morning. Everyone had fun - Clara was a bit skeptical about being outside but she warmed up to it.

Clara and Mommy outside in her new snow boots. Cute.

Hadden helps Daddy "clean" the car for work. I put on chains Tuesday. That's rare for Seattle but then again, we don't do much in this town when it snows. 

Clara in her styling new coat and hand-me-down hat.

That's all for now. Ta-ta!

Steve

Summer in Seattle

Well, it's summer in Seattle. Since the last post, Clara has turned 1 year old, Yvonne spent a week in Paris and Sao Paulo (Steve got a week of solo love with the kids), we spent a Saturday night in a Cama Beach cabin and visited an Air Expo at Joint Base Lewis McChord. First things first:

• Clara: walks with ease now. She learned right at about 1 year. At 13 months she's a pro.
• Clara: can say some words sometimes. She says "hi" (I know, not the greatest accomplishment) from time to time - that's the clearest one. 
• Hadden: uses the "big boy" potty and also has used the urinals in public restrooms. 
• Hadden: already has had his first graduation (from Zoom Language Center day care 2-3 year old class)

Hadden Graduates

Hadden's Zoom Language Center (http://www.zoomlanguage.com/) "clase azul" (2.5-3.5 year old) class "graduated" out at Golden Gardens park. They sang songs (La Bamba and Los Bomberos) and then we had food and played on the beach. All the kids where in white shirts and Yvonne says they looked like little angels on the beach. I agree.

Hadden climbing on the driftwood at the beach

Throwing rocks with his Zoom friend

Clara's Birthday

Clara is now 1 year and 1 month old. It's hard to believe that she's already over a year and walking. Before we know it she will be in college. I'm sure every parent says the same thing - not may say "geeze, will they grow up already?" We went to the park and had Top Pot Donuts, fruit and sandwiches on an overcast but not-quite-rainy day in June. Clara (as you can see from the swinging) loved it. She got to walk around as much as she wanted. There was also a Title Nine blowout sale in one of the hangers there (Magnuson Park encompasses what used to be Sand Point Naval Station) so mom was happy too. As you can see, it's a bit cold in June in Seattle (all people in picture wearing fleece). 

Clara on the swings at her birthday party at Magnuson Park (Hadden pushing)

Cama Beach State Park

Emily's parents (Josh and A.P.) invited us up to Cama Beach State park (http://www.parks.wa.gov/camabeach/) to weekend in the cabins there. There are many cabins - each with a bed or two and a sink, microwave and table. Hadden and Clara LOVED this because Hadden spent the entire 2 days with Emily (his great friend) and Clara got to walk everywhere. When we left, Hadden was disappointed that we had not, in fact, moved to the cabin permanently and that we were, unfortunately, returning to our "old house." 

Cama Beach State Park cabins

Clara out front of our cabin - going up and down and up and down...the stairs

Hadden and Emily playing with the wheelbarrow near the cabin

Clara DIGS the wooden boat Hadden "made" at the park

The Week without Mom

Yvonne had to go to Paris and Brazil for business (I can think of worse places) so the rest of us hunkered down for a week. I think Hadden really got the idea that Mommy was going a way for a week and he was a bit sad. No matter, after we dropped Mommy off at the airport we went to Costco and got 36 juice boxes, a Horton Hears a Who video, a Toy Story 3 book and a DVD collection of every World Cup on film (hey, Daddy was sad too). Highlights: we all lived, Hadden once pooped in his pants twice in 2 minutes (I changed him in between and that was AFTER he already went on the potty), Clara slept remarkably well, we got to watch more movies than usual, and we made a Welcome Home Mommy banner (along with a big mess). 

The Air Expo

We went to the Air Expo at McChord. LOTS of planes there for Daddy and Hadden to look at. No submarines. Hadden got to walk through a C-17 Globemaster, C-5 Galaxy and an RC-135 Rivet Joint. Hadden also got to "pilot" a CH-47 Chinook helicopter. They also had an inflatable slide/maze area that Hadden went nuts on. We were supposed to buy tickets for each "ride" but Hadden was too fast and snuck at least 2 free rides. Gotta watch that kid. Mostly, Clara was tired and slept or wanted to be picked up. Perhaps she's a Navy gal like her Mommy. We got to see a bit of the airshow too before everyone got too tired. Hadden's favorite part was the A-10 Thunderbolt flyby. They even set of an explosion at ground level when they went by to simulate an attack. "I like the planes that made the fire!" Who wouldn't?

So now it's the middle of July and we are going to Hawaii next week to spend a week with family at the Michelle/Andrew/Kash/Haze house. Should be a blast. Summer has been a bit late coming to Seattle this year so we will be sure to bring LOTS of sunscreen. 

Hadden's Birthday Redux

Hi all,

Well, we finally got around to actually throwing Hadden a birthday PARTY. A month late. Oh well, I suppose he looks at it as a bonus birthday. The sad part is going to be breaking the news to him in July when there is no party (Clara's party will be in June - she's 11 months old today!). It's only been a month since the last blog (can you tell I got tenure this year - I'm blogging all the time now...) but things have happened - some even worth reporting/recording:

• Clara: crawls all over the house now. The cat food is in constant peril of being eaten by an 11-month old.
• Clara: Can sort of try and kind of say a few words. She honestly tries to get "ball", "uh-oh" and a few others out if you drill them into her head.
• Hadden: ADORES my softball bat. Taking it out on Sundays is a near-ritual.
• Hadden: peeing on the poddy. Doesn't really have accidents any more. Now, if only he was okay with using the adult poddy too...

Hadden's Birthday Party

We had a party for Hadden on Saturday, May 15th from 4-6pm. To compound the fun, Harvey and Dexter (4-year old twins two doors down) had a party at Pump It Up (http://www.pumpitupparty.com/) in the morning from 9:45-12 noon that Hadden was invited too. He was totally pumped for this party and ran his tail off there. Eat pizza, cake, juice and whoop it up with friends, then home for a nap. Now Hadden's party (he's a busy guy). We had several friends over plus parents plus siblings so it turned out to be about 20 or so people - my parents were also in town so it worked out great. We had two kinds of macaroni and cheese (made from scratch using a couple of Painted Table recipes), a zucchini chocolate whole wheat cake, watermelon, garlic bread, a vegetable platter (Hadden actually had a lot of carrots), apple juice...and for the adults we had raspberry rum shrub and mai tai cocktails. Then we went to the park down the street since the weather was great (70F and sunny). We had lots of bubble-making stuff but the high point was a pinata that Angela brought over. Everyone got a good swing at it and when it burst it was candy mayhem. I think Hadden had two lollipops at once.

Hadden at Carkeek Park with his "shark tooth" necklace from Grandma and Grandpa

Ready to swing at the pinata

Taking a swing at the pinata

Loot afterwards

Clara celebrates afterwards with a balloon

Well, that's it for May. Steve heads off to Lisbon, Portugal next week for a conference so we shall see how it all goes - the volcano in Iceland (Eyjafjallajökull if you must know) is still spewing ash and Heathrow was shut down today (I fly through Heathrow). We shall see how things go...

TTFN,

Steve

Happy Birthday Hadden!

Today's post is from Clara - a first since she hasn't written before...

Hi all from Claraville - my crib

Hi all, this week was my brother's third birthday. Pretty amazing stuff seeing as he's already three. Hey, I'm almost 10 months already. It's also tax day today; not sure what that's all about but Dad and Mom say my dependent deduction status is a plus, whatever that means. First, let's get to some abilities:

• Clara: crawling. Just learned how to crawl last week. My parents say I crawl just like Hadden - like a crab and barely. Hey, I do just what I need to do to get around. Like Hadden did, I also refuse to touch my knee to the ground. For me, it's my right knee that can't touch (Hadden was the left).
• Clara: standing (assisted). I LOVE to stand up and hold on to things. This is a number one activity. I haven't yet started "cruising" (as all the baby websites call it) but that can't be far behind.
• Clara: clapping. Yes, I can clap on demand. Mom and Dad get quite a kick out of asking me to clap by saying "clap, clap, clap". It turns out that when Hadden was about 10 months old he clapped too. Wow, we are neck-and-neck in the development race.
• Clara: ariba/abaho. Angela has been working me relentlessly on this. I can (sometimes) raise my hands and lower them on command in Spanish. I am now ready to be a stock market analyst (the market is now "ariba" and now it's "abaho"). Honestly, most of the show on TV about the stock market are at this level. That would be a good stock market show - "Ariba-abaho".
• Clara: banging things. The louder the noise the better. It's really cool. It's a bonus if I'm actually damaging something.
• Hadden: using phrases that are surprising considering his age. He says stuff like "you really surprised me, Mom" and similar things when you don't expect them.
• Hadden: NOT saying "die". A while ago Hadden became fascinated with saying "die" to me (Clara - remember, I'm writing this). Mom and Dad explained that this was not nice. Now Hadden does not pass up an opportunity to tell them that he "...did NOT say 'die' while they were gone" or "...while Angela was here" or "while I was at Zoom".
• Hadden: peddling. He finally gets the idea that he has to pedal his tricycle to make it go. I think he's still rather someone push him. Probably jealous of me in my pink MacLaren stroller. I used to have a black one but British AIrways lost it.

There are other things that have happened since the last post. First, I went to Paris and London with Mom and Auntie Leslie. Pretty spectacular. We went for about 8 days and Hadden stayed with Dad. I hear Dad hasn't been to Paris yet and I have. Tough luck boy. The weather's also starting to get warmer (finally) and we have begun to go to the park more often. I enjoy being outside and so does my brother. He does tend to run around a lot. My Mom says little boys need to run every day. I tend to agree.

Hadden at the park

Me and Mom watching Hadden at the park - he's SOOO interesting (and somewhat dangerous)

Hadden's Birthday

Hadden just turned three on 12 April 2010. What a day for him. We just had a little internal family party with Mom, Dad, me, Hadden (of course) and Nona. Dad made Hadden mac and cheese for dinner (his favorite) and also made a whole wheat chocolate zucchini cake with chocolate frosting. Hadden ate a ton of mac and cheese and then opened presents. He got (1) Buzz Lightyear, (2) underwear (total parent gift), (3) huge basketball shorts, (4) a Snotrod car from the movie Cars, (5) a construction puzzle - big floor size, (6) stickers, crayons and other art supplies from his artsy auntie, and (6) A SCOOTER!!!

Hadden trying out his new Razor scooter. Cool.

Hadden's cake: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_KxOq-n1Xo

Pardon me if I left anything out - I tend to fall asleep from time to time and miss things. Hadden played with his toys that night, took several to bed and has been scooting around the house and neighborhood all this week. Too much fun. Happy birthday big bro.

TTFN - Clara

Snow with Grandpa

Hi all,

Grandpa is in town to see his grandchildren and see some UW Husky basketball. Today we went up to the Hyak sno-park to do a little sledding. We've got a cheap plastic sled purchased a couple of years ago and it is more than adequate. But first, the ability review:

• Clara: lots of ba-ba-ba and related babble.
  
• Clara: blowing bubbles (or making fart sounds) - lots of that
• Clara: sitting up unassisted (and grabbing EVERYTHING).
• Hadden: peddling - he's started to pedal his tricycle sometimes when we use it. Usually not for long stints if he can get the adult to push it. I don't blame him.
• Hadden: pooping on the poddy for hot wheels cars. He can do it - it's just a question of consistently doing it on his own. Come on Hadden!

Back to the trip to the snow. As you may know, it hasn't been that cold here in the Seattle area so we were happy that there was enough snow on the ground to do a bit of sledding. This year Hadden was enthusiastic about going down the hill with daddy or mommy. Last year he really didn't want to. Also, we went over to a really short hill (10 ft) and he went by himself a number of times. Really enjoyed that. After that it was back to the car for lunch. Hadden ate more than anyone: 1 sandwich, 2 bananas, 2 whole-wheat apricot bars, 2 handfuls of yogurt covered raisins. Sometimes I think it's a bottomless pit in there.

Vampire Clara (actually it's pureed beets).

Hadden going down with Daddy.

Hadden going solo. Looks like fun.

Lunch afterwards.