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.

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?


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