8 Months

Hudson just keeps getting more and more fun. He's a pretty hilarious kid, and he's full of character! He is now 2/3 of the way to his 1st birthday. Unbelievable! I soooo want to stop time and enjoy this age forever. He's not always going to be an innocent little boy who loves to snuggle with his momma!

Well I mentioned in a previous post about Hudson's head shaking skill. Ok, maybe head shaking quirk? :) I got a little head shaking action on video finally!

Hudson LOVES monkeys. We received two monkey piggy banks at his shower - one from Grandma Shelly and one from Aunt Doris. We returned one of them but now I wish we hadn't! Every time he sees that monkey, he just lights up! When we're in his nursery, he looks for it on his dresser. That monkey causes INSTANT smiles, giggles, and hissing (will explain the hissing below…)! Here's a video of Hudson crawling after the monkey piggy bank while I am trying to get him to sit still for pictures! He also has this big round sock monkey head pillow that just cracks him up. He gives that monkey pillow TONS of open-mouth kisses!

There's one more thing in his nursery that he absolutely adores. The door handle. Yup, and we have no clue why! He will try soooo hard to wiggle around in your arms so he can reach that door handle. He bounces up and down with excitement when he sees it!

Hudson's favorite book is, "Clifford, Where is the Big Red Doggie?" He has been in love with that book ever since the first time he saw it months ago. When Clifford is on TV, Hudson is in "the zone." He also likes to watch "Jake and the Neverland Pirates," "Yo Gabba Gabba," "Chuggington," and football! He gets excited when he sees someone with a soda can because he wants you to put it up to his cheek so he can feel the cold can. And he also loves to throw his fist into a bowl of cereal or teddy grahams to make your food explode everywhere! He gets really excited when you tell him, "no!" (we're working on that…), and he likes to follow us all over the house so we have to keep most doors shut 24/7.

With the recent stomach bug that hit our house, he has become quite the pro at getting his temperature taken. We have the forehead thermometer that you swipe from the middle of the forehead to the temple, and he used to grab at it like a wild animal. Now he just leans his head forward and holds completely still while you check his temperature a couple of times. He doesn't mind if you take something away from him or if you take him away from something. He either tries to go right back to it (if it's still reachable) or he moves on to something else! He's pretty tough - he falls often and doesn't normally cry at all. Thomas and I have trained each other on how to react when he falls so he doesn't think he's hurt every time. It's working!

Once Hudson began crawling, we started giving him puffs, yogurt melts, mum mums, and lil' crunchies. Of course, he loves these as well. His first reaction was a repeated fake cough and smiles. He wasn't sure about what was in his mouth but it was still pretty funny! Now he gets excited if he sees a container of these yummy treats. Here's a video of him chasing dad's hand for a puff!

At the beginning of December, Hudson started making a noise that kind of sounds like a hissing/static noise when he is excited. It drives Thomas crazy! And he almost ALWAYS does it when he sees Thomas. I apologize that I haven't gotten a video of this yet, but I will! Stay tuned...

Since the end of November, Hudson has been trying to get up on his feet from a crawling position (without holding onto anything). Well that's just not going to happen! He's finally caught on that he needs something to grab ahold of to pull himself up. If you stand him up and give him something to hold onto, he can keep himself up. So far he has fallen over every time he tries to pull up on his own, but here's a video of him thinking about it (and practicing some dance moves)!

Napping with his feet up in the air

Same nap… now with his butt in the air!

We discovered this fun activity the other night!

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

Holy moly! This cold weather is KILLING me. Last weekend we had our first winter storm and it's just now disappearing from all the roads. It started with rain, turned to sleet, then eventually snow. So we ended up with about 6 inches of snow on top of a thick layer of ice. We were planning on traveling back to Illinois for the weekend, but instead, we didn't leave the house!

The snow is coming down! (view from our basement)

Hudson's first snow!

"What is that stuff, mom?!?!" 

Little penguin

A couple days after the snowstorm started, Thomas went to work with a shovel. Here you can see the ice underneath the snow.

Lately I've been a little obsessed with Christmas photo-shoots with Hudson. What else is there to do when it's a chilly 23 degrees outside??? He's just such a happy little guy that I can't help but dress him up and snap tons of pics!

Already figuring it out...

Stinker!

Trying to be sneaky and escape with a present!

Giggling, as usual!

This picture is by far the best Christmas photo I've taken of him. I literally snapped 46 shots of him with these Christmas lights, and this was the very first one I took. He was amazed by the lights and he actually held still for a moment. After this shot, he was moving all over the place and most of them turned out blurry!

Thomas saw Santa Claus in Cape so we decided to take Hudson to meet him! I really had no idea how he would react, so I made Thomas put on a Santa hat at home before we left. Of course, Hudson thought that was pretty funny (and so did I because the Santa hat was waaaay too small for his head)! Hudson loved Santa and Mrs. Claus. I guess we couldn't have asked for a better reaction!

More Christmas photos! Who needs to pay for professional photos? It's more fun to do them yourself! :)

Merry Christmas everyone!

Daddy Missed It

Thomas left Sunday evening to head to Memphis for work for the week. He didn't get back till Friday morning! So I was a single mom all week and let me tell ya, that's not easy! One of my technicians at work is a single mom, and this week gave me a new sense of respect for what she does!

Thomas face-timed us Monday evening and Hudson was simply thrilled. It doesn't take much to make him smile or squirm with excitement, but he absolutely LOVED seeing his Daddy's face on his most sought after electronic device: the iPhone! It doesn't get any better than that! Somehow I managed to get both hands on the phone to take a screenshot while Hudson was flailing with excitement and also trying to grab the phone!

Then on Tuesday night, Hudson finally discovered how to crawl forwards! He would only do it when I got him really excited (and never when I had my phone out to videotape). He would pound those hands down and almost bounce forwards. It was the cutest thing ever... and Daddy missed it! A friend and I eventually got a good video of him in action so Thomas could see him crawl. :)

First good video of him crawling!

Thomas also missed a week of Hudson sleeping like a perfect angel. I am very thankful for all the sleep I got while Dad was gone! He has always been an awesome sleeper, only waking during the night for his paci. Only one time has he needed a bottle in the middle of the night since he was 7 weeks old! But of course, the first night that Thomas was back, Hudson woke up at 2am and wanted a bottle. He was hungry! This probably happened because he was a bottle short during the day since he slept so much, but I still blame Thomas. :-p

Hudson's First Thanksgiving

Because Thomas and I can only handle so much running around during the holidays, we started our own Thanksgiving tradition last year: Cracker Barrel. All I have to say is YUM. It is way better than any meal we could fix ourselves, and it's about 10 times easier! Apparently we aren't the only ones who have figured this out as there was a 45 minute wait when we got there at 1:30 for lunch! But it was well worth the wait. Hudson had a blast checking out everything in the shopping area. He especially liked the electronic sock monkey toy in a crate on the floor - it just rolled around laughing hysterically. Of course Hudson thought this was hilarious! He also enjoyed entertaining all the other non-cooking people.

Two peas in a pod :)

This turkey was ready to eat (and so was I)!

Once we were seated, our drinks were in front of us instantly and food followed just a couple of minutes later. Hudson ate a jar of sweet potatoes and he got to try cranberry sauce and whipped cream! The cranberry sauce wasn't exactly his favorite, but that whipped cream hit the spot! He was perfect the whole time we were there, and fell asleep as soon as we got back in the truck.

Always pulling those socks off...

Thomas got all of our Christmas stuff out the day after Thanksgiving. When Hudson was napping, we put the tree up. It sure seemed a lot easier to decorate the tree this year and I couldn't figure out why. Then it hit me - I was 3-4 months pregnant at this time last year! I sure don't miss that!

7 Months

Where oh where has the time gone? I know I have asked that before, but I haven't blogged since he was 5 months old! Sorry about that... :)

Well Hudson was 7 months old on November 15th, and he is quite the character! (He takes after his father in a lot of ways.) He started getting up and rocking on all 4's at the beginning of November and within a week, he was crawling backwards. Yes, backwards. Strange? Well sort of... but again, Thomas is his dad! Once he figured out how to move backwards, he started getting into all sorts of trouble. One night when Thomas was working on homework in the recliner and I was pumping on the couch, Hudson backed his way under Thom's reclined chair. I kept telling Thomas to move him before he went too far under the chair, but when does Thomas ever listen to my wise words?!? So there he went... all the way under the chair. He ended up wedged underneath face-up. There was literally only enough room for his head and body to fit. It was a tight squeeze! I was literally connected to the wall and Thomas couldn't get out of the reclined chair without putting the foot stool down or breaking the armrest! He laid under there with his face smashed up against the bottom of the chair for a good 5 minutes until I was done pumping and could rescue him. He didn't seem to mind too much!

At daycare, however, it was a different story! When both teachers would be busy feeding babies, Hudson would put it in reverse. He would end up in the most random places - far corner of the room, under a crib, etc. Once he got himself backed into one of these locations, he would panic because he couldn't go forward! Luckily he's loud enough that the nice ladies at the front desk can hear his high-pitched squeal, and they would come get him out of whatever the predicament was at that particular time. I think he serves as some pretty good entertainment at daycare. :)

Snuggle time with dad while mom is at work :)

He is stuck! He couldn't manage to lean backwards... so he let out a great big squeal!

Chillin' with Papa Frank before tubby time

He has also started shaking his head "no" like a wild man. I don't know how he can shake his head back and forth so fast, but it's hilarious. It's fun to ask him questions when he's in the "head-shaking" mood. He listens to you ask a question, he pauses, then he vigorously shakes his head "no!" He normally does this when he's super tired and slightly slap happy so it's fun to mess with him.

Baths in the big boy tub

He thinks it's funny when you say "ow!"

He loves patty cake and he figured out how to clap his hands. He thinks he's big stuff when he claps. :) The last weekend that we were back home to visit, Hudson figured out how to go from his belly to a sitting position. I was so happy when he figured that out so we no longer have to help him get back up to sitting!

Yummy puffs!

Hudson started teething again recently so his nose is always a runny mess. One night after I had just fed him baby food, he decided to fill his britches. It's always entertaining to watch him poop, but this time was extra special! (-;

Video of Hudson pooping aaaand blowing snot bubbles!