Missing Aunt Christin

Hudson and Mommy are sad because Aunt CJ left for college last weekend and we miss her!

But we are excited to get to go see all of her volleyball games this year. Hudson and Garret even have matching Tiger t-shirts for the games - go Tigers!

playing hooky

So we had our roughest night as of yet last night. Hudson did not feel well and didn't fall asleep till after 3 am - then woke up at 4 and 6 to eat, like normal. He nursed from 9 pm - 2 am. Everytime he'd fall asleep I would put him down and he would wake up screaming and crying - so we just kept nursing. Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep last night.
So he was still being pretty fussy this morning so I cancelled my dentist appointment - not that I was really looking forward to it anyway :). But I did disappoint GiGi who thought she was finally going to get to babysit.
But of course, at the time when I should have been at my appointment, guess who was feeling just fine?!?!

So I also got up the nerve to take his temperature myself today - and guess what he did to me? I won't describe it in too much detail, but I am sure you can imagine!!! (See my post from yesterday if you don't know what I'm talking about!) But his temp was only 99.2.

sick :(

Well, our boy has caught his first cold. He was very fussy on Friday and Saturday he was all stuffed up and running a fever. Luckily for me, Jamie has been home to help me take care of him. He really has been pretty good - just prefers to be held instead of sitting or laying down. His fever was 100.5 last night, but today it's back to normal and he doesn't seem as stuffed up, so hopefully the worst has passed. Jamie made me take his temperature rectally so that I would know how, because he says that is the most accurate way to do it. It seemed to bother me more than it did Hudson!

naptime

How do you make something so cute take a nap!?!?!?

I know it's dark (it was naptime after all) - but you can kind of see and hear him smiling and laughing at me while I am trying to get him to go to sleep. This was about 20 minutes ago, and he's not sleeping yet!

kisses

The first thing I thought of when I saw this picture was "How long do I have before Hudson gets big enough to start being embarassed of his mommy's kisses and he'll start making that face for real?" I can't believe how fast he is growing already, and its only been 3.5 months. Now he is grabbing for everything you put in front of him and if he manages to get his hands on it, it goes straight to his mouth! I have this odd sense of pride when I look down at him in his stroller and realize he has pulled the blanket up over his face while he's chewing on it - my boy is getting so big and strong! So I am sure one day he will really be embarassed of his mommy kisses, but for now, I'll just relish the moments and keep on with my self-imposed quota of at least 100 kisses a day!

Fingers

Hudson discovered his fingers over the weekend. He has been trying to suck on his hands for several weeks now, but can now put only one finger in and then he "goes to town" on it!

Go Browns!!

Jamie and Hudson watched the Browns play Monday Night Football last night. They wore their Browns gear for good luck - too bad it didn't help!

And so it begins...

I can't believe how quickly he is growing up. A few nights ago I was wearing a shirt that had writing on the front and he was staring at it, then reached out and touched it. I was so excited.



So the next day we started holding his rattle in front of him, and he will do the same thing. He has also grabbed Jamie's tie and played with it and my car keys! and of course, everything he grabs goes to his mouth (if he can get it there). He's now aware of his cute little feet and toes, and is trying his best gymnastic moves to get his foot close enough to his hands to grab them and chew away as well! He has to concentrate pretty hard on just getting his hand to move to the object, so sometimes the effort of that wears him out. Pretty soon he'll be crawling and then walking and he'll be unstoppable.


Watch out Zeus and Athena - you think he's okay now - just wait till he can get his hands on you!

Making Papa Cecil proud!

We start them off early in the Stinemetz Family...

Here is Hudson watching TV...


And here's what he is watching so intently...

Seriously though, Hudson has been enthralled with the TV ever since the Olympics started - he has to watch beach volleyball every morning and Michael Phelps swim every night! We bought him a Bumbo chair so that he can sit up all on his own, which gives our arms a break!

What Hudson has to say. . .

Okay, so he was talking up a storm, but when I got the camera out, he was too interested in it to say much - but it's still cute!

Our jumping off place

So you might be wondering what "jumping off place" means. Webster's Dictionary defines it as "a place from which an enterprise is launched". I thought this was appropriate for us as 2008 has been our jumping off place in that we have launched 2 significant (figurative) "enterprises". The first being the birth of our son, Hudson James, on May 10. Finally deciding to have a baby was a huge jump for us, in that we were married almost 8 years before he came along. And he has definitely changed our life. Although we got some flack from people for waiting so long to start our family, I think it was a good move for us. Jamie and I spent almost 8 years being "alone together" and those years helped build our relationship so that we could be ready for an event as significant as the birth of a baby. And it has been significant and life-changing. But I wouldn't change it for anything.

Hudson is 3 months old today - I can't believe how quick the time has flown by already. In the past 2 weeks he has started holding his head up really well and gained a lot of strength. He now hates to lay down on his back - he either wants to be sitting up or even standing. So the next few months will probably be tiresome for mom and dad as we help hold him up till he gets strong enough to do on his own!

So, back to our jumping off place - the first significant event was Hudson's birth - the second is that we bought Jamie's chiropractic clinic August 1. So he is now self-employed and since I am still undecided as to my status of employment right now, we are taking a big leap! But a good one and one that has been our goal for almost 5 years now, so we are excited the time has finally come.

So anyway for the most part I will be using my blog to post pics and stories of Hudson as he continues to grow and get cuter and cuter - but thought I would give you a little update as to where we are in life right now - a good place! :)