Branson Trip

Every couple years my mom's side of the family does a "girls trip" to Branson. We meet all of my grandma's cousins and their daughters and their daughters and so on for a weekend of shopping and shows. Hudson got to go by default since he's still nursing (and because I'd miss him too much!) and we also took Garret so his mom could have the weekend to work on her dissertation. The weekend was really fun except for the first night at the hotel. Hudson woke up at 3 am and I couldn't get him back to sleep till 6:30! The good thing was he wasn't being cranky - he was just awake. I believe he recited every word in his vocabulary at least 3 times while he was laying there (either in his crib or in the bed next to me) and he learned a new word - sleep. That's because I kept saying it over and over to him but he just didn't get it. He'd say "mommy sleep" and point to the bed and say "daddy sleep". But couldn't put together "Hudson sleep"! There was a light on the smoke detector that cast a shadow on the ceiling that looked like the moon so he kept saying "moon" and "sun" over and over. At 6 am he threw a big fit - I was sure he woke everyone in the hotel - but no one else heard him. I finally got him calmed down and then slept in the chair holding him for the next few hours. What a night!

The next night I refused to sleep in the same room with him so he got to sleep in the other room with his Gigi, Mimi and Nana. Again he woke up and Mimi put him in bed next to her and they talked about every animal he knew and he fell back asleep within 30 minutes!

He evidently learned what snoring was when he slept in that room though because today when I put him down for his nap he laid his head down, closed his eyes and started snoring! It was too cute!


Mimi reading The Three Little Pigs to the boys. This is Hudson's favorite book. He carries it aroudn the house saying "wolf, wolf, wolf" all day long.

Garret giving Hudson a little love.

Hudson outside the Noah show. This was a great show, especially for the boys. Hudson loved it because it has so many animals in it. Some real - some fake but still very realistic looking. He sat through the first half of the show and the only noise he made was animal sounds and yelling "chicken" and saying "bye-bye" as the people went off the stage. He only made it about 15 minutes into the second half before he fell asleep but he got to see all the cool parts before he konked out!

Rocking in the rocking chair.

Fire Safety Day

Last week was Fire Safety Week and Exploration Place was having a special event with lots of firefighters and firetrucks. I planned to take Firefighter Garret and Hudson and it was on Thursday so Jamie and Binga were able to go with us. Unfortunately it rained so they had to cancel all the outside firetruck demonstrations they were going to do but they still had some stuff set up inside that we were able to do, plus we got to see Exploration Place.

Firefighter Garret showed up at our house Thursday morning with all his firegear on ready to go "teach" those firefighters about fire safety. According to him the firefighters didn't know anything so he was going to teach them!

We did get to see a puppet show. Hudson sat through the whole thing and paid close attention. He kept saying puppet and "bye-bye" when the puppets would go behind the curtain and clapping his hands ! After the show they asked the kids questions about "What number do you call if there's a fire?" and "What do you do if your clothes catch on fire?" Garret answered every question they asked - correctly!

Binga experiencing the winds of a tornado!

Here is some video of the puppet show and the tornado tube.

My Montage 10/12/09

BUGS!

Last week we took Hudson to the Wee Wiggler class at the zoo. It was all about bugs. I was a little disappointed that they only brought out 2 real bugs for the class to look at. I was expecting more hands on kind of stuff. The rest of the class was just playing with toys and reading a book. But I guess with little kids and small bugs you have to be careful! Hudson still had a good time. He's signed up to go again next month to the session on frogs. I think I will send Jamie and him to that one - I HATE frogs!

My son was the only child who thought it was more fun to throw all the paper shreds on the floor instead of playing with the bugs hiding in the paper!

Checking out the Madagascar hissing cockroaches


This one was some kind of centipede - Hudson REALLY wanted to hold it!

Binga is here for a visit and Hudson is having SO much fun with her. In the past he's always been teething or sick or clingy when we get to see her but this time he has no excuses to be whiny and he is being such a good boy! He's having lots of fun showing her everything he knows and talking to her. And he's learned to say Binga! It's more "Bing" with A added on occasionally.

Jamie came home from work a few days ago and said Hudson was a different boy from when he was home at lunch that day. Talking, talking, talking. I think the difference is that he has moved from repeating what you say to saying whatever he thinks or sees or wants. It's incredible watching him grow up!

Here's Hudson and Binga helping me fix dinner the other night. Look closely and you'll notice the "wings" Hudson has started growing! There's a few spots that could probably use a trim!
Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

growing up

Hudson is talking, talking, talking all the time. He'll repeat most anything you say (single words for the most part, but he has a few short phrases). He has started adding "it" to everything so he says "touch it, hold it, open it" etc.
The other night he woke up at 2 am (he's teething again!) and was screaming "Mommy". This wasn't the normal crying so I went in there to check on him. I picked him up and he said "snack." So we went to the kitchen and opened the fridge and he said "peaches." Then we sat down to eat them and he kept saying "fruit", "big", "cut it". It was the first time I have felt like he was really communicating with me - or at least I could finally understand everything he was telling me! Half the time he babbles along and he knows what he's saying but we have no clue! Last night he woke up crying and when I went in he said "drink". So we might have a bad pattern emerging here - I better watch it!

He's learned almost all the Sesame Street characters and loves playing with sidewalk chalk. Every morning he stands at the front door and says "ouside", "chalk". Unfortunately it has started getting pretty cool out so we have had to limit out outdoor time. I don't know what we'll do with ourselves all winter! Although he has discovered blocks this week and is loving playing with those.

As you'll see in the video, he has a weird fascination with hitting himself in the head. If he accidentally hits his head on something or drops a toy on his head - he'll pick it up and keep hitting himself with it over and over. He also has started this new thing this week that if he does something with one person in the room, he has to do it with everyone - over and over. So if one person gets a high five or knuckles, or gets hit in the head, or is clapping at something he did, or gets a hug or a kiss - everyone else does too - over and over and over. His other new thing this week is fake laughing. He'll do something funny and belt out a big fake laugh - and keep doing it over and over! He laughed at the cow on his fork for over 20 minutes yesterday at lunch. He kept walking around pointing at the fork saying "cow" "moo" then he'd let out this big laugh that sounds pretty fake. But, of course, it's all pretty cute! So anyway, we caught some of this new stuff in the video when we were playing with his blocks last night. Enjoy!



My Montage 10/6/09

Greater Andover Days

Saturday morning we went to the parade and the Kid Fair that was part of the Greater Andover Days Celebration. It was Hudson's first parade and he really liked it. He liked waving at everyone as they went by - especially the animals, real or humans dressed up as animals. He also loved looking at all the balloons in the sky that the kids had all lost their grip on and let go of. When we went to the fair and got him a balloon he threw a fit that it was tied to his arm so I took it off. Then he didn't want me to touch the string so I finally let it go, warning him not to let go or it would fly away and he immediately let it go. I finally realized that was what he wanted to do all along and I was just standing in his way!

His gloves were too big but he kept them on the whole time we watched the parade. At some point he picked up a piece of candy in each hand and held on to them the rest of the parade.

Probably the second best part of his day - meeting Elmo. He gave him a hug and everything! The best part of the day was riding on the horse at the kid fair. He talked the entire time we were on the horse - he was so excited. At one point the horse whinnied real loud and he loved that. He kept neighing over and over - real high pitched like the horse had done. He was a little upset when we got off and the next little kid got on "his" horse.

Putting on a puppet show. There was lots of fun stuff to do - we made a bouncy ball at the science exhibit, won sidewalk chalk (which has been Hudson's favorite thing to do for the past week!) when he went "fishing", hit the pinata, and dug for money in the straw. There was also fireworks Saturday night that we went back to watch. He was still scared of the noise so he hugged Jamie as tight as he could but still watched the display out of the corner of his eye the whole time! Before the fireworks he was pretty excited about playing peek-a-boo with the moon (it kept going behind the clouds) so we played that for a long time. We sat next to some friends for the fireworks and they had a lady with them that we didn't know. Hudson went over to her to point at the moon and right then they shot off a test firework and Hudson spread his arms wide and ran right to her. It was cute since he didn't even know her but just wanted to be picked up. We hung around for a while after the fireworks with some of Jamie's Rotary friends and Hudson let everyone hold him, gave everyone high 5's and knuckles and even "danced" with one of the ladies for a long time.

My Montage 10/4/09

road trip

Last week Christin had a home volleyball game so we all took off early and drove up to McPherson for the afternoon. We took the boys to the park and had lots of fun hanging out before the game.

We had a hard time convincing Hudson it was too cold to go swimming in the "pool"!

This reminds me of those pictures they take on the roller coasters - must have been quite a slide!

And our only injury of the day. Celeste stubbed her toe on a cinder block underneath the slide when she was helping Hudson go down. If you listen real close at the end of the video you can hear her saying "ouch." She was pretty calm for how gross it looks - and how much it must have been hurting!

My Montage 10/4/09