6 months

I've seen this format on a few friends' blogs (Hi, Ruth and Gen!) and thought it was a good way to summarize where our big boy is at now. Wow, half a year already. Go ahead and insert all the cliches about time moving too fast, it's all true. A blink and he's going to be all grown up!

Personality Total Mamma's boy. He loves to mux on my face and gives big hugs when you pick him up from his naps. In his own home, he's very opinionated, wants to see every thing that each of us is doing, expects to be held all the time. Out in public, he's very subdued and really just taking everything in. You have to work pretty hard to make him break his sober supercilious expression, but at home he makes the funniest faces. He's really starting to interact with Henri and she with him, and they've started to wrestle together. I worry when she plants an elbow in his stomach but he doesn't seem to mind in the least and loves to grab her hair and chew on her (which she thinks is hilarious).It's fun to watch their bond, and it's clear Hudson loves everything about Henri. He's quite sympathetic to her moods as well and now when she cries he does too, stopping occasionally to look at her in a worried way. As soon as she tells him she's OK he lights right back up again.
Physical His 6mo appt isn't for another week, but unofficially he's in the 18-19# range and seems tall; he's outgrown most of his footies. His head continues to be large and bumpy but two appointments with the neurosurgeon later we're pretty confident he's just on the abnormal end of normal (whew, no surgery needed for now). Hudson is a very delicate roller and has learned to scoot forward on his forearms though he tends to just "swim" with his arms and feet in the air and go nowhere, then scream till I get him what he wants. He likes to bounce in his jumper and is learning to manipulate the toys on it. I just realized I should have been working on sitting with him, so we started that this week. He tips to the side but when placed in a well balanced way has great ab muscles and can lean down to get a toy then sit back up straight. His hair continues to be red and spiky (yay!) and his eyes are turning more grey than blue. He has 2 bottom teeth with 2 more coming in and just learned how to give good bites with them (ouch!).
Eating We're still going strong breastfeeding which I'm so grateful for. Really no big problems with that so I'm hoping to continue to 24ish months like I did with Hen. However, he has discovered the world of food and he's a pretty enthusiastic eater. I'm doing a loose version of baby led weaning, meaning I give him whole food when I feel it's safe or low in ingredients, put a lot of stuff into his feeder so he can taste but not choke, and feed him a bit of puree. Up till a few days ago he just wanted to taste things but now he actually wants to eat so I'm having to be more deliberate about what I make for supper because if he's not included, well, there are many tears. So far his favorite foods are dill pickles (crazy boy), apples, and grapes. He's had green beans, celery sticks, mum-mums, puffs, yogurt, peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, squash...I think that's it. I gave him a sippy cup with some water last night to just gum on and in about 10 seconds he'd figured out how to drink from it and gulped down a ton before I could stop him (pretty sure babies aren't supposed to be drinking water yet?). I'm going to try some breast milk in the cup since he refuses a bottle. I was impressed because Henri still can't use a tip up sippy. It's nice for Hud to do one thing before his sister since he's been so far behind her in everything else.
Sleep He goes to bed at 8pm. Sharp. Normally. He just loses it, nurses for a minute and wants to be put down. Then it's anyones guess what will happen. On bad nights he's up at 11, 1, 3, 5 and 7. On good nights like last night, he gets up at 3ish, nurses, and back to bed till 6:30-7. Naps are generally at 10a for about 1.5hours, and then sometime in the afternoon and those vary greatly in length from 15mins to 2 hours. He'll usually nurse and nap for a few minutes around 6:30 as well. If I'm desperate I can always pop him into the Lillebaby and he's out pretty fast, but it's starting to hurt my back so I don't make it a daily thing like I used to.
Names Huddie, Hudson-Budson, Huddie-Buddy (Hen calls him this), Love Bug (I usually call him this), Lover Boy, Lovie.

He's starting to come in to his own in the past few weeks. While I'm grateful to be out of the baby phase (oh, I hate the baby age!), I find myself sad it's already gone and wishing he'd stay little and snugly longer. He's already starting to push me away because he wants to explore, or expressing an opinion on his clothing (he hates sleeves...) and I can't just leave him in one spot. But somehow I already know he has my sense of humor and I can't wait to see the person he becomes. I'm looking forward to the next 6 months, these are the really fun and crazy ones!

Just a few days old

I still think we look a lot alike

Best friends (she wanted to dress alike today and picked out their monkey outfits)

Our sweet 6 monther. Without a doubt the most adorable thing you've ever seen. 

Quick VT run

It's been a trying week, one of those where you fantasize about running away and living in a yurt with a pet yak on the edge of a small brook in a meadow of daisies and a view of a mountain. Not that there's been anything big happening, it's just been a regular week where you think, on a minute basis, "this is my life?!?!?!". To combat this grump, we took a very quick trip up to VT for some Papa and Grandma therapy. Aaahhh, we all feel much better. Clearly VT air agrees with Hudson because he only woke up once on Friday night. As he woke up 5 times on Thursday (and Wednesday, and Tuesday....), this was a minor miracle. I'm now more able to laugh at the melodrama that surrounds every moment of life with a 2.5 year old (oh, the drama....). Didn't hurt that there was a marathon of Extreme Couponers on this afternoon to watch while bouncing Hudson :)

Sledding adventures with Papa

Lots of ice

Steve had fun too

Contemplative bluebird

I made this! haha, seriously, he is about the cutest thing you've ever seen

The Adoration of Papa Society has another member

Art time today somehow dissolved into an unauthorized sensory session. Hurray for water washable!

Hudson loved participating. Actually, he just found his toes so any chance to commune with them is seized with joy.

We're celebrating Valentine's in a big way this year. All week the kids (and Steve) are getting cards and little treats in their own mailboxes, and then we'll cook a nice meal on Friday.

More art fun

How does Henri like Hudson?

I get asked this every time we are out of the house. The simple answer, she loves him. The long one? She loves him. Buuut, she's not too interested in being selfless and sharing the spotlight with him. If she's got something to do, his wants have no bearing on her life. And even though he worships the ground she walks on, air she breathes, and wants nothing more than her attention, she can be a little stinker and snub him. But when she does look at him, he just turns himself inside out he's so delighted. She's been really good about sharing her toys (actually, she just gave him her beloved doll Bobby to suck on and thought it was sweet that he loved on her), and a lot of times when I'm in another room and he squawks she's the first one to him and give him something to play with. She doesn't seem to be bothered by his screaming in the car, gets me diapers for him, helps to give him his bath, and encourages him to scoot. All in all, I think they have a pretty close bond for a toddler and baby. The following photos kind of illustrates a typical day between them:

She's looking at me!!!!

Let's refuse to smile for a picture

Spontaneously giving each other kisses

Hud thrilled he's gotten affection, Henri telling him something

Hen: Hm, maybe I didn't want to kiss him

Hud: Want to talk to me again?
Hen: No, I really didn't want to kiss him...

Hud: I want another kiss!

Hud: Riiiight here. I'm so cute!

Hen: Let me act like I want to snuggle him

Hen: Oops, I didn't see him (because I shut my eyes when I deliberately elbowed him)

Hen: Haha! He's down!!!

Hud: (resigned noises)
Hen: Awwww, poor Huddie!

Hen attempts to right Hud 

And then the cycle repeats. Very long answer to say, yup, they act like siblings :)
And no child was harmed in this filming. She really is gentle with him, and there's a chance he was tipping before she applied a little force to encourage the topple.

Why it pays to marry a tech guy

Way behind on posting picts, but that shall soon change because I have downloaded a new web browser and it's accepting my artistic attempts. Anyway, here's a few weeks ago:

Our aborted potty training attempt. If you want the detailed version, I'd be happy to email you the saga. It was long. And painful.

First food, a celery stick :) He's moved on to bananas, mum mums, apples, grapes, lentil stew, smoothies, frozen yogurt, water from my glass, green beans. 

We set up my tent in the living room and camped out for a day. HUGE hit with the kiddos, I had a good time too :)

Playing dress up

Went to see the US Championships for ladies figure skating with a group of friends. Very fun outing (without the kids!!!)

Henri's started to steal my phone to take pictures. Scary how she can navigate an iphone with no tutorial. Anyway, here are some of her shots:

Nice color composition

I thought this one rather artsy. Also, that's a strawberry sundae from Burger King and it was really good :)

The camera's charging so once it's done I should be able to catch up. It's just been a lot of trying to stay warm and sane, though :)

We have mobility!

I never upgrade anything because then the object doesn't work (looking at you, David) but I guess I must have upgraded my browser and now it's too advanced to put up pictures. Long winded way of saying, here's a video of Hudson on the move, and pictures are going to have to come later.

Updates

OK, blogger isn't letting me post pictures. So though I have been faithfully taking my photos, I can't share them with you. Not that you're missing much. If I could post, you would see a lot of:
-Potty training attempt #1 (unanimous decision made after 3 days to abort for a few months)
-Hudson rolls from back to front! And forgot how to roll from front to back. And sporadically remembers again.
-Hudson has taken this sudden intense interest in his toys, my necklace, everything. He's deliberate in his movements and his starting to scoot (on his face, silly boy) around the floor to get to what looks interesting. Much like his sister, cords seem particularly fascinating.
-Sleep deprivation. I remember vaguely a time when the kids slept through the night. Hud's up at least once, usually 3x/night. My coffee consumption is skyrocketing.
-We started food! Well, we started letting him have tastes of food. I was adamant Henri not get a nibble until 6 months. But Hudson is sooooo interested, and pediatrician said it was fine after 4 mo, so he's had a celery stick to gnaw on and bits of banana. He also had a green bean and I think his faith in the goodness of humanity was shaken for a bit. I intend to follow more of a baby-led weaning approach with him and just give him what we're eating. He still has the tongue thrust and he's in no way ready for food for nutrition, but he thinks he's hot stuff when sits at the table with us and family time at the dinner is important.
-Park time with this crazy warm weather.
-Library run with lots of books brought home
-Sock knitting


Typical week :) Making plans for the Super Bowl. Of course Sunday is going to be a tense day around here what with the Bronco's fan I'm married to....

Resolutions

Happy New Year!!! It's been a whirlwind of family and fun, but real life resumes tomorrow (i.e studying for my final exam). I'm not a big fan of New Year's resolutions as I agree with my husband that if there's a change you should make in your life, it's silly to wait to make them. Also, no one keeps them. But I looooove lists, and I love even more to check them off, so I'm compiling a "To Do" list for this year. It's mostly things I'm going to do anyway (like clean the house once a week, pass my CNM exam) but I like having it written out. Being a stay at home mom means your days are usually a blur of the mundane and there are no checkpoints to show you've accomplished anything. So this will provide a little boost to me. And I've added fun things as well (like knitting a pair of socks and our planned vacation to Chicago). So far, I've checked off "write Christmas thank you's". Tomorrow we begin "potty train Henri" (drum roll, please. I see a lot of drama in our near future). And to keep from boring all my readers to death, I have decided this year to try to take a daily picture of our life and share 7-10 once a week. I'm sure I'll chat some too (let's be real, I have to brag about my kids occasionally!), and I might forget a few weeks, but I have folders all set up in my picture files so the yearly family photo books should be much simpler to assemble this year and I like the idea of looks at daily life. So, this past week:

My fuzzy-headed, red-haired chunker. 16#2oz at 4 mo. Huge fan of chewing

We've seen a big spurt in sisterly love this past week. He still thinks she walks on water.

The sub-zero weather doesn't phase her in the least. She loves snow!

We went to a Clemson vs. BC basketball game. The pict is deceiving, Hud actually loved it and both kids were really well behaved

Gram S and Sheffy came for a weekend visit!