Post peak VT

I'd been hearing a lot of "we don't even know what he (Hudson) looks like" from my family so the kiddos and I made a 24 hour trip up to show him off. Anna had a home game Friday afternoon so it was a good time to go and show some Eagle support (worked as they won 5-1), we had the most glorious fall weather you could ask for (have the sunburn to prove it), and Henri got her spoiled tank topped off. The kiddos were fairly well behaved on the ride with just the last 30 minutes being a scream fest and are tucked into bed for the night. While the family saw Hud you will not because anytime the camera was out today he was on my chest in the carrier. Anyone know a good chiropractor? He's getting heavy....

tutu from Abi

All the trees were past their peak but the fall flowers were looking great

Henri noticed (and picked these) for the first time today. She doesn't quite get the concept of "poison" yet

Portrait attempt

She loves flowers

This was his position most of today

Westerly views

Papa's herb garden

Grammie picking grape tomatoes that self seeded

Henri will eat tomatoes alllll day if allowed. Actually, she had them for breakfast, mixed in to her yogurt, on Friday...

Headed down the path to see Great-Gram

She keeps everything looking so nice around the farm

Can you spot the old equipment? Grape vines are taking over

Apples!

Grammie introduced Henri to milkweed pods

Shaking them to seed Great-Grams lawn. I'm sure she appreciated it

Truthfully, it was Grammie that wanted to play with them

Fairy parachutes!

Papa planted these many many years ago. Great Gram's been making applesauce out of them

South views from the pasture

More flowers

More signs it's going to be a rough winter. The fir trees are loaded with cones.

We saw lots of woolie bears as well. Great-Gram showing one to Hen (she wasn't too sure about them)

Here it had just moved and made Hen jump

Awww, he is cute. And then I put the bear in her hand and all was fine until it started to walk and then Henri started to scream hysterically, flung the bear back at Great Gram and ran up the path sobbing and refused to come back to say goodbye to Gram. Small steps, I guess....

A  bit more fall cheer

So, back home and tucked in. Church tomorrow with perhaps a saunter afterwards, then just a lot of studying stretching out in front of me. Very much hoping Hud makes tonight one of his epic sleep nights!

Fair, Friends. and Fun

This past weekend we went to the Topsfield Fair. We got there just as it opened and there was still a mile back up to get in, but it moved pretty quick and there was only minimal whining (from me....). Nothing is as good as the Addison County Field Days, but as I was unable to attend this year the Topsfield Fair was a nice stand in. Much like last year one of Henri's favorites was the chicken barn, and I loved watching the ducks. We ate lots of fried food and looked at all the rides and games. They had a wonderful nursing moms station set up that we took advantage of a few times, and they even had these great handmade teddy bears the moms could take for their baby's and siblings (so Henri got a purple paisley one). Hudson did really well, slept most of it in the front carrier, slept all the way home, slept on me...and then slept 10 hours (yes, a full uninterrupted 10 hours) that night. Yay!

Today we had Henri's friend M over. The girls get along great and require minimal intervention in their play (they actually share really well and both love to boss the other around) and today I broke out the Mr. Potato Head I had gotten at a garage sale. M wasn't too in to it, but it's the perfect age toy for Henri, and in fact she's still playing with them 8 hours later. Anyway, it rained all morning so we didn't get to go to the park but we might not have anyway because I left the carrier in the car and Steve took it to work. Now, I have 4 other carriers (Mei Tei, Mobies, K'Tan...) but Hud loves his Lillebaby and, well, today was rough. Kid slept maybe 30 minutes total and has bags under his eyes. Guess this past weekend of being almost exclusively on Mom's chest spoiled him thoroughly. He did his best to be pleasant at times (he's started to laugh at us which is beyond hysterical when he does it) but mostly it was a high high stress day. But Steve's home now and giving me a break from the kiddos, I made a fairly delicious dinner (chicken breast stuffed with feta and black olives with bacon and onion pasta if you're curious) and I just had my evening treat (Reese's Puffs...Shaws have them on sale for $1.88 and I might have to stock up on a few hundred more boxes) and bedtime is only an hour away!

(And my apologies for the quality of these; a few are from my phone)

Excited to be here

Protecting Hudson from sunburn. So elegant, lol

My sunshine and my rooster (very appropriate as she's usually up with the dawn)

Chickens!

Sand sculptures.

She had a great time waving her flag

This year's pumpkin. Not a world record holder

Can you imagine a whole herd of these???

Miss M. The flash was a bit much for her

A potato explosion!

A true mamma's boy

Singing his (daylong) sad song. Screaming, actually

OK, these were straight before...

A quick break to make some soup

Out of order, but on the way home from the fair with her teddy

See? He does smile!

Siblings

He's a morning baby also. They totally get that from their dad

Since he's been sleeping so much at night I've been having to pump in the morning. Henri's fascinated and has taken to instructing me step by step how to do it as well as providing a running commentary on the volume collected. Thanks, kid.

Nothing planned for the week except our usual grocery trip and lots of studying. Maybe some walks. The weather is screaming for knitting projects to get cast on but I need to get my exams out of the wa first. I have lots of sewing ideas planned for the coming holidays as well.....

Gramma Schoeffler's Visit

Last weekend my mother-in-law came down for a visit which was so nice. Henri loves her to pieces and Hudson is well on his way to getting totally spoiled by her (she sat in the back of the car with him and fussed over him every time he cried; he now thinks that's his due). We went to the pond and played at the beach where Henri got her first ever sunburn. Oops. Then we went to Patriot's Place to see the stadium and have lunch. Absolutely gorgeous weather for it all and we're very sad she had to leave so soon. Then the rest of the week was spent studying for my practice comps (passed this morning with a 92! Phew!), lots of walks to the park, and getting off the caffeine wagon. Yup, my french press is back in business and I'm a much happier person because of it. Hudson hasn't seemed to mind it either. Then on Wednesday two old coworkers came by to provide some adult conversation which was sooooo nice. Of course I completely forgot to get out the camera...and by old I don't refer to their age, just that I used to work with them. Do you call them ex-coworkers?

Hen's been a bit sassy this week which both amuses and horrifies me. On the one hand I love seeing her able to construct elaborate sentence structures and apply reasoning, as well as display her sense of the absurd and sarcasm (no idea who she got that from). On the other hand, she's pretty entitled to begin with, and I have a deep fear of raising a bratty monster. On the other, it's pretty hard to figure out what to say when she saunters in to your room, casually tells you that "Mom, I don't like your face" and walks back out. (In case you're wondering I was initially hurt, then I laughed, and then I told Steve when he got home. Still have no idea what prompted the comment).

As for Hudson, well, he's a mamma's boy through and through. Maybe it's because I was bottle feeding Henri at this point and Steve was doing the evening routine that I never felt like Henri really saw me as necessary in her life, or maybe it's just personality, but this little guy knows how to get whatever he wants from me. He has very subtle facial expressions that just crack me up, and he's responding to different words (as in, he knows what a boobie is, he looks around when I say "here's your sister!" and he grins when I call him my love bug). He also has this thing for zebras. He'll spend a good 20 minutes just staring at the print over our couch, he loves Henri's pink zebra, and the mobile over his swing has one that gets a grin every time it rotates by. Generally he sleeps 6-8 hours stretches at night unless I'm stressed or have to be up early and then he "helps" by getting up every 3. I put him down awake for the first time last night and he wiggled himself to sleep which was a promising start to him self-soothing. Obviously he is the most gorgeous and smartest baby boy that ever existed, but I'll stop bragging and just give you the photographic proof:

She loves to play "soccer"

He's starting to really like being outdoors and looking at the trees

Our grill!

He loves to carefully lick his hand like it's an ice cream cone. I try putting his thumb in his mouth but that just makes him mad and gag. Whatever makes him happy, I guess!

Hanging out at the pond

Gramma and Henri making sand castles. Gram S is very good at them!

The rain boots were inspired. She loves being able to stomp in the puddles she made

This doesn't look like much, but it represents a huge progress in her independence; she would actually go to the pond, walk out a bit, and get her own water. Beginning of the summer she was terrified.

Selfies

Attempts at family portraits. Someone was very uncooperative

Loving his Gram

He has a big gummy grin that he gives as well, but this is his "pleased with the world" look

The face you get when you beg her to "just look normal" for a photograph :)