Tomorrow This Boy Will be ONE!

Well, tomorrow is the big day for this cutie.

I keep thinking back on what I was doing this time last year. It was a Saturday, and Joel and I knew that Hudson was on the way. I had been having contractions all day and they were getting stronger and stronger and closer together as the day went on. Joel and I did some last minute shopping, which included going to Target to get some baby supplies and batteries for all the baby gear! We then went home and put together the swing, and tried to relax. We watched the Auburn basketball game that night and then tried really hard to get some sleep!

Snow was predicted for Sunday last year so that made us both a little nervous. We wanted to wait it out as long as we could, but we also were worried about getting to the hospital when the time came! Luckily, we didn't have to worry about that because the contractions were unbearable at 2 am on Sunday morning, and it was time to go! It was snowing really hard when we were driving to the hospital, but the roads were fine at the time. We were nervous, but we couldn't wait to meet our little man (and I couldn't wait to get that epidural!)!

I'm a little sad that he is turning one tomorrow, but at the same time, I am looking forward to what is to come next year!


I apparently spoke too soon about the stomach bug being gone. After I wrote the previous post, the stomach bug moved to the "other end" and Hudson has been battling it all weekend. He has not eaten a thing. I'm so thankful that the birthday party is not today like we originally planned! He wouldn't even want his cake! I'm so ready for this little man to be WELL! Where are you spring???

Bear Crawl

This is how Hudson crawls when we are outside. It makes me crack up! He will NOT put his knees on the ground!

He must know that I don't want those pants torn up!

The stomach bug is thankfully gone! Hudson took a 3 hour nap yesterday and woke up fine. Then, he slept from 7 pm last night to 8:30 this morning! I couldn't even sleep in that late! He is back to eating like a champ and playing like crazy. Friday is off to a great start!

He Caught It

Yep, the nasty stomach bug. It has invaded our house today. Hudson has only thrown up once, thank goodness, and that was about all I could take. Luckily, my wonderful husband took care of most of the damage. I just took care of bathing my stinky boy! He hasn't eaten at all today. I'm sure it's only a matter of time before I get it, and I am dreading it! I can deal with a whole lot of things, but throw up is just not one of them, not even my own child's. I know it has been going around, but I really thought we were in the clear. I don't know why I thought that though because Hudson seems to get everything! I talked to one of the teachers at Hudson's daycare and they said it has been going around at daycare, but not in the past week, so I don't know where he got it. Hopefully, he will be feeling better tomorrow and that Joel and I will escape it!

A Preview of Spring

This weekend was one of the best weekends we have had in a while! The weather was wonderful! It was sunny and warm, both of which we have not had in a while. It was only a week ago that it was snowing, and this weekend we were in shorts. We took several walks around the neighborhood and spent most all of Saturday outside. It was so refreshing. Hudson loved being outside, but wasn't too thrilled with grass. I guess we haven't really introduced him to grass yet. In his defense, it was a little prickly. I put a quilt down in the grass and he wouldn't move off the quilt. It was actually really nice for him to be somewhat immobile for a little while!

Other than being outside most of the time, little man did some splashing in the dog bowl...

And he got into the Cheezits in the cabinet, opened them up, and started eating them. Then, he fed them to the dogs. Needless to say, they were all happy campers! All I did was go to the bathroom! You just can't leave this boy alone for a second!

Saturday night, I got to go on a girl's night out. We went to Ocean and had a great dinner. Well, the food wasn't that great, but the atmosphere and the company was a lot of fun! Joel and Hudson went over to his parent's and they had a blast. Hudson just loves his grandparents! He couldn't care less about Joel and me when they are around! I guess that is a good thing!

Today, we have spent a lot of the day outside again. It was so nice. Hudson took a long morning nap, but did not take an afternoon nap at all! Needless to say, he is already in bed! We wore him out!

His favorite game is still peekabo with any door.

The countdown is on to this boy's first birthday, which is only a week away! Hope everyone has a great week!

Tube Consult and an Almost Walker

We had Hudson's tube consultation this morning. I took Hudson by myself since Joel had to work and can I just say, I hate doctor's offices! It is so stressful with an almost one year old who is in dire need of a morning nap! Hudson threw several arch the back fits in our little room. We call those Whitt Fits and they have just started within the past couple of weeks. It was quite embarassing. He wanted to crawl all over the floor and I wouldn't let him, but finally I just gave in and let him get all dirty. He still wanted to pull all the cords and open all the cabinets, so it was a constant battle. Why do they make you wait SO long?!?! Anyway, back to the appointment. The nurse practitioner came in and it was one of my pledge sisters from Auburn! I was so happy to see a face I knew and it was good catching up with her. After she left, we waited another 30 minutes for the doctor to come in and tell us that Hudson had lots of fluid in his ears and needed tubes, and was almost positive that was the reason for why we are not sleeping very good. He gave me the quick run down of the procedure and what we can and can't do, and then told me that the scheduling person would be right in. Well, about 30 minutes after that, she finally comes in and we scheduled the procedure for March 5th. From there, we had to go wait in another waiting room for a hearing test. Hudson had had enough by that point and the poor audiologist couldn't get him to do very much, but said that his hearing was normal. I could have told her that, but oh well. So, after 2 plus hours of a fussy baby, and maybe 10 minutes total with the nurses/doctor/audiologist, we have a date set for tubes. I'm obviously dreading the anesthesia, but I'm hoping that we will have a WELL baby after this! On a side note, we think he may have pink eye tonight so we'll see what tomorrow brings. I am seeing another trip to the doctor in our near future!

When I dropped Hudson off at daycare today, I was filling out his sheet and all of a sudden, his teacher told me to look at him. I looked at him and there he was, standing all by himself not holding onto anything, for a good 30-45 seconds. His teacher tried to get him to walk to her, but he just got down an crawled to her. This was the longest by far that he has stood by himself. I was such a proud mommy!

We had another proud mommy and daddy moment this week. Hudson has never been interested in actually walking behind his push toys. He really couldn't do it yet, but the other night, he got the courage up and started doing it and had so much fun! He was SO excited! I just had to post a little video of him walking behind his train. He is just about the cutest thing in the world! Please excuse the giddy voice that I have. This was literally the FIRST time he did this and I was so excited. Usually, I video things after he has done them for a while so I'm a little more tame, but this time was an exception! It's the little things that make us happy!

We are making progress towards walking!!!

Hudson, Say, "MAMA"

I love how he has to look at Daddy and make sure it is ok before answering me. It's like they are ganging up on me or something!

It's Snowing!

The last time we had snow like this, I was in labor so I didn't get to see any of it! This time, I'm enjoying it greatly! It is so beautiful!

This is the view down our street from our front door.

Hudson looks upset in this picture, but he's really not. He didn't know what to think about the snow. I think he was just uncomfortable from all the layers! He couldn't move.

He did think the snow was quite tasty! But then again, he thought soap was tasty too, so I think he would pretty much eat anything.

I attempted to build a snowman, but it's not making it on the blog. Let's just say it has been a while since I built a snowman! Joel and I threw a few snowballs at each other too. It has been a fun day so far and the snow is still coming down!

Birthday Stress

Well, two weeks from Monday and this boy will be one. I thought that having a baby in the middle of busy season was the perfect time (not that we had any control over when I got pregnant, but still, no one expected me to work 60 hour weeks and I got out of half of it!). And actually, it was perfect...last year. This year, I don't have any excuses, and although I'm part-time, I'm still a full-time mom the rest of the time! There's not much free time around here! Planning this little boy's first birthday party has been quite stressful on top of everything else! All I want is for it to be perfect, and so far, it hasn't worked out the way I wanted it to.

On a side note, doesn't he look like such a grown up boy in this picture!?!?

Anyway, the party was supposed to be on Sunday, February 28th. We are just doing a small party with family and close friends. I ordered the invitations 3 weeks ago thinking I would get them a week later and then have some time to get them out. Well, I received the invitations on Tuesday of this week. I thought, well, it's a little late to get them out, but it's just a birthday party and it really doesn't matter that much. Well, I take a look at the invitations and they said Saturday, February 28th, instead of Sunday, February 28th. Shoot. I looked at my order and I told them the correct date, but when they sent the proof, they had goofed up and I didn't notice. I was too busy trying to get them to fix the pictures on the proof because they had cut Hudson's head off in all of them! Anyway, so I immediately emailed the company and they responded back within an hour and told me that it would cost $50 to overnight a new set, PLUS the invitations, but they would be willing to give them to me at cost. Well, that's an extra $70. Thanks, but no thanks.

I am embarassed to say that there were some tears shed. Joel thinks I'm nuts. He just wanted to send out the invitations and put a note in there that said the correct day. Umm, no. I'm not doing that. I think all the stress from work and home got to me and all I wanted was Hudson's party to be just perfect and I felt like I was ruining it for him (like he would ever know!). Oh well...I ended up ordering new invitations from another place and changed the date to March 7th so I have another week and the problem was solved, although I was out some more money, but I don't really care at this point! I got his outfit this week so the next thing on the list is to tackle decorations and the ever so important cake! Oh and we went to Toys R Us last weekend to get one of Hudson's presents and of course, they didn't have what we wanted. Does anyone else hate that place as much as I do? I just keep telling myself that everything will work out and I don't need to stress about this because Hudson is not going to have a clue as to what is going on! I guess maybe this is all really for me and not so much for Hudson!

On a happier note, I went to Hudson's Valentine's Day party at daycare today and it was so fun. We have really been blessed that Hudson only has 4 kids in his class. He gets a lot of one on one attention. It was fun to watch him interact with the other kids in his class and I got to chat with some of the other moms, who, by the way are all boy moms and we mostly talked about the fact that there are NO cute boy clothes out there. You go into all these stores and they have the cutest little girl clothes, and the boy clothes have Sponge Bob splattered all across them. No offense to anyone who likes Sponge Bob, but it's not really my cup of tea. I don't want to spend much on his daycare clothes because most days they paint and his eating is always messy so I don't like for his nice clothes to get ruined, but I still want him to look cute nonetheless! It was nice to know that I'm not the only one that has trouble finding cute daycare clothes! Maybe one day I'll get the hang of the embroidery machine and he can actually wear some of the shirts that I've done since it practically costs nothing to make. None have been "wearable" yet, but I'm definitely improving! I did one last night with the cutest little train applique and the needle broke on my last part of it and ruined it. I was oh so close.

So now that I have rambled on enough, below are some pictures of our little troublemaker!

He's into our tax records...not good.

Busted.
He is trying to get to Daddy in this picture! It is amazing how quick they catch on to how you open doors. He can just about reach it!

Here's to hoping for snow tomorrow! I know I would like to see some this year. It seems like the rest of the country is getting more than they can handle and all we get is the cold! I would at least like to see something to show for all this cold!

Our Little Clapper!

Hudson has finally learned how to clap, and just in the nick of time for a sports weekend!

He has always loved patty cake so I knew it would only be a matter of time before he started doing it on his own. He is so proud of himself! That is probably because Joel and I go nuts when he does it, but hey, we are his crazy parents and he deserves all the attention he can get!

On Sunday, my parents took Hudson and I to Tuscaloosa to see the Auburn/Alabama women's basketball game. Since basketball was always such a big part of my life, I just had to go! Joel stayed home and worked on the never ending project in the man room (it is almost done though and it looks fabulous!). I was a little worried about taking Hudson since the game was at 2 and we went early so that we could have a good lunch beforehand. That meant no nap and I just knew he was going to be crankypants.

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However, Hudson was so good! He always surprises me. We had a bunch of little girls sitting around us that squealed the whole game and whenever they would do it, Hudson squealed too. He just smiled and smiled the whole time and wanted to be standing up instead of us holding him, so we let him stand in front of us and he held onto the seat in front of us. He bounced and bounced and squealed and squealed and clapped and clapped and just had a grand ole time! We had a grand ole time watching him and the game too! I had to tell him to stop clapping when Alabama did something good, and also when they played that stupid fight song...Hudson just loved that. I was afraid I wouldn't get to see much of the actual game, but he was enjoying himself so much that it was no problem! When the second half started, he asked to get in my mom's lap, closed his sweet little eyes, and slept until the horn sounded at the end of the game! My mom was in heaven...I was in heaven...my dad was jealous of my mom, but I was glad to get to spend some quality time with the both of them watching something that we love! Auburn lost, by the way, but it was exciting.

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We drove back to Birmingham just in time to get little bud fed and off to a Super Bowl party. We had a great time hanging out with friends. I can't say that I watched much of the game or the commercials, but I've heard they weren't that great anyway! I am a Peyton Manning fan so I was for the Colts, but the Saints winning was good too. I was happy for them and for New Orleans...although I think the "who dat" thing is pretty silly and makes them sound not so smart. Hudson had a ball playing with a bunch of new toys at our friend's house and stayed up way past his bedtime! I couldn't believe he made it that long. Boy, was he pooped when we left though!

In other news, look what Hudson has learned to do.

UH OH! WE'RE IN TROUBLE! He can go up the stairs in no time, but coming down is a different story. Why are stairs so intriguing???

TUBES!

Hudson has yet another double ear infection. I got a call yesterday from daycare that he had a fever and I had to go pick him up. I just knew it was another one! Twice in three weeks I might add. Oddly enough, I already had an appointment for the doctor set up for today to check his ears from the last ear infection to make sure they had cleared up...funny how things work. Anyway, Dr. Cortopassi said he was throwing in the towel and that it was time for tubes. I was hoping he might say that and if he didn't, I was going to ask about it! I hate it when Hudson gets them because he can't sleep and is so pitiful, so I'm hopeful that this will be the last one. We got a much stronger antibiotic this time,and are still using the numbing drops in his ears, so he should be feeling better soon! We have an appointment with a pediatric ENT in two weeks and then we will set up the appointment to actually get the tubes. From what I hear, it is a nothing procedure and he should be fine later on that day. I just hate that he will have to be put under, but at least we have already gone through that once and hopefully will be a little less nervous about it this time.