Goodbye Carrie and a Saturday at McWane

We had to say goodbye to Carrie yesterday afternoon. It has been one rough week leading up to her departure. It feels like just yesterday that she told us she was done with LA and was coming home, and now she's moved back. I'm not gonna lie...there have been some tears shed over this one! Anyway, Hudson and I took her to the airport yesterday and we were all fine, meaning no tears, until Carrie went to say goodbye to Hudson and he just lost it. He cried so hard! It was terrible. I know, you are probably thinking that he wouldn't understand what was going on, and I really thought that too, but seriously, he did not want her to leave him. He was SO upset. It was really like he understood everything. So of course, that let the waterworks begin for all of us! It was a very sad goodbye! I already miss her so much and I have no idea who I'm going to watch the Batchelorette with on Monday nights (and down a bottle of wine!). :)

One last picture with Aunt Carrie before she left. While we were packing up the car, Hudson, after he thought Carrie's suitcase was a riding toy and rode on it all the way to the trunk, decided to climb into the front seat on his own and play with the steering wheel. It was too cute!

He thought he was hot stuff!

We decided that after such a sad day yesterday that we needed a fun day today. We woke up to overcast skies and thought it might rain, so we decided that the McWane Center might be something fun to go do. I was a little worried that there wouldn't be much for Hudson to do, but I was amazed. We will definitely be back. There was so much for him to do and he just ran all over that place. He didn't slow down for a second. I would definitely recommend it to any parents with kids around Hudson's age!

Checking out the dinosaurs (or dogs as Hudson called them) with Dad...

They have a virtual reality thing and I was playing the drums. Hudson joined me and danced! It was so adorable. He has really gotten into the dancing thing! Ha!

They have a Mr. Potato Head exhibit going on right now and it was MADE for Hudson's age! He had a ball with everything Mr. Potato Head!

Hudson loved the fish exhibit as well and pointed out every fish that he saw. They have a place that kids can pet sharks and stingrays and we watched that for a while. I wasn't about to let Hudson stick his hands in that thing, but Joel and I gave the sharks some love! It was fun!

After spending a couple of hours there, Hudson was flat wo' out! We managed to make it to lunch before Hudson took a 3 hour nap! Seriously, he ran around for the whole 2 hours and was really entertained! Highly recommend it--it really was fun for all! We had such a good day and it was so good to spend that time with my little family. I needed it for sure!

I will end this post with a funny. We had another first tonight...Hudson pooped in the tub for the first time. I know, gross! I shouldn't put that on this blog, but it was a big ordeal and I just have to laugh about it (and wonder why this hasn't happened before!). I couldn't handle it. I had to get Joel to go fish it out! Ha! As many times as I have changed his diaper, you would think that I could handle a little poop in the tub. Nope! Thank goodness for my sweet husband who came to the rescue (and even cleaned the tub out too!)!

Goldfish Explosion

Who wants goldfish? Anyone???

Check out that guilty face!
These three were pretty happy. I, on the other hand, not so much.

Guess it's time to move the goldfish out of that cabinet!

Curls Smurlz

We (I say we, but Joel wants nothing to do with this one!) had a little fun with Hudson's hair the other night. Yes, that is my little man with a ponytail! He looks like a girl from the back!

You know it's time for a haircut when you can put it in a ponytail! It is SO time. The "business in the front, party in the back" days are over. In case you don't get that, his hair lays flat on the top, and is nothing but curls in the back, so that's what we call it. I have been talking about cutting his hair for some time now, but I appear to be the only one who thinks it should be cut. No one wants the curls cut! My grandmother even said that she hopes he screams the entire time I'm getting it cut. That's how bad they are afraid that the curls won't come back. Really, let's face it, the curls are probably not here to stay. I'm not attached. We don't have red hair, and definitely don't have curls, so we don't know where any of it came from! I will say that it is cute, but it is starting to become a little too much of a fro for my liking! You should see how long it is when it's wet! It's halfway down his back!

He reminded me of a sumo wrestler that night with his little pony. I should have taken a full picture of him because his pjs were too small and his belly kind of hung out!

And just for a serious picture, how grown up does he look in the picture below?!?!? He'll always be my baby, but he sure isn't looking like it anymore!

Hopefully, I will get around to that haircut this weekend! It's on the list of things to do!

Happy Father's Day...

To some pretty awesome daddys and granddaddys!

I'm not sure what Hudson would do without his Daddy! He loves him so much. Joel is still the chosen one for sure and while it does hurt my feelings about 98% of the time (just being honest!), I'm glad that Joel plays such a strong part in Hudson's life and I hope that he and Hudson continue to have this adoring relationship. He is definitely a Daddy's Boy!


His favorite thing to do is to still be thrown in the air. I'm sad the picture below turned out a tad blurry because he was having a blast! Tonight, Hudson and Joel were playing chase around the house and it was so cute watching them. Hudson thought it was so much fun (I think Joel thought so too!). They have such a good bond already!

Happy Father's Day to Big Daddy as well!

And to Pops too!

Thanks for all the both of you do for us! Our father's are so important to us!

It has been a busy weekend! Carrie and I headed up to Cloudland to the cabin on Thursday night and stayed until Saturday. Joel has been SO busy with work and I think was actually glad that we left for a few days so he could have uninterrupted work time. He put in well over 60 hours just last week. He's such a hard worker. Oh and I needed some bonding time with Carrie because she is moving back to LA on Friday. Yes, we had a Welcome Home Party for her and she's going back already. My thoughts about this are not appropriate for our family blog! Ha!

Hudson had a great time riding in the wagon with the little dogs. I'm not sure the feeling was mutual. :)

We went to Chattanooga on Friday and spent most of the day walking around. We found these fountains in a huge park and let Hudson have fun. He wasn't really sure about them, but was definitely intrigued! He finally got in it and was soaked! I wish we had gotten in it too! It sure was HOT that day!

We had a fun night at the Wildflower Friday night before heading back to Bham on Saturday morning. Hudson loved the guy singing and playing the guitar at the Wildflower. He kept running up to him and then running back to us. It was so funny. He even clapped at the end of every song. He had everyone's attention and it was SO fun!

Joel is such a good husband and he gave me a girl's night out on Saturday night. What husband lets his wife go out on Father's Day weekend?!?! Ha! I haven't been out in such a long time with just the girls and we had a fun time eating at Botega Cafe and then drinks at Dram.

Joel was so nice about it that I let him sleep in this morning until 9! Lucky guy! He deserves it though. We appreciate all that he does for us. He is such a good father and Hudson just adores him. We had lunch at Another Broken Egg and then all had a long nap this afternoon. It was a great day!

Happy Father's Day to all the other Daddy's out there!!!

Welcome Home Surprise Party!

We had a welcome home surprise party for Carrie on Friday night at our house. She was shocked!!! I'm so impressed that we were able to pull it off without her finding out about it and I'm pretty sure she had a great time.

Joel cooked out hamburgers and grilled chicken and we had baked beans and pasta salad, a ton of dips, and tons of desserts! There was a lot of food and drinks galore.

The cupcakes were from Carrie's favorite cupcake place in LA, Sprinkles. They were so good!

The plan was for Carrie and Andres to come over to our house for a drink before we went out to dinner. It worked like a charm. I don't think she was too disappointed when she saw 20 of her closest friends all at our house!

These were most of the girls. She has the BEST group of friends! I'm jealous that they are all so close. Thanks to all of you who helped put this together!

They stayed until around 11:30 pm Friday night (and then went out after that!), so by the time we got everything cleaned up, it was way past our bedtime! Ha! It was really fun though and I'm so glad we could do this for Carrie. We are SO happy she's home! Now, we've just got to keep her here! :)

I have to tell this funny story about Carrie because it would only happen to Carrie. She has the worst luck in the world and we constantly have to worry about her (sorry Carrie, it's true!). Anyway, she just bought a new car right before she left LA. She didn't want to put the miles on it, so she had it shipped. Well, somewhere along the way, the trailor that her car and several other cars were on got stopped by the police. One of the cars was loaded with marijuana. They impounded all of the cars and currently, Carrie's car is somewhere in Arizona I think. They took out all her seats and searched her car as well because they thought it might be a big drug deal. Her car was clean of course, but she still doesn't know when she is going to get it back and what kind of condition it's going to be in. They even told her that she may have to come out there! It's terrible, but it's so funny at the same time. If anyone knows Carrie well, you know that this would only happen to her! Seriously!

In case anyone is wondering, Hudson got to spend the night out with Joel's parents. Unfortunately, when they came to pick him up, he was asleep. When I went to wake him up (I did think it was weird that he took a nap that late in the day), he felt warm so I took his temp and of course, of all the nights, he has a fever. And, it was Friday night at 5:00. And, we were throwing a party in an hour. Awesome. Since it was Friday night, I went ahead and called the after hours doctor and got him in that night. Joel's parents so graciously took him so we could take care of the party, but it added some stress to the evening for sure! I didn't want to wait it out since it was the weekend though and I'm glad we didn't because of course, he had another double ear infection. They got him started on the antibiotics and had a terrible night which I feel so awful about, but luckily he felt better the next morning, although, he still had a fever ALL day yesterday. We had planned to go to the lake Saturday morning and spend the day there and then spend the night in my parent's new cabin in Cloudland, GA. We thought hard about it when we woke up Saturday morning and decided to go ahead and go. Usually, the antibiotics kick in fast and he feels better almost immediately. Even though he still had a fever, he didn't act like he felt too bad thankfully. He wasn't quite himself, but he he was ok.

We had a fun day at the lake. It was a hot day, but we got in a couple of really good boat rides! I'm loving the new boat! I am seeing lots of fun on the lake over the next few years!

Hudson really wanted to get in the water. We didn't put him in this time because of his ears, but next time, he's taking a dip! He did love to dip his feet in the water though.

And as usual, in Pops' arms! He loves Pops and picks him over EVERYONE else!

Papa John is teaching Hudson all about the tractor! Actually, I think he is telling them to get off his ride because he was ready to go home! Ha! Hudson came light years with Papa John this time though. He had been terrified of him, but this weekend, he was giving him high fives! It was so cute!

After dinner, we made the 30 minute drive over to Cloudland and saw the new cabin. My parents moved in on Friday and it is awesome! We felt like we were staying in a luxury hotel! It still has a ways to go to be finished, but it is so nice. Who wouldn't like to wake up to this view every day?!?!?

One last thing...let me introduce you to the new "cabin" dog. She has made a home at my parents new cabin and they don't know what to do with her! They have two TINY dogs (like under 5 pounds) and can't handle a bigger dog. This dog is the sweetest dog in the world though and we are trying to figure out what to do with her. She looks to be around a year or so old. She has a really great coat on her and looks to have some golden retriever in her, but is not as big as a golden retriever. She was great with Hudson and just craved attention. She had to belong to someone at some point because she knows simple commands like "come here" and most importantly, "no," but she obviously has no home now. It is so sad! If anyone wants her, let me know! We're trying to convince Joel's parents to take her, but if we can't find her a home, we're adding a dog to the Reed household. Seriously, she's SO cute and has a really good demeanor! My parents haven't given her a name yet because they said that when you name a dog, that means you've claimed her and they don't want her (although they are feeding her and taking care of her!)!

Hope everyone has a great week. Here's to hoping that Hudson is on the mend soon. I am seeing another trip to the ENT in our near future!

Bath Time!

Hudson has figured out how to turn the water on and off in the bath and also how to turn the shower on and off. It is quite the experience. We should all just wear raincoats while giving Hudson his nightly bath! I'm so afraid he's going to fall and bust a tooth, but he has so much fun playing with the water! Usually, when he turns it back on, it's freezing cold, but he doesn't care! He loves to splash you with it and the more sounds you make when he does it, the funnier it is to him.

Why do we even have bath toys???

Church of the Reconciler

A couple of weeks ago, our Sunday School class had the church's outreach coordinator come speak to our class about the outreach opportunities that are within our church. As we are in the process of filling out our outreach commitment cards, it was awesome to see what organizations that the church helps and where the church's greatest needs were with regards to volunteers for their outreach programs. She told us that at that time, the greatest need was to have a class sponsor and volunteer to feed the homeless at the Church of the Reconciler the first Sunday in June. That was only two weeks away and they were in desparate need. We had a small class that day, unfortunately, but there were five of us that instantly felt called to do it and were going to be in town that weekend. We told the outreach coordinator that we would do it, without regard to the fact that we had to raise $300 in 2 weeks to pay for the food, and the fact that 5 of us were going to SERVE 200 people! On Sunday, we found out that we had an anonymous donor pay the entire amount. We are so very grateful for that.

I had no idea what to expect. I never thought about the fact that just 10 minutes from where we live, there is this whole community full of homeless people. The Church of the Reconciler is a church for the homeless community. After a church service on Sunday, they provide a meal to usually around 200 people. For a lot of these people, this is the only meal they get for the week. Can you imagine?

When we arrived, we met Miss Mary. She is the cutest, sweetest, little fireball you have ever seen. She is the boss over there and she does a wonderful job. Everything was so organized and she kept everyone in line for sure. She gave us all a hug and thanked us for being there as soon as we arrived. She gave us the directions, stating that the first round of people would be sat at noon and would consist of around 75-100 people. We would SERVE them. It did not consist of a cafeteria line or anything like that. The purpose was to make them feel welcome and not ashamed and for once in their life, to be served. The five of us made the first round of plates, which consisted of baked ziti, salad, and a banana. We had a good assembly line to prepare the food quickly and efficiently. Then, it was time to go.

I have to say, I was a little nervous about leaving the kitchen to go serve. I told Joel that I wanted to stay right next to him in case anything happened. Little did I know that when we went out to serve, it was chaos and we all went in different directions to get them fed as quickly as possible! We were told to make sure that everyone only got one plate and one drink, and to be mindful of those that hide their drinks under their chair, or put their food in their bags for later, and ask for another plate. They would fool us. And, they tried for sure to fool us. It was so sad. I had to say "no" to several people who tried to do this. It broke my heart because you wanted to give them more, but we had to make sure that everyone got fed and we didn't run out. Some were so thankful and expressed their gratitude. Others were rude and told us to hurry up. There were several skirmishes that broke out about getting more food. It was a rush, but I never once felt unsafe. It felt good, actually. Really, good.

Once the first round was over, we hurried back into the kitchen and started on round two. This was even more chaotic as we had less time to get the plates prepared. Somehow, we got it done though and did the process over. It seemed like we were done in a heartbeat. The time went by so fast.

I have to tell this one funny story. In all the madness, I stepped on one old man's foot by accident. I was in heels and I felt SO bad! I told him that I was so sorry and asked him if he was ok. He was probably in his 70's. He told that I could step on his foot anytime I wanted to, and gave me this huge smile. He made me smile too.

I think the biggest thing that broke my heart was seeing the kids in there. I guess after having a child of my own, I hate that those kids have to grow up in that environment. I wanted to snatch every one of them up and take them home with me! One child got in trouble for hitting someone and sat in the kitchen with us--that was timeout. He was adorable, but you could tell that he had a rough childhood. My heart just hurt for him.

I would totally recommend doing this if you are wanting to do some sort of outreach to the community. Joel and I can't wait to do it again. It felt so good to be able to provide for those people. We had no idea what got them to that point--you never know, that could be us someday--but it was good to know that we could give them a decent meal and make them feel special, if only for a day. Those in charge, like Miss Mary, at the Church of the Reconciler are doing a wonderful thing and we really can't thank them enough.

Now, onto the pictures. We only had an I-Phone, so they are a little blurry. Here is a picture of Megan and me in the kitchen before we started serving.

Here are the other volunteers from our class--Reese, Joel, and Kevin devising our plan for making plates!

It was a wonderful way to spend a Sunday!

Dinners Out (Weekend in Review)

Eating out with a 15 month old is always an experience. We never know how he's going to be. Just when we are at our wits end and say that we are never going to eat out again, he's a perfect angel. We don't eat out much anymore, but we got invited to two dinners out with the fam this weekend and just had to go! Friday night, we went to Dodiyo's with Joel's parent's and aunts and uncles (and cousins). We had been at the pool all afternoon and had just showered and put on our pj's when we got asked to go and of course, we didn't want to turn them down! It was a little later than we normally go, but we figured we would chance it and decided ahead of time that we were ok with taking turns being outside. And, of course, that's what we did. It's not that Hudson was bad, but he didn't want to have anything to do with the high chair, and that was an issue. I'm sure the workers didn't appreciate him running into the kitchen (it only happened once!). He also didn't want to leave Joel's dad the whole time. In fact, Connie Kanakis, one of the owners of the restaurant who was a big fan of Hudson kept calling Joel's Dad "Daddy" every time he walked by. I was like, "No, he's the Granddaddy!" It was slightly embarassing.

Everyone took turns with Hudson outside. When it was my turn, we walked all around SoHo and looked at all the people eating outside. It was at that point that Hudson did a nosedive. I was letting him walk by himself and he tripped and landed on his face--in front of all those people. And yes, he started screaming...so loud that I scooped him up so fast and ran around the corner so that he could get calmed down and so I could assess the damage. There was none, thankfully. He was fine. I think it just scared him. He calmed down quickly, but we hung out for a while where we were (I didn't want to walk by all those people again!). About 5 minutes later, this man comes up to us with a bag of ice and told me that that fall probably hurt and he needed ice. I think my face turned so red at this point! Total embarassment! Hudson didn't want anything to do with the ice but to play with it, but what a nice man to do that for him. Dinner was yummy though and everyone had fun (even if we did have to take turns being outside!). Thanks to Pops for doing most of the legwork, although unfortunately, he's Hudson's first choice so he didn't have much of a say in the matter! He's so good with him though!

Carrie came home Friday night so after dinner, I dropped the boys off at home and headed over to my parent's to wait for her arrival. I ended up staying until 11:30 pm! It was so fun though and I'm thankful she's back. Now, we just gotta get Andres to come here!

I don't know the last time I stayed up until 11:30, but that 6 am wake up call really hit me hard! Ha! Hudson decided he wanted to wake up early Saturday morning. We had Waterbabies and Hudson was a pill! He had SUCH a fun time at the pool Friday afternoon that I thought he would do good at Waterbabies, but he stayed up too late Friday night I think and got up too early. He was tired (so was his Mama!). We dunked him twice and he took it like a champ. Of course, he had dunked himself a few times on Friday at the pool and just thought it was hilarious, so we knew that was going to be ok. The rest of the time was spent trying to get him to stop screaming. Of course, this was the one week that Joel got in the pool too and he was so bad! Even the teacher asked what was wrong with him. Oh well. We all went home and took a nap, and then took another nap after lunch. That was the life!

That night, we had dinner with my family and extended family at McCormick & Schmick's. After Friday night's performance, we figured this dinner was going to be a disaster too. Luckily, my six year old nephew Blaine was there and he entertained Hudson the whole time. He was SO good!!! He loved his cousin so much and Blaine did a great job in keeping Hudson corraled.

Yes, that is a huge piece of bread that Hudson is running around with!

After dinner, Blaine wanted to show us his new Razor 360. We did it in the parking lot at the restaurant. It was so fun! Isn't he so cute?!?!

Even movie star Carrie in her 5 inch heels gave it a try...

I rode on it too and man, it was such a rush. We have to get us one of these! I would highly recommend them...fun for all ages (except there's not much leg room!).

Sunday, Joel and I went to Sunday School and then went to the Church of the Reconciler to feed the homeless. That experience deserves its own separate post that I will hopefully have up tonight. It was something that I don't want to forget and I can't wait to do it again! Hudson stayed with Joel's parents and had a blast. We all enjoyed some pool time that afternoon, then a walk with the dogs, and cooked out last night. It was a great weekend!!!

15 Months

15 month stats:

Height - 31.5 inches (75th percentile)
Weight - 26 pounds (75th percentile)
HC - 18.5 inches

We still have a big boy on our hands! The checkup went great today, well, except for the 3 shots and the no air conditioning in the office! I was a sweaty mess after dealing with Hudson's tantrums while we waited (he just might have thrown a major fit and laid all over the dirty floor during the wait!). Those offices are way too small for a mobile toddler and waiting is torture for everyone involved! Ha! It was WAY past his naptime to say the least (I learned my lesson about scheduling appointments during naptime!). We got through it though!

Overall, Hudson is doing great and is meeting all of his developmental milestones. Yay! He is still having ear issues, which Dr. C. was going to have to consult with the ENT to get us on a plan to make that better. His ears drain ALL the time. Luckily, it does not seem to bother him. We also talked about Hudson's lack of veggies and Dr. C. was not concerned. He said to give him the V8 juice (which I have been doing) or start him on a vitamin if he didn't like the juice.

I think 15 months is a hard age. He is SO fun, but he is all over the place. He is an accident waiting to happen and it scares me to death! I can't turn my back for a second. Just the other morning, I was making his lunch before taking him to school and he kept getting into this cabinet that I didn't want him in. I moved him away about 5 times before giving up--he is persistent when he wants something. Next thing I know, I have a broken dish and a screaming baby. He wasn't hurt, but it scared him and my reaction didn't help things I'm sure. He falls all the time too. Most of the time, he is fine, but I worry about him falling into something. He already has a huge bruise on his head from a fall that happened yesterday. He's walking great, but sometimes he gets ahead of himself and tries to go faster than he needs to! I'm ready for more stable legs! Ha!

He is also throwing more and more tantrums when he doesn't get what he wants. I know they are normal, and I should ignore them for the most part, but it's hard. I just want him to be like this all the time...

And not so much like this!


15 months is such a cute age though, even with its challenges! I love that he copies what we say and his vocabulary is increasing every day! So far, he can say Dada, Mama, dog, ball, nana (banana), cracker, duck, quack-quack, Jack, big, milk, more, car, bubbles, and I'm sure there are others that I am not thinking of right now. He can also point to his nose, and your nose too! He loves being chased, and being the chaser as well. He will laugh and laugh at that game. He loves to shake his head "no" and smile while in his high chair--he thinks he's being SO silly...it's hilarious! He LOVES all of his grandparents...really, it's quite an obsession. He cries every time we leave all of them. He is very attached to his dog stuffed animal, which we call Ra-Ra (I asked him what we should call him and that's what came out first!). We had to take him all the way to school one day before I put my foot down on that! Ha! He loves to rough house. His favorite thing right now is to get on my back. He also loves being outside. He says "outside," but it still doesn't sound like that. I know what he means though! He will point at our downstairs door and say "car, car" so that we will take him to go ride in his car in the driveway. He also loves to climb on our downstairs couch...really, he is starting to climb everything (another reason why he's an accident waiting to happen!). He gives the best hugs and loves to be read to. We can ask him to go get us a book and he will go find one. I just love that he is starting to really understand what we say and can react to it! He has four teeth up top and two on the bottom, with another one and a molar trying to poke through on the bottom.

I'm not even going to discuss the food issues in detail because nothing has changed, but as you can see, he's not starving. He is still obsessed with bananas and knows where they are on the counter. I still say that it could be worse...I'm pretty positive that Hudson would pick a fruit over any kind of junk food, so I think we are ok!

He is wearing 24 month and 2T clothes. It is hard to believe that he is wearing clothes meant for 2 year olds, but it is what it is! Hopefully, he will stay in this size for a while!

That's about it for what he's up to at 15 months! This boy sure is growing fast!!!

Memorial Day Weekend

Well, it's back to work today after a full week of vacation last week! It was hard to get up and going this morning! We had such a fun time last week and last weekend.

We headed up to Mentone last Thursday night to spend a couple of nights at the cabin. Friday, we woke up and headed to the Chattanooga Zoo. I thought it would be a fun thing to do...well, the zoo was really sort of pitiful and it didn't take long to go through it. Let's just say that the zoo had an exhibit full of crows--that's how exciting it got. Ha! Oh and it rained on us too. It was something to do, though, and Hudson had a good time. We did get up close and personal with these two chimps--I didn't get much closer than where I was taking the picture. I sort of felt like they could bust through the glass!

They did have a carousel as well and Hudson just had to ride it! It didn't have music with it and it was a little rickety, but it kept us out of the rain for a little while so it was great! I just love this picture of my boys!

They also had a "petting zoo" full of goats. Hudson was a little scared. So was I...one of those goats tried to eat Hudson's laces off his shoes AND tried to take the tie off my dress. It was a little dangerous.

We ended the morning with a late lunch at the Boathouse on the river in Chattanooga. It was so nice to sit outside overlooking the river!

Saturday morning we got up and went to the lake to be with Joel's family. Joel's dad bought a boat and we had a good ride on it! Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate very much and the one ride was all we could do, but we are looking forward to having fun with it this summer!

Hudson wasn't too sure about the life jacket or the boat ride. He was very subdued the whole time. I guess it's good he didn't hate it!

I think he was about to fall asleep in this picture!

I tried to get a picture of Hudson in this chair. It didn't work too well! This kid is a mile a minute and won't stay still for a second! He is into everything these days!

We headed home Sunday morning and all took a really long nap. We were exhausted! Hudson didn't sleep very well on the trip so therefore, we didn't sleep well either! Monday morning we woke up and headed to the Birmingham Zoo. Yes, two zoos in one weekend. Once we saw the Chattanooga Zoo, we had to go back to the Birmingham Zoo to compare. There wasn't much comparison. As much as Joel and I have complained about our zoo, it was awesome compared to Chattanooga's! Hudson kept calling everything a "big dog" and LOVED the lions. We just happened to see that exhibit when they were feeding the lions and getting them to do tricks. Hudson was fascinated by it and talked the lion's ears off! He also loved the train and pointed to it every time he saw it until we rode it. The petting zoo was a favorite too!

It was a great weekend and I'm so glad it's already Tuesday--one day closer to next weekend! Happy 15 months today to my little buddy. We are headed to the doctor tomorrow for his checkup so I'll do his 15 month post after that.