Our 18 Month Old

Harrison is now 18 months old! The past couple of months have been so much fun. He is doing something new every single day and we have loved watching him develop. This is one of the greatest things about motherhood!

 



I wouldn't say that he is talking up a storm, but he is finally saying a good bit of words. Some of his favorites are milk, juice, "tank tu" for thank you, shoe, dog, cat, hudson, "side" for outside, hot, train, choo choo, car, truck, and "nana" for banana. There are a lot of other ones that I'm sure I am missing.

He is doing awesome eating with utensils and actually prefers eating with them than without. There are lots of times when it would be easier and less messy if he just picked it up with his hands or let me feed him, but I just have to deal with it and let him do it himself. He tries a lot of foods and is definitely a better eater than Hudson. The poor boy STILL only has 4 teeth. I do not see any on the horizon either. That is so strange to me, but I keep being told that the longer it takes for them to come in, the better.

He is a great sleeper and is still taking about a 3 hour nap in the afternoons. He's goes to bed around 7 and is most always ready and willing to go! We always read books before bed and he is the one that picks them out. His favorite is Goodnight Moon (Hudson loved this too!).

He loves cars, trains, motorcycles, airplanes, tractors, and pretty much everything else little boys love. He still loves balls and can hit the ball off the tee like nobody's business. He's got a great swing and loves to practice (and really loves Hudson's t-ball games!).

He is an outside child and we are loving the warm weather. He thinks bubbles are the greatest and would do them all day if he could. He also loves our swingset. He is already climbing up there and sliding down by himself. I would never have let Hudson do that at 18 months.

He loves shoes! That is the only way I can get him changed most days. I bribe him with shoes! He will run right over to me and sit down. He still hates diaper changes though and pretty much everything else with putting on clothes, except for the shoe part. We have bought him some new shoes within the past month and he is so proud when he wears them. It's like he prances around! My dad will love this about him as he has somewhat of a shoe fetish himself! :)

He is still a bruiser. Last week, he threw a toy so hard at school that he broke the bottom half of the window in his classroom. They said it just completely shattered. Whoops!

He has finally started watching cartoons or the Ipad with Hudson (I think we have created a monster when it comes to the Ipad because he is slightly obsessed), which makes mornings a little easier when I'm trying to get ready. Most days I try to get up and get ready before they are up, but that doesn't always happen so any time where they can sit still for just a few minutes is great.  And they are just so precious when they are doing something together and not fighting about it!

Joel and I look at him all the time and just smile. How can you not?!?!? He is just the cutest and sweetest thing in the world. He had a rough first 15 months of life and I think we are finally seeing his true personality come out, and we love it. He is just perfect. Happy 18 months big buddy!

We have 18 month and 4 year old checkups coming on Friday, so that ought to be fun. Hudson has to get 4 shots I think! Here are a couple of pictures of the boys before church today too!

Easter Weekend

We started out the long Easter weekend with class parties on Thursday morning. This picture pretty much sums up Harrison's party...

 The only mom that wasn't there was the mom of the little boy that isn't crying. It's just almost not worth going to his parties at this stage. They just cry because they think you are going to leave them (which you eventually have to) and it just tugs at your heart! Oh the guilt...

Moving on--Hudson's party was a different story! He LOVES that I'm there and he definitely turns on the silly switch!

He had a great time hunting eggs. The teachers told the kids that they could only pick up 12 eggs and it was so funny to watch them stop and count to see if they had hit 12. I never thought in a million years that they would do that, but they did!

Friday night, we dyed eggs. This was the first time we had done this with Hudson, and let's get real--I had to call my mom to ask her how long I needed to boil the eggs! I only blew up one egg. I think hard boiled eggs are disgusting. Oh well! :) Hudson LOVED dying the eggs!

Somehow Hudson got the dye on his mouth. I'm hoping he wasn't tasting the water when I wasn't looking! Ha! Harrison loved watching! He only tried tumping over the glasses a few hundred times before he got sent to the bath tub with Daddy!

 We even glittered the eggs. So fun!

This has nothing to do with Easter, but we had t-ball on Saturday and Hudson got to be the pitcher. It was special for him to get to wear all the gear and get most of the balls hit to him! He did great too! I'm still loving t-ball. I can't get enough of it. This has been a way better experience than soccer. 

Right after t-ball, we headed down to Somerby to see Mama Jean at her spring fling at the old folks home. I had slacked with not taking the kids to see the Easter bunny this year, but thankfully, he was there and we got to take a picture! Hudson loved the Easter bunny. The first thing he said was, "Hey Easter bunny, can you hop???" It was so cute.

The Easter bunny had to go inside for a little while and when he came back outside, Hudson said, "Hey Easter bunny, why do you have on different shoes?" How observant he is...we are in trouble. Going to try and have fun with this while it lasts because it isn't going to last long!

Hudson got his face painted...

And Harrison got to jump in the jumpy (until the whole thing collapsed on him--whoops!). They had a cookout for lunch and it really was a fun time with MJ!

Saturday night we helped host a party for Jordan and Anna. I say "helped" very loosely because I literally did nothing! Oh well. That is really the best kind in my opinion! Ha! It was a fun party though and I can't wait for the wedding to get here! Just 6 weeks away!

The Easter bunny visited our house Saturday night! We didn't really talk a whole lot about the Easter bunny so it really was not a big thing at all.

 Then it was time for church! The boys stayed up really late the night before (at my parents while we were at the party) so they were extra fun yesterday. :) I tried to take some pictures, but it just wasn't really happening.

 Harrison wouldn't even get in a picture with me. :(

Hudson looks like a big boy. It makes me sad that's he's not wearing something a bit frilly (but boyish!), but he was still handsome and I'm just going to have to get used to it--he's 4, it's time. This was the first time he has worn a belt and he was so proud of it.

We had to take our annual picture in front of the cross. Good thing the rain finally stopped! It was still a pretty yucky day though.

 After church we headed to my parent's for lunch and another Easter egg hunt. Harrison has this thing down pat now! He was chilling out mid egg hunt in this picture...

After lunch and naps, we headed to the Reed's for dinner. The Easter bunny made a stop there too, so Hudson was extra happy!

It has been a fabulous week of celebrating!

Sunday School Easter Egg Hunt

The boys and I had a great weekend in Mentone. It was dreary all weekend, and we really didn't do much of anything, but it was nice to get away. Joel went to a guys weekend at Farmlinks with some of the guys in our Sunday School class. We all drove home this morning and had our Sunday School Easter egg hunt this afternoon. The yucky weather forced us to move it indoors, but it was still a lot of fun!

 

Harrison picked it up super quick! They started with letting the under 2's in the gym first, so he had his first pick of all the eggs before the swarm came in.

 

 

Then came the herd...you can see them all busting through the door below. It was hilarious. Lots and lots of squeals!

 

 Hudson again was more interested in what was inside each egg instead of quantity of eggs. 

Since there wasn't a whole lot of "hiding" of eggs that you could do in the gym, the hunt was over as quickly as it started. Then, they all sat down and ate their loot! There was a lot of sugar intake (at least for my two!).

 My favorite picture of the day...a little brotherly love (or strangling).

 Quick family picture!

We had a great time! Let the Easter festivities begin!

High Time for an Update

I'm drowning in work. This is the worst busy season I've had in years. Can you tell the blog has suffered? The only reason I'm updating tonight is because our work server seems to be down at the moment. I've been working until 11 or so every night during the week. I'm tired, and cranky. Just ask my hubby. I'm hoping this is all worth it when I am only working a few days a week in the summer. I have to keep reminding myself of that or else I will never get through this! I really don't know how you full time working moms do it. I have to leave by 5 so I get to spend some time with the kids, but wow, how stressful is it between 5 and the time they go to bed (6:30 a lot of nights for Harrison!)!?!? Phew! How in the world do you cook dinner??? We're not even talking homework here--I'm not sure I'll be able to handle all of that! I like having a few more hours in my afternoon. Can't wait to get back to that schedule! As soon as they've hit the hay every night, the computer comes back out for me. Life stinks right now. Anyway, enough of that pity party for me. This will be random (and full of Iphone pics), which seems to be the usual these days!

 

Hudson has some super cute Under Armour workout clothes that my parents gave him for Christmas. I went running a few weekends ago and he just begged to put his running clothes on too and come with me. I think he made it a couple of houses down the street before he begged to start walking. 

 

Joel says he needs to put some shorts over those tight pants! :) They are so so cute though and he loves to be just like his mommy. I'm milking it for now because I know it won't be like that forever!

We finally had some spring like weather last weekend, so we went to local pizza place and ate dinner outside. It was wonderful.

And if sitting outside for dinner wasn't enough, we decided to go to the ballfields in our neighborhood right after dinner and take a few jogs around the bases. It was so fun!

Last weekend, Hudson went to his first princess party! Ha! He was SO excited. It was Caroline's 4th birthday and the party was at the Children's Theater and we got to see Sleeping Beauty. It was such a cute play. It was so funny seeing the differences between the boys and the girls. The girls all sat in their seats and didn't make a peep, but the boys just couldn't sit still. They did ok though! What a fun idea for a party though!

We also got in some park time! This little mess has been SO fun! He is just as cute as he can be, and he has really been showing his sweet and loving side (and not as much as his terror side!)! I am loving it. I realized that I totally skipped his 17 month post, so I'll just wait until 18 months. He has come so far in the past couple of months though. How is he about to be a year and a half??? Didn't I just have him??? I am loving his age right now. He was going down the big slides at the park! He seriously has no fear!

First trip to Doodles! Hudson has been begging to go to Doodles. We've never even taken him before, but we tried to go about 6 months ago and they were closed and ever since then, everytime we pass the place, he asks if it is open yet. It finally opened and it did not disappoint!

Hudson has hit the terrible 4's. Is that normal??? I always heard that 4 was the best year. Of course, we NEVER had issues at 2 or 3, so maybe it is just time for us to pay our dues. He has always been really good though--definitely our compliant child! Ever since he turned 4 (like on the DAY he turned 4), he has just been bad! He is giving us a run for our money right now. He does have such a sweet heart though and it upsets him to no end that he disappoints us, but I know we've got to nip this in the bud! This has been a particularly bad week at school. Yesterday, he got put on yellow for calling a friend "stupid". We do not even say that word in our house. I don't know where he got that from, but I was appalled (and embarassed). Then today, he got put on RED, which was a first for him. He spit on 4 kids in his class. This has been a problem lately for all of the boys, but he has usually been the one spit ON (by his best buddies no less--guess it is a boy thing!). But, now he has become the spitt-ER and that is not good. Of course I'm blaming myself because he has had to be at school more than normal and I know he just needs a break. Maybe this is his way of expressing that. Too bad accountants don't get spring break! We are getting away for the weekend, so I'm hopeful that it will give us all the rest and relaxation that we need. Mountain air is always good for the soul!

 

Until next time...

Dr. Suess, Mickey, and T-ball

Last week was Dr. Suess' birthday and Hudson had to dress up as a character in one of the books. Of course, we did Cat in the Hat because that is Hudson's favorite! Unfortunately, my little Cat in the Hat was less than thrilled about dressing up that day. He wouldn't wear half the outfit and I had to bribe him to even put on the hat for a quick picture. Oh well...he was still cute! The bow tie is just hilarious, and wouldn't you know, when I picked him up from school that afternoon, he STILL had the bow tie on. He told all of his teachers that his Mom told him he had to wear it all day. He wouldn't even take it off to nap!

 

This past Friday night, we went to see a Mickey Mouse concert at the BJCC. I had heard it was only an hour and a half, so we thought it would be a good opportunity to take Harrison too. I went in with very low expectations. I mean, the kid doesn't sit still EVER and Friday night, at bedtime, after being at school most of the week were all stacked up against us. But, he did awesome! I would totally take him again! He danced and danced and it really held his attention. He got a little restless at the end, but that was to be expected. I think Hudson liked it. He got pretty tired at the end too and was the kid throwing a fit as we walked out the door. Something about how he never gets to buy anything...(you parents out there know what I'm talking about! Ha!). He had obviously chosen to forget the $12 cotton candy and Mickey ears that he had gotten earlier in the night as his "one thing" he could get. :) It was a fun night though and I can't wait to take them to more events like this!

Saturday morning was Hudson's first t-ball game! Oh my goodness at the cuteness!!!!

 I think I took 100 pictures. I just could not get over how adorable they all were. And they were SO excited!

You can't play t-ball without eye black! Our coach supposedly makes them wear it every week. I love it!

 Best buddies!!!

These two were onlookers again. Margaret and I were talking about how much they had grown since last spring when we did the t-ball clinic at church. Hard to believe it has been a year!

 Hudson was very apprehensive about going up to bat, but once he finally got up there, he made contact the first time and ran to first! It was great! His second hit was even better!

 Just keepin' it real here...my child sitting on third base! :)

 Even Migi and Pops came to see the first game! We loved having them there! I think they knew everyone at the ballpark...it was like a Vestavia grandparent reunion!

 

If you can't tell, I am pretty pumped about t-ball. We have a couple of weeks off before we play again due to spring break, but I can't wait!