Our Week

Joel is in Auburn at the game and Hudson is at the lake with the Reed's, so Harrison and I have enjoyed a nice, quiet day together! I am thankful that the Reed's offered to take Hudson. I have gotten a lot done today! I went out shopping for some things to wear to Carrie's wedding festivities because shopping with two kids is absolutely out of the question, worked on my speech for the rehearsal dinner, put up toys and straightened the house up, and did about 10 loads of laundry (that never seems to end!). Productive day I should say!

This week has been crazy. Monday, Harrison had a little surgical procedure down at Children's. It went really well, but he's been recovering all this week. Poor buddy. He's on the mend though! This week, he has had the worst case of baby acne. Hudson never had it this bad! If anyone knows some remedies for this, let me know! It does seem to be getting better, but it still looks terrible. I've been told to just let it run its course, but I hate his face looking like this. He's still cute though and oh so sweet.

Wednesday night, one of our dogs chewed up the tubes on my pump. There was a piece missing (I assumed she ate it) and so off we all went at 7 pm to Babies R Us to get new tubes, with a promise to go to Bruster's after that to get ice cream. This was a huge necessity as I've been exclusively pumping and without the tubes, that's it for the breastmilk (I told Joel that it was a sign from God and that maybe I was supposed to just quit! You know, because me and the pump are best friends and all. Ha!). Anyway, I couldn't find the tubes at Babies R Us, so off we went to Buy Buy Baby, where I found out that they didn't sell the tubes individually anywhere. Awesome. I almost burst into tears right in front of the lady in Buy Buy Baby. She told me you had to buy the tubes directly from Medela and that it would take several days to get them. That didn't help me! I had to pump that night! I was able to buy a manual pump for $57 that had the right tubes. So the dog cost me $57. It was almost 9 by this point and we had still promised a certain little guy that we would get ice cream (and he doesn't forget things!), so off we went. When we got home, I decided to search the house up and down for the missing part to my pump, and wouldn't you know, I found it. Anyway, long story short, I am still pumping and I got my $57 back, we got ice cream, and Hudson didn't go to bed until about 9:30 which made for a really fun next day! :)

Thursday was flu shot day. We had to be at the doctor early and had plans to do the mist, but the nurse had already gotten the shot ready, so we just did that. Hudson did really well surprisingly, and when it came time to pick his sticker, out of the Spiderman, Thomas the Train, Superman, and even Toy Story stickers, he picked Tinkerbell. Have I mentioned that he loves seeing Tinkerbell??? I know, strange. Highlight of the visit--Dr. C. loaded us up with more formula. He's the best pediatrician ever. I'm trying to stockpile the formula so that when we do make the switch, we won't have to buy much. I hate having to pay for formula! It's so expensive! I then dropped off Hudson at school and when I picked him up that day, Hudson's teacher told me that he went to time-out twice that day because he hit his friends. She told me he's definitely going through an adjustment period at school. I hate that. He is not a hitter at all. He's usually so sweet. Hopefully, this too shall pass!

Friday, Hudson woke up and said he did not want to go to school, and it was cold and rainy so I kept him home and we declared it a movie day. Bad idea! It just so happened that my sweet little Harrison wanted to cry ALL morning long, so by 9:30, we had to get out of the house. I thought maybe a ride in the car would calm him down. We went and visited Mama Jean and Harrison cried the entire way, but then was a perfect angel when we got there. I guess he likes to be on the go just like his Mama! Hudson had fun visiting Mama Jean and of course getting on a sugar high from all the treats that Mama Jean has to offer. Our day got better after that and we all ventured out to Tortuga's with the Reed's for dinner that night. Everyone behaved perfectly and we had a great time!

Side note, doesn't Hudson look like such a big boy in the picture below!?!?!

How sweet is this?????

And this????

And just for the record, I got peed on three times this week (and I did not change my outfit two out of the three times!), and had poop spray on me mid diaper change in the middle of the night. Yes, it is fun with a newborn boy around!!!

Grand Ole Pumpkin Patch

We headed to the Grand Ole Pumpkin Patch in Clanton on Saturday morning. We did the pumpkin patch at Old Baker Farm last year so I wanted to do something different this year. I think Joel and I both agreed that the one in Clanton had more for kids to do, BUT, we liked Old Baker Farm better just because it was more of a traditional farm atmosphere and a lot less commercial--but like I said, there was a lot more for Hudson to do in Clanton. It was still a fun morning out though and only a 30-40 minute drive from Birmingham. And now, our front porch has its first fall decoration--a pumpkin! Mama has slacked on decorating this year (I'm giving myself a good excuse this year though!).

The pumpkin patch in Clanton has helicopter rides, which was so neat for Hudson to watch. He loves helicopters as any little boy would. We decided to just watch the helicopters this year--maybe we'll do it another year!

After checking out the helicopter, we headed to the bouncy house/slide area. The slides were huge and so fast too. Joel did the slides with Hudson while I had to feed Harrison. They had so much fun!

I just love seeing this happy face!

Pure JOY!

Like I said, the slides were HUGE.

They also had pony rides. Two pony rides in two weeks for Mr. Hudson! What is funny is that he has the same serious face as he did on last week's pony ride, but he loved it again. He just doesn't like to show it in the pictures apparently!

They also had a petting zoo. The one thing we didn't love about this pumpkin patch was that each separate area was a separate cost. It wasn't much, but it felt like all we were doing was doling out money all morning! Ha! Hudson was having a blast though so we didn't mind, but it was kind of annoying!

I tried to get Hudson to pose for a picture...no go on that! I should post the picture of Hudson "holding" Harrison, but I'm afraid I might get in trouble with DHR if I did that! :) Just kidding, it wasn't that bad, but let's just say that Hudson was more interested in looking at the tractor than holding his little brother and looking at the camera!

This is what you get when you get a random person on the ride to the pumpkin patch to take a picture of you...oh well.

Two cute boys!
We finally made it to the pumpkin patch and Hudson just wanted to run to the end. He had no interest in looking at any of the pumpkins. Joel kept trying to get him to look at certain pumpkins and he would just tell him no, that we needed to keep walking (not that Joel would have let Hudson pick out our pumpkin anyway--the engineer in him is such that we have to get just the perfect pumpkin with rounded sides and a good top).

And we found the perfect pumpkin!

It really was a great morning out (can you see how beautiful it was outside?!?!). I just love this time of year!

2-4 Week Checkup

This morning was Harrison's 2-4 week checkup. He'll be 3 weeks on Sunday. His stats are:

Weight: 8 pounds, 10 ounces (WHOA!) - 50-75th percentile
Height: 21 inches - 50th percentile
HC: 14 inches - 50th percentile

Just as a comparison, Hudson was 8 pounds, 9 ounces at his 2-4 week checkup and was 21 inches long too. Hudson was 7 pounds at his first checkup while Harrison was 7 pounds, 1 ounce. So, they are exactly the same in how they gained weight in two weeks. I think my jaw dropped at the appointment today because I thought it seemed like a lot of weight gain in just 2 weeks, but then I looked at what Hudson did and I feel better about it. Dr. C wasn't concerned either! He just said he's a growing boy. No more feeding issues at this house! :) Hudson was a chunky monkey so I'm hoping Harrison will be one too...I love big babies!

Harrison had to get his heel pricked and took it like a champ. No tears for this guy! Everything else looked great and we go back again in about a month.

We are still sleeping great at almost 3 weeks. This week, he is sleeping from 9 to 2 am and then gets up again at 6, which we're up by then anyway. He'll go back down after that, but unfortunately, I can't--got a two year old to take care of at that point! It's ok though...I'm not sure I could go back to sleep after that anyway. I think I'm getting used to less sleep!

The picture below is from last week when Harrison met my grandparents for the first time. My grandmother is 92 and my grandfather turns 94 today! Happy Birthday Granddaddy!

Hudson LOVED Granddaddy's scooter!

Mama Jean wanted Hudson and I to come to Somerby's Halloween party and while I wasn't thrilled with taking Harrison with us with all those old folks, we did it anyway. No one except Mama Jean was allowed to touch him! Hudson is Woody from Toy Story for Halloween. He wouldn't wear the hat or the boots of course...

We didn't stay too long, but it made Mama Jean's day to have her great grandchildren there!

Feeding the Ducks

I'm playing catch up on the blog. On the morning of October 1st (I went into labor that night), we headed out to feed the ducks at Star Lake in Hoover. It was such a beautiful day and we wanted to do something outside. Joel said he knew exactly where Star Lake was because that's where he went in high school to "have fun." :) Well, he apparently had a little too much fun in high school because where we ended up was NOT Star Lake! Ha! Anyway, we ended up at another lake in Hoover that had ducks and so we started there. They had a little park as well, so we had fun doing that and walking around the lake.

This picture below cracks me up. Hudson did not want to get too close and once the ducks realized that he had bread, they all kind of charged at him!

It was better from a safe distance away!

We finally made our way to Star Lake and now Hudson was a pro at feeding the ducks. He still didn't love getting too close to them, but he liked to throw them bread.

It was much better being safely held by Daddy!

It was a really fun, little did we know, last day out with our family of 3!

Change of Scenery

I was already getting a bit of cabin fever trying to keep Harrison at home for a while, so crazy us packed up our 2 year old and 2 week old and headed to my parent's cabin for the weekend. I like to be on the go, so we might as well get Harrison used to it early!

We forgot how much it takes to pack for a baby. We definitely need a bigger car to handle two munchkins, but after an hour of packing, we finally got on the road. We got there around 6 Friday night and then headed to an outdoor concert for a little while. I carried Harrison in the Bjorn (which was fabulous by the way!). It was chilly though, so we didn't stay very long. We had Harrison so bundled up that I think he was sweating! He was very happy though, so that was good!

We did have a rough Friday night, but it wasn't due to the baby. He was only up once! It was Hudson! Hudson slept in the room with Morgan (my 8 year old niece) and he would not be quiet. He just kept talking and talking, which was really funny for a while, but when it got to be 11 pm and he STILL was not asleep, we knew we were probably in for a long night! Morgan was such a trooper with it all though! I finally went in there and layed with them until he fell asleep, but then we heard him walking around the house at 5 the next morning. We tried to get him to go to sleep in our bed, but he was ready to go for the day! So, a whopping 6 hours of sleep (maybe) for our two year old (and less than that for us!). Yikes! I think Joel almost made us pack up and go home! Luckily, the lack of sleep had no affect on Hudson. I was expecting fits all day, but he was great! And, we all got a big nap Saturday afternoon, so it was ok.

We had fun riding on the gator! (Multitasking at its finest--who says you can't drive while holding a newborn!)

There was a huge art show in Mentone so we headed down there for a bit Saturday morning. Joel and I are not really into the art thing, but they had a kids area with lots for Hudson to do and it was so much fun. Despite the look on his face in the pictures below, he claims that the pony ride on Pee Wee was his favorite part!

He was very serious about it all (I think maybe due to the lack of sleep!).

We had Morgan with us too and she had a blast!

Then there was the hamster ball. Morgan had done this before so she couldn't wait to do it again. We didn't think Hudson would be interested in getting in the ball, but boy, were we wrong!

This was the point that I thought Hudson would freak--them blowing up the ball. They used a loud blower to do it and he was supposed to be covering his ears, but of course, he didn't follow directions. Surprise, surprise!

And he's in! You are supposed to act like a hamster and roll all over the water, but Hudson was content just sitting there.

Joel tried to roll the ball a bit to get him going, but he still just sat there! I was just impressed that he got in there!

There were bouncy houses and a huge slide for them to do as well.

And trout fishing! Morgan caught one!

Since Morgan was doing it, Hudson had to give it a try too. He did not want Joel to help him, but he was too little to do it without him!

Hudson caught one too! (Well, the man in charge already had one hooked and slipped it over to Joel while Hudson wasn't looking...Hudson was so excited that he had caught one!)

Harrison napped in the stroller the whole time and was a perfect angel. Seriously, he's SO easy! I hope he stays that way!

I might have done the big slide once or twice! :)

After the art show, we headed back to the cabin and ate chili and took long naps, went to the park, watched Auburn whip Florida (I say "whip" very loosely!), and ate a big steak. It doesn't get better than that!

It was nice to have some help with Hudson and Harrison and the weather was just SO nice this weekend. I already want to go back!!!