Sunday Iphone Dump

I haven't dumped any pictures off my phone lately, so here you go...

Mom and Hudson at the puppet show in Atlanta.

The old man and his really old puppets! 

Harrison LOVING the puppets too!

A few weeks ago, we ventured down to Mount Laurel for the park and pizza. All Hudson wanted to do was to play on this train. We had to drag him away to go eat pizza at Area 41. Fun night though! He is still talking about the train park.

Harrison at t-ball yesterday.

Hudson did SO much better at t-ball yesterday. We were very proud of him. He listened and followed directions (for as long as any 3 year old can), and even hit a good one! Don't worry, he picked some flowers and ate some dirt too. :)

The helmet was a bit small for his huge head!

First swim lesson with Haines! We are doing them at St. Vincent's 119 and we were very impressed with lesson #1. Hudson was a little shy at first when Mr. Jay came to get them, but it didn't take long for them to warm up to him. They were climbing all over him and splashing him like crazy by the end of it! I can't wait to see how the lessons progress. We have 7 more to go and then it's off to the beach to test his skills! :)



And just a couple of Hudson sayings from this weekend:

 - Hudson - "Mommy, I'm not going to drive you nuggets today."

 - Me - "Hudson, what do you want for lunch today?" Hudson - "Peanut jelly, cheese, apple sauce, and no tomatoes on that." (He hears me all the time saying "no tomatoes" on things!)

- Hudson - "Mommy, I'm getting bigger and bigger. That makes you happy." (To be honest, that really makes me sad!)

- Hudson - "We say yes ma'am to mommies and yes sir to daddies." (TRYING to teach him manners, but he keeps reverting back to "Yayy-uh" when he means yes. I think I've heard it a thousand times this weekend, hence the reason why he said he wasn't going to drive me nuggets today!)

Busy

Life has been so busy lately. I have only been at the office for half a day this week (and only 2 days last week!). It is a very good thing that work has slowed down, and I have a lot of vacation time that I can finally take! Of course, I would rather be taking my vacation lying on the beach, but oh well! This week, we had ear checks for both boys Monday morning (all CLEAR!) and Harrison's head consult in Tuscaloosa Monday afternoon. There wasn't enough time for me to get anything productive done in the middle of those two appointments, so I just took the day off. It was actually really nice to have one more day off, especially after being gone for the weekend. There was a lot of unpacking to do and laundry to fold! Fun times!

Yesterday, Harrison got sent home early with suspected pink eye. He was the fourth child sent home because of it. Jury is still out as to whether or not he has it (his eyes really aren't pink, but they are a little gunky), but I did go ahead and get the antibiotics for it just in case and school so kindly reminded me that he had to be out for 24 hours so he was out today as well. He seems to be fine though thank goodness, and no one else in the family at this point has gotten it. We had a really fun day together and it made me miss being on maternity leave when it was just the two of us most of the time! He doesn't get much one on one time anymore!

Hudson had his hearing test done yesterday afternoon as well. Thank goodness for grandparents is all I can say. I was able to drop Harrison at my mom's house so I could take Hudson to Children's to get his hearing tested. Thankfully, his hearing is back to normal after the tubes, even though it was confirmed that one of the tubes is 100% out and his eardrum has already closed up. We are just going to let it be for now because at some point, he has to grow out of this, right?!?!

Oh and did I mention that our house is for sale??? Nothing like added stress of having to keep the house clean all.the.time. Anyone who has ever been to our house knows that most of the time it looks like a tornado has gone through it. Kids and dogs are dirty, and the toys...oh the toys. They are everywhere. This has been a difficult process, but we have put it all on ourselves so we aren't complaining (too much!). Maybe it will sell, maybe not, but you never know until you try! I told Joel earlier tonight that I think having to keep the house clean all the time is making me a happier person. Who doesn't love coming home to a clean house?!?!

Well enough of all that--life it still good and it appears at the moment that we are healthy (minus the pink eye!) so that is all that matters! We went to my parent's cabin this weekend and had such a good time. My mom made it a point to try and let us relax and it was just what we needed. The kids actually slept very well up there, which is unusual. I just wish we could have slept well too, but I've learned to deal with the fact that I may never be able to sleep well again, even when given the chance! Mom cooked some awesome meals for us. I miss her cooking. I don't quite compare! :) The boys and I went up there on Thursday and Joel came up on Friday. Friday, Mom, Dad, the boys, and I rode over to Atlanta to go to the Dogwood Festival, which ended up being pretty fun. I'm not one for art shows, but there were other things at this one and the highlight for the boys was a Puppet Show. I have some pictures on my phone that I will have to add to the blog someday, but it was this old man who had string puppets and made them dance. I thought it was a little cooky at first, but he was actually pretty good. I started thinking in my head that he would be so fun to have at a birthday party because not many people do that sort of thing, but then I found out he was $1,500 to book! Crazy! He wasn't $1,500 good! The boys loved it though--both of them. Some lady stopped us later in the afternoon to tell us how cute Harrison was at the puppet show. He just laughed and smiled the whole time!

Saturday, we all headed to Chattanooga and did the Incline. Hudson was in heaven! It was a great morning out. The rest of the afternoon was spent hanging out at the cabin and doing everything there is to do up there, which is a lot! Hudson is never bored, that's for sure, and the air up there is so clear and nice that you just had to be outside the entire day. We had a great time! Enjoy the pictures below.



T-ball

Our church put on a 4 week t-ball clinic for 3-5 year olds and we thought it would be fun for Hudson and his buddies to do it. We weren't sure how it would go, but for $20 total, it was worth it for us to get him outside and running around, and maybe he would learn a little bit too! Seeing as though we bought him the glove 2 days prior, we were not expecting much! We had our first one on Saturday morning and it was hilarious!

First of all, the area where the clinic was had a playground in plain sight right next to it, so Hudson kept asking over and over again if he could go play on it. It was such a distraction! Ha! We made him wait until it was over though!

Joel and I both went, with the thought that Joel would be out on the field with Hudson and I would be with Harrison. You know, so the mommies could hang out and talk and the daddies could have some time with their boys. Of course, Haines and Hudson both wanted their mommies on the field with them, so at one point, the daddies were holding the babies and the mommies were on the field. There was something wrong with that picture! It was so funny though.

They practiced catching and throwing first and it was really hard for him to pay attention longer than a few throws and catches at a time. We just went with it though!

He really does have a good arm, but we gotta work on him stepping with the right foot!

Finally, it was time for running the bases and hitting. They all ran the bases first. Of course, Hudson would only run to first base and then he bowed out, but most of them ran all the way aroound. Then, each child got to practice hitting the ball off the tee.

Hudson hit one pretty good one and then hit the tee the rest of the time. The bat was really heavy for him, but he tried and that was all that mattered. I think he had fun doing it!

These two played on the side. Harrison is not too happy that sweet Sarah took his giraffe! :)

Already putting his arm around her...

I think Hudson had more fun with the helmets and of course the snack break, than anything else!
These two are obsessed with each other!

Silly, silly boys.

The Bridges, Powells, Stephens, and us (and our 7 kids combined!) all went out for lunch afterwards and I think we were that group that everyone stared at--you know, the ones who can't corral their kids?!?! It was a good time though and I think we successfully wore all the kids out. I even got a 2 hour nap that afternoon! Woo hoo! Hudson was definitely a little young for the t-ball, but I think it was good for him to get out there. It pretty much went how we expected it to go, but we'll go back for sure.

Harrison was pretty excited to get his giraffe back! :)

Yesterday, I took the boys on an all morning walk around the neighborhood while Joel did yardwork. We hit up two parks and watched some real baseball at the ballpark in the process and they had so much fun! I can hardly move today because we walked so far and that stroller isn't light with those two chunkers in it, but I needed it!

Here's to a 2 day work week (hooray for the end of busy season!) and a couple of days of ME time (which means some major shopping is going to happen), and then off to the cabin for a long weekend. Can't wait!

The Monster of all Parks

A few days ago, the weather was beautiful so we decided a morning at the park would be fun. We headed to the monster of all parks. Seriously, the towers and slides at this place were HUGE.

I'm not kidding at how high it is. Hudson would climb all the way to the top and then chicken out and come back down so finally, I ignored the sign that said "no adults allowed on the tower" and headed up there to go with him. Joel said the tower shook the whole way down. Oops! I probably would not recommend doing that! Let's just say that he didn't go down it again this trip. He's not much of a daredevil, but I have a feeling that once he gets old enough, we're not going to be able to get him off those slides!

He stuck to the smaller slides from then on (there were plenty of other things to play on that were different than what he is normally used to) and they had a merry go round which he loved. The only other park that has one that I know of is in Mentone. I can definitely see why they don't exist much anymore! I have no pictures of the merry go round because I hopped on with Hudson thinking he needed someone to go with him and about threw up my breakfast. A girl was spinning it around for us and would.not.stop.

They were having a huge Easter egg hunt the day we were out there and had REAL eggs all over the ground. Try explaining to a 3 year old that he is not allowed to pick any eggs up, much less stomp on the eggs and break them. :) Who has real eggs in Easter egg hunts anyway??? We left shortly before it started, but I have a feeling that it became a disastrous event!

Harrison got in his first swing! The tightly clinched fists came out as he was not so sure about it at first!

Then he decided, hmm, well this is so nice that maybe I should suck my thumb and just go to sleep!

We'll definitely hit up this park again! It was really fun!

Happy Easter!

We had a great Easter celebration yesterday!

The Easter bunny brought a few small things to the boys.

One of the things the Easter bunny brought was a stomp rocket, which has probably been used no less than 1,000 times since yesterday morning. What a simple little toy it is. We've already had 2 rocket casualties (one thanks to Uncle Andres who put it on the roof at my parent's house, the other cracked due to so much use!)...at least we can buy some more at the store!


Easter bath! Hudson was in the tub too, but was very upset that Harrison was kicking and splashing him. At least one of them was having fun.

Church with Pops!

Annual family picture in front of the cross at church.

The Reed's minus Jordan.

And that is when my camera battery died! Oh well. It was actually kind of nice to get to spend the rest of the day just "enjoying" and not having to worry about "documenting for the blog!" Might have to try that more often!

After church with the Reed's, we went to my parent's for a delicious lunch and Easter egg hunting and Morgan's birthday celebration, which included playing with hermit crabs (not me, the kids--I hate those things!) and a game of Twister! Never a dull moment. We then ALL took naps and after that, headed to the Reed's for more Easter egg hunting, stomp rocket blasting, bubble blowing, and more good food! We are exhausted, but what a wonderful day it was!

3 Year and 6 Month Checkups and the Easter Bunny

Today was "well" checkup day at the doctor's office, although only one of the boys was actually "well"! Hudson definitely has another ear infection and the tube is definitely not in the right place. I even got to look in there and see what was going on and I could tell something was not right! Other than that, he is very healthy and right on track.

His stats at 3 years are:

Height: 38.5 inches (50th-75th percentile)
Weight: 35 pounds (50th percentile)

They also checked his vision, which was good and his blood pressure, so these were new things to the checkup this year. No shots thank goodness. He did say the checkup at 4 years old is terrible! Glad we have another year for that. Of course, Dr. C. asked about potty training and was very nice about it and just said not to push it. It takes some kids longer, especially boys, and he WILL let me know when he's ready. It made me feel better, although we did have some successes this week! Yay!


Harrison's ears were clear!!! Yay!!! The antibiotic worked this time, at least for now. So, we are going to enjoy our happy baby and hope it stays that way for a while this time.

Our BIG boy's stats were:

Height: 28 inches (90th percentile)
Weight: 19 pounds, 10 ounces (90th percentile)
HC: 17.5 inches

Harrison had to get 4 shots I think, which he did not appreciate. The only issue with Harrison was his poor flat spot. It's just not rounding out so we were sent straight to Children's South to get an x-ray done on it to make sure that his brain is not affected by it. We don't think it is because developmentally, he is right where he should be at 6 months, but it will feel good just to make sure! If everything is ok, we will then have to decide whether or not we want to do the helmet. I don't know what we'll do at this point. We are supposed to get the results back this afternoon. Everything else went great though!

I had promised Hudson a trip to see the Easter bunny after the doctor this morning, so even though Harrison was not in the best mood (after shots and x-rays), we went on down to Brookwood Mall. Hudson was so excited about seeing the Easter bunny, but of course, the closer we got, the more latched on to my leg Hudson got. He was terrified and when it was our turn, he ran!

I was able to bribe him with Chick Fil A and a cookie if he got in a picture and he complied. We had to get a picture to document this! He's sitting on my lap (exactly like our Santa picture!). Luckily, they cropped most of me out!

I'm pretty sure I'm not going to attempt this next when I will have TWO boys that are terrified. We might just have to skip it!

Happy Easter everyone!

* Update: Results from the x-ray were normal!