overjoyed: May 2012

One year of life with Hudson. Every tear he (and I) cried, every giggle, every diaper, every cuddle, every moment... seems like too much for one little year to hold. My son is such a joy in my life. I feel so special that God allows me to be his mother.

Here's a little bit about Hudson at one.

He loves books, balloons, bathtime, and airplanes. This morning I got him a balloon at Publix, and except for naptime, he literally has not let it go.

He eats a lot, but favorites include strawberries, bananas, oatmeal, and pretty much anything else so long as it comes off someone else's plate. If you're eating it, he wants some. We call him the Baby Vulture. Right now he is trying (and succeeding) to get some of the cupcake I am eating.

He still nurses a few times a day, but mostly at night/naps and in the morning. So strange, this whole breastfeeding thing - in the beginning, it is all you do and it is so frustrating and difficult that you want to quit. And now, every time he is nursing I see how much he has grown and how independent he is becoming, and I don't want it to end. I think if it was up to him, he would just do it at bedtime and in the morning. I think I will slowly try to let that happen, though it is bittersweet for me!

He has zero teeth. Zilch. Nada. Toothless.

He walks almost exclusively; even if he falls down, he rarely crawls anymore. Just picks himself up and continues toddling along.

He doesn't talk yet, but makes lots of sounds and knows several objects by name and can point to them when asked, like puppy, mama, and daddy. Just this past weekend he finally started saying "mama" but not to or about me. He just says it while he's playing or jabbering. I still love it!

He had his first major sickness a few weeks ago, when he somehow caught Hand, Foot, & Mouth Disease. And then I caught Hand, Foot, & Mouth Disease. And Ben was out of town. We were a pathetic mess. It was awful.

He takes one nap, usually around noon, and it lasts for 2-3 hours. He goes to bed about 7:30pm and sleeps basically all night. Sometimes he wakes up around 5am, nurses, and then I can usually get him to go back to sleep for another couple hours. He sleeps in his own crib in his own room, and that is the way HE wants it. He's not a snuggler and he won't sleep in our bed anymore, not even in the morning like he used to. I miss it. But sleep - for everyone - is also wonderful.

I'm reading back over this and it seems like such a surface-level summary of who he is. Hudson is so much more than a list of his milestones. He is our baby-becoming-a-toddler, a little boy of quiet confidence and curiosity, with smiles and happy laughter to spare. He is everything I was terrified he would never be in those first few months when all we knew was crying and exhaustion. And while motherhood is still exhausting, most days it is from having too much fun and trying to keep up with Huddy and housework. I'll take that trade in on sleepless nights and endless sobs!

I am so excited to watch him grow and learn each day! Here are a few pictures of our new one year old.

Bad mommy blogger, bad! I'm woefully inept at getting updates written and posted. But we're having too much fun around here to stop for very long!

Hudson turned eleven months old this past weekend and I just can't believe it. He is growing and changing so quickly. Right now it seems like he inhabits this interesting space between baby and toddler-hood.

Sometimes he needs me so desperately - like the other night, for some reason, he was just sobbing as Ben tried to give him his bath. This is totally unlike him. Hudson loves bathtime and he loves Daddy. But for whatever reason, he didn't want either of those. He only wanted me. I knelt down by the tub where he was crying, and he stood up and put his little wet arms around my neck and kept crying until I finally picked him up and snuggled him in a towel. My baby. And then other times, he is so big and independent. He likes to eat what he wants (and throw the rest on the floor), pick which books to read, and play by himself.

He is getting very good with the walking. He can make it all the way across a room, and can bend over and pick something up and then (usually) stand back up. Just in the past couple days, he added the skill of being to stand up without holding onto or pulling up on anything. When he does fall, it's often because he got so excited that he tried to go fast. He looks like a drunken zombie, arms out in front, staggering side to side. He still prefers to crawl though, because it is much quicker.

Walking led to his first major boo boo. He tripped and fell, hitting his forehead on one of the vintage brass pulls on his dresser. It instantly swelled into this huge purple goose egg. There was much crying - some his, some mine. Thankfully there was no permanent damage and he was back to his old self in no time. This phase of development is full of falls, and with it come lots of close calls. I'll be grateful when he's a little more stable on two legs!

Ouchie.

Hudson's new obsession is pointing at everything. It is darling and also hopefully helping him to identify items and file away the words for each one. The zoo is a blast now, as he points animatedly at each animal he sees. He also knows the sound of an airplane and anytime he hears one (whether we are outside or not), he points up in the air and looks around for the plane. It is so stinkin' cute! He also knows some people by name and will point to them when asked. Mostly this is reserved for "Daddy" and "Puppy," but this past weekend when my parents were in town, he also pointed correctly at my dad when we asked "Where's Gpa?" I'm pretty sure this was the highlight of the weekend.

Speaking of highlights, the pinnacle of Hudson's life thus far was last week when a Publix employee gave him a balloon while we were grocery shopping. He points at balloons any time we see one, but to have his own bouncing around at the end of a string was almost more than his baby brain could handle. I think I could've grocery shopped for hours and Hudson still would have been content just pulling on his balloon and bopping it around. I decided I must have tons of balloons at his birthday party.

Hudson is beginning to understand that "no" means to stop what he's doing, or at the very least to look at me before he continues to do whatever frustrating behavior he is engaged in. Just in the past few days, he seems to make the connection that when I say "no" in a certain tone, I am upset. He reacts by scrunching up his little face and starting to cry, which is so utterly heartbreaking and adorable that I am simultaneously trying not to laugh and doing whatever I can to get him happy again. He's got me hook, line, and sinker, that ornery baby!

He loves to read stories, which we do before every nap and bedtime. Sometimes when we are playing in his room, he will bring me a book, as if he wants me to read it to him (which I always do). He also likes to sit by himself and look at his books, focusing very hard on opening each one and turning the pages. As someone who loves to read so much, this trend makes me one happy momma. His favorite books right now are "I Am a Bunny," "Jamberry," "King Bidgood's In the Bathtub," and "Goodnight, Baby."

He loves to empty and fill containers. Mostly empty. He has figured out how to open the drawers in his dresser and loves to pull out the clothes, piece by piece, and throw them down until the drawer is empty. He also likes blocks (chewing on them and putting them in and out of the toy box), paper, and his toy drum and the accompanying drum sticks. He has gotten into "sharing," which means he wants to hand you a toy and then you hand it back, and this can carry on for quite some time. He has the funniest little "pose" he does when he holds out something he wants to share. It looks like this:

Hudson also loves to eat! He still nurses about 4-5 times a day and eats three meals of "people food," along with some snacks here and there. He likes to eat with his hands, and is also still happy to be fed with a spoon. Faster food-to-mouth delivery is a-ok with him! He saw his friend Jack eat a strawberry while they were on a playdate and now this is a favorite snack of his. His other favorite foods are Chick-fil-a grilled nuggets, any kind of fruit, puffs, sausage, and bread. He will eat veggies but I have been trying to find a way to get more green stuff into his diet (and mine, for that matter), and a friend had the idea of making baby-friendly green smoothies. Hudson is great at drinking with a straw, so this worked great for us. His first green smoothie was strawberries, spinach, pineapple, and banana. And he loved it! (Me too!)

Chicken nugget!

Strawberry!

Mmm, green smoothie!

The most frustrating part of this month has been that Hudson is possibly transitioning to only one nap a day. I know this will make our schedules more flexible, but it will be hard to give up all the time that two naps allowed me! He was taking two two-hour naps a day - four hours a day that I could do chores or get online or catch a few winks of my own. But over the past couple weeks naptime has become a huge fight and so we are going to try one nap for a while and see how that goes.

I can hardly believe that my baby is almost one year old! He is such a joy and we have so much fun each day together. Here are a few more pictures from the past month or two.