15 Months

Time is flying, and today my little bitty turns 15 months old. I think in the past three months he has really changed so much, and is officially transitioning from baby into toddler. Of course, he's long been a pro at the "toddling" part... we often have people comment that he looks too little to be running so fast! He's certainly a speedy one. He falls occasionally when he trips over his shoes, but don't we all? Otherwise he's sure-footed and constantly on the move.

He is getting better at expressing himself, and just in the past few weeks has branched out from "Mama" and "Dah-dee" and started to mimic a few other words we say often, including "baby," "uh-oh," and "thank you." He also knows sign-language for "milk," "more," "all done," and "hungry," although usually if he wants food he skips "hungry" and just signs for "more." Or to be even more clear, he will go over to his high chair and attempt to crawl in it! He also understands SO much of what we say, which is kind of wild. He understands so much that I can get exasperated when it seems like he is ignoring or disobeying me. At those times, I have to remind myself that he is still so little and I need to give him lots of patience and grace!

He loves to play with toys with pieces (like puzzles or blocks) and with anything you can push, like a walker, a broom, a shopping cart, and so forth. In fact, he will push things around whether they or meant to be or not. Today he was strong-arming our dining room chairs all over the kitchen! He still loves to look at books and be read to. He can identify lots of animals from his books and our many zoo trips, including birds, bunnies, dogs, cats, zebras, and I think we are getting close on giraffes and elephants.

Other things I want to remember about Hudson at this age:

• The sound of his little voice yelling for Ben... "Dah DEE? DAH DEE?"
• The other night he wouldn't eat his peas until I told him they were green berries. :)
• His face gets all red when he gets hot, just like mine.
• We've been learning "belly button" and he gets the biggest grin on his face when he finds his.
• The "swishy swishy" sound of his diaper as he scurries around the house.
• He throws things on the floor (purposefully) and then says, "Uh oh."
• Loves remotes and anything else with buttons.
• He has started dancing when he hears music. ADORABLE.
• We've been explaining that his paci is only for bedtime, so when I get him up from his nap he throws his paci back into the bed. It's just really cute.

We go to the pediatrician on Thursday for his official check-up so I'll be able to post his height and weight stats then. Unofficially, I'd guess he's still hovering around 20 pounds, but I think he has definitely gotten a little taller.

I was saving most of my pics from STL for some more blog posts about that trip, but here's a few recent shots to commemorate 15 months with my little fella.

Taking a walk with Scruffy.

Busted! He got stuck trying to crawl past a box I use to block the stairs.

Bath baby.

Love this face. :)

Hee hee!

Oops I Did It Again

Blog redesign #987! This is a change I have been wanting to make for a while - simple and clean. I have been adding lots more pictures to my blogs these days and I just think the white background suits that best. I may get bored with it eventually, but tonight I'm loving it.

The header is from one of my favorite artists, Paul Klee. This is one of his works from 1922 called "Separation in the Evening," and I am in love with the beautiful colors and how it is geometric and yet so soft. From the title I'm assuming it is a study on a sunset, but I just saw it and immediately thought of God, reaching down to us, bridging the divide to meet us in our need. All of that makes more sense if you know that the painting is actually a vertical, like so:

However, I'm really sorry Mr. Klee, but I had to turn it horizontally to make it fit as my blog header. Also I cropped it. Again, sorrryyyyyy. (I don't think he minds terribly, being deceased and all.)

I hope the new look is nice and easy on the eyes, dear readers. If not, you can leave your complaints below. Ta ta!

Kansas! (Also, Kansas: The Sequel)

A big chunk of this extended trip that Huddy and I have been on has involved traveling to Kansas to visit family. Both my parents were born and raised in the same small town in south central Kansas, and all of my mom's side of the family still lives there. It is challenging to get out there for a visit because it is a long drive - about eight hours - and even more so with a little one. When we went with Hudson for Thanksgiving, we flew to Kansas City and then my parents picked us up to make it the rest of the way. But this time my mom and I would be driving with Hudson all the way from St. Louis. For the most part, he was a great car napper and God bless the iPhone, which kept him pretty well occupied for any awake time!

Huddy had a great time at Great-Grandma's house. It was a little tough because their place is (understandably) not exactly baby-proofed. I found myself having to say "no" a lot more than usual, which I hate, but it was tough to balance between letting him explore and keeping him (and Grandma's knick-knacks) safe! Still, he was so sweet and happy and did great with all the people he's only met once. We were confined indoors for the most part because every day we were there it was over 100 degrees. But he found plenty to keep him entertained.

Mom tied a tea-towel around him like a cape and then he decided he wanted to wear it at all times!

Showing Great-Grandma Anita his little car.

My mom with my grandma and grandpa

Huddy really took a liking to my Uncle Phil. So cute!

He got this little car from some of the family. He loves riding it but mostly pushing it around.

Uncle Bob and Aunt Sandy got him his very own Harley Davidson gear.

Hanging out on Great-Grandma's front porch.

My cute grandparents!

Truth be told, there's not much in Wellington, Kansas. But there is a Braums. What's that, you ask? Oh, just some of the world's finest icecream. Which, tragically for the rest of us, is pretty much only available in Oklahoma and Kansas. We made a daily trip for our icecream fix. On our last day, I decided Huddy had been such a wonderful boy on our trip that it was high time he saw what all the icecream fuss was about. Baby's first icecream cone was, needless to say, a HUGE hit.

"What do I do with this?"

Lightbulb moment.

Once the top part was gone, he tried to drink it out of the cone.

Took the icecream away for a second to get this messy-face photo...

I WAS NOT DONE GIVE IT BACK WHYYYYY

"Never do that again."

Once we wrapped up our time in Wellington, we headed back to St. Louis. On our way, we made stops in Topeka and Kansas City to visit even MORE family. It actually worked out well to help break up the car time for Hudson, and I was so grateful to see some relatives I hadn't seen in far too long. In Topeka we stopped to see my Uncle Joe. He was at his mom's house making tortillas so we joined in the fun! They are Mexican and I love getting little glimpses into the culture when I get the chance to spend time with them.

 

Huddy approves of the final product.

Me and Hudster with Mary, Uncle Joe, and his mom Jenny

Finally, we made our way to Kansas City to see my cousin Mitchell (Joe's son, if you're trying to fill in your own personal copy of my Family Tree). I hadn't seen him in practically two years, during which he had gotten engaged and had a baby of his own! Knox is only about 2.5 months younger than Hudson, so they were fast friends. It was pretty awesome for my boy to be playing with his second cousin.

New friends with fun toys!

Me, Hudson, Courtney, Knox, and Mitchell

Such a cutie and so many teeth!

In fact, we had so much fun with Knox and Co. that we decided to come BACK to Kansas City the following weekend for his 1st birthday party! We were also excited that we would get to see my cousin Katie (Mitchell's sister; I'll wait while you jot that down). Again, we hadn't seen her in ages and it was wonderful to introduce her to Hudson in person. He had lots of fun being the only other baby at the party and getting to "borrow" some presents while Knox was otherwise occupied. 

Love this shot of Hudson holding on to my dad. :)

Hudson "helping" Knox with one of his presents.

Katie finally gets to meet Huddy!

Unfortunately, the party proved to be too much fun for Hudson, as he then spent two of the four hours of our drive back to St. Louis awake and crying. Yikes. I guess he just loved Kansas so much he was sad to leave.

Thus ended our adventures visiting everyone to whom we are related within a 500 mile radius. It was exhausting but wonderful. There's nothing quite like family, is there? We are pretty blessed with ours.

Meet Me In St. Louie, Louie

I know, I know. It must seem like I've vanished. Both from this blog, and from my actual life. So where have I been? Well, three weeks ago I came up to St. Louis for what was supposed to be a week long trip. Only... I'm still here. It happened something like this.

Three weeks ago, Hudson and I drove (well, I drove and Hudson rode) to St. Louis. We were planning to attend the wedding of a family friend. In addition, I've been trying to get Hudson over to Kansas to visit my extended family there, whom he hadn't seen since Thanksgiving. So we decided that I would come to St. Louis, spend a couple days, go to this wedding, and then drive with my mom to Kansas, spend a few days there, then drive back to St. Louis, then Huddy and I would go on home to Nashville. In the meantime, Ben was supposed to have been on this big work trip to New York and California, so we would be gone at the same time. 

Still with me? All this happened according to plan, except while we were in Kansas, it turned out Ben's work trip had been canceled, so he decided to fly to St. Louis and we would meet there, spend the weekend all together with the families, and then drive back to Nashville together.

Except THEN, when we were in Kansas City visiting my cousin, we found out that the next weekend was their baby's first birthday party and my OTHER cousin who I haven't seen in two years would be there. She lives in Boston and rarely gets back out to the midwest. So when we got back to St. Louis and met up with Ben, we decided it would be better if I just stayed an extra week so I could go BACK to Kansas City and see her. Except I wouldn't just stay ONE extra week. I would stay TWO extra weeks. Because we had already planned to be BACK in St. Louis this coming weekend when we had tickets to a ball game and The Lion King. I really hated to be apart for so long ("People are going to think we are having marriage problems or something," I said), but knowing Ben had a crazy time of work ahead which would mean long hours home alone, we decided it was for the best that I stay put. Ben would take the car (which I had originally driven to St. Louis -- please keep up, dear reader) and go back to Nashville since he had to work. Then when he drove back for our baseball/musical weekend, we would all finally drive back together.

Do you feel confused? I feel confused. Suffice to say, we haven't been in Nashville in what seems like forever! But we are, I promise, coming home this very Sunday. 

We've packed a LOT into these past three weeks! We've been to the zoo (twice), Kansas City (twice), southern Kansas, Forest Park, the pool, a wedding, a baseball game, a 30th birthday party, and more. In the meantime Huddy turned 14 months, Ben turned 30, I turned 29, and my parents celebrated their 41st wedding anniversary. Sheesh! Hopefully I can get my act together and blog about all of it. Or at least some of it. Or maybe none of it. Gotta keep your expectations low, people.

Quick, let me distract you with a pictorial sampling of our adventures from the past month:

Playing with second cousin Knox

Now claps for himself every time he plays the piano

Teaching him to pet a horse at Forest Park

Hudson with Auntie Ashley at a wedding. Let's just say this outfit was a big hit.

We watched a lot of Olympics. Go America!

Reading with Great-Grandma Anita

We now require a cape for most activities.

I'm only turning 29! No, seriously. 1983. Check it.

Skyping with Daddy makes us happy!

At the Cardinals game two weekends ago

Train ride at the StL Zoo