One Last Party
3 years ago
Monday, March 31, 2014
Playing with My Boys
Unless it's really cold or rainy, I try to get outside with my boys for at least a little while every day. Thought I'd share a few outdoor moments with you.
Swinging in the backyard--both boys were giggling away.
It was a great day.
Inevitably it's impossible to get them to look at the camera at the same time.
Coop got a batting helmet for upcoming t-ball, and wore it outside every day for at least a week. Looked especially good with the cammo rain boots. Love this kid.
Sunday, March 30, 2014
Mother and Son Date
One afternoon a few weeks ago Nate got off work a few hours early, and we were talking about me needing some one-on-one time with Cooper, away from home. I looked at the clock and said, "Why not now?" Nate home early, Hudson not sick, Coop didn't have school the next day. So within 15 minutes Coop Scoop and I had left the house and were off for a spontaneous night of mother-son bonding. We went to the movies to see "Frozen." Too bad the 3D Ninja Lego movie was a little too late; he's have liked that even more. But we both enjoyed the movie.
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
Huddy Moments
Just over a month ago Hudson started to stand and play without holding on to anything.
It was a new found freedom.
He also found the joy of riding his motorcycle. He looked like such a little guido in this outfit. Irresistable.
Apparently it tastes just as good as it rides.
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
A Day in the Life
Nate often tells me that our blog makes our life look perfect, happy, and like nothing bad ever happens. Well, we all know that's not true. I have lots of hard/ challenging days; I just choose to blog to remember the good stuff and forget all the in between. I do this blog mostly as a book of remembrance/ journalling/ photo album for my kids. The other reason is to keep our distant family abreast of our lives at an attempt to stay close.
So rather than catch up on a few late posts, I thought that for my boys, and maybe my sisters, and whoever else read this, that I'd show a day of honest me.
Cooper came down with a sinus cold about 10 days ago. Three days later, Hudson had it too. On top of that he's been cutting another 4 teeth. So what has been going on here is not nearly enough of this...
And all the packing for our upcoming move has been put on hold, amongst other things, like grocery shopping, play dates, and about 20 other errands.
By Friday afternoon around 4 pm, I was suspiscious of Hudson getting an ear infection. But it's so hard to know since he often doesn't run a fever with them. So it's a total guessing game until it's OBVIOUS. Well, by Sunday night it was really obvious. Juat had to make it to Monday to call the doc.
Meanwhile, the poor little thing just wanted to be held and snuggled. Cooper was also vying for my attention, since I was doting on the baby so much. So I obliged both.
And my house? Well....This has been such a long winter, and all the sickness in our family has made it feel even longer. Hudson alone has had 6 ear infections in 6 months. Considering that you have to give every cold 7-10 days before thinking it may be bacterial, then another 4 days or so for the antibiotics to kick in, every cold they get takes 5-14 days. Between the boys and us, at least one of us has been sick most of the winter since Oct. I'm not complaining--it could be a lot worse--but it has taken a lot of my time and energy lately.
This winter I feel like I've become somewhat of a shut-in, not going out or seeing friends as much. It's made the winter seem so much longer. Most days it's been all I could do to keep my own household afloat.
The last two days with Hudson so sick, I've done absolutely nothing but take care of my babies, and do a little laundry. Make that a lot of laundry, keeping up with Hudson puking several times a day. It's meant very little sleep for all of us, and today this was me at about noon.
He looked so sick, but so sweet sleeping on my shoulder/ chest--the only place he'll sleep when his ears hurt. Pitiful little guy.
This afternoon around 1 his fever spiked to 102, and he didn't protest at my attempts to bring it down. He seemed to enjoy the cool, damp cloth, even closing his eyes a bit. There have only been few times that the boys have had chills woth their fevers. Talk about pulling at my heart strings and worrying me to death. This fever finally broke at about 4 pm, after him having it for about 36 hours.
So you see, we all have our bad, hard days. Thank goodness most have some respite in between, and we have lots of great days. Looking forward to warmer weather and healthier kids!!!!!!
Thursday, March 13, 2014
My 35th Birthday
About a month before my birthday Nathan asked whether I'd like a party this year. After some consideration, I figured "Why not?" He told me if I took care of the invitations, he's take care of everything else--and he did! He even got me cheesecake instead of cake, knowing I don't care much for cake.
We had a few friends over for games and dessert. We had such a good time, lots of laughter with this bunch!
Just as Nate was coming in the room with birthday candles lit, my friend, Stephanie, excitedly took the moment to prove Nate wrong on a few facts about Malcom X, which had been the topic of discussion earlier. It was funny timing. We all got a good laugh.
Thank goodness Nathan only put 8 candles on the cake!
Friends Andrew and Natalie Gleaves, and John and Allison Lucas. John's shirt is covered in clothespins for one of our games.
From the time guest arrived, they were given 3 clothespins each. For the entire evening, the taboo words were "Chrystal," "birthday," and "church." Anytime someone said one of those words, or any portion thereof, except during the birthday song, they lost a clothespin to whoever caught them. The point was to win as many clothespins as possible before night's end. It was pretty funny. Since we all know each other from church, that ended up being the most spoken word. That and "day." Natalie was the first runner up. John took most of them, and won an elf karaoke / sing-along microphone.
Friend Stephanie Davis and Natalie Gleaves
It was a really fun way to celebrate my birthday with a few of our closest friends. Kudos to my awesome husband for throwing me a party!
The other game we played is a board game called "The 5 Second Rule." It was fun, and one we'll definitely have to ise again.
Nate, Sephanie and AndrewTuesday, March 11, 2014
Cooper Being Cooper
One day not long ago Cooper asked if I could replace the batteries in his remote control truck. The thing takes a total of 6 AA batteries, and goes through them quite often. So this time instead of just giving him the batteries, I told him he'd have to earn them. He had some school work to catch up on from being sick, so I told him if he did his homework, he could have batteries. For a kid who usually whines about sitting to learn anything, he sat right down and worked hard at it for about 20 minutes.
He sure earned those batteries! I may have to use batteries as an incentive more often!
On March 2nd: First thing Coop says to me this morning: Mom when I'm grown up, like 5, I'm gonna get a 30 ft Pogo stick that has buttons and super powers. But I'll have to wear my helmet." What does that kid dream about?!
On February 20th: Cooper is playing with his friends outside, and I overhear him saying "well I look fantastic all the time!" Yep--esp in his cammo rain boots with teal/ florescent orange soccer shorts/ shirt. at least he's confident!
Cute boy playing cars on February 14th: Coop says this car is the bad guys "because they all have been lying and cheating, and those are terrible things, so that makes them terrible bad guys." Guess the lessons about lying and cheating in the last week may have finally sunk in.
The other day we were watching a reality tv show called "Swamp People," as a family. Cooper likes to watch some of these shows about logging, gold mining, antique car restoration, homesteading in Alaska, etc., with Nathan and I. We try to be careful about what episodes he watches, but one day we were watching this one about alligator hunting, and one of the guys on the show said a swear word. Cooper turned to me and said, "Mommy, why did that guy say 'dammit?'" I took the opportunity right then to teach Cooper about curse words and why we don't use them, how he'll hear them in public places, etc., but how we don't say those words because they are offensive to the Spirit of the Lord, which we try to keep with us at all times, and especially in our homes. I told him those are like potty words. We just don't say them.
I could see him contemplating what I'd said, and then he said, "Well one day I left my jacket in the bathroom by the potty, and so then I said that's my dammit jacket." He crinkled his nose like he does when he's lying (the cutest thing, except that it means he's lying), but was dead serious. It was all I could do not to laugh at his innocence and interpretation of what "potty words" are.
Cooper received lots of valentines in the mail, which he LOVED. Thank you to all of you who send things to Cooper and Hudson in the mail! They love getting mail and packages. This one had a memory game (or match game, as Cooper calls it), and we played it several times. He likes playing games.
Other notable things about Cooper:
- Cooper can now dress himself, head to toe. He still struggles with buttons, but that is his only setback. Well, that and color coordination.
- Cooper does NOT like to go to school. Most school days he complains about going and asks to stay home with Hudson and I "because school is SO LONG and I just want to be with you!" Also "because when I go to school I don't get to play." He's even gone so far as to fake a stomach ache/ nausea (like dry heaving) at school to get them to call me to come get him. That day was their Valentine's Day party, and he waited until the party was over to complain about his stomach. He did start crying, but I think it was that he just wanted to come home. The minute he got in the car he was miraculously better and asked for a treat. I said, "I thought you were sick. Sick boys don't get treats." He was like, "Oh. Yeah. Well, I'm ALLLL better now." Ha! Been working with is teacher and he's getting much better about it. [I was also concerned there may be something going on at school that makes him not want to go. But after talking to him bluntly and repeatedly about all the possibilities, I do think it's just that he wants to be home with me. Sweet boy.] He does the same thing at church about going to Primary, and was crazy clingy at his first t-ball practice recently.
- Cooper has become more self aware in social settings. He still wants hugs and snuggles, but gets embarrassed. He will also begin to throw a tantrum, but then suddenly stop because he sees people watching him. It's one of those 4-year old milestones, and it's both a blessing and a curse.
Now for some real entertainment. Here are a few videos taken recently.
This first one is of him running around the house right after his bath, before bed, having put on his new t-ball cleats that had arrived in the mail that day. He was running in the nude with nothing but his cleats on, but I made him put on his bedtime pull-up before I took a video. So here he is, saying that his new cleats make him run SUPER FAST. I was trying to act like I was just looking at my phone, and not taking a video, so he wouldn't get embarrassed and stop.
)
This next one is of Cooper dancing. He asked me to take a video of him dancing. He'd been dancing like this for about 10 minutes. He cracks me up!
)
Coop does this silly thing on the floor that I call "the corkscrew." The first time he did this, he was throwing a fit on the floor, but turned into giggles when I started laughing and telling him that was a pretty cool move. It's toward the end of the video.
)
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
Hudson 9 Months
Hudson turned 9 months a few weeks ago. 9 month stats:
- Weight: 20 lbs. 6 oz. (40th percentile)
- Height: 28.5 inches (50th percentile)
- Head Circumference: 18.25 inches (75th percentile)
The doctor commented on how big his feet are. I already knew they were big when he outgrew all his 12-18 month socks, and I had to buy him 2T. The kid has ridiculously huge feet--chubby and long.
He's such a happy baby, and was pretty easy-going until a few weeks ago. The boy learned to crawl, and literally two days later he was pulling himself up to things, cruising around the furniture, and whatever else he can get a hand on.
Along with this new-found freedom came a new-found 'tude. Suddenly my super easy-going baby has changed to a very opinionated, very trying-to-be independent little stinker.
He's still so adorable and sweet though.
It took some getting used to him being able to crawl. One day I sat down to play the piano for a few minutes, and within 20 seconds he was at my side.
Our little explorer.
Besides being suddenly mobile, Hudson has some other not-so-great habits forming. Thank goodness he still loves his lovey, because the separation anxiety is in full swing. He has also developed fear. At night I put him to bed in our room because putting the two boys to bed in the same room simultaneously was near impossible. So I put him to bed in our room and then move him to his bed. Lately within a few minutes he pops up and cries like he doesn't know where he is. Little stink. But most nap times I can find him like this.
Hudson loves to play with anything BUT his toys. His new-found loves are (in no particular order): the tupperware lid drawer, the dishwasher, any and all electrical cords (apparently the best chew toys ever), any speck of anything on the floor that may be potentially hazardous to his well-being (like small pieces of leaves, mud, food, dog hair). You'd think don't sweep the floor three times a day (sometimes more!) the way this kid finds things to put in his mouth. When outdoors he has no qualms about tasting/eating dirt, grass, bark mulch, bugs...the sky is the limit with this kid. Maybe we should enter him on Fear Factor! He'd ace the "eating weird things" category.
On that note, our once great eater has also recently become the most picky eater EVER. It first started with his highchair. One day I went to put him in it, and he threw an all-out fit and wriggled and wiggled until I took him out of it. He wanted to sit on a table chair at lunch like me and Cooper. So I dug the chair-top highchair/booster out of the closet, and he was all smiles. Next came the refusal of baby food. At first it was just 3rd foods (anything with texture/mixed foods). So I went back to feeding him 2nd foods (pureed single foods). He was happy for about a week, and then started this thing where the first bite of anything he takes one bite, gags, and acts like he's gonna puke from tasting the worst possible thing in the world. Then scrunches up his nose, purses his lips together, holds his fists hear his face and makes the funnies little sour-puss face. The first time he did it I thought it was because the food was too sweet/tart (it was some kind of fruit). But no. It's become this way with most foods. Then I got the grand idea to switch his formula from Similac (the ONLY one of all the free samples of all the different brands that he will eat), to a much less expensive, but very similar generic brand. ENTER FIVE DAYS OF BABY HELL. He refused to eat a bottle, to nurse, to eat solids, NOTHING! I'd get a little in him here and there, but it was like he was on a food strike. Then if he did eat a bottle of the new formula, he'd throw it up. I mean, THROW UP. One night it was 4 times. After a literal bathtub full of laundry from that night, I knew something had to change. At first I thought he may have a stomach bug because the next day he spiked a fever. But then a day later the fever was gone and he was still refusing to eat. I took him to the doctor, and she couldn't find anything wrong with him. I prayed and prayed about it, and finally had the thought to switch his formula back, and put him back on his reflux medication that he'd been off of for over a month. After 3 days of this, he's nearly back to his old self when eating. At least the last 3 days he hasn't gagged and puked up his entire meals. It did get bad to the point of him losing some weight. So now I gotta keep an eye on him and really track his food intake. So complicated with this one! The doc says if he had that adverse of a reaction to that particular formula, he will likely end up having a milk allergy like Coop. NOOOOO! Hopefully not. Fingers still crossed on that one.
The last bit of Hudson becoming a pick eater is that he wants to feed himself. If I am going to feed him, I have to give him his own spoon and bowl and let him think he's feeding himself, while I slyly slip spoonfuls of food in his mouth. He only gets about 1 out of every 10 things in his mouth from his tray by himself, but he is so happy to try. I just scoop it all off his lap and bib, and put it back on the tray until he's eaten enough.
Yesterday morning he ate pancakes and cut up bits of banana for breakfast, chicken enchilada (mostly softened tortillas) and peas for lunch, and pasta shells with broccoli and chicken bits for dinner. He LOVED it. No new teeth this month, but he's learned to mash/chew. I am not ready for my baby to be this big!!!
The last food-related milestone is that at meals he uses his own sippy. He will hold his own bottles as well. But thankfully he still likes to nurse 3-5 times a day. Two of those are usually in the middle of the night, which needs to STOP. *sigh* One battle at a time. Gotta get his weight back up before I attempt that hurdle. From the length of this part of my post, can you tell that this is a HUGE source of stress for me right now?! Cooper was NEVER this complicated or picky about food. All new territory here.
Look, Ma, no hands!!! Yep--last week Huddy started standing on his own. I watched him do it for the first time as he stood up in the middle of the room. He got about 75% upright, looked around like he was worried and shocked, teetered a little, and then slowly lowered back to the ground. It was the funniest thing. Here we are about 5 days later, and he's a total pro at letting go and standing on his own/ standing up whenever/wherever he wants.
Now he's been trying to climb the stairs. He gets so excited like he's psyching himself up to do it, and then tries, fails, gets serious, giggles, and starts again. He hasn't figured it out yet, but it's only a matter of time, probably days, before he does. Nate thinks he'll be walking before Easter. I was doubtful, but now starting to think he may be right.
Hudson has also become quite the talker, saying da-da-da (which he uses when he's happy/playing), ma-ma-ma (he needs/wants something), na-na-na (hungry), na-nigh (especially this one when he's tired). He also says some other sounds. The other day he was "talking" to me and said something like "gobrickst." I asked him if he knew German, and told him I don't. He just smiled and drooled, pleased that I "understood."
Here's a video of him talking a bit.
Despite all the ups and downs with our little bebe, he's our still our little Hudderbug. Can't believe how fast the time is going. I try to find joyful moments in each day with him, which really isn't hard. He's a great baby, and I love getting to know him a little better every day.
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