Merry Christmas 2013

Hudson 6 Months

Hudson is six months old today.  Say what?!?  Seriously.  How fast did those 6 months fly by?

Our Hudderball is GROWING.  He'll be going to the doctor this Tuesday, so I'll post his 6 month stats later, but I'm betting the boy is almost 20 lbs.  He doesn't look that heavy, and I'm often getting told by others who hold him how much heavier he is than he looks.  It's all in the cheeks and the thighs!

 Two weeks ago we were eating dinner and Hudson was crying, watching us eat, and trying to grab my food.  A few days later I gave him his first solids, since he seemed MORE than ready.  There's a video at the bottom of this blog of him eating.  His favorite thus far is sweet potatoes.

I never get tired of his smiles (or giggles--see video below).  He is a very smiley, easy-going baby, and only cries when something is wrong.  Sometimes I'll be so focused on another task (like making dinner), that I'll almost even forget he's there because he's so content to just play and watch Cooper.  I make it a point each day to interact and play with him one-on-one though.

One week ago his first tooth peeked through.  He was a little fussy for a few days, and I thought his reflux was flaring up again since I'd taken him off his medicine.  It seemed to make him spit up larger quantities and more often than without.  But I was wrong about it being reflux.  Last Saturday night he was exceptionally fussy, which is so unlike him.  My motherly instincts told me to check his gums, and sure enough, a little tooth was making its debut.  It's his bottom right.  No sign of others, except for the drool and constant chewing.  I'm sure it won't be long before that tooth is no longer a loner.

Huddy is getting really close to sitting up on his own.

His hair is filling in, and has a strawberry tint to it, more than Cooper's does.

He tries so hard to be big like his brother.  Cooper was out riding his bike one day, and Hudson was playing with this little scooter.  He was so excited to sit on it, and let me push him back and forth, even just a few inches.

The poor boy isn't sure whether to be terrified of or to love his big brother.  I was making dinner one night, and Cooper said, "Look, Mom! Hudson is so cool!"  And this is what I found.  Hudson does love watching his brother, though, and Cooper is most often able to get him to laugh than Nathan or I.

Huddy has a habit of covering his face with his blankets and lovey.  Every time I put him down for a nap, I have to go in a few minutes later to uncover his face.  He loves to fall asleep with his lovey over his entire face.  He plays like this a lot too.

Our Hudder is getting so big.  He can roll from back to front and front to back with ease, but hasn't really yet "gone mobile", thank goodness.

I can't get enough of this baby.  So thankful that he's in our family!

Link to video in case it doesn't work: Hudson Giggles at 5 Months

Link to video in case it doesn't work: Hudson's First Solids

Cooper's First Team Sport: Soccer!

This fall Cooper played soccer as his first team sport.  His season was a looooong one, going from the middle of August to the middle of November.  With hour long practices twice a week and games on Saturday, we kinda felt like we were living and breathing soccer around here for 12 weeks.  Cooper wanted to play t-ball, but I thought he'd do better at that in the spring, and convinced him to play soccer instead.  It was often tough to pull him away from the baseball fields we had to pass to get to the soccer fields, and I wondered whether I'd done the right thing.  But we got through it.

Cooper's team was the Green Gators.  (We didn't get the email about picture day being changed, so Coop wasn't in his game uniform for pictures.  We had to borrow a jersey from someone else, hence the red shorts and socks, and blue jersey in the individual picture.)

L to R: Katie, Brendan, Cooper, Jesse, Coach, Jackson, Alli

Coop was quite the soccer player, and his skills increasingly improved throughout the season.

One night after soccer practice the sunset was bright pink.  It's not often we get to see sunsets around here what with all the trees, so Coop wanted a picture.  My phone's camera doesn't do it justice.

There were a couple of kids who were REALLY good, and were pretty big ball hogs, even taking the ball from their own teammates.  But when they weren't there, it was an entirely different game, and the rest of the kids had a lot more fun.

Cooper's attention span was short, and so usually about halfway through practice or a game, he'd stop playing soccer and start playing with one of the other kids.  His favorite thing to do was chase his teammate, Alli, who was barely old enough to play at 3-1/2 and who hardly wanted to play.  The two of them would often run and chase each other, and tackle each other.  He can be quite the little flirt, but also still doesn't understand that girls don't like to wrestle and be pummeled like boys do.  But Alli was a tough cookie and dished out just as much as Coop did.

Other times Cooper was right in there.  His last game of the season the ball hogs weren't there, and so Cooper got a lot of play time.

He scored four goals that game, twice dribbling all the way down field from near the other team's goal.  One of those he completely stole and the other he intercepted.

He dribbled so well that he got a good lead from the pack.

Go Cooper!

He kicks...

...he scores!  G.O.A.L!!!!!

This is all the kids at their last game, with their two coaches.

A week after the trophy ceremony, Cooper is still carrying his trophy around the house.

Now that soccer is over, we have our Saturday mornings back, but T/Th nights are now filled with swimming lessons.  Thus begins the rest of our years with boys---sports, sports, sports.  Go Coop!

Multi-Tasking Momma

I don't have nearly the time I'd like to write the post I'd like to about this, but I at least want to share this picture.  There have been a few times lately that the lawn has been getting too long, and Nate has been too busy to cut it, so I've done it.  Once I did it to just do something nice for my husband, since I'd been gone all day giving service to others outside my home, and felt I needed to make my hubby my priority as well.  Both times it's looked something like this:  Cooper, Huddy in the carrier, and me trying to keep everyone safe while getting the job done and not getting completely exhausted.

It is quite a challenge to get even the simplest tasks completed sometimes with a 4-yr old following behind me messing up everything I just did, or me going in his wake, trying to keep up, all while usually having a baby on my hip.  But a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do, and that includes mowing the lawn, even if I do feel like a mother hen with her chicks literally under her wing while doing it.  I don't even want to know what the neighbors think as they all drive by.  Ha!

Happy Halloween 2013

We had a lot of Halloween fun this year.  With Cooper entering the prime of his childhood as far as holidays, it is getting pretty fun to celebrate.  Besides the pumpkin farm and carving pumpkins, we also went to a local fall festival with our neighbors.  Cooper and his friend, Braden, had a blast going on all the bounce-houses/rides and playing the games.  Cooper played two games really well:  corn hole (a Southern MUST, so he's getting rather good at it), and one where he had to throw a full-sized football into a hole on a life-size painted wood cutout of a football receiver.  He had three tries, and got the ball in the hole all three times.  The people running the game were shocked.  He had a good time.  He was dressed up as a pirate, but we didn't get any pictures of him before it got too dark to take any; he was too busy having fun!  Hudson was dressed up too...

 Then a few nights later we had a trunk-or-treat pot luck and party at church.  I dressed up as a Red Sox player, Cooper as a pirate (minus his hat and hook, which he refused to wear), and our little Hudson giraffe again.

 Huddy looks terrified in this picture.  Maybe he saw a Halloween spook!

 I didn't get any pictures of Nate and the back of his truck all decked out in spiders and spiderwebs, but it's much the same each year.  He stayed and handed out candy while I took the boys to get treats.  Cooper didn't recognize his Sunbeam teacher, Sister Bryant, at first.  She made a good witch!

 On Halloween night we got together with our neighbors, Tammy, Hugh and Braden Blanton, again.  They were taking Braden trick-or-treating in his Grandma's neighborhood, and they invited us to join them.  We had such a great time.  We know most of the Blanton's relatives because they are over to their house often, and the boys play together every chance they get, so hanging out with Tammy's mother and step-father was no biggie.  And it happened to be the neighborhood some of our dear friends used to live in until they recently moved out of state.

Here are the boys ready to trick-or-treat:  Cooper the Pirate and Braden, I mean, Optimus Prime

 Several people asked Cooper if he was a pirate when they were trick-or-treating, and he always replied, "No.  I'm Cooper James Smith."  Ha!

 Once our little giraffe woke up from his nap, he joined the festivities.

It was a very fun Halloween.

Pumpkin Fun

We had fun carving our pumpkins for family home evening a about a week before Halloween.  Cooper was very excited until we opened the top and he saw the "guts." He wanted no part of pulling out the slimy pumpkin insides. He did about two handfuls with a lot of coaxing and called it quits, which totally surprised me since the boy loves to be dirty.

After I'd cleaned out the pumpkin, Cooper was ready to wield the pumpkin carvers (i.e. knives). He was so disappointed that we wouldn't let him do anything with the carvers but supervise.  At that point he said, "Mom, when does the fun part start?" Little stinker.

Hudson was hanging out next to us.

Cooper chose the tin man face.

It was a fun family night.

Belated Birthday with Aunt Denise

Since Aunt Denise wasn't able to make it to Cooper's birthday, we held a little belated birthday party when she came to visit a few weeks ago.  The boys both had fun swinging and playing with Aunt Denise.

Hudson was so little in his swing that the shoulder straps were at his ears, but he loved Aunt Denise helping him swing.

Cooper LOVES his time with Aunt Denise. She spoils him with lots of one-on-one attention, and he thrives on it.

Cooper had picked out some chocolate cupcakes with gummy worms on top to have when Aunt Denise came. 

We sang happy birthday and he got to blow out his candle.

We always love a visit from Aunt Denise and Uncle Jim!