The Daily Hudson

The pre-party

2012-02-16T13:18:00.001-08:00

Man, oh man, are we celebrating the birthday this week. Everything has been super low-key, but there has been a lot of it. I have eaten more cupcakes this week than I have in 2012 to date. If I really stopped to think about that together with the additional Valentine’s candy I “borrowed” from Hudson while he was supposed to be napping, I would sign off now and head to the gym. In the interest of journalism, I will continue. And I’ll finish this cupcake while I’m doing it.

We kicked things off with some friends from church. Everyone came over for lunch and ate pizza. In a complete reversal of the usual kids’ table policy, the kids sat in the kitchen while the grown-ups were relegated to the other room to figure out what to do with their plates.

They sang “Happy Birthday,” and he seemed to really like it. He seemed a little uncomfortable at first, but by the end he was totally into it.

We managed to get a group shot, but just barely. I always think the outtake shots are as good as the actual picture.

Next up was his playgroup. These guys have been celebrating holidays and birthdays together since they were little babies, and it’s been fun to see them change from laying in a circle on the floor together to really playing. He and Jacob traded texts about what to wear.

There was even a little quiet time to read a princess Barbie book.

We were supposed to ride stickhorses outside, but it was cold and rainy and so we moved to the garage. I don’t know why I have never done this before—it was a great way to burn off some energy on a rainy day.

We sang, he blew out the candles. He and Dylan shared the birthday wish.

Again with the group shot.

We also celebrated with the beloved Baby Norah. We were down a couple of team members on account of croup (Aaron) and a new baby sister (Jack), but there was still plenty of good fun to be had. Norah gave him a new t-shirt (a picture of Waldo saying, “Dude, I’m Right Here!”), hence the wardrobe change in these pictures.

We also had cupcakes with the neighborhood girls. By now he eats up the “Happy Birthday.”

I think this might have been the wildest one. It started out civilized enough.

But climbed up the crazy chart pretty quickly.

His next (and last) party has a 5:1 adult to kid ratio, so it may or may not be less wild. We have had a fun, fun week. He is lucky to have such good friends to celebrate with.

A Valentine’s wish

2012-02-14T18:08:00.001-08:00

May Valentine’s Day always be this uncomplicated.

Bring it, Cupid

2012-02-12T18:39:00.001-08:00

Hudson is in full anticipation mode for Valentine’s Day. Not so much for Valentine’s Day, but because it is a gating event for what he really cares about: turning three. So he happily participates in the Valentine’s activities, knowing that every sugary heart brings him one day closer to the goal.

We spent the weekend around the house getting ready for next week. Hudson is always volunteering to help. (“Whatareyoudoing? Can I help you?”) Sometimes it’s best to let him help you by doing something that might technically be a totally made up project just so you can finish what you are doing in a reasonable amount of time. “You know what would help me? If you would take this pan outside and fill it up with leaves.”

When he was helping me put things away, he held the ruler like a cane and said, “Hey look! I’m Sam Hooston!” Only a kid related to my dad would have such a reverence for Sam Houston.

Sometimes his help isn’t particularly helpful.

But sometimes it actually is.

In exchange for helping Jeremy, he let Jeremy help him do the racecar puzzle. Jeremy and I usually draw straws to see who has to do the racecar puzzle. The short straw does the puzzle.

We’ll enjoy our last few days as parents of a two-year old before graduating to being parents of a three-year old. Another year older and another year wiser. Him, not us.

Should I be worried?

2012-02-07T21:20:00.001-08:00

I have heard people say that they thought they got a pass on the Terrible Twos, only to get kicked in the teeth by the Terrible Threes. And I’m beginning to wonder if that’s going to happen to us. While I can’t say every day with a two year old was hearts and flowers, I definitely would not characterize the whole year as terrible.

But here we are two weeks out from Hudson turning three, and I’m seeing these flashes: We’re driving in the car and completely out of the blue he crosses his arms, puts on a huge frown and announces, “I don’t like Superman’s mommy.” I’m not sure how to proceed. Is this a teachable moment? Does Superman even have a mommy? Finally the suspense is killing me and I ask, “Why not?” “Because she doesn’t know how to fly.” At the restaurant on Friday night when something didn’t go his way, he got a super sad face and said he was “heartbroken.” Sometimes if you ask him to do something he says, “No thanks” and keeps playing. Sometimes he answers questions in a way that I can’t even respond, e.g., “Yes, I don’t” or “Yes, it isn’t.” I don’t know whether to be amused or panicked.

I don’t want to overstate it. He is still pretty happy, most of the time. The smallest things can give him such joy. “Today I will wear my flip flops!” Drinking ice water out of a regular glass is a good time. And bubble wrap? Fun.

He spent some time today at a tea party and picking flowers, so maybe that will help tip the scale back over to not terrible.

We’ll just see how this all shakes out. Here’s hoping the charges don’t stick-

Groundhog Day

2012-02-02T13:02:00.001-08:00

We have been lucky enough to hang out with a lot of friends this week. It’s like a playdate Groundhog Day.

First up were our friends Vanessa and Tony. In case you have three kids and are wrestling with whether to buy a minivan just know that they will all fit in a Toyota, assuming you don’t need to bring anything else along.

Vanessa is super sweet and has a little angel voice. She is a civilizing influence on Hudson (“Hudson, that’s a little loud…”) and was an incredibly good sport, playing all kinds of things she probably doesn’t play at her house, like racecars, motorcycles, trains and loud hammers.

She even played tools and didn’t bat an eye when Hudson went to work on her toes.

We also hung out with Baby Norah. She’s not really a baby any more and is perfectly capable of looking at birds out the window

and playing Play-Doh.

Hudson loves to be with her. He usually is very chivalrous towards her.

But not always.

We even saw our friend Conner this week. These guys have been good buddies since they met at story time when they were babies.

Hudson was a little tired when we got there, but they were both squealing and hugging and chasing each other within about 15 minutes. After digging up the back yard and racing all the cars, there was still time for a little art. They are a good team. Hudson deliberately set about filling up the page with a solid block of his favorite color (brown) while Conner happily loaded up his brush with every other color and swirled it around in the water. The result was a postmodern masterpiece.

It’s been fun to get to see so many friends this week. We have had the craziest weather this week ranging from cold and rainy to hot and muggy, and it has been great to be both trapped inside and enjoying the warm weather with friends. Far be it from me to question Punxsutawney Phil, but it was 80 degrees here yesterday which does not exactly seem like a precursor to six more weeks of winter. I guess we’ll see-

Retail therapy

2012-01-30T06:00:00.001-08:00

Angie and I met up at the outlet mall this weekend. She was travelling light (only one of the three kids) and I had Hudson. Neither Hudson nor Sarah would normally be too psyched about a day of shopping, but learning that the other would be there and that there would be a hotel at the end was pretty exciting. It doesn’t take long to shop till you drop with a two-year old and four-year old. If you subtract out all the breaks for snacks and “riding” on the rides you put quarters in without putting quarters in and climbing on the fountains and playing hide-and-seek in the blue jeans, it was probably about an hour of real shopping. But shopping wasn’t the real objective (otherwise we would have been down two people), and it was a great time to be together. The hotel did not disappoint.

There were a couple of property disputes. There are M&Ms in the paper cups Sarah is guarding.

And another, more serious, conflict regarding a junior ladybug pillow pet but all’s well that ends well. They both whined about wanting to go home with the other as we loaded up the car. Good little buddies-

One fine day

2012-01-29T20:02:00.001-08:00

On today’s agenda: (1) morning at a gymnastics place with some friends; (2) lunch at the park; (3) waving a silver star magic wand out on the back porch while singing “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star,” fortissimo, in sweat pants and boots. Respective photos are below.

Gymnastics: I didn’t get great pictures because he was moving so much I couldn’t usually get his face in the picture.

But when I did, you could see the joy.

The park: The park felt sort of like a moral imperative. It was gorgeous here Friday, and it just seemed wrong not to play outside. Plus, some of our friends were there. It was not a surprise that he loved it. It was a big surprise that no one ended up with a concussion after this see-saw ride

or soaking wet after floating sticks down the fountain

or fast asleep in these swings after such a vigorous morning.

The last event doesn’t really warrant a photo, but I’ll put it up anyway just because I took it. He is so blissfully lacking in any sense of self-consciousness. Did I mention he loved the John Deere boots?

Good day-

John Deere boots

2012-01-25T19:41:00.001-08:00

We were stuck at the house today with flash floods and thunderstorms, but were having a pretty good morning. We read extensively, including The Quiet Book and The Loud Book, the collected works of Frog and Toad, and every free book ever included in a Chick-Fil-A kids’ meal. The weather was to blame for a 42 car pileup in the window, but “the man who crashed said, ‘I’m sorry.’” and so it was ticketed as a no-fault accident.

He even talked me into doing some painting. Grandparents, watch your mailboxes.

I was making the case for taking a nap upstairs instead of on the couch (because how am I supposed to fully utilize my free time if you’re sleeping in here on the couch?) when then the doorbell rang. It was the mailman, and he had a box for Hudson. Uncle Keith and Aunt Mona sent an early birthday present, and it was a home run. John Deere boots. In a box that converts into a barn. “Love” seems like a strong word to use for boots, doesn’t it? And yet, anything less doesn’t fully capture it.

Maybe the swagger best describes it:

(In case you caught the quick glimpse of the Christmas cards still on the mantle, you might as well know that if you send a Christmas card to our house, you will be wishing us a happy holiday well after Christmas is over.)

So, yeah, he liked them. He wore them the rest of the day. The rest of the wardrobe changed. The boots did not.

So thank you, Uncle Keith and Aunt Mona. You just bought our last pair of shoes for awhile-

Week in review

2012-01-22T20:07:00.001-08:00

We had a good week last week, marked by both the usual and the new. Even though it has been nearly three years now, I sometimes still think it’s funny what counts as “usual” these days. To wit:

- a morning at a bounce house with one kid that was pretending he was a puppy (Hudson), one kid that wouldn’t put down an electric guitar that plays “The Love Shack” (Jack) and one kid that cannot get enough of a giant inflatable slide (Norah);

- walking through the woods looking for birds using binoculars made out of paper towel rolls;

- laying in bed singing “Happy Birthday!” and “Happy Valentine’s Day!” (the tune is very similar) while wearing a soccer uniform and driving a bulldozer.

We also celebrated the Chinese New Year.

(He was the only dude there.)

And Mom was here for a short trip. I think she is developing a secret love of monster truck car transporters, and Hudson is just her cover story. Either way, we’re just glad she was here.

We had unseasonably warm weather this week (high today was 78 degrees). I didn’t previously associate this with good digging weather, but now I do. To a good week ahead-

Mass transit

2012-01-18T19:13:00.001-08:00

Some pictures of the ride-sharing happening at our house this week:

Playing through the pain

2012-01-16T13:28:00.001-08:00

We are in recovery mode around here. Jeremy’s Christmas gift to me was a weekend in Austin, and so my parents were nice enough to come to our house so it was a party of two instead of three. Jeremy and I had a great time and ate some great food (basically we started eating in Elgin and didn’t stop until we hit the food trucks on South Congress) but I think Hudson would tell you he had the better weekend.

He was vague about what they did exactly, but I know they went to the playground and the mall and drank lemonade and watched football. Also there was an elaborate structure on the living room floor that required every block and Lego he has, fortified by a repurposed diaper box. If you can’t see it in the picture, don’t worry--I think I promised last night that we would never take it down in exchange for him agreeing to go to bed.

When it was time for them to go, he pulled out all the stops to either (a) get them to stay here, or (b) take him with them. I was surprised it didn’t work.

But in the end they left without him in the backseat. This morning, after several conversations about what Mimi and Poppa were doing and why they couldn’t do it at his house and even if Poppa has to work why couldn’t at least Mimi come, I knew we needed a change of scenery. What better way to take your mind off your troubles than to go to the park? So we loaded up this morning and headed out.

We met our friends Jackson and Elijah there, so it was a double bonus.

You know it’s a good time when you only need one shoe on to get down the slide.

I thought this would wear him out but he is currently upstairs singing at the top of his lungs. The only lyrics I can make out are, “I don’t have to take a nap!” and “Happy birthday!” He doesn’t sound particularly unhappy, but he doesn’t sound particularly close to falling asleep either. We’ll soldier on-

Once upon a time…

2012-01-13T13:57:00.001-08:00

Hudson is in a storytelling phase right now. I won’t blame you if you don’t make it through this whole video. I’m his mother and he even lost me somewhere around the sheep driving the car full of people. Also, the cinematography isn't great. It's hard to direct when your lead actor keeps insisting on looking through the camera himself and trying to swipe the screen to see what's next. But you get the idea-

Back yard = truck yard

2012-01-09T18:15:00.001-08:00

We had beautiful weather here this weekend and Hudson spent much of it outside parking his trucks.

He was lucky to get the time outside, because today it rained all day long. We spent the morning inside watching movies. Our neighbors gave us a lot of movies when they moved away, so we have a pretty good library. He liked Fantasia at first (“Oh, wow!”), but somewhere around The Nutcracker Suite he lost interest so we switched to Aladdin. The opening scene was deemed “too scary” (I had kind of forgotten what a bad guy Jafar was), so we switched to Snow White. I didn’t remember that when her evil queen stepmother sends the guy, who I think is actually her real dad, to kill Snow White, she demands he bring her heart back in a box as proof. I was also a little conflicted about the portrayal of gender roles in the movie: upon discovering the seven dwarves’ house, having just narrowly escaped having her heart cut out by her father, Snow White’s first priority is to begin washing dishes and dusting the furniture. She negotiates with them to let her stay in exchange for cooking and cleaning. This was further complicated by the fact that I was ironing while we were watching it. I don’t think Hudson was bothered by any of this—he was more interested in who their mommy was, and whether they had a truck and if Snow White could drive them. A nice day to be home-

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

2012-01-06T19:22:00.001-08:00

Hudson came in to find me today and asked that I take his picture next to his tractors. (“Look! A John Deere on a John Deere! Dat’s funny.”) I sometimes worry that I have taken his picture too much.

Our week ranged from super boring to rather exotic. The super boring part involved a 3 hour wait at the DMV to get my driver’s license renewed. Fun fact: you can only renew your license online every other time. Next time you’re at the DMV waiting 3 hours to get your license renewed, remind yourself that it could be worse. You could be there with a 2-year old.

At the other end of the spectrum, we went to something at the library where they had live snakes. (Amy and Kelby, please credit my account for the nature experience.) When we got there I found it it was really for school-aged kids, but there were enough little brothers and sisters there that Hudson didn’t stick out. He did pretty well sitting and listening, and went right up when they got to touch everything. I tried very hard not to look terrified.

We both learned some things (did you know box turtles can’t really swim? or that when a bullfrog closes his eyes, the pressure pushes the food down into his stomach?), but Hudson was particularly inspired.

Bon weekend-

2012: Go

2012-01-02T15:29:00.001-08:00

We did have a happy new year, but the media gods did not smile on us. First of all, I forgot to bring my camera to our New Year’s party. Then I tried to at least get some video yesterday but Hudson was not in the mood for the camera. I didn’t think a surly “Happy new year!” would be all that great. You’ll have to settle for the text version.

As is kind of becoming a tradition (except for the years they have to hotwire their car, but that’s another story) we spent New Year’s Eve with David and Adriana. The last time we spent New Year’s together, we had zero kids between us. For some reason we were under the illusion that we were still going to be able to sit down and have a nice dinner together. We sat Benjamin at one end of the table, Hudson at the other, and pulled up Ellie’s high chair. It soon became apparent that this was going to be a different kind of a New Year’s party, and so the grownups finished dinner while Hudson and Benjamin took turns playing a guitar that barks like a dog. Everyone was happy. It was great to see the boys having so much fun together—chasing each other and playing with trucks and collapsing the inflatable fort that Benjamin got for Christmas. Everyone under two was in bed by 8:30, and everyone else was in bed just long enough after midnight to say we stayed up until midnight. Was great to end the old year and start the new year with good friends.

One of Hudson’s new year’s resolutions was to spend more time outdoors and so we spent the morning at the park

and then we went for a little hike. Luckily, we were able to keep another one of his new year’s resolutions—see more diggers.

This was the first time he’d been in the backpack in awhile. I guess being carried must be relaxing.

When we got down to the creek, there was this big, sandy beach. Just like Florida, only without the ocean. He thought the sand was great and spent a lot of time running around in it.

To a good year-

Christmas in Louisiana

2011-12-30T21:56:00.001-08:00

If you’re just joining us, we have one Christmas behind us and are only 549 miles away from celebrating again another couple of times.

This year we built in an extra half day into our itinerary instead of doing the whole drive in one day. We didn’t leave Oklahoma until late afternoon, so we were pretty happy to be in McAlester, Oklahoma. (I would guess very few people would describe themselves as happy to be in McAlester, Oklahoma.) Hudson slept with me while we were in Oklahoma, but wanted to sleep in his own bed at the hotel. It’s super fun to share a bed with someone that sleeps horizontally, but I didn’t argue with him.

He caught up on some more sleep on the last leg from McAlestar to Monroe.

We went across Oklahoma, clipped Texas and on through Arkansas before getting to Louisiana. A special thanks to Aunt Mona and Uncle Keith for providing the soundtrack of the trip. The tractor they gave Hudson for Christmas makes sounds, so most of the drive was punctuated by either the sound of an idling tractor, or a cheerful male voice saying, “Nothing runs like a Deere!”

We didn’t waste any time once we got to Louisiana—we drove straight to Bama’s house and sat down to Christmas dinner. When we saw the oyster casserole, we knew we had made the right decision not to stop at Pig Out Palace or The Feed Trough. Unfortunately my camera battery died, and so this is the only picture I got that night. It actually captures Hudson’s sense of urgency pretty well.

I wish I’d gotten a picture of the blanket he got from Jimmy and Marilyn. It had a little frog hood on top and little frog legs on each side, and he put it on and wore it the rest of the evening like a little frog prince. I cannot explain.

The next morning we opened presents at Pap and Pacha’s house. Hudson hardly knew where to begin. He assumed everything under the tree was for him. He wasn’t too far off.

He got a lot of great presents. There was a dump truck that Hudson thought took Kelby way too long to open,

and a train shirt from Zach that he wanted to put on. Like, now.

And remember how he told Santa he wanted a house? Well, he got one.

He loved it. I won’t call it what it is, but if he were a girl and had some little dolls, this would be the perfect place for them to live. Since he’s not, it was commandeered by “workers” and Legos, and there were tractors parked in the garage.

He also got a rubberband shooter. I won’t call that a doll house and I won’t call this a gun.

Since Christmas was on Sunday, I was nervous about church. On a usual Sunday morning he wakes up about 10 minutes before we leave for church and eats a waffle in the car on the way there. Way less exciting than this particular Sunday morning. But he kept it together and actually did okay, even correctly identifying “Baby Jesus” right on cue.

After church we went to Mae’s to do Christmas one more time. We weren’t there for Thanksgiving this year, so it had been awhile since we’d seen everyone.

There were all kinds of fun things there, like Kyle’s teeny tiny Daschund and Aunt Kim’s big giant mounted deer.

He got more great gifts, including enough material to construct a small city using Lincoln Logs, Legos and Mega Blocks.

Aunt Karen gave him this cool head lamp and spy glass, which he had to wrestle away from the adults.

Another favorite was the toolbox Aunt Kim gave him. He thought it was great when he saw the pliers, wrench and screwdriver. Then he saw the piece of wood with screws in it that you can actually turn with the tools. And then Jeremy put the batteries in the drill. Game over.

After all the presents were opened, he disappeared outside with Mae and came in proudly clutching a utility truck from circa 1977. All these new toys and all he wanted to do was keep pushing the button on the truck that used to make the siren go off.

We spent most of the rest of our trip either at Heartwood or out at the farm. The time at Heartwood was divided between reading

and playing with his toys.

Or Kelby’s toys.

Amy and Kelby are kind of obligated, but wasn’t it nice of Zach to play The Ladybug Game?

Hudson reciprocated by playing a round of Monopoly on the iPad.

We finally had a day of nice weather, so we went out to walk around at the farm. It sounded like a nice idea.

Except that one member of our party did not feel like walking.

It took less convincing to get him to climb up in a deer stand.

He felt revived after having some Johnny’s Pizza.

and was able to summon the fortitude to be pulled in the wagon.

It was a nice way to end a great Christmas.

We had high hopes for a quiet drive home, but somewhere around Lufkin we began to lose heart. He kept insisting that I hand him toys (“Do you have somefing for me?”) and I finally handed him this book Keith and Suzie gave him for Christmas. He quietly flipped the pages for awhile, and then we realized it had been kind of a long time since he’d said anything. He was asleep. I can only hope there was no osmosis.

So Christmas 2011 is in the books. We covered a lot of miles and made a lot of good memories. It’s so fun to experience Christmas through Hudson’s eyes, and we’re thankful to have family to share it with. I don’t know whether he’ll remember all these individual events, but I do think they’ll be in that little head somewhere and that spending Christmas in Oklahoma and Louisiana are going to be part of his DNA just like they are in ours. Here’s hoping Santa doesn’t start keeping track of naughty vs. nice until after year-end.

Christmas in Oklahoma

2011-12-30T21:46:00.001-08:00

Hudson and I embarked on the road trip that is our Christmas vacation a day earlier than anticipated. Mom and I planned to go up a couple of days early, but we were afraid of the blizzard that was maybe coming on Monday, so we threw everything in the car and left a day early. It turns out the snow missed us, but we got an extra day in Oklahoma so it was still the right decision. I love being able to be up there with Hudson, and am so happy he is getting some red dirt in his bones.

I didn’t take as many pictures of him just hanging out as I did last Christmas. When a baby is digging through a box of tinsel it’s kind of cute. When a two-year old is digging through a box of tinsel, it’s a huge mess. Some of the things that were still novel last Christmas (Look! He’s standing by the magazine rack!) were a little less momentous this year. Having said that, I still captured plenty of uneventful moments:

- helping Mom decorate the tree

- sitting in Grandpa’s chair saying, “I’m Grandpa.”

- having a little downtime

- “playing” dominos.

He loved having a monopoly on Grandma’s time, and I don’t think she minded it either.

And then one by one, the cousins descended upon us. We were all happy to see them, but no one was happier than Hudson. First came the Stones.

(This picture was taken in Grandma’s closet. I heard some rustling around in there and slid the door open to find these three little mice scurrying around.)

Then came Maggie and Kiera.

(I won’t lie—these pictures don’t tell the whole story of Hudson and Kiera. It wasn’t all hearts and flowers, but then he’s two and she’s four so it is what it is.)

It had been a few days since we’d seen Jeremy and so that was a happy reunion, too. He introduced him to everyone (“That’s my daddy, Grandma!”) in case they didn’t already know.

It was pretty much non-stop Christmas once the whole crowd got there. There were gingerbread cookies to decorate and decapitate,

puzzles to put together and games to play (I don’t think when they put the recommended age on the box, it means the combined age of all the players.),

reindeer cupcakes to decorate,

chairs to pile into,

and stories to be read.

So when the actual Christmas exchange went down, Hudson was already pretty maxed out. He had a blank stare.

He didn’t really seem to be able to focus.

But once the paper started tearing, he came alive.

Especially when he started opening the mother lode of John Deere licensed products. I didn’t even know there was such a thing as a John Deere monster truck transporter, but now we own one.

Notice the outfit change. Before: a Christmas plaid button down. After: a John Deere green shirt that says, “I like to play in the mud!”

He was so happy with his presents. I don’t think we got a single after-Christmas shot that doesn’t have a tractor in it.

He’s not even supposed to be in this picture (notice how everyone else in this picture is a granddaughter, Hudson?) but he couldn’t stay away, even recruiting Kiera to showcase his fire engine since his hands were full.

Grandpa got a book about tractors (Hudson comes by it honestly) and he couldn’t stay away.

The good-byes were hard, as always, but we had a lot of ground to cover. We hugged and kissed and headed east.

It was a different Christmas this year not having Grandpa out at the house with everyone. But since he couldn’t come to us, we went to him.

Also, it has been a couple of years since everyone has been able to make it to Oklahoma, but this year everyone did. It’s not a small thing for families that live in five states (Sherri might actually count as being from more than one state since she travels so much) to be able to be together for Christmas. So as much as we value the tractors, we value the time together even more.

Tune in next time as we celebrate Christmas on Jeremy’s side of the family-

Is that you, Santa Claus?

2011-12-30T21:30:00.001-08:00

There was considerably more interest this year in Santa Claus or, as he was alternatively referred to, “Christmas Claus.” Hudson talked a lot about going to see Santa but I wasn’t sure if he was going to follow through, and I wasn’t willing to wait in a long line of children to find out. So when Santa scheduled a stop at the gym, during which you could reserve a 30 minute window to eat breakfast and visit with the big guy, it sounded good.

All week we talked it up, coached him on the right answers (“If he asks if you’ve been naughty or nice, say nice.”) and drilled him on reindeer names. We showed up at our appointed time ready for the flip to switch once he actually saw a complete stranger with a white beard in a red suit. We ate breakfast first to give him some time to get acclimated. But we were wrong--Hudson couldn’t take his eyes off of Santa. Halfway through his pancakes he dropped his fork, announced, “It’s my turn!” and started heading directly for the sleigh. He was detained briefly by a man dressed in an elf costume

but was delivered right to Santa.

They had a brief discussion, during which Hudson advised that he would like a house for Christmas. (Santa politely suggested that maybe he would be happy with some Legos so he could build a house instead). Hudson hopped down out of the sleigh, thrilled, and declared Santa to be “a nice man.” This was about as good of a Santa experience as I could have hoped for-

‘Twas the week before Christmas

2011-12-30T21:25:00.001-08:00

Getting ready for Christmas has been a lot of fun this year, because Hudson is so into it. He talks a lot about the Christmas tree and who’s going to be at Christmas and sings Christmas songs --usually all in the same sentence. The week in Christmas carols:

- Deck the Halls: We went to Benjamin’s birthday party, and Hudson spent most of the afternoon wielding a paint brush. P.S., David and Adriana, I hope the paint really was washable.

(I am just noticing that Hudson was laying down in so many of these pictures.) It was a beautiful afternoon, and that’s a pretty important component of a two-year old birthday party. That, and the most relaxed dog ever.

- Jingle Bells: We also spent some time hanging out with our friend Hannah. Hannah rode on the back of the Plasmacar (or the “motorcycle” if you are Hudson) and rang the bell while singing Jingle Bells at the top of her lungs. It wasn’t exactly dashing through the snow, but they were laughing all the way.

Walking in a Winter Wonderland: They have this light display here that you can walk through, and Hudson has been wanting to go see it since they first set it up back in early November. The first time we saw it, I told him we would have to wait for Jeremy to come with us and so every time we drove by he would say, “We have to bring Daddy to see dat.” We finally went, but I think it was a little underwhelming. I guess up close you can’t really see what things are, and so he just walked from thing to thing without much to say. He did ask to take his picture by this little bear (?!) but that was it.

They have also set up a temporary ice rink during the holidays. We wandered in just to check it out. I’m not sure we’ll get away with just watching next year, but this year he was content to see others skating.

Now if we could have a few silent nights it really will be the most wonderful time of the year-

‘Tis the season

2011-12-14T20:11:00.001-08:00

Hudson is really into Christmas this year. I thought he was last year, but this year is another level. He wakes up every morning and asks, “Are we going to Christmas today?” And every morning I say, “Not today.” And every morning he says, “But I want to go to Christmas today!” and collapses back into his bed, like he just can’t bear it. It’s not long until I will be able to answer, “Yes! Today we are going to Christmas!” and then what will we talk about all morning?

He’s definitely in the spirit. Not sure he is totally connecting the dots, but there are a lot more of the things he loves in his little world right now and that makes him happy. More cookies.

More presents. (Our neighbor got him this soccer uniform when she was travelling. Loves it. I wish you could see the striped socks that he has on.)

More hanging out with friends.

We did a little gift exchange with our friends Aaron, Jack and the beloved Baby Norah. No good group shot, of course. I don’t think I actually got Jack’s face in any of them. If you know Jack, this is not at all surprising.

This is the closest I got, and it was just lucky.

The countdown continues…

It’s on

2011-12-07T21:33:00.001-08:00

Hudson has gotten his first Christmas present of the season, and it was a great way to start. We went downtown yesterday to have lunch with Angela, and she got him a whole fleet of Caterpillar equipment. Only one makes noise (“And I got him the small one so maybe you would hate me less…”) but that one does make some noise. When you push the buttons, it lights up and revs up and makes digging sounds. It also shouts, “Caterpillar!” We love it. Seriously, we owe Ben a much, much more exciting present next year.

Hudson did not put it down the rest of the day; he spent the afternoon “building a road” in the living room

but what he really wanted was to get them in the dirt. Finally this afternoon it was warm enough (either that, or I just couldn’t bear to put him off any longer) to dig outside.

So he’s definitely in the Christmas spirit. We got our Christmas tree which he thinks is terrific. He knew exactly which one he wanted.

Or maybe it was this one.

Actually, all of them look pretty good.

You’ve heard of paralysis by analysis? This wasn’t it. Every row had his favorite tree(s).

We decided on one (only one) and brought it home. He promptly got to work trimming the tree. Literally. I can’t explain any further than the picture.

He was thrilled to see it decorated when he came downstairs the next morning. (“Ooooh! It’s pretty!”) It’s pretty rewarding to decorate for a two-year old because it’s not that hard to impress him. If it’s shiny and lights up, he likes it.

Here’s to a happy holiday season-

It’s funny every time

2011-12-03T06:57:00.001-08:00

Thanksgiving

2011-11-28T20:39:00.001-08:00

I am having a hard time telling a coherent story with this year’s Thanksgiving pictures. It was a great weekend but as I was looking back through the photos I took, they just seem kind of random. Maybe because I didn’t take pictures of the usual Thanksgiving activities, like eating and watching football, but did take pictures of the less usual Thanksgiving activities like playing croquet. That’s right--this is kind of embarrassing, but you wouldn’t believe how much croquet we played this weekend. We bought this set somewhere years ago, and brought it with us this weekend thinking maybe we could play if we ran out of things to do. It turned out to be really a lot of fun and something everyone could do, so we played a lot.

Of course, it is never just a game with this many lawyers involved. The kids foolishly thought we were just going to have fun. Twenty minutes later, after being fully briefed on the rules and regulations, they were ready to proceed.

But the tough regulatory environment did not prevail. Most of the weekend was much more relaxed.

It was by no means relaxed, but we got to spend some good time with my sweet friends and their little turkeys. When I told Hudson we were going to see Jackson, Maddie Lou and Baby August his eyes lit up. “We’re going to California?!” He was so happy to see his buddies, even if it didn’t involve an airplane ride.

The good-byes were hard. I think he hugged Katherine twice, and cried all the way back to my parents’ house.

He was able to channel his inner drama for a more appropriate purpose. Every year the cousins do a Thanksgiving play. This year, the production got kicked up a notch with the addition of costumes. Hudson had never seen one of these mysterious machines before.

Here is a picture of the cast and the costume designer. To clarify, Mom sewed the fantastic pilgrim costumes and I made the Chief Little Bear costume out of a grocery bag.

This was his first time on stage, and so Hudson wasn’t quite sure what to do during the play. He didn’t have any speaking parts (on account of his illiteracy) and so he just stood really, really still until about halfway through.

At that point, he very deliberately put on his sunglasses and finished out the play looking like a dude.

And with that, we put Thanksgiving in the books. The pictures may not tell a very orderly story, but it was great to be home. It’s so nice to spend Thanksgiving surrounded by some of the people you are most thankful for.

Second best

2011-11-21T13:28:00.001-08:00

Jeremy went camping this weekend. Without Hudson. This was a real camping trip, not the watered down kind he goes on for my benefit, and so it wasn’t really age-appropriate. Hudson did not appreciate this reasoning and was not happy about the decision. I was happy to have a couple of fun birthday parties on the calendar for the weekend so that every time he remembered (“But I wanted to go camping with Daddy!”) I could counter-offer with birthday cake and party favors.

The first party was an airplane party. It was at the small regional airport not far from here. Level one was having hamburgers and french fries while watching the planes come in. And then there was a cake that looked exactly like an airport, so that was level two.

Level three: balloons in the shape of airplanes.

Level four: golf carts.

Level 5: inside a hangar.

Level 5(a) inside a big plane.

Level 5(b) inside a little plane.

Back down to level zero when it was someone else’s turn in the little plane.

And into negative territory for leaving the hangar altogether.

Luckily we had one more birthday party on the agenda, so I was able to ease the pain with promises of more cake. I didn’t get a great picture, but he had a lot of fun at Charlotte’s party too. I think the boys were glad to have somebody else not wearing a princess dress.

So it wasn’t camping, but it was a fun weekend. He was thrilled to see Jeremy yesterday. I didn’t get a picture (it seems they do not have shower facilities on the Eagle Loop Trail) but it was a very happy reunion. Next up: Thanksgiving.

Aquarium

2011-11-19T20:37:00.001-08:00

I should clarify: Tilman Fertitta’s Downtown Aquarium. Because this is Houston, the aquarium is tucked under the interstate. What sounds like gentle ocean waves is actually rush hour traffic rolling by. It’s definitely not a typical aquarium; everything is framed in some kind of a dramatic adventure. The lionfish and tarantulas are in a Sunken Temple with spooky music playing in the background. They have a white tiger in a Maharaja temple where you can pay $5 and get your picture taken with a digitally imposed tiger pouncing on your head. There is a train that runs through the aquarium that stops in a glass tunnel filled with (real) sharks, and then creaks by a (fake) shark that leaps out of the water. But our church organized an event with a crazy good group rate, so we went. His friend Aaron came along, which made Hudson happy, and his mom Meredith joined him, which made me happy.

It was a fun day. We were there under ideal conditions, i.e., it wasn’t hot and it wasn’t crowded. The boys got the bounce house to themselves for a really long time. And they Loved it.

There weren’t lines for the rides, so we were able to get right onto the ferris wheel. Hudson’s face accurately reflects how I am feeling inside.

Since it was pretty quiet the fairway games were not staffed, much to my relief.

There was a program for our group where they showed live animals to the kids. I wouldn’t say it was the best presentation I have ever seen. Presenter (holding up stuffed animal to group of preschoolers): “Can anyone tell me what this is?” The kids shouted out, “Lion!” “Tiger!” “Cheetah!” “Leopard!” and even “Bobcat!” To each of these she simply answered, “No” and kept taking guesses until they had exhausted their knowledge of furry, four-legged animals with tails and sharp teeth. The answer? An African serval. It was hard to get the group back on board after that. It took a live sloth named Pacha to turn the show around.

But of course the whole point was to see the marine life, and we saw plenty of that as well.

(on the aforementioned Shark Train, watching the sharks swimming overhead)

Not all the marine life was live but that was interesting, too.

It’s funny how enjoyable a day is if Hudson is happy, even if it doesn’t really sound like the way you would choose to spend a day. Was a fun day with friends. And now we never have to go again-

Shovel ready

2011-11-16T19:56:00.001-08:00

Jeremy has been working on a project outside the last couple of weekends, and Hudson takes some convincing that his help is not needed on top of the ladder. In an attempt to occupy him, Jeremy asked Hudson to go pick up all the pine cones in the yard, put them in his wagon, and throw them into the woods. I was surprised when he started dutifully pulling his wagon around the yard picking them up one by one by one, and then wheeled his full wagon over and began hurling them into the woods. Extra credit for trying to get the pine cones that were still attached to the tree.

He had another make-work project this afternoon. We hung out with our friends Aaron and Baby Norah, and the boys collected and distributed (and collected and distributed, and collected and distributed…) a bucket full of rocks. Aaron called this a “rock show,” and I guess he’s technically correct.

One day when Hudson and Aaron want to go to some real live rock show, I will look back wistfully at this picture.

It’s fun to see them start to play together more, and have conversations. They sat on the couch and did a Hidden Pictures together, and was sweet to hear them trying to puzzle it out together.

Baby Norah’s not talking yet, but she’s still communicating. See the desperation in her eyes? The plea for help?

We tried to get one with all three of them, but Hudson misread her escape attempt and instead tried to re-position her for the picture.

On to the next project-

Wide open spaces

2011-11-13T12:53:00.001-08:00

Hudson didn’t see as much of the outdoors this week as he would have liked, either because of the rain

or because they were cutting down a tree in our backyard and I wouldn’t let him go help

or just because the shades weren’t up high enough.

But we worked it out this weekend by spending lots of time outdoors. We went to a dinosaur birthday party for his friend Jacob. As it turns out, he doesn’t mind being confined when it’s inside a bounce house.

We also spent some time with his buddies Jackson and Elijah. Here is the stroller-full-o-boys on the way to the park. Because they all kind of look alike, I got looks ranging from sympathy to judgment from people that thought they were all mine.

Since Jackson is big (4), he can influence Hudson to do things he might not otherwise have the courage to do. This is not always good (see wondering aloud how to get on top of the fireplace mantel) but Hudson could sometimes use a little encouragement in risk-taking. So he went down the big slide like it was no big deal.

It’s not hard to entertain three boys on a pretty day.

You wouldn’t believe how genuinely surprised they were at finding each other on the backside of the tree.

Then we watched UT “play football” yesterday with David and Adriana. The boys had a little trouble staying focused on the game.

At some point, watching the game because too dispiriting, and Hudson and Ben decided Baby Ellie had seen enough.

Ben did not enjoy sitting with Hudson quite as much as Ellie did, but they had a great afternoon together.

He didn’t spend much time outside this afternoon, but there were two important mitigating factors: Jeremy and football.

I’m sure we’ll be outside after the game-

Friday night lights

2011-11-06T17:46:00.001-08:00

We took Hudson to his first high school football game this weekend. He loved everything about it—walking up to “the football stadium,” sitting on the bleachers, watching the band and the cheerleaders, the goofy freshmen boys sitting behind us, just everything about it was fantastic. There was a sign at the gate that said, “No noisemakers” but they let us bring Hudson in anyway. We made it to halftime and he sat and clapped nearly the whole time we were there.

The lady sitting behind us was wearing this silly elephant toboggan. When one of her friends made a joke about it she said, “Anything to embarrass my daughter!” I know one day Hudson will be too cool to sit with us at a football game, but that day is not yet here.

The football game marked the end of a pretty routine week. Hudson helped me make pizza dough one night. I was congratulating myself on this great idea because he had so much fun doing it and it kept him occupied for a pretty long time. Later as I was wiping up little flour footprints all over the house, I decided maybe it wasn’t so clever after all.

It really seems like he’s changing a lot right now. I can’t pinpoint it exactly, but his thoughts just seem a little clearer and his vocabulary is getting a little more decipherable. Even if he’s saying the same words, it is sounding more like it’s supposed to. You can tell he’s saying his ABCs, for example, other than just by recognizing the tune. He is also really working at stringing his thoughts together, like “The mailman brings me a letter. Then he puts it in the mailbox. Then he goes to his house.” Speaking of the mailman, we have added the bike into the daily mail run. Just when you thought it couldn’t take any longer to get the mail.

It’s an especially long ride home when there’s not a letter addressed to him in there. Here’s hoping he doesn’t notice the end of daylight savings time tomorrow morning-

Halloween

2011-11-01T20:32:00.001-07:00

Another Halloween is in the books. Hudson went as the Farmer in the Dell this year. I got the idea one day as he was singing the 30th verse (“The farmer takes a Hudson…”) for the 30th time and it just seemed like a good fit for him. I wanted something that didn’t feel like a costume, and something I wasn’t too vested in just in case he decided not to wear it at the last minute. As it turned out, he was pretty happy wearing it.

We didn’t go to everything we could have, but we fully observed the holiday. The inaugural event was at our gym. The first thing we saw when we walked in was a table piled high with Halloween cupcakes. As it turns out, you had to win a cupcake on the cupcake walk. Hudson did not understand the concept at first. Upon figuring out that it meant getting a cupcake required more than walking up to the table and asking for one, he didn’t like it when he did. So we walked around (and around and around) the circle until they called our lucky number. Victory was sweet.

We also had a Halloween party with our original playgroup. These kids have been celebrating Halloween together long before they understood what Halloween was all about, and so it was fun to see them all together. The age range is 2-3, plus there have been some new additions to the group, plus several kids had already been to a Halloween party at school that morning so the group picture could only be described as pure chaos. I don’t think any one picture has the same group of kids in it.

Next up: Trunk or Treat. This was our first year to participate in something like this and so weren’t quite sure what to expect. Basically it’s trick-or-treating without all the walking. Hudson liked it.

And when Buzz came to join him, he liked that too.

This was almost a good group picture, until the Farmer realized that Minnie Mouse was eating something he didn’t have.

So finally the main event. We had dinner with some neighbors and headed out from there. He was a little rusty, but figured it out pretty quickly.

I didn’t get a great group shot, but here is at least part of the boo crew.

We didn’t go to too many houses, but enough to get the full trick-or-treat experience. By the end of the night the Farmer climbed on to his trusty steed to carry him home.

I was expecting a lot more interest in candy this year, but he was pretty good. On my honor, when our neighbor told him he could have another piece of candy he said, “I don’t want some more. I have enough.” I should have been proud of him, but to be honest my heart sank a little bit because she had a bowl full of Snickers.

So it was a great holiday. Today he suggested we go trick-or-treating again, and keeps suggesting things we could dress up as, e.g., he put a hair band around his wrist and said, “I dressed up like Mommy!” Pretty sweet for a little goblin-

One step forward, two steps back

2011-10-27T13:41:00.001-07:00

Hudson followed up the week at his grandparents with a weekend at his other grandparents. Jeremy had to be in Denver for work and I invited myself along for the weekend. After some discussion, it was decided that Hudson would enjoy a trip to my parents more than he would enjoy a trip to Colorado and my parents were quick to agree. So just as we had started to make some progress on the consequences of getting everything you want for a week, we are right back where we started. It’s a small price to pay, and he is (and we are) fortunate to have such great grandparents.

It’s not like we didn’t think about him the whole weekend. We stayed in Golden, where they have a million of these bronze statues.

We thought about how many questions he would have had about each and every one—where it lives, who its mommy is, who its daddy is, whether it has a truck, if it’s real, if he can ride it. It would have made a Really long walk through town. Also we passed some people hiking one day that were carrying a backpack with a sleeping baby in it. The baby was slumped over to the side, making the dad’s center of gravity off, and so the dad was walking at a slight angle in the opposite direction trying to maintain his own balance without (heaven forbid) waking the baby. We both had a brief moment of nostalgia, but also had a feeling of relief that we weren’t going to get a turn with the backpack.

It was of course a happy reunion, and it seemed like he had grown up a lot just in two short days. His sentences seemed a little clearer and he seemed a little taller. I suppose that is happening every day you just don’t notice it when you’re with him.

Speaking of growing up, we met some friends yesterday at a place Hudson hadn’t been since he was a baby. I took him to the same petting zoo/pumpkin patch when he was less than a year old, and he spent the whole time in the stroller. Don’t get me wrong—pushing a stroller sometimes has significant advantages over chasing a 2-year old, but it was so fun to see him enjoying everything yesterday.

- The animals:

(He sometimes enjoyed the animals more than they enjoyed him.)

- The hay barn:

- The big, giant sand box:

- The attractive nuisance parked right behind the donkeys:

- Riding the train:

- Riding the slide:

- And maybe most of all, his friends Jack and Baby Norah:

Seriously, as we were leaving he was just grinning and saying, “Happy, happy, happy.”

Was a fun day. On to Halloween-

Hudson’s home!

2011-10-17T19:22:00.001-07:00

Hudson is back from a week with his Amy and Kelby in Louisiana. It felt a little funny declining invitations for him by telling people, “Hudson’s out of town this week.” We missed him terribly while he was gone and so were super happy to see him on Friday. (Hudson, if you’re reading this, we only went out to dinner every night while you were gone to make the time pass more quickly.) My understanding is that he was perfect. I didn’t ask a lot of questions. I know he had a great week and loved every single thing about being with them.

We went to pick him up on Friday and spent the weekend. Zach even came in, so it was great to have everyone there together.

Saturday we went to an event out at the wildlife refuge, where Amy once again established her bona fides as the coolest grandmother ever by handling both a snake and a gator. Hudson was skeptical.

But slowly, very slowly, she talked him into it--at least with the gator.

I don’t think she would have been prouder of him if he’d recited his entire multiplication tables.

Then that evening we went out for dinner on Jimmy and Marilyn’s houseboat. Again, he was skeptical.

Again, he got over it.

(I wanted to get a picture of him and Rex with the sun going down behind them, but it proved too difficult to convince a dog and a two-year old to come around the corner at the same time.)

By the end of the evening he couldn’t thank Jeremy enough for bringing him.

It was a great weekend. We are glad to have everyone home, but so glad Hudson got to spend the week with two of his favorite people. Now to begin the unlearning process. All day today if I told him he couldn’t have something or do something, he responded incredulously, “But…I want to!” as if that was reason enough for doing something last week. It’s not going to be an easy week-

Jeremy’s home!

2011-10-13T12:32:00.001-07:00

Jeremy is home from a trip to Ethiopia with a group from church. I don’t know if he would say it was a fun trip, but it was certainly eye-opening. I was glad he went, but of course happy for him to be back home. It was great to see him coming down the escalator to baggage claim. My reaction was a little subdued compared to Hudson’s—when he spotted him he said, “Daddy!” and took off in a sprint to hug him. This was before he even knew Jeremy brought him back a camel.

While he was gone, we went to Oklahoma to visit my grandparents. (No offense, Hudson, but 2 weeks alone with a 2-year old is kind of a long time.) We brought Mom, Angie and Sarah along in our entourage, and had a great trip.

There was lots of good quality time with Grandma,

Mom,

and Angie

which was expected, but we were all a little nervous about the Hudson and Sarah dynamic. We need not have worried. They had a great time and seemed to really love being together.

It was a great time of year to be in Oklahoma, and we spent a lot of time outside or on the screened porch.

We spent some time at my cousin’s farm. He has catfish (I am talking Hillbilly Hand Fishing size catfish and I am not at all exaggerating) that we fed every night we were there.

Apparently it is important to feed them from the entire circumference of the pond.

We also took turns “riding” the tractor. Sarah was a lot better about getting off when it was Hudson’s turn than vice versa.

So other than a few minor blow ups (e.g., Hudson shouting “YOU GO TO TIME OUT!” to Sarah) that blew over quickly it couldn’t have been a better trip. We were all glad to have had our respective travels, and were equally glad to have everyone back in the same house.

Highs in the 80s!

2011-10-02T19:45:00.001-07:00

We took advantage of the beautiful weather here this weekend and spent a lot of time outside. I am not kidding when I say there were more than a couple of people in sweatshirts, because it’s so cool outside. Wishful thinking.

There was an event for the National Night Out that had every law enforcement and public safety vehicle you could ever want to see. I thought Hudson would think this was terrific, but it must have been a little overwhelming. Also, I made us go during nap time so I didn’t have to stand in line to get in an armored tank. I thought I would have a great picture of him sitting in a fire truck or next to a police car. Instead I got these:

We followed Smokey around for awhile, with Hudson saying “hello” in a barely audible voice before working up the courage to approach him.

He sort of didn’t get why we could go in some trucks and not others. (“But I want to get in that mini van…”) but after we were there for awhile, he started liking it a little more and so we did end up with a few pictures of him in what we went to see.

And maybe my favorite:

Then today we went to our first official pumpkin event of the season. It was a pretty day and they had giant pumpkins, so it was a success.

Oh—and cookies. They also had cookies.

There was just one cookie per kid, likely making this the least amount of sugar he will have at any pumpkin event for the next month.

Me-ta-morphosis

2011-10-02T19:34:00.001-07:00

During their time together this summer, Amy and Kelby taught Hudson that a caterpillar changes into a butterfly, and that this is called metamorphosis. (You have to get him started on it, but he always gets the “morphosis.”) So we put our money where our mouth is this week and went to the butterfly museum with our friends Jack and Baby Norah.

Baby Norah brought her security detail. You can never be too careful.

I only got pictures of the backs of the boys, but they had fun checking everything out. The lady that took our tickets gave them a good talking to when we came in about staying on the path. She then trailed us for about half the time we were in there, making sure they followed her orders. She was right to be wary, but they did pretty good.

Not perfect, but pretty good.

The real zoo

2011-09-27T05:40:00.001-07:00

A recurring conversation we are having these days is whether something is real. “Are those cars real?” “Is that dog real?” “Is Mommy real?” It can get kind of metaphysical. And so it was a welcome visit to reality-land to make a trip to the zoo this weekend with David and Adriana.

Hudson was happy to see Benjamin and sweet Benjamin is always happy to see everyone. The boys had a lot of fun together. The African Forest was a big hit, as were several other things we didn’t necessarily have to be at the zoo to enjoy.

We saw plenty of real animals, of course. Meerkats,

giraffes,

and the ever-popular goat.

Not every exhibit was of a real animal—he bravely reached in an touched a giraffe sculpture and announced, “I patted a giraffe!” The bronze elephant was another favorite.

One of Benjamin and Hudson’s favorite exhibits was the one of a little boy in a restaurant habitat. It was feeding time.

Fun day. Back to contemplating our existence-

Dragon boats

2011-09-23T19:50:00.001-07:00

They have something here every year where teams can sign up to compete in dragon boat races. Hudson and I got up early this morning and went to watch Jeremy compete. It was a beautiful morning--when I opened his car door, Hudson said, “Brrr. It’s very cold.” I guess he now uses “very cold” to mean “not 100 degrees.” So it was nice to be out and see the boats on such a pretty morning.

What we didn’t know is that they have all kinds of other team building exercises as well. Unfortunately we had to leave before he built camaraderie with his colleagues by playing a game of human foosball, but we had to get home. Hudson’s friend Elijah spent the morning with us and since Hudson was not familiar with even regular foosball, much less human foosball, it was an easy decision. Hudson is twice his age and half his size (story of his life) but they are good buddies. It usually seems like Hudson is the youngest in the group, so it’s a nice change for him to be the older kid. We piled into the stroller, Beverly Hillbillies-style, and went to the park and Hudson helpfully pointed out everything along the way. Elijah would repeat it back (“Dat’s a house, Elijah.” “House.”), happily playing the Plato to Hudson’s Socrates. Okay, maybe just a couple of notches down from that.

Here’s hoping the weather got the memo about today being the first day of fall. Happy weekend-

Green bowl

2011-09-19T20:17:00.001-07:00

When he turned one, a friend gave Hudson something called a Bilibo. We had never seen one, but then we’d never had a one year old before. It’s a Swedish toy that looks like a bowl, but the tags showed children doing super creative things with it like pretending it was a turtle shell or sitting in it and spinning around. All of these things made Hudson scream hysterically (and not for joy). But recently he has come to appreciate the “geen bowl” for its step-stool function. A few pictures, just from today:

-Here he is “working on my project” which apparently involved pretending to paint an office building with a pastry brush. His imaginary to do list is never done.

- I can’t explain what he’s doing here, but it involves putting a doll and some tractors and his Sesame Street drum in a very particular order behind the pillows on the couch.

- He found a bear mask from a birthday party and wanted to see how he looked in it. “Husson’s a bear. Dat’s funny.”

This weekend we went to Baby Norah’s first birthday party, and she got something waaaaay better than a green bowl: a pink car. I was nervous that he was not going to want to share (that’s not the right word, I know, as it is not his to begin with), but to my great relief it turned out to be super fun to push Norah in it. Win-win.

Probably by her next birthday, he will be devising a way to make a ramp out of the green bowl and use it to launch the pink car. I didn’t see any Swedish children doing that on the tag, but probably just because they didn’t think of it-

Hang up and drive

2011-09-16T06:05:00.001-07:00

Some footage of Hudson combining several of his favorite activities: driving, talking on the phone, and existing in an alternative universe.

I would blame the poor driving on his being distracted but honestly it didn’t get much better after he lost the phone.

Be careful out there-

Are you ready for some football?

2011-09-11T15:03:00.001-07:00

The answer at this house is a resounding yes. We met up with the beloved Baby Norah this week, and Hudson practiced his block and tackle on her.

So we were all ready for kick off. Everyone got their own remote control. Unfortunately for Hudson, only one of them works. (I’m pretty sure this is one of those things I said I wouldn’t do to my kid before I had a kid.)

I’m not as committed as the two of them (I kept hearing Hudson administering a loyalty oath to Jeremy, “I like football. Do you like football, Daddy?”) but joined them for the Texas game. It was a little hard for Hudson to keep track of the quarterback, but McCoy and Shipley sounded familiar so he just went with it. His attention span came and went—he spent most of the third quarter running errands in the pretend tractor that was my chair, getting in and out at the pretend post office and the pretend grocery store and driving through the pretend car wash. It was real life exhausting.

He only made it through the third quarter (not by choice, mind you) but was happy to get a positive report on the outcome this morning.

In more significant news, we are mindful today of the events of 10 years ago this September 11. We went to a memorial service this evening and heard some pretty moving stories about people affected by the tragedy, including one man who lost his son. His son deferred a scholarship because he felt called to join the military and was then killed by an IED. It was so touching to see how this dad is preserving his son’s legacy by telling his story and helping other families that have to deal with the same kind of loss. We weren’t sure whether it would be appropriate to bring Hudson to the service, but I am glad we did. Even though he was pretty wiggly, he wasn’t noisy (“I beed quiet, Mommy!”) and the dad’s story was a reminder of how grateful I am for the sweet boy that was climbing all over me-

Labor Day

2011-09-07T19:38:00.001-07:00

We spent Labor Day weekend at home. We had some unseasonably cool weather (highs in the 90s!) and spent a lot of time outside. You wouldn’t think 95 would feel that different from 105, but it really does. We haven’t been to a park the entire the triple-digit season so we got all caught up by going to several.

This may not look terribly brave, but this is about the only slide Hudson will go down.

Emboldened by his success, he then went (feet first, but still) down a slightly more challenging one.

And even attacked it in reverse.

Then we went to a Labor Day pool party. It was kind of a nontraditional Labor Day celebration, complete with paella and fire dancers. (Only in the suburbs, kids, only in the suburbs.) They did, however, have the familiar Labor Day snow cone which Hudson liked a lot.

So there was very little labor but (or rather, therefore) it was a great weekend. Hooray for the cooler weather-

Sam Houston

2011-09-03T20:39:00.001-07:00

We had a pretty low key week. We toured the ruins of Borders (if you haven’t been by now, it’s probably not worth it) where Hudson found the last remaining tractor book in their inventory,

played some Legos,

(These kind of pictures are getting hard to get. If he catches you taking it, he pops up and says, “I see it!”)

and carried sticks from one part of the yard to another, and then back again.

So today he and Jeremy took a field trip to see Sam Houston. I don’t really understand why Sam Houston has struck such a chord with him, but he stands out even among statues. (He is also a big fan of the Statue of Liberty. One of the books in our current bedtime rotation is a Bible story about King Nebuchadnezzar and he can’t wait to get to the part about the golden statue. I’m not sure it’s sinking in that the statue is bad.) And even beyond the fact that he spends about 80 percent of his time in an imaginary world (“I p[r]etending…”), it’s still unusual how prominently Sam Houston figures into his daily life. When he pretends to go somewhere in his pretend tractor, his first stop is usually to see Sam Houston. So he was, needless to say, stoked about a real trip to see the real Sam Houston.

Apparently this time the face was a little scary. He eventually overcame his fears and touched his nose. This was part of the initial report: “I see Sam Hooston! I touch his nose!”

There is a prison museum just down the interstate that Jeremy has said a few times when we were driving by, “I wouldn’t mind stopping by there some time.” So today he found a more willing participant. (I owe you one, Hudson.)

Hopefully this will be his only experience with the inside of a prison cell. To a good Labor Day weekend-

Advanced story time

2011-08-30T18:55:00.001-07:00

When he was a baby, Hudson and I went to the story time for babies at the library and we both liked it a lot. He has aged out of that group, and so we decided to try the next one up. Expectations are higher and tolerance is lower. It’s one of those things that the only way to improve it is to impose your kid’s bad behavior on others until he learns better. He would have gotten a passing grade for this today’s behavior only if you believe in social promotion. He was listening (when Jeremy asked him what the stories were about, he quickly answered, “Trains!”) but it would be easy to confuse him for someone that was not listening as he was covering himself up with the rug or pressing his face against the window or pretending to be a monkey at various points in the event.

We were lucky to run into our friends Jack and Melanie at the library and convinced them to ride the trolley with us after. (Jack, by the way, met or exceeded the behavior standards for the Level 2 story time.) The boys loved being together, but neither was willing to give up their window seat to sit with each other.

We tried to sneak out at the end in case she tried to pull us aside and asked us to come back when he was a better listener, so we can at least get one more time out of it. I’ll count it as progress if he doesn’t announce, “I can hop!” during the story next time. Baby steps-

It’s complicated

2011-08-28T12:05:00.001-07:00

It seems like a lot of things Hudson does should be a lot easier than they are. For example, it doesn’t seem like it would be hard to sit at the “workshop,” a.k.a. the fireplace, and play, but sometimes it is. Because sometimes you have to move two chairs and that’s more work than you ever imagined: push to the edge of the rug, pick up front legs, try to push, spin around back legs, try to push, declare them to be “stuck,” be encouraged to keep trying, pull awhile, carry awhile, situate the chair just exactly right. And that’s just one chair. Eventually, but with no lesser amount of effort, the other chair gets positioned exactly right and then everyone has to be seated. It ain’t easy, especially when one member of the party is battery-operated and plays Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star if you push his belly in the right place.

He tried for about ten minutes to get the baby to sit up and play with the truck, but eventually settled for laying the truck on the baby’s face.

Feeding the ducks seems easy enough, but it also instigates a barrage of questions: Which one is the mommy duck? Where is the baby duck? Where is the duck’s bed? Does the duck want to see my bed? Does the duck like french fries? Does the duck like John Deere tractors? Does Mommy like John Deere tractors?

Last weekend we were all out and about way past his regular bedtime. I didn’t want him to fall asleep in the car on the way home (that always seems to end badly) so we took a page out of the Hudson playbook and peppered him with questions all the way home. Remember when we went to the zoo? What animals did we see? Who did we go with? What did we eat for lunch? What was your favorite animal? What does an elephant say? He dutifully answered questions for about 30 minutes, but he finally drew the line. I asked him another follow up question and he answered, “Dat’s enough” and declined to respond to another question for the rest of the drive home. You think I haven’t had that thought myself, kid?! Dat’s enough, indeed. One day he will just go move the chair or just sit and watch the ducks but in the interim I am thankful for the little motormouth and his insatiable interest in the world around him-

Out of ideas

2011-08-22T20:09:00.001-07:00

Alright, already with the 100 degree temperatures. We are running out of things to do that don’t require constant hydration. If you don’t believe me, Hudson spent most of the morning on a bear hunt. While wearing Christmas socks.

Turns out the bear was not upstairs or anywhere else in the air conditioned house and so we had to look outside. Seemed a little hot out there for a bear to me, but Hudson was not convinced.

Fortunately there were no golfers out (or any other human beings, for that matter, what with the sweltering heat and all) so the repeated inquiries as to the bear’s whereabouts (“Bear! Where are you?”) didn’t interrupt anyone else’s activities. He finally “found” him--the bear was apparently sitting in the chair on the patio the whole time. I don’t know how we missed him. On tomorrow’s to do list: research animals that live indoors and hide the Christmas socks.

Missed opportunities

2011-08-19T12:36:00.001-07:00

I really feel like I waste a lot of chances I have with Hudson to cram him full of information. He will repeat basically anything you say. He asks questions all the time and remembers the most random information (the name of the electrician that was working at my parents’ house last time we were there, for example). I could take advantage of this short window to teach him almost anything, really—Hamlet’s soliloquy, the Roman emperors, or at the very least the alphabet. Instead he is using his brain power to copy an electronic drum that says, “Move to the Rhythm!” and “Feel the Beat!”

At least “Arriba!” is in Spanish, so that’s some guilt off my shoulders.

Life with a two-year old is full of missed opportunities, I suppose. We went swimming with his friends Hannah and Vyvi this week. It just so happened that they all three lined up along the edge to jump in at the same time. Would have been a super cute picture, but of course in the time it took someone to get a camera the situation deteriorated rapidly.

We met our friend Jack at a bounce house place, Hudson spent the first hour overwhelmed and whining and asking to go eat french fries. Fifteen minutes before it was time to go, he couldn’t get enough of it.

Today we went to something where they had a flower pot he and I were supposed to make together. Do you think Hudson (A) put the stickers on the flower pot as was clearly instructed, or (B) put every single sticker he could reach on his own hand and spent the rest of the time walking around showing it off to everyone? If you guessed (A), you must not spend a lot of time with two-year olds.

Oh well. Hopefully he’s picking some things up along the way. Maybe I just need to look for a better electronic drum. Happy weekend-

Cousinpalooza

2011-08-15T20:33:00.001-07:00

We’re back from a weekend with the cousins. It was a crazy good time.

He seemed so big this time, just hanging out with all of them. On Saturday he just followed them around all day. Jeremy and I said it felt like we’d hardly seen him all day because aside from checking on him (and the rest of the crew) periodically, he just played with them all day.

Some of the toys they have were very familiar.

Some were more pink and sparkly than the ones we have at our house, but when in Rome...

He got another shot at a Slip and Slide. He still didn’t quite get it, but found it to be very refreshing.

Only one collision, which is pretty remarkable given the number of little bodies running around.

He had a great (albeit slightly less energetic) time with everyone else, too.

We got one last group picture before we headed out, but just barely.

He was so amped up on the drive home he didn’t sleep a wink. Check that—he talked non-stop the entire drive home. We agreed that the good thing about having a kid that used to cry for 250 miles is that you don’t really mind it when he chatters for 250 miles. Great weekend-

Boys of summer

2011-08-12T06:24:00.001-07:00

Hudson and I are back from visiting some new friends and an old friend, respectively. We took a break from following the stock market’s crazy ride to visit my college roommate and her two boys for a couple of days. Jack Henry is four and Charlie is two, so throwing another two-year old in there makes for its own kind of crazy.

It was a bittersweet time to be in the Dallas area. They were two days away from breaking the record for consecutive 100-degree temperatures, and it was only 94 on Thursday. This might not seem like cause for disappointment, but I suppose if it’s going to be 100+ degrees for 39 days you might as well get the record book credit for it. We didn’t let it ruin our time; the boys had so much fun together. Jack Henry couldn’t get Hudson’s name stuck in his head the first day and so just called him “Green Shirt,” but that worked too. Hudson tagged along wherever they went, happily exploring the wonderland of trash trucks and bulldozers and Hot Wheels. It was a little hard to get pictures of everyone. I had to catch them when they were snacking or otherwise immobilized.

That’s not to say it was without incident. Charlie and Hudson had some…intense encounters. You don’t have more than one two-year old in a room at a time without a little intensity. It may look like they are holding hands in this picture, but I’m pretty sure Charlie is pulling Hudson’s hair and Hudson is digging his fingernails into Charlie’s arm.

But all’s well that ends well. You can tell we hang out with a lot of little girls—when it was time to leave, Jack Henry and Charlie were expecting high fives but Hudson went in for hugs.

I didn’t get any pictures of Kendra and I climbing on anything or eating snacks but we had just as much fun together as the boys did. Was a great trip and will be fun to watch these boys hang out again.

Hi, Ho the Dairy-o

2011-08-08T10:17:00.001-07:00

An excerpt from today’s “nap:”

We hear a lot of variations on "Farmer in the Dell” these days. Sometimes the farmer takes “a wife,” but sometimes the farmer takes “a life” instead. It’s kind of dark, but if you have recently listened to the lyrics of some nursery rhymes, it’s actually not too far out there. “Sally has the whooping cough; Jimmy has the measles. That’s the way the money goes. Pop! goes the weasel.” Kind of makes you just want to stick to the first verse.

On a happier note, we had a great weekend. Jeremy and Hudson kicked it off with a cup of coffee

and then spent some time at the Children’s Museum. This was Jeremy’s first trip and so Hudson had to show him around a little bit.

I don’t know who took more convincing to leave the Lego table: Jeremy or Hudson.

We otherwise laid pretty low for fear of melting if we were outdoors too much. Plus the rest of it is too embarrassingly boring (e.g., this weekend only, get into Sam’s Club without a membership!) to memorialize. On to a more exciting week-

Happy camper

2011-08-05T14:25:00.001-07:00

Hudson went to camp this week. He loved it.

Some day camp will be more of a commitment than a couple of hours in the morning just down the street, but it’s enough for now. He had a lot of fun—made tons of crafts, learned lots of songs, met some new friends, and was apparently swallowed by a whale.

I thought maybe they learned about Jonah that day, but don’t really remember there being a beach ball in the story. His favorite take home was probably his “sungasses” which he, regretfully, wants to wear everywhere we go.

I feel like this week has been one of those weeks that I really notice him changing. His standard answer to the question, “What did you do while you were there?” is “I pay trucks.” But this week he came home and actually told me what he did at camp (“I pay in sand with dolphin and starfish and seashells. I go outside and eat popsicles.”). He could tell me who all was in his class. He was singing songs he learned, and not just the first line. One day he was breathing kind of slow and heavy and I asked if he was okay. “I taking a deep breaf.” It took a few follow up questions to figure out he’d learned that from his teacher at camp. (Which made me wonder if she was really teaching a room full of two-year olds to take a deep breath or if she was telling herself to take one?) When he’s over at the fireplace (or as he prefers to call it, his “workshop”) playing, he’s saying things I haven’t heard him say before. He still has a very two-year old worldview. I heard him put the cheetah in time out after he scolded him for being “not too nice” to the frog. Here’s hoping the cheetah is the only one that deserves a time out this weekend-

Are you smarter than a two-year old?

2011-08-02T19:38:00.001-07:00

I can’t always answer that question in the affirmative, but score one today for the parent. We have been having an issue at nap time. In order to protect Hudson’s dignity and because this is a family show, I will only say this: when I go in to get him, he bears a striking resemblance to a certain emperor that wasn’t actually wearing fancy invisible clothes. It’s a problem.

My first thought was to secure the diaper better (with duct tape, maybe?) but then decided that wasn’t really addressing the root cause. So instead I dug out an old onesie, thinking the snaps would be the first line of defense. I was only partially right.

He couldn’t get the onesie off, but if you look closely, he almost got the diaper off anyway. His diligence on this project occupied the entire time that had been allotted to napping. So today I took it to the next level.

When I left him for the nap, he was saying, “I don’t like dis.” He kept saying it for awhile, but then he got quiet. I assumed the worst: that he was fastidiously working on unfastening the straps and returning to his preferred state of dress (or lack thereof). But when he summoned me two hours later, he had actually taken a normal nap, fully clothed. I know that just because I won a battle doesn’t mean I will win the war, but it’s nice to at least win a battle occasionally.

“Mommy, look at all dees Hussons!”

2011-07-29T20:45:00.001-07:00

Hudson discovered the three-way mirror this week while I ran in to try on a shirt.

But it wasn’t all self-observation this week. We were lucky enough to be Baby Benjamin’s first ever lunch date, and Hudson carefully observed him.

He also observed Hannah and Vyvi playing dress up at a play date. (These are actually other kids’ shoes and not dress up shoes they’re playing with, but who am I to stop them?)

I observed some new behavior myself this week. He is super social these days, giving everyone a big, obvious wave and a “Hello!” and a hug and/or blowing a kiss when we leave. He hasn’t let up on the questions, but has added a few new ones. In addition to the regular queries (where everyone lives, who they are, where their mommies and daddies are, where their truck is) he has added questions about the provenance of certain things. I think this started by my telling him that Jeremy gave me my wedding ring, and quickly spiraled out of control from there. Today he held up his sippy cup and asked, “Who gave me dis, Mommy?” The good thing about this question is that it has maybe three possible answers which makes it less open-ended than some. It’s hard to know how to answer the question, “Where does the Christmas tree live?” The Christmas tree farm? The parking lot of Home Depot the week after Thanksgiving? Christmas lives in your heart? Maybe I’m overthinking it. Happy weekend-

Cut, Cap and Stay up Late

2011-07-25T20:38:00.001-07:00

We let Hudson stay up late tonight to watch the President’s speech and the Speaker’s response.

He didn’t totally follow the policy arguments, but did appreciate the bipartisan effort to postpone bedtime and was sorry it didn’t run longer.

His weekend was far less complicated. Swimming with Benjamin: fun.

Ice cream cone with Jeremy: also fun.

Here’s to more of the latter-

Evacuate the dance floor

2011-07-22T14:13:00.001-07:00

We have been at VBS this week. It is an all morning deal which is a pretty big change from Hudson’s regular routine and has thrown his nap totally out of whack. Tuesday he slept for 5 (5!) hours, but yesterday he laid in his bed for an hour and a half pretending to be a tractor. It also seems to have affected his dance moves. (That beat dropping in the background is “Wheels on The Bus – The Remix.)

He had a great week. You can’t really tell from his official picture

but he woke up every morning asking, “Go Vacation Bible Skoo today?” He happily packed up and took his waffle to go (it’s a little earlier than he’s accustomed to getting up and around) and headed out, fully hydrated.

He loved his teacher; today when we left he threw his arms around her neck and said, “Bye bye!!” She knew him back when he was a screamer, so she appreciated it as much as anyone.

I spent the week with the 3-year olds. You don’t spend a week with 3-year olds without learning something and I learned a lot. Like that being “almost potty trained” is worse than not being potty trained at all. And that snacks are critical to a successful morning. (If you are reading this and your kid was in our group, I apologize for putting our short term desire for a happy kid over your long term goals of good nutrition.) But we had a great week and was fun to be with those little guys and hear how their little brains work. It’s hard to imagine Hudson will be that big next summer.

To a good weekend-

Best. In-Laws. Ever.

2011-07-18T12:26:00.001-07:00

Jeremy and I went to New York for a few days last week while Hudson was out of town visiting Amy and Kelby.

It wouldn’t be exactly accurate to say we didn’t miss him. Every time we saw a crane or a trash truck or a bus or a taxi, we thought about him. There was a life-sized Elmo walking around in Times Square, and we definitely missed him then. Jeremy especially missed him when I made him be in some pictures, like at the Museum of Natural History, that I would have otherwise taken of Hudson.

I couldn’t convince Jeremy to have his picture taken at the end of the stages of human evolution exhibit. The initial request was for him to stand in front of the first stage (i.e., pre-monkey), but that was summarily dismissed.

We thought about him at every restaurant we wouldn’t have been able to go to if he’d been with us, and at the end of every day when we’d walked 5000 blocks without pushing a stroller or carrying an extra 25 pounds. We got Letterman tickets (!) and he came to mind when we read the sign that strictly prohibited entry by persons under the age of 18.

But when we got back home, we missed him for reals. When we put the cars away, they stayed put away. There were no block towers or tractors lined up or books left on the couch. So when that little chatterbox knocked on the front door, we were beside ourselves.

He’d gone home from Hot Springs with Amy and Kelby, and from what I understand, had an even better week than we did. There was every imaginable encounter with nature. I am not exaggerating: he came home talking about how tadpoles turn into frogs and caterpillars turn into butterflies. When prompted, he says this is “meddamoafasisisis” [metamorphosis]. He caught a fish and handled a bird and raced beetles. He went to the tractor store and to both great grandmothers’. Seriously, he had a great week.

There were some other things that everyone was a little cagey about. Like when we all got in the pool Saturday and he jumped off the steps for the first time. Kelby said it was probably because he got brave jumping off the ladder at their house. This got him a sharp elbow from Amy, and the issue was not raised again. I didn’t ask too many questions—all’s well that ends well. I wouldn’t dare complain anyway: they kept him for a week and delivered him back home with his clothes washed and folded which are all independently pretty great.

They spent the weekend here before heading home. There were a few more books with Amy.

And Kelby let him “take a showder” in the rain on Saturday afternoon.

Parting was sweet sorrow for all parties. I have answered questions as to Pap and Pacha’s whereabouts all morning long. We’re glad to have him back, complete with the Louisiana updates. He’s lucky to have such devoted fans-

10 Things to do in Hot Springs

2011-07-10T21:35:00.001-07:00

We went to visit Zach in Hot Springs this weekend. If you haven’t been there, it is a great trip. Arkansas seriously suffers from some bad PR. The first time I went I couldn’t believe how beautiful it was, and thought the same thing this time. (Proposed slogan: “Arkansas: It’s Way Better than You Think It Is.”) A suggested itinerary:

1. Go see Bath House Row.

2. Go see the Museum of Contemporary Art.

3. Sew.

4. Promenade.

5. Rest.

6. Be a dude, using Kelby as your inspiration.

7. Watch a rainstorm.

8. Go swimming.

9. Help Zach.

If it is taking too long to open the remote control motor boat, just jump in there.

Help him devise an alternative use for his to-scale architectural model, such as a landing pad for a Blackhawk helicopter and/or a tractor motorcross course.

10. Drive a boat.

Hudson started as a passenger.

But after some experience riding, he felt fully qualified to drive.

It was surprising how low key he was about this, as if it was no big deal that he was behind the steering wheel. That look on his face in the second picture is pretty much the expression he wore the whole time.

You may want to call ahead to make sure everyone is going to be there before you go. Hudson certainly did. He checked in with almost everyone he knows on the drive in.

We were glad he did. It was great to be with everyone this weekend-

Magic School Bus

2011-07-08T06:04:00.001-07:00

Busy day. We had a birthday party this morning

swimming this afternoon

and then spent the rest of the day on the road. (Warning: several of these are grandparent-length videos.)

4th of July

2011-07-05T18:44:00.001-07:00

We had a great Independence Day. No fireworks here this year because it’s so dry, but there was no shortage of activity. Angie and her family and my parents came in for the weekend. 66.7% of Angie’s kids had been at my parents’ for the week, so they did the drop off at our house. It was great to have everyone here. Hudson was delighted to see his MiMi, and think she might have been a little bit glad to see him too.

Of course he was thrilled to see the cousins. They all have their own special bonds together. Evan shot up in the rankings with his introduction of the DS.

Natalie is still his sweet caretaker, even if it involves putting herself on the line.

I can’t always get Sarah’s on camera because sometimes there is a life and/or limb in jeopardy. But they have definitely gotten to a much better place. You would not have seen this kind of a collaborative effort last summer.

We spent most of Saturday in the pool. It’s the easiest way to entertain four kids (five if you count Byron), with the bonus result that everyone under the age of 9 was fast asleep by 9:00.

After swimming we ate some delicious pork that Jeremy spent all day smoking and then channeled the last remaining energy into a pretty major effort to collect every golf tee within a 5 mile radius. I think we got close.

I somehow didn’t get many pictures with Sherri, possibly because she was asleep on the couch (or the back porch, or the chair). I think she has been with more little people during her month in Texas than she has been in her entire time in California, and she was an unbelievably good sport. Sarah wouldn’t let us put Memory away after dinner because Sherri promised her she was going to finish her game. And it wasn’t just something she told Sarah just to throw her off the trail—she actually did it. She even stuck around to put together a puzzle, which couldn’t have been easy under the circumstances.

We said good-bye on Sunday, and the silence was deafening. Hudson built block towers and got in the pool, but it’s hard to recreate the energy levels.

On the actual 4th, we laid pretty low. The smallest member of our family slept through the parade, so we decided we should at least go to the festival even though there were not going to be fireworks. I’m not sure Hudson knew to be disappointed about the fireworks. This is his second year of no fireworks so he was perfectly content with patting a pony and making a 4th of July hat.

If this had been an actual hat, designed and purchased for the purpose of being worn on one’s head, he would have refused to wear it. Since it was instead a paper plate with slits cut in the top, he insisted on wearing it. As you can imagine, it makes for kind of a long walk when you have to accommodate such an accessory.

A great holiday. We were thankful for the time with family and thankful to live in this country. Cue the Lee Greenwood-

“I’ll take ‘Days of the Week’ for $200, Alex.”

2011-06-30T21:06:00.001-07:00

I guess Hudson picked this up at my parents’ house, because I don’t remember him doing it before I left. If you ask him a question, he answers with another question. I can’t really catch him doing it on video, but here’s an example. In his pre-interrogatory phase, if you asked him what day it was he just threw something out there (usually Thursday). But now if you ask him, he phrases his answer in the form of a question:

And again, looking for input while he’s putting a puzzle together. (Only watch this if you are crazy patient. It is kind of excruciating to watch him be five millimeters away from putting the piece where it goes but instead turning it so that it’s now five millimeters away in the other direction.)

He does it a lot when we’re in the car: “Is it sunny outside?” “Is it cloudy outside?” “Is it hot in Mommy’s car?” “Is Mommy driving?” It somehow always comes back to, “Is it Thursday?” I usually let him go through this rhetorical exercise alone, as they are always questions that he already knows the answer to, but occasionally take the bait. Today he held his cup up for me to see and asked, “Is it green?” Yes, I confirmed, it is. “That’s right, Mommy!” Always good to get a little positive reinforcement.

My mom went to San Francisco and all I got was this t-shirt.

2011-06-28T19:34:00.001-07:00

I’m back from my annual trip with my girls. This year we went to San Francisco to stomp around Candace’s neighborhood. Notice there is a little face missing from this picture that was in the last group of San Francisco pictures.

I didn’t dare tell Hudson where we were going. I don’t think he made the connection when I gave him the San Francisco t-shirt I got him.

This was the longest I’ve been away from him, and the good-bye was a little tough. He started watching me pretty carefully mid-morning, and his suspicions were confirmed when he caught me putting the suitcase in the car. I picked him up and told him, “Mommy’s going on a trip.” He shook his head no, had his little arms wrapped around my neck and his feet locked around my waist (baby monkey-style) and said, “Husson go on trip.” And then, by divine intervention, the trash truck drove by. He immediately let go of me, pulled Mom down the driveway to get a better look, and never looked back. It hurt a little bit to see the void left by his mother’s absence could be filled by a trash truck, but what can you do?

I think he would agree he came out on top anyway. He spent the weekend at my parents’, and he’ll take that deal every time. Not only did he get some QT with my parents, which would have been enough to make him super happy, they have some family in and out right now so he also got to spend some time with my cousin Sherri and another cousin Cade.

And just to make it extra fantastic, Natalie and Sarah were there at the end of his trip.

So it was a pretty fun weekend for him, too. I’m not sure he had a single unfulfilled request while he was there.

I had a great time on our trip, of course, and it was fun to have been there so recently with Hudson. I think I figured out the trick to make walking the San Francisco hills seem easy: do it once with a two-year old in a backpack, and then do it the next time without. I couldn’t help thinking about how much he loved the bus and the train and the boats and the flowers, and hearing him point out every one he saw along the way. It was a very different trip without him, for sure, but it wasn’t all bad to go to a restaurant without regard to whether they had chicken strips. It was so good to be with my girls, and so good to see my little monkey when I got home. You know what they say about absence and growing fonder-

Father’s Day

2011-06-20T05:06:00.001-07:00

We went camping at Inks Lake this weekend for Father’s Day. We have been meaning to get together with our friends Levi and Rachel since early spring, but our schedules just didn’t seem to jive until this weekend. If I had fully understood what it meant to go camping in June, I would have made every effort to make our schedules jive in early spring. It was Hot.

But I got all kinds of bonus points this weekend: sleeping in a tent (+1), swimming in a lake (+2), using a community bathhouse (+5), spending the entire day outside (+1 point for every degree over 90 degrees, for a total of 11 points).

Hudson, of course, loved it. He helped pack the car. (For the record, Hudson got dressed first.)

And sort of helped put up the tent when we got there.

The only other time he has slept in a tent was when we went camping last year with Levi and Rachel. They have a little girl that is almost the same age as Hudson. Last time it took them awhile to get warmed up, but not this time.

Hudson was powerless against her. She would walk up to him, stick out her hand, and he would just give her whatever he had—her wagon, his trucks, his milk, whatever.

(I don’t know if it’s clear from this picture, but she is driving his front-end loader over his head and he is smiling.) Don’t judge him for being so acquiescent. She has the sweetest little smile and voice you can imagine. So when she says, “I want that, please” you really have no choice but to give it to her.

We spent most of the day in the water. This took some convincing, both for Hudson and me, but we came around.

It was actually quite pleasant down by the water. There was a nice breeze and good shade and we kind of had the area to ourselves. Hudson was in the water from about 11:00 until about 6:00. When we came back to figure out what was for dinner, there was a family of deer around our tents doing the same thing.

It was funny to hear the two of them trying to figure out where the “Mommy deer” and “Daddy deer” were going. After dinner, both of the baby deer were pretty bushed.

In fact, this was Hudson at almost 9:00 this morning.

A quick word about the unbelievable hotness in the tent. It was like a little convection oven in there. We had everything open that could be open and still keep out the bears, but it was just not breezy. I was laying there sweating at midnight (sweating! at midnight!), trying to think positive. “At least there are no mosquitoes.” But then I decided that being in a place that is too hot for blood-sucking insects is not really a positive. So instead I decided to think about how much I loved those two boys in my tent. Enough to be in a tent with them. And that made it a little more bearable.

Two enthusiastic thumbs up

2011-06-15T20:17:00.001-07:00

Hudson saw his first movie on the big screen today. They do this thing here in the summer where they show kids’ movies and only charge $1/person to get in. I keep thinking we would try it, and this week’s movie was pretty tolerable (even at $1/person, I still can’t do Marmaduke: The Movie) so we went. Hudson thought it was a good time.

I didn’t even know they made booster seats for movies. When you’re a lightweight, you kind of need the booster seat.

I didn’t take a picture of how he ended up, which was with the seat folded up, standing in the little gap, with his arms folded on the top of the seat. It didn’t look like something a responsible parent would let her kid do, unless it was the only thing that made her kid stop saying, “No, Mommy, I stand in seat.”

He did pretty well and seemed to like the whole experience. He sat in his seat awhile; sat in my lap awhile; stood up awhile. We ran into some friends from church there, and so he wandered up and down our row a few times saying hello to everyone. It’s not saying much to say he was less disruptive than some of the other audience members but, for whatever it’s worth, he was.

After the movie we came home and got in the pool. Hudson has made real progress since last week. Now that there has been a stand down from the swimming lessons, he seems to be willing to work at it. As of this week, he will put his face in the water. After he’s double triple sure you are watching him.

At swimming lessons, his teacher tried to get him to put his face in to retrieve some beads from the top step. Turns out if you replace the beads with trucks, he’s willing to retrieve them from the next step down.

This is a big improvement—even when I tried this earlier this week, he got the trucks by picking them up with his toes. Now that he gets it, I could probably get him to swim the length of the pool if I could figure out how to make his John Deere tractor float.

Go Mavs!

2011-06-13T13:18:00.001-07:00

Hudson and Jeremy settled in last night to watch what we hoped was the last game of the series. Actually Hudson, Jeremy, the farmer (in the right hand) and a bulldozer (in the left hand) all tuned in.

Hudson was happy to see Miami’s championship dreams deferred. He was less enthusiastic that his bedtime was only deferred until halftime.

In other basketball news, we had three basketball teams’-worth of kids at our house this weekend. I have some friends from Houston that I get together with every summer for a girls’ weekend. For reasons relating to adoption and kids’ schedules and family vacations, there wasn’t really a good weekend this summer and so we decided to let the husbands and kids come and just make a day of it. It was so much fun. I still can’t believe we got them all in one picture.

We spent the whole day in the pool, breaking only occasionally for food and to reload the shoulder-mounted rocket launchers.

There were 15 kids here altogether (we’re kind of the lightweights with just one kid) ranging in age from 8 months to 6 years and so it was especially nice to have husbands here. Notice anything great about this picture? Hint: none of the mommies are in it.

We also tried out the Slip and Slide. The two year olds were skeptical.

But it turned out to be pretty fun. Some kids loved it more than others.

Even when we weren’t in the pool, there were still good times. Hudson was delighted to see his friend Anna Teresa again. One day he will distinguish between hugging a girl and putting her in a choke hold, but for now the line is pretty blurry.

We eventually dried off and changed out swimsuits for pajamas. The husbands went home with their respective charges and the girls went to dinner, so really it was the best of both worlds. Josh and Shannon spent the night, which was great because it gave us some extra time with their new sweet babies.

And it gave Clark some extra time to hit golf balls.

It was great to have everyone here and to see all the kids playing together. Since everyone was outside all day, it was a pretty easy party to host. Plus we had kind of a built-in clean up crew here, e.g., if anyone laid down their watermelon, Diego came behind them and ate the rest of it; Hudson parked himself over by the chips and caught any that missed the plate. With the exception of a couple of sunburned shoulders, I don’t really think it could have gone any better—a pretty bold claim considering all the parties involved.

At least he didn’t cry over it

2011-06-10T19:45:00.001-07:00

I dropped a gallon of milk in the driveway this morning unloading groceries. Hudson seized the opportunity.

I know--gross, right? But honestly it was better than the commentary he was providing. “Mommy drop the milk.” “Mommy make a mess.” “Mommy wash car [with] milk.” I was finally able to channel his energy into something more productive.

Nothing could have spoiled his mood today. He was thrilled not to be staring down the barrel of his second annual Bad Experience With Swimming Lessons. The teacher was really good; the student was a bit of a challenge. Monday got off to a pretty good start, but he was over it somewhere around the middle of the second day and things went steadily downhill from there. It wasn’t a complete loss--he’s doing good at blowing bubbles and kicking and so we’ll just keep working at it. I know he’ll figure it out. Although past performance is no guarantee of future returns, it has been my experience that he will do things when he’s ready, without regard to the amount of effort you put into convincing him that he is ready before that. So today he especially enjoyed being in the pool with his buddies Jackson and Elijah without the rigors of monkey walking along the edge.

He is totally stoked about all of his friends coming over tomorrow. I'm totally stoked that they are bringing their mothers. Looking forward to a good weekend-