Sick Visit

Today had his first sick visit at the Doctor. I have been on pins and needles since Thurs night when started running a low- grade fever. Should I take him or should I not? His slight fever seemed to come and go randomly, and most of the time he was his normal self, playing and getting into mischief. Yesterday we decided that we would definitely take him this morning if he woke up with a fever again. I took him in and (of course) he didn't register a fever in the office. I learned that the rectal thermometer is not the most accurate? Wish I'd have known before poking it into his bottom about a million times to get an accurate temp! So all the times he was registering below 100.5, he actually didn't have a fever. Also, the pediatrician told me that I was wrong to attribute the low- grade fever to shots after the first 24 hours. At this point I was irritable and feeling foolish. The end of the story is that Hudson has some type of viral cold with yucky cough. We are putting him on steroids to try to clear up the congestion, but luckily it's all in his upper respiratory track, not down in his lungs. He has not been contagious, for which I am thankful! It is very stressful making decisions about this stuff! You know in your heart you are a good mom, but all the conflicting advice and modern medical junk makes you second- guess yourself! I'm glad I took him in, if only for my piece of mind, but wish the experience had been somewhat different.

Hudson v. the Pillows

I think Hudson may have a little O.C.D. (like both his parents.) He has to pull every pillow off the couch, love seat and side chairs. If you put them back, he immediately pulls them down again. He also does this at his Nana's house.

Look how happy he is when his task is complete! I wouldn't mind the mess, but he continually trips over them and falls into the coffee table. Maybe this is a stage he'll outgrow? We're going to have to up size our house to have room to walk!

Hudson's Birthday Party

These are just a few of the literally hundreds of pictures that we took at Hudson's 1st birthday party. Everything went really well, and I think both kids and adults enjoyed themselves. My goal was to make it kid friendly, so that Hudson could do whatever he wanted without me worrying over something breaking or getting knocked off a table into the floor.

His cute smash cake. He want so into the icing, but liked the cake.

Our little family.....Still eating... Auntie Am put this on his nose for a photo.

All clean!

The bubble machine was a big hit! I cleared out a space for the kids and let her rip during the whole party.

Who tied a balloon to his strap? That's just mean! (He looks like he enjoyed it, though.)

When's this party going to be over?

He had very limited interest in the presents, but liked the wrappings. Since he didn't want to open his presents, I opened them for him, and he eventually drifted over to get into the gifts.
Ooh.... a baseball!
He and Kennedy took turns getting in and out of the bag until it was completely demolished.
He really liked this truck set from Aunt Delores.

I'm glad everything went smoothly for his party. I liked having it somewhere other than our house, and will probably do that again next year.

Hudson's Birthday

Well, the big day has come and gone: Hudson is one year old now. I have been anticipating it for so long that today is kind of anticlimactic. We had a great family day together. Jimmy was off work and we went to the Georgia Aquarium, then took him to Shogun for lunch. At first he was a little afraid of the fire, but he liked it later when he saw it at the other tables. His present from us was a Power Wheels car. Jimmy couldn't wait and gave it to him the night before.

On his birthday when he got up the first thing he did was point at his car and want to go ride. He couldn't even wait to get dressed.

He's already gotten the hang of pushing the button to make it go, but of course he can't steer yet. We had a pitiful little cake that I baked then spackled together with frosting. He enjoyed eating it, and wasn't too messy! At one year old, he is obsessed with opening and closing doors. He's into everything! This week I saw him walking out of the bathroom with his shampoo bottle and haven't seen it since. There's no telling where he hid it! He's pointing at things that he wants and "talking," but there are no really recognizable words yet. He says Da Da and MaMa, but usually only when he's mad at me. He still only has 4 teeth. It has been 5 months now since he got a new tooth. I haven't weighed him in a while, I guess I'll find out his true weight at his 12 month check up next week. We have been going through a little bad spell with his behavior lately, but he seemed to do better yesterday, so maybe that's a thing of the past. Food-wise, he is still a great eater, but it's a mystery what he'll eat on any given day. He likes things one day, then won't eat them the next. I'll be glad when he gets older and I can tell him to eat what he's given, or wait until the next meal. Some days I feel like a short order cook.

In the tunnel at the aquarium. It wasn't very busy, so we just let him roam.

He was fascinated by all the fish and kept trying to touch them through the glass.

Driving with Daddy

On the way down to our neighborhood clubhouse yesterday, we let Hudson sit on Dady's lap for the one block ride. He loved getting to see out the windows. The ride took about as long as it took me to snap these two pictures, but he wouldn't take his eyes off the street for even a second to pose.

My two best fellas

The Streak

Yesterday Hudson took off (with his pants) before I could get him totally dressed. He really thinks he's something also when he gets one over on his mommy. He was cackling and going as fast as he could to get away from me. Notice I took a detour for the camera before pursuing him.

He also managed to drag rubbermaid lids out of the cabinet on his one man crime spree. This kid keeps me busy!

Action Man

Hudson has always been an active fella, but now that he's walking, there's just no stopping him! Here are just a couple of action shots that I took this past week. He's a climber- Hudson loves to climb on anything. I took his tray off the highchair for a much needed cleaning, and when I turned around he had drug it to the door to stand on. May be that extra two inches gave him a better vantage point? Meanwhile, Brady cleaned the tray for me.

Let me outta here! As soon as the tray's off, Hudson has started diving out of his chair. Just some random stuff, but we've been so busy chasing this guy and planning his party that I haven't gotten many good pics lately.

Picnic at Berry

This weekend we went to Berry College for a picnic with our friends, the Taylors. The weather was gorgeous! A last little bit of warm weather before fall sets in. We picked up lunch from one of my favorite delis in Rome, then headed out to a field for our picnic.

Natalie was worried about snakes and Jackson lost a shoe in the knee- high weeds! We played football with the boys and let them play in the trees, then loaded up to start our ride/ walk over the campus.

The trees were beautiful! We enjoyed just walking and looking at the colors. It was so nice not to have to carry Hudson everywhere we went, or to load up in a stroller.

Hudson and his handsome daddy

Chasing ducks- some of them were quite aggressive, and we later saw a girl throwing bread get nipped by one of the geese.

He was mesmerized by the water and the swan.

Beautiful fall colors. Never a picture with everyone looking the same direction, though!

Sweet, smiling baby.

Jackson the tree hugger. He is such a cute little boy.

He's had enough! One thing you can count on Hudson for is voicing his opinion! He will always let you know when things aren't going his way. At this point we'd been walking for about 45 minutes and he was completely over us, nature, and ESPECIALLY having his picture taken.

After a breather he's all smiles again!

Jackson begs for mercy from the eye- poking monster, Hudson!

All hugs and smiles. Jackson is so sweet with Hudson. He pats him gently on the head like a dog and gives him sweet hugs.

Frost Chapel is one of the most beautiful churches I've seen. There was a bride inside getting her pictures before her wedding and it was just breathtakingly beautiful. Two toddlers didn't fit into any wedding day plans, so we didn't poke around for long.

All out of smiles again. (But still looking cute!) This was one of the most fun family days we've ever spent. Things are so much easier now that he can eat and walk! I hope we can always be this happy.

The Playground

Yesterday on the way home from town, I stopped at the neighborhood playground to let Hudson swing. He had the best time. We hadn't been down in a while due to the weather but I don't think he ever enjoyed it more. He laughed so hard for 5 straight minutes that he couldn't get his breath and ended up with the hiccups. I got such a kick out of watching him that I went and got the camera from the car so that his daddy could see, too. By that time he had toned it down some, but you can still hear that sweet laugh.

He loves to slide but those rubber soles always stop him too quickly.