Friday, August 24, 2012

Food and toys

So Hudson learned his third word. Mama was #1. Dada was #2 and Nana is #3. He says it every time he sees a banana that he wants to eat (which is every banana he sees). He will get all excited and begin kicking his feet as he reaches towards the fruit.
He will also occasionally say nana whenever he sees some other food item that he wants to shovel into his mouth. 
Sara Beth has been bing into tea parties recently. We had purchased some sparkling lemon juice and fruit flavored teas, and she has nearly finished off both of them.
One evening Sara Beth announced that she was setting up for a tea party and we should all get ready. She  brought out all the fancy plastic china and set it around the dining room table along with some wooden cookies and spice containers. She then came into the play room where Heather and I were playing with Hudson and announced that the tea party was ready. Heather and Sara Beth were very excited to have tea.
Hudson and I are not quite as excited about the tea party thing but we played along.
We did "make your own pizza" last Friday. Sara Beth kept explaining that her pizza had just the right amount of olives and cheese.
So Heather has been asking me to bring down some of the toddler toys that we have stockpiled in the attic. I finally got around to it, and Hudson is a huge fan. He is our little electronics addict, and absolutely loves all the lights and sounds that the table makes. It is good exercise for him as his leg muscles still have trouble holding him upright, but he will play with the table till his legs give out.
I also brought down a play house. At first Sara Beth was having so much fun re-playing with it that she didn't want Hudson messing with it, but after she went back to her big girl toys and tea parties, Hudson quickly figured out how to push open the door, crawl through, and then spin around and close the door behind him.
But, sometimes the most basic things become the best toys however. Hudson will happily entertain himself with just a pile of towels.

Friday, August 10, 2012

Cooler Weather

Now that summer is in full swing down her in Texas, we went up to Wisconsin to enjoy their cooler weather. DFW was quite a mess, with construction work on the roads causing us to circle around the airport before we could get to the remote parking. 
 The two hour plane flight to Wisconsin ended up taking 5 hours. As we were on our decent into Milwaukee, thunderheads rolled in, which meant the plane was diverted to O'Hare. Around the time we landed in Chicago, the Milwaukee airport was ready to receive planes again, but our plane needed to refuel. By the time our plane was tanked up, the bad weather from Milwaukee had made its way down to Chicago, so we were grounded on the runway waiting for the weather to clear again. It was a long flight but the kids did well considering the circumstances.
 After a day recovery in Kenosha, we all jumped into the car and my Aunt drove us up to north Wisconsin to my parents summer cottage. They had picked out a room specifically for her and called it "Sara Beth's room" and put some fairy stickers over all the walls. Sara Beth loved it. Hudson slept in our room, but he loved the ability to wake up at 3am with the knowledge that we will pick him up so he doesn't wake the rest of the house.
 My dad has an aluminum fishing boat which we took out on lake Michigan a couple times. Initially, he was concerned that Sara Beth wouldn't like the waves once we got out of the harbor, but as you can see, she had a great time with the "big waves."
 We all went on a tour of a tug boat. Heather felt that the 3-story vessel with close quarters was a horrible combination of her fear of heights and tight enclosed spaces, but Sara Beth had a great time exploring it.
 We even got a quick family picture by a propeller near the tug.
 Sara Beth had been looking forward to going to the beach. Last time we were up in Wisconsin, the water was really cold, but that didn't stop her from wanting to go in.
 This time, the water was only slightly cool, so I went in with her once she was done collecting shells at the beach.
 We also took a trip up to Door County to see some of the sights, though we were constrained on how far we could go without encroaching on nap time for the kids. We got to explore Cave Point. While there, a dragonfly landed on my finger long enough for me to show it to Hudson and Sara Beth.
 We also found some tunnels through the rocks near the shore...
 Which Sara Beth eagerly climbed through. She even convinced Heather to come through one of them with her.
 Since my 31st birthday was right before the trip and Sara Beth's 4th birthday was during the trip, my parents threw a party for the both of us. I got a pair of shirts: one for me and one for Hudson.
 On the birthday cake, they put all my candles on one side, and Sara Beth's on the other. Sara Beth became a little concerned as my candle flames merged into a large foot tall flame that ended up setting off the smoke detector.
 On the way back down to my aunt's house, we stopped to look at some Indian burial mounds and walk down a nature trail. The trail was beautiful and we enjoyed the lack of triple digit temperatures.
 Hudson had been figuring out that he can make really loud screaming noises. It wasn't that big of a deal while walking outside, but we began to worry if he would continue to use this newfound skill on the flight back to Dallas.
 Sara Beth had a great time reading some books with Aunt Sue. And playing with the cowboy hat that Aunt Sue had. And playing with the stuffed animal sheep that she had too.
 We went to visit my Great Great Aunt Teddy. Sara Beth loved the chocolate milk that she got to drink over there. Hudson loved all the chocolate flavored graham crackers that he got to snack on.
 By the end of the trip, we were looking forward to being able to come home and sleep in our own beds and have the kids sleep in their own beds in a separate bedroom from ours. Hudson loved being able to crawl around on the floor in a totally baby proof house, where he could get into unsupervised mischief, though when he ended up pulling the stroller and horse on top of himself, he needed a little help to get free again.