Saturday, June 23, 2012

Holding things

Hudson has become fully mobile. Not exactly crawling but he can get where he wants to go by rolling around. Heather called me last Friday to let me know that for the first time, Hudson preferred to be rolling around on the ground instead of being held by Heather.
Of course, he is still figuring out how the world works, so he regularly will pull over Sara Beth's toys. We have started working with Sara Beth to remind her that if she does not want Hudson to chew on one of her toys, then she needs to keep them off the floor and in her room.
Sara Beth saw some small rabbits in our backyard. When she went to go pet them, they ran under our hot-tub. She wanted to feed the bunnies, and I told her that they might be living under the hot tub. She became very excited and thought that they were "so cute". She brought two leaves of lettuce and some carrots and put them next to the tub. The next morning there were nibbles on it and by that evening, they were gone. She will now regularly ask for lettuce and go place it outside.

Sara Beth has become strong enough to pick up Hudson. She was almost able to carry him over to the rocking chair and begin to rock him. We had to help as she scooted into the chair since, by then, her grip had slipped and her arms were wrapped around Hudson's neck. Hudson didn't seem to mind as he got to be near his big sister. He is a tough little kid. At one point we were in the back yard, and I was helping Hudson stand in the grass, when I looked down and saw ants swarming and biting his foot, but he didn't even seem to notice.

Despite worries of Hudson chewing on her stuff and pulling her hair, Sara Beth does enjoy playing with Hudson. She had a friend over yesterday and they invited Hudson to come play with them. They reassured Heather that they would pick up the small toys so Hudson would not choke on them, and that they would not let him escape.

Monday, June 18, 2012

Peek-a-boo

So, Hudson has really started to be more aware of the world around him, which means that he now is observant enough to play peek-a-boo. It is is favorite game to play, though that might have something to do with the fact that he doesn't know how to play many other games.
His fourth tooth has now come in. Like all normal babies, he was drooling like a faucet before the tooth finally poked through the gum. We now call him the four toothed wonder. 
Sara Beth is still obsessing over having either Heather or I be her "Word Horse". She will ride us around the house, keeping an eye out for wolves or coyotes. If I see a wolf while being her horse, I will buck her off onto the nearest couch. She then informs me that I caused her to crush her favorite tomato plant or apple tree. She then needs to ride me to the nearest plant store so she can purchase a new plant to replace the crushed one.
Hudson has really gotten the food thing figured out. He now reaches out to grab food and can shovel it effectively into his mouth (I would guess only 20% misses and ends up in his lap or on the floor). He definitely gets excited when he sees a Mum-Mum (rice cake) package being opened.
Rain has been pouring from the sky these past couple of weeks. It has made the grass nice and green, and it has caused a population explosion among the frogs living down by the local pond. We took Sara Beth down with a net and a bucket to bring some of them back home to our back yard. She carried the bucket with 4 frogs back to our house. She was very proud and excited to release her collection into the muddy part of our back yard. Now, I just need to be careful with the lawnmower as, apparently, Heather and I have heard that the frogs around here are not very bright and don't play well with lawn mowers.
Now that we have lived in our house for over 8 years, our bathroom counter top had started to get stained and chipped, so to celebrate Heather and my 10th wedding anniversary, we treated ourselves to new bathroom counter tops. Sara Beth got her construction gloves and mask on and helped me remove the faucets. Hudson mostly just watched.

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Memorial Weekend

You know, it seems that every post recently starts this way: I'm behind schedule again. I am enjoying these times with my family, but always seem to run out of time to record the memories. So, once again, I am will be discussing events that have happened two weeks ago, and I don't think the pattern is going to change any time soon. At the end of this month, Heather and the kids are taking a trip to Alabama to visit her family while I go off to New Orleans to help out with our church's youth mission trip.
  Speaking of family, Heather's mom and step dad came into town the Wednesday before Memorial Day for a brief visit. I'm not sure it was a vacation for them as much as it was a vacation for us. We put them to work feeding Hudson and entertaining Sara Beth while Heather and I got to sit back and relax. It was great. Hudson keeps improving his table food skills. Dennis even got Hudson his very own order of fries when we went to the local burger restaurant. By the time Hudson was done, there were partially chewed fries strewn  in a large circle on the floor, but he sure was proud of himself.
Sara Beth also brought out her toys and demonstrated to Cindy how to use them. Sara Beth soaked up all the extra attention, showing off her drawing skills and asking people to come play in her bedroom with her. 
Sara Beth checked out a book from the library about a girl who did barrel racing on a horse. Sara Beth asked to read that story every night at bed time. But it didn't stop there. Soon, she put her tea cups out in the middle of the play room as barrels and would race around them with her stuffed horse between her legs. Then she wanted to sit on Heather (aka "Word Horse") and ride her around barrels. Before dinner last week, I got down next to her and asked if she wanted to ride on my back around the house. She said "No, you're not Word Horse." I then asked her who I was then. She responded, "You're no one." But, fortunately, last night, she changed her mind and decided she would ride me around the house after all.
Hudson will babel, but he will regularly say "MaMa," much to Heather's delight. Sara Beth now tries to get his second word to be "sister". Sara Beth does love to interact with Hudson. She will now go up to him and work to get him to smile. She will hold his arms and rock him back and forth or bring him a toy when he is crying. Honestly though, it really isn't all that hard for her to make Hudson smile; Hudson adores her.

So, Sara Beth definitely takes after her mother when it comes to cleaning and organization. Most of the time, she makes the messes that the typical 3 year old would, but one day after dinner, she told us she was going to reorganize the cabinet where we throw our Tupperware. She set out on her task, taking all of it out, stacking the similarly shaped items and sorting out the lids. She then placed them all back into the cabinet and actually made it into an organized and usable space. She even put the "kids tupperware" (the small ones that she likes to play with) on their own shelf so they are easier for her to access. I was impressed.