Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Fever, frogs and feline toys

Hudson is a very happy little guy. He is full of smiles and energy (and drool). Except this past weekend, he came down with a fever. We kept his temerature under control with Tylenol, but he just wasn't himself, preferring to snuggle up close to us and be held tight. He woke up a couple nights in the middle of the night too, which just reminded Heather and I how grateful we are to be out of the infant stage. Fortunately, the fever has broke and he is returning to his normal smiling (and drooling) self.
 I don't exactly know how we got a new cat toy in the house. Our cats are rather lazy and don't really play with the toys that they already own. Sara Beth, on the other hand, thought that the new toy was great, and she pretended to be a cat and carry the toy in her mouth, pretending to chew on it.
 Hudson chortled  when he was tickled with the new toy. We didn't let him play with it unsupervised though, since, while Sara Beth would merely pretend to chew it, we knew that Hudson would put real effort into getting the colorful bits into his stomach.
 It rained briefly one afternoon last week. We took advantage of the opportunity and took the kids down to the nature trail to walk around. Sara Beth brought her bucket and bug net. Heather caught four frogs with the net and put them in Sara Beth's bucket. She brought them home and released them into our backyard. Two of them were rather tame and just sat around in Sara Beth and Heather's hands until it was time to go in for baths.
 Hudson has gotten to the point where he can start eating new foods. I gave him the soft parts of some popcorn we where having as part of dinner one night. He absolutely loved it and eagerly begged for more. When Sara Beth tried giving him some of her popsicle, he didn't know what to think. He liked the colors on it, but he didn't really care for the temperature of that frozen treat.
Sara Beth got a new dress in the mail from Aunt Doodle. She decided it looked like a fairy wedding dress, and she wore it to church on Sunday.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Save and a haircut

Well, the big news of the week is huge. On Sunday night, as I was putting Sara Beth to bed, she mentioned off-handedly, "last week during one of my quiet times, I asked Jesus into my heart." It was a proud father moment that I am still not able to accurately articulate. Being able to not only call her my daughter but also a sister in Christ is an amazing thing. She understood the basic concepts of what it meant, but we still have a long way to go in instructing her on what her decision means, but it is definitely a miraculous first step. And the fact that she did it of her own initiative makes me just that more proud of her.
On a more lighthearted note, the time has come for Hudson to get a hair cut. He had gotten to the point where baby boy's hair begins to need some differentiation to be separate from baby girl hair. Heather and Sara Beth were a little hesitant, but I went ahead and made a unilateral decision to cut it back down to a respectable length.
After it was all said and done, Heather did concede that it did look better, even though Hudson was no longer "fuzzy." Sara Beth still thinks it looked better longer.
Poor Catta. Sara Beth has fully determined that cat is fully hers, and that it ought to sleep in bed with her every night too. So, she will now chase the cat around the house, grab it, and snuggle it while carrying it back to her bedroom. She will then lock Catta in there to make her used to being there. Heather and I have explained that Catta needs to go to the bathroom at some point so she can't keep the cat in there all the time. To help Sara Beth, we bought some cat treats and gave them to Sara Beth to keep in her sock drawer. She will now give out cat treats every night at her bed time as long as the door remains open.
Sara Beth loves to care for people too, not just cats. She will feed Hudson whenever we give her the opportunity. Last week, I was tired and ready to take a nap. When Sara Beth found out about this, she decided to make an "extra comfy" bed out of the couch for me. She added all manner of pillows and got a blanket and had be lay down and tucked me in.
Hudson loves his food. He has really gotten into this whole eating thing. I cannot tell if watermelon or strawberries is his current favorite. In either case, if he sees either one on the table, then he will throw a fit until he gets it in his hands.
Hudson still is not yet crawling, but that doesn't prevent him from making a huge mess around the house. Heather put him down beside the bathroom while she was drying her hair this morning, and he rolled around the couch and starting playing under our bed. When we place him in the play room, he spread around any toys that are on the carpet, then roll over to a toy bin, and knock it over so that he can get to more toys.
This does lead to some funny situations once he gets into Sara Beth's pink princess dresses. 
Yesterday was my 31st birthday. We celebrated with the traditional spaghetti and carrot cake. Heather also got me enough cans of coconut juice to last a while. I also got some swim goggles as a present, though Sara Beth blurted out the details about it over the weekend (much to Heather's chagrin).

Friday, July 6, 2012

The little shutterbug's Alabama adventures

At our church, I help out with the youth group. This past week, they were going on a mission trip, however I didn't want to just leave Heather and the kids by themselves for the whole week. I know Heather could have handled it, but it wouldn't have been fun for anyone involved. When Cindy and Dennis heard about the youth mission trip, they thought the same thing, and volunteered to drive all the way from Alabama to Dallas to pick up Heather and the kids to take them back to Alabama for the week. Even though I was with a group of 39 junior high and high school students working all day, staying up late, and then getting up early the next morning, I got more rest than I would normally get in a week. Hudson has been teething like crazy and just got his 6th tooth. High school students don't wake you up in the middle of the night with sore teeth.
Sara Beth was a little shutterbug the entire trip. On my computer, I have a folder of pictures from the trip. 80% of them are from Sara Beth. With all the practice, her pictures are getting better. Most of the time, you can determine what subject Sara Beth of the picture was intended to be.
And some of the pictures that Sara Beth took were very good. Below is one she took of Hudson. Hudson will always smile for the camera if his favorite sister is taking the picture.
Heather and the kids went to see her Dad and Assi on a couple nights that week. Sara Beth had a great time picking tomatoes out of their backyard garden, and she commented that they were sweet like candy.
While over there, Sara Beth got a hold of the camera and made sure we got some pictures of her granddad's dogs.
One day, Heather and the kids went out to visit her cousin, Martha Worth, who has a stable full of horses. Sara Beth got to brush them, wear a cowgirl hat, and even got to ride one around (with some help).
Another day, Heather, Dennis, and the kids went to Dennis' brother's place. He doesn't have horses, but he does have donkeys and cows. The animals love to eat bread, so Sara Beth got to feed it to them from her hand.
Hudson, on the other hand, kept trying to eat the donkey's ear.
After driving with Heather back to Dallas, Cindy and Dennis stayed a day before turning around and returning back to Alabama. Sara Beth played all day with "Mr. Crab". Dennis' hand was a crab, and Sara Beth had the take good care of it to make sure it didn't get too crabby.
Hudson, on the other hand, was held, but he was on the lookout for something to stick in his mouth.