Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Thanksgiving and a one year old's party

One of these days, I will be all caught up on the unpacking and moving into the new place, and have plenty of spare time to update the site. Unfortunately, that time has not yet come.

 I cant believe it has already been a year since Hudson was born. He has grown so much and is starting to figure out his own personality. In fact, we got into our first argument one evening. He grinds his teeth , and does it so much that he has started to wear grooves into his teeth. Heather and I try to discourage this behavior. So we were sitting down to dinner one night, and I hear him grind his teeth. So I look at him and sternly say, "Hudson, no." He starts crying tears of sadness, but that quickly changes to tears of anger. He then cuts his eyes at me, balls up his fists, sets his jaw, and while still looking directly at me, grinds his teeth again. I repeated "Hudson, NO!" which started his crying again, starting the cycle over again.
He had a wonderful time opening his presents. Like most babies, I think he enjoyed the wrapping paper more than the actual gift.
Hudson said that, for his birthday dinner, he wanted spaghetti and carrot cake. At least, that I what I heard. But then, while we were at the store, he found a bright green cake in the bakery and lunged for it out of my arms. His birthday meal was a mess, and when we brought out the cake, it just got messier.
By the end of the day, he was pretty tired, so we hosed him down in the bathtub and then off to bed.

Thanksgiving was exciting. Heather's aunt, cousin and family came to our house on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. Our house was able to successfully accommodate all 9 people in recently unpacked rooms. All the kids had fun playing around the house. Unfortunately, the party was cut short due to a stomach bug, and they headed home on Tuesday.
The best way to start of a weekend full of unpacking and organizing the house isn't complete without chocolate donuts with sprinkles.
Now that we have the games unpacked, Sara Beth has found several that she has not seen before.
Hudson loves his food. It is one of the few things he has a strong opinion about. He has progressed to the point where he basically can feed himself. I will put pieces of food on his tray and he will grab whatever is his favorite and shove it in his mouth, or smash it up and throw it to the floor if he is full. Or, if he is chewing on something and I put a tastier piece of food on his plate, then he will reach in his mouth and pull out whatever he was chewing on, so that he can shove the new food in with a minimum of delay. Of course, he does like to be babied and spoon fed when there are people around that will do it for him.
There is only one thing that can make Hudson take his mind of a tray full of food, and that is his sister. He will always watch whatever she is doing and he will get all excited and smile whenever she over and starts interacting with him.
Hudson is getting better at walking around. He can push the trash can and chairs all around the kitchen, and only rarely will he pull one on top of himself. There have been a couple times in the past week where he has been standing up, balancing on his own for a couple seconds without holding onto anything.