Photo Dump #5

Blame it on the Christmas season, but I've taken more pictures of Hudson in the last few weeks than ever.  Here are some random ones capturing our days.

Playing with Daddy's Marshall hat that he grabbed off of my head!

First time with his sippy cup.
I have no idea why this is sideways :(

Five minutes without a bib and this is what you get.

So this picture needs a bit of an introduction.  Hudson grabbed my napkin and started making this ridiculous face.  It is by far the funniest thing I've ever seen.  It's like crazy eyes on steroids.  I laugh everytime I see it.  In fact, just tonight I started laughing when I looked at it again.  So hard was I laughing that I was on the verge of tears and sweet Hudson started laughing with me.  Poor kid, he had no idea I was laughing at him.

Sweet baby falls asleep in my arms.

He thinks the Christmas tree is just an extension of his ExerSaucer.

Hudson's bedtime has been 8pm for about a month now.  But randomly tonight, he was just so happy and smiley and obviously not sleepy at all that he stayed up until 9.  I just couldn't bear to put him to bed.  He was eating up the attention, as was I.

 

I do believe this one below to be the most perfect picture ever of my sweet boy.  It captures his personality so well - sweet smile, happy eyes, and thumb in the mouth.

6 Month Collage

In honor of Hudson's recent 6 month birthday, I thought it would be fun to do a little collage to show how he's grown and changed.

 

 

My how he has grown.  You can see that months three and five appear to be his "chunkier" months - haha.  And thankfully, he seems to have grown into his nose.  Love this little guy so much!

Six Months

So I'm only 2 weeks behind - haha.

Hudson didn't grow much this month.  I, of course, was worried but Dr. B didn't seem concerned.  He is 10% for weight, 50% for height, and 25% for head circumference.  Though he's definitely slender, he's face and body definitely have some fat to them.  Dr. B thinks he's just got a fast metabolism.  I was super, super skinny until after college as was my Daddy so perhaps Hudson's inherited those Proctor genes.

He is thisclose to sitting up by himself.  He can do it for about 5 seconds until he loses his balance and falls over.  We basically have hardwood floors throughout (in actuality the floors are covered with thin commercial carpet so it's super hard) so I've been hesitant to let him practice sitting up too much because I'm afraid he'll hurt his little noggin, but I'm thinking we need to practice more.

He's still nursing about 5-6 times a day.  I'm so glad to have made it nursing this far and hope to continue as long as Hudson wants to.  We recently tried a sippy cup with some water in it and it was a moderate success.  He liked holding it, but didn't really drink from it - haha.  I think he thought it was a new toy.

I think this is my favorite age for babies.  He's so observant and notices everything.  He looks at me when I call his name, or even say "Hey Baby!" so I know his little brain is comprehending language more and more everyday.  He babbles all the time, particularly when it's just us and even "sings," especially when tired and trying not to fall asleep.  It's simply cute.

So far the one mild cold he had back in September has been his only illness.  We're so thankful for a healthy baby!  He has been fussy some due to teething.  He's got two prominent bumps on his lower gum but no teeth yet.  Dr. B confirmed that they are the beginning of teeth but said it could take up to 6 months before they actually come in.  Considering that he's bit me twice while breastfeeding (ouch!) I'm not necessarily wanting them to rush in. 

Can't believe that he's half a year old - crazy times!

Tender Tennessee Christmas

This past weekend, we all loaded up and headed south to TN to celebrate Christmas a few weeks early with my family.

I always have the hardest time knowing how to pack for Hudson.  I pride myself on being a light packer and usually pack less than James - haha.  But for Hudson, I overpack out of fear that he'll need something and we won't have it so I pretty much bring everything.  Sweet baby, he had the biggest suitcase of all of us! 

It takes 3 hours to get to where my family lives in TN.  I truly expected Hudson to sleep the entire time and he probably would have had he kept to his somewhat normal schedule of napping.  But the little stinker went down for a nap at 11:30 (we were leaving at 2) so he was wide awake for the first two hours.  He just babbled, looked out the window, waved his arms and legs; you know being generally adorable.

Then about 2 hours in, he got sleepy.  Look at that sweet yawn.

 

By the time we hit Bowling Green, which is about a hour away from our destination, he was out.

Hudson has traveled before, particularly when James was preaching in Northern Kentucky this past summer/fall.  However this was his first "more than one night" trip so I was eager to learn how he'd do.  As far as riding in the car, he was amazing.  But he struggled with sleeping away from home. 

We have a hand-me-down pack-n-play which he's slept in before, but now that he's older he is too aware of his surroundings.  As I was trying to get him to bed Friday night at my sister's house he kept looking around his cousin Andrew's room, where we were sleeping.  He had this concerned "where am I?" look on his face.  At home in his crib, silly boy likes to hold onto the bumper as he sleeps.  Who knows why?  I hadn't thought about this much but as soon as I laid his sleepy head in the pack-n-play he started reaching for the bumper.  And you guessed it - the tears started rolling.  After several attempts, he ended up sleeping in the bed with us which means he got about 3 hours less sleep and this mama got hardly any because I simply can't sleep soundly with him in the bed with us.  Same thing happened at my parents' house Saturday night - sigh.  Sweet baby's old enough to recognize that he wasn't at home, but too young to understand that it was safe to sleep.  But in spite of his little sleep, he had a blast visiting with friends and family.

We started the festivities at Marvin & Kay's home.

Looking at Mama being all picture crazy.

First present EVER!

He was a natural :)

"Give that back, Daddy!"

The real "gift."

A very cool ball - it sings, spins on its own, etc...

Daddy thought it was pretty cool.

Kay helping Hudson open his second gift EVER!



Flashback to the coffee-drinking during finals seminary days
using Marvin's cool SBTS mug.

 

Sunday we had Christmas with my family.

Cousin Lisa and Hudson.

Grandaddy & his baby boy!

Grandaddy & his big boy!

Aunt Sharon and Hudson.



Uncle Chuck and Hudson

Hudson's great-great aunts: Mildred & Elma.

Gift Time!

All in all it was a wonderful trip.  Hudson brings us a ton of joy and I can't explain what a blessing it is to see the joy he brings others in our family.  To see my great aunts (Hudson's great-great aunts) love on him is so heartwarming.  We are so blessed!

Thankful for the Lord's Provisin Part VI

It's been a while since I've done one of these posts.  However, don't let my unfaithfulness deceive you into thinking the Lord has been absent.  True to his nature, he's proven more faithful than ever.

First - a BIG praise!  Hudson has health insurance.  We applied for him to have health insurance a few weeks after his birth and experienced no troubles.  I'm so thankful for a healthy baby.  So even though I'm still uninsurable (sigh) sweet baby isn't and I can't tell you what a comfort and peace that gives to know that if he's sick he can go to the doc with little concern financially.

Second - another BIG praise!  When Hudson was approved for health insurance, it never occured to me that it would be retroactive to cover some of the costs of his birth.  Apparently that's how it works with babies so long as you get them covered within the first 30 days of life outside the womb.  So our 27,000 some-odd dollar medical debt has been reduced by $2,900.  That was "Hudson's" part of the hospital bill for our three day stay after delivery.  Not a huge reduction; it's just over 10% but we'll definitely take it and are grateful for it.  Sadly I wish someone had told me to call my OB before 4 months was up that way they could have billed his circumcision fee because apparently now they can't - serious bummer.  But the Lord will provide.

Third - we're thankful for the Lord's provision of friends with 2 year old and 4 year old boys.  Why you ask?  Because they give super, awesome, cute hand-me-down clothes.  Check out this adorable (and so generous) stack of clothes.

It's all 18 and 24 month stuff so Hudson won't be able to wear it for a while, but Lord willing, he will get to wear them.  So when he gets that big, we'll be excited to share with him how these are A and E's clothes.  I'm sure he'll think A & E are super cool being older and wiser so we're hoping he'll love wearing their clothes.

These may all seem like small things and for the most part they are.  No, God has yet to provide a better job for James.  No, God has yet to cause the hospital to take pity on us and dramatically reduce our big debt.  No, God has yet to make me "insurable."  There are a lot of things God has yet to do and perhaps, he will never do.  But God has done so much - both big and small.  So much that I pray everyday that I don't take any of it for granted.  Simple, small things that are easily overlooked in my sin of self-pity, selfishness, and comparison to/envy of others.  But despite my sin, God continues to show himself faithful to us in all things.

 

If we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself.

2 Timothy 2:13

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I got you singing again, don't I?  :)

This past week has been busy with beginning the season of Advent.  Having Hudson has made this Christmas seems all the more fun.  I love that he's experiencing everything for the first time, even though he'll not remember a moment of it. 

First, we put up our Christmas Tree.  I avoid shopping at all, especially Black Friday shopping so we spent the day rearranging the living room (multiple times) and putting out all the decorations. 

 

Hudson is a serious fan of the Christmas Tree as you can see.  I am having a feeling that next year when he'll be 18 months and most likely walking everywhere that we'll have to do some serious baby-proofing of the tree.  Or as Mrs. B says "Don't baby-proof the house, house-proof the baby!"

 

Next, Hudson and I went to our church's Angel Breakfast.  It's a special event put on by the preschool and children departments.  Youth dress up like angels, to represent the angels who announced Jesus' birth.  Our pastor, Bro. Tom reads the Christmas story to all the kids (and parents).  Plus the deacons cook and serve an amazing breakfast.

 

 

Hudson pretending to like the highchair.  This lasted about 2 minutes before he started fussing.

My shameless spread o'food.



"You better watch yourself son" - my exact words

Wondering what's going on.

Bro. Tom called all the kiddos over.

Waiting patiently for the Christmas story to begin.

Funniest thing I saw while Bro. Tom read.
I'm assuming this was a brother/sister duo.
 

Sweet Mrs. Audrey.

 

The first Sunday of Advent was our second annual Sunday School Christmas Party.  We hosted it at our house, because you know, it's always a party at our house.

We made salt-dough ornaments with the kids.

 

 

Hudson and Mr. Rick!

Sweet Friends

 

3/4 of Sweet Friends' kids.
I LOVE how Little A is smiling at his big sister.

T and G having serious conversations.

Maryann and I - she's my "oldest" (not in age) Louisville friend.
And could she be any more gorgeous?

 

That evening after our Sunday School party, we headed to church for the annual Hanging of the Greens service.  After the many songs, the symbols of Christmas being explained, and adorable kids walking in with flowers, the church as a family lines up and decorates the "Family Christmas Tree."  This year, we made an ornamen to represent our family.

A snowman made of our three thumbprints.
James on the bottom, me in the middle and Hudson on top.
Have you ever tried to get a 6 month old's thumbprint? Not easy.
We had no orange marker so our snowman is nose-less.

The back.

Other random pictures from the evening, because I sneak and take pictures at church.  Pretty sure that's sinful.



Hudson with Mrs. S.  She is by far the godliest woman I know.
Hudson would do well to marry a woman like her one day. :)
 

All this fun and it's only the beginning of the Christmas Season.  Can't wait to see what the next 3 weeks hold.