Merry Christmas

This was Hudson's first Christmas where he was old enough to take part in the Christmas festivities. He was a little tentative at first when opening gifts, and was more interested in the paper and boxes than what was inside. But once he got a few gifts under his belt, and realized there was fun stuff inside for him, he quickly began diving into the gifts and wanted to play with everything all at once. Some of the gifts that he got were a St Louis Cardinals ornament, a massager that he loves because it lights up and makes noise when you put it against a hard surface, a huge stuffed cow, a ball popper that shoots little plastic balls up in the air, a tricycle, and a wagon. He also learned that Santa says "Ho ho ho", even though he won't go anywhere near the real thing. But anytime he sees a Santa decoration, or doll, he breaks out his "Ho ho ho" and wants to play with it. He also really enjoyed Christmas lights and decorations. Every time we'd drive past a house that was lit up, he'd say "wow, pretty". He was very disappointed when we took our decorations down!

Hello Christmas

We're one of those strange families who waits until after Thanksgiving to put up our Christmas decorations. Not long after Thanksgiving, but after none the less. This year, we were trying to decide how much of the decorations to put up and risk their destruction by Hurricane Hudson. We decided to put up the outside decorations and the tree, and the other inside decorations that are up out of his reach. We figured he'd like the lights, but we'd have a hard time keeping his little hands off of the decorations. We were right! So far, he's already ripped the nose off of a snowman that I have inside, and torn both of the eyes off of the light up Rudolph that we have outisde. But it is funny to watch him get excited when we plug in the lights on the tree, and he'll run to our front window and point and jump up and down when the outside decorations come on. Sad to say, though, our nativity scene is one thing we decided not to mess with this year. It probably won't see the light of day for a few years now!

Go Colts

Our friend Todd and his brother in laws have season tickets to the Colts games,

and they take turns asking people to join them each game. Jesse was lucky enough to

be asked to go along to the Patriots game last night, so of course they left bright and early

and were gone all day. When we went out in search of Colts gear for Jesse, we found a jersey

for Hudson, too. I put it on him yesterday and sent pictures up to Jesse and Todd to share

with their tailgating crew. He looked so grown up in it! Just another reminder that my little

baby is well on his way to being a little man. Here are some pictures from Hudson's day.

Fall

As the weather turns colder, I am not looking forward to the months ahead at all. Hudson is such an outdoors kid that I'm not sure how we're going to keep him inside during the winter. He will walk up to me, grab my finger, and walk me to the door and point to let me know he wants to go outside and play. When he wants to go out and it's raining or too cold, he'll sit in front of our patio doors and cry with his head against the glass. Nothing inside will do, he wants to be outside. And once he gets outside, he doesn't need any toys to play with. He's happy just running in the grass, or playing in the rocks in our driveway. Since this weekend was so nice, we were outside a lot, and I have posted a few pictures below of him enjoying the weather.

Trick or Treat

This year for Halloween, Hudson was an elephant. Last week we tried the outfit on him, just in case, and it was about two inches too short, but it was so cute we kept it anyway. It has little feet that were supposed to rest on top of his feet, but they fell about halfway down his shins, so we just put on a pair of gray socks and hoped nobody noticed! At first, he wasn't so sure about the big floppy ears hanging in his face, but he got used to them and was soon playing like usual. We went to 7 houses over the weekend, and Hudson did very well with the whole thing. But by the end of the activities, he was worn out!

Misc Pictures

The last few weeks have been mainly focused on getting Hudson through the arrival of his 1 year molars. 2 down, two to go! It must be pretty painful, because his hands are constantly in his mouth, and he drools all over everything, and is in a really bad mood. But between the pain and whining, he did find some time to discover that if he takes everything out of the cabinet we keep our cookie sheets and pizza pans in, he can fit in it himself. Taking the sheets out one by one, and then turning them upside-down and jumping on them has quickly become one of his favorite things to do when he's stuck inside. I have some pictures of him below, as well as one we took at Outback last weekend. He was bobbing his head to the music, and was in such a good mood, I had to get a quick picture.

My First Jack-O-Lantern

Since Hudson is old enough to "help" carve a jack-o-lantern this year, we decided last night to get a pumpkin and carve one for him. Jesse drew the face on the pumpkin, cut the top off, and the fun began. Hudson wasn't so sure about sticking his hands down in the pumpkin at first, but after he saw Daddy do it a couple of times, he figured it would be ok.