21 months

I am feeling a little guilty in regards to my mommy duty of record-keeping. Neither of my kids have a scrapbook. And although they do both have baby books, the amount that is written in them is pretty pathetic. This is especially true for Hudson. And since this blog has become my means of keeping a family record/history, I think it is time for a Hudson update.

Hudson is 21 months now, and is turning into such a cute, sweet, little boy. Several times a day, I find myself thinking about how much I love him, and how happy I am to have him in our family. He has a very sweet temperament, and is generally very happy. He loves to give hugs, kisses, and high-fives, and always wants to include everyone. Last weekend John and I went out on an anniversary date while my parents watched Makenna and Hudson. As we were picking them up, and saying good-bye, Hudson gave hugs and kisses to everyone at my parent's house, including my grandma and grandpa, and aunt who he hasn't been around much. He is very quick to warm up to people, and thus had a very easy transition to nursery. He has been happy to go since the first day.

Hudson is starting to talk more, but hasn't hit the 'verbal explosion' yet that Makenna hit at around this age. He still uses mostly 1 -word sentences, and probably has a vocabulary of about 3 dozen words that he uses regularly. He will attempt to repeat any word we ask him, but they aren't always easy to understand.

Hudson is a GREAT sleeper. His bedtime routine is short and sweet, and he goes to bed almost every night without a peep. He sleeps with his binkis (2 or them, which I need to get rid of soon), his blankie, and a soft teddy bear. He sleeps all night, and I don't hear from him until I go in to get him in the morning. He doesn't yell or cry for me, and often the only way I know he is awake is by walking into the room and checking on him. Sometimes I can hear him kicking his feet or jumping up and down in his crib, but usually he just rolls around and rests quietly until I go get him. He does the same thing with his naps.

Hudson still loves anything that makes loud noise and has wheels: cars, trucks, trains, lawn mowers, tractors, airplanes, etc. He loves playing with his little IKEA train set. More recently, Hudson has really started to enjoy playing with puzzles, and building towers with blocks. He also loves balls. Hudson is also engaging in a lot of pretend play. He loves to crawl around and pretend to be a puppy, or stomp after me or Makenna pretending to be a scary monster or dinosaur. He also loves for me to chase him around the house. Hudson and Makenna play really well together (most of the time), for which I am so grateful. To sum it up, Hudson is a pretty great little boy, and we love him to pieces!

Coloring on the Walls

Shortly after moving into our new house, we had an unfortunate incident involving Hudson, our freshly painted walls, and a black permanent marker. The spots have since been painted over, and the markers stored up high, but Hudson's ingenuity gave us an idea. John picked up a small can of dry erase board paint, and we painted a just-at-the-right-height section of wall at the bottom of our stairs going down to the unfinished basement.

We gave the kids some dry erase crayons, and told them to have at it. Of course they loved it. Makenna is very good at only coloring inside the blue tape. Hudson on the other hand seems to have no problem thinking (i.e. coloring) outside the box. But since his wandering artistic skills still occur on the unfinished walls of the basement stairwell, (and he does the majority of his coloring inside the designated area) we don't really worry about it.

And these two seem to be pretty happy with their new found freedom of being allowed to color on the walls.