Swimming Lessons

Hudson loves his swimming lessons at Waterbabies. He wears goggles and swims under the water like a little fish! Yesterday daddy, Brian, grandma Corinne and grandpa Doug came to watch him. He loved having an audience.

One Year Check Up

Hudson had his one year check up today. He is growing and developing perfectly! His length is 30 inches (55 percentile) and his weight is 21 pounds 8 ounces (35 percentile). I was surprised by his weight, he lost weight (only 2 ounces). Our doctor said now that he is so active with crawling, playing, swimming...it is totally normal to drop a little weight. As always he had way too much fun playing in the doctors office.

Happy 1st Birthday Hudson!

Hudson and his buddy Jonah.

Wendy, Jonah, mommy and Hudson.

Blowing out his candle!

Riding in the wagon with Mady.

Hudson opening presents (while having a snack of course).

Friends!

Hudson and uncle Greg.

Hudson's friend Hailey.

Yesterday we celebrated Hudson's 1st Birthday in the park with our close friends. The weather wasn't what we had hoped for...but that didn't stop us from having fun! Hudson is so lucky to have so many wonderful people in his life that love him. It brought tears to my eyes when everyone sang happy birthday. My eyes scanned around and saw our parents, siblings, old friends, new friends and many children. Having these people in our lives have made enjoying Hudson even more amazing.

Hudson is ONE!

Hudson one year ago...about 10 min. old!

Hudson today...so much has changed in one year!


The big day is here...Hudson is ONE YEAR OLD! I can't believe how fast my little baby became such a big boy. This past year has flown by. If I could give one word of advice to any new mom, I would say to take in every minute. They fly by so fast. So many people told me that this would happen, but I didn’t realize what they meant until now. Each day with Hudson is a blessing. When I wake up each day remind myself what a precious gift our baby is. I also want to take a moment to thank John. He has worked so hard to make it possible for me to stay home with Hudson. It hasn't been easy, but it's been worth all of the stress. I feel so blessed. Being a mom has changed my life. Thank you to everyone that has been involved in the first year of Hudson's life. He is so loved and it shows...he is so happy.

One Year Ago Today

Here I am one year ago today. When I look at this picture it feels like so long ago. I don't even remember what life was like without Hudson. When I was looking through pictures I thought about how lucky I was with my pregnancy. I had a wonderful, healthy and enjoyable pregnancy. I have to say that I look forward to experiencing it again (not yet). Now that I know many more new moms I realize that isn't as common as I thought. I really hope that pregnancy #2 is just the same!

Working on Walking

Hudson has been working on walking for a few weeks now. He is getting pretty confident with his walker and walking with mommy's fingers. He loves to scoot around the coffee table and "walk" from the coffee table to the couch. I can't wait for him to master this new skill. It will be just in time for the Spring and fun in the sun at the park!

A Day With Mitch and Lucas!

Hudson, Lucas and Mitch relaxing after our walk.



Hudson watching the boys play at the park.

Hudson was VERY tired when we got home.


Today Hudson and I spent the day with my friend Jaime and her boys. Her twin boys, Mitch and Lucas are so adorable and great with Hudson! They played with him, shared their trucks, cars and puzzles. After the kids played for awhile we went on a walk to their neighborhood park and had lunch at their house. I always enjoy visiting Jaime and "the boys". She is an awesome mom and her boys are the so fun!

11 Months

I can't believe Hudson was 11 months yesterday! Wow, he's going to be one next month - where has the time gone? This past month has been relatively quiet around our house with the holidays behinds us. Hudson is working on two new teeth and has learned to crawl "up" the stairs. He is very busy and loves playing with his train and reading books. His favorite book is Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You see? He enjoys his quiet time and our walks around the neighborhood. His other favorite is... play dates... going to the Tot Spot to see his friends.

His little personality seems so much like mine. He mimics everything I do...it's cute and makes me very aware of everything I'm doing.

John and I have been busy planning his ONE YEAR birthday party. I never realized how excited I would be to plan a first birthday. I can't wait to celebrate Hudson and our one year as a family!

Now we need to work on walking...

Swing, swing, swing!

Bundled up for our walk.

Swing!

Swing!

Swing!

Hudson and I spent the afternoon taking a walk to the park. We are lucky enough to have a fabulous park within waling distance. I often bundle Hudson up and we take the trail to Wills Tucker Park. I can't wait for the weather to get better and we can stay longer than 30 min. without freezing. No matter how much we bundle up his little face gets cold and we have to head home. He enjoys watching all the kids play and he loves the swings!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Ready for breakfast!

Pulling his balloon around the house.

Heart shaped toast with cream cheese...yummy!

Hudson had a fun filled first Valentine's day. He woke up to a Valentine balloon. He has been eyeing the balloons at the grocery store for months. He was so excited to see one in his own house! He played with it all day...in fact he is still fascinated to see it each morning. He then had heart shaped toast and water in his fun Valentine cup. Hudson's buddy Jonah and his mommy Wendy came over to play for the day. When daddy came home he cooked a wonderful steak dinner for us. What a fun way to spend Valentine's day!

Did I mention the dozen pink and white roses? It was a perfect day!

PS. Thank you to Aunt Kris and Uncle Waco for the "My First Valentine's Day" bib.

Breakfast Time

For the past few days Hudson has been very excited about feeding himself. He loves to hold the spoon. He does pretty well at getting it into the bowl, not so good at getting it to his mouth. He can entertain himself for quite awhile with a bowl of oatmeal. For those of you that know me well I bet you are surprised that I can handle the mess. It even surprised me, I love it!

Mommy thoughts...

As Hudson's first birthday slowly creeps up on me I have been thinking a lot about the past 11 months. It has gone by so fast and I have tried very hard to live in the moment and make sure that I appreciate Hudson, our family and life each day. I always knew that being a mother would be tough, I just didn't know how tough. I feel like each day I need to remind myself that it will go by so fast if I don't slow down and take it all in. As I was putting Hudson to bed last night he laid his head on my shoulder. We rocked for at least a hour. I was convinced that he was asleep. When I looked down at him he looked right back into my eyes and smiled. As I smiled back he closed his eyes and went to sleep. Something about this moment made me stop and realize that my baby is growing up. Even last month he would never lay his head on my shoulder that long while awake. It was as if we were both just taking in the moment. To all the parents out there...take in the moment, they go by way too fast!

Tot Spot Cafe

My baby taking care of the baby....so cute!

Driving the fire truck!

Yesterday we met Emily, Sloan, Mandy and Jake at he Tot Spot (www.totspotcafe.com) in Woodinville. This is our new favorite hang out. It is a great place for mommies and babies! They have a fun and safe place for the kiddos to play and they serve coffee! What more could we ask for? We have been meeting friends here once a week. Hudson usually gravitates to the fire truck. This week I caught him pushing a baby in a stroller. John didn't find it nearly as cute as a I did.

Ten Months

I can't believe that Hudson is ten months old today. Only two more months and he will be one year's old! It's time for me to start planning the big day and it feel like we just left the hospital. It feels like the days go by so slow, yet the months have flown by. This past month went especially fast with Christmas activities. Hudson had a wonderful first Christmas and was able to spend time with all of his grandparents, uncle Greg and uncle Brett. We spent New Years eve with the Ayer family and some of their close friends. This month Hudson mastered crawling and is already working on walking. He loves to pull himself up on everything. His favorite place to stand is at the sliding glass door. He also started swimming lessons and loves to be in the water. He is talking a lot and his new word is "hot" (mommy drinks a lot of "hot" coffee)! Each day he changes so much and each day we feel blessed.

My Water Baby

Hudson on the platform in the pool...his favorite!

The Pool

Swimming to mommy

Having too much fun!

Hudson and I both started waterbabies last week. If you haven't heard about it you should check it out at www.waterbabies.net. Their swimming program is amazing. He has had one lesson, and we have gone swimming a few times on our own. He loves the water. He puts his face in, holds his breath to go under and likes to swim to me from the platform. He's a natural! I said that we both started because I'm now teaching waterbabies one day a week for a few hours. I love it! It's the prefect job for me. It also gives Hudson and daddy time to hang out without me.

New Car

Hudson got a new car! He loves to drive his car (backwards). We aren't sure why he goes backwards. Like his crawling I'm sure he will figure out how to go frontwards soon. He keeps his cell phone in the front of the car. It's so cute! Each time he gets on his car he takes out a cell phone. He has a pink one (my old one) and a black one (uncle Brett's old one). He loves to talk on the phone! I wonder where he gets that from?