new tricks

We have had a great week here. We all celebrated New Years Eve/John's birthday down at the Lake with our friends the Koons' and Abplanalp's. Hudson got spoiled with more Christmas presents!

He has learned some new tricks this week that he is proud of. He loves to try to drink water out of the bathtub but that usually doesn't go so well. He also enjoys eating cheerios off of his tray with no hands. He also loves to shake his head up and down when he wants something - so much for the "more" sign....I think I have given up! He is also improving his ball throwing skills which is getting him a great deal of attention from the dogs. He cracks up when they retrieve it and bring it back to him.

Christmas and Kisses!

We had a great time celebrating Hudson's first Xmas in St Louis. While we were in town we also got to celebrate two special engagements - Hudson's Aunt Dana and soon-to-be Uncle John's engagement as well as Hudson's Uncle Evan and soon-to-be Aunt Lyndi'. We enjoyed getting to spend some time with their families as well.




Christmas was a great time for all. Hudson enjoyed climbing over the stacks of paper and boxes and helping everyone rip some paper. He especially enjoyed his new drumset by grandpa and new car from grandma, and a nice big bath towel from Aunt Sam. He also is getting ready to sport his new t-shirt from Aunt Dana, that says Lock Up Your Daughters. This doesn't seem to be a problem yet since he scares most babies right now by greeting them with a very loud "AAAHHHH" and then follows that with a tackle to try and kiss them. Hopefully his skills will improve with age. He LOVES to kiss, just about everyone and everything including our pets and pictures of babies in books or boxes! It is rather sweet as long as those five friendly teeth don't surprise you with a bite.







Hudson enjoyed meeting his cousin-in-law Keely and also got to see his old pal, Alejandro while we all enjoyed some Mexican food and one of our favorite places, El Maguey.



He continues to increase his appetite daily and we are all amazed with how much this child eats. We aren't sure where it goes. He eats just about everything. So far, the only thing he doesn't like is tilapia...not bad. Pears and avocado's and cheerios still top his list of favorites. After these "feed myself" meals, we usually make a dash for the bathtub which he still loves.

Merry Christmas!

One last post before we head to St Louis for Christmas later this afternoon! Here are some of Hudson's latest 9 month old pictures.

I have to share his new trick of the day. Those of us that know Hudson, know that when he learns a new trick like clapping or his new monkey noise, he does it obsessively through the day and night for a good week till a new one comes along. Well now, he takes his two fingers to make a popping noise with his cheek. It is funny though because half the time he does it, he cracks up at the noise and other other half of the time, he starts crying hard because he stratches himself! So I guess I have to get those finger nails trimmed down even more which is about impossible with his incredible wrestling skills he has when it is time to be still. Thank goodness for velcro on diapers....

He also is cutting a third tooth on top and is very excited that he might actually be able to eat faster, if there is such a thing.

We wish everyone a very Merry Christmas with your families and will be back posting some fun pictures soon! Hudson is very excited to play with some wrapping paper, boxes and ribbon!

God Bless!

A Christmas exchange with Ainsley.....

No we didn't spike their bottles!!!!!!!!!

No we didn't spike their bottles!!!!!!!!!


Today Hudson and Ainsley had their Christmas exchange. They sported their new t's purchased by Emily and we hope they don't hate us someday for what we dressed them in! They placed really well as long as Hudson didn't make his loud "ahhhhh" voice which scared sweet, little Ainsley who was just trying to quietly play.

9 months old

Sorry we are a bit behind on the blog. We have been busy these past few weeks! Hudson is officially 9 months old now and loves to be a "big" boy. He had a good check up last week. He weighs 20 lb and is 28 inches tall which puts him in the 50th percentile for both. The doctor was not surprised he had trimmed down a bit when he saw how busy he was in the exam room. Hudson still loves to clap and is working on standing alone and clapping although that doesn't usually last too long! He pulls up on EVERYTHING, stable or not. He loves all the new finger foods he gets to eat. He says "dada" and makes all kinds of new noises which crack him up. He is still pretty happy most of the time. We visited Santa a few weeks ago and were so surprised he didn't even cry on his lap, although he was very interested in the jingle bells on his lap! I am having issues with downloading that picture, but here are a couple of others from the past few weeks.

We are getting ready for a St Louis trip for Christmas and very excited to see my newly engaged brother Evan and his fiancee Lyndi, AND my newly engaged sister Dana and fiancee John. We look forward to many weddings next year!




Bathtime is still one of his favorite activities.

Our new friends

We have had some fun play dates this week. One with our friend Benjamin who is 9 months (the blond) and one with Gage who is 10 months and Charlie who is 6 weeks. Benjamin shared some of his new favorite foods with Hudson and they both threw somewhat of a fit when they ran out. Luckily his mom quickly got more!

Hudson and Gage greeted each other with many kisses:) They played great together too though and Gage shared his new tunnel with Hudson. Hudson was especially happy when he found some of Gage's leftover Cheerios in his exersaucer. He made sure to clean those up!

AAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!

You may notice a theme to many of the pictures these week. Hudson's favorite sound is AAAHHHHHH really loud! He especially loves to do this in public when it echoes in stores and it gets us lots of attention! He has also decided this week he is done with pureed foods and wants to feed HIMSELF finger foods, which he is still mastering. He has improved though and more are making it into the mouth than the high chair seat, which is a pretty big accomplishment from when we first started. He LOVES muffins which gives me an excuse to take him to Classic Cookie where they serve muffins and cookies with your lunch. This could be a bad thing for mom! We are working on the sign for "more" but he is choosing to "clap" for more muffins so that may be our sign instead!