A fun and busy March

Here are a few pictures of March before we head into April. As Hudson has let me know, there are only 2 days left in March or "March 14th" as he calls it. I am glad at least one of us knows the date around here:). 

We got to babysit Goff boys including baby Parker. Hudson surpassed me and spent most of the time playing on the floor with Parker. He was really sweet with him. 

I walked all five of them up to the school park and got some crazy looks:). 

Jack also loved having him around and having him ride in the stroller with him.

Jack paints himself with marker every chance he gets!

Hudson's first trip to the mailbox across the street by himself. He was so excited that he left the key in the box. Big boy!

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Hudson taking a picture of us at dinner. Jack now poses and comes and puts his arm around you to say "cheese'". 

We had our first trip this year to the zoo and had a great time. 

I finally talked them into riding the safari ride and they loved it. Jack looked for Marty and Alex (from Madagascar) the whole time. 

We also went to Disney on Ice with Nana and had a great time. 

Hudson started tumbling classes.

We celebrated Dr. Suess' birthday at school

Hudson finally learned to pump on his own. He is so proud! Jack tries to do it too. 

We purchased a set of bunk beds (but did not bunk them). They are sharing a room and they love it. The first night Jack talked for about an hour and Hudson kept telling him to go to sleep, but he has done better since. Jack has come downstairs a few times before we have gone to bed and is hysterical. He comes down with his eyes half shut and lets out a huge ROAR. We take him back up and he goes back to sleep. We are working on the decorating with Nana's help and will post some pictures soon.

We have many floral arrangements in our house now.

Who wants ice cream??

New shades.

Riding bikes. They do this for hours!

Fun with shaving cream

John had a work dinner one night last week so I broke some shaving cream, colored it with food dye and let them have some fun. I had no idea it would keep them busy so long but they loved it. 

 "Hey, mom. I eat it?" Jack is full on funny phrases right now. His latest is telling me "No talking, mom" when I am explaining why he shouldn't do something. Then yesterday when John was correcting him at breakfast he told him to go to work! 

The final birthday celebration

We started Hudson's "real" birthday with Dunkin Donuts, thanks to Nana. She arrived early and gave Hudson the choice of whether he wanted to go alone, or with Jack and me. He wanted us all to go and Jack was happy. 

 I had given Hudson a few fun choices of things he could do on his birthday and he chose to go to the Disney store to get new Cars flip flops and orange Crocs. He has outgrown all of his shoes from last summer and I found a old pair of Hudson's orange Crocs for Jack and he wanted a matching pair.

Jack spent the whole time at the Lady and the Tramp display talking to the dogs from the movie.  He often choose the Lady and the Tramp book at night and always asks what all of the dogs names are. John has made up a few names of the unnamed characters in the movie and he was happy to see them there.

Then Hudson wanted one of his favorite lunches, a bagel and chicken noodle soup from Panera. 

Here they are. You can't miss them!

We spent some of the afternoon outside. We have had perfect weather all week on spring break. 

Of course Hudson chose his favorite Mexican restaurant for dinner. He tried as best he could to hide when they sang Happy Birthday to him in Spanish. 

But when he realized they left this giant fried ice cream covered in sprinkles he came out of his shell! These two ate the sprinkles and whipped cream off the top and I don't even think they realized ice cream was underneath it. 

Finally after dinner, Nana set up a little party at home with his requested cookie cake. 

Finally it was gift time. Nana got him a very cool marble track. 

Aunt Sam got him a Cars activity book.

We got him a Cars Trouble game.

And some Cars legos. This was his first set and he really enjoyed putting them together and of course loves the manual.

And a new bike!

Of course it was pretty late at this point so we didn't get to play too much. Right before bed Hudson said, "I have a good idea. After I go to sleep, you and daddy can put my marble track and Cars legos together and then when it is light outside, they will be ready for me to play with." Ha! It was a fun day (and week) of celebrating!

Hudson is FIVE!

Birth Day March 14, 2007

One year

Two years

Three years

Four years

It is so hard to believe our first baby boy is FIVE and heading off to Kindergarten in the fall! We love this little guy so much. It is so fun watching him grow up. His little brain amazes us each day with how much he remembers and how quickly he can figure things out. He gets so excited when he problem solves on his own and is very independent. He is especially good with computers and phones and is constantly showing us things we didn't know about our our devices.

Despite his independence, he still loves to be close and will always come crawl on your lap if we are watching TV. He still likes to be laid with until he falls asleep, which is usually during the first song of bedtime music on his CD player. On many nights we find him at the bottom of our bed when we wake up.

He is a total type A personality and we have no idea where he gets that from ;). He loves making lists, crossing things off and lately has a calendar and checks it every morning to see what is on the schedule and how many days/months till the next big event.

We had a wonderful parent teacher conference with his awesome preschool teacher last month. He has made leaps with his social skills since the fall and we are so proud. She had a very detailed kindergarten readiness assessment and Hudson was at or above each category. He writing has improved so much over the past few months as he works on going from only uppercase to now writing his name and other common words in lowercase as well. He loves to copy words and often would rather write than draw a picture. Although he does draw some very cute pictures of his family! He is starting to read some sight words and also starting some basic math. But what made us most proud at his conference was how is teacher raved about what a good "friend" he is in the class. Hudson is a peer model in a special needs preschool and she said he shows so much empathy and is always the first to help a child when they need it. There is a friend named Mary in the class who has Down's Syndrome and they are great buds. Mary won't do anything without Hudson and they often work through Hudson to get Mary to accomplish new skills which is so awesome.

Hudson is a great big brother to Jack and always teaching him new things and helping him. The other day when Jack skinned his knee outside he was the first to help him get a rag and some bandaids. He loves making him laugh and playing with him.

March 14th, 2012

What is your name? Hudson Walter

How old are you? 5 now!

What is your favorite color? Orange

Who is your best friend? Stephanie from school

What is your favorite animal? Giraffe

What do you want to be when you grow-up? a car driver

What is your favorite TV show? Max and Ruby

What is your favorite book? Clifford

What is your favorite restaurant? The bowl restaurant (Mongolian BBQ)

What is your favorite Movie? Toy Story

What makes you happy? when Jack laughs when I tickle him

What makes you sad? spiders

What is your favorite food to eat? cheese dip

What is your favorite song to sing?  You Might Think (from Cars 2)

What are your favorite toys to play with? All my Cars 2 cars

What games do you like to play? Toy Story Yahtzee, Candyland

Happy 5th birthday, Hudson Andrew!