Practice makes perfect…

At Hudson’s pre-school they have rest time in the afternoon.  The kids can sleep or just rest, but they have to be on their nap mats. I have been a little worried about this the past few weeks.  Hudson was still a fantastic napper up until we took the bop away. Since then it has been hit or miss. The days he doesn’t nap, he still rests in his bed, but he is not quiet.  And I mean not even a little bit.  He talks, he sings (at the top of his lungs) and you can hear him all over the house.  I know everyone says pre-school teachers are magic at getting kids to rest, but I had my doubts.  Anyway, since he has never been on a nap mat before we “practiced” on Sunday while watching Toy Story:

He still wasn’t quiet, but he did stay on the mat the whole movie. :)

Meet the Teacher!

My baby boy is starting pre-school this week.  My heart aches just typing that.  I know it is going to be good for him and I know it is only two days a week and I know I will enjoy the alone time with Harper. BUT…he is my buddy. And Harper’s buddy. And I just flat out love being with my kids.  So, this has been a little tough on me. 

Then last week, I got a phone call.  Back in February my mom put Hud on the waiting list at what was my first choice in pre-schools.  However, it is very, very hard to get into.  Especially for a 3 year old. I went ahead and registered him at another pre-school that I was VERY happy with sending him to. My only hesitation with it  is that 4 year olds have to go 3 days a week there and obviously, I did not want that. :)  So, last week the kids and I were at the zoo and I got a phone call from pre-school #1. They had an opening in the 3 year old class.  And I had to let them know if we wanted that day. And meet the teacher was that night. And classes started this week (a week earlier than the other school).  I took a little time to think and talk to Trent about it.  We quickly took the spot – a lot of it did come down to the 2 day a week vs. 3 days for me.  As upset as I am about losing this extra week with him, I know we made the right decision. And as my friend, Erica, said – it is kind of like ripping off the bandaid. I don’t have as much time to dwell on it.

So, after swimming on Thursday night we RACED to meet the teacher.  His two teacher are very sweet and Hudson went right in and started playing.  There were so many things that confirmed it was the right decision – the little boy who dropped out was also named Hudson (lucky teachers didn’t have to change anything! :)), several of my friends have kids in the same class, we walked in and I immediately saw two sweet friends, and the classroom is a room Hud is already familiar with!  Blessings all the way around.

Hud enjoyed playing while we were there and I KNOW he is going to do fantastic.  And I promise to hold it together…until I get to my car. :)

Swim lessons 2010

Hudson just finished two weeks of swim lessons. We could not be more proud of him if we tried!  After starting off the summer a little afraid of the water, he made incredible strides in two weeks!!!  During our first session with his fantastic swim teacher, he freaked out when they went under water.  I mean HYSTERICAL crying, getting out of the pool and coming over to me sobbing.  He told me he wanted “to get dry and go home!” I had to carry him kicking and screaming back to the pool and hand him over. That broke my heart right in half.  However, by the end of the two weeks – he was swimming under water BY HIMSELF to the side of the pool!  He was swimming down “for treasures” and he went down the slide by himself (into the waiting arms of the swim teacher).  So proud of our sweet boy and can’t wait to see how well he does next summer!

It is very rare…

that Harps gets the playroom all to herself.  The other day she woke up from her nap before Hud and we went to play for a while. She went straight to her bin of toys, pulled it right out and went to town. :)

We are going to keep the fact that she chewed on Hud’s t-rex our little secret. :)

Nine month stats

Last week was Harper’s nine month appointment.  She is hitting all of her milestones like a champ!  The doctor was very impressed with how verbal she is already (she is a chatterbox like the rest of our little family).  There was a brief scare when the doctor took her blood to check her iron levels.  It came back extremely low (the average is 10 – 12. Hers was a 7.6).  It was so low that the doctor sent us to a lab because he was confident the machine made an error.  The first lab wasn’t able to take her blood (after sticking the needle in her baby arm!!! Made my blood boil. And despite the fact she used to work for a children's hospital.) and sent us to another lab.  The first person who came in, took one look and said she was going to get someone else to do it.  I guess Harpsichord has super small veins, even for a baby.  The results came back the next week and thankfully were normal!!  Such a relief. :)

Here are our baby girl’s stats:

Head – 45 cm

Weight – 20 lbs. 9 oz (75%)

Height – 29 inches (90%)

 

Hudson’s stats at nine months:

Weight – 20 lbs 9 oz (75%) (how weird is that??)

Height – 30 inches (95%)

On the move…

 

Baby boy grows up…

A few weeks ago (August 12th to be exact) I decided it was d-day.  The day we were finally going to get rid of Hudson’s pacifier, or as he lovingly calls it his “bop”.  Yes, he is 3 1/2. Yes, we should have done it a long time ago.  I could list the reasons/excuses that we didn’t, but it would take forever.  But, think pregnancy, moving, newborn, the flu, mommy needs naptime, 2 trips away from home, etc.  But, with him starting pre-school in a few weeks (*sob*), I knew it was time because there was no way I was letting him take it there for naps.  He has only used it for naps and bedtime since he was 2 1/2, but it was time.

So, after his nap that Friday I snuck the bop downstairs and cut the tip off (side note – I actually cut the tip off a year ago too, but he was not deterred.  Then due to the awful flu in March, I caved and bought him a new one.  Anyway, that night when it was time for bed he went running to his bed and went to pop it in his mouth.  Only to discover it was broken.  He looked at me with huge tears in his eyes and said, “Mommy, it is BROKEN!  Fix it!  Fix my bop!!!” and then he started scrambling on the floor looking for the tip.  I got tears in my eyes (I didn’t let him see) and I came thisclose to caving, but I stayed strong.  Trent then told him that when big boys get to be 3 1/2 their bops break (which might be why he tells everyone that his bop broke and daddy threw it away and now it is gone).  Then we told him that since his bop was broken, he could have a new bike (that I won at a dinner in July).  He wanted to see it, so I brought the box up to his room and we let him sleep with it on his dresser.

Anyway, night one was rough as expected.  But, by the end of the weekend he was doing well.  Naps have been another story.  He still napped a couple of hours a day, up until the end of the bop.  I am not sure if it is because the bop is gone, if it is a phase or if he is trying to drop his nap.  Time will tell, he still goes upstairs to rest everyday. Sometimes he naps, sometimes he doesn’t.  He asked for his bop the most at naptime (which really surprised me, I thought it would be nighttime).  Overall, he is doing really, really well and we are SO proud of him!!!

I am glad we did it cold turkey, for both of our sakes.  And I am glad it was a snap decision that day on my part.  That way there wasn’t a lot of time to dwell on it.  He hasn’t been jealous of Harper’s bop at all either which is good news.

And I really wanted to get pictures of him on his new bike for this post, but he was all about the tricycle that day.  If this endless heat streak ever ends, I will get pictures of him on the bike! :)

So proud of our sweet boy!

She crawls!!!

Our sweet baby girl started crawling this month!  The exact date was August 5th. :)  We were in Park City and my sweet mom knew I would be upset that I had missed it and didn’t tell me.  It was the first milestone I have missed for either kid :(.  However, on Tuesday morning when she started quickly crawling after something, I thought she looked a little too good at it.  And when I called mom to tell her, her reaction was a little over the top. :)  So, I knew sweet girl had been doing it a few days already. However, it was still the first time I got to see her do it and therefore still exciting. :) I do have video that I will get uploaded soon.  In other news, Harper started waving “hi” and “bye” today!  Milestones all over place! :)

3 1/2!!!!

Dear Hudson,

My sweet boy…you are 3 1/2 years old!!!!  We are having the best time with you.  You are my sweet lovebug.  You have the sweetest disposition and are so loving.  You love your sister so much and have not shown one ounce of jealousy towards her.  You always want to know where she is, how she is and what she is doing.  You love playing with her and you LOVE to make her laugh.  The few times she is crying, you are quick to comfort her.  You show the same love towards everyone else you come in contact with.  You always ask me if you can say hi to strangers. I don’t know how you know to ask me that, but it makes me smile.

Your speech has come leaps and bounds in the past year. I honestly cannot believe we were ever worried about you talking. That is mommy’s sweet way of saying you never stop talking.  :) Like mommy, like son.  You have new words every single day.  Right now you are into adding very to everything…as in “I am very tired, mommy”. You know the theme songs to all of your favorite shows and can quote movies at length.  You love Toy Story (all of them) and like to sing “you’ve got a friend in me”. Wonder Pets is another favorite to sing.  You are also into other songs lately, Row Row Row your boat and Itsy Bitsy Spider are current favorites, as well as Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.  Lightening McQueen is one of your favorite characters. You have recently discovered Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and like to do the “roll call!” My favorite is when you imitate Goofy (very well, I might add). Daddy and I are SO excited to take you to Disney World.

You also LOVE to read.  You have a hard time accepting when it is time to stop reading and time to go to bed. You love your books.  You love to read to me and sister as well.

You know your Abc’s, you recognize every letter and you know the sounds each letter makes!  You can count to 20 and thanks to Handy Manny and Dora you know most of the numbers 1 to 10 in Spanish.

You sleep around 12 hours every night and up until a week ago you were taking about a 2 hour nap every day.  I am deeply afraid you are giving up your nap, but still clinging to hope that it is a phase.  Time will tell.

You are still the world’s pickiest eater.  You tell us “No, thanks. That is very, very yucky” when we offer you anything outside of your chosen foods.  You still love all fruits, most veggies, yogurt, goldfish, “mommy’s bars”, pancakes, waffles, cheerios, hot dogs, bacon, and of course fries. :)  You recently have started liking fajita steak, which is very exciting. And of course, you still will eat Joe T’s chicken. :)

We are now a bop-free household (more on that later) and I could not be more proud of you, sweet boy.

You are ALL boy, my son.  You love anything to do with sports.  You always want to “play soccer game” especially with daddy. You love to be outside and this summer has been rough for you because it has been too hot for us to be outside too terribly much.  You love to ride your trike, bike, etc. out in the driveway. You are still a big fan of bubbles. You will pull out every ball we own in the backyard and go from sport to sport.  This summer we took a little soccer tots class which you enjoyed.  Next spring we look forward to signing you up for t-ball and soccer.  But, first we start the big journey of pre-school in just a few weeks.  I am sure there will be a plethora of posts about that later and truthfully, I can’t really talk about it yet. :)

You are my on-the-go boy, you definitely take after me in that respect.  Every morning you want to know if “we go bye-bye in mommy’s car”.  You love to be out and about.  Your favorites are the zoo, fossil rim, bounce house places, paradise pond and chick-fil-a.  You are also very social and like to have your friends there to play with.

Right now you are in the middle of swim lessons. I will blog more about that later, but suffice it to say we are SO proud of you. So proud.

You and your daddy are best friends. You get so excited when he gets home each day.  He puts you to bed every night and you would not have it any other way.

Sweet Hudson, we could not be more proud of the sweet little person you are and that you are becoming.  You are quick to say thank you, quick to give hugs and so loving.  We love you so very much, I am not sure that I could even begin to tell you how much.  I am so honored to be your mommy.

We love you so much,
Mommy

Park City Day 5

 

We were able to book a late afternoon flight out of Salt Lake City, so we had almost one full day left in Park City.  We headed down to Main Street that morning so Trent could check it out in the daylight. And so I could pick up some souvenirs I had my eye on.

This just made me laugh.  Trump? Really? I think there is a reason he was solo in his efforts. :)

After another delicious meal with Jeremy (Ericka couldn’t get away from work. I was sad that we didn’t get to say good-bye, but totally understood, of course!) we headed out of town.  A little reluctant to leave such a gorgeous place, but more than ready to see our babies!

This is a beautiful farmhouse on the edge of town.  Apparently, the city now owns and maintains it.  It was on the cover of many books I saw while shopping in downtown.  I had to have Trent pull over so I could capture a few pictures of it!

We were so excited to see the little ones!  Of course, they were asleep when we got home so we had to wait until morning to talk to them. Hudson got a kick out of one of the treats we brought him:

We are so thankful to our friends for inviting us to what is definitely one of our new favorite vacation spots!!!

Park City Day 4

The boys had an early start to play another round of golf. Ericka and I chose to sleep in, personally I think we got the better deal.  Since sleeping in is a rare occurrence for me these days, I very much appreciate the opportunities I get to do it! We leisurely got ready and headed downtown to the Silly Market. Unfortunately, because of the Arts Festival, the Silly Market was cancelled.  So, we headed off for lunch and a little shopping.

After the boys finished playing, we met up with them at Park City Resort. During the summer, they turn the resort into a very family friendly area.  Hudson, in particular, would have loved it!

 

That night Trent made us a fantastic fajita dinner and then we headed downtown for a little dessert. Another wonderful day in paradise!