December Fun

A Christmas story...

So many Christmas decorations, so much to touch! Silly Mom thought decorating the Christmas tree would be such fun this year with Hudson. He would help me hang the ornaments and marvel at the lights. Not exactly how it went down. Hudson was fascinated alright, but his idea of fun was banging the Christmas ornaments together. We struggled as I decorated the house and then in the next few days as I reminded Hudson not to touch the new decor. However, one wonderfully bright spot was the moment I got out the nativity set. When we were first married, we picked out a beautiful plastic set knowing that we'd have little hands around one day. It's perfect for Hudson to play with. I've put it on the coffee table, and Hudson has had such fun moving the sheep around and exclaiming, "Sheep eat grass!" I've tried to encourage him to keep Baby Jesus in the manger and explain that He is special. It's provided me with several teachable moments and distracted Hudson from all the other things he can't touch. Oh, and I must share this...when I got the set out, Hudson was looking at the one goat. I told him it was different from the sheep because it had horns. He thought a moment and said, "beep, beep!" He was thinking about a horn on a car. Priceless.

A few other pieces of news...

One of Hudson's newest feats includes counting to 10. Never thought he could do that so early. It encourages me to continue to present new concepts to him and see what sticks. His love is still for Thomas the Train. He continues to sleep well with about the same routine he's had for the past year or more although I fear his nap is slowly shrinking. He's stayed in his crib for now. We plan to convert it to the toddler bed after all the Christmas gatherings. One thing we love to hear right now is Hudson talk as he falls to sleep. He will lay in his crib and chatter about the day, repeating new words that he enjoys saying. A recent favorite has been saying our "real names." I love hearing him say Jennifer Lynn, James Edward (not Edwin), or best of all James Hudson Felker. A new potty was Hudson's most exciting purchase of the week. We're still mostly just playing when we sit on it, but he is very interested in the idea. We'll just see what happens.