Athan's First Month

My blogging void from the last month is directly related to today's topic...Athan's first month!

I decided to be realistic and let Jay handle all the posting of pictures and telling the story of Athan's birth and just focus and recovering and caring for our newborn. It was great to see how fast he did post pictures and stories about Athan. I loved seeing his excitement.

Now one full month has passed and so I want to record a few details here before they are erased from my mind. I think two things surprised us the most about Athan in the early weeks with him. (1) This baby can sleep! We were shocked at how much he slept and how he didn't really want to wake for feedings. We had to wake him to eat. I even set an alarm a few times at night because he wasn't old enough to go the 7 hours that he once went on his own without eating. Of course, we knew this was change as he grew older and reached more of his full term age (he was over 2.5 weeks early). (2) And, oh boy, is he loud!! These aren't so much cries that I'm talking about as just regular noises. He grunts in his sleep and makes all types of sounds. His digestive noises are even loud. Jay and I have gotten many laughs in the middle of the night just listening to him.

Our biggest event of the first month was a trip to Colorado for David and Lauren's wedding. He was just amazing on our trip. He slept so much of the time and adjusted so well. The only time he cried in public was at the end of the reception. He did have a few meltdowns in the hotel or car. The most memorable was our last night in the hotel as we were trying to get the boys to sleep. Jay was holding a screaming Athan, and I was consuling a hysterical Hudson after he ran into a dresser (he was in serious need of sleep). Another great moment was at a gas station near the Kansas border when he shot poop out all over me and the car (thanks for letting us borrow your car, Gigi!). I yelled at Jay to come help and before we could finish cleaning him up, he had peed all over me again. You have to laugh in these moments!

Hudson has done great. He has adjusted well to being a big brother and has the sweetest "little" voice when he talks to Athan. He loves to talk about how he is going to teach Athan about sounds and how to do all kinds of things. We've had to work on being gentle, not squeezing Athan when he gets the urge or trying to pick him up. Every once in awhile he does get tired of Athan being around or being in my arms and just asks for me to put him to bed or lay down on the couch. I'm really proud of him though.

We've had a good first month. We're grateful for all the help we've had from wonderful family and friends. Extra helping hands and a warm meal have meant so much to us. We're adjusting to our new sleep schedule and trying to be realistc about what we can expect from Athan. It's sometimes hard to remember how much work it takes to get a little one to sleep. We can remember Hudson doing well, but we may forget how much effort it took on our part and how he has to get a little older before he can do more on his own.

I'm thankful for this time and for Athan's great health. God has heard our prayers.

Potty Training, Fun?

Knowing it could potentially be the great struggle of Hudson's third year of life, I have researched potty training almost since Hudson was born. From all of my reading and question asking I decided it would be best to present potty training when Hudson first showed interest and then wait for him to show signs of readiness. That sounds quite simple, but it's not so easy. How do you really know when your child's ready? He's been fascinated with the toilet since he was a year old.

We've had a few attempts at potty training before, but this month he really seemed ready. Still, it's felt that most of the month I've gone back and forth on thinking he was ready. Our first attempt ended after about 3 days. There were only 4 stickers on his paper (meaning times he actually used his potty), and about 20 accidents with dirty pants for me to clean. I couldn't do it anymore. I thought I would just give up for awhile, but he's stayed interested and wanted to use his potty at different times throughout the day. So, I reluctantly decided I better not be missing my opportunity and should go with it again. This week has gone so much better with much more success, meaning many more stickers and fewer accidents. We'll see.

My favorite part of all this has been listening to Hudson talk about the subject. When he feels the need to go, he'll say, "it's coming! it's coming" and then take off down the hall exclaiming, "it's like a race!" We've talked about how we're proud of him, and he can feel proud, too. That has turned into a very sweet returned compliment. If we tell him we're proud of him, he'll tell us that he is proud of us, too. Love it! Then there was also the time that he brought me the little bucket from his potty to show me he had gone on his own. I couldn't believe it...he just ran through the house with a bucket of pee and thankfully it didn't spill!!!

On another note, the pregnancy is going well. Baby brother is growing and growing, and I've got a nice round belly to prove it. Poor Hudson still insists on trying to find a spot on my lap to sit even though there's really not room. We're still working on a name, and Hudson has given good input. He's taken to a baby we borrowed from a friend and calls it baby brother. Sometimes he'll offer a snack to my belly for the baby. He seems to be excited about the baby, but we know it will be a challenge for him. We're praying for a smooth transition and much love to abound.

I wonder which will happen first...potty training complete or baby brother arriving??

Like Music to My Ears

Hudson surprised me recently when he started singing this song on his own. I've been singing this to him at night before bed for awhile. I'm not sure how this became a bedtime lullaby, but he loves it. He always listens, and I guess was learning the words. I think this was the most beautiful rendition of Away in a Manger I have EVER heard!


Along the same lines, Hudson has recently started offering, or really insisiting, to pray before meals. This is the standard: "Father, thank you for this day, time to play outside. Thank you for Jesus. Amen." LOVE it!

LOVE this kid!

In celebration of Mother's Day, I thought it would be appropriate to blog about Hudson a bit. What I love most about my blog is getting to talk about our family as much as I want without worrying if I ramble too much, or say too many times how much I adore them. Also, I am a sporadic blogger, leaving me with several little things about Hudson I've been intending to record for awhile.

So here it is...my Mother's Day blog with some of my favorite Hudson-isms since I last blogged just about him. I really do love this kid!

The addition of the word "actually" to his vocabulary- as in, "that's actually a wheeled excavator, not a track excavator."

Good morning kisses! Our little one is often an early riser (a negative by-product of moving to a toddler bed), so the routine is that he climbs in bed with us until we're ready to get up. He knows wake up time has finally arrived when we announce it's time for good morning kisses. He likes to say "good morning kiss" and then offer a sweet kiss to start the day.

How he talks about the new baby. Talk about funny conversation. On his own he told me we should name the baby "Jesus." When I told Hudson that there was only one Jesus, he offered that we could call the baby "little Jesus" (if only you could hear the way he emphasized "little"). He also talks about baby brother being in his belly. Put these two together and you get this from Hudson- little baby Jesus is kicking in his stomach. Oh my, not even sure how to address that one! More recently, he has started kissing baby brother through my round belly.

His creative imagination and inquisitive nature. He has gone through a phase of choosing a different name that he wants to be called. I love seeing his imagination blossom. Some of his favorite names have been Bertie (the bus on Thomas) and Herman (from a great song about a worm). As for inquisitive, his questions never stop. When we're in a store, he will often ask loudly "what's her name?" about someone near us. He's always wanting more information about people and things around him.

Hudson singing! He comes home from the church nursery full of new songs that he credits Ms. Mary for teaching him. Favorites are My God is So Big, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, ABCs, and Jesus Loves the Little Children. He also has come to love me singing to him Away in a Manger at bedtime. And then, of course, learning Herman the Worm. Love, love, love hearing H sing this one with Daddy.

And, finally, a new accomplishment in the area of grammer. I've been proud to hear him begin to learn the proper use of pronouns, correctly substituting "you" for "me." For the longest time he'd ask me to hold him by saying "hold you, Mama." Now he's started to unravel the great mystery that is personal pronouns. Who needs potty training? To me, this is a great milestone, indeed!

Hudson Can Ski!!

We were so proud of Hudson. He loved skiing, especially the conveyer lift and the helmet!

A Christmas Surprise

I meant to post this one some time ago. This one is mostly for the Lane crew, but hopefully you other readers can find the humor in this. Christmas morning, my clever father had made a switch to one of Spencer's (my nephew) gifts. My sweet mom had thought Spencer would enjoy a "manly" doll to play with when he and Ally play dolls. He's two and has an older sister...playing dolls is just going to happen. So she picked out this prince doll. My dad thought it was way too girly (princes wear tights), so he wanted Spencer to have a GI Joe instead. Mom said no. Dad bought it anyway, changed the doll inside the prince box to GI Joe, and the rest you see here. The end of the story...Spencer picked the prince. Gigi knows her grandbabies.

Hosanna, Jesus is King!

On Palm Sunday, Hudson came home with a craft from Sunday School telling me that they learned how the people lay down palm branches exclaiming, "Hosanna, Jesus is King!" Throughout the week and on Easter Sunday, we had great fun proclaiming this truth together. And I must admit, although I did briefly share the Easter story with Hudson, those are some big concepts for a little one. I've told the Easter story to children many times, but telling it to my own two year old this year was somewhat intimidating. So for now I just enjoyed hearing Hudson say, "Ho-hannah, Jesus is King!"

Our Easter celebration was wonderful. We started the week off with an Easter egg hunt during his play group on Wednesday. Friday night, Susu came to town. And on Saturday, we had an Easter party at church. Pa, Gigi, and the Thompsons came up for that as well. Hudson was as excited about hunting eggs as I would have expected. He got motivated to find some when Jay told him there was candy inside, but then lost interest after spotting the trucks in the sand box. He did not like the Easter bunny, but loved going on the inflatables with Aunt Kandace. Easter Sunday we worshipped at church. Hudson stayed with us through some of the songs and then went on to play with his friends in the nursery. Susu helped us make a festive lunch, we rested, and then he opened his Easter baskets in the afternoon. A great day for our little guy!

Group hug as requested by Hudson Happy Easter, Susu !!

Some more of our favorite people... Hudson giving up on the Easter egg hunt