Playmat

I took out the playmat for Hudson for the first time tonight. He was so amazed by all the bright colors. He laid underneath it for almost a half an hour just staring at everything in content. Then his big brother decided he was going to be a baby also so he could lay underneath it also.

C-H-A-R-L-I-E

Charlie learned this weekend how to spell his name!

Zoo

We had a relaxing weekend. On Memorial Day, we ventured to the zoo. This was our first trip this year.

 The new orangutan

 Thundar!

 Charlie decided that these are Thundar's brothers.

 Charlie has been carrying around this toy. He believes it is a recorder like on Dino Dan. He kept talking into it recording all of his observations.

 Checking out the snow leopards.

 Look how big I am!

 Feeding the goat

 Feeding the donkey (he told us this was his favorite part)

 Watching the bear splash in the pool

 Hudson slept the whole time

Charlie choose Pizza Ranch to eat at after the zoo.

Family Movie Night

With the rainy weather, we decided to have a family movie night. Charlie got the movie "Horton Hears a Who" for his birthday so we all curled up to watch it together in our pajamas. Halfway through Corey made us some popcorn.

 Snuggling with Daddy

Sharing popcorn

Baby Shower

My wonderful co-workers threw me a shower last night. It was wonderful to see them all again and to gossip with them. Hudson received some wonderful gifts:

Thank you to Stacy and Robin for planning the shower and to Lori for having it at her house!

Chubby Cheeks and Flippy-Flops

My two favorite things today:

This boys chubby cheeks. . .

and this boys new flippy-flops (as he likes to call them).

Bath Time

Hudson has had a few baths now, but these are the best pictures that I got:

This was the first bath Hudson got on May 13th. He did not like it at all. He screamed through the whole thing.

Here is his bath from tonight. Hudson seemed to enjoy it a lot more.

Future boyfriend and girlfriend

Corey has decided that Hudson and Claire will eventually date in the future.

Monster Truck Party

We celebrated Charlie's birthday on Sunday May 22nd. We had 25 people at our house to celebrate.The kids wanted to play outside. Since there was a break in the rain, they got to run around on the driveway for awhile.

Charlie and Aaron playing together.

Luckily, it started to rain again so we got the kids inside to eat lunch. We had pulled pork sandwiches, pasta salad, fruit, and chips.

 Brooks, Aaron, and Charlie eating.

Annie, Grandma E., Grandpa Bup, Grandpa Bill, Emily, and Josh eating.

Charlie then blew out the candles on his birthday cake. He had a Dairy Queen cake with of course a monster truck theme.

Charlie became very shy when everyone was singing Happy Birthday to him.

After eating cake, Charlie opened all of his gifts. He was a very lucky boy. He received some monster trucks, Car toys, bubbles, swimming pool pass and money.

Charlie gave his friends punching balloons in their party favor bags. They were a big hit with the boys. 

This was what Charlie looked like at 6:00 that night. A little worn out!

Chuck E Cheese

We bribed Charlie to stay in his bed all last week by telling him if he stayed in bed we would take him to Chuck E Cheese. He was so excited to go.

 This was Charlie's favorite game. He played it over and over. It took a while to for him to figure out how to get the ball up there. Once he figured out he needed to bring his arm back to get enough power, he was pretty good at it. 

Hudson- 2 week checkup

Weight: 9 lbs. 4 oz. (You have gained 1 1/2 lbs. since we left the hospital)

Height: 21 inches

Head Circumference: 14.5 inches

Charlie at age 3

I can't believe you are 3 already. These past 3 years have gone by so fast. Here are some of my memories of you at 3:

You had to have a monster truck party. Monster trucks have been your favorite toy lately. You love to smash the trucks together.

You love numbers and will point them out whenever you see them (house numbers, clocks, etc). You are also learning all of your letters. You are able to recognize most of them.

Your favorite movie is Cars. You have watched it a million times. You like to sing "Life is a Highway" when it comes on, but you do not want anyone else singing it.

Your favorite shows are Wild Kratts and Dino Dan. You love to pretend to be the characters from the show. You and Daddy are Chris and Martin, the Kratt brothers. You pretend to have different creature powers and rescue animals. We have been on lots of Dino tracks looking for all the different dinosaurs like Dan. You enjoy performing dinosaur experiments with your tools (Mom's digital frame, Dad's iPod, etc)

You are a wonderful big brother. You adore your little brother. He receives 100 kisses from you every day. You enjoy holding him and every time he starts crying you inform Mom that he is hungry.

Your favorite colors are blue and orange like your bedroom.

Shorts and a short-sleeve t-shirt are your choice in clothing. You like to change clothes as soon as you get home from Lori's. You are very particular about what shoes you wear. It has to be the pair that you are in the mood for even if they don't match.

Playing outside is a nightly event. Baseball, golf, bubbles, sidewalk chalk, basketball, anything that you can do outside, you enjoy doing.

Mommy and Daddy are so proud of the boy that you are becoming. 

Sharing

Hudson and I picked Charlie up from daycare. When we got home, Charlie wanted to eat his snack from daycare. So Charlie is eating his cookie gripz and Hudson is sitting in his bouncy seat in the living room. I was putting dishes in the dishwasher when Charlie yells, "Mommy, I sharing".

"What are you sharing?", I ask.

"My snack"

"Who are you sharing with? The puppy?"

"No, my baby brother!"

"Did you put it in his mouth?"

"Yes"

At this time, I sprint across the living room and hook the little cookie out of his mouth. Luckily, Hudson had been sleeping so the cookie hadn't gone past his lips. Charlie and I had to have a talk about how babies don't eat food, only milk.

Little Brother

This little boy has kept his mother on her toes the first few days.  He was very tired the day we came home. Slept most of the day. That night, he was up every hour eating like crazy. The next day he was very tired in the afternoon, but when night time came he was wide awake and eating like crazy. He was eating for an hour to an hour and a half at a time. This afternoon, he slept great again. Hopefully tonight goes better.

Coming Home

We couldn't wait to bring Hudson home. I was starting to go a little stir-crazy in the hospital. I had everything packed up and ready to go when the doctor showed up at 8:30 that morning. We ended up getting home around 11:00. We had such wonderful doctors and nurses during our stay but it is nice to be back at our house.

 His hospital picture pose.

 Snug in his carseat.

 As soon as we got home, Aaron ran over to give him kisses. He has been very good with the new baby.

 Hudson was very sleepy all day from his circumcision. That let me take a nice nap!

I walked over to pick up Charlie from daycare. He was so excited to see his new baby brother. He ran the whole way home. He came into the house and immediately gave him a big kiss. Later, Daddy and Charlie went outside to play. Every 5 minutes Charlie would come inside to check on Hudson. 

My 4 boys!

Hudson had slept most of the day, so he decided to make it up during the night. He was up eating almost every hour. He had lots of poopy diapers throughout the night. I did not get much sleep, but that was ok.