Dear Hudson,

You are just a couple of weeks away from being 19 months old, but Mommy has fallen a bit behind of your monthly updates. I completely missed your 17 month update, but we did take your picture with your favorite monkey and this is what we got! You’re not much into looking at the camera!

17 months

Your 18th month has been pretty great. Aside from the ear infections and the cold that won’t seem to go away, you have been the happiest and most content I’ve ever seen you. For the most part, the tantrums have completely stopped and you are just happy to sit and read, work a puzzle, sing along with Elmo, or build stuff with your blocks.

Your obsession with Elmo has really taken over this month. You sing the Elmo’s World song in an abbreviated form and say “ya ya ya, ya ya ya, Melmo.” (Instead of la la la la, la la la la, Elmo’s World.) You pay so much attention to everything and repeat so much of what you hear. We really have to watch what we say.

Your pediatrician was commenting this week on how great your language skills are and what a big vocabulary you have. I’m always shocked at how many words you know and understand. You do a pretty good job of communicating with us and I am sure that’s why the tantrums are happening much less frequently.

In just the last couple of weeks, you’ve started answering our questions. Except it’s clear you don’t really know what we’re asking you and you just understand that you’re being asked a question. And the answer if always “no.” We have to try not to laugh, and thankfully when you say “no” you’re not talking back to us. We may just be saying “Hudson, do you know how to tell the truth?” And you say, “no.” And you say it with such conviction!

Or “Hudson, do you like Boudreaux?” And you just pop off with “no.” We always laugh.

You are getting more and more agile and are really running and almost jumping now. You still try so hard to get both feet off the floor at the same time.

I’m so happy that you love school and your teachers so much. Sometimes at home, you’ll sit on the floor and sing the “hello” song that you sing at school. I’m so glad that you are enjoying it and bringing home things that you learn there. They always have you making sweet little crafts or painting pictures.

You still love saying “thank you” to everyone and at Daddy’s urging, you’re saying “please” more and more. We set up your model train set to go around the Christmas tree and you call it your “choo choo.” On the way to church last week, you were saying “choo choo” and I asked if you wanted to go home to play with your train. And you said, “please? please? please?” It broke my heart because you were being so sweet, but we couldn’t go home right then to play with the train.

Hudson, you’re growing up so much and I absolutely love it. But with each new word you learn and all the ways you grow, I know that we can’t go backwards, and that does make me sad sometimes. You are so precious to us and so very sweet. Your friendly personality is always shining through and we just love the little boy you’re becoming.

We love you so much!

Mommy

18 months

30.5 pounds

Size 2T

Size 5 Diaper

Size 7 Shoe

I’m so excited to get to talk about a new sponsor on Blue-Eyed Bride. Tracy Turpen Photography has worked with our family twice already and I’m sure we’ll be seeing lots more of her when Baby Boy Carroll #2 arrives soon.

Tracy is a fabulous wedding photographer, but also has an incredible gift in the way she works with families and children. She is patient and playful and never too serious, so sessions with her are always a lot of fun and never stressful on the child.

I haven’t shared these yet on my blog, but wanted to show y’all some of the photos we got from Hudson’s one year pictures back in June. We went down to Folly Beach, SC to meet Tracy because we wanted to try to get some gorgeous beach pictures.

Visit Tracy’s family photography website or wedding photography website for more information! And visit Tracy’s blog to check out all of her most recent work.

And I had to show y’all this couple’s completely adorable photo by Tracy for their Save The Date. I may be in the dog house with TC for not thinking of this myself. And it appears this couple is getting married on my birthday- 11/11/2011!

Dear Hudson,

I am officially late with posting your 16 month update and soon I’ll be posting your 17 month update. Life has been so busy this month and you have been the busiest one of us all!

You have so much to say and so much you want to do. In our house, there’s lots of jibber jabber and constant singing. Sometimes you will sing a recognizable word and sometimes it’s just words you make up. And it’s clear that you always know what you’re saying and we’re the ones that need to learn.

When we sing the A-B-C song, we’ll sing, “L-M-N-O” and you will say, “P.”  You can also sing “how I wonder” in the middle of Twinkle, Twinkle.

You are still always saying “hey” and “bye” to everyone you see. You will say “hey” to someone until they finally say it back. At church, at restaurants, on walks. You just loves for people to notice you. You say “thank you” when someone gives you something or when you give something to someone else. You’re such a polite little fella!

Ha! Not sure about your hand placement in these pictures!

Hudson, you also have your not-so-polite moments and don’t handle hearing the word “no” very well. The tantrums haven’t slowed down this month like we hoped. We’re working with you and hoping that this is a phase.

You love giving kisses. You’ll give me a kiss without me having to ask for one and you always does it when I do ask for one. You’re also always kissing on Boudreaux and Fiona. They sit patiently and leave you alone, but you love your puppies! When we i-Chat with my parents, you’ll kiss the computer monitor to give them a kiss.

You seem to hate getting dropped off at school more and more every day. You love one of your teachers and she tells me that any time she leaves the room, you cry for her. I told her that it’s a compliment and that means you love her. She also told me that you’re the sympathy crier at school and when one child starts crying, you cry with them.

Your favorite thing this month is wearing your shoes and socks. As soon as you get out of bed every morning or after your nap, you’re saying “shoes” and “socks.” You always want to be wearing them, and then as soon as you get them on you say “bye bye.”

You love to walk up and down the hallway with all of our photos hanging up and point out Mommy, Daddy, Poppie, KK, RC, PC, and even Boudreaux. When we’re on a walk with Boudreaux, you just call out to our sweet dog the whole time. I know that someday you’ll be great friends!

We have been so impressed with your vocabulary and how much you love to repeat anything we say. You catch on so well. Your pronunciation isn’t always perfect, but you try!

We love you so much and just can’t believe how quickly the time flies and how big you’ve gotten!

Love,

Mommy and Daddy

Height: 35 1/4 inches long (above the 97th%)

Weight: 30 pounds (95th%)

Shoe Size: 6

Clothes Size: Mostly 24 month, but some 2T. A lot of the 24 month stuff is already too small!

Diaper Size: 5

Food: grilled cheese, peas, carrots, green beans, apple sauce, bananas, blueberries, chicken nuggets, salmon, cheese, oranges, kiwi, oatmeal, strawberries, pancakes, pasta, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese

Words and Phrases: thank you, please, that, zebra, hippo, puppy, Poppie, KK, PC, RC, whoa, wheee, poo poo, “night moon” (Goodnight Moon), “Melmo” (Elmo), bubbles, Mommy, Daddy, Boo-doh (Boudreaux), Nona (Fiona), cheese, shoes, socks, juice, milk, book, turtle, meow, dog, moo, bye bye, woof, cow, hey, chicken, baby, touchdown, banana, uh oh, ball, eat, night night, car, no no, sit down, get down, get up, oatmeal, apple, purple, circle  (and that’s all I can really think of right now!)

We went to the Greek Festival with some of our friends from Sunday school on Friday night. It was great to catch up with them. Life has been so busy lately and the summer always leaves people with different schedules so it’s hard to get together. We had some great Greek food and then Hudson was ready to “get down” out of his stroller.

I couldn’t really let him walk around the festival because he’s kind of a wild man. But I had seen a big dance floor under a tent when we arrived and lots of kids were playing under there. So I decided to take Hudson back to the tent to see if he’d just run around under there.

He did more than run around! The boy was feeling the rhythm. As soon as he heard the music, he couldn’t contain himself. My sweet friends were able to get a little bit of video for us and I’m so happy they did!

Hudson did this dancing bit for at least half an hour. He just wouldn’t stop. His little cheeks were so red and he was having the time of his life. The funniest part was that he had his Baby Einstein DVD case (his newest security blanket) and wouldn’t put it down the whole time he was dancing!

It was a great weekend in college football. We had lots of fun at the game and I got to see a fun blog friend! This world is so small! Ashley was sitting right behind me at the game and came over to say hello.

The Gamecocks had some scary moments, but we won and we’re even more excited to go play Auburn next weekend. TC has never been to Auburn and it’s one of my favorite away games, so I can’t wait! And how about the Auburn/Clemson game? We got home from our game just in time to see the end  and TC and I had to really control ourselves to stop from screaming and jumping around the house. We were so excited!

I hope y’all had a great weekend. We had a hard time getting out of bed this morning, but Hudson is at school (hopefully having a great time) and I’m folding mountains of laundry.