One of Hudson’s favorite Christmas presents was a Melissa and Doug alphabet puzzle. I owe all of my child’s knowledge to Melissa and Doug puzzles and Baby Einstein DVDs. He knows his colors, shapes, animals, animal sounds and now his letters thanks to those two companies! Those people are geniuses.

This video is kind of long, but it’s of Hudson putting together his ABC puzzle and saying the letters as he goes. There are four or five letters that he’s not so sure about, though.

*And we had a Baby Einstein DVD playing in the background, hence the classical music. We don’t just sit around listening to Vivaldi (or whoever) all day. Though that might be nice!

I mentioned that on Christmas Eve we video chatted with my brother, who was in Vail working during Christmas. We all opened our presents together and that was so much fun!

Hudson came into the room after he’d gotten his medicine (which is why he’s carrying around the bottle of infant pain relief medicine– I promise he didn’t drink it). Hudson got really excited about seeing Walker and just started babbling uncontrollably. We thought it was quite hilarious, as you’ll hear us all cackling in the background.

Hudson can say a lot of words, but it was like he forgot them all while trying to tell his Uncle Walker as much as possible!

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!