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.

Dear Hudson,

I’m really late posting your 15 month update. Your turned 15 months old on September 5 and we were in Dallas with KK, Poppie, and Uncle Walker. As every month is, this month was so much fun. You, Hudson, are so much fun.

Your little personality shines through more and more every month and we just love the little boy you’re becoming. You always make us laugh with the things you say and do. We call you a little parrot because you repeat everything we say– or at least you try.

You are still very sweet, but you are trying to be a little more defiant and that’s hard for mommy and daddy to take. We hate to have to discipline you, but we always want to keep you safe. Your most common way of showing your independence is when you stand up in your little chair and shout “sit down.” Except you don’t sit down and continue to stand up. We struggle with that every single day. You little booger.

Hudson, you are quite the communicator. You are so good at letting us know what you want and have gotten great at naming all of the items you want. If you can’t say it, you point and say, “that.” Which actually sounds a lot more like “dat.”

When I’m talking to KK on the phone, I’ll say to her, “okay, I love you.” And then you will say, “bye” before I can even get the words out. It’s so funny how you’ve picked up on our cues and have learned so much just be observing all of the people you love. We have to be extra careful to make sure that we’re showing you what is good and right.

You’re still a very big boy and we just love you that way. You’re a fast little guy, too. You run all through the house and your cheeks jiggle while you’re running. You love to play with the dogs and chase them, too. You love singing and dancing and will stop whatever you’re doing to listen to a song and try to sing along or dance.

You pretend to talk on your old cell phone that we gave you and say “hey” and “bye” and nod along while you walk and talk. I wonder where you’ve seen that before! You’ll give something to us that you found on the floor and say “thank you.” And when we say “you’re welcome” you say “thank you” again. I think you have it a bit backwards, but we love your little manners.

Hudson, you have gotten much more particular about what you’ll eat, but we’re learning what you like and still insist that you try everything we give you.

Thank you for being so sweet and loving. We’re so proud of you!

Love,

Mommy

15 month stats

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

Weight: 30 pounds (95th%)

Shoe Size: 6

Clothes Size: Mostly 24 month, but some 18 month stuff still fits, thank goodness

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

Words and Phrases: thank you, please, that, zebra, hippo, puppy, Poppie, whoa, wheee, poo poo, “night moon” (Goodnight Moon), “Melmo” (Elmo), bubbles, mommy, daddy, Boo-doh (Boudreaux), Nona (Fiona), cheese, shoes, juice, milk, book, turtle, meow, dog, moo, bye bye, woof, cow, hey, chicken, baby, touchdown, banana, uh oh, ball

This morning was Hudson’s first day of school. Our church has a weekday program for kids of all ages and Hudson’s age group can go two days a week. I know it’s going to be so good for him to go and see his friends twice a week and it will be good for me to be able to get out and get some errands taken care of without trying to bring Hudson with me.

We got up this morning and had breakfast and then got Hudson dressed in his most “back to school”-looking outfit. I had to take some pictures of him outside our house before we left. He was a little upset with me because he wanted to “get down” and run around the yard rather than sit still. And by the time he started smiling at me my camera started to fog up in the humidity.

But I do think he looked pretty stinking cute!

He was pretty excited to put on the “Hudson” backpack that Kim gave us. He just carried some diapers, a change a clothes, and a sippy cup in his bag, but he was still proud.

And when we got to school he was so excited to walk in and check out all the toys. They allowed the parents to stay for an hour since it was the first day. He walked around and played with the toys and started playing with some of the other kids. When I got up to leave, Hudson didn’t even look back to say goodbye.

He didn’t seem like he was going to miss me too badly. While Hudson was at school, I ran home to pick up some things I needed to take to UPS and discovered that our darling Boudreaux had shredded one of Hudson’s favorite books. So I spent some of my time cleaning up that mess. Then I ran to Starbucks, UPS, and to Barnes and Noble to replace Hudson’s book. I ended up sitting at Barnes and Noble for the last hour before I had to go get Hudson and I just read and enjoyed the quiet.

I think I’ll probably spend the mornings that he’s at school taking care of my Junior League responsibilities and preparing for children’s choir activities, but it’s nice to get some errands run and take care of business sometimes, too.

When I picked up Hudson, he had done a little finger painting craft today, so that was pretty sweet. He was quietly playing and when he saw me he ran to the door and said, “go.” Ha! So even though he did okay he was still ready to go home, eat lunch, and get his nap!