i like to move it move it

In the past 2 weeks, Lucas has been on a milestone-hitting-rampage.  He has started flying around the house crawling, and has decided that he would skip the whole getting himself into a sitting position from laying down and just go right to pulling to stand.

See, this pediatric nurse here knows the progression of baby milestones.  I was surprised that Lucas hadn't gotten himself into a sitting position on his own, even though he would sit up without a problem if we would sit him down.  I always thought he could do it but just was choosing not to, and I was proven to be right when Brandon called me yesterday at work to tell me that he went into Lucas's room to get him after a nap and he was standing up in his crib holding onto the side rails.  I caught him doing it on the monitor last night, and he is such a determined little fellow. When I left him in his room before this, I thought he was asleep.  Oh wrong wrong wrong.  We kept hearing a weird sound upstairs so I pulled up the monitor and this is what we saw:  Watch:

Who needs to sit when you can stand?

new kicks

In the midst of our sick-fest at Thanksgiving, Nana and Poppy took Lucas shoe shopping for his first pair of "real" shoes!  And they are SO cute.  So so so cute.  He got 2 pairs, a gray pair of Sperry velcro top shoes and a black pair of Converse high top chuck taylors. 

hmmm...what are these things on my feet?

oh! shoes!  

is this not the cutest thing you have ever seen?  this kid is going to have rhythm and be a good dancer. and sorry, B, i love you, but he didn't get that from you.

these are his little Sperry's

Too much, little boy.  Too much!

the season of giving...

Thanksgiving came and went at our house in a bit of a whirlwind.  I'll start off by letting you know that this "season of giving" concept isn't always a good thing.  Here's what went down...

We had a fun Thanksgiving week all planned out.  First, my parents were staying with us from the Saturday before Thanksgiving through Tuesday.  Then they would head to Pittsburgh to spend Thanksgiving with Jon and Kelsey.  Then Brandon's parents were staying with us from Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, through Saturday.  So essentially we had a full week booked at the casa de Hudson for Thanksgiving festivities!  Fun, right?

Well.  I woke up Sunday morning, the day after my parents got here, with a queezy stomach.  We got up, headed to church and lunch, then I had to come home.  I felt terrible.  I proceeded to barf up my favorite meal from Jason's Deli and then spent the rest of the day curled up in the fetal position in my bed feeling like I was on death's door for the rest of the evening.  And I'm not exaggerating. Thank the Lord my parents were there, because they were able to go on gatorade runs and take care of Lucas while Brandon was at church that evening.  My mom was feeding Lucas to put him down for bed and out of my aching stupor I hear, "I need some help in here!"  I fly into Lucas's room and see/smell that he has puked.  Everywhere.  Not baby spit up, straight up grown man puke.  Y'all, it was the saddest thing I have ever seen in my life.  He proceeded to be pukey and have stinky nasty diapers for the next day or so.  Again, my dad ventured out to the drug store for more "gatorade," aka Pedialyte, this time for Lucas.  And the gift goes on...

The next day (Monday) we just rested and Lucas and I both were still a little puny. I held down chicken noodle soup and Lucas held down Pedialyte, and we thought we were in the clear.  Tuesday morning, my parents left for Pittsburgh and all was well.  Until after dinner...I hear Brandon say, "I don't feel so well."  Great.  To put it kindly, Tuesday night was r.o.u.g.h.  Brandon was up ALL night.  Sick as stink.  I was up with him, Lysol-ing behind his every move and cooling him off with cool wash cloths into the wee hours of the morning. The only saving grace was that Lucas slept all night and our commotion of Brandon running to and from the bathroom didn't wake him up.  The next morning, I ventured out for yet more gatorade while Brandon was in that familiar achy coma on the couch with instructions not to move or touch anything.  I called his parents who were scheduled to come in town later that afternoon and let them know the situation and that they were coming at their own risk.  I came home and disinfected the house from top to bottom.  And the gift goes on...

Brandon's parents came in to town and brought with them Brandon's mom's best friend, Mrs. Jessie.  We had plans to go to Angus Barn for dinner Wednesday evening for our big Thanksgiving dinner.  Then we were going to cook a low-key traditional Thanksgiving meal on Thursday.  Well, you know that Brandon still must have felt miserable because we canceled our reservations to Angus Barn.  If you know him at ALL, you know he must have really been sick for this to happen.

Wednesday evening, I get a call from my mom.  In Pittsburgh.  Her first words were "guess what?"  And I knew.  She was the next victim.  She spent Wednesday evening miserably sick at Jon and Kelsey's house (sorry, guys).

Thursday came and we had a late Thanksgiving lunch of a turkey breast, green beans, sweet potato casserole, dressing, cornbread hash, bread, pumpkin pie, and pecan pie. Everyone ate without a problem.  But....the gift goes on...

Friday morning comes and Brandon and his dad went to play golf.  I hung around the house and napped because I had to work nightshift Friday night.  Mrs. Jessie and Brandon's mom took Lucas out for lunch and came home to lounge the rest of the day.  That evening, both of them...not feeling well. Seriously?!  This is not funny anymore.  They left town Saturday morning and both were sick.

At the end of this rampage, the only unscathed bystanders were my dad and Brandon's dad, and Jon and Kelsey (but they were never in the same state as me, who started this whole mess.)

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!  [insert sarcasm here.]

And I know you guys all want pictures, but all I got was a picture of part of our table on Thanksgiving day.  Sorry, I was too busy disinfecting (to no avail) to take pictures.

8 months

This 8th month with Lucas has been full of pint-sized adventures.  Lucas has changed so much in the past month and I see his personality and fun-loving spirit starting to explode out of him.  He gets so excited at the smallest things, and it makes me stop and smile.  For example...one of the BEST little adventures of the day is carrying Lucas up the stairs for the night.  Usually he's a bit cranky since between 7 and 8 is the witching hour at our house.  He's tired and ready for bed, but something about walking up those stairs and seeing that crazy dog of ours bound up the stairs in front of us and wait for us at the top makes Lucas crack up laughing...every.single.time.  He giggles and flashes those 2 teeth and his big dimples, and I love it.

We had to lower the crib mattress because little mister has discovered how to do this:

Yikes.

Another big adventure that we have discovered is the ability to crawl.  Oh Lord help us all!  Including the puppy.  Lucas targets Lexi and bee-lines it for her.  (But I think Lexi secretly loves it.)

With the ability to crawl comes the ability to escape.  Especially when it comes to diaper changes.  Whew.  The second we lay Lucas down to get his little butt changed, he tries to flip himself over and take off.  It scares me to death when he tries to kamakazi himself off of the changing table, so I changed him on the floor a few days ago and then this happened:

Yes.  That is his bare little butt on my living room rug as he attempts to escape a diaper change.

In other news, the boy still loves to eat.  He's still a fast and efficient nurser, and downs some solid foods like a teenage boy.  His favorites now include sweet potatoes (still his fave), oatmeal, applesauce, carrots, green beans, peas, and CHEERIOS!  The boy loves cheerios.  If you plop him in his high chair and pour some cheerios onto the tray, he is in heaven.  He is pretty good about not shoving handfuls into his mouth yet, but sometimes we have to slow him down.  He squeals with delight and even knows to pick them up out of the little trough at the bottom of his bib.  So stinking cute.

This month, we voted!  18 more years little buddy, and you can have your own sticker instead of stealing mine.

I still am trying to indoctrinate Lucas to be a Tarheel fan.  UNC and NC State played each other in football, and we had a little 'house divided' thing happening around here.

Uncle Jon and Aunt K were in town the weekend of the game!

Little boys and big toys!

Lucas still loves to swing. Even when it's too sunny to see :)

And just for fun, Brandon loves making Lucas have crazy hair after bath time.  It's really pretty funny, especially when he wakes up the next morning looking like a wild man.

Faster than a speeding bullet!  Wild man in his walker.

Sweet boy, we love seeing you learn and have your own little adventures.  I do believe that one day you will realize that your toys are more fun than Lexi's bone or the TV remote or the computer charger cord.  One day.  When you get your mind set on something, you go for it with every ounce of effort and energy your little body can muster!  That is a good thing.  Use that wisely as you grow.  For now, we see that determination in you when you march those chunky legs across the house in your walker to try to grab my plant or the trash bag in the trash can...but you will learn. Until then, have fun!  And have all the adventures your little self can handle.

a hoot of a halloween

Lucas's first Halloween was better than I could have imagined.  Truth be told, I had to convince Brandon that Lucas needed a Halloween costume.  Brandon's initial response was "why does he need a costume? He's going to wear it for 5 minutes, we'll take a few pictures, then he's going to go to sleep."  My initial justification was "but he will be SO CUTE."  We went back and forth, and it was decided in the end that our little guy needed a costume, even if it was just for 5 minutes.  But it wasn't.

The first costume we bought for Lucas was a monkey costume.  It was cute and fluffy with a long tail.  But I wasn't sold.  I knew deep down that Lucas needed to be an owl.  He was meant to be an owl. I mean, have you seen his nursery?  Looking online at costumes was frustrating because all of the owl costumes were expensive.  Like $50 expensive.  Even I know that's ridiculous.  But the stars aligned when Brandon was out running errands with Lucas a few days before Halloween.  I got the call at work and heard the giddiness in Brandon's voice (even though he will deny it.)  He said "I found an owl costume....and it's only $12!"  Music to my ears.  Get it and take that dang monkey costume back!  All is right in the world!

 Lucas was in his costume for 2 days.  No joke.  That's not even counting the dress rehearsal we did the weekend before when Nana and Poppy were in town.  The first time I secured that little owl hat under his fat chin and looked him from his beak down to his little floppy feet things, I DIED.  

See what I mean?  You just died a little bit too, didn't you?  TOO MUCH.  

So backing up...the weekend before Halloween, my mom, dad, Jon, and Kelsey were in town.  We carved Lucas's first pumpkin (finished product pictured above!) and loved watching Lucas squish the guts of the pumpkin in between his little fingers.

Then on the day before Halloween, my sweet friend Jill threw a little baby costume party at her house.  We had 5 babies there, ages 6 months, 7 months, 8 months, 10 months, and 12 months.  It was so awesome to see them playing together and actually being social!  

Here is Lucas playing with Levi:

The following series of pictures shows that Lucas still has some work to do when it comes to learning how to impress the ladies...his move of choice is grabbing Avery's sheep ear, and eating it. Come on, son.

We should have known better...our best attempt at getting all 5 kiddos lined up for a picture.  

From left to right: Noah the elephant, Levi as Batman, Avery the sheep, Lucas the owl, and escape artist Hannah as a ballerina.

The costume party gang!  Babies and mamas.  Fun times, girls!

Left to right: Noah and Cheryl, Amy and Levi, Jill and Avery, me and Lucas, and Carlie and Hannah

And this last picture from the day is too cute not to share.  You know a good time was had when the sheep falls asleep!

The next day, Lucas and I headed to Pullen Park in Raleigh to meet some of my friends from work and their babies for another costumed kiddies rendezvous. Let me preface the pictures by saying that this is only a fraction of the babies that were born to the nurses on 6 Children's in the past few years.  It has been a baby boom, to say the least.  The running joke is "don't drink the water on 6 Children's," and now I'm starting to wonder if there is truth to it.

Here is our best attempt at a group shot.

Left to right: Lucas, Evie, Rowan, Nora, and Audrey

The 3 amigos.  Their mamas (Amber, me, and Janet) waddled our pregnant selves through 12 hour shifts at the same time.  Whew.

On the left is Evie and her mom, Becky, with baby sister Aubrey tucked in snug and warm in the moby wrap. In the middle is Rowan and her mom, Amber.  And on the right is Nora and her mom, Katie.

Also there and not pictured (I don't know how I didn't get pictures of them?!) was Audrey and Elliott with Janet, and Aaden and Ava with Meghan.  

Audrey and Lucas were both owls, a girl and a boy.  They were born 3 weeks apart and months ago Janet and I decided that they needed to both be owls.  And they were!  It was perfect.  They were hilarious together, grabbing each other's costumes and pushing each other down.  Maybe they were flirting.

First, Lucas makes a move and stiff-arms Audrey.  Eventually pushing her over.  (Don't worry, no tears were shed.)

Next, Audrey returns the favor and grabbed Lucas's head.

Then, just to make sure Lucas knows who is boss (clearly the pink owl is boss...I mean come on, she has a cape), Audrey pulls Lucas's head down, making him bow in submission.

Too much, I tell you.  These kids are too much.

Here are a few other cute ones I snapped in the bright sunshine:

We left the park and headed over to the church offices.  All the little bitty staff kids came in their costumes and trick-or-treated around the office.  

When we pulled up, Brandon met me in the parking lot to find this:

So I left him in his costume, okay?
Don't judge, it wasn't a long drive!

Again, cuteness overload.  I for some reason didn't bring the camera inside...so I only got one picture with my phone of daddy with his little hoot owl:

After all of that fun, we headed home and let Lucas have a break from his costume.  He took the mother of all naps, poor guy.  He was wiped!  Then when he woke up, on went the costume!  (I promise, he didn't hate it!)

 Lucas and Lexi waited for trick-or-treaters and Rowan and her mom and dad (Amber and Luke) came over for pizza and candy.

If you didn't notice, our pumpkin his 2 bottom teeth, just like Lucas.

A fun night was had by all.  We had tons of trick-or-treaters.  After we ran out of candy and turned out the porch lights, Lucas cozied up in his Halloween jammies and went to bed.  

First Halloween...success!