hudson family beach trip

Every year we look forward to the Hudson family beach trip.  Brandon's parents have a great time share in Myrtle Beach, and this year we got to spend a few days there also with Steph, Wes, and baby Hudson.  

Brandon, Lucas, and I got our own unit this year and Lucas thought he was big stuff in his own big BIG boy bed!

The weather was cloudy, but we still had fun at the pool and on the beach.  Our boy is fearless, y'all.  He wanted to be thrown higher, run faster, and swim without his floaties.  

He did pretty well with just the noodle, but he soon wanted to try without anything.  How do you explain to a toddler who doesn't know how to swim that he will sink without any help?  We tried to explain it to no avail, so we did what any good parent would do.  We let him sink.  Only for a second, then Brandon picked him up out of the water and the look on Lucas's face said it all.  The little lightbulb in his head went off and he realized that in fact he cannot swim.  Not yet.  Coming up in our near future are swim lessons for sure. 

Now this is a sight to be seen...the whole family "flying" down the beach with the seagulls...with a mama who is 29 weeks pregnant!

Lucas loved meeting his cousin Hudson.  He was so sweet to him (except for the minor slip up of Lucas giving Hudson a "spanking" by bopping him on the head with his palm after Hudson kept spitting his paci out...yeah, not his greatest moment.)  Seeing him with Hudson makes us even more excited for him to meet his baby sister.

 

We had some great family time and relaxed.  Lucas got the hang of relaxation, that's for sure.

One of the pools has a great slide and Lucas went down it probably a hundred times.  He went down over and over with Brandon. When they hit the pool at the bottom of the slide, Brandon would lift him up enough so his head wouldn't go under water. 

Then he wanted to go down with MiMi, and the series of pictures below show perfectly what happened.  Can you see it?  

  

It was SO funny because it all happened so fast. As soon as they both popped up from under the water, Lucas just looked around in disbelief.  We were all dying laughing and when they got out of the pool Lucas said "I went under water with MiMi!"  And he would not go down with her again.  

The rest of our time was spent playing on the beach. Lucas searched for Easter eggs in the sand dunes that MiMi had hidden with jelly beans inside.  He was loving it.

Lucas looks thrilled to be sharing his mama's attention

B with his sister Steph. Love seeing her be a mom to Hudson!

Lucas loves his MiMi!

We tried to take some family pictures of the three of us and also capture some maternity shots of my quickly growing belly.  We experienced pictures with a toddler in full force. Lucas was more interested in playing in the sand than posing for pictures.

He didn't do much better with Brandon...

But we managed to get a few decent ones.

Grow baby girl, grow!  Even though I feel pretty large for 29 weeks.  

We had a blast at the beach. Thanks MiMi and PaPa for another fun year!

2.5

Lucas is 2 1/2 years old.  How did this happen?  I don't know where to begin to try to define this little boy that has grown up so quickly!  

He is sweet. So so so sweet.  I can't wait to see him be a big brother.  He already loves his baby sister so much, talking to her, kissing and hugging my belly, and telling us all the things he's going to teach her.  

 

He's not afraid to get messy, except he doesn't like when his hands are dirty.  But any other place on his body or clothes? Bring on the dirt...or popsicles.

 

He is an explorer.  He loves to watch big construction vehicles work.  His favorite are the "excabatas" (excavators) and grades how hard they are working by how dirty they are.  He loves to look at spider webs and animals, and one of his current favorite toys is a pair of "nock-ee-yers" (binoculars) and a flashlight from MiMi.  He loves to wear his "fast running shoes" and do everything in his little power to not have to ride in a shopping cart. We enjoyed a morning at Lake Lynn a few days ago looking at the ducks and turtles.  We were looking through the slats on the boardwalk down at the water when all of a sudden Lucas pushed me back and said "watch OUT mommy!  there's a spider web!  you are TOO CLOSE!"  I melted into a puddle from the sweetness of him wanting to protect me.

He loves going to the "church building" (because his preacher daddy taught him that church is not the building...it's different.  He's potty trained and proudly wears his potty trained sticker in his little class and brings his big boy backpack because we had to get rid of the diaper bag because that's for babies.

He's a talker. He may be shy at first around new people, but as soon as he feels comfortable with you he will not shut up!  He talks exceptionally well for a two year old and comes up with new phrases every day that absolutely crack us up.  He can count and sing songs and say his ABCs, but the things he comes up with on his own are priceless. He's very observant and has an incredible memory [and will call you out on things if you go back on your word!]

He loves to play...and he plays hard. The way he and his daddy roll around and wrestle is impressive, and Lucas has no fear when it comes to trying new things.

I have to tell you this story because it's on that is definitely for the books.  I was at work and get a phone call from Brandon mid-morning.  Brandon tells me there has been an "incident" at home involving the water hose.  Lucas woke up early that morning and Brandon went upstairs to lay in bed with him to try to get him to fall back asleep.  Well, the joke was on daddy because daddy fell asleep, not Lucas.  Lucas let himself out of his room, out of the baby gate at the top of the stairs, unlocked the front door, went on the front porch, and drug the water hose inside the house and proceeded to soak our foyer and dining room.  Brandon came downstairs as the soaking began, and Lucas immediately dropped the hose when he saw him.  There was a considerable amount of water all over, thankfully on the hardwood floors and none on the carpet.  Brandon disciplined Lucas for going outside alone because hello that is NOT safe but he couldn't discipline him for soaking the house because let's face it, Brandon should have been downstairs with him.  So I'm hearing this story over the phone and Brandon is trying to blame it on me because I was the one who left the hose pulled across the porch the day before  with the water turned to the on position when I was watering the plants.  No way is that one getting pinned on me!  I freaked out because our toddler could have wandered off!  My mind goes to the most horrible places, but I finally stopped and laughed...because let's face it, Brandon had to clean up all of that water.  Not me.  Anyway, now we have slide locks way up high so that our child cannot escape.  Have mercy.

He got a pretty nasty cold this week, really his first one ever...which blows my mind. We've been blessed with a very healthy kiddo until this, so when the snot came, he would walk around the house with the most pitiful little voice and say "there's sommfing in my nose."  He had no concept of what snot was and he didn't like it one bit.  He was so sad but so cuddly during his little sickness, which is completely not like him.  We frequented the pediatrician's office 3 times over the course of a week and a half, twice for unrelenting fevers and cough and the final time for a bout of pink eye from all of the crud.

He loves his Mickey and blankie.  They are best buds.

And did I mention how handsome he is?  Come on.

Big boy, you are such a joy.  We thank God for you every single day.  I didn't think it was possible to feel so proud all of the time of the little boy you are growing up to be.  Stay sweet. Be kind. Love Jesus.  And slow down you little goofball, okay?

sleep now, or...?

Again, sorry. I know I haven't updated the blog in months. I'm going to attempt to catch up on our lives on here and back date everything to as close to real time as possible.  

One reason for the blogging hiatus is the 6 weeks of sleep hell we went through.  We had some major major issues with Lucas, causing Brandon and I to just about lose it.  The span of stress that it brought to people reached out to grandparents, friends, even the dog.  

Lucas traditionally has been a pretty consistent 8p-8a sleeper. Too good to be true, I should have known it.  He transitioned to a big boy bed beautifully.  Brandon left for a conference in London and my mom and dad came to stay with us while he was gone.  It was then that it all went south.  We're talking the next world war when it came to bed time and nap time.  Lucas would kick and scream and refuse to put his pajamas on.  After a pretty impressive wrestling match (who knew a 2 year old could be so strong) we would try everything to get him into bed.  We read countless articles online about sleep troubles and tried all kinds of things to get back to a land of peace and tranquility.  My stubborn little one wasn't having it.  Let's just say he went as far as taking his pajamas and underwear off and peeing on the floor and the door because we wouldn't let him out of his room.  Like a dog.  He peed everywhere.  I was standing on the other side of the door crying and I hear him calm down all of a sudden and say "mommy?" with a total tone of guilt in his voice.  From the other side of the door I said "yes Lucas? Are you ready to calm down?" thinking we had won this battle.  Then I hear him say sheepishly, "I pee peed."  I opened the door to see my naked child standing there looking at me knowing he did something wrong and he then proceeded to point out that he peed on the floor, the door frame, and the door.  I took a long deep breath, said a quick prayer, and asked him why he did it.  He responded, "I was angry."  

Time out.

He is 2.  And he just verbalized the reason why he peed on the floor.  It was out of anger.  Oh help me Lord.  

Anyway, weeks (yes weeks) went by of bedtime battles and we finally got to a better place.  He's still not like he used to be, but we aren't on the verge of insanity anymore, which is a win.  Sometimes he gets out of his bed and comes downstairs into our room in the middle of the night and Brandon will bring him back upstairs.  And he now wakes up pretty consistently before 6:30, which really stinks.  But we're not fighting anymore.  

This too shall pass, right? 

And just because I could, I took some snap shots from our video monitor.  Oh, the things we will do.

First up: Nana sneaking out of his room verrrrry carefully after he fell asleep with her laying with him:

Next up: Poppy crashed in bed with him (yes Lucas is laying the complete opposite way):

Next: Daddy's turn:

One of my favorite pictures...Daddy and Lucas saying prayers.  Because y'all, we prayed a lot during this time.

So what finally worked, you asked?  A sticker chart.  A stinking simple construction paper sticker chart.  Each morning if Lucas had a good night and didn't fight us, he got a sticker.  After filling a row up with stickers, we did something special.  Mainly the trampoline place.  The amount of thanks and praise that is due to all of the people who walked through this with us is immeasurable.  We couldn't have done it alone.  It takes a village, amen?

HALLELUJAH!

two thumbs up for big boy drawers

Potty training didn't go anywhere close to how we had planned.  We should have known better than to literally plan out the week that we were going to tackle this.  Funny thing is, it was so.much.better than we could have expected, and I consider that nothing less than a blessing from God.  

One day out of the blue a few weeks "early" Lucas said "Mommy, I don't wear diapers anymore."

Excuse me?  Then what do you suggest that we do, Mr. Independent?

"I wear my big boy drawers!!!"

Insert fear. excitement. pride. fear. dread. amazement. fear. etc.

We bought big boy drawers a while back and started talking up the whole pee peeing on the potty stuff.  We tried him in underwear a few times here and there but my busy body didn't seem ready for this yet.  So it took him straight up refusing diapers (like literally would not let me put them on) out of the blue one day for us to be thrown into a potty training vortex. There was no turning back.

With a lot of hype and a lot of pee pee dances (even with the grandparents over FaceTime)

 and a LOT of m&m's...

WE DID IT!

With the help of our friends, we had our fun along the way too.

And yes, Poppy taught him how to pee pee on a tree.  Boys.

cue bon jovi!

ooooooh we're halfway there!
ooooooh living on a prayer!
take my hand, we'll make it i swear!

We made it to 20 weeks!  It's hard to believe we are halfway through with this pregnancy.  This time has gone by much quicker than when I was pregnant with Lucas.  The thing is, when you're pregnant with your first, it's all you have to think about!  You take naps and clean your house and day dream about the little baby growing inside.  With second babies and beyond, you are wishing for naps but are too busy chasing the little maniac toddler all over the place and it's all you can do to keep from stepping on the little dump trucks and train pieces scattered all over the living room floor as you think, "man...I should clean my house."  Day dreaming happens but looks different, as you try to remember how many weeks you are and sometimes try to squeeze in small places that you can't fit into because you momentarily forgot you were pregnant.  Or is it just me?  When we scheduled our ultrasound, I thought I made it for 18 weeks.  Well it was at 19 weeks because I completely miscounted.  That would have never happened in my first pregnancy!  I could rattle off my gestational weeks without thinking.  Now, it's....ummm....yeah, we're 20 weeks!  I think...

For the most part I'm feeling pretty good.  Aside from a few random nausea spells in the mornings and sporadic leg cramps at night, we are trucking right along!  Lucas is fascinated with the baby in my belly and loves to give her hugs and kisses and say things like "you growing baby?  you want some milk?  you want some fooooood?"  

He is so sweet and gentle and wants to feel her move.  Brandon felt her move the weekend of the 4th, right at 19 and a half weeks.  We were in Asheville at the time, so my mom got to feel her too!  By the time my dad tried, she had quieted down.  He says he is just the baby whisperer and put her to sleep.  We'll see about that.   

 

We have talked to Lucas a lot lately about the responsibilities of being a big brother.  When we are having a particularly difficult toddler moment (aka a "fofo" - full on freak out) we remind him that his baby sister is listening to everything he is saying and that he needs to teach her early how to be a good listener.  And the crazy thing is, sometimes it works!  He is practicing giving gentle hugs to his Mickey and reads stories to his cars.  My heart melts each and every time.  

Our first girly gift, a pack of headbands, was given to us by Betsy and Josh, and we just had to try one on Lucas.  Wouldn't he make a pretty little girl?  Excuse his goofy squinty eyed grin he is doing in all of the pictures.  It's the new face he makes when he is told to smile.  And excuse my manic looking face in the picture below, it's just my face.  I'm still in awe we are having a girl. 

So, 20 weeks down and 20ish more to go!  I say "ish" loosely, because Lucas was a week late.  I'm convinced I will still be pregnant on Thanksgiving which gives me an excuse to eat my weight in turkey.  Let's do this!

it's independence day

We loaded the car again and headed to the mountains for the 4th of July.  The timing worked out great since we left Raleigh right after our ultrasound appointment for the big gender reveal.  We spent the rest of the weekend hiking and relaxing and exploring.

We went to Lucas's favorite hiking spot to play in the creek.  Lexi loved it just as much as Lucas did!

Lucas thought he was hot stuff carrying his own backpack! 

We went to Splashville downtown and Lucas ran and ran and ran in the fountains.

Lucas and Nana spent lots of time tending to her garden, picking veggies and watering the plants.

And of course, lots of time was spent playing and practicing how to be a good big brother with my old baby dolls and stuffed animals.

We went to Antler Village on Biltmore Estate on the 4th and listened to a band play.  We didn't see any fireworks since Lucas goes to bed so early, but that's okay.  We had a great time in the mountains and are always sad to leave.  Until next time, mountains!

sugar and spice and everything nice

That's what little girls are made of!

We had our big ultrasound at 19 weeks. As excited as I was to know if baby Hudson was a little boy or a little girl, of course I was a nervous wreck leading up to the appointment.  Blame it on the pediatric nurse in me who sees the worst of the worst.  But our little girl gave us a full on show right as the ultrasound began, letting us immediately know that pink is in our near future!  The ultrasound showed she was perfect and growing, although we didn't get one single typical ultrasound picture of her face profile.  She was snuggled up next to my placenta the entire time and would not turn her head towards us to get her picture made!  What a diva.

I was genuinely surprised that we saw a little girl on the screen.  On the way there, Brandon and I both said that we had strong feelings that it was going to be another boy.  I felt like I was carrying the same way I carried Lucas, and the other differences in this pregnancy I attributed to chasing a toddler around.  So all signs pointed to boy.  Honestly, we would have been thrilled either way.  But now that we know it's a girl, we are over the moon!

After the ultrasound, we packed up and headed to Asheville for a long weekend.  The timing was almost perfect.  We planned to tell both of our parents in person the gender of the baby when we got into town.  We were only able to tell my parents in person, however, because Brandon's parents had to unexpectedly go to Florida a little early because Brandon's sister had her baby!  So we ended up telling them on FaceTime.

To tell my parents, we decided to wrap the appropriate colored silly string can in white paper and have them squirt Lucas to see if it was pink or blue.  Take a look:

So funny!  There is a decent change my mom may kill me for sharing this video but I had to! One of my favorite parts of the video is after I give them instructions to spray Lucas, my dad immediately starts counting and my mom says "spray him?!"  Typical Nana and Poppy personalities, my dad says go for it and my mom thinks logically about what is about to happen since I forgot to tell them it was just silly string.  My dad actually told us a few days before that he was 89% sure it was another boy.  Random, I know.  Well dad, you were 89% wrong!  I love how he yells "we were wrong! we were wrong!" in the video.  It never gets old watching that!  Brandon's parents were equally as ecstatic, as were the rest of our family and friends.

Now as we start thinking of girl names and girl rooms and all things that come along with raising a girl, we are overwhelmed with thanksgiving.  So to all of you mamas of girls out there, any tips are appreciated!  Lucas knows he is going to have a baby sister and it's so cute to hear him talking about it.  He's going to be the best big brother.

Baby girl, keep growing.  We love you already!