christmas cards.

Let me start by saying if you didn't get a Christmas card from us in the mail this year, I'm sorry!  We didn't send many out, but if I had it my way I would send out hundreds!  I love Christmas cards.

I wanted everyone to see our card from this year because I'm so pleased with how it turned out.  I couldn't figure out how to save a copy of it online to post on here, probably because it's in some way illegal, so I took a picture of it to post.  We did a 5x7 flat card that was front and back.  We used Mixbook, which allows you to start with a blank canvas and completely design the card from scratch.  It was so fun and I loved adding pictures and a letter on the back.

Check it out! (Sorry it's a little blurry, like I said, it's a picture of the card.)

Front:

Back:

9 months

It's time for another monthly update about our growing boy.  Lucas turned 9 months on 12-12-12!
He had a visit to the pediatrician and again proved to us that he is growing and healthy.

Weight: 19 lbs. 14 oz.

Length: 28 inches

I had a feeling we would be right around the 20 pound mark, and I think he would have made it on the nose if the diaper I changed right before he got on the scale hadn't had a surprise in it :)

He has finally started saying "da-da!" He's been saying "ma-ma" for a few months now, and poor Brandon was starting to feel left out.  Lucas is making up for lost time now because from the second he wakes up in the morning, it's "da da da da da da!"

Our days now are spent chasing Lucas around the house as he crawls at lightening speeds.  That little boy likes to MOVE.  To my dismay, there are way too many things to see to waste time by sitting and cuddling!  He actually doesn't like to sit at all...and he's always heading for things he isn't supposed to have.  Like Lexi's water bowl.  He makes it to her water bowl in record time and thinks it's hilarious to splash splash splash in the nasty dog water.  Needless to say, the water bowl is looking for a new home. Our sweet puppy is such a good sport.  Lucas grabs her and pinches her, pulls ears and tails, but also laughs at her and loves her.  She loves him too, most of the time :)

I updated you in the last post that he's figured out how to stand up.  This proves to be interesting...especially during nap time since he hasn't figured out how to sit.back.down.  For instance.  Right now, at this very moment.  I hear from upstairs squealing "da!da!da!da! ya ya ma ma da!da!da!" and I look on the monitor to see this: 

Litte boy.  Go to sleep!  I layed him down a few minutes ago with his heavy little eyelids after the closest to rocking and reading a book that we're going to get these days (i.e. him trying to wiggle out of my lap and eat the book while trying to keep his eyes open).  See, here's the problem.  He can stand up in a heartbeat.  But still hasn't figured out how to sit back down.  Just sit!  Sit down!  You can do it!  He stands and plays and talks and looks around for a while, then purposefully drops his paci and his little blanket over the side of the crib, then freaks out.  It's like he realizes "oh my gosh! My legs are tired! And I'm standing!" Just sit. Please.  I've gone in there numerous times and gently pushed his little shoulders back and he plops right on his squishy butt.  And then he's happy.  He'll even lay back down. Ahhh, relief for the chubby legs holding up all 20 pounds of him.  Then it never fails, I walk out thinking he's heading to sleepy land and he stands back up and we do it all over again. He'll figure it out soon enough, right?  I hope so.  I know if I left him up there to freak out he'd eventually sit, but I can't do that, y'all.  It's too pitiful!

Moving on...we keep adding variety to his diet and also have started adventuring in the world of the sippy cup!  Monumental, people.  He's been pretty good with it so far.  We've done a little bit of water and he usually ends up with more of it on his shirt and down his chin than anything else, but he's trying!

Oh and the teeth.  Those cruel, evil, tortuous teeth.  We've had a break from the first 2 he cut back in October, but now we're catching up with a vengeance.  About a week ago he got this awful butt rash and started drooling like a maniac, and we knew.  I kept feeling in his mouth and a few days ago, one was poking through his gums.  Funny though, it's not one of the front ones on the top.  It's the one that's right to the left of the front tooth.  So poor guys has a little snaggle tooth.  The 2 front ones and the other to the right of the front ones are all very very close to poking through.  That's 3 more teeth getting ready to poke through.  Totaling 4 teeth. Coming in at the same time. Break my heart.  Lucas is upset about it too, trust me. We've kept a plethora of teething toys available, including my shoulders.  Poor guy buries his head on my shoulder and just chews.

His hair is getting so long!  Which makes for fun bathtime styling.

 We have Christmas pictures...including a visit to Santa and Lucas with our Christmas tree.  It deserves a post to itself, so I'll leave you with a little Christmas teaser that we took at the Streets of Southpoint:

He sure does love his daddy.

Lucas, you have now been on the outside for as long as you were on the inside.  I can't believe it!  You are wearing us out with your energy, and I love it.  We're so proud of you and we love you.  Now I'm going to go upstairs and remind you that you can sit down.  Because it sounds like your little legs are tired :)

family photos.

We had family pictures taken of us by our dear friend, Jill. She just used my regular camera and I'm so surprised at how great they turned out!  We used a few on our Christmas card this year.

It was an absolutely beautiful day in Durham, so we headed over to the Tobacco warehouse district to take pictures. It's such a neat part of our city, boasting big old warehouses, lots of exposed brick, and a big water tower.  Lucas was a ham per usual the entire time and was so cooperative during the session. Here's a peek at a few:

 

And lastly, Lucas checking on Avery...Jill's little assistant!

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.