What I'm Loving Wednesday

Today, I'm linking up with Jamie for "What I'm Loving Wednesday."

I'm loving the fact that we will be having a fun Halloween party with great friends this weekend.

I'm loving that Hudson gets to wear his cute giraffe costume. This is his costume, but this isn't him.

I'm REALLY loving that this is GA/FLA weekend. I can't wait to watch my DAWGS win!

I'm loving Fall, and will be loving it even more as Fall temperatures return this weekend.

Most of all, I'm loving this precious boy. I love watching him run around, and dance. (Sorry the video is sideways.)

I'm loving my Tiny Dancer!

Moments like these

As I read back over Hudson's monthly progress posts, I realize that some are short and sweet, and some are a tad bit sappy. I guess it just depends on my mood at the time, and how much time I have to sit and type the post out. Mainly I document these month to month changes for myself and for Hudson in the future to look back on. I'm not very good at writing in his baby book (I think I've done it twice since he's been born...oopps), and it's easier to just sit and type out changes, milestones, and everything that I'd like to remember.



On that note, here's Hudson's 14 month post. It's a little long, so please forgive me.


Dear Hudson,

Today you are 14 months old. It baffles me to think that you have been on this earth for that long. The weather change, and Fall season have really made me think about last year this time when you were a newborn, and all the things we did. Everything was as new to your dad and me as it was to you. You've taught us so much and made us so much better. What in the world did we do before you were born?!?! It has been a total joy to watch you grow and change day to day. You have been such a delight to us and to our whole family. We are so thankful that God chose YOU to be our baby boy. We love your beautiful, bright smile and big eyes. Your laugh is music to my ears.


Your vocabulary has expanded a lot this past month, and you really seem to understand a lot more each day. When you see a picture of yourself, you smile and say "baby" or "Hud". You are a pro at walking, and running. You pull things, push things, back up, step over things, turn around, walk backwards, and can pull a wagon full of flowers through a pumpkin patch! You are mastering the temper tantrum, and if you don't get what you want, you will throw your head back and arch your back while throwing yourself down. You've been to time out several times for this. This is the first month you have cut more teeth since July. Now you have two of your molars, and you have 10 teeth total. You sing a lot now, and it's too sweet. You and Claire are two peas in a pod. You really love her and when you two play, you interact much more. We took your paci before you were one, but when you had your first surgery, we gave it back to you since you were in so much pain. Now, you've given it up again. You just had it in your crib, but it's been over a week and you have done fine without it. It seems like you have grown a lot taller. I'm guessing that you have shot up at least an inch. You've slimmed down too, and I think it's because you never slow down. You are always running somewhere. You wear size 18 month clothes, and size 5 1/2-6 shoes. You're in size 5 Pampers. Cheese is your favorite food, and you would eat it for every meal if I let you. You call it "chee". You really love your pottery barn chair, and you stand in it, walk to the edge, then jump off. You've mastered this little "trick", and laugh every time you do it. You still love taking a bath, but recently have started to hate having your teeth brushed unless you are the one brushing them. Maybe it's because those molars made your gums sore. You've done a great job with these two teeth coming in. Just like all the others, you haven't even been fussy. I wouldn't have even known they were coming in except for feeling them. You're a trooper! Your second surgery was a success. They were able to get the stent out. You were put to sleep again, which made me a little nervous but you were in good hands. You had a viral infection and ran some crazy high temps a few weekends ago. Luckily, it ran it's course quickly and you were well within a few days. You had your second hair cut this month from Mrs. Rebecca at Retreat. We will be going back to her. She did a good job. Last night, you sat in my lap and cuddled with me for over 30 minutes. It's been a LONG time since you let me hold you that long. You are always too busy and on the go. I loved every minute of it.


Hudson, you continue to amaze me and you make me the happiest mom in the universe. Thank you for being such a wonderful kid. This stage is so much fun. You are able to do so much. It gets better everyday.

I love you so much more than you will ever know,

Mom

Beautiful Weather with a happy boy!

Since Hudson was feeling so good and doing so well we headed to the Pumpkin Patch on Saturday. The weather was fabulous, so we couldn't resist being outside.

Check out Mr. Independent. He pulled this wagon around full of flats of pansies too. It was so cute to see him trying to manuver it through the pumpkins picking his pumpkin

He liked the flowers too. Wesley UMC has huge, beautiful mums for sale.

Just couldn't decide

RELIEVED

WOOOOOOOHHHHHOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
That's how I feel right now. We are home, and Hudson is doing perfect!!!! Praise the Lord! Thanks so, so, so much for your prayers, texts, messages, and comments. God is good!
We got to CMC super EARLY this morning. When we arrived, little man was wide awake though and had fun running up and down the hall outside the operating room. (I know you are thinking: "Who would let their child do this in a HOSPITAL?, but rest assured, we were the only ones in this waiting area, and quite frankly I'm not real sure how to get a 13 month old to "sit still and wait".) He went back for surgery, and was in recovery within an hour. This time was so different than last. While we were waiting, it was so great to know that we would be leaving with him TODAY. Last time we waited in the room for over 7 hours and saw lots of kids come out of surgery and leave with their parents. We knew that we still had a bumpy road ahead after surgery.
They did have a hard time getting an IV in him, so he was in surgery a little longer than expected. Everything went perfectly once they got the IV in, and when we got to see him in recovery he was doing very well. When I went to recovery, I noticed a baby bottle full of juice sitting beside him. The nurse told me: "I can't get him to drink anything." I pulled his sippy cup out of his bag, and he turned it up and drained it! He hasn't had a bottle in 4 1/2 months, so he was not too sure about drinking out of one. It was cute.
We go back in two weeks so they can begin another round of tests to ensure that everything is "working as expected". We continue to pray for NO REFLUXING and NO OBSTRUCTION.
After we were discharged, we took Hud to Cracker Barrel because he had not eaten since yesterday. The child ate and ate and ate and ate for over 45 minutes. I honestly have never seen him eat as much as he did. I ordered breakfast, and my mom ordered lunch. We even ordered him his own kids meal. He ate all of his and about half of mine and my mom's food. He's eating and drinking very well and seems to be feeling good. Hopefully I won't have to give him any of the pain meds. What a belssing! Here are a few pictures before surgery. Thanks again for keeping him in your prayers.


Talking to Elmo in the window to the OR waiting room



Running down the hall

Waiting to go into the OR pre-op area

"Why won't they let me in? Let's get this show on the road!"

Look at my ball that I picked from the prize shelf before surgery. I'm a little drunk/drousy in this picture because of the oral meds they gave me to make sure I was nice and relaxed before they took me back.

Please Pray (again)

Please pray for Hudson as he goes in tomorrow morning to have his stint removed. It's supposed to be a quick procedure where they insert a camera, look around, and then remove the stint. He still has to be put to sleep, so I ask that you pray that everything goes according to plan. I also ask you to pray that the kidney is no longer refluxing and for no obstructions. We won't know about this until more tests in the coming weeks. Thanks for being so faithful, and for caring about our sweet boy. I will update tomorrow after the procedure.

Viral Infections are EVIL!!!!

Saturday was planned with several things that had been on the calendar for a few weeks. Hudson had a haircut appt., and we had family pictures scheduled. On Friday he started not acting like his happy self. He began running a fever (a HIGH one). Turns out he had a viral infection. His throat had blisters on it and I could tell it really hurt. He was a drooling machine, and wouldn't eat or barely drink. There's really nothing you can do for viral "junk" except try to control the fever and wait it out. Friday night was pretty rough. None of us really slept, and his fever never went lower than 101. He got a little better on Saturday afternoon, and after debating on canceling his haircut and our pictures, I decided to try and roll with it. He was feeling pretty good by Saturday evening when we went to do pictures. He had a good time at the Greenway where they were shot. I can NOT WAIT to see them. Afterwards, we grabbed a bite to eat and he started feeling lousy again. His fever was back. It broke during the night and he slept really well. He is feeling much better today, and I am so glad. I know he is going to catch things, but I am really thankful this ran it's course rather quickly. He's having minor surgery this Friday to have his stint removed and to have Doc. Donohoe take a look at the work from the previous surgery. We need him to be well! I hope all of you have had a great weekend. It seems like I'll be digging some summer clothes back out. Temps are supposed to be around 90 for most of this coming week. I am not too excited about that. Fall, please come back and stay for awhile. Don't tease us!

Here's a picture of my silly man one night last week

OH, AND THE DAWGS WON on Saturday!!!!!! YEAH!!!!! Must have been luck since Hudson busted out his GA. shirt and shoes. (We haven't worn them since the second game.)

Little Pumpkins

Fall is here! We are really loving this wonderful weather. On Saturday, we went to Steed's Dairy Farm with some of our best friends. Hudson had a blast with his girls, Claire and Ila. All of the adults had a lot of fun too. This was an awesome place for little kids. Here are a few (ok, maybe more than a few) shots from our fun day. We hope you all are enjoying Fall, families, and friends as much as we are! Aren't these THE cutest little pumpkins ever?