The Gurleys

Hudson-isms

2012-01-31T21:19:00.001-05:00

Just a couple of conversation nuggets from my day today...

Me: Hudson, you have stinky gas
Hudson: You need take out trash, Mommy

(Um, did he just blame that smell on the trash? Yes. Yes he did.)

And while in the car...

H: Red means stop. Yellow means slow down. Green means go. (pause) What's purple mean?
Me: Ummmm. There aren't any purple ones.
H: Yes! Purple means FUN!

Birth Markings

2012-01-23T20:43:00.000-05:00

Today was the first day of Hudson's life that he took no nap at all. Well, unless you count the 8 minutes he slept in the car as we headed home for his nap. And let me tell you that it was not pretty. Fortunately, I found it much easier to be patient with his massive meltdown since I knew exactly why it was happening. Also fortunately, I took out my frustrations on a rather long and trying day on our recently-purchased exercise bike.

In completely unrelated news, a friend recently shared a video on facebook that I needed to see. If you have ever given birth or think that one day you might give birth, I recommend that you see this. I wish someone had told me when I was 20 (or any other time) that my body would never be the same after a pregnancy. I was not prepared. And I have been more insecure about my body in the last 2.5 years than I ever was before that. The video is kind of long (about 20 minutes), but I think somebody reading this might benefit from it like I did. I hope that one day I can have a little bit of the perspective about my post-pregnancy body that the women in the video have. I'm not there yet, but this helped at least a little.

The link to it is here. I can't get the whole thing to imbed, and it just seems like a tease to post a one minute clip. Sorry for the extra step, but it really is worth it.

~MG

A New Year

2012-01-03T18:00:00.000-05:00

We had no plans for New Year's Eve, but ended up ringing it in with Matt and Erika, complete with football, Rotel/sausage dip, funnel cakes, Mad Libs, and actually staying up until midnight. We're really living on the edge here, people.

Much like my birthday, I took exactly zero pictures. However, Erika did grab my camera for a few shots of the wonder that was funnel-cake-making, courtesy of my stocking-stuffer Christmas gift to Jonathon.

New Year's Day fell on a Sunday, so it was a pretty typical Sunday for us, but Monday was a bank holiday so we got one more day at home together as a family. The boys played outside a lot and then we watched the Dawgs in a heartbreaker. Hudson napped through most of the game, but once he woke up he was ready to play. There were only about 2 minutes left in the game, which seemed like no big deal. However, by the 3rd overtime he may have looked like this:

To our credit, he did ask to go outside. He just had a hard time understanding why we were so tense and mostly ignoring him. We let him back in again when he knocked. Or when the game was over. Somewhere around that time.

As I reflected a little on 2011, at first I felt like it was a pretty uneventful year. No major life changes happened in the last year, good or bad. No pregnancies or babies or moves or job changes. And I really like that kind of consistency and predictability in my life. But it was fun to think about Hudson's last year. When 2011 dawned, he was almost 15 months old and had only been walking for about 3 weeks. According to my monthly update on him, he was saying about 25-30 words and was definitely still rather chunky. And now he talks in complete sentences and is well on his way to being potty trained. It was a big year for him (as with any child in his second year of life) after all.

In February, H dropped his morning nap and we started going to a new play group. Despite my social awkwardness I even managed to make a group of new friends after a few months and have really enjoyed having mom friends with kids H's age to hang out with every week. I'm not sure I even knew how much I needed something like that.

In August Hudson started "school" for the first time, and made almost instant progress in separation anxiety and his ability to share and handle being around other kids. I realized what huge opportunities for productivity opened up to me with 6 hours a week all to myself, and my house has been more clean more consistently ever since.

In September Jonathon and I had 6 days of bliss together as we celebrated 5 years of marriage. And then we came home and I spent 2 weeks in bed recovering from a tonsillectomy, throwing my little family into upheaval before things finally settled down around mid-October.

So as I think a little more carefully, I am able to come up with some highlights of the year and things that did change after all. I kind of do have some resolutions this year, despite my usual avoidance of such things, but I'm too much of a coward to share them on the internet. Jog knows what they are so I do have some level of accountability. Maybe if I achieve any of them, I'll tell you later.

And with that, I now consider myself caught up on the bloggy front.

Happy 2012 everyone!

~MG

What I read in 2011

2012-01-03T06:30:00.000-05:00

Apparently some people participated in a link-up for this topic last week, but I missed the boat on that one. However, since I actually did a fair amount of reading last year, I thought I'd share what I read and a few brief thoughts about it all. I may have forgotten some books, but these are the ones I've remembered since I started thinking about writing this post a few weeks ago. And don't be fooled by the list numbered to ten - there are actually TWENTY books included in this list. I thought I must have counted wrong at first, but apparently I really did read a lot in 2011.

1. The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling. I don't need to tell you how great these books are, do I? I hope not. I read them all for the first time while I was pregnant with Hudson and got so much out of them again on my second read-through last summer. I may make this an annual thing. They're that good.

2. On Becoming Toddlerwise by Gary Ezzo. I read the Babywise book and attempted to use it back in the day (2009), but most of the time just felt like it/I was a failure. However, I still agree with most of Ezzo's parenting advice in general so I've been continuing through his little series. I got several helpful ideas from this book early in the year.

3. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender. I enjoyed the first 2/3 or so of this book. It was quirky but a fun read. And then it jumped straight off the deep end. Quirky became really bizarre in a flash and it pretty much ruined it for me. Oh well. I found other things to read instead of dwelling on it.

4. The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Sigh. Such a good book. And movie. Interesting characters, thought-provoking story. Will probably read this again at some point. No need to say much else. Highly recommended for the rogue person reading this who hasn't already read it.

5. Shepherding a Child's Heart by Ted Tripp. I have had many conversations with mom friends since reading this book. It was recommended to me over and over again, but I came out of it with sort of an "eh" feeling. I love the concept of parenting to what's in a child's heart and realizing that his actions come from something inside of him, and that discipline should get at what's inside and not just the outward behavior. But over the course of the year I came to disagree pretty strongly with his suggested methods and even some of the theology. Basing a whole book and parenting philosophy on one verse that I personally believe is misinterpreted in this case is a bit like those crazies that handle snakes in their churches. Not so much for me. This book did help me think through a lot of toddler parenting decisions though, so I guess that's something.

6. The Mark of the Lion trilogy by Francine Rivers. Oh Francine, how do you do it? I've read these before too, but enjoyed them so much more the second time around. It's not often I would recommend a book and say "You have to give it the first 150 pages before you really get into it," but that's exactly what I said about this little series. I think knowing what to expect helped me appreciate it more this time, especially the long set-up and all of book three.

7. Her Mother's Hope and Her Daughter's Dream by Francine Rivers. Is there a word for a set of two books that go together? Like trilogy or series, but for just two? If there is, I don't know it. If there isn't, there should be. These were actually the first books I read last year, and they didn't last the first week. I love everything she writes and these were no exception. Just fun, clean, inspiring stories.

8. Bossypants by Tina Fey. So much hilarity in one little book. I laughed heartily and often. You can just hear her inflection as you read the book. Clever and FUNNY.

9. Diaper-Free Before 3 and some book about potty training in less than a day. I didn't read either of these thoroughly enough to bother looking up their authors. Or even the title for the 2nd one. They represented 2 extremely opposite views on potty training and were so contradictory it was almost humorous. I got very little out of either one. I invented my own potty training method tailored to my specific child and so far it's going pretty swimmingly. Take that, people-who-wrote-books-but-probably-shouldn't-have.

10. Secrets of the Baby Whisperer for Toddlers by Tracy Hogg and Melinda Blau. This was surprisingly useful to me. I didn't expect very much, but checked it out from the library while looking for potty-training resources. She wrote pretty minimally on that topic, but I felt really encouraged by a lot of the topics she did write about, and got helpful suggestions for things like preventing and heading off tantrums. This ended up being a very worthwhile read.

So there ya go. Even though the list isn't in order, I just finished that last one and I think the only thing on my reading list for 2012 so far is The Hunger Games. So feel free to comment on your thoughts if you've read some of these too, or to make other suggestions for me, because I apparently have more free time than I sometimes feel like I do.

~MG

Twenty-eight

2012-01-02T18:30:00.000-05:00

In other news-I-failed-to-blog-about-last-week, I turned 28 on Friday! After 5+ years of marriage, J has figured out my birthday love language and treated me exceedingly well. He got up with Hudson while I slept in until 9:30. It was glorious.

Then he made the bed even though we have an agreement that whoever gets up last is supposed to make it. That is love, my friends. He also gave me a sweet card and offered to make me breakfast, which I declined since it was almost lunchtime and I had lofty food ambitions for the day.

My mom and one of her friends whom I have adopted as my own friend (I am proud to say there are several of those) came to visit and took me out to lunch at one of my favorite places. Afterward, J and I dropped Hudson off with J's parents and had another of my very favorite meals, followed by a movie. I reveled in the opportunity to eat Last Resort and Carrabba's both in the same day.

Since Hudson was spending the night away, J and I both got to sleep in on the same day. This is a rare occurrence that is not taken for granted around here. We had a slow start to the day and then decided to go to Cracker Barrel for breakfast. So, to recap those 3 consecutive meals were: Last Resort, Carrabba's, and Cracker Barrel. And it was all so delicious and relaxing that I don't even care how much weight I gained in that one 24-hour period.

Also, I failed to take one single picture on my birthday. I think step one in learning to use my fancy new camera well might be Take Pictures. Oops.

So 28 is here and so is 2012...but that's another post still to come.

~MG

Christmas 2011

2012-01-02T10:32:00.000-05:00

We spent the early part of Christmas morning at home as a family of 3. Hudson opened his stocking and his gift from us (for his first 3 Christmases, we have kept things really small - I don't want him to ever feel entitled to tons of gifts so while we'll probably do a little more in the future, one gift from us has been plenty so far) and was SO excited about his new train tracks.

We spent the rest of the day at Jonathon's parents' house (they live about 10 minutes away) having their traditional brunch, opening presents with 8 adults, 3 kids, and 2 dogs, and just hanging out with family. It was a lot of fun watching the kids as is now the usual. I was even surprised with a new Kindle Fire!

We enjoyed being home/in town for all of Christmas day, and then we got up the next morning and drove to my mom's house where we spent the day with my family, including gifts, good food, and grown men playing with their sons' Christmas presents and having a spectacular time.

Since I'm over a week late in posting about all of this, it's a rather abbreviated version compared to my usual wordiness. You're welcome.

~MG

The Christmas Story according to Hudson

2011-12-28T20:34:00.000-05:00

We had a great Christmas, but I have been so busy celebrating, packing, unpacking, driving, undecorating, going to a funeral, cleaning, and getting ready for the other Big December Holiday (my birthday - duh) that I haven't had a chance to get all my pictures on the computer and ready to use. And who wants to read a Christmas post without pictures? No one. So I'll get to that eventually, but to tide you over here are a couple of videos I took of Hudson this week. I apologize for the Supremely Awful lighting, but he's not still long enough to get him to talk to the camera unless it's mealtime. So in the first one I got him to say a couple of things and then he decided to resume his lunch.

In the second one, he fills in the blanks of a very abbreviated version of the Christmas story. Every time we talked about it for the last month, he seemed to forget some portion. One time he might not remember Mary's name, another time he would look at me like he'd never heard of Bethlehem. This time it was the shepherds who were forgotten. But I happen to think he's pretty cute anyway, and doing a pretty great job learning about Christmas. I hope you enjoy!

~MG

Christmas and Potty festivities

2011-12-21T21:32:00.001-05:00

There are weeks when I feel like nothing has happened in my life that is interesting enough to blog about. And then there are weeks when there is SO MUCH going on that I don't have time to write about any of it. This last week has been one of the latter.

Last Wednesday we hunkered down and started potty training. Hudson did GREAT. The entire first day he was in underwear, he only had 2 accidents and both of those were minor. I ran him to the potty and he finished up in the right place. I was amazed. He seemed to just understand almost immediately that he was supposed to hold it when wearing underwear, and he already knew what to do on the potty since he's been using it a few times day for several months anyway.

Thursday and Friday involved a bit more of a learning curve for both of us. He was still going and had just 2 accidents in 2 more days, but he was pitching massive fits every time I took him to the bathroom. I finally decided that he was having a hard time adjusting to the idea that this was a permanent change, plus I was making him try to go too often (he has no problem holding it for 2-3 hours and I was taking him every 45 minutes), plus he wanted to be more independent and refused any help with his clothes.

Friday morning we drove about 30 minutes away to meet up with my mom and grandma for breakfast. He held it for the entire 3 hours we were gone. This was the trip when I realized that he's terrified of "big" (normal) toilets. So we're working on that. But I was really impressed that even though he refused to go at Chick-fil-a, he still managed to hold it until we got home!

Friday night I hung out with some lovely ladies who had a craft night at Erika's house. I did not participate in the crafting, but I did participate in the eating and chatting and googling how to open wine without a corkscrew. You can read Erika's take on the evening right here.

Saturday we spent the entire day at my brother's house celebrating Christmas Part 2 with my dad's extended family. We took the day off from potty training. I needed that break.

Sunday morning Hudson had his only serious accident of the whole week (meaning he was soaked all the way down to his socks) while he was in the church nursery. This confirmed that it was a good idea to start potty training when he would be in mine or Jonathon's care all the time for several weeks...with the exception of that one Sunday morning. =) That evening was our church's annual White Elephant party. Lots of fun is always had, and this year was no exception. We even managed to come home with 2 gifts that we both deem non-junk, which is quite a feat for this particular gathering.

One of H's favorite things to do these days is yell "Crash!!!" and throw himself down on the ground:

Monday we pressed on with the potty training, but I think I had finally relaxed a little. I feel like we're starting to settle into a potty-trained-while-awake-and-at-home routine, and I'm pleased with that start for now. Some of our favorite people came to town just for the day so we got to unexpectedly enjoy lunch, dinner, and some hangout time with college friends. I never mind being spontaneous when it means getting to spend time with good friends we don't see often enough. That night I had another girls' night out dinner with another group of friends, at my very favorite restaurant. There has been so much time out with friends lately that I can hardly stand the greatness of it. Shout out to Jonathon who did evening/bedtime with Hudson by himself 3 times in 5 days while I was out gallivanting with my peeps.

(Sidenote: I looked up gallivanting just now to find out how to spell it. The dictionary site said "Gallivanting is a good word to know. So is zedonk." And I totally agree with that statement, despite its randomness - right Erika?!)

Yesterday Hudson (who is typically awake by 6:30 every morning) slept until 8:00 am. I was overjoyed at this little Christmas miracle from my child, until I got him up and realized his little body was approximately the same temperature as Hades. It almost hurt just to touch his skin, which was a balmy 102.3 degrees. So we have spent the last couple of days at home, with Hudson being pitiful and me practicing my patience. I think he may have croup, but he seems to be on the mend now. I couldn't see any reason to go to the doctor if that's what it was, but if he's not better tomorrow we may go anyway just to make sure it's not pneumonia again. His coughing fits are really pitiful and sad to witness, but not as pitiful as it was to see my very active toddler lay on my bed and watch tv without moving for over 2 hours yesterday. I felt too sorry for him to enjoy how easy he was being. Or to care how much tv he was watching.

In other news, I ordered our Christmas cards on November 28th. They finally came yesterday. Twenty-two days later. I think Vistaprint may have lost my business for good with that one. But the good news is that Sick Hudson took a 4 hour nap, so I stuffed, sealed, addressed, stamped, and mailed all our cards on the same day we received them. I'm still basking in the glory of that feat, and hoping you'll understand why no one got a hand-written note this year.

Last night my friend Emily came over and ~~witnessed us trying to parent a sick, tantrum-throwing toddler without losing our minds~~ had dinner and watched White Christmas with me. I should have known we would be longtime friends when we discovered our mutual love for this movie our freshman year at UGA. We have watched it together most years since then, and this year she even helped me finish wrapping gifts while we watched! Now that is the kind of friend everyone needs in their life.

Today we stayed home to let H recover, though he seemed slightly better than yesterday and his appetite even returned when he ate a complete meal tonight for the first time since Sunday. Today's potty training accomplishment was learning to pee standing up (him, not me - though that would be really impressive). I'm hoping that will help him not be so afraid of public toilets.

And now I think we're about caught up. Starting tomorrow, Jonathon is off work for 11 of the next 12 days! Woot! He is kicking off this little Christmas break by letting me sleep in tomorrow morning. All these little Christmas-y activities have been really fun, but I am most looking forward to such an abundance of time with my family over the next couple of weeks. And only partially because I won't have to do potty training on my own.

~MG

Goodies

2011-12-14T14:44:00.000-05:00

It's that time of year again...the time when there are lots of excuses for baking yummy things, and lots of excuses for eating yummy things, and lots of pounds added to lots of waistlines - and I am no exception to any of those.

I am still learning to remember to take pictures of the yumminess too. This first creation was something I actually found on Pinterest last week. I made them to take to Christmas at my dad's house Saturday, and they were delicious! Unfortunately, I didn't think to actually unwrap one to get a good picture. So this is all you get of my Oreo cupcake cheesecakes:

This week I was signed up to help out with the Christmas party for Hudson's class. I've been wanting to try making cake pops for a while now, and I had planned to try them for his birthday but I was not as far along in recovery from my tonsillectomy as I had hoped to be at that point, so it didn't happen.

But this week it did happen and they were fantastic. If I do say so myself.

Not bad looking either:

It was also PJ day for H's class, and I was excited to get pictures of him eating his treat with his cute PJs on...but when I got there he was no longer wearing his PJs because they "got all wet" (his explanation). Instead he was wearing the back-up outfit that we just leave at school...which consisted of jeans with a big hole in the leg that are slightly too small, shoes with no socks (because he had been wearing footie PJs), and a REALLY tiny shirt. It was size 18 month. He wears 3T.

He also was not sure about me taking his picture at the party, but I took a couple anyway.

I have been having so much fun baking! However, I'm confident I do not need to bake this often year-round; I have already gained 3 lbs in the last week.

Also, NO ONE made a guess as to what I concluded from the clues I posted about yesterday. Sadness. But I suppose I'll tell you anyway. Hudson is having a growth spurt. That was/is my conclusion. After all, the 98th percentile doesn't keep up with itself.

~MG

Clues

2011-12-13T11:09:00.000-05:00

Here were the clues:

1) We had to switch Hudson from size 5 to size 6 diapers at night

2) Little toes sticking out holes in footie PJs

3) Fussy toddler an hour before every normal meal time

4) Being out-eaten by my 2-year-old at 1-3 meals every day for a week

Can you guess what my conclusion was?

In unrelated news, H is also a fan of my new camera. I hear stuff like this a lot:

"Mommy take my picture please!"

"Take Scarlett's picture please!"

"Take my picture wif Daddy!"

So I do.

~MG

Four Christmases: Part 1

2011-12-11T19:18:00.000-05:00

We have lots of family Christmas gatherings every year, and this year we're spreading them out rather well. The first was yesterday at my dad's house with him, my stepmom, and all their kids and grandkids. Not everyone could be there but we still had 10 adults and 5 kids under 5. It was busy but so much fun. I love that the boys (Hudson and his cousins who are 3 and 4) are starting to be able to all play together.

I've also been practicing with my new camera, and yesterday provided lots of fun opportunities for that - plus a couple of people more-experienced in photography than I am who were able to give some good advice. You may also notice that there were lots of people holding lots of babies/kids other than their own. It was fun and adorable.

Cousins at play:

Baby Jake and Papa Don (my dad, the baby whisperer) sharing some grins:

This is not her baby. But aren't they cute?

This one's hers:

Not his baby either:

Nana and Alexa:

Itty-Bitty cousin-twins (12 days apart):

I have a sneaking suspicion he was saying "choo choo!" as I took this one:

We also did a cookie/candy swap, which was delicious - and also made for more picture-taking practice opportunities:

The first (and maybe last) thing I've ever made after finding it on Pinterest:

The boys did a great job taking turns during present-opening time. I was impressed with all of them and loved watching them open gifts and watch each other open gifts. One of my favorite kid quotes of the day was "Hey T, I got you a present!" T responded, "Why?"

Jake really seemed to like this one:

Despite the cold (for Georgia) mountain air, we even managed a little outside play. Here Hudson was trying to make sure there wasn't a single rock that he was allowed to throw:

Merry (early) Christmas!

~MG

Not Me! Monday

2011-12-05T14:02:00.000-05:00

I've only participated in Not Me Monday once before, but apparently I like to run with a theme.

This morning while I was in the shower, Hudson *ahem* did his business, as per his usual for that time of day. By the time I found him, he definitely did not have a blowout situation rivaling the worst from his babyhood. And I most certainly did not gag and make comments out loud along the lines of "oh, gross" and "ew, this is disgusting." I know better than to let my soon-to-be-potty-trained child hear me make comments like that. I'm also not prideful enough to have thought that H had outgrown the potential for a diaper blowout because he's so much older now and because I use cloth diapers which contain messes really well. Nope. I would never think that way.

So of course I did not think to myself as I sprayed the diaper off that no amount of money saved could ever be worth having to clean not only the child and his clothing but also the diaper itself and regret my decision to cloth diaper based on one incident.

Now as I go through the rest of the day, I am not contemplating moving up the potty-training boot camp by a week. Nope. My type A self wouldn't dare change a well-though-out plan just because I'm afraid to repeat this morning's experience and am sick sick sick of changing dirty diapers. I would never let fear be my reason to help my child accomplish an important milestone.

What about you? What have you not done this week? You can link up like me right here!

~MG

Imaginary Friend

2011-12-01T13:37:00.000-05:00

There have been several times lately when Hudson has said the word/sound "Mwa-Mwa," and then laughed hysterically.

We figured he was just making silly sounds and laughed with him, sometimes repeating the sound back much to his delight.

But today several conversations have brought about unexpected details, and we are now confident that Mwa-Mwa is Hudson's first imaginary friend.

Here is what we know so far:

Mwa-Mwa is a camel. At one point we thought he was a donkey, but it turns out he's a camel whose primary mode of transportation is riding a donkey. Naturally.

(I dare you to picture that without laughing.)

Mwa-Mwa the camel doesn't talk, he only says "ee-aw." You know, the donkey sound. I can't really figure out how to spell that. But this probably explains his proclivity to riding and hanging out with his donkey friend.

He lives in an old abandoned house that's about a mile from our neighborhood. But he likes to hang out in various garages near our house.

He is multi-colored. These colors include bright red (didn't know until today that Hudson even knew how to describe a color as "bright"), pink, blue, and green. They do not include brown, gray, white, or yellow.

One of Mwa-Mwa's favorite pastimes is giving water to his grandma.

I don't know about you, but I seriously hope I get to learn more about this friend in the near future.

~MG

Playing in the leaves

2011-11-28T16:11:00.000-05:00

The other day we got together with Jonathon's family for dinner since we all went with our other families for Thanksgiving. I got a few pictures of Hudson with his cousins that I thought I'd share. It made me really happy to see these sweet boys playing in the Fall leaves.

Don't be deceived by all the leaves though. We are skipping all around Fall weather here. Yesterday it was 71 degrees and tomorrow it's supposed to snow. I don't even know what to say about that craziness.

Also, someone found my blog this week by searching "famous gurleys." So yeah. We must be famous now. Probably because of all the ~~millions~~ dozens of people who read my blog. Cool.

~MG

Decorating

2011-11-27T09:22:00.000-05:00

I was not a particularly sentimental person before I became a mother. Which mostly means that I now get embarrassed at the things that make me tear up. Like yesterday when I got out the ornament that is a mold of Hudson's hand from his first Christmas. His hand is now WAY bigger than the entire ornament and I just about sobbed.

Plus I just love family holiday traditions and seeing Hudson starting to be able to take part in them. We got our tree yesterday and last night Hudson helped decorate it with us.

He only needed a little help hanging the ornaments:

But a lot of help with the placement:

Fortunately, I was able to sneak in and find new locations for some of his decor after he went to bed, so the finished product looked a little more even:

It made my heart so happy to do this for the first time as a family (last year we didn't get a real tree because I was confident Hudson would want destroy it or pull it on top of himself and not confident I could teach his almost-walking self to do otherwise). I am so excited that the Christmas season is here!

~MG

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-25T15:18:00.000-05:00

On Wednesday my fellas and I headed up to my mom's house. The four of us had a nice visit in the mountains before the rest of the family joined us on Thursday. This is the family that I grew up seeing every year on Thanksgiving, but it's only the 2nd time we've all had a holiday together since I've been an adult. I really love seeing my grandmother and cousins and having the meal that says traditional Thanksgiving to me. And nowadays I even contribute to the meal. I'm such a grownup that sometimes I even scare myself.

It was fun to hang out with everyone and eat good food, but I especially loved getting to see all the little ones play with each other and with their great-grandmother. Here are some pics of Hudson with his cousin T and Mama Hayes (my mom's mom and my only living grandparent - she's 93):

Three little boy cousins (ages 2, 2, and 3):

And one of Mama Hayes with her 4 great-grands (they may not all be smiling, but you should really be impressed that we got all 4 of the kids in the same picture):

I will definitely have some special memories of these times with 4 generations together. And I LOVE seeing all the little cousins starting to really play and interact with each other. I have such fond memories from times with my cousins growing up and I hope that Hudson will be the same way since he has so many who are close to him in age.

Between the family and the feast I would call this Thanksgiving a success.

I will leave you with 2 Hudson stories from the holiday.

1) His cousin was talking about how they were eating a feast and the only food H didn't know the name for was dressing, so he decided that it was called "Feast." He must have really liked it though, because halfway through the meal he came over and asked for "More feast please Mommy."

2) Wednesday night my mom and Jog moved the kids table into the room where we were going to eat Thanksgiving dinner. I had been prepping Hudson all week for eating turkey and sitting at a special kids' table so he would know what to expect. When they set down the little table he sat at it and said (at 7 pm on Wednesday) "Where my turkey go?"

I happen to think that kid is adorable.

Happy Thanksgiving!

~MG