San Francisco Zoo

Hudson relates the word "zoo" with Happy Hollow Park and Zoo, which honestly, most of the time we don't even look at the animals.  So when we decided to go to the San francisco Zoo yesterday, we simply said "we are going to see the animals!"  He was so excited.  He now knows that is what a zoo is.  Hopefully when we visit the animals at Happy Hollow next time he isn't disappointed.  He was so excited with every animal.  His favorites were the giraffe (first animal he saw), the zebra, gorillas, the Lion, and hands down his most favorite was the Hippopotamus. Colby was thrilled to see the kangaroos and I personally enjoyed the Polar Bear. He spotted the hippo when we were looking at the rhinos, and ran over with Colby.  It was under water and hudson watched as it came up from the water countless times.  When we finally convinced him to leave, he just kept running back.  He talks now about how the hippo came up to say hi, but didn't really say anything because animals don't talk.  It's pretty cute.  Hallie was perfect, and it was fun to watch her watch her surroundings.  When we were by moving animals, she was totally watching them.  She was all smiles the majority of the day, with the exception of the 5 minutes before her nap.  I'd say the most challenging part of the day was when we were in the "North America" section, they had a train that circled around.  Hudson was determined to watch the train every time.  He wanted to ride it, but thankfully he has recently picked up on the concept of tickets, so we simply explained that we didn't have a ticket, so we couldn't. After 4 hours of watching animals, we ended at the awesome play area.  He was a little daredevil, climbing across plank bridges, flying down the "zip line" type thing and crossing what he called "the crocodile."  He had the best time.  And then it got even better, because then we headed over to the golden gate bridge.

9 months

Hallie hit 9 months--same time in as out.  She is a busy little girl and loves being on the move.

Crawling, eating, swinging and playing in the dirt of our potted plants are a few of her favorite activities of the month.

• She still way prefers crawling over sitting and is pretty good at getting around.  
• She is still eating 3 meals a day (breakfast of 4 oz pureed fruit with oatmeal and plain yogurt, lunch of 1 oz beef/chicken and 3 oz veggie, dinner of grain and 4 oz veggies.  All are accompanied with cheerios to keep her happy while we all eat.  This girl can put down her cheerios!) and nursing 4 times a day.  In fact, she just loves eating. Everything. including all the mulch and leaves in the backyard, and hudson small toys that I keep putting out of the way and magically make it back within her reach...like the 100s of puff balls he has. I have been a little concerned about my milk supply and her not getting enough.  With her weight percentile dropping again at this appointment, I knew it was time for a change.  I was so mentally prepared to switch to formula if needed, that when it was suggested, I was very on-board.  I am wanting to still nurse, so the plan is to nurse morning and night before bed, and give 2 5-6 oz bottles during the day.  It seriously is such a relief to do this.  I never had to with Hudson, but I just feel it is a great decision.  Hallie has honestly never loved nursing, which has made me feel the same. With our Havasu trip in a few days, this will make things there much easier as well.  
• Letting her swing in the backyard next to Hudson is such a joyous time for Hallie.  She has moved on a little from her door-jumper, and my theory is that we mainly used that for her during dinner time, and now that she eats with us, we don't put her in much.  I try and put her in it still, but she doesn't love it like she used to, but the outside swing is a different story!
• Hallie had her first moment of destruction.  We have 2 potted houseplants, and had a pretty funny experience one evening as Colby walked around the corner and found her reaching up over the top of the pot and just pulling loads of dirt out--mostly straight into her mouth.  It was hilarious because she made a huge mess and had a completely innocent look on her as she was covered in dirt.  Silly girl.  She unfortunately has done this multiple times now.  Hopefully she learns soon and we can keep our houseplants!

She pulls up on furniture and the bathtub.  She often will pull up on the couch when hudson is sitting on it, or pull up on the side of the tub while bathing. She is clearly obsessed with Hudson and loves playing with him until he becomes a little too rough, and then she gets fussy when he starts to come near.  There is a very fine line between fun and fear for her with him, but the love is strong. 

She lights up when anyone, especially Dad or Hudson, give her attention.  Going in to get her in the morning from waking up is sure to bring big smile to anyone who goes in.  She starts bouncing and kicking and is thrilled to have some attention after a long night of solitude. 

One of my favorite things with Hallie is seeing her crawl to the back flor length window in our office area and rest her hands against the window as she peers in the backyard watching Hudson and Colby. She really enjoys this, and doesn't appear to be feeling left out.  It is just her spot where she feels part of the action. 

Her favorite toy this month is her rubber duckie and she loves all things water. 

Her 9 months stats are:

Weight: 16 pounds, 9 ounces (10th percentile)

Height: 28 1/4 inches (75th percentile

Hallie-1 year

For the first time, probably ever, Hallie woke from her nap (on her birthday) with bed head! Her hair is so short that this has never happened. She woke up with wispy little curls on all sides of her hair. I had to get it wet before we went to dinner. I wish I got a picture as it was so cute! Her face looked as if she'd earned that bed head w a really good nap. People are now commenting on her hair and how it seems to be growing and how she is getting some curls. Time will tell if the curls stay. As a little girl my hair was curly, but went away with my first haircut.

Eats acorns from the yard

Sleeps like a champ (two naps) 7:30pm - 8am

4 bottles a day

Loves giving hugs and kisses

Lights up when you walk into her room to get her from her crib

Stands on her own, but not walking

The story of the pound of Strawberries

It all started Tuesday night.  I had a baby shower and left Colby to fend for the kids with the whole bedtime routine.  I came home around 10:30 to two sleeping kids and a husband crawling into bed.  I had a few things to finish up (pumping, planning meals and ordering groceries) before I could head to bed.  Right as I was finishing up, I heard little footsteps in the back of the house, and jumped up to calm Hudson and convince him to stay in his own bed.  With a few minutes sitting by him, he was back asleep and I just had to wrap things up before I could continue my much anticipated journey into bed. I crawled under the covers a little after midnight, and it took probably 30 seconds before i had drifted into dreamland.  And 10 minutes later, about 5 seconds to be wide awake again.  Hallie had woken up and was not happy.  She didn't want to nurse, didn't act like she was in pain, and simply was exhausted but wouldn't stay asleep.  After trying so many things to get her to sleep, including standing by her crib until my feet hurt because she simply wanted someone by her and would cry if I left, and rocking her to sleep, she kept waking up after 2 minutes of me being back in bed.  This is abnormal for her and miserable for me.  Colby joined me a couple times, but had a work meeting at 7:30 (much earlier than a normal day) in the morning so I tried not to disturb him.  The short story is that I didn't get into bed for the night until 3:30.  Not my kind of evening.  I snuggled up in a blanket, turned on my side and stuck earplugs in my ears.  I desperately needed undisturbed sleep if I was even going to semi function the next day.

I was awoken the next morning at 6:10 to hear not one, but TWO kids chattering in Hallie's room.  Hudson was in her crib and they were both awake.  Considering the amount of sleep I had had and that Hudson normally sleeps till 7:45 or 8:00, I was livid.  I couldn't believe Hudson had gone in and woken her up.  As I expressed my frustration to Colby (remember I was on just over 2.5 hrs sleep at this point) her calmed me letting me know Hallie had been crying and he had left her hoping she'd go back to sleep.  Hudson most likely woke to her cries and went into her room and climbed in.  Her said if I were to just listen, I would her Hallie start crying then Hudson would say, "It's ok Hallie, it's ok" and then she would calm down.  Sweet Hudson was not waking his sister, but trying to help.  My heart softened, but I still wasn't happy that the were both awake.  I went in, grabbed Hudson and sent him to bed with Colby hoping he would go back to sleep. I fed Hallie, and in her exhaustion she promptly feel back to sleep.  I crawled into bed.  Hudson was not asleep.  Colby got up to get ready for the day and I begged him (with not much convincing needed) to watch Hudson as I desperately needed more sleep.

Hudson came into my room a little later (7:15?) saying he wanted more juice, and I told him to go ask Dad and that Dad would turn on a show for him. I knew Colby had a conference call, so couldn't tend to much and TV would be a good distraction.  I heard him pulling a chair up to the cupboard, and didn't think much of it as Colby could help him. Not much later, probably around 7:45, he came in with a red mouth and empty strawberry container.  "Mom, these are gone, I made a mess and I want more juice." What??  I got out of bed and followed him to the living room.  He sat on the couch where he normally sit to view his TV shows and I saw a pile of strawberry tops sitting on the couch armrest.  Thankfully it was leather and could easily be washed off.  Before i could even take all that in, he walked to the kitchen and crawled under the table showing me his "mess."  He had pulled the trader joes granola from the cupboard and spilled it all over the floor.  Thankfully there was probably only half a bowl remaining. I swept it all up and asked Hudson if he was still hungry.  For probably the first time in his life he told me that no, he was full.  I counted the strawberry tops.  There were 26. He ate a full pound of strawberries.  Colby was nowhere to be found and I realized that the conference call he had at 7:30 wasn't actually a conference call, but that he must have needed to be IN the office by 7:30.  A quick phone call to Colby confirmed that I was right, and that Hudson was devastated that he couldn't watch Colby drive away to work from the bench on the front porch.  It was probably at that point he had cement my room to say he wanted more juice.  I later noticed an empty juice cup on my nightstand which he had undoubtedly brought me and later realized an empty MILK cup in the living room, which was left out from the previous night half full, along with the remains of his dinner that were still on the kitchen table and probably snacked on this morning.  Colby forgot to finish up dishes the night before with having two kids to get in bed on his own.  Whoops! No telling what, if anything, Hudson ate from his dinner plate from last night.

As I've told this story, most people have asked about his bowel movement or said they hope it isn't bad.  Luckily, there were no accidents and everything was normal.  This kids has a healthy little digestive system.

All in all, this was a pretty funny story.  I got a little extra sleep, hudson got in his fruit for the day (week!) and Colby made it to work on time.  At least we know Hudson would fend for himself in an emergency and he would choose strawberries over snacks. We love that kid!

8 months

Hallie is 8 months old...2/3rds of a year...and I basically just have to come to terms with how fast she is growing up.  There is simply no time to waste contemplating it because then it just goes by even faster!  

She gives kisses and they are the sweetest, slobberiest, open mouth kisses.  She plants them right on your mouth or nose, most often right when you pick her up from her crib after she's been asleep and is so happy to see someone. Sometimes she will give kisses when asked and it is just too cute.

She fell asleep in her crib with a pacifier for the first time this month, basically by accident because I laid her down and had to go grab it, and then got distracted with hudson's nap time and before I remembered, she was asleep. We are now working toward not being so dependent on it and for the most part I leave it in her crib when I get her up from bed.  She mostly just has it when she sleep and when we leave the house.  Heaven forbid we leave to house somewhere without it!  Also, if she is fussy, I don't resit going and getting it for her.  This all started when she started scooting and I hated it being clipped to her and dragging across the floor.  Yuck. We have ended up away from home without it probably 3 times this past month and after I had a brief panic attack, I realized we were just fine without it.  She is enough interested in other things that we can distract her with toys, etc to keep her happy.

Went her first night sans dream feed on Mother's day (she was 7.5 months) and it was the best mothers day gift ever for me. :) She occasionally wakes in the night still and sometimes needs to nurse at those points, but for the most part doesn't eat at all during the night.  She nurses 4 times a day.

Her schedule is still a basic 4 hour schedule (and so I remember later...)

• Awake 7-7:30 and nurse
• eat 4 oz pureed fruit and cereal then playtime
• nap from 9-11
• Nurse
• lunch- typically 3 oz pureed vegetables mixed with 1 oz pureed chicken or beef
• nap from 1-3/3:30
• nurse
• occasional catnap in the evening for 45 min
• dinner- 4 oz pureed veggies and cereal
• nurse and bed around 7:30

She has started eating puffs this month. She picks them up but can't quite find her mouth all the time.  We find a nice stash in her lap, on the floor, or in the seat of her carseat when she's done eating. I think she would eat the whole container of them at once if we let her. I now make sure to take a small container of these with me when we head out and when she's fussy, these are guaranteed to make her happy.

She also has started eating meats (pureed chicken and beef) and doesn't seem to notice anything different.  we mix them with her veggies.

She is really getting quick with her scooting!  despite my predictions based on how fast she is scooting and how she gets up on her knees, she still isn't technically crawling by 8 months, but she's close.

She is mostly a solid sitter now, but won't sit with a straight back.  She is always in position to most easily transition to a scooting position, because she would much rather be on the go than sitting still.

While Hudson had 6 teeth by 8 months, Hallie still has a cute toothless smile.  Apparently the later teeth come in the less prone they are to cavities, so I'm good with that.

7 months

Hallie is fully into solids and LOVING it.  She makes the cutest noises while she eats and just kicks her feet in joy.  I was on the phone with Mom while I was feeding her a few weeks ago and mom comments on how happy Hallie sounded.  I told her it was because I was feed her solids. :) 2 weeks into solids she has been eating 3 meals a day, in between nursing 4 times a day (plus a dream feed).

6 months and a week and we finally are swaddle free!  I talked to one of my friends about what she did and took her advice.  She said to just go cold turkey and put her in the crib without it.  It broke my heart.  She definitely had to cry it out a bit and eventually went to sleep.  I went in a few times and gave her her pacifier and soothed her, and then would leave the room.  We had some rough naps that day, but by that evening, she only cried a few minutes, and the next night there was no crying.  Miraculously she immediately started sleeping through the night better and taking more consistently long naps without waking every 40 minutes. Who would have thought that the swaddle, the thing I sore was getting her to sleep better, was actually preventing her from sleeping as well as she could! If only I did this weeks ago!

She blows air through her lips to mimic us, much like if we were giving a raspberry, but other than that isn't making mouth sounds.

Loves when I wear necklaces and loves pulling on my hair. Thus I don't wear many necklaces and earrings are definitely only little studs.

Wearing size 2 diapers

She is scooting all over the place and it is so fun to see her become moblie! She loves getting over to Hudson's toys more than her own.  I will semi barricade her onto the front rug with her toys so Hudson can have his toys to himself, and she will find a way right over to them.  It is hilarious to watch as she turns Hudson's world upside down.  The first time she scooted to his trains, he announced kindly, "Hallie, we don't do that.  No, we don't do that." When she didn't react, he pushed her away.  Ha!  This will be an adjustment.

She's really ticklish and loves when we rubs our forehead into her tummy or tickle her tummy with our hand.

Her personality is so much more prevalent and I can see how it will just continue to grow. She still is the biggest people person and loves seeing any of her family members.  She will be jumping in the jumper quietly by herself, and once she notices us looking at her she will start jumping really high, smiling and squealing.

She's skipping evening nap occasionally, but its still primarily there (2 long naps about 1.5-2 hrs each with potential evening catnap)

She is growing out of 3-6 month clothes in a few items and fitting into some 9 month, but the majority of her clothes are still 3-6 months

Her hair appears to be growing and she doesn't have a tryue bald spot.  I think this is because that even though she sleeps on her back, she always cocks her head to the side and up/backward (if she were standing it would be like her looking back and upward over her left shoulder.  It's pretty funny how consistent this sleep position is.

Diaper changes are a struggle because she just wants to be on the move.  She constantly is trying to turn over and grab the ties on her dresser basket.  Needless to say, if I entered into an alligator wrestling contest, I would probably die, but I'd give the gator a run for it's money. ;)

She still hates having clothes put over head and cries hysterically whenever it happens.

I haven't been as good at giving hallie support for sitting, and now that she's scooting, I'm not sure she will ever sit! If there isn't a ton going on, she will sit for a bit, but she'd rather just flop over and scoot than sit and build her core muscles.

Still no teeth and no real signs of them making an appearance soon.

She is constantly back and forth on wether or not nursing is a battle.  Right now she is back to doing ok, but she struggles to nurse if anyone or anything is distracting her and she won't use a cover.  Our current routine involves sitting quietly on my bed to nurse her and forbidding anyone else to be in the room--including Colby if he's getting ready for work.  Whoops.  Sorry, Colby.

6 months

I cannot believe that it has already been 6 months...that is half a year!!  Time has just flown by with Hallie, even mores than it did with hudson.  Hallie is truly a dream and we love her to pieces.  The live we had without Hallie is already slipping away from me.  She is so part of her family and I can't imagine our family without her.  She is a joy to be around and brings smiles to faces wherever we go.

We had Hallie's 6 month pediatrican appointment, on her 6 month mark, and she did great.  The most difficult part of her appointments is trying to figure out how to manage 2 kids while there.  I guess that is just my new life now. Ha! Hallie is developing and growing well.  Our concerns leading into her appointment were her weight gain, how to feed a baby solids! (didn't I just do this 2 years ago?!?), getting her out of her swaddle and sleep training at night.  Weight gain is looking great, solids should be a breeze since we started a week shy of 6 months and we can practically go right into 3 meals a day and introduce new foods relatively quickly, the swaddle needs to go, and sleep training at night should wait until she's 17 pounds per the doctor.

Here are her stats:
Height: 26 1/4 inches (75 percentile)
Weight: 14 lbs 3 oz (25 percentile)
Head Circumference: 16 3/4 inches

While her weight percentile is still much lower than her height, the gap is narrowing and she is, as the doctor and nurse say, just following her own little curve.  I anticipate her weight to jump now that she's on solids, but I still am blown away that her percentile isn't higher when I see the chub on that girl's face.  she is seriously rocking it these days.

this past month Hallie...

• rolls from her back to her stomach.  She first started trying to do this while in the tub, and would sometimes drink a little water and get scared--and I would a little too!  The first time I noticed her doing it on the ground was in relief society.  She was on the floor on a blanket and I was semi-watching her and semi-listening to the lesson.  She was trying to roll over and kept getting stuck on her arm.  I didn't think much of it other than thinking she was having a touch time because she was in a small space between chairs.  A few attempts later, it dawned on me she was rolling the other way.  She had only gone from her stomach to back and was now going this other way.  By the end of RS, she was a rollin' (3/1).
• Has become so much more independent during her awake time.  She is better at entertaining herself and does better with a lot of our "play stations."  She loves the floor play mat and will swat at the toys and grab some.  Like Hudson did, she loves the crinkly star.  She also does great in the jungle jumper toy we have as well as the door frame jumper.  She really picked up on it right before she turned 5months and just loves it.  We often put her in it during dinner time, right after her last nap.
• Since learning to roll and learning to love her toys, she just rolls all around the living room rug from end to end, often rollin right off the rug onto the wood floor and whining until I come and put her back on our soft rug.  Since our entire house is wood flooring, she really only rolls out on the front room rug.  I used to put her down on a blanket, but seeing as she is of it in seconds, it's kind of pointless now.  She has started being able to turn and roll to whatever toy she wants.  She also uses her control to get as close to Hudson and she can. 
• As mentioned, we started her on rice cereal a week before her 6 month mark.  She loved it and could not get enough.  She would reach for the bowl and pull it closer to her in an effort to get more food more quickly.  We will slowly add fruits and vegetables to her diet and I see her loving them as well.  
• She shows more interest in toys now, and I have only recently realized that "Hallie toys" are now on my list whenever we "leave the house." It used to be something that if I grabbed, I would sometimes give to her, but now its a staple as she loves playing with her small tocsin her stroller and carseat.  She enjoys having toys hanging from her carseat handle and occasionally will pull the toy, sending it into a rattling noise as it ascends back up.  It makes my heart happy and reminds me so much of when Hudson would do this. 
• We have started propping her up to sit, but she just basically falls forward trying to get a toy.  I think it is good that she goes forward naturally rather than back, and I think she will pick up on the skill pretty soon.  How's that for an optimistic mama. 
• She is taking 3 naps a day, one morning nap, (around 9:30 for 2 hours) one afternoon nap (1:30 for 1.5-2 hrs) and almost always has an evening catnap.  Some days when she has taken longer daytime naps, the evening nap doesn't happen, but for mow it is still pretty consistent.  It's the perfect little nap to hold her through till her 8:00 bedtime and gives me the freedom I need to get dinner ready. 
• She loves her feet, especially when they are free of socks!  As she lays on her changing pad after her bath, I can almost guarantee that she will stick her feet in her mouth as I am trying to put a diaper on--as is true with most of her diaper changes.  The flexiblity that these babies have is amazing!
• She is on and off with sleeping through the night.  She is getting better, but is often waking at 5-5:30, which is too early for me to consider time to start the day.  I try and get her back to sleep with her pacifier, but if she won't go back quickly, I do nurse her, then she goes right back to sleep for about 3 hours. our battle with sleeping lately has been the swaddle. I must admit I can throw down a mean swaddle, which has been a blessing and a curse.  Hallie will literally fall to sleep within minutes if she's swaddled, but if she wakes and tries to get out and succeeds (which has been mores lately) she won't go back to sleep.  she has become dependent on the swaddle.  Something that has been so great is now turing into a problem.  She won't fall to sleep easily in her carseat at all, because she isn't swaddled, and won't get through multiple sleep cycles easily because she breaks out of her swaddle.  I think most babies breakout out of the swaddle around 3-4 months and parents go with it, but me being the determined individual that I am, just figured out "better" ways to swaddle.  Looking back, I wish I just let her naturally wean herself from the swaddle.  Now that she's rolling and waking out of her swaddle, we have to wean her.  I am kind of terrified as we haven't had to do much "crying it out" as she's been a great sleeper, but I can see that's where we are heading. 
• We have suspected teeth and keep checking, but no teeth as of yet!
• She is still easily fitting into size 3-6 month, and is even wearing a few size 3 month onesies as layered items. She is wearing size 1 diapers, but has started wetting through them at night.  She has one more sleeve of size 1, and after that is gone, we will move her into size 2. 
• She, like Hudson at this age, is deep into her "discovery" mode.  She loves looking at things around her and is noticing more and more.  She recently just started playing with the grass at the edge of the blanket while at the park and other fun things of the sort.  I love watching my babies discover these simple things in life. 

Hallie is 5 months

Hallie girl is growing so much each month!  Time needs to stop, or at least slow down so I can take every  moment in better.  I feel like time just flies, and with 2 kids I don't get the time with Hallie I would like.  She is such a perfect little girl and for the most part just goes with the flow.

The most memorable part of this past month would be the slight bump in the road with her weight gain, which led to more frequent eating with supplemental formal after each nursing, but at her weight check last week we saw improvemen, gaining almost 2 pounds in a month!

Here are her 5 month stats:
weight: 13 lbs 11.5 oz
height: 26 1/4 (i think...i need to double check on that)

Here is what Hallie's been up to this past month:

• Rolls over consistently from her stomach to her back
• She has really discovered her hands, and it is so fun to watch. The first time I noticed it, I saw he grasping her hands in front of her face and then her eyes all if a sudden focused on them in amazement. She started moving her fingers around each other and just watched in awe. I love watching babies do things like this and seeing them learn and discover. 
• She has the best smile and loves to show it off to whomever will smile at her. 
• She has become quite chatty and giggly, especially when you are in the room with her.
• Her baths are getting so fun. She's turned into quite the kicker/splasher.
• With the discovery of her hands, she has also started to realize that she can play with toys.  She loves her o-ball, playmat with hanging toys, and her jungle exersaucer toy (stationary bouncer with toys, lights and sounds).
• She has mastered the jumper in the matter of a week and loves spending our dinnertime jumping in it. 
• Still loves her pacifier and basically will not sleep without it or being swaddled really tightly.
• We took a road trip to Hemet while Colby headed on a 2 week European business trip and loved our time there.  Hallie did great on the trip down with the exception of she took 2 40 minute naps on the whole 8 hour journey. The return trip was a different story.  We had Lindsey to drive back with us as Colby was flying into San Jose, and Hallie slept a little and cried a lot.  I felt bad for her but wasn't sure what to do.  She is not the typical baby who will fall right asleep in the car.  I think because I have been so strict with her napping in her crib she struggles to sleep elsewhere.  However, its a price I am willing to pay. :)
• With news of potentially bad weight gain at her last doc appt, we have been back to a 3 hr eating schedule (we were close to 4) and letting her eat in the night. It kind if kills me, because she was totally sleeping through the night for several weeks around Christmas. If she woke in the night, I'd give her the pacifier and she'd fall right back to sleep, but now I nurse her. She has woken up every night since that appt. in addition to night feelings, she gets 1-2 ounces of total comfort (partially broken down) formula after each nursing. Thankfully when we took her in to weigh a month after her check-up (last week), things had improved, so we can start working back toward sleeping through the night and having a 4 hour schedule.

For my records...her schedule pre bad-weight-gain pediatrician visit..it then went back to a 3 hr schedule.

Schedule (following the EASY method)

E 7:30

Sleep 9-11:30

Eat 11:30

Sleep 1:30-3:30

Eat 3:30

Sleep 5-6:30

Eat 6:30

Catnap7:30 (40 min)

Bath 

Eat/bed 9:00
Dreamfeed 11:30

Oakland Temple Trip

Things I want to remember about today (mainly regarding Hudson):

We sing "I love to see the Temple" quite often, and he is somewhat familiar with temples, so when Colby and I decided on Friday afternoon that we would all go up to the temple on Saturday, I thought I would let him in on the plan.  He was really excited that we would be going to the temple.  He started talking in his loud, excited, intense voice saying "go to Temple, and church and NURSERY!"  He was so excited.

When we put him in bed Friday night, we told him he needed to go to sleep so we could go to the temple "tomorrow." When we woke him Saturday morning, I asked what we were doing today.  In his same excited voice, he exclaimed "Go to temple!" He was super thrilled about the outing.

When we pulled up, he noticed the temple immediately and pointed it out to us.  As we drove past the visitors center, we could see the christus through the window and I pointed it out to him.  Colby went into the temple and I stayed out with the kids for an hour.  The first 30 minutes or so we walked around the grounds and Hudson kept asking to go see the "White Jesus" (the christus is white...I don't have a racist child.) We eventually made it over to the visitors' center.  Upon entering, he exclaimed, it's Jesus!"  A bit later he said, "Mom, I want to hug Jesus."  I got a little weak in the knees.  I had to explain we couldn't hug this jesus.  We snapped the below picture of him with Jesus, then he asked to get out and stand by the statue.  He then wanted to climb up it and hold the hands.  I showed him the nail prints in the hands and feet, and he was really interested in that.  We walked around and looked at paintings of Jesus' life and ministry, and when we saw a painting of Christ on the cross, I told Hudson the story of the crucifixion and showed him the nails in His hands and feet and explained that was why he had nail prints in his hands and feet on the statue.  That night at home, Colby and I were asking Hudson what he saw today.  He told us the temple, and Jesus.  He then told us Jesus has holes in his hands and feet.  It is crazy what children learn and remember at such a young age.

I love my little Hudson and love seeing his love for the gospel.  I hope he remembers bits of todays experience.  He keeps telling us he wants to go back to the temple, which we said we would.  I hope he always wants to return to the temple.

4 Months--Miss Hallie

Hallie is 4 months now and is growing like a weed...a tall, slender weed.  At her well-child visit, the doctor discussed her growth with me.  She was 50th percentile in height and weight at 2 months, and at this appointment, height jumped to 90th and weight dropped to 25th.  Several things can cause this such as genetics, sickness, temporary drop in appetite...but just to make sure it isn't due to poor nursing/milk supply, she instructed me to supplement with formula, and no longer let her sleep through the night.  She has been sleeping through the night great, and when she does wake, she goes right back to sleep with a pacifier.  Well, since being told to do this (I'm writing a few days late), so has nursed 1-2 times every night.  It's worth it to get her weight up, but it's killing me.  I feel that once your baby is consistently sleeping through the night, it's so hard to go back to waking.  We go in for a weight check in a month and hopefully things have improved.  On top of this, she was having tummy issues with her formula, so she is now on Similac Total Comfort formula (tried advanced similac and that was awful for her, and she has been on enamel newborn, but that should only be through 3 months...).  The formula is partially broken down which will make it easier for her to digest.

Her stats are:
Height: 25 1/4 inches- 90th percentile
Weight: 12 pounds - 25th percentile (12th percentile when I check online though...)
Head circumference: 16 1/4" - 90th percentile

Other things that have gone on this past month:

We've started somewhat of a sleep training process.  Really, we are just sticking really hard to the E.A.S.Y. method and trying to get good, consistently long naps.  We also have started really focusing on bedtime and having her always sleep in her crib during naps rather than the swing.

Rolls over but is very content to be on her tummy as well.

She laughs and coos quite often now, especially when on the changing pad after her bath.  She loves getting lotion rubbed on her and the "close up" attention and the faces we make at her while doing this.


She still LOVES attention and if I can predict anything about her future personality, I venture that she will be a little social butterfly.

She gets occasional visits from her brother in her crib--usually in the middle of her nap because Hudson wants a playmate. ha!  in the blink of an eye, he will running her room, climb up and into

She's fitting into 3-6 month clothes, but not really grown out of 3 month yet

She can hold her head up easily and loves to look all around while doing so.  I think she likes the new perspective.

She is starting to reach for toys, but can't really grasp them yet.

She is very aware of her surroundings and will turn to light/noise
My favorite part of Hallie's behavior right now is that she goes to sleep on her own so well--sometimes cries for a minute, but will basically go to sleep on her own! It's the best, and a far cry from where we were with Hudson at this age (who basically would only fall to sleep if nursing.)  She still struggles making it through sleep cycles consistently, but once she get back to sleep, she is known to take 3 2 hr naps in the day and sometimes a catnap in the evening.  We are in such a better place with her sleeping than we were with Hudson at this time.  Starting from birth made SUCH a huge difference.

We love our Hallie girl and the brightness that she brings into our life.

Hudsonisms

Some things Hudson says/does that I don't want to forget.

Many of these have to do with his ever growing vocabulary, his ability to remember the strangest things and repeat them, and his mispronunciation of words. :)

• When he wants us to lay be him at night he said to us: " Lay by jew" (meaning lay by you, which really means, lay by me, but he got it from us asking, do you want me to lay by you. If we correct him and say, " no, it's lay by me, " he says, "oh! Lay by jew, me."
• Whenever Dad asks him what he did that day, he says, "park!" regardless of wether or not we went.  Sometimes he comes up with extravagant days such as going to the beach and swimming in the warm ocean.  If only we lived in his imaginary days.  
• In the morning he will come into our bed and often say "breakfast!"  We have started asking him what he wants for breakfast.  One day a few months ago, he responded for the first time and said pancakes, so by golly, we had pancakes.  Now he always responds with "cinnamon..." and then goes on to name breakfast foods, or my favorite is when he starts saying things like "cherry pie, chocolate cake" which he picked up from reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  Cinnamon comes from when we have rice and raisins with cinnamon.  He learned there that he loves cinnamon and we now put it on rice and raisins, oatmeal, applesauce, and all things that could use a little cinnamon. 
• Prayers:  Hudson is a good little prayer, and folds his arms and closes his eyes.  He is sometimes a little eye police though and will say "closureyes" (close your eyes-really fast) and often directs this phrase to Hallie.  At the end of the prayer, he follows with "Christ, Amen." He used to just say " amen," but has changed recently.  I think the change came when we had him start to actually say the prayer, and he would say the whole phrase.
• Whenever Hudson has something stuck in his teeth, he says "chicken mouth."  The first time he ever had something caught in his teeth, it was chicken, and thus the phrase was born.  Also, whenever he sees one of those flosser/toothpicks, he calls it a "chicken mouth."