Our outdoor loving little boy really enjoys going to the park. One of his favorite things is the slide. He can't get enough! Jim and Haleigh took him this afternoon and shot quite a few pictures and I wanted to post them so you could see just how much the slide brings him joy.

In other news, Hudson met Santa for the first time this weekend. He was neither scared nor thrilled with the man. Curious would be the best way to describe the encounter.....

First Haircut

Hudson got his first haircut this past weekend! I'm sure the hairdresser thought Jim and I were nuts because I was snapping pictures like crazy and Jim was video taping the whole thing with his phone. By the way, the pictures that are posted here are not even half of what I took and I won't bore you with the 6 minute video.

He is growing up so fast! In the first picture he still looks like my little BABY but by the last picture he looks more like my little BOY. He did very, very well with the haircut. We were really surprised when he let her use the clippers to trim around his ears and the back of his neck.

As a special treat for exceeding our expectations in the behavior department, we took Hudson out for ice cream. Unfortunately, he did not think this was a treat at all. I'm not sure if it was the temperature or the taste but he really didn't care for it. He even shook his head "no" when Jim and I would take bites and try to finish off what he didn't eat.

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving day. Full of food, family and fun. Hudson spent a lot of his day playing outside. We ran around and played ball with Buddy, fed the fish in the pond and he picked kumquats off of the tree in Mimi and Pawpaw's backyard. He wasn't too sure about the taste of the kumquats. He would take a bite and then spit it out. He did this three or four times before it ended up on the ground. I say, "A" for effort. At least he gave it a shot.

Mom made a fantastic turkey and we had the traditional homemade mac and cheese (Hudson LOVED this dish), green beans, sweet potatoes, rolls and Jim's mashed potatoes.

At the end of the day we were all fat and happy!

Angel

Wow, I've discovered that I'm just really bad at keeping up with this blog. I do apologize. I'm constantly thinking , "hey, I really need to update the blog tonight"...it just never seems to happen.

Here are a few updates. Hudson is making leaps and bounds these days. His crawling skills are beyond anything I could ever have imagined. I believe he can crawl faster than I can run. He is walking while holding on to the furniture. He thinks this is a really fun game. A couple of days ago he took a couple of steps without holding on to anything but he hasn't done it since then. I'm trying to keep the video camera at the ready just in case. Got to catch those moments while I can! He has also become quite the ham in front of a camera. As soon as the camera comes out he starts making faces. Most of my pictures of him come out fuzzy because I'm laughing so hard I can't keep the camera still. We can see more and more of his personality coming out with each passing day. He is very head strong. He knows what he wants and he goes for it, despite the consequences. On the flip side he is also cautious, always "testing the waters" before jumping in. He is extremely social. He is so happy when he is around a crowd, young or old, doesn't matter to him. He will go to just about anyone. He is very loving, giving out hugs and kisses like they are going out of style! He talks non-stop, mostly baby babble, but he does say a few words. Right now his favorite is Buddeeeee (Buddy is my parents pug).

On a more emotional note, He is the thing Jim and I look forward to the most at the end of the day. He lights up a room with his smile and charm. Some days I just know he was an angel sent to us from above.

As always I've included some pictures....
One of his "funny" faces for the camera
Another funny face
This is Hudson in my old rocking horse. I got this on my first Christmas, at 11 monts old, which is the age Hudson is now.
I think this was a forced smile, probably tired of me taking pictures.
Hudson with his "Fo-Hawk"
Sick baby, tired daddy
He was batting his eyes at me in this picture doing what we call "flirty eyes"
Look at those cheeks!
I think he was watching Jim mow the backyard in this pic.

Vegas Baby

Just got back from Las Vegas! It was definitely hot (111 degrees!) but we had such a good time! Our good friends Doug and Felis got married and Jim and I feel very blessed to be able to be a part of their special day. They are the main reason for our trip and we wish them all the best now and in the future!

We stayed at the New York New York Hotel. We did some of the typical Las Vegas things...gambled a bit (no we didn't win anything), caught a show (Zumanity - Cirque du Soleil), ate at a few buffets, window shopped the expensive "boutiques", hit downtown Vegas (Fremont St.) and got to witness friends get married in a Vegas wedding chapel...what more could you ask for???!!!

Here are a few photos from our little vacation.....

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Hello all! We just got back from the family reunion and we had the best time! Hudson was in his element. Being outdoors, check. Being around family and friends, check. Getting to spend time in the water, check. Getting to play with another baby, check.
I would certainly love to put all the pictures from our little vacation on this page but we took over 100 pics so I'm afraid that just won't be possible. I'm going to put some of the highlights of the trip here but if you would like to see the full album please post a comment here with your email address and I'll send you the link so that you can see all the fun that was had at the Klentzman
reunion 2008!

family vacation

Hello all! I just had to post this picture of Hudson. He is teething and as a result when he eats he bites on his spoon and sometimes refuses to let go. He gives us a little glare when we try and remove the spoon and I just had to capture that look for all to see. He is our little dude with attitude!

On a separate note, this past Memorial Day weekend Jim, Haleigh, Hudson and I went on a little family vacation to San Antonio.
We set out from our house in Pearland and made a pit stop in League City where we got to see Haleigh earn her green belt in Tae Kwon Do. I wish you could have seen her. She took down a classmate (pretending) to choke her and she broke a board with her foot! It was so cool to watch. She's very talented.

After Haleigh got her green belt we hopped in the car for the drive to San Antonio. Along the way Haleigh taught Hudson how to hold his own bottle. I think he likes trying to impress his big sister.

When we arrived in San Antonio we met up with our friends Amanda and Andy and hit the riverwalk, which I quickly learned is not very stroller friendly. We stopped at a Mexican restaurant for dinner and then headed to the riverboats for a night time boat ride. Here is a picture of Hudson on his first boat ride. He was a little tired by the end of boat ride and ended up falling asleep on Jim's shoulder.

The next morning Hudson and Haleigh had some brother sister time before we headed to the Alamo.



The Alamo was nice but very hot! As you'll notice in all of the pictures Hudson is not wearing his helmet. It was just too hot for him to wear it during the day so we made the executive decision to just have him wear it at night, in the cool hotel room.












After the Alamo we all went back to the hotel room and took a nap. After we were all well rested we took the bus down to the Market and spent the rest of the evening down there at a really nice Mexican food restaurant.

We took it easy on Monday and did a little shopping, then we grabbed a bite to eat and hit the road for the very tedious drive back to Houston.

Been Awhile

Well it's been a really long time since my last post but I'll try and give you the updates in as condensed a way as possible. So much has happened since January. Hudson is growing by leaps and bounds!
In February my mom (Mimi), Hudson and I all flew to Seattle to see Suzanne, Aaron and my best friend Rita. He did amazingly well on the plane ride (which was 4 hours long). So well in fact that when we landed the guy in front of us stood up to get off the plane and said he didn't even know there was a baby on board! Here are a few pictures from that trip...
The first is of Hudson and Auntie Reet. He just loved getting kisses from her.
Next is Hudson and Aunt Suzanne playing in the living room.














And finally Hudson and Uncle Aaron. Uncle Aaron taught Hudson how to make "the angry face", which he still does to this day.

We had such a good time with everyone and it really made me miss everyone so much!

Easter came quick this year and the Easter bunny was really good to Hudson. He got an Easter basket with all kinds of cool stuff. His favorite toy is a stuffed duck hand puppet. When you put your hand in it, it makes an awful quacking noise that he just thinks is fabulous! He smiles every time he sees it! Easter Sunday also marked a small milestone in his life. He finally rolled over from his back to his tummy. He has been non-stop ever since. Now when we put him to bed at night that's the first thing he does.

This is a picture from the weekend after Easter. These are the beautiful flowers that are in the flower bed in front of our house.

Now for Hudson's medical update. He was born with what they call torticollis which basically means that the ligament on one side of his neck was considerably shorter than the other side. In Hudson's case it was his left side that was the problem. For months we could not figure out why he won't look left. Now we know. Because of his torticollis he developed plagiocephaly. This means that the back of his head was REALLY flat, mostly on the right side, and this has caused malalignment of his ears, eyes and jaw. To correct the problem and so he won't have serious problems in the future, like lock jaw, the specialist we saw recommended the use of a helmet. He wears the helmet 23 hours a day only taking it off for baths and wardrobe changes. He doesn't seem to mind it at all and it has not disrupted his sleep habits (thank goodness). He's had the helmet now for about 3 weeks and we can already see a big difference. We were told that he will need to wear the helmet for 3 to 5 months. Here is a picture of Hudson in his super cool helmet.

Hudson is now sitting up on his own, and rolling like a little mad man. He gets up on all fours as if to crawl but for now he just ends up going backwards. Occasionally if he rocks himself hard enough while on all fours he will launch himself forward. He does sleep through night occasionally waking up between 4 & 5 to take a bottle and then he goes right back to sleep. He LOVES spending time outside. We try and spend as much time outdoors with him as possible. He is eating rice cereal, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, apples, bananas, pears and carrots. He despises peas. Jim and I decided to make his food which has been a real money saver for us. I buy everything fresh, puree it, put it in ice cube trays and freeze. So far the butternut squash is his favorite!

Occasionally we will get a call on Saturday or Sunday from my parents requesting that he come spend the night with them. If he goes over on Sunday night he and Gramps (my dad) get to spend the day together on Monday. Gramps has taught him how to pick kumquats and he is currently in the process of teaching him how to drive the tractor...

We still don't know who he takes after more. He looks a lot like Jim but my dad says he looks like my uncle Charlie when he was a baby, and my mom says he looks a little like my grandfather. All really good qualities to have in my opinion.

I'll leave you with a couple of pictures I took of Hudson tonight. These were taken just after his bath (hence, no helmet).

It has really been a long time since my last post! I thought I'd take some time this morning and try and give everyone a few quick updates.

I went back to work the week before Christmas. It was not as hard as I thought it would be, because I was leaving Hudson with my mom & dad for the first two weeks that I had started back. He loved spending the time with my parents and that first week I think he really got spoiled because my grandma was also there and he got to visit with her all week.

Christmas was very nice. We spent the day at Mom and Dad's and Suzanne and Aaron came over and we all hung out for the day. Santa was good to everyone this year and it was fun watching Hudson's expressions when we would rip the wrapping paper off the gifts...I think that was his favorite part of the day.

The next weekend we moved out little family out of our apartment and into a house in Pearland. We are LOVING all the extra space we have now! I still can't believe we filled a four bedroom home with the stuff we had in our little two bedroom apartment!

Hudson is now staying with a wonderful woman named Rosa during the day. It was really hard leaving him that first day. I cried all the way to work and called her twice that day. It has gotten a lot easier since then. He sings all the way to her house in the mornings and he smiles when we drop him off and pick him up. Oh, and I think he is learning Spanish; his cries sound a little more "Mexican" now...haha.

I'm putting a little video of Hudson so everyone can see just how big he is getting! This video is of Jim and Hudson playing the choo choo game :-)