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).
