Pointing, waving, clapping

[stef]
 I think the  most accurate way to showcase what Hudson has been up to in the past month and a bit is best described in picture form:

Having a good old fashioned father/son chat.

But mommy gets plenty of Hudson-love too!

See?

A short-lived but welcome throwback to napping on my shoulder.

Yep, still getting into everything.

What a little thug!

At his favorite staring window, where we watch the digger eat all kinds of rocks (that thing works outside our house 24/7, so there's no shortage of digger sightings for this little boy).

Playing with friends, Airo and Rocky. He didn't even mind sharing his horsie from Auntie Joanne and Uncle John (what was his name again - Horseleaf?).

Never so happy as when he's eating! And I'm very glad he's kept his Grandpa Riggins grin around - it's my favorite!

He also loves to point. I'm hoping as he gets older we will be able to teach him not to rudely point right at people and so forth, but for now it's pretty darn cute.

 

     His newest "thing" is putting something in his mouth and dragging it around like a puppy. So far, he's done this to a number of stuffed vegetables, the belt, and my dust rag.

Otherwise, he's not walking yet. And I say yet, because I assume it will happen any day now. And that one tooth that surfaced last month? Well now there are four. Two on the top, two on the bottom. He's also continued chattering up a storm, and very regularly says "mom" and sometimes "dad" (I realize the "d" sound is a little more difficult, but I guess I can also credit it with how many promptings a day I give him to say "mama"). He's very into mimicking the words I say, and sometimes he gets them almost perfectly (which definitely keeps me in check with my words)! Much to Ty's delight (not mine!), he's started throwing everything, and mostly with his left arm (Ty has him slotted to be a left handed pitcher in the majors some day). I also have to say that his favorite game besides rooting through my makeup drawer is being chased up the stairs and into our bedroom, where "home free" means standing up at our dresser. His least favorite thing? The vacuum. Or getting dressed/diaper changes, which he apparently deems unnecessary!
Another thing worth mentioning is that whenever Hudson is in the presence of Ty's parents, he hates to be out of their arms. It started a couple of weeks ago when we took a walk over to their place one evening; when I went to take Hudson from his papa to put him in the car, he started doing his panicked whine, and thrashed his legs at me. Hudson has never really made strange with anyone, sometimes being quiet and aloof, but never refusing to be away from his parents - however, he's also never refused to go to me either! He does this regularly now with both his papa and grandma, and I am entirely fine with it. His big cousins do the same thing (minus the leg thrashing) when they have to leave grammy and papa's too!
This month has also led me to make some changes with Hudson due to wanting to wean him by around a year. I choose to do this for my own wellbeing (after discussing a few things with a doctor, and this being a part of the plan we set out), and also with going back to work in mid-July. The first thing I am doing is not nursing Hudson for naps, and much less at bedtime. He was starting to fall asleep again while nursing, just into a light sleep, but sleep nonetheless. So last week I only nursed him until he was sleepy but completely awake, plopped him in his crib, and waited for the waterworks. Well, they were there for the first day or two, but now all I really have to do is go into his room every so often if he's crying, and remind him that "mommy loves him, but it's naptime", without picking him up, and he's actually pretty quick to fall asleep after that.  Soon I will not be nursing him at all before naptime, and then the next phase is a sippy cup with rice milk/breast milk for his other feedings, but I'm not 100% on that yet. This is a bit of a tough process, but I know it will be okay in the end. There's just that part of me that still loves that nursing relationship - we worked so hard in the beginning to get it right, and once some of the issues surrounding it dissolved, I learned to really enjoy it.
 As for me, I recently visited a doctor in a nearby town to discuss what could be going on with how I've been feeling for the past couple of months, as well as some other things that I've been dealing with, but haven't had the courage to discuss with my regular doctor (who is on an undetermined leave of absence with no one to take over his patients). Surprisingly, I had a really good experience, in that she looked me in the eye when we spoke, did not just brush off my concerns or whip off a prescription for me, and helped me make a plan for the next couple of months, despite the fact that she's not even my family doctor! So, now I've done some blood work, and will follow up soon with her.

 And here are just a couple more pictures that mark Hudson's current stage of beautiful baby-ness:

Doesn't he look so big, despite being on a grown-up bed?

I had this strange urge to swaddle him like the good old days, and he hated it!

He has a thing for ears, what can I say?