can of kornelsen: Tales of a More-Than-One-Year-Old

It's been a long time since the last Hudsy update! These past couple of months have absolutely flown by, but surprisingly there are not too many major things to report in the way of growth and development. The first question people ask about Hudson after, "How old is he?" is always, "Is he walking yet?" To which I reply a resounding, "Not yet!" How many months have I been saying that? I guess since he crawled early/pulled himself up on objects early/mastered going up the stairs semi-early, I figured the rest would just be a natural progression! Not so, apparently. I am so not worried about this, just feeling bad for his poor little bruised knees from all the scampering on our laminate floors. Yesterday we were playing "Chase" (his favorite game), and I decided I would get down on his level to do some scampering of my own (usually we play this upstairs on the carpet), and I lasted all of a minute and a half on my hands and knees.

The things that are report-worthy though?

Hudson loves to climb and explore. What's more is that he can climb down the stairs now too! And quite properly I might add. This happened one day while I was at work - I know it's such a small thing, but I hope I won't miss too much while I'm gone.

Deep drawer exploration.

His vocabulary is getting more and more extensive every day. There was a point where he had ditched even saying "mama" or "dada" in favour of exclaiming "Num!" whenever there was food in sight (which he still does, but at least now he has other words that he likes to use whenever appropriate), and I thought that might never stop. He has become very good at two syllable words, and it's neat to see how his little brain is starting to process the link between words and objects (for example "di-di" is for when we watch the digger moving dirt and rocks through the window after naptime). And yes, I had every intention of only using proper words around Hudson, so he would learn to say "thankyou" instead of the ever-popular "ta-ta" and so forth - but somehow, mysteriously, I started asking Hudson if he was ready for "num-nums", telling him that it was "night-night" and cooing at him to snuggle up to his "b" (instead of blanket - that's not even a hard word!). Why is this such an instinct?

He has developed a love for the outdoors. The front door will barely be open a crack before Hudson is shoving his way out onto the gravel. Surprisingly, he doesn't try to eat it. He mostly just bear-crawls around and picks up rocks to throw.

Outdoor time at Hecla.

His favorite new snack is whole apples. Today we were at our grocery store, and he was in the produce section, just staring at the rows of apples and quietly saying "Num" over and over again. It's crazy how quickly he can annihilate an entire apple with just his four front teeth.

NUM!

He loveslovesloves animals, especially dogs. He points and shrieks when he's in reach of one, and if we know that it's kid-friendly, we will usually let him pet it, even if it means constantly telling him not to poke the poor puppy's eyes.

This little puppy joined Hudson's birthday at the last minute.

We've got him down to one nap now. It just overall works with the routine so much better, and now it seems to be so much less of a fight when he's just really, truly tired and ready to go down.

I'm sure there are plenty of other things that I've missed. But honestly, I've really relaxed in the past while with making sure he's "on track" with everything, and just taking him for the unique child that he is. Nights are really quite good. He eats like a champ. I'm still nursing him a little in the morning and at night, but one day while I was at work, he went all day without it, and was in bed before I got home. I know that it's not necessary for him to get through the day, but at the same time, if we're both happy to do it for a little longer, there's no reason to stop completely. I will be the first to admit that I've kept him in the baby stage for quite a long while - but from having the year off with Hudson as my main focus, I had the time, opportunity, and desire, and will never regret having taken advantage.