Four Weeks!! (and an attempt at political correctness)

Four weeks that we have survived so far! I can't believe it has gone by so quickly, and I hope that the next four will, too. We had a really great weekend. We went on our first family hiking trip, well, almost our whole family. Lily stayed home since it was too hot for big, hairy, black dogs. We went to Umstead Park, where I hadn't been since the Brownie Day Camp days. Alden got to ride in the trusty backpack again, which had to be adjusted since she has gotten a lot bigger since June, and Hudson rode in the Bjorn. Alden kept saying how she had a "Cute hat" and that we were all "hi-ing". We will definitely be back to Umstead again. It was a lot of fun, and much closer than I realized.

Saturday night, my mom brought Alden some new hairclips back from the store. You know, the old-school Goody kind with the butterflies, cat and the fiddle, ducks, and flowers that they made 30 year ago?? We tried one, and that just wasn't enough...Alden wanted them all in her hair. She looked like a little black (excuse me, African American) child. She wanted to wear them all again to church the next day, and I had to put my foot down. We kept two in. We also tried a new church...it was ok...kind of that big auditorium, mega-church, almost-commercial type feel. The pastor was ok, but it was very praise-musicky, and not exactly our cup of tea. We did run into Jenny and Chris Cockerham, my old YL leaders, and t now the area director in Cary. They said they really liked it there, and they had come from a more traditional church in Chapel Hill. That is encouraging. Hudson has been so much more alert lately. He also is starting to smile! Matt got the first one on Saturday, and since then, Hudson has been flashing them around a lot. He is also starting to try and make little baby noises, and really enjoys "talking" to Alden. Still, you will notice that most of the pictures of him are when he is sleeping, because if he is awake, he is most likely fussing, or has a passy in his mouth.
However, he is STILL not doing a good job of falling asleep during the day. Yesterday morning, he got up around 8, slept from 10-11 (after much coddling and re-passying), and then, basically cried off and on until 2. AHHHH! In that time, I had to put him down to do some useful things, like SHOWER, GET GROCERIES, and GO TO THE BATHROOM. Add that to Alden having a "Poo Day" (where she whines for hours about having to poop, and then finally goes), and we just had a STELLAR morning.

Today was about the same as far as Hudson goes in the morning. I am going to buy a sling to wear him in, because it would be a little easier than Bjorning him. And then, maybe, I could get some things done.

Alden is still on her Peter Pan kick. She likes to put a blanket around her shoulders and be Tiger Lily (Ti-her Yiyee), and today, Auntie Ashley even made her an Indian (excuse me, Native American) headband with a feather in it. Big hit. She also kind of learned to go jumping jacks. Funny.

Auntie Leigh sent us a package with a Little Mermaid bathing suit for Alden, which she LOVES. She wore it around the house yesterday afternoon, and wanted it back on again right after nap today.

Alden likes to "Cheers" things lately. This started with Matt, cheers-ing corn with Alden at dinner, and has evolved into cheers-ing any things that are the same...passys, things with Peter Pan on them, animals, Little People, hairclips, etc. I don't know what her teachers are going to think at school next week...maybe that we do a lot of drinking in our family?? Or just a lot of toasting?

The highlight of the day is joining the Y! Hooray! It will be so nice to have a place to drop the kids and workout again...although Hudson isn't allowed to go on his own for another couple weeks. I tried to take both kids on a run today. MISTAKE. They were good for, oh, about 15 minutes, and then Hudson cried and kept needing re-passying, and then Alden wanted to walk up the greenway, and threw a fit. It was a mental workout more than a physical one.

I have mentioned before that Alden is not a good eater. However, the past two nights, she has actually asked for turkey for snack. Specifically, "Aun-hie Ash-ee's tur-hee". I am just thankful that she is eating something besides goldfish. This is turning into a stay-up-later game, because even as I write this, she has escaped from her room, run downstairs and proclaimed, "Eat, eat...more tur-hee!" Hmmmm.

Ashley brought her a new book that had stickers in the back. As you can see, they didn't stay in the book very long.



Alden was kind enough to share her Noah's Ark animals with Hudson. He doesn't seem that impressed.