Hudson - 5/17/2018

Hudson ate french toast and most of dried plums for breakfast.  For lunch he ate pulled pork, whole wheat toast, half of peas, and ate watermelon.  At breakfast Hudson asked about Linnea; "Is she gonna get bigger?"  What do you think?  "She's gonna stay a baby!"  Haha!  Just so Bubba can have someone to play with!  These next 2 answers totally were because he was playing with Linnea:  We were waving bye at the window and I asked; "Hey Hudson! You wanna wave at Ryan?"  "No Thanks."  Next - "You wanna wave at Andy?"  "No Thanks."  Linnea is more important!  :)

This first picture is from yesterday afternoon.  There is nothing like a Roly Poly Bug to get everyone's attention.  Riley had it in the back of a dump truck and the kids gathered around.  They love watching them roll up into a ball.  Starting at left it's Hudson, Avilene, Atley (under the sun hat), and Riley.

Here are a couple pictures from this morning.  I like how everyone is vying for attention from Linnea.  Nora, Hudson, and Atley all crowding around the baby!  This is a mild mannered baby or she'd be screaming at this point; "Give me some space!!"  In the 2nd picture Hudson is giving Nora a helping hand.  This is a tricky puzzle.  All the pieces fit - they're all the same size - but you're supposed to match the front of the vehicle with the rest of the vehicle.  :)

Someone called on the phone today and asked if we'd do pictures of appreciation for the police and volunteers that are helping with the high water in the Missoula Valley.  (The person is going to come by and pick up the pictures.)  Anyhow, I told the kids about the phone call - they also listened to it on speaker phone - and after we were done with our pictures Hudson asked; "Are the police gonna come and get us?"  Hm..no.  Just the pictures.  Haha!

Hudson - 5/16/2018

Hudson ate two servings of whole wheat toast and most of mangoes for breakfast.  For lunch he ate a large serving of ground beef with marinara sauce, ate some whole wheat spaghetti noodles, ate squash, and bites of fruit salad.  At breakfast Hudson said, "Atley is making me gag."  Oh really; How?  "She's talking."  Haha!  What'd she say that caused you to gag?  "Her milk!"  Interpretation: So it was at the end of breakfast and I'd taken their lids off their milks and Atley was messing around with her's.  I didn't actually see it happen (this time), but I've seen it before and that's my guess from what I was hearing.  :)  She was making sounds and apparently letting it run out of her mouth.  (Guess who doesn't get their lid off for a week or two!?)  Anyhow, it apparently did not appeal to Hudson!  Ha!

Atley was waiting at the window to wave bye to Hudson's Daddy Colin and she was playfully thumping her head on the window and each time saying, "Ow, Ow, Ow."  This is a frequent occurrence.  Hudson looked at her this morning and said, "That's not funny."  Haha!  Now that made me laugh!!  :)  Then the kids were also waving bye to Daddy Ryan (Nora's Daddy) at the window this morning and all 4 kids (including Nora) were chanting; "Emily's car, Emily's car, Emily's car."  Haha! They know which parent drives which car!!

Then later the same 4 kids were playing with the stuffed animals and pretending the animals were their babies.  And everyone was making LOTS of "baby sounds!"  (And in Atley's case it was LOUD baby sounds!)  It must have been pretty realistic because I invariably kept looking at the monitor to see which baby was awake!!  Haha!  Svea and Linnea were both sleeping at the same time.

I've explained in the Blogs before how the three oldest kids get puzzles for Nora.  Well this morning she was not cooperating so I asked Hudson to please not get a puzzle for her.  "She can try again later."  He said, "I'm never gonna give her a puzzle!"  Haha!  I really wasn't asking for a lifetime commitment of no puzzles to Nora.  :)

Here are a couple pictures from this morning.  This first picture was taken when just Atley, Hudson, and Linnea were here.  Last picture - everyone was working on building with the blocks.

Hudson - 5/15/2018

Hudson ate whole wheat bagel and two servings of grapes for breakfast.  For lunch he ate shrimp, bite of brown rice, ate stir fry vegetables, and ate raspberries.  At breakfast Hudson said, "I want more grapes!"  Ok, coming right up - as I'm busy getting food for other kids as well.  Hudson followed up with this; "Can you hear me?"  Yes.  Still more wisecracks!  "Is that better?"  Well, I couldn't really tell the difference in volume between request number 2 and request number 3! (He's certainly enjoying the whole hearing aid thing!!  Ha!)

Linnea was gone yesterday and the kids were happy to see her today.  She was waving vigorously at Hudson first thing this morning.  When I took this first picture Hudson was preparing to get between Atley and Baby Linnea as Atley was moving in on his baby!  That's close enough!  :)

Hudson was giving Nora a random hug and it was so cute. I told him that was so sweet.  And Nora was loving it.  Then in picture number 3 Hudson was more than happy to say hi to Svea and that's Atley's arm on the other side of the picture.  He's getting lots of practice around tiny people!  And he certainly loves them!!  Good job of being gentle Hudson.

 

And in the last picture you can see Linnea is on the mattress with the "Big" kids.  Yes, Nora too is one of the "big" kids!  Haha!  I judge according to capability, not size!!  As I've mentioned many times I love how all the kids can play on the mattress at the same time and rarely have conflict!  Part of the reason - NO toys allowed on mattress - nothing to fight over except space and that's a rarity!!

Hudson - 5/14/2018

Hudson ate most of bran cereal and bites of raisins for breakfast.  For lunch he ate chicken, ate whole wheat pita bread, no tomatoes, bites of cucumber, half of his peppers, ate olives, and ate pears.  At the breakfast table Hudson was asking me about movies I may have seen.  "Hey Gary! Have you watched Frozen?"  No.  "Have you watched Zootopia?"  No.  "Have you watched Monsters, Inc.?"  Yes.  This continued until we got to one I couldn't decipher what he was saying.  Something like; "Animals get wild" or "Animals in the wild."  Anyhow, none of my guesses hit the correct answer.  Finally he said, "Do you have your hearing aids in!?!"  LOL!  Oh man that hit my funny bone and I roared!  It was funny on several levels; one being the fact that he would never think it might also be partly him!  He saw how hard I was laughing so of course he repeated it!  "Do you have your hearing aids in!?!"  :)

It was a pretty normal Monday with a couple exceptions.  First, Linnea is home feeling kinda low from having a cold and secondly the kids were fairly tame for a Monday!  :)  Avilene was asking, "Can we do some of those blue things Gary?"  So in the first picture the kids are doing some of those "blue things!"  2nd Picture: You may have seen these, but just in case you haven't they are called water painting doodle mats and you can get lots of different mats with different pictures.  You put water in the applicator, color with it, and a picture starts to appear.  In this case it was simply 4 different colors, alphabet, and numbers.  Then after sitting for 10 minutes or so the mats are completely dry and bare (no picture).  Hudson just stared with "open mouth" when I showed the children their pictures at Lunch time which were now just blank!  :)  The nice part about Doodle mats is the NO mess, no cleanup factor.  I love it.  Last picture is "fun on the mattress."  All the kids were jumping with doll blankets over their head and Hudson is in the middle.  (Nora was doing it too, but I never caught all 4 on the blue balance beam at the same time.  Almost and then one would jump!

Hudson - 5/11/2018

Hudson ate cream of wheat cereal and dried plums for breakfast.  For lunch he ate a large serving of "baked beef kabobs" with meat, zucchini, peppers, and pineapple.  He ate a couple bites of brown rice and a large serving of pineapple on the side.  Hudson had a story for everyone at Lunch time.  "A woman lived in a house and she took care of an elephant.  Then she ate it.  That's a real story."  Haha!  Thank you Hudson.

These first two pictures are from yesterday afternoon.  Kenzie wanted to read to them and lined them all up for a story time.  By looking at the crowded front row, how long do you think this lasted!?  :)  You're right!  Not too long!  Especially after Hudson realized he could reach their hair with his feet!  Ha!  Shortly after this we were ready to go outside and the 2nd picture shows the kids chasing some bubbles.  You can see lots of bubbles in the picture!

Another picture of more puzzle time!  They love their puzzles and they also love being able to go through the gate to another room.  We had a fairly normal (for Little Treasures) morning!  Everyone has a runny nose and is a little feisty, but that's part of "normal" around here.  :)  Hudson gave Avi a big shove and I had him come sit by me.  He soon wanted to play of course, so I told him he could go play when he told me "why" he pushed his friend.  (Kids this age can not answer "why" questions.  I just said it because I knew he'd think about it.)  He soon said, "Because I was being mean."  Holy cow!  I've NEVER had that kind of confession from a 2 year old!  You're forgiven; go in peace.  :)

Here are a couple more pictures from this morning.  Hudson and Atley were playing on the climber and mattress wearing some masks.  Atley manages to get the mask on backwards and upside down every time!  Ha!  In the last picture Hudson was doing some of his building again.  Also, Hudson was talking to Baby Svea this morning and said, "I think she's doing the 'I Love You' sign!" Well of course!  She's very advanced!  :)

Hudson - 5/10/2018

Hudson ate two servings of waffle and ate half of fruit salad for breakfast.  For lunch he ate shepherd's pie with ground beef, potatoes and sweet potatoes, carrots, and green beans.  He ate bites of whole grain tortillas and no cherries.  I rinsed Hudson's bib and then shook a few drops of water over his head!  I said, "It's raining!"  He said, "Old man is snoring!"  Well played Bubba!  (He skipped a line - intentionally.)

I'm not ready to let this story die yet, so here goes!!  Hudson told this story yesterday and re-told the story several times.  Well this morning Avilene told Lauralea about it!  "Hey Lauralea!  Maddy stepped in a puddle of buffalo poop!"  Hudson was not happy that Avi stole his story!  "Hey!" he said.  "That was MY story!!"  Haha!  We laughed so hard!  (I personally would like to see this story keep going!  It's too good to quit now!)  The part Avi did not tell was how, according to Bubba, it "wrecked Mom's purple shoes!"  Except Mom said they were polka-dot!  And probably even more-so after the errant step!  :)  Bubba failed to tell everyone that Momma was only 7 years old at the time!

Hudson frequently likes to arrange toys, blocks, etc into rows or some sort of order.  Here are a couple pictures from this morning depicting the idea.  Also, I wanted to mention how fun it is to joke with Hudson and his ability to grasp lots of simple humor.  I was getting Linnea ready for her morning nap and Hudson said, "I wanna nap too."  (about 8:30 this morning)  I said, "Ok, you can sleep in Svea's crib."  He (laughing) said, "That would be weird."  :)  Yes it would.

Atley, Hudson, and Avi were doing some skiing with the blocks.  Hudson could make these slide along the floor pretty fast.  Also this morning we read some new books that a family donated to us!  The kids love new books and so do I!!  Thank you to Kenzie and Riley's Grandparents and the books long stored in their attic!!  :)

Hudson - 5/9/2018

Hudson ate two servings of french toast and ate strawberries for breakfast.  For lunch he ate ground beef, whole wheat hamburger bun, no tomato, no lettuce, ate avocado, and ate oranges.  So at Lunch Hudson was apparently conducting a random Infant/Toddler survey with only one question, but three options to choose from.  "Do you like Momma, Daddy, or pizza?"  The question was first directed at Avilene, but Atley and Nora wanted to participate as well.  The good news - all three answers got votes.  The bad news - the answers must remain confidential!!  :)

Hudson was telling Lauralea a story this morning and it basically went like this.  "Hey Lauralea!  One time my Mom was outside and stepped in a big puddle of buffalo poop!"  Wow!  Now that's a story Hudson!  Were you there?  "No.  They told me that story."  Oh.  Dinner conversation?  :)  He added, "It wrecked her purple shoes."  That's sad, but definitely worth the cost of a good story.  :)  So Hudson, here's a hint for a less messy and less exciting life; Watch where you're stepping!  :)

Here's Hudson's commentary while watching Linnea.  (Picture below.)  "Hey Gary!  She's putting her hand on there!"  Yes she is.  "Hey Gary!  She's standing up!"  Yes she is.  "Hey Gary!  Linnea's crying."  Yes she is.  She gets herself in a pickle and panics!  :)

It's kind of difficult to do sign language and sing songs with actions and take pictures at the same time.  But I wanted to give you an idea what that looks like.  You can see them lined up on the little step at the window.  When I mention signs or songs they race to this step!  They all participate real well.  Also a note about the kids doing puzzles.   All the kids help Nora with puzzles.  (She's not yet graduated to the puzzle area, but it's coming soon!)  Hudson walked by when she finished a puzzle and asked; "You want to do another puzzle?"  "Yes!"  So he takes the finished one back and retrieves her another one.  Later it was Avilene; "You wanna do another one?"  This time the answer was "no."