Cabin Weekend

This past weekend we went up to Casey's parent's cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains.  We've been several times but have never taken Hudson or my parents so they came, along with my sister, Julie.

It was a beautiful weekend!  We cooked out both Friday and Saturday night.  Saturday we spent most of the day in town visiting shops, walking around, and eating lunch.

We spent the rest of the day outside as much as possible.

INK

Yesterday Hudson and I went to INK (Interactive Neighborhood for Kids) in Gainesville with some friends.  He had tons of fun playing, eating lunch, and peeing on himself moments after we walked out of the bathroom (go figure).

He played the piano, drums, and shook bells in the music room...

played with the animals at the "vet"...

played in the police car (again, a blur)...

watched the train...

and obsessed over this talking chicken...

We love finding new places to visit, especially in the wintertime when we both go a little crazy being trapped indoors.  And I really love when that place wears him out so much that he falls asleep on the way home!

Antiquing

This past Saturday Casey and I had a baby-sitter so we headed down to Scott Antique Market to look for some cool stuff for Hudson's future bedroom and the baby's future nursery.  We have been before but I always forget how overwhelming it is.  You really could be there all weekend.

We ended up scoring these old ammunition boxes for a future project and this beautiful 1960's chandelier for the baby's room.

Now we just have to kick Hudson out of his room so we can hang it.  Moving to a big-boy bed:  the next milestone...

Be Mine

Happy Valentines Day all!  Or as Hudson says, "happy time!"

This is one holiday that usually goes overlooked at the Wood House.  I decided to step it up a notch for the kiddo this year.  Granted stepping it up a notch from basically nothing isn't much, but I digress.

I made Hud a little bag of goodies.  Just some dollar store type stuff and a dvd.  Casey stuck around to wish us a Happy Valentines Day before he left for work this morning.

I got Casey a replacement briefcase since his last one got stolen.  I had planned on doing it anyway but decided to hold on to it until today... just to make him feel guilty for not getting me anything.  Just kidding.  And he actually did get me something!  He got me a Le Creuset dutch oven.  I've been wanting one for awhile but never thought I would actually get one.  He told me he knows I'm getting old when I get so excited about receiving cookware.  Valid.

Potty Time!

I have probably been dreading potty training for about a year or so.  No joke.  I've known that I would use the book that my mom raved about Toilet Training In Less Than a Day.  I have a friend who got great results with it as well.  I knew it would be a tough, loooong day and turned out to be right.  But it was so worth it.

DAY 1

I had read the book, taken notes, set everything I needed out the night before.... I was ready.  Of course things never go by the book.  Hudson had his first accident and started crying.  Not in the book.  Um...ok what now?  After an accident the book tells you to run the kid to the potty and have him sit down for a second and "practice" what he should have done 10 times.  Hud was so upset he would scream and cry every time I took him near the potty.  Not good.  I'm thinking I don't want to make it seem like punishment to sit on the potty but then again, I didn't come this far to turn back.  I called for backup and got encouragement from my friend and decide to press on.  I will obviously have to be more flexible and do what works for Hudson.  A life lesson you think I would have learned by now.

We regrouped and pressed on.  Throughout the morning I did dry pants checks.  If his pants were dry, he would get a treat and juice to encourage lots of peeing.  I tried putting him on his potty again.  Again with the crying and wanting to get up.  I gave him a treat just for sitting on the potty and let him put his head on my shoulder while he sat there.  He peed!  I made a big deal about it and offered him a treat.  Honestly he was more interested in the whole task of taking the pot out of his potty and taking it to the bathroom to pour out by himself.

After that it seemed all downhill.  He still didn't like to sit on the potty but he even started telling me when he had to potty.  He told me twice while he was eating lunch:  once to pee and once to poop (yay!).  The only other accident we had during day one was right after his nap.  He started peeing while sitting on the couch but finished on the potty.  My only complaint is that he pees too much!  We were running to the potty every 15 mins!  It's so funny to see his face light up when he pees.  He smiles and says "HUDSON!  PEE PEE POTTY!"

DAY 2
No accidents!  I decided to just go about my day as I normally would (while staying at home) and let Hudson play and do whatever to see how he would do.  He did awesome!  He would come up to me and tell me when he needed to go potty.  I had been so worried.  Guess he showed me.

DAY 3
I decided to venture out yesterday and test Hud to see how he would do while running errands.  I brought his potty with, us along with a change of pants and underwear, wipes, and ziplock bags (my new car staples).  We left around 9:45am and were gone until 11:30.  He held it in the whole time!  When we were at Target he told me he needed to potty so I took him to the bathroom in there.  He didn't like their big toilet and refused to pee in it so I told him he would have to hold it if he didn't go in there.  He did!  We made it all of the way home with no accidents!  In the afternoon we went to a friend's house to play and he even held it the whole time we were there as well!  Fingers crossed, but he seems to be doing so well.  I'm so proud of my big boy!

Boy Oh Boy (er um, Girl)...

Boy oh boy are we in trouble.  I've always said that girl stuff is so much cuter.  One day into knowing that we are having a girl and I've already bought two outfits and am looking at bedding.  Expensive bedding.  But it's just so darn cute.

Lulu DK

Lulu DK

Rosenberry Rooms

Rosenberry Room

Rosenberry Rooms

Serena and Lily

Rosenberry Rooms

Don't worry, I can't bring myself to pay $600 for baby bedding but oh the cuteness.  I can't stand it.  And that's just bedding!  Don't get me started on clothes.  I will say that looking at girl clothes seems so wrong after years of buying boy clothes.  I'm still in the habit of veering over the the boy side.  I'm sure it's something I will adapt to quickly.

Baby #2

Since we didn't find out if Hudson was going to be a boy or girl before he was born, we decided to flip and try this pregnancy out the other way.  Of course when you know you are going to find out what you are going to have, you want to know asap.  We decided to have a 3D ultrasound done to find out the sex a little earlier than our regular OB tells us.

Here was the plan:  we were going in to find out last Thursday.  That next day, Friday, we were having our families over for dinner to tell them all together what it was.  We were going to put pink or blue filling in cupcakes and have everyone bite in at the same time.  That was the plan.

 Of course the baby didn't want to cooperate.  That led Casey to the conclusion that it was defiantly a girl.  The guy doing our ultrasound thought different.  He thought he saw "something" that made him think boy.... but he wasn't sure.  So we were told to come back the next week and hope the baby was in a better position.  We decided to roll on with the party as it is hard to pin down a date to get everyone together.

So I was in the boy frame of mind.  Hudson will get a brother.  That's cool.  We went back in for round two this morning and the little thing's feet were tucked up under it's bottom again.

 Then all of a sudden it shifted a little and I'm just waiting for the boy confirmation when we get a "it's a girl".  What's that?  Pardon?  Don't you mean boy?

Let's not tell her we thought she was a boy.  We will keep it our secret.

Of course as a little "celebration" we (I) had to go out and buy a couple of girl things.

*Putting a damper on our day was what was going on while we were buying the clothes for our girl (or while we were eating lunch, we aren't sure).  Someone broke into our car!  Being the apparent suckers that we are, we didn't even notice until we got home.  They had jammed a screw driver under the door handle to pick the lock.  They stole two bags of clothes that we had just bought at the mall, Casey's jacket, his pistol from his console, and his new briefcase that I had gotten him for Christmas that had a ton of his work documents in.  What is crazy is they left our checkbook, Casey's ipod and gps and the keys were in the ignition!  We feel so mad and violated.  We spent most of the rest of the afternoon sorting out stuff relating to that.  At the same time we know it could have been much worse and are trying to find joy and peace in this situation as we have been learning about in our church the past few weeks.  God obviously has a lesson for us in this and we are putting our trust in Him!