Mom or Dad? You be the judge!

Recently TJ's parents dropped off all his old pictures and such. There were yearbooks with entries like, Hi handsome give me a call followed by digits, from girls I know, and I had a crush on you last year so lets get together followed by more digits. It's true Hudson
gets the lady-killerness from his dad. We also found some even younger baby pictures of TJ than I had previously seen.
The first two are of TJ, the next two are of Hudson (well one of Hudson and TJ) and the next two are of me, I'm the one in the purple bathing suit.

So who do you think Hudson looks like?

Solids!!!!!

Hudson is truly 5 months today! I guess it goes by their actual birthday versus how many weeks he is. For his 5 month birthday we had solids and went to the Zoo.
He had his 4 month appointment yesterday at 4months and 30 days he weighed in at
18 lbs 9 oz
and measured 27" long. He averages about the 90% or about the size of an 8 or 9 month old.
He becomes more and more aware everyday as well as he is becoming more and more dexterous (he actually grabbed his spoon with both his hands to try and feed himself, he will also pick up his jingle toys and jingle them to entertain himself). He has an awesome sense of humor and already is finding ways to make us laugh such as the pacifier spitting and growling. He is so fun to be with and I often find myself realizing that he is growing up so fast. I fear if I too many chores while he is awake he will grow up before I'm done. So the laundry piles unfolded and the dishes unwashed in the sink, but we have fun, and all those things stay there till he takes a nap or goes to sleep at which time I tackle them because I am a neat freak!

Sadly my phone died right after I took a picture of this tortoise he is about 4 feet long amazing!!! Hudson watched him walk around. He also really noticed some monkeys, the giraffes, some smaller swimming turtles, and felines. Basically if they moved Hudson was interested.

Hudson ate his first solids today of rice cereal. We started with some white rice someone had gave us, it smelled kind of gross to me and had previously been opened. So I accidentally happened upon the organic baby food isle. My nutrition-loving self found baby brown rice cereal and whipped some up for him. It smelled good and nutritious. I also did some research when I got home and basically white rice is fortified sugar or as one researcher went so far to say, fortified soda-pop. We will be sticking with the brown rice for now. The same researcher believes white rice leads to childhood obesity.

The Wise Man

Here is the Wise Man, he was hoping to be baby Jesus in the ward nativity, as you can see, but his friend Cora played the role a little better.

Thanksgiving Fun with Family

He learned to keep his binky in his mouth but now spits it out to make us laugh.
Here are a couple videos, I had one continuous one but I think I deleted it on accident :-(


This thanksgiving as is Connolly tradition we had a talent show, my personal favorite acts included U2's Where the Streets Have No Name, by Sam, make sure you check out Ben's dance moves down in front and Hudson's cameo performance in Levitating Baby




Prior to the holiday Hudson's bedtime was 7pm sharp after all of this he started going to bed around 9pm. Here he is around 9pm after having too much fun:







Here are some cousin classics:

5 months

This is my baby isn't he cute!!?? He turned 5 months today I can't believe it. He is the sweetest, happiest, funniest little man! He's weighing in at 19 pounds, today I upgraded to size 4 diapers, hope it works!! He sometimes reminds me of a little lion cub, he paws at things and scratches the couches and even makes a rower sound. Granted he also reminds me of a little man in so many ways. Am I not the luckiest to be able to hang out with him all day everyday?

I think I might be obsessed or in love probably both!

Funny Man (Little Man that is)

Hudson often makes me crack up. Today he was just chilling on my lap after I fed him talking to our closet while I was deep into watching Once Upon a Time. I start to hear him go Rawrrrr I pause my show and look at him and start to laugh, he starts cracking up. His laugh gets louder and deeper every day it is one of the most rewarding moments as a parent!


This video isn't from today but I love it!

A moment I'll Remember Forever

Today Hudson and I went to the Gateway mall in downtown Salt Lake, I am looking for the perfect case for my iphone (which doesn't existent). When I started to take him out of the Bjorn to get back into the car I saw the most beautiful expression on his face he was looking up at the sky and smiling with a twinkle in his eye, at first I thought it was because of the blue sky, but then when I looked up I saw around 3 seagulls flying around in circles. It was the best! Hudson is the best! He laughs and chatters all day, I can't get enough of him! Oh and if I were a toy on his excersaucer I would be afraid, he will wack and eat you!

He can sit up who knew?

Today I had a play date with my old roommate and missionary companion Lily, this is what resulted.
As you can see Hudson was having so much fun that when I called his name this is the look he gave me in the second pic of the two. We also discovered Hudson can sit up, really all this development in 2 days, I keep expecting him to walk out of the room now and say "mom" in a deep post pubescent voice, I've always imagined that actually. After TJ leaves for work at night I always imagine Hudson walking out of the room and then I remember he is in his crib and he can't escape.
This is me showing TJ, TJ didn't believe me that Hudson can sit up on his own and he isn't even leaning on me and yes those are my slippers, and yes he can stay like that for a long time!

Lily lives by the capitol so we meandered down to Temple Square our old stomping grounds. We watched the new Special Witnesses of the newest apostles. It made me think about sacrifice. I'm a spoiled princess, I sacrifice little, I have all the clothes and shoes I could ever want, more than I can ever use, I have the latest technology, etc. Maybe not a home or the latest furniture but I'm sure it will come with time. I don't feel like I need to sacrifice those things. The biggest thing I feel to sacrifice is my time spent on those things and turn them to others. Granted I spend most of my day caring for the little adorableness and my hunk but I can do better. I want to do better, I want to look outside of myself more.

We also ran into some sister missionaries one was brand new from South Africa and one was from North Carolina about to head home, if I'm guessing right. They asked if it was our first time there which we responded with a polite laugh. I felt the Holy Ghost as we talked with each other. The new sister was telling me how she couldn't feel the Spirit anymore on Temple Square, she didn't know if she was doing something wrong or what, to which I could testify speaking from personal experience "it's here I feel it, sometimes you just get used to it, but if you seriously mess up or get away from it you will notice the absence of it, but it is here" the other sister and I talked about life after the mission, she is afraid of being weird when she gets home, both Lily and I were a little overly boy crazy when we got home (in our defense we had spent 18 months with just women, you would be too) so I told her that, hope it helps.

My Baby Grew Up Today

One day you put your baby down to sleep and when you check on him he is not where you have left him he has completely moved directions and location in the crib.
Hudson must have some developmentally enriching sleep. As a matter of fact I dreamed that he was talking to me last night.
All the new tricks Hudson performed today:
Mimicking me on the laptop mouse pad with his hand it was really quite amazing.
Diving at and attacking the craisins bag after I ate some he grabbed onto and sucked on it.
Grabbing all his toys and putting them in his mouth not just the monkey.
Moving locations in the crib, kind of scary for a moment I thought he was gone.
Rolling over to be next to me and because he wanted my attention.
I was going through his clothes today too and kept tossing shirts on him to see if they fit, he got a real kick out of this.
Oh yes and Hudson does not like his binky, he usually hocks it out but now that he has figured out his hands he will now grab it and drop it as far from him as possible, as if to politely say "keep that thing away from me!"
I don't know if I'm ready for all this growing up business!