7 mos!

My little guy hit the 7 month mark 4 days before Halloween. I love him more every single day. It takes my breath away at just how quickly his first year is going. He is such a sweet, happy little guy. Mommy loves you SO much, Hunter James Paul Hobson!

Love this expression! And his big, beautiful brown eyes.

This is SO Hunter at 7 mos. On his belly, big grin, fingers shoved in his mouth, and a wet face.

"You're funny, Mommy!"

At 7 mos: Hunter is right around 20 lbs, not sure on length since we haven't had another checkup yet. But we know he is looong! He is wearing 12 mo. clothes, and some 18 mos. if the outfits are one-piece or shirts that snap. Some of his jeans are already looking like capris! :) He continues to be a big fan of mealtimes, and is eating three times a day and having 4 six oz. bottles. We have been trying the little puffs and some other teether type foods, but so far while he likes the taste, he tends to gag on them. We'll keep working at it! He still only has his two bottom teeth, but he is working hard on a mouthful. His poor gums are so puffy, and he has been a snotty, drooly, coughing mess. Twice I have taken him into prompt care only to be told it is a "very mean case of teething." The Dr. said he could see 6 that he is working on. Poor little guy! He still has his sunshiney disposition for the most part, but just constantly has his hands or toys in his mouth. I feel so bad that nothing is popping through despite all of his efforts! We have been using the teething tablets and they do give him relief-when I can get them to dissolve in his mouth without him swallowing them! :) His sleeping has been interrupted quite a bit due to his discomfort with his mouth, but he has started (dare I say it?) sleeping through the night without a bottle often. He usually stirs sometime between 3 and 4 am, but just babbles and self-soothes himself back to sleep without the major crying fits we were having a few weeks ago. He generally gets up for the day around 6. The time change messed with his schedule a bit, but not too badly. We tried our hardest to keep him up a little later on the night we switched the clocks back! He stayed up until 7:30; a half hour past his bedtime. What a party animal! Ha! Hunter enjoys the Bounceroo and Exersaucer, anything that lights up and makes noise, his teething rings, and rolling/attempting to scoot around on the floor, especially if his big brother is with him. He ADORES Holden, and thinks that anything he does is hilarious. I love seeing his face split into a big grin whenever Holden is around. It is just heartwarming. Now that he is big enough, they already "roughhouse" a bit together when they are both on the floor or in my bed. They give each other the giggles and feed off of each other's antics. Hunter is really close to sitting up without assistance. He does well with the Boppy pillow around him and a pile of toys in front of him. That way if he does slide down to one side, he ends up laying on the pillow. :) He can't go in the Bumbo seat anymore because he is able to maneuver himself out of it and onto the floor. It was hysterical to walk into the room and see him laying there on his tummy, arms and head propped up, grinning at me with the Bumbo seat still stuck to his butt! He is also really close to scooting, and can move himself backwards. If I lay him on the floor, he moves all around between wiggling, scooting, and rolling. He can get himself clear across the room and is really motivated to get into Holden's toys. :) I am seriously debating if I need to get him a haircut. The "V" that is coming down his forehead is getting really long, and his hair is curling around his ears. But I just hate to do it before he's 1! I know he will look so much older once we trim it. It is so baby-soft right now. He is LOUD at all times unless he's sleeping; grunting, babbling, saying "Da," "Ba," "Goo," and "Voo," and is even verbal while eating. I swear it sounds like he is saying, "Mmm!" when he takes each spoonful!

Dinosaur Date!

Holden and Natalie had a date to a dinosaur show recently. Bridget and I chaperoned. ;) They had a great time together! The show was at the Bloomington Center for Performing Arts. They had games and crafts for the kids before the show that were all dinosaur centered. The kids got dinosaur tattoos, did "dino bowling," and colored dino pictures. I love how Natalie had to have her pink tutu and bring her Jasmine doll...girly girl through and through! They are so cute together.

My little dinosaur fan! He had to wear his dinosaur shirt and shoes, and was very proud of his T-Rex tattoo.

Gabrielle was at the show, too! Holden is always happy to see her. Don't worry though, Natalie, you are still his "main squeeze!"

Ready for the show! It was very interesting...in the pitch dark with very loud music and sound affects. The dinosaurs were people dressed in black with these light up things on them. You couldn't tell they were people; you just saw the lights. Natalie was SO brave! She was scared at first, but by the end she was saying how much she liked dinosaurs.

Holden took these last two. He is really into using my camera (can't imagine where he gets that from!) and is actually pretty good at it! I think it's fun to see the world from a 3-year-old's point of view. Everything is lower to the ground and up close and personal. :)

Thanks for joining us, Bridget and Natty! We had a fun day!

Halloween 2010

Halloween 2010 in Normal was chilly but sunny. The boys and I went to church, I made sure they had good naps, and then we were ready for tricks or treats!

Hunter woke up before Holden. I just loved his little Halloween outfit, so I stuck him out in the leaves in our backyard for a photo op.

Hunter also really enjoyed our candy tub and its contents. I have very similar of Holden in this same tub during his first Halloween. :)

Once Holden got up, we put the costumes on along with some winter hats, and were ready to go. Holden also had quite the light-up gear going, courtesy of Grammy and Papa. His Spiderman hat cracks me up because it is about 3 sizes too big, but he insisted on buying it and the matching gloves when we picked our new winter gear. I figure we won't have to buy new ones for awhile! I loves these pictures of the boys together. They have such a fun little relationship already. Hunter just adores Holden, and thinks anything he does or says is wildly funny. :) Holden, of course, eats this up.

Family pictures! Grammy and Papa were kind enough to come "man the house" and pass out candy so that Jay and I could both trick-or-treat with the boys. Then we passed off Hunter to Grammy so that she could ready him for bed once he got cold and tired. Memaw went trick or treating with us. We also stopped by her house to see Pepaw and Aunt Allie. (Like Jay's wig? Holden picked it out of the clearance section for him.)

Some of the neighborhood crew. Kylie and Brady were Buzz and Woody, Hannah was an angel, and Owen and Gwen were the most adorable little monkey and banana! We are so blessed to live in such a friendly, family-oriented neighborhood.

"Trick or treat, trick or treat, trick or treat up and down the street..."

Some of the neighbors had the most creative (if not a little sadistic!) pumpkin carvings. I always love seeing all of the decorations and "spooks."

I thought the autumn sky was absolutely beautiful as we were walking along. Holden loves to point out all of the criss-crosses across the sky from the planes.

We weren't out all that long because Holden's fingers got cold. By the time we went back for his gloves, he decided he'd rather pass out candy with Daddy instead. He had fun seeing all of the costumes this way. My dad had a little fun of his own, heading next door to sing an Elvis song! Our next door neighbors buy the HUGE size candy bars, pixie sticks as long as your body, entire boxes of Peanut Brittle, you name it.They go all out. BUT-you have to earn your candy by doing a performance of some type. It is always so fun to sit and watch from our porch! Well, this year Dad saw what the kids were walking away with and decided to go over and get some himself! He put Jay's wig on and danced and belted "You Ain't Nothin' But a Hound Dog." The neighbors were in stitches! He got a big box of peanut brittle and then was enjoying the attention so much that he just kept singing. Ohh....Dad......! I did get it on video, but unfortunately not on the digital one so I can't post it here.

I hope everyone had a safe and fun Halloween! I can't wait to see what the boys will be next year. :)

(Here is a little video clip of Hunter sabotoging the candy.)

Steph and Travis' Halloween party!

After our Uptown Normal adventure, Holden and I dropped Hunter off with Jay (he had worked a long shift and Hunter goes to bed early; they were both worn out!) and the two of us headed to my friend, Stephanie's house for her annual costume party. I told Holden he was my date, and he really liked the fact that he got to do something just with me. We don't get a lot of those moments anymore. It actually worked out great because I was able to eat, chat, and enjoy my time with friends without worrying about a tired baby, and Holden had a blast running around with his friends.

Below are Travis, Stephanie, and little Ava. CRACK ME UP! Every year, they are something that has to do with SNL skits. They stretched it a bit this year to do "Buddy the Elf," and I think they are by far the best ones yet!! Love Ava's little elf costume!! Her skirt had bells on it that jingled when she toddled around, which made it handy for us to know what she was getting into. :) I could not take anything Travis said seriously all night!

It got realy chilly once the sun went down. Holden and his pal, Lauren, had fun snuggling with blankets and watching "Max and Ruby" on her DVD player. Are they adorable together or what?! Steph and Trav had their detached garage and the walkway/backyard all decked out. I love the luminaries lighting the pathway.

Stephanie's mom was a big hit with the kids. :) It was so fun for me to catch up with Kim, Annie, and Steph. I sure miss our weekly summer get-togethers! I know the kids felt the same way. They had so much fun together. When they weren't getting on each other's nerves. See bottom right picture...classic! The little ones are fighting over who is closest to the DVD player, and Colin is so DONE with their behavior. Hilarious!

Thanks, Steph and Trav, we had a great time!

Uptown Normal Trick or Treating

On the night before Halloween, we went to Uptown Normal for trick-or-treating at the shops. We missed this last year due to Holden being sick, so we were excited it was a really nice night for it this year. The weather was beautiful-mid 60's, and it was so pretty uptown. They have redone a lot in the past two years. There were colorful mums everywhere, the fountains were going, and everything was all decked out for fall. Jay had to work overtime, so it was just the boys and me. They were both really good and had fun watching everything. Holden even found Spiderman! Of course we visited "Aunt Cyndee" (bottom right) in her usual witch costume at the old Normal Theater. She loves seeing the boys.

While we were walking, (SLOOWLY...the nice weather brought out the masses and it was packed!) this loud growling started blaring, a big green head was visible peeking around the sides of the buildings, and all of these people started pouring out from behind the buildings and out of a car that pulled up. Turns out it was a local dance troupe there to perform "Thriller!" It was SO cool! Holden loved it and was fascinated with the "green head guy." (You can see him in the background-he was a giant puppet held up on poles.) As a child of the 80's, I thought it was awesome!

Holden had such a fun time seeing all of the characters, collecting his candy, and even having pizza for dinner while we walked! The pizza place was handing out free slices as we walked by. The picture of him with his mouth open is how he looked walking along by the stroller. We had no forks, so I would tear off pieces and shove them in his mouth like a Mama/baby bird. Nothin' like "dinner to go-" literally!

Preschool Open House/Costume night

Holden's preschool had their Open House on a Thursday evening. Since his classroom is led by the high school students, half presented to the parents while the other half played and trick-or-treated in the high school building with the kids, and then they switched. Memaw had a playdate with Hunter so that it could be a special night for just Holden and us. He was excited to go to school at night and to wear his costume. It was fun to see all of the special things that they have been working on. I have a hard time getting a lot out of Holden in the way of details about his day. I love reading the newsletters that come home on Thursdays, because they are so detailed, and then I can talk to him about his week.

One funny connection that I made was with his carpet spot/cubby/table spot. We have this Leapfrog Learning Table at home, and it has shapes on one portion of it. Holden always points to the red square and says, "That's my square!" I realized at Open House that all of his spots/items at school are labeled with a red square. He also calls the triangle, "Emersyn's shape." Emersyn is one of the friends that he always talks about from preschool. She is in the Minnie Mouse costume in the picture. He has about 4 other names that he also consistently brings up, so it was fun to see who they were.

Holden with one of his teachers, "Miss Taylor." Jay works with Taylor's dad and plays softball with him. When she was younger and Holden was a baby, she used to love to hold him and play with him at the games. We were excited (and also felt old!) to find out that she would be one of the student teachers leading his class.

Here is a video clip of the kids doing "Who Stole the Cookie From the Cookie Jar?" with their teachers. Holden LOVES this chant. I love how he volunteers to be the "thief," and how his little tongue goes out when they picked him. My brother, Eric, used to do the EXACT same thing when he was excited/a little embarrassed. Holden always reminds me of him when he does this. We love you, Holden! It was fun seeing your preschool class!

Sugar Creek Halloween Party

Tami brought the boys to my classroom party at Sugar Creek the Friday before Halloween. Jay met us there as well. My class was so excited that they were coming! It was cute. I really missed the big Northpoint parade, but the other first grade teacher and I held our own little "first grade parade" outside. Holden had a great time hanging out with the kids, playing games, and making a bat craft. Hunter as usual was a real trooper, as he was woken from his afternoon nap to join us. He didn't last in the spider suit too long, but he loved the big spider web hanging in the hallway.

Group picture!

Party shots

We had a fun afternoon!