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Fall Update: 19 months!

As usual I have procrastinated on updating the blog. I fully intended to write an 18 month update and take some pictures of Hudson last month and I never got around to it :( Things are going pretty good in the Bloom household. Hudson seems to be turning into more and more of a toddler (or 2 year old ..) these days. Temper tantrums are a daily (or hourly) occurance and he definitely makes his wants/preferences/needs known at all times!!

Hudson still isn't talking a ton, but he has slowly been adding more and more words to his vocabulary. He even started counting with me yesterday (I said one, then he said 'two'). Here are some of the words he says consistentely: mama, dada, grandma (kinda sounds like mama), Maverick, dog, kitty, more, all done, please, thank you, nana (banana), choo-choo, car, ball, that, juice, wa-wa/agua (water),shoe. He also shows us what he wants/means most of the time, can point to several body parts and do what we ask him (when he chooses to of course).

Hudson has adjusted really well to his daycare and loves his teachers there. Whenever I drop him off in the mornings they comment on what a quiet, well behaved boy he is. He definitely lets his guard down at home though!! :)

I'm on my computer at work so I'll post pictures as soon as I get a chance at home!

Video of Hudson walking and making kiss noises

17 months - Summer Update

Summer is finally here in Western Washington - although it hasn't been all that hot or sunny most days - even in August :( We are still enjoying our summer and trying to get Hudson outside as much as possible when it's nice. Since the last update Hudson has finally reached some milestones - the biggest being WALKING! Although he's still not a full fledged walker and primarily crawls where he needs to go (especially if he's in a hurry), he's making progress and has been walking across the room/down the hall, etc. - but generally when he falls he crawls the rest of the way still :)

The end of July and beginning of August were a busy time for us with my best friend Katie's Bridal Shower that I hosted and then her wedding rehearsal and wedding the following week. Us girls stayed the night at the venue for a last 'slumber party' before the big day. We had a good night and fun getting ready in the morning all together. Saturday Katie and Phil said "I do" at The beautiful Edgewater House in Olalla (near Gig Harbor). Katie was a stunning bride and I was so proud to stand by her side as the Matron of Honor. I know they were meant to be and will have a long life together filled with fun adventures and happiness!

Since the wedding things have slowed down around here - we've decided to start some small-ish home projects since we will be staying at our current house longer than we originally planned due to the housing market. So one of the first things on our agenda is getting a new kitchen floor put in. Hopefully this will happen in the next couple months and we can move on to a few other things we'd like to get done. We also rearranged our room and got rid of our dresser/nightstands - so we are going to paint and buy a new dresser here ASAP too (I can only live out of my laundry basket for so long ..) Also in progress is re-decorating/organizing the play room - I am going to have Hudson paint some canvases for art work and we will be moving the desk into the closet soon to make more room for Hudson's toys :) I'm looking forward to getting some of these changes done and making the house more organized!

Last exciting news for this post - I ended up being able to get a day shift at work for next rotation!! I bid the "Flex" shift - which means I cover any vacations/sick leave/maternity leave etc. that they need covered. Only down side of it is that I "may" have to change shifts up to once a month. But I got my schedule for Sept and had the option of several good shifts - some even with Fri/Sat/Sun off!! I ended up taking the 8 am - 6 pm with Thurs/Fri/Sat off. This works best for us so we won't have to pay any more for our current daycare and we won't need a sitter on Saturdays when Andy is at work. I'm really excited to have weekends off and also that I won't have to go to bed at 7:30pm every night - but I'm bummed that I will have less time with Hudson on the days that I work since he goes to bed around 7:30 :( Hopefully he will start staying up a little later soon.

~ Camano Island ~

Last weekend I was lucky enough to take Saturday and Sunday off for a "Family Reunion" up at my Aunt and Uncle's Beach house on Camano Island. My dad's entire side of the family was able to be there (McIntyres/Ayres'/Grandma Patty/Dad and my siblings). We had an awesome weekend filled with hanging out by the campfire, exploring the McIntyre's new beach house, playing on the beach and in the water (most of the cousins tried skiing/wake boarding/inner tubing too), eating good food and making memories.

It was great to see everyone since we generally only get together once or twice a year around the holidays. We had a lot of fun together and made some great memories. Here are some pictures from our weekend. Hudson had so much fun exploring the house - especially climbing up and down the stairs (he's a pro now!). He was SO CLOSE to walking all weekend but he still hasn't gained enough confidence to take more than a couple steps here and there.

Here are some pictures of our weekend .. enjoy! :)

Rocking and Rolling!

Well, last Saturday (June 25th) was the Rock and Roll Marathon!! I am proud to say that I finished the half marathon - and even did it faster than I anticipated. My official time was 2:14:20. Which averages out to about 10:15/mile. Not too shabby for my first half marathon - 13.1 miles is a long way to run! :)

Surprisingly, I actually even enjoyed the run!! I fully expected to get drained and exhausted half way through, but I had a great time and enjoyed listening to the bands, watching the other runners and seeing all the spectators cheering us on! I am even thinking about doing the race again next year! :)

Not much else is new with us. Just living our lives and trying to enjoy what each day brings us. Hudson has been talking a lot more the last couple weeks - some of his new/favorite words are: bye-bye, thank you, daddy, dad, doggy, mama, mom, uh oh, more (and he even started signing this even though I haven't been very consistent with teaching him signs), Maverick (we are probably the only ones that recognize this one though) ... and probably some more that I'm forgetting. It's so fun to watch him grow and learn every day - I love this little munchkin so much!! :)

15 months and VEGAS!!

I have been slacking in the blog department for the last month!! We have all been busy with life! Hmm..where to start. Well, summer definitely hasn't officially started yet around here. We've only had a few nice/warm days - but we're hoping for more SOON so we can get out and enjoy the beautiful Northwest.

Last weekend I took my first weekend away from my boys since Hudson was born! I went to Vegas for my best friend Katie's bachelorette party!! We had an awesome trip - and it was great to have some baby-free girl time. I was really nervous to be away from my boy for 3 days - but I did surprisingly well and so did he! :) I think more 'girl trips' are in my future. I don't go into too many details about the trip (like they say "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas!!") but we had some fun by the pool, a lot of dancing/drinking and overall a ton of fun! I just wish we would've had a day or 2 longer to relax by the pool and recover from our late nights!

Hudson is doing great - he turned 15 months on the 15th! I can't believe how fast time goes - it seems like just yesterday he was born. He's still not walking yet (he's just being stubborn I think..) He's taken a few steps here and there, but he knows that he can get where he wants to fast by crawling or being carried. I'm not too worried about it since I know his muscles are strong enough (he walks around all the furniture, behind his toys, holding our hand/finger, etc.) - and I know I will wish these crawling days back once they are gone!!

Hudson is slowly adding more words into his vocabulary and is definitely understanding a lot more than we realize! He constantly points and says "that, that!" and will also give us toys or do something we ask of him (sometimes ..)

In other exciting news - Hudson is going to have a cousin!! Andy's sister Katie is pregnant and due 11/11/11!! We are so excited to find out if Baby Turnbow will be a boy or girl (she finds out Thursday!!)

I am at work right now, but I will update with pictures soon.

Running Running Running

I haven't posted much about me lately, but most of my friends and family know that I started training for my first Half Marathon a few months ago. The race is quickly approaching and training is going ok (although exhausting with a 1 year old, working full time and trying to maintain my household and marriage!)

Last week I ran my first long race in preparation for the Rock and Roll 1/2 marathon. I ran the Seattle's Best 15k that started at Gas Works Park. It was a perfect long race for training - the course was flat and the scenery was beautiful. It really got me motivated and actually somewhat excited for the Rock and Roll race on June 25th!!

My goal was to finish the race (9.3 miles) with a pace of about 11 min/mile since I had never run this far before (my furthest training run prior to this was only 6.75 miles..) I exceeded this goal and finished the race with a pace of 9:44!! I didn't walk ONCE the entire race! Now only a few more weeks of training before the big day.. I'm getting kind of burnt out on running, so it will be nice to be done training and start doing some other activities instead once the race is over.

In case anyone cares .. here's my official standings from the race:
Bib #28 Suzie Bloom
Division: 25-29 Overall Place: 225 Division Place: 23/53 Sex Place: 96 Time: 1:30:46 Pace: 9:44

Giveaway!!

An awesome photographer I know is having a giveaway and I'd love to win!! We can always use more professional pictures of our adorable TODDLER. There are also some other awesome prizes hand made by local moms!!

If you want to be entered to win too, check out the blogpost here for more information!!

http://jsheltonphotography.blogspot.com/2011/05/jsp-giveaway.html

Fun at the mall with Hayden!

Just a quick post and a few pictures of our last play date with Joy and Hayden! We met at the Bell Square mall, did a bit of shopping, then let the boys play in the play area and had some lunch at the tables outside the play area.

The boys both loved the play area, Hudson wanted to climb every.single.thing he could, while Hayden wanted to crawl as fast he could to explore every area of the play place. Needless to say, Joy and I weren't able to visit much since we were busy chasing our boys, but we all had a good time and the boys got some of their energy out!

We're looking forward to the weather improving and hopefully getting outside for our next play dates!!

First Family Vacation: MAUI

The past month has flown by! We just got home from our first 'big' vacation with Hudson to MAUI!! We had so much fun and Hudson did great with all the traveling and new experiences.

We got up early Sunday morning (April 17th) and caught our first flight from Seattle to Portland. We made sure to keep Hudson awake on this quick flight, hoping he'd sleep for the long flight over to Maui. We had a quick layover in Portland and then it was off to Hawaii! The flight to Maui from Portland was 5 hours 45 minutes or so ... I was nervous to be cooped up in 2 small plane seats for that long, but Hudson did AMAZING!! He only slept the first hour and a half, but we managed to keep him interested and happy the rest of the flight by feeding him lots of snacks, reading books, playing with some new toys and stickers and talking to fellow travelers :)

Once we arrived in Maui, we got our luggage and picked up the rental car. Our first stop was Safeway to pick up a few grocery items for the week. I was amazed at how expensive things are over there. For 2 small bags of groceries we spent $70!!! That's generally what we spend for a week's worth of groceries here...yikes! We loaded up the car and headed South to our condo in Kihei. We were all exhausted after a long day of traveling and although it was only about 3 pm Hawaii time when we got to the condo, we grabbed a bite to eat and headed back to our condo to call it a night.

The rest of the week was pretty relaxed and low key. We didn't want to plan a lot of activities or excursions since this was our first family vacation. We spent most of our time at the beach, talking a lot of long walks along the beach and to/from 'town' and eating at new restaurants. We were also able to meet up with my Aunt, Uncle and cousins a couple times as well as have lunch with a couple co-workers and their families who were staying nearby!

We did attend a luau to celebrate mine and Andy's 4th anniversary on Thursday April 21st. After waiting in a LONG, hot line to get into the show we were rewarded with amazing food and an awesome show. Hudson stayed awake through dinner and tried several new foods including watermelon, kalua pork, mahi-mahi, hawaiian sweet rolls and probably others that I'm forgetting!

Overall we had an AMAZING trip and are already talking about when we can go back to Hawaii (or somewhere else warm to get away from this nasty Seattle weather ..) Hudson did great on the flight home - sleeping most of it and we're slowly getting settled back into our daily routines (I'm back at work today .. ugh ..)

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the week... Enjoy! :)

12 Month Check-up and Hayden's Birthday!

Hudson had his 1 year well child visit on Thursday. He is growing right on track and a happy healthy little guy!! Here are his current stats:


Weight: 20 lbs 12 oz (25th %)
Height: 30 1/2 inches (75th %)
Head Circ.: 19 1/4 inches (100th %!!)


He did well during his appointment ..although waiting in the waiting room and room is getting more and more difficult since he doesn't want to be held. He was trying to get into anything he could find in there! He had to have 4 vaccines :( and that was not so fun. He did ok with the first one, but was not too happy with the rest, although he only cried for a minute when they were done and was fine the rest of the day (including a nice long 3 hour nap!)

Unfortunately by dinner time he was starting to get a fever and it was up to 102 by bed time. I gave him some tylenol and put him down. He woke up around 11 and his fever had obviously spiked (I didn't take it, but I'm sure it was close to 104). After getting him some tylenol and rocking him back to sleep I decided I would stay home from work with him Friday to take care of him. I was glad to be able to take care of him and he got a lot of rest Friday and was all ready for his best friend Hayden's birthday party yesterday!!

Saturday I had the day off and we headed up to Lake Stevens to celebrate Hayden's First Birthday!! Joy did an awesome job putting together an adorable Owl/Woodland First Birthday Party. The decorations and food looked great. The boys had fun playing together and it was a nice, low key party! :) It's been so much fun having Hayden and Hudson so close in age and watching them grow and change this past year. I'm looking forward to continuing our play dates and seeing the boys grow up together.




I will update with Birthday Party pictures from Hayden's party when I get a chance. Here are a few from Hudson's 1 year photo shoot with K.Fenton Photography...I LOVE THEM!!! :)