San Diego

The phrase "time flies when your having fun" is sure the truth. A vacation is never long enough. We drove to San Diego this last weekend and stayed with our good friends Bill and Jeanne in their cute little home. It was a much NEEDED and DESERVED vacation after all the events this year has brought. It was a relaxing and laid back trip. We sure enjoyed ourselves! Hudson was pretty much awesome the whole trip EXCEPT the day we were leaving. He was just acting in a way I'm sure Curtis and I both felt like acting on the last day of our vacation.

He was really a good boy though. He was a trooper through everything we dragging him around to! Naps are hard to work around! But he hardly fussed at all. I'm not surprised though. He's an angel. The first 2 days there we spent at the beach and Sea Port Village. Being the busy little boy he is Hudson loved looking around at everybody and everything new. He loved the sand. He would grab handfuls and just play with it with his fingers. The worst part was keeping sand out of his eyes! Sand was EVERYWHERE! Baby powder was a life saver, thanks to pinterest. The third day there Curtis's brother took us to the San Diego Zoo. It was huge! And on a mountain so my legs are sore now! And that night Curtis and I went to the San Diego Temple which was only minutes away! It was a nice way to end our vacation, humbly. As excited as I was to bring Hudson to the beach I'm even more excited when he's older and can actually enjoy all the trips we take.

And here is our trip in pictures. Unfortunately a ton of sand got on our camera and after that it wouldn't focus right so some pictures are blurry.

He was so good on the way there! He fussed for like 30 seconds and then just went to sleep. He kept looking up to try and see me.

On our way!

That would be Hudson sleeping all bundled up.

Sea Port Village

I love this picture but his face is so blurry!

He's such a cheese.

Take one

Take 2

Take 3 Grrrr

His souvenir.

This was right after we got through Maricopa on our way home. Crazy storm was going on! There was a policeman who was not letting anyone go because I guess there was 0 visibility while driving. We only had to wait 10 minutes though. But it was still really bad until we got to the 10. It was a good welcome home gift. And good thing too because our grass was not being watered while we were gone!

Are you smarter than a 6 month old?

This boy, I tell you what, he amazes me more and more everyday. I love him! And I love that I get to be with him every day! Today he is 6 months old! That's half a year! I can't believe it. I'm already excited about planning his first birthday party! It's going to be basketball themed of course! I know everyone says it but I'm going to say it again... time goes by sooo fast! But I love it! I love how he learns so much every day. It's so fun to watch him figure things out. He'll turn toys over in his had and I can just see his little brain working hard to figure them out. He focuses so hard and works so hard. He is so determined. He knows what he wants and he goes for it!! He inspires me... I wouldn't be surprised if he grew up to be someone who worked with his hands. Like an architect or even a surgeon! He's so delicate with everything he touches. He focuses on the details. The other day he was trying to grab a tiny little charm on my mom's bracelet. He was really focusing on it for a while. I thought it was funny that he was going after that rather than all the toys that were spread around him. He's got some mighty fine motor skills already. He also likes to find the tags off anything and then rub them on his face. Especially when he's tired and he could put himself to sleep doing it. He's so precious.

He is also MY baby so I think everything he does is extraordinary and amazing! He's the smartest little 6 month old I've known! ;) This past week he has been working on crawling! It so cute to see him get up on his knees and wobble. Since he hasn't mastered crawling yet he now army crawls. Which is hilarious to watch. He's getting better at it too. I know he'll keep me on my toes once he starts to crawl! He is still working on sitting up. He can't do it by himself yet. How do they know that just laying there isn't the end?

Eating still has not been perfected. It's a hit and miss. Sometimes he'll do good and others he'll fuss through the whole thing. Before his surgery he used to try and hold his bottle himself but now he strains through the whole thing. His fists are clenched and he's always moving around. It's so frustrating! I can't even hold him when I feed him anymore. I just lay him on a pillow or the arm of the couch and hold the bottle for him. It's rough. And spoon feeding is always fun! That's also a hit and miss.

I really try hard not to blame everything on his surgery. He's been so different since he had it though. I'm sure it's just him being a baby and going through different phases... And here I thought the NAM was a pain. I'll take those days back any day! Sometimes I find I forget he even had a cleft lip and it makes me sad. I do miss it. It's funny how devastated we were when we first found out and now I would trade it back in a second! Not that I don't love his new lips any different of course. But that sweet little face was what we were given and we loved it instantly and I miss it. It's so hard to explain my feelings. As focused as the world is on looks and perfection Hudson was such a blessing to us and a reminder that looks don't mean a thing! I would have kept that little smile forever if I could... It makes me really think about all the babies in foreign countries born with cleft lips and palates who still have them when their older because their country doesn't have the means to have it repaired. It must be so scary in those 3rd world countries to have a baby with a cleft. And here we are so taken care of. We are so so blessed to live in this country and in this time to have that security that our baby is in good hands. And I'm thankful for the doctors who travel to those countries and perform cleft repairs. One day when I'm rich I'm going to donate thousands of dollars to those foundations. I wish I could talk with the mothers of cleft babies over there and tell them how beautiful their child is! It makes me want to do something big... Maybe I'll write a book. One day... For now I'll love on my little Hudson and think of how blessed he is to have been given to US.

"Hold the paparazzi"

Hudson 1st 4th of July. We enjoyed the weather!

Being the goofy boy he is...

I love us!

He loves his baths! I hate taking him out!

We've been taking walks to the park... I'm taking in as much of this wonderful weather as I can!

I love it!

The food battle continues. The food usually wins.

And our beautiful lawn! It's loving the rain!

The new normal

Those lips! I miss them! All 3 of them! (Hey, I can, I'm his mom) It's been 3 whole weeks since surgery!

Well his new smile is already normal to me. I'm already forgetting what he use to look like... It makes me sad but I still have a sweet little face to love on that is JUST as cute! Curtis made a comment a few days ago saying he looks like a "normal" baby now and he didn't like it. I laughed and I had to agree with him a little bit. I disparately miss those lips. 

Hudson had a follow up appointment with Dr. Beals on Wednesday. He said things looked really good AND he removed the nasal stint. (yay!) It wasn't a fun thing though. We held him down tight as he cried and cried and Dr. Beals clipped what I assumed to be stitches in his nose and pulled the stint out. Gives me goose bumps just thinking about it. I don't know how he clipped what ever he clipped in that tiny little nose with tiny little scissors with a squirming around little boy with out it being a bloody mess! But that's why we pay the big bucks... but actually what we have paid in total so far has really been nothing. Thank you insurance.

I told him Hudson had lost a pound since surgery and that he is still struggling with eating. Boo. Frustrating I tell you! So he sent me over to Deborah the speech pathologist who is in the same place as Dr. Glick. Fortunately we were able to see her that same day but 3 hours later so I had to drive BACK to Phoenix. Another boo. She was very very helpful AND I was able to show Hudson off to Dr. Glick and her staff since he had his repair. There was also a lady there signing who ever wanted up for the Craniofacial Foundation of Arizona which Dr. Beals founded. I'm not gonna lie I mainly did it for the retreat to a Phoenix resort in August that is only $60 for me Curtis and Hudson for 2 nights! Sweet! It'll be fun to meet other families too I'm sure.

So Deborah watched me feed Hudson and came to the conclusion that his lip is still sensitive. Which makes sense since it's only been 3 weeks. Sure it looks good on the outside but it's still healing. So thats why he isn't eating so well. Even if it doesn't hurt as much as it did in the beginning she said he still associates his bottle with pain on his lip so he's careful. She also brought up that he ate so well that first day because it was probably still numb. Duh. So now comes the massaging... Easy? No. I'm suppose to massage his lip 2-3 times a day to help loosen it up and help it become less sensitive. Wiping his face off after spoon feeding him is like torture. He wont let me near his lip. I touch it and he flinches away and starts whining. SO that's going to be fun. She was very helpful and gave me some good tips though.

I also scored 3 bottles and 6 new nipples from Deborah. Which I have to order online and the nipples are like $3 each! Plus shipping! Not a fan. They need replaced after like 2 months. She only gave me new ones because I cut all of Hudson's bigger so he wouldn't have trouble eating which helped a little but she thinks he'll get better at using the uncut ones. So since Wednesday feeding Hudson has been a chore! It takes 20-30 minutes and he cries through almost all of it. It drives me crazy. It's like the first 2 weeks we brought him home all over again.

Since surgery he's been a totally different baby. Not cool man. He's always cranky and sleeping and naps are off. I guess he IS a "normal" baby now. Not a perfect little angel anymore. :) I'm hoping it's just him adjusting from surgery still and the fact that he got spoiled that week and he's probably teething.

So he's a free man for now until his palate repair at 9 months old. Dang, that's only like 3 months away! I get stressed just thinking about that one. It worries me more than the lip repair...

He likes that bottom lip a whole lot more now and spits and slobbers a lot more too!

He was really grumpy as we were waiting for Dr. Beals and right when I took the picture he smiled!

My sweet baby face.

Tough guy!

What do you get when you cross a cleft palate and green beans? A green bead waterfall out the nose! This is what happens likes 80% of the time when I spoon feed him. Makes him very angry and then it just gets worse.

4 week old Hudson and 5 1/2 month old Hudson!