It finally happened...

...one of the cats bit Hudson.

The funny thing is that I was going to post yesterday on how great the cats are with Hudson. In fact, yesterday I ran to the bathroom and came back to find Hudson on top of Kiva, pulling her tail. She was just sitting there. I praised her and gave her lots of kisses for being such a good girl. Guess she didn't get the message I was trying to send.

Let me preface today's story by saying that Kiva is obsessed with Hudson. When he's on the floor playing, she is constantly coming over to him, sitting up against him. I always shoo her away, but she ends up right back where she started.

So, today I was playing with Hudson in the living room/dining room area. Kiva was not around. I walked into the kitchen to put my dish into the dishwasher. As I opened the dishwasher I heard Hudson SCREAM. I ran in the dining room and found him sitting up screaming. So I figured that he didn't fall and hit his head or anything. I was a bit confused. I picked him up to examine him and found 4 bite marks on his arm. I felt awful! Only one broke the skin, but since cat bites are notorious for causing infection, we're off to the doctor....

Me and my sweettooth...

Thanks to the Krivda blood that runs through my body (thanks Mom!), I'm addicted to sweets. So whenever we have a get together, I tend to make as many desserts as side dishes. Last night was no exception. I had some friends over for a mid-week BBQ. I wanted to try two new dessert recipes I just found: Oreo truffle cookies and Mojito cake-tails. Both were DELISH!!!

Oreo Truffle Cookies
1 package of oreos, crushed to a fine dust in the food processor
1 brick of cream cheese, softened
1 bar of white chocolate
a few Kraft caramels (optional).

Put the oreo crumbs and cream cheese in the mixer (I used the Kitchen-Aid - It's becomes a pretty thick dough, so I'm not sure a hand mixer would cut it. ). Melt the white chocolate in a double boiler. Roll the dough into small balls and flatten to resemble the shape of an oreo. Dip in the white chocolate. Place of wax paper. Optional: Melt the caramels with a little cream in the microwave, watching closely so they don't burn. Drizzle over the truffles.
Chill in the refrigerator.

Mojito cake-tails
AMAZING summertime dessert! From Rachael Ray (link below). I found that the recipe says it makes 12, but I probably could have made 24. I'll cut the recipe in half next time.
http://www.rachaelraymag.com/recipes/dessert-recipes/frozen-mojito-cake-tails/article.html

Time to break out the helmet

No, I don't mean that it's football season yet (although very soon!). Hudson has a new skill....

....he's learned to climb the stairs! Yep, he climbed all the way from the 3rd level to the penthouse multiple times yesterday. Time to order this....


(As an aside, check out these ridiculous baby products. Definitely good for a laugh!
http://www.cracked.com/article_16475_20-baby-products-great-traumatizing-infants.html)

Coming Home!!!

As much fun as Vegas was, I'm severely looking forward to getting home to Hudson and Jenn (in no particular order :). For the past three days, Jenn has been taking care of Hudson all by herself and I know she's completely exhausted at this point. Strike that... she was completely exhausted 48 hours ago... she's seeing things at this point.

Either way, in roughly 8 hours, I'll be walking into the front door of my home to be greeted by a house that looks like a tornado hit it. The funny thing is that I won't notice a thing because I'll be too focused on surprising Hudson and waiting for him to throw a big fat smile my way. I've been looking forward to that just about as long as Jenn's been waiting for me to come home so I can clean up the house.

Coudos to Jenn and all the single moms out there!

We survived!!!

Today was the first time I ever left Hudson with a "stranger" (i.e. the babysitter). I had a meeting at school and a friend of mine recommended her babysitter. So, I had to pry myself away from my little monkey man and hand him over to someone I just met. I didn't cry although I was wallowing in my sadness the entire trip to school. I pretty much broke every speed limit on my way home. I figured that my explanation to any police officer would be sufficient to get me out of a ticket ("I'm so sorry officer - I just left my infant son with a babysitter for the first time and I'm having separation anxiety", all said while crying obviously). Luckily, the men of the law weren't patrolling my route home.

I got here and found Hudson sitting on Mandie's lap, in one piece and not crying. I figured that was an accomplishment (not that I doubted her per se, but I was conjuring up every possible bad thing that could have happened to him, a la Rachel in the Friends episiode when Emma gets locked in Ross's apartment). What I did NOT expect, however, was to get the cold shoulder from Hudson. He wasn't thrilled to see me and wouldn't look at me. My heart broke a little. He's obviously not making the whole "going back to work" thing easy on me.

I've found the cure!

So, after 4 instances of this, I have found the cure to baby constipation. Put them in the Baby Einstein jumper for 5-10 minutes. In fact, they don't even have to be constipated! You would think after the first, or second, or even THIRD time I would have learned, but I didn't. For the fourth day in a row, I put Hudson in his jumper while I ate breakfast. And for the fourth day in a row, this is what I found:

Oooooh, I'm it!!

Emmy tagged me in her blog. Here were the instructions:
Name five things that you can't live without. It can't be a person, it has to be something material that actually makes your life easier. It can't be something in general, it must be exact. Also, it can't be the obvious like a cell phone or computer.
Here are my top 5 in no particular order:
1. NFL Sunday ticket - without this wonderful television options we would not have been able to watch our beloved men in black and gold while living in California and now living in Baltimore
2. L'oreal Voluminous mascara - I have tried different mascaras time and again and ALWAYS come back to this one. I love thick, long lashes and would wear false ones everyday if I could. This mascara works better than any fancy department store brand I've tried.
3. Scrubbing bubbles toilet bowl cleaner - While I've been trying to do my part for the environment and go green, there is no way I could give up this product. Cleaning the bathroom is so disgusting to me, so to make it more tolerable I use disposable items there (hence, the un-greenness). I love the toilet bowl wand since you can flush it. I also use the flushable wipes to clean the seat.
4. Giant Eagle cake - (the link is for wedding cakes, but you can see a piece of the divine masterpiece....mmmm....my mouth is watering). There's something about this sugary piece of heaven that I can't live without! I have to thank my mom for being so awesome in understanding my addiction and duly providing GE cake for every visit. (NOTE: It's the buttercream version that I love, NOT the whipped cream)
5. Benefit Lemon-aid - For some reason, my eyelids have decided to be a different color from the rest of my face. This color corrector makes me look normal again.

Okay, I did my homework. Now I tag Sami!

Football divides people.

As I was walking home from the Cupcake Company, I decided to stop at the park and push Hudson in the swing. There were about 12-15 kids in the park, ranging from ages ~6-12. It looked like they were all there together as part of a summer camp or something through the rec center which is next to the park since there were adult counselors with them. Anyways, as I'm pushing Hudson, one of the little boys behind me yells over to the group of kids in front of me and says "Who wants to beat up the Steelers fan????". Immediately, I look around, thinking "what gave me and Hudson away? I'm not wearing any Steelers gear and neither is he. Think quick in case these kids attack!". Next thing I know, the little boy shouts "John's the Steelers fan - let's get 'em!". So that's the name of the game on the playgrounds of Baltimore: Let's beat up the Steelers fan. Wow.

The teeth have been photographed!

Hudson is not a fan of having his face touched, therefore it's been quite difficult to get a picture of his teeth. But the camera has prevailed!