Yummy breakfast recipe

I found this recipe a few weeks ago and we have had it almost every day for breakfast since! For some reason, Ryan renamed it "gruel" instead of "muesli" though. Even Hudson loves it!!

Muesli with cranberry and flaxseed

I followed the recipe the first time, but since then, we skip the milk. Soaking it in milk makes it mushy and we like it crunchy. I also skip the toasted nuts now (just out of laziness). So I combine the first 7 ingredients and store them in the refrigerator (wheat germ and ground flaxseed need to be refrigerated). When we want to eat some "gruel", I just put some Stonyfield French Vanilla yogurt in a bowl and top it with this mixture. So yummy and healthy!

"How strong is Hudson?"

Joyce, our nanny, taught Hudson a new trick today and Ryan and I can't get enough of it! When you ask him "How strong is Hudson?", he clenches all of his muscles. It started because he was playing with one of my resistance bands and Joyce was showing him how to pull it to work his muscles.

Here's a video of him showing his strength: (at the end of the video we also tried to get him to do another one of his tricks - his evil laugh (Mwah-ha-ha-ha)).




Here's a picture of him showing us how strong he is...Ryan and I were literally in tears from laughing so hard.

It was good while it lasted...

Our one giant leap forward a few weeks ago has been met with a few steps backwards. Those few nights of glorious sleep are just a dream at this point (I'm still not sure if I was actually daydreaming them or if I'm now stuck in a nightmare).

Right after I posted my last sleep message, I hit "Publish Post" and then I heard it. Those shrilling screams of exhaustion that I thought we had conquered. I guess Hudson was going to teach me to brag about his great sleeping skills! Ryan was trying to get him to sleep, but he was hysterical unless Ryan put his hand on him. The screams were heart-wrenching (worse than our first few nights of training), so Ryan obliged. You obviously know where this got us...Hudson wanting us to put our hand on him until he falls asleep. We fell into the trap that the Sleep Lady warned us about: "Don't replace one sleep crutch with another." Hudson outsmarted us at our own game.

Since that dreadful night, he's been pretty difficult to get to sleep (I'm actually typing this while Ryan is sitting with him in his room. It must not be going so well because I'm 2 levels below him with the office door closed and I hear his cries). As if that's not bad enough, he's waking up 3-4 times a night now.

On a positive note....3-4 times is less than 7-8 times each night! Also, it's much easier to get him back to sleep in the middle of the night. I can just lay him down, put on his music, and stand there for a minute or two.

I'm doing lots of complaining here, so I just wanted to end this post with a positive reminder of how Ry and I are getting through these sleep issues....just look at that face!

Where's Hudson???

Has anyone seen him?????
:)

Uh-oh...our first "semi-serious" injury....

I was working in the office downstairs this morning while Hudson was upstairs with Joyce. I heard a "THUD!" and then a shrilling scream. I ran upstairs and Joyce had picked Hudson up and was holding him. She was holding him tight to her with his head by her shoulder. She didn't notice that he was gushing blood all over her and the floor. I took him and saw that the blood was coming out of his nose. I held a tissue to it and it stopped pretty shortly thereafter. I was obviously shaken up. I called the doctor and the nurse told me that if it's not deformed (it isn't), if his eyes aren't bruised (they're not), and the nose isn't sore to the touch (it isn't), then it's probably not broken. By the time I was hanging up with the nurse, Hudson was back to his old self asking for crackers.

I think what happened was that he was running (pushing his vacuum) and he tripped and smacked his face off of the ceramic tile. Poor little guy! :(

If he continues to run around the house, I might have to look into a toddler version of this:

Hudson's girlfriend visits

When Ryan and I were on our honeymoon, we met another couple, Jess and Mike, who were also on their honeymoon (we were on a cruise, so we were seated together for dinner). We instantly bonded with them and traveled all of the Mediterranean together. Well, they happened to live in Virginia, only an hour away!! So we've stayed in touch and try to get together every month or two, especially since we're grooming Hudson and Layla (their daughter) to be spouses one day :)
This past weekend, they came up to Baltimore and we all enjoyed the beautiful weather in the Harbor and Fells Point. Ryan wanted to be sure to document it so that they had pictures for their wedding slideshow!

Layla is showing Hudson something on the ground

The cutest picture of Layla!!

The family enjoying the first Pitango trip of the season

Hudson has his first taste of Pitango

Sleep update

I know that alot of people have been checking back for sleep updates. The reason that I haven't posted any is because not too much is new. He's still sleeping as well as he was on the last sleep post. We haven't done the last stage of the "shuffle" yet which is putting him in his crib awake and walking out of the room. Right now a typical night looks like this:

*Between 6:30-7:30, I nurse Hudson in his room with the lights on.
*About 10-15 minutes later, Ryan gets Hudson in his bath.
*Between 7-8, Ryan puts him in his crib with the music on and Ryan lays on the floor by the doorway. Hudson walks around the crib for a while, fusses for a minute or two, lays down and goes to sleep. It usually takes 15-45 minutes for him to lay down and go to bed.
*He might wake up once throughout the night (He has woken up twice before, but we were dealing with new teeth and a runny nose). If he does wake up, we just pick him up, hold him for a second to calm him down, put the music back on, and lay him back in his crib. He goes right back to bed.
*The downside to all of this is that his new wake up time is 5am. Even after we changed the clocks! I try to get him back to bed since I think he's still tired (he's crying and not happy), but it never works. So I go down stairs, turn on the lights, and nurse. One of the problems might be that he doesn't eat much at night, so he's waking up due to hunger. But he usually won't eat when I bring him down, just nurses, so I'm not sure.

I'm absolutely amazed at how well the Shuffle method worked for us. My parents and Ryan's parents can attest to how awful Hudson was when it came to sleeping. This has been a miracle!