Ear Surgery

On April 30th, Hudson had surgery to put tubes in his ears. When we got back from Australia, we had an allergy doctor appointment. The doctor was checking all the normal things such as ears, throat, etc. and noticed that Hudson had fluid in his ears. She told us to see our pediatrician about it so we did. Dr. Sethi put Hud on antibiotics and asked for us to come back in a few weeks. Once we finished the antibiotics, we went back, but the fluid hadn't improved at all. She put Hud on stronger antibiotics and referred us to an ENT (we had already been to him back when Hudson was little). The ENT doctor said since Hudson hadn't had any improvement while being on either antibiotic it wasn't worth continuing with them. He said he had quite a bit of fluid on his ears, but that it was clear, so it wasn't infected. They also did a few hearing tests that Hudson didn't do very well on, but he said since Hudson was doing so well with talking (i.e. the ear problem didn't seem to be delaying his development) we could wait a month to see if the ear problem improved on its own. Otherwise he recommended surgery to put tubes in. We waited the month and just before we had to go back we had another allergy appointment. She thought they looked a bit better. I was so hopeful that we wouldn't have to have the surgery. The ENT doctor said he couldn't see the fluid this time, but his tests revealed that there was still fluid behind the ear drum and he still recommended surgery. He said if he went in to place the tubes and didn't find fluid, he would abort the surgery. Nic and I discussed it and we both were a bit uneasy. Hudson had never complained or tugged on his ears and we hadn't seen any delays as a result of the fluid. We knew that getting tubes put in is ears was considered a minor surgery, but it was still a surgery and we wanted to make sure it was necessary before we put him through it so we got a second opinion. The second doctor saw fluid on his ears and also recommended the surgery. He said we could continue to wait, but eventually the fluid could cause permanent damage. So we went ahead and scheduled the surgery. I was so nervous the day before, but the morning of I went into mom mode. We did everything we could to make Hudson feel comfortable. We talked with him, played with him and cuddled him. The first medicine they give made him a little loopy, but they said it would make him less stressed when they took him away from us. They kind of just swooped in and scooped him out of my arms. I didn't even get to say goodbye, which upset me, but I understand that it was better for Hudson to not have a drawn out goodbye. Thankfully, we were only sitting in the waiting room for about 10-15 minutes before a nurse came out and said both tubes were successfully put in and they did the blood draw for his allergy testing while he was under (the allergy doctor asked if we could do the blood draw during the surgery to save him from additional torture). When we went back to see him, he was really upset and crying. The nurses warned us that would be the case and said it was a good sign. It wasn't from pain, but dis-orientation from the meds. We stayed for a while so they could monitor him. He didn't cry for too long and once they gave us the ok to give him his bottle, he was a happy camper. We took him home and spoiled him for the rest of the day. He got to watch his favorite movie Finding Nemo and dada got him Jamba Juice before heading off to work. By that afternoon, he was back to his old self. Thank goodness!!

Kings Game

On April 28th, Sabrina, Rachelle, Brandon and I went to the Kings vs. Sharks game 6 in round 1 of the playoffs. The Kings had started the series down 0-3 and since only a few other teams in the history of the NHL have come back from that, a lot of people figured this could be the last home game of the season. The Kings though came out with a 4-1 lead, forcing a game 7!! It was such an exciting game and if any team can make a huge comeback its the Kings! 

This was the only time Rachelle and I have been together since my belly started showing, so we had to get a belly picture together. :) 

Stagecoach

On April 25th, I drove to Elizabeth's house (one of Lauren's bridesmaids) to meet her and Lauren's sister, Katelyn, so we could ride out to the desert together. We got out there before Lauren and the rest of the girls so we could check in and decorate. Everything turned out so cute!! When everyone arrived, we took lots of pictures, opened gifts, ate dinner and got ready to head to night 1 of Stagecoach. 

We could hear Thomas Rhett as we arrived, but we didn't actually see him perform. We watched most of Easton Corbin before Lauren, Kristen and I went to the other stage to see Lynyrd Skynyrd. They were great! Then we went back to the main stage to watch Bradley Gilbert then Eric Church. Apparently it is boiling hot every year, but this year it was so cold and windy. Tons of people left early that night, but we braved the blowing dust and chilly weather and stayed until the end. It was a fun night, but I had already learned a lot and knew I was going to be much better prepared for night 2. ;)

On April 26th, we all slept in (I woke up sore and feeling hung over without the fun of actually getting to drink, haha. I guess I am getting old!). We had a delicious breakfast made by Elizabeth played a fun game with all the lingerie we brought before heading to the pool for a bit. Lauren made us all CDs with songs from the Stagecoach artists on it and I have been listening to it non-stop since I got it. I have never listened to country before and knew it would be more fun if I knew some of the songs for the event. I was most excited about night 2 because my two favorite artists from the cd were playing: Hunter Hayes and Jason Aldean. 

Today we all wore our special bridesmaids Stagecoach shirts. I decided to wear jeans and bring a sweater so I could be more comfy once it got dark and cooled down. We had a perfect set-up because Elizabeth's boyfriend's mom saved us a spot each day so we could arrive later in the day and still get a good spot. We grabbed beers (I bought beers for Lauren and was laughing at the looks I was getting. I'm not showing much so I'm sure people were looking at me wondering if I just had a beer belly or if I was pregnant and drinking). We arrived to our spot in time to watch Tyler Farr, then we saw Jennifer Nettles before the highlights of the evening. I put my plan into place: I drank tons of water all day, then didn't drink anything at the event so I wouldn't have to use the gross bathrooms (I minimized walking by doing this too). I also sat down during the first few performances so I could save my energy and back for the bigger names later in the night. I also dressed warmer. Add to that my two favorite performances of the weekend and it was a great evening! I had so much fun dancing with all the girls and singing along to all the songs. It was so much fun!!

On April 27th, we played another fun game out by the pool. Paul had answered questions before the event. Lauren had to guess his answers. If she got it wrong she had to drink and if she got it right everyone else had to drink. I enjoyed my sparking apple cider (Katelyn brought for me) while the girls drank champagne. One of the games that carried on throughout the weekend was a list of "dares" Lauren had to complete. There were all sorts of things on there such as finding a guy with an accent, kissing a bald man's head, getting a guy's number, etc. While we were at the pool some guy stepped out on his balcony and started singing. Lauren walked over beneath the balcony so he could serenade her and she could get that one checked off her list. 

That night, we had penis pasta for dinner, haha. Then we left for our last night of Stagecoach. Lauren was on a mission to get as many items off her list completed as possible. 

I think everyone gets extra rowdy on night 3 because our bus was a total party bus on the ride over. Lauren even gave a lap dance and received one! She was really taking this list completion thing seriously! A few of the funniest things on her list that she completed were taking a body shot off someone and photo bombing someone. She was quite drunk and not super discreet about the photo bombing. On her first attempt, the couple turned around and asked her to get out of their photo. She told them what she was doing so they posed with her. We were cracking up trying to explain that that doesn't count. She successfully photo bombed a photo later in the night though that was equally hilarious. She also made friends with a group of people sitting near us wearing shark hats. She sat with them for a good 20 minutes chatting away! It was so fun to see her let loose and have such a great time and I was the lucky one who will actually remember the whole weekend because I was sober. 

That night we saw Lee Brice, Florida Georgia Line and Luke Bryan. I really enjoyed FGL and Luke Bryan. I had so much fun dancing around and singing along! Obviously Lauren, Katelyn, April, Elizabeth and Kristen had a great time dancing too! We stayed until the end again and got home again around 3am. 

On April 28th, we ate breakfast, laughed about our weekend shenanigans, packed up, took a few more pictures then headed home. It was such a fun weekend and I'm so glad I got to be a part of it. I even think I have been converted into a country fun!

20 Weeks

On April 23rd, I hit the halfway mark, 20 weeks! I now weigh 142.6 (up 18.6 pounds). I finally have a small bump when wearing tight clothes. I haven't had any headaches this week, which is exciting. I started wearing some maternity clothes this week. I tried to buy some maternity shorts, but found that bigger sizes of regular shorts fit better. I can't believe I am half way through this pregnancy already. It is going by so fast!!

20 Week Anatomy Scan

On April 23rd, Tyler watched Hudson so Nic and I could meet in Pasadena for my 20 week anatomy scan. Everything looked good with the baby and we got confirmation again that we are having a little boy. We didn't get very good pictures (I think the doctor thought the pics would get better so he didn't take them, then they kept getting worse so he just gave us what he could get). Luckily they also give a video of the session, so I was able to take some photos from earlier in the ultrasound off our tv. We got to see the baby's foot and his legs and man they were some long legs. Even the doctor made a comment about how long the baby's femur was. I guess we shouldn't be too surprised given that Nic and I are tall, but I've got one long baby inside of me already! Baby's legs and arms were in the 90th percent and his head was in the 40th percent. Most importantly though, Dr. Devore said we are off to a great start and everything looks great! 

After our appointment, we went to one of our favorite places, Dog Haus Beirgarten,  for a quick dinner date. It was so nice to spend some time eating a relaxing dinner together.

That night, I took one of my belly pics and my favorite picture from the ultrasound and posted a half way there post to instagram and facebook. 

20 Months

On April 22nd, Hudson turned 20 months old. I'm not sure what happened in April (first my 18 week pictures and now Hud's 20 month photos), but I can't find any 20 month photos of Hudson in his chair. I'm starting to suspect that I either took photos and didn't transfer them onto the computer before losing my memory card, or I took photos without realizing I didn't have a memory card in the camera because I could have sworn I took monthly photos for April! :( Apparently mommy brain + pregnancy brain is a bad combo!!

Hudson weighs about 25 pounds and he is 33 inches tall. Hudson put one of his crocs (shoe) on by himself and he walked down the stairs on the park equipment by himself too. He has been getting better at climbing all the park equipment and sliding down the slides by himself. He is climbing up on everything these days! Chairs, couch, coffee table, etc. He started asking to try and pee in the toilet, but just stands there and can't actually pee. Hudson now unzips his pjs when he wakes up in the morning. He loves his stuffed animals and gives them tons of cuddles and kisses. Hudson counted to 10 on his own this month! Hudson has been waking up overnight and needing to be cuddled until he falls asleep before bed. Hudson says hip hip hooray now and can string about 3 words together now.  He sings ABCs, row row row and happy birthday (only those words haha). He loves to run. He requests songs every night before bed and his current favorite is Happy Birthday. Hudson has figured out how to unlock and open the back door all by himself. He loves turning on and off all the lights in the house. He climbs up on his stool to make it easier to play with the switches. 

Disneyland

On April 21st, Hudson and I went to Disneyland. We met up with Ashley and Avery and then my brothers joined us a little later. We took some castle photos, then took the kids on the carousel and Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. Hudson and Avery were so cute together!! When Tyler and Justin got there we went on Dumbo. Hudson went with his uncles and I went with Ashley and Avery. The boys were cracking me up. They all had their arms up and were cheering and hollering! haha. Hudson was loving all the attention from his uncles.

We went on Pirates next and Hudson put his arms up on the hills. He was really getting into this whole brave, big boy thing now that his uncles were around. Then we went on the Winnie the Pooh ride. 

After the ride, I took Hudson to meet Tigger, Eeyore and Pooh. He just adores the characters and was so excited! 

Next we went to lunch at Pizza Port. Hudson crashed immediately as we walked over there and Avery started to melt down, so after lunch Ashley and Avery left. We had so much fun with them though and the kids were so cute together. I love when we get together!! Once Hud woke up, I decided we might as well enjoy a few more rides with Tyler and Justin so we went on Buzz Lightyear. Hudson rode with Ty and got his own gun. They had such a great time! I was so bummed though because I e-mailed the photo to myself, but Disney sent the photo of Justin and I twice instead of the one of Hudson and Tyler. :( Good thing I took a few pictures on the ride.

To end the day, we went on Hudson's favorite ride, the Teacups. It was such a great day with so many of our favorite people!!

Easter

On Sunday, April 20th, I had my family over for Easter. We normally go to Oma and Opa's house or in the past few years we have bounced around to Aunt Susannah's and the Mercier's, but now that Hudson is older and we have another one on the way, we decided it was time to start our own Easter tradition. I was a little nervous about hosting especially because I was attempting to make Oma's traditional Easter meal of rouladen, dumplings, sauerkraut, peas and gravy (most of which I hadn't made before). I prepped as much of the food the day before as I possibly could. I assembled all the rouladen, mixed up the dumplings and stayed up way into the night making the cake pops I had promised Hudson. On Easter morning, I cooked the rouladen, dumplings, and sauerkraut and made chocolate covered strawberries. The hardest part was the gravy because it had to be made using the drippings from the roladen. I had written down Oma's recipes when I was little, but I discovered as I was making everything that the recipes required a lot of guessing still (probably because Oma doesn't actually follow recipes so I was trying to stop her and measure things along the way-plus I was young and didn't have any handy technology like an iphone to snap pictures of each step). Everything still turned out great. I was so nervous about under cooking the roladen that I over-cooked them a little, but other than that, everything turned out really good. A lot of my family members even said it tasted a lot like Oma's. We also served the ice cream punch Opa always makes and my mom made deviled eggs and salmon pate. Everything was absolutely delicious and we all ate until we were stuffed!!

Here is the table with drinks, appetizers, and desserts. I love the way the banner turned out and the tulips I picked up from the grocery store looked so beautiful!

While I was finishing up the food, my mom and dad gave Hudson a few gifts. They got him a bucket and shovel, bubbles, light up pool rings, some cute clothes and a winter hat. 

After we ate, we did the Easter Egg hunt. It was really fun watching Hudson excitedly point and run around collecting eggs. Then Tyler did bubbles with Hud (one of the gift's he got from Nonna and Opa). 

After the egg hunt everyone enjoyed some desserts and we watched Hudson open his Easter basket. He got lots of fun goodies like sidewalk chalk, a bunny cup, bunny ears, a new duck for the bathtub, a slinky and a few Easter books. He was very excited about the gifts and played with each one as he pulled it out. 

Here is a picture of the cake pops I made. My good friend Lauren Ballard gave me the book Cakepops by Bakerella a while ago and I have yet to use it. It is literally one of Hudson's favorite books to read so I decided I needed to make some Easter themed pops this year (I did Easter Egg cake pops a few years ago before I got the book using her website: www.bakerella.com). I knew Hudson wouldn't be able to eat them, but he still loved them. The bunnies were strawberry and the chicks were lemon. They turned out really cute and were so delicious! 

I was exhausted by the end of the day, but it was such a wonderful and fun Easter and I look forward to hosting many more!

Sugar Cookies, Moving Sabrina In and Easter Prep

On April 19th, I made Hudson an Easter themed pancake breakfast. He had an Easter bunny and an egg shaped pancake, a bowl of bananas in his easter bowl and water in his chick cup. He was very excited about it!!

Then we decorated sugar cookies. Hudson loved this as well! 

Then we went down to West Hollywood to see Sabrina's new place and to help her unpack. Nic mainly watched Hudson, while helped Sabrina get situated in her new place. We ate some lunch, met Sabrina's roommate Bianca, helped a bit more, then left for home. 

When we got home, Nic went upstairs to continue painting the nursery, while I began making the rouladen for Easter. We placed Hudson in his jail to play so I was quite surprised when he walked into the kitchen and said, "hi mama" I called Nic down and placed Hudson back in his jail asking him to show us how he escaped. For the longest time, he wouldn't show us. I'm not sure if he thought he would get into trouble or if he just didn't want to share his secret. Then he finally showed us and I got it on video! I was laughing so hard. What a sneaky little escape artist!!

We had to resort to Hudson sitting in his high chair in the kitchen watching me make the rouladen. This will be my first time hosting Easter and my first time making all of Oma's food. Hopefully it turns out ok. 

Egg-stra Fun Day!

We had a very busy, but fun-filled day on April 18th. Every year I say I am going to make hot cross buns, but I never actually do it. I decided that life is only going to get crazier and its going to keep getting harder to do these types of things, so I better make it happen this year. So, first thing in the morning, Hud and I ran down to the grocery store to pick up the ingredients. I also grabbed a pack of pre-made hot cross buns just in case. A very nice employee at Ralphs gave Hudson a free balloon, which just about made his day!!

When we got back home, I got busy making the hot cross buns. Once I got to the step where the dough sits and rises, we left for out Easter Potluck at West Creek Park. Hudson had so much fun doing the egg hunt! He was so excited!! All of the kids were so cute together and they all had a great time. 

We came back home and I investigated my hot cross buns to discover they didn't rise at all. I checked the expiration date on my yeast and it was expired! :/ At this point, I was so determined to succeed, so Hud and I raced back down to the grocery store to get new packets of yeast. While Hud was napping, I made cupcakes and started over on my hot cross buns. I left them again to rise while Hudson and I went over to Lindsay's house to decorate Easter eggs. Sabrina came with us and Hudson had a blast! He loved dipping the eggs in all the different colors and so did all the other kids. It was so nice of Lindsay to host such a fun Easter event!

Once we got Hudson to bed, I returned to working on my hot cross buns. I didn't finish them until about midnight, but they turned out great! They were so delicious! Way better than the ones from the grocery store! I went to bed exhausted, but very pleased that I had finally accomplished my hot cross bun goal.