Happy Belated Cinco de Mayo!

In case you missed my Facebook update yesterday, here's a picture of Caedmon celebrating Cinco de Mayo.
As you can see, he has his trusty paci and cellphone in hand. I was actually trying to bribe him with the phone so he'd take his focus off the hat and let me keep it on his head long enough for a picture. Sadly, the long strings and weight of the hat were too much and it took me several shots to even get this photo :). (Notice his hand placed strategically under the side brim, ready for a quick jerk to take it off.)

After C's "photo shoot" in the morning, I decided that in honor of Cinco de Mayo, it would be fun for us to have a fun Mexican-style dinner. So, I busted out my Mexican cooking magazine and went directly to my rabbit-earred page in the middle -- sweet potato stuff aneheim peppers ... yum! I added all the ingredients to my grocery list, but once I realized all that I had to do before dinner, I realized that the stuffed peppers weren't a realistic option ... so, I decided to get the majority of the ingredients for the peppers and make some type of quesadilla filling instead. If we wouldn't have had the scary threat of a tornado, dinner would have been ready on time, but it was still quite delicious. If I'm allowed to toot my own horn, these quesadillas were some of the best I've made ... sweet potato and black bean ones that is ... emmm. I feel that lately I'm becoming more comfortable mixing a variety of flavors together ... it makes my experimental cooking more fun and a whole lot more successful. That's at least my opinion, should you probably talk to Brad and see what he has to say about the matter :)

A CLANK & Lights in the Night

The morning came early for us today ... at 2am to be exact when I awoke to a flashlight beam and then a big CLANK outside our window. Then, the noise progressed under the house. Scared and not sure what was going on, Brad and I decided to call the cops. I was on the phone with 9-1-1 for about 5 minutes as Brad, Caedmon and I huddled in the bathroom. This was the first time I've called 9-1-1 for myself (I've called in accidents before, but never related to myself). The 9-1-1 operator asked for my name, our location and all the specific details about what was happening. Fortunately, she said that officers would arrive pronto ... and before we knew it, we heard an officer at the door. 4 of them showed up ... no lights and sirens thank goodness ... but 4 of them. It must have been a slow night. They surrounded the house to corner whoever/whatever was under the house and it turns out that it was someone from the gas company! Our duplex neighbors apparently didn't pay their gas bill, the gas company disconnected their service, and they called at 2am and had a service guy come out to turn the gas to the hot water heater back on ... are you serious ... especially in a duplex??? The guy even had his ladder out to get on the roof!! (That was the loud CLANK outside our bedroom!)

Thank the Lord it was ONLY the gas company, but we're a little infuriated that they actually came out at 2am! If they had to come out ... which they really didn't have to ... it was only like 60 degrees or so last night, not the dead of winter, and the neighbors could have waited until morning to get a hot shower ... but if they had to come out, the service guy could have knocked on our door to identify himself at least, so we wouldn't freak out and wake up our 8-month-old child from the dead of sleep!

After it was all said and done, it took us about an hour or so to go back to sleep. I was a bit jumpy and Caedmon thought that it 8am ... so after allowing him to cuddle with us and fall asleep on my chest (it works like a charm, but since he's so heavy, the circulation in my legs begins to slow down after a while) ... we all finally got back to asleep around 3:30am or so. Brad obviously didn't get up at 5:30am to play basketball this morning ... it was just a "wake up by the tv morning with a cup of coffee" ... funny thing is that we watched Noggin and a show by the name of "Toot and Puddles" was on ... ha, that's pretty funny!

Caedmon is 8 Months!

Caedmon turned 8 months this Saturday!
Time is flying by so quickly. It just seems like it was yesterday that I posted his 7-month update and the videos to show you how he was beginning to roll over from front to back and from back to front.

Now, at 8 months, that skill is completely mastered and if we're not careful, he'll roll clear across the room. (He seems to only go in one direction though and once he gets to the far end of the room, he stays there and doesn't come back. This doesn't happen at our house though, since there's not much room to roll. But thanks to mom, we do have nice carpets in the living/dining room and Caed's bedroom so that he can roll and play as he pleases without the worry of hitting his head!) Caedmon hitting his head isn't the only problem now that he's becoming more mobile ... our latest worry is his arms getting stuck in the crib. As his nap was nearing its end last week, Caedmon screamed bloody murder and I rushed in there to see him squirming around to try and get his arm out from between the crib slats. He had tossed his pasi out of the crib and was apparently trying to reach out to get it. Poor guy, I had to pull one of the rungs to the right a little to get his little red arm out! I'm not sure what to do about this ... he's too mobile to use bumper pads any more ... but if he's going to get his arm stuck, that's not good either.

Aside from rolling, Caedmon is a superb sitter-upper now. He can sit on the floor and entertain himself very well. When we were at Ikea last weekend, we bought one of those wooden abacus toys and he loves to just sit and play with the beads. What a great buy ... it was only $7 and the used one I thought about buying at the consignment shop was $8! Glad I waited.

Caedmon's other milestones at 8 months:
Activities: Caedmon loves the remote control and any cell phone (he's loved these two things for quite some time now, but I haven't mentioned it before). He can drop his basketball in the hoop. He's a little fish in the pool and loves to splash and kick his legs. He has learned to belt out this high-pitched scream when we're in the car as he plays with his toys. (There's nothing wrong with him ... he just likes to scream!) He's not crawling yet, but as he rolls over, he's starting to scoot a little bit and reach out to grab things. He also does this from a sitting position, so it shouldn't be too long before he makes his first move. And his most recent accomplishment is his wave. He did this a few times back in March, but not consistently. As of this weekend, he's mastered the skill and enjoys waving to us and himself! Here's a video:


Eating & Drinking: Caed is eating an assortment of food these days, mostly pureed, but occasionally in chunks. His new foods this month include Cheerios, cantaloupe, asparagus, banana star puffs and whole grains of white rice. He tried brussell sprouts last week, but that didn't go over too well. We'll try those again another time. We're going to try tofu this week, I think.

As far as drinking is concerned, up until last week, Caed was only drinking out of his sippy cup when we would tilt the cup up, but now, he's figured out how to actually suck the mouth piece to drink the water!! In addition, we have followed in the Lizotte's footsteps and bought Caed his very own Camelbak 16-oz. water bottle. (Our's is blue so the boys won't get theirs' confused.) He's can't drink from it consistently yet, but he does get water from it from time to time as he bites the mouth piece and it certainly entertains him in the car. This will definitely be a drinking tool that he'll be able to grow into for years to come.

Sleeping: Caedmon is still fairly consistent with his sleeping schedule, except something happened when he turned 7 months. The calm, collected Caedmon that we once new when going to sleep is gone. Now, all we know, for the most part, is the Caedmon who screams and cries for up to 20 or 30 minutes before he falls asleep. It's a lot milder for naps and it's full blown at bedtime. I'm not sure what happened. But luckily, this hasn't affected his overall sleeping habits. Once he goes to sleep, he usually stays asleep and sleeps from 9 or 9:30pm to 8am ... minus the periodic 2 or 3am feedings (I'm not sure how those snuck back into the picture!) and the occasionaly search for paci. Caedmon also currently takes 3 naps a day for 1.5 to 2 hrs. each. I'm afraid, however, that one of the morning naps is going to have to go pretty soon.

Weight and Height: We won't go back to the pediatrician again until his 9-month check-up, so we haven't gotten an official weight or height check, but I would imagine that he weighs about 23 or 24 pounds, and several of his pants are too short these days, so I'm sure that he's gotten taller too (real helpful, I know).

Happy 40th Anniversary!!

April 19th marked Tony & Nancy's 40th Anniversary and to celebrate the occasion, all the Hodgsons in America got together in Charlotte this past weekend. This was the first time we've all been together in quite a while and it was a lot of fun ... thanks for hosting Scott & Michelle!

The weather was great and we were able to spend some good time on the patio outside, hanging out, cooking burgers, and watching the kids play. And now that all the cousins are at least at the age where they can sit up, Caedmon, they were able to play and have a really fun time together. (Madison was in heaven having both Caedmon and Lucia around to play with and care for.)

Nancy "Nana" and Tony "Dada or Papa Tony" didn't have such a bad time either spending time with all 6 grandchildren at once.

Congratulations, Nancy & Tony ... here's to another 40 years of marriage!

A Visit to Furman

After almost a year and a half of saying that we'd go visit David at Furman, we finally made it this past weekend. We had all intentions of going his freshman year, but somehow we never made it and then it took us until April of his sophomore year to get there with all of the family stuff that's been going on ... but we're glad that it finally happened, and we really enjoyed our trip.

It turned out that Brad had to visit some of his customers in Charlotte Friday afternoon, so that allowed us to leave mid-day Friday to beat the rush-hour traffic out of Raleigh/Durham/Greensboro. Brad then dropped Caed and I off at Michelle's for a few hours while he ran his calls. This was the second time that we've done this and it works out really well -- Brad gets to run his calls and we get to visit with the Pierces. (Madison and Ryan particularly enjoy this because they really enjoy playing with their little cousin Caed. About a month ago ... on our way to Atlanta when we stopped in, Michelle, Caed and I surprised Madison at school and joined her for lunch and recess. Madison couldn't have been more proud to show off her little cousin, and Caed was pretty excited about his first trip to 5th grade!)

We stayed the night in Charlotte and then left about 9am for Furman. (Caed must have been excited that morning because he woke up at 6:30am rarrying to go, when he usually doesn't wake up until 8am!) We grabbed a quick breakfast at McDonald's on the way down -- I've just discovered that I really like Sausage, Egg & Cheese McMuffins :) -- and then we arrived at David's dorm at 11am.

I had been to Furman once before for softball camp during the summer after my freshman year in high school, and I had always remembered it to be a beautiful campus and it still is. The tulips were out and many of the flowering trees were still in bloom. (You can't see them from these pictures, but the lake and fountains are gorgeous too.)

And I do have to say, of all the things that we saw, David's dorm room was the most prestine of them all ... ha, not quite, but thanks buddy for deep cleaning before we arrived! :) Caed enjoyed his time in uncle David's room ... he laughed and rolled all over David's bed and squealed to make sure that all of David's hall mates were up and ready to meet the new day at 11am on Saturday.

We ended up staying about 20 minutes away from campus at the Phoenix Inn.
It took us a little bit to find the place, but it worked out really well. Our room was nice ... we could even put Caed's pack-n-play in the area by the sink and close the door to give him his own space (it's difficult to sleep in the same room with him these days because he makes all kinds of noises in his sleep). And when he took naps, we enjoyed time by the pool playing Scrabble and in the pool-side pub playing darts -- both of which were dominated by Brad ... David and I didn't stand a chance at either activity!

Later in the afternoon on Saturday, David took us up to Paris Mountain to see the 'aerial view' of Greenville, and then on a walking tour of Furman. Caedmon really enjoyed the fountain ... Brad wheeled him into the spray and he couldn't figure out where the water was coming from :).

For dinner, we ate at a neat little place in downtown Greenville called Chicora Alley. We had to wait a while and bait off Caedmon's hunger with his banana star puffs, but the dinner was really good. If you're in Greenville sometime, I'd recommend it, just go early so that you beat the crowd ... it's a small place and their kitchen doesn't handle large crowds well. And for breakfast/lunch the next morning, we ate at the Greenville staple, Stax Original. We got there too late for breakfast, but we had their meat and veggie dishes and they were pretty good ... a little heavy for a ride in the car, but it was tasty :).

All in all, we had a really nice visit. We got to spend some good one-on-one time with David, which we haven't done in a while, and had the opportunity to see his girlfriend Katie as well.

On our way home on Sunday, we made a planned stop at Ikea in Charlotte. This was a long-awaited shopping trip since we're getting closer and closer to breaking ground at 909. Ikea was a mad house, but we were able to spend some good time meandering through the kitchen and bathroom departments to narrow down our thoughts on those areas for the house. It's so exciting to pick all of that stuff out, but so difficult at the same time because there are just too many choices out there. (I'm working with the Ikea home planner this week to get a better idea of the layout of our kitchen and where we want everything ... our architect said that this would be helpful regardless if we go with Ikea stuff or not, so that we can tell them exactly where we want stuff. We'll more than likely break ground on the renovations and new addition in about 3 weeks, so as we get closer to that time, I'll give you a better idea of what's going on with the house. Everything has been so up in the air until now that I haven't had firm info to share.)

In Honor of Brad's Love for Sound of Music

Caed's First Easter

Easter weekend 2009 began with a surprise day off for Brad that gave us time to go over to Mom's new house, in Raleigh might I add :), and help her unpack, organize the kitchen and help her build the "Pooch Deck." Well, I shouldn't use the word "we" in all the activities above since Brad did all of the hard labor on the deck, as well as mount the tv above the fireplace, replace old light fixtures with new ones and install a fan. Did I leave anything out? I on the other hand just installed shelf liner in the kitchen. All activities are comparable, right? Not quite ... great work Brad!!!

Here's a video of Caedmon before we headed over to Mom's on Friday. He's sitting in his Pamper's box and having a great time hitting the flaps.

Then, on Saturday, we went downtown to participate in the first leg of Raleigh Easter, the Vintage21-sponsored Easter Egg Hunt, and it all started with Caedmon's orange balloon ... this was Caedmon's first experience with a balloon. What a simple form of entertainment.

He pulled the string, bounced it off his head and just gazed at it!









We also participated in the 0-2 egg hunt and Caedmon, Mason and Daniel enjoyed their spoils. (1 Egg and a couple of small packages of Lemon Heads ... (they didn't eat the Lemon Heads; they just sucked on the wrapper ... real germ-conscious, I know.)







Here are a few other pictures from the hunt:









On Sunday, we enjoyed the second leg of Raleigh Easter at church as we celebrated the resurrection of Jesus. Here's a glimpse of what the service was like: http://worship.vintage21.com/. I have never sang "Joy to the World" on Easter but what a perfect song of celebration to capture the "joy" of the day!