Happy Friday, friends! I thought I’d share some snapshots from life lately. It’s been a fun few weeks around here.

 

The biggest news: HUDSON IS WALKING! A lot of baby milestones aren’t as black and white as they’re described… we’re not even sure what his first word was because he sort of said so many things for so long that it all blurs together. The same is true with walking–when asked if he is walking lately, I kept thinking… well, he’s trying? Does that mean he’s walking? He’d take one, two steps here or there and then fall, and some days he wasn’t interested at all. But he was increasingly interested in walking around while holding our hands.

Then suddenly over the last weekend, it was priority number one, and while there’s still a lot of “boom booms,” he’s trying to walk BEFORE crawling, and doing so great. I even took him outside for a walk without the stroller, so we had a lot of runway and nothing for me to hang on to besides Hudson. (I did have the baby carrier for backup!) He worked hard and then we made a Starbucks stop for Hudson’s favorite order: water with a straw.

I have basically no pictures of him walking on his own because I’m typically hovering nervously a foot or two away from him during the action.

Chicago definitely got the “it’s fall now” September memo because it has been like a switch flipped, and our beautiful, 80-degree summer gave way to crisp 65 degree days within the last week… which is OK by me. This picture may be the last sandbox picture of Hudson for the season… also OK by me, because sand is the devil, and Hudson is obsessed.

We finally made it to the aquarium! After seeing my sad Facebook post about not being able to get in on a previous attempt, my friend Amber and her son Bran took Hudson and I… and it. was. awesome. They’re members so we got to skip the very, very long line and head right in–Hudson and I felt very cool, ha. (The ghost of Laura 10 years past is LOLing at me somewhere.) We saw belugas, turtles, three million “FISSSSS” and the highlight: an open dolphin exhibit! We skipped the dolphin show because #wigglybabies, but we got to walk up to the tank to watch them practice. We were SO close and my 12-year-old dolphin-trainer dreams were rekindled for a minute there.

And not only was the aquarium itself awesome, but we took a WATER TAXI to get there! I vaguely knew that this was something that Hudson and I could do, but it seemed like a lot of work. As is true of all things like this… it was really pretty easy, and there is nothing like the view of the skyline from the lake. With this, I officially checked my final, unchecked box off my summer bucket list: take a boat ride. Thanks Amber!

Shoes! This picture cracks me up. Jason took this picture on one of his adventures with Hudson.. they headed over to Niketown and Hudson was in heaven. Shoes continue to be a major obsession so seeing walls of “soos” and helping his dad pick out a pair may have been Hudson’s top life moment to date.

While there have been a lot of nice park days and outdoor time, we are of course, still spending countless hours in his little play area too because it’s the safest for him (and least exhausting for the rest of us) to explore and practice walking in. He seems to be testing the boundaries of this area, however: lots of “no no no”s! and also the somehow more treacherous quiet, emphatic no’s while doing something he knows he shouldn’t, like playing with the tv or door to the patio. And then he looks over at me like: you heard me, right?!

We stopped by our favorite waterfront cafe at Burnham Harbor with Hudson over Labor Day weekend, thinking we would maybe be able to quickly have one drink and run. He’s SO wiggly and active right now that I could not imagine a world in which he’d be up for much more than that. But sometimes he seems to sense when mom and dad need a break, and he was an angel. He sat nicely in my lap for over an hour, which was probably due more to his little snack cup filled with cheddar bunnies and a colorful drink menu to flip through than anything 🙂 But whatever works!

Here’s Hudson and his gal pal Cam playing in the water exhibit at the Chicago Children’s Museum. I’m trying not to take Hudson more often than once a week right now in favor of going outside instead–sort of saving it up for this winter, when it’ll be our only option a lot of days! But it’s the best and we are so lucky to have this resource a short walk away.

We took a little picnic to the new park to the south of Navy Pier and it was such a beautiful day! I’m working on convincing this little family of mine that picnics are worth the effort, and I think this day went a long way towards that initiative. Hudson has overcome his city-baby fear of grass, as is evidenced by him walking shoeless in it and in eating it in our family selfie.

We’ve made two trips over the river (Chicago, please, please, PLEASE finish the river flyover!) to Maggie Daley–once on a quiet weekday morning, which was heaven, and the other time on a not-so-quiet Sunday afternoon, which was… a lot. But whatever the crowd situation may be, it’s such a beautiful park with lots of areas to explore. Most of the playground stuff is too big for Hudson, but right now he’s just happy to walk around and see the other kids. They have a lot of these rubbery, built-in hills, which are great because he is obsessed with climbing right now. And bonus: no wood chips to eat!

I just love these two 🙂

Hudson’s had a rough time with the naps lately, and on this afternoon it was a particularly crap nap… I think maybe 20 minutes or so, if I remember right. Yikes. We were having some quiet time and Blitz came over to sit in Hudson’s lap like he knew he needed some snuggles. Best kitty award.

We stopped by my office to visit our friends. He’s funny in that he loves seeing other people but is definitely of the “look at me but don’t touch  me” school of thought, ha. I was really impressed that he warmed up to my friend Sue-Ellen so quickly but maybe that’s because she has a little one of her own on the way… he knows his people!

Honestly, I just think he looks cute in this picture 🙂 This is what most days really look like: mismatched outfit because we had to change one piece of clothing or the other after the nuclear bomb that is mealtime, Hudson eating something weird, and that face that says both, “I am adorable” and “I am trouble.”

And that’s all she wrote. Cheers to Friday, friends!