Happy 2012!!

Surprise, surprise, I did not keep up my goal of once per month blog posting. I just haven't been feeling the writing bug, so it's been too hard to try to sit down and write something out. But part of why I like having a personal blog is to have something to look back on and remember how life was at a particular time. So here we go! No New Year's resolution for me, we'll just see how things go :)

Hudson is now a 1 year old!! It truly is amazing how quickly his first year went by and also to see how much he has changed in that year! He is such a joy to us. I can't imagine our life without him! At his one year check up he measured 32 inches (97th percentile), and 24 lbs 2 oz (65th percentile). He's still quite tall, but he's definitely filled out a little too, and is now more proportional than he was his first 6 months. I love seeing him in just his diaper, because he has the cutest little baby gut! At the beginning of December, Hudson started to stand up on his own without pulling up on anything, so I thought for sure he'd be taking some steps by the end of the month. However, he has plans of his own, and currently those plans do not include walking! He loves to stand up on his own and gets a huge, proud smile on his face every time he does, but as soon as Mike or I try to hold out our hands to have him take a step he drops straight to his knees. He will walk around the living room some with a push walker or holding hands, but even that he is not too crazy about. His newest trick has been climbing and he is starting to try to climb out of the bath, up stairs, on top of boxes, etc.

Hudson had his first dentist appointment last week which went pretty well. He didn't mind having his teeth brushed, but was a little freaked out by Dr. Hart in his mask. We found out he has a maxillary lip frenum attachment, which means his upper lip attaches to his gumline really low, and actually goes between his two front teeth. I was surprised I had never noticed before. It's not a big deal right now, just means he'll have a gap between his front teeth, but we may have to get it "clipped" when his adult teeth come in so the gap can close with his permanent teeth. Apparently, some kids break the attachment before that happens, so I'll have to remember that if Hudson ever falls and has a lot of blood coming from his mouth! Hudson has 4 teeth on top and 3 1/2 on bottom- the 4th one just broke through a couple days ago.

It is so fun to start to hear his voice now. He is quite talkative, babbling all the time, and he has really started to say some words, which kind of surprised me at this age. He says mama, dada, kitty, uh-oh, doggy (gog-gy), night-night (nigh-nigh), all done (ah duh), and up (uh). He also repeats lots of other words and sounds, but doesn't necessarily use them on his own.

Hudson really enjoys listening to music and playing music. He got a wooden music table for his birthday that he loves banging on, and occasionally I strap him into his booster seat, and let him sit and bang on the piano. One of his favorite activities is to push the buttons on the stereo and turn the dial to turn up the music. Every time he turns it on, he immediately starts dancing to the music- it is so adorable.

In other McCain news- We are completely finished with our Coralville Capanna location. We moved the retail part up to North Liberty last spring, but still ran the wholesale coffee roasting out of Coralville. We were very glad to see that lease come to an end in December, and Mike got the roaster all moved up to a new warehouse location in North Liberty. It is a much better fit for us, as it was just too difficult to run both wholesale and retail from one location, and now we have a much better deal on rent for the wholesale spot. While I have missed the snow this year, especially at Christmas, the mild winter has been amazing for business. Gelato sales are definitely up for this time of year, and we can't complain about that!

That's all for now! Hope everyone is off to a great start to the New Year!