Hudson & Adley's (Neighbor) Hood Life: Crazy isn't even the word...(MOMMY & DADDY Edition)

Hello everyone! Firstly, our apologies for the un-announced extended delay! Things have been...well...hectic (to put it mildly) these last few weeks and not even Hudson has had a free moment to put his thoughts down on paper.

When Hudson left off, neither himself nor Mommy or Daddy had the faintest idea that we were about to have some major shake-ups our lives...at least not right here, right now. You see, for quite a while Angela and I had been discussing the benefits afforded with being closer to family. Well after going back and forth ad infinitum, on moving and all of the intangibles such a thing would entail, Angela and I decided to set up a meeting with a real estate agent.....JUST to throw around some numbers, nothing more. Sounded innocent enough to me. Except that as we were coming out of the meeting, I was stunned that Angela and I were seriously talking about setting up a schedule to put our condo on the market post-Labor Day! Wait....WHAT?!?! How did this happen?!!?!? I should have known how a meeting with a real estate agent was bound to end up!

The ramifications of this decision thundered down on us one by one as the dominoes began to fall in our head and we understood what this all really meant. We are taking care of a newborn baby and we live with two pets - a perfect dog who still sheds mounds of fur despite the fact I practically shaved her bald this summer (to be fair I made it look good, or at least presentable), and a ravenous cat who will eat anything and everything and always throw it back up (and will eat that!). And that is to say nothing of ME and the messes that erupt spontaneously after I leave a room! Yeah...neither of us were even remotely prepared, physically or mentally, to keep up that annoying requirement that says a house on the market must be maintained in pristine, showroom-like living quarters at all times. So, it looks like we need to rent a moving van and take as much as we can so we don't have to deal with the condo during it's tenure on the market. Which meant that...

"Hi Lolly and Pop! It's your about-to-be 30-year-old son, wife and 8 week-old son. You got a spare room...or two...maybe even three? Yeah you do? Well we are THERE!!! We're just gonna crash for the night. And by night, I mean until our condo sells. Oh, and we brought over a U-Haul's worth of stuff that needs to be stored. Thanks!!"

OK, so the conversation didn't quite go like that, and it was a little more planned out on everybody's end, but you get the gist. We are expecting to be moving again very soon, but in the meantime, Lolly and Pop get to have a hands-on experience with raising Hudson! Angela and I honestly cannot tell you how fortunate it has been to have an extra set of hands around the house - for when he is sparkling and when he is having his meltdowns!!

Hudson has been enjoying life in Ohio. He is now the center of attention - though cousin Anderson is doing his best to wrestle attention away from him! Every morning right after Hudson wakes up and eats, we hand him off to Lolly to oooohhh and awwww over so we can get ready for day. She will look at Huddy and say that line from The Help, "You is smaaaaaahhhhhrt. You is kiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnd. You is impoooooortant....You is smaaaaaahhhhhrt. You is kiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnd. You is impoooooortant....", and on and on. Not exactly sure why, but Hudson gives the biggest smile when she does that! It's quite amusing. During the afternoon, we take the dogs for a walk with Pop, and Hudson is strapped into his Baby Bjorn with Daddy and immediately falls asleep. Meanwhile, Aunt Shannon and Uncle Andrew usually come over for dinner and bring along cousin Anderson. Hudson gets passed from person to person while cousin Anderson runs around trying to get everyone to look at him....then he points to Hudson, says "beh-bee" and kisses him on the head. It's so cute!

Anyway, that's all for now. I've left you all with a ton of pictures to make up for all the time we missed. BTW, this first picture is a picture of Lolly "helping" move us from our Chicago house.

The day before Lolly and Pop came to Chicago, Lolly went to the doctor's and was told she had some affliction known as "tennis elbow" and told not to lift anything heavy. How convenient! Even the affliction sounds made up!! So Lolly showed how a Southern belle helps out - by sitting on the Chicago streets with Hudson, watching the truck, sipping on a drink while Angela, Pop and myself were lugging heavy boxes back and forth and sweating profusely. Lolly also added the encouraging word...."Doing a good job y'all!!" *sips drink*, "Keep it up people!!" *takes another sip*, "Looking great guys! Let me know if I can do anything not involving lifting!!" *slurps drink loudly* Oh, and please believe she would try to start a conversation with every person that walked past her, oblivious to the fact that Chicago folk do NOT like to chit-chat....especially to strangers on the sidewalk!!! Yeah, she was tons of help chilling on Chicago's mean streets with my dog and baby. Anyway, love you all and til next time....