Trent Levels Up

Trent is close to being able to count to 20. He knows all the numbers. He usually gets lost somewhere between 15 and 20 and they just appear in a random order. Trent successfully climbed out of his crib yesterday, so we assembled his new new bed and moved him into it. Now he can get in and out safely. The downside is now he can get out whenever he wants. Trent can sing several songs relatively well. He knows the chorus of Jingle Bells. He likes to sing Happy Birthday. He also like The Wheels on the Bus.

The Holdiays Are Wrapping Up

Well the holiday season is coming to a close. Things went pretty well. Tina managed to wrangle the 24th and 25th off. That allowed us to celebrate Christmas with both sides of the family. The trade off is that she has to work for a week solid after that with a 24 hour shift to cap it off.

We settled the old house, so we're back down to a single mortgage. That's good. We just need to finish unpacking and organizing the new house. I estimate completion in two or three years.

I haven't successfully gone through the Christmas pictures or video yet. I'll get around to that sometime soon and post them.

Happy New Year!

Trent Climbs The Wall

Trent On The Slide

It Depends Whether You Count The Thumb

New Video Capability

I took the video in the last post using a Flip Video Ultra Series Camcorder. It's a very small flash-based camcorder designed basically for taking videos and posting them to youtube. It takes about an hour worth of low resolution video. No tapes or disks. Then you just plug it into your computer using a built in USB plug. Copy the video off of it the same way you would from a digital camera and upload it to the Internet. I was hesitant going it because there were several negative reviews on Amazon were people had trouble getting video off the device. But there was an overwhelming number of people who said the device was great. So, maybe the company just has a Q/A problem and produces a few bad units. Mine is working perfectly so far.

What Does Santa Say?

Santa is coming...

Preparations are in full swing at the Hudson household. Right now the most important thing is getting us all well so we can enjoy Christmas with our families.



Today Trent stayed home and we went to see Santa at the mall. We are feeling better... but we weren't thrilled by Santa to say the least. I regret that they only gave us the one shot on the CD. All four of them together really told the tale of how "professional" Santa can be at gently restraining children who are whiny/scared and don't really know who he is or what the possible ramifications might be of one's behaviour. My favorite was Santa leaning over Trent in a sort of "dip" like in dancing, but Trent was pretty much not having it. Ah well. Someday we'll get this Santa thing right.

More From The Back Yard

Last weekend, I noticed that there was a huge flock of birds in my backyard. OK, not technically in my backyard, but in the cornfield right behind my backyard. And technically, it's not currently a cornfield since it's been plowed under, but there are still a lot of corncobs lying in it which is why I think the birds chose it as a place to land. These birds were about 100 yards from my back door. I'm not a bird expert; I think they were some sort of migratory goose. I couldn't get a really good closeup of one. I was worried about spooking the flock. And I lack a sufficiently powerful telescopic lens to get closer than what's here. I've seen flocks of starlings take flight. Watching these birds take off was like that except these birds were four or five times bigger.