Hanna - are you kidding me?

Here comes Hurricane Hanna. It is not definite, but it does appear that Hanna is directing her eye on the Carolinas. For the time being we are ignoring her and hoping she decides to ruin someone else's beach trip.

Penny feeding H dinner (this is from the previous night). Look how wide he is opening his mouth. He has also started to bang his hand on the tray if the food is not coming fast enough. How polite.

This morning Penny got Hudson dressed. Dressing him is no small feat. Kind of like trying to put a baby octopus into a sack. But Penny eventually succeeded. Baby-zero, Nephrologist -1.

Next we packed up Hudson and his belongings and jumped on the ferry to Cedar Island, then drove to Beaufort to meet up with Ralph and Sandy and do the 'baby hand off'. It was a compromise that Mike and I made regarding the vacation. 4 days of Hudson at the beach, 4 days of NO Hudson at the beach. R&S were so kind to drive to Beaufort (3 hours) to pick him up.

I get sea sick pretty easily, so I need to manage my activity on boats (keep eyes on the horizon, limit my movement, deep breaths of fresh air, etc.).

But Hudson wanted none of that.

And thought it would be way more fun (for him) to pull my hair.

Not even putting my hair in a ponytail deterred him.

Family self portrait. It's Mike's fault his head is cut off, being a giant and all.

We arrived in Beaufort. What an awesome little town, although Mike and his folks all separately remarked that it seems to be getting a little run down. Bummer.

Mike is a really good photographer, but can almost never get the camera out of my hands these days. We had no Hudson on the return trip to Ocracoke, so I relinquished the camera. He snapped some nice photos.

Back on the Island....

Ocracoke!

We arrived on Ocracoke late Saturday evening. We've been having a great time with Anthony and Penny and really haven't had any time to post. I have taken some pictures and a few videos so here they are:

Hudson's first time at the beach!

Tonight Penny fed Hudson and put him to bed. When I came downstairs after a shower Penny had the little man all settled and in his PJs. Then he fell asleep on her shouler. These are my favorite pictures from the trip so far.

Getting ready for a beach trip...with an infant.

On Saturday we leave for our (mostly) annual trip to Ocracoke with Penny and Anthony. I am already a list-maker but having an infant to pack for in addition to all the rest of our crap takes it to a whole new level.

Those of you who know Mike will be amazed at this next tidbit: he was also making a list last night! In our 8 years together he has never (never!) actually spent much time planning for anything. He does all of his Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve. He booked our honeymoon a week before the wedding. Don't get me wrong, his results are great, but it's always a last-minute scramble.

So last night, there he was, making his own list. He even grouped everything into little categories:

• Things to take for Hudson
• Things to do before we leave (organized by day)
• Things we still need to buy for the trip
• Things to take up to the parents before we go
• etc
• etc

Well I'll be darned!

So this evening and Friday evening will be spent feverishly packing up all the things that four adults, one infant and one tiny dog will need for a week at the beach.

In other news, it is always fun to gather the packages that arrive at the house from the places that either don't ship to Canada, or can't get to Canada in time for Penny's arrival in North Carolina. Yesterday was a typical scene outside the front door.

One package from Neimans, one from JCrew, one from Revolve. So far eight packages have arrived. Penny is going to need a bigger suitcase to get all this home to Edmonton.

Can't make a post without a picture of our Boo. Hudson gets cuter every day. This picture is from this morning before he left with Mike to go to daycare. He's hoping Zoe likes his new outfit.

Is the romance cooling off already?

Not much time to post today, but I wanted to get this picture up. Mike took it this morning when he dropped Hudson off. As you can see, he is clearly still infatuated with Zoe, but she has either cooled on him, or she's playing hard to get.

Note that she is making him keep his distance with her foot.

Only time will tell how and if this romance blossoms.

(Sorry for the poor photo quality, Mike took it with his CrapBerry. Clearly an inferior device to the iPhone.)

We are in so much trouble already...

Hudson has developed a crush at daycare. Her name is Zoe. She is the daugter of our good friends, Karen and Jonathan. It appears as though Zoe has also developed the same level of infatuation with Hudson. The teachers tell us that they stare at each other, play together all day, Hudson has even tried to kiss Zoe. And the teachers have photographic evidence.

I am not sure WHEN Hudson found the time and the transportation to get this t-shirt to profess his love for Zoe, but this is what I found when I picked him up from school today.

Karen and I just don't know what to do! We are afraid that they will soon run off together.

On a closing note, you may notice a new color scheme. Mike told me I had to change the colors from pink, because H is a BOY.