Sweet West.

(It's 6:15am when I start this post and Quinn is up and watching trains on the iPad saying, Hello choo choo trains! Hello! When I finish - after multi-tasking a bit - around 7, West is babbling in his crib, ready to say good morning at a much more reasonable hour.)

This boy! Quinn was a happy baby, and his personality has been pretty consistent since birth - passionate and intense. I love him for it, but having two of those would maybe be a little bit much. If West's holds true in a similar fashion, he's going to be even keeled, happy, patient and calm. He is so sweet. He is easily consoled, and really never cries unless he's sleepy (or now that we've started solids, sometimes when they're trying to make their exit - reminds me of this photo when we came to Dallas to see the Burtons when Quinn was the same age). He's a good sleeper, and if things don't work out as they should nap-wise, he generally does okay (although after having a really-not-great sleeper with Quinn for the solid first year of his life, I'm pretty terrified of messing things up in the routine department, so we don't stray from it very often). He basically takes two naps, although he's still on the fence of needing three (that third nap has never worked out well for us, for either of them). He's in bed by 6:30pm or 7 and wakes up about 12 hours later, and I love (need!) having my quiet evenings. The transition to eating solid food has been so great. I just started a few weeks ago, just about when he reached eight months. As much as I didn't want to (nursing is easy and all they really need the first year), I could tell that he really wanted to join in. Now - he's eating everything. Fruits, veggies, chicken, fish... anything. I need to do a separate post on how well Baby Led Weaning has worked for us, but essentially, he's feeding himself and loving food. I'd call that a massive success.  

The tolerance with which he has handled his helmet is a story in and of itself. 

Like all babies that my siblings have produced, the Hudson genes are strong with this one. I see Mike's brothers in him every so often, but I still think he's a dead ringer for my dad and my Grandma. His eyes are blue, which means we have zero consistency in our family of four (green / hazel / brown / blue), and while I think he and Quinn look sort of related, it might require some convincing to a stranger. They were so similar as babies, and that's just fading. 

I was in the car with just Quinn the other day (oh, the ease of just having one!) and he kept saying, I want West! I want West! I think his little brother is just now starting to grow on him, and besides the frequent toy-stealing that is still happening, Quinn is showing little glimmers of really starting to like him. I love catching glimpses of their sweet brother moments.  

He's still a baby - not really sitting up on his own, requiring that I do most things for him - but I see those little bits of boy coming through, and of course have such mixed feelings about this. A second baby is such a different experience than the first, and I partly wish I could go through and bottle up some of those baby moments I've had with him, because so many of them were rushed or multi-tasked (like nursing a baby while reading a story). I can see it in his eyes so often, though - he understands. And when I've left him fussing in his crib for a few minutes and finally make it to his crib to grab him, he always looks at me and smiles appreciatively as if to say,  It's okay, Mama. I know you've got your hands full. 

Sweet West.