Dear Friends and Family,

It's been a wonderful year at the Bedward's house. We have been healthy and getting better sleep since Hudson is sleeping more. Craig continues to work from home. Caroline is also at home, watching the kids and teaching Charlotte. Charlotte is now 4 ½ yrs and Hudson is 22 mo. It's been an amazing year of growth, and a very rewarding year of being parents.

Charlotte finished her first year of preschool in May and we have been home schooling since. It's been a learning experience for both Caroline and Charlotte but it's been working out pretty well. Charlotte follows instruction well, loves to learn, and can sit still for a long time.

Charlotte also enjoys her weekly swimming and dance (tap & ballet) class. She can swim for about 10 ft dash and is very comfortable in water. She is also learning Spanish in a class once a week. It's a fun class with songs and games that both mommy and Charlotte enjoy! The whole family is learning some Spanish, even Hudson sometimes greets us with "Hola amigo!" Charlotte is also an Awana Cubbie. We are delighted to see how much she enjoys Awana. There's nothing more thrilling for us as parents than to hear Charlotte recite bible verses. We pray that she will really "hide His word in her heart."

Hudson is a very active toddler. He loves balls above any other toys (his first word was "ball"!). Basketball is his favorite; he loves to dunk. When he was barely walking, he was dribbling a soccer ball. Sometimes we fill his crib with all kinds of soft toy balls and he enjoys a game of throwing all them for us to catch. As we observe him in all these actives, it looks he is a lefty. He uses his left hand and feet with balls, eating, drawing, and even sucking his thumb.

(Click to see a bigger picture)

Hudson is much more physical and coordination than Charlotte was at his age. Maybe it's the difference between boys and girls! Hudson will hardly sit still long enough for us to read him a short story. But surprisingly his verbal skills seem very good. His vocabulary exploded at 20 months. We started to record of all his words. We started at about 50 words and a few days later we couldn't keep up. We read that at this age they can add a new word every hour!

We joke that Hudson seems to have an obsessive compulsive disorder. He insist on putting everything back to the order which he's used to. He walks around the house closing doors, putting the rubber bands back on the knobs (the ones that are supposed to keep him out!). It is cute and funny to watch -- but hopefully he doesn't grow up to be Monk from TV!

May your Christmas be a time to reflect on the simplicity of His birth and the magnitude of His purpose.

Christmas Blessings,