Yay, look who's here!

Please welcome Precious 3.0, also known as Baby Hudson.

Here he is with his adoring grandma.

Wanna know by how many minutes I missed his blessed birth?

Yeah. That would be 10. TEN MINUTES. Who even knew he was going to be such a speed demon?

He is tiny and snuggly and precious, and when he cries he makes the same adorable frown that Ethan does. Also I think I may already be his favorite. It's a hunch that I have. Jenny is doing great and was looking much cuter and perkier than any woman 10minutes after labor ought to look.

And it's a good thing GH wasn't with me at the hospital because I probably would have dragged him off to a supply closet and told him that I needed one of those, NOW.

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I think Yasmin and I are fighting

So despite my best sunscreening efforts, I have to face the fact that I am to be again accompanied this summer by the sheer awesomeness that is Melasma, aka The Mask of Pregnancy.

So help me, I'm starting to look like Adolph Hitler.

Now, I could be wrong here. But isn't the point of birth control to actually reduce the similarities you share with pregnant women? Because I kind of thought that was what it was for.

Here's an awesome pic of last summer's version. And I bet you just thought I had a wicked 5 o'clock shadow . . .

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Rejoice with me!

Remember that one time when we all talked about our financial goals?

I said then that these were the things I wanted to start working on:

1. Start funding an IRA

This one will have to wait, maybe until next year. But retirement savings is still happening so that's good. Have run a couple of retirement calculators to see how much we will need, just because it's kind of fun when my heart stops dead in my chest like that and my left arm gets all squeezy. (And yes, I always check the "No Social Security Benefits" box because hi, like I am even banking on that). A good guideline seems to be saving 10-15% of your gross income for retirement, leaning more on the higher end if you're over 30 (or if you're under 30 but happen to be smart).

2. Get our savings into accounts where they can earn more interest

Hee! Totally did this! I opened an Orange Savings Account online through ING Direct. At 1.40% interest, it's not the absolute highest interest rate available (that would be Ally with 1.85% at the moment, for those who are interested). But I've heard great things about ING's customer service, there are no fees, they are FDIC insured, and I very much like their subaccounts feature.

So now instead of one lump at my bank earning hardly any interest, I now have several different savings accounts with cool names like "Emergency Fund," "Car Fund," "Vacation," "Christmas," "House Downpayment," and "GH's iPod Touch That I Promised He Could Buy This Fall if We Put the Rest of the Tax Return into Savings." Not all of these accounts have any money in them, but having this visual reminder of what I'm actually saving for is really helpful.

3. Get my student loan out of the picture asap because even though it's not "bad" debt like the credit card kind, it still nags at me and I'd like it to be gone

Which brings us to . . . .drum roll . . . .

Yes!!!

We totally paid off my loan this week. I started doing the math and realized that at the rate we were going it was going to take years and years and I just wanted to be done. And this debt-free feeling is better than an IRA, I can tell you.

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