Just Finishing the Update :-)

I finally have half a minute to breathe and finish the update, because everyone is in bed and asleep. Everyone except Brandon-the one that gets into the most stuff! Right now he's trying to figure out how to pull the diapers out of the diaper holder thing! He's already figured out how to go from sitting up to on his tummy; for a few days I was able to sit him up with a couple of toys and he would be good to go...Not so much anymore! He sits for a few minutes and then he leans over and onto his tummy he goes! Anyway, I've added more pictures to the previous post, so check it out again.
I thought maybe the 2nd time around God would grant me a quiet child, since Russell is about as loud as they come; well God wasn't so merciful! Brandon talks and talks and talks, and never feels the need to use his inside voice (even at 10:00 at night while I'm trying to type this!). I actually was having to tell him to be quiet while I was on the phone the other day! It's not like he understood a word I was saying, but I had the satisfaction of knowing I'm trying to teach him early...But if his listening skills are any indication of the future, I'm in trouble! :-)
Brandon is officially a ballpark baby because Russell has started playing T-Ball. We spend our Monday evenings and Saturday mornings at the ball field, and so far Brandon loves it! He loves being outside, especially since it's been warm the past few days, and of course he loves all the attention he gets from the other people there. He is also quickly learning to be a tough little cookie, which it seems he will have to be in order to survive living with his big brother! Russell is a great help with Brandon, but still hasn't quite learned that Brandon is not a toy. But we try not to correct him too much because we don't want to discourage him from interacting with Brandon; we just have to make sure we're always close by and paying attention!
The newest things that Brandon does are play Peek-a-Boo and lift his arms up to me for me to pick him up. He absolutely loves peek-a-boo, and is getting pretty good at hiding himself. Sometimes he gets worked up and goes too fast, but he still laughs each time. And when he lifts his arms up to me, it just melts my heart. Well most of the time anyway, assuming he's not just being a whiney brat. :-) He's only done it a few times where I was convinced he wanted me, and wasn't just holding his arms out, and of course I had to pick him up and love on him. I may regret him doing this in the future, but it's so endearing right now. It just reinforces that great feeling of "only Mommy can make it better".
Oh, one very exciting thing for our family that I have failed to mention is that Ben now has a new job!!! He's been gone from Publix since the middle of February, and is now home with us at night and on the weekends! The adjustment has been so much easier than I ever thought it would be (after 5 years of doing my own thing most nights, I expected this to be quite a HUGE change!) and I'm so glad he made the decision to leave Publix. But it's been made even more exciting by the fact that Russell and Brandon realize he's home. Brandon not so much I guess, but Russell was so excited when he found out Daddy would be able to go to karate practice and baseball practice and to church; that in itself made the decision worth it.
I've been trying to upload some videos of Brandon but it takes forever, and I just don't have that kind of patience. I will maybe try it again one day when I know I'll just be hanging out at the house, and will post them as soon as I can. They are really cute so I'm excited for you to see them, I just don't know when I'll be ready to take the time to work on it. But you should know this by now just based on how infrequently I update this thing with regular pictures! :-) Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed everything so far. I must go now and get this blabber mouth in the bed. Good night!!