New Blog Website

So I was having lots of problems with this blog, so I decided to start fresh with a new blog. I tried to email you all, but in case I mistakenly left you off the email list I wanted to post the new web address here. You can find our new blog at www.ourlittlehillfamily.blogspot.com. Hope you enjoy reading about all of us!!! :)

On the Move!

So my little man is up and CRAWLING!!! And he's EVERYWHERE and into EVERYTHING!!! He's under tables, under chairs, into clothes baskets, down the hall, in the kitchen, in Russell's room; you name it and he's there!! He started crawling right at 7 months old (in March) and within just a day or two of figuring out that his hands and knees could move, he was gone. And it hasn't taken him long at all to get into stuff. He's already trying to pull up on stuff, so we have to be careful about leaving him by himself in a room. He's noticed the fireplace and of course he wants to play on it, and he tries to pull up on his little exer-saucer toy also--I for some reason see lots of bumped noses in our future! Another of his new loves is shoes for some reason, so we can't leave any shoes on the floor because if he sees them, he's after them. And he likes the dogs' bowls (YUCK!) so we have to keep a close eye on him if he heads toward the kitchen.
Speaking of dogs, boy do they love Brandon! Especially after he's just eaten and is playing on the floor with his mouth open and the remnants of his meal drooling down his face! :-) Waya has definitely had her fair share of mixed vegetables too! :-) (My mom is probably saying "Lindsey that's disgusting" but what can you do?...And no Mother, I'm not getting rid of the dogs.)Russell for the most part is enjoying Brandon crawling. I think with us telling Brandon no so much, Russell is relieved that it's no longer just him getting told no! And he's actually being a very good sport about Brandon crawling into his room or playing with his toys. A few times he's told me not to let Brandon get something, but surprisingly enough he hasn't pitched a fit if Brandon does get into something. Russell also loves it when Brandon comes to the ballpark to watch him play. Brandon is one of Russell's biggest fans, and can't wait until he's old enough to play ball with his big brother!
This coming weekend will be Brandon's very first Easter so we are (or at least I am) very excited for him to experience his first egg hunt and hopefully Easter Bunny and Easter Sunday. I remember Russell's first Easter---We came home from the hospital on Easter Sunday and Russell's tummy was so upset because Mommy had been filling up on all the Easter chocolate and then trying to nurse...That poor baby had such a bad tummy ache!! Hopefully Brandon's first Easter will be better for him than it was for Russell.
I think that's about it; crawling and getting into stuff is about all that's going on at our house lately. Brandon did make his 2nd trip to the lake this past Saturday, but the water is still too cold so I wouldn't even stick his feet in, much less let him play in the water so I could take pictures. Those will have to come later during the summer. Check back soon (hopefully) for pictures from Brandon's first Easter. I will try to post those quickly but we'll see what happens!!

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!!

6 Month Update with Pictures!

Where do I even start?!?! So much has been going on that I don't know what I've told you and what I haven't. I guess that means I need to start updating this thing more often, huh?

Well lets see, Brandon turned 6 months old on February 21st and now weighs 17 lbs 4 oz, and is 26.5 inches long. He's still hanging out right around the 50th percentile for everything, so the nurse told me to stop calling him fatty. Hey, I just call it like I see it! :-) She said he's a little bit ahead of where he should be developmentally, so she said she wouldn't be surprised if he started trying to walk around 9 or 10 months. That's not exactly what I wanted to hear, but at least I have the comfort of knowing that he's not behind in anything. One question she did ask was whether or not he could sit up on his own. I told her I didn't think so, but that we had also never tried...Well it turns out he can. And he loves sitting up! He's still a little wobbly so we can't go far from him, but he loves being able to sit up and play with his toys.

Speaking of toys, the fights have now started over who gets to play with the toys. It seems that Russell's toys are so much more interesting than Brandon's because Brandon is always trying to get to Russell's stuff. It doesn't matter if I have 15 toys laid out for Brandon, he's going to try to get to the one that Russell is either playing with or has left on the floor. We have to be very careful when we lay him down because once he spots something, he is off to get it. And it is so funny to watch him because he's figured out how to turn himself around, and it's almost like he lines himself up with what he wants and then he rolls to it.

But I don't think the rolling is going to last much longer. A few days ago I had fallen asleep on the couch and Ben was watching the boys. He woke me up and told me to come watch Brandon...The little brat was trying to lift himself on his hands and knees!! He was only able to lift his belly up a little, but he did manage to get up on his knees for a few seconds before falling back down. Now, a week later, he is very good about getting up on hands and knees, and will even try to move his knees like he's going to crawl. He falls over every time he does it, but I don't think it will be too much longer before he has this crawling stuff mastered!

I have so far been unsuccessful with getting him to eat any kind of green vegetables. I've tried and tried, but each time they are offered, he'll gag and then spit them out. He loves everything else though!

I have to stop here for now because Ben is ready to leave. I will finish updating this in a few days with more pictures, so check back soon. See ya!!

The Hill Family

5 Month Update!

Can you believe Brandon is already 5 months old!!! It just blows my mind how quickly the time is passing! A lot seems to have happened since the last update, so here is all the new stuff.
Brandon did start eating baby food (he's wearing Katelyn's bib in the picture), and did have to try sweet peas, but he didn't like them at all! I think he threw them up 3 out of the 4 or 5 times he had them! But around the time he started trying the peas he was getting sick, so I don't know if he truly didn't like them, or if he just had an upset tummy from being sick. He will have to try them again, but maybe not for another week or so. :-) No picky eaters, remember?
Over this past weekend, Brandon was unusually fussy and ended up running a fever on Sunday. He had a horrible cough, was congested, couldn't keep much of his food down and was very irritable. We discovered his first tooth on Sunday afternoon so attributed all of his symptoms to cutting teeth. After a rough night Sunday night, and him not being any better Monday morning, I took him to the doctor. Come to find out he had an infected left ear, and an irritated right ear. He was wheezing, so the doctor checked his oxygen levels which were kind of low. We did a breathing treatment there and were then sent home with an inhaler, a steroid and an antibiotic for him to take. Did I mention the fat piggy was 15 lbs, 13 oz?
He seemed a good bit better on Tuesday so we continued everything as normal. However, yesterday he was having what seemed to me like a very hard time breathing. He was coughing his little head off, and just sounded awful so we went back to the doctor. They checked his oxygen levels again, and did another breathing treatment. The one infected ear looked better, but now the irritated ear looked worse. So this time we were sent home with a nebulizer machine in order to do breathing treatments at home, as well as a stronger antibiotic for him. Did I mention that this time he weighed in at 16 lbs?!?!
Today he seems to have improved, or at least for the few minutes I was with him this morning he sounded better. I was actually surprised that through all of this he was never "bad". He was very fussy on Sunday, but once I found out all the things that were wrong with him, I can't blame him for being grumpy! I don't know if any of the problems were a result of him cutting teeth, but if this is as bad as it gets, I think I can handle it.
Hopefully I will have more pictures soon. I have taken a few but haven't put them on the computer yet in order to post them here. I guess I need to since he is changing just about every day. He is Mr. Social and loves when people pay attention to him. He has turned into a relatively happy baby, and we are loving every minute of it! Check back soon for more updates, and hopefully more pictures. Take care!

Just a Little Update

Good morning!! I don't really have any new pictures, but just wanted to check in. Brandon is growing like crazy, and is really starting to develop his own little personality. He has changed so much from when he was first born, and some of the changes I am so thankful for while others almost make me a little sad. The good changes are that he is such a happy baby now! I used to say that he was my crying, whiny baby, but he's actually turned out to have a very happy and content disposition. On the flip side, he is very stubborn and knows what he wants and if you don't give it to him he will let you know that's he mad! For instance, he used to want to be held or rocked to sleep. Now if the kid is tired, he wants to be put down. He doesn't like to be held when he's tired and some days that makes me sad. :( Part of me actually misses having to rock him to sleep.
He's also started eating baby food now, and we are going to do a good bit of experimenting. I am determined to make him a good eater; I can't deal with 3 picky eaters in the house! So far he's had bananas, sweet potatoes, and applesauce. He doesn't care too much for the bananas for some reason, but he can sure chow down on sweet potatoes and applesauce! I think tonight we'll try for a green vegetable and see how he does. Should be interesting to say the least!
I guess that's about it for now. He's still rolling around like crazy and completely changes positions during the night. I can put him in his bed, on his back and facing a certain direction, and by the morning he will be turned completely around and on his tummy! But as long as he's sleeping all night, I'm not complaining! Hopefully I will take some more pictures soon; I need to recover from all the ones taken over Christmas though. Check back soon and maybe I'll have something new posted. Take care!

Today is December 27, 2008 and we hope everyone had a very merry Christmas. We definitely enjoyed our first Christmas with Brandon and we think he enjoyed it too! Brandon is now 4 months old and went to the doctor for his 4 month check up this past Monday. He is 25 inches long and weighs 14 pounds! I can't decide if I'm shocked or not at how big he's getting! He is also officially rolling over, and actually rolled over for the first time on Christmas night! I was so excited that I actually got to see it, as well as video it because I missed seeing the first time Russell rolled over. Brandon had such a busy day of traveling and family and present opening that I couldn't believe he had enough energy to roll over, but I guess he took enough naps that all the chaos didn't matter.

The day after Christmas was also busy for him (and us) because we all went to Stone Mountain for their Christmas themed stuff. The weather was kind of yucky, but I think he still had a pretty good time. He got to ride the train with all of us, watch a 4-d movie, and see all the pretty Christmas decorations. I think he enjoyed the train ride the most, but after all the exciting activities, poor Brandon was exhausted! I guess we'll have to take the next couple of days for rest and recovery, and to just spend time playing with all the new toys. Oh, and don't forget making lots of trips to turn the baby back over!

Merry Christmas to all of you and here's to wishing you a safe and happy New Year!!

Love,

Ben, Lindsey, Russell & Brandon