Project finished!

I just finished making a blanky for soon to be here in May baby girl and I LOVE It!

















Up close.















The flip side-- super soft bubble fleece.






















I asked Russ last night if it was blog worthy. He said something to the effect of "well, if getting pregnant, finding out it's a girl, on top of all of Bennett's milestones and accomplishments aren't blog worthy..."

Ok, ok, so I'm really not a great blogger. I have blog ideas all the time. Obviously these don't really make it past the "idea" stage.


So here is some catch up. I am pregnant. I am having a girl. I'm due 2 days before my birthday in May. I don't know which scenario I'd rather avoid; having a baby born on mothers day or having a baby born on my birthday. At least mothers day isn't the same day every year...

Bennett is a crazy guy. He loves to dance. I love watching him when we eat out. He'll just randomly start bobbing his head to the back ground music that nobody else even notices.

He loves books. He'll bring us book after book and then climb up and cuddle in our laps to have it read to him. He especially loves books with animals. He'll start making the animal noises these days unprompted when he sees animals he knows. This includes dogs on bilboards as we drive around and monkeys on random burp clothes that we use as his snot rags to whipe his nose. His best animal sounds are giraffe (just licking the air), cow, lion, elephant (hand up to the face for the nose), monkey, puppy or dog, and kitty-cat. For the animal sounds he doesn't know he'll just point to the that animal over and over to hear us make that animals sound over and over.

He's getting quite the vocabulary. A lot of his words are only comprehensible to Russ and I since we know what he's trying to say. This morning we were able to get him to say baby. He'll try any word we ask him to. His all time best word is "bubble". He says it when he sees the bath tub because he likes bubbles in his bath. He says it when he finds a bubble wand in his toy pile. He says it when he sees bubbles on my cereal in the morning or on the German pancakes we're eating for breakfast. He asks for bubbles whenever he sees the bubble jar. Unfortunately Athena also loves bubbles. She understands when he's asking for them and then starts flipping out. It's kinda hard to blow bubbles for your little toddler guy when you're also trying to keep your crazy dog from trampling him in her efforts to snatch every bubble she can out of the air.

He's really polite and signs please (a lot) to ask for things. The down side is that while he is asking nicely, most of the time I have no idea what it is he's asking for. So, I'll just say "Good please! Go get it!" Sometimes I can figure out what he wants if he's looking strait at it. Most of the time that is not the case and since I'm not very good at mind reading he can get pretty frustrated.

Anyhow, I think that's enough for now. Does anyone have any good ideas for birthday presents for Russ since his birthday is this Sunday. I've already consented to let him watch the Superbowl. Is that birthday present enough?

And for those of you curious enough, here is a link to my Sis-in-law's photog site with our family pictures from Thanksgiving. Cutest family ever!

Funny Face

I laugh every time I see this picture. Bennett loves to play with his pacifier and taste it in all sorts of positions. Every once in a while he is able to get all the way in like this. Russ says he looks like the Joker. Bennett makes me laugh every day.





















Bennett can get himself into the "crawl" position all by himself now!! However, he needs a very enticing incentive (like Athena's tail) to convince him to do it.















I stuck Bennett in this box to keep him in one place so I could do something quickly. He loved it.

Just a few

Bennett likes to sleep with his hands above his head during the day.
















But he often wakes himself up rubbing his face like this. So at night he sleeps tightly wrapped in a swaddle.






















Over conference weekend Bennett enjoyed the attention of his Grandma Hill and three Duke cousins. Here he is with his oldest cousin.












I can tell he is getting stronger every day. This first picture was taken on October 11th.






















This one was taken October 26th. He is holding his head up better and is a lot less "sack-o-potatoes" like in the second picture. 15 days makes a big difference!






















Bennett is working on mastering the art of finding a thumb to suck. He does quite well. However, he prefers a pacifier as it does not randomly flail and rip out of his mouth during peaceful slumber like a thumb does. Unless of course his thumb and fingers are also gripping the pacifier. Which is often the case.















This is Bennett helping me fold laundry.

He's got rythmn

I put Bennett in his crib this morning and turned on his mobile to distract him while I did a few things. His legs just kept kicking and kicking the whole time the music was going. Obviously the mobile lullaby just makes him want to dance instead of sending him off to visit the sandman.


Also, notice how that long sleeved 0-3 month onesie I put him in just drowns him. The leg wholes leave plenty of room for his thighs to expand. And when it's not bunched up around his next, it's about 3 inches too long.









Wow. He is 4 weeks old tomorrow. Other people still keep saying "he's so tiny!" but I swear he seems so much bigger.

He does super well in the morning. Always happy and alert.












He likes his bath (sink) time. However, he's getting a little to long for our sink. I have to be careful so that when he kicks off one side of the sink, his head does not ram the other side. I've been able to perfect the quick water to towel transition so he does not get upset when I take him out.

Just kicked back taking a good nap and letting the sun show off my orange hair (I love that).

Remembering High School

High school. I have a lot of mixed feelings about my green and gold days. There are lots of things I would like to forget. But of course, there are also lots of things I'd like to remember.


My high school's mascot is memorable to me. We were the mighty Acorns! Our battle cry was "BUST A NUT!" I think that competing schools came up with it first, but we accepted it and took it as our own. Our boys water polo team had "we bust ours to kick yours" written across the front and the back of their speedos. So mature I know. (I just looked at my High School's website and it looks as though the faculty have toned it done to "go nuts!") Anyhow, I bring this up because one of my fellow Live Oakian Alumni recently posted a link to an interesting blog. The post is from a blog called Mental Floss. 31 Unbelievable High School Mascots. I am very proud of my school for making this short list. Thank you Mental Floss. It really is an honor.


However, I do believe that a neighboring schools in Hollister, San Benito High School, should have also made the cut since their mascot is the Hollister Hay Baylers.

2 Week Check Up

Yesterday Bennett went to the pediatrician for his two week check up. I am proud to announce that Bennett is thriving. He's gained a pound since we left the hospital and currently weighs in at 7lbs 6ounces. Bennett is 21 1/2 inches long. He's grown a whole inch since birth! We are very proud of our little achiever.

Bennett continues to amuse us. He has a lot of awake time during the day where he just stares and stares either out the window, at the ceiling fan, or at our goofy faces. I know I'm probably just a little too excited, but I swear he kinda smiled at me today when I was making some squealing noises at him. At least I know that he didn't have any gas at the time. He has a pretty good milk drunk face that he gives me in the middle of the night when he falls back asleep after eating. It's a huge open mouth grin while his eye lids flutter open and his eyes are rolled back into his head.

First days pictures

Sorry I haven't posted anything yet. I was working on one at the hospital but there were so many people coming in and out all day that it just never got done. BUT! Russ did just make a photo album today. http://picasaweb.google.com/russellmhill Feel free to check them out. Russ isn't as picky about how "flattering" the photo is.