Lauren's Special Day

Our niece Leah is in the hospital with RSV :( so the big girls came over to our house for a bit Saturday night. It's always great to spend time with them, we only wish it was under different circumstances.

The girls and Trevor had SO much fun together! We can't even tell you how relatively easy it was to have two more kids in the house (which was nice for Sara because Brian was at work all day/evening)...but most of that is because Lauren is a little Mom and she takes such good care of everyone. One hit of the evening was Trevor's new train table.


Such concentration :) But this picture brings to mind a survey we need to hold - should Trevor get haircut #12 or should we keep it long? Ugh, decisions!


Lauren loved helping Brooke and Trevor shoot hoops!


Auntie Sara surprised them by making chocolate chip cookies - although we added some oatmeal to make them a little healthier since Uncle Jeff and Aunt Dawn didn't know cookies were being served. Oops! But, what are Aunt and Uncles for?? :)


They also played this game for a good 30 minutes where they would take turns being upstairs and downstairs and throw Brooke's fairy dolls down.


On Sunday we had already planned for Lauren's special day that we gave her for her 6th birthday last month. We picked her up and headed to Edina Grill for lunch. The wait was 25 or so minutes but Lauren didn't mind one bit. She showed us her mad memory skills on B's iphone.


After ordering we had fun playing the games on the kiddie menu. Who knew a game of word search could be so fun...and challenging!


After a very yummy lunch we headed to Paint a Plate for Lauren to make a special treasure. After much contemplation she decided on a princess jewelry holder. She also picked out all of the paint colors - pink, purple, yellow, red, and blue. She is a great painter!



Her masterpiece is really coming together!


And the final product!! She is so proud!!!


The colors are really dulled here but after they glaze it and put it in the oven, it should look awesome! We'll know for sure in a week!


Why the LRH? Lauren was adamant about putting her initials on it!!! And on the bottom of the holder she wanted a heart with SLB for Sara, Lauren, Brian. What a sweet niece we have!!

On the way home we stopped for an ice cream treat and brought one home for Trevor too. We thought we were going to have a malt with our lunch but Edina Grill doesn't have malts. Oh well, this worked out pretty good.

Total side note, but one for the memory book...before it was even time for Mommy and Daddy to leave the house Trevor said 'bye Mommy! you'll be back! love you!' and then blew kisses. No tears at all for our big boy!!!!

Time is passing us by....

Lots going on at the Hillins household lately - both Brian and Sara's jobs have been busy, busy, busy so blogging has taken a back seat but here's some updates.

Trevor is done with the step stool as his chair at the table. He now has taken over Dada's chair!


When getting out the first down marker costumes for an event at Sara's work, we came across some other costumes. Trevor thought the glasses and nose were hilarious!


As did Dada....


Trevor is back in his crib (with the mattress pretty much on the floor) and has been doing great with the adjustment. He goes to bed on his own, doesn't really wake up and call for us (unless he pooped) and stays in bed until we come to get him in the morning. Well, minus the 2 times he was upset and showed us that he is super powerful and can pull himself up and basically plank on top of the crib. Not even joking - would have loved to have taken a pic of that but we definitely did not want to encourage that behavior. Talk about dangerous!!

So how did we get him to go to bed on his own, no crying, and stay in bed (he even now says 'stay in bed' instead 'outta the bed') - a little food bribes! Over the weekend it was donuts. Weekdays it is all about M&Ms. He wakes up asking for them because he 'stay in bed.' 3 or 4 M&Ms seem to do the trick!


In the theme of food, Trevor has never been afraid to go into the cupboard to get food ever since he could crawl. Lately though his food of choice is cereal. Especially for his pre-dinner!


Trevor is very into sports these days. Not sure where he learned it, but he's started to hike the ball like a true center!


Hut, hut, hike!


And like a receiver he's learned to spike the ball after a touchdown. He even has a celebration dance where he says 'woo hoo' as he goes around and around in circles!


And lastly, there have been no shortages of horsey rides. They make our little guy laugh and laugh.

Oh and the latest rider....monkey is Trevor's newest best friend. He picked Curious George out himself when he was 18 months after his ear tube surgery and while he sat on the shelf for many months he now has been taken off the bench and upgraded to BFF. Monkey even sleeps in Trevor's crib now along with Skip It 1 and 2, little pillow (often without the pillow case), big pillow, and blankie. What a crowd :)

Randle News

We took Randle in yesterday morning to get his teeth cleaned but we learned that he didn't pass the pre-operative tests in order to do just that. Matter of fact, if they would have put him under to clean his teeth, he wouldn't have woken up. Turns out Randle's kidneys are failing so they ran an IV all day to try to help clean the toxins out and he needs to go on a low protein diet for a month. At that point we'll retest to see if his levels are any better. It won't stop what's happening but it may help slow it.

We don't know much - we don't know what caused this other than he could have been born with it but Basenji's are predisposed to kidney problems. We don't know if he has months or years to live. We feel like we'll know more in a month....


So from now until then and beyond we are going to love Randle just a little more because we can't imagine life without him. Since we have a new spot on our bed from Trevor going back to his own bed, Randle can take it. He can have all of the water he wants and if Trevor wants to buy him a new toy like this pink heart then we will take out the money faster than we would have a month ago.

We always thought Trevor would grow up with Randle but that may or may not be in the cards. It's almost like they knew something was up on Monday evening when this picture was taken. Trevor just kept giving Randle love touches. This makes us smile :)

Sam's 1st Sleepover

Jim and Annie had a holiday party to go to so we got to watch Sam on Saturday night and boy did the boys have a blast!! One of the highlights of the evening was when the two of them had like a 5 minute conversation of who knows what - they sure knew what they were talking about and though and they thought it was rather funny!


They wore each other out so bed time was a breeze!! Jim and Annie spent the night after their holiday party just in case Sam had a bad night they wanted to be here but he slept just fine. Not waking up until 7 am....same with Trevor so Jim, Sara, Trevor and Sam made yummy pancakes.

The other highlight on Saturday was that Jim and Brian took down the 'firefighter bed' and made a contraption for Trevor's crib so that the mattress sits on a 2x4/plywood frame so that it is pretty low to the ground so that he can't climb out. You see, with vacation and being sick Trevor was most comfortable sleeping in our bed....who can blame the kid? But if we're going to need to retrain him to sleep in his bed it's a lot easier to do so in a bed that he can't climb out of whenever he pleases!! We talked about why the crib was back up and he seemed to get it and did pretty well that night. Only waking up twice but both times wanting Mommy to lay down outside his room so that was she in his line of sight. Nothing that an M&M bribe can't cure!

Poor Trevor

Daddy was traveling for business for a few days so Mommy and Trevor did their usual routine when he's out....date night with dinner and ice cream of course! Well after we got home we played for a little bit before he went to bed. About an hour later Mommy hears him whining a bit so she goes up to check on him and as soon as she picks him up he throws up all over her....lovely. This continues in his bathroom, our bathroom....and the poor guy doesn't know what's hitting him so he's trying to swallow it. YUCK!!!!!

This is only the second time he's been throw-up sick. The first time when he was a few months old and we didn't even know he threw up in his crib but once when we got upstairs and could smell it Mommy picked him up and Trevor threw up all over her. ICK!!!

Well, back to this time...daycare circled 'sad' on his sheet (first time ever) and wrote 'cried a lot for Mommy and Daddy today'. Well, now we know why!! His tummy didn't feel good. He must have eaten something bad at school because we can tell you that what came up wasn't our date night dinner or the M&M blizzard. Bet you didn't really want to know that :)

So Trevor got all comfy in Mommy and Daddy's bed, woke up two other times to get sick but then was down for the count...thank goodness! Mommy does not like when he's sick :(


He woke up the next morning starving and everything stayed down so Sara took him to school. Mommy of the year award goes to Sara Hillins....although in her defense she told them that he got sick the night before and they didn't send us away but lesson learned for next time!

Best....present....ever

You may remember that Grandma and Grandpa Hillins gave Trevor a basketball hoop for Christmas. Well, he certainly enjoys trying to shoot baskets but guess who loves it more?? Mommy and Daddy! Often we find ourselves in a game of PIG/HORSE - just laughing and having a grand 'ole time. Daddy finds unique places to shoot from, including from Trevor's house.


He just happen to make it so Mommy had to make it as well. Pretty sure she got a P after this shot :)



As you can see Trevor gets in on the fun too. He even announces 'Air Baaaalllll' if we miss :) And we're not too proud to admit that we often play even when Trevor is sleeping. Thanks again for the great gift for Trevor....er, make that all of us!!

Crib Climber

On Saturday evening after Trevor felt better, he really showed us that he had regained strength by surprising us and crawling out of his crib. He had been crying around 3am and usually we'll let him cry for a few minutes and watch him on the monitor to see what he does. He wasn't letting up on his crying so Sara went to use the bathroom quick before going to get him except she didn't get that far. Before she knew it he met her in the bathroom still crying. She didn't make a big deal of it and put him back in his crib. On Sunday night he stayed put all night but Monday night/Tuesday morning we heard a knock on our door at 4am and a little voice saying "mommy, dada, mommy?, dada" - that little stinker had crawled out without even making a peep. Well after the first time he did it we started researching big boy beds and found the most perfect one for our little (now big!) boy - a fire truck bed! Brand new it's ridiculously priced but we found it on Craigslist for $60. Dada picked it up Tuesday evening and Trevor was SO excited!!


He calls it his 'firefighter' bed!


Check me out!


So after we cleaned it but before we moved it up to his room we asked him to show us how he got out of his crib. He was a bit hesitant to show us (probably fearing he would get in trouble or something) but then he did....


Um, not sure I should show my secret :)


What a ham!


And the magic begins!


We couldn't stop laughing as he was doing it. He was rather smooth for only climbing out twice before!


He scales down until he reaches the mattress...


And then steps down.


What a proud boy!


And of course we got one last picture of him in his crib...


Okay, you didn't really think we would just take one, did you?? :) He was so proud!!!!


Here he is in action (press pause on the blog music at the bottom of the page for full effect):


So he got a bath and when he was done the crib was down and his 'firefighter' bed was put up! It has a light on it that turns on for a few minutes and then automatically shuts off.


And good built in side rails so he doesn't fall out:


Yep, he likes it and it's just perfect for his room!


Our big boy is all grown up!!!! Where does time go???

How did he do in his big boy bed the first night you ask? Pretty good! He got up a few times in the night, but would just walk in our room to see if we were there and then go back to bed...but not before turning on his new 'firefighter' night light!

Sickie

So the New Year didn't start out all that great for our little guy. Here we were all set for the year and the week - had our Christmas stuff down on Sunday, laundry done Sunday night, blog up to date, house cleaned, ready for a relaxing Monday off of work...only to wake up Monday knowing that Trevor wasn't feeling so hot. Poor guy laid low on Monday because he was running a low grade fever. Overnight it worked its way up to 102.5 so we knew he wasn't going to daycare. Sara stayed home with him on Tuesday and brought him to the pediatrician where he was diagnosed with a sinus infection - not ear - can you believe it? They put him on Zithromax because of the severe congestion in his nose and throat. Well, Wednesday Brian stayed home with him because his fever wasn't going down and he was still miserable. On Thursday Sara stayed home with him and his fever went up over 103. Poor kiddo just couldn't catch a break! On Friday Sara took him back to the doctor and learned his congestion was still bad so they put him on a higher dose of antibiotics.

Well, it looks like all of the rest and new antibiotics worked because today Trevor woke up fever free and was back to his happy self. Thank goodness! We were starting to get worried!! He still has a cough and sounds like a lung is going to come up but the pediatrician said it was just a natural reaction for him to cough with all of the drainage going down his throat. Best news - our good eater's appetite is back! He lost 2 pounds from Tuesday-Friday because of his lack of eating.

Here are some pictures Mommy took with her phone during the day of T sleeping. She's not sure there is anything more precious than watching your baby sleep...especially knowing how much he needs it!


You'll notice that Trevor much preferred sleeping on Mommy than by himself so naps were taken on the couch or floor with Mommy....


....she got very good cuddling with one arm and working with the other!




His trusted Skip It was never far behind whether T was awake or asleep!




Really, is this all that comfy T? We guess so!


This was the best...he was sprawled out across Mommy's lap even though it meant his head was lower than his chest. Definitely not good for his congestion but he had no problem sleeping!