11 months old!

Little guy is now 11 months old! Totally crazy and into everything!!

The Little Gym

Seth and I took Hilton to The Little Gym over the weekend and we all had an absolute blast!!! Hilton smiled and laughed the entire time, and crawled everywhere!!

MUSC

I can't believe it's been almost 10 months since Seth and I were in this same spot, loading our car up with a brand new baby. Now look at how big he is! Hilton was pretty happy about being there too!

Hilton's 9 month check-up

9 months old....so hard to believe!!!! I took Hilton to his 9 month well visit today and here are the stats:

Height - 28.25 in (42nd percentile)
Weight - 21.5 lb (79th percentile)
Head circumference - 18.5 in (94th percentile)

The doctor said everything looked great!! So thankful for a healthy happy boy. The pic is from Hilton's 9 month photo shoot (I must have said something really funny).

Push ups?!

Hilton is either working on his beach bod or trying to figure out how to crawl. I am assuming the latter! He is too funny getting on his hands and toes like this. Pretty soon he will be moving all over the place...better work on getting this house baby proofed!!!!

My little pool baby

Saturday afternoon at our neighborhood pool:)

4th of July

We went to Hilton Head Island for the July 4th holiday. Hilton had a blast with his older cousins, Ethan and Luke! We went to Shelter Cove to see Shannon Tanner play, and he even signed Hilton's new beanie hat! We then took a boat out to do some crabbing. Hilton enjoyed watching all the people and boats in the area. We watched fireworks from the boat, but Hilton fell asleep before they started. It was a nice day spent on the island!

Hilton Head!

Hilton with Nana and Grandad at the Shannon Tanner concert in Shelter Cove on Hilton Head Island!

Future dentist and dental hygienist

Visit from Aunt Ashton

Ashton and Brandon came to charleston for a few days last week! We went to Hilton's favorite Mexican restaurant, señor tequila, and to the beach! Here's Ashton with Hilton wearing Brandon's new hat.

Fathers day!

Seth had to work on his first Father's Day. So thankful to have such a hard working husband and father for our baby. Hilton surprised his daddy with this balloon when he got home!!

Beach day

Hilton enjoyed hanging out with mommy's coworkers today on Folly Beach!! His favorite part of the day?! Eating the sand, of course!

8 months old!!'

Oh dear, where has the time gone?! The past month has been very very VERY busy! Seth was gone for 2 weeks in DC, came back to visit us for a few days, then went back to DC. And he has been working every weekend (on top of working during the week!) since he got back....some of those shifts he was on nights (ugh). I am just thankful to have him back here in Charleston with us:) Things are only going to get busier though as he begins to study for his oral boards. The test isn't until May of next year, but it's a biggie, so lots of study time is required! 

Okay, enough about the hubs (no offense if you read this honey, I do love you!), onto the babe! Our sweet Hilton is just the BEST! He is the happiest baby I have ever seen! He just smiles and giggles all the time, it melts my heart. He has seen several family members and met many new family friends the past month. Honey and Pops came to Charleston to visit for about 6 days. We had a great time at the beach and the pool! Hilton also went on his very first plane ride Memorial Day weekend. He did okay on the way to Tennessee (fussed part of the time), but we sat with another 7.5 month old so they kind of entertained each other. Tennessee was just wonderful. Ashton graduated from Dental Hygiene School (way to go Aunt Ashton!) in Memphis so we spent one night there. Then the rest of the time we spent in Nashville at Uncle Gigi and Uncle D's house. We just hung out by the pool and went to this Mexican resturant Grayson and Ashton had been wanting to try (LOL). It was such a fun time! Hilton also got to meet my two good friends from college, Katie and Janie. I hadn't seen them in almost a year and they had never meet my little guy. We had a nice dinner together catching up and talking about old times! Then it was time to head home to Charleston. The plane ride home was quite an adventure. Hilton was enjoying people watching when I noticed his red face and grunting noises. NOOOO, I thought...I really don't want to have to change a poopy diaper on the plane. I thought maybe I could wait, but then I realized, not only was their a special gift inside his diaper, it was also overflowing out of his diaper. Thats right, a blowout, on the plane, in the middle of the flight, and I am sitting way in the back. So I had to walk to the front of the plane and use the tiniest bathroom that had a changing table (thank goodness!) to change his diaper and his clothes. After that he took a nap in my arms, so all in all, I'd say it was a good flight, ha! Nana and Grandad had been in HHI for the weekend and they drove up to see Seth before they headed back home to Tennessee. They actually picked us up from the airport and got to hang out with Hilton and me for a few hours, so that was nice!


Hilton is still growing and changing all the time! His newest tricks include clapping and doing high five! It is just so fun watching him do all these cute things. He has also started to pull up on things....not all the way, but he is close. We went ahead and lowered his crib down just to be on the safe side. Our boy is growing up! And, our boy is getting teeth!!! Two little teeth popped up a few weeks ago. It is beyond cute. Thank goodness Hilton is not bothered by them. He is just as happy as ever!


As for me, work is still going well, just staying very busy. Makes the days go by very quickly though! I do miss my little boy during the day, but I know he is in good hands. Still going strong with pumping. I stopped breastfeeding once those little teeth of his came in (yowzers...they are sharp!), but luckily I still make enough milk by pumping 4 times a day. Shooting for a full year, so we will see how it goes. 

Sooo, how about some pictures!!!

 Chillin on the beach!

 7 months old already

 Dr. Pepper, for the second time

 Causing trouble

 On the plane! Headed to TN!

 Congrats graduate!

 Meeting "Cousin" Jackson for the first time!

 Dinner with Katie and Janie!

 Dinner with Aunt Gigi and Aunt Ashton!

Hilton's favorite pose (left thumb in mouth, other hand picking at the hair on the back of his head)

Saying goodbye

This pic is from the morning Seth left for DC. The day I had been dreading for so long. All 3rd year radiology residents have to spend 4 weeks in DC for what's called AIFP conference (or something like that!). Hilton and I have survived week one!! The good news is, Honey and Pops (my mom and dad) are coming tomorrow to keep us company for the week. And Seth will be coming back to visit us next weekend, just for a couple days.

6 months!!

Happy half birthday to my little guy!!! I know this is a little bit late, but I just had to share. Look at him sitting up!!

Easter festivities - He has risen!!

What a lovely Easter weekend it has been for the Means' family! We stayed here in Charleston this year instead of visiting family over in Tennessee. Friday, Hilton and I went to visit the Easter bunny (see previous post). Yesterday, the 3 of us went to our neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt. Hilton enjoyed holding an egg and putting it in his mouth. Although he didn't really understand what was going on, it was a beautiful day and we got lots of cute pics! Today we went to church (Hilton did great...never made a peep!), followed by a nice lunch (we ate in the dining room for maybe the 10th time in 2 and half years), and then watched The Masters. Hilton enjoyed going through his Easter basket and playing with his new musical drum! We did read him a few Easter books, and one day will explain why we celebrate this wonderful holiday. HE HAS RISEN!!!!

 Look what I have!

 Happy it's almost Easter!

 Checking out the goods from the Easter bunny!

 We thought today would be a great day to give Hilton his first taste of baby food!! Yummy squash! He thought it was just okay.

Seth went to The Masters earlier this week and came back with some goodies! Here are my two boys wearing their green!

Easter Bunny

Hilton and I headed on over to Citadel Mall today to get his picture made with the Easter Bunny!! Kind of a lame bunny, and very outdated attire, but it's just something I wanted to do for Hilton's first Easter. Well, I got 2 5x7's of a very poor quality picture and the disc with the photo for a whopping $30. Slightly ridiculous, but again, it's his first Easter, and I want to make sure he gets a picture with a bunny! Sooo, here is the $30 picture....

Tomorrow is the neighborhood egg hunt, and we are pretty excited (especially Hilton)! Pics of that to come.

Publix

Big boy sitting in the grocery cart seat for the first time!!! This probably isn't the safest way for him to ride around, but he enjoyed it!

Rolling over....

At 5 and half months old Hilton has officially rolled over from his back to his tummy....twice while I had my back turned! A couple months ago he rolled over from his belly to his back which we caught in video, very exciting! Not so lucky this time. Hilton has been SO close to rolling over for about a month now (maybe even a little longer). He would get all the way over but his arm would be stuck underneath him (then he would just get mad). I didn't count that as officially rolling over though, I wanted him to be over and able to prop himself up with his arms. Welllllll, yesterday I put him on his BACK on his little floor gym on our bed while I was getting ready in the bathroom (yes, I can see him from there). When I looked at him about 10 seconds later, there he was, on his belly, arms free and wiggling around. WHAT?! When did he do that, and HOW did I miss it?! Okay, I thought to myself, get the phone out to record him doing it again....well, all I got was several minutes of him whining because he didn't want to be laying down anymore. Maybe next time. That next time came several hours later when Hilton woke up at about 4:30am last night. I gave him his paci and turned on his sleep sheep (basically a sound machine inside a stuffed animal), and a he was calm, asleep I thought. When he started screaming 5 minutes later, I went back in and he had done it again....he was laying on his tummy. Missed my opportunity to record this one too, darn! Maybe Hilton is shy about his new talent, but my goal is to get it recorded and then post it on the blog (need to figure out how to do that, lol).


On another note, I have been nervous to post this for fear something might change, but Hilton has been sleeping sooo much better the past week. Most of the time only waking up once, and then just falling back to sleep on his own. One night he didn't wake up at all!! It has been wonderful! I have been waiting for this moment for 5.5 months (honestly never thought it would happen). We have dropped his middle of the night feeding (which has been great for me since I am breastfeeding). Let's hope he keeps up the good sleep.


And, on another note, our sweet neighbor let us borrow her baby scale so we could see what Hilton weighed nowadays. If you will notice from the previous post his thighs are VERY chunky (I just love them though!). On the scale at our house we got 18.4 (weighing ourselves, then weighing ourselves while holding him and subtracting the difference) and 18.6 (just setting him on the scale). On the baby scale he weighed in at 18lbs 1 oz. He is big, very big and heavy! It must be the rice cereal that we started a few weeks ago. It sure is affecting his bowel movements...blowouts, lots of them, which means more laundry and extra baths for Hilton! It's all good though because we just love our sweet little boy!!!

Mail for Hilton!

There was a postcard for Hilton in the mail yesterday! It was from his uncle David and aunt Lindsay that live in Vienna, Austria. It had such a sweet message on it, and as you can see, Hilton is very excited to get mail from them!! We miss uncle David and aunt Lindsay!!

My boys!

Seth and Hilton after church on this beautiful March Sunday!

Morning stroll

Hilton loves Fridays because it's mommys day off!!! He really enjoyed a stroller ride this morning..Lots of squirrels, dogs and geese to look at!

Disney Cruise 2012

For Christmas last year, Jim and Monica (Seth's parents) gave the whole family a ticket aboard the Disney Dream cruise ship!!!! We set sail on March 9th headed to the Bahamas. It was an amazing trip filled with tons of memories to last a lifetime! We stopped in Nassau the first day were the girls and kids did some shopping. The guys went to Atlantis to do some gambling. The second day of the cruise was spent at Disneys private island, Castaway Cay. After a couple hours at the beach it started to rain, so we enjoyed a BBQ lunch under a covered area. The third day we were at sea and had a lot of fun hanging out on deck in the sunshine. The food on the ship was also amazing!!! I don't recall a time during the whole cruise where I felt hungry. If you have young kids, Disney cruises are the way to go! 

About to board the ship

The whole Means fam

Cousins!

Departing Florida, headed to the Bahamas!

Towel animals!

Dinner at Animator's Palette

Castaway Cay

Meeting Minnie!

Enjoying the view from our room

The Romine wedding in NOLA

Seth and I headed to New Orleans the first weekend in March to see our good friends, Ashley and Lucas, get married. Lucas was Seth's roommate for two years on med school and they have kept in touch ever since. We had a fabulous time during all the wedding festivities and catching up with some friends we hadn't seen in a long time. Few pics from our fun weekend!

Hilton stayed at home with his Nana and Grandad (Seth's parents). They drove from Tennessee to Charleston to take care of him for the weekend (thank you Nana and Grandad!). He had a great weekend as well hanging out and shopping with his grandparents:)

Splish splash

Its been a beautiful weekend here in charleston and I thought Hilton might enjoy some pool time. Since our neighborhood pool doesn't open for another couple of weeks we headed on over to Wally world to find a blow up baby pool. Here he is in our back yard enjoying himself!

Happy 5 months to my baby!

Rice cereal!

We started Hilton on rice cereal last week and he liked it!