December Update

Happy Holidays Everyone! Words can't describe how wonderful it was to introduce Brandon to his first Christmas. My mom found a little Santa outfit and wouldn't you know it, he fit into it perfectly....no, that's not a fake belly he's sporting. It's a shame he doesn't understand what all those presents are for because he made out like a bandit and sure can unwrap them like a pro.

Christmas night we both got to enjoy watching our beloved Chargers beat the Titans on tv, which was a true treat. He and Grandpa Kimball were both wearing matching LT jersey's so it's officially our new good luck charm.

The weekend before Christmas we decided to test our luck again and try driving 360 miles north to Mammoth for our first ski trip of the season with the Hellman family. Not only did Brandon actually sleep on the drive (which put happy tears in our eyes), but he also got to experience snow for the first time. Grandma Lita came along to help us platoon the babysitting and it worked out perfectly. I can't wait for the day when he can beat the "purple flash" down the hill.

Here's Brandon and his buddy Tyler meeting Santa Claus for the first time and as you can see Brandon is beyond excited. He has a hidden talent for holding in his emotions as soon as a camera is pointed at him. I can't blame him though cause there were a bunch of grown adults in the room all making silly noises trying to make them smile. Nobody falls for that. Believe it or not, this was the BEST picture we could find with Santa.

OK, so maybe he kinda smiles when a camera is pointed at him, but this was one of many taken. We found a huge Christmas tree at the Village and thought it would be a great opportunity for a family portrait....and we were right. It's moments like this that make this all worth it.

November Update

OK, I know the month of November is over in a couple hours, but I wanted to make sure to keep everyone up to speed. We've had a great month watching Brandon develop more and more social skills. Looking back I can say that having Brandon was the most amazing experience of my life....but the last 2 months have made me feel like an actual father. When he recognizes me and smiles like the picture above, it melts my heart....well, it melts OUR heart.

Here is a new family photo taken from Thanksgiving at my parents house. Brandon celebrated Turkey day by eating some sweet potato's and carrots. He's eating 2 to 3 jars of solids each day now and only hates 1 flavor so far. Peas. I told him not to worry, nobody really eats those things anyways.

Here's another inside joke, but anyone that knows me, hates one particular thing that I do....I eat chicken knuckles. So don't you think this picture is fitting? No paternity test needed again once I saw Brandon gnaw on that chicken bone. Great job LB. Notice nobody is holding him up while sitting....yeah, he's figured that part out now. Another milestone was reached when Brandon was finally able to roll from him back to his stomach. Now he's rolling all over the place and in multiple directions. What's it going to be like when he's crawling?

Brandon has another doctor's appointment next month, and we're sure he's coming close to reaching that 20lb goal he set. The kid can do some serious squats with those thighs! We're also expecting a tooth sometime soon, based on his constant chewing and fussy behavior....we hope. Have a great holiday everyone!

October Update

Howdy everyone! Brandon is now 4.5 months old and has had quite a month. We started Brandon on solids 2.5 weeks ago and his first human food was rice cereal mixed with milk. I was licking my chops just watching him. How did he react? Well, very similar to Beth's reaction to mushrooms. How he learned how to make a "yuck" face is beyond me. He has now enjoyed Avocado, Sweet Potatoes and Peas. Maybe we'll try Brussel Sprouts next....Poor kid.

The transformation from 3 months to 4 months has been massive. Brandon now makes great eye contact, giggles, and smiles like he's been doing it all his life. Nothing starts my day off better than seeing him smile and giggle at me when I'm changing him in the morning. People have commented on how "strong" Brandon is because he is constantly trying to stand up and wiggle like a fish, but we just attribute that to his tree trunk legs.

As you can see, Brandon has kinda figured out how to sit up on his own. Let me clarify though. We put him like this and stays still....so we count that as sitting up! The funny part is watching him lean to one side and falling over. We're practicing daily and it shouldn't be long before he's doing this on his own. Also present in this picture is his glistening chin....we've found that his true talent and passion is creating spit and spreading it all over his clothes.

Here is a classic picture of LB and LG. I know their heads aren't quite the same (Tyler's mommy has a PhD, and his daddy was a mechanical engineer)....but LB weighs just as much as his little body guard, so I'm proud. Linemen are always bigger than their running backs and that's what I keep reminding myself. We can't wait for the two of them to finally notice each other and for LB to crack his first joke about LG.

Here's Brandon practicing his sitting up skills once again...................................................................

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OK, I'm just trying to blow your minds. That's ME when I was a baby back in 1978. Mother Nature is a mad scientist, I tell ya. See ya next month!

September Update

Hello Everyone! Sorry for the delay in keeping up with this blog. The months of August and September have been so packed but wonderful for our family. We had Beth's brother and family visit from across the globe. Wes, Rachel, Wade and Nora spent over 1 month with the whole family here in San Diego.

Here is Brandon with his favorite boy cousin Wade. As you can see Brandon has changed quite a bit in a month. We've passed the 3 month mark and can already see major differences. Brandon is much more aware of his surroundings and can now fit his whole hand in his mouth! We are beyond proud. He weighs over 15 pounds now and can roll over from his stomach to his back with ease. If only his sleeping habits could grow like his body, we'd be the happiest parents in the world.

Beth and I are both working full time jobs now and learning to live without him during the day is harder than we thought. Thanks to the greatest family in the world, Brandon doesn't have to attend daycare. Thank you to Momma, Emo, Cathy, and Elaine for taking such good care of our boy. Please check out some new pictures of the family on the left side of the blog.

1,400 Mile Road Trip with a Newborn

Sorry for the month long break everyone! August has been quite an interesting month for us. Long before Brandon was born we decided to plan a 1,400 mile road trip up the coast of California with our best friends the Hellman's and Rohman's to introduce each other to our new additions (the Hellman's have a son named Tyler and the Rohman's have a daughter named Charlotte.) Great idea in theory, but once Brandon arrived we soon learned the only thing he hates is the car and car seat. Wondeful! Here are the cities we stopped at: Huntington Beach (1 night), Santa Barbara, Templeton, San Simeon (1 night), Big Sur (1 night), Tiburon (4 nights), Lake Tahoe (3 nights), Mammoth Lakes (1 night), then back to San Diego....our ears are still ringing from Brandon's objection to driving in the back of my 4runner.

Here are the 3 rascals sharing a play mat in Lake Tahoe. As you can see Charlotte is going to have her hands full when she gets older. Brandon grew up quite a bit during that week and a half long trip. He's started to reach out and touch the toys hanging from the play mat, just like his friends.

Some highlights from the trip included this hike we did in Mammoth Lakes. It was a beautiful hike and the views from the lakes were breathtaking. To see some additional pictures, there is a link on the left side of the blog

Update on Brandon: He now weighs 13 lbs and is 23.5 inches long at 11 weeks of age. He's starting to talk (aka coo'ing) and can now giggle when we make our ridiculously high pitched sounds at him. I guess it's true when people say; "Enjoy the baby time because he'll be grown in no time". No kidding.

4th of July Weekend and Huntington Beach

4th of July was celebrated at my parents house in La Costa. We had friends and family there to eat some great BBQ and watch fireworks. Everyone had a great time playing with Brandon and we enjoyed spending some time out of the house. The picture above is of the Watkins women. Brandon's already good with the ladies.

Last weekend we took our first overnight road trip of Brandon's life. We visited the Hellman's in Huntington Beach. Tyler still dwarfs Brandon, but it's getting a little bit closer. Beth, Brandon, Amy and Tyler went to the beach two times while the two Scott's played golf. The weekend was a success and neither kids kept us up too much during the night.

Brandon is now almost 6 weeks old and he's finally starting to make pretty good eye contact and smiling....and making cooing noises instead of crying, which is nice.

Can you tell who he looks most like yet? We thought it was me at first, but we're now starting to see some of Beth's features now. We've had people comment on how tan Brandon looks, they think we put him in the sun all day, which we don't, so don't worry.

Brandon's smiling after he heard how many strokes his daddy beat Tyler's daddy in golf.....

Milestone Week 3

We had our 3 week checkup last Thursday and to everyone's surprise, Brandon gained almost 2lbs since our last visit. He's now weighing a portly 8lb 7ounces! The doctor is convinced Beth is producing half and half at this point and Brandon doesn't seem to mind one bit. On another positive note we finally received the Newborn Screening results we had been praying for. As some of you may or may not know, Beth and I found out around 20 weeks into her pregnancy that we are both carriers of a different mutation for Cystic Fibrosis. Based on Mendelian Genetics, Brandon had a 1 in 4 chance of getting both of our mutations and developing this difficult disease. You can't imagine how many times I weighed the difference between 75% and 25%. However, after waiting for over 2 weeks we were finally able to exhale. His tests came back Negative!!! Now we get to worry about all the other things that being new parents brings. Giddy Up.

In other news, Brandon ate from a bottle for the first time and is now sleeping in his own spacious room with a private bathroom. Both milestones are adding a lot of flexibility to the Kimball family....but now I can technically wake up in the middle of the night to feed him (which sucks). However, having Brandon in his own room has been a blessing. Seriously, this guy makes some serious noise when he sleeps and unfortunately each noise made mommy and daddy freak out and check to make sure he was OK. Now we rely on this nifty video monitor that uses night vision to check on him. How did our parents raise us without all these vital tools? You mean to tell me you guys didn't have an iPod touch with an application to keep track of feedings, diaper changes, sleep and even burps? Wow!

Thanks to Grandma Lita (Elaine), Beth and I were able to have our first "date night." The obvious choice was Sushi, since we've been unable to have it for almost a year, so we went to our favorite little place in San Marcos and had a wonderful meal. What did we talk about during our first date night? Brandon. Weird how life has already changed for the better. This weekend we have our annual 4th of July party at my parents house, so I'm sure the pictures will be updated again soon. Also, I have created a new photo album for July. Enjoy!

First Father's Day

Father's day took on a whole new meaning this past weekend. Usually it's spent playing golf with my pops, but this year I spent it changing diapers and spit-up. Someday I'll have a chance to golf with Brandon, but for now this is pretty sweet. My parents had us over for a nice Prime Rib dinner and Brandon got to meet his new aunt's.

Brandon has been busy meeting a variety of our close friends and family these past couple weeks, but he and Beth still find time to lay around on the couch and recover.

We've added a lot of new pictures to the Brandon Kimball June 2009 folder, so be sure to check them out....soon I'll have to figure out how to make a July 2009 folder. We have our 2 week checkup at the end of this week and we're anxious to see the progress he's made. I think he's cracked the 8 lb barrier. Boy can eat!

Brandon & Tyler Finally Meet!

Yesterday we had the Hellman's visit for the first time since Brandon was born and they brought along their handsome boy Tyler. Tyler was born on April 7th and seeing the difference between a 1 week old vs. a 9 week old was amazing. Brandon has some serious catching up to do!

We had a great day of catching up and taking pictures of the two boys in various positions. I'm stoked that Brandon will have such a big friend to protect him while he grows up. The day went by way too fast but its just the beginning of a very long journey together. We can't wait to watch each of them grow into little people.

As you can see, Mom and Brandon are bonding just fine!

Week 1

Brandon is now 4 days old and slowly getting used to being raised by us. We've had exciting days and ridiculously long nights since we got discharged from the hospital, but each time he looks at us we realize how lucky we are. Most of the family has come by to meet him and they have even cooked us dinner! It's amazing to think about where we were just 1 week ago compared to now.

While Beth was still pregnant we were told by friends how amazing it is to bring a child into this world, and each time we'd nod our heads but we never really understood what they meant. We understand completely now!! Watching Brandon being born has changed our lives. We are bonding well with him and Beth is finally starting to feel better. We have our 5 day checkup tomorrow and Brandon has 1 more medical procedure to endure....poor little guy has no idea. We can't wait to introduce you all to Brandon.

Brandon Scott Kimball Is Finally Here!!!

Well, after 41 weeks of marinating in Beth's womb, Brandon Scott Kimball finally decided to join us. He was born on Saturday June 6th, at 6:33pm. He weighed in at an even 7lbs and was 18.5 inches long. Beth earned the status of "worlds strongest wife" after 21 hours of labor WITHOUT an epidural!! I will never win an argument ever again....

Brandon has been feeding very well and is quickly learning his father's skill of "Faxing." Today we were given the green light to head home after spending 2 nights at Tri City Medical Center. We're getting used to life without sleep, but every time Brandon looks at us we realize it's all worth it. Thank you to all our friends and family who supported us during these last 10 months. Let the new journey begin!!